Monthly Archives: February 2022

Old Iron – Lupus Metallorum (2017); Old Iron / Verdun – Split (2022)

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Good afternoon, readers!

Just a quick shout to let you all know about this brand-new split record that came out last Friday — half of which is by a doom troupe from Montpellier France, whose 2016 album we had written about back when it came out; the other half features a sludge trio from Seattle whose 2017 album really caught my attention at that time but somehow I never got around to writing about that one, an oversight which is being rectified right now…

 

Old Iron – Lupus Metallorum (Good to Die Records, 18 August 2017)

 

Old Iron / Verdun – Split (Satanik Royalty Records, 25 February 2022)

 

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NŪR – Negative Transfer (2021); Mountaineer – Giving Up the Ghost (2022)

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We’re back! No new posts yesterday because I was celebrating “Two-sday” (2/22/22 or 22/2/22 depending on your local date formatting tradition) a little too hard.

Or to put it a different way, I found myself swamped with upwards of 70,000 email messages and about twelve hours of meetings (in just a nine-hour day, somehow) at work yesterday, which left very little time to think about anything else.

But like I said, we’re back! Today I have two different takes on post-metal to share with you, starting with an Israeli quartet’s second EP that came out late last year, and then we’ll check out the fourth full-length (and second as a six-piece band, following one I wrote about two years ago) by a Californian ensemble.

 

NŪR – Negative Transfer (Suicide Records, 15 October 2021)

 

Mountaineer – Giving Up the Ghost (Lifeforce Records, 25 February 2022)

 

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Eight Bells – Landless (2016), Legacy of Ruin (2022)

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Hey there! We’re embarking on a pretty busy week as far as new releases are concerned. I’ve already touched upon a couple records due out this Friday (here and here), with more on their way.

Including one of the two I’ll be sharing with you today! And if you enjoy that one I promise you also won’t want to miss the band’s previous release, which came out almost exactly six years earlier! Here we go…

 

Eight Bells – Landless (Tartarus Records, 23 March 2016)

 

Eight Bells – Legacy of Ruin (Prophecy Productions, 25 February 2022)

 

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Corpsegrinder – S/T (2022)

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Mr. George Fisher — most famous to denizens of the internet as an aficionado of cuddly stuffed animals (see here, here, here, here, and here for just a few examples) — has apparently decided to try his hand at death metal vocals.

While I’m not completely sure what prompted this new hobby (although I’m curious whether it might have resulted from a coincidental similarity in appearance to Dethklok vocalist Nathan Explosion from the hit Adult Swim show Metalocalypse, particularly when Mr. Fisher is depicted in cartoon format, as evidenced in the cover artwork shown below), for whatever reason he has assembled himself a brand-new band he calls Corpsegrinder which will release its self-titled debut album one week from today!

 

Corpsegrinder – Corpsegrinder (Perseverance Music Group, 25 February 2022)

 

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Michel Anoia – Plethora (2016), Nervures (2021)

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Upon the release of Plethora in 2016 — their first full-length and second release altogether — Lyonese band Michel Anoia claimed it would “leave serious marks all over your body, including some brain damage, with their unforgiving brutal power and all-around freaky nature.” Five short years later they released their second and final full-length Nervures. Today we’re going to listen to both. Might want to buckle up for this one.

 

Michel Anoia – Plethora (12 February 2016)

 

Michel Anoia – Nervures (17 September 2021)

 

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healthyliving – until/below; Esses – Bloodletting for the Lonely (2021)

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Here we have two more noteworthy releases from last year. The first, a two-track single, debut release of a collaborative trio from Scotland and Germany; the other an album by a veteran deathrock quintet from the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

healthyliving – until/below (self-released, 25 June 2021)

 

Esses – Bloodletting for the Lonely (Bat-Cave Productions / Atakra Records, 06 August 2021)

 

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Ølten – Mode (2015), Ambiance (2018)

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Hello there! So yesterday as I was writing about the upcoming Norna record, I was struck by a certain name sounding familiar.

The drummer and one guitarist also work together in Swiss trio Ølten, and I quickly realized that band’s first and second full-length releases had already been on my to-do list of stuff I’ve especially enjoyed and intended to write about.

The first of these will soon be approaching its seventh birthday, while the other came out a little over three years ago, so it seems well a bit overdue for us to revisit these, don’t you think?

 

Ølten – Mode (Hummus Records, 06 April 2015)

 

Ølten – Ambiance (Hummus Records, 02 November 2018)

 

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Norna – Star Is Way Way Is Eye; Abraham – Debris de Mondes Perdus (2022)

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Good day, readers. Here to start off the week properly I’ve got a pair of albums that live somewhere in the vicinity of post-hardcore, both by Swiss bands (well, one of them is more of a Swiss-Swedish hybrid), and both of which are coming out very soon. Get ready!

 

Norna – Star Is Way Way Is Eye (Vinter Records, 18 February 2022)

 

Abraham – Débris de Mondes Perdus (Pelagic Records, 25 February 2022)

 

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Wang Wen – Sweet Home, Go! (2016); Invisible City (2018); 100,000 Whys (2021)

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Closing out the week, and continuing to work my way through some more of last year’s releases — today I think we’ll explore some Chinese music. Specifically, the music of one particular band from the city of Dalian, which is located at the northern end of the Yellow Sea, just across the bay from North Korea.

I’ll be sharing their three most recent albums with you this afternoon. But it may be worth noting that this group has been active and productive for more than two decades now — and the material we’re covering will actually be their ninth, tenth, and eleventh albums! So if you like what you’re hearing, please feel free to continue digging into it on your own.

 

Wang Wen – Sweet Home, Go! (Pelagic Records / Space Circle, 19 October 2016)

 

Wang Wen – Invisible City (Pelagic Records / Space Circle, 25 September 2018)

 

Wang Wen – 100,000 Whys (Pelagic Records / Space Circle, 24 September 2021)

 

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Yagow – S/T (2017), The Mess (2021)

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Good afternoon! Here’s another highlight from last year, as I continue to work through getting caught up on stuff we missed talking about here: the latest release by this band from Saarland, Germany — located on the Saar river and right near the border with France. And while we’re on the subject, I’ll throw in their debut from four years earlier, for no additional charge!

 

Yagow – Yagow (Crazysane Records, 16 June 2017)

 

Yagow – The Mess (Crazysane Records, 18 June 2021)

 

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