Leucosis - Leucosis (2013)

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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)

Cara Neir - III / IV (2019)

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This album has quickly worked its hooks into me; Discordant jangly guitars bounce around a cavern of technical drumming, weaving out odd time signatures with prickly rhythms against a barrage of shrieky growls. The combined method is bizarre, throwing everything in the blender from post-rock and math-rock to black-metal and D-beat. Something to that effect. It as a whole is actually really difficult to nail down, and it's brazen attempts to meld everything together is confusing, but it's refreshing, and I'm enjoying the experience of listening to its entirety. Which is the whole point, right?

Name your price on bandcamp. Enjoy, or don't.

Cara Neir - III / IV (bandcamp)

Ggu:II - waan:hoon (2014)

This album was submitted to me via email a little while ago with the message: "Hi Chris, a few months ago I asked you for the Leucocis album. I really like it a lot and want to thank you for sending it to me. I'll be doing this in the most risky way possible... Sending you some recordings of my own band. Don't pay for them, if you like 'em I'll send 'em to you."


See, who's to say that spreading music around can't be a self-sustaining beneficiary to the underground movement? It can be, and this proves it fuckface.

The two song EP titled 'waan:hoon' is a warm-sounding collection of sludgy doom with tinges of post-metal riffing and drone atmospherics. The two songs plod along earnestly and fester within whirring guitars and slogging drum patterns that build up to these moments where you want the sledgehammer to be dropped only to be teased by more gnawing doom/drone. I'm please to know the member of this band is a fan of Leucosis too, because few bands of that ilk have impressed me as much as Leucosis has with their venerable and modest catalogue. They are masters at creating palpable tension that finally spawns into a very satisfying peek, to understand this fully, listen to the song Taiga. If Ggu:II follows a similar path then I expect nothing but good things.

Ggu:II - waan:hoon (bandcamp)

(I will update and upload download links upon the bands accordance.)

Khuda - Molasses Constricts The Clinostat (2014)

Khuda play a super honed in take on psychedelic post-rock with elements of math-rock, post-hardcore and shoegaze. It has the atmosphere of Kokomo, the quirky time signatures of Khann, and a more atmospheric, slightly funky take on something Cloudkicker would dredge up with the slightly bleak, yet uplifting elements of Explosions In The Sky.



As per usual, if you would like to listen to it but can afford the price on Bandcamp, email me and I'll get it to you as soon as I can.

Khuda Bandcamp

Kokomo - S/T (2013)

I just drank two heaping cups of coffee, which for me is the equivalent to dropping three pints of raw ether and washing it down with a bottle of bourbon… Bear with me as I search my scattered brain to formulate cohesive sentences. Also, I saw the remake for Evil Dead last night so 80% of my body's blood flow is still directed straight into my raging erection. Again, bear with me fuckface.

This is what I had to say about Kokomo's "If Wolves" a couple months back, and it still applies;

"Kokomo make use of no words. They speak through instrumentation in a whirring blend of ambient post-rock, and boy do they speak LOUDLY. It's as if you are watching the world end from a birds eye view… It feels bigger than you, it's beautifully somber and bleak and you can't look away.

The bread and butter of If Wolves is the atmosphere, a dizzying hypnotic drone of palpable emotion, it all feels profound and you can't understand it, you just feel it. Maybe you don't, but maybe you're vanilla as fuck. Listen to it for yourself, if you don't once become entrenched in a series of thoughts, or feel the unsettling yet uplifting ambiance through your blood, check your pulse - you're dead."

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The recipe seems the same this time around for Kokomo's 2013 self-titled release, only this time seemingly more focused on something more minimalist in sound. It is still evocative, expansive, forlorn and entrancing as it ever was… It's not physically released yet, but the digital download is up for a 'name your price' option on the bands bandcamp. I paid a measly $2, well worth it.

KOKOMO (bandcamp)

Caspian - Waking Season (2012)

I've been fucking the dog lately, and of course by this I mean I have been putting this particular post off for a while (not actually fucking a dog… dude). Waking Season has been on my "Post to shit-hole blog" list for a while now, and I'm only getting around to it right now because of the interview with Ben Sharp of Cloudkicker that I just had.

It appears the post-metal guru himself has taken to the gossamer with all of its delicacies encased in a warm and fuzzy ethereal shell. It's like submerging your head in honey. Ben Sharp said "Waking Season by Caspian is living in my head right now." and went as far as putting it in his top 2012 list. It's easy to see why this can be justified… The album is a monolith of honest and pensive sounding post-metal tangled in a web of dreamy atmospherics and solemn ambient qualities. It's like submerging your stupid skull in honey and silk.

Imagine this for a second: Somebody cracks your skull open, and in it they pour honey, tea-tree oils and melty gooey cheese, a sensation for the senses reports your brains nerve endings (dutifully ignoring the pain caused by a cracked skull), this is Caspian's Waking Season. A cornucopia of stupid hyperbole, what have I come to?

Waking Season
Caspian on Bandcamp

Kokomo - If Wolves (2011)

Kokomo make use of no words. They speak through instrumentation in a whirring blend of ambient post-rock, and boy do they speak LOUDLY. It's as if you are watching the world end from a birds eye view… it feels bigger than you, it's beautifully somber and bleak and you can't look away.

The bread and butter of If Wolves is the atmosphere, a dizzying hypnotic drone of palpable emotion, it all feels profound and you can't understand it, you just feel it. Maybe you don't, but maybe you're vanilla as fuck. Listen to it for yourself, if you don't once become entrenched in a series of thoughts, or feel the unsettling yet uplifting ambiance through your blood, check your pulse - you're dead.

 If Wolves (Zippyshare)
Bandcamp/Buy

Alcest - Les Voyages De L'Âme (2012)

One full spin later of Alcest's Les Voyages De L'Âme and I must say, I dig what I hear. For me, Alcest is something I can only enjoy if I am in a certain mood, which ebbs and flows often enough. The weather today has been dreary, grey with a mix of snow/rain, which helped nudge me to this first listen.

Long drawn out layers of guitar build on top of dark, melancholic, esoteric and or dreamy atmospheres accompanied by either clean or shrieked vocals for a total of 50 minutes. My fuck is that album cover ever intriguing.

Grab if you like: Les Discrets, Old Silver Key, Amesouerus

Beings of Light (link removed)

Khuda - Palingenesia (2010)

Oh this? Meet Khuda they are an instrumental post-rock/metal band and they will never quit playing games with your heart. Each song paints a myriad of visuals through hearty textures and dreamy interludes. It's so catchy it should be playing Ultimate Frisbee at the park, but instead they cave your head in with Palingenesia. Fuck, that was stupid.

Here is a better one:

It's good, get it.

fuck your face

Voyager - EP (2008)

Look at that album cover, really look at it...see those white lines?
Of course you do. What does that look like to you?
If you guessed Tentacles, well your completely fucking wrong, because my guess (the only one that matters) is that those white lines are symbolic to a majestic flowing beard.
Why a beard? Because beards are manly and so are voyagers.

Metal Archives lists these guys as: Doom/Atmospheric Sludge/Post-Rock

Post-Rock I guess in the sense that they don't use distortion pedals ALL the time, but expect to hear the same sludgy formula of der-NERR duh-NUH syle riffs. It's heavy, it's authentic, it's fuck you, download it.

Voyage