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Hello fellow Invisible Orange readers! I know my name is a new one around these parts (my first piece for the site was my Psycho Vegas 2022 write-up) but some of you may recognize my name from Decibel, Bandcamp, MetalSucks, or The Shfl – well, probably not the last one, but I wrote 400 album recommendation blurbs for them this year so I’m gonna plug that pretty hard. Anyway, up until around March I did the Shit That Comes Out Today column for MetalSucks so I was super up to date on everything that came out. Since I left that gig, Spotify informs me that I’ve mostly listened to a lot of Doobie Brothers and anime soundtracks (lest you laugh, “I Cheat the Hangman” from Stampede goes harder than 90% of Decibel’s Top 40). That’s actually a lie – the thing I listened to the most this year was my goddamn cat yelling at me. I try to keep up with everything major that’s come out in the world of metal. It’s still incredibly freeing to be able to say I just don’t like Imperial Triumphant and not have to think about how to pretty that sentiment up for publication. At this point in my journey through life’s shitshow I’m more interested in records that I enjoy listening to. There’s obviously immense satisfaction to be had from challenging artistic statements, but sometimes you just want to bang your head as metal health drives you mad. To be honest, I didn’t have a clear cut metal favorite this year – no new records from Night Flight Orchestra or Carcass, unfortunately – and I’m not gonna be so perverse as to include The Weeknd. So here’s what I liked otherwise.–Jeff Treppel
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Honorable Mentions:
20. Satan – Earth Infernal (Metal Blade, UK) 19. Nite – Voices of the Kronian Moon (Season of Mist, USA) 18. Devin Townsend – Lightwork (Inside Out, Canada) 17. Boris – Heavy Rocks (2022) (Relapse, Japan) 16. Conan – Evidence of Immortality (Napalm, UK) 15. Hoaxed – Two Shadows (Relapse, USA) 14. Ufomammut – Fenice (Neurot, Italy) 13. Author & Punisher – Kruller (Relapse, USA) 12. Voivod – Synchro Anarchy (Century Media, Canada) 11. Earthless – Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (Nuclear Blast, USA)…
They dispense with the Western musical motifs quickly enough, but Las Vegas natives Spiritworld keep the filthy, sun-beaten vibe going the whole way through their second album. This down-and-dirty death thrash doesn’t quite fill the void left by Power Trip’s uncertain status but it definitely satisfies in the same way. All ten bullets in this revolver’ll punch holes in any beliefs that their phenomenal debut was a one-and-done.
Listen here.
Never quite got into her studio recordings but this experimental musician’s set from the (rebuilt) place burnt down by some stupid with a flare gun takes her chamber music and makes the chamber into a cathedral. The huge sound she and her full band achieve on ominous art-doom tracks like “The Mysterious Vanishing of Electra” and cinematic drone “Ugly and Vengeful” give her songs an entirely new context. It’s not jazz but it achieves the emotional resonance that makes the best work in that genre so engrossing.
Listen here.
I’m rarely in a grind state of mind but Wormrot will always be the exception. Their fourth (and possibly last, considering two major contributors left after the recording) record takes their ambitions up another notch, working in thrash and groove elements that help balance out the blast beats. The songs are short and not exactly sweet, cramming everything great about extreme metal into sub-two-minute bursts. “Behind Closed Doors” and “The Voiceless Choir” offer the best pit passes. No hisses here, only cheers.
Listen here
A late addition to my year-end list despite coming out half a year ago, I stumbled across the video for “Wenceslas” and couldn’t wipe the smile from my face the entire time. The rest of the record gives me almost as much joy. Sabbath-y, stoner-y doom with a fantasy bent, these deadpan Belgians seem to be having a blast and want to share the explosion with the listener. This swings like a tiny baseball bat to the head of an asshole monarch.
Listen here
I can never remember how to spell the name correctly but Native American-themed black metal duo Nechochwen definitely cast a spell (see what I did there?). They take black metal out of the Scandinavian peninsula and transport it to the Appalachians – and the procedure succeeds. Not only is it exactly the kind of epic black metal that summons the blizzard beasts, the tragic historical subject matter adds an extra layer of frostbite.
Listen here
I’ll be honest: I mostly ignored Rolo Tomassi because their name reminded me of either candy or an Italian Soundcloud rapper, only one of which I like and not in sound form. Apparently it’s an LA Confidential reference, which makes me a double dumbass, because the band is as incredible as that modern classic neo-noir. Shoegaze-y post-hardcore-inspired prog metal normally makes for a stomach-turning combination. This is the rare band that makes it work. The dichotomy between the ethereal “Closer” and the barricade-breaking “Drip” alone shows their incredible range. It reminds me of Devin Townsend’s restless experimentation – high praise indeed.
Listen here
Yup, it’s yet another Clutch album. That means I’ve listened to it more than just about anything else this year. Nobody’s better at stoner swing, infectious grooves, or erudite insanity. In and out in 33 minutes, it avoids the album bloat of their recent releases in lieu of nine tight titanic grooves. It even finds them stretching out some, playing with electronic sounds on “Skeletons on Mars.” Which still leaves plenty of room for fuzz-pedal-to-the-metal rockers like “Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone)” and “We Strive for Excellence.”
Listen here
My thoughts on transphobes are best expressed by the title of Darkthrone’s 12th studio album, but in this one case the (credibly alleged) bigotry of Melissa Moore’s former Absu bandmates led to the finest trad metal release of 2022. Thanks Absu bros, now FOAD. Sonja makes a loud arrival indeed with sharp riffs and sultry Scorpions/Mercyful Fate-derived scorchers like “Nylon Nights” and “Fuck, Then Die.” A standout in a year filled with strong retro rockers.
Listen here
I’ve spilled thousands of words about dark synth progenitor Perturbator in my time as a music writer. Cult of Luna less so, mostly because my brain encounters difficulty dancing about post-metal’s architecture. Final Light shines a beacon on the best of both worlds – the ominously oppressive atmospheres of both genres work shockingly well together. Johannes Persson’s furnace-spawned bellow works as the perfect counterpoint to James Kent’s cold layers of computer churn, creating a 21st century counterpart to Godflesh’s primitive origins.
Listen here
Prior to this, the number of times I agreed with Decibel’s list-topper was two, it was Carcass each time, and I wrote both those pieces. I don’t even traditionally like death metal that much, but Undeath’s take on sepulchral sounds freshens up a rancid corpse. The best thing about their brand of OSDM as opposed to the classic stuff? Actual production values! The meat may be rotting but it’s still juicy. Sometimes bands impress because they kick open the gates to previously unraided sections of the cemetery; sometimes they impress because they stitch together the perfect flesh-golem from the reeking pile of remains around them. These New York skullcrushers are up there with Gatecreeper for me – and that’s pretty far up. Or down, if I’m continuing the graveyard analogy.
Listen here
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Going into what some consider to be the last true weekend of the summer, NYC’s Webster Hall was set to be the stage for a disparate show featuring Philadelphia’s Nothing as well as the inimitable Boris, hot on the heels of their newest edition of Heavy Rocks. The legendary Japanese crew was on tap to headline with the mid-Atlantic’s answer to shoegaze as their lone support.
