Skullflower - Obsidian Shaking Codex (1993)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Skullflower - Infinityland (1995) + Transformer (1995)

Far-out, feedback-drenched, psych-drone black hole explorations. Obsidian Shaking Codex is the sound of a band destroying rock 'n' roll, then taking acid and jamming in the wreckage. It's also my favorite Skullflower record.

Track listing:
1. Sir Bendalot
2. Circular Temple
3. Crashing Silver Ghost Phallus
4. Diamond Bullet
5. Smoke Jaguar

Shiny birds of doom

If you like this, listen to:

Burning Star Core -
A Brighter Summer Day (2002)

Birchville Cat Motel - Our Love
Will Destroy the World (2006)

'. . . [l]ight am I' . . . – '. . . [l]ight am I' . . . (2006)

Canadian raw black metal. Croaking vocals, ghostly guitars, and a drum machine, generating abstract, possibly improvised aural misanthropy.

Six untitled tracks

It's a universal truth

More like this:

Black Funeral - Az-I-Dahak (2004) +
Waters of Weeping (2007)

Benighted in Sodom -
Reverse Baptism (2011)

dBridge - The Gemini Principle (2008)

Sleek, nocturnal drum n bass from English producer Darren White. Punchy drums, wobbly bass, atmospheric warblies, and the occasional vocal sample.

Track listing:
1. Ponderosa (feat. Calibre)
2. Blush Response (feat. Instra:mental)
3. A Lost Cause
4. Creature of Habit
5. On My Mind
6. Cast a Cold Eye
7. A Long Distance
8. Mourning Dawn

We started out as friends

If you like this, try:

Breakage -
This Too Shall Pass (2006)

Eleven Tigers -
Clouds Are Mountains (2010)

Gary Numan - Exile Extended (1998)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Gary Numan - Living Ornaments '79 and '80 (1981)
Gary Numan - Warriors (1983) + Strange Charm (1986)

Following 1992's Machine and Soul -- generally considered his artistic nadir -- Numan more or less completely abandoned 'pop' music, embracing an atmospheric, downtempo electro-industrial sound that he continues to explore to this day. Of this current era, Exile Extended remains my personal favorite. The original Exile is great, but when reimagined as slow-burning monoliths, the songs take on a weightier presence to match the album's unflinchingly iconoclastic subject matter.

Track listing:
1. Dominion Day
2. Prophecy
3. Dead Heaven
4. Dark
5. Innocence Bleeding
6. The Angel Wars
7. Absolution
8. An Alien Cure
9. Exile

A dark salvation comes

You might also like:

The Tear Garden -
Tired Eyes Slowly Burning (1987)

Lycia - The Burning Circle
and Then Dust (1995)

Fantasy - Fantasy (1981)

A sweet slice o' disco-funk excellence that's guaranteed to put that boogie in your butt. Put this LP on at my work yesterday and had to fend off two separate attempts at buying it. While it downloads, please enjoy the back cover.

Track listing:
1. You're Too Late
2. Too Much Too Soon
3. (Hey Who's Gotta) Funky Song
4. Love Explosion
5. You Can't Lose What You Never Had
6. Now I Have Everything
7. Read Between the Lines

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doodoo-doo

Further butt-boogying:

THP - THP #2: Tender
Is the Night (1978)

Shadow -
Love Lite (1979)

Lee Gamble - Join Extensions (2009)

Experimental electronic noise by UK producer Lee Gamble. Disjointed, static-y, and warped. If you've ever been prescribed antidepressants and gone through cold-turkey withdrawal, Join Extensions will sound weirdly familiar.

Track listing:
1. Prey Population
2. Paratelic Offsets
3. Voxel Re-Formed
4. Lidddc Version
5. Jida Mirrors
6. Point Object
7. Elastic Point Transitions

Bad numb

Also listen to:

Adam Bohman -
Last Orders (1997)

John Wiese -
Collected Tracks (2000)

Icons of Filth - Onward Christian Soldiers (1984)

One of the all-time great anarchopunk records. The current political atmosphere in my country (not limited to Trump) is making the crust I listened to back in the day feel relevant again, especially simple, driving, pissed-off shit like this that makes me want to form a mob and throw molotov cocktails at the White House.

Track listing:
1. Why So Limited?
2. Mentally Murdered
3. They've Taken Everything
4. Fucked Up State
5. Present & History
6. Dividing Line
7. Now We're Getting Warmer
8. Sod the Children
9. Show Us You Care
10. Death Is the Only Release
11. Fool Britannia (A Song for Europe)
12. One Second to Midnight
13. Midnight
14. Onward Christian Soldiers
15. Self-Styled Superiority
16. Power for Power

They, the arse
We, the excretion

More like this:

Doom -
Monarchy Zoo (1996)

Cress -
Monuments (1997)

Peaking Lights - 936 (2011)

Laid-back but propulsive narco-disco grooves shot through with dub and desert psych. Aside from the lo-fi recording, 936 is very similar to their new album, The Fifth State of Consciousness, which is my favorite (non-metal) album of the year thus far. It's just such versatile music, you know? I'm just as likely to listen to Peaking Lights while driving around in a hot-ass car as when I'm getting stoned -- uppers or downers! -- or putting the moves on my lady.

