Circling the Bowl (2/25/23)

February 25, 2023

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As highly esteemed music journalists at this prestigious Toilet ov Hell, we hear a lot of new music day to day. But what are we actually listening to? “Circling the Bowl” is a weekly series where we get to share the jams we’ve been truly been jamming, and we invite you all to share as well.

Megachiles — I caught RSV from my kid just in time for the most over hyped blizzard of Winter ‘22-23. “Uff da, y’all.” as they say.

Dig if u will some jams i’ve had on repeat:

Curta’n Wall—Siege Ubsessed!
Botanist – “Angel’s Trumpet” from VIII: Selenotrope
Afterbirth – Four Dimensional Flesh
Children of the Reptile – “Burner” from Heavy is the Head
Mare Cognitum – Luminiferous Aether

Joaquin Stick — In my quest to listen to as many 2023-released albums as possible, I only have 11/46 so far that I’d recommend at all. Pretty much everything falls into the good-but-forgettable category, but at least I’m trying some new stuff and giving it time to breathe since I usually listen to about 4 seconds of every new track for TMP. It’s a nice change of pace. I’ll use this space to highlight some stuff I’ve put in the Very Good or better categories every week. This week’s selection has a bit of everything, including sludge, black, death, and post-metal varieties:

Ulthar – Helionomicon/Anthronomicon
Chora – There Lies a Friend I Once Knew
Ahab – The Coral Tombs
Vosbúð – Heklugjá

Spear — I feel more and more lately that I need some kind of total cognitive reset or something. The writing juices have simply not been flowing, and I think I’ve been listening to less stuff on the whole the past couple months. That said, between some spicy new tunes and revisiting some old favorites, it’s been a good week of listening, and my own musical endeavors have been coming along nicely. Here are the tunes that have been tickling my pickle:

Lykathea Aflame – Elvenefris
Anata – The Conductor’s Departure
Hellripper – Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags
Battlemaster – Ghastly, Graven & Grimoireless
Borknagar – True North
Cryptopsy – The Book of Suffering (I/II)
Mithridatum – Harrowing
Gorod – The Orb
Raito – “Ikusa Bayashi, Iza Mairu!”

Rolderathis — I don’t think I’ve ever experienced seasonal depression until this year, and let me tell you, it’s for the birds. I haven’t been listening to much from 2023, and my Bandcamp wishlist grows monstrous with neglected additions. I have, however, been mainlining stone-cold classics on the daily. (The best part of most of these picks is they’re relatively simple and I’ve been jamming on guitar quite a bit as a result!)

Amon Amarth – With Oden On Our Side (Fav track: “Asator”)
Control Denied – The Fragile Art of Existence (Fav track: “Breaking the Broken”)
Hammers of Misfortune – The Bastard (Fav track: “The Bastard Sapling”)
Ibibio Sound Machine* – Protection From Evil (AK/DK Remix)
Vitrail – Le Mépris du Monde (Fav track: “La Tentation”)
Anicon – Exegeses (Fav track: “In Shadow and Amber”)
Steely Dan – Katy Lied (Fav track: “Your Gold Teeth II”)