343: THE ATLAS MOTH

When an outlet as stale as Pitchfork brilliantly labels you “militantly adventurous heavy metal” you must be doing something right. And The Atlas Moth from Chicago absolutely are doing something right. The first time I heard their 2018 album, ‘Coma Noir’, it just clicked. This is, on a base level, post metal. Very, very well …

334: ALCEST

French musician Neige is a master at what he does. It’s that simple. By taking Alcest from its raw black metal roots toward a far more unique and gentle atmosphere, he helped usher in a new post black metal sound. By leaning heavily on shoegaze influences as well, especially on some later albums, Alcest are …

332: CULT OF LUNA and JULIE CHRISTMAS

I’ve always been a fan of an “all-in, for-keeps” collaborative album. Recent examples from Thou and Emma Ruth Rundle, as well as Converge and a Chelsea Wolfe earlier this month demonstrate how creatively inspired they can be when approached sincerely. When a collaboration really works, it doesn’t matter what genres or writing styles the artists …

331: CULT OF LUNA

After nearly 25 years, Cult of Luna’s absolutely crushing wall of sound delivery is unmistakable. It has grown over the years, becoming more intricate and complex, however the sheer power behind it remains unwavering. They’ve been tagged with many labels - doom metal, sludge metal, prog metal - but the genre most applied to them, …

324: DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT

Yesterday Der Weg Einer Freiheit (German for ‘the way of a freedom’) released their fifth full length album, entitled ‘Noktvrn’, and it is incredible. So much so that I’ve actually changed my plans and brought the post about them up about 3 weeks earlier because I’m so obsessed with Noktvrn that I simply must write …

323: BLOODMOON

Today an album was released titled ‘Bloodmoon: I’. The album is being presented as a Converge album, but is actually a collaborative piece from Converge, Chelsea Wolfe, frequent Wolfe collaborator Ben Chisholm, and Cave In/Old Man Gloom/Mutoid Man/basically everything member Stephen Brodsky. The result is an entirely other beast than Converge, and that’s why I …