EPISODE XI

Coma Roulette - Theme From "The Forest At Night"
Street Rat - Nightmare
Victory Over The Sun - A City Without Walls Or Towers
Wishfield - Three Seconds
Bornwithhair - GALCIT 53
Dryads - To Nail Swans At Dawn
The Sun Came Up Upon The Left - Through Wind
The Guelph Basin - Her Paws In The Snow
Exsanguinated Shade - A Body Built By The Earth
An interview with Cicatrix of Nodus Tollens, Exsanguinated Shade, and Guan Yin

EPISODE X

Happy 10th episode to us! For this celebration, we've decided to play a show featuring all queer artists, including one from our beloved host's band, Ophelia Drowning! Thanks for sticking with us for 10 whole episodes--here's to 100 more!


Coma Roulette - Theme From "The Forest At Night"
Cichy Duch - Światło w chmurze
Wizard Apprentice - Exorcism
Vaelastrasz - Whitemane
Ari Jeannette Vermette - Product People
Phyrne - St. James Infirmary
Castle Ov Yester - Grim Procession
S H R I E K I N G - Vale Of Ink
Everson Poe - We All Become Our Sins
Ophelia Drowning - Out Of Options
ADFL Quartet - geometricating the quanta
Mesa - The Spirits Of Sky
Seas Of Winter - All Cats Are Beautiful
Cuscuta - The Last Graveyard
Jenn Taiga - Trepidation
MISANDR - Overtures Of Annihilation
Empty Pleasures - timing chains
Putrescine - Homestead
Poppet - Sadistic Congregation

EPISODE IX

Coma Roulette - Theme From "The Forest At Night"
Cuscutta - Rented Room
OF WOLVES - Mens Rea (Izaguf)
Unnatural Ways - Trying To Pass
Wretched Empires - Shadows
Wishfield - Nothing
Nico Tracy - A Deep And Empty Grave
Val Dorr - t k hh
The Sun Came Up Upon The Left - Forever Sleep
Fataliste - Rabid Wolf
Castle Ov Yester - ...I Loved You Within And Without -O Lord, I L-Loved You
Karnstein - Lycanthrope
Fogweaver - Beyond The Wall
Evergreen Refuge - Even Nowhere Is Somewhere
Order Of The Wolf - This Is Not A Brave New World
Vi Res - Pulse
The Sun Came Up Upon The Left - Turn Away The Spoken Word
The Doom That Came To New York - Beneath The Walls Of Non-Euclidean Geometry

EPISODE VIII

Coma Roulette - Theme From "The Forest At Night"
The Sun Came Up Upon The Left - I Wait, My Ghost
Vi Res - Staple
Bornwithhair - This Grimoire Kills Fascists
Everson Poe - The Hollow Mountain
Misandr - Castigation (Track Premiere)
Toad Sage - The Moss Covered Altar (Track Premiere)
The Guelph Basin - A Knot That Can't Fail, A Rope That Won't Fray
Tommy Concrete - Sanist
Suncarcass - alemannic iv: mediolanum
Poetry Of Thorns - Breakdown
S H R I E K I N G - We Are Weak
Rage Of Devils - Torrent Of Wrath
Byzanthian Neckbeard - Indoctrinate The Priestess
Dryads - Beneath The Shadow
Subterranian Prison - A Thousand Years In The Abyss
Vaelastrasz - Algalon

ALBUM REVIEW: Rage Of Devils: Black Sky

 

 There's a sentiment that one-man raw black metal is supposed to be excruciating--a genre of solitude, hatred, anger, and above all, pain. Rage Of Devils delivers on that sentiment.

This five-track debut EP follows the playbook perfectly-- harsh, unyielding production, guitars so harshly crunching that they're damn near chainsaws, raw, compressed drum lines that pound and crack like an artillery barrage. You Belong In Filth, the main single, damn near explodes with this destructive energy, with the strained, throat-squeezing vocals barely keeping up with the instruments at times, as though project mastermind Aaron Palmer is being physically tortured as he attempts to whelp out the threats he aims directly at those who would dare hurt those who risk their lives to cross the border.

