Had to rush this week's playlist due to total lack of time, and ended up having one of my favorite sets yet. I didn't try too hard this week to find new stuff, though I did end up featuring two brand new tracks. One from the mighty Coroner, whose comeback album is releasing extremely soon. I say mighty Coroner as though I'm a long time fan...is this the moment where I admit this single is the first time I've ever listened to them? For some reason, I thought they were a NWOBHM band all along and avoided them thinking it'd be some third rate Maiden (a band I already don't hold a lot of love for). Hearing the single and finding that it was weird and thrashy and kinda off kilter got me researching into their past and realizing how wrong I was. Whoops

I also featured a track from an album that's becoming another favorite of the year - Brazen Horde - whose stuff sounds like Immortal, Hate Forest and Bathory united and merged all their best attributes. I also dipped back into some favorites from recent years from Revororum ib Malacht, Clandestine Blaze, and Deathspell Omega. Also took some trips down memory lane with early Ensiferum making an appearance. Paid tribute to Jürgen Bartsch from Bethlehem too. RIP.

Setlist:

Gorgoroth
Brazen Horde
I
Summoning
Ensiferum
Mefisto
Bethlehem
Close Shave
Nartvind
maudlin of the Well
Coroner
Deathspell Omega
Intestine Baalism
Revororum ib Malacht
Clandestine Blaze
Horna
Kły

Things have been a bit hellish the past few weeks. Between this radio show prep, and my normal 9-5 which has been extra busy, I'm also part of a film crew for a relatively complicated horror film. Every moment not spent at work or passively choosing music for the coming week's show is spent with production and prop planning, puppetry building, and prosthetic casting/painting. It'll be cool as fuck when it comes out, and I think we're doing some pretty incredible 70s-80s exploitation levels of depravity. Excited for people to watch and be grossed out. In the meantime...stress.

This week, I had to play some recent brutal death and slam favorites in the form of Kill Everything, a band which reps some former members of Devourment, and Putridity- Italian tech-brutallers who took a decade between releases. Both are crazy good and should scratch the itch for any fan of their respective styles.

I also wanted to highlight some of my personal favorite bands which I feel aren't spoken about nearly enough in everyday UG metal. Darvulia, who crafted some of the most dissonant and yet groovy black metal, are almost never raised in the same conversations as bands like Ved Buens Ende or Deathspell Omega. And while it's understandable in the context of Darvulia not being nearly as overtly avant-garde as those bands, there is something about their dissonant but clean sound, their ability to slow things down and play some tilted rock music before diving back into an assault. It's all so novel and unique. A real shame we only got 3 albums from them. I also highlighted some favorites from some other bands which feel are a bit underrated - Antediluvian and their soupy primordial bizareness, and Mithras, whose cosmic death metal is unlike anyone else.

Setlist:

Suffocation
Sigh
Impurity
Helwetti
Pungent Stench
Kill Everything
Putridity
Darvulia
Mithras
Rampant
Squelette
Bolt Thrower
Précipice
Lymphatic Phlegm
Pinnacle
Fields of Agony
Dunwich
Vehement
Antediluvian
Louis De Meester

I signed up for a metal radio show, but my true listening habits tend to reflect maybe only 50-60% metal, the rest being a mix of a bit of everything else. Or, not everything but you know - ambient, experimental, idm, oi!, jazz, prog, art rock, cock rock, butt rock, etc etc. This show doesn't need to be some kind of accurate reflection of my taste, and frankly I find there to be some hubris in expecting that people will want to tune into hear my taste. I'm not Andy Warhol, I don't work for Vogue in the 90s, I'm not a tastemaker.
That said though, there's some kind of theme or greater sensibility I'm trying to tap into. I felt it when I used to shop at Aquarius Records (RIP). Even if there was no explicit cohesion in their selection of music (they had everything from strange low print run black metal, to random world music, to non-music oddball records), it felt like they had created a wavelength for its community to tap into. You didn't always know what you were going to get from them but you knew it would be interesting and catered to niche sensibilities. That's something like what I'd like to achieve here. But for fear of being too fruity about it, I'll stop there.

This week, Tour-de-Garde surprise published the new Runeboy album on their YT channel and it's pretty incredible stuff. Just a rough and sloppy mix of oi!, neofolk, off-key rock, sound collage, and noise. Probably the best thing I've heard this year. I peppered in some outsider black metal in the form of Trörkrvisätänsrökrëh (LLN-esque blown out stuff with goregrind vocals), Gauhaert (one-off folk metal side project from Urfaust), and Nogbold's Palace (completely enveloping and obscure raw gothic black metal). Pásmo from Czechia is a really cool contemporary band merging post-punk Soviet block sounds with heavy metal; their newest is also quickly becoming a favorite this year. Classics from Akercocke, Necromantia, and Deicide rounded things out.

