Oak - Oak (2009)

Disgusting, dissonant, raw sludge-drone-death from Baltimore. True sounds of despair and malevolence from the B-more underground. Oak started out with two members of my old band Wake Up On Fire --  drummer Kevin (R.I.P) and vocalist Joe -- but I believe Kevin was only in the band for a few months and is not featured on this album.

Track listing:

1. Saline

2. Inside the Circle

3. Owl Eyes

4. Gates Are Open

Dead bodies fill the shore

Piled up for the taking

One face after another

Friends of:

Inure - Inure (Rough Mixes) (2003)

Moonshine - Moonshine (2005)

Asunder - A Clarion Call (2004)

Not to sound like a broken record but: my friend died. No, not that one; a different one. Pat. The person who in middle school introduced me to punk rock as a lifestyle. Who I was lucky enough to call my best friend from my late teens through early 20s, before I got too old and cool to have "best friends." A beautiful, gentle man whose absurd sense of humor and small, sweet gestures made our awful reality just a little bit better.

I wish the world had been better to him.

I feel a deep, wrenching regret that I didn't try to reach out to him for so many years, to make sure that he knew how much he and his friendship meant to me, how deep my love for him was.

We have to say what we mean while we still can.

I am exhausted by grief. I'm tired of feeling it, of witnessing it, and of talking about it. Tired of more and more songs being added to the pile of songs that I can't listen to unless I have an hour to recover. But most of all, I am tired of losing friends. It's an inevitability of life, but for fuck's sake, I'm 42. Why do I know so many dead people?

Pat loved as wide a variety of music as I did. He was the first friend of mine who liked Springsteen -- I didn't get on board until years later, but I do have fond memories of walking around Towson Town Center with him, laughing my ass off as he screamed the lyrics to "Born in the USA". We got into and obsessed over Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails together. Eventually, by way of Dystopia and Grief, we got into doom metal. He fucking loved Asunder. I remember his MySpace page used to autoplay "Twilight Amaranthine". Here's A Clarion Call.

After I found out, I was digging around in crates, looking for my old notebooks, in which he and I used to jot down stupid ideas for joke bands, made up languages, drew unflattering sketches of mutual friends, shit like that. Pretty sure I hadn't looked in them for over a decade. Inside the front cover of one, I found a small, folded piece of paper. On the outside, it says "To Tim, Love from Pat. Happy birthday." Unfolded, the inside just says "I love you." It fucking wrecked me, and it's wrecking me right now just thinking about it. I love you too, Pat.

Left Behind - No One Goes to Heaven (2019)

Punishing, sludgy metalcore. Groove-heavy, Down-inspired riffs as filtered through beatdown chugga-lugs for husky boys. Sounds like half of them wants to smoke blunts, the other half wants to beat up the first half for polluting their body and minds. But make no mistake: No One Goes to Heaven is no joke. It's a fucking killer album, whether you wanna maximize your gains or sit around wondering where it all went wrong.

Track listing:

1. Hell Rains From Above

2. Eternity of Empty

3. Throwing Stones

4. Peeling Wax

5. Shadow of Fear

6. Staring at the Sun

7. God Calls Out

8. Smoke and Pain

9. Outside the Body

10. The Mirror

11. Prisoner of Mind

12. What Makes Your Hurt

Heaven is a place down in the fucking dirt

You should also hear:

Breach - Venom (1999)

Empire of Rats - Empire of Rats (2013)

Griftegård - Solemn • Sacred • Severe (2009)

Swedish epic doom exploring the holy horror of Christian dogma. FFO: Candlemass, Warning, and Mansion. Thanks to everyone for sticking around, and sorry to the many, many people with re-up requests that I haven't gotten to.

Track listing:

1. Charles Taze Russell

2. Punishment & Ordeal

3. I Refuse These Ashes!

4. Noah's Hands

5. The Mire

6. Drunk with Wormwood

Man cannot suffer enough for his sins

Also listen to:

Count Raven - High on Infinity (1993)

Procession - Destroyers of the Faith (2010)

Medusa - En Raga Sül (2008)

Raw sludge/noise metal from Bloomington, IN. A potent mix of punishing locked grooves and dissonant yet weirdly catchy riffs that I'm guessing won over every crowd this band ever played for. Somewhere between early Melvins and early Today Is the Day. Members of Racebannon.