I'm not going to lie here; I normally can't stand straight genre exercises. Straightforward grind bores me, black metal tends to cause my eyes to glaze over, and don't even get me started on by-the-books djent or post-metal. Aaron's latest is a rare exception, delivering by-the-books raw black with the force of a sledge to the skull and with a healthy amount of praxis and leftist politics.

Check out the track debut of the lead single on Episode VI, and if you enjoy it and want more, you can find the release--currently available via the name-your-price option--here.

EPISODE VII

Coma Roulette - Theme From "The Forest At Night"
Karnstein - No End In Sight...
Fataliste - Mercurial Gaslighting
Tommy Concrete - Burnt Out From Masking
Suncarcass - alemannic ii a : dystrophy
Everson Poe - Skin-Taker
Poppet - Foolish Burial
Wound Dresser - Run With The Wind
Empty Pleasures - Duck Ape
Whitephosphorous - Rising Tides
Val Dorr - w.c. suicide
Byzanthian Neckbeard - The Cyberdwarf
Rage Of Devils - You Belong In Filth (Track Premiere)
R-13 - S. (Track Premiere)
1727 & Mobius - GinruB
Violetera & Etxera - Callisto (Ambient Version)

EPISODE VI

Coma Roulette - Theme From "The Forest At Night"
Wintarslaf feat. MISANDR - Can We Get This Right? (WA1897.14 Mix)
Crown Of Asteria - Summer
Hallucinogenic Bulb - Restoration Experiment 02
Unnatural Ways - Draw That Line
Non Serviam - Ramasse (album version)
Everson Poe - The Beast (Track Premiere-review here)
Youko Heidy & L'eclipse Nue - No Moonlight To Guide Us
Poppet - At The Maw Of N Kai
Byzanthian Neckbeard - Extinction
S H R I E K I N G - Emperor Of Nothing
Fogweaver - And The Sound Of The Breaking Sea
Mesa - Watcher Of The Forest
Epimetrius - He Was In A Great Dark Corridor
Putrescine - Inhuman
Bitter Lake ft. Ivan Belcic - New Branches On Old Trees
Everson Poe - ii. weatherer : a. wintersleep b. the anvil c. red fog
Wishfield - Nothing
The Guelph Basin - When They Found The Bottom They Just Kept Digging

COMPILATION REVIEW AND TRACK PREMIERE: Hope Vs. Hate Records: Hope In the Face of Fear

 

Featuring a stacked lineup (including yours truly as Ophelia Drowning), art by Jamie Christ, and nearly five and a half hours of music (yes, you read that correctly), Hope Vs. Hate does not disappoint on their first charity-raising compilation. Is it worth your money? Yes. I don't know why you need to ask that--even if it wasn't going to a damn good cause (which it absolutely is), you have new tracks from some of the brightest faces in leftist and anti-fascist extreme music, old favorites from the shining stars, and an entire shelf's worth of new records that you should be buying from the up-and-coming faces.

I received the press packet for this long before I received the album itself, and while I wanted to write something up to promote the project (which we did anyways, playing Everson Poe's track on last week's episode of The Forest At Night), I decided to wait until I had the project in my hands to write anything about it--and once it was, I popped it in. A few days later listening to this thing on repeat, and I'm back to tell you about it. While I could sit here and give you the gist of the project, I'd rather give you my highlights. So, here are my top 15 picks, in no particular order, from this monolithic juggernaut.


MOL: Penumbra

Combining my favorite aspects of the experimental acts that got me into metal in the first place--the opening section sounds borderline Arsonists Get All The Girls-inspired, and the chorus shouts and pulsing tom and snare beats slap you across the face with the unnervingly unevenness of early 2010s experimental--and the sure-footed smoothness that acts like Deafheaven and Ashbringer bring to the world of post-metal, M0L puts forth everything one could hope for in shoegazy, post-metally experimentation. FFO: Ashbringer, AGATG, Deafheaven

Kaddish : Throw Out Thoughts

Who doesn't love a good swinging guitar riff? Kadish comes through with something pulled straight from the Midwest's deepest depression, and anguished, forlorn hardcore punk style screams pull you deep into your feelings. Emotional hardcore done right--need I say more? FFO: A Pregnant Light, Defeater, La Dispute

GEIST: Western Medicine

Do you like D-beat? Powerviolence? Metallic hardcore? No? Go home, sit in the corner, and think about what you've done. FFO: Converge, Norma Jean, kicking your ass clear up the curb

Unreqvited : Deadmoon

Nothing puts the listener on edge quite like a repeated, ominous, gentle riff with some good, old-fashioned chugs randomly thrown in, and the off-kilter time signatures don't hurt either. This piece just keeps building and building until the heart bursts open at around the two-minute mark, with a soaring requiem and a riff worthy of a bird taking flight. FFO: vvilderness, Harakiri For The Sky, Fallujah

CHRISTWVRKS : The Black Swan

Haunting sirens and fuzz-addled noise start this banger of an industrial powerhouse, and it doesn't let up from there--cymbals destroyed by distortion, a driving tom, and a violent explosion of what I can only describe as pure, unadulterated rage at the one-minute mark christens Mr. Jaime Christ as one of the reigning kings of industrial noise. This track will murder you. FFO: Altar Of Plagues, Author And Punisher, L'eclipse Nue

Heretoir : Golden Dust

It's rare to hear drums applied with a level of precision that could be called loving, and it may be difficult to envision what that may sound like in an extreme music context, but as the words "raindrops fall/the blood in my veins/is filled with golden dust" and the smooth, passionate arpeggio of the nearly harp-like guitar plays against the pitter-patter of the double-kick, you'll understand exactly what I mean. FFO: Alcest, Crown Of Asteria, Wolves In The Throne Room

Dreichmere : Scenery

Flowing in and out of unique time signatures and in and out of keys and rhythms, Dreichmere crawls through musical marshes and ruins with a fluidity and grace that I haven't seen since early Mastodon. It's difficult to keep a riff this tight going for ten minutes, but by gods, these sludgy animals hold the line, and with such smoothness that had they not broken the piece up with some uneasy-listening clean guitars around the four minute mark I wouldn't be entirely sure they were playing more than one insane, complex riff. FFO: Mastodon, Baroness, Kylesa

Kakihara : Violence // Dweller

There may be no love in your violence, but there is absolutely love in this reviewer's heart for this inane cavalcade of kitchen sinks being tossed at your skull with the rest of the kitchen busy trying to crowd-kill you. FFO: The Chariot, seeyouspacecowboy, Code Orange

Everson Poe : The Beast (TRACK PREMIERE)

This is the track we picked to play on the show, and for good reason--Everson Poe is quickly becoming one of my favorite voices in the world of emotive metal. Combining doomy, finality-laden riffage with a loving vocal lead, Everson pens themself a score for a dirge and an anthem to light a cigar and stare down the pouring rain to. FFO: A Dying Light, Swallow The Sun, Ahab

life - Iluvia

Shoegazy post-black at its finest and most precisely executed. The drums fade in from what seems like the other room, and the guitar playes through what sounds like a tiny speaker, evoking the feeling of being on the outside of a party you weren't invited to--until the riff sits in, the vocals careen off course, and the torrent of reverb-soaked dualing cleans and gutturals washes over you like a cathartic tidal wave. FFO: Old Grey, Oathbreaker, Cult Of Luna

bornwithhair : Pawiak

Everything I love in avant-garde, in one philosophy- and praxis-heavy track. Filled with vocals that don't match worth a damn layered on top of each other, inordinately distorted garbled voices, and a high hat from what I can only assume is a Korg Volca Beats, among other, even more fun things. Do I know what I'm hearing? Absolutely not. Do I love it? You're goddamn right I do. FFO: Moody Black, Big Black, Marilyn Manson; preferably simultaneously, and in a blender.