Nothing has been in a state of flux since the departure of bassist Kyle Kimball earlier in 2022 in order to help raise his young son. Replacing him for their first full US tour since is Christina Michelle of Fort Lauderdale hardcore punk band Gouge Away. The band heavily featured their most recent LP The Great Dismal with a mix of everything else they’ve previously released, sweeping up the crowd into an ethereal dream. Their fantasy atmosphere completely enveloping those congregating with us in lower Manhattan.
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Boris continued their tour staples, playing a ton of tracks from the 2022 edition of Heavy Rocks with guest drummer Mike Engle of Crawl—normal drummer Atsuo took the helm and gave off plenty of Iggy Pop meets Ian Astbury vibes throughout the night. The guitar duo of Wata and Takeshi is an incredible live sight to take in, with Wata’s fretboard seeming like it would burst into flames at a moment’s notice and Takeshi’s double neck guitar, most famously featured on the cover art for the band’s own Akuma No Uta, being played with expertise and ease.
Also featured heavily was the band’s 2020 album No, which the band was never able to tour in this country due to the ongoing global pandemic. Both albums sounded fresh and the raucous crowd got behind all the tracks including the closing track on the most recent album, “(not) Last Song.” There, Wata assumed keyboard duties for the majority of its playthrough while Atsuo worked through some pained howls before both guitarists resumed their signature riffs. The show closed with Boris and Nothing teaming up for “X” and sending everyone home happy.
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See the set lists here.
Upcoming Boris tour dates:
2022.09.12 (MON) Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
2022.09.14 (WED) Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
2022.09.15 (THU) Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall
2022.09.17 (SAT) Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
2022.09.18 (SUN) Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
2022.09.20 (TUE) Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
2022.09.21 (WED) San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
2022.09.22 (THU) Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater
2022.09.24 (SAT) Mexico City, MX @ House of Vans
Unlike last year’s Psycho Vegas, I actually made it to the 2022 edition in one piece. You can see my coverage in the November 2021 Decibel, but long story short: I ate shit in the airport on the way to the show and didn’t realize that I had fractured some ribs and jacked up my rotator cuff until I got there and got to spend some quality time in a Las Vegas emergency room. NOT RECOMMENDED. That experience set a low bar for me. I’m pleased to say that this year cleared that bar easily!
Psycho Vegas 2022 found the United States’s biggest metal festival (non-hair/death-specific) moved to its third location, the Resorts World Las Vegas complex. That move expanded the fest to six stages: two at the Dawghouse and Redtail bars, one in the “Rose Ballroom” (really just a big conference room), one at the Famous Foods food court, one at the Ayu Dayclub pool, and the Event Center main stage in a character-less perma-tent out in a parking lot. The pool stage didn’t open until sundown each evening – probably a good thing since it was still at least 90° after dark. That meant the bulk of each day was spent gambling that I wouldn’t get Covid in the indoor venues.
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Day 1: Friday
Despite the lack of physical self-harm, I still had to burn Friday afternoon taking care of some hotel bullshit that nobody else cares about. That meant I didn’t get to watch any complete sets until Carcass in the Event Center at 5:30 PM. I’m told that the sound for the preceding act, Wolves in the Throne Room, completely sucked, but thankfully they dialed it in a little for Carcass so the sound only kinda sucked. The surgically precise death metallers did their usual thing, which is to say they fucking killed it. Mayhem followed, and while their robed garb and Attila Csihar’s maniacal stage presence indicated they were having a good time, the muted guitar feed meant that I cut out early and went to watch Escuela Grind at the pool. I’m glad I did. You can probably guess what kind of music they play (synthpop) but they got the small crowd whipped into a frenzy. Keep an eye on them.
Following that: Emperor, 15 years after their last US show and without the guy that committed the hate crime. You can’t argue with 75 minutes of stone-cold black metal anthems, and the hour-long set change (and probably Ihsahn’s perfectionism) meant that they sounded as clear as the welkin at dusk. The highlight of the day’s black metal offerings for sure. After that: collapsing on my bed for an hour. After that, Nuclear Assault, whose selections from their crossover classics made the pool look like it was filled with sharks during a feeding frenzy. Their singer pointed out that they didn’t know they’d be playing Psycho until a month before, but he had planned to be there anyway to watch Mercyful Fate on Sunday night – just like everybody else. Carpenter Brut closed out my night, but unfortunately their danceable darksynth got derailed by technical difficulties and I returned to my room to pass out partway through their delayed set.
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Day 2: Saturday
After an overpriced breakfast, I started Saturday getting yelled at by Indian in the Rose Ballroom, an energizing beginning to be sure. Frozen Soul followed and delivered one of the fest’s highlight sets – their Texan death metal left me cold on record but they turned up the heat considerably live. Partway through their set, singer Chad Green gave a heartfelt speech about how he lost his younger brother Cory two weeks before and that playing for the enthusiastic crowd helped inspire him to go on, along with a plea to seek mental health help if you need it (GoFundMe for Cory’s funeral expenses here). A friend then dragged me to get tacos at a place across the street. Music festival pro tip: do not do that.
I took my destroyed stomach back to the Rose Ballroom to get destroyed by the otherworldly death metal of Blood Incantation. They kept the stage banter to a minimum, although at one point Paul Riedl quipped that their technical difficulties were due to being too close to the Luxor pyramid. Then the stage lights turned green and they ripped into the 18-minute epic “Awakening from the Dream… (Mirror of the Soul)” off modern masterpiece Hidden History of the Human Race. Blackwater Holylight wound up being the only act I caught in the Event Center that day due to the packed schedule, but their slow psych doom provided a nice recharge after the death metal. I watched a little of Litvrgy, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s shrieks just as impressive in person. By then the Dayclub had opened with a special treat. Apparently Psycho’s organizers flew out the legendary Abbath to perform – but not with his eponymous solo band. No, he was there with Bömbers, his long-running Motorhead tribute act. To his credit, he has his Lemmy impression perfected, even down to the grumbled stage banter. The maniac moshers in the pool appreciated the chance to splash around to some of the best rock ‘n’ roll songs ever written.
The first of the evening’s two impossible overlaps followed. I hoofed it to the Rose Ballroom to watch Tribulation, and every time I wanted to leave the children of the night queued up another vampire metal banger. I finally wrenched myself away from their dark embrace to head back to the pool for Gatecreeper and their groove-infested death metal. At one point, frontman Chase Mason announced that he wanted to see two things: a circle pit and somebody jump into the pool fully clothed. The willing crowd took him up on the former, while one brave soul bellyflopped into the water, battle jacket and all.
Here’s the fun thing about a music festival in a casino: other people are also in that casino. And the Redtail bar was literally across from Resorts World’s big hip nightclub, Kouk. Which meant that I got to watch a bunch of hip clubgoers waiting in line to grind against each other get blasted with grinding death metal by a band called Warthog. It’s the little things.
I skipped Suicidal Tendencies in the big tent to rest up for the evening’s second impossible choice. Boris brought their gong to the Rose Ballroom, focusing on their heavy rock hits for the first half of their performance before getting into the weirder experimental stuff. Unfortunately, I had to leave at that point to get into the at-capacity pool stage for At the Gates. Although they promised a full-album set of Slaughter of the Soul, they teased the audience by running through some recent singles first. Then, the backdrop changed and the riff that launched a thousand metalcore bands rang out. The entire audience shouting “GO!” at the start of the title track sent chills down my spine. A legendary performance of a legendary album by a legendary band: the perfect way to end the evening.
