🌶️ To The Teeth: An album of the year, many Australians, a Chinese surprise, weirdo prog-death and yes, 'tallica

Dødheimsgard, Metallica, VoidCeremony, Thantifaxath, Witte Wieven, Ὁπλίτης, Sabaton, Overkill & much more!

Welcome to the To The Teeth newsletter! Your weekly update of new heavy music. You can listen to almost everything in the playlist on Spotify. If you like what you read and want help keep this in the air: please head over to Patreon or to Bandcamp: The Taste of Teeth (patches!). Peppers are hot 🌶️!

Incredible how much stuff is from down under today! 🦘

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New Albums

🌶️ Dødheimsgard (avantgarde black from Norway. FFO: Ved Buens Ende, Ulver)

We’ll get to the boys from San Francisco after this. Because this is one of my favourite releases of the year. I’ve had the promo for stupid long, especially in a day and age where you are never sure if you’re getting a promo at all and if you do, it’s very late (again looking at those boys from San Francisco - I got that just before release). Anyway. Dodheimsgard knocked it out of the park. It’s the way it flows, how every part grabs the next, how thickly layered and still spacey the album feels - all just stunningly beautiful.

Frontman Vicotnik said he just wants to make something new that he had not done before (like referencing David Bowie!) and that takes time (eight years!). Well, what would be experimental music be if it wasn’t for making something new? Don’t let that scare you by the way, this is not knotty, inaccessible or cerebral - on the contrary, Black Medium Current is like new shoes that not everyone will like, but you immediately know you’ll be wearing every goddamn day for years to come. One of my favourite albums of the year so far for sure.

🌶️ Metallica (heavy/thrash from the USA. FFO: Megadeth, Exodus, Diamond Head)

Do you know this band? Well, they’re making quite the name for themselves, you should check them out! In all seriousness: I really liked the last album, I like this one quite a bit. It’s just too long. The songs are too long, the album is too long. There is a lot of good stuff, but it’s all a bit buried and that’s kind of a pity. Not a really revolutionary opinion. But that said: I enjoy it for what it is.

🌶️ VoidCeremony (prog death from the USA. FFO: Cosmic Putrefaction, Ulthar, Faceless Burial)

You gotta wear a helmet, gloves and a groin guard, and strictly follow VoidCeremony’s every step. They know their way through the thick bushes of weirdo death metal. In a way this is as 20 Buck Spin as they come; that’s a good thing.

🌶️ Ὁπλίτης (prog death/black from China. FFO: Serpent Column, Deathspell Omega, Thantifaxath)

Well this is a surprise! Chinese one-man act Ὁπλίτης (‘Hoplites’ in English) dropped his second album this year and it’s another barn burner. Fast and hard to follow, intricate and agressive. And I love the production.

🌶️ Witte Wieven (atmoblack from The Netherlands. FFO: Myrkur, Alcest, Laster)

Pairing the melodic to the harsh, it’s the bread and butter of atmospheric black. I like that Witte Wieven really got everything out of that dynamic, and made a very hypnotic, brooding debut.

🌶️ Summer Haze '99 (dream black from Austria. FFO: Violet Cold, Sadness, Carathis)

One more surprise: a new Erech Leleth project, who’s behind great acts like Ancient Mastery, Bergfried and Carathis. He’s slowly moving into Damián Antón Ojeda / Victoria Camilla Hazemaze territory, as a onemanband-machine churning out quality release after quality release. Erech’s specialty is keeping metal fun (“a bit of kitsch” he calls it), and Summer Haze ‘99 is no different. I love the soulful vocals from Anouk Madrid too!

There’s more: Sabaton (power from Sweden), Overkill (thrash from the USA), Midnight Betrothed (atmospheric/ambient black from Australia), Putrid Yell (death from Chile), Moribund Mantras (blackened doom from Germany), Blazon Rite (heavy from the USA), Edoma (🌶️ black/death from Russia), Lustre (🌶️ atmoblack/ambient from Sweden - feat. Harakiri from the Sky), Poison Ruïn (post-post-punk from the USA), Deathgrave (death/grind from the USA), Out of the Mouth of Graves (prog death from the USA), an ambient album from Ancst (black/crust & drone/ambient from Germany) and a cool compilation from 🌶️ Fiadh Productions, to benefit streetdogs in Ukraine 🌻 and sporting music from bands like Alda, Yellow Eyes, Unreqvited, Spectral Lore, Oculi Melancholiarum, Falls of Rauros and much more.

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New songs

There are new songs out from: Thantifaxath (🌶️ avantgarde black from Canada), Kvelertak (black’n’roll from Norway), Mournful Congregation (🌶️ funeral doom from Australia), Vomitory (death from Sweden), Terzij de Horde & Ggu:ll (🌶️ black & drone/doom from The Netherlands), None (atmospheric/depressive black from the USA), VHS (death/thrash/grind from Canada) Smoulder (epic/heavy from Canada), Pupil Slicer (mathcore from the UK), Austere (depressive black from Australia), Cemetery Urn (death from Australia), Frozen Soul (death from the USA), Yakuza (prog/sludge from the USA), Nattehimmel (black from Norway), Gateway (🌶️ death/doom from Belgium), Shadows (heavy from Chile), Aridus (black from the USA - live bassist in Wolves in the Throne Room), Impetuous Ritual (death from Australia), Fen (🌶️ atmospheric/post-black from the UK), Divide and Dissolve (drone/doom from Australia) and a teaser for new Hexvessel (psych/folk/rock from Finland). The rest is in the playlist!

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Non-heavy & next week

Non-heavy album of the week: Feist (indiepop from the USA)

I’m looking forward to next week because of: Predatory Void, Portrayal of Guilt, Smoulder (which is up in full on Spotify though!).

What was your favourite? What did I miss? Let me know!