(written by Islander)
I went whole-hog with my listening hours yesterday. Like a pig in a trough, I gobbled up so many good songs that I picked 9 of them for today’s roundup. As gluttonous as that was, I easily could have added a lot more, even after pushing a lot of the black metal to tomorrow’s column. And then this morning DGR alerted me to another one that would make 10. But something has to give, because I didn’t start writing yesterday.
Instead of starting to write, I went to see “Disclosure Day” in its first screening at our local theater. Afterward, my head was disturbed by conflicting thoughts about the movie, so to settle down I went to our local sports bar (by myself, because my spouse is out of town). It was packed with howling soccer fans watching the U.S. team. Not being a soccer fan I only watched bits and pieces of that, but mainly tried to focus on the Seattle Mariners’ drubbing of the Washington Nationals.
My focus was frequently interrupted not only by the explosive howls around me but also by a lot of fun conversations (and one very serious one) with people on either side of me at the bar. I stayed way too long, had one too many cocktails, and am paying the price this morning.
I can’t spend any time agonizing over what to do with these 10 song picks or I’ll never finish this thing, and what a tragedy that would be! So I’m just going to start and see what happens. In an effort to cram as much in here as I can before I give up, I’m resorting to the kind of time-saving shortcuts I’ve used in similar situations before. I hope you’ll find time to check out everything.
GOROD (France)
This is the song and video DGR told me about this morning. Recency is primacy, I guess. This is how Gorod introduced it on social media:
“Forgiveness” is a nearly 8-minute short film on the era of fire directed by Sébastien Duattis.The title explores the theme of the Pyrocene through the eyes of a father, torn between the regret of leaving behind a world consumed by flames and the weight of his own responsibility. Musically, this is our most progressive work to date: a synthesis where Gorod’s technicality meets epic structures and sonic territories the band has never explored before.
The video is very well-made, very engrossing, and Julien Deyres proves himself (again) to be a talented actor. The song further cements Gorod’s reputation as a band who are experts at spinning heads. It’s mesmerizing and haunting but also includes bright doses of dextrous prog wizardry, and of course a lot of impressive vocal variations.
Song: “Forgiveness”
Album: The Ember Gone
Label: Season of Mist
Release date: August 28
https://bfan.link/forgiveness-3
https://bit.ly/4dNWmp3
https://www.facebook.com/GorodOfficial/
CULT OF LUNA (Sweden)
Something new from these influential giants. Prepare for music that’s both mysteriously foreboding and immense, tension-inducing and towering, sweeping and soaring. It glistens and slowly flows like calm seas, but its booming power will also shiver the timbers in your ship.
Song: “In the Shadow of Your Shadow”
Album: In the Shadow of Your Shadow
Label: RED CRK
Release date: November 6
https://orcd.co/intheshadowofyourshadow
https://cultofluna.bandcamp.com/track/in-the-shadow-of-your-shadow
https://red-crk.com
https://www.facebook.com/cultoflunamusic/
ALLEGAEON (U.S.)
Here’s another very good video for a song that, like Gorod’s, is a head-spinner, though in a different way. The video is new; the song is not; but it’s a great song that features the band’s very talented guest Adrian Bellue.
The folksy, bouncing, and brightly picked acoustic instrumental that launches it will turn your head one way — and though (thankfully) it doesn’t go away, the band will spin it it in a different direction with screaming tirades and boisterous instrumental escapades that are fleet of finger and limb, and then spin it again with a beautiful instrumental interlude that’s more classically inclined.
Song: “Dark Matter Dynamics”
Album: The Ossuary Lens
Label: Metal Blade
Release date: April 4, 2025
https://www.metalblade.com/allegaeon/
https://allegaeon.bandcamp.com/album/the-ossuary-lens
BLACK SPIKES (Lithuania)
You get one guess as to why I decided to watch this next video (which turns out to be a wild one). But apart from vocalist Agni’s alluring appearance and the strange babies and strange settings, she can both enticingly croon and frighteningly scream.
As for the music that surrounds her, it’s yet another head-spinning kaleidoscope for this column. It’s as intriguing and as wild as the visuals. The band deserve credit for wrapping together so many stylistic variations and moods in ways that are surprising but not jarring.
Song: “Motina”
Album: Ydos
Label: Napalm Records
Release date: August 28
https://napalmrecords.us/collections/black-spikes
https://www.facebook.com/Blackspikesband
SNAG (U.S.)
Here are quotes from members of this Milwaukee band, whose music I wasn’t familiar with, that drew me to this next video (yet another very well-made one for today):
Guitarist/vocalist Samm Szymborski says the song is “…a POV of a wrongful arrest. The confusion, the panic and the sheer inhuman reaction from the arrester. This song musically tells an eerie story within itself. It sets off on a journey and ends abruptly at its peak.”
