Wreck and Reference - Black Cassette (Remastered)

A remastered version of Wreck and Reference's Black Cassette was added to the Flenser Records Bandcamp. This is experimental doom/noise rock, done without guitars, they use keyboards, synths, samples, and excellent drumming to provide the heavy sounds. The vocals and the almost "poppy" feel of some of the tracks makes it sound kind of like The Cure playing doom. Here are two reviews from Don't Count on it Reviews and Invisible Oranges and an interview from Cvlt Nation.

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The original (non-remastered) version of Black Cassette is available from Wreck and Reference's own Bandcamp

Liber Necris - The Immutable Aversion

Art by Drew Millward

Liber Necris - The Immutable Aversion is death metal. Not old school or technical or progressive, 'just' slightly blackened pummeling death metal. With an excellent production. Another great find from No Clean Singing, read the review by Islander.

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XII Boar - Split Tongue, Cloven Hoof

XII Boar's new EP Split Tongue, Cloven Hoof is riff heavy, galloping stoner metal. Doom grooves and sludgy sections adds to the atmosphere. Read this review from No Clean Singing that describes the band as a mix of High On Fire and Motörhead.

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Old Mountain - Demo

Psychedelic doomsters Old Mountain have updated their Bandcamp, now all three songs of the demo are available. The standout track is still the incredibly heavy and atmospheric Clarissa, give it a listen below. A little warning: At around 13:30 the doomy goodness ends, the rest is ambient noise and some druggy banter. As this Doommantia review states, that is probably why Clarissa is subtitled 'Explains Hallucinogenic'.

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Bandcamp updates from Conan and Cut Your Teeth

Conan live at Buffalo Bar Cardiff - 22nd January 2012. Tracklist: Krull - Satsumo - Hawk as Weapon - Retaliator - Sea Lord. 47 minutes of downtuned heaviness.

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Cut Your Teeth - If It's Loud. Heavy Metal 'till I die, throw your horns up in the sky! Slide solo. Metal scream. Youtube video.

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Barren Waste - Dreaming In Aeons

Art by Jeremiah Hoppe.

Barren Waste - Dreaming In Aeons. This is all wrong. Barren Waste plays gnarly hardcore/death metal/grind, but the artwork looks like something from a djent or tech death band. The music sounds like it is falling apart at times and the production is of the one take basement session variety. But fuck, I like it! The production suits the music, it is raw and in your face, the riffs are crunching and the vocals pure evil. Tip: Hear all of it, the last three songs are the best. Here are two reviews from Grind to Death and Cvlt Nation who says that on Dreaming In Aeons the we don’t give a fuck factor is turned up to ten on every song!

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Falls of Rauros - The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood

Falls of Rauros - The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood is a heavily folk-infused take on atmospheric black metal. There are hints of Agalloch and it has the same rustic feel of a walk in the woods in Autumn. The Inarguable called it "Some of the most genuine and passionate music I have personally ever heard and it actually kind of scares me"

Falls of Rauros - The Light That Dwells in Rotten Wood is a heavily folk-infused take on atmospheric black metal. There are hints of Agalloch and it has the same rustic feel of a walk in the woods in Autumn. The Inarguable called it "Some of the most genuine and passionate music I have personally ever heard and it actually kind of scares me" and the mighty Autothrall spake thus:

The album also sounds enormous, like a rush of autumn winds beating at the tree-line. There are numerous periods of errant despair contrasted with passionate swells, almost as if this record were an arboreal tide, a gray and green lattice of the Earth's sadness, wept out through the centuries of blood and loss.

Kólga - Demo

Kólga's Demo is a new release on the Flenser Records Bandcamp. The band features Austin Lunn from Seidr and Panopticon and you could say that Kólga places itself somewhere in between those two bands. Atmospheric and doomy black metal.

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Desecravity - Implicit Obedience

Desecravity's debut album Implicit Obedience has just been released on the Willowtip Bandcamp. And man, this is br00htal! The Japanese band plays technical death metal, with a little grindcore and that brutal death metal. Fluid tempo changes and abundant blastbeats creates a very frenetic atmosphere. Here are two reviews from American Aftermath and Metal Review.

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Alaskan - Adversity; Woe

Cover illustration: Pascale Arpin

Alaskan - Adversity; Woe consists of 3 short songs and 4 epic tracks. The short tracks functions as breathers before the heavy sludge/post-metal riffs kick in. Adversity; Woe mixes the heavy atmospheric metal with just the right amount of psychedelic doom. In an interview with American Aftermath, Alaskan explains the concept behind the album:

Each song deals with the idea of man forgetting the dangers of the products, machines or atmospheres we’ve created and tend to expect as an everyday normal occurrence. Such as working beneath the ground or flying in the sky. We don’t take our safety into consideration expecting the people who arrange these things for us to be responsible for our well being or safety

Read the review from The Metal Archives and check it out.

