I went with ‘De Vermis Mysteriis’ by High On Fire.
Samsara -> Spiritual Rights -> King Of Days is an awesome sequence.
“But brain, you said you only had one more album in you?”
“Well, that was before I remembered High On Fire.”
So, today…
Orange Goblin - Science, Not Fiction
Baroness - The Blue Record
Big Science Nowhere - The Waydown
Cave In - Heavy Pendulum
Green Lung - Woodland Rites
Kylesa -Static Tensions
Mastodon - Blood Mountain
Sleep - Dopesmoker
King Buffalo - Regenerator
Maybe next is … Acid Mammoth?
I suppose I had aspirations to research some new Stone/Sludge bands, but the way things turned out I’ve just been playing the classics.
Maybe tomorrow I can get more adventurous.
There’s a few key moments that made me a Metal-head.
One of them was listening to ‘Colony Of Birchmen’ for the first time.
I’m now climbing the ‘Blood Mountain’ withe those Mastodon folks.
Seriously, I was gonna listen to Spiral Shadow which I’ve heard a lot.
Glad I went for this earlier pick. It’s pretty ace!
Good album!!!
Now playing ‘Static Tensions’ by Kylesa.
I just want to take a moment now to say … I think Kylesa are really great.
COLTSBLOOD (Regne Unit) presenta nou àlbum: "Obscured into Nebulous Dusk" #Coltsblood #DoomMetal #SludgeMetal #Maig2025 #RegneUnit #NouÀlbum #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic
Violent Encounter, Hakapik, Feartilizer 1492 @ Thrashcan - Sunday, June 1st, 2025
Thrash Can, Sunday, June 1 at 08:00 PM EDT
EARSLAUGHTER X VIRIDIAN CULT PRODUCTIONS presents:
Haven't got your fill of filthy grindcore after Earslaughter weekend? Well have no fear! Belgian goregrind outfit Violent Encounter will be hitting the Thrashcan for a last minute show this Sunday, joined by sludgegrind power-duo Hakapik and deathgrind heavy hitters Feartilizer 1492!
Violent Encounter:
https://zasautoproduzioni.bandcamp.com/.../violent...
Hakapik:
https://hakapik1.bandcamp.com/album/pig-skull
Feartilizer 1492:
https://feartilizer1492.bandcamp.com/track/manifest-of-war
Sunday, June 1st, 2025
@ Thrashcan (Ask a Punk!)
Doors 8:00 PM
Show 8:30 PM
$15 / PWYC
18+ (ID Required)
#CurrentlyListeningTo Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I #HeavyMetal #GothicMetal #SludgeMetal
By Dear Hollow
It’s hard to keep up with Swans. Since 1982, Michael Gira and company have cranked out sixteen studio albums, eight EPs, and ten live albums (not to mention all the compilations and side projects), influencing underground stalwarts like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Neurosis, Godflesh, and Napalm Death, as well as more mainstream acts like Nirvana and Tool. No genre was safe, as noise rock, no-wave, industrial, sludge, post-punk, and post-rock were impacted in the process – yet Swans have always had their own inimitable and uncategorizable sound. In Gira’s words, “Swans are majestic, beautiful-looking creatures – with really ugly temperaments.” Seventeenth studio album Birthing, a supposed end to the big sound of Gira’s millennial reformation, is an affirmation of both why some love them and why others stay far away. Maybe the real Swans were the friends we made along the way.
The path of Swans has been one of blending ugliness with a sheen of pristineness. They’ve had it all, from the ugly industrial sludge of Filth and Cop, the more regal industrial noise rock of Greed and Holy Money, the Gothic rock groovers of Children of God, the lush starkness of White Light from the Mouth of Infinity, the post-rock-imbued apocalyptic prophecies of The Great Annihilator and Soundtracks for the Blind, the trancelike 2010s comeback My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, the formidably monolithic trilogy The Seer, To Be Kind, and The Glowing Man, to the minimalist folk-embedded Leaving Meaning and The Beggar. If you wanted to devote a week to the Swans discography, have at it. Or get into the process of Birthing.