Bassist/vocalist Peter Murphy adds: “The concept for the video is ‘collective liberation through mutual aid.’ The symbols of zip ties and blindfolds against flashlights and sprints put a finer point on the idea that every free person can help free another person.”
Bands who use their music to fight back against the repressive regimes that are trying to choke people into states of obedience to their power-hungry ways are always welcome around here – at least if they bring us music and videos that are as good as this.
Prepare for ticking and popping percussion that gets muscles twitching, surrounded by fuzzy and glinting notes that build intrigue as they grumble and dart. And then prepare for a sizzling sonic tide that bleakly rises and falls, fronted by yelled vocals that are near ripping apart in their passion. The tension builds and builds – and then the song cuts it off without a resolution.
Song: “Unarrest Me”
Album: All The Cages Holding Us Will One Day Turn To Dust
Label: Deathwish Inc.
Release date: July 10
https://dthw.sh/allthecages
https://www.facebook.com/snagmke/
UNTU (Indonesia)
In case you’ve forgotten, gamelan is a traditional Javanese instrumental ensemble that includes such percussive instruments as gongs and the bronze saron demung. And I’m refreshing your memory about that (or teaching you something you didn’t know) because this next band incorporates gamelan into their experimental fashioning of death/thrash.
Here’s what Untu has said about the song whose video I’ve installed below: “‘Batara Kala‘ explores the concept of Ruwatan, a ritual imploring protection from the eponymous deity. We can beg, we can pray, but in the end, time consumes us all. We wanted this track to feel inevitable.”
Demung and gong tones do play a notable role in this exotic song, but apart from those distinctive accents and the air of mystery (and mania) they help create, the song brings us other benefits too. It includes vicious riffing generated by fleet-fingered fretwork, vividly scampering beats, and scorching vocals — but also sudden tempo changes, musical sensations that are sinister, dismal, and deranged, and diabolical spoken words.
The accompanying video is tremendous too.
Song: “Batara Kala”
EP: Yet, I Smile
Label: None yet
Release date for the single: June 6
EP release date: not yet announced
https://untu.bandcamp.com/album/batara-kala
https://instagram.com/untu.musik
MOLOKEN (Sweden)
Moloken have returned. The next song is the second single from their new self-titled album. It nervously jangles, heavily hums, vividly bounces, and includes plaintive clean singing. But the vocals transform into roars and screams, and those ragged jangling tones extend and unnervingly writhe and wail.
It’s an unsettling song, a constantly twisting (and twisted) one, but gets its hooks dug in.
Song: “Fault Line”
Album: Moloken
Label: Discouraged Records
Release date: September 25
(Thanks to Rennie Resmini for pointing me to this one.)
https://orcd.co/mmi71-2
https://www.facebook.com/Molokenofficial
WITCHSORROW (UK)
It occurred to me that by this point in today’s collection some listeners would be yearning for some bloody red meat, something requiring less work by the frontal lobe and more attractive to the reptile brain. Hence, my selection of this next song. Hail Satan!
Prepare for ominous heaving chords and frantically swirling arpeggios, as well as a fiendishly ticking bridge which leads to a chug-fest that’s damn nigh irresistible, a chug-fest accented by skull-popping beats, sinister blaring melodic bursts, and demonic vocals that sit at the bloody intersection of snarls and screams. To cap the experience, you’ll get a terrifically fiendish guitar solo followed by a dose of suffocating doom.
I’ll dispense with any suspense: This song will most definitely be on my year-end list of Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs.
This song comes with a video too. Welcome to Hell.
Song: “Hades Chains”
Album: The Devil And All His Works
Label: Church Road Records
Release date: July 3
https://witchsorrowdoom.bandcamp.com/album/the-devil-and-all-his-works
http://facebook.com/witchsorrowdoom
SWARN (Estonia)
At last, I’m forcing myself to stop, but I’m staying in reptile-brain territory. I’m also including a complete release for the first time in today’s collection, a new six-song EP from the Estonian death metal band Swarn.
The bones of these compact songs consist of massive HM-2-powered riffs, gargantuan bass undulations, frantically quivering guitar-leads, galloping and furiously hammering beats, utterly rabid howls, and even more demented soloing.
There’s nothing fancy going on here, no attempts to break molds or reinvent wheels, just chainsawing and gut-loosening gruesomeness with a lot of primal appeal, interspersed with moments of oozing musical putrefaction (and ending with a creepy and doom-drenched atmospheric instrumental piece).
If you’re a lover of old-school Swe-death (as I am) I predict you’ll love this. I’m sure makers of mosh-pit mayhem everywhere would love it too.
EP: Corpsetrader
Label: Warhorse Records
Release date: June 6
https://warhorn.bandcamp.com/album/corpsetraider
https://www.facebook.com/Swarndeath