Category: Monthly Best Of

Some months are hard. The sheer volume of music released in a month that gets me excited is overwhelming and I could pick five other albums and it would be an equally as strong list as the one I post.

But on the other hand, I have a hard time getting to three.

September 2020 was somewhere in the middle. Yes, I’ve got a couple honorable mentions in here, technically bringing the list up to 7, but that’s half of the whole shortlist I put together in this month’s playlist.

Is there a record in here that would make an AOTY list? I’m not sure yet, but read on for my five favourite releases of September and make up your own mind.

The Ocean – Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic

The Ocean have been on my periphery for a while. You could say I dipped my toe in but never really dived in head first.

Ok, enough of that.

I was really impressed with Phanerozoic I: Paleozoic but I never took the time to look back at previous releases before now. I should have.

Now referring to themselves as The Ocean Collective, this group have evolved their sound while staying somewhat recognisable – no easy feat.

Take the raw approach found on 2008’s Precambrian and compare to the far more polished material on this latest record and you’ll find a band who have become far more comfortable with their genre-melding style over time.

In a way, it’s a similar arc to Between the Buried and Me. Compare Selkies from Alaska with The Proverbial Bellow from Automata II. You can tell it’s the same band, but now composing and playing with a certain existential comfort.

Phanerozoic II is strong throughout but there were a few moments that really turned my head. For example, Jurassic | Cretaceous is a triumph for the entire 13 minutes but the vocal hooks in what you might call a chorus have real brain barbs. There is similar magic sprinkled across the whole album.

Foretoken – Ruin

There are a few drummers whose inclusion in a project will pique my interest immediately. Kevin Paradis has been a busy bee with session work this year as well as releasing an album with Benighted. Flo Mounier put out an EP with Tribe of Pazuzu. But it’s multi-instrumentalist and former Necrophagist drummer Hannes Grossmann that grabbed me this month as session drummer on the debut album from symphonic black metal duo Foretoken.

Across 6 tracks and 44 minutes, Ruin takes influences from myth, folklore and legends throughout time and the globe, dropping in on subgenres of metal as it goes.

This is death metal with symphonic elements peppered throughout, but you’ll get hints of Bodom-style Swedish death, fist-pumping power metal nods, classic thrash solos and even smatterings of black metal. A love letter to everything Foretoken enjoy in the genre it seems.

Don’t think from this description that this is in any way disjointed though. Each piece plays a part compositionally and Ruin flows so well that I didn’t realise close to 45 minutes had passed first time through.

I’m mega impressed with this release, and it seems to have gone under the radar of many. Don’t let it pass you by.

Hateful – Set Forever on Me

Spotify has death metal Hateful confused with a Scottish punk ‘n roll band by the same name. Easy mistake to make.

For the Italian death metal lot, this is their third full release. It’s not a straightforward DM album though. Their Bandcamp page notes that this is a “thinking man’s death metal” and I would have to agree. This isn’t technical like Inferni, but a tech-death head would have to be a weird snob to skip any of these tracks.

I found the production a bit muddy but then again, maybe I’m spoiled by the exceptionally clean production elsewhere. Kids these days eh.

Compositionally, Hateful jump about all over the place in a way fans of Atheist or maybe early Death and other technical death of that era would be familiar and comfortable with. They don’t play with the same kind of technical musicianship as neoclassically-influenced modern tech death bands, instead focusing those energies on making the “death” part more brutal.

The 11 tracks here don’t outstay their welcome, with a runtime just shy of 40 minutes. I’ve gone back to this record quite a few times through September and beyond because it balances everything I like about death metal so well, and in a way that not much else does.

Vous Autres – Sel De Pierre

I like my French black metal like my coffee; thick, muddy, dark, incomprehensible and as heavy as a fucking sledgehammer. The second album from Vous Autres delivers on all fronts.

This isn’t savage black metal from top to bottom though, as the duo play with electronic beats and ambience to break up the barrage of ‘core-influenced BM. The 65daysofstatic type beats and noise in the mid-album palatte cleanser Ecueil and closing track Nitre hint at something deeper than your standard black metal occult worship going on with Vous Autres.

2020 has been incredibly rich when it comes to black metal. Maybe that’s entirely on point for the worst year globally in my memory. Even I thought about starting a solo black metal project. Any BM released this year really does need to stand out to be noticed.

The reason Sel de Pierre (translates as “rock salt” I think?) is in this list is because it does just that. There is a blending of the ingrigue you get from a good instrumental post-rock record that takes you on a journey with the kind of murky darkness that can only be found in black metal.

