Steve Khan • Rob Mounsey - Local Color (1987)

Great collaboration between guitarist Steve Khan, who I discovered years ago when I bought his album Arrows based solely on its artwork, and keyboardist/synth-guy Rob Mounsey, who I don't think I've listened to outside of this record. Khan's jazz background certainly shines through, but the dated synths and drum sequencers make Local Color feel predominantly like a new age record.

Track listing:

1. Tafiya

2. The Blue Rose

3. I See a Long Journey

4. Gondolas

5. Intruder

6. The Hunt

7. Mahana

Keep on loving while your love is strong

Keep on loving 'til your love is gone away

Also listen to:

Mark Isham - Vapor Drawings (1983)

Barry Cleveland - Voluntary Dreaming (1990)

François-Eudes Chanfrault - À l'intérieur (Inside) (2008)

I've been known to refer to Inside as the scariest movie I've ever seen, with the caveat that my viewing experience was very much enhanced by context. After finally giving it a rewatch a couple weeks back, the jury may be out, but I'm not retracting my statement. I can say for sure that it is insanely brutal. 

Also, the soundtrack's great. Very subtle and minimal. Dark synths, serrated drones, pulsing rhythms, elegiac chamber pieces. There's an extended dialogue-free sequence near the end of the movie where a bunch of terrible things happen without any dialogue, and it's soundtracked entirely by a two-chord synth figure. It's sick as fuck. Go watch it if you can find it -- I torrented it.

Track listing:

1. Arctic Love

2. Memories, Part I, II, & III

3. Dark Beats

4. Discovery

4. Low/High

5. Memories (Redux)

6. Memories (Final)

7. Square Pads for an Eternal Dawn

Open the door, Sarah.

More scary shit:

Jay Chattaway - Maniac (1982)

Mark Korven - The Witch (2016)

Ludicra - Hollow Psalms (2002)

Got a request for this classic, which has apparently become hard to come by in this dead space we once called the blogosphere. Progressive black metal with a DIY punk heart. Still a fucking phenomenal record. Also worth mentioning: their drummer, Aesop Dekker, ran Cosmic Hearse, which more than any other blog inspired me to start this one. Relatedly, I started at a 9-to-5 recently -- still can't believe I landed what's essentially my ideal position after just about a month of looking in earnest -- so don't expect a resurgence of activity on here anytime soon.

Track listing:

1. Tomorrow Held in Scorn

2. Hollow Promise

3. The Final Lamentation

4. Userpent

5. Heaped Upon Impassive Floors

6. Damn the Night

7. Tragaedia

8. Awake to Grey

A bog of dirt which bears your name

You should also listen to:

Inure - Inure (Rough Mixes) (2003)

Teen Cthulhu - Teen Cthulhu (2003)

Ancient Ceremony - P.uritan's B.lasphemy C.all (2004)

German melodic black metal that also takes liberally from gothic, and death metal. For me, everything this band has done lands in the good-to-pretty-great range, with the exception of P.uritan's B.lasphemy C.all, which completely blows the rest of their discography out of the water. Maybe it's the new drummer, who gives them a much-needed ass lift; maybe it's the guitars, which are way gnarlier than before; maybe it's the beefier yet raw-er production. Who knows. Maybe it's the weirdly emotional-hardcore-sounding vocals. Whatever it is, this is a perfect example of that things bands do where they all of a sudden perfect their sound on their last release before splitting up. Strangely, the last track on here is actually a remaster of a track from their debut EP, suggesting that they always had this in them.

Track listing:

1. Te Deum

2. P.uritan's B.lasphemy C.all

3. Raped Paradise

4. The Black Flame

5. Diabolos Temptation

6. God and Idol

Let us kill our enemies

Vengeance is yours and mine

Drunken from this triumph

Their blood it tastes like wine

More along these lines:

Graveworm - As the Angels Reach the Beauty (1999)

Siebenbürgen - Delictum (2000)

thisquietarmy - Blackhaunter (2008)

Guitar-based ambient drone for ghosts. Second full-length from what has turned out to be a very prolific project. Found this CD lost in the understock at my old job, knew I was gonna love it on sight. 

