I thought I'd make a half-year mark round up or something for all 2 of you who are still reading this blog!
Boris - W & Heavy Rocks 2022
To be honest my love for Boris has died out quite significantly over the years. When they released the second Heavy Rocks (a long ass time ago) things kinda went downhill for me. They never really released anything interesting (to me) for a good while - Heavy Rocks II included. There were some releases I've liked since then like Love/Evol (most of it anyways), Live Dear album (the studio one was fucking atrocious to me) and maybe a few other things I can't remember off the top of my head but the year 2022 has brought us two albums from Boris so far and I've been enjoying both!
W is apparently a continuation of NO that came out in 2020 but it bears little resemblance to it. It's experimental, it's weird and it's very Wata in nature. Feedback, noise and so on. The album as a whole I liked it a lot but some songs (like the single with the music video) weren't that interesting and went nowhere. More recently they also released another Heavy Rocks iteration (sequel?) or whatever they consider it to be. This time around the band is more in their rock out mode but I'm happy to report that it's also experimental and weird at times. I was afraid it'll just be some generic uninspired stoner rock garbage but it has a lot stuff going for it. The riffs are good, there's also saxophones every now and again which bring the fury and intensity of the songs to a new level. All in all good stuff. Now that they did an experimental album and a solid rock album, I really wish they'd do a single song album. They haven't done something like that in a really long time and I think they can still do it imaginatively (assuming we ignore those three "single noise track" garbage albums they put out).
White Ward - False Light
These guys have been around for a while now and I was aware of them since the time they released their first full length but I never really cared much for them. This year they released their third full length and I've been enjoying it quite a bit. If I had to describe it in a convoluted and old&jaded perspective I would say it is a mix of Bohren & Der Club of Gore ambient passages with your good old hipster-ish black metal. There are some other influences here as well, so much so that they don't really sound as your standard black metal fare with just some gimmick attached to it. It's a cohesive work with all parts having some meaning but no all the time as some of the ambient passages don't really fit well in my opinion making the pacing of the album not really that great. A good chunk of it is great tho!
Vio-Lence - Let The World Burn
Hell yeah man! Vio-lence is back for some strange reason. While not as good as they were back in their prime years these dudes still can play and with this release they don't mess around. To their credit the album is not bogged down with a bunch of filler stuff. It is 24 glorious minutes of thrash that hits you right in the face!
Luminous Vault - Animate the Emptiness
Sadly I didn't enjoy the new Artificial Brain as much as I wanted to or anticipated to but this one was pretty fucking great. It's different, it's strange and it's obviously not Artificial Brain (not even close) but it does contain their bassist in this along with one more dude that's just in this. So this duo I guess is more of a passion project it seems. Vocals feel a bit out of place but everything else is pretty great. Some kind of industrial death metal hybrid or whatever. I don't really know where to place this in my head.
Wormrot - Hiss
Hey! These guys! I played their debut so many times when it came out that I never really cared about their output afterwards. I do remember checking out Voices but apparently I don't remember anything aside from the fact that I listened to it. So I don't really know how different this is from their last but I like this one! A lot of the songs on this album try for something. They try to be different, it's not some amorphous mass of distortion and yelling but every song seems like they wanted to try something out. It's a collage of ideas and approaches and it feels very fresh to me.
Häxenzijrkell - Urgrund
This is a German black metal band that I've discovered recently by accident. This is their second album and it's more of a continuation or refinement of what they did on the first album. Chances are you'll like both of the albums if you've heard either one. They play a droney, doomy and reverby black metal. It's slow and it's meditative, passages are often broken up with sampled German dialogues from movies (about witches I assume). I wish there would be less of it but I guess the band really wants them in there so I guess we'll just have to deal with it. All of their output is great, this album just being the tip of the iceberg.
Lifvsleda - Sepulkral dedikation
'ey kids ya want some good old fashioned black metal without any pretenses to anything else? If so then check this album out. Solid, traditional stuff that's filled with good riffs and blasts. Keeping the flame and yadda yadda
Ultha - All That Has Never Been True
As with White Ward this band has been on my radar for a long ass while but I never really liked any of their albums so much that I would want to recommend or talk about them. This time they hit the spot for me as the band made a pretty interesting mixture of underlying synths and their brand of (post)black metal. It has this irresistible dreamy quality to it that I just can't stop thinking about. Love it.
Deathspell Omega - The Long Defeat
I knew DsO were gonna release something this year but I did not expect it to arrive so early in the year (usually they drop stuff around october). This was supposed to be something different from their previous albums but... eh. Not really? I mean it is different but not by a lot. It's competently done and I really liked that prolonged self indulgent guitar solo but as with Furnaces I just can't seem to care about the album as a whole. At least I can remember listening to this one - unlike Furnaces. I hope next one will be something better and more adventurous.
Desolate Shrine - Fires of the Dying World
I've liked all Desolate Shire albums so far. Massive, heavy and slow death metal from Finland. If you liked their previous albums chances are you will also like this. Don't expect for this album to win you over if you didn't care much for them before tho!
Blood Incantation - Timewave Zero
Ah yes, the kings of pretentiousness released an ambient album with much fanfare and acting like it's some profound open minded album. I... like it a lot. I don't know what the deal with these guys is because they seem to be deliberate assholes in all interviews/blurbs (maybe as a joke?) but the music they make is pretty good. I think, so far, this is my favorite album of the year. Both tracks are amazing, soothing space ambient akin to olden synth ambient albums from the 70s. If you know about this and want more, one of the guys from Blood Incantation has a side project called Hoverkraft which is similar to this album so check that also out!
KeyMage - Tower's Key
I have no idea why I like this but I do. I don't really know what to say about it. It's strange but I can't stop listening to it. It's really jarring and uncomfortable but great. Can't get it out of my head.
Immolation - Acts of God
Album prior to this one I really could not care less about but this time Immolation made an album that I return to whenever I just want to listen to some quality death metal without any gimmicks attached. It's nothing revolutionary, Immolation sticks to their guns pretty closely on all albums but this album just flows so well and all the songs are pretty good riff-wise.
Conan - Evidence of Immortality
Conan for me was on a lousy streak with previous two albums. I felt like they ran out of ideas and introduced some elements to their songs that didn't much jive with me. This new album is a return to form but with added experience from those last two outings. Massive album and very fun to listen.
That's it for now! I could name a few others but they don't really stick with me that much. We still have plenty of time for more interesting albums this year. Fingers crossed!
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