Paraxism

An absolutely incredible Finnish death metal band that is as unique as they are underrated...if they're rated at all! This blog would be a worthwhile endeavor if for nothing else than introducing Paraxism to eager young ears...link for everything I got Demo #1, Promo '97, Selected Works and Xism Excursion.

Paraxism

!T.O.O.H! - Democratic Solution

This new !T.O.O.H! is really good and strange. I'm glad the brothers Schizoid and Humanoid decided to go out on a swansong. I can honestly say there ain't another band playing music that sounds like this. Go over to their  fb page and dl the thing already + all the Gemini Gem offerings and rare !T.O.O.H! recordings...its a veritable treasure trove!

Mortuary Drape - Tolling 13 Knell

I posted this one waaaaay back when I first started this blog, but it is one I keep coming back to and for the past couple weeks I haven't been able to listen to too much besides it. The riffs awesome, vocals awesome, atmosphere amazing....and the drummer is the guy that drummed on Janvs's Vega album, goddamn! This is the very essence of Italian SpookProg. How many black metal bands can get away with singing "La la la La la la la la" for a chorus in one of their songs (Winged Priestess)?

Only one

Tolling 13 Knell

Uncomposing - Northernmost Epic

Redonkulous black-death-forest-prog metal. Totally insane, but definitely worth a listen cuz it was one of Jon Haughm's (yes, he of Agalloch fame) first bands.
From what I know this is Haughm on all instruments...and it is NOTHING like the early Agalloch albums. If anything it sounds like Grave administering a Pacific Northwest roasted coffe bean enema to that first Sculptured album. Hey, but I totally dig it! Just to reiterate, this is not sane stuff and is an acquired taste indeed. Much like that coffee enema I think.

Northernmost Epic

Dwarr - Starting Over

Speaking of The Mezmerist's drug-addled Black Sabbath worship, how about Dwarr's debut from '85? Parts of this sound like Planet Caravan...parts sound like The Flying Luttenbachers...the ultimate WTF album.

Starting Over

The Mezmerist - The Innocent, The Forsaken, The Guilty

It's like the most drug-addled Black Sabbath album that never was...The Mezmerist's vocals defy explanation...an under-underground classick of the SpookProg genre.

The Innocent, The Forsaken, The Guilty

Troller - s/t

Striking, alluring? (maybe just alil' bit) cover art--amazing tunes. Can't stop listening to this. Is it witch-house? Well if shit like Salem is then this certainly ain't. Synth-wave, darkwave...The Cure meets Fever Ray in a twilit grotto. Found out about this crazy group from the wonderful MondoNation blog, and go ahead and like their bandcamp page, that way this amazing cover artwork can show up on your facebook timeline and your old high school art teacher can like that you like it!

Troller

Bandcamp

Shinjuku Thief - The Witch Haven

Bombastic ambiance that borders on martial industrial at times, but retains just enough of the drone influence to keep everybody happy. I've been cranking this when I've been doing P90X...strangely good workout musick.

The Witch Haven

Magma - Udu Wudu

My fav Magma release featuring one of the greatest songs of all time....behold the Zeuhls of grandeur!!

Udu Wudu

Xynfonica - A Feast For Famished Ravens

Tardcore has been ramped up a notch brothers and sisters. Improvised guitar-synths, after hours jazz and creepy growled intonations. Put out by the always solid Hekaloth. Handle with cares.

A SLoppy Feast

Ash Ra Tempel - Seven Up

Soundtrack to an LSD trip, featuring the cruise director himself Dr. Timothy Leary.

Heads UP Seven Up

Comus - First Utterance

Definitely one of the darkest hippy albums ever made and definitely a personal fav. Check out these AMAZING lyrics:
Hymen hunter, hands of steel, crack you open and your red flesh peel
Pain procurer, eyes of fire pierce your womb and push still higher
Comus rape, Comus break sweet young virgin's virtue take
Naked flesh flowing hair her terror screams they cut the air
...nice, huh?

First Utterance

Psyche Out: Don Bradshaw-Leather - Distance Between Us

Dark Psychedelia will be the name of the game around here for a little bit, and I wanted to start things out with an enigmatic album that I just recently stumbled upon: Don Bradshaw and a gal named Leather's soul-occult psyche freakout from '72. It's difficult to even describe this. I can only say it is haunting, powerful, horrific, insane, beautiful....I could go on but I think I'll stop right there. Do some research on this guy, it's fascinating the conjecture and mythology that people go into. Does no one actually know who this was?!? Anyway, I've been listening to these youtube clips the past few daze and I advise you to do the same. No link, but music this ephemeral should not sit on your computer anyway, it should settle deep in your mind only to come alive during those darkest moments when surreality can offer the only escape.

RALF Projekt III - Projekt: Kill

A lo-fi/no-fi descent into the deepest depths of depravity...go ahead and take a long stride into the abyss.

Projekt: Kill

Gloomy Grim - Life?

If one were to take an LSD fueled boatride down Disney's It's A Small World exhibit (or maybe even Epcot's Imagination Land), Gloomy Grim should most likely be your soundtrack of choice...that Figment character always struck me as quite grim anyways.

Life?

Himinbjorg - Haunted Shores

Psychedelic transcendental pagan metal from these French heathens.

Haunted Shores

Organ - Apoplexy In Six Parts

Norway's mysterious Organ were an incredibly gifted group that presaged the sound that Ved Buens Ende would morph into with Virus. 2003's Apoplexy In Six Parts is sort of a missing link between those two bands (sonically at least, not personnel wise). Very cool instrumentation...there'll be a convoluted clean guitar passage going on and just some incessant blasting underneath. This is actually really similar to what DHG did on Supervillain Outcast. No vox really, but occasionally some disturbed samples will make an appearance (fellatio, Donald Duck?) Definitely one of the forgotten gems of weirdo Norwegian black metal, and an important step forward for the post black metal genre.

Apoplexy In Six Parts

Incubator - Symphonies Of Spiritual Cannibalism

The return of this slimy slithering Grungy German death metal entity. A bit more streamlined than McGillroy, but still just as weird and fucked.

Symphonies Of Spiritual Cannibalism

Borgazur - 2P3: Alchemists Earth of Aeon A. C

Hyperblazingtechnical Symphonic Christian "black" metal. Yeah, go ahead and call it white metal if you dare...white metal christian anarchy actually. This is some really bizarre stuff, coming across like a lo-fi Diabolical Masquerade mixed with a drunken Aletheian. Is it any wonder that they're Dutch?? I found this over at an extreme christian metal blog of which there are a quite a few. There truly are blogs for everything I suppose! Even if a lot of the good ones are going under RIP.

2P3

Water Borders - Harbored Mantras

One of the biggest surprises for me this year was finding out about this album and being absolutely floored by it.

Harbored Mantras