Back To Bandcamp: July 30, 2016

Moonglade - Gray Evening
(https://moonglade.bandcamp.com/releases)

Remember when, in a moment of unparalleled condescension and paternalism, I promised to criticize Mire of Despondency's Nokturus until she realized her potential as a musician? Well, I'll eat at least a few of my words. Moonglade, the Pennsylvania musician's new solo project, plays to all of Mire of Despondecy's strengths while dispensing with its weaknesses. Well, most of them. As usual, Nokturnus's shrieks sometimes crowd out the rest of the mix, and the instrumentation is still almost entirely digital. But Nokturnus's melancholy melodies and excellent use of synths and keys brings out the best in her songwriting and highlight just how much she's developed as an artist since her debut. Moonglade's embrace of bittersweet depressive melodies and haunting ambiance on Gray Evening bears all the hallmarks of the best kind of new beginning.

Recommended.


Vermin Lord - VERMINLORD DEMO
(https://verminlord.bandcamp.com/album/verminlord-demo)

Imagine a rat in corpse paint squealing his heart out into a microphone that's as big as he is.

That's about what the vocals on Vermin Lord's first demo sounds like, and I have to admit, I kinda love it. Add some spooky, pseudo-medieval black metal melodies, gothic chanting, and a few chunky death metal riffs and you've got a recipe for one of the most exemplary and original black metal demos I've heard in a long, long time—trve and kvlt as piping hot Per Ohlin stew from start to finish. Did I mention this is just one guy? Yeah, it's just one guy. What have you done with your life recently?

Highly Recommended.


Necrourgica - Further From The Grey
(https://necrourgica.bandcamp.com/album/further-from-the-grey)

These two Pennsylvania black metallers are barely twenty, but Further From The Grey has all the grim sophistication of a veteran release, with solid roots in the best of black metal's second wave. There's a few atmospheric touches and post-black influenced melodies on some tracks, but the riffing and blastbeats have all the thrash and rattle of the classics. That's not to say Necrourgica are deaf to fresh ideas. Ecoas's menacing snarl evokes Attila Csihar throughout the record, but he also employs a gothic croon on "Corrode" and "Appalachian Lake" that sounds more like H.I.M's Ville Valo—weirdly, it works. Most importantly. Further From The Grey is full of catchy, dynamic, meaty, and creative black metal songwriting; the kind that's becoming increasingly rare in a scene dominated by atmospheric releases.

Highly Recommended.

The Thurible Presents: Halfway There, 2016 Edition

I've been gone for a while.

I just emerged from several intensive weeks of my master's program, and I've got a week or so of respite before I plunge back in. That makes this the perfect time for a rundown of the best music of this half of 2016; both the free releases I've reviewed and the mainstream stuff I haven't.

8 Best Metal Albums of 2016 (Halfway There Edition)


1. Vektor - Terminal Redux

These aren't in order, by the way, but if they were this progressive sci-fi thrashterpiece would be right at the top, as I imagine it will be still at the end of the year list. Terminal Redux does everything right: the riffs are heavy and complex, the production is crisp and clear, the drumming is fast and relentless, the solos are insane, and David DiSanto's Dani Filth-esque snarl perfectly compliments the band's high-speed aggression. Though not a single song dips under a five-minute runtime (and most go much longer), Vektor pack so much into every track that you're never left waiting for them to end. If you want to hear the best single piece of guitar music of this year, here it is. Hold on to your spacesuits.


2. ColdWorld - Autumn

ColdWorld's Autumn captures the transcendence of sorrow—the way death brings us closer not only to mortality but also to eternity. The superficial simplicity of ColdWorld's songwriting conceals a mastery of atmosphere and melody and an emotional weight that most depressive black metal albums can only aspire to. The artful and subtle use of clean vocals, acoustic instruments, and ambient synths only underscores Georg Börner's incredible skill as a musician, but the soaring, bittersweet melodies at the heart of every track on Autumn are what really make the album so exceptional.


3. Cobalt - Slow Forever

"Nothing sounds like this" is high praise from me. It's even higher praise when I'm talking about a black metal album. Drawing melodic inspiration from Southern rock, Cobalt crafted a black metal record that drips like molasses and rolls like the Mississippi. It's also as angry as drunk ex-marine and hits like a shotgun. Basically, it's the most American black metal album since Roads to the North and I love it.


4. Blood Ceremony - Lord of Misrule

Call it retro metal, occult rock, or scooby-doom: Blood Ceremony are some of the best in metal's newest niche. Lord of Misrule tones down the heaviness a notch or two, but all the other elements that make a great Blood Ceremony album are still around, including the organ and flute work, folk influences, chunky riffs, earworm hooks, and occult-inspired lyrics. Alia O'Brien vocals are, as usual, the standout attraction in this spooky sideshow.


5. Spellcaster - Night Hides The World

Big hooks, big riffs—Night Hides The World isn't short on the things that made classic metal fun and fantastical. Not that Spellcaster are some sort of nostalgia act—there's plenty of modern polish on Night Hides The World and Tyler Loney's clean, full vocals owe more to modern hard rock than to the raspy metal grandmasters of old. Rather, Spellcaster put a fresh spin on classic metal elements, bringing pop sensibilities and 21st century production to the catchy riffs and soaring hooks of speed metal. Good luck getting these songs out of your head.


