0:25-6:34
CRYSTAL COFFIN (CAN)
Shapeshifter Huntsman
— A sci-fi story of dystopian black metal, synth-filled instrumentals, organic meanderings and a distraught vocalist.

7:39-15:22
DEVIANT PROCESS (CAN)
The Blessings of Annihilation Infinite
— Boiling-a-frog-slowly technical death. The vocal unleashings are unreal. Funky bass is what death needed.

16:02-23:23
THE SILVER (Philly)
Then Silence...
— Crypt Sermon and Horrendous create a universe of genres and paths that lead into momentous, heart-ripping journeys. Drama, dude.

24:08-29:02
MICHAEL BEACH (AU)
Irregardless
— A minimalist psychedelic pop and alternative rock reminiscent of a melodic Violent Femmes.

29:19-37:37
VORTEX OF END (Paris)
Putrid Fluids
— Ambient horror fill a dizzying melodic black, super French and stylish.

38:07-43:00
HATE (Poland)
Velesian Guard
— Sweet and salty, atmospheric black mixed with doom and death with a bludgeoning throat.

43:48-48:43
DØDSDRIFT (Germany)
Enthauptet
— The sun breaks over an ash-covered apocalyptic empty land.

49:27-END
NOLTEM (CT)
Figment
— Donovan told me to listen to it.

0:25-5:33
HEGEMON (France)
Heimarménè
— A penultimate melodic black metal from French romanticists, soulful and raging.

6:48-12:18
MYNDSNARE (Bangalore)(newly released from 2008)
Layers Of Hypocricy
— 2008’s Myndsnare being released by Subcontinental Records. Thrash and hardcore energy in an infectious tight death.

12:42-19:23
HAVUKRUUNU (Finland)
Routapanssari
— My Best Folk from 2020, more of the charming and dynamic black with indulgent guitar solos and cool spacey and organic moments.

19:47-24:14
CREEPING DEATH (TX)
The Edge of Existence
— Sexy, rumbling vocalist in a hella heavy headbanging death with a bit of hardcore and of course, amazing album art.

24:38-30:20
BLACK SITES (Chicago)
Nocturne/Everything Went Black
— Proggy and melodic hard rock with a heavy metal vocalist and sweet riffage.

30:51-39:15
ALDA (WA)
Stonebreaker
— Strummed with brutal, atmospheric building to cascading, unfolding stories and a wicked black metal vocal.

39:41-44:32
ATRÆ BILIS (CAN)
Bacterium Abloom
— Modern angular tech death with a splattering of slowed-down melodic portions. A debut full-length!

45:32-49:47
ORDER (Norway)
Rise
— Original members of Mayhem know what they are doing. Charismatic and vicious vocals in that early thrashy black metal style.

50:12-54:42
TENTATION (France)
Blanche
— Long-haired French guitar-loving retro 80’s infectious heavy metal.

55:02-END
WOLVES' WINTER (Argentina)
Gnosis of the No-Light
— Razor sharp black metal rolling in a cauldron of caustic and melodic.

0:25-5:59
ETXEGIÑA (France/Spain)
Nosotros los Etxegiña
— Theatrical vocals rasped by a demonic witch in a moody black metal nightmare, giving way to organic.

6:50-19:03
SELTAR (NJ)
Niebla
— A gorgeous journey to a swath of shimmering black metal. Sweet, tragic, surprises.

19:32-26:26
XENOSIS (CT)
Personification of the Unconscious
— Proggy death that pushes the limits in angularity and complexity, angry and unique.

27:07-31:08
KRYPTOS (India)
Dawnbreakers
— Their 6th! album, more of the retro, infectious heavy metal and thrash with a unique compressed vocal.

31:41-38:08
FUSTILARIAN (Portugal)
Swallowed By The Nether Regions Of Chaotic Isolation
— Always technically solid from Portugal. Tortured vocals and chilling effects pack a blast of a black metal solo project.

38:43-40:48
FULL OF HELL (MD/PA)
Reeking Tunnels
— Vocal machete in a hardcore-leaning death with electronic effects and mesmerizing noise.

40:59-46:21
CULT OF THAUMIEL (anonymous)
Palaces of Iniquity
— Anonymous blistering satanic black metal. Weirdos.

47:17-54:33
ABSTRACTER (Oakland)
Warhead Twilight
— Somehow rageful in the slumbering doom pace, with a heated ash of a vocalist.

54:57-END
SADISTIC FORCE (TX)
2,000 Volts
— Music for an evil dive bar.

0:25-5:17
KILL SHELTER & ANTIPOLE (Norway)
Nine While Nine (Sisters of Mercy cover)
— OMG, a Sisters of Mercy tribute album, and I paid for the expensive shipping. Kill Shelter & Antipole have an AWESOME new album this year, check them out. https://antipole.bandcamp.com/album/a-haunted-place

6:33-12:13
VIRIAL (Italy)
Project Cyclops
— Intergalactic guitar noodling in a doomy tech death that is a blast.

12:45-20:00
VEILBURNER (PA)
Nocturnal Gold
— Oranssi Pazuzu-ish psychedelic, industrial effects and pagan horror in a dramatic black and death. Multiple listens to get through it.

20:38-29:33
A THOUSAND SUFFERINGS (Belgium)
Stilte
— Stark melodies saturate your slumbering brain, and then kicks it in with distorted atmospheric black metal. Good exercise.

30:13-37:32
WITHERING SOUL (Chicago)
Of Blackened Pillars
— Epic artful death with plaintive melodic and brooding vocals. Fit in some groove and this is just fun.

38:17-42:01
UNTO OTHERS (Portland)
Little Bird
— Doom, hard rock, heavy metal with goth-loving musicians. Crisp, aching melodies, anguished vocals and sweet guitars have a metal edge.

42:37-47:13
LLNN (Denmark)
Interloper
— Sluggish guitar building to a contrasting eruption. Dark and light, from nothing to a mountain. Soft with dissonance.

48:16-51:25
COGNIZANCE (UK)
Forbidden Alchemy
— Infectious death mixed with tech death. Guitars are a tornado creating intricate intensity all in short bites of songs.

51:52-END
UNREQVITED (CAN)
Funeral Pyre
— An 80's Jim Henson movie montage with some black gaze.

0:25-5:25
ABORTED (Belgium)
Drag Me to Hell
— Spectacular intricacy and technicality with frenzied solos and vocals that blaze into your soul.

6:47-14:36
DEFACEMENT (Netherlands)
Wounded
— Cryptic Shift guitarist lends his talent in a sinister spaced-out death that is unexpected with emotion. Definitely made for a scary basement. Allow it to grow.

15:08-19:42
BLAZON STONE (Sweden)
Hell on Earth
— Don’t be scared by the power metal. This is warrior anthemic with heavy metal speed and endearing lyrics.

20:07-25:15
LAMP OF MURMUUR (WA)
Dominatrix's Call
— Last year’s split was great. Anonymous black metal with a crisp black metal and a wailing vocal. And a Christian Death cover on this album!

25:44-28:54
LVCIFYRE (UK)
Tribes of Khem
— Heated ash for vocals, jagged demonic death blowing blistering black.

29:31-33:45
CARCASS (UK)
Eleanor Rigor Mortis
— Legendary band, another release after 8 years. Fresh and energetic with seasoned technicality.

34:10-37:44
BLOODPHEMY (Netherlands)
In Cold Blood
— Rumbling angry vocals in a stomping black metal with breakdowns and hints of piano as a surprise sound.

38:05-43:18
NOCTURNAL WANDERER (OR)
Distant Stars in Distant Skies
— Green hills for this type of Oregon black metal with a blast of heavy metal guitar.

44:22
OCCULSED (Atlanta)
Peryphlegethonic Mindflaying
— Creepy, mesmerizing, hypnotic, piercing and dangerous.

49:58-END
KNOWLEDGE THROUGH SUFFERING (Italy)
Of Flesh
— Epic journeys in each of the (3) songs in an inferno of black metal and a range of tempos with a scouring vocalist.

0:25-5:42
INFERI (TN)
Carving Thine Kingdom
— A marathon of solos, speed and harmonized vocals in a breathtaking technical complexity relentlessly stumbling into a frenzy forward.

6:50-11:54
PORTRAIT (Sweden)
Curtains (The Dumb Supper)
— Swedish long-haired heavy metal balanced perfectly with galloping riffs and a vocalist that soars.

12:21-17:20
BLACK MASS (Boston)
Nothing Is Sacred
— Rock their thrash with a fresh moody vocalist with a tinge of pagan.

17:45-21:16
REPLICANT (NJ)
Relinquish The Self
— Oh hells yea, intricate and angular in a perfect muscularity with a rich, deep bass.

21:36-26:10
MEHENET (New Orleans)
Whom God Did Despise
— Voodoo avant-garde metal with a range of vocals from clean to rasped evil that drinks from the wells of New Orleans.

26:51-32:31
CHROME WAVES (Pittsburgh)
Sometimes
— Romantic, melancholy post-black gaze that somehow is aggressive.

32:57-35:59
NUNSLAUGHTER (OH)
To a Whore
— Jaunty anti-Catholic death in a short, tight package.

35:54-40:52
FLESHBORE (IN)
The Scourge
— Inverted devoured vocals with chugging riffs in a beastly death tech, just tuff.

41:27-45:41
THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA (Sweden)
Midnight Marvelous
— Triumphant montage music with fizzy psychedelic synth and groove made for short shorts and knee highs.

46:25-53:40
SUMMONER CIRCLE (TN)
Vessel
— Bluesy, sludgey, synthy black metal.

54:06-END
RORCAL & EARTHFLESH (Switzerland)
— Meditative, mesmerizing noise and ambient with black metal highlights that somehow just rips.

Special dark wave/post-punk show.
0:25-6:19
ROPES OF NIGHT (Germany)(https://ropesofnight.bandcamp.com/album/impossible-space)
If Death Was A Color

6:20-9:53
PRISMS (Florida)(https://prismsmzk.bandcamp.com/)
Summer Bummer

9:54-13:00
NIGHT RITUAL (Philly)(https://nightritualmusic.bandcamp.com/album/u-n-b-e-c-o-m-i-n-g)
Simplicity

13:01-16:01
ANTI:AGER (UK)(https://antiager.bandcamp.com/releases)
Hollow Shell

16:02-19:16
TWIN ION ENGINE (San Diego)(https://tie-music.bandcamp.com/album/sonar-ep)
Dead Lights

19:17-23:02
CLAUSTROPHOBIA (UK)(https://claustraphobia.bandcamp.com/)
Lies

23:11-28:02
NIGHT IN ATHENS (London)(https://nightinathens.bandcamp.com/album/metropolis)
Metropolis

28:03-32:35
NUL TELEXES (UK)(https://swissdarknights.bandcamp.com/album/menhir)
Dialectic (Broken Nails remix)

32:35-36:27
LETTEN 94 (Switzerland)(https://letten94.bandcamp.com/releases)
Red Lights Soft Skins

36:28-40:33
FOTOCRIME (KY) (playing in Oakland/Golden Bull/10-19)
Crystal Caves

40:34-44:58
ARIEL MANIKI and the BLACK HALOS (San Jose)(https://arielmaniki.bandcamp.com/)
Strangers - BatBoy Slim remix

44:59-48:12
THE NINTH HEAVEN (India)(https://theninthheaven.bandcamp.com/)
Magic Circle

48:13-53:25
ANGEL'S ARCANA (Athens)(https://swissdarknights.bandcamp.com/album/the-reveries-of-solitude)
Ravenheart

53:26-END
SANCTUARY OF PRAISE (UK)(https://sanctuaryofpraise.bandcamp.com/)
New Bliss

0:25-7:35
GRAVESLAVE (MN)
In the Mouths of Giants
Uncomfortable, throaty vocals coupled with crusty guitar melodies and a swinging pace from reflective to strong creates a complex scrape into your brain.

8:39-12:30
OUR PLACE OF WORSHIP IS SILENCE (WA)
Mdłości II
A 2-piece covers Mgla along with pummeling, oppressive death mayhem.

12:51-18:05
WHITE STONES (Spain)
Freedom In Captivity
Peaceful melodies turn into funk and death and it is weird and fun.

18:37-24:22
HOODED MENACE (Finland)
Those Who Absorb the Night
An angry lumbering doom.

25:36-30:40
GOST (MI)
Burning Thyme
This song reminds me of Nature's Revenge by Skinny Puppy, so that says it all. Beautiful, nostalgic industrial done with a modern twist.

31:22-37:19
OXYGEN DESTROYER (WA)
Their Reign Has Begun
Their sophomore album is wretched and spewed with breaks of groove that still decapitate in less than 30 minutes.

37:45-43:35
THYRFING (Sweden)
Träldomsord
Moody Viking epic metal.

44:30-48:39
WORMWITCH (Vancouver)
Hit the Lights
Another storm of an album with an eye that holds the gentle until it hits you with all its shrapnel.

49:21-END
QRIXKUOR (London)
Serpentine Susurrus - Mother's Abomination
Culminating, exhilarating drama with a force of dystopian textures.

0:25-4:32
DISKORD (Norway)
Beyond The Grime
— Immersive, explosive tech death that bleeds to psychedelic creating strange structures and melodies.

5:29-12:08
ÆNIGMATUM (Portland)
Despot of Amorphic Dominions
— Unexpected melodic progressive shredding death that is just. . . .fun.

12:36-18:44
NECRONAUTICAL (UK)
Slain In The Spirit
— Pagan, operatic and other weirdness mixed with proggy death in a hell of a black metal blast.

19:14-26:58
KRIGSGRAV (TX)
Spirit Walker
— Ride this black metal with guitars harmonizing badassery, sultry and muscular vocals, death pummeling and a lovely yearning.

27:52-34:49
BURIAL IN THE SKY (Philly)
On Wings of Providence
— Death that exceeds in every direction: tech, deathcore, vast vocal range and massive dynamic instrumentation and compositions. Just a huge album.

35:16-41:28
WOMAN IS THE EARTH (SD)
Crystal Tomb
— Juxtaposition black metal. Vivid and stark. Rage against beauty. Reflective against blistering.

41:49-46:51
VAELMYST (LA)
Spineless Throne
— Groove is foremost in this death and heavy metal and a blast of thrash. Great debut.

47:51-52:10
WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM (WA)
Primal Chasm (Gift Of Fire)
— One of their best, American black metal impeccably produced, creating an anguished and of course richly-melodic immersive experience.

52:42-END
RAMIHRDUS (WI)
A Forgotten Past
— Desolate, lonely, bitter black with beautifully composed synth and instrumentals. The bleached vocal is chilling.

0:25-5:24
TRAITRS (Toronto)
Sweet Home

5:25-8:45
AUSTERE MOON (NY)
Leave the memory (nightstyle version)

8:46-12:23
ESSES (Oakland)
Caged Beasts

12:24-15:26
GRAYSONS (Austin)
Through The Ether

15:27-19:36
PERESTROIKA (Montreal)
Just Another Day

19:37-23:18
HEXATE (Sweden)
Clitoris

23:33-29:21
MÖTHERSKY (NYC)
Let Go

29:22-34:13
NICE COLD NATION (France)
Silent in the dark

34:14-36:32
SECRET ATTRACTION (AZ)
You

36:33-40:30
THE COLD FIELD (AU)
Break This Chain

40:31-46:40
THEN CAME THE RAIN (Paris)
Afterworld

47:11-50:55
THYMIAN (Switzerland)
It Is Just Natural

50:56-56:10
CHAPOVSKI (AU)
Silvery Sky (Dark Sky)

56:11-END
THE MIDNIGHT COMPUTERS (France)
New Dawn Fades (Joy Division cover)

0:25-8:29
PRAISE THE PLAGUE (Germany)
Beyond
— Explosive, thick with riffs, and melodically-inclined black metal with an absolutely epic lead singer bookended with lethargically-paced atmospheric.

9:43-13:09
VASSAGO (Sweden)
Evil of Satan
— Guitarist of King Diamond Andy LaRocque is a legend and lends some incredible guitar solos in this demonically-sped black metal.

13:32-22:03
NETHERBIRD (Sweden)
Atrium Of The Storm
— More moody black metal with incredible guitars that soar, dramatic, vivid and epic.

