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)

Conflict - Against All Odds (1989)

Easily the most musically adventurous record from these anarchopunk legends. Of the record's six tracks, only two -- "Slaughter of Innocence" and "A Message to Who" -- could be considered standard fare for the band, and they're arguably the two best songs they ever recorded. Elsewhere, there's the epic, multi-suite, 14-minute title track, something resembling a ballad ("Assured Mutual Destruction") and a skit-like track parodying the commercialization of punk ("The Greatest Show on Earth") that never quite takes off. And then there's "A State of Mind", an experimental, electronic dance track that features a pitch-shifted voice moaning "Ecstasy!" over and over again, and is unlike anything else they ever recorded.

Track listing:
1. Against All Odds
2. Slaughter of Innocence
3. Assured Mutual Destruction
4. The Greatest Show on Earth
5. A Message to Who
6. A State of Mind

Eyes glare, beast and master, animals both, crazed and weary
There can only be one real winner here, the results are now seen clearly
Teeth marks bare where fur once protected, flesh hangs dangling in shreds
Their faces grimace, rejected strips of meat exposed, selected
Bloodstains and saliva splatter the fuel of precious life
Master and servant segregate the ritual sacrifice
Driven mad and into frenzy, limbs torn, skin is shorn
Like sex perverts at a peep show, this is the ultimate in porn

More like this:

Lost Cherrees -
All Part of Growing Up (1984)

Toxic Waste -
Belfast (1987)

Giant Drag - Hearts and Unicorns (2005)

A should-be classic of hooky, 90's-indebted slacker rock. Don't let the silly song titles fool you, some of these songs are hella dark. Spent a long weekend drinking and eating mushrooms poolside to celebrate my friend's 40th birthday, can't believe I didn't think to put this on ONCE.

Track listing:
1. Kevin Is Gay
2. Cordial Invitation
3. This Isn't It
4. YFLMD
5. Pretty Little Neighbor
6. Blunt Picket Fence
7. High Friends in Places
8. You Are Full of Shit (Check Out My Sweet Riffs)
9. Everything's Worse
10. My Dick Sux
11. Smashing
12. Slayer
13. Untitled [hidden track]

I can't decide which is more stupid
Your heart or your mind

You might also like:

Helium -
Pirate Prude (1994)

The Muffs -
Happy Birthday to Me (1997)

Fog - Through the Eyes of Night... Winged They Come (2000)

Related:
Typhus - Profound Blasphemous Proclamation (2005)

US black metal. Raging and majestic, in a way that harkens to some of the best of the second wave. Way better than a relatively unknown band from Indiana has any business being.

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. In Magnificent Glory
3. By This Axe We Rule
4. The Leech Within
5. Whispered Myths (Of Ancient Times)
6. Through the Eyes of Night Winged They Come
7. In the Sorrow of a Crimson Sea
8. The Storm Unholy
9. Outro

The sun extinguished
Never to rise again
The sleepers will awaken

More like this:

Mactätus -
Blot (1997)

Sorhin - I Det Glimrande
Mörkrets Djup (1997)

Dantesco - De la Mano de la Muerte (2005)

Puerto Rican epic doom/heavy metal. Vocalist has serious range, sounds like he might have some legit opera training.

Track listing:
1. Intro: Tiempo de Calma
2. La Tempestad
3. Cronicas de la Muerte Negra
4. Morir de Pie
5. Mi Venganza
6. Dantesco
7. Traidor
8. Principe de Valaquia
9. Oda al Fin del Mundo
10. Ataca la Bestia
11. Pavor Nocturnus

No color
Or sound from the sea

You'd also like:

Trouble -
Run to the Light (1987)

Cauchemar -
La Vierge Noir (2010)

Mark Isham - Mark Isham (1990)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Mark Isham - Castalia (1988)
Mark Isham - Tibet (1989)

More artful, ambient jazz from trumpeter Mark Isham. Some songs -- particularly the ones featuring the simmering vocals of Tanita Takiram -- lean heavier into adult-contempo, and land in similarly evocative, nocturnal territory as The Blue Nile, circa Hats. Also features the glistening, fluid guitar stylings of David Torn.

