NEILL JAMESON CAN’T SHUT THE FUCK UP: A 2023 LIST IV

(One of the perennial highlights of our year-end LISTMANIA series are the articles Neill Jameson has contributed, and we’re very happy that he’s doing so again this year. This one is the fourth of five Parts we’ll be publishing. You can find the preceding parts if you go here and scroll down. To be clear, Neill wrote the title of this feature himself.)

I guess one of the (many) hypocritical things I’ve written over the years is how I shit on others for having huge end of year lists yet here I am with fifty things that were released in the last twelve months that I want to share with everyone.

But there’s a few things to consider here, the first being the sheer magnitude of music being recorded and released every day. I can compare it to getting ready for a colonoscopy, you can’t believe how much shit keeps coming out. And, to continue the charming metaphor, most of it is absolute liquid shit. So keep that statistic in mind, my fifty is equal to my ten or twenty a decade ago, adjusted for inflation.

My second point is that those other lists are mostly dreck.

I’ve been working on myself this year and practicing self-care. You can tell it’s working. Here’s the next batch:

 

Blut Aus Nord “Disharmonium -Nahab” (Deber

Disharmonium – Nahab | Blut Aus Nord (bandcamp.com)

Continuing working within the Lovecraftian mythos (minus the cat) Blut Aus Nord deliver another terrifying work of dissonant and fucking weird black metal. Much in the same vein as last year’s Disharmonium-Undreamable Abysses Blut Aus Nord continue their work without any concern about what’s going on currently around them in the music scene.

 

Eerified Catacomb “Spiritual Penetration” (Death Hymns)

Eerified Catacomb (Canada) – Spiritual Penetration (Album 2023)

Eerified Catacomb presents a different beast with every new recording. Spiritual Penetration seems to blend a lot of these elements into one cohesive movement, with that movement being putrid, harsh black metal.

This is a fucking vicious album, even by this project’s standards, that brings to my mind the weirder LLN projects or a more unhinged Ildjarn. There’s a fine line between something being “outsider art” or “moronic bullshit” with a lot of bands but Eerified Catacomb stand firmly entrenched as one of the current greats of outsider black metal.

 

Огильт “Без Названия” (Horrible Room)

Огильт (Russia) – Без Названия (Demo) 2022

Another excellent project out of the church of the Horrible Room, Огильт presents a recording of melancholic yet triumphant black metal, similar to a lot of the mid ’90s Russian and Baltic scene, with some Judas Iscariot thrown in for good measure. I’ve obviously enjoyed what Horrible Room releases in the past but when they find gems like Огильт they’re on a whole different level. Excellence.

 

Outer Heaven “Infinite Psychic Depths” (Relapse)

Infinite Psychic Depths | Outer Heaven (bandcamp.com)

Before I heard Outer Heaven for the first time (right before we played a fest together a million fucking years ago) I was told they sounded like Incantation playing old school NYC hardcore, which was a really good description. Over the course of the last decade they’ve expanded from this and become one of the most consistently interesting bands in American death metal, with Infinite Psychic Depths being their best showing so far. An album no self-proclaimed “devotee” of death metal should ignore.

 

Peacock Pawn “Fourteen Lights in a Row” (self released)

Fourteen Lights In A Row | Peacock Pawn (bandcamp.com)

I came across this through the excellent Mão Da Glória YouTube channel one night and was completely captivated. Warm and dulcet dungeon synth (comfy synth I guess, but that term makes me have to shit) that really helps soothe an unquiet mind. This project has a lot of recordings it seems, with nothing physical yet, but Fourteen Lights in a Row has really resonated with me the most.

 

Hole Dweller “Crossroads” (Dungeons Deep)

Crossroads | Hole Dweller (bandcamp.com)

Tim Rowland hasn’t rested on his laurels with Hole Dweller the last few years and has really set about expanding the project’s soundscape, sometimes taking me with him but other times not being where I’d like to go. Crossroads is an aptly titled recording which stylistically blends a lot of the progressive elements he’s incorporated with the last few Hole Dweller recordings but with the same sonic aesthetic of the Flies the Coop recordings, which are my absolute favorite recordings not only of the project but in the genre itself.

