post metal

Record #923: Blanket – Modern Escapism (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Kids today don’t appreciate how good they’ve got it. Back in my day (groans), it would take hours to download a single song, so you would have to carefully weigh what you were interested in hearing so you could make the most of your download time. If you just discovered a new emo band, you would typically spend your precious time downloading other emo bands, only rarely straying beyond that.

Now, thanks to streaming platforms and high speed internet speeds, you can jump from Sunny Day Real Estate to My Bloody Valentine to Slayer to Body Count to 100 Gecs instantly. The floodgates are open.

One of the most interesting byproducts of this unfettered access to the whole of recorded music is the widespread cross-pollination of scenes and genres. I’ve been around long enough to see how shoegaze, metal, and hardcore have interbred to create heavier shoegaze (or gazier metal?).

I listen to a lot of that sort of stuff, so it takes a bit for me to be impressed anymore. And “impressed” is a weak word for my reaction to Blanket, whose second LP Modern Escapism recently grabbed me by the lapels and demanded my attention.

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Record #883: Holy Fawn – Dimensional Bleed (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

It’s hard to tell whether social media and streaming have been a net positive or negative for music in general. On the one hand, anyone with an internet connection and the most basic recording setup can distribute their music onto the internet within minutes. But on the other hand, it’s relegated musicians to the roles of Content Creators, requiring them to keep releasing a constant stream of new music to keep their audience’s attention.

But somehow, Holy Fawn has more or less managed to escape that trap. Their 2018 full-length Death Spells still feels as fresh and hype-worthy as it did when it first exploded across the internet. There were some other releases in their catalog—a 2015 EP that no one really paid attention to (myself until recently), a three-track EP in early 2020, and a couple remixes and covers, but Death Spells has remained the standard bearer for the band—and the entire heavy, moody shoegaze scene since, it seems .

I say all of this to point out that we didn’t need another Holy Fawn record. But damn, am I glad we got it, because Dimensional Bleed is proof that the Arizona quartet can conjure lightning to strike at least twice.

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Record #876: Glassing – Spotted Horse (2019)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

When I first heard Glassing a year or two ago, lauded especially by members of Holy Fawn, I listened to a single song before deciding it was too acerbic and abrasive for my tastes. I’m not sure what compelled me to give them a second chance months later, but the switch flipped instantly. I became obsessed with Twin Dream, playing it over and over until that single disc was no longer enough to satisfy my thirst. I bought the first copy of Light and Death I could find, but failed to find Spotted Horse anywhere.

That is, until last month when I received an email alerting me to a reissue, and the speed at which I ordered it might have set some sort of land speed record. And where I have previously lauded Twin Dream as a singular masterpiece that the earlier records merely reflect dimly, Painted Horse might only be weaker by a degree of decimals.

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Record #868: Bloodmoon – Bloodmoon: I (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Usually, when artists announce a collaboration, you can make a pretty educated guess as to what the end result might sound like. Take for instance Volcano Choir, the union of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and mathy post rockers Collections of Colonies of Bees, who released music that sounds like Bon Iver playing mathy post rock. Or May Our Chambers Are Full by Thou and Emma Ruth Rundle, which found ERR offering her gothic country vocals over Thou’s relentless sludge.

But then you have projects like Bloodmoon, which unites all of Converge with Chelsea Wolfe, her ubiquitous collaborator Ben Chisholm, and Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky. There isn’t much common ground between the chaotic mathcore, gothic doom, and melodic space metal of the three respective projects to predict what it might sound like.

There’s no low-hanging fruit so ripe that it’s practically picking itself off of the vine. Instead, this album is carefully and laboriously worked. It sounds cultivated, not gathered. And, every drop of sweat was worth it.

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Record #863: Mountaineer – Giving Up the Ghost (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

When I was first introduced to Mountaineer through their 2020 record Bloodletting, I was instantly enamored. That record is an inspiring bit of gorgeous sludge metal that transcends the emotional resonance of the genre without stretching beyond the sonic conventions laid down by Isis, Cult of Luna, and others.

