Tag Archives: United Kingdom

Laden – Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly (2026); Wren – Black Rain Falls (2025)

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Hey there, friends. Hope you’re having a good Friday.

Nah, wait, Good Friday was last week. Hope you’re having a GREAT Friday!

I’d like to share something with you that’s just being released today — an album by single-member band Seattleite Laden which I recently discovered through the Metal Bandcamp Gift Club.

For those who may not be familiar, MBGC is essentially a mailing list — which has gone through various incarnations over the years but currently hosted on Substack — where you can share your birthday and your Bandcamp wish list, and every day (well, most days) a message goes out to let everyone know whose birthday it is that day, and a link to their wish list.

It’s a great way to give and receive the gift of music, to support independent artists, and also a great way to discover new suggested stuff to listen to: if you see someone’s list and you think, hey I like a bunch of these bands, chances are you may want to check out some of the other stuff on their list.

Speaking of which, I thought it would be fun to discuss this brand-new album alongside the most recent release from a band of Londoners who Laden have cited as one of their influences: Wren — an album which happened to sneak its way into my list of favorites from last year.

 

Laden – Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly (self-released, 10 April 2026)

 

Wren – Black Rain Falls (Church Road Records, 21 February 2025)

 

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Void of Light – Enshroud (2023), Asymmetries (2026)

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Well babes*, looks like the week’s about halfway over. I’m already kinda dragging my feet on getting any actual work done, looking ahead in the calendar to another weekend coming up soon.

Let’s talk about some music to pass the time, what do you say?

Today I’ve got two releases to share with you, from a band whose name means Darkness (although no word on whether they believe in a thing called love).

No, this Glaswegian post-metal ensemble really grabbed me by the ears when Trepanation released their sophomore EP three years ago, and they’ve finally followed with their first-ever full-length LP, which came out just a few days ago. Enjoy!

 

Void of Light – Enshroud (Trepanation Recordings, 24 March 2023)

 

Void of Light – Asymmetries (Ripcord Records, 03 April 2026)

 

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Hemiptera – Demo MMXXIV (2024), Until Every Flag is Burned (2026)

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Hemiptera (from Ancient Greek hemipterus, “half-winged”), according to Wikipedia, is “an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs.”

Hemiptera are also an anarchistic crust-punk quartet from the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, in South East England. Their demo, initially released two years ago last month, really made me sit up and take notice when the good folks at Fiadh gave it a physical edition later that same summer. Or perhaps you remember their song “Notti Nere” (taken from that same demo album) which appeared on Fiadh‘s From Dreams to Living Things compilation last summer?

In any event, just a few weeks ago the band have followed up with their official debut full-length, and as expected, this one likewise has resulted in much up-sitting and notice-taking. Check it out below…

 

Hemiptera – Demo MMXXIV (self-released, 07 March 2024 / cassette Fiadh Productions, 16 August 2024)

 

Hemiptera – Until Every Flag is Burned (digital self-released, 06 March 2026 / vinyl DIY Koło, Shove Records, Exabrupto Records, Prejudice Me, 06 March 2026)

 

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Secret Cutter – /// (2025); Blunt Knife Castration – Blood & Oil (2026)

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It IS once again Bandcamp Friday, so if you’ve had your eye on something in your wishlist — or if you hear something today that catches your fancy — it’s a good time to make that purchase, since 100% of the cost ends up going straight to the artist!

For all my good friends and casual acquaintances out there reading these words: I’ve decided to close out the week with one album that was released last March by a band from the other side of the state that we’ve been fans of for a long time here in the Valley, and one that was released last Friday by an artist from the other side of the Atlantic whom we’ve only just learned about when they recently reached out by email. In both cases, we 100% guarantee you will love what you hear, or we’ll refund every penny you spent on your free subscription to valleyofsteel dot net.

 

Secret Cutter – /// (self-released, 20 March 2025)

 

Blunt Knife Castration – Blood & Oil (Remorseless Records, 27 February 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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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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Chat Pile – God’s Country; Lebrique – Head Trap (2022)

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Hey! As we continue inching ever-closer to the conclusion of yet another calendar year, let’s continue talking about some of the great music that has come out in 2022.

Today I’ve got two albums to share: one that was just a recent discovery for me, that I somehow missed when it came out over the summer but which has been getting SO much attention lately as all my writing peers have started publishing their own year-end lists, and then one that just came out this month, and based on that timing I’m afraid it may have inadvertently missed catching many other people’s attention.

Here we go…

 

Chat Pile – God’s Country (The Flenser, 29 July 2022)

 

Lebrique – Head Trap (Trepanation Recordings, 02 December 2022)

 

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Kurokuma – Born of Obsidian; Vinterdracul – The Murnau Nocturnes (2022)

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Hello, dear readers!

Here we have two brand-new albums you might enjoy — if you do, they’re both scheduled to come out TOMORROW, which also happens to be the first Bandcamp Friday of the year!

 

Kurokuma – Born of Obsidian (self-released, 04 February 2022)

 

Vinterdracul – The Murnau Nocturnes (Canticle Throe, 04 February 2022)

 

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Venom Prison – Primeval (2020), Erebos (2022)

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Hey! Everywhere I turn, the whole internet is buzzing about Venom Prison.

So let’s talk about Venom Prison.

 

Venom Prison – Primeval (Prosthetic Records, 09 October 2020)

 

Venom Prison – Erebos (Century Media Records, 04 February 2022)

 

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