Revisionist Western

I've been out of the country, so I've been a bit slow up in here, but I'm taking time off from vacation to rave about this record by Lathe that dropped today. Lathe are an instrumental "country doom" band which, to me, sound like a heavier version of Across Tundras. This album has only been out for a few hours, yet I've already listened through it twice, and I'm completely blown away. Admittedly, "heavy twang" is a concept aimed right at me, but beyond my predilection for the genre, it's worth noting that plenty of bands have absolutely boned trying to blend metal and country music. Often, it winds up sounding like some weak early-Pantera-mixed-with-bro-country stuff that feels like the entrance music for a generic player-created wrestler in a 2003 WWE Playstation game.  Lathe, thankfully, gets it exactly right. Rather than just crossing the surface level aesthetics of the genres ("what if country music but with crunchier guitars?")...

There are a few things I love unequivocally:  Two person sludge bands.  Two person sludge bands with no guitar.  Two person sludge bands with no guitar that you could imagine kids skateboarding to in the 90s.  Thosar is, decidedly, all three.  Hailing from Weiz, Austria, Thosar play a manic, energetic style of bass/drums sludge that feels like a cross between 90s groove metal bands like Unsane, Helmet, and Quicksand, and noisy, stoner skate punk like California X or Bummer. The thing I like about bands like this is they often have a shaggy sort of "hey, dude, let's start a band" vibe to them that I find incredibly endearing. There's something about two people playing sludge with just two instruments, neither of which are the instrument we most associate with the genre, that feels like the fun of a basement show distilled to its essence to me. Thosar captures that feeling very well on Elementa. The album has an almost improvisational feel to it, with the son...

I have a theory that most  bands are a mix of genres, even if some of the genres are subtle, and the secondary, more submerged genres often make a difference as to whether or not you like something.  For example, I like a lot of sludge and post metal, but a lot of the (big scare quotes, here) "big sludge bands" aren't the ones I like (for example, I can't really get into The Melvins). I think the reason why is that I'm just, frankly, not that into a lot of the submerged genres that lots of the big sludge bands are built on and which seem to be a lot of people's way in to listening to that sort of thing. Grunge, prog rock, dessert rock, etc., none of those genres do much for me. So if you're a sludge or post metal band that has an undertow (see what I did there?) of one of those genres, I'm almost certainly not going to like it. Nothing personal, you do your thing, but it's just not something that resonates with me. Liträo, on the other hand, are sl...

  Keening, the first EP by UK-based, atmospheric black metal band Cairns, is a genuinely powerful debut release. Between the artwork, song titles, and sound, it evokes a sort of naturalistic, otherworldly, occultic vibe, like you've gotten lost in a particularly grey forest in the British countryside at dusk. The music has a misty, ethereal feel which reminds me of the best of contemporary blackgaze and atmospheric post metal, namely bands like Numenorean, Violet Cold, and Vukari. The song writing on Keening is really top notch, and Cairns are quite good at breaking songs up with a nice combination of melody and dissonance, shifting between parts that can feel quite different even as they all remain drenched in walls of shimmering distortion and reverb. They even make really effective use of sporadic singing vocals alongside of more throat-ripping screaming.  If you're into atmospheric black metal, I would definitely give Keening a listen. I'm looking forward to more by Cai...

  The awesome website DIY Conspiracy has dropped a premier of my hardcore band's new album A Great Variety of Morbid Symptoms. It releases everywhere else on Friday. Enjoy. 

Germany's Beculted sound, to me, like what would happen if Thou was a black metal band. They have these ugly, crawling sludge riffs that just tunnel into your brain which alternate with blast beat driven grind reminiscent of something like Vanum or Panopticon . A truly dirty guitar tone gives the album a raw and churning vibe, and with only 3 songs (despite each clocking in at over 10 minutes), it's a relatively quick listen that leaves you wanting more. If you're into contemporary, blackened sludge, I would absolutely give this record a listen. I enjoyed it a lot.  Arcane Manifestations by beculted

I tend to think that musical barriers that are highly pronounced in one generation tend to fall in the next because young people are musical sponges, soaking up all kinds of different influences that might seem antithetical to older generations. For example, I can't imagine trying to explain to someone who is 21 now that there was a point where mixing metal and hardcore was controversial. Whether  to incorporate metal and, if so, how  to incorporate it into hardcore were open questions when I was a kid. Now, a band like Portland's Screwed just throw chainsaw grind, metalcore, d-beat, sludge, and thrash in a blender like there'd never be a question all those things should go together and we're all better for it. On Terror Cycle, Screwed churn their way through eight menacingly ugly songs, reminding me of something like Moral Void, on the hardcore end, or Primitive Man, for the sludge influence. The guitar tone is spot on HM-2 worship, but they tend to be slower and chugg...