Category Archives: Videos

Gaupa – FYR (2025); Drowned in Silver – Mothers (2025)

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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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Philip K. Discs – The Haunt (2026)

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Hey folks — from the record label that’s been making a reputation for itself over the past several years for your go-to spot for crazy experimental noisy sounds and truly unique merch options, perhaps we should have seen this one coming, but the latest Philip K. Discs release is here… and it’s a hand-built, fully customizable, fully modular, noise box you can use to make your OWN crazy experimental noisy sounds!

 

 

Introducting: The Haunt

 

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Bog Wizard – Journey Through the Dying Lands (2024), Satanik Panik (2025)

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It’s Bandcamp Friday once again — hope you all are having a happy one!

Feels like a good time to check in on our Michiganian friends Bog Wizard. Back when we published a review of their 2020 and 2021 releases, there were a few specific references to the “Satanic Panic” of the late 20th century. Well, since that time, the band went and released a whole damn album named for that concept. They also put together an album with literary tie-ins, both of which are highly recommended for you to check out!

 

Bog Wizard – Journey Through the Dying Lands (self-released in collaboration with Madness Hearts Games, 25 October 2024)

 

Bog Wizard – Satanik Panik (self-released, 31 October 2025)

 

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Gavran – Indistinct Beacon (2022), The One Who Propels (2026)

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Hello, friends. Hope you’re having a pleasant Friday.

Here, we’re still slowly but surely shoveling ourselves out from last weekend’s storm, trying our best to keep ourselves warm and keep our pipes from freezing, with recent high temperatures refusing to rise above the tweens (Fahrenheit), and Alexa blinking its caution-colored yellow light at us every day with a new notification about a severe cold warning, with overnight lows hovering around zero or below (also Fahrenheit).

Meanwhile, I haven’t ventured out anywhere since last Saturday morning (to pick up groceries and library books) — in the days since, I’ve only been outside to shovel the front walkway, the driveway, and as much of the surrounding street as I could, given that the borough either felt it was unnecessary to plow all the way to the end of our road OR they were unable to get past our neighbors’ annoying arrays of vehicles parked all over the place.

Nevertheless, without leaving the house or any contact with outsiders, I’ve somehow managed to now find myself practically bedridden with some kind of dreadful sinus infection or cold or perhaps turtle flu. But there’s new music out today and I’d be derelict in my duties if I didn’t take some time out of my day to share it with you folks!

 

Gavran – Indistinct Beacon (Dunk! Records, 02 December 2022)

 

Gavran – The One Who Propels (Dunk! Records, 30 January 2026)

 

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Nomadic Rituals – Fust (2025) || Cursed Monk Records – Year IX Compilation (2026)

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Fucking earwigs, amiright? I watched Spike Lee‘s 2025 film Highest 2 Lowest over the weekend (which I enjoyed, by the way, despite its middling ratings — although admittedly I have not seen the Kurosawa original it was based on; I guess I probably should), and almost nonstop over the past few days I keep finding “Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’” (originally from Oklahoma, but it plays during the opening of this movie as Denzel‘s character looks down over New York City from the balcony of his probably-billion-dollar apartment.

Anyway, it is NOT a Beautiful Mornin’ here in the valley. It’s like six degrees outside (Fahrenheit, which I think is something like negative a hundred in the rest of the world), and it’s been the kind of windy that wakes you up sporadically throughout the night because it keeps rattling the windows. So I am very much dragging this morning. Fortunately I don’t actually need to go outside (thank you, remote work) so I can just throw on an extra layer or two and push through it. And anyway by this afternoon I heard it’s supposed to go up to like 15F (aka minus 50C or something).

And fortunately, there is a simple doctor-recommended remedy for getting rid of earwigs: listening to something else, ANYTHING else. Especially at a high volume. And I’ve got some great candidates here.

 

Cursed Monk Records – Year IX Compilation (03 January 2026)

 

Nomadic Rituals – Fust (digital: self-released, CD/vinyl: Cursed Monk Records, 14 March 2025 | cassette: Fiadh Productions, 11 July 2025)

 

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New Cathedral Release! || Bandcamp Friday Merch

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Inbox overflowing with messages from every band and label you’ve ever heard of (and tons you don’t even remember subscribing to)? Must be Bandcamp Friday!

If you need help wading through the oceans of stuff being marketed at you all day, I’m here to help with a few selections to highlight.

 

First: our good friends over at Philip K. Discs have dropped some sweet exclusive merch today.

  • They’ve got super-limited mystery bundles, packed in custom-designed cereal boxes and filled with tons of label-related goodness, but there are only TWO sets available!
  • “This Vending Machine is a Compilation” full-color poster-sized prints as companion pieces to last year’s compilation of the same name.
  • From Chaos to Ambiguity: A Theology of Noise Rock – the guidebook to noise rock written by the label’s owner (spoiler alert: not Philip), now available signed by the author.
  • And there’s lots more where these came from, from printed ‘zines to sculpted mini-figurines to hot sauce bottles to a special edition Touching Grass CD bundled with an actual packet of grass seed — check it all out right here!