Track listing:

1. Rain un Thunder

2. Mediatrix

3. En Raga Sül

4. Back to Dust

5. Transform

6. Destructor

7. Bruier

8. Throne of God

9. Inflict the Venom

10. Snakebite

11. Soldiers of Death

12. Body Count

13. Alucarda

14. Fresh Fly

15. Wicked Father

My burning mind

Also listen to:

Gorch Fock - Lying and Manipulating (2005)

The Catalyst - Voyager (2012)

Alkerdeel - De Speenzalvinge (2010)

Sludgy black metal/blackened sludge from Belgium. Dry, thudding drums encased in a thick coat of murky guitars shot through with strung-out screams and moans. "Luizig" is almost half an hour long but it really ties the room together so stick around.

Track listing:

1. Verdesteleween

2. De Bollaf!

3. Luizig

In the coffin of eternal life

My floating self

If you like this, listen to:

Vrolok - Resurgence III: Order of the Sphere (2007)

Brulvahnatu - Menstrual Extraction Ceremony (2011)

Burnt Skull - Sewer Birth (2014)

Nasty noise-sludge coated in industrial waste. Detuned caveman riffs, pummeling drums, black metal howls, and dark, distorted ambience.

Track listing:

1. Harm

2. No Eyes

3. Chain Mask

4. God Hole

5. Lords Prayer Underwater

6. Sewer Birth

7. Abduction (Lost Underground)

8. No Cross

9. Infinite Flesh

10. House of Suffering

Now I know there's something down there

You should also listen to:

Pain Teens - Pain Teens (1988)

HALO - Subliminal Transmissions (1998)

Ophthalamia - A Journey in Darkness (1994)

Related:

Abruptum - Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectère Me (1993)

Abruptum - Vi Sonus Veris Nigrae Malitiaes (1997)

Swedish melodic blackened doom featuring the guitar stylings of the late, great It. Riffs right out of the Sabbath/Candlemass playbook, raspy black metal vocals, and some goth-y keyboards here and there for atmosphere. Get it, you fools!

Track listing:

1. A Cry from the Halls of Blood / Empire of Lost Dreams

2. Enter the Darkest Thoughts of the Chosen / Agony's Silent Paradise

3. Journey in Darkness / Entering the Forest

4. Shores of Kaa-Tu-Nu / The Eternal Walk, Part II

5. A Lonely Soul / Hymn to a Dream

6. Little Child of Light / Degradation of Holyness

7. Castle of No Repair / Lies from a Blackened Heart

8. This Is the Pain Called Sorrow / To the Memory of Me

9. I Summon Thee, Oh Father / Death Embrace Me

My blackened teeth chew at the air we breathe

If you like this, check out:

Shadowseeds - Dream of Lilith (1995)

Necromass - Abyss Calls Life (1996)

Aelter - Dusk-Dawn (2009)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Aelter - Aelter II: Follow You Beloved (2011)

Aelter - Aelter III (2011)

Under normal circumstances, I maybe wouldn't post yet another Aelter album, but I'm currently feeling like shit due to getting my COVID booster, and this dark, droning, sickly sound is exactly what I need right now, and it actually works perfectly for Halloween season, so that's what you're getting. Hey I just remembered the time that I had swine flu, which was one of the most wretched fevers I've ever had, and I apparently fully blacked out while listening to ØØ Void in bed, as I came to standing on the stairs with my wife tapping me on the arm.

Track listing:

1. Dusk

2. Dawn

To rest but never sleep

To sleep but never dream

You'd also like:

Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday (2008)

Blood Fountains - Floods (2009)

Wormwood - Starvation (2006)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Wormwood - Requiescat (2000)

Someone just requested that I re-up the link for Requiescat, and it made me want to revisit Wormwood's swan-song: Starvation. Here, they went more atmospheric, leaning into an epic, gothic horror-fueled sound that harkens both to Souls at Zero-era Neurosis and early death/doom bands like Paradise Lost and Anathema, while keeping that crusty base. The last time my old band Wake Up On Fire played with them, we had partied afterwards, and I woke up surrounded by my passed-out bandmates in their percussionist/vocalist's living room, where he had set up a digital scrolling marquee making fun of our guitarist for puking. RIP this band.

