Free Flush Vol 2.5: Transcending Obscurity
Transcending Obscurity has just made their discography Name Your Own Price so everyone has enough music during isolation. So instead of having them in every single future volume, I’m making this in between post of just the TO roster. If you aren’t familiar with the label they put out consistently great albums from around the world, typically bands with a unique approach to their genres. I talk about them all the time on Noob Heavy. Some people have asked me what my tops picks are out of the now free 94 albums, so here’s 11 of the best.
As always I’m going to plug my facebook group where we all share free Bandcamp albums, moderated for quality. Comment your top ten if you’re a fanboi like me. This isn’t sponsored or anything, they’re just damn good albums to share.
Eternal Storm – Come The Tide LP
August 23rd, 2019
Melo Death based in Spain
Artwork by Leoncio Harmr
One of my most listened to albums of 2019, this is a melodeath masterpiece by the standards of many, myself included. It gives Heart Like A Grave by Insomnium a run for its money. It has the perfect balance of riffs and melody, growls and cleans. It’s large in sound and scope. I can always put this on and be content, especially laying down with headphones. As a bonus their 2013 EP From The Ashes is also NYOP here.
Colosso – Apocalypse EP
February 14th, 2020
Death Metal from Portugal
This is the best use of an EP. It’s a concept EP about the Four Horsemen and they each get their own track. The kicker is that each track has its own guest musicians and vocalists. The result of this is a highly entertaining combination of death metal styles from melodic death to deathgrind and brutal death. Old school and modern sounds mashed together. All wrapped heavily in theme with audio storytelling. This is a well pulled off collab.
Wardaemonic – Acts Of Repentance LP
March 27th, 2020
Melodic Black Metal from Australia
Artwork by Leoncio Harmr
The driving force behind this project is a talented person who manages to do the drumming and vocals with equal finesse. Both of those elements are the highlight of this album. It’s a very theatrical style of black metal with high production quality, it’s a reliable listen. It’s a modern sound that has its whole own element that’s difficult to compare to anyone else right now. It’s super heavy with the odd moment of beauty.
OAK – Lone EP
December 20, 2019
Doom/Post Metal from Portugal
Artwork by Paolo Girardi
Death Doom from a duo who were both in a black metal band called Gaerea. The black metal writing experiences certainly carry over and in satisfying ways. This doom that can be very atmospheric and still have double kicks blasting through it. It’s more of a patient doom-leaning listen than a lot of the other releases but it’s highly rewarding. I’d like to see them continue this sort of side project.
Greytomb – Monumental Microcosm EP
December 19th, 2018
Atmospheric Black Metal from Australia
Artwork by James McIntosh
For how short it is, it feels so damn big. If anyone’s familiar with Virgin Black, it’s that level of theatrical highs and lows but within the framework of black metal. Vocally it often goes into DSBM territory among others. Unlike many albums in the atmospheric tag, you never feel like you’re waiting listening to Greytomb—it’s just always unfolding. It’s a stirring album with a lot of memorable moments lyrically.
Medium – Self Titled EP
March 6th, 2020
Experimental Grind from Argentina
Artwork by Enzo Robles
This is one of those albums that doesn’t really fit in anywhere, it’s got so many elements worked in that it’s difficult to dissect. It’s like a musical incarnation of one of The Thing monsters, a mutation of the genre tags it feeds on. For this it is highly entertaining and replayable. Expect bits of hardcore, thrash, goth and all sorts of sounds smashed into this EP, it’s all seamless and full of momentum.
Rogga Johansson – Entrance To The Otherwhere LP
July 19th, 2019
Melo Death from Sweden
Artwork by Mariusz Lewandowski
It’s melodeath from Sweden and it’s the solo project of the prolific Rogga Johansson who I am most familiar with from Paganizer who is also featured on this list. Entrance To The Otherwhere is exactly that, it’s a journey of glorious guitar tones and sophisticated synth. With the presentation and sound, this is an essential album for any melodic death metal fan.
Depravity – Evil Upheaval LP
April 30th, 2018
Death Metal from Australia
Artwork by Alex Tartsus
It’s death metal from Australia so you know it’s good, we have the modern shit on lockdown with bands like Psycroptic, Disentomb, Xenobiotic and The Ritual Aura. Depravity straight rips and channels every bit of technicality they have into sounding like something being played in literal Christian fire Hell. For the death heads pining for something explosive, well this shit will bang. They currently have new stuff in the works too.
Lurk – Fringe LP
August 5th, 2018
Atmospheric Sludge/Death Doom from Finland
Artwork by Adam Burke
A doom album that feels very twisted, but also sometimes quite beautiful… and kinda spooky? With the incredible artwork it’s a real classy album. The atmospheric tag doesn’t necessarily mean long, drawn-out songs in the case of Fringe; they even have short songs that have an atmosphere to them, it’s the bands songwriting. It’s so miserable, spiralling—filled with layers and progressions. It’s atmosphere that’s built to close in on you and crush you.
Paganizer – The Tower of The Morbid LP
November 1st, 2019
Death Metal from Sweden
Artwork by Dan Seagrave
It’s Swedish death metal with Dan Seagrave art, why wouldn’t you put this one in your collection? That’s basically the assembly line definition of top- tier metal. Rogga Johansson on the guitars and vocals is a testament to his ability to be multiple people at once. Hmmm, have you seen how many bands he’s got on Metallum? If you’re a metalhead like me who looks at an album cover and thinks it “looks like it sounds good” then you won’t be disappointed.
Bednja – Doline Su Ostale Iza Nas LP
November 29th, 2019
Black Metal/Hardcore from Croatia
I’m obsessed with black metal hardcore hybrids, I love bands like Boss-De-Nage and Toluca but often they can lean too far into the hardcore to be accessible for many metalheads. Bednja do it in a way where they aren’t defined by that element of their music, it’s a part of a giant soup. Black metal vocals and hardcore vocals are both expressions of anger and frustration in the same way, bringing a dynamic kind of anguish. It’s a great pairing.
The albums on Bandcamp that haven’t been released yet are pretty much all fantastic albums, I have heard them but they are not available for download yet so they could not be included here. Live Burial, Xpus and Henry Kane in particular are great upcoming albums. So there ya go, now I won’t have to mention TO every time you see me. It’s all here.
