Crawl - Damned (2023) 🇺🇸 | Profound Lore Records

•  †  •

Crawl exists in the arena of doom metal as a one-man force of bone gnashing atmospherics that move around with the same agility and haste as old people fucking—It’s lugubrious and dismal and mired in cavernous noise, dank and crumbling. You’ve heard this before, many times actually, but maybe not exactly in this way. The use of ambient passages in Lurker of Chalice comes to mind. Or the stoney abrasive heaviness of Rorcal, distilled all the way down to the molasses paced heft of Világvége.

Tonally, Crawl is solitary confinement.

I’ve read Michael A. Engle word it as such: “Crawl is basically my attempt to put you in a space like a dungeon, where you’re slowly exploring the environment. Every step is very cautious, and every corner has a ton of anxiety. You’re afraid to take that next step or afraid to open a door.” It’s an apt descriptor for the sound he manifests.

•  Ω  •

Admittedly, I haven’t spent enough time with this record to absorb everything about it, my likes and dislikes are ambiguous, but as a reflex I am drawn to how it sounds. It sounds unique, despite not being wholly inventive, though I believe the execution and technique is rather unique to the genre.

Crawl - Damned (bandcamp)

Chasm Shroud - Manna From Heaven (2022)

•  †  •

You peer into the void. You see nothing, but hear faint sounds in the distance emanating from the yawning maw of black space…

Manna From Heaven came out of nowhere, suddenly appearing (no demos or EP’s prior) and carrying with it some of the most intriguing black metal I’ve heard all year—It’s hard to pin down exactly, but a strange energy circulates here, like it’s been ritually charged and imbued with unknown intent.

The above statement might feel hyperbolic or even trite, but the overall sense is something palpable—An ominous portent of oblique black metal soundscapes reverberating around hypnotic dirges in a hallucinatory haze of frenetic dissonance. NAME YOUR PRICE, don't be a knucklehead!

Chasm Shroud - Manna From Heaven (bandcamp)

Leucosis - Leucosis (2013)

•  †  •

This is a record that's been put up on here before but it's high-time for a re-up since it's been buried by a swath of posts that have come after. Leucosis' self-titled output from 2013 is the bands pivotal release, in my opinion—Its heft hasn't been dulled by the years one fucking bit! It remains a force of brute and murky doom metal flanked by a raw and oppressive black metal, unpolished to the point of practically having a veneer of patina over every track.

Albums are often over-credited with being monolithic without actually having an over-bearing power or stature. Leucosis' self-titled is a towering monolith, with a running time of something like 75 minutes. It's a weighty vestige to second-wave black metal with a backbone of doom, often serpentining throughout itself with pure dirge, crawling and atmospherically devastating.

This whole album is exemplary but its shining achievements are what puts it above its contemporaries. Those being the way is was produced and mastered—raw and gritty. Moreover, the way the drums sound in particular is unlike anything I've heard before. It sounds improvisational and the timbre of the kick sounds burly and under-produced… which results into something completely unconventional. SOUNDS LIKE A HAMMER FROM HELL!

Leucosis - Leucosis (bandcamp)

Häxenzijrkell - Urgrund (2022)

•  †  •

Häxenzijrkell's, Urgrund, is some far out there black metal, heavily entrenched in a angular and obscure atmosphere that practically exhales something arcane… something at the very least, different then what we've all come to accept under the banner of black metal. A whirling plume of esoteric sounds swirl around here in a woozy haze of mesmerizing black metal, at times feeling like a mid-tempo cross between the obscurity of Cultes Des Ghoules mixed with the psychedelic downward spiral of Wormlust built upon the janky foundation of Urfaust.

Angular guitars which mostly move away from the typical frenetic tremolo picking and into a territory that is far more glacially paced and hypnotic, are the backbone on Urgrund, but the driving force to me is the interplay between the ritualistic like drumming and the way MK (of Rraaumm) delivers his charged (at times anthemic) vocal howls, anguished and from the larynx.