22:32-24:26
GALVANIZER (Finland)
Blaze From Within
— Ugly death with a ton of thrashy energy.

25:15-32:59
LUMINOUS VEIL (US)
Balms on the Wellspring Scar
— Organ and piano add to the expressive languidity that breaks the textural black metal from a 2-piece.

33:23-37:36
ONDFØDT (Finland)
Han Bor i Skuggona
— Gawd yes, Scandanivian monsters-on-the-mountain-are-attacking-the-warriors metal. So good.

37:53-42:22
HEXORCIST (FL)
Exulting the Adversary
— Floridians brings it with neck-churning sinister death.

43:05-48:21
USHANGVAGUSH (Boston)
I
— First nations band, First nations are indigenous people of from a part of Canada and Maine, including one song sung in Miq'maw. Raw anguished black metal with post and indie.

49:29-54:34
CAINHURST (UK)
Daylight Denied
— Horror, horror, not whore.

54:57-END
PROFANE DESECRATION (MA)
Dead Planet
— Decompress from the uglies in your brain to the uglies in the sound.

0:25-9:19
CRAVEN IDOL (UK)
The Gods Have Left Us for Dead
— Stunning moody black metal with a lava hot drummer, and technical guitar noodling. Just love this.

10:26-16:46
LYKHAEON (Switzerland)
Descent Into Ruinous Splendor
— Epic stories built by a 2-piece, a Cryptmaster vocalist and ominous, dramatic drummer. Devilish atmosphere.

17:23-22:38
NIGHT CROWNED (Sweden)
Enslingen
— Gothic black metal retaining the aggression including a sharply-edged vocalist and technical guitar bordering on a retro 80’s heavy metal. Drama galore, really fun melodic black.

23:08-28:49
ERDVE (Lithuania)
Savigaila
— YOU pronounce it. Swirling deathcore with dynamic pace and mood, swinging in style that all take you to the bottom of the ocean.

29:24-32:56
TEMPLE OF DREAD (Germany)
Empyrean
— Jaunty thrash breaks a surging death the only way Germans can do it.

33:35-39:40
SEPUTUS (NY?)
The Will To Live
— More torture from members of Pyrrhon in the form of angular death and noise.

40:03-43:53
NECROGOD (Sweden)
Remain The Same Again
— The vocals are insane, along with a heavy-bass sound and distorted guitar in a solid debut.

44:52-54:57
BLACK DROP EFFECT (Sweden)
19th November
— Technically not new, except the physical release is brand new. Members of Ov Shadows making yet another excellent bout of melodic, tight black metal.
https://kandelaber.bandcamp.com/album/injecting-pain

55:22-END
NARZISSUS (Austria)(released 12/2020)
Heimkehr
— Weepy romantic novel soundtrack. Well, for a weirdo.

0:25-4:52
OPHIDIAN I (Iceland)
Sequential Descent
— Icelandic proggy tech death breaks into catchy riffs, cascading harmonies, heavy metal solos, and a biting range of vocals. I asked, they are going to have more vinyl soon.

6:14-12:07
STORMRULER (St. Louis)
Fear the Old Blood
— 2-piece with weaponized vocals riding alongside pummeling death and melodic black, swinging from bleak to blistering.

12:36-20:28
FRIISK (Germany)
Torügg bleev blot Sand
— Epic melodic sludge in a devastating, emotional black metal and electric vocals.

21:11-29:18
CALLIOPHIS (Germany)
The Art Of Shudder
— Germans retain that edge with their melodic, in a slow funeral pace that is heart-wrenching, building a larger post- and death metal.

30:15-34:01
SUIDAKRA (Germany)
Redemption
— More perfect German death, bringing in folk balanced with monstrous drums and riffs.

34:30-39:14
CONCILIUM (Portugal)
Shadow Gospels
— Depressive, monochromatic raw mix of black and death with portions of acoustic and atmospheric.

39:34-43:22
LACERATION (CA)
Parasomnia
— Windsor whips out wicked death structure and tempo, fly those fists.

44:14-49:54
MYRDØD (PA)
Submerged Within the Gelatinous Celestial Bath
— A murky bloodied throb of black metal playing with buzzing mechanical industrial noise. Imperceptible melodic blinking on and off

50:33-55:04
DUNGEON SERPENT (CAN)
Decay
— 1-person technical death with shining melodic and distorted, medieval guitar in spectacularly unique arrangements.

55:31-END
MESARTHIM (AU)
Tidal Warping
— A Runner-up to my Best of 2019. Australia creates a distant frontier of music that doesn’t show influence. Just weirdos.

New post-punk/dark wave!

0:25-4:44
COMA THERAPY (GA)
House of Lords

4:45-8:07
SKLTN CHR (Austin)
Modern Art

8:08-12:09
DESPERATE JOURNALIST (UK)
Personality Girlfriend

12:10-14:57
EMPTY. (WA)
Rooftops (Molchat Doma Cover)

14:58-19:32
ROPES OF NIGHT (Germany)
Strange Moons

19:33-24:05
HANTE. (Paris)
Catharsis

24:34-29:19
S Λ I N T (CO)
Sober

29:20-34:00
LYCIA (AZ)
Except

34:01-38:57
URBANDONED. (Germany)
Only Heartache

38:58-43:31
MORTAL BOY (LA)
Passion dance

43:47-47:33
TELEFONEMA (Argentina)
Romper (feat. Violenta Josefina)

47:34-50:38
VESTRON VULTURE (Mexico)
VCR Romance

50:39-54:41
WHISPERING SONS (Belgium)
Flood

54:42-END
COLDVVAVE (Indonesia)
The Solemn Respite Of The Cursed Faith

0:25-5:55
PARAM-NESIA (CAN)
Home
— This EP (I usually never play EPs) builds and spills in an exceptional story. Biting precision breaks into groove and drives into the unexpected.

7:03-13:51
SVNEATR (CAN)
Mourning Sun
— Pronounced Sun-eater. Chomping badass technical black metal, organic instrumentals, heavy metal solos, and a sprinkle of spacy.

14:28-22:46
KHANDRA (Belarus)
Thanatos
— Cold Belarus creates varying black metal pace, including a mid-paced melodic with churning texture pitted against noise and effects. Perfect torment.

23:07-28:16
DRAWN AND QUARTERED (Seattle)
Proliferation of Disease
— Sinewy smokey death metal with alien guitar.

29:12-36:57
AMENRA (Belgium)
De Evenmens
— Big and epic battling with stark minimalist, inspired by Neurosis. I also recommend Buried Inside’s 2005’s Chronoclast if you like this emo sludge doom.

37:23-41:36
CATHEXIS (TX)
Mortuus in Perpetuum
— Hot proggy death that you can only find in the middle of a wild, hot desert. But somehow cold and sharp.

42:09-45:34
FRACTAL UNIVERSE (France)
Withering Snowdrops
— The French know how to articulate their arty mayhem. Angular pace and chugging riffs with surprising jaunty bouts of jazz influence.

46:25-54:03
NOCTAMBULIST (Denver)
Depletion
— Denver surges with their bitter. Machinistic drums and battling vocalists are just part of the un-sweet merge of technical death and screech of black.

54:35-END
HEAVY TEMPLE (Philly)
The Maiden
— A 70’s groove with a lovely lead singer and all of it jams.

0:25-7:02
ALUSTRIUM (Philly)
This Hollow Ache
— Even if you don’t think you like tech death, this is a huge album that shouldn’t be missed. Intense, rage-filled, but countered with great melodic and emotive vocals.

8:36-11:59
DESASTER (Germany)
Failing Trinity
— A runner-up in 2016’s best thrash category. Power and grit packed into hoppy riffs and blasts.

12:33-17:08
ALLUVIAL (Atlanta)
40 Stories
— Prog incorporating technical heavy metal guitar solos, ballads, epic vocals, all in smaller chunks. Refreshing.

17:38-20:44
THORN (AZ)
Maw of Eternity
— 1-person brilliance broken into varied genres including death and doom and sludge in a creepy atmosphere.

21:12-25:21
INHUMAN CONDITION (Florida)
Crown of Mediocrity
— Floridian all the way: muscular, sweaty death that stomps your butt.

25:57-29:41
GNOSIS (Florida)
The Eleventh Step The Gate Unknown (feat. Stephan Necroabyssious)
— Florida again, this time pagan black metal with heavy metal guitar solos. Medieval, in the best way.

29:57-34:35
BLOODBEAT (Germany)
Intention to Kill
— Thrashy beat with catchy riffs and a great singer. Simply good.

34:42-39:04
EYE OF PURGATORY (Sweden)
The Lighthouse
— Swedish thick death with a cool mix of synth keyboards and a roaring vocalist.

39:29-43:36
THE DAY OF THE BEAST (VA)
Annihilation Prayer (Shallow Be Thy Graves)
— Pagan, chunky death made for a circle dance.

44:33-53:26
HANTERNOZ (France)
Ce Que le Fleuve a Pris
— MOFO bright French black metal with a hella varied mix of spoken vocals, languid guitar and even flutes and synth.

53:43-END
DELVING (Berlin)
Delving
— Elder lead in his own project of instrumental, psychedelic, krauty post-rock.

All new post-punk/dark wave show!

0:25-4:35
TWIN TRIBES (TX)
Portal to the Void (She Past Away Remix)

4:36-8:20
RINGFINGER (CAN)
Floorsong

8:21-12:33
PERTURBATOR (Paris)
Lustful Sacraments

12:34-17:16
JASON PRIEST (London)
Be Thankful, Billy

17:17-22:31
IAMTHESHADOW (Portugal)
Falling [thewalkingicon Remix]

22:32-28:11
FLESH OF MORNING (TX)
Fantasy

28:23-31:33
THOUGHT LEADERS (Oakland)
Jane Doe's Estate

31:34-33:55
KABLÉ (Poland)
Na tamie

33:56-39:39
KHANTED (Sweden)(remastered release from early 2000)
Deception

39:40-44:04
COLD CAVE (LA)
Promised Land

44:05-47:25
THE HERE TODAYS (Finland)
Miranda

47:56-51:55
PULSATIONS (Denmark)
Neglected Synapses

51:56-54:16
IMÁGENES RETRO (Mexico)
La vida ya no puedo sentir

54:17-END
TORCH (Denmark)
You Will Rise (I Will Fall)

0:25-3:56
CODE (UK)
Scolds Bridle
— A theatrical avant-garde black metal gem with a massive vocal spectrum.

5:07-8:26
GRAVERIPPER (Indiana)
Cherenkov Light
— Black and roll thrash with rocking retro heavy metal solos and an infusion of melodic in the whole package. Just love it.

9:01-15:42
CLOAK OF ALTERING (Netherlands)
I slip into a coma
— A black metal horror movie score invoking the experimental industrial of yester-year.

16:09-22:13
CIRCLE OF SIGHS (LA)
We Need Legends
— An anonymous band creating snarling metal with exploratory goth and synth, a bit of krautrock, and a whole lot of wild space.

22:40-30:54
DÖDSRIT (Sweden)
Mortal Coil
— Melodic black metal pulsing to a stark melancholy without becoming post-metal.

31:46-35:15
GHASTLY (Finland)
Out of the Psychic Blue
— Fervent alien death that wrinkles into psychedelic, creepy and foreboding through-out.

35:36-41:32
TYPHONIAN (Germany)
Disembodied
— Blistering death and thrash with beautiful guitar solos. This is *such* a fun album.

42:04-46:47
PORTAL (AU)
Offune
— From Avow: expanding, brooding, raw scraped guitars swirling into a hurricane.

47:33-52:23
WORMLIGHT (Sweden)
Aeon Of the Wolves
— Emotional, strong vocals in a melodic, poignant, reflective black metal.

52:55-END
EPIPHANIC TRUTH (ANON)
The Truth Of The Beast
— An anonymous band dropping 3 massive song, each its own massive journey. Brilliant churning death and moody epic sludge that breaks into proggy-organ and jazzy synth stuff.

0:25-4:36
OV SHADOWS (Sweden)
Raums Hymn
— Unreleased song added to a new cassette release of their frosty black metal 2020 album.

5:44-12:50
ESOCTRILIHUM (France)
Dy'th
— Complex French black metal integrates technical, creative, haunting, pagan, dense death and pockets of experimental instrumentation.

13:27-18:03
JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES (Finland)
Love Zombi
— I'm glad they waited (4) years to come out with something that sounds fresh. Organ-heavy, bluesy, joyful pagan rock.

18:32-28:51
TERMINALIST (Denmark)
Invention of the Shipwreck
— An impressive debut album of technical death and thrash with proggy interludes and dynamic guitar work.

29:38-33:38
AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN (Netherlands)
Melancholia
— Falkor metal, with all-encompassing spacy, majestic instrumentals stabbed with its vocalist.

33:53-37:11
VULTURE (Germany)
Malicious Souls
— Anthemic heavy metal and speed with full retro vocals.

37:51-41:02
DEPRESION RADIKAL (Argentina)
Azul
— Baritone goth vocals in a bass-toned synth dark wave with touches of experimental. A heavy-hitting post-punk and wave album. Free download!: https://tumberorecords1.bandcamp.com/

41:17-45:31
SCULPTURE CLUB (SLC)
Shed to Salt
— Robert Smith meets The Ocean Blue, dark mixed with floatingly sweet.

46:23-50:47
UNPLEASANT SOUNDS (Russia)
Cold
— Oh, this woman’s vocals. Dark wave euphoria that is richly danceable.

51:11-END
ANATOMIA (Japan)
Dismemberment
— Growls in space, with horror noise and funeral death.

0:25-8:40
TVAER (MN)
IV
— Wicked black metal is integrated seamlessly with emotionally wrenching acoustic and melody.

9:40-17:13
GUTVOID (CAN)
Murmurations From Twilight Bodies
— A split between four bands; all filthy death. This one by Gutvoid is a cool death and psychedelic atmospheric blend.

17:54-26:15
PANOPTICON (MN)
Rope Burn Exit
— Minnesota tells a story of a massive starry sky and aggro men in black hoods raising a fist to it.

26:51-33:09
THROAT (Finland)
Conveyer Line
— The Finnish always have something surprising to offer. Here it is futuristic horror industrial noise and a proggy post-punk.

33:34-41:30
WRECHE (Oakland)
Mysterium
— One man’s mad brain offers experimental black metal with a lot of piano and no guitar.

42:05-48:00
VIOLET COLD (Azerbaijan)
Togetherness
— Thanks to my buddy Donovan for pointing out this album. They have always been a strange meld of black gaze, electronic and a lot of emo, which becomes touching. Great new album.

48:49-55:24
GRAVE MIASMA (UK)
Rogyapa
— Groove and atmosphere in a murky mid-paced death, I’m all for it.

55:53-END
URBANDONED. (Germany)
At Last (Fragrance cover)
— A new German dark wave band does their danceable version of a favorite band of mine, Fragrance.

0:25-7:50
GREY AURA (Netherlands)
El Greco in Toledo
— First a duo, now a truly wild trio. Moody psychedelic black metal, ethnic instrumentals, a bit of aggressive hardcore and jazz. Has a bit of Imperial Triumphant without the death metal. The whole journey is spectacular.

9:08-13:25
HUMAN FAILURE (AU)
Crown on the Head of a King of Mud
— 1-person Australian barrage of off-center death with the best noise vocals and feedback screams. Monstrous in this incredibly satisfying way.

13:53-19:10
VREID (Norway)
Into the Mountains
— Best part was the use of melody. Organic post-metal builds into an epic black metal and surprising genre switches that I won’t name – what a blast. You can lose your brain in it.

19:35-24:35
FEED THEM DEATH (London)
Eulogic (Negative Dialektik)
— Yes, feed us the weird. Snarling sludge, mechanical grind, disturbing electronics and sometimes plodding pace leaves you scratchy.

25:14-33:07
ORYX (Denver)
Last Breath
— Metal heads understand the need for meditation. Oryx uses drone, instrumentals, melodic and repetition mixed with sludge and doom and a set of fucking hot vocals.

33:27-39:20
ODAL (Germany)
...um Ewiges zu schaffen
— Germanic black metal and their drama. This is in supplication to Mother Nature with folk and heavy metal influence.

39:42-45:49
SIGIL (CAN)
Vessels
— Another proggy turn in black metal that keeps it fresh with hardcore aggression.

