SubRosa Live at The Golden Bull in Oakland, CA
…
The Golden Bull, a gathering place for metalheads and their ilk in downtown Oakland, might initially seem like an unfitting place to see a band like experimental-doom-folk quintet SubRosa. The Salt Lake City band make music that’s full of space, soft melody and nearly whispered vocals, contrasted with passages of gargantuan volume and potent sludge. One might expect this band to perform to its fullest potential on a large stage in some 19th century theater, or the floor of some ancient, abandoned church (both of which would be kinda awesome, actually). Still, the intimate club proved to be a fantastic venue, and not only did the space feel cozy and familial, but it seemed to embrace the band in a ring of friends and fans who were right there the whole time, taking the musical voyage together.
Opening the evening was another folk/doom ensemble with roots that go way back in the Bay Area dark music scene: Worm Ourobouros, comprised of vocalist/guitarist Jessica Way and bassist/vocalist Lorraine Rath, both of whom have been involved with Amber Asylum, with drummer Aesop Dekker, formerly of Agalloch and Ludicra. With haunting harmonies, dreamlike ambience and periodic dissonance and intensity, The trio held the audience in rapt attention, many of whom stood motionless with eyes closed, taking in the dark beauty as it washed over them.
SubRosa’s songs can be epic in length, and in fact, four songs filled out their hour-plus set. But each song is a journey unto itself, not unlike an opera, where a story has to be told, and must be done with all the dynamics and complexity any good story requires.
SubRosa blend the unrelenting power of doom/sludge with a folk sensibility to great effect on each of their three most recent albums, and their live performance brings greater dimension to this format without losing any of the power or intricacy of the recordings. Singer/songwriter Rebecca Vernon’s understated vocals and simple guitar with the dual violins of Sarah Pendleton and Kim Pack create haunting, subtle and evocative moments strategically placed between mountains of volume and melody. Drummer Andy Patterson and bassist Levi Hanna offer commanding support.
This band looks and sounds like it’s been playing together for a long time, and knows itself as a musical unit in a way that’s unmistakable and powerful. the intimate venue gave the audience an opportunity to commune with this power up close. When SubRosa ended the audience was all right there with them, together.
-Bobby Cochran
…
Worm Ouroboros
…
SubRosa
Ted Nubel’s Top Albums of 2020
I started writing for Invisible Oranges just about a year ago now, and to be honest, this is also my first year doing "true" metal coverage, beyond just writing about the local Chicago scene. This time last year, I was blissfully unaware of what goes into making a year-end list. Previously, I'd just sort of designated a "good" pile in my mind -- maybe a sea of thirty to fifty records -- that floated around with an ambiguous ordering, uncaring of where they stood against the rest. Well, that ignorance is over, and this year I've put that dubious heap of music to the test, pruning and wrenching it into some semblance of an ordered list. Even if you're a steadfast opponent of rankings, I think there's some benefit to the exercise. It gets those records from earlier in the year back in rotation, and often there's some real gems that get left behind due to the failings of human memory. Putting it in writing, whether public or not, also helps absent-minded folks like myself recall what came out in each year. But realistically, the ordering that you see here is mostly a facade -- how can I evaluate a number eight versus a number nine without resorting to equally pointless numerical scores for each of them? My first attempt -- entrail divining -- didn't go so well, so instead I opted for as close as an approximation to a "true order" as I can get. Creating this list served as a sort of mental pathway for me -- from things that I liked to things that I really liked, to the albums that have enthroned themselves in my head for the year. Follow my psychic footsteps and check out my picks for the year.
...
Honorable Mentions:
20. Briton Rites – Occulte Fantastique (Echoes of Crom, USA) 19. Lord Drunkalot – Heads & Spirits (Independent, Croatia) 18. Necrot – Mortal (Tankcrimes, USA) 17. Cloud Cruiser – I: Capacity (Shuga Records, USA) 16. Lamp of Murmuur – Heir of Ecliptical Romanticism (Death Kvlt, USA) 15. Begräbnis – Izanaena (Weird Truth, Japan) 14. Yatra – Blood of the Night (STB Records, USA) 13. Valkyrie – Fear (Relapse, USA) 12. Old Nick – "T.N.O.T.A.A.T.P.B.T.Q.A.S.F.A.B.O.O.T.D.O.S.S.T.T.E.V.H.S. (The Night of the Ambush and the Pillage by the Queen Ann Styl'd Furniture, Animated by One of the Dozen or So Spells That Thee Eastern Vampyre Has Studied)" (Grime Stone Records, USA) 11. Drown – Subaqueous (Independent, USA)...
