Gas Rag - Human Rights EP

I found this band last night completely by accident and I can't stop listening to them. There's been a void in my life that needs blistering raw noise punk to fill it, and right now, Gas Rag is doing a great job filling that spot. Everything is ridiculously distorted and fast, with vocals that immediately bring Sakevi from GISM to mind. This is a short album, but if it doesn't make you want to get drunk and break shit, then I don't know what will so stop reading this.

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Desert Beneath the Pavement - Transit

Desert Beneath the Pavement is a post-punk/hardcore band from Germany that started up within the past few years. The album, "Transit" is their debut album, and I was completely taken back at how fucking good it was. The album starts out with some slow single guitar parts, and eventually evolves into a full dark and heavy sound. The whole album is absolutely beautiful from start to finish, with slower softer parts flowing flawlessly into the heavier beast of the music. Singing ranges from slow singing to faster yelling, but mostly the latter. This band definitely gets a lot of influence from Fall of Efrafa, but they manage to create something unique and their own. With "Transit", they've set the bar high for themselves, and hopefully they can continue to surpass it. Best songs are "For Futility" and "On the Truck Bed". This is definitely one of my top albums from 2012.

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Of the Wand and the Moon - The Lone Descent

Of the Wand and the Moon is a neofolk project from Denmark that rose from the ashes of Saturnus. For those of you who don't know what neofolk is, imagine folk, but with darker overtones and usually deeper singing. They've been playing since around 1999 and continue to produce more material. The album is mostly acoustic, with some synth parts and some really sick orchestral parts as well. The singing is eerie and lower in pitch, and the lyrics are about love, darkness, and paganism. The best songs are "Pyre of Black Sunflowers" and "Immer Vorwärts". "Pyre" in particular has an amazing orchestral part at the end. It was really difficult for me to pick out two tracks, because the entire album is absolutely beautiful. Definitely give it a listen.

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Alement - Alestorm

Shameless self promotion time. This is my band's first demo. Give it a listen.

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Windhand - S/T

Windhand is a relatively new doom metal band from Richmond, Virginia. I've only just recently discovered them, but they have immediately caught my attention. This self-title is their first official release, and it is truly something to behold. The general pace is slow and it grinds and chunks along with a beautiful liquid motion. Guitars are heavy and distorted, the bass is fuzzy and grindy, and the vocals smoothly and eerily flow over top of it all. There is some really cool experimental effects and aspects thrown in on top of it too. Windhand creates a feel like very few albums can, and it's real easy to lose yourself while listening to it. Standout songs are "Libusen" and "Summon the Moon". I'm really looking forward to seeing how this band evolves.

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Whirl - Distressor

This is one I've been meaning to do for a while. Whirl is a shoegaze band from San Francisco that started up around 2010. This album is their first full release and is amazing. Whirl has a wall of sound approach by using heavily distorted guitars and lots of echo and reverb. The female lead singing is eerie and flowing, acting more as an instrument than a medium for lyrics. As much as I hate to use the word, the album is very spacey, and I tended to lose myself in it quite often. The album is a beautiful piece of work and everyone should check these guys out. All the songs are awesome in their own ways, but the standout ones to me are "Leave" and the slower paced "Ghost" and "Sandy". On a side note, "Whirl" has changed their name to "Whirr" do to copyright issues.

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Burzum - Filosofem

Burzum is a Norwegian black metal project by Varg Virkernes that started in 1991. Burzum, along with Darkthrone, are perhaps some of the most influential bands in the Norwegian black metal scene. There is a lot of controversy with Varg Virkernes, which you can read about here, because it's a very long ordeal. Filosofem was Burzum's last album before he made before he went to jail in 1993, however, the album was released in1996. The album is black metal with a lot of experimentation with minimalism, repetition and ambiance. It was intentionally recorded as poorly as possible, with the guitars being played out of a stereo instead of an amp and the vocals being recorded through headphones. The guitars are fuzzy and distorted and the growling vocals are raw and noisy. Everything about this album is near perfection. The shortest song on the album is around seven minutes long, but I didn't once catch myself wanting to skip to the next song. Best songs are "Dunkelheit" and "Jesus' Tod", but every song on the album is great. If you've never heard of Burzum, you need to give this a listen. Plus "Burzum" means "Darkness" in the black language of Sauron, and that's fucking awesome. As a note, this is the German version of the album, there is no difference except the song names.

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