Total Abuse - Prison Sweat (2011)

Feedback, drugs, out of tune guitars, disgust. Don't expect a good time.

Track listing:
1. Final Passage
2. Early Morning
3. Rotting Foil
4. Masked Killer
5. Hogg
6. Hidden Blood
7. Prison Sweat

You're trapped in prison, it doesn't mean a thing

Yogth Sothoth - Abominations of the Nebulah Mortiis (2008)

Hey, do you like Incantation? How about H.P. Lovecraft? OK great. Listen to Yogth Sothoth.

Track listing:
1. Prayer of Doom (Chronicle of the Mad Arab)
2. Lugubrious Crimson Twilight
3. Endless Infernal Darkness
4. Mystic Void
5. Calling the Wrath of Evil
6. Crawling Chaos
7. Abominations of the Nebulah Mortiis
8. Cthulhu Fhtagn∑
9. Rites of Destruction
10. Incantations in Full Moon

Delighting in unintelligible images, precipitous, winding
Ever espousing a body unluminous, formless and void

Joe Henderson - Black Is the Color (1972) + Black Narcissus (1976)

Two phenomenal records from legendary jazz saxophonist Joe Henderson. Black Is the Color marks Henderson's first usage of studio overdubbing, while Black Narcissus finds him incorporating synthesizers into the mix for a heady, spaced-out sound. Both records are fueled by hard, conga-driven grooves, and serve as excellent additions to the more experimental end of Henderson's discography.

Track listing:
-Black Is the Color-
1. Terra Firma
2. Vis-A-Vis
3. Foregone Conclusion
4. Black Is the Color (Of My True Love's Mind)
5. Current Events
-Black Narcissus-
1. Black Narcissus
2. Hindsight and Forethought
3. Power to the People
4. Amoeba
5. Good Morning, Heartache
6. The Other Side of Right

...Is the Color
...Narcissus

The Kaplan Brothers - Nightbird (1978)

This one made the rounds a few years ago, it's probably time to revisit it. Dark, lo-fi, low-key psychedelic rock from the almost completely unknown Kaplan Brothers. Think of it as the outsider's Forever Changes. Albums like this are why music blogs exist.

Track listing:
1. Ode to Life
2. Vodka and Caviare
3. Epitaph
4. Listen to Falling Rain
5. Life and Me
6. Love Is Life
7. Nightbird
8. Happy
9. He

Confusion will be my epitaph

Giorgio Moroder - E=MC² (1979)

Since Daft Punk rep the shit out of Mr. Moroder on their new album, now is as good of a time as any for this little slab of brilliance. E=MC² is the proper solo follow-up to his classic From Here to Eternity LP, and like that album, it is infinitely enjoyable. Synths, dance grooves, falsetto, vocoders, and lots of blow.

Track listing:
1. Baby Blue
2. What a Night
3. If You Weren't Afraid
4. I Wanna Rock You
5. In My Wildest Dreams
6. E=MC²
7. Evolution

The future

I Shalt Become - Poison (2010)

I Shalt Become is a solo black metal project from Illinois. After four quite similar full-lengths of enveloping, hazy depressive black metal, Poison's symphonic elements and fluid, forward-thinking compositions took me completely by surprise. Three years later, I still haven't completely wrapped my head around it. Way more people should listen to this band.

Track listing:
1. Like a Lamb to the Slaughter...
2. Black Swan Events
3. Harlow's Vertical Chamber Apparatus
4. No Quarter at the Somme
5. Ghosts
6. Leaving Watership Down
7. The Swarming of the Locusts
8. Doubt
9. The Finest Cut of the Scalpel
10. Absolve Me

A beating that took its toll
A pound of flesh consumed

The Contortionist - Intrinsic (2012)

Progressive deathcore that's as beautiful as it is brutal. Atonal breakdowns juxtaposed against a shimmering backdrop of propulsive, polyrhythmic prog. One of my favorite metal records in recent memory.

Track listing:
1. Holomovement
2. Feedback Loop
3. Causality
4. Sequential Vision
5. Geocentric Confusion
6. Dreaming Schematic
7. Anatomy Anomalies
8. Cortical
9. Parallel Trance
10. Parallel Trance (Alt. Version)

Astral movement

Blacklodge - MachinatioN (2012)

French industrial black metal. Hyperspeed, techno-inspired drums and chaotic digital manipulation mixed seamlessly with artful, French-style BM.