Leave it up to Amor Fati Productions to bring into the light this piece of obscure and ritualistic like black metal. Go and show your support!

Häxenzijrkell - Urgrund (bandcamp)

Druid Lord - Relics of the Dead (2022)

•  †  •

I've been meaning to have this new Druid Lord album up on here since it came out in late January but got distracted somewhere along the way. Relics of the Dead is a perfectly executed pastiche of old school death metal a la Immolation with the mid-tempo execution of Disma flanked by the THC soaked doom of Acid Witch with less vintage horror campiness, albeit Relics of the Dead leans into the retro horror atmospherics with just the right amount of profanation—A small example of this can be heard 03:05 into  'Mangled as the Hideous Feed' as that 2-cent Casio chord of gothic organ emanate around a heavily down-tuned and slow doom section breaks through for the remainder of the track.

This album is at it's strongest when it's moving around between this incredibly drooling mid tempo churn to the almost dead-stop dirge, sounding like an impersonation of Ahab playing Bolt Thrower songs at half speed—I see a lot of comparisons to Hooded Menace being thrown around, but unlike Hooded Menace's last album, Druid Lord got the production right. Absolutely nailed down. I'd say it's more in line with Disma's pace, the grime and mire of Coffins, the horror drenched wooziness of Acid Witch with moments of occasionally dipping into the molasses paced territory of Encoffination… Fuck those guys are slow!

°  Ω  °

This comes highly recommended, so get listening. "This album is going to make a big splash in the year-end lists this year." —Nostradamus

Druid Lord - Relics of the Dead (bandcamp)

Qaalm - Resilience & Despair (2022)

•  †  •

I've been sitting on my hands patiently for Qaalm's debut album ever since Hypaethral Records announced it and then benevolently dropped me an early listening link—The small perks of being a sonic traveller is that you can use tact and guile to convince people to send you unreleased records in exchange that you might put together a few (positive) words to promote a record.

Qaalm's aptly named debut 'Resilience & Despair' needs no promotion beyond its sonic achievements. This album is an uncontested aural monolith of doom and sludge coalescing into four towering tracks drenched in dour semi-funeral doom tonnage rife with crumbling sludgy guitars and plodding drums as former Harassor overlord Pete Majors lays waste through that uncanny vocal rasp of his which bears more resemblance to coughing up blood and spewing bile than it does "singing"… totally charged and feral—A similar comparison can definitely be made with doom/sludge zealots as Baton Rouge's Thou and Chicago's Indian in terms of range and grit. 

'Resilience & Despair' is an "Abandon All Hope" sign aimed at everyone. It’s like being sucked into the nether, a slow and heavy trip into the abyss filled with down-tuned guitars and a pummelling energy. That being said, I’d be remiss not to point out the success that this album has when it segues into lighter territory, trading chopping block heaviness for compelling melodies and floating passages—It's the sonic equivalent of sour and spicy. A force meant to awaken and bolster its counterpart, which is done with aplomb here by Qaalm. Devastating heaviness coalescing into something purely atmospherical with a tonne of weight behind it! Abandon all hope.

°  Ω  °

Fans of Mizmor, Thou, Ahab, Convocation, Grief and Burning Witch will find plenty to like within the 1-hour+ runtime of this heavy hitter. 

Hypaethral Records (in connection with the esteemed Trepanation Recordings) was incredibly cool to send me 10 free download links for readers (and takers) of Severed Heads Open Minds on a first come first served basis… So big thanks to those guys! Drop a comment here or send me a message through Instagram to claim your download link ya heathens & GET THIS BILLOWOUS DOOM IN YOUR EAR CANALS.

Qaalm - Resilience & Despair (bandcamp)

Qaalm - Resilience & Despair (download link)

Cloakroom - Dissolution Wave (2022)

•  †  •

Here's another album I'm looking forward to based off the teaser tracks on their respective bandcamp page, Cloakroom's third full-length, Dissolution Wave. I can deduce, by unpacking what I'm hearing in these three songs that this shit is going to be a scintillating coast down sonic highways traversing shoegaze, drone, bits of sludge and indie with helpings of stoner rock and post-punk (just to namedrop a few more genres into the fray).

