Is a Ceasefire a Ceasefire if the fire is still burning he thought as he listened to sick metal Apr 5 – Apr 11
By the time you read these lines I will know if this time I will actually make it to Roadburn for the first time ever or if my heart will be broken yet again. A seemingly small problem in the flaming inferno of the imploding "Near East" and yet one that is affecting me deeply. Small things matter. Keep safe.
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King Freak – "Miss December," from Super Disco Space Funk EP (Stoner Rock/Sludge – Independent). The easiest "FFO" of my life. And the answer: The Melvins. It's funny, I did what I do when I listen to a sick new band and I send a little message, mostly because as a person who creates shit I know how much I appreciate human life contacting me and telling me of their human life. So I did. Only later did I realize this band was actually Dale Motherfucking Corver and long-time Melvins-collaborator Toshi Kasai. So, I guess I'm dumb? Anyhow, sick shit and hopefully a whole album of it coming sometime soon. Note: The other two tracks on this EP are pretty wild/experimental demos, but also pretty fucking great.
Belexum – "Master of Masks," Belexum (Prog Death Metal – Transylvanian Recordings). This album had me freaking the fuck out. I realize there was a hot-shot album premier, in Decibel I think, but I honestly came into this appreciating the sheer shittiness of the cover art (I love me a shitty cover) on Bandcamp and was immediately transported to that rare heaven of proggy, Swedish-style death metal that I love so (Speglas, Morbus Chron, etc). Undeniably incredible stuff: Perfect organic-sounding production, instrumentation that is both air-tight and loose in the great Autopsy tradition, and some of the best fucking metal vocals in recent memory. Perfection.
Warning – "Stations," from Rituals of Shame (Doom/Indie – Relapse Records). So much pressure with this one (for me, I'm talking about me here): 20 years in the making, previous album was one of the greatest albums of humanity, Patrick means the world to me as artist and person (as evidenced in a) this momentous moment in my life and the life of the blog and b) in my only entry on Discogs), and also because I've known about and heard this album many times over in the past few weeks (a brag? perchance). But really, in reality, no pressure whatsoever. Warning and Walker walk into your life as they never left. But that also doesn't matter. Internet blogs, idiots like me, writing about the value of this or that album, none of these matter. Warning albums seep slowly into your life and stay there forever, intertwine with the love and hurt of the real shit that goes on in your real life. This single, then, and with the blessed coming of the album as a whole, is really just the introduction into that, a first meeting, a preamble. The way it unfolds into your life over years to come, that's the shit that matters.
Tolaat – "Sof," from Tolaat (Shoegaze/Black Metal – Independent). In a weird way the perfect follow up to the first Warning single above. Yes, not a legendary act. Yes, in fact, a complete unknown act making its debut release. And, importantly, yes, not a doom or doom-adjacent album. But there is that quiet melancholy, that easy, airy horror, and most importantly the sense that you're listening to a profound soul at work. A magical weaving of experimental tendencies with the touch of sombre melodies that creates a whole new entity, a new sound, and a new reason to love music and to appreciate the, yes, souls that emit it.
Trichomoniasis – "Containment Facility," from Containment Facility (Death Metal/Grindcore – Independent). Let's turn sharply, shall we? Interestingly, an opening line befitting both the start of this blurb as well as what I would imagine might be a Trichomoniasis band meeting. Just insane, unhinged grinding death metal that makes no sense whatsoever and makes me very happy. One of those sacred skills I cherish above all others (I might have to make a list of those one day) is the ability to produce chaos that feels live and meaningful. The great forefather of that skill in this specific neck of the metallic woods is obviously Carcass, but it's a very hard thing to do. And here we have it, done. Fantastic.
Soulburn – "The Braveheart of Nightmares," from Quantifying Cosmic Doom (Doom Metal/Black Metal – I, Voidhanger Records). It's not like I, Voidhanger releases un-weird music, or un-challenging music, they really don't (nor have they ever released bad music, for that matter) but sometimes they strike real weirdo gold, and this is one of those times. Is it music composed for priests in ancient Egypt? Is it trad doom? What are those strange black-metal overtones? Is it the second coming of The Devil's Blood? WHAT IS IT!? Well, it's probably most of those things, and more. It's magical, and in fact, I would say, that the opening track/first single is somehow misleading because most of the album is more on the mellow side, and all the better for it. A dark-horse release for a dark, dark time.
