To struggle is human, and the attached emotions can get the most of us if we are too overwhelmed and are not armed with the tools to help manage the forces keeping us down. That’s especially the case if your struggles are mental because there is so much suffering in silence, and still too little understanding from people who think we should suck it up. If only it was that easy.

While not outright acting as a trip through mental health woes, Brazilian death metal destroyers Crypta paint a lot of pictures about those struggles on their great new record “Shades of Sorrow,” their second. You can hear the snarled words, follow along with the lyrics, and just absorb the darkness in their music to know there are harrowing topics here, plights we all face, and in order to prevent them from taking over our lives, we must find ways to cope, heal, and eventually fight. The band—vocalist/bassist Fernanda Lira, guitarists Jéssica di Falchi and Tainá Bergamaschi, drummer Luana Dametto—is a total beast live (I got to see them on Easter night as they opened for Morbid Angel, and they scorched), and that comes across on this record (as well as their awesome debut “Echoes of the Soul”). Their creativity is evident as is the fire and blood they put into their music, and if you’re someone who’s also struggling, these songs can act as battle anthems to help you rise above the disarray.

“The Aftermath” opens with piano drizzling, an intro track that increases the drama as it goes, fading with fevered breaths. “Dark Clouds” unleashes with a mix of growls and shrieks, acoustics helping cut into the chaos, and pummeling hell raining down. “The invisible enemy is creeping in, darkness steadily surrounding me,” Lira howls as the leads blaze, and the final assault buries you in mental shrapnel. “Poisonous Apathy” crushes, Lira’s cries rippling, and even the breezier melodies can’t totally cut down on the pain. The chorus gushes, then the soloing fires up, melody and savagery intertwine and ensnare you in their trap, Lira wailing, “Drifting away!” “The Outsider” feels doomy and hazy at the start, the leads acting as a muscular spine through the middle. The feel is thrashy and grimy, the basslines flex and increase the swaggering power, and everything is torched, ashes coating the ground. “Stronghold” swirls in and feels deadly immediately, crushing with a melodic glaze, eventually going cold and increasing the moodiness. Colors blaze but also trickle, and everything bursts anew, delivering both haze and chaos, everything coming to a blurry finish. “The Other Side of Anger” brings tense guitars and deep growls from Lira as she wails, “I am the sadness with nowhere to go, I am the passion denied for so long.” The force drubs, and the chorus is wrenching, leading to the guitar work blazing a new, harrowing path before heavy glaze makes your vision blurry, and the track blasts out.

“The Limbo” is an interlude with pianos warping, slowly melting and draining, mesmerizing before “Trial of Traitors” tears in, chewing out guts with sharpened teeth. The plastering force leaves brush burns on the flesh while the soloing stings, the assault renews, and growls utterly destroy, crashing out with drums turning everything to soot. “Lullaby for the Forsaken” opens with reflective hums, and then the assault catches fire, ominous tones making the atmosphere even darker, the screams sending sharp chills down your spine. “Understanding denied, the loyalty I need lies only within me,” Lira howls as soloing melts, the shrieks rain down nails and spikes, and the ferocity wells and floods your mind with destruction. “Agents of Chaos” is humidity as it dawns, and then it begins to grind pretty hard, the playing getting steamier, energetic bursts making your blood flow. “I celebrate I’m not in your skin, I avenge by pitying your misery,” Lira jabs as the guitars make the temperatures dangerously high, standing on the gas pedal as it screeches to a halt. “Lift the Blindfold” begins with a clean stream before the muscular push mangles, slashing through righteous devastation, the chorus absolutely killing. “How much I failed myself, how much I questioned myself, now I shall stand for myself,” Lira declares amid fast, melodic bloodshed, landing heavy blows and ending this campaign in molten blackness. “Lord of Ruins” is icy and chugging as it starts before the fuel is aggravated, and incredible melodic guitar work makes adrenaline spike. The playing envelopes while wild howls jab into ribs, the soloing makes a blinding surge, and a total assault creates a final burst toward outright victory. “The Closure” is a book-ending interlude, bringing foggy, strange sentiment that ends this journey through mental turbulence.

Crypta are a force to behold, both on record and live, and “Shades of Sorrow” is a great building block for this band as they continue to make passionate sounds that just rip off your face. The band is made up of inventive, incredibly sharp players, and they are just getting their foundation to solidify, which two awesome albums will help make impossible to destroy. This is an exciting record, one that tackles the darkest of tidings, the most morbid of emotions, and comes out swinging, defiant to conquer the odds and leave negative forces burnt to a crisp.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/cryptadeath

To buy the album (U.S./Canada), go here: https://www.napalmrecordsamerica.com/

Or here (rest of the word): https://napalmrecords.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://label.napalmrecords.com/

I want to talk about alien cum. Now. Well, it’s not so much that I want to do that, but I have to discuss this, as today’s record is forcing my hand. OK, so let’s say all the religious stuff we were taught and even the scientific theory was all wrong. Instead, what if an alien specie planted their seed all over the universe, essentially creating universal life, only for our overlords to lie in wait to devour us whole?

