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Bloody Hammers are a weird band. Ostensibly a rock-metal hybrid, the outfit also incorporate a whole lot of industrial elements and horror film homages. That description probably makes people think of Rob Zombie, and to be fair band mastermind Anders Manga has a Zombie-ish sort of ambition. Under his own moniker, he composes soundtracks to horror movies that don’t exist. Also like Zombie, Manga frequently collaborates with his wife, Devallia, who contributes synthesizers to each song. Underneath the kitsch, though, Manga has more in common with horror rock pioneer Roky Erickson. Each possesses a unique voice, solid guitar chops and a talent for legit pop song structures.

The band’s evolution has likewise been a little off-kilter. The second Bloody Hammers album, Under Satan’s Sun had a stoner metal trajectory to it, while last year’s Bloody Sort of Death doubled down on the industrial and pop elements. The Nine Inch Nails vibe took such hold that for a few weeks I privately investigated whether Manga was also behind my favorite—and highly recommended—underground industrial pop outfit in the US, The Ugly Façade (turns out he’s not).

The new Bloody Hammers EP, The Horrific Case of Bloody Hammers, streaming below, isn’t the hard downshift that last year’s LP was. Instead, the gothic and industrial overtones still take precedence, but songs like “Gates of Hell“ bring more riffage into focus.

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The analytics inform me that very few Invisible Oranges readers are from Michigan, and ergo very very few are from Detroit. Assuming that these numbers about hold true across the metal internet (and why wouldn’t they?) it’s understandable that people’s jaws may not drop at the mere existence of Temple of Void. The band is a murderer’s row of Detroit scene veterans. Singer Mike Erdody, also of Acid Witch and Harbinger, formerly of Borrowed Time, is by himself one of the most stacked musicians I can think of. Rhythm, lead, growl, sing, homeboy does all of it. That kind of pedigree marbles the whole band. Don Durr, the guitarist, is a veritable encyclopedia of riffs—and he’s the new guy.

The outfit’s upcoming album, Lords of Death goes a fair bit to undermine the death-doom tag the band’s been saddled with before. Really, we need an agreed-upon descriptor for growling and chunky riffs played at a comfortable midtempo, still with rolling double bass below it. That’s Temple of Void’s new idiom, and it works for them. Determined, that’s the word. Each riff, each piece of each song feels necessary and distinct, “Graven Desires” especially so. The song comes at near the end of the album, and the near choral clean singing that closes it out gives the whole affair an air of the epic. Of course Shadow Kingdom records is putting it out (on July 28 FWIW)

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Probably the most thorny problem I’ve tangled with as editor of this website is the problem of originality. Summed up: originality keeps music alive, but original music is not always pleasant to listen to; in the other hand unoriginal music dilutes the genre, but is often very pleasant to listen to.

There is another axis to this issue: the imitator, the forgery, which equals the original. The ability to imitate indistinguishably is a kind of magic trick. Legendary director Orson Welles, at least, thought so. He directed an excellent feature-length video essay, ‘F For Fake’, on the subject

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIVgUjj6RxU

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In three years of trying very hard I’ve yet to come up with a good solution to this problem, partially because there isn’t one and partially because who cares so long as the tunes are good, yeah?

Enter Spain’s Totengott who, let’s be very honest, sound a hell of a lot like Celtic Frost-slash-Triptykon. I’m going to go ahead and say this is a good thing. Many bands sound sort-of like Celtic Frost (Goatwhore) or have covered Celtic Frost (Opeth). Very few bands actually make one sit up and say “Oh man, they even got Tom G. Warrior’s guitar tone right”. Totengott nail the guitar tone, the vocals, even the pacing of their debut album (It’s three songs long – as monolithic and Kubrickian as Triptykon’s “The Prolonging”).

Is this kind of worship necessary? Yes. For as influential as this titanic death-doom sound is, there’s actually not that much of it. Totengott do it so damn well that their precise ability to embody that feeling is in and of itself an artistic triumph. Orson Welles would be proud.

Normally this kind of abrupt and direct comparison could be seen as derogatory, not the kind of thing someone should do when trying to praise a band. Totengott, though, sort-of invite it. They even titled their record Doppelgänger.

