🌶️ To The Teeth: atmoblacksummer with Blackbraid & Fen
Plus: Odz Manouk, Better Lovers, Ossuary, Panopticon, The Circle, Outer Heaven & much more!
Welcome to the To The Teeth newsletter! Your weekly update of new heavy music. You can listen to (most) everything in the playlist on Spotify. If you like what you read, go to Patreon (receive a patch!) & Bandcamp (buy a patch!). Peppers are hot 🌶️!
This is not a spectacular week, just like next one. Summer is really kicking in!
New Albums
🌶️ Blackbraid (atmoblack from the USA. FFO: Mgła, Uada, Ifernach)
So, when there’s this big a hype around an underground act it’s hard to just take the music for what it is. I for one am not particularly fond of this style of repetitive black metal, which bores me a bit (alright, a lot). Yeah, I think there’s definitely a crowd for this - it wouldn’t have been up here otherwise. But I tried, and I’m just not in that crowd.
🌶️ Fen (atmoblack/post from the UK. FFO: Agalloch, Wolves in the Throne Room, Winterfylleth)
Fen caters to a few more of my interests by stirring up their style here and there. A few post-metal influences, some nasty riffs, bits of clean vocals sprinkled through (‘Truth Is Futility’ is 9,5 minutes and never boring), riff patterns that are shaken up before dragging on for too long. Cool!
🌶️ Better Lovers (mathcore from the USA. FFO: Dillinger Escape Plan, Car Bomb, Mastodon)
Who doesn’t like a good surprise? Better Lovers, one of many supergroups with Greg Puciato at the helm, released their debut ep today and it’s rocking and rolling. And it’s a little bit sludgy (hence the Mastodon FFO), which I really like here.
🌶️ Odz Manouk (black from the USA The Netherlands. FFO: Arizmenda, Tukaaria, Negative Plane)
Another surprise! Well at least for me. The mysterious (well at least for me) Yagian returns with his Odz Manouk for the first time in ten years, with not one but two albums! I haven’t had the time to do a deep dive in both, but what I’ve heard is really fantastic. Mystical, compelling black metal. What a treat!
Edit: I just learned mister Manouk lives in The Netherlands nowadays.
There’s more: Ossuary (death from the USA), Putridity (brutal death from Italy), 1476 (atmospheric/post-black from the USA), Uamh (post-black from the USA), Paroxysm Unit (tech/brutal death from Russia/USA/France - w/ members of Krallice, Passéisme), a collection of older stuff from Temple of Void (death/doom from the USA) and there’s also a split coming this sunday from them with Solothus (death/doom from Finland). The rest is in the playlist!
New songs
There are new songs out from: Panopticon (🌶️ atmoblack/folk from the USA), Outer Heaven (🌶️ death/hardcore from the USA), The Circle (symphonic black from Germany), Cryptopsy (brutal/tech death from Canada), Rorcal (🌶️ sludge/doom/post-hardcore from Switzerland), Dead & Dripping (brutal death from the USA), Eave (depressive/post black from the USA) and Fossilization (🌶️ death/doom from Brazil). The rest is in the playlist!
Non-heavy & next week
Non-heavy album of the week: PJ Harvey (indie from the UK)
I’m looking forward to next week because of: Voyager, End Reign & Deitus.
What was your favourite? What did I miss? Let me know!
Ja, Blackbraid, met je panfluit. Pitchfork zal het wel weer rode cijfers geven.