 

Next, get yourself ready for winter weather with a brand new pair of socks! But not just any socks, these ones come emblazoned with the logo of Italian dark-occult/doomsters Messa. Wear them in good health!

 

And finally…

 

Cathedral – Society’s Pact With Satan (Rise Above Records, 03 October 2025)

 

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See You On The Other Side.

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See You On The Other Side.

 

End of an era: John “Ozzy” Osbourne (3 December 1948 – 22 July 2025), Rest in Peace.

Orme – No Serpents, No Saviours; The Weir – Grasping (2024/2025)

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Just announced: This Friday is Bandcamp Friday for the first time in 2025. So if you have been planning to make any music purchases, tomorrow would be a great time to do it, because 100% of the funds end up in the pocket of the band or record label (and not the corporate overlords who own Bandcamp).

However, if you have dollars (or euros, francs, dinars, whatever) burning a hole in your pocket and you don’t have anything in particular to spend it on — please feel free to browse the archives here at Valley of Steel for recommendations. And here are two more worth checking out, each a lengthy chunk of heavy doom, each originally released by the respective band last year, and each recently re-released as cassette tapes by our Dutch friends at Breathe Plastic Records.

 

Orme – No Serpents, No Saviours (self-released 23 August 2024 / cassette reissue by Breathe Plastic, 31 January 2025)

 

The Weir – Grasping (self-released 04 October 2024 / cassette reissue by Breathe Plastic, 31 January 2025)

 

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Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Worlds Within Live (2021); Jason Blake feat. RWB – Candles Burn (2024)

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Good afternoon, y’all. Last time, we talked about the most recent release by Canadian neofolk trio Musk Ox and the news that their music was being featured in the CBS medical/mystery drama Watson. (In case you missed it, episode 2, which broadcast about two weeks ago, set their song “Weightless” against a montage wrapping up the various storylines near the end of the show.)

Anyway, at that time I had promised more music from Musk Ox members would be forthcoming, and so here we are. The group’s cellist (and co-writer/arranger) Raphael Weinroth-Browne put out his first solo record back in 2020, which at the time was met with plenty of acclaim on this website. But the following year, he released a brand new version of the whole thing re-recorded live, which we’ll take a look at here. And to cap things off, we’ll also check out an EP the cellist created in collaboration with Chicago-based Warr guitarist Jason Blake, just about eleven months ago.

 

Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Worlds Within Live (self-released, 02 July 2021)

 

Jason Blake featuring Raphael Weinroth-Browne – Candles Burn (7d Media, 05 April 2024)

 

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Musk Ox – Inheritance (2021); Nathanael Larochette – Old Growth (2023)

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Good afternoon! If you’ve been a longtime visitor around these parts, you’ll remember Musk Ox, from all the times we’ve previously discussed that Canadian folk trio as well as some of its members’ numerous other musical pursuits.

Well, yesterday I received an interesting bit of news from the group:

 

Hi Everyone!

We hope you are all well, safe, thriving and taking time to nurture whatever endeavours bring you fulfillment.

We just wanted to share some exciting news. After years of people telling us that our music would be great for tv/film we are thrilled to announce that several of our songs will appear in the new medical/mystery series Watson on CBS! The second episode airs tonight (Sun Feb 16th) at 9pm EST and features our song “Weightless.” We’re honoured to have been asked to provide songs for this series and are grateful for the opportunity to reach new audiences with our music. If you happen to catch the episode tonight, take a video while our song plays and tag us @muskoxofficial.

 

Musk Ox – Inheritance (self-released, 09 July 2021)

 

Nathanael Larochette – Old Growth (self-released, 21 July 2023)

 

For the uninitiated, Watson is a brand-new show (the pilot episode premiered on CBS and Paramount+ last month, with regular weekly episodes scheduled to begin as of last night) which stars Morris Chestnut as the titular doctor. In this modernized adaptation, Watson is moving on from the canonical death of his former partner in crime-solving, Sherlock Holmes, whereupon he has started a medical facility — a fictional foundation set right here in Pittsburgh, PA — that appears (based on the one episode that has aired thus far) to specialize in rare and unusual ailments, thus calling upon the doctor’s famed investigative skills.

While I don’t usually find myself drawn toward medical dramas, I’ve always been a connoisseur of all things Holmes-related, so I decided to investigate that pilot when it aired and have been looking forward to the continuation of the story for these past couple weeks. The series can be found streaming here, where I was already planning to check out the second episode tonight, but now I’ll also have my ears attuned to catch the inclusion of the Musk Ox material mentioned above.

As I’ll be stuck at work for another few hours still, in the meantime it seemed like a perfect time to revisit the 2021 album on which the song in question was originally released. And while we’re at it, it never hurts to pop in to see what else these musicians have been up to lately, so I’ll toss in one member’s solo album as a bonus in this article, and then spend some time with another member’s output shortly thereafter.

 

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