#blackened neo-folk

[von-vom]

[thisworldisablackhole]

Inter Arma New Heaven

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

FFO: POST METAL, DISSO-DEATH, NICK CAVE. SOUND WEIRD? IT IS / LISTEN

As the old saying goes; one man's descent into despair is another man's post-metal masterpiece. At least that's what my grandma used to say, bless her soul. Inter Arma are a metal band from Richmond, VA, who have long since made a name for themselves by defying genre constraints and refusing to pigeonhole themselves as anything other than "the band who defies genre constraints". They seemed to hit a new peak of cohesivity with their kitchen sink blend of influences on 2019's Sulphur English, but whereas that album's sonic arc had some ebb and flow to it, New Heaven embarks on a downhill battle with no end to the bleakness in sight.

In a way, I feel lucky that this album was my first exposure to the band, because I had absolutely no idea of the ride I was about to embark on. New Heaven kicks off with a cluster bomb of dissonant stabs and spiraling harmonies before settling into a full on blackened-death pummel fest that spans the first three tracks. The guitars are sharp like razor wires, the drums of war boom with a threatening aura, everything echoes with a thunderous dark energy thanks to the cavernous production style. I would have liked to hear some extra oomph from the bass in the mix, but I digress. There is no sense of heaviness absent as Paparo growls and shrieks his abstract nihilism like the lone prisoner of a dying world - "You pluck your harp against the deathless echo of the driving rain, humming a joyless mantra not a single soul can hear".

Fourth track "Endless Grey" is where things start to get weird—gently ushering us to the dark side of the moon with an epic instrumental passage of dueling guitar leads and plodding funeral-esque drums before spitting us out into a cold wave of gothic post punk. In "Gardens in the Dark", Mike swaps out his growls for a baritone bellow as a wave of dismal synths wash against the steady rhythm of the bass and coalesce into cathartic crescendos. It's a stark shift in tone, but one that just feels right, as if we have just watched our protagonist descend through his reflection into the shadow realm. It's in this realm where Mike pens some of his most heart wrenching lyrical content on the record - "Were you attempting to calm a storm that wouldn't subside? God damn that suicide, and your garden in the dark".

The next two tracks continue this trend of doom and gloom post punk while seamlessly weaving back in passages of growling, dirgy black metal. "Concrete Cliff" in particular stands out as having the most balance between the two moods of the album, but then we quickly hit the bottom of the elevator shaft, and it opens it's doors to a neo-folk hell. "Forest Service Road Blues" somehow manages to out-misery every other song on the album, and closes out our journey with the most desolate and lonely note it could muster. Mike sings of dwindling mental health and the societal isolation it causes as acoustic guitar, piano, and violin weep in congruence. "They say they've tried to coax him down a hundred times or more, but he just points to the shovel layin' next to the door. They say sometimes you've just gotta let a man dig his own grave." It's the final nail in our coffin. We were born, we witnessed the ugliest parts of humanity, and now we've been laid to rest. Thus the album concludes. I told you it was bleak.

I can see how this type of album flow could be polarizing to veteran fans, especially following the aforementioned peak of cohesivity with Sulphur English, but New Heaven is simply a project that cares more of translating it's ideas with clarity than it does with feeling coherent. It has a narrative with a distinct arc that is brief, easy to follow, and offers plenty of replay incentive for those who don't mind feeling like they are listening to Portal, Neurosis and Nick Cave at the same time. That's a win in my books.

[defjux]

Hi Chris! I followed you a few years back because you posted a lot of Jazz and Hip Hop but I know you're into other genres as well. I've been trying to branch out a bit and you seem like a good person to ask for recommendations, so I was wondering if maybe you could post some of your favorite band/artists currently or anything you'd recommend? Any genre is fine! Love your blog btw, glad to see you're still on here :) Cheers!

thanks for the kind words anon, always nice to feel like the time i've spent on here wasn't a complete waste. sorry it took a few days to respond to this, but i wanted to give a more in depth answer. i can throw out some recommendations for sure, i basically just went through my last.fm from the last year and added all the non hip hop / jazz stuff to a list. you didn't mention if you were into metal or hardcore at all and there's quite a bit of that on here, but if you're not interested in that let me know and i can suggest some other stuff. i'm not a genre expert or anything but i did my best to give a brief description, so maybe if you end up liking one of these artists it'd be easier to find something similar. also a good chance you might be familiar with some of the ones that are more hip hop adjacent. you can also click the name of the artist and it'll take you to an album i recommend on bandcamp or spotify. i'd also be down to do another one of these later if you want, you can even hit me up off anon if you want. i appreciate you and i hope you're doing well! peace.

