Sh*t That’s Streaming Today: Altar of Plagues, Woe, Svart Crown

I, too, was late to the Altar of Plagues party. But friends don’t let friends miss out on good music, so in case Axl’s post last week wasn’t enough to convince you to give Altar of Plagues a shot I now give you another chance to get right. Their entire new album Teethed Glory & Injury is streaming in full in Pitchfork, and I’m smacking myself on the back of the head for not getting into this band sooner. I’m entranced and enraptured by their atmospheric “post-everything black metal” (© Grim Kim 2011), shocked that there exists such a unique and original sound in 2013 within black metal’s sometimes claustrophobic confines, and thankful for my ears that the production is clear and tight instead of sounding like the album was recorded in the basement torture chamber of a Norwegian church. Stream the full album here.

Speaking of interesting black metal, Woe‘s new album Withdrawal is streaming at Cvlt Nation. It’s been interesting to watch Woe’s evolution from one-man outfit on 2007’s A Spell for the Death of Man to a full-fledged, multi-contributor project over the course of their three albums, fully realized on this latest release. Stream the album here. Just don’t trust the Internet when it comes to the lyrics.

When Svart Crown opened for Ulcerate on last year’s MetalSucks-sponsored tour I described them as “Gojira meets Behemoth,” but the MetalSucks commenter hoi polloi were quick to suggest “Immolation meets Immortal” and “Morbid Angel meets Marduk.” OK, fine, whatever, take your pick… none of those three are far off the mark, and the most important thing is that Svart Crown offer some amalgamation of death metal and black metal and it fucking rips. The Svarters are streaming their new album Profane at French website VS Webzine, and it’s an absolute banger; check it out now.