🌶️ To The Teeth: ticking boxes in the prog death sphere
Plus: Bedsore, Mefitis, Pestilent Hex, Ungfell, The Gates of Slumber, Unreqvited, Jinjer & 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 🌶️!
“I don't really have the voice for love songs, do I?”
New Albums
🌶️ Bedsore
Prog death, Italy (20 Buck Spin)
FFO: Morbus Chron, Horrendous, Venenum
These are great times for people who like their death metal progressive - like me! I’ve known Bedsore since their 2020 debut (they’re The Taste of Teeth alumni!), and saw them on tour with Haunter. Very creative young band with high ambitions and the chops to meet them.
🌶️ Mefitis
Death/black, USA (Profound Lore Records)
FFO: The Chasm, At The Gates, Necrophobic
Another progressive yet extreme album that ticks all my boxes. They bend a little more to the blackish/gothic vibe than before, which is just another one of my boxes that likes to get ticked. If you get my drift. I bet Mefitis do.
🌶️ Pestilent Hex
Melodic/symphonic black, Finland (Debemur Morti Productions)
FFO: Emperor, Katharos, Aëra
If this kind of black metal is done well, you’ve got me. And this is done very well.
There’s more: Ungfell (black/folk, Switzerland), The Gates of Slumber (doom, USA), Demonbitch (heavy, USA), an ep from Déhà (black/grind/everything, Belgium), Rotpit (death, Germany/Sweden), an ep from John Coffey (punkrock/hardcore, The Netherlands) and Gorgon (black, France). The rest is in the playlist!
Two new songs
🌶️ Unreqvited (blackgaze, Canada)
🌶️ Jinjer (progressive metalcore, Ukraine 🌻)
The rest is in the playlist!
Not-so-heavy & next week
Not-so-heavy album of the week: Ulver (it’s complicated, Norway) (Ulver is one of my favourite bands, and because of their history I almost put them up higher. But who would I be fooling? Ulver is not in any way connected to the heavy metal world anymore and that’s fine. This is another evidence of that: a pulsating, dark dance album. On the first listen it seems a little bit more ambitious than last one, which is good news. Also, it’s a sad album knowing keyboardist Tore Ylwizaker died this year. RIP)
I’m looking forward to next week because of: Aara
What is your favourite? What did I miss? Let me know!
I have no issue with Ulver continuing to be included in “Metal” lists just because of their history and they keep making good stuff. How many metalheads have been exposed to music they otherwise wouldn’t have listened to because it had the Ulver name on it? I’m guilty.