Some Songs You Might Like if You Enjoy Music that Hates You Aug 10 – Aug 16

Hi. On a bit a of a late 90s early 2000s metalcore kick, and have come to realize that, at least when surveying the wide expanse that is my 90s interview series, that there's a very distinct bias toward that era of music. Strange. Anyhow, keep safe, and recognize the power and the fury that is this wild-ass Fate of Icarus track.

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.

Phil Elverum & Arrington de Dionyso – "Sand Made from the Old Bank," from Giant Opening Mouth on the Ground (Experimental – P.W. Elverum & Sun). Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie, The Microphones), who has always had a keen ear for disturbing music and who is, famously, a black metal person, decided to take all of those blessed propensities and channel them into a collaboration with experimental-music wizard Arrington de Dionyso that sounds like a shattered Colin Stetson album. If you understood most of the words in that last sentence then you've already moved on to the Bandcamp page and bought the damn thing, which, by the way, is the only way to listen to the whole album. Which is a solid move by you, line understander. Well done. 

Barren Path – "The Insufferable Weight," from Grieving (Grindcore/Grinding Death – Willowtip Records). Part of the reason I got into that late-90s early 2000s metalcore kick this week was the fact that Willowtip Records exist. For how long they've been going and for how good their catalog has consistently been, a no-brainer first-ballot entry into the metal label hall of fame. Further proof for that statement (that really already has all the proof it needs) is this new single from a new project involving the fucking legends that it involves (check liner notes), and goes so fucking hard for one and a half minutes I find it difficult to grapple with. This album will rule, and we must pray in thanks daily for the existence of people like Willowtip who enable this magic to persist in a persistently un-magical existence on earth.

Twilight Enchantment – ״Sword of Flame," from Lothric (Raw Black Metal – Annulet). Speaking of things that go so hard you may weep your breakfast cereal (blood sugar high over here, so that part of my life is basically over) through your skull's eyeholes, who in the hell is Twilight Enchantment and in the hell are they so fucking good? I am on record as stating that the perfect sound of a black metal recording is the Emperor EP. That, I think, is without question. So, this is that sound, channeling cataclysmic despair, beautiful melodies, some cave-man drumming, and just one of the most engrossing and riveting black metal atmospheres I've heard in some time. Amazing. 

Malthusian – "Amongst the Swarms of Vermin," from The Summoning Bell (Disso Death/Black Metal – Relapse Records). I won't lie, it took me a good while to finally check out the new Malthusian. The first single didn't grab my flooded-by-new-music attention, and so I decided to wait for the whole thing, and then procrastinated some more (having now checked the album-release date and seeing it's been only eight days since it came out I again am floored by what counts as "being late to the party" in the streaming era). I am, however, supremely glad I got to it because, well, it's excellent. Nails the slippery middleground between too much "disso vibes" and honest-to-the-devil death metal riffing. This track, specifically, is fucking incredible. It takes its time to build, to morph, and, ultimately, to demolish. Great shit. Side note: Does this mean Suffering Hour is going to get signed by Relapse too?

Conjurer – "Hang Them in Your Head," from Unself (Sludge/Post-Metal – Nuclear Blast Records). Conjurer are fucking back with those big riffs that sound both pretty and airy and also can suffocate your brains out. They've consistently delivered that cherished post-Neurosis bleakness we have also come to appreciate and love and, unlike some of their contemporaries), have yet to drop the ball. This new single, moreover, not only doesn't sound like anyone dropping any balls, but it actually sounds like, I don't know, they're even better now? Clean vocals hit hard, my friends. That's just a fact. 

Hateful Abandon – "Shimmer Road," from Threat (Post-Punk/Crust – Sentient Ruin Laboratories). I didn't expect this new album from "a project I actually don't know but has apparently been on a hiatus of sorts or at least haven't been releasing in quite some time that is a genre I fuck with but not always" to hit as hard as it has, but it has. An unbelievable album of seemingly bottomless despair that, I suspect, is as effective as it has been on my soul because of the statistical/political probability that has led me to live through and witness a time that will unfortunately go down in history as one of the worst times to be a living human in history (end the FUCKING WAR). I'm not saying you have to be in an active warzone and governed by psychopaths for whom human life is nothing more than a bug to be squashed to enjoy this album, but a) let's face it, a lot of you kind of are and b) it's beauty transcends my own life. It's just one of the best albums of the year so far, regardless of genre. Masterful sadness and pissed-off-edness.

Finistère – "Nebel," from Am Grauen Meer (Atmospheric Black Metal – Ministry of Truth). It's been a while since I've really dug the "black metal that feels like a cloud" thing, and whoa what a comeback for that genre I just made up. For me. Though I guess the more appropriate way would be to say "black metal that feels like a wave," since I am respectful for how bands self identify. Expansive, soaring-through-the-sky-while-semi-naked-and-feeling-warm black metal for appreciating life in a time of absolute, relentless death.

Crypt Sermon – "Only Ash and Dust," from Saturnian Appendices (Goth/Heavy Metal – Dark Descent Records). Fun fact #1: This track shares the title of a seminal second-generation to the Holocaust album by singer Yehuda Poliker, inspired by his family's experiences in the decimation of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki in the pyes of hell in Treblinka. Good times. Fun fact #2 (I write this while listening to the beautiful title song from that beautiful album, weird*) is that Crypt Sermon have been growing on me like a mossy moss. I liked them, kinda liked them, really liked them, and now am just a fan. Perfect atmosphere and instrumentation, Friedman-esque flashy leads, and that down, down triumphant melancholy. Great stuff. 

* How many more sad albums will the wars and horrors we are currently witness produce?

Occisor – "Veneficia," from Thorned Path of Nod (Black Metal – Independent). Ending this week's festivities with a pretty great demo by what I think might be a new Canadian project. Love how aggressive the bass is here, how primitive it sounds, though, I suspect, the kind of primitive that may make its way to superior production when funds allow. In any case, a cool, well-paced and dark piece of black metal with some touches of doom. 

FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

ONE: New Gnaw Their Tongues album coming out via Consouling Sounds.

TWO: This Eowa album came out, apparently a couple of years ago and is now getting a physical release from Matriarch Records. Pretty cool, aggressive black metal of the atmospheric persuation.

THREE: I got to rummaging and unearthed this incredible band by the name of Obiat who do pretty amazing atmospheric sludge/stoner. Highly recommended. Also, I need a shirt with that album cover.

FOUR: We will all pay the price for this current hell. I think that keeps me awake almost as much as the horror itself.

FIVE: Cult of Luna released an EP-ish of a reworked, reimagined, redone versions of "Beyond I" from the wonderful The Long Road North.

ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: Coming back with my "Surprise me!" finds off of Bandcamp. This week I have three:

1 – This 2019 flurry of death black from Italian band Fierce.

2- Basically the entire catalog of an incredible disso death project by the name of Karmacipher, but their 2017 EP is just ridiculous. For lovers of all things Altarage and Ad Nauseam.

3 – A chaotic, weird, thrilling black metal/sludge ride from good people of Red Holes and this 2020 release. Very cool, wild, and cool again.