SOME SONGS THAT ARE EXISTENTIAL DOGGY PADDLING SO YOUR FACE DOESN'T DROWN MAY 25 – MAY 31 

Salutations readers of this darkened corner of illuminated art. Hope you're good, appreciate you all stopping by, and keep on keepin' on. And, yeah, stay safe too. Off of a tangent here, but I think I mentioned Virginia Woolf a few weeks back defending the merit of discussing art at a time of war. Another example comes to mind, from another modernist hero, H.D., who in her poem "The Walls Do Not Fall addresses the accusation that artists are useless at a time of war – this time it's the Blitz on London. The "on the nose" part in the poem goes like this: "intellectual adornment; / poets are useless." The whole work goes on to argue that, basically, while buildings collapse the human spirit prevails and that poets are the keepers of that spirit. It's a nice thought, though a bit on the grandiose side. But it occurs to me, and has occurred to be more and more lately, that the pressure of doing and discussing art at a time of war is real, and that the emotional price paid is real too. It's not that H.D. doesn't describe that pressure, you could argue it's right there in her quoting the other side of the argument accusing her of basically treason. But it's also there in the form of the many metaphors that depict that pressure. There's this:

     Pompeii has nothing to teach us,

     we know crack of volcanic fissure,

     slow flow of terrible lava,

     pressure on heart, lungs, the brain

     about to burst its brittle case

     (what the skull can endure!):

and this too:

     I sense my own limit,

     my shell-jaws snap shut

     at invasion of the limitless,

     ocean-weight; infinite water

     can not crack me, egg in egg-shell.

It's one thing to say "I have poetry," or, in Woolf's case, "art unclogs my eyes and allows me to see beauty and the world," but it's another to say "this shit is getting to me. Is this shell even working?" That to build the protective casing is also to be aware of the thunder knocking on your door, in the various forms it does so: sound data (explosions, air-raid sirens, questions from your kids), visual data (scared faces, tired faces, the news), or just that almost imperceptible electricity that charges everyday reality with the ever-present possibility of disaster. 

It might feel pointless and dumb. I think that's the point, maybe. But it might also be the case that life is absolutely horrible – unlivable – without it. So, here's to another life-saving list of dumb things. Dedicated to those very few that made me feel dumb about my various acts of construction. Keep safe. Again.

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.

Lust Hag – "Feed the Mother Monolith," from Irrevocably Drubbed (Black Metal/Sludge – Fiadh Productions). I've been thinking about Fiadh a lot this week. I've been writing about their incredible catalog since one of their earlier releases, the wonderful Uamh record. But the thing is that not only is their taste level consistent in what might an unprecedented way, they have only increased their output while maintaining that ridiculous level. Every release is incredible. And this new Lust Hag is just one more example. Primal, almost lo-fi sounding sludgy black metal with that lovely blanket of synth that makes everything better. Stellar.

Natürgeist – "Grand Universal Fire" (Atmospheric/Black Metal – Independent). The multi-faceted, always-talented Morris Kolontyrsky (Blood Incantation, Spectral Voice) returns with his atmospheric black metal project Natürgeist, four long years after his fantastic demo (of which I had written at the time here). It's noted here as "atmospheric/black metal" since it basically has a leg in each world, the production and attack of straight up black metal and the, shall we say, melodic sensibilities and emotive aspect of its atmospheric offspring. The combination is effective, at times overwhelming (in that Void Omnia way) black metal of the first order from one of the greatest riff/song writers in all of metal.

Returning – "Sacred Decay," from Numinous (Atmospheric Black Metal – Bindrune Recordings). Speaking of the atmospheric side of things, this track alone is one of the best iterations of that melancholy genre I have heard this year, which is crazy to say given the amount of basically instant classics we've seen just these past few months (Silver Knife, Lepra, LHAÄD, to name but a few). I have never heard of these Washington (State) wizards, but am fully on board now – because of the delicate melodies, because of the masterful song-building, because of the breadth of emotion and scope of sound, and because it's fucking perfect. I mean, it's fucking perfect.

