Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Black Stench - Black Stench (2009)


Related:
Hoath - Codex II: Kether (2009)
Drowning the Light - A Pact with Madness (2009)
Drowning the Light - Oceans of Eternity (2011)

Finnish black metal. Raw, discordant guitars, disgusted vocals, and mesmerizing, mostly mid-paced songwriting. I've been reduced to a feverish, mucus-ridden lump on the couch, so I'm listening to raw black metal really fucking loud, in the hopes that it might blow all the snot (or brains, whatever's clever) out of my head.

Track listing:
1. The Crown of Kings
2. Of the Serpent Coiled in Human Bones
3. Scales Atop the Black Mountain
4. Shining Through Abandoned Halls
5. Lunar Secrets and Opferblut
6. Governing Sigils of the Ritual Storm
7. Misery and Desolation
8. Blood Is the Way

With glowing eyes

If you like this, listen to:
Tundra -
Ansia (2005)
Blasphemous Crucifixion -
Crude Burial (2009)

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Acronym - Dimensional Exploration 001 (2012) + Dimensional Exploration 002 (2013)


Two excellent EPs of atmospheric Swedish dub techno. Yawning, spacious drones and dissonant loops atop simple, insistent beats.

Track listing:
-001-
1. Amoeba
2. Protista
3. Eukariota
-002-
1. Chloroplast
2. Plasmodesma
3. Epidermis

Oceanus



You will also enjoy:
Lawrence -
Lawrence (2002)
Jacek Sienkiewicz -
Téchnè (2002)

Monday, May 29, 2017

Sleeping Village - Mourning Persists (2005)


Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Asofy - ebYm (2001)

Ghostly Italian depressive black/doom metal. Not unlike the above-linked Asofy, with whom they share a vocalist, Sleeping Village deal in conspicuous drum machines and beautifully sorrowful, interwoven guitars, and they don't fuck with bass.

Track listing:
1. Fallen Leaves Around Me
2. Happiness Passes Away, Mourning Persists
3. Angores Lunae
4. Cry Liberator
5. Memories of a Forgotten Solitude
6. Autumnal Fire
7. Remains

From the dungeon

More like this:
Necrofeast -
Necrofeast (1996)
Imber Luminis -
Life as Burden (2011)

We™ - As Is. (1997)


Tripped-out, mostly downtempo electronic sounds courtesy of NYC-based squad We™. Ambient, textural synths, dub-y atmospherics, sample fragments, and a lotta breakbeats. When I'm sick (which I am now, with the same cough/cold that like everyone I know has had for the past two weeks) warped, uneasy electro is my go-to, so here we are.

Track listing"
1. Magnesium Flares
2. Ease-In
3. Believe Porpoise
4. Dyed Camel Skins
5. Flutesque
6. In Time
7. Violinstoid
8. 3/10th of the Population
9. Shape Wipe
10. Lillie
11. Tombs and Tombs Only
12. New Agent
13. Ss/sadness-88

You gone?

More along these lines:
The Bug -
Tapping the Conversation (1998)
Phil Western -
The Escapist (1998)

Halgrath - Liquid Mind (2010)


Mesmerizing, ethereal darkwave/dark ambient from Russian musician/legit opera singer Ekaterina Alexandrova. Cosmic synth drones, samples, and haunting, emotive vocals.

Track listing:
1. Shaaman's Prarie
2. Irae Seithoria
3. Euphoria
4. Her Winter of Loneliness
5. Deep Underwater Darkest Tale
6. Spiral Path
7. Metal Scream
8. Whisper of the Mental Hypnosis
9. Dark Liquid Mind
10. Palace of the Lustful Lord

Memorizing the dead planet on the edge of the galaxy

Kinda like a cross between these two records:
Lycia - The Burning Circle
and Then Dust
(1995)
Jocelyn Pook -
Deluge (1997)

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Malokarpatan - Stridžie (2015)


Killer Slovakian black metal. Raw production and thrash-y, occult heavy metal/first wave BM vibes.

Track listing:
1. Metelica a kúrnava sa žene nad krajem
2. Kýho besa mi to tá stará ohyzdná striga do pohára nalála
3. Na kríllach cemnoty do horských úbočí zostupuje posol moru a hniloby
4. O víne, kterak učený Hugolín Gavlovič z Horovec vyprával
5. Stridžie dni, kedy neradno po slnka západe vychádzat, ni perí drápat
6. Starý z hory, čo zver svoju budzogánem pobil
7. O jedném, čo pijatikou rozum si pomúcil a nakonec v chléve prenocovat musel
8. Z jazera ozruta, s volíma rohama a telom chlapiny
9. Popolvár najväčší na svete, šarkanobijca a bohatier

He shall bring no light

You should also hear:
Sabbat -
The Dwelling (1996)
Inhumane Deathcult -
On Behalf of Satan (2009)

Friday, May 26, 2017

Night Conquers Day - Rebellion Is the Art of Survival (1999)


Related:
Night Conquers Day - The First Snowfall (1998)
Tearstained - Nightmare Visions (2008)

Epic, passionate US black metal. Despite their having released just two albums, I'd nominate Night Conquers Day as one of the best pure black metal bands the States have produced.

Track listing:
1. The Triumphant Night Conquers the Dying Day (Introitus II)
2. Mirror Gazing
3. The Perseverance of Ignorance
4. Rebellion Is the Art of Survival
5. Drawn Together in Magnetic Violet Trances
6. Dream Sleep Sorcery
7. The Consequence of Action

Fit to fight in a war overdue

You should also hear:
Setherial -
... Nord (1996)
Belenos -
Errances Oniriques (2001)

Saule - Saule (2002)


Downcast, woozily beautiful sound collages generated primarily by scratchy, skipping records.