Track listing:

1. Passages of Lesser Light

2. Release from Expectation

3. Finite

4. As You Bind, So Are You Bound

5. The Towering Outdoors

6. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

7. No True Altruism

8. Starvation

9. Gluttony

A bridge between sun and form

More from Seattle:

Teen Cthulhu - Ride the Blade (2003)

Wilt - Wilt (2017)

Maestus - Voir dire (2015)

Atmospheric funeral doom from sunny Portland, OR. At the start, a mix of ethereal female vocals, drifting keys, and death growls immediately brought to mind Shape of Despair circa Angels of Distress. Then the more sinister, death-doom-influenced riffs hit, followed by some quasi-operatic male vocals and blackened tremolo picking, and it became apparent that Maestus has forged their own depressive path through the misty Cascadian mountains. Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:

1. Shrouded by Peaks, Valleys Speak

2. Weeping Granite

3. Tears of Sky

4. Algid Lungs

5. I: Overcast Fields Ridden with Dew

6. II: Specie Æternitas

7. III: Water Sifting Though Iceladen Veins

8. IV: Per Æternitas 

Lightless hope recedes

Also listen to:

Darkflight - Perfectly Calm (2008)

The Austrasian Goat - Stains of Resignation (2010)

Atavist - Atavist (2006)

Crushing English drone-doom/sludge/post-metal. Strikes a great balance between the raw, abject misery of sludge and the melodic aspects of post-metal, including a few surprisingly effective major-key sections, like the one towards the end of "31:38" that's very reminiscent of the big payoff riff in Boris' Flood. Yes, those track titles are also the track lengths, so get comfy.

Track listing:

1. 31:38

2. 20:11

3. 14:12

"I live in the weak and wounded, Doc."

Also listen to:

Buried at Sea - Migration (2003)

Abandon - The Dead End (2009)

Darkflight - Perfectly Calm (2008)

Atmospheric symphonic funeral doom with a lightly blackened finish. Drifting strings, majestically mournful leads, reverb-drenched drums, the occasional dramatic brass melody, and hoarse, rasping vocals.

Track listing:

1. Indifferent

2. Dissolving into Nothingness

3. Distant Pain

4. Perfectly Calm

5. Yet Here I Stand

6. Better Than Real

7. Regard d'outre monde

8. L'ether astral

Dissolving into eternity

You should also hear:

Forest of Shadows - Where Dreams Turn to Dust (2000)

Remembrance - Fall, Obsidian Night (2010)

Morgion - Cloaked by Ages, Crowned in Earth (2004)

At the beginning of the pandemic, I set aside maybe 300 records to sell, figuring it'd be a soothing house project that could end up netting me a few thousand dollars. They've been sitting in my office for almost two years now, and tomorrow I'm finally gonna take a crate down to the ol' punk/metal record store and see what's what. So I've been sorting out some of the more desirable but not particularly valuable ones -- those I'll probably sell on Discogs -- and came across this LP.

Now, I hadn't listened to this album on any format for maybe a decade, and that alone was why it got set aside, but something compelled me to give it one last spin while I folded some laundry, and fuck that, this one stays. Epic, melodic death/doom with a slightly crusty, earthy feel, a spacious, clean-guitar-heavy atmosphere, and beautiful, meditative vocals, all put together as one continuous piece. Goddamn, what other phenomenal LPs am I about to sell?

Track listing:

1. Cloaked by Ages

2. A Slow Succumbing

3. Ebb Tide

4. Trillium Rune

5. The Mourner's Oak

6. Cairn

7. She the Master Covets

8. Crowned in Earth

They are the sentient circle

The meeting point to the end

If you like this, try:

Abandon - The Dead End (2009)

Akelei - De Zwaarte van het Doorstane (2010)

Funeral Moth - Dense Fog (2014)

Japanese funeral doom. Minimal, miserable, and extremely down-tuned, with stark, completely unadorned production. Three songs topping 20 minutes -- one of which is pushing half an hour -- plus an interlude.