It sounds like the work of an overzealous sci-fi author (and it’s not a new concept from a literary standpoint), but it’s also the basis of “Panspermic Warlords,” the second long player from the mind-flaying Wyrgher. On this record, the band—vocalist/guitarist/bassist/synth player Menetekel, drummer Voidgaunt—plays with the theory that life throughout the universe has a single source, and that force is lying in wait for their opportune moment to take over all of creation and make it their own. As you may have guessed, this would not be a peaceful operation. Surviving seems like a pipe dream, and anyone left scurrying for safety afterward likely would be an easy target.

“Dormant They Drift” starts as a spindly, proggy attack, growls wrenching as the guitars encircle, sounds shimmering in echo. A forceful assault emerges from that, clouds rise, and everything fades into a halo of chaos. “Destroyer of the Promethean Path” is the longest track, running 9:55 and entering amid a thick mist that makes vision a chore. Growls shake as the tempo ruptures, vicious turns makes your neck jerk, and sounds rush, heading for infernal pressure. The playing melts into a haze as the strangeness thickens and then lashes out, noise zaps, and an utterly strange state is achieved. A bizarre aura attempts to swallow you whole as things suddenly bathe in light before fading. “Solar Harvest” features guest vocals by Karapan Darvish (Arkhaaik, Dakhma, Lykhaeon), and the pace smashes and sizzles, moving faster, melting, and taking on detached wails. The guitars swelter as the pressure reverberates, growls cut at the knees, and the spiraling madness infects your blood and makes you see visions.

“Summoning the Meteoric Titans” is an interlude that opens in a synth haze, icing the senses and taking on alien transmissions, blurring out and heading into “Supreme Leader of a Dying Star” that runs 9:22 and immediately heads into warmth. The pressure mounts, the roars crush, and the mystifying craziness destroys, heading into disorienting clouds and a thick pit of sludge. The guitars stretch and tingle as the punishment multiplies, riffs looping and churning, heaviness pushing on rib cages, the sense of despair and terror growing, and the fires raging and finally exhausting. “The Weeping of a Blazing Rock” blasts in with guitars stabbing, spilling plasma and ripping into psyches, the growls warping the senses. Guitars lash as the blazing gets more ferocious, then the pace turns more reflective, jabbing and disappearing into a sound cloud. Closer “Panspermic Warlords” runs 9:28 and brings wildly sprawling guitars, crushing energy, and lasers zapping into flesh. Hypnotic charges makes the room spin, rushing and rupturing, the guitars icing your cells as the keys whir. We head back into weird terrain, the melodies get more immersive, and the final drops feel like ice drops landing on top of your exposed brain.

While the events baked into “Panspermic Warlords” might seem far-fetched, are they really? Who’s to say who’s watching us, if there are inhabitants on other planets, and any alien beings’ plans for us that might be devious and hellish, horrors like we can’t even imagine? Wyrgher manage to make a captivating and exciting record about such a plot, something that could tear us apart before we even knew what hit us. Grim.  

For more on the band, go here: https://wyrgher.bandcamp.com/

To buy the album, go here: http://i-voidhanger.com/shop/

For more on the label, go here: http://i-voidhanger.com/

We live in dark times, and yes, I remind you of that in the middle of summer, one of the warmest and brightest times of the entire year. But the calendar does not dictate how we feel, and it does not just make things right because it’s nice outside. The bad tidings sink into our cells and wait for us, even when we’re feeling good, even when positivity appears at reach. It’s also a ruse.

“Haunted Funeral Creations” is the first record from Tumulation, a band that features members of Conjurer, and while that group whips ass, the level of darkness and, well, tumult that faces you here is insurmountable. The band—vocalist/guitarist IM, guitarist/bassist FS, drummer WS—puts you to the test, applying pressure and pushing ugliness that definitely will make your heart swell for that classic death/doom sound, but there are elements more intrusive here. Something that wants to bore into your brain and change it for the worse. A strange spirit that will transform your psyche for good.