Track listing:

1. Black Haunters

2. In the Breathing Forest

3. Vampyr

4. Taming the Beast

5. Hunting Demons

6. Stranger Than the Sea

Old pang, so faithful to us

You should also listen to:

School of Emotional Engineering - School of Emotional Engineering (2004)

Belong - October Language (2008)

Bestial Mouths - Bestial Mouths (2013)

Propulsive, synth-heavy post-punk/darkwave with droning, tribal-industrial percussion and a lo-fi, horror-fueled aesthetic that was clearly influenced by the short-lived but sorely missed Witch House scene. The vocals -- trembling, reverb-drenched, Siouxsie-esque incantations -- really tie the room together. 

Track listing:

1. Ceased

2. Reunion

3. Faceless

4. Vatic Vision

5. In Empathy

6. Earth

7. Cloaked

8. Movement

9. Death Rattle

Hell is behind that door

Also listen to:

Death Ride '69 - Death Ride '69 (1989)

The KBV - Subjection/Subordination (2011)

Girls Names - Dead to Me (2011)

Where the beach meets the graveyard. The shimmering, reverb-drenched sounds of surf rock applied to the murderous, self-destructive themes of post-punk and gothic rock. Of the many indie-related micro-genres that popped up around this time -- chillwave, witch house, blog house -- surf-indie was one of the micro-est, and it never really took off, but it was fun while it lasted.

Track listing:

1. Lawrence

2. I Could Die

3. When You Cry

4. No More Words

5. Nothing More to Say

6. I Lose

7. Cut Up

8. Bury Me

9. Kiss Goodbye

10. Séance on a Wet Afternoon

When they lay me down in the ground

Bury me in a wall of sound

You should also hear:

Flesh World - Flesh World (2013)

Single Lash - Soft as Glass (2014)

Irmin Schmidt - Musk at Dusk (1987)

Strange, sinister art rock solo outing from Irmin Schmidt, who you know as Can's keyboardist. Queasy, minor-key, island music/soft rock-inspired songs with lurking hints of violence and horror, sung in a quavering, Bowie-esque croon. In fact, Musk at Dusk could be likened to a more fully realized, artistically satisfying take on the canned, vaguely tropical nocturnes of Bowie's Tonight.

Track listing:

1. Cliff Into Silence

2. Love

3. Roll On, Euphrates

4. The Great Escape

5. Villa Wunderbar

6. The Child in History

7. Alcool

Dancing in the limelight

Champagne after midnight

If you like this, try:

Steve Hillage - For to Next (1982)

Obywatel G.C. - Obywatel G.C. (1986)

O.L.D. - Lo Flux Tube (1991)

Related:
O.L.D. - The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak (1993) + Formula (1995)

Lotus Eaters - Alienist on a Pale Horse (2001)

Khanate - Things Viral (2003)

Khlyst - Chaos Is My Name (2006)

Just rewatched Brainscan and a few takeaways: 1) What a confused movie. It's like it wants to be both this dark psychological thriller examining dissociation from self via violent entertainment and a made-for-TV teen movie, then on top of that there's this utterly ridiculous, borderline Robin Williams-type character eating raw chicken and jamming out to Primus? 2) Really fun and dumb, and worth a watch if you like 90s horror, but talk about an anticlimax. 3) Great soundtrack.

Which brings me to O.L.D., whose unhinged take on industrial metal does some heavy lifting during the film's first and grizzliest murder scene. The scene actually features excerpts from the first two tracks on the above-linked The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak, but I've already posted that, obviously. And Lo Flux Tube is ultimately probably my favorite anyway.

