JohnnyoftheWell
Hugh G. Puddles
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Last Active 01-01-70 12:00 am
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JUNE of [good] MΣTAL (REC me)

HELLO Sputnik it is a new month it is my birthday I am a gemini and a mess and I have realised something about myself - for all the time I love hating on metal, the *good* metals still give me a proper kick and I devote not very much time to them. Do I love not listening to metal more than I love listening to it? I dunno. Help me find out please, rec me albums let's go there's a month to fill
1Killing Joke
Killing Joke

June 1st
CATCH UP while I decide how I feel about In The Aeroplane Hotel Milk album
2Killing Joke
Killing Joke

June 2nd
CATCH UP the Knife the Knife
3Killing Joke
Killing Joke

June 3rd
REST
4Killing Joke
Killing Joke

June 4th
REST
5Khanate
To Be Cruel

June 5th
DadKung rec
Drone metal
2023

HAH this was a rough start to the month, which I guess is what I signed up for. Fucking punish me. Instrumentally, these guys' approach to 'drone' is taut, raw and frayed, and continually breaks off for just a moment only to reassert itself the next. It's a pretty smart approach to momentary discontinuity that gives that make-or-break vocal performance an uneasy hecking platform to make me think many thoughts about what just a little honey tea would do to that poor throat (we are starting soft, I'm sorry). First listen resulted in borderline hatred, but I've warmed on the opener and closer since (middle track for whatever reason does nothing for me). Gonna give this one some space for now and come back to it for the year-end lists - very glad to have let it dent me for the time being. 10/10 song title game also. Be cruel.

3.3
6diSEMBOWELMENT
Transcendence into the Peripheral

June 6th
ffs rec
Death/doom
1993

This is heavy as balls and atmospheric as a big fucking cavern. Loved it. Very little more to say - drums could use a little more weight, but otherwise the prod is perfect? Don't normally go hard on this style of vox, but the performance is also perf? Occasional clean guit/fem vox placements were perfectly gauged and extremely haunting? Not sure how often I'll return to this, but I trust it to blow my socks off whenever I need it to.

4.2
7Lantlos
Agape

June 7th
pots rec
Death/doom
2011

This was CHEATING because the best (and v excellent) bits are not metal! You Feel Like Memories is a viable veranda chill jam. Where is my veranda you scoundrel. Fuck Opeth they could never. Hmm so yes this record makes gorgeous use of its downtime - I was expecting Alcest-adjacent blackgaze, but this has far more weight and less cheese. Its bm foundation does survive its shift to slower tempos and use of post-metal churning in place of tremz etc., but I occasionally found the mix of bm vox and hypermelodic instrumentals a little uneasy (on Bloody Lips instead). Closer gave me that earlydays Pelican rumble hmmm. It's not often that I go for this kinda peak/valley-susceptible vibe of sunset metal, but this alb defs earns its keep.

3.7
8Effluence
Psychocephalic Spawning

June 8th
hyp rec
Brutal/tech dm?
2021

this stabs the SPORK firmly into the heart of dm and, uh, shit damn, it's entertaining as all hell in its goofy jagged way? surprisingly accessible for how brvtal it plays things too. i will almost certainly never listen to this again, but it makes a pretty entertaining spectacle out of whatever the fuck it is

3.5
9Knut
Terraformer

June 9th
anode rec
Sludge/mathcore
2005

This is a beefy-ass core record that wants at the same to be much more and much less. I enjoyed Challenger from these guys, but where that album is a fookin powerhouse, this one avoids going full-blast hevy beyond its opening run (which is a fun set of tracks for sure) and gets diffuse and atmospheric on us. It almost works? "Solar Flare" is exceptional central highlight, but I thought the instrumental metalcore slices frittered more momentum than they gained, and the last two tracks coasted somewhat. Unsure how much I love most of the vocal samples either. Good album for sure, but I don't think it was on top of that mid-00s post-metal BOOM as it might have been.

3.5
10Bongripper
Satan Worshipping Doom

June 10th
ThyCrossAwaits rec
Sludge/doom/stoner
2010

I like to imagine that this is what people who know nothing about metal think that people are hearing when they listen to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Well, uh, whatever I was after stylistically with this list, this is it lol. All of it. Doom pacing, patient moments of droning feedback, meaty sludge tones and riffs that just *reek* of stoner fumes so pungent I feel my ears smell like a swamp just from jamming this with headphones. Rip that bong! Grip that bon! Full marks to ThyCrossAwaits for getting the memo on what was expected here. Opener is practically the list template - maybe overstays its welcome just a tad, but that shit lays down the law. "Satan" is appropriately and overtly more evil phwoar boi there are some mean riffs there, this song crushes.