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Behold! The Monolith - Defender, Redeemist

Behold! The Monolith's new album Defender, Redeemist is available for pre-order now (it releases 24 January 2012). Behold! The Monolith is a stoner/doom metal trio from Los Angeles, I featured the stunning artwork to Defender, Redeemist in this post about their previous album. I haven't heard the full album yet, but it has already received rave reviews from Doommantia and Cvlt Nation.

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UPDATE: The album is available now! I have heard it and it fucking rocks!

The Devil & The Sea - MMVI

MMVI by the now defunct The Devil & The Sea is available on The Path Less Traveled Records Bandcamp. This is sludge mixed with doom and some Pelican style post-metal. Epic sludge. Here's a review from Crustcake.

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Sinistrous Diabolus - Total doom​, ​Total death

Deep down the metal underground we find Sinistrous Diabolus, a doom band from New Zealand. Total doom​, ​Total death is a re-recording of a one man live set. The stand out track is a dark and beautiful cover of the Dead Can Dance classic Host of Serafin. Listen to it below and read this fascinating interview with the man behind Sinistrous Diabolus.

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Reclusa - The Anticonscience

Digging deeper into the metal underground we find Reclusa's The Anticonscience on the Crucial Blast Bandcamp. This is a slow, heavy, evil and filthy take on dark ambient / mechanical death metal. Special mention goes to the disturbingly low gurgling growling. It is ridiculously heavy and disgusting music. Check out the reviews from Sputnikmusic and Doommantia.

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Cloak of Altering - The Night Comes Illuminated With Death

Today on Metal Bandcamp we dig into the metal underground. First up is Cloak of Altering - The Night Comes Illuminated With Death, available on the Human Jigsaw Records Bandcamp. Cloak of Altering is black metal hallucinations, symphonic black metal and dark industrial/electronic music mixed together in a package both chaotic and melodic. As this reviewfrom The Metal Archives says:

The expert use of orchestral elements, electronic noises and chanting vocals create an incredible atmosphere of blindingly bright dread.

Cloak of Altering is a project of Mories - mastermind behind the orchestral death metal chaos of Gnaw Their Tongues. I featured another of his projects, the wholly electronic It Only Gets Worse here. Here is another review of The Night Comes Illuminated With Death from Don't Count on it Reviews.

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Burn Everything - Last Run Through The Ruins

Burn Everything - Last Run Through The Ruins. Let me start by saying that I like that title, it has a nice apocalyptic feel to it. Burn Everything plays grind and hardcore with lots of grooves and tempo changes - and some seriously pissed off screaming. Read this short review from Heavy Blog is Heavy and check it out.

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Phantom Glue - Phantom Glue

The self-titled album by Phantom Glue is a mix of straight up sludge and stoner doom riffing, doomsludge as Doommantia calls it. They are a little more direct in their approach than typical sludge/stoner bands, at times reminiscent of the energy of early grunge. Here are two more reviews from The Obelisk and Metal Review.

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Burial Earth - Demo 2010

Burial Earth's Demo 2010 is melodic death metal, it's nice to see that you can still find solid bands within this overdone genre. Burial Earth are from Holland and adds some blackened touches to the death metal. The best track from Demo 2010 is the first one, check it out below. Here is a review from The Metal Archives.

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Dim Mak - The Emergence of Reptilian Altars

The new album from Dim Mak - The Emergence of Reptilian Altars is available on the Willowtip bandcamp. This is technical death metal that is almost as groovy as it is technical. Great drumming, shreddy solos and vocals that at times remind you of a crazy death metal beat poet as mentioned in this review by Angry Metal Guy. Here's another review, this one from Invisible Oranges.

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Botanist - I: The Suicide Tree / II: A Rose From the Dead

Botanist's two albums The Suicide Tree and A Rose From the Dead are now available on Bandcamp! (thanks to Full Metal Attorney for the news). Black metal. Hammered dulcimer. Drums. Croaky vocals. Plants. Despite the avantgarde aspect of it and the odd instrumentation

Botanist's two albums The Suicide Tree and A Rose From the Dead are now available on Bandcamp! (thanks to Full Metal Attorney for the news). Black metal. Hammered dulcimer. Drums. Croaky vocals. Plants. Despite the avantgarde aspect of it and the odd instrumentation, this is also music filled with riffs, and as Atanamar Sunyata says: "Botanist unmoors a staggering raft of rhythms; I'm repeatedly inclined to bang my head to this music". Click the player to enter the Verdant Realm.