“Emergent Chaos Spirals” is an introductory cut that gives you a taste of what’s ahead, that being doom clouds, guitars rising, and sounds threatening before we smash into “Shattered Under the Eclipse” that encircles with riffs dripping with evil. Pummeling and dark, the growls menace as the blood flows, sweltering melodies putting its boot on your throat. The riffs manage to get even darker, the playing flutters, the growls burn, and the pace slows into a pressure violence that makes breathing difficult. “Astral Sickness” arrives amid the drums leading a driving attack, guitars flaring up, the vocals slithering through the mud. A doomy burn presses into flesh, the drums continue to destroy, and the pounding is relentless, the surroundings corroding and torching the hairs on your arms. “Rorschach” opens with a vampiric clip, something that follows several of the other songs, and everything gets ugly and burly, the growls boiling blood, the guitars trucking. The playing is sooty and heavy, crawling through cobwebs, gutting with a vicious rampage that rips to the end.

“Sterilizing Winds” blisters, and heavy blows land without mercy, the melodies feeling both spindling and punishing. The vocals retch as bloody, muddy clobbering have heavy impact, the attack gets more menacing, and the massive storm tears through the atmosphere. “Rites of Forgotten Misery” stomps in, going for a sonic changeup, mashing and battering with precision and might. The growls make your nerve endings ripple, and then mournful leads pull a pall over everything, the steamy penetration gets more oppressive, and chaos piles up and destroys bones. “Bound to the Rakasha” soaks in doom before the playing blasts and sends shrapnel flying, the growls increase the levels of danger, and the metallic ooze melts and bleeds like a river reaching out for you. The vocals drag through slag piles, the playing hits ever harder, and the final moments char flesh, its ash trail unmistakable. Closer “Abject Maelstrom Specters” is a quick instrumental outro with slowly trickling sounds, thunderclaps reverberating, fading into a foggy storm front.

Tumulation bring doomy death heat so thick, it makes it feel like trying to breathe inside a giant loaf of bread just pulled out of the oven. “Haunted Funeral Creations” sounds as much like a summary of these eight songs as a title slapped across this morbid creation, so you can’t say you’re surprised at the end of this thing. This is a massive debut album, one that is weighty, humid, and devastating, the stepping-off point for a band that’s primed to get even uglier as time progresses.   

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/tumulation

To buy the album, go here: https://hammerheartstore.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.hammerheart.com/

Frustration and pain can be daunting to face, significantly more difficult to conquer, and the emotions that result from these experiences can lead us to trouble. People make rash decisions, lash out, sometimes do dangerous things, and a lot of that has to do with not having an outlet to release the pressure. It’s understandable, but it doesn’t mean much if a trail of carnage results.

Taking on “Forged in Chaotic Spew,” the first full-length from Phoenix crushers Thra, feels like all of that vitriol and anger captured in nine tracks. While this is their first full serving, they’ve put out smaller releases that hinted at where they were headed, but this album is that explosion of emotions realized. This combination is sludgy power and all-out death metal sounds like the perfect outlet for this band—vocalist/guitarist Robert Wolfe, guitarist Matt Marquette, bassist/vocalist Zach Nixon-Sandberg, drummer Grey Smith. This record is the perfect way to express this negativity and release the demons welled up inside, which is all over this tumultuous collection that breathes fucking fire.

“Flame Lurker” (a version of which was on their 2020 EP) opens the record with a burly boil, vicious howls raining down, bludgeoning and making a mess of the blood that’s pooling. The playing drubs and gets muddier, bashing away with morbid force, finally scratching out into noise. “Fracture” burns, feeling molten and sludgy, landing heavy body blows that quickly bruise. Howls rip as piledriver-heavy shots land with force, sweltering and scrambling brains before fading. “Terror Vessel Part 1” is a halo of sound, ominous and haunting, a strange interlude that swims into “Drag” that dawns as a sooty, furious beast. The pressure is sudden and insurmountable, crushing as the growls punish, opening up a thrashy pace that rips into wounds, eventually dissolving in an unforgiving fire.

“Blistering Eternity” is a massive force that brings beastly howls and a deathly thrust, the guitars turning on the fog machines. Things get more dangerous and warped, the playing encircling, mud caking quivering veins. The guitars rampage and shake, and a gargantuan assault gets under way, claiming bodies and bashing brains, only leaving once everything is fully consumed. “Vesuvian” is a quick but effective interlude with guitars boiling, noise sparking and twisting, and the pressure leading to “Primordial Engorgement” that arrives fully savage and sparking death snarls. The playing is infernal, smothering as growls punish and insult, the guitars taking tornadic bends, and the animosity building, cutting into any remaining sense of serenity. “Cosmic Scourge” rings out and stings before sinking its blade, throaty wails cutting into spinal columns. The playing swirls and bashes, making you deal with unmistakable pain and nausea together, and the crushing assault decimates, Wolfe screaming, “Escape from reality,” as the final boulder drops and pocks the earth. Closer “Terror Vessel Part 2” is a final interlude stitched together with sounds echoing, weird transmissions making your brain feel heavy and taxed, everything spiraling into the cosmos.