I would be jumping to conclusions to speak any more factually without actually hearing the full album first, but it sounds like it's the bands most cohesive effort yet, which is saying something for me because I was never really gung-ho about the two previous albums fully. Again, speaking preemptively, it sounds as if everything has come to full bloom on Dissolution Wave. The songs are robust and the production is right on the fucking money—when it needs to pack a hammer, it does so with force, when it needs to float in suspended animation, it gently sways along beautifully, when we ask it to marry the two forces, it answers with complete fluidity.

I find it tiring to read about music in an overly-intellectualized way, so I'll try to say this succinctly. The overall tone is a shifting one. Unfurling riffs and tone that hit like a megaton hammer towards gradually cascading into ephemeral shoegaze and drone that inevitably sputter into moments of dream-pop. Which is only to be cut back into a vast doom like territory filled with more crunching lo-fi guitars and reverb. Highly recommended!

Cloakroom - Dissolution Wave (bandcamp)

Deathless Void - Deathless Void (2022)

•  †  •

In the endless sprawl of death metal, a new presence materializes out of The Netherlands thanks to the venerable Iron Bonehead—its form takes shape through a torrent of death metal and black metal which seems to mine from the same ore as bands like Aosoth, Bölzer, Abyssal and even Dephosphorus in the sense that it is as explorative and vacuous as it is frenetically delirious and crushing. 

From the singular track that exists through the Iron Bonehead bandcamp page we can easily take stock of the obtuse intensity that will come from the bands first album, and though I am carefully optimistic, I'm definitely looking forward to its whole release on February 04, 2022.

Deathless Void - Deathless Void (bandcamp)

Best metal albums of 2021—Top 30

•  †  •

Before I dig into my top picks for 2021, I reached out to a few familiar faces within the sphere of metal and got them to send me the albums they dug the most this year. I told them the rules for the list are pretty flippant. Here's what they sent me:



Horus aka James Brown III (Harassor, Moonknight, Vorpal Sword, Rising Beast Recordings)



* In no particular order 
10) Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime

09) Trhä - Endelhëtonëg

08) Tardigrada - Vom Bruch Bis Zur Freiheit

07) Circle of Ouroborus - Kiromantia

06) Sadness - April Sunset

05) Kuka'ilimoku - Pahu O ka Ua

04) Zhmach - Euphoria Never Leaves

03) Kêres - Flaming Ash

02) Mooschops - Adventures Above the 61st Parallel North

01) Fugitive Wizard - Obscuri Æternum



Artur de Carvalho (Forever Cursed—Best underground metal blog laid to rest (R.I.P.)


10) The Devouring Void - Hypnagogic Hallucinations


Holy shit I just realised these guys are from Portugal as well.. fuck me!

09) Sermon of Flames - I Have Seen the Light, and It Was Repulsive


Repulsive as fuck

08) Carcinoma - Labascation


Good shit from the UK

07) Gosudar - Morbid Despotic Ritual


Some good OSDM shit from Russia

06) Koldovstvo - "Ni Tsarya, Ni Boga"


Great entrancing BM

05) Fuoco Fatuo - Obsidian Katabasis


Feels like being swallowed by a black hole


04) Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia


A two track, total 48 minutes of filthy obscure DM? Yes please


03) Lykhaeon - Opprobrium


A more traditional approach to BM as we know it, still a banger though)

02) Labored Breath - Dyspnea


A fucking trip into the bowels of the most insane BM you’ll hear this year


01) Reverorum ib Malacht - Svag i Döden


I know these guys have released two albums this year, but I’m a huge fan of this approach

A.L.N. (Mizmor, Hell)

07) Emma Ruth Rundle - Engine of Hell

06) Hoverkraft - Schwebende Musik

05) Vouna - Atropos

04) Grouper - Shade

03) Walt McClements - A Hole in The Fence

02) Andrew Black - Welcome Home

01) Yautja - The Lurch



Mattias Alagna (Abstracter)



06) Filth Chasm - Demo 2021

05) Apostasy - Death Return

04) Grinning Death's Head - Cataclysm

03) Altarage - Succumb

02) Antediluvian - The Divine Punishment

01) Moonscape - Monolith

Big thanks for those that contributed!



