Cheap Thrills #9 - Not a Beach Episode
Summer might be over, but over here in the land of Cheap Thrills, there’s still plenty of traveling to be done. Whether you’re into gnarly death metal or the music of the spheres, there’s bound to be something for you in this month’s roundup of name-your-price releases. Support the artists by picking up some tunes/merch and spreading the word!
–Alex Chan
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April 17, 2022
Consider me officially late to the party with Bergfried’s first EP, especially since the sequel just dropped last month*. In any case, Romantik I is a rousing (if brief) rock opera that fluidly blends elements of traditional heavy metal, folk, and even black metal in its tale of star-crossed lovers. Multi-instrumentalist Erech Leleth has made quite a name for himself with his myriad black metal projects, but Bergfried is a notable departure due to its prominent use of vocals and epic medieval sensibilities. Anna de Savoy’s passionate singing is laced with sultry vibrato, soaring above Leleth’s cascading keys and majestic guitar harmonies.
*Romantik II definitely ups the ante with its cleaner production and more bombastic songwriting (along with a few surprise guests), but since it’s not name-your-price, I’ve opted to focus on the debut here.
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March 27, 2023
From the ashes of Russian hardcore band Улыбайся Ветру/Smile to the Wind come… another Russian hardcore band called Ясность, or Lucidity. The three continuing members channel even more aggression and melody into this densely-packed new album, and after a brief atmospheric intro on the first track, it’s off to the races with a flurry of blistering guitar riffs, acrobatic drumming, and borderline blackened snarls. Most tracks here are potent little firecrackers that hover around the one or two-minute mark, but the literal and emotional centerpiece of the record is the epic yet still economical “A Parting Word,” which revs up with classic ‘00’s screamo-by-way-of-post-rock intensity and finishes with a cathartic crunch.
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Congealed Putrescence - Within the Ceaseless Murk
June 20, 2023
As thick and grimy as their name implies, Congealed Putrescence have slithered out of the Louisiana swamps to drown you in their sickening, suffocating effluvia. Within the Ceaseless Murk is packed to the gills with odious death metal filth, and despite the relatively short, 11-minute runtime, there were plenty of highlights that left me with an acute case of stank face: that manic, skittery blasting at the start of “Advection,” the bass riff that slithers away beneath the huge half-time riff on “Gelid Fathomless Suffering,” the lurching staccato chunkiness of “Suffocating Brain.”
If this EP left you hungry for more, check out Cave of Death Vol. 1, a monstrous, five-way split between these filthy lads, Vile Apparition, Constant Torment, Horrifier, and Goredawn!
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June 27, 2023
Over the last year, Pseudocorp have emerged as one of my favorite labels for raw black metal and dark electronica. One of their latest offerings is the debut EP from Iron Firmament, a mysterious and deadly entity that summons wyrms, drakes, and other reptilian monstrosities to lay siege to enemy fortifications. The fittingly titled Keepeater is marked by ragged tremolo riffs and clamoring percussion that scar the battlefield with deep gouges and smoldering craters, but a grim stillness hangs in the creatures’ wake, as illustrated by the acoustic bridge on “Serpentine Resilience” or the Castlevania-esque synth melodies that close out “Warlust Transcendental.”
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July 13, 2023
With a cover that looks like a an early-’90’s dungeon crawler filtered through the style of a William Blake painting, Gates of Dawn’s sophomore album is an occult epic filled with crackling, almost horn-like guitar and choirs of synthesizers that manifest as strings, flutes, and chimes. There is an organic yet ethereal quality to the compositions on II–while each track has its distinctive motifs and themes, no song stays the same for very long: “Crimson Mess” begins as a stomping symphonic black metal number but slowly morphs into a hypnotic and hazy psych-rock jam; similarly, the 10-minute “O Ouroborous” deftly switches between fist-pumping heavy metal ostinatos and contemplative, almost tender guitar and synth harmonies, culminating in a gorgeous half-time section that sonically situates the listener above an endless sea of fog–or mere light years from the a newborn nebula’s kaleidoscopic glow.