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Day 3: Sunday
The final day started… Late. I chose to treat myself to the breakfast buffet at the restaurant downstairs from the Conrad Hotel where myself and a bunch of the bands were staying. I’ll be honest – I very rarely geek out over musicians. Like, it’s cool to ride in an elevator with Bill Steer, but I wasn’t going to bother him. I discovered that my coolheaded reserve did not extend to Boris, who were also enjoying brunch in the same restaurant. After completely, embarrassingly fanboying out at my table, I worked up the nerve to ask the coolest fucking band to ever blast blessed feedback from the heavens above for a photo. I realize I’m scum but it sure made a lot of people on Twitter jealous!
First up for the day: Portrayal of Guilt in the Rose Ballroom, whose raw metallic hardcore certainly shook me awake. Amenra’s punishingly slow death-doom in the Event Center then knocked me out again. Thankfully, Undeath woke me right back up. The knuckle-dragging New York death metal act’s singer, Alexander Jones, had some of the best stage banter of the entire weekend: “I have a five cent redemption ticket in my pocket, I’m not broke anymore!” “This next song is about how our hotel room smells right now, it’s called ‘Chained to a Reeking Rotting Body!’” “We’re Undeath, we have merch fucking somewhere.” Fellow Decibel scribe Andy O’Connor informed me that if I didn’t watch Fugitive next he’d have words with me. I’m glad I avoided his wrath: the Texan dirtbag death metal supergroup proved one of the highlights of the day, even with only an EP’s worth of filth. Witch Mountain followed on the same stage and brought the darkness from south of Salem (despite the tennis match visible on the giant television behind the blackout screen at the Dawghouse sports bar). The 25th anniversary show, featuring classic vocalist Uta Plotkin, cemented their status as one of the most exceptional unsung traditional doom bands in the biz.
I grabbed a quick, delicious bowl of pho and a chance to watch Mothership lay down the stoner thunder (and good-naturedly deal with technical difficulties) at Famous Foods before heading back to the Event Center to watch Paradise Lost’s first US show in a while. Unfortunately, delays meant their set got cut down to 45 minutes and they struggled with subpar sound for a lot of it. The band themselves were in peak form, with Nick Holmes’s gallows humor in full force and a setlist that ranged from classics like “Eternal” to modern classics like “Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us.” Thankfully, the sound was perfect back at the Dawghouse for a wrecking ball of a performance from old-school mutant metallers Cirith Ungol – and I’m not just saying that because bassist Jarvis Leatherby asked me to. The packed crowd treated them like the metal gods they should be. Apparently I missed quite the clusterfuck at the Rose Ballroom during Drain’s set – the powers-that-be not only left the lights on but cut the set short when the crowd got too violent. Death Valley Girls were the opposite of violent – they had a literal dance pit going for their groovy psychedelic go-go. The crowd was sparse in the Dawghouse during their set, but for good reason: Mercyful Fate were about to perform their first show on US soil in 25 years.
The Event Center was packed full. Thankfully, they sorted out the technical issues. A backlit Baphomet, an upside down neon cross, a satanic altar – and the King himself. King Diamond, along with original guitarist Hank Sherman and some very qualified ringers, tore through a set of their diabolical greatest hits ranging from their very first song (“A Corpse without Soul”) to the still-in-progress “The Jackal of Salzburg.” In between, they hit all the big classics from their debut EP and first two records, closing with an epic take on “Satan’s Fall.” With multiple costume changes, an intense light show, and a vigorous performance from Diamond that rivaled any of the singers a third of his age, they did not disappoint. Nuclear Assault’s Danny Lilker rocked the fuck out next to me the entire time.
With that, I called it a night. How do you top that?
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Conclusion:
There are a lot of advantages to a festival inside a casino. Bathrooms. Air conditioning. Easy access to (overpriced) food/toiletries. Bathrooms. Easy to grab a nap back in your room. Places to sit not covered in dirt. BATHROOMS. Unfortunately, it felt like they were still working out some kinks – the festival was plagued with technical difficulties (especially in the Event Center), there were inconsistent security requirements to get into each venue, and this particular pool stage was too small to fit some of the acts they had booked in there. The venues were also flatter, making it harder to get varied sightlines. I think I still preferred the Mandalay Bay setup.
Still, you can’t argue with the variety or quality of acts offered at Psycho Vegas, and this was another killer lineup that more than made up for the bumps experienced last year when they couldn’t get any European acts over. Definitely worth checking out next year – just make sure you don’t trip at the airport and get a confirmation for your hotel room when you book it. Also, please wear a mask so we can keep having shows like this without them being a biohazard risk.
—Jeff Treppel
Keep scrolling for more photos from the festival.
Jack Lue, Joshua Alvarez, Levan TK, Maurice Nunez, Mathieu Bredeau, Matt Martinez, Michael Goodwin, Michael Olivas, Raymond Ahner, Raz Azraai, The Tinfoil Biter, and Tim Bugbee
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of August 7th, 2022 to August 13th, 2022. 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.
New Releases
Arch Enemy — Deceivers | Century Media Records | Melodic Death Metal | Sweden
From Kelley Simms’s interview:
Sweden’s Arch Enemy has been a massive force in the melodic death metal universe for more than a quarter of a century. Collectively, Arch Enemy’s history has had three distinctive eras leading up to the band’s latest and 11th full-length album Deceivers. […] Deceivers contains all of the band’s musical trademarks.
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The Halo Effect — Days of the Lost | Nuclear Blast | Melodic Death Metal | Sweden
In the shadowy recesses of Invisible Oranges’ inner chambers, this is a much-talked-about album — and for good reason, because The Halo Effect, with a full host of ex-In Flames members behind it (including Jesper), has captured the magic of mid-1990s melodeath so perfectly it’s a little baffling.
–Ted Nubel
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Boris — Heavy Rocks | Relapse Records | ??? | Japan (Tokyo)
So, to recap: Boris have released a new album with the same name as their 2002 release, slapped leopard print on it as album art — and it kicks ass. An unquiet, unpredictable slice of rock, punk, sludge, and noise, Heavy Rocks (2022, not 2002, and also not 2011’s Heavy Rocks II) profiles a band 30 years into their career unafraid to completely fuck with what works and try new stuff every time. Well… except album titles, I guess, but the recurring usage is kind of a neat tribute to their career.
–Ted Nubel
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Locrian — New Catastrophism | Profound Lore Records | Ambient + Drone + Experimental Metal | United States (Chicago, IL)
From Luke Jackson’s review:
Seven year hiatuses don’t happen for no reason, and there is a sense Locrian has awoken to deliver a message they believe is important. Received in that context, New Catastrophism is a deeply difficult listen: if we’re accustomed to using drone and ambient as an escape from the world, then Locrian are asking us to engage with music of the same category that instead deeply immerses us in it. Do the scenes Locrian have hewn here in ice and stone feel like places you’d want to live in? You already do.