tried to make this as neat as i could so i put it in alphabetical order and made it a read more. 1. 10th Letter (Electronic/Jazz/Hip hop - Underappreciated producer, if you’re a fan of Flying Lotus you’d probably like this) 2. Alvvays (Indie Pop / Dream Pop) 3. At the Drive-In (Post-Hardcore, Relationship of Command is my favorite album in the genre) 4. Autonoesis (Thrash Metal / Black Metal) 5. Birds in Row (Post-Hardcore / Screamo) 6. Blood Command (Poppy Post-Hardcore/Alt Rock. Not a huge fan of their new vocalist, but the previous album and EP with Karina are both fantastic) 7. Boris (Drone, Stoner Rock, Noise Rock, Sludge, Post-Rock, Crust Punk – depends heavily on the album. ) 8. Bruno Pernadas (Progressive Jazz Fusion Art Pop) 9. Brutus (Post-Hardcore / Post-Metal, Stefanie is one of my favorite vocalists right now) 10. The Callous Daoboys (Mathcore) 11. Chelsea Wolfe (Darkwave / Gothic Rock / Doom Metal / Dark Folk) 12. Cibo Matto - (Art Pop / Trip Hop) 13. Cleric (Avant-Garde Metal / Mathcore / Brutal Prog) 14. Cloud Rat (Grindcore / Punk) 15. Converge (Metallic Hardcore, another all time favorite band.) 16. Cult of Luna (Atmospheric Sludge Metal / Post-Metal) 17. The Dillinger Escape Plan (Mathcore, top 5 band of all time for me) 18. Dragged Into Sunlight (Blackened Death / Doom Metal) 19. Dreamwell (Screamo/Post-Hardcore) 20. Every Time I Die (Southern-fried Metalcore / Mathcore, an all time favorite of mine) 21. Fievel is Glauque (Jazz Pop / Progressive Pop) 22. Genesis Owusu (Hip Hop/Neo-Soul/Funk/Post-Punk - all over the place in a good way) 23. Gospel (Blend of 70s Prog Rock with Screamo/Post-hardcore, with their 2022 album being a lot more of the former but still very good.) 24. Greyhaven (Metalcore / Post Hardcore - one of the few bands i know of carrying the torch for that Southern-tinged Metalcore sound since Every Time I Die split) 25. Grouper (Ambient/drone, folk and dream pop influences)

26. Hiatus Kaiyote (Psychedelic Neo-soul / Nu-Jazz) 27.  Ichiko Aoba (Minimalistic Ambient Folk) 28. Imperial Triumphant (Avant-Garde Black Metal fused with Jazz) 29. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (Foundation of their sound is pretty much Psychedelic Rock but they pull from all over the musical spectrum. Last album even had a couple tracks with rapping, hard band to classify. It’d be easier to list the rock subgenres they haven’t dabbled in) 30. Knoll (Grindcore / Death Grind) 31. Krallice (Avant-Garde Black Metal) 32. Liv.e (Neo-Soul / Alternative R&B) 33. Massa Nera (Post-Hardcore / Screamo / Post-Rock) 34. Maudlin of the Well (Avant-Garde Progressive Metal - Also check Kayo Dot) 35. Messa (Doom Metal) 36. Misþyrming (Black Metal) 37. Ne Obliviscaris (Progressive Black Metal with violin except it’s actually tasteful and doesn’t feel gimmicky) 38. Neptunian Maximalism (Avant-Garde Jazz/Drone/Noise/Industrial.. like Swans meets Sun Ra meets John Zorn’s Electric Masada. These guys also have some of the best album artwork out there.) 39. The Ocean (Progressive Metal / Sludge - mainly on the earlier albums) 40. Oranssi Pazuzu (Avante Garde Psychedelic Black Metal) 41. Os Mutantes (Brazilian Psych Rock) 42. Otoboke Beaver (Noisy, High energy Hardcore / Garage Punk from Japan, very fun band) 43. Panopticon (Atmospheric Black Metal with some Bluegrass and Folk influences) 44. Protomartyr (I think I like these guys the most out of all the newer Post-Punk bands) 45. Rolo Tomassi (Mathcore, Post-Metal, Post-Hardcore) 46. Senza (Blackened Screamo/Mathcore. Chaotic in a way that reminds me of Jerome’s Dream a bit.) 47. Sigh (Black Metal, Avant-Garde Metal, Progressive Metal) 48. Soul Glo (Noisy Hardcore Punk, 2022 album incorporated some more hip hop elements and even had rap features. Shout out to McKinley Dixon who used to be on tumblr waaay back about a decade ago.) 49.  Spiritbox (Alt Metal / Djent / Metalcore) 50. Stereolab  (Space Age Pop mixed with Lounge Music and Krautrock) 51. Sudan Archives (Alternative R&B, Art Pop / Neo-Soul) 52. Tim Hecker (Ambient / Drone) 53. toe (Japanese Math Rock / Post-Rock - Kashikura Takashi is one of the greatest drummers ever.) 54. Tómarúm (Progressive Technical Melodic Black Metal) 55. Tricot (J-Rock / Math Rock / Pop) 56. Tropical Fuck Storm (Punk-Blues, Noise Rock) 57. U.S. Girls (Psychedelic Pop / Art Pop) 58. Ulcerate (Technical Death Metal) 59. Ultha (Atmospheric Black Metal) 60. Vanishing Twin ( Neo-Psychedelic Art Pop, check if you like Stereolab or Broadcast) 61. Wake (Black Metal / Tech Death / Sludge - Grindcore on the early releases) 62. Weyes Blood (Baroque Pop / Art Pop) 63. White Ward (Black Metal / Blackgaze /Dark Jazz) 64. Wormrot (Grindcore) 65. Yves Tumor (Unique sound blending Neo-Psych / Soul / Glam Rock /  Hypnagogic Pop + some Sound Collage / Ambient stuff as well on earlier albums)

[medichamcham]

LMAO FUCK IT !!!!!! pokemon bosses as oddly specific metal genres !!!

