Free Flush Vol 2
Here we go again, more free Bandcamp albums that are actually decent. Many of Bandcamp’s best-sellers are Name Your Own Price, you can see for yourself by searching Metal > Best Sellers > Digital—this speaks to the effectiveness of making music free to access on a platform that typically requires money. People go to weddings for free booze and enter giveaways on social media for free physical media; free content on a market typically dealing in currency basically markets itself. So here’s a bunch of new albums you can download right now. If you like what you hear and can support the artists then pick up some merch or donate.
I’m Carcassbomb from Noob Heavy and you’ll (hopefully) continue to find me here sharing free music. If you want to suggest an album for me to review then leave it in a comment below or join the moderated Facebook group for sharing free Bandcamp releases. Remember, LPs, EPs and Splits only. No singles or demos or half arsed horseshit.
Drown – Subaqueous
Feb 28, 2020
Funeral Doom from Oregon, USA
Artwork by Adam Burke
Unlike SOME popular metal artists, Adam Burke seems to find a new angle with every piece and his work finds its way to many albums across genres and bands of all sizes. He’s a treasure and it never seizes to surprise me where I find his work. Subaqueous is a funeral doom album that focuses on aquatic themes—you know, the best kind of funeral doom, like Ahab. The guitars and vocals by Markov Soroka really drive this record into haunting depths. The occasional violin and underwater adventure FX tie it all together nicely. You already know if this is for you, so give it a download and jump in the shower with it.
Ixachitlan – Eagle, Quetzal, and Condor
March 8, 2020
Atmospheric Black Metal from the USA
Artwork by Al Woody
Don’t let the “atmospheric” descriptor fool you, this isn’t a quiet walk in the Norwegian woods with a cameraman. It’s basically raw black metal but with majestic chord progressions and fucking flutes. It’s pretty damn awesome. It’s dedicated to the community of Native Americans and carries strong messages of freedom. It’s a different kind of black metal experience that goes against convention and speaks to people who widely lack representation in the metal scene. Fans of birds should probably listen too.
Ergodic – Self titled EP
March 9, 2020
Tech Death from North Carolina, USA
It’s been tech death galore this past year with non-stop releases varying in quality by wild degrees. I’ve heard some real overcooked flat tech with deceptively pretty covers—some of it was actually just progressive death metal. This debut album is a short dose of the punchy technical stuff that leans as heavy into the death aspect as many brutal death metal bands. I like it when the vocals go BLERGHGERGAHGERAGH and the guitar goes WEEDOWEDOODODELIDI. You’ll know.
Skyforest – A New Dawn
February 20, 2020
Atmospheric Black Metal from Russia
Artwork by Sergey Shenderovsky
Now this is where you can take your imagining of the “atmospheric” descriptor, but actually expand it further—it’s even more atmospheric than that. It is also in the forest but no cameraman in sight, just talented art direction. This is a huge album in length and scope, especially considering it’s a solo project. It’s actually a lot closer to post-metal with clean guitars and clean or whispered vocals. The song structures reflect this also. The black elements mostly come in the form of double kicks and aesthetic. It’s a very dreamy and emotional sound.
JARS – ПОДЛОГ
August 29, 2019
Noise rock/Punk/Post-hardcore from Russia
Not exactly new but it’s a very memorable release from last year that I’d just end up considering every time I make one these articles so I may as well throw it in now. This is a very loud album that takes on a few forms. Much of it I’d compare to the good ol’ experimental days of post-hardcore, particularly perky bands like NoMeansNo. The guitars and drums are very much rock or grunge styles while the vocals shift between alt rock and punk, even hitting the hardcore side of punk. It’s a unique album.
Haapoja – Mullan Keskeltä
March 6, 2020
Black Metal/Death rock? from Finland
This is a difficult one to nail down exactly because it’s black metal infused with so many other music styles. Or maybe it’s just from Finland and that’s how they roll. There’s some very rocky beats that remind me of gothic metal styles like Tribulation. It’s a very theatrical form of black metal with instrumental diversity, making it an alluring and addictive sound. It doesn’t sound comparable to anything else right now. Damn it’s good.
Clayshaper – Celestian
February 20, 2020
Melo death/black metal from Sweden
This is my ideal trinity right here: it’s name your own price, it’s a solo project and it has good artwork. It appeals to me in a big way and I’ve been following Clayshaper for a while, since the early days of his Demon Tapes demo collection last year. All of his content is free and of high quality. If you like guitar-driven melo death overlapping with progressive black metal then look no further. It’s an eloquent sound that’s been shaped over the course of a lot of practice and passion. The guitar tones and compositions are comparable to some of Opeth’s best work.
Sallow Moth – The Larval Hope (Jan 2020), Deathspore (2018)
Fantastic tech death with a variety of death styles. The Larval Hope is a direct thematic follow up to Deathspore and both are name your own price. There’s a lot of great merch for them including cassettes and a portion of the sales go to good causes for both releases. It’s a solid project that rewards your exploration by introducing new elements or twisting the old ones.
It’s been a good year for free music so far, hit the facebook group or leave a comment if you know some good ones.
