HKY - HKY (2009)

HKY's self-titled debut EP applies some elements of pretty-boy post-metal to heeeeavy, ugly drone doom a la Buried at Sea (wtf I thought I had posted Migration, apparently not [EDIT: now I have!]) and the results are pretty goddamn spectacular.

Track listing:
1. Monument Inversion
2. Curve and Abundance
3. In Worship Facing the Ruins
4. Heaven Sent Anvil

The path of withered corpses

After you're done with HKY, pack another bowl and listen to:

Sailors with Wax Wings -
Sailors with Wax Wings (2010)

Septic Mind -
Начало (2010)

Adrian Gurvitz - Sweet Vendetta (1979)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Adrian Gurvitz - Il Assassino (1980)

More soft, airy disco from Adrian Gurvitz. It's like ELO dancing under a mirrorball with Toto.

Track listing:
1. Untouchable and Free
2. The Wonder of It All
3. Put a Little Love (In Life's Heart)
4. Love Space
5. The Way I Feel
6. Time Is Endless
7. I Just Wanna Get Inside Your Head
8. Free Ride
9. One More Time
10. Drifting Star [bonus]

Life's still waiting for you

These are pretty great, too:

Colin Blunstone - One Year (1971) + 3 more

Wayne Henderson - Emphasized (1979)

Horrors of the Black Museum - Gold from the Sea (2008)

Fucking Christ, this is good. I have never heard doom metal that sounds quite like this. For one, the no-guitars, all-bass approach results in a tone much like that of Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins. And it's so densely mixed, like a warm pit of black sludge out of which periodically echo synths, samples, and epic harmonized vocals. I don't know. As you'd guess from the album cover, there's a bit of camp involved, but it's the irony-free, cryptic evil kind.

[EDIT: The vocalist for this band commented to clarify that there are no guitars, just bass on this recording, and that the Eibon crew had already split off before this recording was made. Just sloppily edited the writeup with this info in mind.]

Track listing:
1. The Voodoo That You Do
2. Dead Men Shed No Tears
3. Hiding Mask
4. Gold from the Sea

We like to get fucked up and do fucked up shit

Try these, too:

Huata -
Atavist of Mann (2011)

Corrections House -
Hoax the System / Grin with a Purpose (2013)

Bill Horist - Soylent Radio (1997)

First album from experimental guitarist Bill Horist. Droning soundscapes, clattering guitars, distorted samples, and more weave uneasy, oddly entertaining sonic tales.

Track listing:
1. Soylent Radio
2. The Teeth of Our Skin - Part 1
3. Clowder
4. The Teeth of Our Skin - Part 2
5. 3 Cloven Staircase
6. Epilepticify
7. Penumbra Hotem

Here in the air

You might also like:

Deuter - D (1971)

Dave Phillips - ? (2010)

War - Dawn of New Epoch (2002)

Icy, melodic Polish black metal. Only true black metal fans need apply.

Track listing:
1. The Revenge
2. Hate Must Go On
3. New Time Will Come
4. The Unknown
5. Last Attack
6. Illusion of Life
7. Dawn of New Epoch
8. Fog
9. Dark Land

Maze of death cracks open

More darkened landscape/big sky-core:

Algaion - Oimai Algaion (1995)

Orlog - Reinigende Feuer (2006)

Paul Roland - Burnt Orchids (1985)

Fatalistic, folk-inflected, darkly political new wave. Lands in a perfect sweet-spot between morbid post-punk (think The Sound), atmospheric new wave (think The Church), and even some of the more accessible neofolk (think Rome.)

Track listing:
1. Death Or Glory
2. Burnt Orchids
3. The Puppet Master
4. Captain Blood
5. Cairo
6. Green Glass Violins
7. Funhouse
8. Ghost Ships
9. Dr. Strange [bonus]
10. Madelaine (Remix) [bonus]
11. Berlin [bonus]

To the valley of the kings

You'll probably also enjoy:

Simple Minds - Real to Real Cacophony (1979)

Urban Verbs - Urban Verbs (1980)

Stutthof - And Cosmos from Ashes to Dust (2004)

Greek black metal. Melodic tremolo picking, astral synths, and a few well-chosen symphonic samples produce a sense of epic, melancholic grandeur that's at odds with the band's moniker (look it up if you want the cold, ugly truth.)

Track listing:
1. An Invocation to Those Who Have Risen
2. Wampyric Metamorphosis
3. The Horned Moon
4. Crossing the Ninth Gate to the Kingdom of Shadows
5. Dragon the Great One
6. The Breaking of the Seventh Seal

Mighty child of the dragon

You might also like:

Alrakis - Alpha Eri (2011)

Vemod - Venter på stormene (2012)

Robbie Basho - Venus in Cancer (1970)

Come bask in the mysterious, otherworldly beauty that is Robbie Basho, hippie mystic freak extraordinaire, and one of the greatest human beings to have ever emerged from Baltimore. Mesmerizing, raga-like compositions for acoustic guitar, occasionally colored by Basho's quavering, almost operatic vibrato and a subtle symphonic backdrop. Makes me want to eat some mushrooms and go lay in the grass somewhere. This man made so, so many great records, so I just went with the one that I happened to put on today.