(mind you i've determined the genres solely on their overall vibe/personality/motives/whatever, NOT what genres the characters themselves would listen to specifically. i think a solid half of them would hate metal music probably HAHAHA)

yes i thought about this way too much LOOOOOOOL anyway.

giovanni; death n roll / sludge metal archie; viking metal / folk metal (sorry i know these are obvious) maxie; industrial metal cyrus; funeral doom metal / blackened industrial metal ghetsis; avant garde metal / technical death metal lysandre; gothic doom metal / atmospheric black metal guzma; nu metal / crossover thrash lusamine; neo classical metal piers; crust punk / blackgaze rose; symphonic black metal / melodic blackened death penny; alternative metal / metalcore sada; progressive metal turo; mathcore

fully aware that maybe 2 people on this site listen to metal but i keep thinking what extreme metal subgenres the pkmn bosses are . and im being so meticulous about it too

[datura-ad]

Delicate Apathy, acrylic, 20″ x 20″

Title stole from a Slow Bloomer song: https://youtu.be/b19cntVT5hY Available: 650 plus shipping

[womenovmetal]

Emily Highfield

Suldusk

[ghrecords]

La Noche de los Candiles 2022 será el día 30 de Abril, Sábado. (evento gratuito)

Almocita (Almería) Alpujarra Almeriense, a 40 kilómetros de Almería Capital

TÚA (Folk,) Trobar de Morte (Neo-Folk, Darkwave) CrystalMoors (Dark Folk, Celtiberian) Doom of Valyria (Folk, Rock) El Ultimo Sol (Ambient, Rital, Folk)

Organiza: GH Records Organiza: Almócita Ayuntamiento / Guadalinfo Almócita Patrocina la Consejería de turismo y comercio, Gobierno de Andalucía.

El fuego como catalizador en la Noche de Los candiles, la música como vehículo de invocación. Ritualización con Fuego y Música la comunión de los elementos, después del apagón simbólico y el encendido de antorchas y candiles, nos sumergirá en la verdadera esencia de La Noche de los Candiles

Evento en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GH-Records-Label-101239592011698/

Trobar de Morte es una formación de culto originaria de Catalunya, es considerada en la actualidad una de las más prestigiosas a nivel nacional e internacional en su género, con conciertos y giras continuadas por países como Alemania, Holanda, Portugal, Rumanía… con una solidaria tradición en este tipo de música.

Trobar de Morte realiza un neo folk medieval, creando una atmósfera donde se fusionan dulces melodías medievales de raíces étnicas europeas con ritmos tradicionales del corazón de anatolia, Egipto, oriente medio e India, todo ello con un fuerte sentimiento épico, espiritual y poético. Déjate seducir por su directo acústico que te transportará hacia mundos ancestrales, llenos de magia y mística, que de bien seguro no te dejarán indiferente.

Cada concierto es en si una nueva experiencia, sin premeditar el resultado final el universo de TDM, solo se deja guiar por el deseo de conseguir a través de su música un puente de unión entre culturas, sensibilizar y humanizar este mundo global cada vez más falto de valores.

La banda está formada por músicos con una amplia formación y experiencia musical de diversas procedencias musicales, música oriental, música celta, folk medieval, música gótica, música cl��sica contemporánea.. creando así un sugestivo y maravilloso ensamble musical.

Los instrumentos de TDM hablan por si solos de su ancestral herencia musical, las dulces melodías de zanfonas, gaitas, flautas, guitarras melódicas, violines, teclados y bajos, se mezclan con la mística percusión étnica de dohollas, darboukas, tablas, panderos y tambores, creando así un rico universo sonoro…

Doom of Valyria es un proyecto formado en el año 2010.

Eva, la fundadora de DOV siempre ha estado involucrada en grupos de música orientadas al metal extremo, actualmente toca la guitarra en “Unburial” un grupo de blackened death metal enfocado en el antiguo imperio romano y en “Toxic Army”, un grupo de metal con tintes industriales.

Todo comienza cuando lee la saga de libros “Canción de Hielo y Fuego” y decide ponerles música.

Era todo un reto ya que quería que sonara medieval, folk y antiguo, por lo que tuvo que salir por completo del mundo eléctrico para adentrarse en los sonidos más antiguos y remotos.

Tras un periodo de experimentacioón y composición, en el 2012 saca su primer disco llamado The Wolf’s Wood que tiene una gran aceptación por parte del público.

Más adelante, en el año 2017 saca su segundo disco”Warg” en coproducción con el prestigioso sello “GH Records” y tambien lanza su primer videoclip “Sons of the North”.

Por primera vez va a actuara en directo en “La Noche de los Candiles”, un encantador evento que reúne la magia de la música y las antorchas.

El Ultimo Sol es un encuentro entre mundos.

