🌶️🦷💿 To The Teeth: The Taste of Teeth release day special
The Songs of the Teeth
1. 🌶️ Yellow Eyes - Dagger in the Warm Straw (Black from the USA / exclusive new track)
New York's Yellow Eyes, helmed by the brothers Skarstad, have a feeling for atmosphere and melody that just sets them apart from everything else. Plus they're the nicest people! I couldn't be happier or more proud that they agreed to go into the studio especially for this compilation.
This is what they say about it: "'Dagger in the Warm Straw' was written and recorded in Beacon, NY, in an intense 48-hour burst. Dagger can be seen as a glimpse into the band’s volatile creative process and, while the song is intended to exist as a single, as a possible echo from the future of Yellow Eyes, who are also writing a full-length album."
2. 🌶️ Wilderun - Hope & Shadow (Symphonic progressive/folk from the USA / previously unreleased, acoustic version)
Let's be honest, it's hard to find a balance when making symphonic, folky metal. You can easily go over-the-top, or fall into railway tracks that have been ridden by countless of musicians before you. But Wilderun from Boston are one of the best bands in the field who don't fall into any trap, hole, rails or pit - and they've risen above genres. During one of the covid-lockdowns they decided to record an acoustic quarantaine version of 'Hope and Shadow' (2015), which was never available for purchase - until now! And it's a stunning version.
3. 🌶️ Tower - Blood Moon (Heavy from the USA / from Shock To The System)
It's hard to explain how much I love Sarabeth's vocals in Tower. When she hits a high note I produce endorphins unknown to modern medicine. And then there's the riffs, oh, those riffs! New York's Tower completely reinvigorated my love of classic heavy metal with this scorcher of a song.
This is what they say about it: "We wrote this song because our previous drummer Claire Vastola wanted to play some faster stuff and asked us to come up with something that sounded like the Belgium band Acid. Check out the song 'Maniac'! Extra fun fact: there really was a blood moon the first night we ever played it at rehearsal."
4. 🌶️ Foscor - Estrènyer l'Ànima (Progressive/post from Spain / previously unreleased track)
Anyone who knows anything about beautiful Barcelona, knows they're proud of their history and language. And so are Foscor, who are maybe the only metalband in history that sing in Catalan? Foscor is also unique because they sound like noone else. Dreamy and melancholic, and very imaginative. 'Estrènyer l'Ànima' is a cover of their own song, 'To Strangle a Ghost' (2014), which appeared on the 15th anniversary 8" limited ep edition by Catalan label Negra Nit (only 30 copies!). It wasn't available digitally until now!
5. 🌶️ Sweven - Reduced To An Ember (Progressive death from Sweden / from The Eternal Resonance)
A friend who got an early promo of this album told me that it was going to be even better than Morbus Chron's Sweven. I laughed - impossible! It hardly prepared me for the incredible beauty that turned out to be new band Sweven, formed by Morbus Chron's Robert Andersson. When it all collapses after 5:30 in 'Reduced To An Ember' and an acoustic guitar and piano lead the way to another wave of utterly crushing, progressive death metal that ultimately flow into one of the most beautiful closing riffs I have ever heard, I just melt. Timeless material.
6. 🌶️ Charlotte Wessels - Vigor & Valor (Symphonic/alternative from the Netherlands / previously Patreon-only track)
I met Charlotte Wessels for the first time when I interviewed her the new Delain album, early 2020. When that band collapsed she started to make a new song every month for her Patreon page. Smart, brave and cool, and well deserved: her dreamy music that drifts from rock to pop to metal and back really is a next step for the great great singer ánd composer (and person) that Charlotte Wessels is. This song is not on her new album (out today too), but was Patreon-exclusive. And now it's here!
This is what she said about it: "I made this track right after I watched Stranger Things season 4, and because I'm basic, the song is inspired by it. I found a sample of a super ominous sounding clock, which you can hear four times in every verse. Guido Aalbers (mix and master engineer) and I had some discussions about the drums; “are they wrong, or are they prog?” I considered simplifying for a second, but then I thought: this is for a compilation by Peter, so no such thing as too prog!"
(To be clear: Peter fucking loves the drums)
7. 🌶️ Terzij De Horde - Eerste Zoon (feat. PJN of Trepaneringsritualen) (Post-black from the Netherlands / exclusive new track)
Terzij de Horde never take the easy way out. They worked seven years on their second full length, the blistering In One Of These I Am Your Enemy that came out this year: in barely half an hour they fire up every bit of strength within you to fight all the evil in the world. It's the first band I asked and they immediately said yes, and they were of course the very last to send in their song. Totally worth it!
