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COMMUNITY FAVORITES: Mid-Year List (Part 2 of 2)

6/21/2021

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Welcome back, weary traveler! Firstly, if ye missed Part 1 of this mid-year extravaganza, we highly recommend checking that out first. If you're already familiar with what this is all about, however: thanks so much for reading and returning for more! As always, we appreciate your patronage and your support, particularly now that our humble halls are filled with an exciting array of guest writers who deserve to have their words read.

Again, this collaborative list is far from exhaustive, and represents but a fraction of our collective favorites. As such, please feel free to leave a comment with a recommendation or two! List season is a great time to show the musicians that we love a little well-deserved support, and if you wanna shout someone out, this is as good a time as any. In that spirit, I'd like to once again offer thanks to everyone who helped make this list a reality and a success.

Without further ado, let's dive in! Today's list is a tad longer than the first, so pull up a chair, put up yer feet, and stay a while.
 


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VULGARIS - Asundre (Review)

6/3/2021

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Written by: The Administrator

My favorite albums of the year are, more often than not, those that sneak their way into rotation...and then simply never leave. The ability to maintain interest over months and months of listening is a surefire mark of a good album, and Asundre, the excellent debut from London's Vulgaris, has managed to qualify itself pretty damn handily. This thing came out towards the end of February, and it is a rare thing indeed to locate a week since wherein it hasn't reared its multifaceted heads.

At this rate, Asundre certainly stands as one of my most-listened albums o' the year thusfar, which, in turn, probably means I should actually find a soapbox and start appropriately proselytizing. Hence:


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FRESH MEAT FRIDAY: April 30th, 2021, Feat. GOREGÄNG,  Greyhound, Becerus, Bevar Sea, Order of the Wolf / Pessimista, and Alpha Boötis

4/30/2021

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Every Friday, a wagon arrives at the Sleeping Village’s crumbling gates, stuffed to the brim with our sustenance for the following week. Today is the day we must offload all this week's new and noteworthy music, and so, in the process, we thought it would be worthwhile to share some of our choice picks from this veritable mass of fresh meat. This is what we’ll be--and have been--listening to this week at the Village HQ. We hope you join us in doing so! 

We slumbering scribes were slightly more productive this week than normal, so enjoy an additional two mini-reviews!
​
​On the docket for today, April 30th, 2021:
GOREGÄNG, Greyhound, Becerus, 
Bevar Sea, Order of the Wolf / Pessimista, and Alpha Boötis

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GOREGÄNG - Long Live The Grime
(Blood Blast / Listenable Insanity Records)

Now this...this is how you do a damn EP. This highly palatable appetizer from GOREGÄNG features four new tracks, four live tracks, and, as if that weren't enough, a White Zombie cover. For those unfamiliar, this particular GOREGÄNG presents an unholy combination of crust-infused Swedeath with the blatant brutality and swagger of their Floridian environ. In other words, they revel in filth, be it by benefit of the gross guitar tone or, well, the grosser vocal tone. This duo excels at the kind of high-energy pit-worthy performance that inevitably results in sweat and blood--a quality, of course, shines brightly on the live tracks contained within.

​In terms of New Stuff, the fantastically dynamic "
Farm The Mother" is possibly my favorite, but realistically, nothing here is worth skipping. If this unique brand of crust-punky death is your speed, I highly recommend you check this one out (as well as their excellent Neon Grave, which came out back in 2019.)

​Find it on bandcamp here!

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Greyhound - Dennis Exists
(Independently Released)

Wow. This is an album that I checked out due to a well-timed reminder email, and I'm really glad I did. This Aussie doom/ gothic rock/post-rock crew excels at constructing an atmosphere to a glorious crescendo--in their words, music "shimmering until it explodes into apocalyptic heaviness." Dennis Exists ​is primarily instrumental, which allows ample space for exploration and slow-burning evolution. It's a celebration of the landscape, and, as such, feels tangible and grounded in a way that music under the "post" umbrella typically is not. While the instrumentation that makes up the majority of Dennis Exists​ is quite intriguing, the spoken word narrative on "Riverbend" serves as the album's centerpiece. It's an excellent piece on it's own, and fits into the framework of the album surprisingly well. All told, this is a lush and gorgeous album that rewards attentive listening. I highly recommend throwing on a pair of earphones and letting the music take over for the duration.