OF WOLVES : Mens Rea (Izaguf)

Sweet christ, these vocals. Put your sanity in a plastic baggie from your local Kroger, hop onto a Harley with a 500CC engine strapped inside, and take that puppy for a spin, and you'll still have a tigher grip on your sanity than this vocalist cares to. Driving guitars and an even more driving beat makes for the kind of music to get into fistfights with at the local punk dive. FFO: The Melvins, KEN Mode, Jello Biafra


...And finally, I'm going to spare you all a "For Fans Of" list for the next three tracks, for one simple reason: the answer to "what is this similar to" is literally "my show". You like my show? Good. Give these three a listen.


S H R I E K I N G : I Shall Know No Fear

It's new SHRIEKING. Y'all know I love SHRIEKING. Experimental slamming black metal filled with horror movie quotes, distorted noise, and enough viciousness to kill a walrus on meth. If you haven't bought everything they've ever made, I don't know what to tell you except to get on it.

Settle For Shadows : Automated Existence

It's Settle For Shadows. Read the first two sentences for my review for SHRIEKING and more or less copy it word for word. You listen to the show. You know GODDAMN well this is my jam. Wonky, glitched-out drums, synths that sound like buzzsaws, and a beat that Richard Cunningham would drool at the thought of setting to video.

Dark Habits : The Milk

An HNW intro laden with feedback, blast beats, gutturals, D-beat.....This is Sarah Bait. First time I've heard these fine folks, and I'm in love. I highly recommend you pick up these guys's first EP. Oh, and everything else they have out. Hell, I did.


You can pick up the comp here. 

--<3 MAMA SARAH

EPISODE V

Coma Roulette - Theme From "The Forest At Night"
Vetten Runotar - Winter
Vaelastrasz - The Birth Of Naxxramas
Fjaeldmark - A Side Entrance
1727 & Möbius - A Censer Hanging From Chains (Track Premiere)
WELTALTER - Äonen
Nodus Tollens - Vulpes Pilum Mutat
The Doom That Came To New York - Outerture
Spectral Child - III
Hallucinogenic Bulb - Convergence
Moon And Azure Shadow - Abyssic Lunar Tower

EPISODE IV

Coma Roulette - Theme From "The Forest At Night"
Non Serviam - Morfie (album version)
Unnatural Ways - Most Of All We Love To Spy
Byzanthian Neckbeard - Devil Worms
Jenn Taiga - Proteus (Track Premiere--review available here)
Vaelastrasz - Hearthglen
S H R I E K I N G - Soul Devourer
Uprising - Uprise
Yte + Mesa - Decaying Empire
Bull Of Apis Bull Of Bronze - O! A Smile Of Blood!
Non Serviam - Crache (Album Version)

TRACK REVIEW AND PREMIERE: Jenn Taiga: Proteus

(Ethics disclosure--the host of The Forest At Night, Sarah Allen Reed, was hired to do the cover art for this release.)

Harsh noise.

That's not the first thing you expect to hear off of a twenty-minute track from an insanely talented self-described synth wizard with years of experience behind her, but that's the first thing you hear on Proteus--roughly twenty seconds of harsh noise wall, like an nuke going off in your speakers, followed by some of the most dissonant synths on the entire two-track album.

When I spoke to Jenn about this track, she mentioned that this entire piece was improvised, included as a counterpoint to the structured, symphonic sweeps of Solivagant, the first act of her newest opus, Plight. Releasing on March 27th from Tridroid Records, these two tracks sit opposite each other, united together in dichotomy--planned, plotted yin pitted against a precocious and powerful yang.

Of the two, Proteus is my favorite. As you all have probably noted from my usual musical choices on this show, I don't care for straight genre exercise. I do love my black metals and my crust punks, my grindcores and my dungeon synths, yes--but what I find most exciting in music is variety, the willingness to put the listener on edge, to challenge them, to blow up their eardrums and lay waste to their expectations.

And detonating a bomb made of twenty seconds of harsh noise in front of a twenty-two minute Berlin school-influenced synth piece is a splendid way to get me excited.