Un cruce de caminos entre realidades, vibraciones y sonidos, donde lo antiguo, el pasado y el presente, se unen formando un espacio sin tiempo. El tiempo se diluye creando un círculo sagrado. Para nosotros es un vínculo íntimo y personal, una relación con lo salvaje, con lo mistérico de este mundo aparentemente corriente, y de otros mundos ocultos a la vista, y que convergen en un mismo punto, en un mismo instante. Un oasis en medio de una vida que empuja a correr, a no tener tiempo para sentir. Un lugar donde todo se detiene para reconectar con lo esencial, con lo primitivo e instintivo, volviendo al origen.

En este proyecto están involucrados Gemma A. y Daniel P.. Daniel P. es miembro fundador de Arnica, Wihinei Rita, Ghazghkull y colaborador tanto en estudio como en directo con bandas como Death In June, Allerseelen, Blood Axis, Traum´er Leben, entre otros.

Crystalmoors nació en 1995 y desde entonces, la banda se ha convertido en uno de los principales referentes del Pagan Metal en España, tocando junto a bandas nacionales e internacionales de primer nivel a lo largo de los años. Sus letras se basan en su herencia cántabra y la historia de la región, sus raíces y tradiciones celtas, y el orgullo que sienten por su tierra, siempre presente en su música. En 2016 lanzaron su quinto álbum, que incluye un segundo CD acústico llamado «La Montaña», donde la banda explora su lado folk por primera vez. Algunas de las canciones de este álbum aparecen en el videojuego «Mount And Blade» y en la serie de televisión History Channel «Templarios». Han actuado en varios festivales folclóricos de toda España, ofreciendo un espectáculo en directo intenso y único. El uso de instrumentos tradicionales y voces limpias que recuerdan su herencia celta, mezclado con una percusión intensa y la voz gruñona de Lavín, te evocará y transportará a las batallas entre cántabros contra Roma, el culto a la naturaleza y la búsqueda continua de los orígenes de Cantabria.

Túa es un grupo español de música celta folk fundado en Murcia en el año 2008 y que posee un amplio repertorio de música tradicional y composiciones propias con temas de raíz gallega, asturiana, irlandesa escocesa, y bretona. Sus influencias son muy variadas, desde Luar na Lubre, Milladoiro, Carlos Núñez y Berrog��etto hasta The Dubliners, The Chieftains, Solas, y Alan Stivell.

El grupo inició su andadura musical como grupo de taberna dándose a conocer entre el público con temas populares y tradicionales amenizando las noches en bares y locales de distintos puntos de Murcia como ‘’La Puerta Falsa’’, ‘’Fitzpatrick’s Irish pub’’ o ‘’The Corner’’.

Graban su primer disco en el año 2014 bajo el título de ‘’Coordenadas Norte-Sur’’ en el que recogen el repertorio de esta primera etapa y se enfocan profesionalmente dentro del panorama folk, dando el salto en 2015 de las salas a los festivales. Entre los últimos, han participado en: ‘’Murcia Tres Culturas’’, ‘’Barranda Folk’’ (Caravaca de la Cruz), ‘’Catarsis’’ (Huéscar, Granada), ‘’Intercéltico de Sendim’’ (Portugal) y ‘’LupeFolk’’ (Murcia). Han tenido también diversas actuaciones en otras provincias como, Madrid, Salamanca, Almería, Alicante, A Coruña y Ourense. En el año 2019 fueron finalistas del concurso “Runas”, organizado por el prestigioso festival del Mundo Celta de Ortigueira (A Coruña).

[dukeofriven]

‘The AfD declares autistic climate activist to be “mentally challenged” and firms-up its campaign platform around the idea of publicly ridiculing a teenager.’ Throw their pathetic fear of a teen back in their faces. Mock them at every opportunity. Smear their faces in their own shit until they can’t breathe without opening their mouths to swallow it. Remind them always that they are small and weak and frightened by a 15 year old - jeer them, giggle in their presence them, howl with laughter every time they try and pass their crayon scrawl as policy.  Make their every waking second a taunting Mean Girls hell in which they can never be free of the knowledge that everyone knows they’re nothing but a pathetic joke. And every time they try and draw strength from that, to try and don the mantle of the oppressed underdog, punch them in the nose and remind them that their bodies are as fragile as their egos and their ideas. Push them down again and again and again. Whisper in their ear that their Nazis forebears used to get treated like this - until one day they found the courage to stand up for themselves and their beliefs and fight. And then they lost. And then we killed them. And then we displayed their bloated corpses for all the world to jeer. And then we destroyed everything they had built and they were powerless to stop us because these failed, pathetic losers put their faith in beliefs that were wrong. Demonstrably false. Literally untrue. The Reich to last a thousand years never grew old enough to get a driver’s license. The Nazis who were humiliated in the Beer Hall Putsch vowed that from that day forward no one would ever treat them like that again. But we did. Because they’re losers who fail. These are people whose ideology gives them cover for advocating some of the most heinous acts this earth has ever seen. The alt-right, whether they openly identify as Nazis or not, are Nazis, and are in accord with the exact same belief system that advocated for genocide, racial supremacy, patriarchy, antiquated conservatism, and other such debunked delusions even if they distance themselves from the Nazi label. When someone’s ideology gives them cover for being a piece of shit like that then you should oblige and treat them as such. Drag them into the nearest restroom and give them a couple swirlies -shit belongs in the toilet, after all. Alright. Despite my bellicose rhetoric above I am a pacifist at heart - violence ultimately begets more violence. So don’t let them drown. Don’t break any bones. Don’t go pulling off fingers the way you might the wings of a tiny, helpless, pathetic, utterly incapable-of-fighting-back mosquito before carelessly squashing it with the tip of the nail on your pinkie finger. Even though you could. Easily. It would not be hard.

