Sh*t That Comes Out Today: January 28, 2022
Here’s the best metal-adjacent music I blasted over my cat’s incessant meowing this week.
Acid Mothers Reynols
Vol. 2 (Hive Mind)
Prolific Japanese free psych madmen Acid Mothers Temple team with Argentine avant-garde weirdos Reynols and put out… a tasteful blues rock record. Nah, just kidding, it’s 40 minutes of improvised excursions into the outer realms of heavy rock. Strangely mesmerizing, it’s like if Faust (the German Krautrock band, not the black metal guy) jammed with Earthless. A real feast for your third eye.
Celeste
Assassin(e)s (Nuclear Blast)
Celeste share a name with one of the most brutally unforgiving video games I’ve ever played, and they definitely share those adjectives. This French avant-garde black metal act’s latest record was produced by a guy who’s worked with Gojira, The Ocean, and Leprous, and those are all accurate touchstones. No sunshine penetrates their dense miasma.
Cloakroom
Dissolution Wave (Relapse)
These celebrated spacegazers turn their attention to the literal stars with this concept record about an asteroid miner creating art in a universe where art has been wiped away. Or something. Still heavy, still filled with buzz, still steeped in melancholy, here they stake their claim in the same orbit as Failure and Hum.
Dark Meditation
Polluted Temples (Satanik Royalty)
Googling “dark meditation” brings up a lot of goth self-care tips, but it’s more likely they got their name from a (virgin) killer Scorpions tune. Their sound falls more in the Judas Priest/King Diamond/In Solitude camp, although with more “Tom G. Warrior in clean singing mode” vocals. Expect killer melodic riffs with socially-conscious lyrics and some serious creepy vibes. Not recommended for your yoga sessions but highly recommended otherwise.
Earthless
Night Parade Of One Hundred Demons (Nuclear Blast)
Earthless’s last transmission from the outer limits, Black Heaven, found the trio working with more concise songs. It was okay. Night Parade Of One Hundred Demons features three songs, 20 minutes each, and that’s the format where they really shine – given the space to really flex their mastery of tension-and-release heavy psych, there’s nothing quite like it when the afterburners kick in and they break through the atmosphere and the entire cosmos spreads out before your eyes. Definitely their best work since Sonic Prayer – and it may even eclipse that classic.
Tension
Decay (Dying Victims)
Tension hail from Germany and claim fealty to a whole bunch of NWOBHM and NWOSwedishHM bands I’ve only tangentially heard of, which is to say that they fall somewhere in the vicinity of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. But that’s okay, because on their way down they grabbed a bunch of killer riffs. I kinda wish their singer sang instead of slurred but it works with the old-school vibes.
OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT TODAY
Hazemaze – Blinded By The Wicked (Heavy Psych Sounds) Listen
Jethro Tull – The Zealot Gene (InsideOut) Listen
The Last Ten Seconds Of Life – The Last Ten Seconds Of Life (Unique Leader) Listen
Lawnmower Deth – Blunt Cutters (Dissonance) Listen
Milquetoast – Caterwaul (Wise Blood) Listen
Steve Vai – Inviolate (Favored Nations/Mascot) Listen
Stone House On Fire – Time Is A Razor (Electric Valley) Listen
Tangent – Tangent EP (Dying Victims) Listen
Toxpack – Zwanzig.Tausend.Volt (Napalm) Listen
Vicious Knights – Alteration Through Possession (Dying Victims) Listen
