Sadness - Somewhere Along Our Memory (2016)

Gorgeous US depressive black metal with strong post-rock elements. Pretty sure that if you take the distant, reverb-drenched shrieks out of "D'un Ciel de Nuit", you've got an Explosions in the Sky song -- except, you know, it's good. My inner black metal snob says "is that a fucking piano" but my inner angsty teen says "I could definitely cut myself to this." And "Kiss in October" just made me want to cry like a big fat baby. Those clean vocals! Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:
1. ... Era la Tuya
2. D'un Ciel de Nuit
3. Kiss in October
4. Her
5. Where the First Snow Fell

Our storm

If you like this, try:

Lustre -
Night Spirit (2009)

Melankoli -
Wind (2012)

Vorkuta - Into the Chasms of Lunacy (2007)

Hungarian black metal with depressive leanings. A far cry from the slow, monotonous repetition of many of their DBM ilk, the songs on Into the Chasms of Lunacy are in a near-constant state of subtle change. It's far from scatterbrained, though -- they'll ride the same chord progression for minutes at a time, but the strumming and drum patterns will change every other measure. Just because you're suicidal, doesn't mean you have to be bored, right?

Track listing:
1. Warriors of Vast
2. Gargoyle
3. My Flaming Soul
4. Stardust
5. Vorkuta
6. Within the Fortress of Melancholia

Everything you touch becomes lifeless
Everything you see is altering its form
Everything you hear is silent

More along these lines:

Sortsind -
Sår (1999)

Mortuus Lunar -
In Spirituale Contatto (2009)

Komeda - Pop På Svenska (1993)

Swedish indie pop/rock that takes cues from jazz fusion and space-age bachelor pad music, with ample amounts of vibraphone, Rhodes, and syrupy strings. So yes: it's gonna remind you of Stereolab. It's worth mentioning, though, that Komeda kinda beat Stereolab to the punch -- check the dates.

Track listing:
1. Oj Vilket Liv!
2. Bonjour Tristesse
3. Sen Sommar
4. Ad Fontes
5. Vackra Kristaller
6. Medicin
7. Feeling Fine
8. Vals På Skare
9. Snurrig Bossanova
10. Stjärna

What makes it go?

You should also listen to:

Monade -
Socialisme Ou Barbarie (2003)

Sean Nicholas Savage -
Flamingo (2011)

Mindrot - Dawning (1995)

US atmospheric doom/death metal. Mournful, keyboard- and clean guitar-fueled drama, and ugly, heavy annihilation. In a bizarre twist, their drummer left the band following their next record to join ska band/90s one-hit wonders Save Ferris.

Track listing:
1. Dawning
2. Anguish
3. Burden
4. Withersoul
5. Forlorn
6. Internal Isolation
7. Across Vast Oceans

"Do you really lead a good life?"
"No."

You'll also like:

Beyond Dawn -
Pity Love (1995)

Saturnus -
Paradise Belongs to You (1996)

Hilt - Call the Ambulance (Before I Hurt Myself) (1989)

The first album from this experimental, electro-industrial Skinny Puppy side project. Sounds like a more guitar/rock-oriented, still totally fucked-up SP. People seem to get mad when I post stuff like this -- for instance, check out the comments on this Front Line Assembly post, keeping in mind that I didn't publish the one that called me a faggot and told me to kill myself -- so really, I can't post enough of it. Enjoy, you bitter, bitter men.

Track listing:
1. Hilter
2. Stoneman
3. Down on Mommy's Farm
4. Baby Fly Away
5. Let's Fall Out
6. Get Stuck
7. Septic
8. I'm Standing on the Rim
9. Back to Insanity
10. Jah Mon Rasta
11. Come Alive
12. Smut Peddler (Blender Licker)
13. Get Out of the Grave Alan
14. Young Hearts
15. Squeltch
16. Wood Soup

'D' is for death

More along these lines:

Download -
Furnace (1995)

Decoded Feedback -
Overdosing (1996)

Kringa - Total Mental Desecration (2013)

Austrian raw atmospheric black metal. Kringa's latest EP, Through the Flesh of Ethereal Wombs, is one of my favorite BM records of the year thus far -- get it, dumb-dumb.

