A lot of time when a year wraps and people make lists of full-length records they love, EPs and split releases sometimes get lost in the dust. And there were a ton of them this year! These are some of the ones we liked a lot.
BURIAL GIFT, “MMXXV” (Bindrune Recordings/self-released): New Orleans-based Burial Gift aren’t rewriting code or anything with black metal, but they are finding ways to keep this style more fertile and open. They released their “MMXXV” earlier this year on their own, but Eihwaz rose from the ashes in the final month of the year to give this a proper physical release on cassette. “Sear” blasts open, furious melodies spewing forth, guitars surging as the vocals are mean but also kind of catchy. The murmur boils into a gazey flow, guitars cascading downward before things rip open again. “Elegy Azure” has with the drums blasting, blood rushing through veins, and a surging pace that loosens screws. The tempo gets thrashier as each element fills your mind, melodies washing over you. “Hollow Bloom” ends things, guitars echoing as vile howls ripple, a cold front gathering before jarring you where you stand. (July 25)
For more on the band, go here: https://burialgift1.bandcamp.com/
To buy the album, go here: https://shop.eihwazrecordings.com/
For more on the label, go here: https://eihwazrecordings.bandcamp.com/
CRYPT SERMON, “Saturnian Appendices” (Dark Descent): EPs have a varying range of serving sizes, typically depending on what style of songs that band in question makes. Crypt Sermon’s new EP “Saturnian Appendices,” a four-track affair that still clocks in at nearly a half hour, is on the beefier end, and we’re better off for it. This is EP is leftovers from the sessions that produced their excellent third album “The Stygian Rose,” and that is presented here as three new songs and a very intriguing cover of a Mayhem’s classic “De Mysteriis Doom Sathanas,” “Only Ash and Dust” fittingly has a fantasy vibe, the track trickling in before bursting in full. The playing is driving and dark, the chorus soars, guitars charge up as the pace blisters, “oh-oh” calls power, and a galvanizing spirit brings everything to a raucous end. “A Fool to Believe” is powerful, classic-style riffs taking off, the playing chugging and bruising bones. Even a smaller serving of this band can fill you up. (Aug. 8)
For more on the band, go here: https://www.cryptsermon.com/
To buy the album, go here: https://www.darkdescentrecords.com/shop/
For more on the label, go here: https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/
HELL/MIZMOR, “Alluvion” (Gilead Media): “Alluvion” combines Mizmor’s A.L.N. (guitars, vocals, drums) and Hell’s M.S.W. (guitars, vocals, bass) on a four-track beast that might not deviate terribly from their main projects but lets their talents and forces meld into a collection that allows their metallic personalities to breathe different air. “Begging to be Lost” opens slowly, flowing ominously and perilously before the gates break, and we’re swimming in sludgy doom and powerful shrieks. Noise sizzles as a battering tempo leaves ample bruising, the riffs entangling as the power simmers, slowing some but remaining potently heavy. “Pandemonium’s Throat” slowly emerges like an apparition from the mist, doom drubbing as a sooty balance smears blackness. Shrieks belt as howls burn, strangling as guitars flow generously, blistering as the fury multiplies, screams battering over craggy rocks. The two “Vision” tracks provides mesmerizing ambiance that lets you breathe between the two beastly attacks as well as gain your bearings. (April 4)
For more on Hell, go here: https://loweryourhead.bandcamp.com/music
For more on Mizmor, go here: https://mizmor.bandcamp.com/
To buy the album, go here: https://gileadmedia.net/collections/gilead-media-releases
For more on the label, go here: https://gileadmedia.net/
LUST HANG/GENITAL SHAME, split (Fiadh Productions): This crushing 4-track split is from Lust Hag and Genital Shame, two single-creator black metal outfits that are coming off well-received, impactful full-length albums (both made our top 40 last year) and are looking to build on that momentum. Here, they more than succeed with a split effort highlighting each’s strengths. Genital Shame’s portion opens with “Notes Are My Friends” which is spacious and airy when it opens later turning into heavy hypnosis as keys shimmer, a cosmic push envelops, and the final hellish vocals mix with a delicate haze. “War on Cars” is madness, the leads scaling as the growls retch, the pace numbing, and everything washing away into freezing cold waters. For Lust Hag, “Everything Ends” dawns in an ominous atmosphere, a spacey coldness digesting, the feeling of isolation spreading, and then the drums exploding. Fiery chaos ignites, shrieks attack, and the leads slay, pushing you to the limits mentally as echo smears over a vicious finish. “Another Loss” brings unfurling riffs, fast and blinding motion, and howls buried underneath the carnage that still have full impact. Devastating entries from both. (March 7)