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Aronious — Irkalla | The Artisan Era | Technical Death Metal + Progressive Metal | United States (Green Bay, Wisconsin)
Irkalla marks the line between progressive and technical, two words of similar meaning yet different connotations. Aronious finds this middle ground by delving head first into both their progressive and technical interests for an album that never feels like it’s overwhelming you despite its obvious showmanship.
–Colin Dempsey
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Blasted Heath — Vela | Wise Blood Records | Thrash Metal + Black Metal | United States (Indianapolis, Indiana)
Blasted Heath’s debut LP is a muddy and stuffy affair punctuated by occasional cosmic meanderings like the extra-terrestrial bridge on “Ape.”
–Colin Dempsey
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Acid Blade — Power Dive | Jawbreaker Records | Heavy Metal | Germany
After a name change from Angel Blade to Acid Blade, this German heavy metal band comes blasting out of the gates (again) with high-energy and adventurous metal. Catchy vocals and tight song structures are part of it, but there’s also some of the off-the-rails showy instrumentals that make classic 1980s heavy metal so captivating.
–Ted Nubel
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Müür — Grief Ascension | Independent | Atmospheric Black Metal | Unknown
Atmospheric black metal best suited for a rain day-the foggy, misty ambience practically billows through your speakers.
–Ted Nubel
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Carrion Vael — Abhorrent Obsessions | Unique Leader Records | Technical + Melodic Death Metal | United States (Richmond, IN)
Carrion Vael is a band focused on extremity in all aspects — Abhorrent Obsessions (which is misspelled on Bandcamp, almost fittingly?) absolutely rips along at an insane pace, carving out nasty riffs and absurd drum fills along the way as rapid-fire vocals barrage listeners. With symphonic elements and samples present as well, the ear is definitely not left wanting here.
–Ted Nubel
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Grey Wolf — Beast Master | Independent | Heavy Metal | Brazil
Give Grey Wolf’s exceptionally gruff vocals a little while to marinate, and it all starts to click – the bellicose, mostly Conan-themed traditional metal benefits from that rusty edge to give it an extra layer of fantasy grit.
–Ted Nubel
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Hell Fire — Reckoning | RidingEasy Records | Heavy + Speed Metal | United States (San Francisco, CA)
Anthemic and blazing, Hell Fire’s fourth full-length continuously ups the ante as fiery leads and crafty riffs battle for control of the energetic rampage.
–Ted Nubel
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Stellar Tomb — Antimatter of Creation | Independent | Black Metal | Spain
Stellar Tomb saturates their black metal with synth and electronica elements to the point where it seems to crystallize into something else entirely — hearing cosmically punishing black metal pulsing with this much glittering cyberware is unusual indeed.
–Ted Nubel
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Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of January 16th, 2022 to January 22nd, 2022. 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
Boris — W | Sacred Bones Records | Boris | Japan
Boris follow-up their 2020 surprise album, which was their punchiest release in years, with a tonal 180. W is a collection of lullabies. Not literally, duh, but it’s gentle in a way that most of their softer works rarely are. The tracks are roughly the same length as NO‘s, making W a vibe to chill with rather than a huge drone trip like some of their earlier works.
–Colin Dempsey
Pre-order an exclusive sea blue variant here.
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40 Watt Sun — Perfect Light | Svart Records | Doom Metal + Alternative Rock | United Kingdom
Grief-carrying alternative rock of the most British of varieties. There’s patience, a grappling with ghosts, expansive song lengths, and gargantuan vocals as if 40 Watt Sun answer the question, “Why does it continue to hurt?”
–Colin Dempsey
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The Ferrymen — One More River to Cross | Frontiers Records | Power Metal | International
Featuring Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear) on guitars/keys, Ronnie Romero (Rainbow, Lords of Black, etc.) on vocals, and Mike Terrana (ex-Artension, ex-Axel Rudi Pell, much more) on drums, this is sort of like a power metal super group, and the result is as finely polished and impressive as you’d expect. Whether or not it really has the all-important staying power is harder to say, but the atmosphere and approach hits just how I was hoping.
–Ted Nubel
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Pensee Nocturnes — Douce Fange | Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions | Avant-Garde Black Metal | France
Avant-garde black metal is tight because you never know if you’re going to get some dudes with undercuts in black military apparel shrieking about their deepest solaces over flamenco-like rhythms, or if you’re going to go to the circus. Just look at Pensees Nocturnes’ artwork; you can practically hear the accordions. Damn, even the decapitated pig looks like he’s having a good time.
–Colin Dempsey
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Dødskvad — Krønike II | Caligari Records | Death Metal | Norway (Oslo)
Muddy and bloodstained like the battlefield that adorns its cover, Krønike II is an old-school blast of death metal built for vicious war.
–Ted Nubel
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Bongtower — Oscillator II | Independent | Stoner Metal | Russia
This is an Indica-heavy strain of stoner metal that plays into weed’s ability to open the mind to what’s beyond our grasp. Bongtower are the guys who ask you about alien life and the worlds beyond our clouds after they pass you the roach.
–Colin Dempsey
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Abyssus — Death Revival | Transcending Obscurity Records | Death Metal | Greece
Always nice when the album title checks out, right? Abyssus faithfully pursues an old-school approach to death metal with tightly-packed riffs and nasty tones that drill through the skull.
–Ted Nubel
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Chaos Perversion — Petrified Against the Emanation | Sentient Ruin | Death + Black Metal | Chile
Looming, hateful black/death with some incredibly sinister-sounding riffs to match the cavernous atmosphere and obscenely long song titles. That last part might not seem like an obvious correlation, but I feel like if you’re going to throw down a thesaurus at listeners, your riffs should sound like elongated incantations to forgotten gods or something equally impressive—and here, they do.
–Ted Nubel
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Hazemaze — Blinded by the Wicked | Heavy Psych Sounds | Doom + Heavy Metal | Sweden
From Ted Nubel’s track premiere of “Ethereal Disillusion”:
I always appreciate aptly-titled bands, and Hazemaze are top-tier purveyors of some of the trippiest, foggiest psychedelic doom out there. Furthermore, their upcoming album Blinded by the Wicked focuses on subject material perfectly suited for their hypnotic, intoxicating grooves: cults and their manipulative, sometimes demented leaders.
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Noisecult — Seraphic Wizard | Metal Assault Records | Doom + Stoner Rock + Heavy Metal | United States (Nashville, TN)
Groovy, retro riff-worship with rad basslines and satisfyingly gruff vocals to top it off. Make sure to listen to “Forever Nevermore” loud enough to hear the tasty ghost notes on the snare, too.
–Ted Nubel
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Sunczar — Bearer of Light | Argonauta Records | Stoner Rock + Doom Metal | Germany
Sunczar practices a nasty, Southern rock-influenced brand of stoner rock that swaggers and lurches its way along. The Sunczar demands your inebriated reverence.
–Ted Nubel
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Fiat Nox — Demanifestation (Hymns of Destruction and Nothingness) | The Crawling Chaos Records | Black Metal | Germany
The multiple vocal styles in play add interesting depth to this record, which generally aims for the ‘thin and evil’ approach to black metal, adorning barbed-wire rhythms with foreboding melodies.
