Condemned - Desecrate the Vile (2009)

Ignorant-ass US brutal death metal. Desecrate the Vile is about 90% breakdown, and the vocals are goddamn absurd. Also, gotta love how it's utterly, aggressively artless for the first 20 or so minutes, then ends with 10 minutes of dark ambient.

Track listing:
1. Fixation on Suffering
2. Subject to Infliction
3. Descending into Extinction
4. Impulsive Dismemberment
5. Servants of Derangement
6. Habitual Depravity
7. Chapter of Defilement
8. Mutilating the Inferior
9. Internally Devoured
10. Amputated Repugnance

Followers fester with their prayers
As the righteous bathe in blood

Also listen to:

Heinous Killings -
Hung with Barbwire (2006)

Medecophobic -
Pandemic of Existence (2011)

Cheater Slicks - Refried Dreams (1999)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Cheater Slicks - Whiskey (1993)

Fiery garage-punk nirvana. One of the few bands in existence who seem to have truly learned the lessons that Funhouse can teach us -- and it's not just the saxophone that comes in for the second half of the record. It's hard to pick a favorite Cheater Slicks album, cause they're all pretty much perfect, but Refried Dreams miiiiiight be mine.

Track listing:
1. In This Town
2. Another Stab
3. I Think I'm Coming Down
4. One Life Story
5. Munchen Gretchen
6. Refried Dreams
7. George Washington
8. Dejected Soul
9. Deep Beneath the Sand
10. Don't Poo Poo Me
11. Last Call

The oceans won't let me in

You'll also wanna hear:

Teengenerate -
Get Action! (1994)

The Necessary Evils -
Spider Fingers (1997)

Imperium Dekadenz - ... Und Die Welt Ward Kalt und Leer (2006)

German raw epic black metal. Imperium Dekadenz sound like they'd been planning to ride their black steeds into the glory of battle, but ended up taking too many downers the night before and passing out on the battlefield, surrounded by corpses.

Track listing:
1. Einklang
2. Glanz der Klinge
3. Halls of Lust
4. Of All Ends
5. For Those Who Sleep Eternally
6. Fields of Silence
7. Meine Reise Durch die Zeit
8. Schwarze Wälder
9. Gefrorene Wunden
10. ... Und Die Welt Ward Kalt und Leer

Under the pillars of flesh

If you like this, listen to:

Countess -
The Shining Swords of Hate (2000)

The Martyrium -
Sturmböen (2004)

Breakage - This Too Shall Pass (2006)

Phenomenal double-album of expansive, immersive drum-and-bass and downtempo electro by UK producer James Boyle. Cloudy, ethereal, dub-y atmospheres grounded by punchy breakbeats and wobbly bass-lines.

Track listing:
-Disc One-
1. Lead Me On
2. Morning Star
3. Chump Inc
4. Losing Track
5. Ruff Dub (feat. Rohan)
6. Shadow (feat. SP MC)
7. Untitled Jungle
8. Eve
-Disc Two-
1. Stomp
2. Hill St
3. A Song for the Simple
4. Black Sunshine
5. Strumpet
6. Jazzy
7. Meaning of Things
8. Unireverse

I feel so divorced from the world

You'll probably also like:

Lawrence -
Lawrence (2002)

Eleven Tigers -
Clouds Are Mountains (2010)

Otomo Yoshihide - Cathode (1999)

Four sparse, quite difficult, experimental pieces by Japanese musician Otomo Yoshihide. Warm, organic-sounding instruments producing some really ugly sounds, at times accompanied by harsh electronics.

Track listing:
1. Modulation #2
2. Cathode #1
3. Cathode #2
4. Modulation #1

Open window

If you like this, try:

Alog -
Miniatures (2006)

Death Ambient -
Drunken Forest (2007)

Ingrowing - Cyberspace (1998)

Kickass Czech death metal. Don't let the amazing 90s-futuristic artwork fool you: this sounds nothing like Fear Factory. There are no crappy industrial flourishes, just burly riffs, high-and-low growls, pinch-harmonics, and pogo breakdowns that will have you treating your surroundings like they're Napster and you're Lars Ulrich.

