Initially the intent was to release this post on the anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. This year is the 40th year anniversary of Crucifix - Dehumanization. While this musical cornerstone of the underground community is testament to Sothira Pheng’s experience in Cambodia his messages are as relevant now as ever given the current state of affairs.
for good measure, the entire Target Video: MDC, Toxic Reasons, ZEV, Minimal Man, CH3, Mau Maus, CJs…
With the band name It Doesn’t Get Better would you expect anything other than Below? For some reason this defaults at the mid-point of the album… When it begins on the first track, as it should, it has a militaristic march hell bent on crushing all in its path. A sonic meld of Godflesh and early Eisenvater. Guitar stacks fall in and out of phase and tune over simple, driving beats, and envelop the bellowing vocals. The military thrust is present throughout with some tracks being more prominent than others but never truly left behind. Extremely grim, at times primitive - and fully benefiting from the atavistic approach to drums - this may not be for everyone, but, those looking for spiteful, crushing industrialized metal should find this monstrosity quite the remedy.
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, Thrown to the Abyss Podcast and Doktor Dismemberment’s Midnight Murderplex…. these sites update daily and weekly.
Doktor Dismemberment and associate PHD in Sonic Sorcery unveil Rot Coven. Ritualistic meditation utilizing guitar squalls, feedback, Crash Worship and In Slaughter Natives industrial percussion, vocals that utilize reverb and delay in a manner not dissimilar to Fear of God’s within the veil. This track would be the perfect alternate soundtrack for the Exorcist Pazuzu/Iraq prologue.
Similar intent as Rot Coven and utilizing crushing drones with ambient textures and coming from across the pond is THON.
Sentient Ruin has NEKUS Sepulchral Divination on the docket for April. Continuing the murky, cavernous path of Death Nova Upon the Barren Harvest. Pure, unadulterated death downtuned to stygian depths forged by Teitanblood and Antediluvian. NCS has a feature on the preview track.
Anna C. Chaos is the driving force behind UMBILICHAOS and with Entrails II Redux she returns to material she first conjured in 2012. Far different than the original versions - which are posted after the Redux - that each track is shorter by 10 minutes. The original, longer version of the album has a guitar tone and overall sound that likens itself to earlier Birushanah recordings. The newer version is rawer and guttural in terms of the heavy guitar tones, more akin to Godflesh, and the vocal delivery is stronger, more confident.
jesus christ, does Trepanation Recordings quit? The beauty of this label is diversity. Take these newer releases into consideration: Deludium Skies, Void of Light and Terminal. Free form psyche doom drone, CultofNeurIsis and industrial inflected doom.
Hot on the heels of Anatomy of Habit’s Black Openings comes fellow Chi-town denizens ARRIVER with Azimuth. Anatomy of Habit being the more austere, minimalist harbinger of terror and Arriver bringing prog elements to post metal arrangements. Much of what Arriver does lyrically hinges on conceptual ideas for their albums. 2016’s Emeritus following a story about the Chernobyl meltdown. Azimuth focuses on the pandemic and the resultant isolation and chaos. Musically Arriver can sound a bit schizoid in the way each song has a different thrust, however, you can chalk that up to their prog and classic rock influences and it isn’t as drastic of a leap in sound as I’ve written. There is undoubtedly a solid musical thread only a vast wealth of sonic influence on display. Similar to how Queensryche’s Empire differs from track to track while undeniably being Queensryche (well, with the exception of “Silent Lucidity” being full on Pink Floyd.) Curious this album should drop the day Svart Records casually announces a new Yakuza album. For more on the concept and inception behind Arriver’s Azimuth be sure to check Jon Rosenthal’s interrogation over at Invisible Oranges. Thanks to a certain Sleepwalker for reminding me of this amidst the crush of bandcamp friday releases.
A trio of Svart Records announcements involving new albums from Yakuza and Radien, and a Terveet Kädet discography.
New Nightmarer track/video. This song brings Eisenvater vibes and vocal assists from Valborg.
Profane Desecration with a new ep. A little less up front death metal and what sounds to me as having more Voivod, Gorguts and noise rock elements this time around. Although they’ve tagged things as blackened death metal I’m not really hearing it unless one considers the odd ball Piggy and Fripp chords to be black metal informed? In any event, this rages hard. Opener comes blasting out the gate with Gorgutsian Immolation meets Voivod and Watchmaker abandon. After a brief twisting riff intro the second track is almost war metal in demeanor. Immo-guts at the third song and the final number is the band at its most experimental and expansive… giving in to more open space, “Moonbeam Rider” reverb drenched spidery riffs mixed with full on aggro dissonance.
Learned about Flemish horde Head of the Baptist from UK’s The Air Turned to Acid. Video track “Succumb” is off their upcoming EP, The Pyre Of Equivalence. No word on when it officially drops but this morsel gives you an idea of what the black crust quartet is all about, as will the previous dual song EP. It’s all about maximum damage with efficiency. As for TATtA, yes, “It is a long walk to Coney Island” from across the pond, let alone from the Bronx for the Warriors. Black Zen Instruction does a Botch-ed up Knut Hydra Head sound by way of Today is the Day Am Rep style proud and massively heavy.
Well, this was quite a surprise to discover on bandcamp Friday, March 3, 2023… new Kostnatění. On Willowtip no less. Last year’s EP, Oheň hoří tam, kde padl, took traditional Turkish songs into angular, dissonant black metal directions. That repurposing folk music to black metal ends made me think of Birushanah, probably owing to the scale and the melodic vocal sections. What wonders will Úpal bestow? The preview indicates a sonic assault that offers elements of the EP and previous offerings of knotty, gnarled black metal infused with ethno folk trappings bent to nefarious deeds.
More direct in black metal attack comes Horda. Again, a Polish act that fails to disappoint. Frantic as fuck, rapid fire rabid attack that incorporates death metal heft here and there with full blown vocal torment. Hints of Mgla, Blaze of Perdition and Terrestrial Hospice as well as elements of old school horror soundtracks given the violin and viola creeping in the background and emerging in open sections.
From Polish Television in 1999, Diamanda Galas does the standards as only she can.