Gomma – ڨمَّةْ – "Dana'at Al-Amr (دناءة الأمر)," from Wailing and Madness – نواح و جنون (Black Metal – Hypnotic Dirge Records). When I was just beginning to wonder whether being on TikTok (where I just post tapes) was a waste of my time, then finding this gem as a result of the Hypnotic Dirge TikTok account made it worthwhile. Often "oriental" or "Middle-Eastern" are affixed to metal by the fact that an oud existed at time of recording. But this feels like the real deal, both as vicious as any black metal you would hope to encounter as well as riddled with not only Arabic/Middle-Eastern instruments but instrumentation as well. Pretty fucking sick.
Slift – "A Storm of Wings," from Fantasia (Stoner Rock/Indie – Sub Pop Records). I never heard of these dudes, nor was there any reason, I don't think, for me to know about their cosmic whereabouts. But I'm a superficial person, and I see a beautiful cover (this, seemingly, doesn't compute given my previous comment on loving ugly things, but I'm a complicated entity/person too!) and I click. Haven't been in the Nebula/Kyuss space in quite some time, and maybe for good reason, but this is awesome. It's spacey and open and heavy and cool without sounding like a copy of a faded version of whatever it is. It's just cool music, very Screaming Trees-meets-Unsane and I love it.
The Callous Daoboys – "Gigantic Parasite Tongue" (Mathcore/Nu Metal – MNRK Heavy). Have had a somewhat up-and-down relationship with these Atlanta-based freaks. Fucking loved Celebrity Therapist, which I thought was a masterpiece, and didn't really get I Don't Want to See You in Heaven. This, however, this unholy coming together of heavy, glitchy, and melodic I can completely get behind. Very cool shit.
BONUS: Eva Ras – "Ćumur," from Moje ime, moj dom i moj teret (Screamo – Khya Records). I was seriously debating whether to actually do one more track this week because everything is just so exhausting and filled with fear and horror. But there was too much going for this album for me not not mention it. First and foremost, blazing screamo in the chaotic tradition of bands like Orchid and pg. 99. Though this sounds more like an unearthed demo live performed in a basement version of those bands. Apparently this is the final release from this very excellent band, and that's a shame. The other thing going for it is that they're Serbian, and so are my grandparents on my mom's side, specifically from that stretch of land that has been the punching bag of history otherwise known as Vojvodina. Eva Ras, the actress after which the band is named, was in fact born in the same town my grandfather was, Subotica. He was a bright kid, an avid reader, who got into and was sent to King Petar I Elementary School in Belgrade (my grandmother always used to say "BEO-GRAD" in a very Hungrian/Serbian accent). He then passed the exam to move on to the equivalent of a middle school I think but was rejected for being Jewish. The Jewish community then arranged for a makeshift school for all the Jewish kids who were kicked out, and then the school was dissolved. Then the Germans and the Hungarian took over Serbia and he fled back to Subotica with his grandfather, I think he was about and was later tucked away under an assumed identity in a suburb of Budapest. All he did was read. All he wanted was to read. I never knew any of this because I just knew him as this tough, war-scarred, very loving older man. I thought he was born to be a farmer, though he rarely farmed himself and usually advised other farms. All I do is read. I never farmed anything. The music is very good, too bad the band is breaking up. Though I think it's one person. Can one person break up?
P.S. – The person running/formerly running this project also has a cool blog covering hardcore/screamo in the former Yugoslavia. You can find it here.
P.S.S. – He, Filip, is also the person behind Khya records, which is an awesome label I have been following for a while (since I got the tape version of this great Monsters Attack album I had written about here) without knowing any of this. So, yeah. Support them too.
FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ONE: Good hardcore with good cover art from Still Burning.
TWO: Theophonos released a re-recording (?) of Ashes in the Huron River.
THREE: Track from M.S.W. which I keep failing to mention. If you're into being crushed.
FOUR: I wish I can make it to Roadburn, so many friends will be there. But how can I leave my family in a time like this?
FIVE: Yes, small problems. Yes, it doesn't really matter.
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: It does matter, though. Won't happen, I think. People lost lives, lost homes, sent adrift into the world. This is not a big deal. If feels like a big deal. So it goes.