–Ted Nubel
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Truculency — The Dome Collector | Coyote Records | Brutal Death Metal | United States (Illinois)
Death Comes Lifting podcast co-host Zak Bellante once said (to paraphrase) that there’s no greater joy in life than heavy deadlifts and death metal. His words were so honest that they might’ve summoned Truculency into existence. This is exactly the nasty, invigorating, and gamey death metal you’d want in your ear when your body is inches away from imploding.
–Colin Dempsey
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Unsurprisingly for any who follow the band, the mighty Boris has stayed busy during COVID. Their new LP W (out Friday via Sacred Bones — get it on limited color vinyl) is their 24th release since the pandemic began, per Metal Archives. Among their many splits and singles in that time, including a Christmas album that saw Boris cover Wham!’s Last Christmas, the band put out a titanic, sludgy LP, NO, perhaps their heaviest since Pink.
W is not that—Boris is hardly a band that falls prey to inertia. Nor is W intended 100% as a standalone LP. The band has presented it as a companion piece to NO that counterbalances the latter’s sludge-punk fury. On first blush, it’s more Brian Eno than Motörhead, more New Album than Heavy Rocks. Let’s be clear, though: whatever its textures, W is heavy. Heavy as a weighted blanket. Heavy as a foot of snow after a blizzard. Heavy as grief and healing.
Together, NO and W make NOW. The band has aimed to create a “a continuous circle of harshness and healing” with the two records, “one that seems more relevant now than ever and shows the band operating at an apex of their musical career.” It’s clear the band has put some thought into this process. This isn’t their first time pairing walls of sound with uptempo immediacy (cf. “Farewell” and the rest of Pink).
There are many traces of the ways W complements NO. The penultimate “You Will Know” is a massive, sludgy track akin to NO opener “Genesis.” In this way, W can almost be read as an inverted NO, which wraps with the only song to heavily feature Wata on that record, namely “Interlude.” “Beyond Good and Evil” is another liminal piece of W—we’ve got a new haunting video below for it. On the album, unlike in the video, this track ends with an ominous metal breakdown after three minutes of sickly, unsteady guitar and vocals that verge on whispering.
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Here’s a new video for “Beyond Good and Evil,” off of W:
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One wishes for a way to splice these records for maximum effect. It would be fully in character for Boris to release NOW as a unit—perhaps remastered or tinkered with—in the coming years, but even on its own, W is a testament to Boris’s ability to explore the full emotional spectrum without losing the qualities that make them Boris. Tracks like “Old Projector” are rugged and beautiful, the drums more adornment than guiding rhythm. Great waves of reverb and crashes from a gong seem to echo for miles behind. Takeshi’s bass sounds almost like whalesong. Guitarist Wata’s spare croons guide the listener through the torrents of sound, reassuring the listener that this chaos is natural.
Wata handles almost the entirety of vocals on W. In contrast to Takeshi and Atsuo, who handle the band’s more exuberant and harsh vocals in addition to bass/guitar and drums, respectively, Wata’s voice is ethereal, hypnotizing. Her singing on records like Attention Please saw Boris expand into pop territory, but W is almost antipop, resisting rigid song structures and using Wata’s delicate soprano as a Stygian call from the beyond. Her voice at once haunts and reassures. On tracks such as “Drowning by Numbers,” it’s ominous in its airiness and calm; on tracks such as “The Fallen” it feels almost liturgical.
W’s shoegazier qualities here sit somewhere between binaural beats and drone metal. If this record was intended as pure catharsis, it has arguably not succeeded given the sheer weight of sound. Opener “I Want to Go to the Side Where You Can Touch…” would doubtless be ear-splitting in a live setting (Boris is the second-loudest live act I’ve ever seen, coming in just a half-notch below UK bass titan The Bug). However, much as drone metal forces the audience into a sometimes-literal prone state of genuflection, W’s heaviness is in service of feeling. This LP is full of distilled moods. Much like even a good day in the year 2022 is undercut with weariness and anxiety, these songs have a thread of exhaustion behind them. It’s as if “Invitation” is a literal invitation to set down your burdens for a moment and just collapse.
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Taken together with NO, W is half of Boris’s most devastating opus in years. It’s not their first pairing of albums, coming just two years after LfVE & EVfL, but unlike this 2019 release, NOW—both individually and as halves—is more than the sum of its parts.
Even without its counterpart, W stands on its own as Boris’s most massive record to date outside of their collaborations. It takes their noisier textures to new heights while leveraging Wata’s vocals to alternately lull, scintillate, and shush the listener. In a year where fatigue is widespread, COVID rages, and even family dinners can be exhausting, many of us would like nothing more than to turn off completely. Boris is here to help you get supine and just absorb.
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W releases January 21st via Sacred Bones Records. Get it on limited-to-300, sea blue with black blob color vinyl.
Here are the new (and recent) metal releases for the week of November 14th, 2021 to November 20th, 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
Plebeian Grandstand — Rien ne suffit | Debemur Morti | Avant Garde + Black Metal + Metalcore | France
Plebeian Grandstand play as if they’re rejecting music’s basic notions, prioritizing noise and raw evocation. It’s similar to hearing metal’s foundations slink away from your consciousness. All that remains in their absence is sensation.
–Colin Dempsey
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Khemmis — Deceiver | Nuclear Blast | Doom Metal | United States (Colorado)
This is refreshing doom metal, so it’s exactly in-line with the style’s masterworks. Khemmis oscillate between soaring choruses and grimy, growling bogs with airy vocals, epic incantations, and riffs strong enough to carry burdens.
–Colin Dempsey
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Stormkeep — Tales of Othertime | Ván Records | Melodic Black Metal | United States (Colorado)
Looking to hear the best keyboards of the year? Luckily for you, Stormkeep saddles them alongside throttling black metal that leans into operatic visions. Actually, listen to “The Serpent’s Stone” and try to find an element that you wouldn’t deem 100% necessary. If you can find one I will Venmo you my last paycheck.
–Colin Dempsey
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The Lurking Fear — Death, Madness, Horror, Decay | Century Media | Death Metal | Sweden (Gothenburg)
At the Gates members Tomas Lindberg, Jonas Stålhammar, and Adrian Erlandsson join forces with some other scene veterans to unleash some particularly violent death metal full of Swedish bite and a lil’ melody.
–Ted Nubel
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Swallow the Sun — Moonflowers | Century Media | Melodic Doom + Death Metal | Finland
Very few bands make death/doom metal seem as effortlessly beautiful as Swallow the Sun do—as Colin Dempsey remarked discussing the band’s recent live album, “[their] brand of death/doom metal is, even at its most catatonic, comforting.” There’s a nice and heavy undercurrent, but it’s not there to cause pain.
–Ted Nubel
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Boris — Reincarnation Rose | KiliKiliVilla | Various | Japan (Tokyo)
Not exactly a mainline Boris release, since it only features guitarist/vocalist Wata alongside a host of guest/session personnel, but an unusual one worth checking out: it coincides with the launch of a new fuzz pedal byEarthShaker Devices made in conjunction with Wata, Hizumitas.
Not as weird as the time they released an album with a gummy worm in the spine, but still pretty neat.
