This Toilet Tuesday (6/28/16)
“This isn’t right,” you mutter to yourself as you try to retrace your steps. A leisurely stroll through the woods has turned into a several-hour ordeal as you found yourself lost. The gloaming hour of twilight threw you off even more, and now with the sun completely set, you wonder if you should just camp until dawn. These woods are unfamiliar, though; you’ve tried leaving yourself markers, but you haven’t been able to follow them back to any familiar landmarks. The canopy of leaves above you seems much thicker here, too, completely blocking out the pale light of the full moon. Sitting still out here makes you feel nervous, though, so you press on, your pocket flashlight guiding the way.
The trees eventually give way, and you breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe now you can make it back to the road. You take a few steps forward, but something seems amiss. Casting your light around reveals that you have come to a clearing, not the forest’s edge. You look up to the sky and choke on a gasp; the moon and stars have vanished, leaving you alone in the inky black. Something skitters in the brush behind you, and you turn around with a start. Nothing is there but the looming darkness. You try to collect your thoughts and rationalize what is happening when a high-pitched shriek erupts from somewhere to your left. It is joined by another, then another, and another, hundreds of shrill screams swelling together in a deafening crescendo. You clap your hands to your ears as the noise becomes unbearable, forced to your knees by the sonic pressure. At that moment, hundreds of shadowy hands stretch from out of sight, from around each tree, behind every blade of grass. They grasp you in a thousand different places and pull. The wailing continues to roar in your ears well after your death, your voice now among them.
Join us beyond. This is Toilet Tuesday.
Gateway – Scriptures of Grief (Independent) [Cavernous Doom]
Listen to “II”
2016 may be the year of death metal, but that doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of spooky doom. Gateway certainly isn’t the first band this year to make you feel like you’re scrambling to escape a cavern full of blood-soaked creepy-crawlies, but Robin Van Oyen’s solo project earns extra points for being at least partially improvised. This is scratching a seriously menacing itch, and wait, what was that sound? Shhhh. Can’t you hear it? Oh no. They’re coming. FFO: Hipoxia, Catacombs, Merknet 7/1/16 (W.)
Grond – Worship the Kraken (Xtreem Music) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Kronos the Devourer,” “White Waters of South”
I previously wrote about Grond in our roundup of Tolkien-inspired metal. Named after the giant wolf from Middle Earth lore and the monstrous battering ram that also bore its name, Grond play a particularly bludgeoning brand of metal straight out of Moscow. Intriguingly, there seems to be far less crust on these two tracks than on previous releases. Worship the Kraken (killer album name) is much more death metal oriented, with big ol’ riffs and beefy bass. It isn’t especially novel, but it is good for a solid headbang. FFO: Vader, Act of God, Unleashed 7/1/16 (W.)
Conjurer – I (Holy Roar Records) [Sludge/Death/Doom/???]
Stream
Listening to I is a draining experience. I wouldn’t say it’s difficult material, but I found it emotionally taxing. It’s very gloomy material, and Conjurer has such a fervent and genuine delivery that you can’t help but get swept up in it. It’s the same sort of feeling I get from Black Crown Initiate’s debut, though the music isn’t really similar in any aspect but production. This is truly soul-rending material. 7/1/16 (Spear)
Among Gods – Ghost Empire (Argonauta Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Ghost Empire,” “Deliver Us From Evil”
Anal Blasphemy – Western Decadence (Iron Bonehead Productions) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Western Decadence”
Ancient Myth – Aberration: “Pt” (Fastball Music) [Symphonic Power Metal]
Preview
Anno Domini – The Cold Expanse (Independent) [Symphonic Death Metal]
Listen to “Primordium”
Anti-Freeze – Trash Assault (Cvlminis) [Black Metal]
Stream
BRAIN DRILL – Boundless Obscenity (BRAIN DRILL) [BRAIN DRILL]
BRAIN DRILL
Bryan Eckermann – The Haunting at Helmbrook (Independent) [Melodeath]
Stream
Carnal Decay – Promo 2016 (Rising Nemesis Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “No Sequel”
Children of Seraph – Warriors of Light (Independent) [Power Metal]
Listen to “Metal Face”
Countess – Fires of Destiny (Independent) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Rise of the Horned One”
Creinium – Hallucinosis (Inverse Records) [Melodeath]
Stream
Der Rote Milan – Aus der Asche (Transcending Obscurity) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Nebel und Regen”
Embloodyment – The One Before the Last (Independent) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Infernal Rash”
Eteritus – Following the Ancient Path (Godz ov War Productions) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Hellish Imagery,” “Incinerator”
Fates Warning – Theories of Flight (InsideOut Music) [Prog Metal]
Listen to “From the Rooftops”
Genocida – Piteous (Independent) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Sermon I: The Beast Within,” “Sermon III: Genocide”
Grave Desecrator – Dust to Lust (Season of Mist) [Black Metal]
Stream
Insane Vesper – Layil (Art of Propaganda) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Of Serpent’s Embrace,” “Seed of Inanna”
Karnak Seti – The Distance That Made Us Cold (Independent) [Melodeath]
Listen to “The Bliss of Living”
Lanfear – The Code Inherited (Pure Legend Records) [Power Prog]
Listen to “The Opaque Hourglass”
Leteo – Nothing but the Night (At War With False Noise) [Noise/Dark Ambient/Black Metal]
Stream
Liquid Graveyard – By Nature So Perverse (Rising Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Influence Corrupt”
Lowest Creature – Ride Through the Battlefield (Powertrip Records) [Thrash]
Listen
Low Twelve – Six (Independent) [lolbuttz]
Listen to “Dead Inside”
Mental Coma – Fragments of Democracy (Horror Pain Gore Death) [Thrash]
Listen to “Civilized Abuse”
Nerodia – Vanity Unfair (Revalve Records) [Thrash]
Nuclear Holocaust – Overkill Commando (Selfmadegod Records) [Deathgrind]
Listen to “Abominations of Annihilation”
Per la Lumon – Self-tortured Solitude (Narbentage Produktionen) [DSBM]
Listen to “Self-tortured Solitued”
Project Silence – Slave to the Machine (Sliptrick Records) [Industrial/Electronic]
Listen to “Desperation”
Reactory – Heavy (FDA Rekotz/Soulfood) [Thrash]
Listen to “Shrines of the Forgotten Gods”
Saattue – Kärsimysnäytelmä (Endless Desperation Productions) [Death/Doom]
Preview
Sacrilegious Rite/Dethroned/Goatblood – Immortalitate Malum (split- Dominance of Darkness) [Black Metal]
Stream
Skymir – Blood Moon Rising (Independent) [Banjodeath]
Listen to “The Roadhouse,” “Mr. Yeehaw”
Spell Forest – Amentia Ludibrium Tenebris (Drakkar Productions) [Black Metal]
Listen to “My Call of Hate”
Teodasia – Reloaded (Independent) [Symphonic Metal]
Listen to “Ghosts”
Valient Thorr – Old Salt (Napalm Records) [Weird Rock/D-Beat]
Listen to “No Count Blues”
Vanhelgd – Temple of Phobos (Pulverised Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Rebellion of the Iniquitous”
VIII – Decathexis (Third-I-Rex) [Black Metal]
Stream
Vulvodynia – Psychosadistic Design (Lacerated Enemy Records) [Slam Chops]
Listen to “Unparalleled Insubordination,” “Grotesque Schizophrenia”
Did we forget a new release? Is there a way we could improve this list? Let us know in the comments below!
