This Toilet Tuesday (3/1/16)
It’s a cool, clear spring night in the village. The last dregs of winter have melted away, and the warm breeze in the air foretells the coming of summer. You feel as though it’s been ages since you’ve had a night like this, where all seems right with the world for a change. The stars shine brilliantly overhead, the moon illuminating the roofs and streets of the humble town. All is quiet and calm, save for the chirping of crickets.
…and that voice…
You sit up from your rooftop vantage point, your stargazing interrupted by a whisper that is somehow both in your ear and very distant. Hoping to find its source, you climb down and begin wandering the streets. It seems to be coming from the old, dried-up well. Did someone fall in? You jog over to it and peer in. The moon shines all the way to the bottom, but you don’t see anyone. The voice is certainly louder here, though. Carefully mounting the old ladder secured to its side, you climb down and find a small gap in the wall. The voice is somewhere on the other side, joined now by a distant, rhythmic thumping. You squeeze through, curiosity taking hold over worry.
You find yourself in a room of worked stone. The floor and walls are covered in dust and cobwebs; this room is ancient, far older than any building in the village above. A pair of torches are lit on either side of a large stone arch across the room. The whisper is much louder than before, but you can’t make out what it’s saying. Something sinister is at work here; you know you should turn back, but you find yourself being drawn forward by the hypnotic pounding from the deep. The labyrinthine passages beyond the arch twist and turn in every direction; you are lost, but you are too enchanted to care. Eventually, you notice your feet have been splashing in something. Something rancid. This seems to connect to the village’s sewer, but you are drawn ever inward.
Finally, you reach another room of worked stone, and the sight before you is immediately sobering. Eight pillars line the room, each adorned by crucified corpses in varying states of decay. You recognize the two furthest from you, and they must have been taken tonight; blood still oozes from the gaping wounds in their hands and feet. The walls bear hundreds of screaming faces, trapped forever beneath the surface of rock. Overcome by terror, you turn and run. The pounding of the drum has picked up in speed and volume, quickly reaching a deafening crescendo. It seems to be coming from behind you, but when you look, you see only darkness. You turn a corner, thinking the exit is before you, and fall through an illusory floor.
You feel a sharp crack as you hit the sludge-covered floor. Everything is pain; you can’t move your legs. Corpses are strewn through the muck, their hands reaching skyward for a freedom that will never come. The drum is louder than ever now. You begin to pull yourself across the floor to an opening on the other side when something erupts from ground. An abhorrent creature looms over you, its rotting, pallid skin sagging against the ground. Two small arms end in jagged, bloody hooks. Its face is vaguely human, but its mouth hangs open in a massive, yawning grin. A pair of long, white arms slither forth from the ground and pick you up by your shoulders. The monster slowly, painfully inches closer and, opening its already horrifying mouth even wider, clamps its jaws around your skull. You are awake for far too long as it devours you headfirst.
Beneath the surface lies unspeakable horrors on This Toilet Tuesday.
Cult of Erinyes – Transcendence (Caverna Abismal Records) [Black Metal]
Stream
2016 certainly has shaped up to be a year of superb black metal EP’s (Krallice, Is, Nachzeit, to name a few). And now, Belgium’s Cult of Erinyes have spawned Transcendence, a tasty piece of catchy second-gen style black metal, paying homage to our special Norwegian church burning friends who popularized the style (complete with Mayhem cover to boot). Transcendence comes packed with icy howls and a brooding atmosphere sure to convert even the trvest among us. Ya dig? 2/29/16 (Jom Pootersan)
Atrament – Eternal Downfall (Sentient Ruin/Broken Limbs/Argento Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “No Beyond,” “Hericide”
Swedish-style OSDM from the US? If the rest of the album maintains the quality swingin’ d-beat rhythm and killer riffs found on “No Beyond” and “Hericide,” count me in. Bonus points for the Barney Greenway-gargling-marbles style growls. FFO: Gutter Instinct, Asphyx, Coffins 3/4/16 (W.)