–Ted Nubel
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Cara Neir — Pain Gel of Purification | Independent | Experimental Post-Black Metal + Grindcore + Hardcore | United States (Dallas, TX)
The album art here is just fantastic, nailing Cara Neir’s surrealist and not-quite-in-reality aesthetic. As their Bandcamp puts it, this is “an assortment of satire, product placement, service industry grievances, a lot of blasting, and more”—so while it’s not exactly what fans of their latest release would perhaps expect, it looks like another fascinating release from the band set to further tax their genre tag field on Metal Archives and delight listeners.
–Ted Nubel
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Gonemage — Sudden Deluge | Xenoglossy Records | Experimental + Post-Black Metal + Chiptune | United States (Dallas, TX)
If Cara Neir’s genre-dodging release this week catches your eye, also consider this album, which is a side project of Cara Neir multi-instrumentalist Garry Brents. Drawing its concept from Cara Neir’s fantastic Phase Out release, Gonemage focuses on a piece of Brents’ existence that splintered out into a new entity known as Galimgim. Confused? Intrigued? We’ve got an interview coming Wednesday with Brents to help lay things out.
–Ted Nubel
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Daxma — Unmarked Boxes | Blues Funeral Recordings | Doom + Post-Metal | United States (Oakland, CA)
Unmarked Boxes has an almost supernatural air of despairing mystery to it: many albums claim to transport listeners to other worlds, but rarely is it achieved like here, where you feel fully immersed in this otherworldly soundscape of sadness.
–Ted Nubel
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Abscession — Rot of Ages | Transcending Obscurity Records | Death Metal | Sweden
HM-2 worshipping death metal with a bit of death-rock swagger amidst the buzz-sawing decimation–the sardonic grandeur pairs nicely with the melodic twist the band adds to their blend.
–Ted Nubel
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Destructo — Demonic Possession | Dying Victims Productions | Black + Thrash Metal | Netherlands
Black/thrash with insanely catchy lead work—though it might first seem at odds with the gravely vocals and nasty riffs, it makes the whole package addictive as hell. Stay tuned for more on this tomorrow!
–Ted Nubel
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Galaxy — On the Shore of Life | Dying Victims Productions | Heavy + Power Metal | Australia
Honestly, what this most reminds me of is a jubilant, much-less-evil Mercyful Fate. If that seems really counter-intuitive, I get it, but Galaxy has the same dazzling taste in dual-guitar harmonies, hard-rocking song structures, and tasty riffs, plus vocals not afraid to stretch into falsetto territory.
–Ted Nubel
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Godless — States of Chaos | Independent | Death Metal | India
From Tom Campagna’s full album premiere:
This 5 piece play modern death metal with plenty of thrash and excellent production for a band that doesn’t have a major label footing their bill, and States of Chaos sets out to and succeeds at crushing skulls in a 1987 meets 2021 kind of way.
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Cantique Lépreux — Sectes | Eisenwald | Black Metal | Canada (Quebec)
Cantique Lépreux continues Quebec’s infatuation with traditional, throat-tearing, tightly-gripped, pure as 100% distilled vinegar, black metal.
–Colin Dempsey
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Dead King’s Peace — Dead King’s Peace | Independent | Stoner Rock + Hard Rock | United States (Indianapolis, IN)
If you’re looking for stoner doom with a little more bite to it, Dead King’s Peace takes a surly and sharp-tongued approach that relies on the aggressive swagger of rock ‘n’ roll more than it does laconic fuzzy stomps. There’s certainly some of that, too, but when the band goes on the attack it’s a secondary focus—and they’re more warlike than their name implies. Sharp riffs via dialed-up guitar tones, gritty and imposing vocals: this is crisp and fiery, like desert rock with the heat turned up.
–Ted Nubel
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Der Weg einer Freiheit — Noktvrn | Season of Mist | Black Metal | Germany
Der Weg einer Freiheit draw influence from Frédéric Chopin’s classical Nocturnes pieces on their latest album, conveying a polished and patient interpretation of “darkness,” or as patient as they can be once they hit their stride, like the second half of “Monument.”
–Colin Dempsey
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Dakhma — Blessings of Amurdad | Eisenwald | Blackened Death Metal | Switzerland
Dahkma trade blackened death metal’s usual all-encompassing atmosphere for a riff and percussive focus. Their songs frequently detour into beefy segues followed by open air.
–Colin Dempsey
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]]>You don’t need another year-end list intro telling you what an insane year it’s been, so I’ll keep this short and get right to the music, which was one of the only good parts of 2020. My listening habits were all over the place this year, but these are my top 20 heavy albums, and they include metal, hardcore, and some other “adjacent” stuff. If your favorite album isn’t here, maybe I just haven’t heard it, so feel free to leave suggestions in the comments. Read on for the list. Fuck racist, fascist, and “apolitical” metal.
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Honorable Mentions:
20. Year of the Knife – Internal Incarceration (Pure Noise, US) 19. Drain – California Cursed (Revelation, US) 18. Necrot – Mortal (Tankcrimes, US) 17. Chamber – Cost of Sacrifice (Pure Noise, US) 16. Sharptooth – Transitional Forms (Pure Noise, US) 15. Boris – NO (self-released, Japan) 14. Carcass – Despicable (Nuclear Blast, UK) 13. Terminal Nation – Holocene Extinction (20 Buck Spin, US) 12. Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou – May Our Chambers Be Full (Sacred Bones, US) 11. Vile Creature – Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm! (Prosthetic, Canada)…
Huntsmen owe as much to 1970s prog like Yes, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull as they do to the roaring sludge of bands like Mastodon and High on Fire, and they’ve got all the riffs, folky passages, sprawling prog odysseys, and soaring vocal harmonies needed to pull it off. It’s too metal for classic rock radio and too clean and melodic for the extreme metal crowd, but if your taste exists somewhere in between those two extremes, few albums in 2020 scratched the itch as perfectly as this one did. Huntsmen really make sure there’s strong songwriting at the center of everything they do, which makes Mandala of Fear a record that keeps you coming back for more. These songs stick in your head long after it’s stopped playing.
Listen here.
A lot of classic screamo bands were short-lived, but Tokyo’s Envy are a rare one who have maintained longevity and everlasting relevance. They helped shape the genre in the ’90s, released splits with Thursday and Jesu in the 2000s, toured with Deafheaven and La Dispute in the 2010s; their influence is felt on so many screamo and post-rock adjacent bands, and they continue to put out new music that keeps them as interesting as all the Envy-influenced bands who have risen to prominence over the years. This year’s The Fallen Crimson — the band’s first album in five years — is up there with the band’s best work, and it feels as fresh as any of today’s newer screamo bands too. The Fallen Crimson finds Envy continuing to explore the prettier post-rock side that they’ve embraced in later years, and it does so without losing the intensity and the ferocity of their earlier work. It can be easy to take a band for granted after 25 years, but when they keep churning out music this compelling, it’d be a crime to stop paying attention.
Listen here.