“Forged in Chaotic Spew” feels different from the start, ominous and mean, seeking some sort of retribution for all of the darkness that has landed in the past. Thra always had a firm grasp of death metal, but this time around, they take it even more seriously, spilling vitriol and pain into their music like they never have before. This feels like a self-exorcism, a chance to bleed all the hatred and pain from their bodies once and for all, everyone who made those wounds possible be damned.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/Thraphx/

To buy the album, go here: https://translationloss.com/products/forged-in-chaotic-spew-lp

For more on the label, go here: https://translationloss.com/

Change is inevitable, as is the gamut of emotions and struggles one faces in life as things ebb and flow,  not always for exclusively good or bad reasons. It’s just the nature of our existence, and sometimes when we sense the need to change the pace or the scenery, it can lead to the floodgate opening as far as inspiration is concerned.

Atmospheric black metal power Eave faced upheaval like many of us have the last few years, shifting from Maine back to their home state of Connecticut after the release of 2020’s tremendous “Phantoms Made Permanent.” The band—vocalist/bassist Brian Tenison, guitarists Ian Shooshan-Stoller and Gabriel Shara, drummer Caleb Porter—returns on “Fervor,” their third album overall and one of their most volatile, as the adjustments they’ve made also have ushered in darkness and fire. The band remains as epically melodic as ever, and the woodsy feel to their music still is a vital part of their DNA. But you can’t mistake the thorniness of these songs as the band reflects on the dark and light elements of existence, as well as our bond with the natural world, in which we’re not always very loving partners.

“Past Pulses” opens spreading heavy cloud cover before the track rips open, tumultuous energy surging behind it. Melodies rush as the playing goes back and forth between calm and raging, guitars flowing with force, and the energy mauls, howls stretching out as the track fades away. “Chance Is a Spectre” rips apart and stampedes with atmospheric force, howls stretching their wings, growls following and adding a more guttural essence. Sounds ache as the playing suddenly goes into calmer water, soothing the scarring from the fires, easing on and eventually fading into the earth. “Mirroring” punches in, corroding and eating away at flesh, growls squeezing at your throat. Breeziness suddenly gives way to chaos, landing punches, the blazing torching everything in its path. The playing cascades and reveals spacious qualities, adding a heavy glaze that makes your mind wander.

“Stale Ash” blisters and savages, melting rock and bone, the howls reverberating as melodies swell, and sounds scorch the earth. Death growls bleed in and smash, anguish bloodies the waters, and the ravaging continues to dangerous lengths, suddenly turning to more tranquil and proggy terrain. That’s temporary as the power combusts, howls echo, and the last of the fuel burns away. “Bending the Light” opens with the bass driving, and the playing rumbles with force, prog fires burning brightly, thunder ripping through the sky. Growls retch as the guitars get grittier, doom buzzes, and the final strains fade into the horizon. “Shards” unleash snarling riffs and marring growls, the pace electrifying, the guitars taking off for the stratosphere. Wild howls ripple through the winds as the vocals get even more ferocious, feedback stings your ears, and the blinding pace makes your blood race forcefully through your veins. Closer “Into Perdition” is dark and cold when it arrives, howls echoing, swirling through the air. Acoustic rush in, adding calm before another catastrophic burst blinds, electric yet folkish melodies explode, and the trudging tempo swings its ax mightily, sinking its blade into the earth for good.

“Fervor” adds something unexpected to Eave’s atmospheric black metal: menace. This album is deadlier and meaner, scorned, hurt than their previous work, and while there remain elements of beauty intertwined, this record feels like being at the heart of a relentless storm. This is a step in a tumultuous direction, and it feels like it’s the product of a band in transition as they still have their hearts fully immersed in the music but now have decided to add a little blood and vitriol for good measure.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/eavemusic

To buy the album, go here: https://shop.bindrunerecordings.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.facebook.com/bindrunerecordings/

It’s absurdly late. It’s chilly, the darkest part of the evening, yet something lures you into the woods, a place where you’d hardly feel comfortable most of the time at this turn of the day. Yet here you are, walking, crunching dead leaves and sticks, trying to find your muse as you feel your way through the shadows. Finally, you find it. Fire crackling, chants rising, you’ve left yourself to the wild.

