Oak - Oak (2009)

Disgusting, dissonant, raw sludge-drone-death from Baltimore. True sounds of despair and malevolence from the B-more underground. Oak started out with two members of my old band Wake Up On Fire --  drummer Kevin (R.I.P) and vocalist Joe -- but I believe Kevin was only in the band for a few months and is not featured on this album.

Track listing:

1. Saline

2. Inside the Circle

3. Owl Eyes

4. Gates Are Open

Dead bodies fill the shore

Piled up for the taking

One face after another

Friends of:

Inure - Inure (Rough Mixes) (2003)

Moonshine - Moonshine (2005)

Lalu - Oniric Metal (2005)

If I'm checking out a band that I've heard described as "neoprog/prog metal", this is what I am hoping they will sound like: melodic, dreamy, melancholic, fantastical, layers of arpeggiating synths, soaring guitars, and enough polyrhythms and general heaviness to keep it all from getting overly frilly. There's even that inexplicable 'wacky' moment that these types can't seem to resist that seems designed solely to test my patience, but thankfully, it doesn't come till the last track, and that track is otherwise an absolute tour de force. Members (on this album) of Mekong Delta, the Devin Townsend Band/Project, and more.

Track listing:

1. Yesterdayman

2. Wolven Eyes

3. Windy

4. Night in Poenari

5. Moonstruck (The Soulish Element)

6. Timestop

7. Starwatcher

8. Potboy: The Final Fantasy

I'm just dancing through their lights

And I can't stop dreaming now

Also listen to:

Threshold - Wounded Land (1993)

Riverside - Anno Domini High Definition (2009)

Beatrik - Requiem of December (2005)

Related:

Beatrik - Journey Through the End of Life (2002)

Tenebrae in Perpetuum - Onori Funebri Rituali (2003)

Tenebrae in Perpetuum - L'Eterno Maligno Silenzio (2009)

Tenebrae in Perpetuum / Krohm - Split (2010)

Found this LP in the wild a few weeks back for $12. Requiem of December was the swansong for this project, and for me, it's unquestionably one of the greatest DSBM records ever made. The perfect soundtrack for this relentlessly dismal reality we've made for ourselves. I haven't listened to the rip I'm linking, hope it's good.

Track listing:

1. My Funeral to Come

2. Requiem of December

3. Eternal Rest

4. The Last Wandering

5. Apollonia's December, 7th 1647

6. Returning After a Death

An occult evil suffocated their minds

And drove them to their own extinction

More all-time DSBM contenders:

Veil - Dolor (2005)

I Shalt Become - In the Falling Snow (2008)

Asunder - A Clarion Call (2004)

Not to sound like a broken record but: my friend died. No, not that one; a different one. Pat. The person who in middle school introduced me to punk rock as a lifestyle. Who I was lucky enough to call my best friend from my late teens through early 20s, before I got too old and cool to have "best friends." A beautiful, gentle man whose absurd sense of humor and small, sweet gestures made our awful reality just a little bit better.

I wish the world had been better to him.

I feel a deep, wrenching regret that I didn't try to reach out to him for so many years, to make sure that he knew how much he and his friendship meant to me, how deep my love for him was.

We have to say what we mean while we still can.

I am exhausted by grief. I'm tired of feeling it, of witnessing it, and of talking about it. Tired of more and more songs being added to the pile of songs that I can't listen to unless I have an hour to recover. But most of all, I am tired of losing friends. It's an inevitability of life, but for fuck's sake, I'm 42. Why do I know so many dead people?

Pat loved as wide a variety of music as I did. He was the first friend of mine who liked Springsteen -- I didn't get on board until years later, but I do have fond memories of walking around Towson Town Center with him, laughing my ass off as he screamed the lyrics to "Born in the USA". We got into and obsessed over Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails together. Eventually, by way of Dystopia and Grief, we got into doom metal. He fucking loved Asunder. I remember his MySpace page used to autoplay "Twilight Amaranthine". Here's A Clarion Call.

After I found out, I was digging around in crates, looking for my old notebooks, in which he and I used to jot down stupid ideas for joke bands, made up languages, drew unflattering sketches of mutual friends, shit like that. Pretty sure I hadn't looked in them for over a decade. Inside the front cover of one, I found a small, folded piece of paper. On the outside, it says "To Tim, Love from Pat. Happy birthday." Unfolded, the inside just says "I love you." It fucking wrecked me, and it's wrecking me right now just thinking about it. I love you too, Pat.

Brendan Walls - Cassia Fistula (2002)

Pure minimal drone from Australian composer Brendan Walls, with assists from Oren Ambarchi. If you, like me, haven't been able to shake that gnawing sense of dread for the past, oh, month or so, Cassia Fistula probably won't help, but it will transmute that anxiety into an aural form, so that instead of just feeling it, you can listen to it, too.

