🌶️ To The Teeth: Warning is sounding miserable (that's good)
Plus: Mork, Vikshipt, Saidan, Einherjer, Raat, Blackbriar, Vafurlogi, Samael, Insomnium & much more!
Welcome to the To The Teeth newsletter! Your weekly AI-free update of new heavy music. You can listen to the playlist on Spotify. If you like what you read, go to Patreon (receive a patch!) or Bandcamp (buy a patch!), or consider becoming a paid subscriber. Peppers are hot 🌶️!
“So I wish and I pray for day, but there’s no cure, and there’s no change / just a steady pouring rain, just a steady bleeding vein”
New Albums
🌶️ Warning
Doom, UK (Relapse Records)
FFO: Pallbearer, Messa, Yob
I didn’t really get this band until I saw them live. It was Roadburn, I was super tired and although I didn’t care for Warning, I went into the venue to check them out. Found a place on the balcony where I could sit down in the dark to quietly bitch about this band. Of course, I didn’t expect to be profoundly moved by the show (later released). I saw them again this year which obviously couldn’t top that first time (as a matter of fact, to be perfectly honest I thought they were kind of boring this time around). Just as the album can’t come near Watching From a Distance. But that doesn’t mean I’m not happy they’re back, sounding miserable.
🌶️ Mork
Black, Norway (Peaceville Records)
FFO: Taake, Darkthrone, Craft
Mork doesn’t even do something particularly special. At a glance, it's pretty run-of-the-mill second-wave Norwegian black metal. But, much like Taake, it’s a masterclass in how that specific brand of black metal should sound. Ice cold, razor-sharp riffs in well written songs that hardly every let up in tension.
🌶️ Vikshipt
Acoustic black, India (Fiadh Productions)
FFO: Erraunt, Ulaan Passerine, Kaatayra
Since Erraunt I know acoustic black metal is a thing, but I don’t come across it often enough (the FFO’s don’t do it justice). Vikshipt is a project from India (western Himalayas) that floored me this afternoon, when Bariann released it at Fiadh. The vocals, the melodies, the birds, it’s really something else. There’s a little bit of dungeon synth, a little bit of Godspeed Y!BE, and - albeit hidden - the sharp teeth of metal.
There’s more: Einherjer (viking black, Norway), an ep from Raat (post-black, India) an ep from Blackbriar (symphonic, The Netherlands), Vafurlogi (black, Iceland),Saidan (🌶️ black, USA), Gold Spire (avantgarde death/doom, Sweden), Quiet Fear (post-hardcore, USA), Nirriti (black/death, India/Canada), Scordatura (death, UK), Inherits the Void (atmoblack, France), Inscribed (death/thrash, USA), Crocell (black/death, Denmark), Iron Kobra (heavy, Germany) and a split from Savage Master & Mystic Storm (heavy, USA & thrash, Russia). The rest is in the playlist!
Six new songs
🌶️ Samael (industrial/black, Switzerland)
🌶️ Insomnium (melodeath, Finland)
🌶️ Behemoth (black/death, Poland)
🌶️ Tygers of Pan Tang (NWOBHM, UK)
🌶️ Miscreance (tech/death, Italy)
🌶️ Burner (death/hardcore, UK)
Not-so-heavy & next week
Not-so-heavy album of the week: Liminal Sky (dark prog rock, Norway - featuring Mat McNerney (Hexvessel), the guys from Ulver, Karin Park, Matt Rozeik and others)
Next week: nothing stood out yet!
What is your favourite? What did I miss? Let me know!
The new Mork is actually quite solid, haven't listened to the others yet, but will do soon.
Vikshipt is incredible!