Hello, Internet friends! Guess what — it’s freezing outside. But this is GOOD news. Because for more than two weeks, we hadn’t seen any temperatures this high. Sub-freezing every day, and single digits (Fahrenheit) AT MOST every night. And I’ll be honest, I’m tired of it. Tired of the anxiety of waking up every couple hours and checking on the kitchen sink and the bathtub to make sure the pipes haven’t frozen in either place AGAIN, despite the supplemental electric heaters in both rooms plus one in the basement, when it has dropped below zero outside.

But then on Monday it crept slightly above freezing finally, and then Tuesday the temperature anomalously soared up into the 50s (Fahrenheit)! And while the rest of this week has been closer to normal for this time of year (highs in the 30s, lows in the 20s), at least I can rest a little easier for now. At least, until all those mountains of snow that have lined the driveways and roads all melt too quickly and then we have the potential for the river to flood.

Anyway, you haven’t come here for me to sit here like some elderly at a nursing home, chattering nonstop about what’s happening with the weather. Instead, I present you with not one but TWO excellent albums that dropped last year, in case you may have missed out on these…

 

Gaupa – FYR (digital: Nuclear Blast / physical: Magnetic Eye Records, 04 July 2025)

 

Drowned in Silver – Mothers (Pagan Records, 07 November 2025)

 

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Gaupa, whose name means “lynx” in Swedish, titled their fourth album — a four track, twenty-four minute EP — with a variant of their native tongue’s word for “four”: Fyr, but this can also translate to “lighthouse” or “beacon” or “light” and they are perfectly fine if you go with any or all of these interpretations.

Opening track “Lion’s Thorn” starts off with a sort of folksy, maybe almost new-agey vibe, with some droney stuff going on, but this gives way to more of a trippy pulsating groove. Most of the material here is of the occult-rock variety, with plenty of psychedelic and stoner accents, but they also incorporate classic hard rock (or you might even say 90s style alt-rock or grunge metal) elements.

Heavy distorted riffs and the occasional hard-rock guitar solo, both of which could very well have been ripped straight out of Badmotorfinger, are set against an almost Jefferson Airplane-esque psychedelia. Then all of this is coupled with ethereal vocals that — similar to someone like Bjork — tend to come across powerfully whether they’re nearly whisper-quiet or when they sometimes rise to a shout, right up until the moment where final song “Elastic Sleep” dissolves into layers of feedback that gradually fade away.

 

 

 

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At five songs, forty-one minutes, Mothers is the debut release by Drowned in Silver, self-described as “a new occult/doom rock act […] formed by seasoned musicians from the black metal and experimental music scenes.” That’s about as much biographical detail as I can find about the band or its members; although based on the clues that their record label, as well as the visual art studio who created the video embedded below, and the dance troupe who appear in it, are all Polish, I’ve deduced that they are probably also from Poland.

Opener “The Living Gardens” starts with a slow, droning riff in the background that vaguely reminded me of Kongh, which is never not a good thing, although like the album described above, for the most part this one definitely occupies an occulty-doomy sonic space. And also like the one we already talked about, this ensemble also brings in some other interesting elements to the mix.

The vocals generally consist of either goth-adjacent solemn spoken word or soulful clean singing, but both will occasionally and unexpectedly slip into enraged harshness. Even more peculiar, rounding out the arrangement with the typical guitar, bass, and drums, is a saxophone part whose presence is felt throughout: while sometimes (as in the single “Waves of Sorrow” whose video can be seen below) it provides a low droning that complements the bassline and doomy chord progression, more often the sax is heard honking and squealing in an experimental, avant-garde styling.

 

 

 

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Find FYR on CD or vinyl here (US), or digitally via Bandcamp (see below).
 
The Mothers digital edition is here (US), while CDs and LPs and Ts are all over here (PL).
 

 

Gaupa: Bandcamp | Bigcartel | website | YouTube
Nuclear Blast: Bandcamp | website (EU) | website (US)
Magnetic Eye Records: Bandcamp | website
 
Pagan Records: website | Bandcamp | Youtube