 Written by: The Administrator
Greetings! In typical fashion, we're posting a favorite-of-the-year list long after people have stopped caring about that sort of thing. But here we are regardless, proudly displaying our favorite albums artwork of 2024 on the Sleeping Village's decrepit and cobwebbed gallery walls. Our schedule is untimely, and my personal commitment to the bit is unassailable. The conversation surrounding album artwork this past year felt heavy. The promo inbox was absolutely riddled with gen-AI slop, the more obvious examples of which were immediately cast into the Bottomless Maw. However, as the year went of, it felt like detecting AI became more difficult, and many artists and labels seemed to be doing their absolute damnedest to avoid providing details about artwork. Generative AI is a true scourge, and it's our job as people who respect the integrity and profession to draw a line in the sand. And lastly: a plea to bands who don't credit cover artists: please credit cover artists! More than a few albums were left off this list because I simply could not find who to credit for the fantastic artwork. But! Without further ado, let's get to the art.
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Written by: Blackie Skulless
A few years ago, the Polish blackened speed metallers Gallower caught my attention with their short EP entitled Eastern Witchcraft. While it was nothing bad, it wasn’t impressive enough for me to work backwards and look towards their first full-length, feeling somewhat underwhelming. This year, the same label brought a follow-up to both, changing my entire perception. You might say they’re back for a vengeance due to my initial reaction, considering the aptly titled Vengeance & Wrath. One should note, Gallower is still rather familiar in their style and execution, but this time around feels far more complete as an idea, with an emphasis on the metal end of things. Punkier attitudes are now traded for focused leads that don’t let go of the grit but absolutely step up their game in terms of hooks. Moreover, emphasis on witchcraft and spookiness is let up a bit, allowing room for some looks at historical and mythical tints that definitely impacted and matched the sound. Thus, there’s far less in the blackened overlays that came before, maintaining a really gruff presence, especially in the vocals, but ultimately falling out of that camp save for the occasional blast-beat frenzy. It was already faint on former releases as is, and the emphasis on a touch more melody brought things to a steadier apex. 
Written by: The Administrator
Promo material for Someone in the House, the debut album from Denver's Old Deer, describes its genre affiliations thusly: "notes of sludge, doom, and post-metal, woven into foundations of blistering mathcore, noise rock, and post-hardcore." A wide array of descriptors are then employed, seemingly hitting all the bases when it comes to heavy music. Someone in the House is dizzying, harrowing, visceral, brutal, and spidery. It is ear-shredding, shape-shifting, and pit-inducing. Unpredictable and extreme. Needless to say, before hitting play, I was unsure what exactly to expect lurking within. I was also very excited, because all of the words above indicate that Old Deer have concocted an optimal recipe for cacophony. I mean this both in a predictive sense (I'm willing to bet this album is cacophonous!) and a descriptive one (I listened to this album and it is indeed cacophonous!) Truth be told, I love a well-executed cacophony, and I love what Old Deer have done with this album. But! Before I scare you away with ceaseless blathering: Someone in the House is available today, Nov. 7th. We're pleased and honored to offer a full album stream. Give it a listen below, and, as always, we'll meet you on the other side! In a continuing attempt to cover more music that would all-too-oft slip through the very large cracks, we slumbering scribes are making an effort to publish short(er) reviews at a greater frequency, thereby shining our very small spotlight on more cool music. Without further ado:  Written by: The Administrator I've spent significant time over the past few weeks spelunking through the doomy and deathy depths of the promo pit, and thus find myself craving a sonic experience that will wash away the