Urna - Lares (2003)

Ominous Italian dark ambient. Esoteric transmissions from the abyss. Not to be confused with the (also excellent) Italian blackened doom band.

Track listing:
1. Antrum
2. Nihm
3. Oriser Mors
4. Teheva
5. Halun Rotir
6. Oriser Orcas
7. Dialogo con le Ombre

Black glass

More like this:

Aghast - Hexerei im
Zwielicht der Finsternis (1995)

Kerovnian -
Far Beyond, Before the Time (1999)

Enthral - Prophecies of the Dying (1997)

True Norwegian Black Metal.™ Every song's a multi-suite epic, so strap in, poser.

Track listing:
1. Salig er den Som Lir
2. Prophecies of the Dying - Kundalini (Serpent Power)
3. Prophecies of the Dying - Part II
4. A Divine Tragedy
5. Enchanted by the Serpent Spell
6. Thy Passionate Despair
7. Salig er den Som Lire (Instrumental)

Blades darkened by blood

You will also enjoy:

Enthroned -
Prophecies of Pagan Fire (1995)

Setherial -
Nord... (1996)

Twice a Man - The Sound of a Goat in a Room (1983)

Related:
Anna Själv Tredje - Tussilago Fanfara (1977)

Excellent second album of dark, experimental, synth-based new wave from this longstanding Swedish duo. Some songs are ready for a goth night dance floor, but most are better suited for solitary drug use.

Track listing:
1. Room I.
2. Goat I.
3. Liquid Observations
4. Voices
5. Killing Angels
6. Coffins of Snow
7. Goat II.
8. Sorrow
9. Balloons
10. Talking to the Wall
11. Goat III.
12. Room II.

It's only when I close my eyes

If you like this, listen to:

Holy Toy -
Panzer and Rabbits (1984)

Deine Lakaien -
Deine Lakaien (1986)

Consume - Consume (2004)

Related:
Decrepit - Tired of Licking Blood from a Spoon (1999)

Heavy, ripping d-beat featuring ex-members of State of Fear. Some of the best riffs the subgenre ever produced, and just a touch of melodic d-beat a la Tragedy. Consume compiles everything this band recorded, and to me stands as one of the most essential d-beat records in existence. If you're not pumping your fist and slamming into who/whatever is closest to you, you're dead.

Track listing:
1. Gender Roles
2. Logical Limits Exceeded
3. Starved
4. Carcharodon Carcharias
5. The Cycle Continues
6. No Skin Off Your Back
7. Stormclouds
8. Mediocrity Remains
9. The End of Tomorrows
10. Led Astray
11. Forked Tongue
12. Lying Cunts
13. Shadows of Sorrow
14. Rise
15. Behind the Curtain
16. The Screams of Dying Cowboys
17. Products of Ignorance
18. Dogfood

Fuck off

You should also be listening to:

Hiatus - El Sueño de la
Razon Produce Monstruos (1995)

Ambulance -
The End of Our Time (2004)

Norman Connors - Dance of Magic (1972)

Phenomenal, far out, funky fusion led by drummer Norman Connors. The title track is a clattering, shimmering, nervously gorgeous masterstroke that borders on full-on free jazz, and while the rest of the record is a bit more in the pocket, it still bursts at the seams with energy and inspiration. As you can see, Connors put together quite the lineup of musicians for Dance of Magic, including Stanley Clarke, Herbie Hancock, and Eddie Henderson.

Track listing:
1. Dance of Magic
2. Morning Change
3. Blue
4. Give the Drummer Some

Twilight zone

Also check out:

Charles Earland -
Leaving This Planet (1974)

Bennie Maupin -
The Jewel in the Lotus (1974)

The Rita - Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence (2004)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
The Rita & Wilt - Werewolf in the Black Space (2008)

Harsh noise wall devastation. Great for obliterating your hearing, your sense of self, and your relationship with your roommates.