Czoug – Wstręt/Repulse (Independent) [Death Metal]
Listen to “There Will Come Your Fall”
Want even more filthy, crusty grind, death, and hardcore? Czoug, have just the thing for you. Sewage riffs collide with vermin vocals in a back alley brawl to create on ugly cacophony. If you like to bang your head and expand your dong, this should be the perfect soundtrack to smash your cubicle. Those who get sensitive about breakdowns need not apply. FFO: Atrament, Decapitated, Straight Hate 2/29/16 (W.)
Inverloch – Distance | Collapsed (Relapse Records) [Death/Doom]
Listen to “Distance Collapsed (In Rubble)”
diSEMBOWELMENT left behind only one classic album, Transcendence into the Peripheral, and disbanded. In ’11 Skarajew and Mazziotta regrouped as d.USK with the intention of playing old songs, but the focus quickly shifted into own material, and the name was changed to Inverloch.
On their full-length debut, Inverloch offers death/doom much in the vein of diSEMBOWELMENT but is not content with just that. Giving their own spin on the sound, they’ve managed to pull off something many death/doom bands (and doom bands in general) fail to do. There’s plenty of variation in the songwriting, the crushing weight of “Lucid Delirium” – delivered at a manic pace, “From The Eventide Pool’s” slower dread and the utter devastation of “The Empyrean Torment.” “Duty is heavy as a mountain, death lighter than a feather.” Words to live by, and ones the aforementioned highlight-track leaves you pondering as it crushes you, leaving not a single molecule on your dick uncrushed – death is the only relief, yet a duty must be carried. You cannot hand your mountain to any other. 3/4/16 (Karhu)
Adôa/Falaise/Too Distant Moans – …and a Journey Through Emotions… (Independent) [Atmospheric Black Metal]
Preview
Agonizer – Visions of the Blind (Häive Productions) [Melodic Metal]
Listen to “All Alone”
Arakain – Arakadabra (Independent) [Power/Thrash]
Listen to “Arakadabra”
Atrocious Abnormality – Formed in Disgust (Comatose Music) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “Exterminate the Apostles”
Bushwhacker – The False Dilemma (Independent) [Progressive Melodeath]
Listen to “Tower”
Begrime Exemious – The Enslavement Conquest (Dark Descent Records) [Blackened Death Metal]
Listen to “Noose for a Monarch”
Beseech – My Darkness, Darkness (Despotz Records) [Gothic Metal]
Listen to “The Shimmering”
Brutal Brain Damage – Bang Bang Theory (Vomit Your Shirt) [Grindcore]
Casket Robbery – Evolution of Evil (Mortal Music) [Death/Thrash]
Listen
Centipede – Sarnath (Inverse Records) [Stoner Doom]
Listen to “Drown”
Church of Misery – And Then There Were None (Rise Above Records) [Doom]
Listen to “Confessions of an Embittered Soul”
Ciconia – Winterize (Kitty on Fire Records) [Instrumental Prog/Post-Metal]
Listen to “Limbus”
Darksun – Crónicas de Aravan (Rock-CD Records) [Power Metal]
Listen to “El Lago y El Dragón”
Dark Wisdom/Luciferian – Destroyers of Christian Faith (split- Tantafobia Productions) [Black Metal]
Listen to “The Last Sigh ov God” (Dark Wisdom)
Dead Vertical – Angkasa Misteri (Three Sixty Music) [Grindcore]
Devoured Fate – Reality’s Nightmare Illusions (Horror Pain Gore Death) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Purely Fuckin’ Demented”
Doom – Still Can’t the Dead (DIW Products) [Progressive Metal]
Listen to “Still Can’t the Dead”
Doom Architect – Sententia Prima (Narcoleptica Prod.) [Death/Doom]
Listen to “Astral Wind”
Dream Death – Dissemination (Rise Above Records) [Sludgy Doom]
Listen to “Cold Hard Light”
Dyscordia – Words in Ruin (Road Mark Productions) [Power Prog]
Preview
Eohalis – Waste of Eternity (Independent) [Death Metal]
Stream
Extermination Temple – Lifeless Forms (Apocalyptic Visions) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Physical Torture”
The Eyes of Desolation – Awake in Dead (Symbol of Domination) [Doom]
Stream
Future Corpse – Another World to Consume (Independent) [Prog Punk?]
