Guttural Slug - Intercranial Purgatory (2012)

Stupid-heavy Danish slamming death. Creaky vocals and non-stop chugging breakdowns, all played at pretty much the same tempo. I'll admit I'm new to Guttural Slug, as I just got into them via their new album, which happens to be one of the best slam records ever made.

Track listing:
1. Intercranial Purgatory
2. Cerebral Pollution
3. Necrotic Sanity
4. Head Slammed
5. Skull Fucked
6. Lacerated
7. Forsaken
8. Leeches
9. Blood Pact

The putrid stench of you fills the room
The aroma of your carcass is all too much
I puke into you and fill you up with chunder

More like this:

Cerebral Incubation -
Gonorrhea Nodule Mastication (2012)

Disfiguring the Goddess -
Sleeper (2012)

Lönndom - Fälen från norr (2007)

Swedish blackened folk metal. Somewhat a continuation of LIK. A hypnotic, often gorgeous, and idiosyncratic sound that makes for some of the more interesting folk metal I've heard.

Track listing:
1. Vid elden
2. Ripeluokte
3. Himlalågor
4. Tjåkkå
5. Stállo
6. Ripeluokte II
7. Nordafejd
8. På fjället

A glorious time of eternal darkness

You'd probably also like:

Obtest -
Tükstantmetis (2007)

Antagonic Omnipotent Catharsis -
...Onwards the Path to Antagony (2006)

Elf Power - When the Red King Comes (1997)

Related:
The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (1999)
Elf Power - The Winter Is Coming (2000)

Stoned reveries and fuzzy indie rockers. Decidedly less sonically diverse than their above-linked masterpiece, but still hella good.

Track listing:
1. Step Through the Portal...
2. Into the Everlasting Time
3. The Frightened Singers
4. The Secret Ocean
5. The Arrow Flies Close
6. Icy Hands Will Never Melt Away
7. When the Red King Comes
8. The Separating Fault
9. Spectators
10. Introducing Cosmic Space
11. The Bengal Parade
12. Needles in the Camels Eyes...
13. The Silver Lake
14. It's Been a Million Years

Deep down in the very center
On the inside of the world
You can hear the electric highways
We can speak imaginary words

You'll also like:

Marbles -
Marbles (1993)

Beulah -
Handsome Western States (1997)

Karl Sanders - Saurian Meditation (2004)

In which Karl Sanders follows his ancient Egyptian muse all the way to the afterworld. Dark, psychedelic, almost entirely instrumental, and with a guest appearance from David Vincent as the voice of God or something. Reminds me of a simpler time when, if I had a day off and wanted to get stoned and listen to some new music, I had to first drive my ass to Record & Tape Traders and spent $15 on an album I knew nothing about by the dude from Nile. Luckily, it was exactly what I'd hoped it would be. (Also, I highly recommend tracking down the liner notes, as they're written by Mr. Sanders himself and offer an endearingly nerdy and un-self-serious explanation of the conceptual basis and recording process of each track.)

[Link updated to include missing track.]

Track listing:
1. Awaiting the Vultures
2. Of the Sleep of Ishtar
3. Luring the Doom Serpent
4. Contemplations of the Endless Abyss
5. The Elder God Shrine
6. Temple of Lunar Ascension
7. Dreaming Through the Eyes of Serpents
8. Whence No Traveler Returns
9. The Forbidden Path Across the Chasm of Self-Realization
10. Beckon the Sick Winds of Pestilence

Cry for dawn

You might also like:

Coffin Texts - Gods of
Creation, Death & Afterlife (1996)

Eagle Twin - The Feather
Tipped the Serpent's Scale (2012)

David Galas - The Cataclysm (2006)

Related:
Lycia - The Burning Circle and Then Dust (1995)

Sprawling first solo album from David Galas, who was a member of Lycia for a few years, including during the recording of my favorite record of theirs (see above.) The Cataclysm has a similarly enveloping, droning misery, but it's sonically heavier and adds a twist of gothic Americana, plus some metal growls.