Taking on the new EP from Countess Erzsebet (the name taken from Elizabeth Bathory), helmed solely by Rachel Bloodspell Moongoddess (who has worked with Xasthur and Cardinal Wyrm among others), feels like a ritual more than just six songs bleeding through your headphones. Moongoddess’ work has transformed from her largely acoustic early work that had minimal vocals to something raw, black metal that scrapes at the psyche, pushing your mind and body to commit to something rather than forget it once the music ends. Moongoddess goes for the throat here, making sounds that haunt you, creating black metal that feels like a genuine expression from the heart rather than something to move units. This is a true beginning of something that shows a pretty certain path but also leaves mystery, making it impossible to know where this project may go next but also makes the possibilities incredibly exciting.

“In the Blood of Virgins” opens with guitar swell and wordless calls lifting, acoustics sliding underneath, sounds reverberating. Howls echo as guitars char, clean singing mixing with hypnotic passages, numbing you with wonder before fading. “Glorification of the Profane” delivers raw guitars and fires up with force, shaking and riveting, making bones rattle inside of bodies. Speed strikes as minimalist playing manages to cave in your chest, spilling black and sooty melodies that rot in the dirt. “666” opens with angelic-style calls, rough guitars, and spindling force, the low-end power eating at flesh. The guitars twist your psyche, melting and bleeding, ending in a disorienting haze. “Pray to the Devil” dawns with clean singing before guitars apply a chokehold, bruising with darkness as morbidity multiplies dangerously. The drums rumble and turn rock into dust, the playing clobbers with fury, and utter destruction leaves bodies and mentalities mangled. “Obliteration of Thine Enemy” carves in with crunching guitars, a thick and mystical mist slowly spreading, a fiery force scorching and threatening. The bass swims as the drums pick up, the earth quakes beneath your feet, and a hellacious storm picks up and splatters with devious spirits. “Exile Into Depravity” closes the proceedings with blurry keys and drums pacing, your mind wandering off into a strange vision as you lie prone in the woods.

Rachel Bloodspell Moongoddess’ vision takes a huge step into horrifying waters on Countess Erzsebet’s self-titled EP, and this heavy turn into raw black metal and mystical dream states makes for a collection that fully enraptures. There still is a feeling-out essence to this music, which isn’t a criticism. It’s a fascinating look into the building blocks of a project, a foundation that can house even bigger ideas, more torrential might, and an entrancing sojourn into the world’s darker forces.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/CountessErzsebet666

To buy the album, go here: https://countesserzsebet.bandcamp.com/music

Isn’t it weird that sometimes death metal makes you feel OK inside, like it’s connecting with some strange thing that should leave you feeling repulsed but instead does the opposite? It’s not that you have to wallow in awful things when you listen to this style of music. That would be silly. I just sometimes find it funny when my mood turns around when the gnarliest sounds I can find are in my ears.

For some reason, I can’t find a way to feel bad when I listen to death crushers The Glorious Dead, a band that immerses themselves in the old-style strains of this sub-genre and regurgitates that with deadly precision. Their killer second record “Cemetery Paths” is more of the good stuff, a record that could have been released 30 years ago and felt just right, yet it’s just bubbling to the surface now. The band—vocalist/guitarist TJ Humlinski, guitarist Marty Rytkonen (and Bindrune master himself), bassist/vocalist Chris Boris, drummer Chris Fulton—comes off as a group that gets together, annihilates beers, and creates stuff that resonates with their darkest tastes, and it makes this record such a pleasurable listen. Yeah, it’s plenty ugly and bloody, it wants to smash your skull in, but the music is so satisfying, it’s easy to ignore the blood and brains leaking out of your skull.

“Semita Cineris” is a quick intro cut built with acoustic guitars and cool synths, blending into “Horizons of Ash” that rips apart with mangling death. The playing is mashing and ridiculously heavy as growls slither through mud trails, and then a slower, haunting pace increases the misery, paving the way for an unhinged final assault. “Gag on Viscera” brings infernal guitars and a mashing attack, stomping guts and spattering blood. Leads swelter as the tempo pushes and pulls, a hazy power surge blasts, and the growls rumble before the track gasps its last. “Purulent Forms” smashes with fast, ferocious force, the growls digging into your guts, and then everything takes a more sinister turn. Elements explode as powerful leads go on a warpath, the growls menace, and a jarring blast spits bone. “Daylight Graves” is tense and steamy, the growls retching and regurgitating, and then the playing crawls through the murk. The growls engorge as the playing gets more intense, slowly disappearing into the night. “Cadaver Within” blasts with violence, growls curdle, and the track turns into a battering ram. Guitars spiral as the menace becomes a bigger factor, turning everything into a gross paste.