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Comfort food. What smells like home when it’s warm. In this case: heavyweight old school death metal from Sweden’s Paganizer. The band formed too late to be considered part of the Sunlight Sound’s first class, but that’s the beauty of that style: you don’t need to have invented it to master it. All you need is a great song. Case in point: “Your Suffering Will be Legendary.” Its main riff mowed me down like the spinning blades of a combine, leaving me cut up like so much autumn wheat. That’s listen number one. A great chorus, complete with a line lifted from the ‘Hellraiser’ film keeps me hitting repeat.

The band’s upcoming LP, Land of Weeping Souls,could be released by a relative unknown today and hailed as a triumphant addition to the continuing old school death metal revival. A couple of near-OG’s released it so it falls on us to say: Paganizer have the right stuff.

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Land of Weeping Souls will be released on August 5 via Transcending Obscurity. Order it here. Follow Paganizer on Facebook.

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This will be my last Editor’s Choice as Editor In-Chief at Invisible Oranges.

Christ it feels strange to type that, but I’ve nearly typed it many times.

One week from today I will turn in my keys to the office of this fine establishment. I will miss doing this very badly. When I joined this site I had a list of potential projects about three Microsoft Word pages long. I have now reached the end of that list, and those projects are either now public on this site, or unable to be completed to my satisfaction. And besides, as our founder Cosmo Lee said when I interviewed him, I like it when there’s a new Batman.

First and foremost I want to extend my thanks to all of you readers, those who were commenting with me in the early days of the site, and those who joined while I was scribbling alike. Second, I wish to extend my thanks to the writers, photographers and designers who made this site what it is. Give them all a round of applause.

In this post you will find the last of my picks as editor, plus staff lists for the best albums from the first half of 2017. It seems ridiculous to do this now when so many amazing records are just on the horizon, home runs by Tau Cross, Cormorant, Decrepit Birth and of course Paradise Lost, but those are for a different hands to write than mine.

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Coldfells – Coldfells
Immolation – Atonement
Kreator – Gods of Violence
Life of Agony – A Place Where There’s No More Pain
Locust Leaves – A Subtler Kind of Light
Memoriam – For the Fallen
Pillorian – Obsidian Arc
Run the Jewels – RTJ3
Ulver – The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Vallenfyre – Fear Those Who Fear Him

-Joseph Schafer

Kendrick Lamar – Damn
Asira – Efference
Power Trip – Nightmare Logic
Pain of Salvation – In the Passing Light of Day
Wear Your Wounds – WYW
John Frum – A Stirring in the Noos
Sampha – Process
Falls of Rauros – Vigilance Perennial
Elder – Reflections of a Floating World
Earth Electric – Vol. 1 Solar

Runners up for the “metal is a closed circle” folks:

Aseethe – Hopes Of Failure
Pallbearer – Heartless

-Ian Cory

This year’s musical sense started of slow, at least as far as quality versus volume. These last few weeks have definitely brought about some great records which have warranted multiple listens and broke me out of my “Jon only listens to five albums when he doesn’t check out new stuff” rut. The rest of the year has some great releases in store, too. Can deal. The first three of these are definitely my top favorites, but the rest are just kind of jumbled.

Planning for Burial – Below the House
Ulver – The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Mount Eerie – A Crow Looked At Me
Circle of Ouroborus – Ruumistähdet
Ozama – Rio de Basura
Wode – Servants of the Countercosmos
Abigor/Nightbringer/Thy Darkened Shade/Mortuus – split (but just for the Abigor and Thy Darkened Shade tracks)
Helheim – landawarijaR
Oxbow – Thin Black Duke
Charnel Winds – Verschränkung

Looking forward to new records from: Pyrrhon, Spectral Voice, Heaven In Her Arms, Yellow Eyes, the 2nd installment of the Wigrid discography boxset series, and maybe new The Elemental Chrysalis and Abigor albums.