This is what they said about it: "'Eerste Zoon' focuses on the human habit of destroying the place we need, the life we need. It asks questions on why we'd long for death more than life, why we kill and maim and hunt our kin and our kind, why we long to suffer. There is no answer yet."
8. 🌶️ Madder Mortem - Liberator (Atmospheric doom/progressive from Norway / from Marrow)
Ah, you think: "progressive metal, a bit of atmospheric doom, female vocals - I know what this will sound like!" But you don't. No band sounds like Madder Mortem. This band from Oslo make their metal very hard to classify, and that's part of why I like it so much. Agnete's voice really is like no other: not bombastic nor frail, but powerful and intense. I still listen to Marrow (2018) a lot, and I can't wait for new material!
9. 🌶️ Fluisteraars - Oeverloos (Post-black from the Netherlands / from De Oord split)
Fluisteraars' 'Oeverloos' is one of those rare 14+ minutes track that could be longer. The split they recorded with (the also excellent) Turia stands as one of my favourite black metal splits ever. Both sides are so creative, and so different from the pack of black metal acts. 'Oeverloos' is at times vicious and unrelenting, but still so incredibly beautiful as a complete song. This dynamic is what I love most in a song, and when it's as well crafted, like in particular the last few glorious minutes, it's pure black metal bliss.
10. 🌶️ Al Namrood - المس الهتك (Touch your God) (Black/folk from Saudi Arabia / exclusive new track)
Al Namrood's frontman Mephisto is one of the bravest musicians around. Living in a truly oppressive country, Saudi-Arabia, he has covertly and fearlessly been making music that could very well get him a very long prison sentence - or worse (everytime he doesn't answer an email within two days I'm worried sick). I'm proud to have been the only journalist to ever have interviewed him face to face. But also because his music is so intense, pure and vigorous! He and new vocalist Artiya'il had a song from the excellent recent album 'Worship the Degenerate' sessions that they hadn't finished, but for this compilation they did. Pure defiant energy!
11. 🌶️ Meer - Beehive (Symphonic prog from Norway / from Playing House)
Such a big group of people in one band might lead to a very scholastic sound. But Meer (more!), a band with no less than eight musicians from Hamar, Norway, sound like nothing but fun. Their song 'Beehive' is big and grandiose, but also sensual and warm, with great lyrics and absolutely extraordinary vocals from Johanne Kippersund, who will instantly make you forget all about Lady Madonna, Cleopatra ánd Deadly Delilah.
12. 🌶️ Brutus - Dust (Prog/math from Belgium / from upcoming album Unison Life)
Don't let their name fool you, Brutus is Belgium's hope for heavy music. This trio around singing drummer Stefanie Mannaerts sounds sharp and intense, peppered with an emotional undercurrent. Their newest music is upping the ante on every aspect. Unison Life is out october 21.
This is what they said about it: "'Dust’ was born out of the frustration of having friends with demands and expectations that were way too high. It’s a song about being at breaking point; pissed off about everything and everyone. ‘Dust’ is honest, direct and unfiltered. It’s a very special and personal song for us."
13. 🌶️ Scarlet Stories - Necrologies (Progressive rock/metal from the Netherlands / exclusive new acoustic version)
Scarlet Stories, a progressive metal band from Tilburg, The Netherlands, impressed me very much with their debut album Necrologies in 2019. Musically (inventive and dynamic) and vocally (spellbinding), but also because the anger within that music is real and relevant. This song, 'Necrologies', is a newly recorded acoustic rendition of the closing song of their debut, especially recorded for this compilation. How cool is that!
This is what they said about it: "Necrologies is an homage to all people and animals that suffer or have suffered by the hand of other people. We are capable of such beautiful and good things, but power, money and greed destroy the world. Racism, discrimination, misogyny, destruction of ecosystems, exploitation, abuse, oppression, the extermination of complete nations and species - I just don't understand. It's a pessimistic song."
14. 🌶️ Mare Cognitum - Antaresian (Atmospheric black from the USA / from Solar Paroxysm)
Mare Cognitum is Jacob Buczarski's atmospheric black metal act that stands above the crowd. His 'Solar Paroxysm' (2021) is a high point within the genre: inventive and intense, enthralling and a little bit scary at times. And then there's Jacob extra secret weapon: great guitar solo's! It gives me goosebumps all over, every time.