filth. Enter "junebug," the latest track from Istanbul's own nazire. Serving as the second single from the forthcoming glitchfolk, "junebug" is a spaced-out and comfortably gaze-y affair, relaxing hazily somewhere in the confines of an artificial cloudbank. nazire is operating here in the ill-defined realm of indie bedroom trip-hop meets lo-fi shoegaze, and the resulting sound is glitchy and dusty and floaty and fresh. "junebug" initially sets the stage with some delightfully digital trip-hop. The percussion feels friable, and there's an overall texture here that I really enjoy. It's like the sonic equivalent of a particle effect that causes a perceptible framerate drop as you walk past. The eventual vocals are untethered and borderline ethereal, contributing significantly to the track's overall blissful feel. At the midpoint, however, the track lifts off into shoegaze atmospherics. I love the sudden increase in volume--it truly feels...voluminous? In any case, the build is incredibly pleasant; the space is swelling and full. As the end of the track bleeds into increasingly warm and blissful heights, the predominate feeling is one of intense satisfaction. Not a bad place to leave off! Given how much I enjoy both this track and the prior single "toybox," I'm quite excited to give the full album a listen upon its eventual release. Until then: "junebug" on repeat! Nazire - "junebug" was released Nov. 4th, 2025 via Ortaçağ 
Written by: Blackie Skulless
Five years ago, Caligari Records put out the debut EP by Pittsburgh’s death metal outfit Ritual Mass a little after their debut demo. To this day, the EP entitled Abhorred In The Eyes Of God is one of the most horrendous, disturbing, hateful, and completely void-of-life releases I’ve ever heard. It worked for its short dose of getting that unlovable feeling more than anything else, and I predicted a full-length might need a little more to it than just sheer over the top brutality and unrelenting weight meant to crush every bone in the listener into ashes. Unfortunately, I’ve been proven correct with the first album titled Cascading Misery, this time presented by 20 Buck Spin. Don’t get me wrong, as I’m pretty certain that Ritual Mass have done everything they set out to do, with not only a fitting album title but also a bleak and harrowing album sleeve. For all six of their tracks, they’ve tightened up their hateful sound into a more streamlined package, adding in clearer guitar shifts that are worth acknowledging from time to time as well. Much of this is chewing everything up and regurgitating explosive cavernous vocals a la Spectral Voice, guitar chugs that move from reverberating atmosphere to almost blackened tremolos, and pummeling walls of drum-gradients not too dissimilar to later Deicide. As great as all of this sounds, it’s void of anything that isn’t just “we want to make you uncomfortable.” 
Written by: Blackie Skulless
The California thrash act Doomsday has been around for a little while, dropping only EPs for the better part of a decade. They reached my radar with the latest release, combining their hints into a full idea that piqued some serious interest immediately. Never Known Peace is the name of this full realization, feeling extremely refreshing. As a huge fan of the genre, it isn’t lost on me how redundant it can be these days, so finding something that breaks that mold is no minor feat. Not to say that Doomsday is overly unique, but everything they do on their debut full-length is not only performed wonderfully but is topped with nasty grit of its own, tapping into several different frequencies. With a very heavy hardcore influence, this record takes the crossover path while avoiding the “party” aesthetic that has a short shelf-life, trading it for a more serious tone that injects immense levels of attitude. Harsher vocals boosted by a mean snarl pair wonderfully with both the most basic aspects and the more intricate ones. Strong solos are not skipped for simplicity, the basslines further enhance the explosive nature of the riffs, and dramatic jumps in pace feel organic on every track.
This guest review comes courtesy of Brihadeesh, who writes and publishes over at Peregrinator Reviews. Check out their excellent and ever-expanding back-catalog of reviews, and give them a follow over on Bluesky!
