I know I don’t have a lot of readers, but to anyone who’s been waiting with bated breath, I’ve got a lot of shit to work out. I expect to be posting again soon, but you know how that is.

First: This is old news by now, I bet, but I’d be negligent if I didn’t mention Portal’s new album Swarth and the fact that it’s apparently done. You should really check out their track “Larvae” on the Profound Lore website. I dug Outre like a motherfucker (just like everyone else), and I’m duly excited for this new insanity. Portal has one of the best sounds, best names, and best gimmicks in all metal: fronted by Megatron and backed by black-hooded English executioners.

Note: This is from Seepia, not their latest.

Second: Continuing in the Profound Lore excellence, the new act Worm Ouroboros has also finished their self-titled debut album. They pull together a sound that sits in airy comfort between Asunder and Isis on their uploaded MP3 “Riverbed,” which you can also find on the Profound Lore website. I’m not full-on hard-on the way I am for Portal, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens here. Bands and labels have a habit of not putting up the strongest tracks as samples, so I won’t be surprised if I’m surprised. It’s an interesting mix at the very least and it’s not gonna do anything to sully the good name of Profound Lore.

Seriously, Hydra Head and Southern Lord better watch out, ’cause this label is gunning for ‘em hard.

Profound Lore’s MP3 page

Probably my favorite Black Sabbath album. “A National Acrobat”, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, “Spiral Architect”, fuck. “Killing Yourself to Live”? Are you kidding me? I mean, yeah, Paranoid and Volume 4 and everything else is excellent, but this is where it’s at.

Pocahaunted – Passage

This album does not demand attention; it’s confident enough to let you do your own thing while it plays, it doesn’t need you. There is no tension. Pocahaunted is a mainstay of my relaxation music, so there has to be peace, and there is: the swirling textures, the far-away, spiraling wails, the insistent undertone giving the smoke a little weight. But to hold my attention it needs more. There are no moments of sudden rapture, like in Earth’s The Bees…, no grinding opiate addiction like Grails. There is beauty, but the kind you remember years later in pictures, not the kind that strikes you dumbfounded while you wait on the corner and look across the street, helpless.

Check it: ‘Palm’
Buy it: Amazon (LP) / Troubleman Unlimited (LP)
Check them: Myspace / Not Not Fun

This band doesn’t need any more fucking press, but I’d be pretty negligent if I didn’t say something about this. On their Myspace, the leviathan Baroness have put two new tracks from their upcoming Blue Record. For their sake, it needs to be said that Red Album, while an excellent album, was not a good album name. Blue Record is worse. Nobody was going to get mad if they were lazy and just called it Blue Album.

But as long as it rocks, no problem. The tracks they put up — the intro “Bullhead’s Psalm” and “The Sweetest Curse” — are promising, if the production’s a little thin. It needs to have the force of First and Second. However, “The Sweetest Curse” sounds good, so Blue Record won’t be worse than a decent album. They seem to be treading the Atlanta sludge line between Kylesa, still more “roots sludge” than their contemporaries, and Mastodon, who have pretty much given up the ghost of rawness in favor of triumphant choruses and singing.

With Red Album, I was convinced that Baroness would blow the fuck up, but Mastodon’s Crack the Skye took their limelight. Blue Record’s gonna come out with no contenders. I’m hoping it breaks some jaws and ruins neckbones.

P.S.: Pete Adams from Valkyrie’s in Baroness now, a fact that I always make a note of.

Bloodhorse – Horizoner

In three words, furious stoner rock. This is the kind of stuff I thought had given away almost completely to Isis and their progeny; there is a little of that in here, but that vibe is everywhere these days, so it’s inevitable. But Isis doesn’t do things like pull out a powerful bass solo the way Bloodhorse does in “The Old Man.” It’s tough to think of just what to say about this band. They change it up so often but manage to keep it savage. The eerie doubled vocals make “A Passing Thought to the Contrary” a headlong tumble downhill rather than a ride straight ahead. Horizoner doesn’t swim in its depression like some doom bands. It drinks heavily and rides its moods, its loud melancholy or its blind rage. If you liked Doomriders’ Black Thunder, you should check this out.

Check It: ‘Paranoiac’
Check Them: Myspace / Website
Buy It: Amazon (CD) / Amazon (LP)

From the album Whatever You Love, You Are, this is probably my favorite Dirty Three song. Perfectly, sweetly melancholic.

Mount Eerie – Wind’s Poem

Sure, hipsters of all shapes and sizes are flocking towards Wolves in the Throne Room, and I think it’s great. But Wind’s Poem is the first time I’ve really heard black metal and indie brought together. It’s not a consistent thing, but it definitely comes in there; the opener “Wind’s Dark Poem” has a healthy dose. This isn’t just a mash-up of styles, though. Whatever black metal influences are here are definitely played for atmosphere and it’s all subservient to Phil Elverum’s (formerly the Microphones) inherent indie folkiness; Wolfmangler-like thrashiness is thrown under the contemplative singer-songwriter bus. Elverum’s no crooner but no screecher. His voice has a sweet simplicity that lets it float perfectly among the dreamy substance of the instrumentation. And if you’re not interested in that craziness, there’s always the softer moments, like serene but stormy “Summons.” I can’t decide whether I prefer the side that goes towards the black noise or away from it, but I suppose it doesn’t really matter because it’s great from top to bottom. Definitely recommended.

Check it: ‘Wind’s Dark Poem’
Buy it: Amazon (mp3)
Check him: P.W. Elverum & Sun

Upon reflection, the Wolfmangler bit may be a little overzealous.

Silvester Anfang – Silvester Anfang II

This is Hell’s music. It’s not abrasive and it doesn’t have any hint of metal. That’d be too easy. This doesn’t have to scream evil, it just is. It’s twisted up, like the sounds shouldn’t work together, but they do. Desperation is at its core. It’ll pull itself out to lonely, wandering strains – always supported by insistent drums – and build, slowly build, but never to chaos. For all of its bad-trip twisting it never loses control. If you can picture an opium den through the eyes of a Puritan, you can see the sort of moral depravity this album illustrates. Top class. If you dig Current 93 or Grails you’ll find something here.

Check it: Het Zilte Nat
Buy it: Amazon
Check them: Funeral Folk

YOB – The Great Cessation

YOB broke up in 2006, having left behind four albums of tectonic doom. When they reformed, I was fucking excited. Now I’ve listened to the product and it strikes me the way that Pelican’s City of Echoes hit me. This is YOB, no doubt. Their sound is the same, and I don’t think this is a bad thing. After all, when a band breaks up and then gets back together, you want to know that they’re going to pick back up right where they left off. But there’s something missing. Is it just the fact that former bassist Isamu Sato is gone? I don’t think so; guitarist/vocalist Mike Scheidt was always the mastermind behind YOB, at least from what I’ve been able to gather. I can’t pick up exactly what it is, but the songs just fall flat in some way. I’m ready to give them all kinds of leeway ’cause after all, YOB is YOB is fucking YOB, but I can’t get into this. Not bad, but not the kind of excellence I was expecting.

Check it: Burning the Altar
Buy it: Amazon
Check them: Myspace / Profound Lore Records