Here's what Jacob says about it: "The lyrics are less vague than I usually do, telling a sort of sci-fi story of an advanced people bracing for the end of their civilization and lives as they have accurately predicted the end of their galaxy through some cataclysmic event. While they can't escape it, they come to terms with it and somehow transmit their knowledge and history into the rest of the universe in hopes that it will be meaningful to any other civilization that might find it, and to perhaps be remembered by it. Maybe we can draw some similarities to ourselves here. A behind-the-curtain peak: the introduction ambience is created at least partially by using a heavily edited clip of a boiling pot of water. Maybe now you won't be able to unhear it, like me!"
15. 🌶️ Entheos - Cauchemar (Black from Canada / exclusive new track)
Entheos from Quebec, Canada, started out as Givre (remember?). A few members have reformed that band but decided to keep Entheos as a separate entity. I'm happy they did, because here we have an entire new song from them. I was expecting something fiery, but I didn't think it would turn out evil as all hell. This is the first song of a whole album in this direction, the band says.
16. 🌶️ Bedsore - Brains On The Tarmac (Prog death from Italy / from Hypnagogic Hallucinations)
Italian prog death metallers Bedsore impressed me a lot with their melodic sensibilities and the inventive use of synths when they played my city, Rotterdam, a few months ago. I decided there that I'd really have to ask them for the compilation, and luckily they agreed. They're the future for Italian death metal!
17. 🌶️ Ustalost - Stinging Stone (Black from the USA / from Before The Glinting Spell Unvests)
Ustalost, 'fatigue' in Russian, shares common ground with Will Skarstad's other projects (Yellow Eyes), but very much stands on its own and is recognizable for a different way of crafting melody, use of rhythms and the balance between an abrasive and also, somehow, quite gentle sound. I absolutely love this album.
Here is what Will said: "'Stinging Stone' sees Ustalost use a more prominent and deliberate approach to choir vocals for the first time. One of the first tracks from the record to be written, it set a standard for the rest of to follow, and perhaps carved new pathways for future records to tread."
18. 🌶️ Thrawsunblat - The Weathered Sandstone (Melodic/folk black from Canada / exclusive new track)
Thrawsunblat is the brainchild of Canadian Joel Violette (ex-Woods of Ypres), who manages to mix the atmosphere of Canadian maritime folk music with black metal, and it's just magnificent. I'm so honored and glad that Joel insisted on making an entirely new song for this compilation. And it's absolutely great!
This is what he says about it: "A completely brand new track, written this month. It's about gifts given that take a long time to come to fruition, that the original givers may not even see in their lifetime. It's going to be released as part of an EP this fall."
19. 🌶️ Kaatayra - Fuú (Atmospheric black/folk from Brazil / previously unreleased track)
Kaatayra's latest album, Inpariquipê (2021), didn't miss a thing, I think, and so didn't Caio Lemos, the genius behind the completely otherworldly project. But he did have a last track for it that in the end didn't make the cut. And here it is! Such a wonderous mix of metal, acoustic folk and tropicalia shouldn't be as compelling as it is. Now 'Fuú' makes Kaatayra's output even more complete: a gorgeous, magical closer. I'm super proud it now closes this compilation! (Plus good news: Kaatayra is still active!)
There's more...
So, yeah I was going to say that. There's more: Charlotte Wessels (🌶️ prog/symphonic/rock from the Netherlands), Liturgy (🌶️ experimental black from the USA - new ep), Incantation (death from the USA - a compilation with some unreleased stuff), Ancst (black/crust from Germany), Cloud Rat (grind from the USA), Queensrÿche (🌶️ prog heavy/power from the USA), Goatwhore (black/death/thrash from the USA), Lamb of God (groove/metalcore from the USA), Faceless Burial (death from Australia), De Profundis (death from the UK) and Aenaon (experimental/prog black from Greece).
The rest is in the playlist! (Or will be, today)
Non-metal & next week
Non-metal album of the week: Hilary Hahn - Eclipse (classical from the USA - I saw her in concert last week, mesmerizing)
I’m looking forward to next week because of: Ripped to Shreds & Stormruler. (Yeah, you can expect less words next week ;)
Have a great weekend people - Peter