Ba'al

You know the drill: tunes we’ve been listening to this month, and words about those tunes. Get stuck in.

Joe – Vocals

Swallow the Sun – All Hallows Grieve

I’ve been a big fan of these Finnish symphonic death-doomers since their debut album and while I feel some of their more recent mellow tracks have been a little on the dull side this is the exception. Simple but draped in emotion and an earworm chorus to boot.

Lifelover – Myspys

A somewhat controversial band that is sadly no more, Lifelover have always been a staple of depressive black metal. Their approach was always very much on the nose, but it made for some truly chilling performances.

Bansith – 350 Million

One of the perks of judging the Sheffield M2TM is you get to discover young, upcoming bands. Bansith have been a particular highlight for me this year and their eloquent admonishment of our current government is impressively cutting (the title of this track a reference to the infamous bus slogan). No matter what happens at the final they have a bright future.

Deicide – Godkill

If you discount the rather lacklustre To Hell With God album, Deicide have remained pretty consistent in their later years, still bashing out solid blasphemous death metal. This bouncy number is positively boppable… and no, I don’t know what that means either.

Crepitation – Methanated Propulsion of Gaseous Levitation

Slam death’s silliest band (intentionally so, anyway) is back with a new lyric video of blurghs, wibbles, weeps and snorts. The technical progression the band has made musically really adds to the experience. Incredibly stupid, thoroughly enjoyable.

Nick – Guitar

Soilwork – The Thrill

Received a copy of  The Panic Broadcast from a friend not long after it came out (I would’ve been 13/14 at the time) and immediately fell in love with it. This track in particular and it’s main riff are ingrained into my memory and it felt like one of my life’s greatest achievements when I eventually cracked how to play it. Now if anyone that’s good at transcribing can tab out the solo you’d absolutely make my day.

Tithe – Anthropogenic Annihilation

A recent discovery, this album dwells where death, black, and sludge metal (among various other metals) intersect. Gloriously savage, savagely glorious.

Alcest – Eclosion

Recently reignited my vinyl hoarding shenanigans and picked up a copy of Kodama (and also a panic attack upon realising how much I was spending). Probably not quite my favourite album from Alcest’s flawless catalogue but it’s right up there (they all are to be fair).

Respire – Cicatrice

As per Kodama, this outrageously good album is also among my recent acquisitions and almost single-handedly ignited my desire to incorporate additional instrumentation in future Ba’al music. I have little doubt it had a similar effect on lots of post-metal bands.

Marcin Przybyłowicz – Wolven Storm

Not two weeks after we published our favourite video games list it dawned on me that I’d missed the masterpiece that is The Witcher 3. I’ve since put aside my growing list of newer acquires games so I can commit another few months living vicariously as everyone’s favourite grumpy uncle. One of its many strengths is its outstanding score (and sound design as a whole) and this nice little ballad from early on in your Novigrad journey is a high point.

Chris – Guitar

REZN – Reversal

Complete “Spotify algorithm” find, this one, but I’m glad for it – big doomy death riffs, soaring vocals and an overwhelming atmosphere comprised of pure TONE. I’m also a sucker for any album cover that uses an oil painting, so this ticks a lot of my boxes!

Liturgy – Before I Knew the Truth

New Liturgy is always welcome, and the album this track comes from is genuinely very good – there aren’t any other bands (in my mind) who’ve perfected the “glitchy electronica black metal” sound like this, which makes them singularly unique. Come for the high-pitched shrieking, stay for the bits where you have to double-check your listening device is working because the whole track has skipped (intentionally).

Tribulation – Vengeance (The Pact)

Regular readers of this blog will know that I fucking love Tribulation, and their last two albums are in my rotation a lot. This new track definitely sounds like they’ve been listening to a lot of Ghost in their downtime, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing – catchy choruses have always been part of the Tribulation sound and this just takes it one notch further.

Babymetal – MONOCHROME

Going to say something (mildly) controversial: if you hate Babymetal, you’re a boring person. This track off their new album has an all-timer of an earworm chorus, and I defy you not to get it stuck in your head.

Evan Rachel Wood – All Is Found

Here’s an even more controversial take: Frozen II fucking slaps and is better than the first movie, at least in part because the soundtrack is stuffed full of bangers. Look, if you don’t like Disney songs because “they’re for kids”, it’s your choice to be a miserable twat – I’ll be in Arendell, carried away on the windswept, wintry vibes and lush melodies of this track.

Richard – Bass

Igorrr – Paranoid Bulldozer Italiano

As my bandmates are no doubt sick of hearing about now, I spent a week of last month in Switzerland, and whilst it was mainly all about old cities and mountains, I also went to see Igorrr, Amenra, Der Weg Einer Freiheit and Hangman’s Chair in Zurich, which was superb. Despite still being more of a fan of Igorrr’s earlier work than his more recent, band-focused stuff, the last album was still great fun and built to be crushing live, with this set opener a real epic showing all sides of his skill as a producer as well as just riffing the fuck out.

Weather Report – Teen Town

Following the death of Wayne Shorter, I was diving back into my dad’s old Weather Report records earlier last month, and remembered not only how great their sultry, jazz fusion grooves are, but also just how ridiculous and amazing the artwork for Heavy Weather is.

Gojira – Love

Sure, everyone loves Gojira, but I feel like their debut Terra Incognita is too often overlooked, and I’ve been revisiting its primal, chunky riffs recently, with this standing out as one of the best tracks thanks to its inescapable, urgent energy.

Full of Hell & Primitive Man – Rubble Home

It wasn’t hard to guess that this pairing of bands would come up with one of the filthiest albums of the year, and Suffocating Hallucination certainly lives up to its excellent title, Sitting ugly as my current AOTY (from an admittedly very short list), it’s all squalling noise, caustic sludge, cacophonous blasting and unending dread. Lovely.

The Future Sound of London – We Have Explosive

Cult mid-90s dance music, rich in weirdness, ambience and just big ol’ beats. Dated? Maybe, but in the best, most nostalgic way.