So when Giving Up the Ghost was announced, I was equal parts excited and apprehensive. Bloodletting felt so singular that it might be impossible to follow up in a satisfying way. Either they make the same record and it winds up boring or they shift the formula of their careful chemistry and it doesn’t reach the same reaction. I actually waited a few weeks after it was released to listen to it because I was so nervous that it wouldn’t live up.

Since I’m reviewing my personal vinyl copy, you could probably deduce that my worries were unfounded.

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Record #857: Locrian – Return to Annihilation (2013)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

My toxic trait is that I am constantly looking for new music instead of listening to the thousands of albums I already know and love. When I go to the gym, when I walk the dog, when I work around the house, I almost always throw in my earbuds, go to Spotify, and look for something new.

Last week, when I dragged out the mower for the year’s inaugural lawn mowing, I pulled up The Angelic Process’ profile and scanned through the related artists section, and my attention was drawn to Chicago drone metal/doomgaze outfit Locrian and their 2013 album Return to Annihilation. 

Before I had even finished mowing the lawn, I tracked down a copy on Discogs.

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Record #856: Glassing – Light and Death (2017)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Sometimes, a band that hasn’t impressed you releases an album that finally gets your attention. And sometimes, that album ends up working as a key for the rest of their discography.

I have been aware of Glassing longer than I’ve been a fan. It’s probably been two or three years since I first saw the Holy Fawn folks gushing about them on social media, rushed to see what the fuss was about, and quickly filed them in the “not for me” category. A few months ago, Twin Dream made me fall in love with the Austin trio, but my affection has been largely reserved for that album alone.

But I don’t listen on repeat very often, even to albums as monstrously lovely as Twin Dream, so I started to explore their earlier records. And as luck would have it, their third album shifted my perspective enough that the same songs that once seemed too abrasive and acerbic for me to enjoy are now hitting me just as strongly.

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Record #855: A Hope For Home – In Abstraction (2011)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald


On 4/20 this past year, I was working on a joke article for Tuned Up called “Blaze It and Praise It: The Stoner-iest Christian(ish) Albums Ever Released.” While brainstorming in the staff Discord, one of the other writers mentioned that A Hope For Home’s last record was basically just a sludge metal record. I hadn’t heard it, so in the spirit of doing good research, I put it on.

In about ten minutes, I was scouring Discogs for a copy, yadda yadda yadda, and here we are.

In Abstraction isn’t just “basically a sludge metal record.” It’s a rich blend of sludge heaviness, post rock atmosphere, and post-hardcore energy that is still fresh.

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Record #848: Glassing – Twin Dream (2021)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald / 1 Comment

Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine famously adheres to the theory that when a person is subjected to high volume noise for a long enough time, they enter a zen-like state. The harsh tones and oppressive volumes transform into an almost comforting embrace, like being covered in a blanket of snow after an avalanche.

Experimental Austin metallurgists Glassing are masters of this sort of alchemy, manipulating abrasive tones to create songs that are somehow staggeringly gorgeous. While I recoiled at my early, brief brushes with the band, I was encouraged to give Twin Dream a more earnest listen.

It became one of my favorite records.

Read more at ayearofvinyl.com #glassing #postmetal #doomgaze #blackmetal #blackgaze #sludgemetal #vinyl

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Record #845: E-L-R – Vexier (2022)

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

The German word “Vexier” is an odd term. It’s likely derived from the Latin “vexare” which means to plague or irritate, but it’s used in some dialects to describe a puzzle. For instance, “Vexierbild” is the term used for a double image: an innocent illustration that hides a more sinister image (the best example being “All Is Vanity” by C. Allen Gilbert).

With that in mind, it’s a more than apt title for the sophomore release of Swiss doomgazers E-L-R. The band itself is so mysterious that I can’t find any information about the members besides their initials (there are plenty of photos of the band, but they aren’t labeled). It is a deceptive album that has the initial impression of being rather subdued, but closer inspection reveals a far darker album lurking beneath the surface—not unlike a Vexierbild.

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