46:52-52:58
HADIT (Italy)
The Submission of Rage for Propulsion Divine
— Oppressive is the gift from this duo. Distorted, meandering, explosive and just weighty. You know, f’n heavy.

53:24-END
MALUM (Finland)
Devil's Creation
— Finnish vocals is a weapon in a raw Satanic black metal with cool keyboard effects.

0:25-3:49
CRYPTS OF DESPAIR (Lithuania)
Condemned To Life
— Vocal extremes, hurricane of death noise and crushing beat with an underlying melancholy. A powerhouse of an album.

5:07-9:07
ALTARAGE (Spain)
Forja
— Sinister, meditative drone pace builds to a cacophony, with pockets of grind and sludge and death chugging. Runner-up up in my Best of 2016, and another hit.

9:47-14:14
THE ARMED (Detroit)
Average Death
— 90’s-esque indie blended to modernity with a Converge-textural hardcore, industrial and synth, and pop. 19 musicians include some famous ones.

14:34-19:08
DESOLATE REALM (Finland)
Spire
— 2-piece heavy metal includes all the good stuff, including a jamming guitar, breaks into ballads, and a heavy dose of headbanging.

19:23-25:03
DEATHTRIPPERS (UK)
Unity of light
— Lovely goth vocals in a richly melodic and romantic electronic dark wave.

25:50-33:29
SPECTRAL LORE (Greece)
Initiation Into The Mystery
— Last year’s split with Mare Cognitum led to this chaotic, beautiful, abstract and ethnic black metal.

33:55-40:33
BONES OF THE EARTH (Arkansas)
Machine Rising
— The unexpected galaxy-driven compositions took me out of what I was listening to. Already a unique mix of doom, proggy sludge, droning guitars, and chomping hardcore

40:55-42:24
BONE CUTTER (San Jose)
Sea of Broken Needs
— 2 thumbs-up to the song titles. Short and sweet crushing grindcore and death that is unexpectedly charming.

42:53-48:57
UNGFELL (Switzerland)
Tyfels Antlitz (Wie e Huerä zwei Chind empfanget)
— Just picture these dudes in Heidi-pigtails on a Swiss countryside singing their fantasy medieval and orchestral black metal. .

49:55-53:57
CICADA THE BURROWER (Madison)
Where Old Crystals Grow
— Shimmering with sharp waves right under the surface. Meandering jazz meets raw aggression. All proceeds off this record go to the ACLU, yah!

54:40-END
PAYSAGE d’HIVER (Switzerland)
Wärzä
— Paysage d’Hiver’s “Wanderer” continues to explore an alien world. A shorter album than last year’s stunner, but still a raw biting wind.

Special new wave/cold wave/dark wave/electro/synth/industrial show - all super brand new songs.

0:25-3:43
CHEMICAL CLUB (NM)
Drunk in the Dark

3:44-7:03
JE T'AIME (France)
Fuck Me (Live at Gibus)

7:04-10:32
LESSER ANGELS (OR)
Cloth and Ashes

10:33-14:27
BLACK PLASTIC (Chicago)
Savage

14:28-19:04
SEVIT (TX)
War Chest (Unholy Mix)

19:05-21:37
CAWATANA (Hungary)
White (Again) - (live)

21:38-25:45
KÆLAN MIKLA (Iceland)
Sólstöður

25:58-29:40
DELIRIUM (Ukraine)
Затерянные (feat. Povod)

29:41-33:14
GRAVEYARD GOSSIP (Portland)
Lift The Veil

33:15-36:10
SEXUAL PURITY (Ukraine)
Chains

36:11-40:06
HALLOWS (Seattle)
All That Is True Dies

40:07-45:58
HANTE. (France)
Blank Love

46:29-51:14
BLACK LULLABIES (LA)
Crown Shyness

51:15-55:15
UR URSULA VERA (?)
Slow Danse With The Dead - So obnoxious

55:16-END
LESSER CARE (TX)
Palm

0:25-6:52
GABESTOK (Denmark)
Tågens melodi
— A duo creating pagan horror psychedelic black metal and punk thrash with notes of 60's garage guitar and a whisper rasp. Album shipping fees of fucking $20, but I pushed forward.

7:58-13:29
KARMA VIOLENS (Greece)
Kingdom of the Deserters
— Another duo-charged frenetic death with delicious groove and flourished guitar solos and an infusion of thrash pace.

14:07-20:30
SPECTRAL WOUND (Montreal)
Diabolic Immanence
— My 2018 choice for Best Traditional Black Metal, this is their follow up album. The vocalist stains your brain with his monstrous shrieks that invoke pity. The black metal is raw, leaving you broken. This is pure devastation perfection.

21:01-26:57
INTONATE (Montreal)
Sever
— Gloomy, moody, reflective death metal transitioning into doomy instrumental sections. Menacing and romantic.

27:48-32:43
AUTARKH (Netherlands)
Cyclic Terror
— On my pile for a while and was persuaded to take another gander after their burning Roadburn performance. Solid industrial bent in this version of textualized chaos. Electronic effects serve to abrade and soothe.

33:19-37:43
KËKHT ARÄKH (Ukraine)
Crystal
— Opposing black metal with a gentle touch is not surprising. These musicians are incredibly thoughtful. This version uses melodic strains behind the raw and stripped sound providing a touching, nostalgic and difficult result.

38:05-44:22
CREEPING FEAR (Paris)
Hategod Triumph
— Chugging pace and a massive slab of death pummeling with excellent guitar solos.

45:09-49:25
BEWITCHER (Portland)
Electric Phantoms
— Black’n’roll with catchy heavy metal that dives into speed. Raise a flagon.

49:50-57:52
ILDARUNI (Armenia)
Boundless Numen Gardens of Ardini
— Armenian traditional instruments that bring that ethnic edge to an emotional, riff-heavy black metal

58:30-END
ASH CODE (Italy)
Indifference
— Italian cold wave remixing Clan of Xymox and Molchat Doma, big in the scene right now.

0:25-4:51
CRYPTOSIS (Netherlands)
Game of Souls
— Groove-leaning, proggy, intricate thrash breaking into synth and guitar solo interludes.

5:44-9:37
THRONE (MI)
All Creation Wept
— Best guttural and screeching vocals emoting utter fury, a dance between black and death in a hyper-pace.

9:57-17:03
CATHARTIC DEMISE (CAN)
Disparity
— More tight thrash with cool heavy metal melody and a biting guitar and drum coupling. Fist up.

17:35-23:15
SOOTHSAYER (Ireland)
Cities of Smoke
— Sludge that unravels to massive drums and desperate, enraged vocals with instrumentals that transform to savage explosions. Free download from bandcamp! https://soothsayer.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-of-the-earth-atmospheric-doom-sludge-metal

23:53-26:56
OLD NICK (CA?)
Bastion Of Bubonic Debauchery
— Do a line of coke, take a hit of acid, turn on the black metal and go on a carnival ride.

27:20-32:10
INOCULATION (OH)
The Edge of Town
— Relentless sharp death metal infused with cool effects and noodle-y guitar creating a head-churning affair all around.

32:30-37:00
HORNDAL (Sweden)
Horndal's Blodbad
— Shimmering melodic over a dramatic hardcore vocal and abrasive sludge band with filthy riffs. But the melody, that shit was good.

37:21-41:46
PHLEBOTOMIZED (Netherlands)
No Surrender
— Hailing from 1989 and still rocking a modern brutal death with unique doomy melodic, even from old farts.

42:38-56:40
夢遊病者 (aka Sleepwalker) (NY, Japan, Russia)
Redemption / Retaliation
— Bros. This is sound that will break apart your bored brain with meditative psychedelic, jazz, black metal, and just out-there.

57:09-END
MIRROR OF HAZE (Norway)
Drifting into the Void
— A dark Norwegian gothic with sweet vocals.

0:25-4:48
MORAL COLLAPSE (Bengalaru)
Your stillborn be praised
— Bangalore/Bengaluru band Moral Collapse has guest musicians from huge bands like Death and Gorguts, creating a tight proggy technical death that builds a balanced and infectious sound, and spots of experimentation like horror violins to mix it up.

6:01-11:44
VITRAIL (CAN)
Devant l'Autel
— Languid, unrushed and anguished melodic interweave with a black scratched vocal and vicious drums.

12:09-13:54
DEAD NEANDERTHALS (Netherlands)
Restraining Order
— Deranged grind with a saxophone vocal that sounds like it is being murdered; and disjointed drums creating their brand of mayhem.

14:23-20:12
STEEL BEARING HAND (TX)
Per Tenebras Ad Lucem
— Death and thrash are hand in hand with sped up tempo and sharp guitar solos with variety of tempo and a bit of doom. All of it erupts.

20:53-29:23
LABORED BREATH (Oakland)
Hypoesthesia
— Where you start is not where you end. Theatrical black metal with meditative sections proves dense, but worthy of unpacking.

29:59-36:33
UNFLESH (New Hampshire)
Amongst Horrors Must I Dwell
— Technical death metal swings to melodic black metal with beautiful acoustic passages that really take it to an atmospheric route.

37:03-44:30
MYRDØD (PA)
Heart ov Gharlrath
— Bloodied, monstrous vocals with a swarming atmospheric black propelled with a death beat and industrial groove in parts, eventually breaking back to its mangled horror.

45:31-49:20
ORECUS (Sweden)
My Manifest
— Straight-forward pummeling death infiltrated with heavy groove, made for the bangers.

49:37-53:09
CELESTIAL SANCTUARY (UK)
Mass Extinction
— Unafraid of a doomy slower pace, eventually building to massive head-churning death and part grind.

53:33-58:17
PUTRESCINE (San Diego)
The Abyss
— Off-centered brutal death, with multiple layered melodies making it weird, and added female vocals.

58:39-END
ROOSEVELT (Germany)
Strangers
— The antithesis of the previous songs, some euphoric disco pop to sweeten your brain.

0:25-4:02
DEMISER (SC)
Deathstrike
— Debut thrash from a fiery rasp in a Lemmy style and guitars that careen off a cliff.

5:08-12:34
SEPULCROS (Portugal)
Marcha Funebre
— Funeral doom death? This one engulfs and saturates, and then explodes into a cavernous death with monstrous beat. Be patient, this is gratifying. Massive album.

12:58-18:10
HERZEL (France)
La Flamme
— French heavy metal that jam with guitar rides, with changing tempos and epic leadups to dramatic Mercyful Fate vocals.

18:35-23:24
VARMIA (Poland)
bielmo
— Tribal Polish black metal with strange instrumentation including the didgeridoo and a range of vocals, including chants, female vocals and a guttural mutterer.

24:13-28:47
GREENLEAF (Sweden)
Tides
— 20 years for me, following this band. The lead singer was also shared with Dozer, another fave. The new vocalist has been around for a while now, and he is as epic. Sun-drenched Swedish retro done perfectly.

29:11-34:01
TURRIS EBURNEA (Italy)
Unified Fields
— A duo from Cosmic Putrefaction and Krallice, mesmerizing with twisted death and a touch of really unique melodic and droney bits.

34:31-40:17
MARIANAS REST (Finland)
Pointless Tale
— Finnish decompresses you with their style of melancholy blackened and a hot vocalist.

40:49-47:55
GENGHIS TRON (NY)
Alone In The Heart Of The Light
— Synth-based psychedelic, post- and spacey-rock that is immersive and heady.

48:47-54:13
KOLDOVSTVO (?Russia?)
IV
— Dr. Zhivago metal. Dramatic, romantic and melancholy-sweet driving to a bitterly cold ending.

54:40-59:24
MARASMUS (KC)
Archaic Burial Rites
— Marasmus balances delicate instrumentation and a brutal technical death. Raw and sparse that packs a wallop, with a blast of riffs when necessary.

59:49-END
HAPLESS WRETCH (London)
Necrotizing Fasciitus
— 10 minutes of filthy grime-y death that is as impactful as a much longer album.

0:25-6:48
STORTREGN (Switzerland)
Grand Nexion Abyss
— Guitars galore; strummed to galaxy-driven solos to technical. Textures and genres include technical death, melodic black, and a blast of proggy lurches and massive riffs. A chilling rasp of a vocalist drops perfectly to the hottest muscular. Huge album.

8:02-11:59
PUPIL SLICER (UK)
Wounds Upon My Skin
— Yes, this album is that good. Not just another Dillinger; this pulls its weight from all directions. Grind and noise make way for massive riffs and groove with unexpected moments. Her vocals are strength and agony.

12:27-16:50
ENFORCED (VA)
Malignance
— Lighten this shit UP, with some brutal hardcore. Richmond in the HIZ-HOOOOOUSE. Appropriate fist on the album cover.

17:23-28:02
MARE COGNITUM (Portland)
Luminous Accretion
— Intricately woven guitar and drums, building to always something bigger. The suffocation is manageable with breaks of melody and a softened edge. Always stellar.

29:04-36:14
WESENWILLE (Netherlands)
The Descent
— A duo that has packed it all in there: sharp, angular, chaotic black metal sweetened with drama. It will take time to figure it out.

36:52-40:57
KANKAR (Germany)
Thüringer Schwarzmetall
— Another 2-piece with a powerful weaponized vocal, an equally effective drum, and moments of beer rock’n’roll warming it all up.

41:34-46:00
LUNAR SHADOW (Germany)
And Silence Screamed
— 80’s heavy metal soul with poignant lyrics and reflective ballads. Emotional and solid.

47:04-51:02
DVNE (Scotland)
Enûma Eliš
— Pronounced Dune. Thick, rich sludge with proggy overtones and epic breakdowns. A cool breeze of post-metal and experimental ambient really break it apart.

51:36-57:59
FUATH (Scotland)
The Pyre
— Two Scottish bands in a row! This is the most medieval warrior wintry black forest black metal you’ll hear in a while.

58:23-END
TOPOGRAPHIES (SF)
Lonely Figure
— I wondered how the vocalist Gray Tolhurst, son of the Cure's drummer/keyboardist, ended up in San Francisco. He was going to college here! He pushed away cold wave and post-punk for a long time, and finally broke down.  We should be so lucky. This is a luscious, poppy, misting, moody, dreamy album.

Tribute to our dear friend Brian who was gone before his time. These songs represent the time we spent together dancing, drinking, gossiping, griping, loving.  And yes, there are two Hole songs.

0:25-4:16
SKINNY PUPPY (CAN)(1988)
Testure

4:17-8:52
KMFDM (UK)(1990)
Friede

8:53-11:45
HOLE (USA)(1991)
Teenage Whore

11:46-15:12
HOLE (USA)(1994)
Doll Parts

15:13-18:58
BAUHAUS (UK)(1981)
Passion of Lovers

18:59-23:55
MINISTRY (USA)(1989)
Thieves

24:15-27:08
PIXIES (USA)(1989)
Monkey Gone to Heaven

27:09-31:35
DEPECHE MODE (UK)(1987)
Never Let Me Down Again

31:36-34:38
THE SMITHS (UK)(1986)
Bigmouth Strikes Again

34-39-38:25
NINE INCH NAILS (USA)(1989)
Down In It

38:26-44:07
YAZ (UK)(1982)
Situation (U.S. 12'' Mix)

44:38-47:31
THE CURE (UK)(1985)
In Between Days

47:32-52:34
NEW ORDER (UK)(1989)
Dream Attack

52:35-56:29
SISTERS OF MERCY (UK)(1985)
Nine While Nine

56:29-END
PINK FLOYD (UK)(1975)
Wish You Were Here

0:25-5:04
INVULTATION (Ohio)
Cathedral Of Impaled
— Ohio weirdos in a cavernous death, pummeling raw black, and a sludgy groove.

5:58-9:44
SIGNIFICANT POINT (Japan)
Attacker
— Stylish retro Japanese that hit 80’s soaring epic heavy and speed metal on the head. Jamming, harmonizing, technical guitars steal the show.

10:06-14:09
THROWING BRICKS (Netherlands)
Constant Failure
— This will thaw your heart and pummel it to a pulp all at the same time. The desperate vocals really threw some arrows. Hardcore, sludge, black, post-metal and even drone.

14:52-20:51
KRALLICE (NY)
Disgust Patterns
— Krallice off-roads and it is the insane that our brains need. The masters of dense, technical prowess break under atmospheric vocals and avant garde synth to create a post-apocalyptic sound.

