After a two-week hiatus brought upon by the uncontrollable clatter of #reallife speeding towards the next crest in the proverbial carnival ride, This One Goes To Eleven is back and pretty much the same as ever. By this point awards season is well and truly underway, but before we get to the whole list thing, there’s still a handful of new releases (and a metric ton of holiday shows) to cover, beginning today with…
WHAT TO BUY: The almighty drone deity known, east to west, sun to moon, as Sunn O))). Though by no means dormant—having dropped splits with both Ulver and Scott Walker last year—the Seattle duo are stirring the full length waters for the first time since 2009’s essential Monoliths & Dimensions, readying their new LP, Kannon (Southern Lord), for some sort of transcendent, and destructive, awakening. Now, trying to put Sunn O))) records into words is not an overly interesting endeavor. This is a band that was created, and continues to exist, solely to throw on the cloaks, flick on the fog machine, and hit the stage with all the slow-moving menace of a car compactor. Words, however, are what we do here, so in the interest of purpose, here’s what you need to know: Kannon is named (and themed) after the Buddhist God of mercy and includes liner notes from critical theorist, Aliza Shvartz. Kannon unfolds in three free-flowing movements, dubbed “Kannon 1”, “Kannon 2”, and “Kannon 3”. Kannon sounds a hell of a lot like Sunn O))), pure and un-fucked-with. If that’s your kind of thing, then this one–which is still streaming over at Stereogum— is definitely your thing.
Next up is Mories, who, following a recent Gnaw Their Tongues full length and split, keeps his prolific 2016 rolling with Manifeststion (Crucial Blast), a new LP from his solo black metal project, Cloak of Altering. While a decidedly more straightforward (and lo-fi) slab of black metal than you might be used to getting from the charred Dutch industrialist, Manifestation still offers more than enough electronic gore to keep the devout power electronix nerds fully wired, so make sure to check it out. If you’re not, there’s plenty here to keep you plugged in as well…as long as that the sound of circuit boards being torn out like entrails doesn’t make you squeamish, that is.
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If you’re looking for something that sounds a little less like a robot holocaust for the celebratory season ahead, then depressive sludge upstarts Un and their new LP, The Tomb of All Things (Black Bow Records), have all the holiday woe you need. Samothrace bassist Monty McCleery fronts this one, which should give you a pretty good sense of the kind of Valium-popping despair lurking within, but carve out some “you” time and give it a listen anyway. Once you’re done there, check out SUN (Prophecy Productions), the latest output from German dark metallers, Secrets of the Moon. This kind of “spooky” occult stuff is often neither here nor there, but in terms of execution, SUN is about the best you can do…and around these parts, that counts for something.
After all that doom and gloom, chances are you might need a bit of a pick me up, and NWOBHM-tinged, Gothenburg rawkers, Night Viper, and their self-titled debut (Svart), have exactly that on tap. Though just over a year old, this five pieces sound like they’re about 30 deep, blowing recent retro releases from the likes Royal Thunder, Christian Mistress, and The Sword well and truly out of the water. I strongly suggest you check them out, at the very least to whet your appetite for Jess and the Ancient Ones, who bookend their slot on last year’s King Diamond tour with a new LP, Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes (Svart), today.
Finally, we wrap things up with two releases of the death varietal, beginning with VoidCeremony‘s latest (and obscenely technical) offering of pain, Cyclical Descent of Casuality (Blood Harvest) and ending with The Dysentery Penance (Vic), a new collection of old material from Dutch genre pioneers, Pestilence. Turn that shit up and get in the pit.
WHAT TO SEE: Launch into the heart of the holiday show season tonight starting with Corrsion of Conformity at Gramercy Theatre and wrapping with insane sets from Deicide at Revolution Bar & Music Hall, Madball at The Grand Victory, and All Pigs Must Die/White Widows Pact at The Acheron. Saturday is no different, with Judas Priestess at Blackthorn 51 and Eternal Black/Wizard Eye at Lucky 13 Saloon leading the way, while Sunday welcomes Cognitive and Divergence to the aforementioned hangar, Secrets She Kept to said Saloon, and Life of Agony to the rarely heard from (these days at least) Starland Ballroom.
Monday kicks off the working week with TesseracT and The Contortionist at Irving Plaza and some quality noise courtesy of Consumer Electronics and Yellow Tears at Saint Vitus. If proggy space shred and the sound of an android killing itself over and over again for three hours aren’t really your thing, then perhaps Tuesday has what your looking for in Mongolian folk metal outfit Tengger Cavalry, who hit Saint Vitus alongside Winter’s Wake and Thera Roya on the day that was born without feel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C98rLUe50n8
After that, Wednesday gets you over the proverbial hump with shows from hair metal B-team, L.A. Guns, at Blackthorn 51, Sekhmet at The Acheron, and Ghost Ship Octavius (featuring former members of God Forbid and Nevermore) at the Studio at Webster Hall before Thursday brings the week to an uncharacteristically quiet close, going more or less radio silent for the evening. Strange? To be sure. But don’t worry, next weekend looks crazy enough to make up for it.
WHAT THE FUCK: Don’t know why this surfaced this week, but fuck it: Ladies and gentlemen, please meet Hevisaurus, a Dino-themed, kids-only metal band out of Finland that, on the back of a new Sony contract and full-length film, looks poised to become the next Baby Metal. Good luck and good night.