20 Buck Spin has Tribunal’s The Weight of Remembrance streaming in full in advance of its Friday, January 20, 2023 release. May you be crushed under the weight of the riffs and soar to valhalla. Combining legendary sounds of My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, Anathema, Trouble and Candlemass with Amber Asylum for the new millennium. I did a short blurb last month regarding the first two preview tracks that you can find in the stack. Needless to say, the 4 songs I was unfamiliar with, until this full stream, exceed expectations. Enormous, majestic, sorrowful.
From the stately doom of Tribunal to the haunted hellscape of Charnel Rift hailing from Helsinki with their brand of Occult Death Metal. Solid demo displaying a deliberate primitive, hypnotic style sounding as if Hellhammer riffing being slowed down and given a dual guitar treatment, adding shaman’s percussion, Hammer horror keys, and the guttural vocals of Thergothon and Seance circa fornever laid to rest. I mention the approach as being a “deliberate primitive” style as the interludes breaking up the songs have acoustic work that proves to be more detailed and technical. These guys know the deal - keep it morbid, rhythmically driving and allow riffs to pay the freight.
If I were to judge something off a single song… the new Djunah will be the noise rock post metal album to beat in 2023. Nothing technically flashy, simply brute force, great sense of placement in terms of ornamental textures, and those vocals! Holy fucking shit: Donna Diane. Vocal projection through the roof, walls, you name it, of a nuclear fallout shelter with a manic and impassioned delivery for the ages. Musically Djunah reminds me a little bit of Whorepaint crossed with the Cosmonaut record, Pipebomb Full of Nails, that Thought Industry’s Brent Oberlin sang on: compact sharp bursts of brutal pummel, noisy guitar and standout powerhouse vocals.
BIG|BRAVE. Does this band ever rest? New record this February on Thrill Jockey. Preview track brings the Caspar Brotzmann Massaker in squalls of guitar noise and rhythmic pounding building to the inevitable explosion and dissolution. Between this and new releases from Esben and the Witch and Swans, what more do you need? The no wave crash bang boom market is showing no signs of respite.
Before we resume normal programming, Please support: Everything Went Black, The Metal Dad and his fiendish five podcast, No Clean Singing, Stereogum: The Black Market, The Devil’s Mouth, Aversionline, Invisible Oranges, Horror Wolf 666, Into the Necrosphere, Sol Nox Podcast, The Book of Very Very Bad Things, Plague Rages and Doktor Dismemberment’s Midnight Murderplex…. these sites update daily and weekly.
I’ve really nothing to go on with this upcoming release on Hummus Records… Monument - Abyss. Below are links to the bandcamp page for the forthcoming release and video footage for the single “Bodies” as well as a short in studio show of the band performing. A couple of those songs will be on the album. “Bodies” is a no wave brain basher, these other songs are sort of punked up, no waved out Roxy Music or Gospel on quaaludes. Pick your poison.
Thunraz threaten a new release this year and “Panzram” is the premiere track which brings an Antigama discomfort style of death grind with exploratory experimental stabs. When you tackle the subject of Carl Panzram you expect something misanthropic and ugly. Ugly, dissonant death metal is what you get. Joining main man Madis Jalakas for this outing is none other than the beast who never sleeps, Jared Moran on the kit. Drum tone is similar to what Jared has on Acausal Intrusion recordings while Madis gives both burly lows and insect swarm highs to the guitars as well as gutturals and acid burned upper registers for vocals. Nice change up with this recording as compared to last year’s EP as there is more heft to the guitar tone and everything sits better in the mix to my ears. You may feel different. But, know this, as Corpse (NJDC) stated in 1986, “I’m right and you are wrong.”
The Thunraz EP from 2022:
Keeping it in 2022 and checking in on something I missed late in the year, Germany’s Frowning. Christ, last year had so much quality funeral doom and this is no exception. In fact, Of Void is exceptional. This is actually one song but split into three long form tracks on bandcamp. Elongated riffs sustaining to the far ends of the earth, sour note harmonized solos that would bring a tear to Gregor Mackintosh’s eye, delays and reverbs from the Esoteric school of sorrowful doom, and the sullen plod of Thergothon. Absolutely beautiful, crushing work and if I had heard it last year, as I should have, would most certainly make the top 50 cut.
Different iteration of funeral doom from somewhere in Germany by Desperation Eclipse This is of an uglier variety than Frowning and lines up with the likes of Bunkur, Winter and diSEMBOWELMENT. No truly earworming melodic elements, only pure, unadulterated terror in glacial slow motion.
Hide the razors. More funeral doom. This of an atmospheric variety. Decidedly more bright than Desperation Eclipse and sharing certain sonic dna with Frowning is the Spanish project Ornamentos del Miedo. Ángel Chicote is the brains of the operation and this is one of a handful things I notice he is associated with. Ornamentos del Miedo songs are crafted in long form and they have a few more riffs and rhythmic progressions involved than the other two releases mentioned here. Vocals aren’t typical low growls, they have snarl to the heft. There is a touch of keys/synth and/or heavily processed guitar creating the textural ambience that the other two don’t lean into on their respective offerings.
Gazing from the depths of hell skyward to Sunlight from FDK. This quintet from Prague, Czech Republic works in a similar Breach as KOLLAPS\E, Kollapse and the recent live Coilguns release on Hummus Records. Churning, chunky walls of riffs, some jangly guitar textures to switch it up, rock steady backline and rather than static screaming vocals there are melodic attempts to break the monotony. At times there is a tiny bit of Rosetta threading through the lighter, delicate guitar moments although FDK isn’t using effects in the way the Philly natives do.
Oh, and speaking of Rosetta, Dave and BJ have a New Miserable Experience. It’s a far cry from what one would expect. Two Philosophy of Pessimism preview tracks are full on synth pop with groove. And damned if David doesn’t sound like George Michael. Motherfucker can sing and choke you out.
A certain Convulsing Dumbsaint once told me about the new Coilguns recording being “the breachiest breach in ages, even for this particular band.” I will tell you, he is correct. I’m always on the fence with Coilguns. Some recordings are great (the ones that are Breachiest) and others I hate (ones that are more rat-a-tat-tat Dillinger-esque). I commend Coilguns for their longevity and service to creating noise. And in case you don’t know, that certain someone is now a gear in the atonal metal machinery of Altars.