As I remarked in my review last month, Nembutal (which happens to be the name of a barbiturate), has a sense of a tragic passing gone unnoticed and unavenged. Starting off with a set of long, beefy doom tracks in the manner of Albert Witchfinder's other project Reverend Bizarre, the album then transitions into eerie and depressing quiet, using acoustic textures and softer vocals to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Words and phrases jump out and sink into your mind, adding to the weirdness, and then before you know it, the album closer "Xanadu" sends you back into the realm of volume-centric doom, offering no resolution and no peace.
Listen here.
December came, and as I was beginning to get a handle on my end-of-year thoughts, Aldrig I livet jumped around the corner and swung a nail-tipped bat into my kidneys. Simply put, it's death metal stripped down to its essentials and rebuilt as a lumbering monstrosity: it goes exactly as fast as it needs to with just as many notes as are necessary to pound skulls into paste. No showing off, no wankery, just shambling riffs carving out a hypnotic soundtrack for ripping bones out of corpses.
Listen here.
Conundrum took Hällas's bewitching "adventure rock," rooted in 1970s prog rock, and pushed it up a few years into the 1980s, adding beefier synths and boomier drums. As it followed 2017's vaunted Excerpts from a Future Past, I definitely wondered early on in the year if Conundrum would hold up. Repeated listens toward the end of the year confirm that it did indeed: if you'd like to be rocketed away from Earth post-haste to a world of retro-futuristic adventure, this is your ticket out of here.
Listen here.
If the fact that Through the Hollow is a swirling vial of gothic-tinged, metal-adjacent psychedelic rock ready to swathe you in velvet tones isn't enough to pique your interest, I suppose the fact that the band consists of ex-The Devil's Blood members would be helpful to know too. Molassess is its own entity, however, leaning more heavily towards abstract concepts of struggle and turmoil and creating multi-layered rock soundscapes to explore them.
Listen here.
The argument for Perfect Doctrine is pretty simple: sneering, ornate doom condensed down into short-format jams and doused in over-the-top theatrics. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Reverend Bizarre, but in a much quicker package. Obviously, both approaches are excellent, but being able to jump into this album and immediately be showered with riffs was a huge benefit to my 2020 experience. Plus, any band that uses the Cadaver Synod for album art is going great places.
Listen here.
It's been about twenty years since Blue Öyster Cult's last full-length album, The Curse of the Hidden Mirror, and, honestly, anyone expecting a major improvement over that (which was far too heavy into southern rock for my tastes and a little long) was presumably fooling themselves. But as it turns out, if you were expecting another mediocre release... well, the joke's on you. The Symbol Remains is a walloping continuation of the band's legacy and has several tracks that stand out even ranked against the whole mighty discography. That includes a new all-time favorite for me, "The Alchemist," which taps into the long-dormant heaviness of the Imaginos days (and as a side note, Albert Bouchard's Re Imaginos re-do out this year unfortunately fell short of both his demo tape version and the studio release).
In short, we're now in a situation where I could see Blue Öyster Cult live in 2021 and actually want to hear songs from their latest album. Not even Black Sabbath could manage that -- sorry, 13.
Listen here.
I got into a lot of drone and ambient music this year, probably because it's great at extracting a particular sentiment from your mind and examining it, lengthily, without jostling your brain too much. We Love to Look at the Carnage captured a very specific feeling for me: the near-trance reverie of being awake late at night, exhausted and with your mind almost totally empty. It reminds me of walking back from shows on snowy winter days long after midnight, traversing silent Chicago streets as I made my way back to public transit or my car (once I moved out of the city proper), alone with my thoughts among gently falling snow.
As for what it actually sounds like, well, the mixture of heavy drone textures with bright tones and well-placed ambiance wasn't matched by much else this year -- plus, the cynical spoken-word vocals narrate a tale that's mostly decipherable and entirely relatable.
Listen here.
