Post-Millennial's Guide To Metal (And Some Other Stuff)

When metal mixes with another genre that isn't rock or punk, it's usually a pretty "big" deal. Rap-metal is one that occasionally comes up, much to my dismay (except Rage Against The Machine ), and provides an interesting blend of the styles, to say the least. Limp Bizkit and Body Count  are probably the two other well known rap-metal groups, with one drawing inspiration from nu-metal and the other from crossover thrash. This style is pretty out of date, but Body Count  put out an album this year, as did Mora Prokaza , a Belarusian black/trap metal duo. I cannot answer as to why these things exist, but I have the same confusion about Mesarthim , which draws from a completely different set of sounds. While I know nothing of the electronic underground, I know that curious fans of EDM or trance would absolutely dig this anonymous Aussie two-piece, whose approach to atmospheric black metal includes heavy synthesizers, drum loops, and rave-like energy. Unlike the majority ...

  A frigid breeze blows in through the open door, into the foyer of a modest, yet small house. It dances on the back of your neck, causing hairs to shoot up and send tension down your spine. Other than the whistle of the wind, and the exhalation of your breath, there is no noise. A man, small in size, lies bloody and beaten, dead on the ground. His face is unrecognizable; it has been mashed into a gruesome pulp, befitting of the large hammer resting in your fist. You stand, weapon in hand, gazing at the scene before you. Blood is spattered on cheap wallpaper opposite of an ascending stairwell. While the external silence continues to permeate the display, an unending and pounding noise echoes in your ears. This man has taken everything from you: your joy, your purpose, your future. In turn, you have robbed him of the same. Yet the rageful roar only grows louder, as the realization that the man's actions are irreversible. No matter your course of action, the trauma lives, your confli...

 Phil Elverum recently dropped a phenomenal record. On first listen, his return to the legendary The Microphones moniker fully realizes the promise of his earlier work while imbuing it with the voidlorn gaze of a middle-aged man that has finally "faced death."  At the  Microphones in 2020 's climax, after 40 minutes of soul-wrenching stream of consciousness ruminations on meaning, nostalgia, and the fleetingness of art and personality, Phil punctuates a wall of melancholic noise with one of many sonic references to his internet era classic The Glow, Pt. 2 . This isn't the record's first nod to its predecessor - in fact, it's one of the last on the record - but something about it hits with a wall of visceral sentimentality. The moment in question sees Elverum quote the infamous line, "I took my shirt off in the yard," from the record's title track. This moment and the original song that surrounds it contributes to one of the greatest tracks in in...

Yet another day goes by where my jealousy of Colin Marston 's work ethic grows exponentially. Aside from   who we are discussing today, Marston just this year has released two albums as his progressive ambient solo moniker  Indricothere , another with technical gods  Behold The Arctopus , as well as two more releases from new projects: the enigmatic one-piece  Xazraug , and supergroup Rejoice! The Light Has Come , both of which take a new spin on the avant-garde extreme metal that the man seems to gravitate towards. This is in addition to the recording or production credits on new outputs from Afterbirth , Chepang , ESP Mayhem , Feral , Geryon , Gigafauna , Houkago Grind Time , Pyrrhon , Reeking Aura ,  Scáth na Déithe ,  Thætas ,  Tómarúm , Wayfarer , Defeated Sanity , Imperial Triumphant,  and SVTNH , the last three of which he appeared on as a guest. Needless to say, Marston is clearly an extremely malleable workaholic, and 2020 has been a m...

We talk a lot about prolific artists here. In our review of the new Boris  album , we talked primarily about the band's consistent quality among their massive discography, and how rare this is of a case. We also mentioned Merzbow  and discussed how the seemingly infinite amount of music made by the one-man project has not all made a pressing mark on the world. While Unreqvited is leagues away from reaching the repertoires that either of those Japanese groups has, the anonymous solo composer is on a solid track to reach them in years to come. Spawning in the mid-2010s, 鬼 (The other alias of the group, meaning 'ghost' in Chinese) has to this date put out five full-lengths, two EPs, and three splits, of which four of those projects were released this year alone. Mosaic II: la déteste et la détresse was released in January, alongside a split with comrade-in sound Sylvaine , the latter of which I enjoyed a lot. Additionally, March saw 鬼 release a two-song split with Japa...