Setlist:

Necromantia
Runeboy
Skuggeheim
Cauterized Torso
Akercocke
Incinerated
Sanitys Dawn
Trörkrvisätänsrökrëh
Gauhaert
Ildjarn-Nidhogg
Noctuary
Nogbold's Palace
English Dogs
Pásmo
Deicide
Sarcastic
Soulreaper
Hecate Enthroned
Death in June
Thoth
Houre
Thomas Ligotti

A week off, perhaps unearned. Gotta keep my metal output quota high for my hordes of loyal listeners. My penance was getting a bit sick with a cold and buying way more music than I should have in my time in Colorado. Wax Trax and Chain Reaction were two extremely solid record stores in the Denver area. The former had a small but extremely respectable metal cd selection; picked up a metal-years English Dogs comp, a sealed 90s copy of Hecate Enthroned's second album, and a FAKE Jim Jones LP (fake as in not Jonestown, but real as in - the one in the Kenny vs Spenny episode). Chain Reaction had some great stuff too, being solely dedicated to metal and punk. Snagged cool Pungent Stench and Bethlehem shirt boots and some first issue Swans and DiJ cds.

On this week's show, I featured some French strangeness in the form of some classic LLN - a 1996 demo track from Belketre, and some brand new outsider stuff from Nuit Noire. Finland's stalwart Sargeist has an extremely solid new album, so played the finale off that one. Grenadier's epic stylings continue in their new single. I also continue to be surprised by the new online label - Part Ways with Self - which is putting out some real inspired and avant black metal; featured a new one from their label in the form of Keşf. Balancing out all the 2020s bands was some warm crackly Bathory vinyl to keep us all grounded and warmed by the Eternal Fire.

Setlist:

Belketre
Phobophilic
Nuit Noire
Weapon
Grenadier
Brutality Reigns Supreme
Purulent Remains
White Medal
Themgoroth
Tetragrammacide
Crucifier
Big Knife
Sissy Spacek
Keşf
Bathory
Eerified Catacomb
Fabricant
Ion Faith
Nacior Udun
Sargeist
Exorcist

As I start to do this show more, I'm hoping to achieve some kind of stasis in terms of how I pick the music and what makes for a good listen. I'm currently throwing it all into a blender and seeing what works; though I won't deny that I'm trying to still pace everything in some kind of emotionally satisfying way. But hey, you tell me - are abusive porn sound bites smashed against goofy death-jazz satisfying to you?

This week, I ranted about lack of legibility in cd booklets and moshing in Demoncy shows. And I played some music in between. In terms of new releases, I played some fresh hell from confrontational French noise/PEers M.I.A., some English noisy Bone-Awl black metal from ASKE's Ætgar, and some post-punk influenced death metal from Floating.

Older favorites from Bulgaria's short lived militant and folkloric Полуврак (Poluvrak), Greek old school style Cemetery Lights, and gory Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis. Like I said, it all makes sense in my head.

Setlist:

Acheron
Floating
Carnage
Unlord
Demoncy
Howls Of Ebb
Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis
Ferocity
Kiira
Полуврак (Poluvrak)
The Berzerker
In Flames
Lymphatic Phlegm
M.I.A.
Mayhem
Ætgar
Grav
Cemetery Lights
Hakenkreuz Nocturna
Raate

Hey look at that, third time's a charm. Finally got a show off the ground with minimal tech issues. Next week I'll get some background music for my voice breaks so you don't have to hear the wretched screams of San Francisco drunks and the creep of awful local live bands as backdrop.

This week I featured some tracks off my favorite albums so far this year. Probably my favorite up and coming band is Gerzolth out of Russia. Their stuff is reminiscent of that late 90s Russian and maybe a bit of the Polish sound. All those atmospheric and stoically pagan bands coming out around that time; these guys are young but have clearly taken influence where it matters while still developing a unique sound.

bez|kres out of Poland is another highlight, being the (likely) reincarnation of Kły after 4 years of dormancy. Now leaning fully into the post punk sound they had flirted with initially, bez|kres has them at their most minimalist but still knowing when to burst out into some triumphant riff or vocal switch up. When I think of where black metal is 'going', bands like them give me hope.

Some other recent favorites include Rites of Tara out of Canada, who play some very deliberately paced and riff-centric folk metal, Sepulkhral Baptism playing extremely solid war metal, and Dominion - an OSDM throwback that doesn't suck.

Did some throwbacks to some cool 90s goregrind and some one-off favorites of late 90s / mid 2000s black metal. Take a look, take a listen.

Setlist:

Dominion
Gerzolth
Rites of Tara
Cryptopsy
Ancient Rites
Radigost
Sepulkhral Baptism
MGLA
Cedamus
Hirpus
Drive Like Jehu
Squash Bowels
Catasexual Urge Motivation
Odium
Diabolical Masquerade
bez|kres
Simple Existenz
Baptism
Swans

First real show and started 45 minutes late because of the dreaded RED BUTTON I didn't click. I am cursed.

Through the Moonless Night will be a mix of new and old, and span most kinds of extreme metal. Gun to my head, I tend to prefer bands with aura, mystique, singular stories and lore. Sloppy degenerative shit slammed against the high-minded and the stoic.

Might be sloppy on my end too - don't judge me too hard for playing Caveman Cult at the wrong RPM

Setlist:

Deathspell Omega
Triumph, Genus
Bound and Gagged
Caveman Cult
Pathologist
Зэды
Warloghe
Lekamen Illusionen Kallet (LIK)
Springhead
Profanatica
Cock and Ball Torture
Last Days of Humanity
Brodequin
Cirrhus
Rämealttari
Condottiere
S.V.E.S.T.