The piece doesn't throw that blood rush away mid-stream, either. Jenn Taiga somehow manages to ride that ever-thin line between predictable and not with nothing more than a small army of well-tempered synthesizers--two Korgs, two Moogs, and a small smattering of pedals, and nothing more. The entire ensemble hums with nervous energy, the repeated rhythms and phrases maintaining their familiarity while never succumbing to repetitiveness, the shining heights of the tones mirror brightly against the anxious hum of the lower notes.

Throughout this entire album, Jenn stakes a firm claim upon the summit of the hauntological mountain of digital moonscapes which so many synth throwback acts have tried and failed to climb, while still managing to make the ground around her flagpole uniquely her own. Of course, blowing a nuke or two up definitely helps.

You can pick up the album here on March 27.

ALBUM REVIEW: 1727 & Möbius: Burning The Black Candles

 

I grew up in the church.

I wasn't a proverbial preacher's kid by any means, but I still spent every Sunday of my childhood in a Lutheran pew, and damn near every Wednesday night as well. Sundays, the church was packed, but Wednesday nights, it was empty, and a young Sarah would often amuse herself while her foster parents were attending important meetings and other adult nonsense by sneaking through the nave of the cathedral and sitting behind the altar, staring up at the giant stained glass windows from a safe hiding spot on the apse. To me, the cathedral was an imposing structure at night; comforting, but in a foreboding, desolate way. God, I knew, did not want a child like me--but at night, it seemed as though he wasn't there. His house laid empty for me to explore, to rest in, to sit, to fear.

We exist, currently, in an hour of plague. The Ka'bah sits empty at the center of the world, the white floors surrounding it lay bare. Central Park sits empty, free of the sounds of street musicians and the clamor and whispers of a city full of life, and the canals of Venice flow clean for the first time in memory, untouched by the debris and ephemera of human life. The streets we have built and the temples we have erected to capitalism, to our gods, and to our hubris lay barren. The world sits empty, open to gaze upon, to abandon, to walk through, to fear.

Burning The Black Candles would not be out of place either in those lonely nights or in these dark days.

The throat chants and haunting choral passages delivered by Möbius wail lonesomely in the background, beckoning the listener like a siren's song into the harsh, throbbing, industrial pulses of 1727's masterful machines. The throat singing is often barely audible, often sitting upon the same frequencies as the pulsing walls of dense auditory smog, but the voices ring through nonetheless; Talos's rocks pound the walls as Eurydice cries out from hell.

The religious symbolism of both the cover and the track titles are not lost on me, a transgender woman for whom the ways in which Man approaches the Divine are of great artistic influence. I do not fear a God, nor do I worship the Goddess, but this album brings about memories of the peaceful terror that I often felt as a young child, attempting to sleep in the house of a God who did not want my kind--and in times like these, in which the Goddess seems to be in the process of purging that which it does not want from her own home, music like this provides an apt soundtrack. Hymns for the plagues will be sung, and this work is an opus to be reckoned with--come, and worship.

The album drops March 31st, and when it does, you can find it here.

EPISODE III

Coma Roulette: Theme From "The Forest At Night"
Bull Of Apis Bull Of Bronze: What Awaits Us (A Void Is But An Open Mouth)
Adzes: Punctuated Equilibrium
Erreth-Akbe: The Word Which Is Only Spoken Once
Ghostwriter: Bell, Book, And Candle
Nomad: Slowly The Glacier Creeps
Putrescene: Entropy
Moon And Azure Shadow: Age Of Darkness And Frost
Mesa: Mother Of The Sea Breeze
Vaelastrasz: The Battle At The Burning Steppes
Void Ritual: Nachzehrer
Andromache: CEREMONY (Track Premiere)
Amethyst Dagger: Lookfar Awaits At The Bay
Uprising: Behold The Eternity Of Stars
Victory Over The Sun: Half-Silvered Mirror
Wishfield: Isolated People In Isolated Rooms
Fjaeldmark: The Pyre
Bittter Lake: Frozen Landscapes
Poppet: Odiogenesis

Finally back from tour! Thanks to DJ Dark Dave for covering for me while I was gone. Here's the official recording of Episode III!