Track listing:
1. Vice Wears Black Hose
2. Naked Girl Found Dead in the Park

Knifing and slitting

You should also listen to:

Masonna -
Ejaculation Generater (1996)

Yellow Tears -
The Pissmop LP (2008)

Astrofaes - Those Whose Past Is Immortal (2006)

Related:
Underdark - I Am Above All (2006)
Kladovest - Escape in Melancholy (2009)
Rattenfänger - Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum (2012)
Blood of Kingu - Dark Star on the Right Horn of the Crescent Moon (2014)
Soom - Ніч на полонині (2014)

Ukrainian Pagan black metal. The icy brutality of Hate Forest meets the epic, folk-tinged sorrow of Drudkh. Easily my favorite Astrofaes record.

Track listing:
1. The Principle of Existence
2. Hate Fang
3. The Depths of the Past
4. Blackest Mountain Chain of Cursed Time
5. The Abyss (The Edge of Eternity)
6. Soul of the Black Forest
7. Glacial Darkness

To gaze into the mirror of waters yet find no reflection

If you like this, listen to:

Paroxysmal Descent -
Paradigm of Decay (2009)

Ulvegr -
Arctogaia (2012)

Funerarium - Nocthule (2008)

Luxembourgish vampiric black metal. More-or-less traditional BM filtered through an occult, reverb-heavy atmosphere.

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. Riders of Doom
3. Nocthule
4. Journey Through the Desolated Landscapes
5. The Curse - Ontology of the Trinity
6. The Parable of the Blind Leading the Weak
7. In the Streams of Melancholy
8. In the Dark Nihilistic Center of Gravity

Below the blazing horizon

You would also like:

Tenebrae in Perpetuum -
Onori Funebri Rituali (2003)

Vampyric Blood -
Ordo Dracul (2012)

Arve Henriksen - Chiaroscuro (2004)

A breathtaking form of ambient music that incorporates elements of classical, electro, new age, and jazz, courtesy of Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen. On the surface, Chiaroscuro is beautiful and low-key, but there's a sense of restlessness and anxiety at its core.

Track listing:
1. Opening Image
2. Bird's-Eye-View
3. Chiaro
4. Holography
5. Blue Silk
6. Parallel Action
7. Circled Take
8. Scuro
9. Time Lapse
10. Ending Image

Ancient and accepted rite

If you like this, try:

John Taylor, Norma Winston,
& Kenny Wheeler - Azimuth (1977)

Stephan Micus -
Implosions (1977)

Dissect - Swallow Swouming Mass (1993)

Dutch old-school death metal. Dissect didn't just conjure unspeakable, Lovecraftian horrors with their murky, doom-leaning sounds -- they brought new, mysterious words like "Swouming" and "Exterion" into our plane of existence.

Track listing:
1. Vanished into the Void
2. Exterion Tumours
3. Gals of the Eternal Solstice
4. Z. Day
5. Presage to the Eternity
6. Swallow Swouming Mass
7. Pulsating Blood
8. Growls of Death
9. Spontaneous Diarhoea

Pulvis et umbra sumus

You'll also like:

Paralysis -
Patrons of the Dark (1992)

Transgression -
Ether for Scapegoat (1992)

Ritual Knife - Hate Invocation (2017)

Raw, misanthropic US black metal of the simplistic, pogo-y variety. Everything is ugly and redlining at all times. Get it for free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:
1. Impetuous Shadows Dawn
2. Morose Delectation
3. Suppression of the Psyche
4. Spiteful Suicide
5. Genesis of Suffering
6. The Misanthrope's Mantra
7. Reflections of Self-Hate
8. Visceral Trepidation
9. Spurious Being
10. Perpetual Anhedonia
11. Total Crepuscular Devastation

Endless razorblade landscape

If you like this, try:

Meti Bhuva -
Meti Bhuva II (2009)

Pillar Tombs of Aku -
I + II (2014)

B-Luv & DB tha General - Tweaker Muzik (2012)

Hard-hitting, drug-twisted hyphy. Add "Dope" to your playlist of songs that list and endorse a ton of elicit drugs.

