This week's New Spins contains some black metal, some hardcore and some sludge. It isn't all brand new, but it's all fucking great music...
Ancient Emblem - Funeral Pyre
Released a little over a year ago, I'm kind of annoyed that it's taken me this long to discover Germany's Ancient Emblem. As a band who espouse anti-authoritarian views, their brand of black metal has a ferocious passion to it that is palpable in both the music and the lyrics. Throughout this album the riffs have a raw black metal quality, but are played with a crust-punk energy and vitality to them. They can also do the slower atmospheric stuff as well at times, but Ancient Emblem are at their best when they're going full speed into their black metal fury. Lyrically it's pretty wonderful too, some naturalistic themes akin to WITTR but with an added sense of rebellion, using the environmental depictions as a metaphor for their social views. The band have several releases in their back catalogue beyond Funeral Pyre, and I'll be delving further into this band's discography for sure.
https://ancientemblem.bandcamp.com/album/funeral-pyre
Gag - Still Laughing
The last gig I went to before lockdown hit us in the UK was Turnstile in London. Not only were they were as awesome as expected, but they brought along Gag as their main support. I'd not been especially aware of Gag, I'd heard their name in conversations a few years ago, but I quickly became very aware of them because at that gig they utterly blew me away. Their energy, their sound and their vibe was so exciting it was truly unforgettable. Sound-wise they sit somewhere between Ceremony and Trash Talk, and that brilliant live energy comes across fully on their latest record Still Laughing. Released back at the end of August on Iron Lung, I was hooked on this album back then but in the last week or two, after going on a random Negative Approach binge for a few days, Still Laughing jumped back on my playlist and I've been spinning it almost incessantly.
https://ironlungpv.bandcamp.com/album/still-laughing-lp-lungs-164
Thou - Various Covers
In anticipation of their upcoming collaboration album with Emma Ruth Rundle, Thou have spent most of 2020 collecting together the heaps of covers they've recorded over the years into various collections. Blessings Of The Highest Order brings all of their Nirvana cover's together, and it's a pretty wide take on many tracks across Nirvana's records. The best covers seem to be the ones where they're able to take the riffs down an octave and give them that definitive Thou touch. Floyd The Barber and Blew work incredibly well in this regard, and Territorial Pissings adds a whole new level of heaviness to one of Nirvana's best tunes. A Primer Of Holy Words has a first half covering some pretty awesome tunes from grunge and hardcore, but of course as many a doom band does, they've also covered a few Black Sabbath songs. The second half of A Primer Of Holy Words is their take on the progenitors of doom, but the best of all their Sabbath covers is undoubtedly their version of Supernaut, released on Sacred Bones' Sabbath tribute album. It takes one of Sabbath's absolute classics to viciously dense heights without losing the fun grooves of the original, and it is utterly brilliant! You can find the two collections on Thou's bandcamp, whilst the Supernaut cover is linked below.
https://thou.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1rstv4TCmQ
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