•  †  •


Another year down the hatch. And another year where I am certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have overlooked a few releases (I always do) but I'd say this year in particular I have a pretty firm grip on the records that impressed me the most—I can say that in order to whittle the list down to 30 I have made some hard omissions, but that's just the nature of the beast! Pretty heavy on the black/death metal releases, which either speaks to the quality of the release or where my palette is at. It really doesn't matter, here's what moved me in order:



30) Forsman - Dönsum í Logans Ljóma (Ván Records)



Another example as to why Icelandic black metal is legitimately one of the most consistent and innervating within the second wave of black metal.







29) Abstracter - Abominium (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)



A dizzying descent into a mix of well articulated doom blackened crust, doom, sludge and sonic overall sonic hostility. 

28) Tentation - Le Berceau des Dieux (Gates of Hell Records)



An absolute nod to the old days of heavy metal and a hell of a debut.



27) Divide and Dissolve - Gas Lit (Invada Records)



2-piece doom metal enveloped in a thick cloud of doom. Hits hard and feels significant.



26) Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime (Van Records)



Much like Havukruunu, Stormkeep have managed to capture all the elusive grandeur found in pagan black metal and dungeon synth without succumbing to the frivolity often found in it.



25) Concrete Winds - Nerve Butcherer (Sepulchral Voice Records)



Fast and dizzying death metal with very intentional glances towards grind and thrash. Pretty Spot on!



24) Wanton Attack - Wanton Attack (Black Writs Records)



A potent mix of early heavy metal rife with gritty duelling guitars and speed metal vitatlity!



23) Suffering Hour - The Cyclic Reckoning (Profound Lore Records)



Suffocatingly heavy death metal from a label that knows a good thing when it sees it. I don't think this record has any weak spots.



22) Vorpal Sword - Omens (Rising Beast Recordings)

The best account of blown out raw black metal I heard all year! A pastiche of noise punk, experimental ambient and shoegaze—It's perplexing how something so abrasive and corrosive in nature can be perceived as beautiful, but it does.

21) Sermon of Flames - I Have Seen The Light, and It Was Repulsive (I, Voidhanger Records)



A bubbling cauldron of cacophonous death metal infused with sludge, crust, doom and black metal with  incredibly devastating pace.

20) Ekulu - Unscrew My Head (Cash Only Records)



Nailed down New York Hardcore with a heavy grip on 80’s metal. Why even bother with Turnstile?

19) Labored Breath - Dyspnea (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

A spiralling churn of death metal infused black metal pushing through a feral wall of sound that straddles the line of the obscure and barbaric. 

18) Labor Intvs - Sunken Crucible (Unsigned/Independant)

This has got to be one of the most overlooked albums on this list. Some of the nastiest death/black metal releases this year heavily exploring elements of doom and the underground obscure.

17) Mork - Katedralen (Peaceville Records)


Mork have pretty consistently been the best example as to how we can still successfully draw from the nearly dried up well of 90's black metal, and this year on Katedralen they prove that point yet again with a bullet.


16) Phrenelith - Chimaera (Nuclear Winter Records)

Massively over-looked death metal in my opinion. Phrenelith aren't exactly incorporating anything new into their sound, but somehow they manage to sound like nothing else—A black hole of dynamic death metal with reverence to the underground. Some of the best drumming on a death meal album this year?

15) Succumb - XXI (The Flenser)

Incredible death metal with Cheri’s possessed vocal belch being the backbone of what makes them unique from their contemporaries. I'm so glad they didn't fuck this up.