-Jon Rosenthal

Bròn – Зарђала Круна
Ex Eye – Ex Eye
Havukruunu – Kelle Surut Soi
Ingurgitating Oblivion – Vision Wallows In Symphonies Of Light
Isenordal – Shores of Mourning
Mind Mold – Mind Mold
Svrm – За смертю
Tanakh – Unwilling
Viscera/// – 3 | Release Yourself Through Desperate Rituals
White Ward – Futility Report

What a year so far. As the world burns, so does the fury of heavy metal’s underground. Perception-bending music is in style: “mind-molding” stuff like Mind Mold, or Viscera///. Darkness abounds itself, like with Tanakh or Ingurgitating Oblivion. Don’t pass on the super-passionate atmospherics of Bròn and Svrm. Be swooned by saxophone with White Ward and Ex Eye. Charge up with Havukruunu, tune out with Isenordal. And be prepared for new releases from False, One Master, and Pyrrhon.

-Andrew Rothmund

In alphabetical order, here are the ten records that have stuck with me the most thus far this year, though there are probably at least half a dozen more (Necrot, Pharmakon, Power Trip, Coldfells, Ascended Dead, Dynfari, etc.) that could have just as easily appeared here instead. There’s been a lot of good music thus far in 2017.

Black Cilice – Banished From Time
Délétère – Per Aspera Ad Pestalentiam
Falls of Rauros – Vigilance Perrential
Isenordal – Shores of Mourning
Jordablod – Upon My Cremation Pyre
Show of Bedlam – Transfiguration
Suffering Hour – In Passing Ascension
Triumvir Foul – Spiritual Bloodshed
Unaussprechlichen Kulten – Keziah Lilith Medea (Chapter X)
Woe – Hope Attrition

-Clayton Michaels

Ruins of Beverast – Exuvia
Power Trip – Nightmare Logic
Locust Leaves – A Subtler Kind of Light
Pallbearer – Heartless
John Frum – A Stirring In The Noos
Emptiness – Not For Music
Fall of Rauros – Vigilance Perennial
Vallenfyre – Fear Those Who Fear Him
Craven Idol – The Shackles of Mammon
Walpyrgus – Walpyrgus Nights

-Jason Roche

Pain of Salvation – In the Passing Light of Day
Ulver – The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Schammasch – The Maldoror Chants
Need – Hegaiamas
Falls of Rauros – Vigilance Perennial
Kepler Ten – Delta-V
Imber luminis – Nausea
Vintersorg – Till Fjälls Del II
Bestia Arcana – Holocauston
Unleash the Archers – Apex

-Kevin Zecchel

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Without further ado, here’s the editor’s choices for June, 2017:

Dying Fetus are better at marketing than making music, at least most of the time. The best thing about their upcoming record Wrong One to Fuck With, besides its on-point title, is this stupendous basketball jersey. But what about the music itself? The title track to the record is a furious, punky moshfest that lives up to the band’s high-water era with Jason Netherton, at least in terms of playfulness.

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Similarly, Trapped Under Ice were always adept at the moshy side of hardcore. The band’s been too-long absent since 2011’s Big Kiss Goodnight, but this year’s upcoming Do It shows off a band that’s honed its craft while out of the spotlight. FYI I am TUI till I die, guys.

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Featuring members of Twisted Tower Dire, and While Heaven Wept, North Carolina’s Walpyrgus unsurprisingly deliver an epic take on traditional heavy metal. Vocalist Jonny Aune soars on thermals provided by white-hot guitars. The eminent listenability of their debut, though, does surprise me. I don’t love Twisted Tower Dire or While Heaven Wept, because I find those bands usually a little long in the tooth but short in the hook. A hefty dose of Misfits worship, and maybe even a hint of 80s Ramones, keeps songs like “Dead Girls” lean, mean, and entertaining.

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I don’t usually put a lot of stock into drone music, although I know some people lust after it. This collaborative album by [B O L T] and bilbo, though, ignites my imagination. It feels as though I’m listening to the soundtrack of a very experimental horror film that is playing just outside of my field of vision. Something with art deco robots and also maybe tentacles. I wish I could turn my head, but maybe it’s better that I cannot.

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Alasce, France’s Klang sound a lot like Trap Them. Crunchy, moshy, I dig. Then the vocals come in. Emotive cleans stand off against more predictable grunting. It’s all a bit rough, but puts me in a similar headspace to Burst, and that’s always a good thing.