There's no secrets as to why this is topping lists across the globe -- Cirith Ungol released four great albums (though of course Paradise Lost has a contentious history, it's got enough bangers to hold up) and then faded away -- and most of us cynical oft-disappointed metal fans, especially those who discovered them long after that point, figured that was it. But instead, following up on a beefy single to stoke the flames of hype, they came back with a full-length album better than most of the traditional metal out there today and one that stands up to their historical work. How do you take a multi-decade hiatus and come back like nothing happened, somehow learning from your past material and simultaneously avoiding any trend-hopping inclinations? That's a secret perhaps not meant for us to know.
Listen here.
A bittersweet record -- sweet, mostly, because its blend of heavy progressive doom and post-metal provides an unparalleled 84 minute journey through vast swaths of sonic territory (and provides plenty of riffs while doing so), but remembering how its launch coincided with the pandemic bringing the world to a halt does hurt a bit.
The album's release was set to coincide with the band opening up for Om and Wovenhand at a conservatory here in Chicago, but alas: lockdown, plague, et cetera. Fittingly, that was also going to be my first time shooting a show for Invisible Oranges, so I got to be doubly disappointed. We did, at least, get a kickass livestream performance featuring Bruce Lamont adding saxophone wizardry at one point, but Mandala of Fear promises to be kickass live material, and hopefully 2021 will give it an opportunity.
2018's American Scrap felt unsurpassable, and yet, here we are -- they one-upped it. I interviewed the band earlier in the year -- frankly, it feels like a few years ago now -- and the passion the band has for this music is a huge factor in what makes their records so great.. Creating an hour-plus of diverse and thoughtful heavy metal like this requires far more than just technical ability or even good songwriting -- there's mastery here, full control over music's emotional power and an understanding of how to develop it through rumbling amps and post-apocalyptic poetry.
Listen here.
I'd always liked Pale Divine, but never really latched on to their releases in the past. Their serpentine and creative riffs were ear-catching, but you know how it is -- appreciating music is a combination of factors beyond just quality, and I guess I never had the time to lock it down. Well, Consequence of Time's name is fitting given that admission, because this time around I'm fully onboard and painfully aware of my past mistakes. This album unifies the long-honed riff-crafting and hook-writing skills of the Pennsylvanian doom band with a new element -- the vocals and additional guitar contributions of Dana Ortt, vocalist of the now-defunct Beelzefuzz.
In a way, it's a "two great tastes" situation: Pale Divine still has their punchy riffs and longtime vocalist Greg Diener's solemn lower-pitched vocals, while Dana's higher-pitched vocals, easily the highlight of Beelzefuzz for me, add mystical might to songs like "Satan in Starlight." Beyond that, Consequence of Time finds the band's songwriting in top form, with "Tyrants and Pawns (Easy Prey)" running through my head every damn day for the last six months, suggesting that I just go listen to it again instead of finding new music to check out. There's also just more high-end sparkle and shine in the mix, helping to bring out all the rich subtleties in this superbly detailed work -- it's consistently been a treat to succumb to that call in my head and revisit it throughout the year.
Listen here.
This List Goes to Eleven: Invisible Oranges’ Top Ten Records of 2020
Sweven -- "The Eternal Resonance"[/caption]
At the end of last year, you saw lists from Invisible Oranges staff members ranking their favorites of 2020, and to be sure, it's a diverse selection. In total, we've had nine best-of lists (plus a kickass grind-packed list from Ripped to Shreds' Andrew Lee, but we're sticking only to IO staff for the purposes of this ranking). At 20 picks per list, there were 180 slots and we ended up with 145 unique albums. That means, of course, that there was some overlap and some clear favorites -- so, using the ranking system laid out in previous years, here's Invisible Oranges' top eleven records (since there was a tie for the #10 spot) of 2020:
...