14) Fuoco Fatuo - Obsidian Katabasis (Profound Lore Records)



Crushing funeral doom with a lot of mid-tempo death metal influence that will drag you through an hour of some of the most potent and unyielding metal this year. A full listen through of this colossus will leave you bereft and beaten, just the way we like it.



13) Big Brave - Vital (Southern Lore Recordings)



Big Brave's suffocatingly plodding doom intertwined around a whirring mix of reverb-ladened guitars and vacuous space comes full-force on Vital. Beauty and brutality.


12) Koldovstvo - Ni Tsarya, Ni Boga (Unsigned/Independant)

Atmospheric black metal with heavy emphasis on the atmospheric, bordering on ambient or shoegaze. Incredibly raw, visceral and avant-garde with a lot of uncertainty surrounding any information around the band. It's hard to explain, but theres also this inexplicable feeling that comes over me when I listen to this album… Like I am slowly being consumed by madness. A mix of euphoria and malaise. 


11) Altarage - Succumb (Season of Mist Underground Activists)



This release can hang with any of the aforementioned in the department of ferocity and heaviness, clocking in at over an hour of downright unfettered black/death from Spain. 

10)  Defacement - Defacement (I, Voidhanger Records)


Back when I talked about this release earlier in September I said "This is one of those albums that drags you through the abyss—A serpentining downward spiral through cavernous death metal that is equal parts technical, murky and experimental." Yet another album of extremely high caliber that has been buried amidst an ocean of sub-par music with high pay-grades and a full marketing team throwing petals at their feet. Stick with this, you'll thank me later.


09) Fyrnask - VII - Kenoma (Ván Records)

Fyrnask have been quietly creating some of the best atmospheric black metal around for over a decade now and VII - Kenoma is at the helm of it all. Powerfully melodic and thought provoking—Something between Misþyrming, Ash Borer, Morne, and Bölzer. 


08) Voidsphere - To Overtake, To Overcome (Amor Fati Productions)



Spirit inducing black metal that takes shape through blistering riffs built upon a wall of sound. One of the best uses of atmospheric ambience, dense but not without melody or purpose. These Prava Kollektiv guys sure know how to write a record.

07) Warloghe - Three Angled Void (Northern Heritage Records)

Dizzying black metal from the nether, ugly, brutish and filled with cold riffs! I'd even go as far as saying some of the best riffing I heard in a black metal album all year, this is pure fucking armageddon.


06) Portal - Avow (Profound Lore Records)

Portal remain thee lords of hypnotically plodding and nauseating death metal. Lovecraftian obscurity in sonic form. This is up there with my favourite Portal has ever released—It sounds like a lobotomy. And It feels like a nauseating decent into the abyss. Encompassing. 


05) Sulpur - Embracing Hatred and Beckoning Darkness (Amor Fati Productions)

Blown-out black metal doing everything MGLA does but even colder. A barrage of eerie riffs against a galloping tempo with some of the best sounding cymbals in the genre.



04) Darkthrone - Eternail Hails…… (Peaceville Records)

Has everyone forgot about Darkthrone? Hardly any mentions of Darkthrone this year… Am I the only one who loves the direction they’re moving in? I still think they're one of the most important bands in all of music right now. Three decades later and they’re still moving a worn-out genre into new territory. 



03) Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia (Dark Descent Records)



One of the most crushing death metal albums released in 2021. Two songs of obscure death metal that drag you through a serpentining labyrinth of riffs that sound like a spiral into your own absolute insanity. Much like the Defacement release sitting at my number 10, this album is and was way under-appreciated for how good it is. I'm not sorry to sorry to say it, but it's more dynamic and crushing than 99% of the other releases that pass off as death metal. 