But there’s a difference between perpetuating a cycle of violence by starting a blood feud or spending decades abusing someone emotionally and physically and dragging someone who said “you’re a weak effeminate pansy degenerate who wouldn't exist in our pure society and its not hate speech to want a country for white straight men and women with shared moral values” into a park bathroom and demonstrating certain inaccuracies of that argument by clamming their heads into the urinal and forcing them to eat a urinal cake. It’s not the most intellectually robust rebuttal, but you could rephrase “you’re a weak effeminate pansy degenerate who wouldn't exist in our pure society” as “you’re a stinky doo doo head who sucks and when I grow up I’m gonna be strong enough to throw you into space.” They’re functionally identical in terms of tone, content, self-aggrandizement, and mental acuity. There is no intellectually appropriate response to that kind of infantile argument - these are not intelligent people. I don’t mean ‘lacking in formal education.’ I mean they’re stupid. ‘Burn the blankets to warm the bed’ stupid. Leibowitzian ‘Proud To Be A Cretin’ stupid. ‘Smart Men Stay Ignorant; Leaning’s For Libs’ stupid. Their positions should not be treated as intellectually valid out of a misguided belief that a good intellectual should be open-minded to every idea every time it’s proposed. Sure, absolute-free-speech defenders always willing to normalize Nazi “discourse”, I’ll concede that the world-is-flat guy might have had a right to explain what his beliefs were. In 5000 BC, When nobody had heard them before and we didn’t know what he was going to say. Eight thousand years later, though, indulging his ancestor who’s just going to repeat the same points that were wrong eight millennia ago is lunacy.

A good intellectual knowns when something isn’t worth their time and acts accordingly. Sometimes this means not letting someone fill the air with hate speech out of slavish obligation to letter of freedom of expression instead of its spirit (when someone is granted the freedom to debate the idea that everyone who disagrees with them should be purged, you only harm freedom, not celebrate it.) Sometimes this means force-feeding an advocate of genocide a tasty lunchtime treat of urine and quaternary ammonium compounds while cheerfully wondering aloud what might happen if there’s still unswallowed cake in their mouth and you need to resolve certain biological necessities.

