🌶️ To The Teeth: Who run the world?
Immortal Bird, Fórn, Escuela Grind, Dawnwalker, Funeral, Melted Bodies, Candy, Mother of Graves & 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 🌶️!
The answer is: not men. Out of all the highlighted bands this week, there’s only one (Djevel) with just men, as far as I know. It’s a total coincidence, but a cool one. As a father of daughters and a human being I say: hell yeah.
New Albums
🌶️ Immortal Bird
Slow grind / Fast doom, USA (20 Buck Spin)
FFO: Escuela Grind, Cloud Rat, Wake
I don’t remember where I ever read those genre descriptions for Immortal Bird. I asked them about it once, and they didn’t remember either. But I think it’s perfect for the chaotic, intense and fantastically heavy sound. There’s sludge, a bit of hardcore and even a pinch of thrash in their sound too, but ultimately this covers it all. They don’t loose an inch of emotional heft while they’re at it, plus Rae Amitay’s vocals are so fucking cool. This is exactly what I wanted and more.
🌶️ Fórn
Doom/sludge, USA (Persistent Vision Records)
FFO: Thou, Mizmor, Bell Witch
What is it with really low notes, played really slowly, that they carry emotion so well? Fórn’s newest album is a hammer to the heart, featuring the haunted vocals from new member Lane Shi Otayonii (Elizabeth Colour Wheel). I don’t know if it’s her contribution, but Fórn seems to have branched out into post-metal territory here, and it works. A great, super dynamic album that, even though it’s heavy as a fucking planet, it’s one that I’ll been playing again and again.
🌶️ Dawnwalker
Post/prog, UK (self released)
FFO: Alcest, Haken, Leprous
Every Dawnwalker album is an impressive evolutionary step, and this one is again a leap in a different direction. More subdued, grounded and ethereal at the same time. Vocalist and bandleader Mark Norgate is compelling as ever. The vocals in ‘Mirrorpool’ and ‘Cancer (Rising)’ by Sofia Sourianou are amazing as well, it’d be amazing to have more of her on the foreground.
🌶️ Funeral
Gothic/doom, Norway (Season of Mist)
FFO: Shape of Despair, In the Woods…, My Dying Bride
Now this is a fucking voice. Eirik P. Krokfjord’s (great name) baritone is dramatic and unique, and totally sells this band. Although they can’t do without vocalist/violinist Sareeta, who also sang and played violin in the inimitable Ram-Zet and has worked with acts like Borknagar, Solefald and Madder Mortem.
🌶️ Escuela Grind
Grind/hardcore, USA
FFO: Cloud Rat, No Mas, Immortal Bird
This is just fast grind/fast grind, and I like it. Funded by Big Homo! 🌈
🌶️ Melted Bodies
Mathcore/grind/industrial, USA (self released)
FFO: Dillinger Escape Plan, Author & Punisher, Strapping Young Lad
I’m a son of a bitch, I’m a freudian slip! Who knows what to call Melted Bodies? It’s a tornado of sounds, influences and moods. This compiles all three Inevitable Fork ep’s, the first of which is from november 2022, and the last one from today. In their own words: “Feed off the pus, be one of us.”
There’s more: a new ep from Candy (🌶️ hardcore, USA), Swallow the Sun (melodic doom/death, Finland), Ashen Tomb (death, Finland), Ensiferum (epic folk/Finland), Grand Magus (heavy/doom, Sweden), Capilla Ardiente (epic doom, Chile), Mother of Graves (🌶️ melodic death/doom, USA), Haunt (heavy, USA) and Wrathprayer (black/death, Chile). The rest is in the playlist!
Four new songs
🌶️ Pest Control (crossover thrash, UK)
🌶️ Arch Enemy (melodeath, Sweden)
🌶️ Dianne (feat Marcela Bovio) (symphonic, The Netherlands)
🌶️ Djevel (black, Norway)
The rest is in the playlist!
Not-so-heavy & next week
Not-so-heavy album of the week: Jerry Cantrell (alternative rock, USA)
I’m looking forward to next week because of: Black Curse, Gaerea, Ataraxie, Gigan, Iotunn, Living Gate, Schammasch & Devin Townsend.
What is your favourite? What did I miss? Let me know!
Immortal Bird slaps, HARD!
Melted Bodies!!! Love those guys, they're super nice too. They kind of remind me of a heavier System of a Down, might be more of an energy thing than sound though.
Excited for the new Candy, loved the project from earlier this year. Escuela is always great. Haven't heard Forn, Dawnwalker or Immortal Bird before, they all sound up my alley though. Just hoping Dawnwalker is more Alcest and Haken than it is Leprous. I could not get into the latest Leprous project. I think it was a vocals thing for me.