02) Antediluvian - The Divine Punishment (Nuclear War Now! Productions)

Few try (with little success) to be as primitive and feral sounding as Antediluvian, its not something that can (or should) be contrived. It needs to come from a festering open wound or a sincere disapproval with some inner or outward force. The Divine Punishment is a pantheon in where these negative forces can live—A barbaric pile of forward-thinking death metal built upon an altar of whirring guitars, abyssal vocals and drumming that sounds like none of its contemporaries. Plodding, perverse, esoteric and entirely new.



01) Lykhaeon - Opprobrium (Repose Records)


Bestial death metal married with black metal and doom is hardly a new concept within the walls of metal, but very few albums are able to traverse new and refreshing soundscapes the way Opprobrium successfully does—An overtone of of ritualistic rites and dirges permeate the many layers of this album as you're dragged through a swath of of musical landscapes, all  equally barbaric and mind altering. The best metal release of the year for me for sure, not a single flaw to be found.

Abstracter - Abominiom (2021)

•  †  •

Abstracter are no joke. No whimsy to be found. "Abandon all hope" is the message written on the wall followed by a "Eat dick, shit face" scrawled heinously next to an inverted cross. Abstracter have been quietly making a lot of noise within the cavernous walls of underground death metal, churning out the type of bloated death metal that is uncompromisingly bestial and bleak in its bones but somewhere in its DNA it is much more intelligible than its fully neanderthal counterparts, Canada's Revenge for example are full troglodytic death metal—and all forms are accepted with zeal by me.

In 2018 Abstracter released 'Cinerous Incarnate' and it snuck up on me as one of the better releases that year, its ferocity was unmatched by most riding under the banner of bestial death metal and it became more cohesive over time, when the froth of grime and swirling guitars gave way I understood the only goal is not obliteration, but obliteration through formulation. There's really only one song to preview so far on that albums follow-up, 'Abominiom', but I am optimistic it will be equally as potent.

Abstracter - Abominiom (bandcamp)

Ancient Tome - Final Tomb (2021) [EP]

•  †  •

I'm really digging the way this album is coming across like a mixture between the murky sludge and drone saturated doom of Meth Drinker and Cult of Occult with major emphasis on hanging glacially paced riffs. The drums are burly as hell and the cymbal work is noteworthy for me, plodding along like a dirge without ever feeling stale nor exhaustingly repetitious. Haven't heard anything prior from these guys, but this EP is pointing in a promising direction for the sonic landscape of Ancient Tome.

Ancient Tome - Final Tomb (bandcamp)

Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia (2021)

•  †  •

Qrixkuor have had what some might call a tumultuous upbringing, with a forced hiatus in activity  spurred on by multiple changes in cast and location, a debut album has been long on the horizon of the abyssal plane… but that debut album, Poison Palinopsia, is finally upon the altar. For us to play judge and juror. Appreciator and benefactor.

In lieu of being too verbose, Qrixkuor's changes have seemed to irrefutably benefit the overarching sound and direction of the band, and with the addition of New Zealand's revered V. Kusabs (of Vassafor, Irkallian Oracle, Temple Nightshade, etc.) at the helm of song-writing you would sure as shit have to bet on the sonic scope of Poison Palinopsia to be a downward spiralling mix of cavernous death metal and black metal with tinges of doom and other various forms of entropy.

•  Ω  •

This is some seriously heavy shit. A 50-minute, two track plunge into a hallucinatory ether of mangling guitar chords, bestial drums that punish every inch of cymbal and skin with a sadistic, schizophrenic like fervour, and a vocal delivery by S that has its own personality crisis, matching the same intensity and barbarity as Teitanblood or Swallowed. Since there are only two monolithic tracks, each song has ample room to explore atmospherics and space, in way of tempo shifts or fugacious ambient passages (none of which are sampled but individually conjured and recorded) that explore sepulchral like tones.