The first mistake we ever made with the alt-right was to leave the whoopee cushion at home, when we should have attended their every rally with an armful and play them constantly every time they tried to speak. “There’s nothing wrong with saying I’m pr-THPPTPHTPHPHHPH proud to be THPPTPHTPHPHHPH be white and to stand up for THPPTPHTPHPHHPH the achieveTHPPTPHTPHPHHPHments of the whitTHPPTPHTPHPHHPH of the whTHPPTPHTPHPHHPH white THPPTPHTPHPHHPH white raTPHRRURURURPHH-P-P-P- whiP-P-P-P whP-P-P whiteP-P-P-P WHITE RACTRRHPRPRP-P-P ... ... ... *cough* ... ... WHITE POWFFFFWWWPWPPRPRPRPRPRPRSQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAKTRRRHHPPPP-PPP-RPPP-PPP-P-P-P-PLIPPPP-THRP plip! We should attend their rallies and events with boxes of red noses, rainbow wigs, and buckets of greasepaint and throw ourselves upon them until we’ve forced them into wearing their true colours. Remember: every SS officer who looked so forbidding in their tailored uniform stank of their own disgusting sweat because all that blackened leather couldn’t breathe and every SS trooper standing in that imposing formation was broiling in their own filth. Nothing but bozos in fetish gear. The vaunted Wehrmacht had their uniforms rot off their bodies in the snows of Stalingrad as they had to strip the dead for scraps and rags, freezing to death, starving to death, because Hitler - the great genius who personally involved himself with the running of his forces almost to a tactical level - he didn’t think they needed to be resupplied. The Nazis lost. The Nazis lost so badly their monuments were ground into dust, their leaders bodies destroyed or abandoned in the mud, the dreams of Germania proven nothing but a dusty model in a museum devoted to cursing the Nazi’s memory. Nothing but a shrine to hubris and grossly over-estimating your own abilities. The legacy of the Nazis is humiliation, shame, and utter fucking failure. Neo-Nazis, this ‘new’ alt-right whose philosophies are all old, have as their heroes men who did nothing but fail, who achieved nothing but to have their life’s work expunged, debased, destroyed, and condemned by the world not just in their time but for generations after. Not misunderstood geniuses but understood buffoons. Never, ever, let them forget this - and never, ever let them try to turn it into a virtue. No ‘we shall rise again’ narratives. No abyss-to-transformation in some bullshit Cambellian hero’s journey. Their past was not a defeat to inspire them to future victory. They are not the underprivileged hurdle jumper who against all odds and obstacles wins gold at the Olympics, they’re the guy on your track team who once pushed so hard on a door marked pull that he fell through the glass and had to get ten stitches, the guy who got so drunk at an out-of-town meet that he shat his bed at the hotel and tried to hide the dirty sheets in his bags and stunk-up the bus ride home until Coach found out and chewed him out in front of the entire team for being the biggest fucking tool in the whole wide world. Not the guy who was a loner in high school but who found like-minded friends in college, started a cool band where they sang about their sucky pasts, and wound-up a rich and famous with legions of adoring fans. Nah, they’re the guy who was a loner in high school, and in college, and in the job at the napkin distribution company, the guy who retired without a party, spent weeks at a time with no one to talk to, and ultimately died alone - not because he was socially awkward or shy or struggled to communicate, but because he was really unpleasant to be around and even those virtuous folk who try and make sure that nobody is lonely gave up on him because he was such a nasty, loathsome, turd of a human being whose only impact on the world was that he improved it by leaving it. That’s the past of the Nazis. That, too, is their future. Never let them forget this. Their past should embarrass them. Mortify them. There’s is the ideology of pathetic losers. When you march against them, raise high above your heads images of Nazi Germany - not rigid columns of well-armed soldiers or shining tanks rolling off the lines, but the images of their ineptitude. The shuffling columns of defeated, broken men. Their burnt tanks, their downed planes, their sunken ships, their pulverized cities, and all the equipment abandoned in panicked withdrawals or through sheer bureaucratic incompetence. Show images of Jews defiant, the simple act of their still drawing breath spit in the eye of those who thought to see them erased. Humiliate the Nazis again and again and again. They. Failed. The Jews endured, survived, flourished - won. The conquered nations of Europe rebuilt their cultural wonders and their ruined homes and brought back their stolen treasures. They won. The disposed Roma preserved their ways of life despite the will of an entire conquering empire set against them. They won too. The queer communities persecuted for their ‘deviancy’ not only survived they reshaped the post-war world into a place that could no longer sideline them in history. Another victory. The Nazis lost. The Nazi’s failed so completely that they lost not only the territory they had tried to gain but their own nation lay shattered at their feet - politically, socially, economically, spiritually. The Great and Powerful Nazi Party so failed its own people that Germany was sundered into West Germany, East Germany, and Eastern Prussia, promptly swallowed whole by the Societs - the trauma from that lingers generations on. The Nazis not only failed to achieve any of their goals - they failed in the promise made by any such ideology: in joining us we will protect you. They did not just fail to make Germany greater, they literally destroyed it, and left it in pieces. So when you march against the alt-right, these neo-Nazis, Hoist photos of the bloated corpses of the hanged at Nuremberg - their swollen faces distorted in death. Chant the cry “Morons, Not Martyrs!” Remind every alt-right shit-eating soul that they were nothing, are nothing, will always be nothing but failures, losers, and followers of stupid, incompetent, incapable fools. They were, are, shall always, can only ever be wrong. “These are your role models? This is your dream? Failures! Failures! Failures!” “Be A Nazi To Lose It All” Do not, for a single solitary second, treat their ideas as grown-up. Do not, for a moment, give them the cover of adulthood, maturity, or sober discourse. Do not, for one second of time, treat them with respect so long as they seek to hold power over you, to be feared by you, to be thought of as an enemy and not something foul but forgettable to be scrapped off your shoe. Never give them an inch of fear to feed their starving egos. The man who said that rocks were soft as butter and as edible as custard would be given no weight as a person of substantive ideas - Nazis deserve the same derision.  And do not allow them a moment of privacy to brood on the indignities you heap upon them, to be like a teen sulking in their bedroom crafting fantasies about how one day they’ll be proven right and everyone will be sorry. Drag them out into the light again and again and again, give them no moment of peace, allow no instant of time to pass when you are not holding images of their ideology’s worthlessness and failure above their heads. No hiding. No sulking. No second to plot or brood or dream. Stake them to the earth, keep them forever in the light, and pummel them with pie until even they can not deny that they are nothing but clowns worthy only of mockery, ridicule, and endless savage laughter.

[libertariantaoist]

The Ukrainian government has stretched the truth beyond credibility on more than one occasion: those snipers in the Maiden who started firing on both sides during the “revolution” turned out not to have been soldiers loyal to the Yanukovich regime. With billions of US tax dollar going to subsidize what may be the most corrupt government on earth, the Ukrainians contend they’re as pure as the driven snow. That’s disingenuous, to say the very least: lying through their gritted teeth is more like it. And now once again they have proven how dicey they are, with their make-believe “government” ruled over by grasping oligarchs, their disorderly country roiling with neo-Nazi thugsout to kill Jews, homosexuals, and leftists, and their distinctively un-European penchant for political murders, rampant thuggery, stealing as a way of life, and untrammeled aggression against their own people.

I’m talking about the faked death of Russian anti-Putin activist Arkady Babchenko, which was staged by the SBU – the Ukrainian political police – supposedly in order to prevent Babchencko’s actual assassination by sinister Russian agents. They claim one of these Bad Guys has been captured, but we’ve seen neither hide nor hair of him, and probably won’t. Indeed, the whole story is likely a lie: this was simply yet another propaganda campaign designed to blacken the name of Putin and his regime. The pattern is clear: the Skripal fraud, the Russia-gate hoax, and the list of provocations – all the way back to Viktor Yushchenko’s acne – goes on. This is Cold War II, folks, and don’t you forget it.