1. Sweven – The Eternal Resonance (score of 61, appears on 4 lists) 2. Cirith Ungol – Forever Black (score of 53, appears on 3 lists) 3. Napalm Death –Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism (score of 44, appears on 3 lists) 4. Hum – Inlet (score of 40, appears on 2 lists) 5. Lamp of Murmuur – Heir of Ecliptical Romanticism (score of 36, appears on 3 lists) 6. Malokarpatan – Krupinské Ohne (score of 33, appears on 2 lists) 7. Huntsmen – Mandala of Fear (score of 30, appears on 2 lists) 8. Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou – May Our Chambers Be Full (score of 28, appears on 2 lists) 9. Necrot – Mortal (score of 27, appears on 5 lists) 10. Havukruunu – Uinuos Syömein Sota | Blue Öyster Cult – The Symbol Remains (score of 26, appear on 2 lists)...
Note: Score is calculated by adding up the "inverse" of the position of each list appearance -- a #1 spot is worth 20 points, while a #20 spot is worth 1 point. There's certainly some flaws possible with a linear scoring model, but we're not here to assess polling error or weighting models, we're here to listen to metal. And that goal, going by the diversity of our picks, has been accomplished. Plenty of these records are long-awaited comebacks: Cirith Ungol returned after 29 years dormant (not counting the single), Hum after 22 years, and Blue Öyster Cult after just under two decades. Plus, Sweven's The Eternal Resonance is somewhat of a continuation for Robert Andersson, picking up where Morbus Chron's last full-length left off in name and sensibility. We're all used to reunions and comebacks falling flat on their face, I suppose, so in a year where failure and disappointment were pretty much always the daily special, we celebrated resounding successes like those with due credit. New blood made its mark on the year, too: Lamp of Murmuur's full-length debut, hyped to an impossible degree, stood its ground and proved its lo-fi aesthetic was only in service to -- and not in place of -- quality black metal. The rest of the top albums, as you'll find in our year-end lists, have plenty of valid reasons for their lofty perches and are solid options for your 2021 listening needs. Have a different opinion? We'd love to know in the comments....
IO Staff – Best of 2020 Lists Jon Rosenthal Ted Nubel Langdon Hickman Joe Aprill Ivan Belcic Andrew Sacher Rhys Williams Chris Rowella Brandon Corsair...
Check out Invisible Oranges' curated collection on the BrooklynVegan shop.
Ugly Sweater Material: Four Great 2020 Albums With Offbeat Artwork
Album art doesn't always need to be some beautiful work of art -- arguably, the most important part is delivering the message and concept of the album, while also existing in lockstep with the actual sound of the band. So no, nicking one of Goya's Black Paintings isn't always the best strategy. Sometimes, you have to get... unconventional. Art that's ugly, uncomfortable, or perhaps just a little wacky can sometimes be the final piece of the puzzle needed to make a good album great -- but certainly there's a risk of turning people off, since the first thing we know about an album is often what the cover looks like. I suppose there's a fine line between madness and greatness, anyway, and exploring that boundary can yield great results. As our Christmas gift to you (if you celebrate, and if not, we hope you're enjoying the last few days of this accursed year regardless), here's four albums from 2020 with album art that made us stop and take notice of the fine tunes within.
Hexenbrett - Zweite Beschwörung: Ein Kind zu töten May 22nd, 2020
So... dolls. Potentially scary, but not as much when they're unlikely to pick up a knife and go for your throat, right? But the delicate framing of the doll on velvet, elaborately bordered, shifts from just being weird to downright creepy as you look closer, taking stock of the strange illumination and contrast. That feeling only intensifies if you translate the album title: "Second Incantation: To Kill a Child." Suddenly, the dismemberment has another, more chilling meaning.
On Zweite Beschwörung: Ein Kind zu töten, classic black metal meets classic heavy metal with resounding success. A gothic, darkened atmosphere shrouds both the down-tempo bits and the blast beats, creating an image of a ritual conducted in shadowclad secrecy. I especially appreciated the choral elements and bizarre interludes that give it theatrical trappings as well, in the vein of King Diamond if a little less over-the-top. Song titles jump from language to language and structures vary wildly, but the end result is a cohesive vision of uncanny horror.
...
Undeath - Lesions of a Different Kind October 23rd, 2020
Gore-obsessed death metal generally comes with album art revelling in giblet generation, so no surprise that this New York band's full-length debut features a decapitation at center stage. However, what makes me chuckle every time I see it is the circumstances behind the killing: in a cave inhabited by a hellish parasite amidst a verdant backdrop of nature, one man, seemingly controlled by the fiend, gets chop-happy with a man who appears to have walked out of a nearby shopping mall into this cave, completely unprepared for his imminent headlessness. A white T-shirt and jeans, with no backpack, no supplies? Buddy, you were going to die one way or another.
