Atrox Pestis – Hewn By the Hands of the Damned CD
Chryptus records
Waste management is the topic for Atrox Pestis‘ most recent ambient project. It attempts to capture the murky haze of the place where our shit goes.
Groups like Desiderri Marginis and Raison d’Etre have been successful by obscuring direction and even melodies, leaving them lurking in drawing out their respective elements with just the right amount of creep. Contemporaries like Husere Grav also accomplish this effectively by layering deceivingly simple ideas into warping currents. I’m not picking alot of this …

Аргандаб CSUIS records Link
UIS drops another titillating compilation in less than a year. While their previous compilation covered the higher quality end of death-industrial and harsher landscapes, this one inscribes a bigger sense of mystery and sometimes downright befuddling angle to an interesting them.
To start, I think a Russian label tackling the theme of Afghanistan makes a certain kind of sense even though Cold-War era incursions are over three decades old. I don’t know how much the Mujahadin play into the consciousness of the average Russian, but this compilation seems …

Jim Haynes – Electrical Injuries LPAussen Traum records
Jim Haynes was unknown to me until I saw him live. A master at configuring hardware into precise and neurotic movements, Electrical Injuries is a saturated and cold ache of modular sounds and rusted samples.
The sounds on this album are subtle yet forceful prevarication that belie the amount of hard work Jim puts into composing his arrangements. The way these tapestries together might imply the kind of corroding VST manic fitting together normally done on a laptop. A laptop may have very well …

I haven’t had nearly the time I wanted to dedicate both to creating and listening to music this year but I did my best – at least with the latter. Out of all that I heard – and there is certainly more I’m already seeing pop-up on other’s year end lists I need to check out – here are my favorites from 2017.

10. Isenordal – Shores of Mourning C60 [ Eternal Warfare ]
https://isenordal.bandcamp.com/album/shores-of-mourning
FILE UNDER: Cascadian black metal/pagan black metal/gothic metal
Incredible atmospheric black metal album from this Seattle-based metal band. Great …

Griefer – Egress Report CassetteAbsurd Exposition bandcamp LINK
I like song structures. Griefer‘s tape is a power electronics tape is full of actual songs with a theme that is as evidently intelligible as it is challenging.
Of the five songs featured, two contain vocals with the rest featuring impressive instrumental barrages. Griefer chooses to use, sparingly, looped samples along very cranky synths. The vocals on here are the most remarkable thing because they are not only intelligible, but Griefer‘s cadence is more akin to an older chain lord with deliberate acts of …

Old Tower – Rise of the Specter CassetteTour de Garde website LINK
There’s a new wave of dungeon synth music coming out as of the last couple of years and it seems that Tour De Garde has been helping to proliferate it. Old Tower has a pretty decent discography ranging from somber medieval ditties to full on epic fantasy war battle leitmotifs. Rise Of the Specter opts for the latter.
One may attribute this type of music to prison-era Burzum where he sought out old casio keyboards with murder fresh on his …

Insect Ark – Portal/Well LPSSG BANDCAMP LINK
The woman responsible for Insect Ark used to play guitar for Angels Of Light and has been doing Insect Ark for what looks like close to half a decade. With a cache of singles and EPs under her belt, Portal/Well is her first full length voyage and hits most of the right notes where somber drone oriented rock is concerned.
I’m guessing after Swans reformed (and Angels of Light ended), Dana Schechter probably had a bank of riffs and ideas waiting to be used. Insect …

Hurz – s/t CD
Hurz BANDCAMP LINK
I’ll try to refrain from typing in the name of that one band that scored all those Italian horror movies, but it’s a welcome comparison to the electronic/prog songs that Hurz writes. The band describes themselves as a creator of magic squares where the listener is subjected to symbolic transformations. Very theater oriented stuff here.
I think it’s risky to offer an 11+ minute song up as your first track, but “Il nodo” throws you in the wash. If this track is intended as a …

Never Presence Forever/Isolated Existence –
A Future Scarred By Memory/Forever In The Dark CD-r
Darker Days Ahead BANDCAMP LINK
This CD-r release offers harsh noise and industrial elements split across two pieces by Never Presence Forever hailing from Virginia and Isolated Existence. Similar sonic elements bring these two artists together, but complexity (or simplicity rather) of the compositions are really what sets them apart.
Never Presence Forever‘s constructions of simple sound columns with minimal sequencing are really satisfying. The tracks are succinct and simple, but you will find dynamics here. …

Black Earth – Diagrams of a Hidden Order mCD
Malignant Records
Ambient black metal in this day and age is a far cry from the warped primitive manifestations of Abruptum‘s In Umbra… (RIP Tony), so I really appreciated that Black Earth didn’t go the purely electronic route of flitting evil touches and general “grim” vagaries that adjective oriented artists like. This mCD is a hazy and flagellating test that rewards listeners on multiple levels.
Black Earth‘s bandied color descriptor and geometry cult designs are among the things that make me grimace. …