[Read more] (https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2018/05/30/the-babchenko-deception-kievs-masters-of-deceit/)

[screamingforyears]

SINGLE FILE:

HAND OF DUST

“UMBRELLAS”

AVANT!

“UMBRELLAS” is the latest noir-tinged single from HAND OF DUST.

The Copenhagen trio of Bo Høyer Hansen (vocals/guitar), Jesper Rasmussen (bass), and Bjørn Hemmeth Manniche (percussion) create darkened post-punk that incorporates swaths of neo-folk, blues, and country rock. If you’re imagining King Dude’s Scandinavian cousin, you’re on the right track, because Hand of Dust and the Dude traverse similar terrain.  

“Umbrellas” is a ramshackle bed of sparse percussion & blackened twang, as Hansen delivers a snarled sing-speak sermon. Press play and allow Hand of Dust to fill the Death in June sized hole in your black heart...

Hand of Dust’s latest 7″ “Umbrellas” is out now via Avant! Records:

https://handofdust.bandcamp.com/

[thecvltnation]

Hell Incarnated: Hagazussa - "Dyspnea" Review + Stream

I have only been recently exposed to the virulent strain of flesh-eating aural violence that is Hagazussa‘s music. I’m happy I have encountered this music, as it has taught me a severe lesson on how the human brain can be subdued and battered into total submission just through the ...

http://www.cvltnation.com/hell-incarnated-hagazussa-dyspnea-review-stream/

#AvantGarde, #BlackMetal, #Doom, #Featured, #Features, #Music, #NeoFolk, #Noise, #Psych, #Sludge, #Streaming

[thisworldisablackhole]

Listening Log, May 2024

May has been a good month so far. Some highlights that I've already discussed have been One Step Closer, Like Moths To Flames, and Knocked Loose. I've been getting out of my comfort zone and listening to some different kinds of metal lately, so this roundup is gonna be a bit more varied than normal. Yay.

FFO: SOULFUL INDIE, FOLK ROCK

This has been one of the biggest announcements of the year for me personally. Clairo dropped a new song on thursday accompanying the announcement of her new album, which comes out in less than two months! It's refreshing to see an artist not drag out an album release for half a year. "Sexy to Someone" is such a promising first single. We still get the same lush arrangements of instruments that were utilized on Sling, just with a little more snap from the rhythm section which keeps the song grooving at all times. I was a little surprised to see her move away from working with producer Jack Antonoff, because I think what they accomplished together on Sling was a home run, but Leon Michels seems like a fitting choice to push Clairo's sound in a more soulful direction. I am just so excited for this one, I pre ordered the album as soon as I saw the announcement.

FFO: WIERD DISSONANT POST PUNK AND BLACK METAL

Time for a jarring u-turn. First off, this might be my favourite album cover of the year. The sci fi dork in me make me think it looks like someone standing on the moon and gazing through some kind of portal, which is dope (even though that's probably not what it is). This was my first exposure to Inter Arma, and the turn this album took was so unexpected and fascinating to me. New Heaven starts off with some insanely dissonant guitars before turning into a full on blackened death pummel fest that lasts for the first three songs. Guitars are sharp like razor wire, vocals are low and evil, and thanks to the killer production job, the whole thing just thunders with an atmospheric, dark energy. Fourth track "Endless Grey" begins to slowly transition us to the dark side of the moon with an epic instrumental passage of soulfully dueling guitar leads and plodding, funeral-esque drums. Then the second half begins to get really experimental with it's blend of gothic post punk, post metal and neo-folk. It's truly a journey of an album and one that's most likely gonna make it onto my year end list.

FFO: BLACK METAL, ATMOSPHERIC SLUDGE

Glassing were introduced to me as "similar to Hopesfall and Portrayal of Guilt", which was a description that immediately sold me. Two of my favourite bands which both occupy pretty different ranges of the energy spectrum, with Hopesfall being brighter and more atmospheric, and Portrayal of Guilt being downright dystopian and crushing. The crazy thing is, Glassing actually delivers on both of these promises. A sludgy, blackened low end with dismal, sometimes spooky clean/sometimes shrieking vocals topped by atmospheric, "glassy" yet crunchy lead guitars. Unfortunately, I didn't love the album as much as I love those two bands separately. Some of the songs are a bit too plodding and focus intensive for me, and I was a little disappointed by it's lack of flow in the track list. Some of the songs shift seamlessly into each other, while many others have like 5-6 seconds of silence in between them, which doesn't sound like a big deal, but it throws some speed bumps into the listening experience which remind you that you're about to go through another long tunnel of misery.

FFO: DEATH METAL, HARDCORE, MELODEATH

Gatecreeper, Gatecreeper, Gatecreeper. The black sheep of the modern death metal scene. This band has been criticized for their formulaic take on hardcore infused death metal, but Dark Superstition is a welcome surprise which shakes up the band's meta in the best way possible. This album not only features their absolute crunchiest, chunkiest production to date, but it's also their most melodic. Dark Superstition still packs some blistering heaters, but it also quite often veers into pure melodeath territory with harmonized guitar leads and tonally conscious grooves. I wish they went even further with this sound though, because as much as 50% of this album rules, the other 50% just makes me want to listen the The Black Dahlia Murder to get an even more concentrated dose of melodic guitar work.