​Find it on bandcamp here!


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DEAD REGISTER - Don't Fail Me (Review)

4/26/2021

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Written by: The Administrator

One of my greatest regrets as a reviewer is dropping the ball on a writeup of Dead Register's stellar Captive EP, back in the primordial days of the Sleeping Village's so-called tenure. There's really no excuse for not finishing said review, particularly given how struck I was with their potent blend of highly emotive post-rock/doom. Thus: after spending a long while digesting Dead Register's latest EP, I knew it was time to (finally) talk about why you should be listening to 'em. 

This EP is a bit of a conglomerate of material, featuring a (killer!) new track, some live versions of previously released material, and a remix of the title track provided by industrial/doom metal duo Lament Cityscape. There's five track contained herein, and the variety on display makes for an intrinsically odd albeit very enjoyable release​. Don't Fail Me ultimately serves as a quality amuse-bouche in advance of Dead Register's forthcoming full length.


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DVNE - Etemen Ænka (Review)

3/30/2021

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Written by: Beaston Lane

​
In a far-flung epoch where humanity as we know it is but a memory, glamorous towers pierce the heavens, and elite societies vie for supremacy. Everything is greater than the sum of its parts. Etemen Ænka finds itself exploring this simultaneously utopian and dystopian future, dissecting the suffering that underlies greatness. Dvne, named in reference to Frank Herbert’s legendary works of science fiction, draws inspiration from the best sci-fi and dystopias of our time, constructing their own grandiose narrative to the tune of epic psychedelic post-metal. With a musical approach as striking and expansive as their lyrical concepts, Dvne’s debut on Metal Blade is a tremendous step forward for the band, laying the foundations for what will hopefully be a storied career.


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FRESH MEAT FRIDAY - March 26th, 2021, Feat.  Breaths, Celestial Sanctuary, Dope Skum, and Seven Serpents

3/26/2021

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On (most!) Fridays, a wagon arrives at the Sleeping Village’s rusted palisade, stuffed to the brim with musical sustenance. Today is the day we must offload this week's new and noteworthy music, and so, in the process, we thought it would be worthwhile to share some of our choice picks from this veritable mass of fresh meat. This is what we’ll be listening to today at the Village HQ. We hope you join us in doing so! 

It isn't bandcamp Friday, but...
...that doesn't mean it isn't a great day to support musicians!


​On the docket for today, March 26th, 2021:
Breaths, Celestial Sanctuary, Dope Skum, and Seven Serpents

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Breaths - Lined In Silver
(Trepanation Recordings)

Having premiered 

not one but two tracks from this fantastic debut album, you can rest assured that it carries the (very official) Sleeping Village Seal of Approval. I won't delve too far into reiteration--I recommend reading said premieres for a more in-depth analysis--but in sum, Lined In Silver succeeds enormously at melding seemingly disparate genres in a  fashion that feels both innovative and sincere. Combining traits of post-metal/rock, doom, hardcore, prog, and blackgaze, this album is all over the map, but manages to find a common aesthetic that perfectly serves the storytelling.  Whether engaging in dreamy ambiance, immersive doomgaze, emotive abrasivity, angular aggression, or a general post-rock melancholy, Breaths maintains a wonderfully rare and pure sense of self. There's a tangible emotional weight on display here--the whole affair feels deeply personal. Lined In Silver is an album that rewards (and demands) multiple listens. Don't miss it.

​Find it on bandcamp here!

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Celestial Sanctuary - Soul Diminished
(Redefining Darkness & Church Road)

​A confession: I personally have a really hard time writing about death metal. For whatever reason, my vocabulary simply won't warp to the sights and sounds that the genre typically offers. As such, my thoughts often feel stupidly rudimentary: "the riffs are riff-y, the death growls are death-y, and, by sheer benefit of engaging with this album, my head did much banging." Granted, in the case of an album such as Celestial Sanctuary's latest, that level of description/praise feels like it is enough. If you like death metal, you will absolutely enjoy Soul Diminished. It really is that simple.

That's not to say, however, that Celestial Sanctuary don't provide their own perspective. Among the OSDM are glimmers of more experimental fare--a flash of melody, a glimpse of lumbering doom. Notably, they possess the ability to hit hard while keeping light on their feet, and that alone is a quality worth watching. This crew is going places.

