Nazxul - Demo 1994

This demo is spoken of in hushed whispers here in Australia. If you don't know it, check it out. When black metal as a form was still inchoate, Nazxul created a completely original and bizarre take on the genre. Beherit's Drawing Down The Moon melting into a pool of acrid goo. Still magic after all these years.

Sick Llama - Distance Removal Sick Llama Remixxx

I could have picked one of a few hundred of the Sick Llama and associated releases on this label. Do yourself a favour and subscribe to the new Antarctica label for a treasure trove of grimy, unplaceable sounds. I have no idea how Heath Moerland makes these noises, but it is ultra-compelling. Like pressing on bruised flesh compulsively, it hurts and I will not stop.

Throane - Une balle dans le pied

Everything Throane has released to date has been excellent and this one track, 13 minute EP is no exception. Taking a post-black metal framework and twisting until it creaks, Throane makes some truly punishing noise. Always zigging when you expect a zag. 

Yellow Swans & Grey Daturas - Copper / Silver

Yellow Swans recordings are invariably winners and this collaboration with Australia's own Grey Daturas is no exception. A huge 2 disc slab of drone, noise, and improv. This one is one of those releases that never fails to blur out the quotidian. If you aren't levitating. you've got concrete socks.

iNFeCTeD - CoNTRoL

Infected were one of the bands that should have been huge. Listen to the first track of this album and reflect that it was released in 1995. Fear Factory's Demanufacture was released later that same year. Coincidence? Probably. Infected also injected more doom, post-punk and general weirdness, therefore they are the better band.

Morton Feldman - Crippled Symmetry: at June in Buffalo

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on Feldman's work but I do know this recording smokes any other of the same piece that I have heard. The vibes, flute and piano etc. work off each other with repeated asynchronous phrases that conjure a fertile landscape of melted Debussy records.

Roland Kayn - Made in the NL after the Sixties and Beyond

I read about Kayn for years before I finally heard his work, thanks to these archival releases that are appearing on Bandcamp. What I like about these recordings is that they resist easy understanding. Cybernetic music is about setting parameters then letting the machines do the work. The result is some alien and unplaceable sound. Highly recommended if you want to confuse your circuits.

Armoured Angel - Mysterium

Another Australian classic. This band was huge to us as high school metalheads. The film clip to 'Enigmatize' (later covered by The Amenta) was the first glimpse for many of us into death metal aesthetics. More thrash / proto-death than straight-up death metal maybe, but certainly beholden of eldritch magic.

Hiro Kone - MVMNTS: Hiro Kone x Roxy Farman

I bought this on a whim and I am glad I did. Using sheet metal to trigger synths and samples, and some creaky violin this is a minimal masterpiece of vague malevolence. Apparently, this was recorded before a live performance of the material. I would have killed to see it.

Akhlys - Melinoë

Technically a pre-order with only two tracks yet streamable, but those two tracks are so strong that I reckon you can jump on the album without any risk. Akhlys' guitars sound like swarms of bees, albeit melodic ones. There's a touch of Blut Aus Nord scrape and clang but their take on black metal is very unique.

Kevin Richard Martin - Frequencies for Leaving Earth - Vol 2

The Bug's releases under his own name have all been excellent. Of the 5 parts of the Frequencies for Leaving Earth, this is a current favourite (though all are worth your time and attention). Sparse, cold and alien, this release uses the Shepard Tone illusion to create the sensation of a constant fall. Recommended!

Cryptae - Nightmare Traversal

This is a filthy recording. These guys aren't just cavernous copy cats. They take the dark and fetid hellscapes of Portal etc and make something completely unique. These guys gave serious riffs, they have groove and they make death metal that feels both fresh and also inevitable. I have a new favourite track every time I listen.

kek:et - kek:et

I know next to nothing about these artists. I discovered them by chance scrolling through Bandcamp, a quick listen, and immediate purchase. Immaculately engineered post-industrial electronic thing. A bit of Muslimgauze-like hand percussion going on but also lots of unidentified strangeness. Hopefully, there is more coming.

White Ward - Love Exchange Failure

These guys were another recent discovery that blew my tiny mind. The saxophone is a touchy instrument to introduce into metal but here it is done exceptionally well. Sounding like Bohren and Der Club of Gore playing post-black metal. Or maybe Ulver circa Bergtatt covering Ulver circa Perdition City. Either way, highly recommended.

Weirding Module - "Farther Out"

Another release of strangeness courtesy of the Antarctica/Sick Llama stable. Apparently, Weirding Module has been around for a while but they are new to me. Strange synthscapes, ominous clatter and whines. I listened to this every day for a month and I still struggle to get my head around why it works so well. 

Duma - Duma

These guys got a bit of noise for this release and rightly so. Get past one of the best cover shots of the year and dig into the strangest and most extreme meta-adjacent recordings of the year. This one chops between digital grind, odd synthy industrial and noise. All things that get The Amenta salivating.

Kevin Drumm - Sheer Hellish Miasma

One of Bandcamps easiest buys is the Kevin Drumm discography. Get over 140 releases for under $20. Everything from prepared guitar alienness, shrieking feedback hellscapes and Sheer Hellish Miasma, the audio equivalent of a shiatsu massage. You can feel your mind sludging through your ears and out into the cosmos as this one progresses. 

Graveyards - Cinders

Graveyards were one of the best bands from the Wolf Eyes axis of noise. Entropic Jazz that sounds like it was recorded next to an airconditioning unit in Kreuger's basement. Sax, cello, percussion and electronics in a slow-mo burn that places an aura of import around every scrape and clatter.