Track listing:
1. Underture
2. Cyberspace Floats Through Me
3. Tourettized
4. Polyaanghuulaar Dereeems
5. Sunken
6. Surreal Ego Ravening
7. We Create Another Future
8. Sexual Inferiority
9. Mournful Dejection
10. Synergy 0.29
11. Perpetual

The sleeping micro-worlds are spinning 'round each other
Dreaming about lysergic wisdom

You'll also like:

Caducity -
The Weiliaon Wielder Quest (1995)

Monstrosity -
Millennium (1996)

C.O.B - Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart (1972)

Second and last album by Clive Palmer (of The Incredible String Band)'s truly great side project, C.O.B. Sounds like a more focused, less whimsical take on TISB's frilly, vaguely medieval psychedelic folk.

Track listing:
1. Lion of Judah / Sheba's Return
2. Let It Be You
3. Solomon's Song
4. Eleven Willows
5. I Told Her
6. Oh Bright-Eyed One
7. Chain of Love
8. Pretty Kerry
9. Martha and Mary
10. Heart Dancer

This valley is a cradle for the sun
And for the silent one who wears the coat of many colors

If you like this, check out:

Dr. Strangely Strange -
Kip of the Serenes (1969)

Tír na nÓg -
Tír na nÓg (1971)

Mika Vainio - Onko (1997)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Ø - Tulkinta (1997)

Minimal ambient electronic/drone courtesy of Finnish musician Mika Vainio. It's truly amazing how viscerally impactful such barely-there sounds can be, given sufficient volume and attention.

Track listing:
1. Kelvin
2. Jos [If?]
3. Onko Parts 1-11 [Is It?]
4. Viher [Green/Cellular]

Metallic conversations

More along similar lines:

Piquet -
The Faulty Caress (1996)

John Wiese -
Collected Tracks (2000)

Mortuus Infradaemoni - Imis Avernis (2009)

Stellar German black metal. Vicious, unrelentingly playing channeled through huge-sounding production into a vast, hypnotic space.

Track listing:
1. Obscuritas Ubique Et In Aeternum
2. Darkland
3. Imis Avernis
4. Bastard
5. Doresh El Ha'metim
6. Mortuus Et Prodeunt Infradaemoni
7. Merihim Rises
8. Der Tod
9. Animatus

Horror and abysmal grief

You should also listen to:

Tenebrae in Perpetuum -
Onori Funebri Rituali (2003)

Orenda -
The Funeral (2007)

Leaf Hound - Growers of Mushroom (1971)

Raw, heavy psych perfection. Blown-out, riff-y guitars, busy drumming, and a hair farmer howling about boning, doing drugs, feeling down, and being a good man. A record nerd classic.

Track listing:
1. Freelance Fiend
2. Sad Road to the Sea
3. Drowned My Life in Fear
4. Work My Body
5. Stray
6. With a Minute to Go
7. Growers of Mushroom
8. Stagnant Pool
9. Sawdust Caesar
10. It's Gonna Get Better [bonus]
11. Hip Shaker [bonus]

Went and blew it all

You'll also dig:

Night Shadow -
The Square Root of Two (1968)

Råg I Ryggen -
Råg I Ryggen (1975)

Moriar - Burn the Reign of Light (2010)

Italian black metal. Precisely zero clicks and whistles, unless you count the very brief acoustic-guitar-and-keyboard part in "Black Soul".

