New year, same monthly playlist post… New drummer. As usual, we’ve all picked 5 tracks – including our new drummer, whose identity is yet to be revealed. Guesses on a postcard please.

Nick – Guitar

Under – Traitor’s Gate

You can file this one under ‘simple riffs that slap so hard that you really wish you’d written’. There is also plenty of the sort of off kilter affair you’d expect from Under. Looking forward to whatever weird-as-shit metal they release next.

Max Cooper – Perpetual Motion

I have Richard to thank for this one. Only started listening to Max on his recommendation but I’m glad I did. Minimalist techno that is nonetheless vividly illustrative and euphoric. To draw his music would be to draw a massively intricate landscape.

Michelle Branch – Everywhere

Classic early 2000s pop-rock anthem. Unfortunately Michelle is no longer a household name it seems but The Spirit Room nonetheless is still an absolutely stellar album. They don’t write pop songs like this anymore.

Frigoris – Aurora Stirbt

A potential early contender for album of the year. Beautiful German post-black metal with an anti-NSBM stance. What is there not to love?

Allie X – Science

I’m picking the stripped back ‘analog’ version she released last year purely for the ridiculous pitch her voice reaches towards the end. Regardless listen to the original too. The phattest sounding dark synth pop with astounding production.

Tom – Guitar

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Sleep

And we used to sleep on the beach here, sleep overnight.
They don’t do that anymore.
Things changed…
You see
They don’t sleep anymore on the beach

Jesu – Christmas

Waves of electronics and guitars crash over eachother in ways that are instantly recognisable as Broaderick’s work. A twisted combination of industrial and shoegaze.

65daysofstatic – Safe Passage

The synth swells and blooms are glorious. Emotive and uplifting that always makes the hairs standup on my arms.

Nails – You Will Never Be One of Us

Just absolute savagery commited to tape. A gloriously nihilistic way to open an album and a statement of intent.

Neurosis – Stones From the Sky

Bleak, hypnotic, no frills simplicity. Neurosis at their absolute crushing best.

Joe – Vocals

Les Discrets – Le Mouvement Perpetuel

Pleasant yet haunting post black metal from Alcest’s bezzie mates. Actually quite soothing.

Fen – The Gibbet Elms

One if the UK’s finest atmospheric black metal bands. Oozes malevolence.

Drakonis – Let Us Pray

Northern Irish black metallers who have a full length album on the way. Traditional and catchy.

Monstrosity – Remnants of Divination

Best known for being the training ground for musicians to join bigger death metal bands. But this track is a tech-death banger.

Slipknot – Eyeless

Classic track that was a highlight when I recently saw them live for the fourth time. YOU CAN’T SEE CALIFORNIA WITHOUT MARLON BRANDOS EYES!!!

Richard – Bass

Ashbringer – Solace

This album, Yūgen, made a bit of an underground splash when it came out a few years ago. Brilliant atmospheric black metal, with some powerful harmonies and masterful acoustic passages. It’s a bit like Wolves in the Throne Room meets Mike Oldfield.

Jesu – Silver

As is often the case, I’m very slowly filling gaps in my knowledge with artists I definitely should be more familiar with… After just one listen, the title track on this EP has shot up to amongst my very favourite Jesu tracks. Heartwrenching, reverberating, heavy and so distinctive.

Steve Hauschildt – The World is Too Much with Us

I recently came across this Berlin-School-influenced electronic artist via a BandCamp reccomendation email, and then found out he’s playing in Sheffield next month – double winner. His work is like a blend of simplistic synth-based soundscapes with Jon Hopkins-like hooks and sound, and this one is just great and textured ambience.

E-L-R – Above the Mountains There is Light

Though they didn’t make it into my albums of 2019 list, seeing them live in December with Hundred Year Old Man (twice, including playing with them once) has kept E-L-R in my mind. This track – featuring Colin from Amenra – is the pinnacle of the album for me, reaching some brilliant, chordy heights.

Thy Catafalque – Vashegyek

This is a band I’m really only just properly investing time into, having had them on my radar for a long time. There’s some truly nasty, deathly sludge riffs on display here, alongside influence from Hungarian folk and electronica, and you could also argue there’s some of the SOAD brand of melody in there too. Can’t wait to get stuck into more of their albums.

??? – Drums

Twilight Force – Hydra

Soooo, I like cheesy power metal and have a big ole soft spot for orchestral elements in metal. This is an absolute belter off Twilight Force’s latest album, which is sure to lighten up any day!

Fleshgod Apocalypse – Monnalisa

Following on the orchestral theme, Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Monnalisa comes in from the heavier end still with a fantastic combination of musicality, epicness, and looming ominous tones.

Arch Echo – MukDuk

This instrumental prog/mathsy band bring the grooooooovvvveeeeeee to extreme proportions. Great fun talented band with amazing energy.

Devin Townsend – Borderlands

It’s Devin… Need I say more? I see this as a brilliant example of all the stuff that makes Devin Devin. It’s got heavy, silliness, proggy stuff, a crying child… IT’S GOOD.

VOLA – Whaler

VOLA were my most recent love at first sight band, and this song off their latest album is a beautiful comination of heavy and with the beautiful loveliness which makes VOLA one of my favourite bands.