Jan 062025
 

(written by Islander)

On behalf of all of us here, we wish you a Happy Monday. Actually, that’s mainly wishful thinking. Some of my colleagues may hope your Monday is as miserable as theirs is. But either way, we hope to make you happier with the following Part 3 of the ongoing Most Infectious Song list. (To see the other Parts and to understand what this list is about, go here.)

HIGH ON FIRE

I was immediately floored ten months ago by the video directed by Lars Kristoffer Hormander for High On Fire‘s “Burning Down.” Back then I couldn’t find any details about how he made it, and I haven’t looked for details since then, but it’s still just fucking stunning to watch it. Continue reading »

Nov 222024
 

This collection is short in number, just three new songs, two of them with compelling videos — though those two are quite long. But that’s three songs I now don’t need to include in this weekend’s coming roundups, and thus I’ll have room for three others as I continue trying to winnow down my monstrous list of recent releases.

SAOR (Scotland)

I’ve chosen to begin with a video for the title song from Saor‘s new album Amidst the Ruins. Although the video starts with a majestic but haunting scene from the Highlands, it soon shifts to dramatic film of the band’s performance, appearing as dark silhouettes in the midst of rushing smoke or clouds. The music is equally dramatic. The drums attack and the bass heavily rumbles, but the music flows in sweeping and searing waves, glittering and glorious. Continue reading »

Jun 092023
 

I was supposed to premiere and review an EP today. Despite knowing better, the label and band decided to publish the stream and circulate it to fans without waiting on us. Not the first time something like that has happened around here, but I no longer ignore it when people care so little about our unpaid efforts to help. Time is better spent in other ways, and so rather than finish that premiere write-up I decided to pull together this round-up of new songs and videos that mostly surfaced just this week.

I’ve not put much thought into some clever way of arranging the flow of them, in part because there are so many stylistic twists and turns in what I chose. Just think of yourself as a tennis ball thrown into a dryer with a lot of other tennis balls and start tumbling.

GRAND CADAVER (Sweden)

This week Grand Cadaver released a third single from their new album Deities Of Deathlike Sleep. They sum up the album as “Swedish Fucking Death Metal, the way we love it”, and the lack of pretension extends to the name of the newest song: “Vortex of Blood“. Continue reading »