Track listing:
1. Asleep in the Field
2. The Harvest
3. American Melancholy
4. Alone We Will Always Be
5. The End Is Always Closer
6. Sect I
7. Capsized
8. September
9. The Fragment
10. Far Away from Nothing
11. Sect II
12. The Cataclysm Pt. 1
13. The Cataclysm Pt. 2
14. The Burial
15. Shimla
16. Reclamation
17. Sect III
18. The Great Ruins of Man
19. Something Fell from the Sky

Watching time die

You might also enjoy:

Skin -
Shame, Humility, Revenge (1988)

Canaan -
Blue Fire (1996)

Night of Suicide - What I Have to Hide... (2006)

Related:
Phlebotomized - Devoted to God (1992)

"Hey man, do you really think we have to put the style of music that we play on the album cover?"
"Um, yeah, how else are people gonna know what we sound like?"
"They could, you know, just listen to the CD."
"But no one's gonna listen to it if they don't even know what it sounds like, you fucking idiot."
"OK, fine, you're right. But can we at least take out the "depressive" part? 'Cause it's pretty redundant, seeing as how, like, all funeral doom is depressive."
"... Look, where were you when I sent this shit out to be printed?"

Weird, amateurish Dutch/Finnish funeral doom. Possibly the weirdest thing about this album is how not-heavy it is. The guitars are tinny and low in the mix, so when the funereal keyboards come in they dominate. But there's something compelling, even hypnotic about it, and it doesn't sound quite like anything else I've heard.

Track listing:
1. Memories
2. What I Have to Hide...
3. Shape of Depression
4. Your Eyes [bonus track]

Under the gallows pole
Unmarked grave awaits

Also listen to:

Beyond Black Void -
Desolate (2002)

Absum - Eznerapsart Led
Oicsnocbus Onamu (2008)

Land Beyond the Forest - On Road to Frozen Stars (1998)

Russian raw black metal. The depthless sorrow and unquenchable blood-thirst of a universe in eternal decay, obscured by time and technological limitations.

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. Forest Is a Symphony of Light and Colours
3. On Road to Frozen Stars (My Immortal Kingdom)
4. Dusk
5. Winter
6. Black Moon Rising
7. Shadows
8. Get Dark in Satanic Blood
9. ALPHA E.T.E. - Apocalypse
10. Beyond the Great Vast Forest [Emperor cover]

The children of the night
They shall rise again

You should also listen to:

Nidhoggr - Ravens Over
the Road of Kings (1994)

Crimson Evenfall - Nocturnal Storms
of Infinity (1996) + Winterheart (1997)

Redshift - Down Time (1999)

Related:
Mark Shreeve - Ursa Major (1980)
Redshift - Redshift (1996)
ARC - Octane (1998)

By request, here are more immersive, dark-tinted synthscapes from the great Redshift. I ran out of shit to say about 70s-style synth music years ago -- in fact, I've probably already said that a few times -- but that's not gonna stop me from posting it.

Track listing:
1. Nails
2. Ultranaut
3. Mania
4. High Noon
5. All Things Bright
6. Protoland
7. Down Time

Heaven is a turquoise avenger

Similar listening:

Arcane -
Gather Darkness (1999)

Gert Emmens -
Wanderer of Time (2003)

Near - The Dark Art of the Death Hidden in the Castle (2003)

Italian black metal. Eerie, mournful, crypt-borne sounds from beyond the veil of mortality, probably.

Track listing:
1. Dàlla cima (Intro)
2. The Approaching of the Beast
3. The Dark of the Death Hidden in the Castle
4. And the Death Takes Me Away from the Silent Earth...
5. Black Soul's Sorrow
6. Tra le montagne (Outro)

I could perceive that wailing
Confused and full of magnificence

If you like this, try:

Tenebrae in Perpetuum -
Onori Funebri Rituali (2003)

Mortuus Lunae -
In Spirituale Contatto (2009)

Allvaters Zorn - Erbe Verpflichtet (2003)

Epic, folk-infused, lo-fi German black metal with extensive experimental ambient elements. A dramatic, singular sound shaped by heavy use of keyboards, and vocals that range from moaned singing to spoken passages that sound like religious intonations to more typical black metal shrieks.

