DEI Metal Vol. 9
As I write this, the air outside my Michigan home is unsafe to breathe and I risk exploding my colon if I eat a salad. I’m doing great. But at least I have metal. And you do, too. Check this shit out.
Artist: Ice Howl
Song: “Three of Blades”
Album: The Ledger of Timeless Watchers
Remember kids, the only good ICE is Metal Ice: Ice Howl. Ice Giant. Ice War. There are a lot of “ice” bands making great metal out there. In fact, these three bands on a bill would be an incredible show (somebody please get on that). Ice Howl is a power metal band from Indianapolis. They describe their latest album, The Ledger of Timeless Watchers, as “a concept record about justice and redemption.” They add, “Those who commit horrible deeds will ultimately be judged from the shadows.” Well, there are certainly many horrible deeds being committed. Too much horror to keep up with, actually. I sure hope the people behind these horrors are judged and punished accordingly. But while I don’t have the power to demand extrajudicial ass whoopings, I can get my own ass whooped by the thundering vocals of Ice Howl’s Jayron Latifi. It’s not that the rest of the band isn’t great (they are!), but Latifi’s vocals take this band to the next level. According to The Metal Archives, she’s been their singer since 2023. Ice Howl started in 2015 with a more stoner metal vibe and each release seems to have leaned harder into power metal. The first time I heard “Three of Blades” I went to the internet to buy whatever album this song was on. I was not successful. According to Discogs, a CD exists, but I cannot find it for sale anywhere. A quest has begun.
Artist: Stainless
Song: “Whorefrost”
Album: Lady of Lust & Steel (High Roller Records)
The first time I heard the song “Believer” from Stainless’s 2024 EP Nocturnal Racer my eyeballs turned into heart shapes and popped out of my head, like in a cartoon. I have been waiting with anticipation for their full length debut. Lady of Lust & Steel was worth the wait. Stainless has a traditional heavy rock/metal sound that evokes AC/DC and Judas Priest, along with some bluesy elements that remind of Slide It In-era Whitesnake. And then there are the vocals. Larissa Cavacece started singing in punk bands in Canada and her vocals retain a punk edge. She sings with power, grit, and swagger. Lady of Lust & Steel’s first single, “Whorefrost,” is a romping trip through a frozen land made uninhabitable by the bitter cold. “Icy winds tear off the skin,” she sings, “only our bones remain.” The song title’s creative spelling of “hoarfrost” doesn’t seem to be related to the song, but it does fit the band’s promise of “a shot of sleeze.” As does the album’s cover: a naked lady wrapped in snakes. Cavacece was interviewed on the June 4 episode of the Metal Queens podcast where she says of the cover art, “She’s, like, vulnerable and getting eaten by all these snakes and shit but fighting them off.” That also describes Cavacece’s experience being a woman in a male dominated scene. “That was definitely challenging,” she says, “it still is sometimes because people look down on you. But, fuck ‘em.” Fuck ‘em, indeed.
Artist: Transient Voltage Productions
Album: Transient Voltage 1: A Compilation of Trans Metal Discharge
What if I told you that five bucks could get you over 90 songs by trans and gender-diverse metal artists from around the world AND directly help trans people in need? Believe me when I say I bought Transient Voltage 1: A Compilation of Trans Metal Discharge as soon as humanly and legally possible. Metal musician extraordinaires Ruby Rockatansky and Vanessa Funke are the talent and brains behind this compilation of “just under seven hours of pulse-pounding music” featuring “musicians from all across the spectrum of hard rock and metal.” In addition to Funke and Rockatansky, this compilation features many artists that I already hold near and dear including Alicia Cordisco, Transgressive, Project: Roenwolfe, and Fourth Dominion. But the majority of the artists are new to me and it’s been cool to check them all out. Funds raised from Transient Voltage 1 “will go directly towards trans people in need, prioritizing trans people of color and those in situations who require urgent relief.” Sadly, there are a lot of trans people who need help. And as the United States, not to mention much of the rest of the world, becomes increasingly hostile to trans people, this very real need for help is only going to increase. If that sounds like a bummer, well, it is! But Transient Voltage is a beautiful project put together by trans people for trans people. So shell out the five (or more!) bucks, already.
