Songs Played While Hundreds of Thousands of People are Forced to Flee their Homes while Children Die and People are Crushed Sep 14-20

Yes. 

Check out MILIM KASHOT VOL. 6, our latest in the MILIM KASHOT compilation series. All the money goes to World Central Kitchen. I hope they're safe. I hope you are too. 

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Suffering Hour – "Revelation of Mortality," from Impelling Rebirth (Dissonant/Avant-Garde Black/Death Metal – Profound Lore Records). Suffering Hour are not just one other band, for several reasons. I won't list those reasons. I can't find the wherewithal right now. But the short version is that they are one of the defining extreme metal projects of our time, one of those rare bands that dance on that very tight line between experimentation and peeling your face off. It seems that with their triumphant return, doubly triumphant since it comes following drummer Jason Oberuc having to meet cancer, kill cancer, and come back stronger, they are bent on taking that already wild and dangerous dance to even more dangerous territory. Off is the fat and atmosphere that, while always beautiful in the hands of these fine gentlepeople, allows some margin of error to their more experimental Ved Buens Ende-esque moments. You might think, upon first listen, that this removal of said fat means guitar-forward, riff-tastic, death/black worship, a kind of reverting into a bestial version devoid of air. But look closer, friends. That nasty piece of violence, built like a demented tunnel by Josh Raiken's singular riffs and fogged in by the menacing presence of the man, the throat, the reverb Dylan Haseltine, is in fact all that weirdness in a compact, nasty form. It is as if you put Teintablood under a microscope and discovered a Vicotnik classical piece. Good to have you back, friends.

 

Faetooth – "Hole," from Labyrinthine (Doom Metal/Alt-Rock – The Flenser). This one has been a hit of sorts on the Bandcamp charts, but I took my time with it before writing about it. To the point that it was in danger of becoming a member of the notorious "I'm going to listen to this all day and never write about it" gang. But, no. Firstly, and obviously, this is a perfectly executed modern take on traditional doom – the songs, the instrumentation, the production (the fucking production) are all incredible. But there's this other level, one I find hard to pinpoint, that makes me feel not of Candlemass but of Hum, not of Pagan Altar but of, yes, Converge. The sense that all this atmosphere and slow-ish tempo aren't actually in service of offering an updated version of a known genre but as a vessel through which to transmit massive, almost 90s-reverb-ridden emotion. Which is always the mark of great music. That the music is here to serve you, but firstly to serve the artist.

Diabolizer – "Hogtied in Razorwire," from Murderous Revelations (Death Metal – Dark Descent Records / Desiccated Records). This one's from a tad earlier in the year just because I didn't know and/or realize that Diabolizer came back with a new record. Their 2021 album Khalkedonian Death was tremendous, they include some of the best death metal musicians on earth, so all the reasons to be excited. The album is, predictably, incredible. Death metal done perfectly in any and all aspects, including some (more) perfect riffs from the machine of perfect riffs Mustafa Gürcalioğlu who, for my money, is already in the death metal hall of fame. Just a pure, effective, masterful ass kicking.

Ghost Tears – "Numb to Everything," from Numb to Everything (Black Metal/Experimental – Independent). Haunting, mesmerizing music that seems to marry a post-rock, even indie-rock sensibility with the somberness and acidity of raw black metal. It's almost as if someone took those genes and fed them into a "sad machine" that ground them into a pulp and produced some pretty melancholy juice. But the different parts compliment each other so well, the slight whisper of raspy malevolence, the dreamy, minor-chord music, morphing into just pure beauty. Fantastic release.

Volahn – "La Decapitación por Camazotz," from Popol Vuh (Black Metal – Crepúsculo Negro). Volahn return with their Aztec-tinged end-of-the-world sounding black metal and, surprise surprise, they're still pretty fucking good at making it sounds like the world is ending while someone hangs around with a flute. Given the fact that the world is quite literally ending for many (for example this Gaza family raising funds to even have the possibility to leave home to a relatively safer location), this all seems very appropriate. Sadly, the actually world ending sounds nothing like Volahn but I still appreciate the effort to transmute that actual void to a void that I can somehow take. 

Lamp of Murmuur – "Forest of Hallucinations," from The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy (Black Metal – Wolves of Hades). Well well well. Speaking of returns. Lamp of Murmuur mastermind M. has actually already released an album I really like earlier this year, the truly magnificent Magus Lord record that is one of my favorites of the year so far and one that did some work in restoring my faith in all things Lamp. For many Saturnian Bloodstorm was a peak in the LoM mountain range, for me it was and remains a very curious record. It seemed like they so magically managed to avoid being pigeon holed and then suddenly leapt into one of those holes, and not even the most interesting one. Having the pleasure of the first single, and the privilege of checking out the album as a whole, I have to say I'm more on board with this one. The viciousness, for instance, has more variety for me, and feels a bit nastier and beefier. And keyboards never hurt. So, as always, I guess I'll just allow the album to simmer before reaching any grand conclusions, but it's pretty good already. That's something. Also, listen to Magus Lord.