21:39-26:57
VOID (London)
VIII: The End (This Is the Way the World Ends)
— Another weird album with multiple facets: moody mathematical, industrial, funk-bass and theatrical psychedelic. A member of Hexvessel and Grave Pleasures.

27:32-30:12
SWAMPBEAST (LA)
Convulsing In The Shit And Piss Of Man
— Absolutely no “swampy stoner” here. This is some filthy, deranged death with heavily head-bangable moments.

30:44-35:21
FORHIST (France)
VI
— Vocalist of Blut Aus Nord creates his style of modern, well-produced black metal with a touch of folk.

35:39-39:46
NIGHTFALL (Greece)
Darkness Forever
— Haunting instrumentals build to melodic death and frenzied thrash.

40:06-45:17
BAEST (Denmark)
Towers of Suffocation
— Don’t underestimate a hearty portion of old school debilitating power death.

46:07-49:21
BLEIB MODERN (Germany)
Loony Voices
— Melancholy, of course. This is post-punk that knows mood.

49:41-END
NOCTAMBULIST (Netherlands)
De Leegte Wenkt
— Dutch black metal. What can go wrong.

0:25-3:01
KNOLL (Memphis)
Inherent of Life
— Intense vocals line up with the sharp knife of grind, with death breakdowns and a meditative drone. A powerhouse, mixed by Kurt Ballou.

4:04-9:48
PARANORM (Sweden)
The Immortal Generation
— Thrash-driven, angular death blast with noodling guitars, reminiscent of our 80’s favorites. It unpacks into a full universe of sound. Vinyl won't be offered until August-September.

10:12-16:24
OMINOUS RUIN (SF)
Deception
— Absolutely no superfluous note in this tight, crisp, proggy tech, with atmospheric and organic pockets and badass guitar wizardry. Stark mofos.

16:43-23:43
SPELLJAMMER (Sweden)
Lake
— Speaking of downtuned epic stoner doom, Spelljammer has come out of a 5 year retirement. Take a huge hit, feel this propel you into its cloud, Swedish gods of composition.

24:27-28:22
SUMMONING THE LICH (St. Louis)
Demon of the Snow
— Death-charged debut diving into chomping thrash, swift tech death and tempo changes with the backdrop of fantasy-based themes.

29:08-36:32
IOTUNN (Denmark)
The Tower of Cosmic Nihility
— Epic, grandiose metal with emotional vocals soaring high, the vocalist is the stunner. He is also the vocalist from Barren Earth and Hamferd. Reminded me of While Heaven Wept.

37:02-41:51
CULTED (Sweden/CAN)
Lifers
— Distorted doom, somber raw stoner, and industrial groove with machinic drone and hushed vocals with the most incredible album art.

42:28-47:10
LESSER CARE (TX)
Head On The Floor (live)
— More moody, richly melodic dark wave from a surging alternative scene in Texas. Fucking Texas. I guess I’d be depressed there too.

48:13-55:50
LAMP OF MURMUUR (UK)
Curse of Silent Thunder
— Part of a split with anonymous band dai-ichi, I love the melody shining through the fury of the thin, raw black metal that break into massive riffs. Both bands kill it on this split.

56:20-END
EMPYRIUM (Germany)
The Wild Swans
— Crystal melodies soothing and rolling out in waves that eventually erupt into post-metal with a monstrous vocalist.

0:25-5:44
SPIRE (AU)
Hymn III
— Textural black metal slowed down to moody and reflective. The vocalist adds multiple dimensions with low growls, high shrieks, chanting and an overall thundering performance.

7:03-13:55
SENYAWA (Indonesia)
Istana
— Written-up by the NYT, Senyawa is an incredible part of the huge Indonesian experimental scene with a wild ride on homemade instrumentation. They offered graphics and audio files out to whoever wanted it, asking different labels to create mixes to appeal to their local region. 44 labels took them up on it. This one is from a British label.

14:39-21:07
SUFFERING HOUR (MN)
Obscuration
— Another explosive black metal band playing with death muscularity and lower-paced meditative atmospheric with a seething, gravelly vocalist.

21:39-23:38
GRAVESEND (NYC)
Ashen Piles Of The Incinerated
— Intensity ramps up through this album, gritty death, atmospheric grind and punk experimenting with density, aggression and mood.

24:21-29:23
HEAVE BLOOD AND DIE (Norway)
Post People
— The band name doesn’t necessarily match the chill post-punk 70’s influenced krautrock political band. Fantastic album.

29:39-32:26
SOCIOCLAST (San Jose)
Concrete and Steel
— Monstrous groove grind with blistering death and dread.

32:47-37:18
DEAD EXALTATION (India)
The Transformation
— Indian technicality puts this away with a blast of death and prog and satisfying riffs.

37:36-45:15
LIQUIFY (WA)
Quest for Eternity
— Jamming psychedelic brain candy that lets the brain just breathe. Lovely.

46:04-50:12
DEIQUISITOR (Denmark)
Below the frozen Tundra
— Demonic vocals claws you while burying you alive with a raw bleak death.

50:30-55:26
SARIN (CAN)
Reckoner
— Meditative stoner post-metal with a focus on unique instrumentals; another decompressive album.

55:45-END
MOTORAMA (Russia)
Up
— Sweet, bubbly new wave from one of my faves in this genre.

0:25-7:42
AD NAUSEAM (Italy)
Inexorably Ousted Sente
— Frenetic black and pummeling, technical death hurtling against each other, creating a universe of density, breaking into rippling, meandering, brain melting compositions.

8:51-12:51
EMPTINESS (Belgium)
On n'en finit pas
— A bleak, unrefined goth mixed with some traditional melodic bass and synth, but thrown off-kilter by evil vocals and nothing sweet.

13:18-18:21
HUMANITY’S LAST BREATH (Sweden)
Tide
— Cinematic and horror experimental deathcore that explodes out of the traditional djent beat and muscular vocal.

18:46-22:14
EVIL (Japan)
閻魔天 Enmaten
— Chomping old school black metal speed with technical badass rock and roll guitar.

22:55-30:27
DSKNT (Swiss)
Deconvolution Jψ [Part I]
— A cavernous, disorienting black metal with a hurricane of satisfying riffs that erupt out of nowhere.

30:51-36:43
CAEDES CRUENTA (Greece)
From the Darkest Paths of Golgotha
— Majestic Greek black metal with desperate raw vocals and gothy synth work.

37:17-40:17
INTELLECT DEVOURER (AU) (09/2020)
Demons of the Skull
— Released last year. A member from StarGazer, but very different. Guitar shredding technical death with changes to lurching slow pace.

40:34-44:19
REVULSION (Finland)
Unravel
— First full length after 10 years. Throaty death with some Finnish mood.

45:14-50:01
UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE (UK)
Stationary State
— Reimagined weirdo staticky drone meditation.

50:34-END
ALKERDEEL (Belgium)
Trok
— Bludgeoned.

0:25-4:17
PORTRAYAL OF GUILT (Austin)
Masochistic Oath
— Broken shards of bleak hardcore mixed with a demonic vocalist and grind, electronic, melodic pop.

5:49-17:05
THE RUINS OF BEVERAST (Germany)
The Tundra Shines
— One of my favorite metal bands, whose 2017 album made it to my top 20 of the last 20 years. Another vivid, moody, psychedelic, tribalistic black metal journey with surprising clean vocals that cut through. Touching. Massive.

17:34-22:31
EXIMPERITUSERQETHHZEBIBŠIPTUGAKKATHŠULWELIARZAXUŁUM (Belarus)
Tahâdu
— Anonymous group takes you on a weird, crazed death ride with a moody, rich doom. Unexpected.

23:00-27:20
STARGAZER (AU)
Star Vassal
— Indulgent, weird, proggy death with a rumbling and often theatrical singer, that culminates into kickass riffs.

28:00-36:44
THERMOHALINE (Argentina/Brazil/Belgium)
Sirens
— A debut that nails you to the wall with intensity, and changes shapes to droning guitars, industrial and keyboard effects.

37:08-40:27
ALTERED DEAD (CAN)
Prosodemic Realms
— Throat-clenched vocals within a hurricane of bleak death, slowed down to headbang-worthy sinister doom when needed.

41:02-47:26
TRIBULATION (Sweden)
The Wilderness
— Take the time and meld with this fantasy metal with vampiric blood and a storm of heavy metal and rising melody. Excellent.

48:18-54:27
AETHYRICK (Finland)
Flesh Once Divided
— Frosty massive black metal that often slows to dramatic vibrant melody.

54:50-END
THE SUN CAME UP UPON THE LEFT (Portland)
A Coward’s Expression of Doubt
— A fantastic split with moody, gorgeous acoustic and gothic melodies.

0:25-8:34
GRAVE GNOSIS (FL)
Anathema
— Orthodox Satanic band practice dark spiritual arts in the form of sound, invoking spirits. That’s some dedication dude.

9:49-15:03
NOVAE MILITIAE (France)
Faithfully Reduced to Ashes
— Look, so this released last year, but just got released in the US by Sentient so we’ll go with that. USA! Another bout of Satanic black metal with a spectrum of pace from pummeling to lethargic to dense atmosphere.

15:46-22:53
AUTONOESIS (Toronto) (Released 8/2020)
Horrors of Nothing
— Long form thrash mixing death and black with guttural rasps and neck-wrenching spins. Such a great debut last year.

23:21-29:52
MYRDØD (PA?)
Elders Cave
— One person gurgling bloody chaotic swarming offset fighting hammering. Surprising.

30:44-35:17
SHAME (London)
Human, for a Minute
— Album name ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ is a color used to weaken. Disjointed punk pop, late 70’s style post-punk, and noise rock with Idles-style vocals.

35:42-41:35
ABERRATION (MN)
I
— Oppressive nature of Minnesota lends to a black metal filled with unease.

42:03-47:02
HULDER (OR)
From Whence and Ancient Evil Once Reigned
— One woman band mixing pagan, acoustic and medieval flair to a turbulent black metal.

47:48-51:12
SVRM (Ukraine)
Життя
— Emotionally relentless with intense vocals and grief-stricken melodies. Pummeling breaks to guitar breaks to folk instrumentation. Gorgeous.

51:47-END
DEAD NEANDERTHALS (Netherlands)
(part of) Cosmic Slime
— Members of my #1 2020 album Cryptae created another form of immersion: a distorted meditative drone sound wave. Love the touch of horn. You can download the 27 minute song for free from bandcamp (https://deadneanderthals.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-slime).

0:25-8:28
AKHLYS (CO) (released 12/2020)
Ephialtes
— An ancient, warped, sinister, atmospheric black metal witch rasps out evil spells between bloody teeth.

9:54-14:55
FRACTAL GENERATOR (Ontario)
Shadows Of Infinity
— Stealthy knife vocal outlines vicious turns and decapitating riffs while everything rains down in bullets.

15:26-21:12
GRAVEHUFFER (MO)
Madwolf
— Smart, strange, varied, jaunty crusty metal sludge with horns, sounding like Imperial Triumphant on a joyride. There is so much here.

21:39-28:07
HERETICAL SECT (NM) (released 12/2020)
Ritual Inversion
— Misting, howling, raging atmospheric horror breaking into a hurricane of distortion and pummeling, ripping apart into multiple organisms.

28:52-31:36
WARSTONE (MA) (Released 11/2020)
Holy Steel
— If you like Gatecreeper, take a gander of this powerful set of throaty grind, death and slow-churning sludge. Excellent.

32:03-33:06
GATECREEPER (AZ)
Starved
— Short bundle of death-grind and one massive epic doom song with heated growls.

33:41-41:18
DREAD SOVEREIGN (Ireland)
Nature is the Devil's Church
— Primordial lead singer has been one of my favorite for years. Another one of his projects of retro heavy metal with death tone and warm stoner psychedelic.

41:39-47:48
SHAIDAR LOGOTH (MN) (released 12/20)
Machin Shin
— Minnesota screams despair in a ferocious atmospheric black metal.

48:37-52:04
STASS (Sweden)
As The Seasons Bleach Your Bones
— Swedes roll out rock and death, epically catchy, surprising tempo lurches and a tuff boy mosh pit attitude.

52:26-57:41
MALAKHIM (Sweden)
Slither O Serpent
— Just a touch of melody within a cauldron of bubbling black and death sweetens it just right.

58:08-END
BLOSSOM (MN)
Ingurgitating the Caliginous Orifice
— Short and sweet songs blasting out a crust and death impact.

Best of 2020, Show 2 of 2, counting down to my #1 Album!

Album Cover Art
The Spirit (Germany), album - Cosmic Terror: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3996197371_10.jpg
Psychotic Waltz (CA), album - The God Shaped Void: https://www.insideoutshop.de/images/products/large/0IO01998_637115800934067991.jpg
Phalanx (CA), album - Golden Horde: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2404742206_10.jpg
Blasphemer (Italy), album - The Sixth Hour: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0764213119_10.jpg
On Thorns I Lay (Greece), album - Threnos: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0195263489_10.jpg
Peripheral Cortex (Germany), album - God Kaiser Hell: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4257315599_10.jpg
Xenobiotic, album – Mordrake: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2471456487_10.jpg
Intronaut (CA), album - Fluid Existential Inversions: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0798790118_10.jpg
Heathen Foray (Austria), album – Weltenwandel: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4089437681_10.jpg
Man’n Sin (France), album - Garden of Starvation: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3989012929_10.jpg
Korgonthurus (Finland), album – Kuolleestasyntynyt: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0719671308_10.jpg
Crystal Coffin (CAN), album - The Transformation Room: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4001452580_10.jpg
Hyborian (KC), album - Volume II: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3175924485_10.jpg
Death On Fire (IN), album - Ghost Songs: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4129148932_10.jpg
Roman Ring (Chicago), album - The Halogen: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0817157893_10.jpg
Forlesen (Bay Area), album - Hierophant Violent: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4215778864_10.jpg
Graveir (AU), album - King of the Silent World: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3127444269_10.jpg
Light Dweller (AZ), album – Hominal: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0718838473_10.jpg
Khôra (Norway), album – Timaeus: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0231645775_10.jpg
Khthoniik Cerviiks (Germany), album – Æequiizoiikum: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0281983332_10.jpg
Xythlia, album - Immortality Through Quantum Suicide: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3169528353_10.jpg
Gaerea (Portugal), album – Limbo: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3738186031_10.jpg
Fides Inversa (Italy) , album – Historia Nocturna: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1364049488_10.jpg
Question (Mexico), album - Reflections of the Void: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3893888604_10.jpg
Krallice (NYC), album - Mass Cathexis: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0574786205_10.jpg
Ars Magna Umbrae (Poland), album – Apotheosis: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3001886981_10.jpg
Expander (Austin), album - Neuropunk Boostergang: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2673049905_10.jpg
Astringency (TX), album - Of Vacant Planes: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2891681845_10.jpg
Yatra (MD), album - All is Lost: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2190231781_10.jpg
Amiensus (MN), album – Abreaction: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0885904814_10.jpg
Lord Almighty (Boston), album – Wither: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1449725673_10.jpg
Maladie (GER), album - The Grand Aversion: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3234487487_10.jpg
Goratory (Boston), album - Sour Grapes: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3844836567_10.jpg
The Deviant (Norway), album - Rotting Dreams of Carrion: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2586727345_10.jpg

Behind My Vocals
Statiqbloom (NYC), album - Beneath The Whelm
Deathmaze (Belgium), album - Eau Rouge
Riki (LA), album - S/T
IAMTHESHADOW (Portugal), album - Pitchblack

Modern Black
WAYFARER (Denver), album - A Romance With Violence
The Crimson Rider (Gallows Frontier, Act I) (0:25-10:50)
— Western romance and melody infused with epic, pummeling, majestic black metal with a fiery lead singer.

UPRISING (Germany), album - II
Monuments (12:25-19:35)
— Folk and punk lend the steel-tipped boot of anti-nazi black metal a surprising groove and heart.

