Welcome, dear readers, to another edition of Staff Infections, wherein your pals at Last Rites offer a glimpse into their listening habits over the past month or so. Hopefully March finds you all in fine health and spirits, but what with war, genocide and natural disasters seemingly ever-present, I wouldn’t blame you if your outlook was a bit grim. It’s easy to feel powerless do anything about it, and unless you’re a billionaire, you probably are, practically speaking. But feel free to write your representatives, go to a demonstration, and vote for whomever you reckon is the less of two evils. If I can offer any heartening words, they are only these: There is still power in numbers; if enough of us pull in the same direction we can row against the tide.
Before we get to the album of the month contenders, we have a few honorable mentions. Josh Heath is doing his best to champion Darkthrone, with both Panzerfaust and Arctic Thunder featuring in his playlist, and the mighty Iron Maiden gets some representation with various albums from Zach, Andrew and Manny. Now, for the contenders: Second place goes to English death / doom group Slimelord, with the confoundingly titled full-length debut Chytridiomycosis Relinquished. And this month’s big winner is the legendary progressive / Viking / black metal band Borknagar, with its latest album Fall. As it would happen, Mr. Heath has reviews for both albums here and here.
Before we wrap this up, I’d like to direct you, as always, to have a listen to the staff-curated Spotify playlist below and to share your own playlist in the comments. In honor of Borknagar’s victory this month, for our group discussion, give us your favorite progressive black metal album. I don’t listen to much black metal, so my contribution to the discussion probably isn’t worth a pinch of shit, but in the interest of being a team player, I’ll offer Blut Aus Nord’s The Work Which Transforms God. Take care of yourselves, and I’ll see you all back here next month.
- Zach Duvall
Borknagar – Fall
Owl – Ghosts of Summer
Warlord – Deliver Us
Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas – Mariner
In Flames – Lunar Strain
Iron Maiden – everything - Andrew Edmunds
Iron Maiden – Killers
Bandit – Siege Of Self
Big Big Train – English Electric Part 2
Queensrÿche – The Warning
Candlemass – Nightfall
Midnight – Hellish Expectations - Danhammer Obstkrieg
Slimelord – Chytridiomycosis Relinquished
Writhen Hilt – Ancient Sword Cult
Autechre – NTS Sessions
Stagnant Waters – Rifts
James Brandon Lewis Quartet – Transfiguration
Grozov – Bedeviled - Lone Watie
Borknagar – Fall
Kungens Män – För Samtida Djur 1
Surya Kris Peters – There’s Light on the Distance
Viima – Väistyy Mielen Yö
Pink Turns Blue – Meta
John Coltrane – My Favorite Things - Josh Heath
Borknagar – Fall
Borknagar – True North
Slimelord – Chytridiomycosis Relinquished
Darkthrone – Panzerfaust
Darkthrone – Arctic Thunder
Udåd – Udåd - Captain
Spell – Tragic Magic
Gary Moore – Wild Frontier
D.R.I. – Crossover
Crumbsuckers – B.O.M.B.
Ludichrist – Immaculate Deception
Leeway – Born to Expire - Spencer Hotz
Prisoner – Putrid | Obsolete
Benighted – Ekbom
Spectral Voice – Sparagmos
Convulsing – Perdurance
Job For A Cowboy – Moon Healer
Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender - Dave Pirtle
Ihsahn – Ihsahn
Black Sabbath – Born Again
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – Of The Last Human Being
Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake Project
Genesis – Abacab
Traveler – Prequel to Madness - Ryan Tysinger
Acero Letal – Legiones
Gärgäntuäh – Urmystyk
Freeways – Dark Sky Sanctuary
Vinterland – Welcome My Last Chapter
Behemoth – Grom
Sodom – discography - Sir William Of Ur-Sag
Potter Payper – Thanks for Hating
Curren$y – Highway 600
House of Harm – Playground
Dexter Gordon – Gettin’ Around
Enslaved – Heimdal
Iron Maiden – Brave New World - Jeremy Morse
Malignancy – Intrauterine Cannibalism
Cro-Mags – Age of Quarrel
Gorguts – Considered Dead
Buck Owens And His Buackaroos – Carnegie Hall Concert
Exhumed – Death Revenge
Death – Scream Bloody Gore
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Wolves in the Throne Room – Black Cascade
Skeletal Throne – Barbaric Torment
Suffocation – Pinnacle of Bedlam
The Kennedy Veil – Imperium
Gatecreeper – Deserted
Burial Hordes – Ruins
Blind Faith – Blind Faith
Mr. Edmunds listed Iron Maiden’s ‘Killers’. This is one of my favorite Maiden albums, and I’d say its a classic metal album in general. That album captured lighting in a bottle from early Iron Maiden, when heavy metal was still congealing into matter. You guys also mentioned Darkthrone and I have to admit I cannot get into them, though I’ve tried. Their music sounds so consistently uninspired and dull to me, album after album, especially the last 20 years of ‘black and roll’. I appreciate them as an originator of black metal but feel they are hugely over-rated. I feel like a metal fan failure here. I like their first album though, Soulside Journey, way back when they played death metal.
Favorite progressive black metal abum: Ruun, by Enslaved.
Midnight – Hellish Expectations
Hans Zimmer Dune Part II OST
Hum – Downward is Heavenward
Venom – Black Metal
Scorpions – In Trance
Mercyful Fate – Melissa
Progressive black metal, it’s hard to beat Enslaved’s Below the Lights.
Borknagar – Fall
Acerus – The Caliginous Serenade
Sovereign – Altered Realities
Ihsahn – Ihsahn
Krigsgrav – Fires In The Fall
Arsis – Unwelcome
Favorite Prog black, gentlemans above already named two champions. I am proposing an other band: Akercocke – Words That Go Unspoken Deed That Go Undone
Árstíðir Lífsins – Hermalausaz
Riot – Thundersteel
Type O Negative – October Rust
Black Sabbath – Headless Cross
Cruel Force – Dawn of the Axe
Paula Hartmann – Kleine Feuer
Amenra – Mass IIII
Earthrise – Eras Lost
Dissimulator – Lower Form Resistance
Ihsahn – Ihsahn
Moonlight Sorcery – Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle
Edge of Sanity – Crimson / Crimson II
As far as progressive black metal goes, Enslaved’s Axioma Ethica Odini is my favourite ever since I first heard it. Emperor’s In the Nightside Eclipse and Mayhem’s Grand Declaration of War would be close seconds. Agalloch’s The Mantle / Ashes Against the Grain would be right up there too, but they’re more post than prog.