“Malefic Sepsis” mars with vicious growls and a rampaging pace, sinking blades between ribs. The atmosphere is menacing as evil growls boil blood in your veins, devastation peaks, and the violence leaves a film of ash behind. “Dragging the Dead” is punchy and relentless, the guitars scorching and baking flesh to the bone. Growls gurgle as the pace explodes anew, the sounds trudge dangerously, and everything is stomped into the ground. “Living Rot” carves into your brain, unleashing bruising and violent bursts, the humidity building and making breathing tougher. Leads warp and add to the heat as gutting death follows closely behind, ending abruptly. “Corpse of the King” blasts out, creating meaty punishment, and continually mauling with force. The guitar work mystifies as the playing rips apart and melts brains, driving with force into hell. “Cemetery Path” starts with rain soaking the ground, and then creepy creaks lead to doomy hell expanding, drilling and lurching as funeral bells chime. Things get muddier and uglier, growls spread relentless gloom, and that mercilessly battles into closer “Semita Pulveris,” a quick piece with mauling growls, guitars simmering and steaming, and gruesome forces dragging you deep into the darkness.

“Cemetery Paths” is a devastating, straight-ahead serving of classic death metal, and the horror and stench crawling off this thing should be enough to satisfy anyone who dines in this sub-genre’s decrepit halls. The Glorious Dead are well on their way to cementing their foothold in death’s annals, and more records like this one should go a long way toward establishing that. This is a menacing beast, one that will leave you beaten and battered yet strangely fulfilled in your pain.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/thegloriousdeadtc/

To buy the album, go here: https://shop.bindrunerecordings.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.facebook.com/bindrunerecordings/

Black metal has a way of making you feel a whole gambit of emotions, most of them violent and negative, filling you with a darker spirit that can help you address the negativity in your life and perhaps let some of the pain and frustration leave your body. While this style of music has changed a lot over the years, there’s not a lot of this style that can make you feel positive excitement and bliss.

 We already knew what LA-based black metal force Agriculture stored as far as potential from their great introductory EP “The Circle Chant,” but the arrival of their self-titled first full-length takes that energy even further, spilling over in total exuberant chaos over these amazing seven tracks. The band—guitarist/vocalist Daniel Meyer-O’Keeffe, bassist/vocalist Leah B. Levinson, guitarist Richard Chowenhill, drummer/percussionist Kern Haug—calls their style “spiritual music” (hence the god references in their lyrics), but not in a religious sense. Instead, it’s a reverence to their surroundings, the comfort found in other people, and self-acceptance, which can be quite the hill to climb for some folks. Through these 31 minutes, Agriculture create delirious heaviness, some earnest reflection, and savage power that sweeps you up and takes you on a journey that can make you feel fulfilled in the end.  

“The Glory of the Ocean, Pt. 1” begins with slide guitar soothing, sending calm through your veins, and then the distortion mounts, the playing slowly developing its character. The emotion begins to tidal wave, feeling like a storm cloud bursting and pouring generously as “The Glory of the Ocean, Pt. 2” rips open, shrieks stabbing into your mind. The playing dives and warps as the infectious energy becomes insurmountable, pounding away. “Yes! This it! This is the Ocean! My body – give it away,” is wailed as the playing stabs and darts and then changes on a dime, storming with fire to the end. “The Well” is a change of pace as the track feels like a Midwestern indie dirge, Meyer-O’Keeffe’s voice calling with raw emotion, “A mother reaching out with a tiny mouth, ‘I can’t just watch the boy die all alone, and both of us crying.’” It’s a gripping piece, short but effective, and it sets the stage for what comes next.

“Look, Pt. 1” explodes out of the gates with many of the same words we heard on “The Well,” this time a ferocious rampage that is built on electric energy, manic shrieks, and eventually sax sprawling and twisting psyches. “Bright eyes opened up by mighty hands,” is a call that drives right into your chest, making you feel the adrenaline rush as we head toward “Look, Pt. 2” that continues the momentum and gets even hotter, blistering while the shrieks crush inhibitions, jarring with a start/stop thrashing that devastates. Guitars swelter as the band chugs heavily, slowly melting into cosmic winds, bending into “Look, Pt. 3” that’s an all-out black metal assault. The feelings rush and become the whole story, the wild cry of, “Reach in your chest and pull out your heart,” registering with force. The playing continues to storm, pulling back briefly as the drums take center stage, rumbling and bustling, pushing into gushing ferocity that feels like a jolt to your heart, the speed hurtling to the end. Closer “Relier” brings guitar gaze before it explodes in the air, howls crushing as the power stomps with desire. “Trust! Trust! Trust! I call it God…” knocks the breath from your lungs, the storming brews a new front that aims to devour, and the high speed causes smoke to rise and dominate, ending everything with incredible power.