Spectrum of Delusion – Neoconception

I’m a sucker for tech-death. I’m a sucker for a concept record. I’m also a sucker for sci-fi. Spectrum of Delusion have blended all three in Neoconception and I’m in love.

The Artisan Era put out a lot of incredible music, but to be truthful it can be hard for me to separate tech-death releases sometimes. Don’t tell anyone but sometimes I still mistake Flub for Equipoise 😱

Spectrum of Delusion have managed to ensure Neoconception sticks out from the crowd in a few different ways.

The prominent bass gives the music an instantly recognizable feel – it’s almost higher in the mix than some guitar parts.

The vocals go from gutteral caveman to… shrieking caveman I guess? I love these vocals, but I don’t think you would hear him and mistake SoD for a different tech-death band.

Finally, the band have peppered faux tv or radio broadcasts (and some other audio, I won’t spoil it) throughout the record to help tell the story.

Look, it’s a tech-death sci-fi concept record about an asteroid hitting the Earth. I was sold before I heard it. If you have a penchant for either tech death or more brutal DM but wouldn’t turn your nose up at the other then you’ll find something to like here.

Notable mentions

Hidden Mothers – Hidden Mothers EP

If this was longer it would be up there, but it’s not so it’s down here. Some call this kind of thing “blackgaze” but I prefer their own term – “snow screamo”. Blending together good old fashioned screamo with a desperate, punky black metal, Sheffield’s Hidden Mothers have taken chunks from everything they love and thrown them into the three songs on this EP. Keen to hear more.

Thorn – The Encompassing Nothing

Filthy, Satan-worshipping caveman death metal has a time and place. The time is all of 2020 and the place is Bandcamp, for like a fiver or something silly. This one-man project combines heavy, cold doom with… heavy, cold death metal. It’s raw, dirty and really fun.

Link to Spotify playlist again.

Necrot – Mortal

July was a bit of a shit month for new music. Well, new music that I like anyway. But it was a bit of a shit month overall. Who am I kidding, are any months in 2020 “good”?

July is a shit month, no doubt about it. But the soundtrack to this shit month, and perhaps the whole shit year, could be in this month’s new releases?

(The full Spotify playlist is here btw)

The Acacia Strain – Slow Decay

The Acacia Strain have made a habit of writing crushingly heavy metalcore since 2001 and they have carried on this tradition with their tenth release, Slow Decay.

I only every really gave TAS a passing glance because I, the eternal idiot, associated heavy with fast, and anything slow was avoided. What a dickhead.

There isn’t a single track I skip on Slow Decay. Every song has at least one moment that stopped me in my tracks and made me go “oooft” out loud. I am a fan of having guest slots sprinkled in, with the savage screams of Jess Nyx on The Lucid Dream providing a counterpoint to the signature deep growl of Bennett being the best example.

At ten albums in, you probably know what to expect from The Acacia Strain and your best guess would be right. If you love their previous stuff then you will also love this. If you weren’t a fan or were on the fence then Slow Decay probably won’t win you over but give it a shot anyway. I’m glad I did. 

Havukruunu – Uinuos Syömein Sota

I love music that transports me to a completely different world. There are only certain genres that seem capable of that however. Some prog rock stuff might fit in that category, in which I include both The Mars Volta and Rush. Black metal, strangely, is another.

I like brutal black metal as much as the next guy. I’m not going to act like some poser and pretend I ordered tapes from Norway. Gorgoroth and 1349 were my intro to black metal as a whole (obviously as a drummer I love Frost…!). However, the focus some bands pay to their lyrics, composition, theme and general atmosphere they want to portray absolutely contributes to the other-worldliness of their records.

Back in February I bought Vástígr’s album Aura Aeternitatis because it invoked this kind of feeling in me. The same can be said of Uinuos Syömein Sota, the third full-length from Finnish band Havukruunu.

While the lyrics are all in Finnish, so I have no idea what’s going on, each song sounds like part of a story, and the grandiose songwriting adds to this feeling. It’s a very pagan/folky take on black metal, with acoustic guitar and choral touches complementing the more traditional black metal sections.

This is reminiscent of a lot of things I’ve heard over the years – and if you have heard any metal that leans on Viking or medieval themes you will know what I mean – but the sound here is unique to Havukruunu. It’s fair to say I’ve never heard anything exactly like this. I’ll be looking out for a vinyl repress in the future because this is a record I feel would be best explored on a turntable.

