![NONE – Damp Chill of Life [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/NONE-Damp-Chill-of-Life-01-768x768.jpg)
“Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go: I trvly don’t give a fuck about you, never have and never will. When I share something wonderful here, it’s because awesome Muppet is awesome, not because I want to improve your miserable lives; you deserve nothing and I hope you get less, yo. Accordingly, I write these TYMHM pieces not because *you* might have missed any gems I cover, but because *I* missed *my* chance to properly babble about them during the year.” Muppets unbound.
![Suldusk – Lunar Falls [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Suldusk-Lunar-Falls-01-768x728.jpg)
“Spotify’s Discover features serve me well. For without my Discover Weekly playlist or the Artist and Playlist radio station features, I do not know whether I would have stumbled across Suldusk’s stunning debut album Lunar Falls in time to join the flurry of this year’s Things You Might Have Missed posts. Suldusk is the one woman neo folk blackgaze project of Emily Highfield of Melbourne, Australia.” Lunar folk.
“The bleak and harsh Canadian Winter has drawn us into her icy bosom. Days are short, temperatures are lower than the last run of scores I’ve given, and rain and snow abound. It’s the perfect weather for the frosty kiss of good atmospheric black metal, and yet there has been a relative dearth recently. The English trio of Fen aim to change all that with their sixth release, The Dead Light.” Fen is coming.
“Single-song albums. The reason Holdeneye and Twelve no longer speak. The reason there’s still a bloodstain in the copy room after Diabolus went after El Cuervo for suggesting that Winter’s Gate ‘Isn’t really a single song, is it? I mean… not really…’ Ya see, the very idea is divisive. But it’s also philosophically interesting. What makes a song? A unifying idea or theme? If parts of a song are so different as to be unrecognizable, have you not just chewing-gummed two songs together? In this era of instant gratification, where listeners have goldfish-like attention spans, are these epic tracks justified? Or just a needlessly pretentious gimmick?” Long did the wind blow.
“Formed in Cape Town just over a year ago, Constellatia is the collaborative brainchild of Gideon Lamprecht and Keenan Oakes, founders of South African bands Crow Black Sky and Wildernessking, respectively. After a mere fourteen months together, Constellatia is ready to release The Language of Limbs, their debut album.” Language lessons.
“Have you ever listened to a band and just known that they have an incredible acoustic album in them? Since the first time I heard Swallow the Sun, I’d been waiting for their acoustic release. Winterfylleth’s The Hallowing of Heirdom was a surprise to me – and also one of my favorite albums of its year and style. When you listen to Miasma, the debut album by Polish post-atmoblack group Rosk, you can just hear the acoustic album waiting to break free. The quiet, intimate passages between songs on Miasma were deeply affecting and begging to be explored further. Only two years later, here it is: Rosk returns with remnants, a fully acoustic, stripped-down, intimate dark folk album with clear atmoblack and doom metal inspiration.” Heartstrings.
“Ok, be honest. If I told you today’s review was for a double album that clocked in at nearly 160 minutes and consisted of atmospheric blackened doom metal, what would you say?” Alexa, skip.
“Pyres become beacons as flames rise with a dangerously bright burn, lick the sky, and drape the green banks of the Sava river in a majestic red glow. It’s a transporting and defiant occasion: the roaring fires ignite our inner blaze and unite us in remembrance of Partisans like my grandfather that on May 8th, 1945 freed Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, from occupying Nazi (and collaborationist) forces. These memories of the Trnje bonfires flicker in my mind while I listen to Behold Sedition Plainsong, the second full-length of Liverpool black metal trio Dawn Ray’d. Because this is a music of awakening that sweeps away the waters of Lethe meant to make us forget what the liberation from occupation and similar historic moments stood for then and today.” Music with a cause.
“Throughout their career as Alcest and helped by gradual fluctuations in style, French multi-instrumentalist Neige and drummer Winterhalter have been cultivating a deep sense of beauty and unfiltered sentiment. An exploration of sonic poetry in the vein of The Lake Poets, unmistakably filled with a romantic ache, a longing, and an expression of beauty and infatuation with the world so deep it hurts. Looking back at their previous work, Spiritual Instinct appears as one of the purest manifestations of this search.” Let the spirit guide.
“The sound of birds chirping is, for me, both calming and therapeutic. My response to birdsong is not an unpopular one. Sound experts claim that ‘people find birdsong relaxing and reassuring because over thousands of years they have learnt when the birds sing they are safe, [and] it’s when the birds stop singing that people need to worry.’ Thus, I truly felt relaxed and at peace listening to the chirping birds, soft synths, and gentle acoustic guitar in the opening moments of Arx Atrata’s new album The Path Untravelled.” When the road forks, take it.