Track listing:

1. Section One

2. Section Two

3. Section Three

And when the sun is low

And the rays high

Similar vibes:

Coil - Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil (2000)

Mirror - I Paint for the Love of Color (2001)

The Dead Science - Bird Bones in the Bughouse (2004)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
The Dead Science - Submariner (2003)

When I posted the above album, I actually wanted to post this EP because I like it just a little bit more, but I was unable to find either my copy of the CD or a decent rip. But I just found one of the latter, so we're in business. Favorites include the slowcore-ish "Film Strip Collage", which includes the line "garbage truck wants to fuck", and their cover of "Sign Your Name" by (the artist formerly known as) Terence Trent D'arby.

Track listing:

1. Ossuary

2. Gamma Knife

3. Film Strip Collage

4. Cuz She's Me

5. Sign Your Name

We started out as friends

But the thought of you just caves me in

Also listen to:

dEUS - The Ideal Crash (1999)

Honey Is Cool - Early Morning, Are You Working? (1999)

Dimensional Psychosis - Magical Matrix of Dimensional Continuum (2002)

It's black metal. Not trance, not techno. Despite what that album cover is telling you, I swear to god, it's black metal. It's dense, hyper-speed, industrial-powered cosmic black metal from a time before that had become a fully-formed micro-genre unto itself. This shit fucking rules. I hope to get my ass in gear and do some Spooky Season posting in the coming weeks, but who knows if I will; I am a dumb piece of shit, after all.

Track listing:

1. Matrix Mindscan Transition (Wormed Beyond)

2. Psychedelic Blackish Psychosis (Eternal Magick Unfolds)

3. Paradoxal Hologram from Sirius I AM (Universal Symbiosis)

4. Eerie Spiritual Vulture (Disconnected from Gravity)

5. Trapped in the Infinity of Limbo-Dimensionism (Humanoid Limits Erased)

6. Virtual Spectrum of Extensive Transparency (Visualize Transcendental Dreamscapes)

7. Choronzonic Evilution of Genius Dementia (Futuristic Intelligence of Ancientness)

8. I Am the Cosmic Storm Raging (Ultimate Chaos in Infinity)

9. Intermezzo & Mensenhaat (Remix)

10. End

Euphoric turbulence // Imploding nerves // Adrenaline bombardments // Neurotic death-ride // Chemical reactions // Overwhelming shivering thrills // Launched through the spine // Mental orgasm

You should also hear:

(V.E.G.A.) - Cocaine (2002)

Abigor - Fractal Possession (2007)

Angra Mainyu - Versunkenheit (2007)

A commenter just pointed out that my most recent black metal post was way back in January. This is unacceptable, especially considering that I've been listening to a shit-ton of it. So to rectify that -- and to start your week off on a bright note -- here's some cold, bleak, droning, minimal, miserable German DSBM. 

Track listing:

1. Entfremdung

2. Nachthimmel

3. Worte sind nichts

4. Schweigen

5. Kälteemission

6. Lethargie

7. Abschied

Your world is a universe without any stars

The essence of all life flows in rivers here

More cold, bleak, droning, minimal misery:

Wedard - Ein Leben in der Ewigkeit (2006)

Photophobia - Humana Fragilitas (2010)

Tom Kazas - Deliquescence (1989)

Lovely, often quite emotive new age sounds from down under. Synths and programmed rhythms intermixed with longing, ethereal guitars. Something about this record really taps into my big ol' well of grief, but so does pretty much everything these days.

Track listing:

1. Eyes of a Bird

2. Someday That Is Saturday

3. Heavenly Transport

4. Blankets of Ice

5. Vision of Serenity

6. On Endless Nights

7. Unseen Passage

8. Mediterranean Move

9. Journey of the Whales

Turn your head 'cross the sea

Waves of sorrow, wait for me

And with my eyes, I see your face

Drifting slowly in this space

And now it seems there's no time to fill

All these hours standing still

Also listen to:

Fumio Miyashita - Earth (1983)

Barry Cleveland - Voluntary Dreaming (1990)

Juana Molina - Segundo (2000)

Dreamy, abstract Argentinian indie-folk against a backdrop of minimal electronic textures and pulses. If you're a fan of Vespertine -- which, statistically speaking, you are -- you should find a lot to love here.

Track listing:

1. Martín Fierro

2. ¿Quién?

3. El Perro

4. ¡Que llueva!