Track listing:
1. Hola
2. Olé
3. Lido

Fragile

You might also like:
The Caretaker - Selected Memories
from the Haunted Ballroom
(1999)
Twine -
Recorder (2002)

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Katharsis - Into Endless Chaos (1997)


Elite German lo-fi black metal. Cacophonous, raw-as-fuck misanthropy.

Track listing:
1. Thornkings
2. Shine Beyonde
3. Ashes
4. Hellstorm
5. Extermination

Puking gore

Nidhoggr - Ravens Over the
Road of Kings
(1994)
Spitehowling - Born to
Die for Evil
(2002)

William Hooker - ... Is Eternal Life (1977)


A hella-OOP double album of avant-garde free jazz by American drummer William Hooker. Hooker throws down quite the gauntlet right off the bat, with an eighteen minute-long opening monolith consisting entirely of his voice and drumming, as he travels back-and-forth with ease from extreme sparsity to utterly unhinged chaos. Throughout the rest of the album, he's joined by other musicians who help him to flesh out the full-tilt insanity.

Track listing:
1. Drum Form
2. Soy: Material / Seven
3. Passages (Anthill)
4. Pieces I & II
5. Above and Beyond

The spirits return

If you like this, check out:
The Art Ensemble of Chicago -
Fanfare for the Warriors (1974)
Sam Rivers -
Crystals (1974)

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Malignancy - Cross Species Transmutation (2003)


Fucking brutal US tech death. A man couldn't ask for more pinch harmonics or chugga-chuggas. As a safety precaution, check with your surroundings before listening to "Mortality Weakness", because they're sure to be severely disrespected.

Track listing:
1. Virulent Contagion
2. Cross Species Transmutation
3. Fibroid Embolism
4. Postmortem Perception
5. Congenital Decadence
6. Mortality Weakness
7. Ovarian Incubation

Absorbing the sores

You should also listen to:
Natron -
Hung Drawn & Quartered (1997)
Skinless -
Progression Towards Evil (1999)

Nik Pascal - Magnetic Web (1973)


Old-school transcendental synth explorations. Today, I saved this LP from being boxed up and possibly doomed to an eternity of sitting in a warehouse, and, fearing that it might never find a good home, I selflessly purchased it.

Track listing:
1. Magnetic Web
2. Light Stimulus
3. Edge of the Unknown
4. Dance of the Supernatural
5. Interplanetary Beings
6. Cosmic Aura

Alpha wave diffusion

You'll also like:
Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. -
Like a Duck to Water (1976)
William Hoskins -
Galactic Fantasy - Eastern Reflections (1979)

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Vindkast - Archaic Collapse (2015)


German atmospheric black metal. Much of Archaic Collapse consists of spacious, droning dark ambient (so much so that the Metal Archives won't add them) and when the distortion, drums, and vocals finally hit, they don't disrupt the trance-like ambience so much as they build on it. Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:
1. A Lament Beneath the Fiery Sky
2. Under This Dying Sun
3. Archaic Collapse
4. Unto the Earth
5. Death's Other Kingdom

Cosmic contortions

You should also listen to:
Felix Axemo -
Den Lycklige (2016)
Arkhtinn -
IV (2017)

Maeror Tri - Sensuum Mendacia (1991)


Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Screaming Corpses - A Different State of Consciousness (1987)

Beautiful, kaleidoscopic drone/ambient psych. Interwoven guitars and synths spiraling upwards towards the heavens, and amelodic drones that hang, suspended in light.

Track listing:
1. Antrum
2. Soma 2
3. Choir of Transcendence
4. Mental Electricity
5. Aegritudo
6. Animorum Post Mortem Ab Aliis Ad Alios Transitio

Bells of unknown dreams

Similar vibes:
Blood Fountains -
Floods (2009)
Evan Caminiti -
Psychic Mud Shrine (2009)

Monday, May 22, 2017

Faceless Entity - Semper Dolens (2015)


Dutch raw black metal. Muffled, reverb-drenched guitars and drums, with faraway, ghostly howls periodically cutting through the fog. Def one of the best slept-on black metal bands currently in existence.

A single 24-minute long track, titled "Semper Doles"

Submerge in chaos

If you like this, try:
Black Cilice -
A Corpse, a Temple (2012)
Elysian Blaze -
Blood Geometry (2012)

Akira Inoue - Splash (1983)


Smooth, lush Japanese synthpop. Tinges of fusion and new wave round out a shimmering, positively heavenly sound.

Track listing:
1. さまよえるオランダ人のように
2. アドリアン・ブルー
3. 異星 (ソラリス)の女
4. Le Plongeur
5. Eleven Islands
6. サファリ・オスティナート
7. リンダ・ラルー (ラムの大通りにて)
8. 海底2万マイル
9. オンディーヌ

Lost passengers

You should also listen to:
Frazier Chorus -
Sue (1989)
Care -
Diamonds & Emeralds (1997)

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Asofy - ebYm (2001)


Abstract, esoteric Italian black/doom. No bass guitar, conspicuously programmed drums that are mixed louder than they should be, distorted vocals, and interwoven, often oddly beautiful guitars make ebYm a surprisingly compelling album.

Track listing:
1. in Solitude
2. ilL
3. redSide
4. il Marcio
5. sideS (blonde)
6. enoRmi
7. d.O.m.

Happiness passes away, mourning persists

You might also like:
Until Death Overtakes Me -
Symphony I: Deep Dark Red (2001)
Woebegone Obscured -
Deathstination (2007)