Track listing:
1. Synthy
2. All the Sun That Shines
3. Amazing and Wonderful
4. Birds of Paradise Dub Version
5. Hey Sparrow
6. Tiger Eyes (Laid Back)
7. Marshmellow Yellow
8. Summertime

Sweetness seems so far away

You should also check out:

Pure X -
Pleasure (2011)

Pure Bathing Culture -
Moon Tides (2013)

Rot - Cruel Face of Life (1994)

Sloppy Brazilian grindcore with precisely zero deviations in approach or anything remotely resembling dynamics. Cruel Face of Life consists of said album and two EPs that came before it.

Get the track listing here.

Unusual amount of blood

You might also like:

Fear of God -
Fear of God (1988)

Ulcerous Phlegm - International Problems
Can't Be Solved by Intern Nationalism (1990)

Mariah - Yen Tricks (1980)

Weird-ass, all-over-the-place Japanese prog. Mariah is the kind of band that moves from sharp, dissonant modern classical to anthemic hard rock to laid-back fusion to a bunch of other styles like it's no big deal. Like, to the point where I'm reminded of early Mr. Bungle.

Track listing:
1. Yen Tricks
2. Key of Gold
3. Distant Rainbow
4. Black Mariah
5. Let It Blow
6. We Are the Same
7. Burning P.M.
8. Fate

None of them knew they were robots

If you like this, you might like:

Don Muro -
It's Time (1977)

Un Festín Sagital ‎-
Sic Deus Dilexit Mundum (2012)

Labradford - Prazision LP (1993)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Labradford - E Luxo So (1999)

Hey kids! Guess what time it is! That's right: it's fucking late! You know what that means! It's time to stare down the void and see if it stares back, this time with help from Labradford. Evocative, slow-burning drone and dark, minimal post-rock. Listening to Prazision LP is akin to that feeling you get when you're exploring a dimly-lit alien planet after having crash-landed, slowly growing accustomed to the notion that you're never going to be able to return to your home planet and will die alone in a beautiful but barren expanse.

Track listing:
1. Listening in Depth
2. Accelerating on a Smoother Road
3. Splash Down
4. Disremembering
5. Experience the Gated Oscillator
6. Soft Return
7. Sliding Glass
8. C. of People
9. New Listening
10. Gratitude
11. Skyward with Motion
12. Everlast

Freeze time

Similar listening:

Rachel's -
Selenography (1999)

Pelt -
Ayahuasca (2001)

Moodymann - Silentintroduction (1997)

10/10 deep house. Can't believe I slept on this dude for so long. I blame y'all. I know for a fact that some of you have known about Moodymann this whole time and didn't tell me about him. Let's all agree that from now on, when we know about something this dope, we tell each other, sound good? Now, the rest of you: Check. This. Shit. Out.

Track listing:
1. Misled
2.  I Can't Kick This Feelin' When It Hits
3. The Third Track
4. Oceans
5. Answer Machine
6. M Traxx
7. Music People
8. Sunday Morning
9. In Loving Memory
10. Dem Young Sconies

What am I gonna do?

Also listen to:

Luomo -
Vocalcity (2000)

Andrés -
Andrés (2003)

Transgressor - Ether for Scapegoat (1992)

Lysergic Japanese death metal with strong elements of doom. If you dig old-school death metal and haven't heard this -- like me a couple of weeks ago -- drop what you're doing and listen to this. That is, if you're not doing anything that cool. If you are, just wait and listen to it later, you know?

Track listing:
1. Whiteness
2. Immense Extinction
3. Mortal Agony
4. Deathfile
5. Disembodied / Suffocation
6. Transmigration
7. Limbless Doom

Bring your world to an end

You also should hear:

Viogression -
Expound and Exhort (1991)

Fleshcrawl -
Descend into the Absurd (1992)

John Lee & Gerry Brown - Infinite Jones (1974)

Flawless, energetic but spaced jazz-funk/fusion led by bassist John Lee and drummer Gerry Brown. Infinite Jones was the first of a series of excellent collaborations between Lee and Brown. I straight-up cannot fathom being even half as cool as these dudes.

Track listing:
1. Infinite Jones
2. Deliverance
3. Jua
4. Absitively Posolutely
5. Rise On
6. Who Can See the Shadow of the Moon
7. Bamboo Madness

Her celestial body

You would also like:

Herbie Hancock -
Thrust (1974)

Eddie Henderson -
Sunburst (1975)

Boreal Tundra - Schizophrenic Delusions (2015)

Canadian depressive black metal. It's hot as fuck here in Portland, OR, so I'm cooling off with a heaping pile of frostbitten riffage and a tall, cold glass of the emptiness of human existence.

Track listing:
1. Accumulation of Anxieties
2. Devoid of Empathy
3. Primitive Instincts
4. Apparition of Eternal Misery
5. Accumulation of Anxieties II
6. Ephemeral Dementia
7. Pestilence and Death

Abyss is waiting

More like this:

Celestia -
Apparitia - Sumptuous Spectre (2002)

Inferi -
Shores of Sorrow (2006)