Blood, Death, Satan & Metal

Time for another round of haunting, jamming black metal and dungeon synth in its physical form. And why tapes? Well, they look kinda cool in their own aesthetic way, they make a ka-chunk in the machine, and some of them are literally hand-dubbed and decorated by the musicians or indie label dudes. They have sort of a grungy quality to the sound (especially if your machine makes a tape hiss). A worthy addition to your table if you like to physically DJ the soundtrack to a session. Warduke- Module 1 Dungeon Chip Music? Yup. It takes the point-and-click or text-based vibes of classic DS and says "But what if Zelda?", and it works. Despite high recommendations for Warduke's discography across the board, only Module 1 seems to be available in physical form. Comes in this goofy clamshell, so you could put it on the bookshelf instead of the tape box. Sadly, there is no module within. You can either write a letter about it, or go to heimatderkatastrophe for another tape, since

Back with a second round of lo-fi, small batch Satanry in cassette form. You know the drill, it sounds kinda like shit (or "textured") in its production, so buy it in physical-sounds-like-shit form. Direct links to bandcamps, you can buy most of these from Out of Season , who have a fantastic selection of the black metal and dungeon synth we all love. Blood Magic- Goetic Blood Spells Murky, raw black metal. First track is drone, if it doesn't do it for you then don't write it off, the rest will give you your thrills on route 666. Crucified Serpent- No Second Coming Winner of this post's Best Band Name award, and best band member names too ("Cruel Treatment" & "Canine"). Well-composed black metal of the traditional variety with some punky elements and ambient interludes. Warlock Corpse- Cosmic Spell Excellent fusion of outsider dance/rave, dungeon synth, sci-fi sample/sound-collage. Great variety from track to track. Some of his other rel

Best album of 2023. I didn’t expect my favorite album of 2023 to be a punk album. While I like punk, it ranks much further down the ladder than metal, noise, electronic, and even alternative pop for me. Why? It’s good, but it’s stale . Every metal subgenre gets a revival every 10-15 years, it seems like. Black metal used to be pretty monolithic and kvlt, and then around 2008ish it exploded into a diverse array of technical, atmospheric, gazey, death-y, folky, whatever-y stuff. Death metal is doing the same right now. Punk generally doesn’t innovate without splintering- emo isn’t really punk anymore, for example, and screamo folded into (bad) metal. Traditional, hardcore and crust/blackened punk have been the only “true” punk I’ve been able to stand for a long while, and finally something new comes along! Serf punk! No, not “surf” punk. Poison Ruin is the perfect music for RPG nerds. Poison Ruin are doing something that someone should’ve thought of long before this. They’ve taken the fa