Namebearer – "Black Vein, Atom Drum," from Industries of the Fading Sun (Atmospheric Black Metal – Hidden Dawn). More masterful atmospheric beauty, and another shout out to the great Fiadh Productions. Fiadh didn't release this gem of a thing, but they did release the demo a while back, which I'm afraid to say I missed (when the kids grew up [may they grow up] I promise to keep up better!). Massive music for people who love their music massive, and who also get the sense that sometimes massive black metal music needs a backbone of 90s emo and/or shoegaze. Because that's basically Namebearer, the perfect meeting point of alt rock and the woods calling your name. Awesome.

Airy – "Dust," from Local Tear (Post Black Metal/Screamo – Pest Productions). The debut full-length (?) from Chinese post-basically-everything metal project Airy, that was originally released late last year and is now getting a physical release via Pest Productions. Another instance of alt-rock/shoegaze influence working its way into the black metal world, albeit here much more on the screamo-meets-My-Bloody-Valentine vibe. A fantastic, at times explosive set of songs and a very alluring introduction to a new band in this maximum-emotion space.

Eudaemon – "Empty Hallway," from Spiritual Anguish (Black Metal/Screamo – Fiadh Productions). More overdosing on emotion, more Fiadh Productions (third time's a charm), and more, most importantly, music to help you build the emotional and intellectual shelter in which you can live through the nuclear holocaust that is being a human being. In the best possible way, this feels like Sunbather vibes hoisted onto an Aesthetica frame, with added beautiful melodies and (post-rock?) sensibilities that make it feel like both the offspring of these parents as well as its own thing. 

Drawn and Quartered – "Black Castle Butcher," from Lord of Two Horns (Death Metal – Nuclear Winter Records). So, yeah, enough with feeling shit. The building of a safehouse for the soul isn't just about what H.D. calls "that flabby, amorphous hermit within," but also about brick-and-mortar walls. And rarely does a wall sound so fucking crisp and impenetrable than with this new single from death metal legends Drawn and Quartered. Not a fleck of dusk can be seen in this compressed, pulsating, ever-charging piece of aggression. And yet it's done so well, constructed and performed so tightly, that you forget it's even a wall. Maybe it's a carpet – beautiful, ornate, and nasty. 

Kayo Dot – "Oracle By Severed Head," from Every Rock, Every Half-Truth Under Reason (Experimental/Prog – Prophecy Productions). The wizards of music that sounds like it was transported as found sheet music from the middle ages by an aging Hungarian modern classical genius and then buried to be found by Toby Driver are back with another assault on your sense of rhythm and musical propriety. And once again Kayo Dot do what Kayo Dot do better than anyone else, create music that passes as beautiful and ethereal but is, upon further inspection, an undoing of what you think beautiful is and a recasting of beautiful as a deeply disturbing, almost ugly thing.

Annie Blythe, Brendon Randall-Myers – "On fire, Quietly," from Only in the Dark (Modern Classical/Experimental – Cmntx Records). Speaking of people who probably spoke Jewish-Hungarian in their past lives as tormented, chain-smoking, charming composers, this first "single" from an upcoming collaborative release by cellist/composer Annie Blythe and composer/much-too-talented-for-his-own good friend of the show Brendon Randall-Myers (Scarcity) serves as a fitting and beautiful cap to the ongoing thread of this post, which is art as protection from horror. It might be misconstrued, and often is, that when someone says "art as protection from horror" one may mean something like "art as an escape from horror." I don't mean that myself. I mean, taking the stuff of horror and making it into art as a way to directly deal with said horror while looking as if one isn't doing much at all. I talked with my students these past few weeks about, among other things, the idea of "merely imagination." I'm not going to cite that source, because fuck that guy, but that "merely imagination" is missing on what imagination can do, which isn't to cower from horror and to recast it and own it. The shredding of the cello here is, in many ways, a horror. And what a blessing that is.

FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Don't feel like it. No post next week, probably. Might be in Finland.