Written by Kep, Westin, and Kirk
I’m gonna be honest with you all. May felt a little weak for me personally, musically speaking. I was busy as hell at the ol’ day job, but that wasn’t the problem. The outstanding releases were just a little fewer and farther between than in the first four months of 2024. BUT that doesn’t mean there weren’t killer records to discover, and the team and I are gonna do our best to put you on to them right about now.
As always, quick links to our full reviews of May releases:
Terminal Nation – Echoes of the Devil’s Den
Fire at the Plantation House – Southampton Insurrection
Rescuscitate – Immortality Complex
Whettman Chelmets – A New Place
And now on to those gems!
Saidan – Visual Kill: The Blossoming of Psychotic Depravity
Black metal from the US
I was late to the party back in 2022, when Saidan released their debut LP Onryō II: Her Spirit Eternal, so when release day for this bad boy came along I was ready to make up for it by listening early and often. Visual Kill didn’t disappoint either, packing a boatload of infectious punky black metal, all sorts of vivid imagery, and badass leather jacket swagger into a potent 36 minute package. The production strikes that delicate balance where it feels trve but substantial, and it lets its melodies soar and its bombastic solos shine with old school heavy metal luster (the one in “Switchblade Paradise” is just *chef’s kiss*). The whole thing is just wickedly good and a massively fun listen, a fast and furious blast of shit that makes me grin like an idiot. The whole runtime is great, but for my money the penultimate title track, with its heavily melodic back half and final frenzied build, is one of the best songs of the whole year.
– Kep
Ancst – Culture of Brutality
Blackened crust punk/metalcore from Germany
Ancst are stalwarts of the explicitly political side of black metal, though they certainly bring in some atypical elements for most. If you wish metalcore had a harsher edge, or your black metal came with a more defined rhythm section and groove, Ancst are for you. Most songs on the album are under two minutes in length, lending a frantic pace to every track that never feels like it overstays it’s welcome or gets bogged down dragging out relatively simple riffs for too long. The band have been consistent over the past decade and Culture of Brutality is another good example of their style.
– Westin
Nobody – Despair is Where My Thoughts Swim
Post-DSBM from the US
Remember a few years ago when that big reissue of Silencer’s Death, Pierce Me came out, and there was a big hubbub about (and rightfully so) about spotlighting an album with such obvious neo-Nazi and antisemitic themes? While it’s true that Silencer holds a particularly high level of influence over the depressive suicidal black metal scene—particularly with the rather…unique vocal style used—you can now have Silencer at home but without the fascist influences! Nobody and their debut album Despair is Where My Thoughts Swim is about as close to Silencer worship as you can get without being a literal knock-off cover band. Much like the endless Sabbath worship that’s been a prominent element of the doom and stoner scenes since the ‘90s, we get a unique spin on a familiar style that is both new and old thanks to the talents of Troll and Ulver—father and son and former members of Sorry…—we get about as close to a follow-up Silencer album as we likely ever will. Unique vocal style included.
– Kirk
Tzompantli – Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force
Death/doom from the US
You might be familiar with how much I loved Tzompantli’s 2022 debut Tlazcaltiliztli: I wrote a rave review and then slotted it at number 10 on my Best Albums of 2022 list. When I got my hands on Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force, I was ready for another substantial dose of crushing Mesoamerican death/doom, and that’s exactly what they delivered. As before, Tzompantli takes deeply satisfying death grooves and merges them with an assortment of dirges, nasty hardcore-tinged thrashing, and indigenous drums, flutes, and whistles. Beating the Drums is a bit less immediate than its predecessor but no less excellent, showcasing a project that honors all facets of its background while making them into a single absorbing whole. This is beefy, monstrously heavy shit that slowly pummels, sure, but they’ll drop a mournful clean tone melody on you as effectively as they chant over ritualistic drumbeats or drop into punishing blast beat-driven death riffs. This project is growing fast—both in size (nine! guys in the promo photo these days, with mastermind Brian Ortiz at center) and strength—and this record shows they’re only getting better.
– Kep
Dødsferd – Wrath
Black metal from Greece
Misanthropic nihilism is not an aesthetic I am particularly drawn to even when I can intellectually understand that appeal. But something about Dødsferd really gets to me with their total commitment to this aesthetic and musical extremity. Wrath is aptly titled – the music is ferociously visceral. Dødsferd have also maintained a sense of grandiosity with the music where it feels larger than itself, the weight of an entire world crushing down on you. This is not cold and mystical black metal, this is black metal that is burning hot and dripping blood, ripping throats and clawing eyes.
– Westin
Aseitas – Eden Trough
Avant-garde death metal from the US
If you like your death metal ugly as sin and more challenging than a Soulsborne game, Aseitas is the band for you. Eden Trough is their third LP—following 2018’s self-titled effort and 2020’s impressive False Peace—and demonstrates clear growth from a project that was already operating at a high level. My only real complaint about False Peace was its 71-minute runtime, which is quite lengthy under any circumstances and particularly so when talking music this…formidable. But here on Eden Trough the band is more focused than they’ve ever been, jamming a preposterous amount of grotesque riffs and other weird shit into a brisk and surprisingly well-balanced 29 minutes. It’s crushing and haunting, destructive yet somehow thoughtful; the tracks range from blistering, belching eruptions of molten violence to unsettling piano-centered ambiance to the sort of thing you might get if Edge of Sanity had gone avant-garde while Dan Swanö had a mental breakdown in the studio. It’s cool shit, that’s the point, and you won’t hear anything like it this year.
– Kep
Antler Disko – Annihilation Year
Electronic music from Finland
It was sometime back in college when I first got into electronic music. A good friend of mine was a huge fan of goth punk band Bella Morte, and they had a song on a compilation CD/DVD combo from their label, Metropolis Records. From that compilation set, I discovered bands like VNV Nation, The Birthday Massacre, and Funker Vogt (among others). And while I’m not the best at differentiating all the different styles of electronic music, there’s something about Antler Disko’s latest album, Annihilation Year, that reminds me of the industrial music I first discovered almost two decades ago. Sure, you can dance to it, and there’s an undeniably glitchy aspect to it, but it’s also incredibly moody and downright gloomy. So if you’re looking to throw a party for your next mental breakdown, look no further than Annihilation Year. It’s the perfect soundtrack when celebrating yet another terrible milestone.
– Kirk
Glutted Swarm – …of Old
Death metal from the US
You like Obituary, right? Of course you do. Glutted Swarm‘s sole member A.A. (ex-Iskra) clearly does too, because …of Old gives off a hot load of that putrefying Obituary stench. Full of those down home chugging riffs, leads that would make Allen West proud, and throat-shredding death snarls, this is good ol’ death metal at its straightforward finest. The record’s story is quite an interesting one, too: A.A. wrote this, the project’s only release, over a decade ago, and recorded it piecemeal over the last three years, laying down instruments (with session drums courtesy of Cody Baresich, also ex-Iskra) first and eventually adding session solos and vocals. That’s a damn long journey for this album, but any trip that ends in music this headbangable is one worth taking. Take a dip in Glutted Swarm‘s seeping sewer of filth, won’t you?
– Kep