I got my first Covid vaccine on Saturday. My arm hurt for like a day
after, and that was it. I feel super lucky to have had access to it, and I
highly recommend everyone get it when they get the chance. It feels like
for the first time in forever, we’re closer to the end of this thing than the
beginning. There’s still work to be done, and we aren’t out of the woods
yet, but for the first time in a year, I can actually picture myself in a record
store or at a concert, and that ain’t nothing. On to the music!
Monday
Krallice - Demonic Wealth
When I listened to
Diotima for a workout, I commented about how
Krallice just keeps surprise dropping new albums, and I keep missing
them. Well not this time!
Demonic Wealth was dropped a
couple weeks ago, and even though it took me a minute, I jumped at the chance
to hear new music from the band. The album is sort of weird, and
definitely a change of pace, which means it is 100% a Krallice album. In
the band's chapter in
USBM (which I really want to review but can't
seem to find the time to do so for some reason), one of the band members says
that going forward they just want to smoke more weed and make more music (I’m
paraphrasing, because the book is inaccessible to me at the moment).
Well, if efforts like
Demonic Wealth are the result, then I
hope the band keeps toking up and hitting record, because what they’re doing
is genuinely amazing.
Demonic Wealth is out now, and is
absolutely worth listening to.
Tuesday
Nixil - All Knots Untied
All Knots Untied is the debut album from Baltimore’s Nixil, and it is
chock full of all the blackened, deathy goodness you need on a leg day (or
anytime, really). Nixil’s bandcamp describes them as being “always
anticosmic, always antifascist,” one of which I can get behind completely, the
other I have no real feelings on, but is cool if that’s what they want to be
about as a band (write whatever kind of music you want, hang fascists from
lightpoles, if you needed me to clarify). The riffs are bludgeoning, and
the atmosphere is dense (and decidedly earth-bound);
All Knots Untied is a terrific debut, and Nixil is definitely a
band to keep an eye on moving forward.
All Knots Untied came out
March 5th.
Wednesday
Somme - Prussian Blood
Prussian Blood is a raw, aggressive slab of bleak, productionless black
metal that hits cold and quick as a Chicago ice storm. Somme has crafted
an exceptional entry in the genre, and while I often prefer my black metal a
little more atmospheric with a little more production, I really did enjoy
Prussian Blood as a soundtrack to the day’s lift. It’s a
short listen, closer to an EP than a full length, but it’s packed with enough
blasting drums and shrieking riffs to leave you satisfied. Prussian Blood came out March 15th.
Thursday
Fuath - II
Fuath is the side project of Saor mastermind Andy Marshall, and
II is
the first album by the band I've encountered (going out on a limb, I'm
guessing it's the second album done under the name). Fuath, like Saor,
plays atmospheric black metal, but there's less Gaelic flair in this project,
taking its inspiration instead from early 90s black metal. So while
there's plenty of reasons to like both projects, your feelings on music that
feels influenced by the Scottish Highlands will probably determine which you
truly prefer. But it never hurts to listen to more music, so listen to
both!
II came out last Friday via Season of Mist.
Friday
Fossilization - He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten
Wow, talk about a great week for debut albums. Brutal, grimy death metal
that feels incredibly inspired by Gorguts,
He Whose Name Was Long Forgotten is an excitedly welcome return to
the earthbound muck from whence it came in a genre that feels to be rapidly
heading for the cosmos. The debut EP from newly created Fossilization,
the album clocks in at under a half hour, so it got a couple of spins during
my workout, but it packs its runtime with plenty of riffs caked in a gloomy,
murky atmosphere. This is one of those albums that makes the dirt you
missed when sweeping out the garage seem to come alive with the intention of
strangling you during your last set of the morning. This is a
staggeringly impressive debut, and I can’t wait to see what Fossilization has
in store going forward.
He whose Name Was Long Forgotten came out March 8th on Everlasting Spew.
And there’s the week. Keep lifting, keep reading, and I’ll see you next
week.
-Durf
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