Track listing:
1. Erwachet
2. Erbe Verpflichtet
3. Ritual Pt. 1
4. Vom Ender Der Weit
5. Ritual Pt. 2

We have always been

Also listen to:

Nahash -
Wellone Aeternitas (1996)

Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra - The Key
to the Gates of Apocalypses (1999)

Nosvrolok - The Luciferian Doctrine (2006)

Related:
Accersitus - Lamps of the Concealed Shrine (2011)

Mesmerizing US black metal. Mostly uptempo songs, cloaked in reverb for a distant, occult sound.

Track listing:
1. The Illuminated
2. Ominous Inane
3. Roar of the Apocalypse
4. Luciferian Doctrine
5. Silent Tomb
6. Spells of Ancient Sorcery

The howl of worship unto dead shadows

You should also hear:

Unhuman Disease - De Templi
Autem Veteris Serpentis (2016)

Haunting Depths -
Death's Sacred Fire (2017)

Castor - Castor (1995)

Related:
Centaur - In Streams (2002)

Excellent, generally low-key 90s emo/indie rock. Great guitar interplay and understated vocal melodies that always remind me of Hum.

Track listing:
1. Anecdotes
2. Pontiac
3. Grind in Motion
4. Ceremal Frame
5. Dust Gun
6. Trans
7. The Package
8. Baroque

One thousand miles from nowhere

Also listen to:

Mineral -
The Power of Failing (1995)

Ester Drang -
Goldenwest (2001)

Earl Slick - Zig Zag (2003)

An excellent solo record of tight, punchy art rock by Earl Slick. Features a bunch of different vocalists -- most notably, Robert Smith and David Bowie, for whom Slick played guitar on and off dating back to the Diamond Dogs tour. "Isn't It Evening (The Revolutionary)" is pretty much a lost Bowie song. Sorry once again for hardly being on here anymore, but believe it or not, the dude running an mp3 blog in 2019 doesn't exactly have his shit together.

Track listing:
1. Dancing with Eleanor
2. Believe
3. Isn't It Evening (The Revolutionary)
4. 1735
5. Zig Zag
6. Pike St.
7. Crunched
8. St. Mark's Place
9. Psycho Twang
10. The Cat

I forget if it's always this way
I was told it was gold to this day

You'd also enjoy:

Daryl Hall -
Sacred Songs (1980)

Adrian Belew -
Lone Rhino (1982)

Tunrida - Hierarchy (1998)

Related:
IC Rex - Sielun Kadotuksen Sinfonia (2005)

Finnish black metal. Unleash the Satanic powers of the cosmos, and use them to kill God today!

Track listing:
1. My Finest Hour
2. Pathways to the Cosmos Opened
3. Est Sularus Oth Mithas
4. God of Infamy, Lies, and Fear
5. The Calling
6. Preacher of Immortality
7. Hierarchy of the Cosmos
8. Astral Majesty Revealed
9. Your Second Coming

Dread me, mortal, for I am inhuman
Missionary of wrath, disciple of hell

Also listen to:

Obtained Enslavement -
Centuries of Sorrow (1994)

Algaion -
Oimai Algaion (1995)

Was (Not Was) - Are You O.K.? (1990)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Was (Not Was) - Was (Not Was) (1981)

Brilliant fourth album by art-funk iconoclasts Was (Not Was). Crafting pop-rooted songs whose true genius only reveals itself upon close listening was always this band's specialty, and they never did it better than they do here -- if you're not paying attention, "In K-Mart Wardrobe" pretty much sounds like an impeccably produced ad jingle.

Track listing:
1. Are You Okay?
2. Papa Was a Rolling Stone
3. I Feel Better Than James Brown
4. How the Heart Behaves
5. Maria Navarro
6. I Blew Up the United States
7. In K-Mart Wardrobe
8. Elvis' Rolls Royce
9. Dressed to Be Killed
10. Just Another Couple Broken Hearts
11. You! You! You!
12. Look What's Back (Out Come the Freaks)

Broiled chickens sang us love songs from the skewer
Have you ever been this close to going down the sewer?

You should also hear:

Nile Rodgers -
B-Movie Matinee (1985)

Che -
Narcotic (1985)