0 - Null & Void (2014)

Icelandic depressive black metal. A single, almost 35 minute-long piece of slow-building, hypnotic, epic heaviness. Iceland is the new France, in that when I hear that a black metal band is from there, I'm instantly excited. Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Beyond the edge of the sky is a temple

You should also hear:

Hinsidig -
I en Tidløs Høst (2010)

Helgedom -
Den Mörka Skogen af Ondo (2011)

Absolute of Malignity - Absolute of Malignity (2008)

Related:
Subconscious Evil - Subconscious Evil (2009)

Japanese black metal. Distorted shrieks, gnarly-sounding guitars, and an overall chaotic sound. The crackling, guitar-drone bonfire of "III" offers a sonic respite while nonetheless containing arguably the most unnerving material on the album.

Six tracks, titled "I" through "VI"

Silent panic

You'd also enjoy:

Primigenium -
Intolerance (2002)

Sielunvihollinen - Musta Uni
(2012) + Ruttokieli (2013)

Au-Delà des Ruines ‎- Psychose des Barbelés (2013)

Riff-tastic, ripping French-Canadian black metal. Much more interesting than that super-generic album art might lead you to believe.

Track listing:
1. Combustion Spontanée
2. Psychose Des Barbelés
3. Mise à Mort
4. M'Abolir Par les Déchirements
5. Massacre d'Orphelins
6. Fragmentation
7. Sorcellerie Tendue dans l'Orage
8. Exil

Decapitated corpses float at the edge of our galaxy

You should also hear:

Azarath -
Infernal Blasting (2003)

Beyond Ye Grave -
Raping the Creation of God (2009)

Hawkwind - Sonic Attack (1981)

In light of a number of conversations I've had recently, it would seem that a disconcerting number of music fans have only listened to Hawkwind's earliest material. Y'all need to wake up, cause they've stayed putting out great albums this whole time, including this synth-soaked gem from '81. Sonic Attack has a driving, sharp feel that subtly hints at punk and new wave while staying the course of massive, world-shaking space rock.

Track listing:
1. Sonic Attack
2. Rocky Paths
3. Psychosonia
4. Virgin of the World
5. Angels of Death
6. Living on a Knife Edge
7. Coded Languages
8. Disintegration
9. Streets of Fear
10. Lost Chances

Dangerous visions

You should also listen to:

Gila -
Gila: Free Electric Sound (1971)

Acid Mothers Temple
& the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. -
Wild Gals A Go-Go (1999)

Alog - Red Shift Swing (1999)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Alog - Miniatures (1999)

More abstract, low-key sounds from Alog. Brief, often beautiful aural snapshots, looped, elongated, and layered.

Track listing:
1. Drifting West
2. 500,000 Years Ago
3. The Travel Light
4. Expand the Heart
5. Lonesome Train
6. Red Shift Swing
7. Popul Vuh
8. Tuning the Piano
9. A Regular Hexagon Is Found Traced in the Sand on Some Beach
10. The Sun Is Where the Clouds Should Be

Objects began to appear from the future

If you enjoy this, listen to:

Rachel's -
Selenography (1999)

Saule -
Saule (2002)

Convulsing - Errata (2016)

Stellar Australian black/death. Angular, dissonant guitars, reverb-drenched growls, and ever-changing, even scatterbrained song structures, with precise, sharp drumming providing a center to the chaos. Would have been on my year-end list if I hadn't slept on it 'til last week. Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:
1. Descend Beneath
2. Altered
3. Severed Hemispheres
4. Dis
5. Eleven Sigils
6. Invocat
7. The Sky Moves Sideways
8. Dragged

Wake from the dream of self
Exit the lie and be released

You would also like:

Abyssal - Denouement (2012) +
Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius (2013)

Altars -
Paramnesia (2013)

Don Blackman - Don Blackman (1982)

Heaven-sent boogie with sweet jazz undertones that shine through in the form of unorthodox, dissonant chords and some sick-ass piano work.

Track listing:
1. Yabba Dabba Doo
2. Heart's Desire
3. Holding You, Loving You
4. Deaf Hook-Up Connection
5. You Ain't Hip
6. Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide
7. Since You've Been Away So Long
8. Never Miss a Thing

Dooby-dooby-doo-wee!

If you like this, you should hear:

Bernard Wright -
'Nard (1981)

Roger -
The Saga Continues (1984)

Alan Lamb - Archival Recordings: Primal Image / Beauty (1995)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Sarah Hopkins & Alan Lamb - Sky Song (1985)

Two extended drone pieces from Scottish composer Alan Lamb. Recorded in '88 and '86, respectively. Apparently both pieces are made up of a series of shorter pieces, pieced together and smoothed over with transitions, but it certainly doesn't show -- they're completely seamless.