Written by: Brihadeesh
An oil painting of two knights clad in dark steel armour, one with a mallet and dagger and the other with a broadsword, effortlessly fighting off a horde of cross bearing crusaders is a hell of a powerful image when it comes to a black metal album cover. And this album really reprises this image through the music. Antifascist as fuck, and releasing via explicitly the left-leaning Realm & Ritual, no less, this is easily one of the best albums I've played this year. I recently came across a new band I thought I would enjoy but then a quick glance at their Wikipedia page showed me some pretty nasty things about their frontman—Jon Nödtveidt—and it was about how he was involved in a misanthropic cult of sorts and was arrested in and convicted of the murder of a homosexual man. The band was one of the "pioneers" of the Swedish melodic black metal scene. Like I discussed in my last piece on the new Wild Beyond EP, black metal in recent years has gone through several changes and the most notable of them being that it has been reclaimed and reinvented as Red and Anarchist Black Metal (RABM). People like Jon here are not revered and instead, a left-leaning or otherwise anarchist philosophy is embraced in the music that is made. Lyrics are often anthemic and call for rebellion against capitalist oppressors, often embellished with samples of powerful speeches and news reports of violence against the marginalised. What's even more powerful is that queer and otherwise oppressed people are in the forefront of these bands, and nothing makes me happier as a neuroqueer person than to see fellow queer people ripping out blastbeats and shredding some of the sickest riffs in town. 
Written by: Blackie Skulless
Perhaps one of my more anticipated albums of the year, Graveripper’s sophomore record took the very approach they hinted at the first time around the block and ran with it. Not only has the blackened aspect taken a deeper root in the construction, but the cleaner surface that presented the first record’s straightforward approach has been roughened up. From Welkin To Tundra even depicts this in its album art, always curating a sound that matches how it looks. Thus, I can confidently say their bare-bones foundation has evolved into something with more identity. For starters, Graveripper have always crafted a “warmer” sound, one I’ve in the past compared to Toxic Holocaust, but the emphasis on black metal tropes have cooled this entirely. Perhaps Cory’s vocals aren’t any harsher than they were, but there’s a filthier snarl to them to coincide with the less-than comforting surface, all playing into the cold atmosphere. Thrash riffs have now become an accessory, not a template, as the record is dominated by explosive drum pummels and rhythmic gradients that care less about melody and more about density. The hookier moments do add a little flare, but nasty motion holds everything together perfectly. 
Written by: Blackie Skulless
Indianapolis’s Cloud Of Souls is a fun project due to how much it changed forms during its short run. Mostly, it acted as a side solo gig for Chris Latta, frontman of other Indianapolis acts including the now disbanded Spirit Division and Lavaborne, among others. Running in the background of several different projects likely contributed to the strange evolution, with the first two records falling under the name Christopher Steve prior to the arriving at Cloud Of Souls in 2022. Only two albums surfaced in this era, A Fate Decided in 2023 and A Constant State Of Flux just last year. This style was always a bit tough for me to get behind, however the former release really piqued my interest, so this is what we’re going to cover. Looking at the project's dark acoustic roots will show why it seems bizarre to see where the project went. Maintaining that grey and somber attitude that the acoustic era saw, the murky feeling simply morphed into something far heavier, even touching blackened territory. At its roots, this is doom metal with a quality degraded to add an almost static effect, feeling like a demo due to the noisy haze. Yet, I would struggle to call this stonery or droney despite the mastermind’s background. Latta’s signature baritone howls cover the cleaner vocal sections, but again, there’s an almost haunting aura that gives things a far more dead feeling than the lively nature of his other projects.
In a continuing attempt to cover more music that would all-too-oft slip through the very large cracks, we slumbering scribes are making an effort to publish short reviews at a greater frequency, thereby shining our very small spotlight on more cool shit. Without further ado: even more Negative Bliss.
Written by: The Administrator
The best cover I've heard of Chris Isaak's oft-covered "Wicked Game" was performed by a country-tinged singer-songwriter at my local park's summer concert series. I was utterly engrossed by her aching tone. The atmosphere was chaotic as only a park at a family-friendly event can be. The rendition was imperfectly perfect, imbued with a feel-it-in-your-bones permeation that exists solely in a live environment. It was a once in a lifetime experience, really. The recorded version isn't nearly as potent. With that said: the second best cover I've heard of Chris Isaak's oft-covered "Wicked Game" is performed by perennial Sleeping Village favorites Negative Bliss. As made immediately evident, this is a particularly gloomy and doomed-out take on the original. It embraces sizable breadth and a somber harshness that affords the track an unexpected emotional core. |
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