What I spent my hard earned cash on recently.

Worm Ouroboros – Worm Ouroboros
Canadian label Profound Lore’s obsession with eclecticism continues with the addition to their roster of Worm Ouroboros who could only be attributed to the metal genre in the broadest sense. By some definitions this could be considered post-rock, as many of these slow building tracks would stand firm without the vocals. However, the inclusion of the gorgeous female vocals provided by Lorraine Rath and Jessica Way help this transcend that oversubscribed genre and a strong folk influence sees this record floating dreamily between ethereal passages building to harder more metallic sections. There’s a sense of foreboding apparent throughout the record but it’s far from a being bleak affair. Both beautiful and haunting – a real triumph.

Cobalt – Gin
Cobalt’s vocalist/lyricist Phil McSorley can generally be found stationed with the US army in Baghdad. He’s not particularly fond of people and has seen some stuff that would mentally handicap most of the rest of us. So it’s not really surprising that Gin is a snarling, nihilistic affair. Bundling this in the Black Metal pigeonhole would be lazy, as there’s so much more here than the misanthropic BM stylings. The opening track Stomach is slimy, oozing sludge, while elsewhere we’re treated to doom, more traditional BM, proggy sections, and some good old fashioned riffathons. Ecclectic indeed, and thoroughly entertaining. Yet another gem in Profound Lore’s crown and one of the best albums of the past year.

Harvey Milk – s/t
Too many moons ago to mention the master tape of Harvey Milk’s first album was recorded and sent to a label who claimed to want to release the album. That tape, and as such the album, went into the void for the intervening years before being discovered, restored and turbo-charged. S/t is a frenzy of noise and fuzz and all out amplifier abuse, as you would expect from these noisenicks, and it sounds glorious.

Tombs – Winter Hours
Blackened hardcore? Why on earth not! Winter Hours sees Brooklyn’s Tombs trudge through bleak, nihilistic hardcore, interspersed with snarling BM passages. There’s melody and beauty within the cacophony and some slick songwiritng. Like a slightly less angry Cobalt, Tombs are taking the blackened arts into more (dare I say it) commercial climbs. Good on ‘em!

Teeth of the Sea – Hypnoticon
Teeth of the Sea’s Hypnoticon is tasty little EP of semi-electronic, droning, psychedelic rock. Sometimes evoking guitar prone electronica of groups like Propellerheads, while others moving into ambient jazz territory this is the cheery antidote to acts like To Blacken the Pages and Nadja. Fun, although not particularly essential.

Portal – Swarth
Portal’s grimy, messy and insalubrious music swelters and splutters like a corpse in a Brisbane sewer. Labelled death metal, this surreal and supremely ugly noise perhaps sits better within the BM camp (not least because of their creepy stage names and garb), however a disfigurement of the musical form such as this has seldom been achieved in that genre. There’s some real creativity in here and a dedication to sonic perversion that’s hard to knock. Swarth has a ramshackle charm and surrealist lyrics are at times hilarious, but it’s hard to see how someone could seriously enjoy listening to this. Seriously uneasy listening.