Songs to Satisfy Some Base Need Nov 2-8

Hi. Music is coming.

Check out MILIM KASHOT VOL. 6, our latest in the MILIM KASHOT compilation series. All the money goes to World Central Kitchen. 

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.

Genevieve – "The Embodiment of Embitterment" (Very Weird Metal – Independent). I'm a relatively recent enlister in the army of Genevieve, but their shit has had such a beneficial impact on my soul that I was exceedingly happy to see new music, even if only "just" one great new song. Old-school creative meandering underpinned by an equally old-school atmosphere of impending violence. And then the violence comes (doesn't the violence always come?) it sounds like a drunk person painting a Dan Seagrave cover.

Vitki – "Lysergic Disembodiment," from Transcendental Mutilation (Black Metal – Independent). This EP has been accompanying my last few weeks, and I was going to write about it for a couple of weeks and somehow failed to so do. Creepy, doomy black metal that sounds like a demon sucking your soul through some ungodly orifice. Also, you can never go wrong with the "smart-sounding word + death metal word" title combo ever, and here' further proof.

Uboa – "The Apocalypse of True Love," from The Dissolution of Eternity (Experimental – Tartarus Records). Another album that seeped its slow way into this pool of words I have pumped into existence. Uboa, for the uninitiated, isn't always a pleasant listen but always is a fascinating, stirring, and at times downright naked experience. But this split with fellow Australians Whitehorse hits somehow different. It's still uncomfortable, it still feels like watching a human hurricane decimate itself, but also somehow equal parts powerful and peaceful. Sure, might not be everybody's idea of "peace" but it is quite close to mine. Mesmerizing, life-pummeling and life-affirming music. 

The Ruins of Beverast – "Alpha Fluids," from Tempelschlaf (Doom/Black Metal –  Ván Records). An absolutely insane year of releases from what I might dub "huge underground" artists continues to be insane, this time with news of a new TROB album. As with many artists I love and have loved I have a mixed relationship with TROB albums. They somehow sound the same to me and at the same time I'm always very happy they exist, and then I proceed to never listen to them that much later. So, I'm happy this exists, and I like it a lot, but I think I need to wait for the whole thing for any kind of actual opinion. 

Sedna – "Amarok," from Sila Nuna (Black Metal/Post-Black Metal – Dusktone). Speaking of known quantities and ambivalent results, this is the opposite case – unknown quantities with incredible results. To paraphrase the famous line from The Princess Bride, there's a great shortage of angsty/sad black metal in the world. But that has now changed. I've never heard of this project, but I should have, because the inner Celeste/Fall of Efrafa child that eats at my heart is very happy for this album existing. 

Orm – "Udskammet," from Guld (Atmospheric Black Metal – Indisciplinarian). I made a little note for myself to write about the new Orm in case I didn't already and have now found out that I did not, so here goes. A very different album for the Danish project, and particularly different than their beautiful 2022 album Intet Altet. Where that album was long movements of unreal creativity and (yes) duration, this one feels feral and to the point. Which isn't to say the short(er) songs are just focused on delivering kinetic blasting, they aren't, all the more reason to pick this beautiful penultimate track. Equal parts violence and atmosphere, it feels like one of their best. Great.

Qrixkuor – "So Spoke the Silent Stars," from The Womb of the World (Black/Death Metal – Invictus Productions). It's been a while since I've featured anything by Invictus here and also a while since I've last written about a record that sounds like the black hole from which we have all spawned and into which we will will unceremoniously sucked in like green phlegm into a bathroom sink. Probably those things are related somehow, but I'm not scientist. What I am, however, is a riff-loving brain hooked loosely unto legs and as such this fucking rips.

Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo – "The Matador," from In the Earth Again (Experimental/Post-Punk – The Flenser). I have had an ongoing and much-conflicted relationship with Chat Pile as of late, but I have been writing that as the intro for basically everything I've written about them since their debut EPs, so I'll stop. Point being that this I get. This collab obviously has very little to do with what Chat Pile do, generally speaking, and yet it feels to me like successfully striking at the core of what makes them great when they feel like being great – being naked under the great rain of life. Beautiful and one of the most beautiful albums of the year. Maybe, not unlike Full of Hell, collabs are the way to go. Also, it appears that I share a birthday with Mr. Pedigo. Condolences. 

Uamh – "Rushing Water from the Glacier," from Prairie Smoke (Atmospheric Black Metal – Fiadh Productions). A fun fact would be that not only is Uamh a fantastic atmospheric black metal project but that their 2022 release A Windswept River's Edge, Carved Through Ancient Stone, represented my introduction to the work of the great Fiadh (I wrote about that release as being independent since I didn't know of a label and only found out about Fiadh because I wanted to get the tape). So, this one's basically shrouded in positivity for me, other than being just an awesome release. Check it out.

FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

ONE: The new Kostnatění is out and it's probably their best, so get to it.

TWO: One of the greatest prog metal projects of our time, Dreichmere, announced the coming of a new EP. FINALLY! 

THREE: In the spirit of supporting the ambient/drone work of Blood Incantation members (I've been a long-time fan of Morris Kolontyrsky's work, and he released a debut full-length earlier this year) – Paul Riedl apparently also has a bunch of very cool, slow-moving shit.

FOUR: The great Flagelo, of which I had written at some point, are getting a physical release via the equally great Nuclear Winter Records (CD/LP).

FIVE: Mental black metal with a hardcore vibe by El-Ahrairah.

ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: Keep safe.