To be clear, I love this cover and it's beyond fitting for the gurgly, riff-packed death metal inside, but the surreal juxtaposition of a completely ordinary guy in a vibrant wilderness getting one-shot by a possessed freak of nature in a gory cave is hard to beat. Vocalist Alex Jones told us in an interview about the album art and how it came to be:
The artwork was done by our drummer Matt Browning, who does all of our cover artwork. The art is just an interpretation of a lot of the lyrics on the album and made into one painting that contains aspects of death, dying, and otherworldly phenomenon.
...
Houkago Grind Time - Bakyunsified (Moe to the Gore) November 13th, 2020
This album art makes more sense if you're familiar with what it's parodying: a somewhat-famous picture of Morbid Angel guitarist Trey Azagthoth unashamedly displaying his Sailor Moon fandom. Nothing wrong with that, by the way, but it's still a classic example of how metal musicians aren't quite as sinister as they may appear on stage.
Okay, so that may help with the album art, but you may also be wondering about, well, everything else. To quickly sum it up, Houkago Grind Time is "anime goregrind," which means that it's goregrind but has a few anime samples thrown in. Lyrics? Not relevant. The important thing is that there's good riffs, hard-hitting production, and a suitably pingy snare to cut through the chaos. Though it seems like parody, and that's certainly an aspect of it, Bakyunsified (Moe to the Gore) is probably more legitimate than half of the "real" goregrind out there.
P.S. Make sure you check out founder Andrew Lee's (also of Ripped to Shreds) best of 2020 list.
...
Goratory - Sour Grapes October 16th, 2020
As gross and weird as this art is, the best part about this record's aesthetic is the song titles. Chiefly, "I Shit Your Pants," which leaves so much room for gross interpretation. In keeping with the toilet vocals and brown-note-inducing death metal contained within, though, the album art is both surreal and sickening. It might be a turn-off at first, but dive in and the results are enlightening.
Imbuing metal with humor generally seems like a fruitless effort. Jokes in lyrics get old about two listens in, and puns are never as funny as the author thinks they are. Also, some genres will never be funny to me -- sorry, thrash metal. Sour Grapes, somehow, is an anomaly -- it's still amusing to me months later.
Support Invisible Oranges on Patreon and check out our merch.
Upcoming Metal Releases: 12/27/2020 – 1/2/2021
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of December 27th, 2020 to January 2nd, 2021. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays. See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging. Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
Upcoming Releases
Transilvania -- Of Sleep and Death | Invictus Productions | Black + Thrash Metal | Austria Delightfully thrashy black metal best visualized/described as a black mass of evil billowing out of a forgotten castle's gates. The bottom-heavy drum production is a nice touch, giving the vocals and guitars plenty of upper-range space to ring out in.
--Ted Nubel
...
Svrm -- Розпад | Vigor Deconstruct | Atmospheric Black Metal | Ukraine Svrm welcomes 2021 the same way it did 2020 -- with a full-length slab of despairing atmospheric black metal. Greet the new year with walls of oddly comforting forlorn melody, and if we're lucky, this year will suck slightly less.--Ted Nubel
...
Cartilage -- Gore-met | Independent | Death Metal + Grindcore | United States (California) Stylish, gory death/grind that makes good on the fun, riffy potential of the fusion. Take special note of the sped-up, grinded-up cover of "Into the Crypts of Rays," as if that song's d-beats weren't already ripping enough.--Ted Nubel
...
Prime Mover -- Under the Penumbra | Independent | Black Metal | United States (Atlanta) Multi-disciplinary black metal that weaves catchy melodies and chunky grooves into what reminds me a bit of Children of Bodom. The hooks and choruses just give me a nostalgic feeling, you know? The Alice Cooper cover is a pretty neat transformation, too.--Ted Nubel
...
Support Invisible Oranges on Patreon and check out our merch.
