Flush It Friday: In Rotation
In lieu of something more sophisticated, here are some records I’ve been spinning this past week:
Fire Magic – Memories of Fire
Yeah, I’ve got memories of fire – whenever I think about this record. SB of Antichrist Siege Machine and WW from Left Cross team up for some strongly written melodic black metal with NWOBHM inspired melodies. The end result is sort of cheesy but in the best way possible. Tracks like “Awaken the Conquerors” and “Leave Me Where I Fall” sound grandiose and momentous, engrossing the listener into the record’s epic atmosphere. Not really much to say about this one, just kick ass meloblack.
Smokedope2016 – The Peak
I’m pretty inherently skeptical about a lot of little white boy rappers who predominately talk about all the drugs they do – partially due to people like Ian being hacks who get big largely through mediocrity, also partially due to still not being over the death of Lil Peep. Smokedope2016 has his own style on the depressed and hedonistic cloud rap, but is one of the few to actually live up to the melodic prowess of Peep. On The Peak, he casually displays some really infectious melodies over super lush, layered beats. This is a pretty easy recommendation for anyone who likes Peep, Yung Lean, Bladee, and tacky Cookies merch.
Degenerate Synapse – Battle for the Mind
This ones a doozy and a half – incredibly intricate and technical deathgrind from Chicago. It’s fiery and immediate, without ever compromising on compositional intensity and complexity. Battle for the Mind has the pace of a runaway train and the power of said train’s inevitable crash. I’m not sure I can think of many deathgrind bands that are this inspired by tech-death, maybe Cephalic Carnage? Maybe I’d say Cattle Decapitation, but I like this band so that comparison can’t be right. However you want to look at it, this is probably some of the best metal we’ve gotten this year so far, really powerful stuff. Bonus points for one of my favorite “metal band does an acoustic interlude” tracks of all time in “Bizarre Ritual,” beautiful sounding song.
Baby Keem – Ca$ino
Keem’s versatility and hook-writing showed great potential on The Melodic Blue, leaving me excited for what he would do next. I wasn’t exactly expecting that wait to be five years, but it is what it is. I wasn’t super huge on Ca$ino first listen – something about its short length and abrupt style shift caught me off guard. Now that I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve listened to the record since release, I think it’s safe to say I’m a fan. Keem gets way more personal and delves into his childhood struggles and how they affect his life now. Lyrical moments like “I am not a Lyricist,” “No Blame,” and “Highway 95 pt.2” are crazy impactful and touching; these cuts share space with pop cuts (“Dramatic Girl,” “Birds & the Bees”), showcases of Keem’s rap talents (“Circus Circus Free$tyle,” “Ca$ino”), and a track where Kendrick Lamar sings about eating a lady’s ass (hell yeah). Pretty easy recommendation.
Bathory – Hammerheart
Finally coming around on this one, although it is still maybe one of the goofiest records a major black metal band ever put out. Gang vocals, digital sounding drums, lead singing that sounds like a teenager straining his voice, huge melodies, hokey atmosphere, stupid ass lyrics about vikings or some shit – this one’s got it all. You just have to accept that it’s stupid, then you can see through the surface level and pick up on the fact that it’s also genius. Just listen to “Baptise in Fire and Ice” and try not to get that shit stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Tacky and imperfect, Hammerheart is a joy to listen to, provided you can handle feeling like a dork for 55 minutes.
Flying Lotus – BIG MAMA
This is the first FlyLo release to really catch my ear in a while, but BIG MAMA is a short display of this master electronic musician’s prowess. This go ’round is video game flavored, as the EP sounds like he’s soundtracking the newest Steam game to sit in your library unplayed. Most of Flying Lotus’ releases since 2019’s Flamagra have been soundtracks for properties like Yasuke and the film Ash, so this direction definitely makes sense – maybe it could serve as a bridge for Flying Lotus from soundtrack work back into the same mindset that brought us Cosmogramma. Even if not, BIG MAMA is a short, fun listen and once you make an album as good as Cosmogramma, you should really be able to do about anything you want.
G.L.O.S.S. – Demo 2015 / S/T
God, this shit still goes so damn hard. 8 minutes of the angriest ladies you’ll hear (which is pretty damn warranted) doing d-beat justice. A queercore masterpiece of the 2010s and that’s not up for debate, buddy.
Okay, now that the jams are out of the way – onto the roundup:
Guest contrib Flying Warg interviewed a real goblin, what the fuck:
Three-Hundred-Sixty-Five premiered the new track from loud ass Texan band American Sharks (and premiered a nail into this guy’s head):
Brock’s got a TovH-only premiere Voidthrone‘s new disso-death single. We are dreaming about rats tonight with this one:
Get your Audioslave and Velvet Revolver CDs ready for this newest super-group super-episode of Toilet Radio:
Falxifer covered new albums from Ossomancer and Shadowlands. A review for the thrashers and a review for the goth-ers. That’s what we call range:
Stevo takes a ride to Transilvania in his review of the new LP from this Austrian black metal band:
Another exclusive premiere, Toilet stocks are through the roof! French black metal-ers Iffernet get the Hayduke treatment:
Exclusive Track Premiere: Iffernet’s “Nothing Comes from Digging”
Thanks for giving us here at the Toilet your time and everlasting souls. Drop your GBUs below, I command it!
