Visions of Yokai

Thirty minutes of lo-fi dungeon murk that is so completely washed out sounding that when I initially threw it on I thought that one of my speakers had blown... Seriously, imagine Abruptum, Wold, Tangerine Dream, and Trollman Av Ildtoppberg competing for volume on a derelict stereo system located a quarter mile down an abandoned silver mine and you're still not even close to how mangled this sounds.

Put another way: If you dug that Funereal Moon track I posted you're probably gonna lose your fucking mind over this.

Funereal Moon

Imagine Abruptum, Jesus Chrust (the really fucked sounding one from MA, not the pre-Disassociate one from NYC, though they're cool too), or Black Mass of Absu jamming with a completely acid-damaged low-budget approximation of early Dead Can Dance and you have a pretty good idea where these Mexican weirdos are coming from.

Spooky

So, DD collapsed and had to go to the hospital yesterday and in a crazy moment of WTF synchronicity there was a mass shooting within a block of where we usually go when we decide to take a walk, which is what we were on our way to do when she passed out?

Fuck, I guess it was a good thing we wound up in the hospital.

DD is doing ok now, thank fucking god. The doctors ran a fuck ton of tests and chalked it up to something called a vasovagal syncope? I guess it's a pretty minor thing but the last time she fainted it was something really serious so we weren't gonna "wait and see" and find out we were wrong.

Fragda

I once described Fragda as sounding like the Doom 2016 soundtrack as played by Anaal Nathrakh and I'm sticking with that for this newest album... Monstrous industrialized chugs meets million-MPH blackened blasts meets an inorganic sheen equal parts Meshuggah, Fear Factory, and Red Harvest.

And yeah, it's pretty "modern sounding" or whatever, but if you avoid this one due to a slight whiff of "deathcore" that's on you for being a moron.

One of my favorite albums of this year so far.

Dread

Fucked up ugly sludge-core from Boston MA circa 2009. I'm guessing that these guys are no relation to the Dread from Rockland MA that was around when I was a kid, but they do seem to feature at least one member of the almighty Upsidedown Cross... Overall vibe here reminds me of Indian/ Lord Mantis/ Buried At Sea topped off with vocals that sound like Seth Putnam having his scalp peeled back with a belt sander.

Pretty fucking killer.

Weekly Roundup #12

Blah Blah:

Bummed, but dealing with it.

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Muzak:

Bodies On Everest - Thuggish, knuckle dragging caveman dirge from the UK. Like I said yesterday: Equal parts Brainbombs and Rusted Shut with lengthy passages of greyscale industrial noise. 

https://bodiesoneverest.bandcamp.com/album/a-national-day-of-mourning

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Despise You - Finally just replaced the totally scuffed-up copy of "West Side Horizons" I've had since I was in high school.

https://fuckyogarecords.bandcamp.com/album/west-side-horizons

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Mortal Decay - Of all the amazing DM bands that came out of the general NYC/ LI/ NJ area in the 90's Mortal Decay might be my overall favorite. Especially their first three demos and the "Sickening Erotic Fanaticism" full length.

https://uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sickening-erotic-fanaticism

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Deteriorot - Another underrated slab of 90's/ 00's east-coast DM. Manages to sound super gross and doomy without being standard "death doom." Closest comparisons in terms of style are probably Immolation and Incantation but I gotta be honest and say out of the three I probably like Deteriorot best.

https://xtreemmusic.bandcamp.com/album/in-ancient-beliefs

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Inexorum - Label blurb references Dawn, Sacramentum, and Mork Gryning and the recommendation was kicked my way by Andrew over at the ever reliable Aversionline.com so you know this is pretty much guaranteed to be fire (as the kids say)... Can't wait for the full album, which I guess should be out later this month.

https://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/album/equinox-vigil

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Ossuary - Chunky, hardcore-tinged DM from suburban Pennsylvania circa 1994. I don't think this is the same Ossuary as the one that released the "Supreme Degradation" demo but honestly I'm not sure and I'm way too lazy to google it... At any rate, what you get here sounds kinda like Cold As Life gone full-on death metal with what sounds like at least three different singers trading off vocals. Absolutely devastating.

https://youtu.be/WW9tjPebIFw

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Video Games:

Espgaluda II - I've been super busy lately which means video games have kinda fallen by the wayside a bit, but I'll usually try to take like 20 minutes after dinner to sit down and blast through a quick SHMUP. Espgaluda II "Black Label" has been my go to for the past couple weeks, pretty fun and a reasonably easy 1cc as far as bullet hells go.

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Reading

A bunch of weird news stories from a town where I used to deliver pizzas when I was in my late teens/ early 20s... UFO sightings. Huge black dogs. Bodies found in the woods. Reports of giant snakes in the swamps. etc. etc.

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Tube:

Wolfen

Super Infra-Man

Horror of Dracula

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Bodies on Everest

Like Brainbombs, The Body, Air Conditioning, White Suns, and Rusted Shut? Like lengthy passages of greyscale industrial noise? Boy I sure fucking hope so 'cos that's about the only chance you've got of surviving this mess.

Side note: I'm pissed I didn't think of that band name first.