Track listing:
1. TridenT
2. NeutroN ShivA [Sun, Walk with Me]
3. Neo.Black.Magic
4. Industrial Temple MysticA
5. Antichrist Ex Machina
6. Order of the Baphomet
7. Empire's Hymn
8. All Seeing Eye
9. Culto al Sol [SolarKult]
10. The Other Side

I feel His presence

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction (1997)

While Ministry pursued unsuccessful bids at mainstream success, they put out this lil' gem of simplistic, synthetic industrial metal, and got Jello Biafra to be extremely Jello Biafra-y as lead vocalist. Holds up way better than I thought it would.

Track listing:
1. War Pimp Renaissance
2. I Wanna Be a Drug-Sniffing Dog
3. Moths
4. Generation Execute
5. Faith Hope and Treachery
6. Peeling Back the Foreskin of Liberty
7. Mangoat
8. Sidewinder

Ladies and gentleman, he's swallowed his tongue!

Unearthly Trance - Season of Seance, Science of Silence (2003)

Dirty, sludgy, drone-y doom metal. "Mass of the Phoenix" is a masterpiece of dissonant, fragmented, minimalist, ritualistic avante-doom. The rest of the record is pretty great, too.

Track listing:
1. Raised by the Wolves
2. Mass of the Phoenix
3. When Anti-Humanity Flourishes
4. Wandering Winter Winds
5. Black Heart, Black Lung
6. The Aftermath Was Morbid

I strike the bell, I light the flame, I utter the mysterious name

Etienne Jaumet - Night Music (2009)

Dark, hypnotic, pulsing electronic mantras from French artist Etienne Jaumet. A lush mix of synthetic, krautrock-like synths and organic elements (horns, guitar feedback, etc.) makes for some truly engaging, dynamic sounds.

Track listing:
1. For Falling Asleep
2. Mental Vortex
3. Entropy
4. Through the Strata
5. At the Crack of Dawn

Never sleep

Gary Numan - Warriors (1983) + Strange Charm (1986)

OK, so as you may or may not know, shortly after his unassailable Machine trilogy (Replicas, The Pleasure Principle, + Telekon) Gary Numan's discography gets kinda spotty. It's hard to say what drove him to add slap bass, wailing saxophones, diva backing vocals, and generally SNL-y elements to his sound, but the results are truly bizarre and, for many, quite off-putting. If the idea of dystopian, synth-based pseudo-funk is appealing to you, proceed.

Track listing:
-Warriors-
1. Warriors
2. I Am Render
3. The Iceman Comes
4. This Prison Moon
5. My Centurion
6. Sister Surprise
7. The Tick Tock Man
8. Love Is Like a Clock Law
9. The Rhythm of the Evening
-Strange Charm-
1. My Breathing
2. Unknown and Hostile
3. The Sleeproom
4. New Thing from London Town
5. I Can't Stop
6. Strange Charm
7. The Need
8. This Is Love

Assassination of the voice of God
I don't know if I can do it

The Catalyst - Voyager (2012)

The Catalyst sounds like Tad, early Mastodon, and Zeni Geva pounding beers and railing speed in hell.

Track listing:
1. (The Final Voyage of the) Spaceship Catalyst
2. King of Swords
3. Square Waves
4. Occult Blood
5. Septagon
6. Jupiter Brain
7. Breathers
8. Big Bend
9. Open High
10. Voyager

God's balls

Mind Spiders - Meltdown (2012)

Excellent, catchy garage punk from Mark Ryan of Marked Men. Meltdown finds Ryan exploring his pop tendencies more directly than ever before, and features a gauzy, keyboard-driven sound and a few midtempo tracks. If you haven't heard it yet, you must.

Track listing:
1. You Are Dead
2. Beat
3. On the Radio
4. More Than You
5. Play You Out
6. Fall in Line
7. Upside Down
8. Skull-Eyed
9. Join Us Now
10. Wait for Us
11. Meltdown

Just blew my head

Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamless (2000)

Discordance Axis are arguably the greatest grindcore band of all time. This is their final full-length, and it is essential listening for any fan of challenging, heavy music. Thanks to my son Hell Mouth Yawns for reminding me about this band's existence. Keep on chasing those birch trees, you're my pride and joy!