LaColpa Darkens the Year’s End with the Nightmarish “Post Tenebras Lux” (Album Review)
My first interaction with LaColpa's latest album left me feeling that, as last week's Upcoming Metal Releases blurb noted, it was "straight up haunted." Subsequent listens haven't robbed me of that fancy, but they have colored in the reasons for the haunting, picking out the frequencies that channel electrical phenomena and the subtle tricks that cause the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up. For best results, a dark room and undivided attention is optimal, but Post Tenebras Lux can conjure its apparitions even in the brightest daylight: its painfully intense droning noise is embedded with heavy, bludgeoning doom that adds force to its supernatural terror.
...
...
The album opener "Theosophy of Pain'' kicks things off in a not quite user-friendly fashion: no riffs or discernable guitar to be found here, just semi-understandable screams atop a throbbing pulse of noise. In many ways, it's what I imagine a hangover sounds like. Given that the average listener's attention span is maybe a few minutes at best, putting one of the least approachable tracks up front indicates LaColpa's dedication to creating a vision of darkness, and that's only compounded through the rest of the record. In fact, we don't even get to the most rock-oriented (though that loosely applies here in any case) tracks until much later -- the middle of the album finds the band sparsely applying riffs between agonizing landscapes of howling, surging noise. The ebb and swell of the atmospherics is applied like a thriller's soundtrack, building to one crescendo after another and then yielding to some new element. It's a bumpy ride, as opposed to the sometimes hypnotizing nature of noise and drone, never letting the listener really settle in and keeping ears perked up for what weirdness might come next....
...
The second half consists of just two tracks, both ranking among my favorites on the album. "Welcoming the Agony" starts off with a bizarre, looping sample and then employs the band's doom side hand-in-hand with the drone, where the high-pitched screams mesh fantastically with the lumbering riffs. The combination is sneering, torturous, and, capitalizing on the atmosphere built by the first half of the album, like the climax to a horror film: possession is achieved, hope lost, and lives extinguished as the pace rapidly increases. The 18-minute closer "Relics" continues this sentiment, albeit with a much longer canvas to explore it with: first, a heavy dose of more sanity-eroding double-bass-backed riffs, and then, as the final mental walls erode, the second half of the epic washes everything away to nothingness. The album shines the most at its heaviest, when the might of the band fulfills the whispered malevolence espoused by the atmospheric portions, and I would have loved to see even more of that. However, just like a good finale needs a suspense-packed buildup, it's possible that too much too soon would rob the doomiest passages of their heft. This year has been, by all accounts, a nightmare, so Post Tenebras Lux is the ideal and fitting capstone to it. The Latin title translates to "Light After Darkness" -- what the end of "Relics" hints at and, also, what we're all hoping to find coming up. Throw this on as part of your New Year's celebrations and scour away the last remnants of 2020....
Post Tenebras Lux released December 21st, 2020 via Brucia Records.Support Invisible Oranges on Patreon and check out our merch.
Editor’s Choice #1: Jon and Ted Edition
As of today, our esteemed editor-in-chief Andrew Rothmund is stepping down, handing the reins over to senior editor Jon Rosenthal and associate editor Ted Nubel, collectively operating as co-editors in chief. He'll continue serving as one of the many invisible minds behind our Twitter account and participate in podcasts as well -- as our strongest, and perhaps only, advocate for deathcore, his perspective is invaluable. Editors-in-chief Jon and Ted feel it's appropriate to reflect briefly on this change but also feel that attaching music to it is kind of tacky, so just for this edition of Editor's Choice we'll skip the tunes.
Jon Rosenthal
Look at me, I'm the Captain now. Let a new reign of terror commence. Just kidding, I guess. "Jon Being the Boss" was never something I actually wanted when I first started writing for Invisible Oranges over five-and-a-half years ago. I just wanted to write about metal. I'd actually "retired" from writing at 23 or so, and hopping back in after a few years of silence after being recommended to Joseph Schafer by a friend at Relapse Records was strange. I wasn't "the boss" like I was at my old website, which I ran from 2010 to 2013, and working under people was so much easier than wrangling an army of freelance writers, which is akin to nailing Jell-O to a tree. My mistakes were corrected, I got guidance, things were pitched at me… it was the life. I did what I wanted when I felt like it, so long as it was turned in on time. Not too shabby. Of course, this was years ago now, and my position has gradually changed to a position in Management, but I never felt any sort of weight like I would as Editor in Chief. I was honestly worried about how it would be, being in charge again. Would it be different? Could I handle it the same way I did when I was younger? The future was so uncertain, but I knew this day would come. Needless to say, I have some lofty-and-not-so-lofty goals and expectations for myself which will be implemented over the next "however long I'm editor" amount of time. The long and skinny of it is: I want Invisible Oranges to be your favorite metal music site, and, god dammit, it will be. Mark my words. Or don't! Expect to see me around more, too. So there you have it. With all that being said, we'd love to hear from you! Do you have thoughts on music and stuff and maybe even suggestions for us? Reach out to [email protected]. Want to write for us? Send an email to [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you....
