I have always gravitated towards "guitary" but bare bones/metal and bluesy tinged stuff like Castle or EHG or Melvins (I mean, they are lots of things but early on Melvins were crudely minimal in an amazing way). Mares Of Thrace always has scratched that itch and had top tier aesthetics and ethics. The band (current and past incarnations) might be a duo, but I am gonna bring up the White Stripes right now not to draw a parallel but to the number of members but rather the depth of feeling inherent to the performances. I love when a trio or in this case a duo can fucking level a room or rip a heart in half or just immerse you completely in a rock n roll moment like a portal to a better place that somehow acknowledges all your bruises. The Loss is objectively a stunner even when considering my bias as a many years long butt kisser of how good this group's albums have always been.
How many duos do you know that can hold their own opening for Acid Bath or doing a full tour supporting fucking Conan?
A bombastic, working class, post-metal and bluesy meditation on the stages of grief, Mares on The Loss sound like a cadre of noise-rocktivists bent on cutting through the weeds of doubt one musical hatchet stroke at a time. The lengthy record is well worth the attention it will demand and take up, song after song and moment after moment of repetitive yet workout riffs, Shellac worthy dry production and Hell or High-Water reckonings that wrestle with mortality, the soul and what it means to express yourself. Trez and Casey are channeling hellfire and shitting out golden goose eggs of hard-won musical milestone exercises in high drama poetry and punk rock pragmatism.
First, you'll sort of just get rocked to a pulp by it and feel exhilarated yet emotionally spent. Then you will go back looking for cool moments you loved again, while marveling at the poignant summaries of our human condition. Then you will drop out of society if you have to be pulled away from the rapturous pain of "The Fourth Stage: Bargaining" on repeat forever. \m/
Alison Lewis aka Zoe Zanias had a pointedly, intentionally principled 2025, standing up for artists, marginalized folx enduring genocide and calling out corrupt festivals that pander to an old world and apolitical model that needs to die. New album Cataclysm shows beyond a doubt that Zoe Zanias as an entity can exist without constant comparisons to Linea Aspera. Nothing against that vehicle but limiting an artist to only on frame of their development is a disservice to them and to the listener. Fact is, self-produced and written ten song stunner Cataclysm might be a career best at this juncture. The title track alone is one of the strongest statements of intent and stage setter album openers in recent memory, effortlessly beguiling and confidently anthemic, well-paced and exciting.
"On the way up I fight. On the way up the light has me born in it," emotes Zanias on the dreamy standout, almost Delerium-esque "Whiteout". The song sounds futuristic and connects to a modern isolation and primal yearning, wanting to feel in synch with the ego death of the natural Universe yet also having autonomy to rise above injustice. At least, that is what it feels like to me. Which is redundant of me to say and my creative writing teacher in college drilled into my head not to say things like "I think". Haha. No shit. You just wrote that. But it really makes you think and feel. And maybe see visions of Niihama behind your eyelids combined with fluorescent lights, pastels and rain.
Make no mistake, we do face a polycrisis cataclysm. Post-industrial ethereal wave might just save enough of us who listen.
3. I WillBe Clouds In The Morning And Rain In The Evening by Ameokama
No one was prepared for how hard Ex-Dreamwell and A Constant Knowledge Of Death member Aki McCullough snapped on her Ameokama full-length debut. A multi-genre feast, at times frightening, at times hazy and always fearless, I Will Be Clouds In The Morning... is a one-of-a-kind record. Industrialized yet still kind of emo, multiple songs earning a seven or even ten-minute run time and twists and turns galore (the skull penetrating harsh noise of "cluster B", it will kick your ass. I did a deep dive discussion about the project with her earlier in the year for Ghost Cult MagazineHERE you can read, if you missed it. While lyrics like ,"I am the wind which whispers what could of been" from the Mariner worthy celestial post-rock title track allude to regret, the album leaves no stone unturned in ensuring Aki proves she doesn't take the creative process for granted.
I can honestly say that I think in distant years people with brains will mention Void Ceremony's stunning and merciless Abditum in the same league as tech and prog death classics such as 'Unquestionable Presence' and 'Human'. Think I am just blowing a load from excitement over a new Void Ceremony release prematurely? You haven't heard the insane guitar runs, spiraling drum rollercoaster mindfuck and shifting chaos of "Despair Of Temporal Existence".
20 Buck Spin is always home to some of the best talent in metal and generally without a lot of bullshit. In Void Ceremony they have an artist that continues to bloom down weirder routes and yet is true to the core (and I don't mean "core") of what death metal is about. Really? Let's just say they managed this time to even give bands like Ulthar or Necrot a run for their metal money, no easy feat. With all due respect to the legions of Blood Incantation fans out there, this nonetheless was my favorite death and jazz tinged freakout by far. Sneaking in near the buzzer for the year with a mid-November release, Garrett Johnson and company have both set a new bar for themselves with "Failure of Ancient Wisdoms" and also managed to move the niche subgenres they inhabit forward.
"Blood Atonement Blues", indeed. Decades into a hell and back trudge towards eternal doom glory, San Diego's surliest sons manage to keep raising the bar. With so many bangers under their belts over the years, 16 have been maximizing what works and refining the songwriting in a continuous evolution that is monumental to behold. Only Crowbar come to mind as a band still churning out tunes this murky and heavy on a semi-regular basis with as much power and consistency so late into their career.
While many metal fans this year mourned the end of Sabbath, you can still support groups out there like 16 who are delivering future classics like "Fire And Brimstone Inc." on a nightly basis, playing punk venues small and large and keeping it decidedly working class and humble.
Bobby and Alex are so locked in on this thing, it is just perfection. Dueling guitars and unison chunk, pounding drums and thunderous bass, desperation angels and kicked out chairs. This band once had the audacity to write a song called "Pastor In A Coma", and the acidity hasn't let up about ten years since. If anything, 16 have been on an absolutely brilliant three album late career run since the unfuckwithable Dream Squasher, culminating in the even heavier and more grim back alley beatdowns of ...Misguided.
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