SH*T THAT COMES OUT TODAY: JULY 31, 2012

After last week’s slim pickins, today’s STCOT looks like a regal buffet I do declare! Alongside the weekly Cradle of Filth reissues, there’s a whole lot of other shit that you’re gonna wanna scoop right up! After the jump!

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Gaza
No Absolutes In Human Suffering (Black Market Activities)
On a playlist with: Converge, Zao, The Secret
Listen “The Truth Weighs Nothing” (here)

I really dig a grind- or hardcore record’s potential abrasiveness, but usually lose interest after I’ve gotten all my angries out. And Gaza’s third album is ripe with indignant heaviness and plenty of church-friendly lyrics (“It sure was nice of Jesus to take time away from ignoring ethnic cleansing, genocide, and famine-bloated children” on “The Truth Weighs Nothing”), but things stay zesty via sprinkles of grind, sludge, and even experimental moments that are almost as epic as they are noisy.

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Nachtmystium
Silencing Machine (Century)
On a playlist with: Deathspell Omega, Goatwhore, Chrome Waves
Listen Silencing Machine full stream (here)

Black metal albums come out every week, and many are worth hyping already in 2012, but Nachtmystium’s latest seems to have a whole lot of people excited with good reason. Following a couple experimental albums, Silencing Machine is Nachtmystium back to take no prisoners. This is some black metally black metal, but even for a “back to basics” record, many moments are of surreal beauty — the kind that made recent Deathspell Omega and Crome Waves releases so memorable. Via its solid but never overly polished production job (what, was Anal Cave Studios booked up?), the duality of ugliness and beauty really registers.

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Testament
Dark Roots Of Earth (Nuclear Blast)
On a playlist with: Ulver, Scott Kelly, Pink Floyd
Listen “Native Blood” (here)

If I told you that, ten albums and nearly thirty years into their career, Testament was putting out a mellow album of mostly acoustic and folky rock tunes, there’s no way you’d believe me and shouldn’t. But believe it or not, Dark Roots Of Earth, for what it is, kind of works. I was a little put off by the down-home vibe of their recently released “Native Blood,” a song in which singer Chuck Billy reminiscences about his childhood and life with his family, but I have to admit it’s grown on me, as the album has, as a whole. You may not love the change of pace here, but there are only so many times a band can rehash the same thrash, and Testament’s decision here to buck the status quo is nothing if not commendable.

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Attika 7
Blood Of My Enemies (Rocket Science)
On a playlist with: Godsmack, HellYeah, Anew Revolution
Listen Blood Of My Enemies full stream (here)

Did you ever think it’d be a great idea as a kid to use all the crayons in your box on the same spot of paper, only to realize in dismay that the result just looked brown? Well, that’s Attika 7 except the crayons are a revolving door of ex-members of Biohazard, Static X, Soulfly, Walls of Jericho, Nonpoint, and Kyuss and the brown is Godsmack.

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Blood Of The Black Owl
Light The Fires! (Bindrune/Glass Throat)
On a playlist with: Agalloch, OM, Sun O)))
Listen Light The Fires! full stream (here)

Some bands try to sound really folky and pagan; Blood of the Black Owl isn’t a pagan/folk metal band so much as a they conduct a real pagan ritual recorded on tape. This is wacky, wacky stuff — any album that begins with 13 minutes of throat singing and eastern horn instruments must be classified as such. This is barely metal, but still pretty friggin’ creepy.

Everyone Dies In Utah
+//- (Polarities) (Tragic Hero)
On a playlist with: Of Mice & Men, Texas In July, Alexisonfire
Listen “You’re Now Manually Breathing” (here)

Everyone Dies In Utah kind of sounds like Of Mice in Men —which means they sound like one of the best bands we write about on Metalsucks.

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MORE SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY

Cradle Of Filth The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh reissue (The End) listen
Cradle Of Filth Vempire (Or Dark Faerytales In Phallustein) reissue (The End) listen

Gojira The Flesh Alive DVD (Mascot) watch

Horse Latitudes Awakening (12th Street) listen