Artist: Psevdanor
Song: “Half the Sky, All of Hell”
Album: House of Skin and Bone
Psevdanor is a solo black metal project from Skopje, North Macedonia. I don’t know anything about Skopje, but when I looked it up on Apple Maps, I learned there is a mall there with a Nike store and a Burger King. But more importantly than that, Skopje is the home of Chaos Priestess, the musician behind Psevdanor. I discovered Psevdanor—which is described on Bandcamp as “transfeminist, anti-fascist, and anti-capitalist” (so if you’re looking for Chaos Priestess you probably won’t find her at the mall)—thanks to Transient Voltage 1: A Compilation of Trans Metal Discharge. I’m really digging House of Skin and Bone. It’s very raw and visceral, but the way Psevdanor mixes in elements of Macedonian folk music gives it a kind of, I don’t know, jauntiness? Psevdanor’s debut album, 2024’s Artimpasa, also has elements of Macedonian folk, but for what it’s worth, House of Skin and Bone has the tag “folk metal” on Bandcamp, while Artimpasa does not. House of Skin and Bone is dedicated to “friends lost under the occult assault of capitalism and patriarchy” with a call for the righteous hate of Morana (“an ancient goddess associated with winter’s death, rebirth and dreams.” Thanks, Wikipedia!) to “cleanse the world of our adversaries.” Consider yourself warned.
Artist: Dagger
Song: “Graveyard Witch”
Album: The First Cuts
God damn, Canada produces some good metal. One of those bands is Vancouver, British Columbia’s Dagger (not to be confused with Montréal’s Dagger, a hair metal band that put out a single album in 1985). The Dagger I speak of makes traditional heavy metal that’s bluesy and gritty and best exemplified by their song “Graveyard Witch.” The song, from their EP The First Cuts, evokes the sound of Zeppelin and the smell of a cozy venue with a carpeted stage on which countless beers have been spilled. “Long hair, black eyes, two words, she lies,” vocalist and lead guitarist Jakob Weel sings before ultimately warning us, “Don’t fall in love with the graveyard witch.” Noted. If Weel’s voice sounds familiar, that is because he sang on the self-titled debut album of another Vancouver BC metal band, Maule, one of my favorite albums in 2022. Dagger’s drummer, Penny Jo Buckner, is also the drummer for the band Sandstorm. I don’t know what’s in the water, but folks in Vancouver best get their blood screened, because I suspect it’s heavy metal. Vancouver is also home to Gatekeeper, Spell, Tribunal, and Spiritbox, all bands I love. Perhaps someday having to flee the U.S. for Canada won’t be so bad after all.
Artist: Sandstorm
Song: “Slave to Sin”
Album: Dungeon of Death (Dying Victims Productions)
Canadian drummer Penny Jo Buckner plays in both Dagger and Sandstorm, which was formed by Swedish brothers Stevie Whiteless and Reptile Anderson in 2017. I’ve loved Sandstorm since their 2019 Time To Strike EP, which was followed by 2021’s Desert Warrior. Dungeon of Death is their third EP to be released by Dying Victims Productions. Sandstorm has a NWOBHM metal vibe rooted firmly in a time between 1979 and 1982. It’s not hard to imagine coming across “Slave to Sin” on 7-inch while flipping through bins containing Praying Mantis’s self-titled single or Diamond Head’s “Shoot Out the Lights.” “Slave to Sin” has that perfect blend of fuzz and sweetness and has a chorus that is, well, addictive: “Addicted to fire. A slave to sin. In the midnight hour I always give in. And from the tower I can hear my master’s will.” It’s damn near close to perfect old school heavy metal. And let’s talk cover art. In a world of AI garbage bullshit, Sandstorm’s three EPs form a triptych of retro DIY perfection. The cover of Dungeon of Death looks like it was created by your artist friend in middle school who lived at his dad’s house during the summer and who gave you un-helmeted rides on the handle bars of his second-hand Huffy Cyclone. Man, what ever happened to him?
