Yes, it’s my gift to you. Though I must admit a couple of the following releases were recommended to me by Yatsu guitarist Lane Oliver. So, blame is on him being the conductor directing me to Backyard Camping and God Shell.
From Madison, Alabama is a teched up screamo Backyard Camping adventure in four movements. Don’t blink. They are off to the races and zig-zagging around in a manner not unlike a jagged early 90s San Diego Gravity Records band that is calculating infinity and finishing before you know it.
Possessed gifted the world Seven Churches, God Shell deploys Seven Trumpets to annihilate all. Each member of this Austin quartet is tasked with bringing noise in addition to their primary destructive function. And, yes, they are adept at creating walls of sound and scuzzy textures. Some of this makes me think of Ohio’s short lived Rune but God Shell are dirtier, more subharmonic and free form in approach, so something such as Raxinasky may be a better frame of reference. Whatever the case may be I look forward into delving into the back catalog. Not exactly metal, nor noise rock, but something circling the boundaries of genre and dismantling bits and pieces as they make their rounds.
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.
Birushanah return with 蟲ノ牢獄 and so too does the bass. When I first stumbled across them in the early 2000s via their self released album being distributed through the Crucial Blast shop Birushanah had two bass players. As years passed, more recordings down the mountain path, they shed both bassists and rolled as a trio of guitarist/vocalist, scrap metal percussionist and drummer. It certainly remained heavy as Jigoku, however an undertow was lacking beneath the sturm und drang. With the inclusion of bass they gain heft and broadened the musicality of the arrangements which already have classical Japanese scale, post metal churn, junkyard clatter and crushing drums. Take parts of Doom (Japan), Zeni Geva and Der Eisenrost and you nudge close to what Birushanah deal.
Ireland’s post everything act Raum Kingdom announced a new full length on Argonauta Records for 2023. First taste of Monarch is “Red Admiral” in which they have assembled a video track. The atmosphere here reminds me of a cross between Revok and Will Haven. Dollops of guitar feedback, noisy riffing and a walloping back line on a one way ticket to hell with a vocalist losing his mind wailing like a banshee and slipping into a slurry Thom Yorke croon. These guys improve with each recording and I imagine Monarch continues the trend.
I’m a sucker for doom metal. The two preview tracks off The Weight of Remembrance from Tribunal craft a heady sound not unlike the early days of My Dying Bride, Anathema and Paradise Lost with that of Candlemass, Memento Mori and Fear of God. A more current comparison would be Weeping Sores who also have classical instrumentation in their bag of tricks. Tribunal’s use of cello adds weight of tragic majesty to the already melancholic riffs and wide open space between snare hits. I particularly enjoy the drum performance on these songs as there is a lot of movement across the kit without losing emphasis on leaden doom groove. Dual vocalists are terrific. One a monstrous roar, one detatched and reminiscent of the Undersmile duo witchery. Everything going on with video track “Without Answer” is perfection. “Apathy’s Keep” hews closer to Candlemass and Trouble minimalism in terms of composition and authenticity that you expect to hear Messiah Marcolin or Eric Wagner begin singing after the introduction.
Wunderkind Ameer Aljallad brings old time Opeth-ian grandeur and Schuldiner chops to Secaucus, New Jersey on a new Citadel release. The 22 year old multi-instrumentalist proves he can compose with the best of them, perform better than them and, generally, makes me sick. This album absolutely rules and I’m not one that goes all in for this progressive epic Opeth style… unless, to a point, it is Opeth and point being nothing after 2004. Here huge songs that are logically arranged, loaded with dynamic twists and turns and finding a balance of aggression, melody, technicality without pretense. Everything here is working to serve the music and vision. This is another end of the year marvel and something that should’ve made best of lists everywhere. And, something that makes me question, how the fuck is this not on a label? Citadel and Black Harvest have completely taken the reins for this style as far as I’m concerned. Next level stuff going on here. Take your throne, crown and sceptre, Ameer. We’re not worthy.
The Ulthar trio with their Atheist gone through the Event Horizon portal drive and returned blackened, gibbering mad and ravenous return with their progressive death of an otherworldly sort in the form of two upcoming 20 Buck spin releases. One is a two long form song offering from the void and the other a more digestible shorter morsels. Each album has Ian Miller depictions of cosmic terror.
Keeping things within the realm of cosmic and inter-dimensional terror are two songs from FAITHXTRACTOR. Both great, aggro old school in mindset though performed and captured in modernity. The duo is a conduit channeling the savage guitar tone of Asphyx circa the rack and last one on earth and gone full throttle with feral abandon only to drop Sacrilege UK / Bolt Thrower death crush melodicism.
The death metal train doesn’t stop. Something I should’ve brought up sooner than now, without further ado, new material from Swiss quartet Anachronism. “Meanders” is a four minute ride of dissonance, angularity, lurching and propulsion that is in keeping with the gnarled arrangements of Ad Nauseam, Ulcerate and ilk. There is a brief melodic vocal passage within that sounds as if Mutterlein’s Marion Leclercq dropped by for a spell, but, no, this invocation is all guitarist/vocalist Lisa Voisard. The tones overall on this track sound darker than previous Anachronism offerings without becoming murky and I think it benefits immensely.
From the tangle of death metal that is Anachronism to that of Montreal, Quebec denizens Ignominy. And, yes, this is what one would expect coming from the land where Piggy and Steeve Hurdle would claim while their mortal forms graced this planet alien gifts of unchords, atonality, forward thinking designs of structure, time and space. Along for the mix is none other than Teeth’s Erol Ulug who obviously has the frame of reference for a maelstrom of hanging notes, dissonance, manic aggro energy, hell mouthed vocals and submerged textures threatening to scratch their way into our reality.
I have to commend Prosthetic Records for signing Italy’s Storm{O}… As a long time fan of this act it has been a long time coming, but, I suspect much of it has been by design as they have been grass roots d.i.y. since inception. Grounded in the hardcore scene but adding tech sense of Dillinger Escape Plan and Obscura Gorguts in that they have a penchant for stuttering off time rhythms, oddball chords wrapped in combustible compact songs. And, here, in fine tradition of old school stalwarts Negazione, Infezione, etc the vocals are passionately delivered in Italian.
And, I bid you a farewell until after Christmas with a 12th gift. A magnificent performance from Bank Myna as captured by Stellar Frequencies. An expansive, immersive drift as one would expect with a convergence of Dead Can Dance, Pink Floyd, Esben and the Witch.
the gift of music. some great stuff. i love old school and nostalgia, but i also love how so many bands these days are simply jettisoning the confines of genre and just going with vibes, per song, per section. thanks for curating.
needless to say (by the look on my wife’s face) selections from “seven trumpets”- festive though the album may be- will not feature on our xmas morning playlist. uncrappy holidays.