This is one of this year’s most important albums. To me, of course, but then again I have a long history with The Wanderers—because that’s what planet means in the first place. Wanderers across our heavens, bodies that seemingly defy the fixedness of the stars, personalities. But maybe the Wanderers will be important to you too.
Songs that ache and drip with a sad and uncompromising romantic seriousness that we sometimes try to dismiss in ourselves as juvenile, but which never quite goes away.
It feels close. It feels like a warm reminder that there are many of us out there with a shared love for musical expression and experimentation. It is a culture where our ϙueer preoccupation with sex and death is not just lived but cast through a variety of creative lenses, and I love it.
The one, the only, the original Castle Metal. OBSEQUIAE is back with its most polished album yet, far ahead of what little competition there is. But will it turn out to be the herald of a new era?
Ἀρέθουσα & Μηλινόη don’t always see eye to eye, but the sounds from their realms intermingle all the same. Light and dark ambiences, drones, and rituals.
Rare Field Ceiling feels like part of a continuum, particularly with the last two albums, a logical next stage of the journey, and it’s one of the best, most emotionally rewarding journeys that I know of.
Explosions in Slow Motion makes me wistfully happy like only a solid bvdub album can.
Internet music collaboration is cool. 100% live collaboration over Discord is way cooler, and that’s just what valyri and r0x4ry did, resulting in over an hour of really intense dronescapes.
There’s always going to be a certain aggression and darkness to black metal, but DEITUS take a lot of time to craft broad vistas rather than pure oppression.