A VARIETY OF SOUL-CHURNING MELODIES THAT DESCENDED INTO ME THIS WEEK APR 27 – MAY 3
Here's a catchy intro for you. If you missed the track premiere + interview I posted this week with the magnificent Swedish post-punk/death metal band Floating, then please don't ever do that again. Listen to it, and get hype for that album. AOTY for me as of right now.
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.
Sunken Basilica – "Glacial Towers Piercing Low Hanging Clouds at Dusk," from xalxal (Modern Classical / Dungeon Synth). The wonderful Sunken Basilica return with another album's worth of the kind of music a classical band would be playing in a strange dystopian, post-apocalyptic movie set in a the kind of bar that pays bands to play classical music despite it being the apocalypse and/or the soundtrack to the melancholy musings of Detective Rick Deckard as he's wooshing away on a magnetic motorcycle and/or the kind of music playing in the Godfather Part V: The Mob in Space as Michael-Bot is assassinating the heads of the five crime planets. You get the picture. Otherworldly and brilliant as ever.
The Sun’s Journey Through The Night – "Blue Fawn," from Demo III (Black Metal – Church Road Records). In releasing their new demo, a spiritual successor to the perfect Demo II from 2021, which just so happens to be one of my favorite black metal releases of the past 15 years (also spotted on my best-of-2020s-so-far list), The Sun's Journey are making a kind of statement. Not a difficult statement to make out, I should say, since they basically spelled it out in their liner notes, that this is a return to the raw stylings of the past. I have an issue with that statement, mostly focused on the fact that TSJTTN were never "raw" strictly speaking, but, in fact, were always lusher and more majestic and well produced than many of their contemporaries (Revenant Marquis, old Lamp of Murmuur, etc). A better description would be to say that they went much more "polished" with their recent output, to the point of me, kind of, losing interest. The magic was in the balance. This new demo is then a return to balance, though still on the more "produced" side of things. Despite that, this first track is their best since II, easily.
Wytch Hazel – "Woven," from V: Lamentations (Trad Rock/Heavy Metal – Bad Omen Records). Everyone's – well, mine – favorite heavy metal/hard rock band is back with another burlap-wearing series of Christian-themed bangers. Not really a dramatic departure from anything we've heard from the Wytching camp over the years, but if it ain't broke and, most importantly, if it's this fucking catchy, might as well never fix a thing in your life.
Prostitute – "M. Dada," from Attempted Martyr (Noise/Noise-Rock – Dead Air Records). This one comes from late 2024 but, more importantly, comes straight from the Floating interview and recommendation. This hits me right in that magic spot between nut-job noise rock a-la Intercourse or Uniform and the emotional intensity and poetic delivery of a band like The Drones or Pile. All of these represent praise of the highest order, because all of these bands are to me the best of the best in what they do. An album that feels like a punch to the face, in a very good way.
Helialia – "Feral Judgement," from Myth of Law (Experimental Black Metal – Independent). Well, talk about a legend walking into a (very poorly lit, smoky) room. John Gossard, who has played a significant role in the lives of this twisted nation of weirdo metal via his participation in the murky bacchanalia that is/was Weakling, Asunder, Dispirit, and others, has decided to don his black metal hat and go HAM at his microphone. The result is chaotic, at times melodic, and at all times fucking bonkers black metal of the best kind of bonkers black metal. Hopefully there's much more of this coming in the future.
Rye – "Каждого ждёт," from Знание (Drone/Ambient/Atmospheric Black Metal – Reflection Nebula). A new release from one of the consistently great bands of our time, and I do mean great, can never be a bad things. Rye for those who have been following, have a mixed bag of genres and projects, though, usually, the more straight-forward black metal stuff goes under the "Rye" name. That, however, is not the case with the first 20-minutes single off of their new album. Whether or not this reflects on the rest of the release, I don't know. What I do know is that this track fucked me up real good this morning. It really is a horrible existence, this repressing and suppressing of existential dread. I keep telling myself that the most important thing for my family, for my kids, is being close to their family and friends. That living through hell, not the kind, mind you, in which we die, but in which, precisely, we do not, and in which my children know almost only stress and fright, is better than to detach them from their roots. This is an age-old dilemma, a whirlwind of thoughts that attacks anyone who ever considered escape or did in fact escape. There are no easy answers. And I find that it's exactly this cluster of everyday life and persistent, nagging thoughts, that Rye, even at its most minimalist, attacks. Just enough music to keep your going, and just enough absence to allow you to hear yourself thinking. And what a beautiful horror it produces.
Boru – "Cosmic Blood," from Self-Dealer (Everything Metal – Fractions of Life Records). On the face of it, the last thing my collapse into existential slime needed is a band from Hungary (long story). And the very last thing it needed was a band from Szeged (longer story). But apparently it's basically what I needed. A melange of aggressive post-hardcore, post-metal, avantgarde flourishes, and basically everything you might love in BIG metal music, the kind that ranges anywhere between Cult of Luna to Celeste. This came out in 2024, missed by yours truly, and is now coming out on vinyl. Massive music for massive sadness.
Zmij – "Jaskyňa, plameň a maska z ľudskej kosti," from Zmij (Avant-Garde Black Metal – Gladivs records). Staying in the Eastern/Central European neighborhood, and veering sharply in terms of style, we have the debut EP from Slovakian black metal project Zmij. Dancing on the gross borderlines between weirdo black metal and black metal that's so straightforward it becomes weird, this gives me, for whatever reason, that Oranssi Pazuzu/Malokarpatan vibe, albeit much more aggressive and rough around the edges. At times almost feral, at others progressive, it would be very interesting to see what comes out of this bunch.
Inoculation – "Orbital Decay," from Actuality (Progressive Brutal Death Metal – Maggot Stomp). Things got a bit weird in this post, for which I apologize. And to set things back into their equilibrium here's the brilliant Inoculation coming back from their equally brilliant Celestial Putridity with another, yes, brilliant heaping pile of riffs and tracks that ground your aching soul into the soil of the body. My knee's not doing great, but it has never felt great in the last decade or so, so the body isn't really a refuge from the aches of the soul. But when it's this good, this pinning down into the rock, then it might as well be medicine. Also, this isn kind of cheating, but for more incredible proggy death metal please check out the new album from Argentinian band Ataudes. Incredible stuff. I'll post both pictures, because both really helped me these past few days. I wrote about their debut a few years back here.
FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ONE: Coffin Mulch released one of the best death metal albums of the past few years, and now they released a two-track EP with fucking Mick Harris?! WHAT!?
TWO: Manic, noisey, weirdo hardcore from MDR.
THREE: Locrian are re-issuing/remastering their masterpiece (well, one of them), The Crystal World, via Utech.
FOUR: New Defacement album recorded.
FIVE: New Inferno album coming this year (AKA the band that released album #54 on this list).
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: Didn't have time to cram all the incredible release Chaos Records are putting out this year, but be sure to visit their Bandcamp and just buy everything. Hopefully more on that next week.
