Tag Archives: USA

Ugly Kid Joe – Rad Wings of Destiny (2022)

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“Are you the guys on the beach that hate everything?”

 
Right around 30 years ago, as hair metal was in its final death throes along with most other remnants of the Reagan 80s, and the grunge movement was just starting to come into full swing in terms of global mainstream recognition, Californian hard rockers Ugly Kid Joe dropped their debut full-length, kind of bridging the gap between the dominant sounds of the previous decade and the one that had just begun.

This writer was in eighth grade at the time, and America’s Least Wanted may have been the very first cassette I ever bought for myself, or if not, at least one of the first two or three.

So when I heard that the band was releasing a brand-new album this fall — even working with the same producer they did three decades ago (Mark Dodson) — based on the nostalgia factor of course I had to check it out. But I ended up discovering that these guys (two who’ve been around since the founding days of the band and two others who’ve been on every major release in their history; only the drummer role has changed hands a few times over the years) have crafted a very good, very solid, rock record.

 

Ugly Kid Joe – Rad Wings of Destiny (Metalville Records, 21 October 2022)

 

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The Human Veil – Compilation (2022)

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Hello and Happy Monday, everyone!

For those not actively involved with (or even lurking in the fringes of) the Metal Bandcamp Gift Club community … first of all, you really should check it out! It’s a bunch of kind souls who will buy you stuff from your Bandcamp wishlist on your birthday. All they ask in return is for you to do the same for other folks on the mailing list if you’re able to do so. Club members get great new music to add to their collections, artists make some extra sales, and everyone wins.

Anyway, the social interactions within the Gift Club frequently (and understandably) revolve around sharing music recommendations, and somewhere along the way this thing called “No Metal Monday” evolved. As the title suggests, this is an opportunity to focus on music of non-metallic varieties. And in that spirit, I’d like to share a collection of metal-free tracks with you fine folks on this fine, dreary Monday afternoon.

 

The Human Veil – Compilation (self-released, 25 October 2022)

 

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Escaping Aghartha – Avian (2022)

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Happy Friday! Got something brand-new for you all today…

Although North Carolinian ecology-themed band Escaping Aghartha is more often associated with the sounds of extreme death and doom metal, they’ve just dropped an album completely consisting of mellow ambiance.

 

Avian is an ambient album in which each song has been crafted around the vocalization of a specific species of bird, resulting in other-worldly and deeply immersive atmospheres. The album is a celebration of the wondrous diversity of shapes, survival strategies, vocalizations, colors, behaviors of birds and their intellectual prowess.

 

Escaping Aghartha – Avian (Hiraeth Records, 16 December 2022)

 

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Úzkost – Mt’hr (2022)

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Úzkost – Mt’hr (self-released, 30 September 2022)

 

Happy Bandcamp Friday y’all!

It’s been two whole years since Pittsburghers Úzkost put out their delightfully deranged “Blood Debt.” But just a few days ago they returned with a brand-new single, and the promise of more forthcoming! Here’s “Mt’hr.”
 

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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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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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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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Fere – Visceral; Daxma – Unmarked Boxes (2021)

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Hey there. Here we are, midway through yet another week. And time once again to catch up on a couple releases from late last year. The first comes from a Portuguese instrumental post-rock/ambient/doom quartet, the other from a Californian post-doom/ambient/stoner-doom quartet — and both are absolutely worth checking out (otherwise why would I waste the effort talking about them or expect you to do the same reading about them)!

 

Fere – Visceral (Raging Planet Records, 15 November 2021)

 

Daxma – Unmarked Boxes (Blues Funeral Recordings / Majestic Mountain Records, 19 November 2021)

 

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