"Worship" is a quality cult leader entrance theme and there's a long fucking way to the altar. Unexpected Pelican flashbacks about 5mins in when it was DRONING on my ARSE. This one especially makes me feel I need to be either baked or at a live show to get the full draw (even if "Doom" drones harder - this one makes no pretence that it's gonna go anywhere in a hurry and I can fw that). My ongoing gripe is that I cannot live on riffs alone and this album is very much a one-riff-after-another deal and is paced (or more accurately saturated) at a rate that *slightly* overestimates how engaging each constituent section will be or (more forgivably) how good the tones are, but fuck it, this is loud evil swampfun and I had a good time and actually im hungry now

3.7
11Esoteric
Metamorphogenesis

June 11th
porc rec
Funeral doom
1999

This...fucks? This atmosphere is chilling?? The pace?? Crushing?? The vocals?? Unstoppable?? The leads?? Actually fantastically great and very fluid even through the pace oh wait we've covered the pace?? Don't have much more to add for now, still trying to catch up with this after two spins. Gonna 4 the fucker and maintain intrigue, powerful fucking record.

4.0
12Buffalo
Volcanic Rock

June 12th
Sloth rec
Hard...rock?
1973

Well hmmm this is just about heavy enough to qualify for this list, which saves the slothman from instant death. It's a pretty fair prototype for stoner metal tbh, obvs more rooted in hard rock and psych, but I can hear the sound that would eventually end up as, say, Kyuss - Supa Scoopa (outro) or Boris - Naki Kyoku in the opening of "Freedom" in particular. '70s heavy psych is a bit of a blind spot for me - the gap between the og blues-psych-jam shit from bands like Cream and the later Actual "Stoner" Stuff in the late 80s/early 90s is real, but now it is a little bit filled. Nice. "Till My Death" is the kind of loud belt-it basix ROCK that does next to nothing for me, and "The Prophet" toes the line, but damn that do be a sexy guitar sound. Get your guitar boi to play a main riff with a bend in it ad infinitum - if he is good, the bend will be good, and if not... well, I like the bend. Solo is a bit boring though, he's still bending and not quite breaking. Ending lost me. I like this thing a fair bit when it sticks closer to psych/stoner styles, but it doesn't quite deliver as much when it goes full hard rock hmm. Maybe that's a hard rock problem.

3.4
13Nadja
The Bungled and the Botched

June 13th
hesp rec
Drone metal
2008

This is the absolute fucking business and basically dishes out a home run for everything I've hitherto liked to the point of wanting to be blown away by from these guys. Title track in particular is just a perfect knockout - Absorbed In You was almost as good at its best, but had a couple of points where I was momentarily worried that it might drop the ball (spoiler: it did not, but it doesn't carry its weight quite as well). Been through this twice, and it's very near the top of my list for records I want to go back to the minute my recent jams become less oversaturated. Impeccable crushing fuzzed up beautiful darkness gimme more.

4.2
14Draconian
Under a Godless Veil

June 14th
pizza rec
Death/doom
2020

This is probably well executed for what it is, but what it is is a high fantasy ultrakitsch cheeseball and repeated listens to not seem to be the answer to what turns me off it RIP

2.9
15Torche
Meanderthal

June 15th
Kompys rec
Stoner/sludge
2008

Don't have many thoughts on this one tbh - falls into the same camp as Harmonicraft as an energetic set of quickfire stoner thrills without much enduring impact. Little too fleeting to *rock* as much as ideal and maybe a bit vanilla in them riffs (appreciate this could go for every stoner band ever, but this is so melodic that I somehow feel it more). Competent stuff.

3.4
16Acid Bath
Paegan Terrorism Tactics

June 16th
Stakaline rec
Sludge
1996

This *is* sludge, and the evil heavy parts fuck (Locust Spawning, New Corpse, Graveflower big highlights)! The grunge-saturated southern-oriented majority of the album, however, does not spark quite as much joy - would almost argue this is more a grunge album than a sludge one, to the point that I'd rather be listening to straight-up Alice in Chains. Those over-flanged riffs and languorous clean vocals don't quite cut it for me, though this is more a style than execution gripe. I enjoy how raw the prod and harshes are and will check the debut as that apparently brings the sludge harder, but this was a little frustrating.

3.4
17Dead Animals
El Vacio

June 17th
Cormano rec
doom sludge post rock and whatnot
2023

Very linear post metal with limited heft, a LOT of ebbing and limited flowing. I'm lukewarm on this tbh - band ain't bad at all, but the tired-formula factor brings it down and I don't feel the stakes in many of their builds. Closer adds a much appreciated shot of energy. Won't rate this because it's a new band and I don't wanna shit the bed on it, but I *will* add it to the database.

3.0
18Pig Destroyer
Prowler in the Yard

June 18th
Mort rec
Grind
2001

Absolutely fucks, as expected. Doesn't quite match Terrifyer's freight train factor, but I really enjoy how much of a different feeling it has between its framing sample/album pacing/slightly more riff-driven approach. Ending combo is a really cool series of twists, highs (Hyperviolet/Junkyard God/Mapplethorpe Grey) are very high. Baller album.

4.3
19Earth
The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull

June 19th
Icebloom rec
Drone
2008

So I'd heard half of this before, but ended up bailing for reasons that became increasingly obvious to me over the spins. This band are excellent at doing a lot with the bare minimum - Earth 2 has some absolutely champion drones - and I did enjoy how an Actual Rhythm Section lends itself to their sound, but for whatever reason they anchored these tracks in some of the dull-est as-est ditchwater-est melodic work I've heard in my days. The post-rock tag is earned: this thing is a snoozer.

