Sh*t That Comes Out Today: March 27, 2020

Hope everyone is doing well in quarantine! Here are some new metal releases to listen to while dying for the Dow Jones.

Demonic Death Judge
The Trail (Suicide)

If you like your sludge metal Southern-fried, then Demonic Death Judge have a bucket o’ goodness for you — only they’re from Finland, which is pretty far north. No matter their region of origin, they know how to lay down a serious groove. Even though Jaakko Heinonen’s blast furnace vox get pretty intense, the Sabbath swing creates a pleasing dichotomy. This one really snuck up on me (I am a sucker for some sweet bluesy riffing). Definitely take this trail.

Diarchy
Splitfire (Unherd)

India has deserts; therefore, it must have desert rock as well. Of course, Bangalore is nowhere near the desert, but that hasn’t stopped the two dudes in Diarchy from cranking up the fuzz and letting loose with some stoner rock jams. They know how to lock down a Fu Manchu-style slacker groove and also sharpen their edges like Sixty Watt Shaman — and even incorporate some Indian scales for a bit of spice. While stoner rock is the international language, it’s always fun to hear different dialects.

Igorrr
Spirituality and Distortion (Metal Blade)

I wrote about this one for Decibel (plug plug), but in case you don’t have a subscription to that essential magazine, the gist of it is that this is one of the more bonkers things I’ve had to listen to in the service of guiding you lovely people through your extreme music listening. Listen to the weird breakbeat/death metal/Primus hybrid “Very Noise” below, and if that sounds like your jam, that’s only scratching the surface of the weirdness.

In This Moment
Mother (Roadrunner/Atlantic)

Mother starts with a Terminator-fied cover of Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like An Eagle” and ends with a cover of Mazzy Star’s “Into Dust.” In between, there’s a bunch of sub-Slipknot rap metal and trip-hop and an unnecessary cover of “We Will Rock You” with Lzzy Hale. I dunno, I was a big defender of these guys when they first started out and I respect them for clawing their way to the level they’re at, but this feels very early-2000s in a bad, bad way. What is this band anymore?

Solothus
Realm of Ash and Blood (20 Buck Spin)

Everything is death and doom right now, so here’s some death doom! Solothus hail from Finland, so you know this is gonna be some really fucked up stuff. While their vocalist doesn’t quite hit Demilich depths of inscrutable belching, he gets damn close. Since it’s Finnish, though, there are pretty parts, and they help balance out the slow-motion despair. Plus I’m a sucker for Conan-style cover art. Go enter this realm of ash and blood to get away from our own.

Wake
Devouring Ruin (Translation Loss)

This gets filed under “blackened grind” or whatever, but mostly because it’s impossible to fully convey the scope of what Wake do using simple genre descriptors. This is an absolutely devastating work of raw emotional force channeled through the medium of extreme music. While it’s often abrasive, there’s enough going on musically to keep Devouring Ruin from feeling like an all-out assault on the senses. Instead, it scrapes open a hole and worms its way inside.

OTHER SHIT THAT COMES OUT THIS WEEK

Candlemass – The Pendulum EP (Napalm) Listen
The Heavy Eyes – Love Like Machines (Kozmik Artifactz) Listen
Irist – Order Of The Mind (NB) Listen
Khemmis – Doomed Heavy Metal (NB) Listen
Me And That Man – New Man, New Songs, Same S–t, Vol. 1 (Napalm) Listen
Omega Infinity – Solar Spectre (SoM) Listen
Parkway Drive – Viva The Underdogs (Epitaph) Listen
Riot – Rock World (Rare & Unreleased 87-95) (Metal Blade) Listen
Tesla – Five Man London Jam (UMe) Listen
WuW – Rétablir L’Eternité (Prosthetic) Listen