Artist: Rainbow Patrol
Song: “More”
Album: Cataclysm
Sludgy, stompy, sticky, and fuzzy are the words that come to mind when listening to “More” from Rainbow Patrol’s new release Cataclysm. Their sound is so thick it’s basically the metal equivalent of peanut butter. Do not consume without a beverage. Especially if you take “stoner metal” literally. I can’t remember when or where I stumbled upon Rainbow Patrol, but likely it was their name that caught my attention because, hey, sounds pretty gay. They call their music “progressive desert rock,” but they’re from Alberta, Canada. I don’t know much about Alberta’s geography, but it is the home of the Canadian Badlands, a place that literally rocks. In fact, late at night there, you can hear and feel the earth-shaking rumble of Rainbow Patrol, the sheer sonic heft unearthing dinosaur bones and other assorted dead bodies. But this is a secret project of the Canadian government, so let’s keep it between us. For fans of Mastodon, Acid Mammoth, Fossil Blood, and Show Me a Dinosaur, obviously.
Artist: Sharp Lives
Song: “The Working Dead”
Album: Butterfly Effect
Let’s face it. Work sucks. Everyone should quit their jobs and just make metal music. Okay. That’s not exactly realistic. But Alexandria Rose Schmidt, a.k.a. Sharp Lives, makes a pretty damn strong case in “The Working Dead” from debut EP Butterfly Effect. Sharp Lives describes themselves as a band that “fuses the nostalgic weight of early 2000s nu-metal and metalcore with modern alternative metal production.” Not terms that would ordinarily cause me to stop what I’m doing and listen, but they go on to say that their songs “reject social norms and center the lived truth of women, queerness, and living for your dream.” On top of that, I discovered Sharp Lives while searching for Michigan metal on Bandcamp and I will always give a Michigan band a listen (I have an ever growing list of Michigan metal on Spotify.) And it turns out Sharp Lives is really good. “The Working Dead” is an indictment of the way that capitalism values a person based on how much labor can be extracted from them and how much money that person can produce (usually for someone else). In a mix of fierce growls and soaring cleans, Schmidt sings about paying the price to live “a life that’s yours” despite the risk that it might all just be “another line wrapped in gold lies.” Down with capitalism. Up with Sharp Lives.
Artist: Kalandra
Song: “Everything In Its Right Place”
When I was in high school, I owned the first two Radiohead albums on CD. Then Ok Computer came out. It just didn’t click with me, and my interest in Radiohead kind of faded away. And honestly, I haven’t listened to much Radiohead since. Until Kalandra, a band based in Oslo with both Norwegian and Swedish members, released their latest single, a cover of Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place.” I didn’t realize it was a cover the first time I heard it. In fact, I don’t think I would have ever figured out that it wasn’t a Kalandra original on my own. It’s in a different language, for one. Radiohead’s English lyrics are sung by Katrine Ødegård Stenbekk in Norwegian (specifically nynorsk). Kalandra doesn’t fit neatly into any specific musical genre (they describe themselves as “melancholic Nordic folk” with “gritty guitars” on Bandcamp), but there’s likely a lot of overlap with Kalanda fans and fans of folk metal. Kalanda has also made a very spooky music video for “Everything In Its Right Place.” While I am a child of MTV, I don’t watch a lot of music videos these days. This one is worth it.
Artist: Noctule
Song: “Lord of Blood”
Album: Extinguish Thy Flame
Like many people, I was bummed when I learned that Svalbard was no more. So you can imagine my excitement learning about Serena Cherry’s solo project. Noctule is “melodic black metal inspired by video games” and the second album, Extinguish Thy Flame, is about the video game Elden Ring. Cherry, who has been very open about her depression over the years, credits Elden Ring with saving her life. “It taught me a level of patience and perseverance that helps me deal with depression every day,” she writes in GamesRadar. “My brain may still become an unwelcome place thanks to mental illness, but this game has shown me how, with ceaseless effort and unflinching grit, a hostile world can become home.” Now, I don’t play video games, but I do have decades of experience living with and managing depression. And what Elden Ring is to Cherry, metal music is to me. I listen to plenty of metal inspired by things like Dungeons and Dragons, H.P. Lovecraft, Lord of the Rings, and Battlestar Galactica. Games I’ve never played, books I’ve never read, TV shows I’ve never seen. But I don’t have to be familiar with the source material to relate to the universal themes of struggle and strength, anger and hurt. With Noctule, I’m drawn to what Cherry does with melodeath and black metal. There’s a brightness to “Lord of Blood” that seems to reflect the way Elden Ring exposed the darkness of Cherry’s depression to light. “Lord of Blood has one of my favorite guitar leads I’ve ever written,” she says. “When it comes to making metal music, I just can’t resist adding layer upon layer of guitar harmonies.” I, too, cannot resist it.