RUNNERS-UP:
Khthoniik Cerviiks (Germany), album - Æequiizoiikum
Esoctrilihum (France), album - Eternity Of Shaog
Meslamtaea (Netherlands), album - Geketend in de schaduw van het leven
Calligram (Europe), album - The Eye Is The First Circle

Alternative & New/Cold/Dark Wave
Saturday Album: MOANING (LA), album - Uneasy Laughter
Keep Out (20:16-24:26)
— My Saturday album is my most played album of the year. Buy this on vinyl and twirl in your living room, arms outstretched as you belt every word and fall in love with every sweet note. I cannot recommend more.

FEARING (Santa Cruz), album - Shadow
Pictured Perfect (25:08-30:02)
— Fearing played on my birthday in 2019 opening for She Past Away (Turkey); and I knew I had to follow them. And I was rewarded with the most danceable goth-leaning dark wave of 2020.

RUNNERS-UP:
Pleasure Policy (Oakland), album - Forever
Statiqbloom (NYC), album - Beneath The Whelm
Deathmaze (Belgium), album - Eau Rouge
Riki (LA), album - S/T
IAMTHESHADOW (Portugal), album - Pitchblack

Black'n'Death
VREDEHAMMER (Norway), album - Viperous
Winds of Dysphoria (30:50-35:42)
— Industrial-influenced keyboards and beat deconstruct this tight guitar soloing, neck-wrencher.

HAAPOJA (Finland), album - Mullan Keskeltä
Tunne Kylmä, Tunne Pelko (36:15-41:39)
— Scraped off the bowels of death with strangled vocals and alien guitar tone. Melodies shine between the crust and grime.

WARDAEMONIC (AU), album - Acts of Repentance
Act IV – Sufferance (42:07-50:32)
— The name suggests straight pummeling, but this was a journey, each song providing dynamics in thought and structure.

RUNNER-UP:
Earth Rot (AU), album – Black Tides of Obscurity

Debut
SKELETON (Austin), album - S/T
Catacombs (51:23-55:50)
— What a difficult category to choose from. Listening to Skeleton is like how I would imagine them live, massive chomping energy in complex morsels of structure and brutality.

RUNNERS-UP:
Autonoesis (CAN), album – S/T
Diabolic Oath (Portland), album – Profane Death Exodus
Thætas (NYC) , album – Shrines to Absurdity
Kommand (CA), album – Terrorscape
Abyssal Ascendant (France), album – Chronicles of the Doomed Worlds, Pt. 2: Deacons of Abhorrence
Antzaat (Belgium), album – For You Men Who Gaze into the Sun
Well Of Night (Ohio), album – The Lower Planes of Self-Abstraction
Cynabare Urne (Finland), album – Obsidian Daggers & Cinnabar Skulls
Carnosus (Sweden), album - Dogma of the Deceased
Volcandra (Kentucky), album - Into the Azure

Mood
ORANSSI PAZUZU (Finland), album - Mestarin kynsi
Oikeamielisten sali (56:38-1:02:14)
— Do you expect me to skip Oranssi? Because they consistently put out excellent, unique albums that can’t possibly be matched by their next recording? And yet they did it again, with their signature black psychedelic, hypnotic, eclectic textures creating a new fold in your brain.

SERMENT (CAN), album - Chante, Ô Flamme de la Liberté
Flamme Hivernale (1:02:47-1:10:40)
— Each song includes the sound of wind; soothing, still pockets before an unrelenting pummeling of heart-wrenching black metal with a range of emotions.

CONVOCATION (Finland), album - Ashes Coalesce
Martyrise (1:11:11-1:21:16)
— I am not a funeral doom fan, but these guys use it to create an immensely satisfying, sinister, atmospheric death with hot, taloned vocals.

Modern Death
AFTERBIRTH (NYC), album - Four Dimensional Flesh
Spiritually Transmitted Disease (1:22:16-1:26:23)
— Don’t turn away from the dehydrated guttural upon guttural vocals. It becomes a droning texture within the experimental, psychedelic grind and death with raging technical guitar. The melody pops, flares and bubbles to create a weird, unique experience.

#1 Album: CRYPTAE (Netherlands), album - Nightmare Traversal
Monastic Tomb (1:27:06-END)
— Power surges in the suffocating ocean of Cryptae. It will bash you against its raw edges, a hypnotizing pain that becomes pleasurable. It cracks open to melodic threads and drowns you again. A nightmare, a dose of reality, a meditation.

RUNNERS-UP:
Wake (CAN), album - Devouring Ruin
Ulcerate (New Zealand), album - Stare Into Death and Be Still 
Bedsore (Italy), album - Hypnagogic Hallucinations
Sepulchral Curse (Finland) , album - Only Ashes Remain

RUNNER UP CATEGORIES
Heavy Metal Retro Doom
NITE (SF), album - Darkness Silence Mirror Flame

RUNNERS-UP:
Wytch Hazel (UK), album - III: Pentecost
Traveler (CAN), album - Termination Shock
Eternal Champion (Austin), album - Ravening Iron

Melodic Death
FIRES IN THE DISTANCE, album - Echoes From Deep November

RUNNERS-UP:
Countless Skies (UK), album - Glow
On Thorns I Lay (Greece), album - Threnos
Rannoch (UK), album - Reflections Upon Darkness
Descend (Sweden), album - The Deviant

Sludge
KONVENT (Denmark), album - Puritan Masochism

RUNNERS-UP:
Vile Creature (CAN), album - Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!
Garganjua (UK), album - Toward the Sun
Irist (GA), album - Order Of The Mind
Drought Year (NC), album - Adorned with Death (also industrial)
Black Royal (Finland), album - Firebride

Best (Livestream) Shows
Mr Bungle: Unbelievable
Obituary: Savage
Greg Dulli: Gorgeous
Deathgrave: Local Halloween theatrical fun
Terry Gross: Trippy with a handsome drummer

Behind my Vocals:
Moaning (LA), album - Uneasy Laughter
Fearing (CA), album - Shadow
Pleasure Policy (Oakland), album - Forever

Speed/Thrash-Influenced
KVAEN (Sweden), album - The Funeral Pyre
Revenge by Fire (0:25-6:40)
— Black metal with epic guitar solos and truth-laying vocals creating chomping, rifftastic, scrunch-face metal

HELLRIPPER (Scotland), album - The Affair of the Poisons
The Affair of the Poisons (8:47-13:35)
— Sniff up this line of pure adrenalin that charges, blasts and rips up your evil soul.

RUNNERS-UP:
Mr. Bungle (SF), album - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny
Warbringer (CA), album - Weapons of Tomorrow
Havok (Denver), album - V
Carnosus (Sweden), album - Dogma of the Deceased
Bütcher (Belgium), album - 666 Goats Carry My Chariot
Midnight (Cleveland), album - Rebirth by Blasphemy

Folk
HAVUKRUUNU (Finland), album - Uinuos Syömein Sota
Kunnes Varjot Saa (14:08-19:02)
— Medieval ethnic Finnish Viking folk bubbles in a cauldron for drunk warriors. Guitars strum as witches dance to epic soaring intensity and indulgent guitar solos.

Grind/Technical/Extreme
ANAAL NATHRAKH (UK), album – Endarkenment
Libidinous (A Pig with Cocks in Its Eyes) (19:54-24:07)
— Theatrical, operatic grind playing with a range of serial killer vocals, riding atop a mountain of structures. Not your grandfather’s grind.

RUNNERS-UP:
Spectrum of Delusion, album - Neoconception
Xythlia (MN), album - Immortality Through Quantum Suicide
Benighted (France), album - Obscene Repressed

Split
SPECTRAL LORE AND MARE COGNITUM (Portland, Greece), album - Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine
Mars (The Warrior) (24:43-33:10)
— The yin and yang achieved between rage and peace, meditation and torture, vicious and still. A thicket of dense sounds part for clear, majestic black metal moments.

RUNNER-UP:
Krallice/Geryon (NYC), album- Wolf/Astomatous

Black Metal
VALDRIN (Ohio), album - Effigy of Nightmares
Basilisk Of Light (34:12-39:07)
— A pool of bloody, dense, monstrous black metal from which no sweetness can emerge.

SNORLAX (AU), album - II
Encapsulated Apocalypse (39:38-44:30)
— Towering vocals within a red-hot, blistering furnace of evil.

RUNNERS-UP:
Cult of Fire (Czech Rep), album - Moksha
...And Oceans (Finland), album - Cosmic World Mother
Naglfar (Sweden), album - Cerecloth

Death
QUESTION (Mexico), album - Reflections of the Void
A Fate Worse Than Death (45:17-51:03)
— Thoughtful, moving death with headbanger riffs. More than you expect.

SKELETAL REMAINS (CA), album - The Entombment Of Chaos
Synthetic Impulse (51:35-56:15)
— Old school death impact with the violent joy of power in every song.

RUNNERS-UP:
Ulthar (CA), album - Providence
Undergang (Denmark), album - Aldrig i livet
Faceless Burial (AU), album - Speciation
Puteraeon (Sweden), album - The Cthulhian Pulse: Call FromThe Dead City

Melodic Black
PANZERFAUST (CAN), album - The Suns of Perdition – Chapter II: Render unto Eden
The Snare of the Fowler (57:44-1:07:29)
— Cathedral meditation in a stormy, richly instrumented, epic black metal.

REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER (France), album - Ascension
Stellar Cross (1:07:55-1:15:51)
— Brooding, primal, anguished black metal that flips over into something different.

AFSKY (Denmark), album - Ascension Ofte Jeg Drømmer Mig Død
Tyende Sang (1:16:40-1:24:39)
— Cold, shimmering soulful slicing and soothing, powerful in the melancholy and sweet of disappearing notes as much as the explosive wall of sound.

#2 Album: GAEREA (Portugal), album - Limbo
Null (1:25:19-END)
— Muscular vocals collapsing into shrieks, guitars propelling each other, and multiple layers of black metal giving way to death metal bold.

RUNNERS-UP:
Blaze Of Perdition (Poland), album - The Harrowing of Hearts
Silver Knife (Belgium), album - Unyielding/Unseeing
Liminal Shroud (CAN), album - Through the False Narrows

Originally a 2012 show! Happy Holidays.  Next week is off, before my Best of 2020 shows in January!

0:29-6:33
VINCE GUARALDI TRIO
Charlie Brown

7:17-11:07
DIO
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

11:08-15:27
KING DIAMOND
No Presents for Christmas

15:28-19:40
JOAN JETT
Little Drummer Boy

19:41-24:19
TWISTED SISTER
Oh Come All Ye Faithful

24:20-26:57
GUNS N ROSES
White Christmas

27:28-30:49
LYNYRD SKYNYRD
Run Run Rudolph

30:50-32:48
ERLSUNG
Carol of the Bells

32:49-37:02
ALICE COOPER
Santa Claws is Coming To Town

37:03-40:45
DEAD KENNEDYS
Holiday in Cambodia

40:46-44:47
CINDERELLA
Blue Christmas

45:19-49:16
DOKKEN
Santa Claus is Coming to Town

49:17-52:08
LOUIS ARMSTRONG
Christmas in New Orleans

52:09-55:35
FRANK SINATRA
The Christmas Song

55:36-end
SCORPS
Winds of Change

Special darkwave, cold wave, your FACE wave, dark-romantic, or otherwise alternative show.  Everything released in 2020.

0:25-4:43
IAMTHESHADOW (Portugal)
Pitchblack

4:44-10:07
LEBANON HANOVER (Berlin)
The Last Thing

10:08-14:59
DELPHINE COMA (TX)
Dissolve

15:00-18:01
JONATHAN BREE (New Zealand)
After The Curtains Close

18:02-21:55
THE SECRET FRENCH POSTCARDS (Sweden)
The Dream is Gone

21:56-24:03
THE TACKS (New Zealand)
Merivale

24:12-28:13
THE VILLIONS (Greece)
Lamentation Of Moon

28:14-32:43
MICHELLE GUREVICH (Denmark)
The Art of Life

32:44-37:27
THE WAKE (OH)
Rusted 20

37:28-40:05
BLIND DELON (France)
Elle

40:06-43:23
TRICOR (Germany)
Dead Plants

43:54-47:47
ACTORS (CAN)
Love U More

47:48-52:43
ROTERSAND (Germany)
You Know Nothing

52:43-END
MINUIT MACHINE (Paris)
Don't Run From The Fire

0:25-4:23
UNDERGANG (Denmark)
Usømmelig omgang med lig
— Denmark is apparently filthy and ugly, to spew out this slithering beast of a cavernous, deranged death with crazed guitar solos and a sick doom twist.

5:25-9:29
CYNABARE URNE (Finland)
Last of the Icons Alive
— Sinister occult and death also blending black and an incredibly filthy groove. Power.

10:08-14:08
WYTCH HAZEL (UK)
I Will Not
— Holy shit, an amazing organ-loving, anthemic and epic 70’s style retro with a vocalist that hangs from the rafters. This album is better than the last, and the last won Best Retro in 2018.

14:45-19:38
DEPRAVITY (AU)
Castrate The Perpetrators
— Technical death metal with incredibly emotional and dynamic vocals in the style of Cattle Decapitation. Surprising melodic infects, and the result is a blast.

20:02-25:06
DAWNWALKER (UK)
The Cataclysm
— A heavy dose of spectrum-sliding vocals slicing my heart. Post-metal interrupted by a proggy death also creates a really spectacular sound. Surprisingly effective.

25:47-32:58
HYRGAL (France)
Triste Sire
— French post-black drama and turbulent ferocious black metal with a roughly textured vocalist that breaks into spoken French. Ooo-la-la, don my beret mofos.

33:33-41:27
EMPRESS (CAN)
Hiraeth
— Beautiful and soulful with incredibly passionate singing, and metal guitars that break from post-metal into stoner sludge and bouts of black.

41:51-45:54
THE DEVIANT (Norway)
It Has a Name
— Ex-lead singer of Gehenna within a frosted wintry scowling Norwegian forest black metal.

46:57-53:45
RESPIRE (CAN)
Catacombs Part II
— A massive collective including violin, trumpet and saxophone to melt that metal heart.

53:55-END
DARKENHÖLD (France)
Mystique de la Vouivre
— Medieval folk and epic melodic black metal, it’s badass.

0:25-7:58
DEVENEROR (NC)
Eden Doesn't Know
— Haunting meditation inflames to heart-wrenching explodes to savage black metal.

9:16-15:10
GLORIOUS DEPRAVITY (NYC)
Forced To Witness
— Supergroup of members of Woe, Mutilation Rites and the vocalist of Pyrrhon create tight bludgeoning sped-up death.

15:53-20:55
ÔROS KAÙ (Belgium)
Shax
— Vampire chocolate vocals in psychedelic trance passages mixed with sinister pummeling black and some bleak death. And a cover of 60’s era Pink Floyd!

21:14-24:11
REVOLTING (Sweden)
Defleshed
— More death speed with melodic groove in a short and sweet album.

24:47-29:58
ONDSKAPT (Sweden)
Opposites
— Blistering meets brooding black metal with a ton of dissonance and a storm of dark melodic guitar.

30:16-34:16
DEMONICAL (Sweden)
My Kingdom Done
— Large, epic death metal sound with tuff boy anthemic boot-kickingness.

34:34-43:39
VARDE (Norway)
Koll med Bilen del II
— Folk melody, theatrical vocals and cinematic vocals creates a unique Norwegian black metal.

44:39-52:04
YAOTL MICTLAN (SLC)
Tezcatlipoca-Espejo Relumbrante
— Mexican heritage in black metal, hells yeah. Colonialism discussed in lyrics too, awesome. Beautifully melodic and intricate.

52:31-END
SAINTE MARIE DES LOUPS (France)
Funérailles de feu
— Ugly demonic throat, stark tribalistic difficult raw-as-all-hell French black metal.

0:25-8:35
LIMINAL SHROUD (CAN)
To Forget
— Cold gothic black, nostalgic melancholy, with abrasive vocals in a furious coupling. Guitars crafted and layered bringing in lush, gazy post-black in portions. Both minimalist and textured, highlighting each style.

9:53-14:25
ETERNAL CHAMPION (Austin)
War at the Edge of the End
— Another Austin creation of retro-rock metal with a warrior-on-a-horse-galloping, anthemic, grooving, heavy metal with a silky smooth vocalist.

14:50-20:36
PHARMAKEIA (Unknown)
EIO
— Serial killer basement metal with bleeding walls and chopped up dissonance hanging from a hook.

