Ba'al

After a month off for gigging, the Ba’al stringsmen are back with another monthly playlist of things we’ve been listening to, and some words explaining our picks.

Nick – Guitar

MUNA – Stayaway

Really hoping to hear some new music from MUNA in the next year or so! Their championing of infectious melodies, heartfelt songwriting and saccharine production make them a must listen for any lover of danceable pop music. This track is one of my personal favourites of theirs.

I Monster – Heaven

Despite having grown up with my dad having a career making music and fairly regularly hearing his music on TV being the established norm for me, it’s still quite bizarre to witness his band’s recent surge in popularity with such close proximity. Not sure if Ba’al are likely to go viral on TikTok anytime soon but here’s hoping! Bias aside, this song has always been a favourite of mine, since long before I realised it’s about a blow up sex doll.

Kurokuma – I Am Forever

Death, Taxes, and Kurokuma absolutely locking in on every song they release. I can’t think of another sludge band with such an all-encompassing command of groove.

Thrakian – The Path to Demise

A fantastic band we played with in Swansea a few weeks ago. All the hallmarks of classic Post-Metal were on show. Huge tone, huge riffs, gnarly vocals, and one of their strongest assets, dynamism. Don’t sleep on Thrakian, I can’t wait to hear a long form release from these.

GDRN – Vikivaki

I recently watched a series called KATLA, a mind-bending but harrowing sci-fi set in a near abandoned town in Iceland. Obviously I spent the immediate aftermath reading up on the series on Wikipedia and discovered lead actress Guðrún Jóhannesdóttir’s music (known mononymously as GDRN). Her music I would characterise as ‘pop for rainy days’, predominantly making use of pianos and other subtle instrumentation that present a jazzy, melancholic foundation for her outstanding vocals. A real hidden gem for me!

Chris – Guitar

Woe – Far Beyond The Fracture of the Sky

We had a nice time last month supporting these chaps on the London date of their tour, and it was great to catch them live – blastbeat city, so much mammoth tremolo picking and a ferocious paeon to the death of humanity and the victory of sorrow.

The Ocean – Abyssopelagic II: Signals of Anxiety

I went to the opening night of Damnation this year purely to see the Ocean perform Pelagial in full for the last time (my first time experiencing it) and it was a wonderful experience – when they got to this song I allowed myself a little cry right in front of the stage because it’s just perfection.

Master Boot Record – MOBO

Gutted to have missed this guy live, because the new record is another furious blast of electronic feedback and chiptune madness which I’ve been enjoying greatly. Sounds like your ears are being pummeled by two Gameboys, and you’re loving every second of it.

Kokeshi – Warabeuta

A good ol’ Spotify discovery, this – “brutal blackgaze” from Japan which mixes in some sick beatdowns with atmospheric sections, tortured screaming and some more melodic stuff as well. One of those bands that I listened to and thought “man, I’d love to tour with these and get to watch this every night for a week”..!

Florence + The Machine – Dog Days are Over (BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall – Symphony of Lungs)

I’ve been unashamed and open about my love of Florence, and the Proms performance she did earlier in the year was an absolute jewel in the star-studded crown of her career – taking songs from the album Lungs and reworking them with a full symphony orchestra to make them sound even bigger and more bombastic. Fair warning though, this one will get stuck in your head.

Richard – Bass

Zetra – Sacrifice

I overlooked these guys for ages, but seeing them at ATG prompted me to check out this new album and I am now hooked. They’ve got that same ineffable autumnal feel that Type O Negative had, but with way more synths and massive hooks to match. Simple but effective.

Chelsea Wolfe – House of Self-Undoing

Just as my interest in Chelsea Wolfe was waning, she about-turned and dropped this AOTY contender (and played possibly my gig of the year, on Halloween no less). Moving away from doom and firmly into electronic, trip-hoppy territories plus some of her most commanding vocal performances, this one just keeps pulling me back.

Baths – Aminals

This is a blast from the past for me, which I revisited recently. From the same early 2010s era of arguably pretentious, art-school, tumblr-core indie/electronic as the likes of Alt-J and Purity Ring, the first Baths album was pivotal in my journey into electronic music, and this track manages to be both sweet and absolutely banging.

Magdalena Bay – That’s My Floor

Imaginal Disk has been a slow burn for me this year, its blend of synth pop, rock and psych taking a while to really get its hooks in. However, you can’t argue with some of these tunes. and this one has an almost grungey swagger that makes it a real earworm.

Def Leppard – Photograph

Since there’s ended up being nothing particularly heavy on my list this month, why not really test our black metal audience by proclaiming this track as an absolute slammer. I replayed Jack-Black-fronted, metal-worshipping video game Brutal Legend recently and had a very brief resurgence of listening to classic rock and metal, Pyromania included. As well as being Sheffield heroes, at their best Def Leppard simply had so much more power than the hordes of sleazy hair metal perves that followed them thanks entirely to their vast, layered, emotive choruses. You can genuinely hear the link to the production style of avowed Leppard fan Devin Townsend.