Of Darkness - Death (2004)

Skin-crawling, utterly disgusting, blacker-than-black Spanish drone/funeral doom. Dissonant riffs get driven into the ground as an ancient evil growls across aeons, horror movie keyboards intermittently flicker overhead, and the same, achingly simply drum pattern pulses below. Here's to a soul-crushing, death-seeking, wrist-shredding, void-embracing 2016!!

Track listing:
1. Death
2. Darkness

Pestilence

More party-rockin' hits:

Mistress of the Dead -
I Know Her Face from the Tombstone (2006)

Grivf - Yggdrasil (2007)

Soom - Ніч на полонині (2014)

Ukrainian drone/stoner doom. More than a little reminiscent of Electric Wizard via unending repetition of simple, warped riffs as huge, echoing atmospheres build to cacophony, but slightly more melodic and with more dynamic, layered vocals. Unlike the many bands out there doing this style wrong, though, Soom sound as though they've also heard bands like Candlemass and Cathedral, and weave these influences into their sound. And I know your attention span is shot, but stick with it to the end -- the last song really ties the room together.

Track listing:
1. Ніч на полонині: Невидима Сокира
2. Дід
3. Ніч на полонині: Свято рослини
4. Дивний сон за 419 років до пробудження
5. Ніч на полонині: Пісок
6. Камінь
7. Ніч на полонині: Слобожани
8. Електричний мольфар
9. Ніч на полонині: Остання подорож
10. Панахида

Destroy those who love God

You might also like:

Ascend - Ample Fire Within (2008)

Huata - Atavist of Mann (2011)

Cortex - Troupeau Bleu (1975)

Chilled-out, impossibly cool French jazz-funk. Piano, fretless bass, and drums provide the foundation for Mireille Dabray's airy vocals and the occasional sax or synth solo. It's hard to imagine that the readers of my nerdy music blog wouldn't be aware of a fusion-related album this awesome, but if I managed to sleep on it until recently, there's a good chance that you have, too. Smooth as Dave Chapelle's balls.

Track listing:
1. La Rue
2. Automne (Colchiques Dans Les Prés)
3. L'Enfant Samba
4. Troupeau Bleu
5. Prélude À "Go Round"
6. Go Round
7. Chanson D'Un Jour d'Hiver
8. Mary Et Jeff
9. Huit Octobre 1971
10. Sabbat (1ère Partie)
11. Sabbat (2ème Partie)
12. Sabbat (3ème Partie)
13. Madbass
14. Jazz Dance [bonus]

I heard a sigh

More of that sweet stuff:

Roy Ayers -
Coffy (1973)

Joe Henderson -
Multiple (1973)

Furia - Martwa polska jesień (2007)

Polish black metal. Tight and punishing, but quite melodic and even a bit catchy (in a black metal, not actually catchy kinda way.)

Track listing:
1. Nade mną mgła
2. Dzień czarny, noc czarna
3. Krew w kolorze bursztynu
4. Ślepych dzień
5. Na ciele swym historię mą piszę
6. Idzie zima

The gory shine of dawn will smell of powder

Sam Gopal - Escalator (1969)

Well, I've been meaning to post this here forever, and looks like today, sadly, is the day. Before Hawkwind, there was Sam Gopal, a phenomenal band for which Lemmy Kilmister provided vocals and lead guitar. Escalator, more or less their only record, is about as dark as early psych got, with a churning, ritualistic sound resulting, in part, from tabla taking the place of a standard drum set. R.I.P. God.

Track listing:
1. Cold Embrace
2. The Dark Lord
3. The Sky Is Burning
4. You're Alone Now
5. Grass
6. It's Only Love
7. Escalator
8. Angry Faces
9. Midsummer Night's Dream
10. Season of the Witch
11. Yesterlove

If you think you like me living, baby
You're gonna love me when I'm dead

Try these too:

Amon Düül - Psychedelic Underground (1968)

Bruce Palmer - The Cycle Is Complete (1971)

Symptom - Caverns of Katabasis (2014)

Lysergic death/doom from my home sweet home of Portland, OR. Symptom is a solo project offshoot of the more active Shroud of the Heretic, who trade in a similarly occult, atmospheric sound.