The production isn't as overall murky as others of this ilk, but suffice it to say it completely evades that plastic like shit with no dynamic range and maintains an overall sound that is both utterly bestial, yet coherent. It's a welcomed and perfectly delivered execution. With no shortage of letdowns, missteps, nice tries and copycats, Poison Palinopsia delivers a breath of fresh air in a genre that has seen a recent resurgence! Fans of Mitochondrion, Teitanblood, Bestia Arcana, Grave Upheaval, Spirit Possession, etc. will find much to appreciate on here, so get towards the bands bandcamp page and do your thing.

Qrixkuor - Poison Palinopsia (bandcamp)

Failure Ritual - Total Weakness (2015)

•  †  •

A while back I posted 'Apathy' which is only 1 out of the 5 records the absolutely ambiguous Failure Ritual put out in 2015, this is just another one of the 5 records released suddenly by Failure Ritual on the 19th of October. 

•  Ω  •

A harrowing downward spiral of experimental black metal that places heavy emphasis on repetition and the exploration of aural space—weaving dense fogs of crude riffing and drumming overtop mesmerizing ambient passages that tread into weird territory, inducing a hallucinatory trance like state. I don't think I could put this side by side up against anything else and claim similarities, there's nothing that sounds like this. This comes highly recommended!

Failure Ritual - Total Weakness (bandcamp)

Rorcal & Earthflesh - Witch Coven (2021)

•  †  •

Collaborations don't always pay off, and more often than not I find myself indifferent to the attempt, which maybe has more to do with how I am a fatalist contrarian with no cause and no guiding star rather than the material itself. In this case, I'm for it. Much like when Merzbow teamed up with Full of Hell a few years back, the absolutely raw and grating ambient soundscapes of Earthflesh lend an even thicker layer of density to Rorcal's already crushing mixture of Doom, sludge and post-hardcore. The output is a two-track release running 30 minutes in length and it's worth your time if you're looking for something to assault your auditory senses with great heft. 

Rorcal & Earthflesh - Witch Coven (bandcamp)

Fyrnask - VII: Kenoma (2021)

•  †  •

Fyrnask is a band that was turned on to me back in 2013 following their smouldering release 'Eldir Nótt', which much like this new offering, was uncompromisingly good. Fyrnask are something of an anomaly these days in the sense that they are able to blend the floating lurch found within ambient soundscapes with the cavernous heft found within doom metal and then transmute that sound into a break neck gallop found in second wave black metal and then further pair that with other nuances and flourishes found within the ranks of the genre wheel… All without succumbing to that infectious defect of gussying up the sound to be more palatable to the masses. Fuck all of that.

You won't find any such placating here on VII: Kenoma, instead Fyrnask use their raw energy as a means to build upon layers of atmosphere, which takes on many shapes throughout the dips and swells of each sizeable track ranging from cacophonous and feral to thought-provoking and poignant. Imagine mixing equal parts early Ash Borer with Misþyrming and Altar of Plagues, and then interspersing flecks of Morne and Bölzer.

This comes highly recommended!

Fyrnask - VII:Kenoma (bandcamp)

Drown - Subaqueous (2020)

•  †  •

Here's an album I could hardly find a flaw in even if I were to be truly vicious, truly picky and up my own ass in a tizzy of pretentious elitism. It's very well devoid of any faults as it sets out to do one thing and to do that thing very well: To create a sonic representation of what it would feel like to be crushed by the oceans weight through virtue of glacially placed funeral

•  Ω  •

It's heavy and it's bleak despite its penchant for dipping into very thoughtful and melodic passages, but alas never quite sacrificing any of its crushing weight, a death grip of floating guitars bounce around a vast expanse of atmosphere created through plodding drums, the space between and a bellowing vocal delivery as heavy and desperate as the music itself. It's production is bang on, so thanks for that. I don't know if I've cared this much about a straight funeral doom record since Ahab's 'The Call of the Wretched Seas' and I commend its ability to simultaneously pacify and stimulate. Get into it or just flounder, punk!

