Can't stop

won't stop, though I am unfashionably late, as usual.

About a month from now a new Row of Ashes album releases via Road to Masochist. First taste is slack string Unsane lock grooved noiserock with a quasi-melodic midsection before returning to the sturm und drang and ghosting out.

The Great Procession returns. This track comes raging out of the gate and at the precise moment where you know there is going to be a switch it isn’t the tension cutter you expect. Very cool. French post metallurgy of the highest order. Think from mars to sirius Gojira meets Dirge and you’re sort of at the correct sandbox next to Meshuggah messing with Killing Joke tribalism.

First taste of Si vis pacem para bellum from HÆRESIS in the form of “Echoes of Ashes” is a monumental block of rampaging black metal approaching Slaughtersun speeds (and endurance) with an undercurrent of orchestrated synth splendor and vocal assists from Yaryna Borynets of Saltfalls/Löri and Machukha’s Natalia Androsova.

Pluvia offer a first glimpse at Saturne Furie … post rock black metal melding heavenly voices with shrieking terror vocals. Guitar work and song dynamics are a tightrope balance of Hüsker Dü, mono, envy, Amesoeurs.

Similar wheelhouse as Pluvia, “ecstatic black metal” merchants Teardrinker debut Killing the Flowers Will Not Delay Spring. 2 songs trampling fields of lilies and poppies in the Netherlands with unbridled, uplifting energy. Who knew the left hand path could be so exhilirating?

Cleveland duo Lung to return at the end of the month. “The Mattress” is the first preview off The Swankeeper. In a sense Lung can be compared to the mighty Djunah where Lung substitute guitar with cello and the songs are simultaneously catchy and crushing.

More of the melodic heavy crush coming at you this time from Japan. Be sure to A/B the studio recording of the second song with the live clip below. It follows Young Neil’s train of thought in Scott Pilgrim, “you gotta see them play live…” kuyuru are in on the jokes. Swervedriver gone Godflesh heavy where a tiny child croons under an avalanche of guitar noise.

Enough already with the melodic stuff and art. We don’t even have to leave the English alphabet beyond the letter “a.” Aoecist is self described as “Microtonal dissonant death metal written in spite of the meaning behind it.” Who am I to argue? Just take my money.

Another that’s taken my money on a few occasions: Atrate. Fas/Paracletus style of DsO meets Ved Buens Ende/Virus black jazz. Herky, jerky nervous outbursts and hanging chords drift around nebulous, amorphous patterns. Are these even songs? Or are they spasms that come and go of their own accord?

Not as dissonant as the previous two listed, Argentine trio Ataudes attack has a bit of osdm, death doom flavor. Thick toned, guttural churning Morbid Angel meets Immolation and Incantation with faint traces of Voivod clawing up from the magma before being wrenched back under to suffocate.

All Tomorrows reminding us they unleashed an album late last year. In the Meshuggah, Gojira, Target school of lock groove pummel and elastic melody.

locustfurnance./Gauze Trail guitarist Tucker Spellane is a one man wrecking machine with his project Lurching. Sure, some of the dna from his other bands is present and accounted for, but, these 2 songs - in finished and in demo form - are Tucker left to his own devices. Math grind mayhem filtering Ion D and Imbroglio into old school Pig Destroyer chunks.

Do you believe Nicolas Cage gets confused with Nick Cave? No, neither do I. Here’s Nick at The Met in Philly from a couple weeks ago, Nic.

The swan song for Yurei? boo hiss. Though Antinomen could be an incredible endnote to this Bjeima project which is a logical extention of his time with Manimalism and Virus. This is a spider’s web of Voivod and Ved Buens Ende proggy black jazz that also happens to be a masterclass of song writing in terms of depth, dynamic and atmosphere.

One door closes, one opens? The Original Alice Cooper Group with its first song in 50 years. Sure, one would think this will be an unmitigated disaster. Far from the truth, “Black Mamba” harkens back to 1970s classics with slinky funk, acid solos, double entendre lyrics galore. Will certainly keep eyes/ears open for how the full length, ahem, uncoils.

Since this has been one helluva rambler, and there’s more to come at a date to be determined, I gotta leave off the notes of who you should check in with… there are limits to the links here at substack… but, I would invite you to check Metal Connect. Pretty killer source to find new releases.