DISSOciation
Welcome to the New Year! Now allow me to ruin it for you.
With the completion of the annual elliptical spin cycle around our solar system’s anchor comes the return of cleansing cold and white to wash away that which was prior. A chance to forge oneself anew in attempts at betterment, growth, and progression. Along with such intensified self-aiming fervor is the idealization of humanity, its potential, and sweeping feelings of good tidings toward all mankind…but enough of that shit because your boi is back to present you with the upcoming dark, miserable, and downright day-ruining picks for the freshly hatched year.
Serpent Column – Aion of Strife (January 16)
For a project that was supposedly finished back in 2021, one-man black metal project Serpent Column is back again with the follow up to 2023’s overlooked but excellent Tassel of Ares. If you for some reason still find yourself on the outside to the experience that is this band, then there exists no better time than the present to repent for the sins of your previous ways. This time around however, the main member behind this project, Jimmy Hamzy, is stepping back from lone vocal duties with the inclusion of new vocalist Mike Tibbits. But with Aion of Strife, as is pretty much the same with all previous releases, the vocals are more a seasoning than the main component. It’s the music itself that brings the dissobois to the yard with the non-stop walls of noise that possesses surprising amounts of melody and riffs designed to act as both warming embrace and crushing weight. It’s dense, loud, and likely produced in a way that will have it swept aside early in the endless wave of releases by year’s end, but don’t find yourself on the outside peering in when the music is just too good and engaging to not take seriously.
Gorrch – Stillamantum (January 30)
This next one is a real Gorrch ripper if you’re not warmed up and thoroughly stretched before diving in. Along with the changing of the calendar comes the knowledge that the deviants over at Avantgarde Music are there for us in times of darkness. Aid they provide not, but instead act as liaison to our own sonic destruction. Their second full-length, and first in 11 years, the Italian dissonant black duo hearken comparisons to such acts as Monte Penumbra and Voidescent, so be aware of the level of intensity and lack of compassion towards the listening audience that awaits. Nuance be damned as the available track for Stillamentum immediately brings the intensity and never falters for an instant. The label describes simply as “steeped in claustrophobic intensity, dissonant chord structures, and relentless sonic tension.” I honestly can’t improve upon that sentiment.
Nightmarer – Hell Interface (January 30)
Hell Fucking Yes! Now I do not specifically remember exactly what sounds left my mouth upon seeing new material from Nightmarer, but it couldn’t be far off from that. In case you’re not with it, their last album Deformity Adrift was my #2 choice for album of the year in 2023 and if I am being honest with myself, it has surpassed my initial top spot and has become an album I consider a personal all-time favorite. Now we find ourselves on the precipice of their newest offering, a 4-track EP that continues their body-shattering work. Bringing with them their continued arrangements in the likes of the mighty Gorguts and the musical wizardry of Artificial Brain, Hell Interface is set to immediately stake its claim as EP of the year. Available track “Shame Spiral” showcases the group’s technicality without ever basking in their own aroma. Dense and twisting, brutal and engaging, terrible in concept but perfect in execution.
Farson – Ein Stumpfes Instrument (February 27)
Coming across new bands is rarely a novel experience, but when it’s one that immediately makes me intrigued to write about it, then you can bet they are something worth looking deeper into. Unbeknownst to me, this German project released their first material back in 2013 with their debut dropping in 2016, but the releases since then have been quite sparse. With their sophomore full-length entitled Ein Stumpfes Instrument (A Blunt Instrument), my disso/spidey sense was alarming me of the dangers ahead, but dangers that are considered an auditory delight. The instant comparisons that entered my dehydrated apricot of a brain were that of Suffering Hour, but slightly stranger. The guitar work is undeniably catchy but also latent with dissonant chords and twangy bends that add personality to the songcraft much needed to stand above one’s peers. After listening to the available track, I find myself returning to it again and again. I already see an early applicant for the year’s end remembrance of best releases.
