Benighted in Sodom’s track from the forthcoming album

I first came across Benighted in Sodom through their split with Bethlehem (other band that I’m absolutely crazy about, by the way). It is a one-man band from the USA, formed by Matron Thorn, otherwise known for his work in Ævangelist or as a onetime guitarist in the aforementioned Bethlehem. I instantly fell in love with Benighted in Sodom’s doomish unorthodox black metal. Matron Thorn has published tens of releases in just seven years under the name of Benighted in Sodom, with an average of four or five releases per year! When I saw their discography in metal-archives.com the first thing that came to mind was “Ok, the split with Bethlehem was good, but this insane amount of releases must impoverish the quality of the music somehow”. Well, I was wrong. The albums I heard so far are really good! It is a sort of melancholic, psychotic doom/black metal, the guitar riffing reminding of old Shining at some points. Benighted in Sodom is the perfect soundtrack for a sojourn at the mental asylum staring at a blank wall under a heavy dosage of tranquilizers.

Last October, Matron publicized the title of the forthcoming 2014 full-length, "Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night". One of the tracks to be included in the album, entitled “Sometimes I Don’t Mind”, was posted on Youtube. Check it out!

If you liked it, give a listen to the albums they have available on Bandcamp, “Reverse Baptism” and “Hybrid Parasite Evangelistica”.

Carpe Noctem - “In Terra Profugus”

Iceland is a place that has always fascinated me as a largely inhospitable land of extremes, where fire and ice meet, thus creating landscapes as much breath-taking as barren. Also when it comes to musical production, Iceland is a good place to be. It has nurtured fabulous bands of several genres - just look at Sigur Rós, Svartidauði, Sólstafir or Fortíð. Last year, we witnessed the release of the debut opus from one of the most exciting bands in the Icelandic metal scene and in worldwide black metal in general: Carpe Noctem’s “In Terra Profugus”. A masterpiece of sombre, frenetic, disharmonic black metal sprinkled with mid-tempo beats, slower, more ambient interludes with clean guitars, and occasional straightforward “classic” black metal riffs. Besides, I found out that two of their members have played in other amazing black metal band, which unfortunately split-up, Dysthymia (check out their only full-length, “The Shivering Opus”, released in 2008).  “In Terra Profugus” is a mandatory album for fans of Deathspell Omega and Carpe Noctem’s fellow countrymen Svartidauði.

Anyhow, since I’m aware I suck big time reviewing music, enough bullshit and listen to what they have to play.

This Will Destroy You - Black Dunes

Because Tunnel Blanket is still king among its post-rockian peers, and there won't ever be one chance to share this album too many.

Embedding a specific song is borderline criminal seeing as the whole album should be listened through, but it's the sacrifice one must make in order to keep up with the song of the day format. I know, I'm a modern day hero. As per usual, you can find the whole thing at the bandcamp page and if you haven't listened to it, you should.

Hypothermia - Självdestruktivitet Född Av Monotona Tankegångar IV: Warakumbla

Personally, I avoid the label “DSBM” (Depressive Suicidal Black Metal). I was amazed back in the first decade of this millennium when several black metal bands started to drop the satanic imagery towards a more intimate, individualistic approach towards music, and incorporate elements from other genres, such as doom metal, shoegaze or post-rock. Bands that started to give up on pseudo-religious themes in benefit of more introspective insights into the real darkness: the darkness that inhabits our minds and accompanies us until the final decline of our pointless existence. Bands that conjured up real demons; the kind of demons which haunt us every single day of our lives, driving us to utter misery and insanity, and lure us into the wickedest acts of self-destruction. The true blackness lies within.

But soon after, as it usually happens, individuals all around the globe copied the formula established by their predecessors, tinged their music with a supposedly “suicidal” sentiment, and - lo and behold! - here we have the “DSBM” sub-genre! Many of these projects had some quality, of course, but there sprung literally thousands of bands whose emotional intensity and “depressive” mood could easily be surpassed by Demis Roussos. Thus, I quickly lost interest in the “DSBM scene”. But that doesn’t mean I lost interest in introspective, melancholic or depressive black metal; quite on the contrary, it remains as my favourite branch of metal music. But it has to have good quality and by this I do not mean elaborate technicality or anything like that, but simply that abstract dimension so hard to define and impossible to quantify: feeling or, as phrased above, emotional intensity.

But enough chitchat. All this rambling served to point out how Hypothermia is one of the seminal bands in this specific variant of black metal. But if you’re remotely acquainted with this type of music, you probably know this already. Hypothermia’s sad, minimalistic, repetitive guitar riffs; its down-tempo, monotonous rhythmic section and Kim Carlsson’s anguished shrieking made them one of the must-hear bands to anyone who’s into saturnine black metal. The band has evolved to a considerable degree since its first recordings, although maintaining its essence (just compare older albums like “Veins” or “Köld” with their last full-length, “Skogens Hjärta”). Their music channels a sense of despondency and despair in a way that few other bands are able to do. They have a new full-length on the forge for already two years and released a new demo-track this month, “Självdestruktivitet Född Av Monotona Tankegångar IV: Warakumbla”, which is available for download on Bandcamp and for sale on the gigs they’re performing in Germany, Belgium and Netherlands during March, together with Svarti Loghin in the “Tanke & Minne” mini-tour. Check them out and unjoy!

