Misþyrming go Slayer in the first track, get Hammerheart later on. As I write this it has yet to go live on their bandcamp page but it may be by the time one opens this post.
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….
Seeing how Doktor Dismemberment formerly practiced in Massachusetts what better way to resume the column than being Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean? Depressed? Suicidal? Avoid this feedback laden, sludge trudge at fathoms deep. This EP has the Grief, Eye Hate God slow motion melded with rather majestic melodic guitar phrasings here and there which, yes, get drowned in defeat under acidic screams, elongated riffage, walking bass lines and caveman pounding.
Self proclaimed “vntrve post black metal” mongers Nidare charge out of the gate on Von Wegen. A slightly hazy recording, a deliberate tactic, at play that feels as if you’re listening to an assault going on behind closed doors or through the wall adjoining the neigbors. Nice left/right guitar interplay. Thick bass tone providing heft. I feel the drums are a bit too distant in the mix, but the kicks are thudding forcefully. Things definitely open up and sound more in your face when they slam on the breaks and go full “vntrve” with melodic passages. Though as in the case of this opening track when they build upward from the melodic section, the gauze veil returns and unlike what you expect from a moment that is reaching an apex they opt out with an anticlimactic end. So fucking “vntrve.” Nidare seem to love to pull the rug on endings, which you’ll hear more than a couple of times, and it cracks me up. Vocals throughout carry a feral roar, and being in German, sound more vehement than they would in English. Really dig what these guys are dishing out as it has the feel of an Intricate or Lash Out on a black metal bender.
Percussor. They’re from Philly. They sound as if they’re from Florida or Rutan’s old New Jersey stomping grounds circa early 1990s. Hell, you can even bring Cattlepress, Dim Mak, The Dying Light and Ripping Corpse into the mix. Azagthoth and Imperial Doom Monstrosity riffing over forceful rhythmic propulsion. Rugged stuff with great riffing, gruff vocals and no frills. Death, only death.
Luces Lejanas. Ok, sue me, I’m a month late to this party. In a sense Partida makes me think of Sunrise Patriot Motion’s Black Fellflower Stream in terms of being future retro bent. The initial dose of “Lobo Blanco” bears much in common with Husker Du, Minutemen and Articles of Faith given a double bass throttle and excursion into a My Bloody Valentine Loveless gig. I swear I expect to hear Vic Bondi roar as “Lobo Blanco” starts off. It is that authentic. While Sunrise Patriot Motion doesn’t have the first wave of thinking man’s hardcore edge the aforementioned Luces Lejanas track has, the spirit of backwards engineering using 80s UK sounds of (ahem) The Sound, Comsat Angels, New Model Army is in play. Other songs on Partida abandon the overt early hardcore angle and move in traditional Euro black metal circles infused with shoegaze and synth textural colors amidst the cold swarming riffs and kicks. However, when he does lean into the minimal distortion jangly Minutemen sound and suddenly slams into loveliescrushing walls of guitar effects the results are quite jarring. None of these disparate styles are clashing, it all sounds organic and natural. Great song craft and mind for mixing on exhibit. This may be a dark horse for end of the year greats. Recency bias? I dunno, but I do know Luces Lejanas is something special.
This trance inducing gem is a bit over a year old and discovered via the Avant-Void facebook page: SYVÄÄN. Definitely makes me think of the meditative drone of Aluk Todolo and a restrained Psychic Paramount. Minimalist, relaxed jazz swing rock style at play at times, elegiac and grandiose moments done on a small scale others. Nice tones, effects and ornamental detailing weaving through these four long form songs. Title track sounds as if the trio working huge, mournful orchestral dirge that tapers off into white light. Absolutely masterful performance captured here. I know there are ties to Bloodstar and I had to revisit that as I remember strongly disliking the Roadrunner release back in the day. And, to be honest, night and day as far as I’m concerned and I’ll stick with SYVÄÄN.
And speaking of the Psychic Paramount, The Exorzist III has Drew St. Ivany on guitar. His cohort is drummer Nick Ferrante from the Black Hollies. Taking a look at the cover art, could this be an alternate soundtrack to Phantasm? No, not quite as tripped out or composed. What these guys accomplished at Machines with Magnets feels improv on the fly. Nice balance of familiarity between the players and free wheeling. St. Ivany is up to old tricks - with having a controlled yet jittery feel and knack for pedal effects. Don’t go into this thinking it will be smooth or polished as this is anything but; some of this feels as if they are working through ideas and the tape runs out abruptly bringing the recording to a halt at an awkward moment.
Contemporary classical collaborative and non profit No Hay Banda working with composers Anthony Tan, Sabrina Schroeder, Andrea Young, and Mauricio Pauly. Chamber pieces with no more than 5 performers on display here and with this in mind, the combinations of minimal instrumentation with electronic accompaniment, be it modular synth or ondes Martenot, creates a lot of dynamic, tension and atmosphere. I feel the Tan and Young pieces to be the most “musical” of the four while Schroeder and Pauly the more abstract, with each of their contributions seeming that they would be equally at home on Cold Meat Industry as on Aussie label Extreme as they are here. Both pieces are out there. Schroeder’s piece sounds to have more emphasis on conventional instrumentation being abused in concert with electronic treatments. The Pauly composition sounds to utilize electronics and sound manipulation with minimal organic instrumentation. Some very unnerving tones and oscillations sweeping through the opening minutes and then working with slow pulses and bursts of static that give way to slow moving percussion and violin that abruptly cuts as if spliced out of an analog recording. This makes me think of Tod Dockstader’s musique concrète compostions functioning at an elongated, glacial pace.
Dropping no wave, post punk skronk comes an Endless, Nameless track that previewed on Brooklyn Vegan. Begins in a Scratch Acid vein gone dual guitar and travels to Dimension Hatross. Album will be on Silent Pendulum early next year. And, no, despite the band’s name it doesn’t sound anything like Nirvana.