Track listing:

1. Outlive

2. Disconnect Self

3. Citient Null

4. Lo Flux Tube

5. Vein Water

6. Marzuraan

7. Disassemble

8. Z.U.

9. Outlive Again (Ganglehea Mix)

Let the mind ascend

Soar through the sky

Let the mind ascend

Leave the pain behind

Let the mind ascend

Watch the body die

You should also listen to:

Painkiller - Execution Ground (1994)

Gasp - Drome Triler of Puzzle Zoo People (1998)

Instincts & Bustum - The Mystery Visions (2002)

Ritual dark ambient with traces of neofolk and ethereal darkwave. The physical release of The Mystery Visions was a collaborative effort with visual artist Bustum, and it was probably really cool, but you obviously won't be getting any of the visual components from me. Thankfully, the music is more than able to stand on its own as an effective portal to the realms of pitch-black hallucinatory madness. Ten untitled tracks.

Abyssal gaze

You should also hear:

Black Seas of Infinity - Within Daathian Chasms (2005)

Aymrev Erkroz Prevre - Noir Voyage Obstrué de Rencontres Difformes (2006)

Plasma - Gorefuck (2000)

Dang, the Halloween season is slipping like blood, stomach acids, and miscellaneous human viscera through my fingers. I'm still very much preoccupied with my job search and will be for the foreseeable future, but I refuse to completely leave y'all hanging like dismembered corpses in a shed out back.

So in honor of the holiday that makes all of my creepiest tendencies temporarily socially acceptable, here's Plasma, who make some of the most disgusting, sloppy, amateurish gore metal I'll ever post on here. Chugalug guitars, plodding drums, and creaky, clogged drain vocals slapped together with practically no regard for composition or musicality. It's like they heard Mortician and were like, "Hey, that's pretty good, but I wish it wasn't so cerebral." And flat-out refused to spellcheck their song titles.

The Anon who called Mincer "CRAP" (their emphasis) is really gonna hate this one.

Track listing:

1. Koprostatic Cunt Catharr

2. Larva Infested Clitoral Melanom

3. Saprogenic Vaginal Canal

4. Drastic Totalextirpation of Female Genital

5. Sordes and Pus in Vaginal Gore

6. Imminent Vulva Dissection

7. Feast Upon Carcinogenic Vaginal Tissue

8. Purulent Inflamation of Clitoral Abscess

9. Metrektomie

10. Unrecognized Decapitated Crania

11. Corpse Devourer

12. Exttirpationed Vagina

13. Molodrous Inquest

14. Ulcerating Vagina

Drink from the septic tank

You might also enjoy:

Patologicum - Hecatomb of Aberration (2003)

Anal Bag - Ultimate Disgust (2011)

Today, Tomorrow, Forever - Today, Tomorrow, Forever (1979)

One of many records that I snagged out of crates that were headed for oblivion (a.k.a. the storage warehouse) at my old job. The A side is funkier, weirder, and arguably more interesting than the B side, which is still good but falls into a comparatively standard disco groove. It's not gonna change your life, but it's a super fun record, and the synth break in "Astro Boogie" alone is worth the price of admission.

Track listing:

1. It's a Groove (Keep On Dancin')

2. Astro Boogie

3. Mad House

4. Blipped (All Over Myself)

5. Taking Me Higher

6. I'm for You

7. It's Your Love

8. Get On Down

Yeah, I was at a hyperdrive party that was, uh, really jammin' back

You should also hear:

Kleeer - I Love to Dance (1979)

T-Connection - Totally Connected (1979)

Crestfallen - Streaks of Terror (2002)

Related:

Wildildlife - Six (2007)

Screamo/skramz from a then-thriving Delmarva scene. It's not exactly a lost classic, but my high school screamo band played a show with them, Charm City Suicides, and Dead Blue Sky on March 10, 2001 (I'm looking at the flier) and their vocalist did that thing where he was writhing around on the ground screaming without a mic, and I loved that shit back in the day, so I fucked with them heavily from that point on.