Ted Nubel
Funnily enough, when I was recruited for Invisible Oranges by Andrew Rothmund this time last year, I was planning on doing more show photography and reviews than anything else. Well, 2020 didn't go how anybody expected, and 2021 looks to have its fair share of surprises as well. Jon and I are taking on the burden of Editor-In-Chief as a duo, which is not something I had at all anticipated, but I'm looking forward to it all the same. It's a little weird to go from editing/owning a tiny local show photography site to working as the editor of a much less tiny general metal commentary outlet in just about a year's time, but hey, everybody uses Wordpress behind the scenes, so the skills are transferable. I plan on writing as much as possible besides focusing intently on, as Jon aptly put it, nailing Jell-O to trees, but increasing our writer base and diversity of perspectives is a big focus this year -- we all have our own preferred subgenres and our own takes on music, and the more of those that we can cultivate into interesting content, the better. There's far more music than we can ever cover out there, but my goal for 2021 is to widen our net and bring out the best, regardless of how deep underground we have to furrow.Screaming Bloody Oranges, Episode #8: Looking Forward to 2021
With the new year comes plenty of changes, but also a constant: new music is coming. And, due to the situation created by the pandemic, we might see some releases that were originally slated for 2020 but got pushed back. Of course, we're not likely to see any return to touring until the back half of the year -- in the best possible case -- but I suspect we'll see most of those withheld releases hit sooner rather than later anyway. The specifics remain to be seen, but in the meantime, we got together to discuss what information we do have, and the releases we're most looking forward to this year.
...
...
Music aside, it seems like we've still got plenty of trouble ahead of us, but there's at least some semblance of a light at the end of the tunnel. Invisible Oranges wishes you all the best in the new year -- stay safe, folks....
Listen and subscribe to Screaming Bloody Oranges: The Invisible Oranges Podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | PodbeanSupport Invisible Oranges on Patreon and check out our merch.
Of Mother of Graves’ “In Somber Dreams” and Musical Lineage (Early EP Stream)
Sometimes I think the Peaceville 3 movement gets too much credit. I know, I know, "What the fuck is wrong with you, Jon? The Peaceville movement was pivotal and gave way to an entire celebrated genre of music." And you'd be right to correct me for saying this, but hear me out. Death/doom metal (or doom/death metal, if you are so inclined) had existed since the mid-to-late 1980s, and it had evolved in a tentacular fashion, leading to bands like Mythic in the United States, Lord of Putrefaction in England, and, for the purposes of this album premiere writeup, Katatonia in Sweden. Much like black metal's own scene-based evolution, death/doom metal was a global phenomenon, it was just the Peaceville 3 who got the most notoriety, especially since Katatonia had initially identified as a black metal band. And still, Katatonia's own, simultaneous fusion of gothic rock and post-punk inflections on a melodic doom metal setting left an indelible mark on death/doom metal's lineage, one which is still felt today through bands like Mother of Graves. Now, I've broken one of my cardinal rules: talking about other bands in a feature about a specific band. I generally find it lazy to discuss similarities on a band-to-band basis, but this Indianapolis melodic death/doom metal band's approach is all about context. Katatonia's lineage is felt here, but Mother of Graves doesn't practice the art of abject mirroring. Distinctly heavier and with an ear for keyboard-laden atmospherics, Mother of Graves is part of a new generation of death/doom metal from the underrated child of the early/mid 1990s gothic trend, one whose parentage is obvious in theory, but without losing identity along the way (though vocalist Brandon Howe is a dead ringer for Brave Murder Day-era Mikael Åkerfeldt). Have an exclusive listen to Mother of Graves' debut EP In Somber Dreams below.