5. La visita

6. Quiero

7. Mantra del bicho feo

8. El desconfiado

9. El zorzal

10. El pastor mentiroso

11. Misterio uruguayo

12. Vaca que cambia de querencia

13. MedDlong

14. Sonamos

15. The Wrong Song [hidden track]

I know that pain

You should also hear:

Manual - Until Tomorrow (2001)

Aspidistrafly - I Hold a Wish for You (2008)

Bernhard Günter - Crossing the River (Night Music) (2001)

Minimal, sparse experimental sounds. The half-hour-plus title track is dedicated to then-recently deceased composer Iannis Xenakis, and is composed of dissonant strings, manipulated sources, and field recordings. "Haiku for Mu" is built on recordings of Günter's dog sleeping. A real party-starter, this one.

Track listing:

1. Crossing the River (Night Music)

2. Haiku for Mu

Gradually the blinding sunset drained from the glass, darkened, and it was as if snow were falling there, flakes shaping snow-eyes, hair: a face trembled like a white beautiful moth, smiled. She beckoned to him, shining and silver, and he knew he must go: unafraid, not hesitating, he paused only at the garden's edge where, as though he'd forgotten something, he stopped and looked back at the bloomless, descending blue, at the boy he had left behind.

Also listen to:

S·Core - Pretension (1988)

Müller • Sugimoto - I Am Happy If You Are Happy (2000)

Sean Deason - Allegory & Metaphor (2000)

Detroit ambient techno bliss. I got a bunch of shit done earlier, had a workout, then met my buddy for a couple beers, and now I am laying on my couch, petting my cat, and listening to this record. At some point, this became my idea of a perfect Saturday.

Track listing:

1. Creation

2. Phunk

3. Allegory & Metaphor

4. 2030 AD

5. Ambience

6. Interlude

7. Zig

8. Psybadek One

9. My World

10. Hiphoptrak

11. Another Interlude

12. Allegory & Metaphor (Revisited)

Every now and then there comes a time you must defend

Your right to die and live again

Also listen to:

Ro70 - Ro70 (1995)

Miss Dinky - Melodìas Venenosas (2001) 

Todtgelichter - Schemen (2007)

 

Epic German black metal with an expansive, organic, Pagan-esque sound and a tendency towards the melodic and the sorrowful. The occasional appearances of unorthodox instrumentation -- the saxophone on "Aschentraum", the didgeridoo drone lurking throughout "Segen", the clean vocals on "Beginn des Endes" -- are both inspired and surprisingly tasteful in their delivery. 

Track listing:

1. Impuls

2. Larva

3. Segen

4. Blutstern

5. Für Immer Schweigen

6. Aschentraum

7. Hammer

8. Beginn des Endes

Ein Punkt nur ist es, kaum ein Schmerz,

Nur ein Gefühl, empfunden eben;

Und dennoch spricht es stets darein,

Und dennoch stört es dich zu leben.

More German greatness:

Lunar Aurora - Of Stargates and Bloodstained Celestial Spheres (1999)

Odal - Zornes Heimat (2008)

Griftegård - Solemn • Sacred • Severe (2009)

Swedish epic doom exploring the holy horror of Christian dogma. FFO: Candlemass, Warning, and Mansion. Thanks to everyone for sticking around, and sorry to the many, many people with re-up requests that I haven't gotten to.

Track listing:

1. Charles Taze Russell

2. Punishment & Ordeal

3. I Refuse These Ashes!

4. Noah's Hands

5. The Mire

6. Drunk with Wormwood

Man cannot suffer enough for his sins

Also listen to:

Count Raven - High on Infinity (1993)

Procession - Destroyers of the Faith (2010)

François-Eudes Chanfrault - À l'intérieur (Inside) (2008)

I've been known to refer to Inside as the scariest movie I've ever seen, with the caveat that my viewing experience was very much enhanced by context. After finally giving it a rewatch a couple weeks back, the jury may be out, but I'm not retracting my statement. I can say for sure that it is insanely brutal. 

Also, the soundtrack's great. Very subtle and minimal. Dark synths, serrated drones, pulsing rhythms, elegiac chamber pieces. There's an extended dialogue-free sequence near the end of the movie where a bunch of terrible things happen without any dialogue, and it's soundtracked entirely by a two-chord synth figure. It's sick as fuck. Go watch it if you can find it -- I torrented it.

Track listing:

1. Arctic Love

2. Memories, Part I, II, & III

3. Dark Beats

4. Discovery

4. Low/High

5. Memories (Redux)

6. Memories (Final)

7. Square Pads for an Eternal Dawn

Open the door, Sarah.