 Here's the new demo: Here are the two tracks to feature in the forthcoming album:

Ruth Garbus - And You Be

Today's song comes from indie-to-the-max label osrtapes, which seems to focus on dishing out minimalistic experimental singers and songmakers.There's some good stuff to explore at their soundcloud page, one of those being this song by Ruth Garbus, a singer who also apparently has some drawing skills to boot - if my google-fu is trustworthy to any extent, she seems to also be a designer.

Since I don't have any notorious skills I'll just stick to sharing other people's work. There's a place for everyone in this world it seems, for all that's worth.

Kall

First of all, greetings to all of you guys who choose to waste your time reading this (I’m guessing your lives are just so miserable and devoid of any meaning that you have nothing better to do anyway). I couldn’t think of a better way to initiate my activity in this blog than sharing with you two recent tracks by Stockholm’s sick bastards Kall. I’m a huge fan of the Swedish depressive black metal acts Hypothermia and Lifelover (among other projects involving Kim Carlsson, such as the now defunct Kyla and Life is Pain). After the tragic demise of B., some of the guys in Lifelover made the decision of taking the band’s legacy forward with a new project named Kall. They have released two songs so far and I eagerly await their debut.

In my opinion, Lifelover was the blissful musical invocation of pure mental illness; a sorrowful artistic distillation of schizophrenia; the perfect dysfunctional marriage between delusional euphoria and suicidal depression. Naturally, I could expect nothing less than this from Kall’s incursions. I have to say that the composition of the songs does not rise up to the level of Lifelover’s geniality, but then again these are just their two first recordings. Let’s wait for the album.

Connections - Mall Lights

Here's a fuzzy/dream/pop/rock thing. I really like this sort of dirty pop, even if it is not nothing too new and unheard of.

The collection Year One spans Connections' past year in songmaking and it has its ups and downs in song quality. Mall Lights is of course one of the good ones but there is bit of filler here and there (such as the song Casuals), naturally skippable songs. Surely not everything has to be great but more often than not bands will add a bit of stale content to make ends meet; for me, I'd rather have a short, good album than an artificially long album.

All in all though it's still a good listen. Check out the full stream at stereogum, the link is in the Now Streaming tab at The Brainlesser homepage. Alternatively you can work your computer magic and head to the bandcamp itself, but the stereogum short piece on the band is enlightening so I recommend you take the long route.

Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Ganz leise kommt die Nacht (video)

The band has been sharing this video via youtube but since not everyone is fond of that particular media I thought I'd share it along with some news.

So I've updated the blog layout. It might not seem much but it was a bit of work for me, since I had to tune into some coding (something that I know nothing about) but know you should see a "now streaming" feature up top where I'll be adding links to albums or other interesting shit that's streaming in the webs. I've also compiled a bit of a list for the songs of the day that I post... daily, which should make it easier to navigate around the blog.

That's pretty much it, but I'm pumped. Now I need to add some sort of "about" or "contacts" page, even though my G+ profile is here for anyone to see. Regular blog activity should return shortly!

SotD: Marissa Nadler - Old love haunts me in the morning

What better way to end this week than a little relaxation before the weekend plunge? Marissa Nadler's been on my mind since I was reading about her plans for a new album due early 2014, that was about earlier this week I think, but the timing now seems just right for a listen.

Here's a nice tune from The Saga of Mayflower May, her second album.

SotD: Fly Pan Am - Nice est en feu!

Closing song for Fly Pan Am's S/T as I revisit some of their work laying about on soundcloud. I've heard this band first maybe a few years ago and this is still a great album, aging like proper wine.

SotD: Special Explosion - Lifeguard

Getting back on track with the blogging activities, here's a couple things I plan to do:

a) properly design this blog, it looks like crap;

Granted I know nothing of webdesign so the task should be long and painful. My drawing skills are subpar to say the least, so I can't really rely on some unique design shenanigans here. We'll see. I aim at something simple, light and effective.

b) set up an online radio;

I know just about as much as broadcasting and radio things as I do about webdesign, so this will be fun. I'll probably try out some podcasting first and then maybe get a proper stream going on. First things first though, have to work out how licensing works. That should prove itself an amusing pain in the ass...

These are my short-term plans, sitting aside the will to create actual content beyond posting one song per day - which, granted, is a challenge in itself, but I'm sure I could fit in other things.

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Onward!

Today's song is by punkish indie band Special Explosion. This album brought me some ways to bands like Built to Spill, and though not standing out by any means the S/T album is pretty enjoyable as a whole. Here's the opening track, and welcome to 2014.