🌶️ To The Teeth: brave melodeath, beautiful doom, a discomforting trip, and very long (very good) black metal

Insomnium, Big|Brave, Omega Infinity, Heidevolk, Sarcoptes, Voidceremony, Botanist & much more!

Feb 24

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 (also for some merch). Peppers are hot 🌶️!

New Albums

🌶️ Insomnium (melodeath from Finland. FFO: Amorphis, Be’lakor, Dark Tranquillity)

Insomnium get lumped on a pile with all the other melodic death bands. And yes, if they need to go on a pile, that’s the pile. But aren’t Insomnium always a little more brave then most others? Within their vintage sound, they keep trying things that I wouldn’t really expect and that’s great in a genre as stale as yesterday’s beer. Check out ‘White Christ’ (with Sakis Tolis!) to hear what I mean.

🌶️ Big|Brave (drone/doom/post from Canada. FFO: King Woman, Helms Alee, Old Man Gloom)

I saw Big|Brave live once, when they were still touring Au De La and they made a lasting impression on me. Such a unique, refreshing and absolutely beautiful take on heavy music. The voice of Robin Wattie has the vocal ánd emotional power to linger for a long long time.

🌶️ Omega Infinity (black/death from Germany/Australia. FFO: Darkspace, Blut Aus Nord, Deathspell Omega)

Did vocalist Xenoyr (also in Ne Obliviscaris) always sound this much like Erase-era Jan-Chris de Koeijer in space? I never noticed before, but it’s a haunting, towering performance. This is a trip of a record anyway, discomforting and confusing sometimes: am I playing two things at the same time? Where the hell is that piano coming from? Is everything ending? Imposing stuff.

🌶️ Sarcoptes (black from the USA. FFO: Frozen Dawn, Dimmu Borgir, Tombs)

This almost classifies as symphonic, almost as black/thrash, almost as black/death. Sarcoptes from Sacramento keep their sound very interesting that way, as long as you don’t get spooked by the length of the songs (like I said: they keep it interesting). Plus: riffs, baby, riffs, and solo’s, and great vocals!

🌶️ Heidevolk (folk/viking/drinking horns from The Netherlands. FFO: Týr, Ensiferum, Falkenbach)

Heidevolk don’t bring anything particularly new on the scene: beardy men singing stately drinking songs. If you’ve never liked that kind of nerdery, you won’t like this. But there’s some great ideas in here and if it’s nothing else, it’s a fun listen.

🌶️ Venomous Concept (hardcore punk from the USA. FFO: Napalm Death, The Exploited, Discharge)

A hardcore punk band with members from Napalm Death, Brutal Truth and Cancer. You think you’ll know what you will get, but this is kinda different from their first album. It’s a lot more rocky and groovy. They can do that, too.

There’s more: Megaton Sword (epic heavy from Switzerland), Street Tombs (🌶️ death from the USA), Sacred Son (🌶️ black/ambient from the UK), Azaghal (black from Finland), Naut (post-punk/gothic from the UK), Hypno5e (prog from France), Total Hate (black from Germany), Bodyfarm (death from The Netherlands), Festerdecay (goregrind from Japan), 7 H. Target (tech/experimental death from Russia), Wretched Fate (death from Sweden) and Iron Curtain (speed/thrash/heavy from Spain). Minenwerfer (black from the USA) shouldn’t be out yet, but it’s on Spotify so check out the playlist.

New songs

There are new songs out from: Botanist (🌶️ experimental post-black from the USA), Voidceremony (🌶️ progressive/tech death from the USA - w/ members of Worm, Ascended Dead, Mournful Congregation, Chthe'ilist etc), Une Misère (metalcore from Iceland), Blood Red Throne (death from Norway), Verminous Serpent (black from Ireland - w/ members of Slidhr, Malthusian, Primordial), Plague Bearer (black/death from the USA), Henget (avant-garde black from Finland), Ieschure (black from Ukraine 🌻), Mariana’s Rest (melodic death/doom from Finland - ft My Dying Bride’s Aaron Stainthorpe), Vomitheist (death from Switzerland), Valgrind (🌶️ death from Italy), Pustilence (death from Australia), plus a batch of beautifully weird I, Voidhanger songs, from Atemporal (black from Canada - member of Auroch, Mitochondrion), Asystole (death from the USA), Thecodontion & Ceremented (atmospheric death from Italy & death/doom from the USA).

Non-metal & next week

Non-metal album of the week: Robin Kester (indiepop from The Netherlands - read my interview in Dutch)

I’m looking forward to next week because of: Enslaved, Majesties, Full Of Hell / Primitive Man, Haken and At The Altar Of The Horned God.

What was your favourite? Do you like the new newsletter? Should I change anything? What did I miss? Let me know!