6. Lycus - Chasms

Lycus are masters of cavernous, menacing funeral doom. Chasms, like 2013's Tempest, is the Oakland band doing what they do best. The songs are long, atmospheric, and strike the perfect balance between beautiful and terrible (as in Ivan the Terrible, not "The Room is a terrible film"). It's an album that demands patience, but full immersion in this slow doom metal procession will take you to mysterious and unexpected places.


7. Castle - Welcome to the Graveyard

Castle aren't the most original band on this list. They borrow the best bits from classic bands like Black Sabbath and Mercyful Fate, but Castle have a knack for making songs that are simultaneously incredibly familiar and completely new. Welcome to the Graveyard probably won't make the top of any end-year lists, but I bet it will get a fair few more spins than plenty of highly-acclaimed albums will.


8. Eight Bells - Landless

Probably the ultimate band to watch from this year. Near-impossible to categorize—Landless incorporates elements of doom, black metal, prog, and the same layered, ethereal vocals used to great effect by Myrkur—Eight Bells push a lot of boundaries. But like Dead to a Dying World, the eclecticism of Eight Bells' style belies the band's unity of  tone and atmosphere. The bleak seascape on Landless cover isn't just stylistic—it perfectly conveys the isolated melancholy that inhabits every song on this fascinating album.

8 Best "Back To Bandcamp" Releases of 2016 (Halfway There Edition)

These are in order, and you'll notice (who am I kidding, no you won't) that some albums I gave a "highly recommended" to aren't on this list, whereas some that were just "recommended" are. Hindsight is a funny thing. Some albums stick with you more than others.


1. Heretic Rites - In Satan's Claws
(https://hereticrites.bandcamp.com/album/in-satans-claws)

These guys are going to be huge if there is any justice in the world. With such a unique sound already nailed down by their second demo, Heretic Rites have everything going for them. The hour of occult garage rock is nearly at hand. Let the unbelievers tremble.


2. Ghost Witch - Demo
(https://ghostwitchdoom.bandcamp.com/album/demo)

The Thurible ran one of the first (if not the first) reviews of Ghost Witch's debut demo. In that review, I compared them to Windhand—a fair and common enough comparison, but one that doesn't really get to the heart of what makes Ghost Witch so exceptional. Sure, their brand of doom is slow and melodic, but there's also an ethereal, mysterious quality... no, I can't place it. Whatever it is, Ghost Witch have something special, and they're sure to have one hell of a proper debut.


3. Black Mantra - From The Grave of Madness
(https://black-mantra.bandcamp.com/album/from-the-graves-of-madness-ep)

This Brazillian band's blend of doomy heaviness, stoner psychedelia, and gothic theatrics still gets me. It's a really distinct sound done pretty damn well, which is really all I ask of a band. That Black Mantra chose to blend several different elements I already fancied just sweetens the deal. This is one of the rare albums that I went back to discover that, yes, it was just as good as I remembered. Maybe even a little better.


4. Blackend Horizon - Monotonous Solitude Within Cold Forests
(https://blackendhorizon.bandcamp.com/album/monotonous-solitude-within-cold-forests)

Monotonous Solitude Within Cold Forests makes 8-bit black metal seem incredibly obvious. "How," it demands, "has no one thought of this before?" I don't know. We came up with harmonica black metal first, so we're clearly doing something wrong.


5. Necrolytic Goat Converter - Demo MMXVI
(https://necrogoatconverter.bandcamp.com/releases)

Behind Necrolytic Goat Converter, the Childish Gambino of black metal band names, is Chris Voss, a man that somehow took up recording black metal as personal therapy and ended up writing some of the best black metal tunes of 2016. Combining his love of classic black metal riffs with his more than decent songwriting chops, Voss whipped up some of the best, most straightforward bedroom black metal I've ever heard. And if we're lucky, Chris Voss may find that he's an even better songwriter when he's not conjuring up frosty riffs for therapy.


6. Louisiana Sadness - Swale

Also known as Swamp People: The Doom Metal Album, Swale feels murky, mucky and hazy—exactly the way a band called Louisiana Sadness ought to feel. Part Southern gothic, part bayou sludge, this instrumental record may not be perfect, but when it hits that atmosphere just right on tracks like "Southern Hatred," all is forgiven.


7. Pyre of Ash - Scattered Toward The Glens

This single impressed me with its incredible polish, emotional intensity, and Panopticon-esque atmospheric black metal sound. Pyre of Ash has since released a full EP, which I missed (fancy that). If it's anything like this stellar single, it just might make the overall end-year list.


8. Behold Darkness - Unholy Filth
(https://psalm88.bandcamp.com/album/unholy-filth)

There's nothing particularly original about Unholy Filth as a black metal record, except the production. The mix's emphasis on lower tones gives the album an extremely unique feel, transforming what would be a pretty good, slavishly traditional project into a fascinating lofi listen. It helps that I'm a sucker for anything that this devoted to the Norwegian black metal masters.