Anatomy of Habit

Chicago band Anatomy of Habit play cool kind of post punk with flashes of industrial rock, post metal, noise, and death rock.  Dark, brooding, and loud.  Listen to the excellent new track "Always Arriving" below and pre-order the upcoming "Paired Sentinels" LP here from the band.

Russian Circles

Chicago band Russian Circles are back next month with a new album of post rock / post metal to rattle our eardrums and shake our brains.  Check out "Empath" below and pre-order the "Nine" album here from Sargent House.

Daily Jam - Maritime (Mike Patton Remix)

Another busy day, and it's not over yet, and i'm already exhausted.  Here's Mike Patton's excellent remix of the ISIS track "Maritime" to get me over the hill.  Check it out below, our Daily Jam.

Ingrina

Here's some almost cosmic post-metal from French band Ingrina.  New album "Nåværende Lys" is out now.  Get it here from Medication Time Records and listen to the dark, abyssal "Time" below.

We Lost the Sea

Australian band We Lost the Sea make dark, doom-tinged, instrumental post-metal, the kind of ominous stuff that almost feels like a harbinger of end times.  New album "A Single Flower" is out now.  Get it here and listen to the foreboding album opener "If They Had Hearts" below.

Maruja

I have seen some phenomenal performances over the last couple of days at SXSW, but i think Manchester's Maruja is taking home the gold.  The four-piece plays a mix of post rock, post metal, world music and jazz fusion, sometimes instrumental, sometimes with the angry, kind of rapping vocalization of guitarist Harry Wilkinson.  They were energetic.  They were intense.  They were pro-Palestine.  The band's latest release is the "Tír na nÓg" EP, a collection of instrumental tracks.  Like the band, they are also phenomenal.  Check out "Ceathair" below and order the vinyl here from Music For Nations.

Pothamus

Belgium's doomy, post-metal, post-rock band Pothamus are dropping their new album "Abur" tomorrow.  Droning, ritualistic, world-ending cacophony abounds.  Listen to "Svartuum Avur" below and get the LP here from Pelagic Records.

SUMAC and Moor Mother

Poet and rapper Moor Mother has collaborated with all manner of artist in the past, and on the upcoming new album "The Film," finds herself aligned with post metal supergroup SUMAC.  Expect an intense, noisy, and weird time.  Listen to "Scene 1" below and pre-order the LP here from Thrill Jockey.

AMENRA

Belgian band AMENRA are set to drop two new EP's in March with "De Toorn" and "With Fang and Claw."  "Heden," the first track from the former slowly builds, starting with a barely-there beat that's eventually accompanied by somber post rock guitar notes and a kind of spoken word vocal delivery, until the rest of the band finally joins in at 10 minutes with a grungey, slow churning and cacophonous black metal noise and post metal bombast.  Check it out below and pre-order both records here from Relapse.

Sugar Horse

Bristol band Sugar Horse dropped their new album "The Grand Scheme of Things" yesterday, a lovely mesh of noise, doom, shoegaze, and post metal...along with the band's usual penchant for excellent song titles.  Check out the moody title track below and get the LP here from Pelagic Records.

Hidden Mothers

Maybe it's too early in the morning for this kind of noise, but it's hard to care when the noise rules as much as it does.  Enter Sheffield band Hidden Mothers, whose mix of post-hardcore vocals, black metal guitars, and post-rock aesthetic makes for a both brutal and soaring sonic experience.  New album "Erosion / Avulsion" is out in November on Church Road Records.  Pre-order it here and listen to album opener "Defanged" below.

Daily Jam - Silver

There’s always that one song that serves as your entry point to an entire discography of any particular artist. The inciter. The catalyst. The first. That song can be wonderful and special in its own right, as it is the harbinger of music to come, but every so often it maintains. It keeps you carrying a torch for it. It stays firmly ranked among your favorites, never to be unseated by any other.

Jesu’s “Silver,” the title track from the band’s 2006 EP, is that song for me.

“Silver” was my introduction to Justin K. Broadrick and all of the lowness, the heaviness, and the beauty found in every note of his Jesu project. I have been a completist ever since, but nothing has ever topped those initial six minutes and change. There’s a certain shogaze-meets-heavy metal motif going on, both on the song and in much of Jesu’s other work, along with an almost cosmic feel that lends a sense of majesty and gravitas to the whole affair. “Silver” feels dense and layered, but also sprawling and epic, like you’re soaring high over existence or falling weightless forever.

The last two minutes are glory defined. I’ll never be able to get enough of it.

DDENT

French artist DDENT is back with a new EP of post rock, metal, and noise with this month's "Ex Auditu (Part 2)."  Opening track "La Nuit Transforme" sounds like sonic anguish and awe, and i like it very much.  Listen below and download the whole EP here from Chien Noir.

Telesterion

Here's an ethereal and noisy mix of shoegaze, sludge, and doom from a band called Telesterion.  Post-metal abounds.  Listen to "Arrival/Seekers" below and get the new "Myesis" album here.

Déhà & Marla Van Horn

Here's a pretty stunning mix of neo-classical and metal from Belgium artist Déhà in collaboration with Polish artist Marla Van Horn.  The result is the new "Earth and Her Decay" LP, a majestic album that feels like it should be played in a concert hall somewhere.  Check out the sprawling track "White Blood" below, with its sparse and beautiful and ominous intro that morphs into something heavier.  Then get the album here from Musical Excrements or the vinyl here from Roadburn Records if you're in the USA.

Glassing

The latest from Austin metal band Glassing just dropped on Friday, and it's a doozy.  Elements of doom, black metal, hardcore punk, post rock, post metal, and noise collide for an ear splitting, psyche rupturing good time.  Check out "Burden" below and pick up the "Twin Dream" LP here from Brutal Panda Records.

So Hideous

Listening to "The Emerald Pearl," the latest track from New York band So Hideous, i found myself with no idea where the song was headed.  Opening with Spaghetti Western vibes that then give way to something more proggy before grinding into a mix of emo, hardcore punk, post metal, and more, i was practically transfixed.  Check it out below and pre-order the band's upcoming "None but a Pure Heart Can Sing" record here from Silent Pendulum Records.

Daily Jam (October Edition) - Going to Hell

Little bit of noise, little bit of grindcore, little bit of post metal, and that choirboy intro is just creepy stuff.  Continuing into the Halloween season with "Going to Hell" by Today Is The Day, our Daily Jam.

Converge and Chelsea Wolfe

Converge and Chelsea Wolfe have teamed together for a new album called "Bloodmoon: I," and they've brought along Wolfe collaborator Ben Chisholm and Mutoid Man's Stephen Brodsky for the mayhem.  The sound of abrasive metal paired with haunting, goth-tinged female vocals just works for me in all the right ways (see last year's Thou and Emma Ruth Rundle collab for proof).  Check out the video for "Blood Moon" below and pre-order the album here from Epitaph.  It rules.

Sugar Horse

The first thing that caught my attention about Bristol band Sugar Horse was their cheeky song titles like "Fat Dracula," "Phil Spector in Hell," and "Shouting Judas at Bob Dylan."  The next thing was the sheer ferocity of the actual music, a blistering mix of screamo, hardcore punk, post metal, shoegaze, and avant garde weirdness.  It's intoxicating really.  I meant to sample a song or two and ended up listening to the new "The Live Long After" LP in its entirety.  And it rules.  Check out the aforementioned "Shouting Judas at Bob Dylan" below and get the album here from Small Pond.