We’ve got three more Fridays to thank Satan for in 2017, and while less music is coming out, things are certainly still pretty high quality. This week it’s all about depressive black metal, because it’s snowing and the FCC just decided to fuck us all. So what’s there not to be at least a little bummed out about, right? Let’s get to the grimness with Greytomb, Harakiri For The Sky, and We Sell The Dead.
We Sell The Dead – “Echoes Of An Ugly Past”
We Sell The Dead is Spiritual Beggars vocalist Apollo Papathanasio, In Flames guitarist Niclas Engelin, Drömriket guitarist Jonas Slättung, and ex-HIM drummer Gas Lipstick making sweet, sweet doom. The band reminds me a lot of acts such as A Pale Horse Named Death and Pallbearer, which should get pretty much anyone even tangentially into that genre at least a touch curious. Not to mention I think Papathanasio is a criminally underrated vocalist who needs way more attention than he gets.
Heaven Doesn’t Want You And Hell Is Full is out on February 23.
Greytomb – “Antimeta”
Transcending Obscurity is one of those labels that I’ll always check out what they’re releasing based solely on the fact that it’s almost always pretty solid. Greytomb certainly fits that bill with its mournful wails, phantasmagorical guitars and drums, and just a general sense of terrible dread. Which all makes sense because Greytomb is from the bitter, frostbitten lands of Australia, where the sun never shines.
Monumental Microcosm is out on December 19.
Harakiri For The Sky – “You Are The Scars”
Harakiri For The Sky touches on that straightforward almost black n’ roll type of sound that made me love Woods Of Ypres‘s final album Grey Skies & Electric Light so damn much. Now that David Gold is gone from Earth, clearly there’s no more Woods Of Ypres to be had, but Harakiri For The Sky is doing an excellent job of keeping those mid-paced depressive blackened winds howling from the void.
Arson is out on February 16.
