Ætheria Conscientia - The Blossoming (2024)

French progressive/psychedelic black metal. Saxophone and synth factor in pretty heavily. The second entry in my unofficial series "A Lot of the Year's Best Black Metal Records Are Free to Download on Bandcamp."

Track listing:

1. Astral Choir

2. Haesperadh

3. Wrath of the Virikoï

4. Daimu Kadasdra Ko Antall

5. Endless Cycle

6. The Blossoming

Thought we'd be given answers as if they were owed to us

None of this is true

If you like this, check out:

Aenaon - Cendres et Sang (2011)

Nahar - The Strange Inconvenience (2013)

Déçu - ..Whirlwind (2024)

French raw DSBM. ..Whirlwind is a great example of how production can absolutely make or break a black metal record. It's compositionally minimal, often to an extreme -- there are songs made up entirely of cycling back and forth between a pair of two-chord 'riffs' -- and with big, polished production, they'd probably drag. And yet, the warm, distorted, analogue wall of sound makes it feel like it's the end of the fucking world. When it first hit, it honestly reminded me of the first time I heard "Only Shallow" -- not so much in sound but pure, visceral impact.

Perhaps most importantly, though: you can just feel how real it is. No one makes a track like "Glacial Décadence des Lamentations." unless they're really going through it.

Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:

1. Être dans tes bras.

2. Dors, ne souffre plus.

3. Morose Regret & Malheur Éternel.

4. Dormir sous les sanglots. (Berceuse I)

5. Today I realized how much destruction reminded me of you.

6. Glacial Décadence des Lamentations.

The ecstasy of drowning

You should also listen to:

Animus - Poems for the Aching, Swords for the Infuriated (2005)

Wrath of the Weak - Alogon (2008)

Twelfth Night - Fact and Fiction (1982)

Weird, dystopian prog rock for creeps. Like early Marillion but with a lower budget and a darker worldview.

Track listing:

1. We Are Sane

2. Human Being

3. This City

4. World Without End

5. Face and Fiction

6. The Poet Sniffs a Flower

7. Creepshow

8. Love Song

If every time we tell a lie, a little fairy dies

They must be building death camps in the garden

You should also hear:

Horrific Child - L'Étrange Mr Whinster (1976)

Planet P Project - Pink World (1984)

Funereal Moon - Beneath the Cursed Light of a Spectral Moon (1996)

Black metal as ritual dark ambient as scary sounds tape. The album starts as a fog of synth figures, haunted house sound effects, and rasping vocals. Midway through, the fog begins to intermittently morph into the more identifiable shapes of queasy, droning black metal filth. The rest of the album's runtime is spent back, forth, and on the line between these two realms. Supplicate yourself to true underground goblin supremacy.

Track listing:

1. Revelation (Intro)

2. Where Shadows of Decadence Dwell

3. Beneath the Cursed Light of a Spectral Moon (An Ancient Incantation)

4. Funeral Litanies from the Graves

5. The Howl of the Black Witch

6. Death, War and Hate (Extermination of All Forms of Life)

7. Vrykolkas

8. Lucifer's Throne of Temptation

9. I Came from Darkness to Conquer

10. Werewolf Nightmare

11. The Sign of the End of Time (Outro)

Those who resist will be tamed by terrible blows and sufferings.

Similar vibes:

Satanicum Tenebrae - Til Helvete (1994)

Udumbal - Sarcis (1998)

Klaus Schulze - Angst (1983)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Klaus Schulze - Irrlicht (1972)

Richard Wahnfried - Time Actor (1979)

Michael Shrieve with Kevin Shrieve and Klaus Schulze - Transfer Station Blue (1988)

Klaus Schulze - Shadowlands (2013)

Synth legend Klaus Schulze's excellent soundtrack to the supremely dark Angst, which, hey! You can watch it right now if you fancy a slow-burning portrait of a psychopath on a bad day.

Track listing:

1. Freeze

2. Pain

3. Memory

4. Surrender

5. Beyond

6. Silent Survivor [Bonus]

Some would surely die of fear. They couldn't stand being tortured that way.

Similar listening:

Jay Chattaway - Maniac (1980)

Biosphere - Insomnia (1997)

Dimensional Psychosis - Magical Matrix of Dimensional Continuum (2002)

It's black metal. Not trance, not techno. Despite what that album cover is telling you, I swear to god, it's black metal. It's dense, hyper-speed, industrial-powered cosmic black metal from a time before that had become a fully-formed micro-genre unto itself. This shit fucking rules. I hope to get my ass in gear and do some Spooky Season posting in the coming weeks, but who knows if I will; I am a dumb piece of shit, after all.

