Shit That Comes Out Today: February 8th, 2019
I’m in the midst of an imprudent all-nighter as I write this, so bear with me. What’s the fun in being prompt and responsible when one could instead lay around all week browsing Reddit and eating spoonfuls of peanut butter?
While I don’t have the answer to that, the experience did pose another question: will bad things happen if I eat an entire jar of peanut butter in one day? Surprisingly, no. Whether that’s due to my iron gut or just sheer willpower is unbeknownst to me, but the moral I gathered is that I shouldn’t be considered a legal adult. Is it too late to put myself up for adoption?
So yeah… that was my week. Betcha can’t beat that. But, since you guys are just here to see if your favorite new release is on this list and not to read my life saga, let’s get on with it:
Maestus
Deliquesce (Code666 Records)
FFO My Dying Bride, Evoken
Listen “Deliquesce”
Oregon’s Maestus don’t fuck around when it comes to hopelessness and despair, and their latest is no exception. Deliquesce targets the feels right off the bat with sappy strings and sad piano, devolving into a crushing funeral doom lamentation that sparingly ventures into the blackened side of things. Patience is essential, but oh so worth it.
A Novelist
Folie(self-released)
FFO Saxophone metal
Full Album Stream
Don’t mix this band up with Novelists — while kind of similar, A Novelist definitely have a more proggy flair to them. There’s not really any way to describe this band without entering hyphen territory: they’re something along the lines of avant-garde-progressive-tech-death-jazz-fusion. It’s fun as hell, and their latest record includes no fewer than THREE different types of saxophone (take that, Rivers of Nihil!) Folie won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think many elite kvltists will be pleasantly surprised.
Downfall of Gaia
Ethic of Radical Finitude (Metal Blade Records)
FFO Altar of Plagues, Wolves In The Throne Room
Listen “Of Witheering Violet Leaves”
The bleak of midwinter polar vortices calls for some trees-‘n-shit black metal to help us remember what it’s like to go outside. Ethic of Radical Finitude is a sweeping, atmospheric embodiment of the sublime, giving life to the majesty of nature with reverence and respect. It can be just a bit boring at times, but hey, I’ll take all the half-decent and non-racist black metal I can get.
Zao
Decoding Transmissions From The Möbius Strip (Observed/Observer Recordings)
Listen “Transmission 1: I Saw The End”
Is it “Zow”? Is it “Zay-oh”? Somebody help me.* Anyway, Decoding Transmissions From The Möbius Strip fucking rips, dudes. Zao smash us in the skull yet again with their sophisticated songwriting, lending to an incredibly dynamic, engaging, and polished listener experience. At this juncture, we should expect nothing less of the band. Bonus points: it’s short. There’s only two songs, so you have absolutely no reason to procrastinate.
*nevermind, it’s on Wikipedia. pls don’t shame me.
Seer
Vol. 6 (Artoffact Records)
FFO Mastodon, Un, Baroness, Type O Negative, Judas Priest
Listen “Iron Worth Striking”
Good grief, this record is massive in every sense of the word — production, instrumentation, and narrative are all delivered in epic proportions. Seer’s discography could be considered one long concept album, and while the overarching plot is way too much for this post, here’s what the band have to say about their latest: “Vol. 6 tells the story of a monk who belongs to a monastery built upon the tallest mountain on the planet. This monk has been chosen to make pilgrimage to the peak of the mountain where lies the power to return their world to the supposed golden age pre-apocolypse.” If that esoteric badassery nor the fantastic album art aren’t enough to convince you, perhaps you’ll be enticed by the mingling of all the best traits that metal has to offer: the nastiness of sludge, the contemplative trudge of doom, and the grandiosity of classic heavy metal. Consider this one of my early AOTY nominees. It’s totally yuge!
Yeruselem
The Sublime (Debemur Morti Productions)
FFO Godflesh, Blut Aus Nord, Ulver
Listen “Reverso”
Bandcamp just notified me of this release (perks of leaving everything till the last second, I guess) and upon listening, I had a moment of “oohhh shit, can I put a sixth album on this list?” Then I remembered this is my column, so here we are. Yeruselem is the new project undertaken by Vinvdsval and W.D. Feld of Blut Aus Nord. The Sublime features all of the absurdity of Blut Aus Nord synthesized with some Godflesh-esque industrialism, making for some frighteningly weird groove that I can’t quite wrap my head around. Just the way I like it. 10/10, will be spinning on repeat indefinitely.
OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY
Palmistry Behold! (self-released) listen
Drottnar Monolith (Endtime Productions) listen
Electrocution Psychonolatry (Goregorecords) listen
Windswept The Onlooker (Season of Mist) listen
August Burns Red Phantom Sessions (Fearless Records) listen
InVisions Between You & Me (Stay Sick Recordings) listen
Outline In Color Outline In Color (self-released) listen
Beast In Black From Hell With Love (Nuclear Blast) listen
Critical Defiance Misconception (Unspeakable Axe Records) listen
Night Hag Insemination Rites Of The Succubus (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions) listen
The Scars In Pneuma The Path Of Seven Sorrows (Promethean Fire/Kolony Records) listen
Upon a Falling Empire A War Between Worlds EP (self-released) listen
Anima Mortuum Goat Destruction (Vision of God Records) listen
SHIT THAT COMES OUT AGAIN TODAY
Jerry Cantrell Degradation Trip Volumes 1 & 2 (Vinyl) (Music On Vinyl) listen
36 Crazyfists Rest Inside The Flames (Vinyl) (Music On Vinyl) listen