Track listing:
1. Preludium
2. T.M.D.
3. Wreck the Temples (Ascend to Utter Darkness)
4. Nine Prayers, Red Wine

Abhorrent ascent

You might also wanna listen to:

Nehëmah -
Requiem Tenebrae (2004)

Insidious Omen - Anointed
with the Blood of Chaos (2009)

Ghost - Ghost (1991)

Self-titled first album from Japanese underground psych gods Ghost. Easy-breezy, pastoral folk, kaleidoscopic garage rock, shimmering psych ballads, and droning, drugged-out dissonance, with a richly diverse instrumental palette to match. So, so, so much better than the fucking Swedish Ghost (aka Ghost B.C.) who I now regret even bringing up.

Track listing:
1. Sun Is Tangging
2. Guru in the Echo
3. Moungod Te Deum
4. I've Been Flying
5. Ballad of Summer Rounder
6. Moungod Asleep
7. Moungod Radiant Youth
8. Rakshu

First drop of the sea

You should also give these a spin:

Alan Sorrenti -
Aria (1972)

Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat -
An Interlude to the Outermost (2007)

De Magia Veterum - The Divine Antithesis (2011)

Related:
De Magia Veterum - The Blood of Prophet and Saints (2006)
Cloak of Altering - The Night Comes Illuminated with Death (2011)

Gnarled, relentlessly chaotic Dutch black metal. A piercing, enveloping atmosphere and near-constant, jarring shifts in dynamics and tempo generate an overwhelming sense of tension and anxiety so effectively, it's completely understandable that this project alienates so many listeners.

Track listing:
1. Transfiguration
2. The Stench of Burning Wings
3. The Flaming Sword
4. The Heavens
5. Torn Between Ruins, Faith, and the Divine
6. Burning Hands and a Crown of Flames
7. Angelic Deformity

A nightmare existence forever

You should also hear:

Taurus - No/Thing (2014)

Skáphe - Skáphe² (2016)

Conrad Schnitzler - Rot (1973) + Blau (1974)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Giancarlo Toniutti & Conrad Schnitzler - Кулáк (Camma) (1990)

Two albums of experimental synth and way-abstract krautrock from the great Conrad Schnitzler. The world's in pretty bad shape as it is -- imagine the hellish dystopia that we'd be living in had the Germans never gotten their hands on the synthesizer.

Track listing:
-Rot-
1. Meditation
2. Krautrock
-Blau-
1. De Rebellen Haben Sich in den Bergen Versteckt
2. Jupiter

Wild space

You should also hear:

Heldon -
Electronic Guerilla (1974)

Club of Rome -
Große Statik (1985)

Dead Reptile Shrine - Isth Narai Ja (2002)

Hey kids! Guess what time it is! It's... almost 6 A.M. and I'm still up. And high! What about you? Have you been fucked up all night, and you're finally getting tired, so you want some music that'll make you feel as though you are becoming one with the black, unknowable void as you drift off into restless unconsciousness??

Well, you're in luck! Here's some Finnish dark ambient/drone. When Dead Reptile Shrine make black metal, it's really fucking bizarre, totally unique, and probably impossible to sleep to -- I'll prob post some of that soon -- but Isth Narai Ja, their first full-length, is all cavernous atmospheres; sparse, abstract guitars and keyboards; eerie tape loops; and wordless, ritualistic singing.

Track listing:
1. My Ancient Underworld Throne
2. The Spirit Catcher (Aaveen Pyydystys Kellarissa)
3. Deathstar Antenna

Rotting flesh laid on altar

Put these on next and keep the party pumping:

Halo Manash -
Am Kha Astrie (2008)

Darkness Enshrouded the Mist -
Forbidden Vocations (2010)

Profetus - Coronation of the Black Sun (2009)

Finnish funeral doom. Slow, ceremoniously miserable guitar themes cycle laboriously, with crusty, drawn-out growls and droning organ for a stately, deeply funereal feel.

