Monsoon Fever

Man, I went to bed with a fucking epic preamble/ rant rattling around my head, but it was gone by the time I woke up...  I think it probably boiled down to this:

My various traumas and mental illnesses make it super difficult/ uncomfortable for me to trust people and/ or make friends, but there will always be just enough bullshit to make my paranoia seem like a totally valid survival mechanism.

Grateful for the few that have chosen to share this road with me.

-

Light - Less depressive black metal/ ambient/ funeral doom and more a field recording of a battle to the death between a pterodactyl and a particularly melodic vacuum cleaner. I fucking love these albums.

-

Wyrding - Ok, imagine Skepticism's Stormcrowfleet with the distortion dialed way down, recorded even further from whatever block of concrete the microphones were buried under, and fronted by the ghost of Pete Steele.

It felt like these guys were destined for "next big thing" status when this album came out, but I guess that fizzled which is a real shame cos I would have loved a few more albums of this stuff.

-

Magick Incense/ Apothecary - Killer split of warped lo-fi/ experimental black metal. Hadn't heard of either band before picking this up but both sound totally fucking nuts. Gonna write about the two sides separately, see below...

-

Magick Incense - Imagine multiple Striborg/ Gnaw Their Tongues/ Cryostasium albums all playing at once with the resulting din blasted through a busted shortwave radio... By about 5 minutes into this nearly 30 minute track you'll have to fucking spit to figure out which way is up.

Weird clean/ jangly section that popped up about 2/3 of the way through started to remind me of Codeine or Luxurious Bags with screeching/ croaking Xasthur vocals and by the time I realized what the fuck I was listening to they were off and blasting again...

Fuck, this shit is bonkers... I wanna hear way more from this project.

-

Apothecary - Super bass-heavy psychedelic black metal blizzard. The clunky detuned bass smeared across the two longer tracks gives this stuff kind of a Godflesh vibe which is something I'm pretty much always in the mood for. 

First track is an awesomely confusing 16 minute tangle of blast, lumber, drift, and swirl. 

Second track dips into 5 minutes of gentle ambient ala Eno/ Tangerine Dream.

Last track comes churning out the gate and eventually EXPLODES into an expanse of frantic machine-blast that gradually downshifts into a series of scything mid-tempo grooves overlaid by skronky/ atonal Krallice style guitar swirl.

Nice. 

-

Dunnock - It's weird that Dunnock don't get more love because to me they're one of the more interesting bands going... Equal parts drone, noise, hyper distorted psycheledia, and bedroom recorded outsider black metal that reminds me of the kind of stuff I'd read about on the aQ or Crucial Blast mailing list(s) then geek the fuck out trying to score a copy.

Side note: The world is a much sadder place without aQ and C-blast.

-

Low - Any time there is a new Low album you bet your ass I am listening to the new Low album on repeat for at least a week and a half. One of my favorite bands ever.

-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

High Waters

Short post today cos my ADHD is making it really hard to sit still and I kind of woke up with a headache. Might go take a walk, blow off some steam, and see if it helps. - Lungfish - There are days when I wake up and I'm just completely fucking over it in terms of noise or metal... Hate the people. Hate the gatekeeping. Hate the OCD collector mentality. Hate the thinly veiled nazi shit. Hate the cooler than thou posturing. Just wanna walk away from the whole thing and get a cabin out in the fucking woods somewhere.  On days like that I tend to pull the plug, listen to a bunch of punk and garage type stuff, and Lungfish usually winds up heavily factored into that rotation.  - Dead Moon - Portland garage/ punk legends. I never cared for these guys when I was younger, but now I really dig them. Especially some of their gloomier tunes like "Dead in the Saddle" and "I Tried." - Nash the Slash - I've written about this guy in the past cos he's a huge favori
Read more

The Unspoiled

Uuuugh. Woke up to our apartment building having an unannounced 8am smoke alarm test and luckily the alarm is brutally loud and right in our bedroom…. Talk about a rude awakening. I feel like my teeth are still rattling. Other than that? Uh, not much to report. Took yesterday off because I felt whacked out and fidgety… Guessing it was a symptom of either anxiety or too much coffee/ not enough sleep, but really, who the hell knows what is going on with my body and brain anymore? - Wargasm - Well, if it’s gonna be a rude awakening anyway might as well make the best of it with one of my favorite thrash tunes of all time. These guys were local to where I grew up in MA and should have been a much bigger deal than they actually were. Both of their albums absolutely rule but Ugly might be my favorite of the two, mostly because of this tune and Dreadnaught Day. - Danzig - Do I really need to explain Danzig to anyone? His first solo album is probably my pound for pound favorite, but for whate
Read more

Faultline

I'll have you know that, whenever this winds up getting posted, it was actually finished EARLY. Still on vacation so not gonna bother with much in the way of a preamble, just a real quick mention that when I walk down the street or go into a store and see people wearing COVID masks but pulled down around their chin it makes me want to fucking scream. What the fuck? It's like taking the time to wear pants but hiking them down so your ass and crotch are flapping in the breeze. Like at that point what's the fucking plan? There's zero benefit and and probably significant discomfort. You're literally getting the worst of both worlds. - Federation X - I can't tell you much about this band, just that I was sent three of their albums as freebies with some other stuff I ordered years ago and that they sorta reminded me of a punky version of big dumb American Rawk 'n' Roll ala ZZ Top which is something I tend to dig when I'm working or working out. Feels like
Read more