Track listing:
1. Venus in Cancer
2. Eagle Sails the Blue Diamond Waters
3. Kowaka d'Amour
4. Song for the Queen
5. Cathedrals et Fleur de Lis
6. Wine Song (Sweet Wine of Love)

She has been to the temple of the Lord
And seen his face

If you enjoyed this, try:

Jack Rose - Opium Musick (2003)

Ben Reynolds - Earth & Space Magics (2005)

Blood Stained Dusk - Dirge of Death's Silence (2001)

US black metal. From Alabama, of all places. I could try to tell you how it sounds, but I'd be ignoring the elephant in the room if I didn't mention up front that it's clearly, heavily influenced by Emperor -- specifically, In the Nightside Eclipse. Regardless, Dirge of Death's Silence is fucking ace, and one of the more underrated USBM records.

Track listing:
1. Moon Behind the Storm
2. Bringer of Everlasting Damnation
3. Renounce the Dawn
4. The Infernal Braise
5. Vastland of the Empire Lost
6. Ganguinas Bath - The Blood I Follow
7. Funeral of Lamentation

Awakened visions bringing forth the end

If you like dis, you'll like deez:

Arkona - Imperium (1996)

Sorhin - I Det Glimrande Mörkrets Djup (1997)

Andreas Vollenweider - Caverna Magica (... Under the Tree - In the Cave... ) (1983)

Third and my personal favorite album by harpist/new age cheeseball Andreas Vollenweider. Each song runs into the next, colored by a bright, lush, ever-changing instrumental tapestry. Super cornball, guilty pleasure material.

Track listing:
1. Caverna Magica
2. Mandragora
3. Lunar Pond
4. Schajah Saretosh
5. Sena Stanjéna?
6. Belladonna
7. Angóh!
8. Huiziopochtli
9. Con Chiglia
10. Geastrum Coronatum
11. La Paix Verde

Hands and clouds

If you like this, check out:

Constance Demby -
Skies Above Skies (1978)

Al Gromer Khan -
Divan I Khas (Visions of a Mogul Prince) (1987)

Unhuman Disease - Black Creations of Satan (2009)

Raw, Satan-worshipping US black metal. Endless blastbeats and tremolo picking, distorted rasps, extremely simple riffs. There's something hypnotic, even convincingly evil about the way these songs stubbornly refuse to go anywhere, leaving the listener to aimlessly drift through endless blackness.

Track listing:
1. Black Creations of Satan
2. Summoned in Fire
3. Curses Within Me
4. As I Kneel Before Thee
5. Under His Black Wings
6. Of This Sanity
7. Bleeding in Darkness
8. Upon the Altar of Perversion
9. Congregation of Satanas
10. Sealed in Flesh
11. Wretchedness Consumes Me

Demonic unholy night

If you like this, try:

Orenda - Back in the Grave (2006)

Unholy Crucifix - Black Mass Metal (2012)

Grover Washington, Jr. - Mister Magic (1975)

Got some super smooth fusion for ya. I'm finally over my sickness, and it feels real good to feel good.

Track listing:
1. Earth Tones
2. Passion Flower
3. Mister Magic
4. Black Frost

There's some light ahead

You'll probably also like

Jean-Luc Ponty - Cosmic Messenger (1977)

Caldera - Time & Chance (1978)

Old Man Gloom - Seminar III: Zozobra (2001)

One of the crowning achievements of the post-metal subgenre, and possibly my favorite Aaron Turner-related release (it's this or Celestial.) Zozobra is a single, just under half-hour-long composition made up of four distinct movements connected by droning feedback, ambient soundscapes, and sample collages. Think of it as OMG's answer to Lysol. Certainly not the most obscure album I've posted on here, but if just one person hears this because of me, I'm doing my part to help make this world a better place.

Close your eyes, roll back into your head

You might also like:

Orthodox - Gran Poder (2006)

Mouth of the Architect - Quietly (2008)

Bergrizen - Autism (2009)

Ukrainian depressive black metal. Clearly, a graduate of the High-Pitched Shriek School of Black Metal.

Track listing:
1. Mysterium
2. Autism
3. Der Wanderer
4. Emanations of Coldness
5. Innere Finsternis

Dying years

More atmospheric black metal:

Astral Silence - Astral Silence (2010)

Karg - Scherben (2011)

Alesini & Andreoni - Marco Polo (1995)

Marco Pollo defies easy categorization, so it's not an ideal candidate for one of my half-assed write-ups, but it certainly encompasses a great deal of what this blog is about; there's a bit of new age-y synth ambience, some quasi-tribal drumming, spaced-out sax solos, hints of 90's electronica, even a touch of smokey Twin Peaks jazz. Plus, featured on the album are three of my absolute favorite musicians: Harold Budd, David Sylvian, and David Torn. If only they'd somehow managed to work some black metal in there, then it'd pretty much be Opium Hum: The Album.

Track listing:
1. Come Morning
2. Quinsal La Citta' del Cielo
3. Yangchow
4. The Golden Way
5. Sumatra
6. M. Polo
7. Il Libro Dell' Incessante Accordo Con Il Cielo
8. Maya
9. Buchara
10. Kubilay Khan
11. Samarca
12. The Valley of Pamir
13. Maya (Nocturne Version) [bonus]

Lost in the marketplace
As if half-born

You should also hear:

Michael Shrieve & Steve Roach -
The Leaving Time (1988)

Steve Tibbetts -
The Fall of Us All (1994)