Albums of 7/19/24

The most interesting releases of the week!

Die For Us is an independently released record from freaky Australian death metal band Werewolves. Despite the band being formed in 2019, this is their fifth full-length LP, as apparently being prolific was the founding force of this project. Musically, this album is a lot. The songwriting is direct and simple, but it’s played with such ridiculousness and ferocity that I’m thankful for the paint-by-numbers approach to songwriting because I don’t know that I’d be able to handle much more.

Werewolves start this release with a soft, spoken-word passage, and it’s all downhill from there. Less than ten second in, the blast beats and screams start, and they just don’t let up. Rather than worry about concepts such as subtlety or introspection, Werewolves have chosen to take their excellent riffs and back them up with as much intensity crammed into every beat as they can. When they want to ramp things up, the blast beats simply go faster and the vocalist simply lets his howls linger longer. This wouldn’t normally be my jam, but something about Werewolves‘ unapologetic and powerful approach to songwriting drew me in.

III is, unsurpisingly, the third full-length release from black metal band Uprising. This is a one-man band from Germany, released on AOP Records featuring Austin Lunn as a guest drummer. Uprising‘s black metal style is sort of atmospheric, sort of melodic, but it departs from both of those signifiers via the record’s bite. III has an edge, and it uses that edge to great effect.

Nothing on III would work without dazzling riffs, which are thankfully present in abundance. This album has songs that will burrow into your skull. While individual tracks stretch out time and explore their melodies to exhaustion, the album as a whole feels short. Between the fiery performances and memorable melodies, Uprising have made one of the best black metal releases of the year.

For something completely different, Reisa is a short folk EP from Jørn Øyhus’s project Nordein. The EP features acoustic guitars, simple drum patterns, and hypnotizing vocals. The music just washes over you, sounding like drunken tunes sung around a fire place but actually in tune and impressive. Reisa was released on Bergart Productions.

Nordein has created a comfortable, nostalgic EP. This isn’t going to blow you away or make you feel like you’re experiencing the best new hot thing, but it will fill you with the warm and fuzzies if you’re anything like me. Reisa is a calming experience full of nifty vocal harmonizations and it’s one I plan to return to often.

Happy I, Voidhanger day, this time featuring the return of Todesstoss for another weird black metal album. At over an hour, and with multiple songs over ten minutes and one over twenty, Das Liebweh-Dekret is a challenging album. Add in the sparse song-writing and near-spoken-word vocals, and you get something that’s straight up unwelcoming. But it’s worth it.

Todesstoss‘s production stands out as a positive. While Das Liebweh-Dekret sounds frail and barren at times, that seems to be intentional. The guitar tone is fantastic, the bass line is clear and crisp, and every individual bass drum hit gives a punch. This production contributes to the unique sound of the record, but doesn’t fully explain why this one stuck with me. Todesstoss have written something that occupies its own sonic space, and their confidence in taking their time pays off as they really dig into that space. This was worth the seven year wait.