🌶️ To The Teeth: Worm & Dream Unending are back and there is no bad news
Plus: Myrkur, Cirith Ungol, Afterbirth, Vertebra Atlantis, Therion, Asagraum & 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 🌶️!
New Albums
🌶️ Dream Unending & Worm (atmospheric doom/death from the USA/Canada, & death/black/doom from the USA. )
Two of the brightest young stars in our galaxy are teaming up. I can’t (and don’t have to) wait for this split of two acts that bring something new in a fresh and exciting way. Check out the records they put out just last year. Really. Do it. Dream Unending, who share members with Tomb Mold and Innumerable Forms, have a (well) dreamy take on doom that’s from then, and still very now. Worm, who share a member with Atramentus, VoidCeremony and Chthe'ilist, having evolved from blackened sludge to swampy funeral death/doom to frosted, glistening, melodic black metal, and now circling back to doomy goth. The good news is: this split is fantastic. There is no bad news.
🌶️ Myrkur (atmoblack/folk from Denmark. FFO: early Ulver, WitTR, Vermilia)
I was there when the demo came out, trying to figure out if this really was a Danish woman modelling in New York. It wasn’t always nice (at all), and it still isn’t. But Amalie ‘Myrkur’ Bruun wasn’t fazed and throdded on with great releases along the way. Her new one is another great folky black album that deserves your ears.
🌶️ Afterbirth (brutal death from the USA. FFO: Lykathea Aflame, Wormhole, Artificial Brain)
One of my podcast buddies called this kind of vocals ‘eating grass’. Like a really angry cow furiously grazing. It doesn’t make sense at all, and yet it kinda does? The gurgler in charge here - Will Smith, yeah his name is Will Smith, formerly known of Artificial Brain - has a deranged, mad cow disease bovine giving birth to an annoyed xenomorph kind of voice that fits their (slightly proggy) brutal death so so well. It doesn’t make sense, but it kinda does.
🌶️ Vertebra Atlantis (experimental black/death from Italy. FFO: Deathspell Omega, Aeviterne, Dodecahedron)
I’ve loved seeing where Gabriele Gramaglia went on to, after completely falling in love with his first The Clearing Path release. From slightly progressive (post-ish) black metal, he went on hard to grasp death metal with Cosmic Putrefaction, and now has a second great release out with Vertebra Atlantis: experimental black/death with occasional haunting clear vocals and a lot of melody hidden in the murk.
🌶️ Within Temptation (symphonic/alternative from The Netherlands. FFO: Delain, Lacuna Coil, Epica)
I know there are mixed feelings about this band. I get it. I have them too. But they were so important to me when I grew up that I can’t ignore them now. I don’t spin everything they do now with as much joy as I did back then, but I commend them for not staying put: they just try things as they please, never interested in what anyone thinks. That’s metal. I interviewed them a few years ago extensively (here, in Dutch), and I had a great talk with singer Sharon den Adel again last week (here, in Dutch), which is always a pleasure.
There’s more: Cirith Ungol (🌶️ epic/heavy doom from the USA),Baring Teeth (prog/tech death from the USA), Asagraum (🌶️ black from The Netherlands), Marthe (heavy/doom from Italy), Temperance (melodic heavy/power from Italy), Gåte (🌶️ folk rock from Norway), Mortual (death from Costa Rica), Cryfemal (black from Spain), Angelus Apatrida (thrash from Spain), a split from Abigail & Nekrofilth (black/thrash from Japan & death/thrash/punk from the USA), Owdwyr (tech death from the USA), The Amenta (industrial death from Australia), Within Thy Wounds (atmoblack from the USA), and a fourway split from Hellevaerder, Duindwaler, Schavot & Asgrauw (🌶️ all black from The Netherlands). The rest is in the playlist!
New songs
There are new songs out from: Therion (symphonic/death from Sweden), King (melodic black/death from Australia), Helmet (heavy/groove/alternative from the USA), Rivers of Nihil (prog/tech death from the USA), Cailleach Calling (🌶️ prog/post black from the USA), Helga (🌶️ sludge/doom from Russia), Allegaeon (tech/melodic death from the USA), Alvenrad (folk/black/heavy from The Netherlands), Shards of Humanity (death/thrash from the USA), Mortal Vision (thrash from Ukraine 🌻), Revulsed (tech/brutal death from Australia), Inferi (tech/melodeath from the USA) and a live track from Dool (psych/doom from The Netherlands). The rest is in the playlist!
Non-heavy & next week
Non-heavy album of the week: Pip Blom (indiepop from The Netherlands)
I’m looking forward to next week because of: Autopsy, Malokarpatan, End, Gravesend & Sorcerer.
What was your favourite? What did I miss? Let me know!
The first Verebra Atlantis album didn't click with me the way Cosmic Putrefaction does, but I'm liking this new release.
Afterbirth is fantastic, if it wasn't for Horrendous and Tomb Mold it'd be death metal AOTY, but the competition is, well, brutal this year.
Oooh new Worm is very exciting. I also picked up the new Callous Daoboys and am checking out a band called Ozric Tentacles, looks like prog metal or tech death, not 100% sure