21:01-24:34
SOULSKINNER (Greece)
The Destroyer of Worlds
— Greek death kicking ass with headbanging riffs, crusty vocals, and soaring epic melodic with twists of doom and black. Solid fucking album.

25:26-30:53
TOMBS (NYC)
Barren
— Tombs mixes its black metal core with an assortment of death, chugging hardcore and ambient with their signature intensity.

31:15-36:57
FUCK THE FACTS (CAN)
Pleine Noirceur
— Artsy, stylish, melodic death grind with a bleak female vocalist. This really stands out with unusual structures.

37:22-40:54
LORD FIST (Finland)
Princess of the Red Flame
— Bring me a Finnish falsetto, and I will love it forever. Harmonized guitars and solos swirl within this Friday night heavy metal. Just a blast.

41:26-45:57
LIE IN RUINS (Finland)
Suffocating Darkness
— Thick molasses death with slowed-down beats and an eternity of a growl that stands up against muscular driving beats and demonic screeches.

46:59-54:23
SAD (Greece)
White Death
— Stretched out vocal chords vomiting out scratching vibrations, bleak black metal sweetened with melodic strains.

54:46-END
T.G.T.B. (Berlin?)
Derelict
— Beautifully danceable industrial and dark synth with a sexy baritone of a lead singer.

0:25-4:50
PUTERAEON (Sweden)
Call Of R'lyeh
— Lovecraftian-themed menacing, mean, monstrous, muscular old school death.

6:03-12:18
GUIGNOL NOIR (Switzerland)
Rotten Drugfest
— Black metal duo split between vocals and instrumentation. Vocals are theatrical, desperate, wicked and playful. Instrumentation is frosted, raw, riff-driven layering. Epic Swiss.

12:47-17:52
OF FEATHER AND BONE (Denver)
Baptized in Boiling Phlegm
— Denver’s idea of cavernous death, so extra blistering. Massive bald, bearded metal. I don’t know what they look like though. 

18:34-24:09
DRACONIAN (Sweden)
Claw Marks on the Throne
— Yeah, usually not my style either, gothic metal? But her fragility against brutality, set against atmospheric melancholy black metal is a balm.

25:08-30:39
MRTVI (Serbia)
Self Slaughtering
— Demonic vocals hop over a black metal and grind landscape propelled into an unseen dimension. A true mayhem that you may hate, but let it break you.

31:10-36:16
ANTZAAT (Belgium)
Through the Eyes of a Rotten Mind
— Murky, creepy vocals hit you like a ton of bricks, the melodic black metal is razor sharp, clawing.

36:46-41:34
PULCHRA MORTE (USA)
The Serpent's Choir
— Supergroup with members from Skeletonwitch, Abigail Williams, etc. Unrushed pace, sludgy death meets doom.

42:03-49:10
SHAIDAR LOGOTH (MN)
Consume Pieces of God
— Lots of atmospheric black metal despair in the Minnesota air. Shaidar Logoth shimmers when still, drops of pattering beautiful instruments rippling through, brewing into a storm, mournful screams into the abyss. Melodic is battered out until it is just a ferocious tornado, bleeding their soul. You know?

50:04-56:13
ANCIENT THRONES (CAN)
The Soul to Flesh
— Charred, raw and bleeding, like we need that to fill our brains and ears, what are we? Fucking insane? This is what I like? What is wrong with me, and you, omg we are all dying.

56:42-END
MOLCHAT DOMA (Belarus)
Leningradskiy Blues
— Excited to see this synth dark wave band with a brand new album. Definitely some eastern European influence here.

0:25-6:17
COUNTLESS SKIES (UK)
Summit
— Spectacular melodic death metal with epic guitar melodies along with theatrical and dramatic vocals juxtaposed with groove and organic instrumentation that melts the universe. Vocals styling reminds me of While Heaven Wept.

7:29-12:39
GRAFVITNIR (Sweden)
Helvetesnatt
— Electrical storm vocals cutting through raw black metal and vivid melodies.

13:00-18:39
GRIFFON (France)
Abomination
— French elegance in the form of piano and strummed guitar pools between screams and the swift sharp edge of black metal.

19:02-24:06
CONVULSE (Finland)
Whirlwind
— The lofi death growl is so strange and cool against proggy, pagan rock and psychedelic guitars.

24:42-31:25
SVARTSYN (Sweden)
The Pale Horse
— Another brilliant Swedish black brutal cold bludgeoning mixed with sexy doom.

31:55-37:46
MR. BUNGLE (SF)
Raping Your Mind
— The new Mr. Bungle remaking their 1986 thrash demo is fabulous, romping badassery. The best show of the year perhaps.

38:18-43:56
AUÐN (Iceland)
Verður von að bráð
— Another incredible Icelandic black metal with that dynamic atmospheric big sound, drenched in despair.

44:52-50:47
OCCULT BURIAL (CAN)
Highway Through Borderland
— Black leathery winged metal led by a sickle vocal and fueled in chomping thrash and beer. It’s just so obvious.

51:07-54:17
HANGING FORTRESS (Ohio)
Drown
— Swinging between swift death blasts and a lumbering doom pace and a blast of a mid-tempo fist flailing headbang worthy riffs.

54:45-END
SÓLFSTAFIR (Iceland)
Dionysus
— Brooding Iceland strikes again, led by ballads but really stands out with their aggressively-paced songs.

Special election night party mix!

0:25-5:27
ALICE COOPER (1975)
Welcome to my Nightmare

5:28-10:15
SCORPIONS (1972)
I'm Going Mad

10:16-14:19
DIO (1983)
Rainbow in the Dark

14:20-17:17
TWISTED SISTER (1984)
I Wanna Rock

17:18-22:42
JUDAS PRIEST (1984)
Rock Hard Ride Free

23:01-29:12
TRIUMPH (1980)
In the Night

29:13-32:37
THE JAMES GANG (1971)
Walk Away

32:38-36:36
UFO (1974) (watch it live, it is so fucking hot! https://youtu.be/-16KJkJA5Bo)
Doctor Doctor

36:37-41:16
METALLICA (1984)
Fight Fire With Fire

41:48-47:42
WISHBONE ASH (1978)
You See Red

47:43-51:26
DEF LEPPARD (1980) (watch it live, the outfits. https://youtu.be/aI_2SchPjks)
Wasted

51:27-56:24
BLACK SABBATH (1971)
Sweet Leaf

56:25-END
DAVID BOWIE (1975)
Young Americans

0.25-8:30
CEREMONIAL BLOODBATH (Vancouver)
Seven Wells
— Murky, charred death metal in a cacophonic fog filled with razors.

9:46-13:55
MALADIE (GER)
Murmur
— Psychedelic, jazz, guttural, experimental, theatrical, cold black, bombastic death, ethnic and industrial. No big thing.

14:17-17:55
UNDEATH (NY)
Acidic Twilight Visions
— Debut cavernous death within a filthy twisted riff.

18:16-24:11
PROMETHEUS (Greece)
Azathoth
— A mist of guttural vocals layered over pummeling black and muscular riffs.

24:53-31:18
MOLASSES (Netherlands)
Get Out From Under
— Ex-The Devil’s Blood in a new project of organic, jamming blues rock.

31:34-34:32
INVINCIBLE FORCE (Chile)
The Covenant
— Maniacal vocals and blistering death beat breaking into a chomping thrash.

34:57-38:11
GORATORY (Boston)
Evolutionary Wart
— Technical, lurching-paced weirdo grind pain for your pleasure.

38:34-45:39
KEVEL (Greece)
Of Being
— Big, open tribalistic, sludge with chanting vocals and sinister guitar.

46:18-51:03
VENOM PRISON (UK)
Defiant to the Will of God
— Badass female lead singer in a release of past released demos and two new songs. Waiting for the rest!

51:35-END
BIHARGAM (KY)
The Screaming Planet
— Kentucky black metal, understand the anger.

0:25-6:55
LEPROSY (Quebec)
Virtual Life
— Guitar noodling nerds who understand they need to break it down in the most immense satisfying way in order to get laid.

7:55-14:16
HORDE OF HEL (Sweden)
No Remorse
— Alien beasts just returning from war-metal.

14:56-20:07
HENRIK PALM (Sweden)
Destroyer
— Big influencers, my Roommate and Sean pushed me to listen to ex-Ghost guitarist, now a solo synthesizer-lover breaking into the post-punk, krautrock, pagan blues genre.

20:37-29:02
INFERA BRUO (Boston)
Cimmerian Shade
— Switched tempos, switched vocals, technical guitars, and moody electronics scatter across aggressive black metal. Excellent!

29:44-34:40
LORD ALMIGHTY (Boston)
Hooded Three
— I had to buy the vinyl, the album art is epic. Chomping Boston-style hardcore and swinging heavy metal guitars break up the melodic black metal.

35:05-40:59
SPIRIT ADRIFT (TX)
Screaming from Beyond
— Chris Black is another incredible artist similar to Nate Garrett.  Retro metal and hard rocking riffs with epic vocals.

41:25-44:30
PARANOID (Sweden)
Mada Minu Yuutopia
— Japanese-loving Swedes in aesthetics.  Dense, angry, ferocious hardcore, thrash and retro metal. Punk as fuck.

45:35-54:55
WAYFARER (Denver)
Vaudeville
— Denver dudes bring in the concept of the wild west outlaw with twanging western guitars to create the atmosphere in their version of majestic black metal. Makes sense to me. The wild west was evil.

55:13-END
LIK (Sweden)
Revel in Gore
— Lean, aggressive, mean-muscled death.

0:25-5:53
CRYPTAE (Netherlands)
Cronos
— What a surprising mix of industrial, experimental and cavernous death with crisp production, from a 2-piece no less.

7:05-10:58
ANAAL NATHRAKH (UK)
Endarkenment
— 1995 At The Gates time traveled but the machine hiccupped and they came out the other side as a British grind band that also excels in black and death. The vocal range is immense, from screech scratching to clean and sexy. Yep.

11:28-18:53
FIRES IN THE DISTANCE (CT)
Reflections in the Ice
— Super synthy melodic lines itself with muscular vocals and a beautifully structured doom and death, really big album.

19:30-24:20
HELLRIPPER (Scotland)
The Affair of the Poisons
— Priya's harlequin romance metal, which if you don't understand is a Scottish accent on a razor sharp vocal carving out lyrics over a deeply dark catchy speed. Fan me.

25:14-29:41
AMIENSUS (MN)
Drowned
— Verklempt is the result. Pain in the screaming and melancholy melody, in a very Minnesota forest black metal with dives into death and post.

30:08-33:26
ABYSSAL ASCENDANT (France)
Martyrs Of Mordiggian
— Clenched throat creating a sinister guttural, bends from riff to thrash pace. No use keeping up.

34:14-43:00
DYSYLUMN (France)
Dispersion II
— 3 different sections traveling from shimmering black metal to angular death to melodic dream meditative gaze.

44:07-50:46
HEXER (Germany)
Typhon
— ANOTHER Mariusz Lewandowski album cover, COME. ON. Very unique song structures with a throbbing doom pace, ambient and drone and the frenetic guitar of black metal, created by hot Germans.

51:10-56:10
JUST BEFORE DAWN (Sweden)
Dance Of Katyusha
— War lyrics match the dread of this world. Swedish riffs in a death atmosphere thickened by doom.

56:34-END
YATRA (Maryland)
Tyrant Throne
— Sludgy stoner doom that just wants to fucking rock.

Special seminal post-punk albums show, all released between 1978-1981.

0:25-4:05
THE SOUND (1980), album - Jeopardy
I Can't Escape Myself

4:06-8:17
SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES (1978), album - The Scream
Metal Postcard (Mittageisen)

8:18-12:20
WIRE (1978), album - Chairs Missing
Practice Makes Perfect

12:21-17:20
PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED (1979), album - Metal Box
Memories

17:21-20:35
THE CURE (1980), album - Seventeen Seconds
Secrets

20:36-24:36
MAGAZINE (1979), album - Real Life
Shot By Both Sides

24:54-28:16
JOY DIVISION (1979), album - Unknown Pleasures
Disorder

28:17-31:47
GANG OF FOUR (1979), album - Entertainment!
At Home He's A Tourist

31:48-36:01
ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN (1980), album - Crocodiles
Rescue

36:01-41:44
THIS HEAT (1981), album - Deceit
Paper Hats

41:45-46:01
NEW ORDER (1981), album - Movement
Denial

46:31-52:03
THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS (1980), album - S/T
Sister Europe

52:04-54:31
THE TEARDROP EXPLODES (1980), album - Kilimanjaro
Bouncing Babies

54:32-END
BAUHAUS (1980), album - In the Flat Field
The Spy in the Cab

0:25-7:56
MESLAMTAEA (Netherlands)
Illusie
— Screaming against the declining world and expressing our collective utter despair and anger within theatrical black metal woven with psychedelic and progressive. So surprising.

8:57-11:53
BLOODLETTER (Chicago)
Burnt Beyond Recognition ft. Rae Amitay
— Chicago thrash and speed with a cold vocalist and a highly collaborative record. This song features the female vocalist and drummer from Immortal Bird.

12:16-21:18
VOUS AUTRES (France)
Onde
— French black metal with breathtaking horror-influenced atmosphere and sludgy drums.

21:52-28:56
DESERT LORD (Finland)
Sinner's Playground
— I’m going to be real here. I don’t like stoner, and I like very little doom-influenced anything. I do like stylish hot 70-s revitalist shit from Sweden, but that is not the point. This shit is Finnish smokey vocals that scream in epic glory and psychedelic blues-driven doomy jams that is fucking out there. Loved it.

29:37-37:11
THE INFERNAL SEA (UK)
Into the Unknown
— Raw throaty intense vampiric black metal with delicious guitar solos; and I headbanged on my couch to his growls. Need I say more.

37:55-41:59
SVALBARD (UK)
Throw Your Heart Away
— Look you stuck up assholes, this band is probably a genre that you don’t particularly love, but their hearts throb in full intensity, and you feel it. Male and female vocals that hit you in peak intense raw emotion, singing lyrical poetry, core mixed with black metal and drops of clear post-metal. This was touching.

42:46-50:58
ARDENTE (France)
Le Château Sous les Étoiles
— Black metal jingles in my dried up heart. It pulls a string, and I feel it distinctly. It is an energy that is rabid, and I understand.

51:23-END
MESSIAH (Switzerland)
Children of Faith
— Lemmy-influenced vocals atop death and thrash and roll that take some time to unearth.

0:25-5:39
CARNATION (Belgium)
Reincarnation
— It fits my mood to listen to face-melting old school death metal that wants to kill me.

6:41-12:23
SPECTRUM OF DELUSION (Netherlands)
Into Another Formation
— Multi-layered, multi-tempo-ed, multi-vocalized with proggy guitars that takes a deep breath before slamming into riffy techdeath and grind. What a blast.

12:48-21:32
SUNKEN (Denmark)
Delirium
— The Danes take their green hills and shiny seas and invoke that imagery into rolling atmospheric melodies that peak into dense black metal.

21:52-27:37
EVOKE (Norway)
Wrathcurse
— Debut album with a whirlwind of speed and thrash that is made for good times.

28:13-33:16
PROSCRIPTION (Finland)
Radiant Midnight
— Finnish fire vocalist breathing over death pummeling shaking skulls into fragments.

33:38-40:16
THURISAZ (Belgium)
Monologue
— Doom-psychedelic vocal style along with hot theatrical and brutal growls delivered over decadent, unrushed and reflective black moody instrumentals.

40:55-48:00
JUPITERIAN (Brazil)
Capricorn
— No more album covers by Mariusz Lewandowski I beg of you. Brown noting down-tuned ominous sludge with raspy vocals and goosebump-creating whispers.

48:45-53:52
DYNFARI (Iceland)
Ég tortímdi sjálfum mér
— A step away from traditional blistering Icelandic black metal with a blended sweet and melancholy post-metal.

54:25-END
HIIDENHAUTA (Finland)
Harmio
— Hiidenhauta is all about mixing of hardcore shouts, black metal screeches with female pagan in a folksy black metal hopped up with some crusty hardcore.

0:25-5:56
SKELETAL REMAINS (CA)
Tombs of Chaos
— Joy ride of riffs and face blowing impact within technical excellence and rhythmic power. Let your mullet flow.

