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 🌶️!
I didn’t have time last week, so this is a two week edition. New stuff from 18/5 - 31/5.
New Albums
🌶️ Thou
Sludge/doom, USA (Sacred Bones)
FFO: Primitive Man, Inter Arma, Hell
Thou can be a little hit or miss for me, but when they hit, they hit hard. This feels like their most aggressive and immediate records in ages. As a matter of fact, it’s their first new album in ages - Magus came out in 2018. Enjoying this a lot.
🌶️ Árstíðir Lífsins
Pagan Black, Iceland/Germany (Ván Records)
FFO: Enslaved, Almyrkvi, Sól Án Varma
Stately, burly vocals. We’ve heard them a lot lately, with Arð and Hamferð, and other bands without diacritics. Árstíðir Lífsins was the first I heard doing it though, and they still combine it so well and seemless into their cold black metal.
🌶️ Rotting Christ
Melodic/gothic black, Greece (Season of Mist)
FFO: Moonspell, Samael, Varathron
Still one of the gnarliest bandnames around, but their sound these days is hardly as grating. It’s a unique sound though, instantly recognizable. It’s gothic and grandiose and also - and I can’t really put my finger on why - unmistakably mediterranean. Kind of a warm glow, I guess.
🌶️ Adversarial
Black/death, Canada (Dark Descent Records)
FFO: Antediluvian, Altarage, Immolation
It’s been a good while since we’ve heard from this Canadian basket of puppies. Twisted, dark, intense, hard to follow. This is a tornado you’ll willingly let you suck in. Or not willingly, doesn’t matter.
🌶️ Rope Sect
Darkwave? Gothic/post-punk? Germany (Iron Bonehead)
FFO: Dool, Beastmilk, Morrissey
Oh I know I should’ve been on this bandwagon a long time ago. I kinda ignored them when they emerged because they were so different from the usual unhinged black/death attacks from Iron Bonehead. But I got sucked in good this time. What a voice, what great melodies.
🌶️ Haxanü & Greve
Black, USA & symphonic black, Sweden (Purity Through Fire)
FFO: Sacramentum, Trolldom, Emperor
Another nice split where Haxanü outshines others. It’s cool to hear Greve’s side too though, I wasn’t familiar with that band and that’s what is so nice about splits. It’s not a competition. But if it was, Haxanü is impossible to overtake by this point.
There’s more: Mortal Wound (death, USA), Saidan (black, USA), Whoredom Rife (black, Norway), Parfaxitas (black, Iceland/Norway/USA - w/ members of Whoredom Rife, Sinmara, Suffering Hour) Sig:Ar:Tyr (folk/black, Canada), an ep from Trail of Tears (symphonic/gothic, Norway), Wormwood (melodic black, Sweden), The Troops of Doom (death/thrash, Brazil), Lucifuge (black/thrash, Germany), Pa Vesh En (raw black, Belarus), Krater (black, Germany) and Kråbøl (black, Norway). The rest is in the playlist!
Eight new songs
🌶️ Nile (brutal/tech death, USA)
🌶️ Oranssi Pazuzu (psych black, Finland)
🌶️ Gruesome (Death, USA)
🌶️ Leprous (prog, Norway)
🌶️ Bütcher (black/speed, Belgium)
🌶️ Nightwish (sympho, Finland)
🌶️ Anciients (prog, Canada)
🌶️ Akhlys (black, USA)
The rest is in the playlist!
Not-so-heavy & next week
Not-so-heavy album of the week: Arooj Aftab (jazz, USA/Pakistan)
I’m looking forward to next week because of: Candy, Evergrey & Severe Torture.
What is your favourite? What did I miss? Let me know!