Haar - Haar

Haar's self-titled EP is progressive black metal that mixes the black metal with heavy and slow sections, at times sounding almost like a doom band. All three tracks of the EP are good, but the standout is the centrepiece 'To Forgive An Enemy'. Here's what the enthusiastic review from Lurker's Path had to say about it:

The latent despair swells and explodes in an ecstatic chorus, where the lyrics beam through with defiance: "YOU’RE AN ENEMY, FUCKED-UP ENEMY. YOUUU! TO FORGIVE AN ENEMY, FORSAKEN ENEMY. YOUUU!" ... Whatever’s being said, you’d want to fuck up your enemies too after a rousing sing-along like that.

Listen to the track below, and click the player to hear the rest of the EP.

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Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire • Nesseria - Split

Artwork by Sin Eater

The Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire / Nesseria split is available on the Throatruiner Records Bandcamp. This is gnarly grind with the two bands approaching the genre a little differently. CTTTOAFF labels themselves 'funeral grind' and that makes sense, Nesseria mixes the grind with a little more melody.

Read the reviews from Cvlt Nation and Aversionline who says that the two bands are a perfect fit: Similar in overall aesthetic, but still individual units that have something a bit different to offer the listener.

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Battle Path - Storm & Stress

Artwork by Brock Vincion Sharp

The various year-end lists is a great way to learn about some of the music you overlooked during the year. I picked up Battle Path's Storm & Stress from this list from No Clean Singing, where it was described as doomy, deathy, blacky, avant-gardey, dark experimentalism. You can also read the review from Don't Count on it Reviews and, off course, listen to it below.

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KEN mode - Venerable

Artwork by Julie Anne Mann

Venerable, the new album by KEN mode is available at their Bandcamp. Venerable mixes punk aggression and noise rock with the guitar textures of post-hardcore. Here are two reviews from Invisible Oranges and Heavy Blog is Heavy and one by Dan Obstkrieg from Metal Review who says that the album has a wealth of nuance, confident songwriting, and straight-up fuck-your-mother attitude.

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Lamentations Of The Ashen - EKIMMV

Lamentations Of The Ashen's EKIMMV is depressive black metal. Three long and epic tracks of blackened doom metal, drone, and shoegaze sandwiched by two shorter tracks. Read the review from Don't Count on it Reviews and check it out.

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Iced Earth - Dante's Inferno 2011

Iced Earth have re-recorded their classic epic Dante's Inferno featuring new vocalist Stu Block. First they made it available for free through their website, now you can stream and buy it from Bandcamp. More than 17 minutes of gritty US power metal.

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Celestiial - Where Life Springs Eternal

Celestiial's Where Life Springs Eternal was added to the Bindrune Recordings Bandcamp. The album has been labelled funeral doom but while it has the sluggish crawl, there's none of the heaviness. Instead of distorted guitars and death metal vocals there are sounds of running waters and crackling branches. I think Where Life Springs Eternal is better described as nature inspired dark ambient/black metal. Here's a string of reviews from The Metal Archives.

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Incantation - Onward to Golgotha & Diabolical Conquest

Cover art by Miran Kim

Incantation's Onward to Golgotha from 1993 is now available on the Relapse Alumni Bandcamp; together with Diabolical Conquest from 1998 and the rest of Incantion' Relapse discography. Onwards to Golgatha takes you back to the days when this sound was unique, before so many bands made entire careers out of aping the "Incantation sound". A genre-defining classic for sure, still Diabolical Conquest may be an even better album. The basic style is there in full force; a mix of slow, plodding doom metal and speedy, relentless death metal. But it sounds more aggressive than Onwards to Golgotha, and the song writing is just a little tighter in my opinion. Usually I would write "but check both albums out for yourself, and make up your own mind", but you can only stream a single track from each album...

Photo by Carmelo Española.

On the Relapse Alumni Bandcamp you can find entire Relapse discographies of many bands formerly associated with the label. Besides Incantation, there's High on Fire, Mastodon, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and many others. Bob from Relapse Records explained the concept of the Alumni Bandcamp to me:

We're going to be uploading a lot of classic albums to the alumni bandcamp of some of our largest bands. These albums we don't necessarily want to stream in their entirety or make artist pages for them since they are no longer affiliated with the label, so we figured this was the best way to still promote and sell them plus offer fans higher quality downloads!

To which I can only add: Great idea! My only criticism is that just streaming one track from each album is not enough (in the case of Diabolical Conquest the track chosen is the only instrumental on the album!). In my opinion 2-3 carefully selected tracks (or simply all!) would allow the listener to get a better feel for the music on the album.

