Ty Segall: Three Bells (2024)
Going to take a brief break from the grouping of albums by the same artist/band/label to focus on another theme: some of my favorite new records. It can’t all be about music from 40 and 50 years ago, not when some of my favorite current artists have released some of their strongest work to date. And there’s no better way to kick that off than with Ty Segall, who after some interesting experiments with limitations on previous records (no guitar, acoustic, film soundtracks) has returned to his progressive garage roots with the fantastic double album Three Bells. It’s Segall operating in my favorite sonic space, and sounds like a culmination of a lot of the experimentation he’s engaged in the past few years.
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Witch Vomit: Funeral Sanctum (2024)
Yes, I joke about the relative “sameness” of death meal, but it’s crazy how small touches or changes to a band’s attack will yield large results. Take a look (or a listen, I guess) at Funeral Sanctum, the latest and first album in five years from Portland, Oregon’s Witch Vomit. They’re a band I’ve always appreciated but never went out of my way to listen to. over the course of their career they’ve gotten down pat the obligatory tenets of death metal, all perfectly executed if not earth shattering in its uniqueness. Then I heard the first single “Blood Abomination” and my ears perked up: hints of dare I say melody were peeking through the murk of death metal guitars and thrashy breakdowns that opened up the dynamics of the songwriting. Witch Vomit, you had my curiosity…now you have my attention.
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Slimelord: Chytridiomycosis Relinquished (2024)
Oh look! Another frenzied, left-of-center 20 Buck Spin release! I kid (or gently chide, as noted in the Civerous review) because, as much as the label may have a “type” (and a “look”) when it comes to their death metal releases, you and I can’t deny that – more often than not – the results are pretty dang spectacular. Case in point: this debut full-length by the wonderfully named Slimelord. Taking the sludgy modern death metal currently in vogue as their foundation, they slather on a whole lot of weirdness throughout Chytridiomycosis Relinquished, and if you thought that title was a mouthful, wait until you get inside the music. This has fast risen up for me as one of the best death metal releases this year, so let’s get into it.
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Civerous: Maze Envy (2024)
I was going to kick off the next series of reviews with some of my favorite non-metal albums of 2024, but the other day I got a big box of new vinyl from a label I love (and love to gently chide): 20 Buck Spin. They are deservedly one of the darlings of the independent metal scene, and consistently have some of the best death metal (and now black metal with the latest from Hulder) released in any given year. But man do they have a type when it comes to their death metal, and over time I’ve suffered more than a little fatigue from the similarities both in sound and visual presentation. Despite that, I’ve heard a lot of great things from their recent releases which were all covered over at Nine Circles1, so I broke down and picked up their latest three big 2024 releases. We’re starting with the one I’m least familiar with: Los Angeles’s Civerous and their rotted sophomore record, and debut for 20 Buck Spin, Maze Envy.
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King Diamond: “Them” (1988)
“Grandma!!!!!!” I don’t know if there’s a more apt intro for this post, and I don’t know if there’s a better, more hilarious yet awesome intro to a metal song ever. With a new guitarist and bass player in tow replacing his former Mercyful Fate bandmates, King Diamond crafted if not an album for the ages in “Them”, then at least a song for the ages in the immortal (and thankfully captured in video form) “Welcome Home”. This was my first exposure to King Diamond as a kid, my first purchase of his on CD, and then my first purchase when I moved to vinyl. Does it hold up, especially in t he light of having just digested at length both Fatal Portrait and Abigail? Time to find out…
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King Diamond: Abigail (1987)
Listening back to Abigail, the second solo effort from King Diamond I can’t believe this was as popular as it was back in the late 80s, but I guess never discount the theatrical flair that would come to dominate the MTV generation. This was a huge album at the time, and my immediate takeaway listening to it in the Year of Our Lord 2024 is the distinct similarity to Fates Warning’s Awaken the Guardian, released the year before, rather than a now tenuous grasp with Mercyful Fate. The music is more progressive, and the conceptual narrative of a couple moving into a haunted house with the spirit of a stillborn child now stretches over the entire album as opposed to occupying a suite of songs. It’s as ambitious as anything done to that point – certainly in metal – and the fact that it lives up to its reputation, even 37 years later is a welcome surprise.
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Consuming the Tangible 