Treeboy

Jesu's newest might be one of their best. Haven't heard too much of them, but I might put this above Conqueror.

It's crunch time for me. I need to catch up on all the stuff that I missed this year, in all genres. There's some metal goodies I need to catch up on, including Cult of Luna's Vertikal II EP, Stone Titan's Scratch 'n' Sniff, Ulcerate's Vermis, and Kayo Dot's Hubardo, among plenty others. Anything I might be missing? (by the way listen to the new Boards of Canada album even though it's not metal okay thanks)

I'm making a foray to listen to every Tumblr-core essential, starting with Being as an Ocean's Dear G-d. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7osFrm_Reik I'm not sure what to expect, especially coming off the heels of my newest album of the week (read: month).

Just got recommended a band called Rolo Tomassi and I'm not sure how I feel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoOzpM-yPUA Extreme, yes, but I'll need to get used to the vocals.

Normally I'd be keeping strictly to Nothing But Black Metal November, but I need to break it because NEW DEATH GRIPS ALBUM I'll get right back on the NBBMN train after this little detour, don't worry.

So my experience with Agalloch thus far has been really gratifying. Starting with Pale Folklore, I really enjoyed the folk elements juxtaposed with Ulver-style melodic black metal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY2VWSk3uFo I was slightly underwhelmed by The Mantle. I thought the clean vocals were a bit lacking in something, but there were a lot of great expansions on the Pale Folklore sound, making it much slower and atmospheric. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dnu_kI3eII Ashes Against the Grain was (for me) what The Mantle was trying to do, but done much better. Upped production values, better songwriting, et cetera. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3McvtNgLGM Soon my experience with this band will conclude with Marrow of the Spirit, and I'm very excited.

War metal incoming. Being a fan of a lot of "untrue" black metal, this was radically different for me. It's still pretty cool though.

Listened to a demo today from one of my favorite bands right now, Deafheaven. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiPO0x2yw-k It's their most overtly black metal release, and has plenty of folk elements too. At this stage in their career, they hadn't done too much in the post-rock department.

NBBMN day 6 saw me give another listen to a newer album: Sannhet's Known Flood. Mostly instrumental, and wholly atmospheric. Pretty quick listen too. Give it a go.

Whoring out a track I just put together. https://soundcloud.com/slowriot-music/untitled-black-metal-track Gonna be putting out an EP in the next few months, so stay tuned. I really like how this turned out, and I hope all of you do too.

This is more my speed. Melancholic French DSBM with some damn good vocals, which is a nice change from those dying cats and chokes on Death - Pierce Me.

This is an album that could be so much better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykMmOx3cnoA Instrumentally, it's exceptional. Vocally, it's absolutely laughable. Time to search elsewhere for some DSBM I can sink my teeth into.

Possibly the best thing I've heard so far this month. Lurker of Chalice, another one-man black metal project by Wrest of Leviathan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad90kEXKSG4 Many say that this one album is better than anything else the guy has ever done, including the entire Leviathan catalog. Also listened to Blut aus Nord's 777 cycle, which blurs the line between black and industrial metal.