Agriculture’s debut full-length is likely to be a touchstone record for black metal and heavy music in general in 2023, as it just feels like one of those albums. Of course, these things also create backlash, but when you have something this moving and genuine, a collection of music that sparks human response, you can’t worry about the people left hand wringing. This is an incredible album from a band that’s likely to have a major influence on where the sound evolves from here, which is a very exciting thing.

For more on the band, go here: https://agriculturemusic.bandcamp.com/

To buy the album, go here: https://nowflensing.com/collections/flenser-releases

For more on the label, go here: https://nowflensing.com/

Over the 12 years we’ve presented music on this site, there hasn’t been a lot of opportunities to write about love songs. So many of the sub-genres we cover barely, if ever, touch the subject, and the times when it does come into play, it feels like it’s been a blip on the radar. But love is a very human thing, and there is no reason for heavy music to shy away from it, so let’s dive in headfirst.

Long-running noise/punk/hardcore institution Oxbow never have done things conventionally over their 35 years together, and that continues on “Love’s Holiday,” an album filled front to back with love songs. No, you’re not going to have a candlelit dinner or slow dance to any of these songs (people still do that, right?), and you’re not staring a slew of sappy ballads in the face. Instead, the band—vocalist Eugene S. Robinson, guitarist/pianist Niko Wenner, bassist Dan Adams, drummer/percussionist Greg Davis—gives love all kinds of sonic treatment from stabbing bursts to longing-filled dirges to heated outbursts when the heart is about to bleed its last. Kristin Hayter of Lingua Ignota lends her unmistakable voice to parts of the record, a full chorus adds depth and texture, and a group of other players add oboe, clarinet, violin, and other sounds to a record that is impossible to classify. It’s also damn near impossible to shake off, making this one of the most immersive and emotionally charged Oxbow record yet.

“Dead Ahead” slices in with snarled and stretched vocals from Robinson, who sounds like no one else, and the chorus of, “Knives in the sink,” pulled from the verses is instantly intoxicating. “Believe it, heed it, this god of love destroys and creates,” he calls as the playing jostles, teasing and pulling, turning into filth. “Icy White & Crystalline” comes in direct, landing shots, twisting your mind, guitars jangling with exhaust. The playing is undeniably catchy as Robinson prowls, “I’m up your stairs, banister like a barrister for the prosecution, on the charge of prostitution,” the synth pulsating. Things get murkier, noise shakes, and the final slices to your flesh burn harder. “Lovely Murk” is immersive, gentler musically, feeling like a misty night. Synth spreads as the song gets heartier but darker, guitars sprawling. Hayter’s voice swirls in the fog as Robinson continues to scratch out the tale. Orchestral flourishes rise, sorrowful melodies get weightier, the shadow slipping out of the room. “1000 Hours” feels like a lull-a-bye at first, choral singing coating, the pace taking up the immersive pain. Robinson flexes a bit, croons in other places, “Life has lost its taste,” he calls in agony. Vulnerable and broken, the song continues through bloody drama, the chorus swelling, devastation and heartbreak making the heaviness impossible.  

“All Gone” starts with choral calls, piano falling in sheets, the pall stretching, Robinson’s speak singing plotting the way. The singing turns to whispers, the guitars tease fire, the keys ice, Robinson pleading, “Close my mouth, give me breath because how can I bear the ghost of you here?” Fuck, that line is a dagger. The haunting continues as the guitars rush, the keys feel like tears falling into forever, and the emotion leaves you choked up and gasping. “The Night the Room Started Burning” opens with acoustics, the tempo pumping, the choruses again layered with majesty. “It was dark, it was me and you,” Robinson calls as power chords jar. Chimes attempt to salve wounds, but there’s no turning away from the burning, punches come harder and in places you don’t expect, and finality is numbing. ““ “” is a brief interlude with acoustics, sounds swelling, and ice pelting, moving into “Million Dollar Weekend” that slowly melts, Robinson prodding, “Our secrets were not so secret, and we were not so nearly sober,” as the atmosphere surrounding increase the moodiness. Power jolts, guitars slide, and the deep expression makes this feel like a sultry evening, the clothes sticking to your body from the heat, solemnity poking in its head and deciding it’s better off not involved in any of this. “The Second Talk” punches in, swampy guitars stinging, Robinson’s screech matching the thick air, poking with, “Fucking is a dangerous game.” The singing gets more intense as he reaches for the upper rafters, the playing follows suit and provides grit, making this the most straight-on rock song on the record, a damn fucking good one at that. Closer “Gunwale” gives the chorus a final spotlight, the slow burn of the song making things feel liturgical and dangerous, poetic lines slipping through the waves. The haze is heavy enough to taste, guitars muscle through the brine, and it feels like a spirit that won’t rest. “Can you believe us? Will you believe us? Will you come and see? You and me and the sea,” Robinson wails, angelic haze enveloping, sounds bending and marring, the final strange visions a slurry beast, crawling its way into some sort of rest.