Listen to “Cyber Vegan”
Godwatt Redemption – L’ultimo sole (Jolly Roger Records) [Stoner Doom]
Listen
Harmony Dies – Indecent Paths of a Ramifying Darkness (Independent) [Death Metal]
Stream
Hitten – State of Shock (No Remorse Records) [Heavy Metal/Thrash]
Listen to “State of Shock”
Hollow Leg – Crown (Argonauta Records) [Sludge/Doom]
Listen to “Electric Veil”
Hope for the Dying – Legacy (Facedown Records) [Symphonic Death Metal]
Listen to “Setting Sun”
Kotiomkin – Squartami tutta (Black Emanuelle Goes to Hell) (Zeter Dischi) [Doom]
Listen to “Delitto all’Ippopotamo”
Leteo – Phantasm (Christfucker Records) [Dark Ambient]
Listen to “Cannibal Ferox”
Love Sex Machine – Asexual Anger (Throatruiner Records) [Sludge]
Stream
Review
Mangled – Involuntary Organ Donor (Boris Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Butchery Loves Company”
Meadows End – Sojourn (Independent) [Melodeath]
Listen to “Amidst The Villains”
Megascavenger – As Dystopia Beckons (Selfmadegod Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “The Machine That Turns Humans Into Slop”
Metal Castle – Tin Can Space Adventure (Independent) [lolbuttz]
Listen to “Tin Can Space Adventure IV”
Miasmal – Tides of Omniscience (Century Media Records) [Death Metal]
Listen to “Fear the New Flesh”
Mirage Asylum – In Remembrance of the Olden Days (Narbentage/Wolfmond Production) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Ein Mord”
Missouri Quiet – Trough the Millenniums (Independent) [Brutal Death/core]
Listen
Natanas – Quiescence (Independent) [Black/Doom]
Stream
Neoheresy – Potop (Elegy Records) [Folky Black Metal]
Stream
Neverworld – Dreamsnatcher (Independent) [Power Metal]
Listen to “Dreamsnatcher”
New Keepers of the Water Towers – Infernal Machine (Listenable Records) [Progressive Doom]
Listen to “The Forever War”
Nymeria – The Art of Deception (Painted Bass Recordings) [Symphonic Death Metal]
Listen to “Vampire Manifesto”
Onirik – Ab Initio (The Spew Records) [Brutal Death Metal]
Orchid’s Curse – Cynics & Liars (Independent) [Melodeath]
Listen to “We Are All Cynics and Liars”
Planet Gemini – The Midnight Channel (Barbarian Wrath) [Doom]
Stream
Primitive Man/Northless – Primitive Man/Northless (split- Halo of Flies) [Sludge]
Stream
Reveries End – Edge of Dark Waters (Sliptrick Records) [Doom]
Listen to “A Thousand Facets”
Ripper – Experiment of Existence (Unspeakable Axe Records) [Thrash]
Stream
Rizon – Power Plant (Pure Rock Records) [Heavy Metal]
Listen to “Feel the Heat”
Sabaton – Heroes on Tour (live album- Nuclear Blast) [Power Metal]
Watch “Resist and Bite”
Sauron – The Land of Dead Sun (Wheelwright Productions) [Black Metal]
Shredhammer – Patch Over (Timezone Records) [Thrash]
Listen to “Brittle Bone”
Solacide – The Finish Line (Via Nocturna) [Blackish Metal]
Stream
Solothus – No King Reigns Eternal (Doomentia Records) [Death/Doom]
Listen to “Towers in the Mist”
Sorcier des Glaces – North (Obscure Abhorrence Productions) [Black Metal]
Listen to “Rites of the Black Moon”
Temple of Gnosis – De Secretis Naturae Alchymica (Aeternitas Tenebrarum Musicae Fundamentum) [Death/Doom]
Preview
Virulency – The Anthropodermic Manuscript of Retribution (New Standard Elite) [Brutal Death Metal]
Listen to “Myriapod Constructology – Part I – The Inception”
The Witch – Regres (Vogelgreif Production) [Black Metal/Crust]
Stream
Wolvserpent – Aporia:Kāla:Ananta (Relapse Records) [Drone/Doom]
Listen to “Aporia:Kāla:Ananta”
Did we forget a new release? Is there a way we could improve this list? Let us know in the comments below!
