Some Songs that Prevented Disaster this Week: JUN 22 – JUN 26

Hello from the land of fire and brimstone, have a great week. If possible, fire-and-brimstone free. 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.

Imipolex – "Machine Priests," from Acts of Vulgar Piety (Avant-Garde Death/Black Metal – Independent). This twisted little slab of crazy came as a recommendation from the talented and lovely Marie of such projects as Mesa and Hypomanic Daydream. I can see it. I mean, obviously I can see it because I'm writing about it, but I can also understand why Marie thought I would like it. That grand assemblage of death/black unintelligibility, experimental choices and twists, and that massive slather of grandiose atmosphere, all coming together to create a wonderfully cohesive and weird release. And probably one of the very best of it's (strange) kind this year.

Dolven – "You've Chosen," from In My Grave…Silence (Folk – Fiadh Productions). Sometimes I make strange, arbitrary decisions. The latest in that tradition was that I had decided that I wasn't going to check out the new Dolven. Love the project, loved Navigating the Labyrinth, but wasn't super into They Tyranny of Time and so that was that. Also, not really in the mood for folk these days, thought perhaps I should have been. God knows folk is a superior genre when being anxious about air-raid sirens – a lot of breathing room. But, despite said context and arbitrary decisions, I decided to check it out anyway, and am very happy I did. In fact, it might, in the short time since its release, have become my favorite Dolven album – the medieval version of Jar of Flies you never thought you needed. Or something. Also, unrelated, if you haven't then you should very much check out Seaven Teares.

Malevich – "Blossom in Full Force," from Under a Gilded Sun (Sludge/Post-Hardcore – Church Road Records). It's been quite a while since the wonderful Our Hollow, and the good people at Malevich are back with their uncanny skill for melody that manages to deliver the toxic payload of life. Not quite sludgy this time around, but still plenty pissed, and armed with the sonic jangling of an almost post-rock quality that nevertheless still sounds plenty pissed and in fact only serves to further charge that rage. Broken rage, furious melancholy – is there a better combination in all of music? Perhaps not. Malevich are back and they are firmly on top of their sad-angry game.

Scoundrel – "Necromantic Ascension," from Ensorcelled… (Melodic Death Metal – Solitary Night Collective). I have gone on in the past about the absolute supremacy of early 90s Swedish melodeath, specifically the pre-The Gallery part of Dark Tranquility's catalogue. And here you have a new demo from another Eric Wing project (Morke) that points precisely at that golden age of melody. So, I'm happy. Only two tracks, the first, to me, is far superior (and far more Skydancer) than the second, but both are great and serve as that rare ray of light from a cloudy sky of shit.

Mizmor – "Mnemonic – VII," from Mnemonic: Ambient Mosaic (Ambient – Profound Lore Records). Another one I was certain I was going to skip over that turned out to be an unexpected highlight. Releasing an ambient record at times feels like the metal-world version of midlife-crisis Ferrari purchases. But this one is actually quite pleasant and, more than that, a release I might like better than most of the recent Mizmors. Is that an unfair comparison? It is. Am I a horrible person? I might be. But I'm under a lot of stress, and these flowing, ebbing and flowing soundscapes really did a solid for me. So, thanks. Maybe war is the time of the drone (see last week's Locrian rant).

Defacement – "Worthless," from Doomed (Dissonant Death Metal – Avantgarde Music). I believe I had mentioned a while back that Defacement were done recording a new album and yet was still completely taken by surprise when the album was announced. Which, I think, means I'm stupid, or that I forgot. Regardless, the news is of course of the wonderful kind, and the first single, perhaps an homage to yours truly, sounds incredible. The Defacement Wall of Sound™ is still very much present, but it feels much more, I don't know, "bendy" and flexible and weird. In a fantastic way. Including some passages that would fit nicely in seemingly separate categories: 2000s proggy death metal, 90s alt metal. Bonus: Khalil's lead playing has a real Marty Friedman vibe here, which is the best vibe. Can't wait.

Helheim – "Fylgja," from HrabnaR / Ad vesa (Prog/Black Metal – Dark Essence Records). I will completely admit to my ignorance here, because I'm not sure I've ever listened to Hellheim. And really that seemingly decades-long trend would have continued had I not been spurred to spontaneously click the proverbial album cover in an especially dark moment of anxiety and geopolitical fear (AKA staying at my sister-in-law's home with my in laws because of bomb shelter-related reasons). And what I can say, however, that this album, not unlike the Trelldom album from last year, saved my life with its proggy Norwegian ways. The kind of chill and atmosphere you can only get from being a satanist for a minimum of 15 years. Very cool album.

Hypomanic Daydream – "Tailspin of the Atmostrider," from The Yearning (Progressive Heavy/Death Metal – Fiadh Productions). As the great Altar of Plagues once said, all life converges to some center. The convergence is, of course, of the earlier-yet-separate mentioning of both Fiadh and Marie, whose project we are now happily discussing. Did I say "project"? I may have misspoke, more like someone very meticulous ordering metal-genre actions figures on beautiful custom-made cabinets only to douse them with gasoline and high-pitched singing. The closest you can get to the idea of pastiche in sonic form. Interestingly, in its breadth, scope, and title (!) serves as a distant cousin to one other fantastic Chicago-based proggy album: Fleshvessel's Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed. Listen to it. Listen to both. Listen.

Akouphenom – "Extrema Unción," from Connections to the Erebus (Death/Black Metal – Avantgarde Music). Ending this week's post with a pile of steaming riffs that sound as if they were blasted through the horns of some horrible creature while it itself was writing riffs for its own one-beast death metal project. I know metal has this tendency to darkness, and I've listened to dark shit in my day, but may the blessed beast take me if this ins't some of the darkest. I'm talking Impetuous Ritual levels of nothingness (though very differently). On top of everything it's also beautifully done and dynamic, so, yup. A super-heavy album to wait for. In this economy (insert "world") that's not nothing.

FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

ONE: I can't say I completely understand what's going on, but I can say "War Pigs" sounds pretty awesome in Amharic (s/o to Lori for the hook up).

ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: Keep safe.