February was another doozy of a month full of terrifying realities everywhere I looked. A lot of the music I reached for this past month was heavy and angry, but there are definitely moments of joy, beauty and hope that break through. The photo above has the top 25 albums I listened to, and below you’ll find links to a mixtape I put together as well as some thoughts on a few (relatively) new albums that really stuck with me.
New Music
There were a lot of great new releases that came out in the last month or so, but there are a few that really stood out for me.
”Necropalace” by Worm
I don’t even know what to say about this album. Virtuosic black metal with a ton of other influence spanning doom, death, thrash and classic heavy metal. The guitar riffs and solos are freaking insane. If nerds who shred cosplaying as 1980s vampires and making some of the best metal of this decade sounds RAD AF, then turn this album on immediately. I have listened to it SOOOOOO MANY TIMES this month and I seriously CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF IT. Worm forever! Castlevania but make it even more metal.
HT to Bluesky user @lascaillesshroud.bsky.social who originally shared this image in a post on bluesky.
”Overspace & Supertime” by Cryptic Shift
I’ve been looking forward to new music from Cryptic Shift for a while now, so when I heard that they had a new album coming out I got really excited and my hopes were almost so high there was no way I was going to be anything but disappointed. ALMOST is doing some heavy lifting because this album absolutely BLEW my expectations out of the water. It takes the “Astro Death” of Moonbelt Immolator and ramps it up significantly, pulling heavily from thrash, prog, tech death and even jazz at points. It’s spacey. It goes hard. It’s unrelenting. It brings heavy doses of space themed scifi madness. Buckle up and hit play. Do it now!
”The One Who Propels” by Gavran
This Post Metal band from the Netherlands was brand new to me with this album. Doomy, sludgy, atmospheric metal with a good bit of post-rock and shoegaze influence. This is very much my shit. Commenting on the album and band I saw a blurb from the Guitarist / Vocalist that said:
Gavran is our vessel to look life and death straight in the eye. It allows us to observe our shared consciousness and embrace despair, doubt, desire, grief, pain, and anger with absolute attention and without distraction. Join us in this visceral journey toward the timeless space of inner silence.
Soundtracking my abyss gazing for a good bit of the month, it definitely delivers.
New To Me Music
Since this one has been out for the better part of a year it didn’t feel quite right calling it “new”.
”Fragile Wings” by Cave Sermon
This one is almost a year old but I had never heard the band or the album before. They’re a solo act from Melbourne, Australia and the sound is really unique (at least to my ears). This is post metal as well, but with heavier doses of death and black metal and decidedly less atmospherics than the Gavran album mentioned above. Some of the riffs here are just different than anything I’ve heard before or listen to regularly. It’s fresh, unique, and definitely feels like it crawled out of a cave deep in the middle of the Outback and took flight on tattered and fragile wings. I hope you enjoy this as much as I have!
”Mixtape” Links
This month’s mixtape is titled “February: In Which We Rage Like A Winter Storm”. I hope it hits the same notes of anger, rage and “defiant optimism” for you that it does for me.You can find it on Buy Music Club or on Apple Music.