Subaqueous (bandcamp)

Divide & Dissolve - TFW (2020)

•  †  •

Divide & Dissolve are a two-piece – Very loud and supremely glacial doom and drone encompassed of Takiaya Reed and Sylvie Nehill of Melbourne, Australia, who met and united under the bond that they are both of indigenous background and began to create music, pounding and hypnotic, as a means to lay down the bedrock of their creative outlet, beliefs and messages. All of this is accomplished through a dense wall of sound that utilizes Takiaya guitar and saxophone drone over top the churn of Sylvie's drums, it's powerful and transporting and I'm eager to hear more than just this one song off of TFW.

I don't know where it's going, but I'm all in…

TFW (bandcamp)

Convocation - Ashes Coalesce (2020)

•  †  •

Convocation's debut record 'Scars Across' was one of 2018's best in the arena of metal, without question, and a lot of people got that wrong last year but what can you expect a from a flock of dorks that put Sleep before Thou in the same year… Has everyone lost their goddamn skull? "But Chris" you tell me "opinions are meant to be subjective, that's what's so beautiful about them, kumbaya and Hakuna Matata, my man." and I'll simply look at you and say "No."

•  Ω  •

Finland's Convocation released Ashes Coalesce a few days ago through Everlasting Spew Records and it stands firmly as another staunch example of how to craft a song that feels heavier than a dead dog and how to adeptly maneuver around lengthy tracks without becoming frivolous and tedious through use of some impressive range. I'm purposely trying not to delve too deep into this as far as praise (or critiques) go as I have only listened fully through the one time, but through the merit of how good 'Scars Across' I am putting this one out into the ether. I will say this: In comparison to 'Scarss Across", the way in which 'Ashes Coalesce' was produced, in particular the prominence of the vocals in the mix and the omission of weight behind the kick drum in favour of clarity is something that might be too lofty for its own good, with an album cover matching in grandiosity. OF course this is more a matter of personal preference but…Gut instinct, I prefer the more primitive aspects of the former. See, I can be critical too.

How about Drown though? Holy shit.

Ashes Coalesce (bandcamp) 

Mountain Witch - Extinct Cults (2020)

•  †  •

It's hard not to call any band that sounds like Mountain Witch a Black Sabbath worship band, since any band worth their salt probably worships Sabbath anyway, especially when their sound is dripping with that THC soaked doom and tonal psychedelia that Black Sabbath very well created… so I'll resist the urge to do so. Mountain Witch are pure Black Sabbath worship. Fuck.

I'd be remiss to call it there, there's more to Mountain Witch than just another copy-cat band that only wants to play heavy and riff out in a sea of retro doom with flourishes of heavy metal, they do well to explore some refreshing territory with light synth use and the drums sound meaty and varied (no gated snare!) which if done poorly weigh a band like this down to the point that no amount of tight riffing can make up for. Thematically I'm all in too, lyrically dabbling in the esoteric and the occult and a healthy presence in the foothills of campy Horror that you'd expect out of this ilk. Even though I do them from time to time, I dread trying to contrive comparisons, but let's just call this a loose mix of Hour of 13, Captain Beyond, Blood Ceremony, Ghost (early) and Purple Hill Witch.

Extinct Cults (bandcamp)

Failure Ritual - Apathy (2015)

•  †  •

Everything that has been put out under the umbrella of Failure Ritual has been great, hypnotizing and plodding ambient black metal that utilizes space and repetition to drive the listener into a state of hypnosis or induced psychosis. It's drone is long and consistent and sounds like a sonic form of mania through a winding channel of muffled screams against a wall of dense mollifying guitars as war drums beat in the distance. It's hefty and haunting but somehow manages to be catchy in its rhythmic way, and it often feels as though you have turned the same corner over and over with only the faintest difference to set it apart.

And to add even more layers to its already enigmatic presence, It's mostly unknown as to who is behind Failure Ritual, but I have read speculations that it might be Adam Kalmbach of Jute Gyte. I have nothing in common with somebody who can't get behind this, as the Swedish people say, PURE FUCKING ARMAGEDDON!

Apathy (bandcamp)