Track listing:

1. Nine to Five RSVP

2. Beyond Recognition

3. Never Say Never!

4. Scouring for Any Signs of Life

5. Seen and Not Heard

6. Pecking Order

7. Biting Your Tongue Off

8. Disappearing Act

9. Eternal Nightmare [Vio-Lence cover]

I can't hold my breath for that long

Same scene:

pg.99 - Document #5 (2000)

Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Morwan - Svitaye, Palaye (2023)

Ukrainian one-man post-punk. Driving, urgent songs with a sorrowful, almost neofolk-esque undercurrent and a vast, echoing atmosphere. From Bandcamp: "The main theme of the album is the war. There are no specific stories or descriptions of the events of the war. It's more of an abstract and emotional thing. First impressions, moods or emotions experienced during certain events. Pain of loss, sadness, fear, hatred, anger, and aggression are all part of Svitaye, Palaye."

(Free/name your price download from Bandcamp.)

Track listing:

1. Журба

2. Сяєш

3. Полетіли

4. Грім

5. Тополі

6. Відчуваєш

7. Земля палає

It's dawning, it's burning

You should also listen to:

New Model Army - Vengeance (1984)

Rome - Flowers from Exile (2009)

DEAR_SPIRIT Tells You About 5 New Black Metal Records He Likes

Longtime readers will know that, aside from a few notable exceptions, I don't really tell y'all a lot about myself. Sure, if one were inclined to delve deep into the OPIUM HUM stacks, one could ascertain or infer a great deal about me through asides and offhand remarks, but overall, as personal as it can feel, I think this blog's pretty light on actual self-disclosure.

Therefore, y'all would have no way of knowing that the past year of my life has been a time of unprecedented personal growth. I feel like a very different person from the one that started this blog, and this version of me aspires to be a force for good and a source of light, and to reject the pitfalls of nihilism, misanthropy, and hopelessness.

Thankfully, none of this has impacted my abiding love for black metal and all the hatefulness and misery therein. In fact, over the past few months, I've been listening to more of it than I have in years. This is at least in part due to this year's crop of black metal records having provided a particularly plentiful bounty thus far -- from raw Darkthrone worship to dissonant death-infused chaos to strange and exciting new directions for the genre. These five records are ones that I absolutely love and that I haven't seen or heard a lot of hype around.

Jesum Christum - Svag Total

Raw, atmospheric solo project from a man who calls himself Adam CCSquele, a.k.a. drummer of the great Slægt. Epic, mournful guitar work and near-constant blasting complimented by some inspired instrumentation choices, such as the choral vocals and woodwinds that haunt the peripherals of "Drænet på uvist tid" -- easily one of my favorite pieces of black metal art in the past however-many years.

Listen/buy. (Name Your Price download!)

Uzlaga - The Sunken Seer

Down-tuned, heavy-as-fuck, ocean-themed black metal from this English solo project. Anthemic one-two beats, three-chord riffs, and vicious, reverb-drenched vocals, with a huge, densely layered sound, rounded out by a handful of industrial-tinged ambient interludes.

Listen/buy.

Denevér - A vérivók krónikái

Damn, another solo project. I swear I wasn't planning for this list to be all solo projects, I guess it's just a great year for BMSPs -- an acronym that really should already exist. Anyway, this one's Hungarian and vampire-themed, but it's not raw, spoopy vampiric black metal -- the icy, almost thrash-y riffing,  hyperspeed blasts, and overall ass-kicking delivery place it much closer to Battles in the North than Transilvanian Hunger. Plus some totally sick shred solos.

Listen/buy.

Madre - Embryo

French/Italian atmospheric industrial black metal. A thick, droning haze of tremolo-picked guitars, space-y synths, programmed hammer-blasts, harsh noise, and bestial howls from the void.

Listen/buy.

Schavot - Kronieken Uit de Nevel

Schavot has the sound of mid-late 90s second-wave black metal down to a T. From the melodic-yet-evil guitars, to the lupine vocals, to the subtle layers of ethereal keys, to the punchy but atmospheric mixing -- it's all there. They even got a Lady of the Lake to do some oohs and ahhs and a Pinhead soundalike to do spoken word. Absolutely nailed it.

Listen/buy.