photo by Hillarie Jason
(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 first of three four installments we’ll be publishing. To be clear, Neill wrote the title of this feature himself.)
What a fucking ridiculous year. Between wars, threats of wars, the election, that fucking girl who’s famous for a joke about dick spittings and whatever new allegations your favorite band has against them it’s just been an exhausting twelve months. What better way to cap that off than by reading a bunch of assholes telling you what you should have listened to this year instead of whatever meandering bullshit you actually did. Unless it was Krieg’s split with Withdrawal, you obviously have exquisite taste.
After all, it’s the most wonderful time of the year, right?
Last year I skipped the genre format for my lists and just threw everything together, with the obviously subjective “best” saved for last. I did this mostly out of laziness but I think we’ve built a new tradition, like picking out who not to send Christmas cards to this year because they did something to publicly shame the family, like supporting RFK.
Sure the comments section will be measured and forgiving after that one.
So this’ll be a few parts, depending on how much I can write while tucked away in my office hiding from my employees. Here’s part one:
Sunrise Patriot Motion “My Father Took Me Hunting in the Snow” (self released)
https://sunrisepatriotmotion.bandcamp.com/album/my-father-took-me-hunting-in-the-snow
I tend to be a sucker for anything either Yellow Eyes or Yellow Eyes related so I took to 2022’s Black Fellflower Stream fairly quickly when I was introduced to it earlier in the year but the follow up EP, My Father Took Me Hunting in the Snow is easily a few steps up. Dissonant, melodic post-punk/hardcore inspired black metal music with a David Yow-esque vocal approach, this is almost what I would expect Hüsker Dü to sound like if they formed in the 2010s and cut their teeth on the black metal that was coming out of NYC at the time. A superb blending of genres that doesn’t feel forced or reaching to be unique for the sake of accolades.
Unhealed “Failings” (self released)
https://unhealed.bandcamp.com/album/failings
As someone who is a sucker for brutal, negative hardcore Unhealed checks all the right boxes. Pummeling riffs with the weight of concrete, harsh vocals that don’t aim for the usual hardcore tropes of try-hard tough guy neighs and whinnies, and songs just long enough for those of us with a shitty attention span. This is the complete package. I’m told this Philly band is already pushing into album #2 which I’m sure we’ll be chatting about in twelve months.
Unholy Altar “Veil of Death! Shroud of Night” (Liminal Dread Productions)
https://unholyaltar666.bandcamp.com/album/veil-of-death-shroud-of-nite
When we played with Unholy Altar in 2023 I was incredibly impressed with the reverence to the early second wave they held, not just aesthetically but sonically as well, with a live performance that was just possessed. There was a lot of promise there that it seemed like they were building up to the right time to introduce a fully realized entity to the world. Veil of Death! Shroud of Night more than fulfills that promise by presenting an album of vicious black metal in the old style. Managing to transfer that feral intensity of their live performance to tape is no easy feat but Unholy Altar have accomplished just that.
Black Sorcery “Plummeting into the Hour of the Wolf” (Eternal Death)
https://blacksorcery93.bandcamp.com/album/plummeting-into-the-hour-of-the-wolf
Another band that was immensely impressive when we played with them last year is Rhode Island’s Black Sorcery. I wrote about their Deciphering Torment Through Malediction LP last year as being one that transported me back to my days of sitting in my room, writing letters and tape trading in the mid ’90s. This follow up EP continues that path of dedication to old school black metal with three songs of intense and driven ferocity. I continue to be impressed with these gentlemen and their ability to take me back to the pre-internet days when this shit still had a sheen of mystery to it.
Paths of the Eternal “Esoteric Rites” (self released)
https://pathsoftheeternal.bandcamp.com/album/esoteric-rites-2
Paths of the Eternal has been one of my favorite dungeon synth projects since he debuted with the split with Mythril Spectre, which I’m still trying to get a copy of if anyone is selling, so I expected great things from Esoteric Rites and was not disappointed. While he still continues within the framework he’s been building in over the last few years, Esoteric Rites adds more percussion, a more industrial-ish flair, giving the music its own heartbeat. Definitely not afraid to experiment, Paths of the Eternal is excellence in a genre that has grown bloated and fairly stagnant.
Old Forest “Graveside” (Soulseller Records)
https://soulsellerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/graveside
Considering their debut Into the Old Forest is one of my favorite black metal records of all time, it’s always been a challenge to listen to Old Forest and not compare it to their oldest work. Sure, they’ve done a few digital-only EPs of covers from classic second wave bands that fit nicely into that sound but in their main work it’s been a fairly consistent streak of progression and evolution, which you would expect from a band who’s been around this long, but it’s never scratched that itch for me.
Graveside is the first time they’ve shown a slight regression into the days of old, but with enough of a grasp of their evolved identity that it becomes a far more interesting record than I expected. I know this all sounds like a back-handed compliment and I don’t really intend it to because honestly Graveside is a record that stands entirely on its own. Traditional English black metal that both looks forward and backwards, with a haunting atmosphere and adherence to where they came from.
Göden “Vale of the Fallen” (Svart Records)
https://goden-official.bandcamp.com/album/vale-of-the-fallen
I think we’ve moved beyond the need to mention that Göden is the spiritual successor to Winter (except where I just did, oops) so just use it as a minor reference point because with Vale of the Fallen it feels like they’ve stepped out from behind that long shadow and into their own. Crushing and powerful, this is some serious occult doom magick put to tape, with direct and pontificating orations giving the music a ritualistic atmosphere. It seems like I listen to less and less new doom records each year but the ones that I gravitate towards have something special to them. This one certainly does.
Fief “VI” (Out of Season)
https://fief.bandcamp.com/album/vi
Been quite a few years since a new Fief record, so this late-year release came as a pleasant surprise. I don’t think I have to really say much about it, as Fief is one of those names in dungeon synth that have been become synonymous with the “revival” (which I guess we can stop using as a term since it’s been fucking years now) and VI continues the same level of artistic quality that the first five achieved. Exquisite medieval dungeon synth.
Ink & Fire “Emblazoned Visions Yield Eternity” (Death Prayer Records)
https://inkandfire.bandcamp.com/album/emblazoned-visions-yield-eternity
Sure, black metal as a genre can be bleak, miserable and morbid. But it can also be triumphantly chaotic, a fist held high. Ink & Fire definitely fit into that second category, next to USBM contemporaries like Flaming Ouroborus. Emblazoned Visions Yield Eternity is rammed to the hilt with nonstop riffs, layer upon layer of guitarwork, and crazed vocals. If you’re looking for something other than black metal songs about finding a sturdy enough beam to hang themselves from, Ink & Fire would be the right direction.
Distant Dominion “Ripping Through Time” (self released)
https://distantdominion.bandcamp.com/album/ripping-through-time
A time I look back on very fondly in my life is the latter years of the 1990s, especially in the summer when I would travel for Milwaukee Metalfest and be introduced to bands from around the country I might not have heard otherwise, since this was before the internet had really become the main method of, well, life. I bring this up because Distant Dominion reminds me of a lot of the records I’d come home with, like Decrepit, From the Depths, Noctuary, etc. Which makes a lot of sense because it’s a new project with veterans of the Philly death and black metal scene going way back. Technical, ripping black/death with killer vocals, this feels authentically old because this is a band who lived through it and can create a record that truly reflects it. Fucking killer.
That’s part one, down the drain. As always, support the artists directly whenever you can. See you soon.