Gaerea – Limbo

When it comes to black metal, one big turn-off for people is the production. It definitely is for me. I’m sure you’ll have the respect of the 300 people buying super lo-fi black metal on cassette who think it’s trve kvlt but if you want more people to hear your music then you have to make sure your sound production allows people to actually hear what you’re playing.

You don’t have to drop the more theatrical end of the genre. You can still wear ceremonial robes or hoods. You can go by a nom de plume, or remain completely anonymous. This is what Gaerea have done, the creepy bastards.

Limbo is the second album from the anonymous Portugese black metal outfit, but it doesn’t sound like it. They sound like veterans of the scene and have the swagger to open the album with an 11-minute song. I don’t think you’ll mind though, or even notice.

Six tracks spread out over 50 minutes might make you think this is the type of black metal that dips into soundscapes and Cult of Luna style instrumental passages. Nope. This is super aggressive all the way through. Gaerea have managed to tighten their songwriting to allow them to compose a full album of bleak and melacholic black metal that manages to evoke an atmosphere while keeping to a tempo range that I so selfishly love.

The track lengths on Limbo may be a turn-off for some but not for me. It allows the band in this case to establish and then build on interesting motifs and explore a lot more. Much like Mgła but with cleaner production.

I might blast one or two songs from the likes of Behemoth or 1349 for the energy. Slaves Shall Serve or I Am Abomination will fucking kick your teeth in, and I love it. But I wouldn’t put on a single Gaerea track. You have to listen to the full album.

Drouth – Excerpts from a Dread Liturgy

Where Gaerea are an example of how to make black metal sound good in terms of production quality, Drouth show us that you can muddy the sound a little without hampering your enjoyment of the music. In the case of Excerpts from a Dread Liturgy, the dirty production adds to, rather than detracts from, the atmosphere and general theme of the music.

Drouth play a similar brand of black metal to that of the aforementioned Gaerea, but differentiate themselves by punctuating each track with mote melodic sections. Whether it’s a relaxed guitar solo or a downbeat atmospheric lull, these sections act as a glue for the savagery surrounding them.

July has not been a good month for new releases and this may not have made the list in other months. Nonetheless, Drouth have stayed relatively faithful to the genre, and used all of the component parts to create something that may not be unique but is definitely their own. The most surprising thing about Drouth, to be honest, is that they are from Portland and not Poland.

Imperial Triumphant – Alphaville

What the fuck is this? What’s going on? Apparently avant-garde black metal is the label slapped on Imperial Triumphant but really, it’s black jazz. Listen to Excelsior and tell me that’s not a jazz band’s interpretation of black metal.

It’s fair to say that this is an acquired taste.

Founder and mastermind of this weird band, Zachary Ezrin, has described Alphaville as trying to encapsulate all the beauty, glamour, decadence and grime of 1920’s New York, but fucked up and distorted. And while I’m a sucker for a fully-formed story-driven concept album, this simple-sounding theme was enough to hook me in and encourage multiple listens.

The free-flowing jazz drums are incredible, as is the bass playing throughout. Ezrin’s guitar goes from djenty chug to Pyrrhon-style prog-death to jazz-fusion and while jarring, repeatedly forces your appreciation. I wish I knew more about music theory so I didn’t lack a vocabulary to talk about this.

Alphaville is not an easy listen, and it’s not supposed to be. It demands your attention, demands active listening. Transmission to Mercury is the perfect example of this. Yes, opening track Rotting Futures is jarring and dissonant, but it’s also more of an extreme metal track.

Transmission to Mercury fucks with you by starting off with some smooth jazz piano and trumpet before abruptly dropping a thick slab of black metal at your feet like a very sick cat. If you listen carefully however, you’ll notice the bass line mirroring, in a distorted way, the trumpet from the opening section. The guitar also takes the melody established by the piano and fucks with it. The trumpet soon makes a return, albeit sounding more demented this time. The two major genre influences then meld together, as if the whole city of New York met in a grimy basement to beat the shit out of something beautiful.

Music critics will wank themselves silly over Alphaville. Who knows if they will ever listen to it again. It’s a very challenging yet rewarding album if you put the time and effort in.

Notable mention

The Funeral Orchestra – Negative Evocation Rites

I’ve only recently got into doom, so this may or may not hold up to the standards of the purists in this niche genre but this is a downright evil collection of songs that evokes feelings of dread and nervous anticipation in me.

