Clearly I’m an idiot forgetting this for last week’s Q2 post. Legendary outfit Ramleh with an album to out Swans Swans. Storied career, storied discography. Hyper Vigilance is an additional crowning jewel.
Hyenism is a “one man metal project from Bratislava, Slovakia. No live shows, no merch, no physical releases.” You can grab the entire catalog for under $2. This guy comes without warning and lays down scorched earth policies such as Dominus et Deus and disappears in the din. 5 songs this time packed into a single 34 minute track. Extremely creative use of melodic textures that resemble a cross between mellotron and organ that weave in and around the dissonant riffage and steel girder bass thumps. You see the band name, right? Well, the vocals are that of a rabid hyena. The drumming (programming?), too, is off the rails. If this guy gave a shit about physical copy one would think I, Voidhanger and Total Dissonance Worship would be in on this action.
Following one man black metal project with another, this time out of Hungary, is Faith Malevolent. A blend of cosmic black and full on aggro dissotech. The agenda here is to compose a narrative involving aliens and demonic forces and humanity rebelling against these oppressors. As prescient as ever. Unfortunately, this offering could be the death knell for this project. Interestingly enough, the final track is based off Joe Cocker/Randy Newman’s “You Can Leave Your Hat On.” I kid you not. There are some rhythmic similarities but this being distorted to the point where it could be related to Voivod, Dillinger Escape Plan, or Deadguy as it is to Newman’s song or Cocker’s cover.
Time for damage from down under.
Move on over to No Clean Singing for a new track/video from Hebrephrenique. I wish DsO and Imperial Triumphant still ran rampant and unhinged as this, but, at least we are gifted a mayhemic feast out of Brisbane. Think Dodecahedron angularity with the vocal chaos of Anaal Nathrakh. It’s a distant cry from their more conventional Non Compos Mentis EP from a couple years back.
There has been an announcement of a split/collab between Uboa and Whitehorse. One Whitehorse track can be found at Decibel. It crushes in a manner likening to 1984-87 Swans where massive drums given humongous reverb pound astride electronic treatments, slack tuned bass and guitar trudge. The vocals are the deviating factor where Whitehorse bring pure indecipherable monstrous caveman growls. Apparently these two tracks are culled from a recording session prior to Death Weight.
All the Dead Melt Down as Rain comes rather quickly on the heels of the highly lauded Impossible Light and composed under extreme duress. Wide swath of styles from conventional death industrial, harsh noise, doom metal and contemporary classical in various states of hybridization and deconstruction.
With a title such as All the Dead Melt Down as Rain, it may be best to mention French film oddity Else. Heavy heaping of Tsukamoto and Cronenberg sci-fi body horror. Begins as an awkward rom-com and descends into a world pandemic where the infected merge into their surroundings. The apartment setting and chatter in the garbage chute also bring Caro and Jeunet’s Delicatessen to mind. Rented this off amazon and won’t hesitate to grab a blu ray should it come loaded with supplemental material.
Thank you to workhardened Paul Romano for this racket from Kuntari.
Last year Kuntari collaborated with fellow countrymen Avhath, a ferocious post black metal act that is consistently advancing their approach to sound and song form. This being no exception.
Undersave return after an 8 year silence with more dissonance and an advanced experimental approach. New album to be released by the ever dependable Transcending Obscurity.
Speaking of slumbering beasts awakening, Downward look to stake claim to a dark metal crown. This is in a space between Code and Bethlehem. At turns epic, melodic, depressive, caustic and forged on strong compositions. Terrific bass runs and tone beneath icy riffs that are a controlled spiral winding from classic Norwegian and Swedish stock. Sturdy drum performance that sneaks in clever fills here and there. The show stopper of this album are the vocals with throat shredding, maniacal stuff verging on Rainer Landfermann territory.
Signing this off with an EP from KCMO noiseniks Flooding. Minimal, spare, quiet, loud, melodic to cacophonic. Slint meet Swans.
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, Wolf’s Week, Thrown to the Abyss Podcast, Freedom Has No Bounds, Machine Music, Dreams of Consciousness, Doktor Dismemberment’s Midnight Murderplex / Antimatter Halo, Metal Connect and Crucial Blast’s Warhead…. most of which update more frequently than what I provide here
Ramleh is fantastic and I actually liked it more than Swans' latest (dare I say so?).
Hyenism and Faith Malevolent are pretty feral. By the way, did you like new Deadguy? So cool that they're back.