In spite of its higher focus on more acoustic textures and Michael Gira’s wild baritone, Swans’ use of repetition is a tether to which their grasp of reality is consistently mutilated, interspersed with moments of sparse accessibility. Seven tracks and nearly two hours of content greet the ears with repetition both nauseating and hypnotic, tracks undeniably modern-era Swans: folkier, more acoustic and organic, and retaining that trademark longwindedness and industrial/noise barb, shifting from mood to mood with ease. You’ll hear painful dissonance, ritualistic passages of pounding percussion, Gira’s unnerving vocal lines, and synth-heavy crystalline atmosphere exchanged across mammoth runtimes. Especially in the first act, ugly stretches stitch together more uncanny valley passages of accessibility, like a synth rock jam session with pulsing basslines (“I Am a Tower”), beautiful piano ballads graced by spidery melodies and Jennifer Gira’s haunting vocals (“Birthing,” “Guardian Spirit”), catchy little choral “bum bums” (“The Merge”), and instrumental ambient swells (“The Healers,” “(Rope) Away”).
Gira and company find themselves in an odd predicament: in the shadow of their own influence. Swans has smartly focused on more acoustic and organic textures with their most recent releases, but in comparison to the 80’s and 90’s, and even the 2010s, Birthing cannot hold a candle. No one can do music like Swans, but it feels as though the trilogy of The Seer, To Be Kind, and The Glowing Man was Tsar Bomba, and every subsequent release has been the fallout. Likewise, the raining ash of Birthing is lethal, unnerving, and undeniably Swans, but it doesn’t feel as monumental. The only track that feels crucial is the absolute fever-dream “The Merge” in its wholehearted dive into the abyss. Each track features Swans-isms that sear themselves into your brain if you let them, but therein, very few moments justify why you should devote two hours to listening to them – especially if you are not a fan to begin with. Their focus has never been to be catchy, impress with riffs, or go wild with novelty – as such, the trademark tapestries of droning dissonance (“I Am a Tower,” “Guardian Spirit”), free jazz/industrial noise explosions (“The Merge”) are just difficult – aside from Swans’ inability to edit.
I may be Swans lone apologist at AMG HQ, and maybe I’m insane for it. Birthing is nowhere near the influence of its predecessors – while retaining that noise and industrial sneer throughout, it’s a far more gentle album than the ugly classics of the band’s heyday. However, it’s probably the best of its era, blending its bad temperament with its more post-rock atmospheres and semi-accessible passages that keep listeners this close to insanity. That being said, it’s still Swans. And a whole lot of Swans. Two hours of Swans. Yay/ugh.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Young God Records
Websites: swans.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/SwansOfficial
Releases Worldwide: May 30th, 2025
#2025 #35 #Ambient #AmericanMetal #Birthing #Experimental #ExperimentalAmbient #FreeJazz #Godflesh #GodspeedYouBlackEmperor #Industrial #May25 #NapalmDeath #Neurosis #Nirvana #NoWave #Noise #NoiseRock #NonMetal #PostRock #postPunk #Review #Reviews #SludgeMetal #Swans #Tool #YoungGodRecords
#TuneTuesday theme of #LondonCalling ... never did this, so here we go:
I'm listening to some good old school sludge metal,
Eyehategod - New Orleans is the new Vietnam
HXDXYXF (Rússia) presenta nou àlbum: "Buffonata" #Hxdxyxf #SludgeMetal #CrustPunk #Maig2025 #Rússia #NouÀlbum #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic
Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard
[2016] Y Proffwyd Dwyll
https://album.link/pt/i/1132015634
KANALIA (Polònia) presenta nou àlbum: "Pato Blues Propaganda" #Kanalia #SludgeMetal #Maig2025 #Polònia #NouÀlbum #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic
FALLEN SHORT (Estats Units) presenta nou àlbum: "Hollow Screams of a Withering Soul" #FallenShort #BlackMetal #SludgeMetal #Maig2025 #EstatsUnits #NouÀlbum #Metall #Metal #MúsicaMetal #MetalMusic