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What have you been listening to this week?
What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)
Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.
You can make a chart if you use last.fm:
http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/
Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.
Oct 4th favorites have been among what I've been listening to, here they are (updated with descriptions now):
Clean-sung, instrumental, or otherwise non-extreme music.
Hiemal - Yūgen
Drone/dark ambient from France. Haunting, icy, windy, emotional ambient soundscapes. Amazing how music like this is so simple and yet extremely evocative. Listening to it can conjure all sorts of emotions and mental visuals (barren landscapes, weather, etc)
Occults - Rituals
Post-punk/synth/goth from LA. Lots of familiar post-punk sounds here. Deep, rich, enjoyable vocals. Chorused guitar leads, tons of reverb.
Balance and Composure - With You in Spirit
PA indie rock, but not just your everyday indie rock. They have a very specific sound. I don't know how to explain this, but the vibe of this band is incredible. Great vocal harmonies and songwriting where the choruses and song parts just really emotionally land super well. Very emotionally-connecting music and gorgeous guitarwork choices.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - NOTITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD
Ambient/post-rock legends return with an extremely relvant and poignant record, continuing with their embodiment of leftism, this time, but not the first time for the band, taking aim at the events in Gaza.
Lowen - Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran
Clean sung and yet heavy as hell. Progressive doom / heavy metal from the UK. Beautiful middle-eastern influence throughout (lyrics, sounds, melodies). Heavy doom riffs with Nina's soaring (and sometimes layered) vocals on top. Progressive songwriting- tempo changes, constant movement, but without getting too extra with the musicianship. Beautiful mix of it all and as a perfect treat on top of it all: possibly the best album art of the year with a masterpiece by French artist Hervé Scott Flament.
Extreme heavy music (harsh vocals)
Morke - Forged In Steel and Love
Minnesota black metal project takes a turn into castle metal with this medieval, Obsequiae-inspired love letter to the subgenre. Dual harmonized guitar leads. Triumphant, majestic, and will transport you right into beautiful castle landscapes. Don your chain-mail and buy this record now!
Cosmic Putrefaction - Emerald Fires Atop the Farewell Mountains
Death metal with doom, technical, and other influences. Swirling clouds of darkness and riffs. Spooky, spacey, low-tuned, and progressive. Cavernous, reverbed death growls and incredible drumwork.
Agency - Iron Attrition
Crust/punk/hardcore from WV. Angry, fast, and ascerbic. Heavy, buzzing riffs, and mean vocals.
Abhorration - Demonolatry
Blackened, thrashy death metal. More organic/raw production on this one. Fast, ripping, heavy, sharp. Complex guitar solos, piercing vocals, and an overall old-school feel.
Undeath - More Insane
Hardcore-influenced death metal from NY. Fast and thrashy. For fans of: Gatecreeper, Tomb Mold
Thanks to all the answers in the metal recommendations I have listened to many different new names. Especially liking Kanonenfieber, Kvaen, Griffon and Aara so far. Right now I am listening to the new release by Danish black metal band Gennem Tågen and it sound proper old-school promising so far.
Lots of great new stuff in the last couple weeks!
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - ”NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD": Their last few albums haven’t hit me anywhere near as much as their early aughts stuff, but this one feels like it’s back on track.
Chat Pile - Cool World: Dark, loud, and heavy as ever. Chat Pile has such a fascinating musical aesthetic to me, and this record is no exception. Bangers end to end. Can’t wait for them to come to my town again.
Help - Courage: Bleak and nihilistic punk. They opened at a concert I went to a couple of years ago and put on such an energetic show. Totally blew me away live. Not sure how I feel about this record yet, but it only just came out on Friday and has been competing with the above two so I haven’t given it a fair shake yet.
Also been on a big kick of female-fronted hardcore/crust punk/grindcore. Cloud Rat, Gouge Away, Xiao, Punch, and fluoride to name a few.
Antichrist Demoncore - GOAT: My back pocket record for the last few months. This is what I inevitably throw on when I’m running a quick errand and don’t have time to get into a whole record. It’s loud and high tempo and is just a hoot.
Cloud rat and fluoride are brilliant. While we on the topic have you heard pest control or fuck the facts?
Fuck the Facts is great! Hadn’t heard of Pest Control yet but I just listened to a couple of tracks and it’s definitely going in the rotation. Thanks for the heads up!
The recent Blood Incantation and Oranssi Pazuzu albums are really, really good. Those will be on rotation for a while I'm guessing.
Frankie and the Witch Fingers West coast, hard rock/psychedelic fuzz! To me their music is like a cross between the Beach Boys and The Osees. Their riffs are simple enough to be keyed into on a dancing and headbanging level, and the lyrics and songwriting are so visionary in execution that it makes me feel like I'm part of the counter culture. Highly recommend!
I've been listening to Sungazer - Against the Fall of Night
It's jazzy, funky, and with a touch of electronic sounds.
If Snarky Puppy is your cup of tea, I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy this album.