This Toilet Tuesday (1/20/15)
Greetings, fellow flushers! With the constipated fall months firmly behind us, winter has finally spread wide its icy rectum to let the ripest new albums gush into our willing earholes. As always, your ever-faithful Stockhausen, W, and I have let the best seep in a little deeper than the rest and presented them below. With that pleasant imagery now rooted in your mind, we bring you This Toilet Tuesday.
Arcane – Known/Learned (Sensory Records) [Progressive Metal]
Listen to “Instinct”
When “Instinct” first started, I immediately thought of the completely bored, shh-not-so-loud-guys face of The Contortionist singer. As I let it play, it didn’t take long to realize that Arcane is the fantastic, fully realized form of what obnoxiously trendy bands like The Contortionist and Tesseract try to be. The depth and the contour of Jim Grey’s vocal lines (which you may recognize from Caligula’s Horse) mixes beautifully with the clear sincerity of the rest of the band’s weaving instrumental work, and it is perfectly evident that there is no mold that this group is cramming itself into. Don’t expect any straightforward metal here, as you won’t find any harsh vocals or blast beats. We do, however, get some heavy, powerful moments that are thankfully free of any trace of that all-too-common 8 string bouncy chug sound. I really hate to keep referencing these guys from that point of view, but since so many “progressive” bands’ formula is to find a decent singer and djent the day away, I want to make it perfectly clear that Arcane are a breath of fresh air. Check it out. (Stockhausen)
Malnátt – Swinesong (Il Male Produzioni) [Folk Metal?]
Listen to “Sleipnir”
Depending on the band, the “folk metal” tag can tell you everything, or it can tell you nothing. There was a slight look of puzzlement on my face as I listened through “Sleipnier,” placing them firmly in the latter category. With an intro that could work in a power metal or a folk metal setting, it quickly transitions to a jaunty weaving through Italian spoken word sections for most of the song, accompanied by the oddly fascinating album art in the lyric video. The tune then erupts into a layered black metal assault, and then just sort of…stops? The point of all this is that I get the idea that the album will be impossible to judge by this one song, however fascinating it may be. Check it out, and get on the full album here. (Stockhausen)
Caïna – Setter of Unseen Snares (COF Records/Broken Limbs) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Vowbound”
There are many ways for a black metal band to distinguish itself from the hundreds of bands all copying each other; Caïna do it by simply by being very good at songwriting. “Vowbound” opens with a series of dark chords over blastbeats (as black metal songs are wont to do), but it doesn’t linger in any one place for very long. A bouncy black’n’roll-ish riff pops up a couple times, and the song closes out with a menacing key change/volume swell with a massive droning chord beneath the raging tremolo-picked lead. It’s a quality song, and I hope that the rest of Setter of Unseen Snares holds up. (Spear)
The Slow Death – Ark (Chaos Records) [Doom]
Listen to “Adrift”
I know a few of you like it slow. Like really slow. Well I’ve got just what you crave. Doom metal band The Slow Death drop things to a glacial pace that is as constant and unrelenting as an arctic ice floe and as beautiful as the Northern Lights. Vocalist Mandy Andresen’s gentle laments float and flicker among the black tar of the death vox like some ignis fatuus. Delicate, lugubrious keys provide a mournful counter to the crushing riffs. For almost 17 minutes, “Adrift” will lock you in a frozen serac as you watch life around you erode into a haze of grey snow and black thunderheads. I’m definitely looking forward to checking out the remainder of Ark. FFO: Saturnus, Giant Squid, Morgion. (W.)
Lamentations of the Ashen – Libertine Cyst (The Evergreen Spires) [Black Metal]
Listen to “A Profane Illvmination (Convvlsionaries Ov Temporal Heterodoxy)”
When looking at the list of bands for This Toilet Tuesday, I just knew I had to check out a group called Lamentations of the Ashen. I’m glad I did. After an ominous introduction that builds climactic foreshadowing, “Dissentient Cyclic Echelons (Manifesting the Ascent and Effacement of the Abyss)” flies into a flurry of tremolo riffs and creepy, ghoulish growls. This roughly 18-minute track is loaded with plenty of eerie interludes, but the whole thing remains a cohesive journey through an endless mausoleum. If you like your BM raw and wriggling, check this out. FFO: Nortt, Chemical Cascades, Hyperborean Skies. (W.)
Andsolis – Vigil (Quality Steel Records) [Progressive Metal]
Listen to “Kingdoms Without Shape”
Angelus Apatrida – Hidden Evolution (Century Media) [Thrash]
Stream
Biotoxic Warfare – Lobotomized (Slaney Records) [Thrash]
Listen to “Lobotomized”
Breathless – Return to Pangea (Xtreem Music) [Thrash]
Listen to “Killing-sophy”
Calcined – Tormenting Attractions (Independent) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “Led by Voices”
Cloakroom – Further Out (Run For Cover) [Stoner/Doom]
Stream
Crowned in Earth – Metempsychosis (Sonic Mermaid) [Prog Rock]
Preview
Diablo Boulevard – Follow the Deadlights (Nuclear Blast) [Butt Rock]
Listen to “Follow the Deadlights”
Dream of the Damned/Slow and Painful Mental Wounds – Endless Nightmares of a Vicious Circle (Floppy Noise) [DSBM]
Listen to “Loneliness is Everywhere” (SaPMW)
Hellish Outcast – Stay of Execution (US release- Listenable Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Torment”
Hideous Rebirth – Completely Devoured (Gore House) [Slamming Brutal Death]
Listen to “Wretched Torture”
Illuminata – Where Stories Unfold (Independent) [Symphonic Metal]
Listen to “Phoenix”
Khaelys – Across the Ages (Independent) [Symphonic Metal]
Listen to “Destiny”
Manic Depression – Technocracy (Meat Sound) [Thrash]
Preview
Marduk – Frontschwein (Century Media) [Black Metal]
Preview
Ostrogoth – Last Tribe Standing (Empire Music) [Heavy Metal]
Raised Fist – From the North (Epitaph Records) [Hardcore]
Listen to “Flow”
Salems Lott – Salems Lott (Independent) [Shock Rock]
Listen to “No Choice to Love”
Satan’s Host – Pre-Dating God pt. 1 & 2 (Moribund Records) [Blackened Heavy/Power Metal]
Listen to “After the End” (pt. 1), “Soul Wrent” (pt. 2)
Scanner – The Judgement (Massacre Records) [Speed Metal]
Listen to “F.T.B.”
Serious Black – As Daylight Breaks (AFM Records) [Power Metal]
Listen “I Seek No Other Life”
Starbynary – Dark Passenger (Bakerteam Records) [Power Metal]
Preview
Stargazery – Stars Aligned (Pure Legend Records) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “Dim the Halo”
Stormwitch – Season of the Witch (Massacre Records) [Power Metal]
Listen to “Last Warrior”
Trial – Vessel (High Roller Records) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “To New Ends”
U.D.O. – Decadent (AFM Records) [lolbuttz]
Listen to “Decadent”
Uhriristi – Haudankylmä (Mortis Humanae) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Kaivo”
Vardan – Verses from Ancient Times (Moribund Cult) [Black Metal]
Stream
The Wanderer… – Mysterium (Witches Sabbath Records) [Black Metal]
Winds of Genocide – Usurping the Throne of Disease (Pulverized) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Usurping the Throne of Disease”
Did we forget a new release? Is there a way we could improve this list? Let us know in the comments below!
(Photos VIA, VIA, VIA, VIA, and VIA)