​Find it on bandcamp here!


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SPIRE - Temple of Khronos (Review)

3/17/2021

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Special thanks to Carcassbomb (of ye olde Noob Heavy and Black Lodge PR) for the words! If you're looking for top-notch music writing, I highly recommend adding Noob Heavy to your blog rotation. You should also check out Black Lodge PR if you need, well, PR (the sheer quality of which I'll happily vouch for!) - Ed.

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Guest post written by: Carcassbomb

Australia has been coming in strong lately with bands under the genre tag “dark metal,” which is well suited here with a sound that is difficult to nail down, it takes a bit of everything with the emphasis on darkness. Be that a brooding kind of darkness or menacing darkness depends on the album, but with Spire there’s a perfect balance of both. This is my introduction to the band and it left quite the impression!

A pleasurable barrage of doomy genre-hopping can be found on Temple of Khronos. They have a powerful way of building up to really epic moments that come with a lot of added flourish. There’s a great black metal influence with shrieking that reminds me of Silencer as well as growls on the doom end of the death spectrum--both of which blend in well with the clean variations of singing and BIG HUMMMMS. There’s a lot of thickness to the overall production, utilizing vocal modulation and repetition to great effect. The density could be compared to fellow Australian’s Portal or more recent, The Amenta, and the BIG HUMMMMS might sound freshly familiar to those who dug into that Sutrah EP last year.


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SEA SLEEPER - Nostophobia (Review)

2/11/2021

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Written by: The Administrator 

In lieu of the typical rambling introduction, I'll spare you all and jump straight to my conclusions regarding Nostophobia, the debut full length from Portland's Sea Sleeper. In sum, then: this is a wonderfully chaotic album filled to the brim with the kind of untethered energy that practically demands listener engagement. However, it is also a confusingly chaotic album that would benefit significantly from some spit and polish. 

Sea Sleeper bill themselves as a bit of a genre-jumping anomaly, frequently folding in elements of post-metal, deathcore, sludge, avant-garde, metallic hardcore, and even a lil'
angsty grunge  into their bubbling cauldron o' progressive death. Needless to say, this is a complex conglomerate of sights 'n' sounds, and makes for an experience that is borderline confounding across the breadth. As a fan of boundary-pushing and rule-breaking in music as a general rule, that quality is a clarion call of sorts--provided the intrinsic weirdness sticks the landing. 


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FUZZNAUT - Haunting Mantra (Track Review)

11/22/2020

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Written by: The Administrator

Given the current state of, well, everything, I've been taking a lot of walks lately. In a world that is seemingly stripping away means of comfort at an increasingly alarming rate, the prospect of fresh air, a little light exercise, and the ability to just leave the stress behind is something to which this particular scribe has clung as the weather becomes more foreboding. A good walk, however, demands a good soundtrack, and while the pure aggression of OSDM or thrash or black metal may do for the confines of our drafty scriptorium, the walk demands something a little more...meditative.

Enter the appropriately entitled "Haunting Mantra," the latest doomgaze-y single from solo guitarist and composer
FUZZNAUT
. I have been meaning to write a review for this thing since first listen, but better late than never, amiright?


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EMMA RUTH RUNDLE & THOU - May Our Chambers Be Full (Review)

11/7/2020

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Written by: Izzy

So normally, I like to give a little background in the intro paragraph of my reviews about the band I’m reviewing--some of their history, or how I came to discover the album. But in the case of May Our Chambers Be Full​, Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou​'s recent cooperative album, neither artist is one I’m particularly familiar with, despite their long and storied careers.

Thou are a band by which I’ve briefly listened to a couple albums and previous splits; they’re a very traditional sounding sludge metal band and I was never crazy about them. Not a bad band, but certainly not one that ever amazed me. Emma Ruth Rundle, on the other hand, I knew nothing about previously. After some quick googling I found that she’s made a handful of solo albums to decent acclaim, her style towing the line between singer-songwriter, dream pop, folk, and shoegaze, but has also been a member in post-rock and atmo-sludge bands. She also notably helps run the record label Sargent House, a rather eclectic group of diverse and beloved artists, most notably featuring Chelsea Wolfe and Kristin Hayter (A.K.A. Lingua Ignota.)


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