Track listing:
1. Primal Image
2. Beauty

A murder of dead crows

Also listen to:

Eleh -
Location Momentum (2010)

Steve Roach -
The Passing (2017)

Werwolf ‎– Zeitenwende - Only the Strong Survive... (1996)

Austrian black metal.  Epic riffs complimented by keyboards and acoustic guitars. and counterbalanced by a rough, slightly sloppy delivery. All this talk about sunwheels and only the strong surviving gives me the feeling that this band is sketchy, but I don't have anything concrete.

Track listing:
1. Prelude
2. Warwolf
3. War Is King and Father of All
4. The True God Lives in the Mind
5. Only the Strong Will Survive
6. On the Edge to a New Age
7. Under the Flag of the Sunwheel
8. Eclipse by the Moon
9. March 'Til Death

Realization of emptiness leads to the final flash

Similar listening:

Pagan Hellfire -
A Voice from Centuries Away (2000)

Beastcraft -
Into the Burning Pit of Hell (2005)

Slicker - Confidence in Duber (1998)

Weird, glitchy, at times beautiful IDM courtesy of John Hughes III. Yes, the director's son.

Track listing:
1. Prader
2. Dahm Foos
3. Bundusky
4. Viking
5. A Hundred Times and More (99 KO's Remix)
6. Zead
7. Vahz Moon
8. Duber-Shantz-Krivo-Dance
9. Vabokon

It's a buoy

Also listen to:

Philip Jeck -
Loopholes (1995)

Breakage -
This Too Shall Pass (2006)

Vrolok - Void (The Divine Abortion) (2007)

Related:
Sick - Filth and Ugliness (2005)
Vomit Orchestra - Macabre Paradigm (2005)

Fucked-up US black/doom. Heavy, drone-doom-ready guitars, distorted vocals, eery keyboards, unorthodox drumming, and an increasingly drugged-out feel, as if the record -- and by extension, the man behind it -- are coming apart in real time.

Track listing:
1. Advocatus Diaboli
2. Divine Abortion
3. Grey
4. Turning Purple in the Dark
5. Radiance
6. Void

Blessed are the dying and diseased
For they alone have foreseen greatness

Also listen to:

Black Autumn -
Ecstasy, Nightmare, Doom (2007)

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

Overhang Party - Overhang Party (1993)

Japanese experimental psych. Seems likely that much of this was improvised, and that they were very stoned at the time.

Track listing:
1. Twins of Sun
2. Bass Oscillation
3. One's Double
4. Air
5. In the Direction of the Night
6. G House Blues

Then the ship was sunk

More along these lines:

Skullflower -
Obsidian Shaking Codex (1993)

Spectrum & Jessamine -
A Pox on You (1996)

Pisschrïst - Nothing Has Changed (2006)

Australian d-beat. "Blood Bled Dry" features the only whistling lead I've ever heard on a crust record. A bit of a Motörhead vibe (or "Wild West d-beat" as my homie Zack calls it) but really, this is straightforward, ripping d-beat that I was too busy being a dumb snob to get into when everyone else was.

Track listing:
1. Who Is to Blame
2. Mass Genocide Machine
3. System Stagnates
4. Fight Back
5. Pecah Kepalla
6. Blood Bred Dry
7. The River Runs Red
8. Chemical Warfare
9. Nothing Has Changed
10. Fuck the World
11. Hilong
12. Infected
13. Tamadun

Neverending nightmare

More like this:

Doom -
Monarchy Zoo (1996)

Consume -
Consume (2004)

Oppenheimer Analysis - New Mexico (1982)

Truly phenomenal English synthpop/minimal wave. Really, some of the best of its kind. I know nothing about this band, but I know that thousands of today's hipsters wish they could make an album this good.

Track listing:
1. Don't Be Seen with Me
2. Scorpions
3. Radiance
4. Men in White Coats
5. Modern Wonder
6. Subterranean Desire
7. Martyr
8. The Devil's Dancers
9. New Mexico
10. Security Risk
11. Behind the Shadesw
12. Cold War

What's the use of being free?
All that's left is you and me

More like this:

Flowers -
Icehouse (1980)

Telex -
Neurovision (1980)

Karin Krog, Steve Kuhn, Steve Swallow, & Jon Christensen - We Could Be Flying (1975)

Related:
Steve Kuhn Trio - Three Waves (1966)
Steve Kuhn - Trance (1975)
Harry Pepl, Harry Joos, & Jon Christensen - Cracked Mirrors (1988)
Ketil Bjørnstad, David Darling, Terje Rypdal, & Jon Christensen - The Sea (1995) + The Sea II (1998)

A solid-gold nugget of space-age jazz. Norwegian singer Karin Krog is front-and-center, while the rest of the band provides a seemingly endless supply of loose, propulsive, hella chill grooves and slowburners.

Track listing:
1. We Could Be Flying
2. Meaning of Love
3. Sometime Ago
4. All I Want
5. Sing Me Softly of the Blues
6. Raindrops, Raindrops
7. Lament
8. Hold Out Your Hand
9. Time to Go

A new kind of light surrounds us all

You should also hear:

Cortex -
Troupeau Bleu (1975)

Kimiko Kasai -
Butterfly (1979)