Track listing:
1. Risen from Shadow
2. Marrow Spires
3. Omen of Crypts
4. Pnakotic
5. Saturnine
6. L'Appel du Vide

Artifice memories overcome
Inside the omnidread catacombs
Decrepit citadel shroud of dusk

If you like this, try:

Temple Nightside -
Prophecies of Malevolence (2011)

Altars -
Paramnesia (2013)

Lilys - Eccsame the Photon Band (1994)

I'm back y'all. While I get my shit together, here's some brilliant, stoned, shoegaze-informed 90s indie pop/rock that sounds great on airplanes. A wealth of narcotized dirges ("The Turtle Which Died Before Knowing", "Overlit Canyon (The Obscured Wingtip Memoir") makes the bursts of dream pop bliss ("The Hermit Crab", "Radiotricity") that much sweeter.

Track listing:
1. High Writer at Home
2. [Untitled 1]
3. Day of the Monkey
4. FBI and Their Toronto Transmitters
5. [Untitled 2]
6. The Turtle Which Died Before Knowing
7. The Hermit Crab
8. [Untitled 3]
9. Overlit Canyon (The Obscured Wingtip Memoir)
10. Hubble
11. Kodiak (Reprise)
12. Radiotricity
13. Your Guest and Host
14. [Untitled 4]

You are over

You might also like:

Majesty Crush - Love 15 (1993)

Pale Saints - Slow Buildings (1994)

Monade - Socialisme Ou Barbarie (The Bedroom Recordings) (2003)

Related:
McCarthy - I Am a Wallet (1987) + Banking, Violence, and the Inner Life Today (1990)
Stereolab - Switched On (1992)
Lætitia Sadier - The Trip (2010)

First album from this Lætitia Sadier (of Stereolab, doi-oi-oi) side project. Sounds like a collection of laid-back, (almost) all French language Stereolab joints. I love everything that this woman does.

Track listing:
1. Enfin Seule
2. Cache Cache
3. Vent du Sud
4. Un Secret Sans Importance
5. Witch Hazel
6. Un Express
7. Sunrise Telling
8. Boite en Carton
9. La Carotte De L'Humanité
10. Graine De Beauté
11. Ode to a Keyring
12. The Swimm
13. Ode to a Keyring (Original) [bonus track]

As the waves lash away at your skull

Dimentianon - Seven Suicides (2003)

Sloppy, crusty black/death metal from the sleepy hamlet of Commack, New York. What they lack in precision, they make up for in sounding disgusting and psychotic.

Track listing:
1. Self-Inflicted Abuse
2. A Song for Elisabeth When She Is Dead
3. Soulless Extinction
4. Last of Seven
5. Brotherhood of the Seventh Day
6. Razorblade Catharsis (Selbstmordkonig)
7. Dead - Forgotten

I drank from the spring of life to find it tainted with piss, tears, and blood

Dwight Twilley - Twilley (1979)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Dwight Twilley Band - Sincerely (1976)

Twilley's first official 'solo' record is a tad darker than Sincerely and Twilley Don't Mind -- less songs about cruising around in cars loving life, more about being heartbroken and stoned -- but that doesn't stop it from being pure power pop perfection.

Track listing:
1. Out of My Hands
2. Nothing's Ever Gonna Change So Fast
3. Runaway
4. Standin' in the Shadow of Love
5. Alone in My Room
6. Betsy Sue
7. Darlin'
8. I Wanna Make Love to You
9. Got You Where I Want You
10. It Takes a Lot of Love

There will come a day

You might also like:

Colin Blunstone - One Year (1971)
Ennismore (1972)  Journey (1974) + Planes (1976)

The Professionals - I Didn't See It Coming (1981)

Arkona - Imperium (1996)

Polish black metal. Simple but prominent keyboard figures give the album a dark, dramatic undercurrent to compliment the blizzard-like, at times frantic guitars, without sounding full-on "symphonic." And hey, according to the Metal Archives, they "do not support any totalitarian ideologies."

Track listing:
1. Skrajna nienawiść egoistycznej egzystencji
2. Epidemia rozczarowania i nędza duchowa
3. Każdy los to cień
4. Jesienne cienie czekające na kolejną reinkarnację
5. Wściekłość która nadchodzi
6. Pluję na twą marność psie!
7. Pogarda dla wrogów imperium wszechmocy
8. Długa ciężka zima [bonus track]
9. W wiecznej zemście pogańskich bogów [bonus track]

Spectral blood of the black moon

You'll also like:

Obtained Enslavement - Centuries of Sorrow (1994)

Algaion - Oimai Algaion (1995)

Teengenerate - Get Action! (1994)

Raw Japanese garage punk. Everything in the red all the time, scream, fight, cut yourself, and dance.

