Sliding down the rabbit hole...

beginning at the slippery slope all female NYC punk metal

Much of this branches off an oddball YouTube subscription upload that featured an Eric Carr production company signed female act Hari Kari. Circa 1987/88 I’m not sure how this north east Detente/Slayer thrash attack evaded me until now. Once I got over that, I started thinking about another NY punk metal all female act P.M.S (Pre Metal Syndrome) which later went further metal as Wench. The interesting thing is while reading different YouTube comments I notice PMS former bassist chime in and mention she was a member of, among others, No Control. If you know, you know… And you should know Just Can’t Hate Enough has recently been reissued on vinyl with live tracks.

And, for good measure, old reunion footage of PMS because Yana’s a powerhouse vocalist.

Oh, and speaking of NYC bands with ties to legendary acts… 2 new Göden tracks have been unveiled. Svart also has Winter - Live in Brooklyn on tap. Nothing yet to preview, but, placemarker after Göden. Göden wielding the Celtic Frost riffage, Pink Floyd sci-fi synth textures, sledge to anvil percussion, keening violin and Pazuzu McCambridge utterances. Both tracks travel the left hand path while divergent in approach.

Haunted songstress and sound manipulator Marla Van Horn’s latest is a deep, dark travelogue of melancholia and eerie wonder. Spare, minimal soundscapes and ghostly vocal textures. At turns soothing and unnerving.

To the Concrete Drifts from the Gardens of Failure in Detroit come Azalea. Black metal done dissonant, brittle, awash in reverb and screaming bloody murder. Quiet/loud dynamics, detuned piano breaks, moments of majestic grandeur and light extinguishing sorrow.

Jessica Kinney’s La Torture Des Ténèbres with a nuclear strike out of the blue. V comes seven years after IV - Memories of a Machine Girl with none of the edges rounded off. Treated to raw black metal fed through a gauntlet of effects that would make the late great members of The Angelic Process proud. For all I know Jessica is channeling Kris and Monica and they are kicking and screaming over the intrusion. Something I am now doing for missing her livestream a performance this past Friday night. Should film archivist/film maker Bill Morrison stumble across a vintage sci-fi flick in disrepair and seek to release it may he find Jessica Kinney to score the project.

Keeping in the realm of abrasive sound we shall get scourged by smr.tni . Discovered this project via Himukalt and decided to go directly to the source for the complete damage. Unrelieving may begin quasi melodic but it then drops sonic depth charges with a foil of playful, fiendish laughter. Songs develop methodically with no sense of relief. This exists to overwhelm and devour with caustic power electronics fortified with death industrial clatter and churn.

No Clean Singing to blame for the introduction to Machukha. This scratches a similar itch as The Fifth Alliance. Fitting this should find a home on Consouling Sound. Blackened, churning post hardcore done in that fine European way we know and love. Absolutely killer video.

Also from Ukraine is Pušča (пуща) This blackened punked up screamo gem released during the third quarter of 2023. Not sure if I remembered to write it up last year and too lazy to search. Outstanding vocal attack blending folkish runs with feral caterwauls.

Pushing it into thoroughly black metal territory is Israel’s Srefa. Pulverizing bass undertow beneath the icy riffage, tumbling drums and scathing vocals.

Brazilian death doom in the form of Nameless Gods. No frills, lumbering and crushing as the style calls for. Bears passing sonic similarity to The Corona Lantern.

Prayers and hymns to the void from Qōl Tōhū. A "French collective of anonymous musicians” under mastering genius Bruno Varea that one could surmise this has ties to the usual suspects. This has a very Cold Meat Industry/Cyclic Law feel to it. Almost In Slaughter Natives without all the mixing tricks of Purgate My Stain which is a true masterclass in three dimensional sound design.

And, finally, speaking of French acts, Maudits preview “Précipice Part 1” off forthcoming album on Source Atone Records. Cinematic instrumental metal of the highest calibre. Dynamic mix that is something to behold.

In closing, please visit 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, Freedom Has No Bounds, Machine Music, Dreams of Consciousness, Doktor Dismemberment’s Midnight Murderplex and Crucial Blast’s Warhead…. most of these sites update more frequently than I do here.