Oxbow always have been a band that has remained at arm’s length for some people, but when their music clicks and connects, there’s nothing quite like it. “Love’s Holiday” is unlike anything they’ve done before, but you can say that for most Oxbow records, can’t you? Still, this one stands out in an impressive history of heavy music that knowns no boundary, no rules, nothing they ever were afraid to add to the mix. These love songs hurt, twist, bleed, scathe, and never flinch from showing vulnerability and pain, defining heaviness in both sound and emotion, making this something you won’t forget.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/OXBOW/

To buy the album, go here: https://www.blixtmerchandise.com/collections/ipecac-recordings

For more on the label, go here: https://ipecac.com/

Before the rich assholes tried to go into the sea, they attempted space first. Uh, kinda sorta. Hardly a surprise, because if there’s a way to monetize the majesty of the stars, these people will figure out a method. For the rest of us, we are left to dream, wonder, yearn. We can bask under the night sky, take journeys in our mind, and find our own hypnosis that carries us on to our next adventure.

“Silent Future” can be that means of flexing into the stars without having to be a giant rich idiot in order to do it. It’s the product of a collaboration between Chicago-based psyche power Rezn and Mexico City galactic wanderers Vinnum Sabbathi, and together this force creates something riveting that can take you beyond the earth’s crust. Rezn—vocalist/guitarist Rob McWilliams, bassist Phil Cangelosi, drummer Patrick Dunn, synth/sax player/flautist Spencer Ouellette—just put out their killer “Solace” in March and are about to hit the road with like-minded powers Elder. Along with them are Vinnum Sabbathi—guitarist/drummer/percussionist Gerardo Arias, bassist Samuel Lopez, guitarist/synth player Juan Tamayo, FX wizard Roman Tamayo—whose last full-length was 2020’s “Of Dimensions and Theories” and have been exploring the outer realms for more than a decade. Also on this record are Victor “KB” Velazquez who provides additional guitars and Manuel Wohlrab, the very crucial spoken word segments woven into these tracks, helping form a greater whole and a majestic adventure that’ll leave you mentally stimulated and psychologically tingling.

“Born Into Catatonia” is a brief instrumental that slowly tears open this collaborative world as spoken messages swim in the murk, feeling like a strange transmission from beyond that slips into “Unknown Ancestor” where guitars spill, and new sounds slowly surface. More speaking from Wohlrab makes your mind tingle, numbing with sonic pressure, and then the doom explodes, raining fire from the heavens. Fluid singing teams with hypnotic visions, and then the playing jars again, a great chorus rushes in from the stars, and the pace shifts, making its way for the final part of the opening triptych, “The Cultigen.” There, the singing merges with the stars, and keys pulsate as McWilliams calls, “Acid rains from the fountain of your god.” A strange cloud forms as a result, taking off for a trip into the universe.

“Hypersurreal” is muddy and doomy when it starts, the speaking making your blood chill as it continues to tell its alien story. Firing jolts bruise your ribs, and the spacey journey and synth swirls unite, McWilliams calling, “Seems like I’m all alone,” as the sparks dot the horizon. “Clusters” brings reverberating synth as the strains of extraterrestrial life swim through your psyche, the strangeness playing games with you as if from a dream, letting you know the threats in the sky are real. “Morphing” floats in from beyond, the singing floating in a misty early morning before the sun rises. The tempo rises as the melodies work through the stars, liquifying before the synth turns everything to ice. Guitars swell as things get heavier and burlier, continuing to spill fuel as the fires rage toward the clouds. Closer “Obliterating Mists” mesmerizes and rumbles, the singing hypnotizing, pulling you into mystery. A gentle haze builds as the speaking increases, sludgy drubbing spilling out of the cracks, simmering and flexing as the mud multiplies, and the messages are transmitted eons past our own world.

This collaboration between Rezn and Vinnum Sabbathi is one that feels like it was destined to happen, something that feels apparent after just a single trip through “Silent Future.” This record is the perfect soundtrack for nighttime stargazing as you consider what lurks on those worlds that dot the sky and wonder if beings on other planets far away are doing the same thing. It’s a breathtaking adventure that puts these two bands into greater focus and shows just how powerful a union between like-minded forces truly can be.

For more on Rezn, go here: https://www.facebook.com/reznband

For more on Vinnum Sabbathi, go here: https://www.facebook.com/VinnumSabbathi/

To buy the album, go here: https://www.bluesfuneral.com/collections/releases

For more on the label, go here: https://www.bluesfuneral.com/