I'm by no means a metalhead, but I fuck with High on Fire and a bunch of other stoner rock bands. Anyway, I was cruising through the RYM rankings for this year and found these guys perched at the top, saw that they were Australian and gave them a listen.

Holy fuck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wa4zqBwPVE

I've been kicking pregnant women in the stomach ever since. It's full of shit that makes you want to kick cats in the balls, but has just as many beautiful moments as well.

Please recommend more bands like this.

I tend to like my metal ugly and dark. Really ugly. Really, really dark. But I read in a review of this that parts compare to Opeth, To-Mera, Sirenia, Tristania, and Alcest, so you might check out those bands if you don't already know them.

As a matter of fact, my friend's label released that. I do CD and ad layouts for him, though I didn't happen to do that particular one (I think the band handled it). So I got my copy free. But it's a really good album.

>(I think the band handled it) ha yeah not for nothing but you can kinda tell

yeah it's very dark

any other new ones you been digging in the same vein?

Not enough metal talk 'round here, usually just me and Jakob talking about it for five minutes once a month...

>Outta seattle right? is it a local label?

The band's from Seattle, the label (Dark Descent) is in Colorado. They're small but busy (about 70 releases in maybe two years of existence) and definitely international, with signings from Finland, Sweden, the US, god knows where else.

>>(I think the band handled it) ha yeah not for nothing but
>you can kinda tell

Yeah, a little bit. I really dig the art though. Some of the ones I did for him were Timeghoul, Anguish, Horrendous, the Uncanny 2-disc set, and others.

>any other new ones you been digging in the same vein?

That particular vein is kind of an unusual one - most bands tend to be either death metal or doom metal, but not both. Ahab (funeral doom band) has a new album coming out but from what I've heard of it, it's going in a softer direction. Too bad. I really liked their debut a lot. The recent Asphyx album (Deathhammer) is solid, though not as dark as Anhedonist, or Asphyx's own early work.

the only one

shit is going through an american renaissance of sorts after being relegated to countries where the sun shines 5 hours a day for most of the year


>The band's from Seattle, the label (Dark Descent) is in
>Colorado. They're small but busy (about 70 releases in maybe
>two years of existence) and definitely international, with
>signings from Finland, Sweden, the US, god knows where else.

yeah it's interesting how widespread metal labels like profound lore go geographically (well outside of say Southern Lord). Seems like that there lack local scenes so you have to diversify to stay within the same boundaries weird enough


>Yeah, a little bit. I really dig the art though. Some of the
>ones I did for him were Timeghoul, Anguish, Horrendous, the
>Uncanny 2-disc set, and others.

I'll check out the Dark Descent site

>>any other new ones you been digging in the same vein?
>
>That particular vein is kind of an unusual one - most bands
>tend to be either death metal or doom metal, but not both.
>Ahab (funeral doom band) has a new album coming out but from
>what I've heard of it, it's going in a softer direction. Too
>bad. I really liked their debut a lot. The recent Asphyx
>album (Deathhammer) is solid, though not as dark as
>Anhedonist, or Asphyx's own early work.

I like funeral doom especially Pallbearer. I definitely see Anhedonist as a total stylistic outlier (not that I am that steeped in Metal I know maybe slightly over 10-15 bands at this point). I'll check for Asphyx, cool

Wasn't really feeling them though, I don't think they sound much like these guys to be honest.

so I was just kind of going off mentions I saw in a couple reviews of this album.