🌶️ To The Teeth: Vórtize whistles me pink
Plus: Hoplites, October Tide, Torture Chain, Svalbard, Wolvennest, Sühnopfer, Auriferous Flame, Heretoir, Salacious Gods & 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 🌶️!
It’s Bandcamp Friady! Enough good stuff here, AND it’s the one year anniversary of the first and so far only To The Teeth Compilation! Check it out if you haven’t in the past 365 days, there’s exclusive stuff from Yellow Eyes, Wilderun, Foscor, Charlotte Wessels, Terzij de Horde, Al Namrood, Scarlet Stories, Thrawsunblat and much more. I’m still super super proud of this, I hope you like it half as much I do.
New Albums
🌶️ Vórtize (heavy from Chile. FFO: Satan, Lord Fist, Demoniac)
Almost everytime a Black Market (Stereogum’s monthly way too long metal column) comes out I find a gem in one of their picks. This month they are serving up Vórtize, Chilean one-man heavy metal from the genius behind Demoniac and it’s amazing. The whistling solo in ‘Tempestad’ is what drew me in, the fantastic and totally unique sound of the rest of the album is what keeps me coming back again and again. Take that first song, that starts out like a Blind Guardian-esque epic, and ends in a heavy metal Mano Negra circus. I’m obsessed with this album.
🌶️ Ὁπλίτης (Hoplites) (prog death/black from China. FFO: Serpent Column, Deathspell Omega, Haunter)
Album number three this year. That begs the question: is Ὁπλίτης falling into Sadness/Trhä territory where there’s so much you never know if it’s worth your time, or will he stay on the Esoctrilihum/Erech Leleth side and churn out quality release after quality release? For now it’s the latter: another great Ὁπλίτης album.
🌶️ Torture Chain (black/death from the USA. FFO: Esoctrilihum, Arizmenda, Funereal Presence)
This is a total surprise to me, and a very welcome one. I loved the previous record, and this one seems to pick off where the other left - with a bit more fire. This is such a fantastically unique act, with a sound that’s hard to pinpoint, but irresistable.
🌶️ October Tide (melodic doom/death from Sweden. FFO: Insomnium, Katatonia, In Mourning)
I’m old and so is October Tide. We understand eachother, they know what I need.
🌶️ Auriferous Flame (black from Greece. FFO: Spectral Lore, Immortal)
Ayloss (Spectral Lore) knows no rest, and so here’s another outing of his brilliance. You can’t really deny his recognizable sound, but this goes This is like the most ferocious parts of Spectral Lore, but turned up just a few notches more. If Spectral Lore is Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, Auriferous Flame is IX Equilibrium. It’s the Formulas to his Domination. Capiche? Doesn’t matter. What does is: this totally rules.
🌶️ Svalbard (post-hardcore/black from the UK. FFO: Employed to Serve, Rolo Tomassi, Møl)
Melodic and intense, Svalbard has carved out a sound of their own in short time. They’re leaning into the more gaze-y side a bit more here, which suits them well.
There’s more: Wolvennest (🌶️ experimental psych black/doom from Belgium), Heretoir (post-black from Germany), Salacious Gods (black from The Netherlands), Sühnopfer (🌶️ melodic black from France), Februus (🌶️ death from Sweden), Dopelord (stoner/doom from Poland), The Keening (folk/doom/gothic - ex-Subrosa), Revenant Marquis (🌶️ raw black from the UK), Internal Suffering (brutal death from Colombia), Akitsa (black from Canada), Putrascension (black/death from the USA), Spectral Temper (🌶️ raw black from Ireland) and a split from Friisk & Hallig (atmoblack from Germany & black from Germany). The rest is in the playlist!
New songs
There are new songs out from: Suffocation (brutal/tech death from the USA), Xoth (🌶️ tech black/death/thrash from the USA), Maer (🌶️ prog/folk from Switzerland - w/ Anna Murphy of Cellar Darling), Left Cross (death from the USA - w/ members of Antichrist Siege Machine, Artificial Brain), Beyond Grace (death from the UK), Myrkur (🌶️ atmoblack/folk from Denmark), Pyrolatrous (blackened melodeath from the USA - w/ members of Krallice, Anicon), Wayfarer (atmoblack/folk from the USA), Eleine (symphonic from Sweden), Convocation (funeral doom/death from Finland), Faidra (atmoblack from Sweden), Cirith Ungol (epic heavy/doom from the USA), Helfró (black from Iceland), and Paradise Lost (doom/death/gothic from the UK) re-recorded a classic song. The rest is in the playlist!
Non-heavy & next week
Non-heavy album of the week: Hania Rani (modern classical/chamber pop from Poland)
I’m looking forward to next week because of: Laster, Body Void, Fortid, Varg The Lion’s Daughter & Slidhr.
What was your favourite? What did I miss? Let me know!
Am I the only one who thought that this Paradise Lost re-release was actually made by a rather untalented cover band with a German lead vocalist, who tricked Spotify to believe that they were the real champion of the Peaceville Three? I understand that my love for the original Icon is too big to accept the mere existence of new recordings. But this is just plain wrong.
Loved last year's Vortize record, and I'm delighted to hear that they've turned another one out so quickly