Track listing:
1. Tweaker Muzik Intro
2. Give a Shit
3. Taken Ova (feat. Big Cheese on Da Slap)
4. Dope
5. Won't Slide
6. Back Up (feat. Husalah)
7. Mob 4 Respect
8. Where da Ratchets At (Hoodrats)
9. Thick Big Booty
10. Broke
11. Outro
12. Bonus Track (feat. Roach Gigz & Husalah)

I keep the crack in my hand

You might also be into:

Bone Crusher -
Attenchun! (2003)

Blue Sky Black Death &
Nacho Picasso - Exalted (2012)

Bloody Panda - Summon (2009)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Bloody Panda - Pheromone (2007)

Masterful, intricately composed US sludge-drone of the absolute highest order. Summon is a terrifying, spiritually and sonically crushing aural monument to futility, encompassing funereal organ, ritualistic singing, Ringwraith-like shrieks, rumbling guitars, and thunderous percussion.

Track listing:
1. Gold
2. Pusher
3. Saccades I
4. Saccades II
5. Miserere
6. Grey
7. Hashira

A dead enemy

Also of interest:

Asva -
Futurists Against the Ocean (2005)

Laudanum -
The Coronation (2009)

Luciano - Live @ Weetamix (2002)

Minimal techno from Swiss DJ Lucien Nicolet, aka Luciano. The first track is a neat encapsulation of everything I like about this record: propulsive, distorted rhythms periodically colored by trance-y synths that almost immediately fade into a dub-like ether, leaving the listener once again with just a shiny, monochrome beat.

Track listing:
1. Bienvenido
2. El Peluquero
3. Colorié
4. La Petite Fille
5. Arzier
6. Las Congas de Metal
7. Boucle
8. Sreplmas
9. Orda

Floating

Yoni -
My Little Yoni (1994)

Ellen Allien -
Stadtkind (2001)

H.D.Q. - Hung, Drawn and Quartered (1985)

Darkly anthemic UK punk. Morbid, pissed-off sounds for a world on fire. Not to be confused with the other record I've posted on here called Hung Drawn + Quartered.

Track listing:
1. Ethiopia
2. Amalgamation
3. Suicide
4. Killer Love
5. Evilution
6. Genocide
7. Terrorist
8. Ethiopia II

Progress will destroy us

You should also listen to:

The Fits - You're Nothing,
You're Nowhere (1982)

Icons of Filth -
Onward Christian Soldiers (1984)

Doe Maar - Skunk (1981)

Hey there everybody. Got back last night from a week at the beach, during which I apparently forgot about the internet. It was great. Here's a record that I put on during one late-night porch hang. Skunk is a puzzlingly great fusion of old-school ska and new wave, straight outta the Netherlands. Taps so effectively into the nervous energy at the core of both genres that you often can't really tell where one ends and the next begins. Then they throw in a lil' dub for good measure.

Track listing:
1. Sinds 1 Dag of 2
2. Te Laat
3. Bella Donna
4. Smoorverliefd
5. Nederweit
6. Nix voor Jou
7. Mis
8. Ruma Saja
9. De Laatse X
10. Dansen met Alice

Some girls

You might also like:

The Upsetters -
Return of Django (1969)

Björgvin Gíslason ‎-
Örugglega (1983)

Hairy Chapter - Can't Get Through (1971)

German heavy psych. Long, jam-y songs that bring the riffage and the solos, plus some killer drumming, and none of the wannabe-bluesy cheese that plagued a lot of their peers. Smoke a spliff and listen to this somewhere sunny.

Track listing:
1. There's a Kind of Nothing
2. Can't Get Through
3. It Must Be an Officer's Daughter
4. As We Crossed Over
5. You've Got to Follow This Masquerade

Looking for a decent freedom

You should also check out:

Bulbous Creation -
You Won't Remember Dying (1971)

Leaf Hound -
Growers of Mushroom (1971)