More scary shit:

Jay Chattaway - Maniac (1982)

Mark Korven - The Witch (2016)

Ludicra - Hollow Psalms (2002)

Got a request for this classic, which has apparently become hard to come by in this dead space we once called the blogosphere. Progressive black metal with a DIY punk heart. Still a fucking phenomenal record. Also worth mentioning: their drummer, Aesop Dekker, ran Cosmic Hearse, which more than any other blog inspired me to start this one. Relatedly, I started at a 9-to-5 recently -- still can't believe I landed what's essentially my ideal position after just about a month of looking in earnest -- so don't expect a resurgence of activity on here anytime soon.

Track listing:

1. Tomorrow Held in Scorn

2. Hollow Promise

3. The Final Lamentation

4. Userpent

5. Heaped Upon Impassive Floors

6. Damn the Night

7. Tragaedia

8. Awake to Grey

A bog of dirt which bears your name

You should also listen to:

Inure - Inure (Rough Mixes) (2003)

Teen Cthulhu - Teen Cthulhu (2003)

Ancient Ceremony - P.uritan's B.lasphemy C.all (2004)

German melodic black metal that also takes liberally from gothic, and death metal. For me, everything this band has done lands in the good-to-pretty-great range, with the exception of P.uritan's B.lasphemy C.all, which completely blows the rest of their discography out of the water. Maybe it's the new drummer, who gives them a much-needed ass lift; maybe it's the guitars, which are way gnarlier than before; maybe it's the beefier yet raw-er production. Who knows. Maybe it's the weirdly emotional-hardcore-sounding vocals. Whatever it is, this is a perfect example of that things bands do where they all of a sudden perfect their sound on their last release before splitting up. Strangely, the last track on here is actually a remaster of a track from their debut EP, suggesting that they always had this in them.

Track listing:

1. Te Deum

2. P.uritan's B.lasphemy C.all

3. Raped Paradise

4. The Black Flame

5. Diabolos Temptation

6. God and Idol

Let us kill our enemies

Vengeance is yours and mine

Drunken from this triumph

Their blood it tastes like wine

More along these lines:

Graveworm - As the Angels Reach the Beauty (1999)

Siebenbürgen - Delictum (2000)

thisquietarmy - Blackhaunter (2008)

Guitar-based ambient drone for ghosts. Second full-length from what has turned out to be a very prolific project. Found this CD lost in the understock at my old job, knew I was gonna love it on sight. 

Track listing:

1. Black Haunters

2. In the Breathing Forest

3. Vampyr

4. Taming the Beast

5. Hunting Demons

6. Stranger Than the Sea

Old pang, so faithful to us

You should also listen to:

School of Emotional Engineering - School of Emotional Engineering (2004)

Belong - October Language (2008)

Instincts & Bustum - The Mystery Visions (2002)

Ritual dark ambient with traces of neofolk and ethereal darkwave. The physical release of The Mystery Visions was a collaborative effort with visual artist Bustum, and it was probably really cool, but you obviously won't be getting any of the visual components from me. Thankfully, the music is more than able to stand on its own as an effective portal to the realms of pitch-black hallucinatory madness. Ten untitled tracks.

Abyssal gaze

You should also hear:

Black Seas of Infinity - Within Daathian Chasms (2005)

Aymrev Erkroz Prevre - Noir Voyage Obstrué de Rencontres Difformes (2006)

Plasma - Gorefuck (2000)

Dang, the Halloween season is slipping like blood, stomach acids, and miscellaneous human viscera through my fingers. I'm still very much preoccupied with my job search and will be for the foreseeable future, but I refuse to completely leave y'all hanging like dismembered corpses in a shed out back.

So in honor of the holiday that makes all of my creepiest tendencies temporarily socially acceptable, here's Plasma, who make some of the most disgusting, sloppy, amateurish gore metal I'll ever post on here. Chugalug guitars, plodding drums, and creaky, clogged drain vocals slapped together with practically no regard for composition or musicality. It's like they heard Mortician and were like, "Hey, that's pretty good, but I wish it wasn't so cerebral." And flat-out refused to spellcheck their song titles.

The Anon who called Mincer "CRAP" (their emphasis) is really gonna hate this one.

Track listing:

1. Koprostatic Cunt Catharr

2. Larva Infested Clitoral Melanom

3. Saprogenic Vaginal Canal

4. Drastic Totalextirpation of Female Genital

5. Sordes and Pus in Vaginal Gore

6. Imminent Vulva Dissection

7. Feast Upon Carcinogenic Vaginal Tissue

8. Purulent Inflamation of Clitoral Abscess

9. Metrektomie

10. Unrecognized Decapitated Crania

11. Corpse Devourer

12. Exttirpationed Vagina

13. Molodrous Inquest

14. Ulcerating Vagina

Drink from the septic tank

You might also enjoy:

Patologicum - Hecatomb of Aberration (2003)

Anal Bag - Ultimate Disgust (2011)