Track listing:
1. Castration Rite
2. The Inalienable Dreamless
3. Sound Out the Braille
4. Oratorio in Grey
5. Vacuum Sleeve
6. Angel Present
7. The Necropolitan
8. Pattern Blue
9. The End of Rebirth
10. Loveless
11. Radiant Arkham
12. Use of Weapons
13. Compiling Autumn
14. Jigsaw
15. The Third Children
16. A Leaden Stride to Nowhere
17. Drowned

Damage

Steve Roach & Jerry Fayman - Trance Spirits (2002)

Heavy tribal drumming, deep synthscapes, spaced out guitar textures (courtesy of Robert Fripp). Perfect for exploring jungles on Saturn. Credits listed in the booklet include "Mercurial Sounds," "Soundworlds," "Hybrid Groove," and "Mystic Chord."

Tracklist:
1. Taking Flight
2. Trance Spirits
3. Off Spring
4. Seekers
5. The Calling
6. Year of the Horse
7. In the Same Deep Water

Blood music

Mouth of the Architect - The Violence Beneath (2010)

"Atmospheric sludge metal" done well. Includes a cover of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes". Here's their website. They have a new album coming out in June.

Tracklist:
1. The Violence Beneath
2. Buried Hopes
3. Restore
4. In Your Eyes

The light, the heat

Angantyr - Forvist (2012)

Latest release from this consistently excellent Swedish solo project. Highly melodic, folk-tinged black metal.

Track listing:
1. Laenket
2. I Forfaedres Fodspor
3. Vemods Hjemstavn
4. Forvist
5. Faelles Fjende
6. Stille Skarpe Knive
7. Skovens Egne Våben

Banished

Michael Shrieve & David Beal - The Big Picture (1988)

Propulsive polyrhythmic percussion meets mystical synth sounds. Somewhat comparable to Shrieve's excellent collaboration with Steve Roach, The Leaving Time.

Track listing:
1. The Invisible Architect
2. Mon Amie
3. Unspeakable Dawn
4. Izibongo
5. Shaman's Drum
6. The Big Picture
7. Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep
8. Iron Voices

Moon over you

John Martyn - Grace and Danger (1980) + Glorious Fool (1981)

John Martyn was a British singer-songwriter who, over the course of a career that spanned over five decades, developed and honed a unique musical vision that fused elements of blues, folk, jazz, and rock. Written and recorded as Martyn went through a divorce, Grace and Danger can be considered among the all-time great breakup records. His next album, Glorious Fool, has a similarly lush, keyboard-heavy sound and is, ultimately, just as emotionally complex and compelling.

Track listing:
-Grace and Danger-
1. Some People Are Crazy
2. Grace and Danger
3. Lookin' On
4. Johnny Too Bad
5. Sweet Little Mystery
6. Hurt in Your Heart
7. Baby Please Come Home
8. Save Some (For Me)
9. Our Love
-Glorious Fool-
1. Couldn't Love You More
2. Amsterdam
3. Hold On My Heart
4. Perfect Hustler
5. Hearts and Keys
6. Glorious Fool
7. Never Say Never
8. Pascanel (Get Back Home)
9. Didn't Do That
10. Please Fall In Love with Me
11. Don't You Go

G&D
GF

Paul Motian Trio - Le Voyage (1979)

Sparse, arhythmic jazz led by drummer Paul Motian. Uneasy themes come and go with little fanfare, without ever hitting anything remotely resembling a 'groove.'

Track listing:
1. Folk Song for Rosie
2. Abacus
3. Cabala/Drum Music
4. The Sunflower
5. Le Voyage

Shadows

Richard Pinhas - Rhizosphere (1977)

Pulsing, arpeggiating space age synthscapes from French musician Richard Pinhas (of Heldon.)

Track listing:
1. Rhizosphere Sequent
2. A Piece for Duncan
3. Claire P.
4. Trapeze/Interference
5. Rhizosphere

Perspective