Track listing:
1. Saturnine Night (Intro)
2. The Eye of Phosphoros
3. Coalescence of Ashen Wings
4. Blood of Saturn

Forever dying, never dead

Dive deeper into despondency with:

Absum - Eznerapsart
Led Oicsnocbus Onamu (2008)

Abyssmal Sorrow -
Lament (2008)

London Aircraaft - Rockets (1984)

Related:
Supermax - World of Today (1977)

First and only album from little-known German disco group London Aircraaft. It's more or less a solo album by Supermax bassist Larry London that's produced and largely written by Supermax bandleader/mastermind Kurt Hauenstein, and though it's more straightforward than their main project, it'll still put the boogie in your butt.

Track listing:
1. Island Feeling
2. Brighter Day
3. Changes
4. Angie
5. Supergirls
6. Rocket in My Pocket
7. Calculator
8. Dancing on a High Wire
9. Watch Out
10. No More Tears
11. Soldiers of the Night [bonus]
12. Boulevard [bonus]
13. We Are the Highlights [bonus]

In my book, you're number one

You should also listen to:

Adrian Gurvitz -
Sweet Vendetta (1979)

RAH Band -
Going Up (1983)

Pagan Hellfire - A Voice from Centuries Away (2000)

Canadian black metal. Generic but quite well-written and -executed, just the way I like it, with a raw but clear sound.

Track listing:
1. March of Incarnatus
2. The Collapsing Pillars of Humanity
3. Light in the Hours of Dusk
4. The Enlightened Place
5. A Time to Depart
6. A Space Below the Earth
7. Wolfland

Plague winds howl

More like this:

Graven -
Of Misanthropic Spirit (2000)

Teratism -
Invocatum Furae Diabolis (2002)

The Kaze - Kamakazie Timez Up (1998)

Memphis horrorcore-tinged gangsta rap from Prophet Posse affiliates Project Pat, MC Mack, and Scan Man, and featuring pretty much everyone on the roster, at one point or another.

Track listing:
1. Next
2. Move Muthafucka
3. Hard Not to Kill
4. Crackin Jaws
5. On My Ass
6. Pure Anna
7. Ain't No Klan
8. Niggas Got Me Fucked Up
9. Felt the Pain
10. Like to Get Away
11. All About My Hustle
12. Itchy Finger
13. Situation Gone Bad
14. Lock Down
15. Timez Up

We got that plastic fo yo ass

More from Prophet Posse:

Kingpin Skinny Pimp -
King of da Playaz Ball (1996)

Indo G -
Angel Dust (1998)

Acheron - Rites of the Black Mass (1991)

US old-school blackened death metal. Half of the songs on Rites of the Black Mass consist of beefy, Satan-worshipping brutality, the other half, Satanic incantations recited over spooky keyboards. Which is another way of saying, this album represents all the best that life has to offer.

Track listing:
1. Intro #1
2. To Thee We Confess
3. Intro #2
4. Thou Art Lord
5. Intro #3
6. Ave Satanas
7. Intro #4
8. Summoning the Master
9. Intro #5
10. One with Darkness
11. Intro #6
12. Prayer of Hell
13. Intro #7
14. Unholy Praises
15. Intro #8
16. Cursed Nazarene
17. Intro #9
18. The Enochian Key
19. Intro #10
20. Let Us Depart

Rise now from the flame

More death metal hymns for Our Dark Father:

Imprecation -
Theurgia Goetia Summa (1995)

Sargatanas -
The Enlightenment (1999)

The Super Secret Symphony - The Super Secret Symphony (1995)

Way chilled-out ambient electronic courtesy of US producer Abe Duque, who is generally known for making (really great) house and techno.

Track listing:
1. Symphony Number One
2. Symphony Number Two

Salute the dawn

You might also wanna listen to:

Susumu Yokota -
Sakura (2000)

Plat -
Compulsion (2005)

Sutekh Hexen - Empyräisch (2011)

Black metal draped in a burial shroud of harsh noise. Empyräisch is a compilation of songs from EPs by one of the few bands that are capable of actually scaring me like a good horror movie might. Like, I listen to this, and suddenly I want to turn more lights on.

Track listing:
1. Murmur
2. Bled Thy Likeness
3. Order of Nine
4. Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadows?
5. Haunted
6. Haunting

In worship they weep His name

Similarly frightening stuff:

The Rita & Wilt -
Werewolf in the Black Space (2008)

Sistrenatus -
Sensitive Disturbance (2012)