“Tohu Wa Bohu, a Hebrew phrase found in Genesis describing the Earth as “formless and empty” before the creation of light, is the second album from this Texan quartet, and it’s chock full of earthy darkness. First track “Raziel” creaks into the world sounding like a lost track from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ The Proposition soundtrack crossed with Low Estate era 16 Horsepower.” Lost in Americana.
“Sometimes, vocals — however good they may be — detract, or at least distract, from really listening to the moods the music is conjuring. This is how I feel about, for example, the instrumental records that accompany releases from The Ocean — while I typically listen to the full version, every now and again I will put on the instrumental version and float away. While West Virginia’s Seven Planets are a very different beast from that Berlin-based collective, their brand of instrumental rock, rooted in blues and groove, also aims to carry you away.” Seven paths to Uranus.
“It’s hard to say why I grabbed Mondo Generator’s subtly titled Fuck It from the promo bin but, if you’re putting me on the spot, I think excitement probably got the better of me. Not, I should be clear, excitement because I love Mondo Generator – I do not – but simply the excitement of seeing a band I had actually heard of, which had not already been snapped up by one of the nimbler reviewers. The brainchild of Nick Oliveri – and sometimes also known as Nick Oliveri’s Mondo Generator – of Kyuss, Dwarves and Queens of the Stone Age fame (among others), Mondo Generator has been around for quite a while.” Bad attitude.
“I don’t think of desert rock as an especially active genre when it comes to innovation. Brant Bjork God knows it can be self referential to a fault, conjuring with each release the same core components of fuzzy, jammy riffs, psychedelic woo woo vibes, earth tones and a gritty dryness worthy of the California landscape that hatched it. The creative peak that launched its best known bands is easily a few decades in the rearview mirror, yet this old conversion van keeps driving the same dusty highways, pot smoke and 70’s rock worship rolling out it’s open windows.” Big empty.
“Founding Crowbar member, grizzled veteran of the NOLA metal scene, and all around sludge legend Kirk Windstein makes his first foray into solo territory on debut album, Dream in Motion. Although known for slinging tar coated slabs of sludge and doom with his main band, Windstein embraces a decidedly less metallic mindset here.” Iron dreams.
![Chelsea Wolfe – Birth of Violence [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ChelseaWolfe-BirthofViolence01.jpg)
“Chelsea Wolfe’s respected and increasingly revered status within, and outside, the metal scene has steadily grown in recent years. From humble beginnings of her experimental goth-folk early works, to the enchanting Pain is Beauty, Wolfe really hit her stride on 2015’s eclectic masterwork, Abyss.” Birth is violence.
![Car Bomb – Mordial [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/CarBomb-Mordial01.jpg)
“New York’s Car Bomb have oddly escaped my radar, so I was stoked to finally become acquainted with the band on their blockbuster fourth LP, Mordial. Admittedly I’m less adventurous towards experimental, technical extreme metal than I used to be, but bands like the mighty The Dillinger Escape Plan, along with Burnt by the Sun, Uphill Battle and large portions of the early Willowtip roster are dear to my heart. Car Bomb’s complex, abrasive blend of mathcore and choppy, groove-centric extreme metal is full of color as surprisingly penetrating hooks lend a vaguely accessible streak to otherwise challenging and uncompromising music.” Don’t cut the red wire.
![Howling Giant – The Space Between Worlds [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Howling_Giant-The_Space_Between_Worlds-768x768.jpg)
“A true sleeper hit in every sense of the word, The Space Between Worlds’ style may not be the most innovative, but damn is it tasty. Introducing themselves with three tauntingly brief EP’s since 2015, including the hella fun two-part Black Hole Space Wizard arc, Nashville trio Howling Giant fuses the fuzz of stoner doom with the ambition of prog rock.” Between rock and a vast space.
It’s late in the year, and list season is upon us. For the past eleven months, trying to keep up with all of the quality extreme metal has felt like trying to drink from a fire hose. The volume of stellar releases has only multiplied in recent weeks, and for every one I manage to catch, three more stack up on my “get to” pile. So with all that metal practically begging for my attention, now seems like the perfect time to take a break from it. I was unfamiliar with Buildings when I chose Negative Sound from the promo pit, but its tag of “noise rock” and distinctly non-metal artwork seemed the ideal pallet cleanser.” A clean pallet is a terrible thing to taste.
“Asheville, North Carolina. A bizarre cultural potpourri famous for its beer, food, music scene and road construction, Asheville is one of those strange places that is both cripplingly flawed and difficult to resist. It’s a fascinating place, and it has my heart. So it should come as no surprise that I Bask in the glow of III, an Americana-spiked hard rock album that comes direct from my current hometown. We write infrequently about stuff from or within spitting distance of this city, but it seems like every time we do we like what we get—I direct you to Aether Realm and Undrask, for starters—and Bask’s latest continues the trend.” Sweet home Carolina.