Track listing:
1. Honeymoon Nights
2. I Will Never Know
3. Marionette
4. An Eye on the World
5. Blue Moon
6. Ashes and Diamonds
7. Toward the Infinite White
8. Songs of the Flying Fish
9. Turkish Delight

To forget for a moment

If you like this, listen to:

Manfred Schoof & Rainer Brüninghaus -
Shadows & Smiles (1989)

John Taylor, Norma Winston,
& Kenny Wheeler - Azimuth (1977)

Dernière Volonté - Les Blessures de l'Ombre (2003)

Synth-heavy, martial-industrial-neofolk. A perfect example of the kind of music I tend to listen to when I'm sick, which I am.

Track listing:
1. Ouverture
2. Le Poison
3. Vienna
4. Les Orages du Crime
5. Les Yeux Fermés
6. La Foudre et le Tonnerre
7. Un Dernier Crépscule
8. Vers la Lumière
9. La Source
10. Ton Visage de Papier
11. Les Blessures de l'Ombre
12. Souvenir de Demain
13. Si...
14. Au Revoir

Choosing to suffer

More like this:

Ordo Equilibrio -
The Triumph of Light... and Thy
Thirteen Shadows of Love (1997)

The Days of the Trumpet Call -
I Saw No Temple in the City (2001)

Tucker Zimmerman - Ten Songs (1969)

American folk rocker Tucker Zimmerman's excellent debut LP. Surreal, psychedelic songs delivered with a fuzzy, rough-around-the-edges sound. Band includes a pre-cape Rick Wakeman on organ and the great Tony Visconti, who also produced the record.

Track listing:
1. Bird Lives
2. October Mornings
3. A Face That Hasn't Sold Out
4. The Roadrunner
5. Children of Fear
6. The Wind Returns into the Night
7. Running, Running from Moment to Moment
8. Upsidedown Circus World
9. Blue Goose
10. Alpha Centauri

And they kept on falling in
And they kept on crawling out

More along these lines:

Tim Hollier -
Tim Hollier (1970)

Andy Zwerling -
Spiders in the Night (1971)

Capone-N-Noreaga - The War Report (1997)

Killer NYC hip-hop. Eerie piano lines, soul samples, and lyrics about killing people over drug-related disputes. Some of the songs are permanently partially censored -- why did this happen to so many 90s hip-hop records?

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. Bloody Money
3. Driver's Seat
4. Stick You
5. Parole Violators
6. Iraq (See the World)
7. Live On Live Long
8. Neva Die Alone
9. T.O.N.Y. (Top of New York)
10. Channel 10
11. Capone Phone Home (Interlude)
12. Thug Paradise
13. Capone Bone
14. Halfway Thugs
15. L.A., L.A.
16. Capone-N-Noreaga Live (Interlude)
17. Illegal Life
18. Black Gangstas
19. Closer
20. Capone Phone Home Outro

Grab the gray tape, gag his mouth, leave him for the rats
Stuck him for the yay-yo, couldn't get the money back

You'd also like:

Black Moon -
Enta da Stage (1993)

M.O.P. -
To the Death (1994)

James Plotkin & Mark Spybey - A Peripheral Blur (1998)

Related:
O.L.D. - The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak (1993) + Formula (1995)
Download - Furnace (1995)
Lotus Eaters - Alienist on a Pale Horse (2001)
Khanate - Things Viral (2003)
Khlyst - Chaos Is My Name (2006)
Reformed Faction - Vota (2006)

Experimental, texturally evocative ambient/drone from two massively talented artists. Sorry for all the lapses in posting, this time it was because I went to NYC for a wedding.

Track listing:
1. Jute Wheel
2. Aluminium as a Medium
3. A Peripheral Blur
4. Vord Lae
5. Northern Sleight

Shrinking

Similar listening:

Atom Infant Incubator -
Copula (1994)

Mirror -
I Paint for the Love of Color (2001)