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File likewise under odd French metal-hardcore fusions. Yurodivy play with the heavier ends of sludge and post hardcore. That is to say they remind me of Refused and occasionally The Ocean. They have something those bands do not, though: one of the most gnarly bass tones I have ever heard.

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It’s almost a shame that A Perfect Circle are back in action. Their kind of unclear proggy, goth alt rock metal hybrid has been played with enough times that a few bands are quite adept at it. Ukraine’s Septa are one such band. The individual pieces of their music, the clean guitar arpeggios and pushing-so-hard singing remind me of an embarrassing part of my youth that now I kind of remember with nostalgia. The songs, though, are really very good. Remember when Klone released their album Dreamer’s Hideaway in 2012 and you wished every song was as good as “Rocket Smoke”? This is the record you were hoping to hear.

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Sweden’s The Sign records are re-releasing albums by TID, one of the sort-of unknown acts that funnelled musicians into an early incarnation of Ghost. Cruising through their bandcamp, however, led to Siberian. In broad strokes an atmospheric sludge record, the band’s Through Ages of Sleep swings madly from mood to mood, and makes for a rollicking listen.

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Boston’s Crowfeeder would not have sounded too out of place on their hometown’s former heavy-hitter record label, Hydra Head. The duo roughly find the sunny side of sludge with a hefty dose of blue notes. Most musicians would take this template and come up with a lacklustre Baroness clone. No Flowers, though has a little edge to it, they don’t sacrifice noise for hooks. The two-member band configuration is pretty common in the Pacific Northwest, but Crowfeeder’s sunnier disposition suits the configuration well.

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The second Northwest Terror Fest will be held on the weekend of May 31st through June 2nd in Seattle, WA. The festival will return to Neumos, Barboza and Highline Bar.

Catch our coverage of the first Northwest Terror Fest here and here. Follow Northwest Terror Fest on Facebook.

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At Maryland Deathfest 2016, guitarist Matt Olivo led grindcore pioneers Repulsion though a rousing version of Motorhead’s “The Hammer” in tribute to the then-recently departed Lemmy Kilmister. The experience seems to have given him the songwriting bug again.

This year, Olivo returns with a new band, Explusion comprised of former and current exhumed members Matt Harvey and Danny Walker (each hold too many projects under their belts to list) and Menno Verbaten, the completely insane bassist from Lightning Swords of Death who can play Van Halen’s “Eruption” on a four-string. On their debut EP, Nightmare Future, the band sound a whole lot like Motorhead writing a grindcore LP. The bass is thick, the riffs come first, and each brief piece of the record seems catchy as well as mosh-inducing.

Stream album closer “Comatose” below. Most bands would take the end of a record as a moment to slow down and offer something different. Not Expulsion. Like every song before it, the tune aims for pure a pure high. Speed hits nostril. Nerves hit overload. Volume hits maximum. As it should be.

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Nightmare Future is out on July 14 via Relapse. Order it here. Follow Expulsion on Facebook.

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Dirty, raw and fun, Moldy Castle was an early example of the Pacific Northwest’s current traditional heavy metal revival. Active between 2012 and 2015, the band featured drummer Reuben Storey, also of Christian Mistress, and kept a pretty slim online presence. The band released two demo tapes an done live EP before disbanding, but did record a single full-length album The Farce is Played. Now, years later, the gutter-stinking classic rock fuzz bomb that is the band’s final statement is now available from Storey and Christian Mistress bassist Jonny Wulf’s label, Adult Fantasy.

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Swiss black metal OG’s Samael have been hinting at a promising third act in their career for some time. After a decade of glorified industrial records (not a bad thing in my book, but certainly not to the tastes of many of their old fans) the outfit’s made a name for themselves as festival headliners performing their classic Ceremony of Opposites album.

This year, the band returns with a more metallic new record, Hegemony, and today release its first single, “Angel of Wrath”. The drum machine still pummels at the heart of their music, but some of the pleather pants feel of their recent output has been scrubbed away in favor of melodrama evoking Rotting Christ or Septicflesh, if not Dimmu Borgir. This kind of metal excellence exists in direct proportion to its grandiosity. The bigger it sounds, the better it is. “Angel of Wrath” sounds humongous.

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Hegemony will be released on October 13 via Napalm Records. Follow Samael on Facebook.

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