7:03-13:58
DEPHOSPHORUS (Greece)
The Mists Rose Like Departing Dreams
— These dudes contemplate, circle melody and infuse a groove rock within the blast of death, grind speed, and black metal screech.

14:41-21:08
KAIRON; IRSE! (Finland)
Psionic Static
— Finnish cosmos shooting into a galaxy of psychedelic rock and shoegaze guitar, pulsating out with those alien brains. Guitarist is from Oranssi Pazuzu and Waste of Space Orchestra, so that same heady, moody, meditative style, but this project is without the metal.

21:43-29:18
ORDINANCE (Finland)
The Kingdom of Nothing
— Finnish duo thickly mutters through a mix of melodic, satanic, black metal guitar and lofi drumming that perpetually progresses.

29:53-35:52
VOID ROT (MN)
Delusions of Flesh
— Cavernous vocals in a slithering death ripped apart with sinister guitar and drumming groove.

36:10-42:36
DUMAL (PA)
Ossuaric Inversion
— Steep your brain in black metal speed and sweet strain of melancholy that opens up to so much more. Like your face.

43:42-50:21
SVNTH (Italy)
Wings Of The Ark
— Svnth was previously Seventh Genocide. Shoegaze and black metal building blocks that break into atmospheric and stark compositions. Vocalist of Svnth is the guitarist of Bedsore, who also blend genres, but in a predominant death sound.

50-53-56:35
ASTRINGENCY (TX)
Recrudescence
— Desolate, hellscape Texas is represented in the album art and overall sound. Muscular vocals take control, with heavy metal guitar solo spotlights and spots of organic instrumentation, but bleak is the message.

57:05-END
CULT OF LILITH (Iceland)
Profeta Paloma
— Every song has a weird twist. Often djent, with organic breaks of proggy bass and strummed guitar. Iceland!

Labor Day weekend show, and I curated *my* seminal industrial/goth ALBUMS. These are the albums that started my journey down the rabbit hole.

0:25-6:02
SKINNY PUPPY (CAN): Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse (1986)
One Time One Place
— In my top 10 bands of all time, Skinny Puppy bent my ear towards aggressive. Their lyrics were political and vegan, and they lived their lives within these ideals. “In the rain collapse calls out which way we'll go.”

7:28-13:26
SISTERS OF MERCY (UK): Floodland (1987)
Flood II
— Floodland was darkly rich atmospheric goth, nestled between the massive riff-tastic hits of Dominion, This Corrosion and Lucretia, My Reflection. “When the water comes rushing, rushing in.”

14:04-18:54
MINISTRY (US): Twitch (1986)
Just Like You
— Pre-dirty Al Jourgensen. After disavowing their ballad-heavy ‘With Sympathy’ with claims that it was the record label’s idea, they ventured towards their truer sound. Rhythmic, aggressive. Twitch was released; and at the same time they were already recording Land of Rape and Honey. “When one dictator is the same as the leader.”

19:33-23:43
PAILHEAD (US): Trait (1988)
I Will Refuse
— With the freedom of Wax Trax! Records, Al collaborated with Ian MacKaye from Minor Threat, along with Paul Barker and Bill Rieflin (RIP). It was only a short EP with a couple of single releases but had a big impact. Industrial mixed with punk, and genre-mixing was just getting started. This collaboration (in my opinion) had a huge influence on Ministry’s ‘The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste” 1989 album. “Murder and weather is our only news.”

24:31-28:56
PIG (UK): A Poke In The Eye...With A Sharp Stick (1988)
It Tolls for Thee (Pig Breath)
— Raymond Watts worked with KMDM, Einsturzende Neubauten and Foetus in various capacities. Pig mixed industrial with the heavy riffs of metal. We listened to this album in the car during high school lunch, and realized it was time to become metalheads.

29:18-34:08
SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES (UK): Peepshow (1988)
Scarecrow
— Haunting, evil imagery and the road from post-punk to goth, and I was all about it. “My so-called friends say you're not alive. I'll bake their bones for telling lies.”

34:37-39:56
SCRAPING FOETUS OFF THE WHEEL (AU): Nail (1985)
The Throne of Agony
— JG Thirwell taught me that super, super, super weird and conceptual was divine. I wrote my senior year high school AP English final essay on this album. “Choke up a thousand Marlboros.”

40:37-44:42
CHRISTIAN DEATH (US): Sex and Drugs and Jesus Christ (1988)
This Is Heresy
— There are a million wars between fans of Rozz and Valor. Valor’s Christian Death is where I started with this band. I ate up the anti-church and establishment imagery; and I couldn't get enough of the riffs from this particular song. “Your church makes me vomit. Into the vertiginous abyss.”

45:35-49:10
DEPECHE MODE (UK): Black Celebration (1986)
Stripped
— I followed Depeche Mode down the romantic goth route; and Stripped was the soundtrack of my depression. “We'll lay on the grass and let the hours pass.”

49:45-54:16
GENE LOVES JEZEBEL (UK): The House of Dolls (1987)
Every Door
— Sexy crooners to my soul. This album was my first adult concert with Flesh for Lulu at the Glenn Miller Ballroom in Boulder. “I've knocked on every door in every street. And I don't know how long it's gonna be.”

55:02-END
THE TEAR GARDEN (UK/CAN): Tired Eyes Slowly Burning (1987)
You And Me And Rainbows
— Edward Ka-Spel of Legendary Pink Dots collaborated with members of Skinny Puppy, mostly Cevin Key, in their experimental electronic project The Tear Garden. This was where I realized abstract psychedelic lyrics and keyboards were my jam. This particular song is actually over 16 minutes long and is one of the most powerful songs in this genre. “Aiming skewers at the sheep. Face down, asleep, in onion fields. The frying fields. The worms. They peep through holes which once were eyes. They thrive, they bake, although we painted out the sky, the sun. There's only thunder. And you and me and rainbows.”

0:25-10:12
PANZERFAUST (CAN)
The Snare of the Fowler
— Chapter II follow up to last year’s Chapter I. Another epic, melodic, richly-textured black metal. A spectrum from meditation to bellowing. The vocals crawled up my spine in the best way.

11:23-17:38
NECROT (Oakland)
Sinister Will
— Straight-up tightly-produced death with no bells and whistles and no distortion. Just fist-pumping headbangs.

18:14-23:02
LAETITIA IN HOLOCAUST (Italy)
Of Feathers and Doom
— A strange duo with a booming fretless bass and harmonizing guitar creating melancholy and cinematic duel of black and death. The vocalist is a charming growling story-teller. .

23:26-25:48
VENOMOUS CONCEPT (Chicago)
Dementia Degeneration
— Short, tight snarls of hardcore groove and grind in a package of political, anthemic lyrics to belt out at a live show when life gets back to normal.

26:20-32:02
ASTRINGENCY (TX)
Recrudescence
— Coupling death, melodic black compositions and bending tempos with stunning art. Extreme vocals and I’m a goner.

32:29-36:04
VOLTURYON (Sweden)
Invisible Abomination
— Belting out political statements in a world gone crazy is perfect meditation. Chunky, swift and tight drumming and direct kicks to the head.

36:37-40:26
PIG DESTROYER (VA)
The Cavalry
— Just an EP? From 45 seconds of eerie dystopian news to 11 minutes of avant-garde electronic and sound effects to the usual destruction of death and grind. The full release will wallop.

40:58-46:12
ULVER (Norway)
Little Boy
— Minimalist poppy and sweet dark wave, dancing to their despair.

47:06-54:54
JUDICATOR (AZ)
Antioch
— Power metal can be so cheesy, and Judicator certainly is dramatic, but have a hundred badass journeys within each song with rising riffs.

55:17-END
BONE AWL (CA)
Bluestone (Branded into Skin)
— Raw, lofi black metal to play when you are clawing through a grave.

0:25-5:27
BEAR MACE (Chicago)
Xenomorphic Conquest
— Mark Sugar has helped create a chomping beast of massive riffs, snarling vocals that bely the groove and insanely good guitar.

6:27-14:56
SILVER KNIFE (Belgium)
Sundown
— The Belgians mix genres so breathtakingly effortlessly, moving from one and building to the next. Light and dark, sweet and evil, and a hurricane to blow you away.

15:21-20:28
EXPANDER (Austin)
Cryptosteal
— Futuristic imagery created within in industrial cage, morphing to industrial to metal and back to noise without taking a breath. Relentlessly on the move.

20:58-25:19
ARS MAGNA UMBRAE (Poland)
She Who Splits the Earth
— Dense and foreboding, sometimes dreamy atmospheric, churning slow pace malevolence within melodic black metal.

25:49-30:43
TEMPLE OF DREAD (GER)
Commands from a Black Soul
— Running thrash stumbling forward to a death roar.

31:05-37:08
OV SHADOWS (Sweden)
I Djävulens Avbild
— The Swedish know frost, this one with moody mutterings, tribalistic drums, and layers of melody.

37:28-41:34
NYKTOPHOBIA (Germany)
Yearning from an Uncharted Grave
— Riffs soar high, because this is German and German can only do epic to the epic degree.

42:22-46:15
UTZALU (Oregon)
Separation Trajectory
— Apparently Oregon is a fantastic breeding ground for steel-tipped daggers of raw.

46:39-51:03
INCANTATION (PA)
Propitiation
— Over 30 years and a solid decimating technical death offering with modern funeral doom breaking it apart.

51:26-END
THE SPIRIT CABINET (Netherlands)
Devils in the Details
— Finally some heavy metal, powered up and a vast range of glam, death vocals, theatrical and pagan.

0:25-6:15
QUESTION (Mexico)
First Fragmentation
— A slam, a swirl, tempos inhale and exhale, grim death is elevated by a joyous soul. Moody but direct. A winning album here.

7:35-12:32
HAVUKRUUNU (Finland)
Kunnes Varjot Saa
— Ethnic folk-influenced spacy alien black metal with raging guitars and evil imagery via the Finnish guttural vocalist.

13:16-18:13
KRALLICE (NYC)
Feed on the Blood of Rats
— Another genius album by NYC giants who pull apart black and death with ambient and prog; and still manage to feed the riff monsters.

18:48-22:10
TERMINAL NATION (AR)
Orange Bottle Prison
— Massive impact in a chaotic package of political hardcore and booming death. Those boots are flying.

22:35-30:32
DRAINBOW (Austin)
The Death Owl in The Tower of Flints
— A trippy capsule of storytelling 70’s and modern death and black weaved into a beautifully melodic and proggy roller coaster ride.

31:04-36:04
ATRÆ BILIS (CAN)
Ectopian
— A debut album from Atrae Bilis is groove death, full on neck-bracing riffs, dynamic lurching tempos, and technical prowess. This is a fun album.

36:35-42:47
NUG (Ukraine)
Radiance Сяйво
— It’s a big deal for me to play post-metal because I don’t (usually) like it. This is a stream of consciousness blending so many different genres and creating a wonderfully strange meditative and proggy atmosphere.  And it just ROCKS.

43:03-47:13
MESARTHIM (AU)
Time Domain
— Last year, this band made into my Best Modern Black Metal list with eclectic electronics and a shrieking vocalist surprisingly hypnotic and emotional.

48:29-52:24
ROPE SECT (GER)
Eleutheria
— A solid offering of rolling, warm, soothing, haunting post-punk.

53:08-END
VASSAFOR (NZ)
Emanations from the Abyss
— This dude is NZ is in Temple Nightside, who I played last week. He’s into murky evil shit all around.

0:25-7:33
WELL OF NIGHT (Ohio)
Black Alder Sacristy
— Ohio’s repression beats musicians into creating malevolent black metal. This debut is battering with a splattering of beauty and hella riffs.

8:34-13:46
SEPULCHRAL CURSE (Finland)
From Within The Bowels Of The Earth
— The vocalist is guttural and deranged screeches clawing at a bleeding sky. Miserable death with melodic and evil all at once.

14:14-20:36
DROUTH (Portland)
A Crown of Asphodels
— Portland is apparently the hellmouth. Dense and suffocating black metal with crisp guitar solos and dynamic tempos.

21:05-28:03
FACELESS BURIAL (AU)
Speciation
— A fierce and desolate landscape is a perfect atmosphere for a dizzying, shifting, charging death.

28:51-36:51
BEDSORE (Italy)
Brains on the Tarmac
— Cavernous proggy death with cinematic atmosphere and psychedelic melody. Strange and Italian.

37:19-44:27
FIDES INVERSA (Italy)
The Visit
— Relentless black metal with a tiny thread of melody and major twists of dissonant.

45:32-49:15
TEMPLE NIGHTSIDE (AU)
Blood Cathedral
— Muffled sounds just sound so evil. The vocals are strangled and struggling to emit from the crust of hell. Don’t forget those riffs before it gets buried underground again.

49:45-53:45
ANGEL MORGUE (NH)
Raped in Church (Touched by God)
— Heated sexy throated words rising, the earth shakes with bass and drums.

54:06-END
MOLDÈ VOLHAL (Norway)
Beyond The Red Horizons of a Thousand Battles
— Folk beaten into you with Norwegian black boots.

0:25-6:23
GAEREA (Portugal)
Null
— A stunningly produced Portugal black metal album with crisp edges around each instrument, and even though a lean to melodic, it remains icy and sharp.

7:24-12:04
HAAPOJA (Finland)
Kulmapoimu
— Finnish black metal is lined with a gravelly vocalist, pummeling pace and a mist of melancholy guitar that creates space.

12:56-19:25
IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT (NYC)
Transmission to Mercury
— My #1 album of 2018, they are already back. Still sophisticated and avant garde, multidimensional in concept and imagery. Stunning.

19:49-24:13
HIGH SPIRITS (Chicago)
Midnight Sun
— Another jaunt for Chris Black, speaking with the souls of 80’s rockers

24:49-32:03
DRAGHKAR (CA)
At the Crossroads of Infinity
— Groove and death with serpentine heavy metal guitar solos and passages of black metal.

32:31-37:15
BULLETBELT (NZ)
Impaler
— A blast of riff thrash with a charismatic sharp edge of a vocalist even within the ballads.

37:54-42:30
SPIRIT POSSESSION (Portland)
Twin Tongued Pathways
— Ulthar bassist and vocalist is part of this duo, creating a completely different sound. Distorted, raw black metal with the energy of thrash that lends to groove, and modern electronic.

42:55-46:12
SHEZMU (CAN)
Ode À Hathor
— Shezmu is a mean death and black mix often collapsing into slowed-down passages, but pummeling outward to dense.

47:05-55:51
SEVENTH (CAN)
Disheartened
— French-Canadian black metal is as romantic as you expect: black metal sweetened with melody and organic instrumentation.

56:09-END
RITES OF DAATH (Poland)
Shrines of Seclusion
— Poland proves to be angry and heated in a cavernous

Special dark/cold wave show.  All new albums!

0:25-4:59
TWIN TRIBES (TX)
Heart & Feather (live)

5:00-9:55
PALLISADE (CAN)
Jusqu'à la mort

9:56-14:40
CLAN OF XYMOX (Netherlands)
She

14:41-19:20
HANTE. (Paris)
In Raptures

19:22-23:41
HORROR VACUI (Italy)
Consolation Prize

23:56-26:54
IST IST (UK)
You're Mine

26:35-31:31
SOFT KILL (Portland)
True Lies (Demo)

31:33-35:43
PLEASURE POLICY (Oakland)
A Particle A Wave

35:44-40:43
MORTAL BOY (LA)
Cave

40:44-45:49
MAREUX (LA)
Spectral Tease

46:20-50:30
PANIC PRIEST (Chicago)
Bleed Again

50:31-53:43
IDLE HANDS (Portland)
It Doesn't Really Matter

53:44-END
THE SECRET EXPERIMENT (UK)
One More Day

0:25-6:45
KHTHONIIK CERVIIKS (Germany)
— A frenzied, sinister abstraction of death and black metal by highly intelligent alien beings that create chaos and melody.

7:39-12:29
ASEITAS (Portland)
— Angry lurching of different compositional styles within modern death and meditation that breaks into tense noise.

12:46-20:40
VÄKI (Finland)
— A layered doomy black metal collection building from Finnish screams and increasing tempo. So. Hot.

21:00-25:43
XYTHLIA (MN)
— One-man project also of Ashbringer creating a centrifuge of chaos and extreme vocals, the entirety is breathtaking.

