On September 29th, ChiaraOscuro will release album ‘Rancor:Succor’ via Nefarious Industries. Available on all DSP’s 9/29/2023.

Framing drums, emphasized by suspended rhythmic pulses, and the ghostlike vocals of Andrea Ward make ‘Ribbon of Water’ sui generis.

Aluk Todolo’s Occult Rock is not going to be for everyone. According to their bio, the band are an instrumental trio that play, “Occult Rock, a methodical exploration of the powers of musical trance.” Got that? Now, when I read that I immediately thought that the sound was going to be old-style black metal a la Darkthrone’s Transylvanian Hunger or even early Darkrthrone. And true enough opening song “Occult Rock I” (all of the songs are called “Occult Rock”, followed by a number) is a trance-inducing black metal song through and through – minus any shrieks of course. Most of the rest of the songs however, sound like heavy metal with the occasional dose of black metal.

Brooklyn Vegan have just unveiled a full album stream of Bastard Sapling’s debut LP, Dragged From Our Restless Trance. As BBG notes, these RVA black metal rising stars, “mix(es) in their fair share of crust with their epic black metal jams,” and now you can soak it all in before buying the beautifully turned-out record from Forcefield Records. Listen below!