If that’s what the aim here was then the priests in The Funeral Orchestra have succeeded.

This is a very slow, almost ritualistic-sounding take on the genre that intrigued me enough to listen, more than once, to all 41 minutes that these four tracks span.

And if you missed it at the top, the full Spotify playlist is here.

Ulthar – Providence

Firelink – Firelink

What is it with solo black metal projects these days? They are either complete horseshit lo-fi nonsense or absolutely spectacular works of art that threaten to transcend the genre. I was blown away when I found our that Firelink is a solo project when I heard the debut album, The Inveterate Fire. Not just because this is all one man either, it’s a genuine masterpiece in my eyes regardless.

The second, self-titled, offering is an improvement in every way. The production sounds a lot more balanced for starters. The folksy interludes remain but take on a Spanish-style acoustic sound. the outstanding lead guitar work is still here too, and this is complemented with neo-classic style playing dotted here and there.

Firelink is a black metal band though, and this much hasn’t changed. The black metal passages are savage chunks and Firelink can trem with the best of’ ’em in that regard. What makes this more interesting than your run-of-the-mill BM is that Firelink clearly try to portray a narrative through the different passages in each song and while the track run-times are on the longer side (the shortest track is over 7 minutes), you’re never faced with a boring moment.

What sets Firelink apart from the crowd for me is that they use the genre to create a heavy record about a heavy theme (Dark Souls). This was never a “black metal” record, it uses black metal in the process of becoming a Firelink record. One that I’ve found to be a rewarding listen whenever I’ve gone back to it.

Fornicus – Sulphuric Omnipotence

This is the kind of black metal I love. There’s a definite death metal vibe about some of the riffs and the general attack on display, but the vocals and buzzsaw-like heavy trem lay a thick, suffocating black metal over the top.

Sulphuric Omnipotence is, from start to end, very heavy and loud, punkish in attitude and very aware that it can’t simply rest for a second and be kvlt. You’ll hear a myriad of influences from different genres throughout the 42 minutes these 9 songs take, and the excellent production allows you to. While fitting the genre, you’ll hear the super-fat bass during the doomy sections just as well as the very clean snare during blastbeats and squealing pick-scraping.

Maybe this is blackened death metal if you care about neatly fitting the creative endeavours of others into little boxes. I’ve got it pegged as a very solid collection of songs I am confident will be high on my list of best black metal of the year.

END – Splinters from an Ever-Changing Face

If this isn’t on AOTY lists come the close of 2020, it will be because album of the year is not important anymore due to the second American civil war (or third if you count the time the American government dropped poison gas and explosive bombs on West Virginians from planes).

END sound exactly like you would hope a band containing Billy Rymer (Dillinger Escape Plan), Brendan Murphy (Counterparts), Gregory Thomas (Shai Hulud/Misery Signals), Jay Pepito (Reign Supreme/Blacklisted) and Will Putney (Fit For An Autopsy) would sound. It’s super in your face, aggressive metalcore in the vein of Converge-meets-grind that will make you want to windmill and punch the shit out of the air every time you throw it on.

I want to end this short piece by telling you all that Billy Rymer might look like a super chill dude but he has to have real hate in his veins to write a whole album’s worth of drums like this. And I bet it’s super fun to play.

Creature – Ex-Cathedra

Cryptic Shift – Visitations ftom Enceladus

April was a good month for new releases. I listened to a lot of new music.

Feastem – Graveyard Earth (grind)

The whole point in this blog and these posts is for me to commit to doing something regularly. Namely, writing and listening to new music so I don’t get stuck in the rut of listening to the same albums for ten years. Ok, that’s two somethings but whatever. The point is that I make no apology for this being late because I’m still listening to new music regularly and here I am, writing about it.

I posted earlier about a single I have loved blasting in the car, Feral in Abstract by Codex Obscura. This makes it on to this month’s playlist, as does an album not on this list, Reaching Into the Void by Scars of the Flesh. I’ve not listened to this enough to put it in a list of my favourite things but I do enjoy what I have heard, and I can’t put another of my picks in this list because it’s not on Spotify!

You can get this month’s Spotify playlist here.

Krosis – A Memoir of Free Will (Unique Leader)

The year has got off to a tremendous start, hasn’t it? We nearly had World War 3, Australia has been on fire for weeks, we soon get to find out how Harvey Weinstein manages to convince a jury that he hasn’t sexually assauled or raped over 80 women, and we got a surprisingly good debut EP from probably the first ever amphibian-inspired band.