Ba'al

We’re back on our playlist business again, as a break from the incessant guitar chatter. Listen and read on to hear what four fifths of us have been listening to in the past month.

Nick – Guitar

The Cure – Plainsong

Saw some footage of their headline slot at Glastonbury and they opened with this track. To be honest that live version is probably even better than the studio version but it’s still great on record.

Alcest – Le Miroir

Really strong album (laughs exuberantly at the suggestion that they could release a bad album). Only had 2 listens through so far but this track is a highlight for me.

Sibiir – Guillotines

Mastodon riffs and hardcore tinged black metal all bundled up in a ball of thorns and emotion. Lovely.

MUNA – I Know A Place

Really great glossy synth pop track with big hooks. Not much else to say other than IT FUCKING SLAPS.

Kero Kero Bonito – Trampoline

Wish the key to happiness was as simple as the lyrical content of this song. Sadly it’s not, and even if it was, I don’t have a fucking trampoline anyway.

Tom – Guitar

Iggy Pop – Loves Missing

You can’t go wrong with Iggy, and the band he’s assembled for the free album are fantastic.

Russian Circles – Arluck

Love the simple yet pounding drum intro.

Johnny Cash – Ain’t No Grave

Can never go wrong with Johnny Cash.

Nine Inch Nails – We’re in This Together

Always liked the fuzzy filtered guitar sound in the middle of this.

A-Sun Amissa – Seagraves

Epic.

Richard – Bass

Sumac – The Deal

For an avowed post metal worshipper, I realised recently that my Aaron Turner knowledge is woefully lacking outside of a couple of Isis albums, and checking this out was like a sledgehammer to the face. It’s like all Isis’ heaviest tones with a drummer on speed.

Ocean Wisdom – Don

Ocean Wisdom is just an insanely talented and reliably entertaining rapper and I’ve been really into his second album Wizville recently. Mad flows that’ll have you grinning.

Der Weg Einer Freiheit – Eiswanderer

One of a few brilliant black metal discoveries I’ve made recently. These guys have the sheen of modern post-black metal bands like Downfall of Gaia, but do not shy away from crushingly dense guitar layers.

Coil – The Last Amethyst Deceiver

After years, the Ape of Naples record has just recently properly clicked with me, for some reason, and the eerie avant-garde weirdness of this track really pulls you in (despite the vocals sometimes sounding like Bill Bailey…).

Fennesz – Rivers of Sand

If you like your ambient music to be constantly glitching, but also cut together with some humanizing real instruments, look no further than Fennesz. Somehow both sterile and deeply emotional, he’s a real master.

Joe – Vocals

Cult of Fire – Zavet Svetku

Absolutely sublime black metal in the vein of Mgla and Batushka, with some real earworm riffs and atmospheres.

Cairiss – Disgraced

Perhaps the best kep secret in UKBM. Stunning composition, eerily beautiful.

Forest Stream – Snowfall

The album Tears of Mortal Solitude is criminally underrated; awe inspiring synth driven blackened doom.

Oathbreaker – Being Able To Feel Nothing

Lyrically heartwrenching and one of the most emotive vocal performances in extreme metal.

Hecate Enthroned – Within The Ruins of Eden

Shouldn’t really be mentioning a band I’m in, but on our recent tour this track has been especially epic.