Track listing:

1. 盲目 - Blindness

2. Behind the Closed Door

3. 濃霧 - Dense Fog

4. 自害 - Kill Yourself

Nothing at all

More like this:

Mournful Congregation - The Dawning of Mournful Hymns (2002)

Abandon - The Dead End (2009)

David Galas - The Happiest Days of My Life (2009)

Related:

Lycia - The Burning Circle and Then Dust (1995)

David Galas - The Cataclysm (2006)

By request, here's more from David Galas; specifically, his second and possibly best record, The Happiest Days of My Life. He leans hard into the doom influences that colored his first record, then midway through, acoustic guitar becomes central, and the underlying mid-era Swans influences come to the fore.

Track listing:

1. 1970

2. Glory

3. Last Days of the War / Sect IV

4. Arizona

5. Dead Days / Sect V

6. The Happiest Days of My Life

7. Monsoons Over South Mountain

8. The Significance of Failure

9. Crossroads

10. When the Thread Breaks

11. The Happiest Days of My Life 2 / Sect VI

12. The Happiest Days of My Life 3 / Sect VII

13. Everyone Eventually Dies

I told the men that came to hang me

I am the one that they should kill

Fans would also like:

Skin - Shame, Humility, Revenge (1988)

Diabolique - Wedding the Grotesque (1994)

The Wizar'd - Infernal Wizardry (2008)

Australian occult stoner doom. Unpolished, Satan-worshipping riff-worship, with some dusty organs and surprisingly beautiful harmonized guitars. I feel like I'm cleaning house around here because I keep on posting shit that I've been meaning to post for years.

Track listing:

1. Horned Lord

2. Witchwither

3. Infernal Wizardry

4. Depressive Holiday

5. Crushing Gothic Slime

6. Gloomwing

7. Plague Ship of Doom

8. The Megalomaniac

We are gathered here tonight to worship Satan, the ruler of hell.

More like this:

Raven Black Night - Choose the Dark (2004)

Mephistofeles - ( ( ( I ' M H E R O I N ) ) ) (2017)

Lake of Tears - Forever Autumn (1999)

Melodic, rock-leaning gothic metal from Swedish institution Lake of Tears. Forever Autumn still has one foot planted in the band's epic doom origins, but it's swept up in a more accessible whirl of ethereal keyboards, neofolk-y acoustic guitars, harmonizing violins, and mid-paced autumnal melancholy. Honestly, it's really melodramatic, and the slightly yarl-y, crooning vocals are a bit reminiscent of James Hetfield, which effectively put me off this record initially, but after a few listens I got really into it, and now it's one of my absolute favorite gothic metal records. (Also, get the new album, it's really good.)

Track listing:

1. So Fell Autumn Rain

2. Hold On Tight

3. Forever Autumn

4. Pagan Wish

5. Otherwheres

6. The Homecoming

7. Come Night I Reign

8. Demon You / Lily Anne

9. To Blossom Blue

The only way goes down

If you like this, try:

Diabolique - Wedding the Grotesque (1997)

Funeral - From These Wounds (2006)

Akelei - De Zwaarte van het Doorstane (2010)

Dutch atmospheric doom. Melodic and epic, with downcast, reverb-heavy clean vocals, chiming slow-builds, and beautifully layered sound lifted right out of the post-rock playbook. I always get sad this time of year, as I feel the last bits of summer slipping between my fingers, and this time around it's compounded by some severe homesickness, so don't be surprised if this turns into a sad bastard blog for a bit. Wait, is this already a sad bastard blog?

Track listing:

1. Verlangen

2. Meer dan je ziet

3. De zwaarte

4. Een droom in 6/8

5. Duett

Left staring into bottomless perdition

Similar listening:

Forest of Shadows - Where Dreams Turn to Dust (2000)

Lethian Dreams - Season of Raven Words (2012)

The Gates of Slumber - ...the Awakening (2004)

First full-length by this US doom power trio. Thick guitar tones, gruff singing, and droning, sludgy songs with the kind of dual guitar solos that tend, at least for me, to conjure images of classic Sabbath. But make no mistake: this is Saint Vitus worship, straight up. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Track listing:

1. Resurrection from the Underworld

2. The Awakening (Interpolating the Wrath of the Undead)

3. The Judge

4. The Jury

5. Broken on the Wheel

6. The Executioner

7. Blessed Pathway to the Celestial Kingdom

8. The Burial

9. The Cloaked Figure [bonus]

Take his head

He will know the law

You should also hear:

Count Raven - High on Infinity (1993)

Forsaken - Evermore (1997)