Tracks of Note: 2/14/2025

Scimitar, Autoreplicant, KNOWER

Whhhhhhhat’s uppppppp? I am painfully busy this week, so here’s another short one. Sorry! Enjoy!

Death Obvious - "The Great Gate Theory"

As friend of the Substack Zach said, you know it's going to be good because the album art is bad. Finland's Death Obvious is one of a few 'out of the blue' bands that have made an impact this year, seemingly materializing fully formed and ready to rip. (Uulliata Digir being one of the other acclaimed OOTB bands this year.) Despite Death Obvious missing out on an infuriatingly obvious trifecta, the whole album is fun, combining a ton of styles together in a way that's not exactly omnicore but has a similar ability to make many things one thing. The death/doomy "The Great Gate Theory" reminds me a bit of the slower Celtic Frost material fed through the ol' Finnish death metal trudge, along with some second-wave black metal accents.

Hateful Abandon - "Shimmer Road"

This was sold to me as heavier Killing Joke, and that's a good way to think of it. Hateful Abandon describes itself as "playing a unique blend of music ranging from Post-Punk, the Industrial pioneers, Black Metal & Anarcho Punk with a wide variety of other influences." You can get a lot of those notes from the funereal "Shimmer Road," which additionally wraps its procession in the mournful drone of prime Neurosis.

h/t Lev

Scimitar - "Red Ruins"

Fascinating. I'm so on the fence whether I like this or not. It's, like, Tanith backed by Serpent Column. The more I listen to "Red Ruins," though, the more it starts to click. Those nasty leads rend flesh, and I dig the over-the-top vocal delivery, exuding the same charisma as Agnete M. Kirkevaag. Is Scimitar's Scimitarium I a world-beater or a would-be flopper? Can't wait to find out.

h/t Konrad

Autoreplicant - "Voids"

If you remember Monochromatic Residua, the 'what-if Immolation but microtonal' solo project of Aaron Myers-Brooks, well, here's his other band, a quartet that slams together Voivod and Spiral Architect. Like, yo, listen to that bass. When those bass widdles support those star-scream guitars, giving those leads a weighty (ahem) bottom, that's that good stuff.

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VaccZine #4

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Orion - "Oxidizing"

We’ve covered Orion before, the hard-edged techno technician keeping my interest in this kind of late-night warehouse bangers alive. This fourth installment in the Corrosion series is another winner, grooving stuff up with a set of funky tunes that, as the title suggests, could still melt metal with an acidic bite.

Mizmor & Hell - "Pandemonium's Throat"

Anything Hell is an instant buy, and while I've never really jibed with Mizmor, the two projects are so entwined, playing in each other's live bands, that I don't think the forthcoming Alluvion will step too far away from the typical Hell milieu of sick-ass sludge riffs and oodles of atmosphere. The first single, "Pandemonium's Throat," is evidence enough. That thudding riff after the mist-shrouded opening is all the convincing I needed.

Iron Lung - "Lifeless Life"

"Lifeless Life," or what I like to call going to work every day. Anyway, well, well, well, new Iron Lung. Here's another insta-buy. I like that after 11 years, the powerviolence duo returns with a 51-second hello. Great song, though, featuring those trademark start-stop blasts. One of the best still doing it.

Minimum Sentence - "44 Million Years of Grief"

“44 Million Years of Grief,” or what I like to call going to work every day. I don’t know, man. It’s noise with an industrial flavor. You’re either on this journey with me or you hopped off the bus 8,000 stops ago.

Death Appeal - "Deadlock"

Death Appeal is a little different from the above noisemaker, steering more into the industrial side while adding some power electronics touches. It’s more ominous, more cloaked in a fog that obscures a lot of monstrous creepy-crawlies that you can hear but not see. Again, I totally get it if this does nothing for you and this is your least favorite part of these lists. Still, if you’re going to check out one noise release in this post, give this one a shot.

Crimson Massacre - "Catalyst’s Tongue"

Hello, it is I, Dealmaster General, ready to sell you on the CD of The Luster Of Pandemonium, which is somehow $7.99 on Bandcamp. This album is wild, one of the best tech death entries in the especially fertile 2000s. The Crimson Massacre MO goes as so: ramp up in seconds to completely balls out, slamming section after section together and watching the shrapnel fly while metal smashes metal, and then throwing in a beautiful, stately acoustic guitar part out of nowhere. It reminds me a bit of Mass Psychosis's unfortunately titled Necroporno in that respect, this absolutely unhinged document of death metal that could also impress your classical guitar loving pops…you know, as long as he doesn’t hear the rest of it. Sick album; one of those things I usually recommend to anyone into death metal because I can almost assure the receiving party hasn’t heard it. Change that.

Corps Diplomatique - "Cnossos"

Nice write-up on this one in Bandcamp Daily. Anyway, if you’re going to tell me there’s a French coldwave band getting the reissue treatment from Dark Entries, the label that has given us a whole pallet of Patrick Cowley reissues along with stuff like Jasmine Infiniti, I’m in. I was not disappointed.

KNOWER - "Time Traveler (live band sesh)"

You can finally buy upgraded audio versions of one of my favorite videos on the internet: KNOWER and friends absolutely shredding it up in a space the size of everyone’s first apartment in the city.

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