This Toilet Tuesday (9/26/23)
Today, we prostrate ourselves before thy polished plumbing, for thy gifts are many. This week we’ve got enflutened prog death, boner pill thrash, and a e s t h e t i c slam. The bowl is deep, so don your benthic best—and be careful not to get the bends (or the squealies) on your swim back to the surface.
Night in Gales – The Black Stream (Apostasy Records) [Melodeath]
The dank mausoleums and caveman clubs of death metal are perfect for summer’s hateful heat, but as the leaves begin to change, I find myself in search of cozier tunes. Melodeath has never disappeared, but its popularity has certainly waned since the ’90s—this is perhaps a symptom of the increasingly dire state of our planet, but that’s just my hunch. Mixing melody into an inherently violent genre is tricky: too little and it fades into the background; a cheap ornament; too much and the music becomes saccharine, losing the visceral impact of death metal.
Night in Gales has this balancing act down to a science after 8 (!) studio albums, and The Black Stream is no exception. With influences ranging from Gojira‘s rubbery tapping licks to the obligatory At the Gates pedalpoint riffs, the preview tracks mesh modern and classic sounds into compositions both nostalgic and exhilarating. Oh, and it was produced by Dan Swano—you may recognize this name. -Roldy
72 Legions – What A God Could Be (Independent) [Death]
Ashbringer – We Came Here to Grieve (Translation Loss Records) [Post-Black]
Bastard Cröss/Blasted Heath/The Gauntlet/Vicious Blade – Faster Than the Devil 2 (Wise Blood Records) [Blackened Thrash / Speed Metal]
Besra – Transitions (Suicide Records) [Post-Metal / Sludge]
Blencathra – II – On These Shores Where Nothing Now Stands... (Naturmacht Productions) [Symphonic Blackened Death]
Caged – From Roving About the Earth (Translation Loss Records) [Death/Doom]
Castleumbra – Nammu Tammtu (Obliteration Records) [Death]
Choria – Beyond the Veil, Swallowed Towards the Past (Harsh Productions) [Black Metal / Ambient]
Cloud Catcher – Return From the Cauldron (Cauldron Audio Works) [Heavy Metal / Hard Rock]
Columbarium – The Morbidious One (Argonauta Records) [Death/Doom]
Dark the Suns – Raven And The Nightsky (Inverse Records) [Melodeath / Gothic Metal]
Darken – Welcome to the Light (Independent) [Heavy Metal / Hard Rock]
Deathblow – Rotten Trajectory (Independent) [Thrash / Speed Metal]
Deathfucker – God Devourer (BlackSeed Productions) [Death]
Desecresy – Deserted Realms (Xtreem Music) [Death]
Disguised Malignance – Entering the Gateways (Prosthetic Records) [Death]
Dismal Aura – Imperium Mortalia (Avantgarde Music) [Post-Black]
Dwaal – Never Enough (Dark Essence Records) [Sludge / Post-Metal / Doom]
Dyecrest – Once I Had A Heart (Rockshots Records) [Heavy Metal / Hard Rock]
Empírium – Az élet nyomán (Independent) [Heavy Metal]
Exiting Mortuary – Alkaptonuria (Independent) [Cybergrind / Death Metal]
Falling Giants – Whirlwind Hymns (Independent) [Stoner Doom / Sludge]
Gorehammer – Vapor Void (Independent) [Brutal Death / Slam]
Helve – To Be Forgotten (Ripcord Records) [Post-Metal / Doom]
Iron Altar – Promethean (Trepanation Recordings) [Metalcore / Groove Metal]
Iskandr – Spiritus Sylvestris (Eisenwald) [Post-Black]
Just Before Dawn – A War Too Far (Raw Skull Recordz) [Death]
Just Heroes – Heroes (Independent) [Heavy Metal / Hard Rock]
Kadaverficker – Superkiller (A Musical Journey Between Life and Death) (Massacre Records) [Melodeath]
Karras – We Poison Their Young (M-Theory Audio) [Grindcore / Crust Punk / Death Metal]
KK’s Priest – The Sinner Rides Again (Napalm Records) [NWoBHM / Judas Priest LARP]
Konfession – Rural Hypostasis (Into Endless Chaos Records) [Black]
Kotiomkin – Le Casaligue – The Satanic Rites of Cobram (Subsound Records) [Prog Doom]
Marthyrium – Through The Spheres of Darkness (Independent) [Blackened Death]
Moongate/Todlicht – Split (Black Gangrene Productions) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black]
Moonlight Sorcery – Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle (Avantgarde Music) [Melodic Blackened Death]
Nervosa – Jailbreak (Napalm Records) [Deathrash]
Nganga – Phthisis (Independent) [Skronky Black Metal]
Obsidian Tide – The Grand Crescendo (Independent) [Prog Death]
Omnivortex – Circulate (Independent) [Tech Death]
Psychework – Spark of Hope (Ranka Kustannus) [Symphonic Power / Heavy Metal]
Rat King – Psychotic Reality (Satanik Royalty Records) [Deathgrind]
Rorcal – Silence (Hummus Records) [Post-Hardcore / Blackened Sludge]
Ruin Lust – Dissimulant (20 Buck Spin) [Blackened Death]
Sabhankra – Rotting Helios (Khufu Solar Ship) [Blackened Death]
Sacrifire – The Art Of Decay (Apostasy Records) [Death/Doom / Gothic Metal]
Sangre Negra – S/T (Independent) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black]
Satanic Worship – Satanik Overdose of Hell (Folter Records) [Deathrash]
Sevo – Aurora do Triunfo Herétiko (Black Hearts Records) [Death/Doom]
Sinnery – Below the Summit (Exitus Stratagem Records) [Deathrash]
Stam1na – X (Sakara Records) [Prog Thrash / Heavy Metal]
Superlynx – 4 10 (Argonauta Records) [Psych Doom]
Svartkonst – May the Night Fall (Independent) [Blackened Death]
The Wise Become Fools – Shadows On Cave Walls (Independent) [Post-Black]
Tides of Sulfur – Apathy Chasm (APF Records) [Sludge / Death Metal]
Titanosaur – Echoes (Savage Vibes Music) [Sludge / Hard Rock]
Trest – Sorginak (Independent) [Black]
Velocidad 22 – Alcohol y gasolina (Metalcoholización Records) [Speed / Heavy Metal]
Waldgeflüster – Unter bronzenen Kronen (AOP Records) [Meloblack / Folk Metal]
WarWolf – The Apocalyptic Waltz (Metalapolis Records) [Heavy Metal]
Wells Valley – Achamoth (Lavadome Productions) [Post-Metal / Sludge]
Wizards of Wiznan – No Light Has No Shadow (Argonauta Records) [Death/Doom]
Woe – Legacies of Frailty (Vendetta Records) [Black]
Zëptenvr – Messe pour un mort-né (Independent) [Raw/Lo-Fi Black]