Track listing:

1. Matrix Mindscan Transition (Wormed Beyond)

2. Psychedelic Blackish Psychosis (Eternal Magick Unfolds)

3. Paradoxal Hologram from Sirius I AM (Universal Symbiosis)

4. Eerie Spiritual Vulture (Disconnected from Gravity)

5. Trapped in the Infinity of Limbo-Dimensionism (Humanoid Limits Erased)

6. Virtual Spectrum of Extensive Transparency (Visualize Transcendental Dreamscapes)

7. Choronzonic Evilution of Genius Dementia (Futuristic Intelligence of Ancientness)

8. I Am the Cosmic Storm Raging (Ultimate Chaos in Infinity)

9. Intermezzo & Mensenhaat (Remix)

10. End

Euphoric turbulence // Imploding nerves // Adrenaline bombardments // Neurotic death-ride // Chemical reactions // Overwhelming shivering thrills // Launched through the spine // Mental orgasm

You should also hear:

(V.E.G.A.) - Cocaine (2002)

Abigor - Fractal Possession (2007)

Social Unrest - Now and Forever (1988)

Melodic CA punk/hardcore that often crosses over into post-punk territory. I bought Now and Forever on cassette when I was a baby punk from some junk shop in Fells Point. I also bought this shitty thrash tape and Lita by Lita Ford on LP, which really impressed the middle-aged butt-rocker dude who stopped me on the sidewalk by pointing at the Lisa Ford record and shouting "now THAT's a woman!" Still hilarious.

Social Unrest/Now and Forever: I honestly wasn't that into it at the time. Too melodic, too melancholic. I like it OK, but between them and Minor Threat, who I was also just getting into at the time, it was no contest. My favorite song by far was "Handcuffs Too Tight", the most straightforward hardcore song on here. So I completely forgot about the band and album until a few months back, when I sold a bunch of old cassettes, noticed this one as I packed it up, and tracked it down on the internet. I like it way more this time around.

Track listing:

1. Katarina Witt

2. Now and Forever

3. I Am the Nation

4. Sexboy

5. Club 4

6. Crisis in Black and White

7. Red Army Drug War

8. Handcuffs Too Tight

9. Sins of Paris

10. Ever Fallen in Love?

11. Highroller Desolation Angels

Thrown in the truck

Beaten to fuck

You'd also like:

Peter and the Test Tube Babies - The Mating Sounds of South American Frogs (1983)

New Model Army - Vengeance (1984)

Caustic Resin - Fly Me to the Moon (1995)

Indie rock gone drone. Caustic Resin takes the stoned, bemused mindset of 90s alt/indie and pumps it full of the heavier, darker-tinted sounds of drone, garage, psych, and noise rock. I've been on a major 90s kick for the past few months, but due to my extremely sporadic posting, this is the first y'all are hearing about it. More to come?

Track listing:

1. Spore

2. Kill You If You Want Me To

3. Water Moccasin

4. Alien Fugue

5. Cancerous Eye

6. Healing Cough

7. The End of Betrayal

8. Damaged Animal

9. Summertime of Your Life

10. I Feel

11. A Fistful of Violence

12. Golden Hours

13. Calling Off the Dogs

14. White Box

15. Alien Fugue (Slight Return)

16. Station Wagon

Oh me oh my, I think it's been an eternity

You'd be surprised at my degree of uncertainty

How can moments go so slow

You should also listen to:

Lungfish - Artificial Horizon (1998)

Gorch Fock - Lying and Manipulating (2005)

Angra Mainyu - Versunkenheit (2007)

A commenter just pointed out that my most recent black metal post was way back in January. This is unacceptable, especially considering that I've been listening to a shit-ton of it. So to rectify that -- and to start your week off on a bright note -- here's some cold, bleak, droning, minimal, miserable German DSBM. 

Track listing:

1. Entfremdung

2. Nachthimmel

3. Worte sind nichts

4. Schweigen

5. Kälteemission

6. Lethargie

7. Abschied

Your world is a universe without any stars

The essence of all life flows in rivers here

More cold, bleak, droning, minimal misery:

Wedard - Ein Leben in der Ewigkeit (2006)

Photophobia - Humana Fragilitas (2010)

Tom Kazas - Deliquescence (1989)

Lovely, often quite emotive new age sounds from down under. Synths and programmed rhythms intermixed with longing, ethereal guitars. Something about this record really taps into my big ol' well of grief, but so does pretty much everything these days.

