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

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 BellsLandless (Tartarus Records, 23 March 2016)

 

Eight BellsLegacy of Ruin (Prophecy Productions, 25 February 2022)

 

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

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.

 

healthylivinguntil/below (self-released, 25 June 2021)

 

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

 

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

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!

 

KurokumaBorn of Obsidian (self-released, 04 February 2022)

 

VinterdraculThe Murnau Nocturnes (Canticle Throe, 04 February 2022)

 

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Fere – Visceral; Daxma – Unmarked Boxes (2021)

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)!

 

FereVisceral (Raging Planet Records, 15 November 2021)

 

DaxmaUnmarked Boxes (Blues Funeral Recordings / Majestic Mountain Records, 19 November 2021)

 

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Cosmic Order – Inner Temple; Mur – Cut the Rivers Vein (2022)

Good afternoon! We’ve reached the middle of another week, and I don’t know about you but I’ve been feeling groggy as hell. Stupid allergies.

My to-do list tells me I’ve got two albums to share with you, which are very different from each other sound-wise, but which are both scheduled to come out this Friday. So let’s dive in.

Describing the advance single from their album, the first band said “The main idea was to suggest a dualism and a complementarity between Eros and Thanatos from the atomic perspective: is the narrator talking about cell fusion or nuclear fission? The radiant and bright chorus opposes and supports the abrasive and obscure verses. This dual osmosis is what everyone has in their own Inner Temple

And then the second musical entity shared the following: “The vision for, and the writing process for this next Mur album has been an absurdist wind. Conquest and transformation. Plotting particle and light into wisdom and thought. Is there real knowledge in flowing water? Can intent organize the stars into action?”

One thing I can say for sure, I am not awake enough for this shit. But let’s give these a listen anyhow…

 

Cosmic OrderInner Temple (Argonauta Records, 28 January 2022)

 

MurCut the Rivers Vein (self-released, 28 January 2022)

 

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Bong-Ra – Antediluvian (2018-21); Murderbait – When the Sun Goes Down, It Goes Down Forever (2019-21)

Moving right along — here are a couple albums that were each released a few years back, but caught my attention when they were given the vinyl reissue treatment in 2021.

One is a drone/doom/free-form jazz thing from the Netherlands and the other is a more goth-oriented troupe from Portlandia. Hopefully you’ll find one of these will be to your liking. Maybe both! Only one way to find out…

 

Bong-RaAntediluvian (digital/CD Svart Lava Records and cassette Tartarus Records, 23 October 2018; vinyl Tartarus Records, 25 June 2021)

 

MurderbaitWhen the Sun Goes Down, It Goes Down Forever (digital self-released 15 November 2019; vinyl Sentient Ruin, 15 October 2021)

 

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Bog Wizard – From the Mire (2020), Miasmic Purple Smoke (2021)

Ok y’all, it’s Monday… time for some nerd shit.

Dungeons & Dragons has been called the most effective introduction to the occult in the history of Man.

It is a fantasy role-playing game that teaches demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, murder, blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex, perversion, homosexuality, prostitution, Satan worship, gambling, barbarism, cannibalism, sadism, desecration, demon summoning, necromantics, divination, and many other occultic themes… all in living color.

Ready to get started? Roll for initiative…

 

Bog WizardFrom the Mire (self-released, 03 July 2020)

 

Bog WizardMiasmic Purple Smoke (self-released, 03 December 2021)

 

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Stone Machine Electric – Inexplicable Vibrations (2020); Mud Spencer – Fuzz Soup (2022)

Happy New Year! As promised, we’re finally starting to dive into some new releases that are coming out. Today I also wanted to catch up on a slightly older release that I missed writing about the first time around, because — well, because 2020. Time to get fuzzy…

 

Stone Machine ElectricThe Inexplicable Vibrations of Frequencies Within the Cosmic Netherworld (Desert Records, 04 December 2020)

 

Mud SpencerFuzz Soup (Argonauta Records, 21 January 2022)

 

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Mordred – The Dark Parade (2021)

Good morning, and here comes some more music for you all to start off your week with!

Don’t worry, I know how to operate a calendar, and I realize it’s Tuesday. But yesterday was a federal holiday here in the U.S., as well as a snow day, so we lazily decided to have ourselves a nice extended weekend.

But today we’re back on track, and I would like to call your attention to an album I particularly enjoyed when it came out last summer. Again, I assure you, I do know how calendars work, and I do realize we’re now into the third week of the new year. Within the next few days I promise the first review of a new 2022 release will be coming! But we’ve still got plenty of older ones to cover that you shouldn’t miss out on.

Like this one: the fourth album overall (and the first in 27 years!) by San Franciscan band Mordred — who, by the way, will be playing their first hometown show of the year this coming weekend, alongside fellow local thrashers Death Angel. Details on tickets (both in-person and live-stream) to be found below.

 

MordredThe Dark Parade (M-Theory Audio, 23 July 2021)

 

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TOANWTS – Feral Blood (2019); ANTOAS – Dirges (2021)

Hello there and Happy Friday to you all!

These albums, one nearly three years old and the other reaching its first birthday later this month, have practically nothing in common with each other besides the fact that both bands’ names are lengthy phrases about owls. But sometimes little things like that can randomly grab your attention, and then you accidentally discover that there’s some great music inside, too. I think you just might find this to be the case with either or both of these releases…

 

The Owls Are Not What They SeemFeral Blood (Eleventh Key, 19 March 2019)

 

And Now the Owls Are SmilingDirges (Clobber Records, 29 January 2021)

 

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