Jute Gyte – Discontinuities
For the uninitiated, Jute Gyte’s black metal is one characterised by gruelling jaunts of discordant and agonising BM. Discontinuities is no different, played with 24 tone guitars while dense structures, manic experimentation and searing vocals are the order of the day, with the album clocking in at 62 minutes. Jute Gyte has never been for the weak eared and while testing to listen to, Discontinuities can be a hugely rewarding listen in the end as this discordant hail of leftfield black metal slowly reveals more and more of itself with each listen.
The album is streaming in full HERE with a name-your-price download too, alongside a whole host of Jute Gyte’s other releases. There’s info on ordering a physical copy there as well.
Njiqahdda – Firmaments and the Upper Air EP
Where Initiation picked up where the album left off, its shorter tracks made it feel like more of a stopgap until this lengthy EP, which is almost an album to itself at 49 minutes. Firmaments and the Upper Air is an altogether gloomier listen than the previous efforts, with eerie lingering guitars and slower, doom-imbued structures. The groaning clean vocals definitely add to the despondent air, met by juddering bass drums that combat the slower moving guitars, which creates an intriguing dichotomy within the band once again.
Streaming in full HERE on their Bandcamp as per usual, available for free download with physical copies on offer too
This Czech band are not going to make it easy for you to find them anyway. They’re called ██████ and their Bandcamp URL is listed as WeDontHaveAName, which suggests the band is taking a stand against labels and whatnot. Although, their Bandcamp comes equipped with plenty of genre label tags like black metal, post rock, screamo and… post black. So it kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? One look at that slew of sub-genre and sub-sub-genre names and you have a pretty good idea of what to expect from this band. Let’s just call them We Don’t Have A Name, for convenience sake. Meshing screamo, melodic hardcore and black metal is pretty common now and this band are something like a Deafheaven-alike albeit with a poorer production job, but it is still a demo to be fair, however a demo that’s ambitious nevertheless. However, relying on tired clichés of blackened hardcore and ‘screamo/black metal’ (if that’s officially a thing now) has meant that We Don’t Have a Name really fail to start any storms. It’s been done already. Stream the demo HERE.
Another online demo here, this time from Pennsylvania’s Outer Heaven. This short demo is hammering dark hardcore done right with a variety of metal influences, specifically pepperings of death and doom, festering under the surface. Released back in January, this is a band you shouldn’t sleep on.
The demo’s seven short tracks are characterised by slow crushing dirges complemented by pacier juddering slabs of sonic abuse. There’s an old school death metal flavour to be heard here in particular, imagine the ghosts of Incantation or Bolt Thrower haunting an old dilapidated house of hardcore and you have a rough idea. This is only a demo and what Outer Heaven do next, ideally with an album is crucial, but consider your interest more than piqued.
Stream the demo in full HERE on their Bandcamp
The Grind That Annoys 