Track listing:

1. Eyes of a Bird

2. Someday That Is Saturday

3. Heavenly Transport

4. Blankets of Ice

5. Vision of Serenity

6. On Endless Nights

7. Unseen Passage

8. Mediterranean Move

9. Journey of the Whales

Turn your head 'cross the sea

Waves of sorrow, wait for me

And with my eyes, I see your face

Drifting slowly in this space

And now it seems there's no time to fill

All these hours standing still

Also listen to:

Fumio Miyashita - Earth (1983)

Barry Cleveland - Voluntary Dreaming (1990)

Twisted Science - Blown (1997)

Heady electronic sounds spanning distorted breaks, echoing downtempo quasi-grooves, and uneasy noise/ambient spells, with very little in terms of anything approaching melody. However, if you're like me, you've listened to White Zombie's La Sexorcisto about 500 times, and you'll recognize that "Beady Eye" shares a sampled arpeggiating drone with "Welcome to Planet Motherfucker" -- anyone know what that's from?

Track listing:

1. Sex, Drugs and Science

2. Bender

3. Beady Eye

4. Bad Head

5. Laptop Swine

6. Theme from Slow Blow

7. Magma Hum

8. Intermission

9. Lube

10. Bad Kabuki

11. Mr Ray Gone

12. Horn

13. Here Come the Pigs

14. Fryed

15. Fin

Woven in the surface

A premonition of a land erupting

A sparkling occasion of a city

Crash down overhead

You should also listen to:

Richard Thomas - Shows and Radios Attract Paint (1998)

Ancient Methods - First Method (2007) + Second Method (2008)

Juana Molina - Segundo (2000)

Dreamy, abstract Argentinian indie-folk against a backdrop of minimal electronic textures and pulses. If you're a fan of Vespertine -- which, statistically speaking, you are -- you should find a lot to love here.

Track listing:

1. Martín Fierro

2. ¿Quién?

3. El Perro

4. ¡Que llueva!

5. La visita

6. Quiero

7. Mantra del bicho feo

8. El desconfiado

9. El zorzal

10. El pastor mentiroso

11. Misterio uruguayo

12. Vaca que cambia de querencia

13. MedDlong

14. Sonamos

15. The Wrong Song [hidden track]

I know that pain

You should also hear:

Manual - Until Tomorrow (2001)

Aspidistrafly - I Hold a Wish for You (2008)

Various Artists - Misguided Wish for Fire's Song - 2024 Pt. 1 (2024)

My car is an '04 Corolla that has no Bluetooth and no AUX. It has the radio and a CD player. Sure, I could get a new stereo system installed, but I've weirdly fallen back in love with the art of the mix CD. No matter how well they come together, Spotify playlists always feel unfinished to me, whereas with a mix CD, you finalize a playlist and actually create a physical artifact of it. Much more satisfying. Less practical, of course, but more satisfying.

So this is the most recent one that I've made, and it's a collection of some of my favorite songs that have been released this year so far. It's not comprehensive, and it definitely wasn't made for public consumption, but it hasn't left my CD player for two weeks now, and it's what I have for you. Here's a quick rundown of the track list. Sorry if this is weird, I don't know what the hell life is anymore.

1. Lætitia Sadier - "Cloud 6"

The last song on Rooting for Love, which is probably my favorite Sadier solo record. The abrupt, borderline jump-scare ending is brilliant.

2. Amaro Freitas - "Sonho Ancestral"

Brazilian jazz piano. Buoyant and reflective.

3. Grandaddy - "Long as I'm Not the One"

A shiny, mid-paced sad-sack ballad among a collection of shiny, mid-paced sad-sack ballads.

4. Gesaffelstein - "Hard Dreams"

Reminds me of the golden age of electroclash.

5. Chelsea Wolfe - "Whispers in the Echo Chamber"

From the whispered breakdown to the riff-y ending that quickly redlines: she's in her NIN era.

6. meth. - "Shame"

Devastating, merciless noise-sludge. Title track from what's probably my AOTY at the moment.

7. Mizu - "Pump"

Ambient cello/electronics/field recordings.

8. Itasca - "Tears on Sky Mountain"

Weightless, gently psychedelic folk rock. The song from which I lifted the pretentious name for this mix. Again, I wasn't planning on sharing this when I made it.

9. Julia Holter - "Something in the Room She Moves"

Y'all probably know this one.

10. Kelly Moran - "Dancer Polynomials"

Hypnotic, cascading piano.

11. Ildganger - "Dans Om Tomhedens Mund"

Depressive, atmospheric, anxious yet majestic, raw-ish black metal.

12. Elegý - "Ship of Hopes"

Melodic, epic DSBM/post-BM.