Over 30 years since releasing the genre-defining grindcore classic Scum, Napalm Death are still pushing boundaries. Lesser bands start losing stream by the fourth or fifth album; Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism is Napalm Death’s 16th album, and it sounds as energized and inspired as this band ever has. It pulls from grindcore, death metal, punk, post-punk, industrial, and more, and some even lighter music that you might not hear on first listen like My Bloody Valentine and the Cocteau Twins. “I kind of twist [those influences], make it more abrasive,” Barney says. Throes sounds almost nothing like classic Napalm Death, and it barely even sounds like their last album, yet you’d never mistake this for the work of any other band. It’s no small feat to be able to reinvent yourself over and over while remaining so distinct.
Listen here.
On their third full-length, Bristol’s Svalbard have evolved from a pummeling hardcore band into a band that swirls together anything from dream pop to black metal. It’s not just post-hardcore but also post-rock, post-metal, post-everything. It’s a gorgeous, futuristic rock record, and though it might shimmer sonically, its lyrics are full of scars. The songs address domestic abuse, sexual assault, depression, and other real-life issues, and Serena Cherry tackles them with incisiveness and fury.
Listen here.
Toronto’s Respire have been making boundary-pushing heavy music since debuting a half-decade ago, and their third album Black Line just might be their best yet. Previously a band known for introspection, this record looks outwards at “a world growing increasingly ill… a world that abets the rise of fascism and drives climate catastrophe,” and it’s also their most musically ambitious. It’s got melodic black metal blasts that nail the heavy/beautiful divide as well as anything by Deafheaven or Alcest, orchestral post-rock that’s towering enough to rival Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and shouty screamo that brings to mind the emotive yet experimental sounds of bands like Circle Takes The Square and City of Caterpillar. It also works in an array of other sounds, from clean-sung emo to roaring sludge metal, and it does all of this in a way that’s entirely seamless. This is an album where you don’t know if you should call it screamo or metal or none of the above; it can’t be pigeonholed. It’s also an album that feels like heavy music’s answer to Broken Social Scene – like on that band’s classics, almost every individual song on Black Line is a mini epic of its own, and they’re so climactic that almost any of them sound like they could be the grand finale. When do you finally get to the closing crescendo of final track “Catacombs Part II,” though, you’d never argue with Black Line‘s sequencing. There’s no better way this intense journey could have ended.
Listen here.
If you’ve heard anything about Gulch, you’ve probably heard that they’re known for quickly selling out of limited-edition merch — designed by guitarist Cole Kakimoto, who’s responsible for their artwork, songwriting, and overall vibe — which then gets flipped online for insane prices like a Supreme hoodie. It’s a strange phenomenon that the band aren’t even necessarily proud of, and it caused some people to criticize the Gulch hype for being more about merch than music, but when Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress came out, it silenced the haters. You don’t need to know a thing about Gulch to know that Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress is one of the most adrenaline-rush-inducing albums of the year. Drummer Sam Ciaramitaro always sounds like he’s about two beats ahead of the rest of the band, vocalist Elliot Morrow’s scream is nasty as all hell, and Cole Kakimoto shakes up their hardcore sound with the evil riffage of black and death metal. Part of what makes Gulch so refreshing, though, is that when so many other bands turn music into homework, Cole will be the first to tell you he doesn’t actually listen to the bands people think Gulch sound like. “I didn’t listen to Madball or Terror or Breakdown or any of the staple hardcore bands, and I also didn’t listen to Entombed or Obituary, and I also didn’t listen to Darkthrone or any of that stuff,” he told Bandcamp. “It’s funny, because some guy will be like, ‘This is total Repulsion worship,’ and I don’t even listen to that fuckin’ band.” The similarities exist for one reason or another, but Gulch sound so fresh because they weren’t trying to emulate their heroes, they were trying to recreate the music they were hearing in their heads. Judging by how distinct Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress sounds, it worked.
Listen here.
Sometimes a great live show makes you fall even more in love with an album, and even though these are album of the year lists, we’d be lying if we said live shows didn’t sway us at all. This year, there were almost no live shows to sway us in either direction, but there were livestreams, and on that front, Code Orange pretty much perfected the form. They did three major livestreams, all of which were inventive and concert film-quality, and one of which was an MTV Unplugged-style stream that became the unplugged album Under The Skin. Every Code Orange stream felt like an event, but none of it could have happened the way it did without the excellent new album Underneath. It’s easily their best yet, their most experimental and their most accessible, with a shapeshifting blend of industrial rock, metalcore, nu metal, glitch, and more. It sounds like Slipknot jamming with Garbage, or Converge covering Nine Inch Nails, or a handful of other “X meets Y” combinations that you really don’t hear everyday. It’s an album that yearns for the days when MTV played heavy bands, but has its sights set on the future. It singlehandedly makes the case that loud, guitar-based rock music can still be both populist and innovative.
Listen here.
Virginia’s Infant Island put out two records this year, the mini-LP Sepulcher and the full-length Beneath, both of which are very good, but it’s Beneath that turns Infant Island from a great band into an extraordinary one. It’s the kind of album that you can only hear start to finish, as it functions more as one grand piece of work than as a collection of songs. Each individual song is so different — throughout the record, Infant Island touch on screamo, black metal, sludge metal, post-rock, noise, ambience, and more — and they make the most sense when you hear them in succession. At various points, the album finds Infant Island at their most metallic (“Here We Are”), their catchiest (“Stare Spells”), and their most avant-garde (“Signed In Blood”), really scratching every itch you could’ve thought of this band scratching, and a few you’d never expect them to. It’s a record that doesn’t fit easily into any pre-established category, while being able to appeal to fans of all different types of punk, metal, and experimental music at once. That’s a sign of a genuinely great record.
Listen here.
Few bands who came to prominence within or adjacent to the ’90s nu metal band have continued to push forward in the way that Deftones have, and with Ohms, they’ve made a top-tier album that rivals their classics and sounds fresh today. Deftones (and their own heroes Hum, who also made a comeback this year) might be more influential now than ever, and Ohms will have just about all of the young, hungry, Deftones-inspired bands playing catch-up. It breathes new life into rock music today the way White Pony did 20 years ago, and it’s just loaded with instant-classic songs. I already feel like I’ve known it forever.
Listen here.
Having gone under-appreciated during their initial 1990s run, Hum went on to influence the entire shoegazey punk movement of the 2010s (and Deftones), and they returned after a 22-year break with an album that might actually be better than their classics. The shoegazey parts are shoegazier, the heavy parts are heavier, the songs are varied but focused, and the whole album is their most airtight collection yet. It scratches the itch that you want Hum to scratch, but it feels forward-thinking and modern, almost effortlessly surpassing so many of the buzzy punkgaze bands who took after them. If only every reunion album could be this good.
Listen here.
We’re past the halfway point of the year, now — whether or not what awaits us in 2021 is better than the current dumpster fire is still up in the air, but we’re hurtling toward it nonetheless. The long-term reality of coronavirus is settling in — personally, I just cancelled flights for an international vacation I was planning in October, as the country I wanted to go to is literally not letting Americans in. United Airlines was strangely nonchalant about that fact.
Of course, even if you’ve managed to find a strategy to manage pandemic anxiety, plenty of other things came up in July to worry about — and it looks like August is shaping up the same way. Writing about music continues to feel a little bit silly, but listening to it is still one of the better ways to escape reality for approximately 40 minutes at a time. Here are seven monster albums that emerged from the blazing wreckage of July, all exceptionally suitable for wresting your attention away from whatever the fuck is going wrong today.
