Dancing the Lambada to Supremely Weird Metal Feb 1 – Feb 7
Hope all is well as can be. 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.
Backengrillen – "Repeater II," from Backengrillen (Experimental – Svart Records). Did I pick this track because of the obvious Fugazi reference in both title and song? Maybe. That's a good reason, I think. But beyond those niceties this is just a wild album of every kind of music clashing into each other like a moshpit of chaos that also sounds great. Shearling who I mentioned recently would be a good reference point, as in another band that makes music that doesn't make sense in the best way possible.
Ectovoid – "Formless Seeking Form," from In Unreality's Coffin (Death Metal – Everlasting Spew Records). Every year I find I have the same problem, in which I really love an album, usually a death metal album, and then fail to write about it. So, this is me getting ahead of the issue early and saying that the Ectovoid is easily going to be one of the best death metal albums of the year, regardless of what eventually comes out. I say this and stake that claim especially because of how unavantgarde it seems to be. We've got to put more respect on bands doing an amazing job in just writing music that sounds good. That's gotta somehow come back.
Putrefecal – "Rivière de décomposition," from La liturgie des selles (Goregrind – Spruge Bog). This one's pretty straightforward: If you dig early Carcass and also, unsurprisingly, dig Pissgrave then this is your new favorite band. That's it. Perfection in all things gross, with the happy addition of a triplet of ejaculating penises on the cover. What's not to like?
Gutvoid – "Spell Reliquary," from Liminal Shrines (Death Metal – Profound Lore Records). I love Gutvoid, and have loved Gutvoid from first laying ears on their intelligent brand of ignorant death metal back when they took part in the magical four-way split with Blood Spore, Coagulate, and Soul Devourement (of which I had written here). They have only gotten better with the passing years, I have loved everything they've done, and so am happy. Not as thrilled about the seemingly (?) lifted album title, but thrilled overall just the same.
Ominess – "Encuerame," from Ominess (Blackened Doom Metal – Transylvanian Recordings). A beautiful, if not outright stunning, album from this band that apparently existed under a different name – Ruiness – but I didn't know about either, and this is the debut full-legnth for both, so were' good. Music to listen to while soaring through the clouds with wings of sadness during light rainfall. A mashup of YOB and SubRosa, if you will. Beautiful. Best vocals performance of the year so far, and maybe further back than that.
Enisum – "Oblivion Cave," from Autumn Embrace (Atmospheric Black Metal – Vendetta Records). Finally some new Enisum to listen to when trekking across a super sad range of pointy mountains. Moth's Illusion was one of my favorite albums of 2019 and still a super-underrated masterpiece of the genre. And while I didn't dig 2023's Forgotten Mountains as much, new Enisum is better than no Enisum. Besides, the first track sounds pretty great, so there.
Final Dose – "Floresta Hostil," from Endless Woe (Black Metal – Wolves of Hades). Again, wasn't aware of this project, though it seems quite prolific, so, my bad. Grand, what the kids might call "ritualistic" (which I think means slow with reverb, but might be wrong) black metal that at times actually feels quite Urfausty. Which, I think, one of the highest words of praise in my black metal dictionary. Creepy, very well executed, and lovely.
A Colossal Hand – "Ruining Every First Date by Telling Girls They Should Read Vonnegut," from Memory, The Mind's Basilisk (Mathcore – Independent). Somehow shat the bed and forgot to mention this brilliant second EP from the brilliantly deranged A Colossal Hand, a track off of which, I should say, appeared in the most recent compilation chiseled together by mine own muscular hands (all lies). So, check it out, it's nuts, and it has best song titles (herein lies the best).
Mayhem – "Ephemeral Eternity (feat. Garm, Ulver)," from Liturgy of Death (Black Metal – Century Media). I think I might be marking myself as a gigantic normy here, or worse, but I fucking dig these newer Mayhem records. I could find some post-post-modern angle to this, as in that the quintessential black metal band doing the most quintessential black metal things is in its own way an ironic performance of black metal, but that's not what is going on here. A couple of other things are. The first that the brief visitation by Ulver here makes the whole first part of the song sound like something off of Black Median Current. The second being that I can't stand black metal that only does that, black metal, much in the same way I'm not a fan of tofu without any spices. But bland tofu black metal from Mayhem feels like kind of their thing for a couple of albums now, and I like it.
BONUS: Ziege – "Hundemenschenschwein," from Kadaverknast (Black Metal/Punk – Lower Class Kids Records). As is the case EVERY WEEK, there were about 10 bands I couldn't fit into the post. It could have gone a lot of different ways, but this ANGRY, buzzing album from German black metal project Ziege just made me WAY too happy for me to ignore. Basement-dwelling, bat-eating, guitar-humiliating, direct-to-the-jugular music that was made for me. And it's released through LCKR, who are the best. Win win.
FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ONE: The fabulous Ultha proved somehow more fabulous by not only releasing a split with Phiz where both bands cover Ministry, but also chose to cover the BEST Ministry song ever.
TWO: Locrian people Andre and Terrence released the soundtrack to the film The Harvest King and it's great.
THREE: I don't know how, but Chile has long conenred the market on good thrash and thrash/death. Case in point #4324266 is this new release from War Därmen.
FOUR: New day, new incredible and incredibly weird collab project feat. Czlt of Neptunian Maximalism fame. This time it's Arrokoth and it sounds like the world ending, just very quietly.
FIVE: I probably should have just written this up in the main body of the post, but I ran out room. Weirdo free-jazz improvisation with menacing overtones from Petyaev-Petyaev. I couldn't stop listneing to this all week.
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: New release from a new project by the name of Cemetery Reign (feat. David McMaster from Superstition and Predatory Light) sounds like it might just be perfect death metal. Do not sleep.