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Conan - Horseback Battle Hammer

Artwork by Anthony Roberts.

Conan's Horseback Battle Hammer has been described as Caveman Battle Doom and it has been called brown metal, because it rumbles so low you could shit your pants from the vibrations. This Doommantia review has yet another apt description:

Imagine waking up and rolling out of your cave roughly somewhere in the Pliocene on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning, the taste of meaty trilobites still on the back of your tongue. Checking up on the water supply of your herd of mammoths, you continue to the tundra wastelands to do some hunting - and Conan's Horseback Battle Hammer would be the soundtrack to your doings.

Here's a review from The Obelisk and an interview with the band from Doomsmoker.

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I found the large version of the album artwork in this Cvlt Nation gallery.

Obscura - Omnivium

Obscura - Omnivium is progressive death metal. It's extremely technical, the playing is simply phenomenal, but at the same it is also quite accessible. The songs have hooks and don't go totally overboard with the technicality. All this is wrapped in in warm and organic sounding production. Here are two reviews from Heavy Blog is Heavy and Angry Metal Guy.

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Shroud Eater - ThunderNoise

Shroud Eater's ThunderNoise is loud, distorted, sludge/doom. The drumming is furious (and a little awkwardly produced depending on your tastes). The driving stoner riffs are mixed with more psychedelic and hypnotic parts. Read the review from The Obelisk and check it out.

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Oak Pantheon - The Void

Artwork by Jessie Carlson

One of my Bandcamp favorites Oak Pantheon's The Void has been mentioned on a few year-end lists, and the album deserves the recognition. This is folk and doom influenced black metal with plenty of melody. The caustic rasping vocals contrasts nicely with the melodies. And the songs are sprinkled with epic solos. Here are a couple of reviews from No Clean Singing and American Aftermath.

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Grayceon - All We Destroy

Grayceon's latest album All We Destroy was added to the Profound Lore Bandcamp. Guitars, drums and an electric cello. Female vocals and occasional screams. Let me just tell you that I absolutely love this album and then defer to my betters Angry Metal Guy and Full Metal Attorney. They both do a great job describing the album and how Grayceon make their unique instrumentation work so well.

Syphilitic Lust - 2010 Cassette Demo

Syphilitic Lust - 2010 Cassette Demo is black metal covered in slime and sleaze. The last track on the demo Flesh of Light has some great trashy riffing, I would love to hear it with just a little better production. Read the review from Invisible Oranges.

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Boris - Heavy Rocks

In 2011 Boris released 3 albums! And yes, Heavy Rocks is the most heavy of them. The other two are quite poppy, the metal/drone/noise freakouts of the old Boris seems to be gone. The standout track on Heavy Rocks is the doomy ballad Aileron, you can listen to it below. You can also read reviews from AllMusic and Metal Review.

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Their new remix album, cheekily titled New Album is available here.

Toxic Holocaust - Conjure And Command

Toxic Holocaust - Conjure And Command is available on the Relapse Records Bandcamp. This is real crusty retro-trash that mixes the more manic tracks with slow, sludgy riffing. Basically it is an album of shredding riff after shredding riff. Angry Metal Guy reviewed it, so did Heavy Blog is Heavy.

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Basick 2012 Sampler

Basic Records have added a free 2012 sampler album to their Bandcamp. 12 tracks of modern progressive metal, all of it very djenty and techy.

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Knife - Knife

The Knife was mentioned in a "On the Radar" feature from The Obelisk. Groovy and catchy metal that rips. Heavy on the solos and with some really bad ass vocals.

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Electro Quarterstaff - Aykroyd

Aykroyd, the new album Electro Quarterstaff was added to the Willowtip Bandcamp. Instrumental metal with noisy, angular riffs, triple guitar harmonies and a rawer production than usual for this type of music. It is interesting to see how the reviewers from Heavy Blog is Heavy and Invisible Oranges come at the album from two different backgrounds, but do click that player below and listen to it yourself.

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Lycus - Demo MMXI (Remastered)

Artwork by Bryan Proteau

Lycus demo was heralded as one of the best doom albums of 2011. Check out Kim Kelly's list here and my own from No Clean Singing, where I wrote a few lines about my favorite track on the demo, "Aghast":

"Mournful choral vocal lines accompany the traditional death metal vocals and crashing riffs. And that fantastic fast section as the track goes from stately to pummeling. Cathartic."

In preparation for an upcoming vinyl release, Flenser Records has added the remastered demo to their Bandcamp as a free download, including new artwork by Bryan Proteau.

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