–Ted Nubel
Andrew Rothmund
Buried Realm — Embodiment of the Divine
July 24th, 2020
Do you like solo virtuoso death metal that doesn’t sound, well, extremely dorky and lame? Buried Realm is where it’s at — this album banks on the mighty primacy of the guitar riff, and is it ever groovy as all hell.
More thoughts from my premiere of “Overlord”:
These songs go harder than most full bands can manage, and the licks are as downright compelling as some of the best tech-death bands out there. What sets Buried Realm apart, though, is the proggy infusion of both downright speed and complete instrumental dexterity all without any of the pretense that usually flows freely through these sorts of territories.
Jon Rosenthal
Old Nick — The Vanitous Specter
July 30th, 2020
Black metal to get lost in a 16-bit dungeon to. Old Nick somehow manages to mix raw black metal and chiptune in such a way that it just… works. And it’s fun! Yes, fun black metal. Plus, with song titles like “3 Ghosts In The Corner, One From The Year 1797 and The Others From 1997,” you really get the idea that they don’t take themselves seriously, which is refreshing in the face of today’s super-serious underground.
Ted Nubel
Purification — Perfect Doctrine
July 31st, 2020
As hinted at by the album art, a famous painting depicting the “Cadaver Synod” (in which a deceased pope was put on trial for dubious reasons), Purification strikes a tone that doom metal is particularly apt at expressing: a stately sneer at absurd institutions. Within their ecclesiastical doom, deep vocals and somber melodies aim to illuminate hypocrisy via austere mockery and awe-inspiring heaviness.
Perfect Doctrine demonstrates mastery of theatrical irreverence, and it’s architected to maximize the number of majestic-yet-evil-yet-inebriated riffs sawing through your brain matter as the campy atmosphere delights your rapidly disintegrating neurons. When the band ramps up from the gloomy proceedings, things generally get stranger and stranger — more expletives, unusual vocal delivery, and unexpected choir elements complement the highlights.
Every track on the album contains some sort of delightful surprise, some abnormal element that sets it apart from the rest — so while some of the riffs here could have been thirty-minute exercises in riff-petition, the shorter format songs allow the band to pack in tons more of their strong suit: making things weird. I’m more than okay with “weird” right now, so jam this shit into my eardrums.
Joseph Aprill
Havukruunu — Uinuos Syömein Sota
July 17th, 2020
As you hit play on this album a choir of voices cry out in a foreign tongue, but almost immediately you recognize beyond your linguistic unfamiliarity what you’re hearing is the opening call of an epic poem retelling of legendary ancient battles. That battle then bursts forth in full force as the choir gives way to a cannon blast of drumming followed by galloping melodic riffs that transport you to a time of heroic deeds living as memories somewhere between history and myth. So begins Finland’s epic pagan black metallers Havukruunu’s third full length, Uinuos Syömein Sota.
The band became a burning hot name in the black metal underground after the release of their 2017 sophomore release, so expectations have been running high till now. Those expectations it can be said have both been met and confounded. Havukruunu continue on with a type of melodic pagan black metal that leans closer to the epic riff focus of Bathory and later-era Immortal while eschewing tendencies for symphonic indulgence or folk dance jigs. However, a noticeable change to their sound is now felt in an absence of minor chords and dark atmospheres often replaced with songwriting that is perpetually uplifting and triumphant.
Uinuos Syömein Sota is an emotionally soaring work of metal that uses all its elements, especially the exultant clean sung choir sections, to transport the listener to a time of battle and glory. Though perhaps the album should come with a warning for its potency as your dear writer was far too taken away while attempting to sing along to it on a recent drive home from work that he blew past a red light. Oops! So please enjoy some new Havukruunu, responsibly.
Andrew Sacher
Boris — NO
July 3rd, 2020
NO is the followup to last fall’s LφVE & EVφL, a lengthy, meditative, psychedelic double album that was rolled out over a five-month period last year. In contrast, NO was announced the week before it came out, and it’s exactly the kind of album that’s meant to just fall into your lap out of nowhere and set your world on fire. Boris have written fast songs before, but NO makes a conscious move away from the band’s trademark psych/noise/experimental side and is almost entirely punk-informed thrash and speed metal. Music like this just hits harder when the world is in a critical state, and Boris are such masters of so many different types of music that it’s no surprise to hear how well they pull this off. And it’s not just a genre exercise in thrash; it’s still unmistakably Boris. They eschew generic thrash tones and play this stuff with the same thick sludge tones that are more typical of Boris, and they work in a handful of snail-paced sludge breakdowns too. Thrash and sludge have long gone hand in hand, and this album fuses them better than I’ve heard any band fuse them in a while. They also eschew generic thrash shouting patterns and instead they approach the genre as Boris. They bring their usual aggressive/melodic balance to the vocals, which results in really memorable songs and genre fusions that you don’t hear everyday. NO can sound like a shoegaze band covering Slayer, but really it just sounds like Boris, and it’s pretty remarkable how good they are at sounding like Boris, whether they’re doing ambient drone or mile-a-minute thrash.
Ivan Belcic
Draghkar — At the Crossroads of Infinity
July 27th, 2020
There’s a specific sound that, by now, has become the default connotation of the term “old-school death metal.” I know what it sounds like, I know you know what it sounds like — it’s a very specific sound. But then there’s Draghkar, who also want to make old-school–inspired death metal, but not that kind, and you get a record like At the Crossroads of Infinity. Instead, they’re leaning hard into the melody-driven end of the death metal spectrum while cloaking their record in a Mediterranean black metal veil.
Draghkar’s realm-bending psychedelia is evident in the album’s maddening blend of harmony and dissonance, which leaves plenty of space for the bass to shine through — and bassist Cameron Fisher is a consistent joy to behold across the record. The vocals on At the Crossroads of Infinity come courtesy of new member Daniel Butler, whose other band Vastum is very much that kind of OSDM — and it’s night and day to hear him stretching his range into the mid and higher registers in his work with Draghkar.
The production is at once sharp while also echoing and reinforcing the album’s classic feel. “Dated” isn’t the right word here, as Draghkar’s take on their influences is contemporary, and the exposed production complements their songwriting aims. Similarly, Karmazid’s stunning cover art would feel right at home adorning a fantastical sci-fi novel from the 1970s.
Together, these various components — songwriting, performances, personnel, production, and cover art — align for a debut full-length that knows exactly what it wants to be, and achieves it.
Tom Campagna
High Spirits — Hard to Stop
July 31st, 2020
Chris Black’s solo endeavor High Spirits’ fourth album Hard to Stop is a hard rocking romp to be had by all, and it’s awfully hard to deny its catchiness. Their first album in four years hits right from the outset with “Since You’ve Been Gone,” a slow opener giving way to their patented brand of high energy music that feels like it was pulled from the late night radio waves of the 1980s. This is convertible-driving music of the highest caliber, a brand of which Black has a total knack for. The riffs are fast and fun, especially during the bridge of “Voice In The Wind” which features a series of stops and starts used to maximum effect. This is a cohesive, rollicking good time that just plain rocks from start to finish.
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