2.9
20Odious
Mirror of Vibrations

June 20th
Drifter rec
""An Egyptian melodic black metal band.""
2007

W e l l, uh, the bits on this that sound a lot like Not Black Metal and very much like traditional Egyptian music are very cool, and the interplay between the two just about pays off (Sigh comes to mind here, though I'm not sure at what level of jank). The bm itself, however, is some hammy faff and, even by the standards of the genre, sounds like dogshit.

2.5
21Weakling
Dead as Dreams

June 21st
Avagant rec
Atmoblack/post
2000

The appeal of this one was pretty diffuse on first listen

so I listened again

and it is dense and vast and sucked me in
and i liked it

4.0
22Eyehategod
Dopesick

June 22nd
Ryus rec
Sludge/doom
1996

Horrible hateful southern [s]racist[/s] seethemetal. When it works, it works (and it works!) - good music to kick walls and flatten cop cars to. The whole southern flavour is tbqh something I am generally not a fan of in heavy music, but this is nasty enough to get a pass

3.7
23Assuck
Misery Index

June 23rd
Ford rec
Grind
1997

Kept ford waiting on this one for so long that I'm gonna have to get straight to the point here :O

Grind is often great
Death metal is often boring
Deathgrind is something I rarely feel strongly about
None of this matters because this goes fucking hard
GOOD

3.9
24Om
Advaitic Songs

June 24th
sneakers rec
Stoner/doom/drone
2012

Going to have to come back to this one; spiritual/devotional overtones are interesting but the songs-that-are-metal-songs did not so much for me on first listen.

EDIT: yeah, not so much to say on this - it's an interesting concept, but the metal elements feel pretty superfluous to the record as a whole and if anything the stoner vox are slight detraction to the otherwise perfectly decent drones. Don't feel strongly about the devotional aspects either way, which is a slight disappointment. Enjoyed the last track quite a bit though, acoustic guitars in the second half really hit the mark

3.2
25Cobalt
Slow Forever

June 25th
MoM rec
Sludge?
2016

While the badass blues guitars on the opener had me hooked on this, it did not take long to turn into the biggest (certainly longest) chore on the list. Lotta procedural elongated snooze on this, did not fw at all. Slow forever just about sums it up

2.5
26Worship
Last Tape Before Doomsday

June 26th
Milo rec
(Funeral?) doom
1999

Would be lying if I said this dour mini-marathon was anything but a considerable strain on the ol' SOUL, but it earns its keep. Very smart pacing here, great interplay between suffocating heaviness and expansive atmospheric lulls such that neither really demands a structural peak and both marinade in the same gloom. Good stuff - AUGUST OF FUNERAL DOOM?

3.9
27Harvey Milk
Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men

June 27th
Harvey rec
Sludge/doom???
1996

This is one of the most depressing albums I have consumed in my days it would have ruined my day if the experience of returning to the UK just as summer decided to shart itself to a hideous rainy death hadn't already done this, it hit the spot and it is very good and my blues are now incurable. Cover of maybe my least favourite song from Songs of Leonard Cohen is weirdly key to the whole thing. Sunshine and the closer are huge. I am fucking sad Harvey.

3.5
28Sgaile
Ideals & Morality

June 28th
Muzz79 rec
Post metal
2021

This was... aight. Very bright, borderline triumphant, not a flavour I particularly love but it was robustly put together and rarely let its momentum slip. Nice note to finish one.

3.3
29Intronaut
Prehistoricisms

June 29th
Jalapeno rec
Post/sludge
2008

Given that my only past experience with these guys was the perfectly safe, decently overrated Direction of Last Things, my expectations were modest

but

this goes for days. heavy as balls, very smartly written, technical but never sterile, melodically deft in a way that rests a lot of weight on the more melodious bass end (great performance!!) balanced against a wiry approach to guitar leads that I very much condone, full of smart interplay, really inventive, dynamic songwriting that sidesteps the usual post-metal ups and downs without getting overly circuitous (other than the slight misstep of a LONG closer, for which i'm unfortunately gonna have to dock points). Great record. Can see tragically bypassed alternative timeline where Mastodon went down this path instead of going full-tilt hokey fantasy bullshit on Crack the Skye.

3.9
30Mare
Mare

June 30th
Deez rec
Post/sludge
2004

This dense fucking EP is cool as hell - awesome rec, would have been the perfect coda to the month if I'd listened to these final tracks in order. Love how oblique the song structures are (and how seamlessly it flows across the whole); there's a real murk to this thing and it's difficult to predict where any given track is going to go next, even after repeated listened. Opener into the first, ambient section of They Sent Me gave me a very positive flashback to Manifold from Choirs of the Eye for that reason; this kind of post/atmosludge is normally such a linear-only deal that it's rare for anything to remind me of writing that proficient, but this hits the spot. Could have used a tad more contour for its tangle of progressions, but overall great stuff.

3.9
31Anathema
Judgement

Mean rating: 3.532
Median rating: 3.5
Mode rating: 3.9
Range: 1.8
Minimum: 2.5
Maximum: 4.3
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