13. Lila Ehjä - "Rust"

Slow-burning electro-darkwave track that takes on a shoegaze-like wall of guitar as it progresses.

14. Six Organs of Admittance - "Slip Away"

A spacious, haunting, acoustic-led psych-folk elegy that tends to make me cry.

Hopefully this doesn't result in Google deleting my blog. Enjoy!

I'm not fucking around

We're halfway dead

Bernhard Günter - Crossing the River (Night Music) (2001)

Minimal, sparse experimental sounds. The half-hour-plus title track is dedicated to then-recently deceased composer Iannis Xenakis, and is composed of dissonant strings, manipulated sources, and field recordings. "Haiku for Mu" is built on recordings of Günter's dog sleeping. A real party-starter, this one.

Track listing:

1. Crossing the River (Night Music)

2. Haiku for Mu

Gradually the blinding sunset drained from the glass, darkened, and it was as if snow were falling there, flakes shaping snow-eyes, hair: a face trembled like a white beautiful moth, smiled. She beckoned to him, shining and silver, and he knew he must go: unafraid, not hesitating, he paused only at the garden's edge where, as though he'd forgotten something, he stopped and looked back at the bloomless, descending blue, at the boy he had left behind.

Also listen to:

S·Core - Pretension (1988)

Müller • Sugimoto - I Am Happy If You Are Happy (2000)

ROHIT - Trick (2013)

Last month -- in the evening, on Thursday, April 11 -- my friend Danny died. He had made plans with his girlfriend to go out, and he was supposed to meet her outside his apartment, but when she got there, he wasn't outside. Eventually, after not hearing from him, she went into his apartment and found him dead on the couch. He had one shoe on.

No one knows for sure what happened. One can certainly make assumptions or inferences, but his cause of death is still unknown, and depending on what his family chooses to do with the autopsy results, it might stay that way. The only thing I feel safe saying is that, whatever it was, it was sudden, and it was unintentional. He was putting his shoes on, getting ready to go out with his girlfriend. He had texted her half an hour before she found him. Danny didn't want to die.

The night of his memorial, I had a dream that I was driving to drop off this bag full of old 4-track recordings of his that he left at my house sometime during early Covid (that part is real). Just before I pulled up to his house I realized that I'd driven to the wrong house: I was at the first house where I had lived with him, way back in 2007-2008. So I think, "Wait a second, Danny doesn't live here. Where the fuck does Danny live?" And I'm all confused. Then, the thought hits me as I wake up with a stone in my throat: "Oh, that's right. Danny doesn't live anywhere anymore."

Danny and I were in a few bands together over the years, and ROHIT was where we really bonded. I had started it as a solo project, but midway through recording the first demo, I knew I had to bring him into it. I just knew he would get it. So I played it for him, and he loved it. ROHIT was now a two-piece. We used to play shows for largely indifferent crowds, and we'd walk away like, "holy shit, dude, we just fucking crushed it, we're so fucking good." We truly didn't care if other people liked it -- we were doing exactly what we wanted to. And he boosted me like no other bandmate ever had or has -- I have never felt as seen or respected, creatively, as I did working with Danny in those early years.

After a while, we decided we weren't heavy enough and we needed a bassist so we invited Ana, who was fresh off the boat from Sweden, to join. She was into it, and we immediately became the best version of ourselves. That's the version of the band that recorded Trick, which I still consider our definitive recording. We had zeroed in on what we were best at, which was an extremely minimal synthesis of Ildjarn, Eyehategod, and Swans. It's not for everyone, and it's really not the point of this post. Check it out if you like.

Over the first couple of weeks after Danny died, it felt I had something dead attached to me, like a phantom limb or a tumor or some kind of cold, gnawing growth. And I knew that I had to let it go or it would spread to the rest of my body, but I couldn't bring myself to, because that thing was Danny. And letting it go meant letting Danny die, and I wanted to hold onto him as hard as I could. Keep him from that void into which so many beautiful souls have already disappeared. Pull him back through the veil, downwards with the rain, through an open window into his living room. Safe again, on his couch, sliding that second shoe on.

We kinda grew apart over the years. We texted a lot, and I always figured we'd grow back together again some day. Start another band. Watch more horror movies and It's Always Sunny. Drink beers on the porch and argue about Neurosis. Listen to Bill Fay and watch the sun turn red and disappear behind the trees. There were times when we'd go months without seeing each other, and more than once, when we finally did hang out, he told me that he'd been reading my blog -- this stupid fucking blog -- because that way he could see that, even though we weren't together, I was still me, I was still funny, I was ok.

Maybe writing this, I'm hoping that he can still read it somehow. I love you, Danny. I'll miss you forever.