🌶️ To The Teeth: Borknagar is forever
Plus: Morta Skuld, Vircolac, Darkest Hour, Gonemage, Gatecreeper, Rotting Christ & 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 🌶️!
New Albums
🌶️ Borknagar
Progressive viking/folk/black, Norway (Century Media)
FFO: Enslaved, Ihsahn, Solefald
Bands come and bands go, but Borknagar is forever. Always reliable, always enjoyable.
🌶️ Morta Skuld
Death, USA (Peaceville)
FFO: Obituary, Morbid Angel, Vital Remains
Pretty cool that a band that does something so common (beefy death metal with thrash influences) and who have been doing it since the early nineties (though the lineup is mostly a lot newer), still sound so easily recognizable.
🌶️ Vircolac
Death, Ireland (Dark Descent Records)
FFO: Malthusian, Reveal, Venenum
Very impressive, creative, compelling death metal from this Irish band, that has been active for ten years and now comes out with a second full length. Expect the unexpected.
🌶️ Darkest Hour
Metalcore/melodeath, USA (MNRK Records)
FFO: At The Gates, The Black Dahlia Murder, Unearth
I don’t like metalcore. I’m a cliché metalhead I guess, although I grew up on nu-metal (and still have a very weak spot for it) and the worst of the rap/dance blends of the zero’s, but I still think off breakdowns are a turnoff. Good metalcore though has a place in my rotation, and Darkest Hour falls into that category.
🌶️ Gonemage
Nu-metal/black metal, USA (WereGnome Records)
FFO: Slipknot, Memorrhage, Master Boot Record
As you’ve read above, I’m a late nineties kid and I still think Roots is the best Sepultura album. I will not apologize. Nor will Garry Brents (also of Cara Neir, Sallow Moth and Memorrhage) who doesn’t stop at just making really good nu-metal (yes I said that), he also blends it seamlessly with the atmospheres and grit of black metal. This won’t be for everyone, and that’s fine.
There’s more: Acero Letal (heavy/speed, Chile), Traveler (heavy, Canada/USA), Offret (black, Russia), Stygian Crown (epic doom, USA), Iron Curtain (speed/heavy, Spain), Karkosa (blackened death, USA), Fange (industrial sludge/death, France), A Burial At Sea (shoegaze/post, Ireland) and Job for a Cowboy (prog death/core, USA). The rest is in the playlist!
Five new songs
Hey so, again: I thought this section had a little too many links without much direction, so I’m trying something new this week. Less, so it’s more. You’ll find all new songs in the playlist (if they’re on Spotify) as usual. These are the hot singles in your area you’re looking for!
Gatecreeper (death, USA)
Rotting Christ (melodic black/gothic, Greece)
Antichrist Siege Machine (black/death, USA)
Judas Priest (heavy, UK) (how the fuck does he still sound like that?!)
Alcest (post-black/shoegaze, France)
The rest is in the playlist!
Non-metal & next week
Non-metal album of the week: Erika de Casier (electronic/r&b, Denmark)
I’m looking forward to next week because of: Bruce Dickinson
What is your favourite? What did I miss? What do you think of the new singles feature? Let me know!
"(how the fuck does he still sound like that?!)”
YES, THIS
Happy to see some love for Nu Metal! I get the sense that we're finally far enough away from it to appreciate the ways in which it was groundbreaking and exciting rather than edgy. We also seem to be getting a lot of groups/artists that are taking the best parts of it and freshening them up (a la Gonemage, Vein.fm, Loathe, etc.).
To add to the list, this week I'm also going to check out Orchards of a Futile Heaven by The Body & Dis Fig (honestly, this might not even be metal knowing The Body) and Of the Last Human Being by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum