“We have an incredibly hungry, ambitious doom/death quintet in San Diego’s Tideless. Many of its members served time in other bands, so experience really isn’t the issue here. What is the issue lies in the fact that Tideless, on their second full-length, is punching well above their weight class. And nothing screams “punching up” quite like a 75-minute double album of Deafheavenly delights.” Low tide, high ambition.
“Back in 2020, before things would go pear-shaped in literally everyone’s lives, I reviewed Reflections, the debut album from Godthrym, the new band featuring former My Dying Bridesmen Hamish Glencross (guitars/vocals) and Shaun Taylor-Steels (drums). I was enamored by how heavy, dirge-y, and Paradise Lost-y the entire album was. However, once the pandemic went into full swing, Reflections only gained in momentum and solace as everything around us quickly turned to shit on a planetary scale, bringing with it a sense of comfort and catharsis and landing itself on my Top Ten of a year we all would love to forget (but can’t). Now, in a happier(?) time and with a fuller line-up, Godthrymm are back with their highly-anticipated follow-up, Distortions.” Doom for End Times.
“I’ve always been supportive of bands branching out a little bit from their comfort zones to stretch their limbs, check out new haunts, or just freshen up their catalog a tad. Sometimes, some peanut butter needs to be added to your chocolate to make things lively and exciting. So when Swedish doom metal sextet Dun Ringill, a band I’ll admit to never having heard before, decided to add some progressive elements to their particular brand of folk doom, well… I was intrigued.” Dun and done.
“I greatly like Gateway’s vibe on the project’s second full-length, Galgendood. That murky, disgusting, viscous feel that one compares to the questionable liquid running out of a pierced trash bag is a tough thing to replicate. Sure, bands like Coffins and Sepulcros make that shit look like cake, but one small fuck-up and the whole thing goes to pot.” Gateways to goop.
“We’ve all said, done, and worn things we aren’t necessarily proud of. Pants with legs that can hold a family of five comfortably? Yepper! Wallets with chains longer than an average CVS receipt? Been there, done that, got stuck on way too many things walking by. What I’m saying is that… well, in all of our lives, some cringe has happened. It’s unavoidable, yes, but we’ve moved on. Or at least some of us have. That leads us to the self-titled debut from masked Montreal “funeral doom” duo, Kapnas. All we are is dust on the weed.
“As Angry Metal Guy’s resident funeral doom metal kitty, it’s usually my responsibility to clench my grubby murder mittens on all things slow and murky. Lately, though, due to forces outside my control, all the good stuff is usually grabbed by the time I even get to our promo sump. This time around, Vama Marga, the third album by German funeral doom quintet Adversvm, was staring me in the face with no takers! Funeral doom… with the keyboardist of Evoken, no less!” Morose opportunities.
“Tons of things have been said about industrial pioneers Godflesh. Unrelentingly brutal. Hypnotically trance-inducing. Pairs alarmingly well with Destiny’s Child. Whatever your stance or point of reference, there’s no denying the long-standing Birmingham duo have carved their way into the minds and hearts of the industrial scene since their arrival in the late 80s, and have bludgeoned and captivated over the course of eight highly-influential albums.” Streetcleaning or street cluttering?
“Before we dive headfirst into today’s induction, I want to address the impressively large, off-salmon-colored pachyderm that’s currently occupying a large space in the corner of the room. Black metal, especially in the late nineties and early 2000s, wasn’t all that terrifying, despite what their chief songwriters would have you believe. Behind all the church arsons, bullshit posturing, literal back-stabbing, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and murder, the music didn’t even come close to attaining a faint whiff of what they were trying to achieve aesthetically.” And then, transformation.
“In all my years of being a music consumer, I’ll freely admit that little surprises me anymore. Sure, every now and then, something will come along and provide an unsettling moment, like a ragtime ditty or a handclap breakdown, but overall, well… we know what to expect from just about everything these days. Even within the confines of metal, things have gotten a bit comfy and cozy. So when Belgian quartet Lethvm drops a mixture of post-hardcore, post-metal, doom, and black metal on my furry lap in the form of their third album, Winterreise, I cracked my murder mittens, donned my noise-canceling cans, and kept my mind as open as felinely possible.” Blacknip.
“It’s a dreary, overcast March afternoon as I type this review. The ground remains caked in mud, the air battles between the dampness of southern humidity and the frigidity of winds that blowing in from the north, and even though it’s not raining yet, the weather-induced migraine that I’m currently nursing indicates that it desperately wants to pour any given minute now. Needless to say, it would be par for the course for the last, oh, couple of weeks here in weather-temperate Florida. Normally, I would also say it would be an ideal day to review The Loss of Beauty, the fourth full-length by Italian doom merchants Shores of Null.” Metal for all seasons.