Track listing:
1. Mess Me Up
2. 1979
3. Dressed in Black
4. Fake Fake Fake
5. Human Tornado
6. Six and Change
7. Plastic Man
8. Let's Get Hurt
9. Radio 55
10. Right Now
11. Front Page
12. She's So Fine
13. Something You Got
14. Kicked Out of the Webelos
15. Don't Leave Me
16. I'm Beat
17. I Don't Want to Follow You
18. Hey Baby
19. Shake, Rattle, and Roll

Red alert

Amnion - Cryptic Wanderings (2008)

Related:
Empty - The Last Breath of My Mortal Despair (2005)

Spanish black metal. I'd write a description but I'd just be describing black metal, and if you're reading this, you know what that sounds like.

Track listing:
1. Cryptic Wanderings
2. The Dreadful Martyrdom of the Most Cruel
3. Towards Desolate Places My Wanderings Lead
4. Dominants and Perpetual Echoes of Discouragement
5. In Sarna We Trust
6. The Harm Caused By the Most Baneful of All Trees
7. Sick of the Light

It possesses the taste of the putrified corpses

If you like this, try:

Impious Havoc - The Great Day of Wrath (2003)

Underdark - I Am Above All (2006)

Eternal Tapestry - Mystic Induction (2007)

Two long, echoing, fuzzy, improvisation-heavy psych jams from Portland's own Eternal Tapestry.

Track listing:
1. Emerald Forest of Peace
2. Transcendence

When I was in your mind

You'll probably also like:

Pärson Sound - Pärson Sound (2001)

White Rainbow - Sky Drips Drifts (2007)

Bloody Panda - Pheromone (2007)

Haunting, crushingly heavy NYC doom. Dirty, dissonant guitars clang alongside thick bass, droning organ, and thunderous drums, while vocalist Yoshiko Ohara's dramatic, reverb-soaked vocals soar overhead. For those who'd like to hear a Burning Witch-Menace Ruine collab.

Track listing:
1. Untitled
2. Coma
3. Fever
4. Ice

Pusher

More like this:

Otesanek - Otesanek (2004)

Ascend - Ample Fire Within (2008)

Diamanda Galás - The Litanies of Satan (1982)

Diamanda Galás' first LP, The Litanies of Satan is undoubtedly one of the most unchill records I've ever heard. Over warbly, droning electronics, Galás recites incantations, moaning, shouting, and shrieking like a woman possessed, often utilizing vocal effects to transform her already inhuman vocals to deeply unsettling, demonic timbres. Beware, all ye who enter.

Track listing:
1. The Litanies of Satan
2. Wild Women with Steak-Knives

What is my name?

More scary stories to tell in the dark:

Ruth White - Flowers of Evil (1969)

Royal Trux - Twin Infinitives (1990)

Solbrud - Jærtegn (2014)

Epic Danish black metal. Melodic, sorrowful melodies channeled through unrelenting tremolo picking and blast beats, with just a few gorgeously stark acoustic breaks.

Track listing:
1. Sortedøden
2. Afbed
3. Klippemennesket
4. Ursult

Gnawing darkness

You'll probably also like:

Echtra - Burn It All Away (2004)

Wolfhetan - Entrückung (2006)

Marcos Valle - Marcos Valle (1974)

Beautiful psych-tinged Brazilian pop. Fits pretty much any mood you can throw at it.

Track listing:
1. No Rumo Do Sol
2. Meu Herói
3. Só Se Morre Uma Vez
4. Casamento, Filhos E Convenções
5. Remédio P'ro Coração
6. Brasil X México
7. Tango
8. Nossa Vida Começa Na Gente
9. Novelo De Lã
10. Cobaia
11. Charlie Bravo

The moment your head hits the pillow

More Brazilian excellence:

Gilberto Gil - Gilberto Gil (1968)

Milton Nascimento - Minas (1975)

Wolfblood - A Victory to Echo Through Time (Demo I) (2012)

Raw Australian black metal. Azgorh (of Drowning the Light, Harvest, many others) provides vocals.

Track listing:
1. Death's Head Marches Through Eternity
2. Wolfblood
3. Our Cruelty But a Game
4. The Rise
5. In the Pale Moonlight I Am...
6. A Victory to Echo Through Time

The fields of reckoning

You might also want to check out:

Azaxul - And Heaven Is
Crying Tears of Fire (2000)

Spitehowling -
Born to Die for Evil (2002)

Walls - Walls (2010)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Walls - Coracle (2011)

A shimmering, electro-shoegaze haze of gauzy synths, textural guitars, loops, samples, and pulsing beats.

Track listing:
1. Burnt Sienna
2. Hang Four
3. A Virus Waits
4. Cyclopean Remains
5. Soft Cover People
6. Strawberry Sect
7. Gaberdine
8. Austerlitz Wide Open

Dream time in Lake Jackson