A FEW SONGS THAT I REALLY DIDN'T FEEL LIKE WRITING ABOUT BUT I STILL DID IT BECAUSE I'M A CHAMP THIS WEEK MAR 2 – MAR 8
No, did not feel like writing this post. Yes, I am writing this post. Keep safe.
If you're new to this metal blog of bones you can also check out the various interview projects I have going on as well as the weekly recommendation posts. And if you'd like to keep abreast of the latest, most pressing developments follow us wherever I may roam (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, Bluesky, etc), and listen to my, I guess, active? (no) podcast (YouTube, Spotify, Apple), and to check out our amazing compilation albums. You could also possibly support my unholy work here (Patreon), if you feel like it. Early access to our bigger projects, weekly exclusive recommendations and playlists, and that wonderful feeling that you're encouraging a life-consuming habit. It's probably a bad idea, but to each their own. On to the list.
Toughness – "From the Shroud of Human Disgrace," from Black Respite of Oblivion (Death Metal – Godz ov War Productions). I mentioned this album in passing last week, but knew it deserved its own entry and so here I am, writing it. Death metal that feels like walking a cliffs edge, always almost slipping into the abyss below – that abyss being anything from proggy, bass heavy death metal, brutal death metal, grindcore, or anything especially slimy and prickly. I never does slip, that's the thing, holding this strange tension that always threatens to turn into something else but is really the somewhat unified amalgam of various limbs and liquids. Very cool, and some of the best death metal so far this year.
Cogas – "Autopsy of an Hollow," from Among the Dead: How to Become a Ghost (Black/Death – Independent). The wonderful and very weird Cogas are back with a new full length, four long years after the pretty great Unconscious Sons of the Reptile God – a portion of which was even premiered here way back when. The gang is, then, back, sounding very cohesive, very menacing, and much more riffy than I remembered them being, in that grand "melodic death metal that is also melodic black metal" tradition of melodrama and atmosphere. Cool shit.
TDK / ТДК – "Burkana s heroin," from ZHVK (Post-Punk/Avant-garde Metal – Independent). Friends of the show (as in I love them and they don't know I exist, which is my definition of friendship apparently) TDK are back with a new batch of bewitching, absinthe-drunk songs. They previous releases, at least going back to 2019's Uspeh / Успех, were covered here lovingly, and so I'm down. But these tracks for whatever reason feel like the best they've done, at least in that period. Loose, delirious, dark, and at times actually fucking heavy. This is what Chat Pile should have become, but maybe I'm saying that because of the band Pile, whatever. I'll stop now. Brilliance.
Hesychast – "The Sixth Hour," from For Whom We Sing New Troparia (Atmospheric Black Metal – SneeuwStorm Produkties). I thought I was over music like this, I gotta say – minor-key, melancholic atmospheric black metal that sounds like me only weeping in a cloud. But when it's this good then I allow myself to again weep. God knows there is much to weep about or over. Such as my shaky knowledge in prepositions.
Genital Shame – "War on Cars," from Genital Shame / Lust Hag (Black Metal – Fiadh Productions). Fiadh, who are/were already incredible, are on some kind of evil tear in these past few weeks. It seems like incredible music is just bursting from every window (I imagine Fiadh HQ as a squirrel nest with windows on a tall tree) basically every day. So, there's much to cover there and you're best served, as usual, just binging on their Bandcamp page. But a split between Genital Shame, one of my favorite contemporary projects, and the incredible Lust Hag was something I could not in good conscious let pass sans comment. So, here it is: My comment. Incredible, creative, and vicious as ever.
Déhà – "Nethermost" (Snippet), from Nethermost & Absolute Comfort (Doom Metal – Naturmacht). The fact that Déhà exists and is a real person should really shock the world every single day. But the world remains unshocked. It's something of a running gag for me to just write crap like this about Déhà releases as opposed to reviewing them, because I honestly do find the man impossible to ponder. In this iteration of his royal Belgiumness he went ahead and dipped HARD into his inner doom soul (expressed elsewhere on projects such as Slow, Yhdarl and elsewhere, to the point of, I think, making bands like Bell Witch sound like happy pop songs. Which gets back to the running gag part, I think. The quality, variety, and quantity of his output, I think, can only point to someone feeling like he feels like he feels here, and having no earthly choice than to try to balance the poison in his soul with art. So, I guess that means he can't stop, and it also means he shouldn't. I don't want him to, to be sure.
Labyrinthine Heirs – "The Loop of Human Flesh Told in Perpetuity from Labyrinthine Heirs (Avant-Garde Black/Death Metal – I, Voidhanger Records). This releases is almost comically up my alley, in my wheelhouse, and in my bag. If I die, which I might sooner rather than later, or so I have decided since discovering my blood sugar is high, I would like to be remembered as a good partner and father as well as the patron saint of this type of mindfuckery music. If you're even slightly into bands I love with my life, ranging from Virus to Howls of Ebb, step right in – the water is horrifying.
Neptunian Maximalism – "At Dusk : Raag Marwa : Vilambit Laya Alaap," from Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu (Experimental/Drone – I, Voidhanger Records). Let me begin by stating the obvious – a new Neptunian Maximalism album is a national holiday in my world. So, I'm beyond excited. The less obvious comes later. I've had the distinct honor of listening to this album and had two parallel reactions: a) This is WAY LESS fucked up than their modern classic of spiritual improvisation, Éons (find its placement on my 111-strong albums of the decade so far list here). The second reaction, which came about an hour into the album is b) I'm vibing to this very clearly. So, if you came in expecting broken sax notes to carry you into hell, it's not that album. But upon readjusting those expectations, its the sound of a bunch of geniuses doing whatever the fuck they want to, which is always a beautiful thing.
Blackwater Holylight – "All I Need," from If You Only Knew (Rock/Shoegaze/Doom – Suicide Squeeze Records). Blackwater Holylight just get me. They know me, yeah. They do. I mean, aside from the fact that they don't. I like the new Cloakroom album, I do. But this right here is "ALL I NEED." I loved their previous album, and this somehow sounds even better. Sweet, sad, and beautiful. Also, a slight note on the drumming – no, it isn't the most complex, pedal-swinging performance ever. But it's perfect, and reminds me for whatever reason of another magnificent understated drummer, True Widow's Slim. Incredible.
Caustic Wound – "Blackout," from Grinding Mechanism of Torment (Grindcore/Death Metal – Profound Lore Records). The year of the grind is officially upon us, with Profound Lore sprinkling blood and guts on us all in the form of the new Pissgrave and now with another installment of hate and violence from the grinding death wing of the Mortiferum complex, Caustic Wound. Their previous album, the brilliant Death Posture, is basically the standard for modern grinding death (along with Pharmacist), and got a nice little polite mention on my dumb decade-to-date list. So, I'm a happy, blood-soaked camper. And the first single is appropriately disgusting. Unrelated, but I hope this also means there's some new Mortiferum coming too.
FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ONE: Have never heard of Sulpur, but have now and it's amazing black metal.
TWO: The new Grima might actually be good (haven't been a fan of anything past Wills of the Primordial but this one sounds cool).
THREE: New Scalpture sounds fucking amazing (death metal).
FOUR: Ancient Death first single sounds pretty amazing. Might revisit next week.
FIVE: I don't care much about Mastodon.
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: I wish I could see Portal live before I die.