For more on Genital Shame the band, go here: http://genitalshame.bandcamp.com/
For more on Lust Hag, go here: https://eleanorharper.bandcamp.com/
To buy the album, go here: https://fiadh.bandcamp.com/music
For more on the label, go here: https://fiadh.bandcamp.com/
SUNROT, “Passages” (Prosthetic): “Passages,” a five-track EP by sludge doom warriors Sunrot, acts as a pathway from where they were on “The Unfailing Rope” (the session that also bore these songs) to wherever they’re headed next. And no matter where that is, it’s likely to be a decidedly darker place, one where greed is the real god. “Death Knell” opens with sounds buzzing, darkness eroding comfort, voices pushing through the confusion, strange transmissions ending with a clanging doom bell. “The First Wound” rips open with guitars taunting, vocalist Lex Santiago’s howls destroying, and sounds warping and challenging madness. “Sleep” brings noises ricocheting, the atmosphere squeezing, aching rhythmic pounding making your breathing accelerate, everything bleeding into chaos. “Untethered” brings lathering guitars, Jack Carino’s cello mixing in with the spirits, the track turning into a shadowy figure that lurks mysteriously. “Ra” closes, and it has sounds penetrating, a recording of late musician Sun Ra speaking of the positivity of music and its ability to create new worlds and dreams. (Jan. 24)
For more of the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/sunrotmusic
To buy the album, go here: https://shop.prostheticrecords.com/
For more on the label, go here: https://prostheticrecords.com/
TUMULTUOUS RUIN, “Never a Night So Dark” (Fiadh Productions): LA-based one-man black metal power Tumultuous Ruin has been one of the reliable ones the last few years as our world has grown more toxic, and his unflinching opposition to fascism and oppression is noteworthy and honorable. If you’re new to the band helmed by RH, his EP “Never a Night So Dark” (the title is lifted from a John Brown quote) is the perfect entrance point. “Undead Corpse of Empire” drills open, sooty growls clogging veins, screams by guest vocalist Stone Crow rippling down spines. “Toward Their Chains” starts in clean eeriness, a slow-driving pace making you sustain every blow, mournful melodies dripping into a lapse of time. “Climate Chaos Manifest” ravages, a blistering force ripping at you, a brief gasp of calm lingering before incineration. A hammering force emerges and chews through rock, rushing and rampaging, a melodic black metal wave enveloping, leaving the carnage sizzling in gazey fervor. (June 27)
For more on the band, go here: https://tumultuousruin.bandcamp.com/
To buy the album, go here: https://fiadh.bandcamp.com/merch
Or here: https://tumultuousruin.bandcamp.com/album/never-a-night-so-dark-ep
For more on the label, go here: https://fiadh.bandcamp.com/merch
UNHOLY ALTAR, “A Sullen Dark Sky” (Fiadh Productions/Liminal Dread Productions): Philly black metal heathens Unholy Altar have conjured some of the rawest, bloodiest black metal we’ve heard the past few years, but on “A Sullen Dark Sky,” we get something altogether new from them. To be clear, there still is plenty of black metal bludgeoning here, but also infused is extra atmosphere and more delicate parts that provide a streak of beauty through the blood. “Judas Iscariot” begins reflectively before howls begin to maim. Shrieks corrode as a melodic gush floods, the ambiance feeling strangely infectious. Growls then bruise as the power reaches into your guts, mesmerizing before bleeding into “Heathen” that is mauling and mashing from the start. Vicious screams hammer as feral speed takes hold, leading to a sickening fury that strangles with malice. “Descent” has melodic riffs and a punchiness that blackens eyes, hypnotic guitars layering psychosis as if from some illicit syrup. A new wrenching twist from an otherwise hellish entity. (Aug. 22)
For more on the band, go here: https://unholyaltar666.bandcamp.com/
To buy the album, go here: https://unholyaltar666.bandcamp.com/album/a-sullen-dark-sky-2
For more on the label, go here: https://fiadh.bandcamp.com/
Meat Mead Metal 