This Toilet Tuesday (10/4/16)
Welcome once more to This Toilet Tuesday! Let’s cut to the chase; we already know why we’re all here. Stockhausen, Dubs, and I have grabbed four bands of very different flavors of metal to represent the best of the best this week, so be sure to check those out during your daily grind. There’s plenty more to be had besides, so let’s get to it.
Swampcult – The Festival (Transcending Obscurity Records [Doom]
Listen
Is it true that we’ve reached peak Cthulhu? Yes. Is Swampcult’s The Festival, based on a Lovecraft story of the same name, still worth a listen? Definitely. Fans of riffs, cheesy narration (a la Bal-Sagoth), and albums with theatrical production are sure to be pleased with this Dutch band’s fun mix of death, black and doom rooted in classic metal. The production is a bit thin, and the vocals may be distracting for some, but if you want to go on a sonic journey into a world of literary horror, look no further. FFO: Bal-Sagoth, Obituary, Summoning 10/2/16 (W.)
Vanhelga – Ode & Elegy (Talheim Records) [Black Metal]
Stream
Vanhelga has made the perfect album for this time of year. The air is getting cold but not yet frostbitten, and the clouds obscure the sun but don’t quite swallow it. You don’t need to shriek at the frozen moon through a howling snowstorm, but maybe you need to gaze pensively into a lake that’s gathering frost around the edges. The album ranges from powerfully depressive to furiously harsh, always maintaining a distinct sense of forlorn abandonment, as if a ray of sunshine is just outside your desperate reach. Wallow with me over at the NCS stream. 10/1/16 (Stockhausen)
Haar/Ur Draugr – Haar/Ur Draugr (split- ATMF) [Black Metal/Weird Death]
Stream
I don’t know what it is about black metal and ugly death metal that works so well together, but I am all for these splits we’re seeing lately. Haar and Ur Draugr are an exceptionally good pairing, and not just because both of them have names that will make you sound like a stroke victim if you say them aloud. The two sound like they share a common evolutionary ancestor, each using a raw but practical mix of harmony and dissonance to achieve their unique sounds. They’re even fairly similar lyrically, exploring humanity’s search for a greater meaning. Regardless of your preferred band or genre on this split, you’re sure to enjoy the other. 10/7/16 (Spear)
Aghast – Something Else; Something Rotten (Abducted Records) [Melodeath]
Listen to “Something Else; Something Rotten”
Alkonost – Песни белой лилии (Independent) [Folk Metal]
Listen
Arkhaeon – Beyond (BergStolz) [Black Metal]
Preview
Barghest/Teeth – Barghest/Teeth (split- grimCVLT) [Black Metal/DoomSKRONK]
Stream
Review
Begging for Incest – Finsternis (Rising Nemesis Records) [I’m Not Googling This]
CETI – Snakes of Eden (Metal Mind) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “Wild and Free”
Construct of Lethe – The Grand Machination (Edgewood Arsenal Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Construct of Lethe”
Darkness – The Gasoline Solution (Holy Roller Records) [Thrash]
Video Breakdown
Dead Man’s Chest – Violent Days (BDHW Records) [Metalcore]
Listen to “Insufferable”
Death & Legacy – Silence (Independent) [Melodic Metal]
Listen to “What Will Never Be”
Decomposed – Wither (Chaos Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “By Nothingness Crowned,” “Submerged”
Desert Near the End – Theater of War (Metal Scrap Records) [Thrash]
Listen to “Under Blackened Skies”
Disfigurement of Flesh – Deity of Hideous Fertility (Amputated Vein Records) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “Deity Of Hideous Fertility”
End My Sorrow – Of Ghostly Echoes (Art Gates Records) [Gothic Metal]
Listen to “Wither Away”
Erectile Dysfunction – Blessed with Violence (Independent) [Goregrind]
Stream
Exhalation/Nuclear Holocaust – Embodied Inferno (split- Putrid Cult) [Death Metal/Grindcore]
Listen to “Skull Trepanation” (Exhalation), “Dwelling with the Dead” (Nuclear Holocaust)
Face of the Bog – Ego Death (Independent) [Sludge/Doom]
Listen to “The Serpent & The Dagger,” “Drifter in the Abyss”
Gatecreeper – Sonoran Depravation (Relapse Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Craving Flesh,” “Desperation,” “Stronghold”
Hamerex – Traitor (Independent) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “The Nameless One,” “Journey’s End”
Hanging Garden – Hereafter (Lifeforce Records) [Death/Doom]
Listen to “Penumbra”
Inflikted – Sineater (WormHoleDeath) [Thrash]
I Shall Devour – The Misanthropist (Independent) [Deathcore]
Listen to “Awaken All,” “Spiteful Nature”
Kyng – Breathe in the Water (Razor & Tie) [Doom]
Listen to “Breathe In The Water”
Leaves’ Eyes – Fires in the North (AFM Records) [Symphonic Metal]
Mercyless – Pathetic Divinity (Kaotoxin Records) [Death/Thrash]
Stream
Metal Witch – Tales from the Underground (Iron Shield Records) [Heavy/Speed Metal]
Listen to “The Man Who Shouldn’t Live”
Mouth of the Architect – Path of Eight (Translation Loss Records) [Post-Metal]
Listen to “Drown the Old”
Ortega – Sacred States (ConSouling Sounds) [Sludge/Doom]
Listen to “Maelstrom”
Percival Schuttenbach – Strzyga (Sony Music) [Folk Metal]
Listen to “Marysia”
Psychonaut 4 – Neurasthenia (Talheim Records) [DSBM]
Listen to “Bad t.RIP” (NSFW)
Riti Occulti – Tetragrammaton (Triton’s Orbit) [Doom]
Listen to “Adonai I”
Seance – Levitised Spirit (Chaos Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Haunted”
Sonata Arctica – The Ninth Hour (Nuclear Blast Records) [Power Metal, Allegedly]
Shitload of Boring
Sordide – Fuir la lumière (Avantgarde Records) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Révolte”
Space Chaser – Dead Sun Rising (This Charming Man Records) [Thrash]
Listen to “Metro Massacre”
Spirit of the Forest – A Void into the Fields of Silence / La nature oubliée (Scum Productions) [Black Metal]
Stream
Stalwart – Tectonic (Fono Ltd.) [Death/Thrash]
Steel Temple – Nobody’s Slaves (Miner Records) [Heavy Metal]
Preview
Taifa – Embrujo (Rock Estatal Records) [Heavy/Folk Metal]
Listen to “Libre para soñar”
Take Over And Destroy – Take Over And Destroy (Prosthetic Records) [Black’n’Roll, kinda]
Listen
Tid – Fix Idé (The Sign Records) [Hard Prog Rock?]
Listen to “Dumhetens Gudinna”
Total Violence – Violence Is the Way of Life! (Killer Metal Records) [Thrash]
Watchtower – Concepts of Math: Book One (Prosthetic Records) [Progressive Thrash]
Preview
Wedingoth – Alone in the Crowd (Dooweet Records) [Progressive/Gothic Metal]
Windmills by the Ocean – The Gahste (Independent) [Sludge]
Listen to “The Seek”
Did we forget a new release? Is there a way we could improve this list? Let us know in the comments below!
