Songs That Were Just Fine for Me This Week Sep 21 – 28

Hello. 

Check out MILIM KASHOT VOL. 6, our latest in the MILIM KASHOT compilation series. All the money goes to World Central Kitchen. Also check out the amazing new Unsouling album that came out this weekend and for which we provided a luxurious premiere last week. 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.

Deathwinds – "Towards Doom," from …Towards Doom… (Punk/Black Metal – Sentient Ruin). Canadian sonic reducers, ain't no losers Deathwinds have emerged from their, ah, Canadian depths to finally deliver a full length of terror and horror. I wrote about their blistering 2023 EP and loved it, and might actually like this long-form iteration even better. Nasty nastiness at its nasty zenith.

Lugubrious Garment – "Of Vengeful Intransigence," from Demo MMXXV (Black/Death Metal – Nuclear Winter Records). Staying on the fiery path of very fiery metal, here comes a new project from metal genius Gabriele Gramaglia (Cosmic Putrefaction, Vertebra Atlantis, The Clearing Path, and more), who isn't just great at making dark music that's catchy and dynamic but is fast becoming one of the best recording/engineering ears in the metal world. So, what happens when you marry the impulse to unleash pure savagery with perfect songwriting, perfect execution, and perfect sound? You get this filthy, filthy thang.

Abysmal Descent – "Dismal Thoughts," from Dismal Thoughts (Death Metal – Nuclear Winter Records). More death metal, again from Nuclear Winter, and more talented people extending their telescopic talents to create more beautiful astral dirt. This time's it's the debut from Belgian project Abysmal Descent, that includes members from Putrid Offal, Echo Solar Void, as well as dear friends of the show Neptunian Maximalism. Oh, and recorded by another dear friend of the show, Emptiness' brilliant Jeremy Bézier. Aggressive, thoughtful, atmospheric death metal that delivers both on the riffs as well as on the dynamics and the feel. Awesome shit.

Dawnwalker – The Between (Progressive Metal – Independent). I don't usually do this, and by "this" I mean discuss a release before it's out and about and with only a couple minutes of an excerpt to share. Usually that's a classic "down in the info section" move. What makes this different is that I'm losing my shit listening to this 32-minutes masterpiece by Dawnwalker to the point of having to say something to someone about it. And you're someone. Dawnwalker have always been incredible, and I did not mind at all their recent move into pure-prog territory, just because Mark Norgate can fucking write the shit out of a song. But having Dawnwalker return to more "metal" regions, all while safekeeping the proggy bits that were always there makes for what just might be the best Dawnwalker release yet and one of the best releases of 2025. So, yeah. Just you wait.

Ian – "Fennel," from Come On Everybody, Let's Do Nothing! (Post-Metal – Human Worth). Not listening to post metal, at times, is also an attempt to not feel anything. Voluminous literature has been written about the habit of glossing over, getting-to-it, as a way of dealing with pain. I won't say I haven't been consciously listening to post-metal as much because of that, but this new album by new project Ian had me thinking about that. Because it made me feel to the point of feeling overdose. Because it dwelt on the pain, slowly opened the wound, because it gouged my eyes. Which is to say this is some of the best music of this general kind I've heard in a very long time. And it sounds alive.

Ulm – "Lung Full of Clear Wind," from The Accursed Share (Experimental/Neo-Classical/Black Metal – Fiadh Productions). Yet another brilliant project from the brilliant Edward Longo (Skin Tension, Skythala, etc etc). I wrote about these beautiful sounds when the EP came out last year, and here I am at it again, since everything Longo touches turns to goldo. I'm sorry. Horrible joke. Evisceration-levels of musical extremism that are counter balanced with impeccable taste and knack for creating storms that stay storms while staying music. Which, I guess, also applies to several of his other projects, especially Skin Tension, but is especially savage and beautiful here.  

VoidCeremony – "Seventh Ephemeral Aura," from Abditum (Progressive Death Metal – 20 Buck Spin). Few modern death metal acts elicit "OH SHIT NEW TRACK JUST DROPPED" as fast out of my fleshy mouth than VoidCeremony. This has to do with the fact, I think, first and foremost, because they fucking rule, because they shred, because they have the best bass, and have released banger after banger, with Entropic Reflections Continuum being my favorite, as well as being a member of the highly vaunted 111 club. Did I like Threads of Unknowing as much? No, but it was still brilliant, and this new single sits, I think, somewhere in between. High hopes for this one.

Spiritiste – "Transagion Prayer," from Excommunication Hymns (Screamo – Tor Johnson Records). I just happened on a short video in which a three-and-a-half year old was jumping up and down, his face red from crying, covering his little years with his little hands, desperately trying to survive another bombing attack on his city. He is jumping in a collapsed home, thank god it isn't raining. I didn't have the nerve to turn on the sound. Hell isn't even the most basic word available to describe this hell, this absolute hell. I know, from personal experience, that life goes on, amazingly, even after the most horrific of things. But I just can't fathom how. I couldn't fathom then, I can't fathom now. An unfathomable hell. This song is a good song. My youngest boy is three months shy of being three-and-a-half years old.

Transfiguration – "Tribulation, Amen," from Tribulation, Amen (Black Metal / Doom – Independent). Have been sitting on this, not knowing really why. Another brilliant project/release from the brilliant Cathal Rodgers, also responsible for the incredible Weary of Empires, of which I had written a while ago. There's a certain class of bedroom-sounding projects that manages to create a whole universe in a bedroom-sized thing. I have zero idea where Rodgers records, but it sounds like a bedroom in hell. Hell is a recurring theme here. Glacial pain. A jet just passed overhead. Maybe en route to that boy's home. 

Genizah – "Itinerant State," from Quieting Urgency (Post-Metal/Sludge – Independent). I would write beautiful things about this album but the incident mentioned a few paragraphs above has paralyzed that ability. It's good, check it out. Apologies to the band. Apologies to humanity. Apologies. 

FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

ONE: Nope.

TWO: Nope

THREE: Nope

FOUR: Nope

FIVE: Nope

ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: Nope

ONE LAST THINGGGGGGG: Nope