Crossroads feels like a return to form while also moving somewhere new. I will always applaud Tim’s willingness to travel new roads, even if it’s not my taste, but this one…fucking magnificent.

 

An Old Sad Ghost “Totentänze Akt: I” (Gondolin Records)

An Old Sad Ghost – Totentänze Akt: I (Dungeon Synth | Double EP | 2023)

A collection of EPs, this is a similar side of AOSG to Fullmoon over Videna, somewhat subdued yet masterfully composed melancholic sonic portraits. It was a very prolific (and expensive to be a fan) year for AOSG and I honestly could write about every single release but out of everything he’s released this year Totänze Akt I encapsulates everything I love about this project.

 

The Hope Conspiracy “Confusion/Chaos/Misery” (Deathwish)

Confusion/Chaos/Misery | The Hope Conspiracy (bandcamp.com)

I came into this band through the back way, I guess, through being a big fan of vocalist Kevin Baker’s other band, All Pigs Must Die. The surprise release of Confusion/Chaos/Misery in the fall really caught my attention as it’s every bit as vicious as APMD and heavy as a brick of dark matter. This was a welcome return (as made obvious by the vinyl selling out in an hour or two) after a decade away and hopefully a sign of things to come.

 

Anonymous Skull/Nightgoat Invokate The Stars “Split” (Moonworshipper Records)

Anonymous Skull / Nightgoat Invokate the Stars | Anonymous Skull / Nightgoat Invokate the Stars | Moonworshipper Records (bandcamp.com)

I’ve written about Anonymous Skull a fair amount the last two years and his side of this split is a perfect example as to why: few people craft dark ambient pieces as authentically horrifying as these, nor do bands execute harsh yet compelling black metal as on display on the AS side of the split, and I can’t think of anyone, outside of maybe Revenant Marquis, who can combine the two.

Nightgoat Invokate The Stars was new to me as I grabbed this split solely based on Anonymous Skull’s participation but this is a project I’ll be digging deeper into. Raw yet interesting black metal performed with malice and focus. This was one of the best splits of 2023.

 

Dead Times “Dead Times” (Thrill Jockey)

Dead Times | Dead Times | the body (bandcamp.com)

I thought Dead Times was, well, dead for a long period, with Lee Buford concentrating on The Body and Steven Vallot working on several projects (my favorite being the excellent Winter Line, whose 2013 demo is the only piece of music I can think of in twenty years to nearly move me to tears) and that we were left with a solitary demo and the split with TRTRKMMR, so imagine my surprise when Lee teased they had something else getting ready for release.

Dead Times is, without a doubt, the most miserable music I’ve possibly ever heard. It’s very fucking obvious that these gentlemen do not want you to have a single positive feeling listening to this record (not that their other work is a fucking joy either). It’s excellent to see them working together again, I can’t imagine a pair wanting me to feel like shit I’d rather listen to.

 

Victorian Specter “The Sower” (Nasubi Heavy Manufacturing Concern)

The Sower | Victorian Specter (bandcamp.com)

I despise the “comfy synth” genre moniker, most because the language around it annoys me to no end, but there is something soothing, dare I say comforting in the music on The Sower. Victorian Specter, in the project’s short lifespan, have crafted some excellent ambient that really works in tandem with their moniker but there’s something in the notes within The Sower that really helps ease the stress and bullshit of life away in its (too brief) 19 minutes.

***

And there we go. Another batch of fine releases from the year of our lord 2023. It’s been difficult trying to decide what was my favorite releases of the year (outside of my list of albums elsewhere) but this next batch are the demos, EPs, split, etc that really stood out to me over the last twelve months. Then it’ll be silent again until, like herpes, I’ll pop up again to ruin your holiday season next year. One more to go…