It’s been a while since I’ve recommended awesomeness available on the Bandcamp download service, and since a draconian new VAT policy goes into effect in Europe on January 1, this might be your last chance to grab some of these before shit gets wonky. Here’s a random assortment of awesome downloadable metal so you can ring in the new year with a shotgun blast.
Olde – I
You know the great thing about sludge metal? It doesn’t have to be original; it just has to hit hard. Olde do just that. Like Down in their downer mode, their southern doom rumbles in the most satisfying way possible. It’s not just the southeast that they visit, however – these eight songs show a clear mastery of desert groove.
Petrychor – Makrokosmos
I get the feeling that this is what people were expecting Wolves in the Throne Room’s Celestite to sound like, and expertly woven mix of 70s ambient excellence and spacefaring black metal. This release, their second, does both equally well, combining the sound of the netherworld and synthesizer soundscapes to paint a picture of a vast, uncaring universe. Good stuff.
Sterilizer – Sterilizer
Industrial may have been boring for a long time, but it’s far from dead. One man demolition squad Brandon Duncan avoids vocals entirely, so no overused Burton C. Bell bark here. Instead, you get eight instrumentals of mechanized death to tide you over during those cold post-apocalyptic nights. If nothing else, it will tide you over until the rights to Terminator revert back to James Cameron.
Bongripper – Miserable
Boy, is the title of this one not misleading. When put together, the song titles form the phrase “endless descent into ruin,” so, you know. While not the ABSOLUTE doomiest of doom (there’s still some serious stoner swing in their slow-paced forced march across the bottom of the Marianas trench), the three incredibly long songs here beat you to death with repetitious bludgeoning riffs while still mixing things up enough to hold your attention. A really impressive exercise in sustained soul compression.
Gatekrashör – Gatekrashör
Canadian speed metal. YES.