Panopticon – ״The Poppies Bloom For No King," from The Poppies Bloom For No King (Atmospheric Black Metal – Independent). No one really needs me to tell them about the power of Austin Lunn's talent and integrity. And Panopticon has released other albums this year as well, which everyone should be checking out as well. But this small EP, including one new track and one re-recording off a track from the debut self-titled album, feels like one of the most significant releases in a career of very significant releases. Kentucky, for instance, mattered also because it was brilliant, but it mattered because it was taking on the "tool" of black metal and the grandeur of its emotion to address the actual, real life disaster of coal mining. In the same way "The Poppies Bloom for No King" is significant in taking on those same tools in order to address the very real-life calamity of xenophobia. And this matters a bit more, I would argue, for while Kentucky was, in a way, part and parcel of the black metal ethos by focusing on the destruction of nature, for instance, or the crushing of humans in modern societies, "Poppies" is going against one of the pillars of that tradition – "organic" ties to the land, which also manifest themselves in various forms of fascism – in favor of addressing the power, tragedy, and beauty of immigrant and emigrant life. These might be my own geographical/cultural biases, but to hear Bamse's Persian used to address these issues feels even that much more powerful. All proceeds from the same of this release go to National Immigrant Justice Center and Al Otro Lado. Humans in support of humans. 

Hadopelagyal – "Amidst Unending Twilights, Unheeded, Bearing neither Lustre nor Name," from Haematophoryktos (Death/Black Metal – Amor Fati Productions). Ok, enough optimism. This slab of human suffering and chaos comes from a band I had not known, part of what appears to be a scene of which I did not know, and all of it sounds and smells (yes, smells) like the kind of musical decomposition I love. A scene that also includes Pale Spektre who, again, I did not know, also rule, and have a split coming later this year. Oh, and their drummer (and the engineer of the Hadopelagyal album) is the man, the beast Goat Primator AKA the drummer of one of the best bands on earth, Ch'ahom). So, yeah. That kind of chaos. This has everything. If you love shit ranging from Black Curse to Portal, then shut up and buy their shit. Crazy. 

Plaque Marks – "Laugh to Death," from Cumgitsum (Noise Rock – Merge / Reptilian Records). Were you, like me, fortunate enough to attend that sick Unsane show in later 2017? Did you, like me, weirdly meet Jello Biafra at that show and said hi? Were you, like me, fucking blown away by an opening act whom you did not know and were immediately taken by? Were you, like me, waiting ALL THIS TIME to get anything new from that incredible band? Well, you and I are now both happy. Yes, their name is spelled a bit different, that's right. But it's still that same manic, almost carnival atmosphere of oppressive, weird noise rock, and all the more reason for you and I to be thrilled. 

Umulamahri – "Orifice Invocation," from Learning the Secrets of Acid (Weird-Ass Death Metal – Ordovician Records). If I were to tell you there's a new Doug Moore-fronted project (Pyrrhon, Seputus, Scarcity, Glorious Depravity, Weeping Sores), you would have been thrilled. Have I told you there was a new Andrew Hawkins project (Baring Teeth, Adharcáil), you would have been thrilled. Had I told you there's new music that Kevin Paradis, one of the defining drummers of our time, was in, you would be thrilled. So, you see, I get to say all at once, and add that it's of course amazing and incredible and great. 

FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

ONE: Mat McNerney (Beastmilk, Hexvessel) is back with a new post-punk project by the name of Scorpion Milk. Also featuring some cool people's playing too (Nate Newton, Big Paul Ferguson, etc). I guess he's a big dairy fan.

TWO: P2 and Extremely Rotten are joining forces to release the 2023 album by Mexican death metal band Castleumbra. Haven't heard it before, and it's great. FFO: Sxuperion.

THREE: Can't remember why it was that I happened upon this 2021 album by Vivid Illusion (may have been the A Constant Knowledge of Death connection) but it's pretty great. Post-rock/atmospheric black metal.

FOUR: The good people at Isolation Club (Mind Prisoner is awesome) have a new depressive black metal project by the name of Light Bleed.

FIVE: New tribute album coming, this time it's for the Downward Spiral with some cool people involved (Dreadnought, Black Tusk, Abrams, etc).

ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: Soulseller doing a Written in Waters reissue + merch.

ONE LAST THINGGGGGGG: Have never heard of Åreknuteknyterne or of their 1985 release by the same name, but thanks to a reissue/remaster by Tribal Tapes I do now. Awesome weirdo post-punk.