FFO: PROGRESSIVE METAL WITH ADVENTUROUS MELODIC PARTS

Hijacking The Zeitgeist is another album that I mostly checked due to the album art, but Exist quickly caught me off guard and captured my heart with this one. Metal which is progressive and whimsical while still firmly rooted in traditions of rock n' roll is always a winning recipe for me. This album is just very focused on sick grooves and even sicker riffs. The songs are memorable and structurally familiar with just enough melodic curveballs thrown in to evoke an emotional connection that will keep you coming back.

FFO: POST HARDCORE, EMOTIVE DISSONANCE

Oberst are a band from Norway who make some very tasteful post hardcore that balances melody and dissonance with a masters hand. Toil is a brilliant array of angular, emotive hardcore riffs, and moody rhythms that will leave you gripping your chest. I haven't spent enough time with this album yet, but I think fans of bands like Birds In Row and Loma Prieta should absolutely adore this. Seems like an album with enough depth and subtle ear worms to really reward repeated listens.

FFO: SLUDGE METAL, ROCK N' ROLL I've known that this band is extremely prolific and successful for years, but I've just never been into sludgy stoner metal enough to check them out. Bands like Electric Wizard and Sleep have always bored the shit out of me, call the cops. Fortunately for High on Fire, they fucking rock. Slowed down Motörhead riffs, killer solos and a gruff yet melodically sensible vocalist who commands absolute control over the mid tempo serpent of the metal world.

FFO: METALCORE, HYPER POP, DEFTONES, ZOOMER BRAINROT-CORE

Last but not least, this new BMTH album was just sprung on us with less than a day's notice. It's no secret that this album has been in the works for a really long time, with some of these singles dating back to 2021, but I don't think anyone was expecting for it to drop like that without warning. It's very on brand though, because this album defies a lot of odds. I'll be honest, I haven't cared about this band since 2010, and I thought amo and That's The Spirit were incredibly boring, so I was not expecting this album to be so much damn fun. The mish mash of genres here just works so well for me, combining hyper pop with metalcore and grungy alt metal. It's like BMTH had a baby with underscores and Deftones. This album is 55 minutes long, but the variety keeps it so engaging. It almost feels more like listening to a playlist as opposed to a cohesive album, which I think was an intentional move to capture the attention of todays society of instant gratification induced brain death. I admit, there's some stinkers on this album. In particular I don't looove the way this band does it's Deftones rip off as it feels more like an unoriginal imitation than a fresh spin. Loathe does that type of stuff so much better. Some of the straight up pop songs were a bit lackluster as well, but when the band hits that sweet spot mixing chaotic blasts of electronic pop with metalcore, it just lights up all the right neurons in my brain. I can see why so many people despise this shit, but I think not being a BMTH fan prior, and thus having zero expectations of what they should or should not sound like really made it easy for me to get into this. Going to be spinning this one for a while.

[reptileshrine]

A Collaboration by Aluk Todolo & Der Blutharsch and the Infinite Church of the Leading Hand

[tinymixtapes]

♫ Listen: Hasufel - LORD OF CARRION

Like a candle flickering in that deep, cold dungeon hole, horizontal — dim but luminescent as a lightning bug, limp. A candle that’s moving more than just by a chill breeze: pacing. Smoke rising out from the gnarled, crusted lip, gently caressing the charred moss. Incantations gurgling in throws of grim doom, shadowed upon noir kept outlines of Helmut nodding. Roots and chains entombing a lockedness with nature. Attune with Earth’s center. The center of this rot. LORD OF CARRION arises from an unlit cauldron bubbling acid, antifreeze, and chili peppers. Reign the outcast of ritual worship. Somewhere in the enigmatic ether where the ooze that resides between the likes of Lustmord, SPK, and Coil, there dwells the LA-based act, Hasufel. Shrouded in a cloak of mystery, project leader Helmut warps ice-cold dark ambient and squelching synth-driven cold wave with a chaotic strand of noisy nü-neo folk on new release, Lord Of Carrion. The output, which has spent five years coming to fruition in an abyssal nook, comes crawling out as a filthy, sprawling beast already full grown with wild, twisted limbs and a horned head, itself nodding ever so slightly to the more obscure side of black metal. Dynamic, strange, and dense; Hasufel has a specific intent to coat the listener with a stench of melancholy while creeping them out with a fantastic, obscene blackened magick. Not casual listening, the sound herein will be satisfactory to a selective guild, but will ultimately draw a cult-like following of heathens with a glean in their eye to match their daggers. The new release will speak to them with messages of decay… pestilence… nightmare… and ultimate doom. Do not listen casually, listen with a desire to lay flayed open and pray to whatever deity you cry out to when the night blanks out the stars. http://j.mp/2gL7JkC

[datura-ad]

The Sound, acrylic, 20′’ x 20′’

[reptileshrine]

Wēoh by Wēoh