Disques of Doom

Baptists – Beacon of Faith Is sludgecore a sub-genre? Should it be? I'm not sure, but what I do know for sure is that when thick fuzzy sludge metal meets aggressive hardcore a wonderful thing is born. Baptists are from Vancouver, BC and have crafted an excellent and precise blend of some of my favourite sub-genres. They popped up onto my radar a few months ago when I was looking for some new music, an excited murmuring was spreading over the internet about their new album prompting me to give their older material a listen, I liked what I heard quite a lot so I kept an eye on the new release rack for this record to appear. Beacon of Faith is Baptists third and most recent album, the sticker on the packaging proclaimed it to be their “third attempt at a first album”, which seemed like an odd statement to me. But after giving the album a spin I can kind of see what they mean. The material on this album certainly feels like a continuation of what appears on their previ

Just a quickie update today, only a couple of new records to show off. I just went in for a new cork turntable pad but ended up grabbing these as well. Der Weg einer Freiheit - Finisterre Der Weg einer Freiheit is a German black metal band, their name means The Way of Freedom. Their lyrics are in German, but the album name is not, Finisterre is a reference to a cape on the coast of Spain, one thought by ancient Romans to be the end of the Earth. This band is pretty well a mystery to me, I had not heard of them when I saw this at the record store and thought nothing of it. But later I was doing some online reading and this album showed up in two best black metal albums of 2017 posts, so I figured if they still had it I would pick it up. Pig Destroyer - Head Cage The new Pig Destroyer album is something of a point of contention for long-time fans. After six years since their previous one, this album came out only last week and is said to be a very different breed of a

This is the second set of similar covers I have in my collection, for now it will also be the last one until I get some more that match, or I notice a pattern I haven't seen before. These covers are less visually similar than the last ones and a bit more in the concepts. Woods of Ypres - Woods 5 Grey Skies & Electric Light : Wormrot - Voices Head in hands with an ink drawn look, a single colour used lightly these two took me as similar in appearance and concept, while also being very different in what they say to me. Wormrot is a Singaporean grindcore band considered luminaries in the genre with an intense sound that can also find a way to be catchy. Woods of Ypres were from Canada and they played blackened doom, this is their final juno-award winning album. Between the recording and the release of this album David Gold, band leader and only consistent member, was killed in an automobile accident. The other members declined to continue the band without him. Skin

Black Sails for Red Seas – Chasing Giants Who needs a singer anyway? Like seriously? Always hogging all the attention, acting like they're in charge, running around on stage making a scene, trying to sleep with all your fans, what good are they? Of course; I kid, a good vocalist can be key to a bands sound, but these guys have decided to do away with the idea all together. Black Sails for Red Seas (BSRS) is a post-rock/instrumental metal group from Montreal, QC. I discovered this band at the record store while looking for some good post-rock, I had just been looking through the selection of Pelican records (an awesome instrumental band), unable to find what I was wanting, when I spotted this album on the featured rack. The sticker on it proclaiming it ideal for fans of Explosions in the Sky, Russian Circles, and, as it happens, Pelican. That was enough to convince me, and they're a Canadian band so all the more reason to pick it up and give them some support.

New tunes! I went to pick up just a single album, but a few more jumped out at me while I was there. Baptists - Bloodmines This is the first album I heard from Baptists, and their second release. I grabbed their most recent album, Beacon of Faith, last week and at that time the store had no other albums from them. This week they had every album in stock, so I grabbed this one to expand my collection. I dig their brand of doomy hardcore so I was certainly stoked to add this record to the line up. It is said to be a bit more intense than the new one, I'll have to find out with some side by side comparisons. Thou - Magus The latest album from the outrageously busy Thou, from Baton Rouge, LA, in magenta ! This southern sludge metal outfit have been working very hard these past months, putting out 3 (slightly) shorter EPs since May, and then a full length LP last week. The music has been described as intricate and challenging, and I like what I've heard from th

Thanks to a website I use to track my vinyl collection I am able to view all the covers of my albums all at once. Doing so over the past few months I have noticed that there are some that seem very similar to another in my collection. I thought it would be fun to go through them and look at some of the albums with matching covers. Some of these are a purely visual resemblance, while others have more of a conceptual likeness. Let's take a look at the first few sets: Wayfarer - World's Blood : Woods of Desolation - Toward the Depths These two album covers share the look of single silhouetted figure against a backgrounds of sepia browns and darker blacks. These are also both atmospheric black metal albums, with Wayfarer hailing from the United States; working American folk music into their sound, and Woods of Desolation coming from Australia; with a more classic black metal sound. APES - Lightless : Full of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy I guess faceless nuns is so