...
https://youtu.be/t6pJxX5ZMLM...
In Somber Dreams releases January 8th on Wise Blood Records.Upcoming Metal Releases: 1/3/2021 – 1/9/2021
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of January 3rd, 2021 to January 9th, 2021. Releases reflect proposed North American scheduling, if available. Expect to see most of these albums on shelves or distros on Fridays. See something we missed or have any thoughts? Let us know in the comments. Plus, as always, feel free to post your own shopping lists. Happy digging. Send us your promos (streaming links preferred) to: [email protected]. Do not send us promo material via social media.
Things We Missed/Surprise Releases
Eyelet -- The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes | Zegema Beach Records | Punk + Screamo + Black Metal | United States (Baltimore) It's not easy to pin down the new LP from Baltimore's Eyelet that dropped on New Year's Eve. Elements of punk, sludge, screamo, black metal, and more swirl around throughout these ten songs, and it never really fits neatly into any of those categories. Whatever you feel like calling it, it's very good, very gnarly stuff that sounds as dark and bleak as the cover art looks.
--Andrew Sacher
Upcoming Releases
Frozen Soul -- Crypt of Ice | Century Media | Death Metal | United States The utter dedication to neck-snapping riffs is reminiscent of Bolt Thrower, I'd say -- we talked about this album in our latest podcast while discussing standout upcoming releases, and for good reason.
--Ted Nubel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EKV1O7gJDU&ab_channel=CenturyMediaRecords...
Celestial Swarm -- Gateways to the Necroverse | Independent | Black + Death Metal | International Somehow, this just feels cosmic-scale. Maybe it's the existentially terrifying tremolo riffs, maybe it's the ethereal leads spliced on top of the punishing grooves -- in any case, prepare to brave the horrors of deep space.--Ted Nubel
...
Nomadic Rituals -- Tides | Cursed Monk Records | Sludge + Doom Metal | United Kingdom "Rituals" are exactly what this band conducts -- Tides is a hypnotic exploration of low-end frequencies and dreamy grooves spiked with aggressive and unusual vocals. Stay tuned for my full album premiere on Wednesday.--Ted Nubel
...
Night Hag / Cryptic Brood -- Swollen with Rancid Phleghm | Rotted Life Records | Death + Doom | International The split's title comes from mashing up two of the song titles from this EP -- you can tell from the fact that the result is still a coherent title that this is gonna be some real nasty stuff, and of course it is. Delightfully corrosive, speaker-rotting filth.--Ted Nubel
...
Midnight Spell -- Sky Destroyer | Independent | Heavy Metal | United States ((Miami)) I think the Mercyful Fate influence on this is meant to be obvious, given the album art's nods towards that sadly-forgotten strain of heavy metal, but it's also got a lot of roots in early USPM, being packed full of strong vocal leads and a mix of rock beats and unyielding double-bass. I don't have a promo for it, but I'm very interested in what lies beyond the singles.--Ted Nubel
...
Infernal Apparition -- The Endless Crypt | Independent | Death Metal + Grindcore | United States (New York) A lo-fi approach to death/grind with fun riffs, audible bass, and utterly unintelligible vocals. As it should be.--Ted Nubel
...
Mother of Graves -- In Somber Dreams | Wise Blood Records | Melodic Doom Metal | United States (Indiana) From Jon Rosenthal's exclusive full-EP premiere:Katatonia's lineage is felt here, but Mother of Graves doesn't practice the art of abject mirroring. Distinctly heavier and with an ear for keyboard-laden atmospherics, Mother of Graves is part of a new generation of death/doom metal from the underrated child of the early/mid 1990s gothic trend, one whose parentage is obvious in theory, but without losing identity along the way (though vocalist Brandon Howe is a dead ringer for Brave Murder Day-era Mikael Åkerfeldt).
...
Support Invisible Oranges on Patreon and check out our merch.
…
SubRosa is still on tour and will play the following dates.
Thursday Nov. 17 – Vancouver BC @ Cobalt
Friday Nov. 18 – Seattle WA @ Highline
Saturday Nov. 19 – Boise ID @ Neurolux
Saturday Dec. 10 – Denver CO @ Denver Black Sky Fest
…