Track listing:
1. Night Falls
2. Black Emperors
3. ... Form the Fog
4. Black Soul
5. Samhain's Night
6. ... We Are the Cancerous Seed of Europe
7. Napalm Rain

Disciples of Satan

If you like this, try:

War -
Dawn of New Epoch (2002)

Rituals of a Blasphemer -
Mors Inumbratus Supra Spritus (2014)

The Bug - Tapping the Conversation (1998)

Dub-infused downtempo electronic from London producer Kevin Martin. The beats are super laid-back, but everything else -- industrial screeches, dissonant reverberations, high-frequency drones, feedback, pitch-shifted voice samples, and the like -- is anything but. Put this on the next time you're conducting illegal espionage against a president-elect.

Track listing:
1. Harry's Theme
2. Invasion of Privacy
3. Countdown to Elimination
4. Those Tapes Are Dangerous
5. Bug Party
6. The Lift
7. Fake Auto Crash
8. Room 773
9. Seduction and Betrayal
10. The Director
11. Army
12. Nightmare Messenger
13. Twenty-Four Hour Surveillance

Thief of dreams

You might also like:

Ingleton Falls -
Absconded (1994)

Phil Western -
The Escapist (1998)

Law of the Rope - Beasts Will Have You (2008)

US raw, experimental black metal. I'm guessing there are some French influences at work here, what with the art-damaged, dissonant approach. More significantly, there's lots of harsh noise, including insane, squealing feedback that's seemingly as one with the vocals. Hella intense, fucked-up stuff.

Track listing:
1. From Fields of...
2. Beasts Will Have You
3. Thy Own Throat
4. In Dust
5. Death Ballad
6. Knife Point

Silenced fields of the decapitated

If you like this, listen to:

Wormsblood -
Mastery of Creation (2009)

Sutekh Hexen -
Empyräisch (2011)

Diabolique - Wedding the Grotesque (1997)

Swedish gothic metal. Wedding the Grotesque is definitely on the heavier, less melodic, more doom-oriented side of gothic metal, but the miserable-sounding baritone vocals and plenty of dramatic keyboard/organ make it potentially appealing to those whose enjoyment of the subgenre begins and ends with Type O Negative.

Track listing:
1. Dark Man
2. Shaven Angel Forms
3. Blood of Summer
4. Sacrificial Highway
5. The Unchaste Bittersweet
6. Sorrows Piercing Art
7. The Smiling Black
8. Beggar Whipped in Wine
9. The Diabolique

Broken

You will probably also like:

Beyond Dawn -
Pity Love (1995)

Cryptal Darkness -
They Whispered You Had Risen (1999)

Osculum Infame - Sadomatic, Impure Artgoat (1994)

French raw black metal. Esoteric, lo-fi black metal filth. LLN, fans: rejoice.

Track listing:
1. Overture
2. Vicarius Filii Dei... 666
3. Satanaëlic Shameful Act
4. Scorn the Mortified Deceiver
5. Final

Inferno of tortures

More like this:

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

Total Genocide -
Worship Humanicide (2006)

The Essence - Ecstasy (1988)

Lush, atmospheric, synth-fueled Dutch goth rock. The Essence clearly were big fans of Faith-era The Cure, especially vocalist Hans Diener, but that's probably my favorite Cure record, and they do a bang-up job with it, so I'm not complaining.

Track listing:
1. Burned in Heaven
2. Only for You
3. Sleeping
4. Like Christ
5. Angelic
6. Jump and Fall
7. Ice
8. The Afterworld
9. So Gorgeously
10. Despair
11. Understand Why
12. One More Wasted Night

Always

Also listen to:

Visage -
Visage (1980)

Frazier Chorus -
Sue (1989)

Yen Pox - Yen Pox (1993)

Cavernous, dissonant, lightless drone/dark ambient. Follow my lead: make a nest of blankets and pillows on the floor, play this at a roommate's-sleep-disrupting-ly high volume, slam narcotics, and disappear.

Track listing:
1. Dervish
2. Suction
3. Thin
4. Head Shot
5. Empty
6. Virus

We know only of fear

If you like this, listen to:

Valefor -
Death Magick (1996)

Daniel Menche - Together We Shall
Melt Mountains with Out Blood (2005)