so far this year has been little more than time spent on maintaining resentments both past and current, mining their spite for writing and grind albums that, with every passing day, seem less and less likely to exist outside the broken brains of my overreaching imagination. in between all that, i managed to pile on more ephemera for the archives that will either bury me or be buried by me. i figured i should start putting together the lists now so i'll have less to remember at the proper year's end. on with the shiv:
ABJECTION RITUAL - Soul of Ruin, Body of Filth
AR swaps out there deranged industrial horror for equally deranged sludge metal that further breathes anti-life into their private universe.
FFO: Lord Mantis
BLESSED BLOOD VULVA & GUILTY C - The Third Slaughter
pure as fuckmurder.
FFO Jesus of Nazareth.
CAUSTIC WOUND - Grinding Terror
adjectives are futile. it's fucking grindcore, dummy.
FFO: anything that isn't Nails.
HIDE - Castration Anxiety
tucked away in one of the more neglected compartments of my mind is the desire to be a death-rock DJ, but one that realizes that there's music beyond the fading 1988-98 scope they depend upon. this release would no doubt be a cornerstone in my DJ set.
FFO: Youth Code
KNELT ROTE - Alterity
not really sure why i never checked this band out before, as they are no doubt right up my alley; that schizophrenic mid-point between spiteful grindcore savagery and morose black metal experimentation.
FFO: making your favorite French Black Metal album go kissy kissy with your favorite Australian Grindcore album.
SECT PIG - Crooked Backs
like going through a surgical procedure to become a mutant pig.
FFO: sleep paralysis panic breaths
SLEEPWALKER - Ichi-go Ichi-e
melodious nightmare metal.
FFO: Endon, Ehnahre, Maudlin of the Well
SOFT KILL - Savior
touch more aggressive than the previous releases.
FFO: Fields of the Nephilim, the Church, Alvvays, Grave Babies
STARKWEATHER/CONCEALMENT - split
the few that know me have more than likely grown malignant in their irritance with regards to my unending fascination and admiration for the brand of ugly progressive metal put forth by Starkweather, so i'll ease up on the praise and say something a little different; i know Starkweather has been sitting on the track for a long time (their last one with Todd Forkin on guitar, who left the band in 2013). it's tough to explain the feeling to those who haven't experienced it; the frustration of working hard on a releases, doing your best to be prompt in the studio so as not to run up a bill, getting it mastered until it sounds appropriate enough for semi-public consumption, only to have it run through a gauntlet of delays. Communion experienced it on a number of occasions. when it finally sees the light of day after what can be sometimes years of setbacks, the feeling is one of anti-climatic relief; everyone and everything having moved beyond the wait that kept you tethered to an abandoned ship. periodicals take one look at the date which the tracks were recorded, dub it "too old", and go back to hyping up the latest bilious sparkle core from the likes of Deafheaven or whatever. i've been writing for almost 1/2 the length of Starkweather's side. time to speed it up with...
WAKE - Misery Rites
played with these guys a few years back at the Acheron, where they knocked me on my ass with their brand of thoughtfully vicious grind. happy to see they kept at it and were able to attract enough attention to get the kind of exposure they deserve. sometimes the good guys win.
FFO: Vermin Womb, Noisear, Mother Brain
see also:
AEVITERNE - Sireless,
ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF - Dead Magic,
BUNUEL - The Easy Way Out,
BLOOMING CARRIONS - Necrosis Twilight,
BUSHPIG SCAT BUTCHER - The Art of Gore, GENOCIDE PACT - Order of Torment,
HARM'S WAY - Posthuman,
JENNY HVAL - the Long Sleep,
MANY BLESSINGS - Ripe Earth,
MOTHER BRAIN - Demo 2018,
OF FEATHER AND BONE - Bestial Hymns of Perversion,
OKSENNUS - Kolme Toista,
OUR PLACE OF WORSHIP IS SILENCE - With Inexorable Suffering,
PORTAL - Ion,
RAWHEAD - Spineless Pigs,
RITES OF THY DEGRINGOLADE - The Blade Philosophical,
SEPTIC ROT - Cult of Grief, SHE SPREAD SORROW - Midori,
SLUGDGE - Esoteric Malacology,
SUICIDEFORCE - Demo 2018,