26:43-30:41
KINGNOMAD (Sweden)
— A poppier version of retro prog rock from Sweden, with a sweet vocalist and old school keyboards.

31:12-44:45
CONVOCATION (Finland)
— Depressive and bleak, but don’t let that define it. This is gold at the end of a rainbow, be patient. The vocalist creates depth and rage. Immerse yourself in it.

45:34-49:43
KOMMAND (CA)
— Steam rises from the lava heat of the vocalist and the filthy death machine of this debut album.

50:07-54:18
YSENGRIN (France)
— Throaty devilish thoughts from a French vampire within minimalist occult with folk and keyboard. Weird.

54:42-END
MYSTRAS (Greece)
— A-world-that-is-lost razor-thin black metal, with hints of ethnic folk instrumentation.

0:25-4:51
COUCH SLUT (Brooklyn)
I'm 14
— The band name, the vocalist, the attitude, all of it is just cooler than the rest. She pours herself in this sound of aggressive, bleak reality. Wield that sword.

5:45-13:01
SERMENT (CAN)
Flamme Hivernale
— An epic, dynamic, heart-wrenching black metal storm filled with the devil. And your butt.

13:31-17:00
REBEL WIZARD (AU)
the mind is not your friend
— This guy is emperor of song titles, so much so that I awarded my Best Song Names in 2018. He dives into the unique and blows out in high pitched noise, heavy metal, black metal and industrial. It is just eccentric madness, Aussie style.

17:26-26:32
BATTLE DAGORATH (USA/Switz)
Twilight of the Cold Sun
— You are not stuck in your house. You can travel to Battle Dagorath’s inky black galaxy and drift out into their dreams with ripples of guitar and building meditative dissonance.

27:10-29:30
SKELETON (Austin)
Skeleton
— Romping riffs under a hot summer sky with a seething acidic underbelly. Remember Scorpion Child from Austin? This has nothing to do with that, but they rocked also, in this sort of hot bbq summer rock sort of sound. Completely different, but you know, really similar.

30:00-37:46
M.S.W. (OR)
Humanity
— This really hit my bleeding, big, awesome, incredible heart. Give it a chance, let it wash over your brittle soul. A beautiful slow-burner.

38:17-43:44
STATIQBLOOM (Brooklyn)
Black Lava
— This new album has incorporated an evil ambient atmosphere in the perfect drops of hot-blooded industrial beat and rhythm.

44:10-51:54
MYRIDIAN (AU)
Babylon
— Wait for the clean vocals, it is done so well. I am such a snob when it comes to clean stuff, and this is the perfect balance, along with the usual death growls and high-pitched screech. A wide ranging melodic death with beautiful instrumentation, including piano.

53:12-57:39
WANDERER (Portugal)
Force Of Ancient Steel
— Let's swing our hips wide to the groove of Portugal's Wanderer, straight-forward speed, made for you to punch holes in the sky. Simply loveable.

57:55-END
BARGHEST (Baton Rouge)
Nomadic Plague
— I’ve played this band multiple times over the years, and they are still a beast of snarling, filthy, gargled black metal. So sweet.

0:25-7:43
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR (Greece)
The First Ape on New Earth
— In my Best of 2016 list, what a wonderful second album of carnival psychedelic black metal and prog. Bubbling in my heart and turning it black from the inside. Sweet and wicked.

8:55-15:02
INEXORUM (MN)
The Breaking Point
— In my Best of 2018, this black metal musician is inspired by his wild Minnesota surroundings. His muscular death vocals are a great juxtaposition for the chilling desperate emotional romantic black metal. Let me bathe in the moonlit lake he is crooning to. So hot.

15:29-22:56
DESCEND (Sweden)
Blood Moon
— This 3rd album is jammed with a blast of a range, from death to haunting doom to prog and various instrumentation. Oh you Swedish devils with the juicy riffs, it is in their blood. This is a joy from beginning to end.

23:44-29:29
CANIS DIRUS (MN)
We Are The Ancient Ones
— Another Minnesota gem where the men wear beards and howl at the moon. The sound is scattered debris of forlorn with the stark brutality of the vocalist, a surprising gentle acoustic and heavy metal solos that remind us of what we love. METAL.

30:06-35:41
LANTERN (Finland)
Shrine of Revelation
— Finnish and their amazingly guttural vocals that automatically launch their sound to malevolence naturally. You think it is this mean death, but these bands are really pummeling us with surprises, packages to unfold and delight.

36:03-40:19
WORSHIPPER (MA)
Lonesome Boredom Overdrive
— Their 2019 album was playing in my house last week and I randomly checked on their bandcamp, and they had a newly released single. It didn’t fit in their 2019 album, and they wanted to release it finally – the song title fitting to our times. They have the best warm retro vocalist.

40:57-40:37
LJOSAZABOJSTWA (Belarus)
Idzi I Hliadzi
— These little parts of the world where influence is from afar. The Finnish, the Estonians, and now Belarusians. It just thrashes in all directions, heavy metal and doom and riffs and punk pace. And then they throw in the neck churning riffs to make you clap. Thank you sirs.

51:46-56:01
BLOOD STRONGHOLD (AU/Poland)
Unbowed Wolves
— Maybe you don’t have the stomach for a 2-piece raw black metal that spins out to minimal after dabbling in the massive storms of layered ethereal melodies.

56:25-END
LIVING GATE (Belgium)
Living Gate
— You’ve got to expect big things from members of Oathbreaker, Amenra, Wiegedood and YOB. Bright, brutal, ferocious death metal. Simple.

0:25-4:54
DIABOLIC OATH (Portland)
Apocryphal Manifestations
— Portland is kicking it up a notch with death rumbling riffs, a baritone vocal gust and wicked twists of guitar.

5:41-11:35
ACHERONTAS (Greece)
The Brazen Experimentalist
— Trippy, strange, evocative Greek black metal with breaks into dreamy guitar.

11:58-17:01
VOIDCEREMONY (CA)
Binded to Unusual Existence
— Debut of jangled angles of guitar compositions and drums sewing tight compositions. The exhaustion is somehow relaxing.

17:30-22:53
CREATURE (France)
Neo Habilis
— Plaintive piano, trombone and flutes build an ache within fist-pumping almost djent-influenced icy black metal, and a hot vocalist that whispers sweet nothings in French. Quite the trip.

23:14-28:16
PURTENANCE (Finland)
The Malicious Moon
— Old school death done Finnish style with added filth and sludge creating a hurricane of neck churning headbangs.

29:07-34:41
DESSIDERIUM (AZ)
Sage In Yearning
— Tech melodic-proggy-symphonic death with a spectrum of vocals. One man project, also plays in Nullingroots.

35:13-38:37
THÆTAS (NYC)
Dearth
— NYC technical death debut lurches drunkenly until gaining momentum to a muscular monster devouring and spitting out carcasses.

39:00-43:55
CARACH ANGREN (Netherlands)
Der Vampir von Nurnberg
— Thanks for taking us out of our heads dudes.

44:45-47:39
PYRRHON (NY)
Human Capital
— Best of 2017 Pyrrhon stays brutal angular death and grind with lyrical poetry.

48:21-55:25
NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM (EU)
To The Moon ZÂR - Empowering The Phurba Éon Phanérozoïque
— Thanks Rohan @manvsplaylist for introducing this, and has a massive write-up: https://www.heaviestofart.com/post/a-palette-of-sonic-radiance-neptunian-maximalism-eons-review. Meditation meets explosion and requires a lifetime of unpacking.

55:57-END
PAYSAGE D'HIVER (Switzerland)
Kaelteschauer
— Such a weird album – each song starts the same, which makes sense, as the point is to deaden your senses to help make the spiritual journey easier.

0:25-7:46
KALL (Sweden)
Rise
— Chomping Swedish rock scraped into ridges of black metal. Roaming guitars build psychedelic and range in this diverse album.

8:34-14:44
NEXION (Iceland)
The Spirit of Black Breath
— Icelandic black metal tends to be alien, cold and wicked. This band blends in spectacular clean vocals along with monstrous that are a surprising mix with gloomy melodic black metal, building into epic, large Icelandic-style melodies.

15:05-21:42
AVERSIO HUMANITATIS (Spain)
The Weaver of Tendons
— Chilled rasp and pummeling drumming bleed to majestic black metal with technical guitar that hints at melody. Large album with incredible vocals.

22:04-26:49
DEARTH (Oakland)
The Reverence of Swine
— Textured seething miserable death with jagged tempos creating a package of dark distortion.

27:25-34:51
VILE CREATURE (CAN)
Apathy Took Helm!
— A 2-piece that soundtracks a dystopian nightmare ranging from creepily sweet to droning and desperate and bitter sludge.

35:13-38:20
VAMPIRE (Sweden)
Rex
— This made me immediately think of Tribulation with that retro feel and deep infatuation with imagery. Vampire lets loose, which makes these compositions fresh.

38:48-44:15
I'M IN A COFFIN (Salem)
Slave to My Skin
— A vampire grieves for a lost love, the pure sorrow and theatrics will reach deep inside of you. This is a goth’s dream.

45:06-50:32
SODOMISERY (Sweden)
Slave to My Skin
— Black, death and thrash with tight technical guitars.

51:10-55:23
KRALLICE (NYC)
Church
— Krallice and Geryon released a split, and along with Spectral Lore + Mare Cognitum, are contenders for best of the year. More of the stellar, abstract, mathy, genre-bending cauldron of NYC musicianship.

55:49-END
SINISTER (Netherlands)
Unbounded Sacrilege
— Around since the 80’s and still snarling. Immense guitar solos and melody that do not curb the acerbic tone.

0:25-5:30
ULTHAR (CA)
Cudgel
—  Residing in multiple styles of death, across frenetic paces and vocals, and technical prowess galore. Big, big badass album.

6:37-15:06
VALDRIN (Ohio)
Down The Oubliette Of Maelstrom
—  Ohio seethes in repression and women’s rights degradation. Of course people are going to be angry, and this form of expression comes in symphonic black metal with crystal clear layers.

15:32-22:03
UPRISING (Germany)
There's No Such Thing as Hope
—  A stunning sophomore album with satanic lyrics cut with folksy interludes and clean vocals, culminating in a riff-heavy black metal.

22:29-27:41
TITHE (Portland)
Psychedelic Neurogenesis
—  Slow-churning sludge explodes into death and grind. Members of Lord Dying.

28:31-33:30
FERAL LIGHT (Minneapolis)
In Summation
—  Andy used to own a Polish diner in the Mission, and moved back to Minneapolis to create intense and intricate American black metal. This duo is awesome to see live.

33:55-40:28
NEMESIUM (AU)
Relive This Nightmare
—  A demonic corpse foot kicks out of its grave in a gurgling lava-burned death intensity. You know, Australian style.

40:45-43:33
OBSCENE (Indiana)
Without Honor and Humanity
—  Gargled, kidnapped vocals pleads in a chomping raw death with a flurry of riffs.

44:21-47:19
WITCHES (France)
We Are
—  The only original member in this 3rd album is the female lead singer brutalizing with her down-tuned vocals in a black of thrash.

47:45-53:32
SANCTIFYING RITUAL (Germany)
Stained with Rotten Blood
—  We should see a therapist and ask why we are so satisfied listening to tortured sounds.

54:02-END
BEHOLD THE ARCTOPUS (Brooklyn)
Other Realms
—  Progressive mayhem that scrapes nails in your brain.

0:25-7:37
PATRONS OF THE ROTTING GATE (Ireland)
Bleached Bones
— Rotting is a good word. Richly textured proggy death and black with a vocal clenched around it.

8:31-17:39
RANNOCH (UK)
Void
— Both ends of the spectrum with melody and edge. Threads of Opeth-style dynamic prog, but with their own modern twists.

18:10-22:03
XIBALBA (CA)
En la Oscuridad
— My 2012 Best Mosh. Hardcore and death wearing steel-tipped boots.

22:46-31:36
AKOLYTH (?)
A Work Of Ages
— Yeah, this is not for the faint-hearted, but what a joy: desperately filthy, but memorable riffs and a surprising amount of underlying emotion that beats a very lovely heart.

32:09-36:47
COSMIC PUTREFACTION (Italy)
The Glooming Murk of His Telluric Shrieks
— Deeply monstrous proggy death with bits of space to liven shit up. The gnarly vocals are both shrieks and growls, and interwoven are truly magical Fabio-romance novel covered loveliness. Stylish, and of course Italian.

37:07-40:06
END (NJ)
Absence (feat. Pete Morcey)
— A supergroup of razor-sharp technical grind and chomping hardcore, and stealing bits and pieces from the distortion and fast pace of black metal.

40:33-46:51
COSMOVORE (Germany)
The Watchers
— Ugly death within a strange, dystopian universe of tortured clashing chaos and an unearthly vocalist.

47:56-56:38
THE RUINS OF BEVERAST (Germany)
Hunters
— Oh my German black metal overlords Ruins have released (2) splits so far this year, both so different, but very representative of their style of delving into ambient and ritualistic emotional black metal. I am dying for a full release.

56:58-END
GRUESOME (LA/FL)
Led into the Dark
— A split with a shared lead singer, Gruesome does its uzzze with wicked riff-heavy death-loving guitar-soloing mayhem.

A mellow, sweet show of NEW dark wave/post punk this week.

0:25-4:03
FRAGRANCE. (France) (2019)
So Typical

4:04-9:25
LEBANON HANOVER (Germany)
The Last Thing

9:26-13:43
MOANING (LA)
Fall in Love

13:44-18:16
FEARING (Santa Cruz)
Catacombs

18:17-21:40
ANATOMY (NYC)
Ira Agni

21:41-25:05
A TRANSITION (Berlin)
Driven

25:18-29:32
ORCUS NULLIFY (SC)
Night Dance

29:33-33:26
THE MURDER MYSTERY (Norway) (2018)
HNSF

33:27-37:45
L’AVENIR (Baltimore)(2019)
Soteria

37:46-41:06
SAFETY LAST (Toronto)
Knives (Original Mix)

41:36-45:43
CLOSED MOUTH (France)
change your life today

45:44-49:05
RESTWELL (LA)
Enchantress

49:06-53:21
THE WARS (Berlin)
Differences

53:22-57:50
HERZEGOVINA (Brazil)
Road of Joy

57:51-END
HERLIGHTS (Russia)
Stockholm Syndrome

0:25-8:33
ESOCTRILIHUM (France)
Exh-Enî Söph (1st Passage – Exiled from Sanity)
— Violins make everything sound French. Theatrical, epic and inter-dimensional black metal.

9:22-16:27
CRYPTIC SHIFT (UK)
The Arctic Chasm
— Unique guitar melodies that go far out and back mixed with proggy death tempos.

16:43-23:12
ABDUCTION (France)
Aux Marches De Lorraine
— Beauty and the Beast, another French monstrosity sweetened by strums of guitar.

23:54-29:41
SLIFT (France)
Dark Was Space, Cold Were The Stars
— Psychedelic garage krautrock on clouds of bubbles bursting with tiny jagged shards of heavier blasts.

30:12-35:41
CAULDRON BLACK RAM (AU)
Flame
— Australia is topnotch evil. This form is sludge and death with whiplash beats and a smoking demonic vocal.

36:07-40:49
THRAWSUNBLAT (CAN)
Spectres in Mist
— Guitarist from Woods of Ypres creates a journey of folk-infused black metal to New Brunswick.

41:10-48:32
WITHOUT LIGHT (Chicago)
Wretched Ascent Part Two
— Abrasive blown out death vocals is a highlight in this moody, plodding sludge.

49:34-53:54
PILE OF PRIESTS (Denver)
Bloodstained Citadel
— Romantic candle-lit death.

54:30-END
MOUNTAINEER (Oakland)
Ghost Story
— Versatile album with unrushed post-metal building to much bigger. Super pleasant to the brain.

0:25-4:55
…AND OCEANS (Finland)
Cosmic World Mother
— 25 years of dramatic, Finnish, intense black metal with electronics and a new lead singer from Finntroll.

6:01-11:30
NAGLFAR (Sweden)
Last Breath of Yggdrasil
— 28 years of technical knowledge creates sinister and snarling with a gargling set of vocals that is somehow completely understated.