Monster X - Indoctrination (2003)

Grind-y straight edge hardcore. I first discovered Monster X back in high school via their split with Spazz, when I was still young enough to be blown away by the mere existence of guttural vocals. Rediscovered a few years back while re-organizing my records, and shit, those gutturals still rule. They're more expected over the grind parts, but there's a really cool dissonance to hearing them over more traditional hardcore. Great band.

Also, I stopped drinking recently -- didn't really 'quit' so much as noticed that I wasn't drinking anymore and decided to embrace it -- so if you don't count my prescription speed or my openness to microdosing psilocybin every now and then, it's almost like I'm straight edge, too.

There's 45 tracks on this thing, go look at the track list on Discogs.

Live fast die young was just a fad for fucking losers

You should also listen to:

Chicken Bowels - Chicken Bowels (1987)

Kill the Man Who Questions - Sugar Industry (1999)

Lalu - Oniric Metal (2005)

If I'm checking out a band that I've heard described as "neoprog/prog metal", this is what I am hoping they will sound like: melodic, dreamy, melancholic, fantastical, layers of arpeggiating synths, soaring guitars, and enough polyrhythms and general heaviness to keep it all from getting overly frilly. There's even that inexplicable 'wacky' moment that these types can't seem to resist that seems designed solely to test my patience, but thankfully, it doesn't come till the last track, and that track is otherwise an absolute tour de force. Members (on this album) of Mekong Delta, the Devin Townsend Band/Project, and more.

Track listing:

1. Yesterdayman

2. Wolven Eyes

3. Windy

4. Night in Poenari

5. Moonstruck (The Soulish Element)

6. Timestop

7. Starwatcher

8. Potboy: The Final Fantasy

I'm just dancing through their lights

And I can't stop dreaming now

Also listen to:

Threshold - Wounded Land (1993)

Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition (2009)

Beatrik - Requiem of December (2005)

Related:

Beatrik - Journey Through the End of Life (2002)

Tenebrae in Perpetuum - Onori Funebri Rituali (2003)

Tenebrae in Perpetuum - L'Eterno Maligno Silenzio (2009)

Tenebrae in Perpetuum / Krohm - Split (2010)

Found this LP in the wild a few weeks back for $12. Requiem of December was the swansong for this project, and for me, it's unquestionably one of the greatest DSBM records ever made. The perfect soundtrack for this relentlessly dismal reality we've made for ourselves. I haven't listened to the rip I'm linking, hope it's good.

Track listing:

1. My Funeral to Come

2. Requiem of December

3. Eternal Rest

4. The Last Wandering

5. Apollonia's December, 7th 1647

6. Returning After a Death

An occult evil suffocated their minds

And drove them to their own extinction

More all-time DSBM contenders:

Veil - Dolor (2005)

I Shalt Become - In the Falling Snow (2008)