Albums listened

Suffocation - Effigy of The Forgotten.

Type O Negative - October Rust
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Converge - Axe To Fall

Schammasch - Contradiction

I don't listen to black metal much, but this was a fantastic album.

I listened to them based purely on their cover art and cos Youtube recommended it to me. Awesome album!

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses
Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics
My Dying Bride - As The Flower Withers/Turn Loose The Swans/The Angel And The Dark River

Well that's interesting and I'll have to check it out. EDIT: just listened to this. Your description was very appropriate. Really weird and interesting stuff.

Also, you should try this band Violet Cold. 

It's a one man band from Azerbaijan that is post-black metal / atmospheric black metal, but all instrumental. I don't do instrumental metal but this was really interesting. Mix of piano and BM; very contrasting. It's kind of like an album that's all in the vein of Ghost Bath’s “Golden Number” or Deafheaven’s “Brought To the Water”. Especially the song “Drowned In The Lights”.

Link: violetcold.bandcamp.com/album/magic-night 

Weezer - The White Album

After soon to be two listens, I feel pretty comfortable saying this is Weezer's best album since Pinkerton.

It's nowhere near as good, obviously - but considering how shit they've been ever since, this is pretty good.

Ikr? I was a little heisitant to call Aves black metal but they're in the Alcest/Deafheaven et al vein so why not? I've listened to their EPs quite a lot lately and they really hold up, even if just as unfinished jangle pop songs.

Aw heck, I really hear the Ghost Bath comparison with Violet Cold. A lot of Mogwai in there too. The wall of noise thing they have going on, I'm not sure what it is but Ghost Bath utilise it a lot too. I know they're more than a one song band but "Golden Number" is *the* song I would use to describe Ghost Bath and, a few select tracks into Violet Cold's Magic Night I keep being reminded of that song, like you said (and I'm definitely not complaining). That was a great tip, thank you!

Speaking of, have you heard any of Mogwai's latest material? First Mogwai release in a while I'm actually quite exicted for! Though I'm not sure what isn't fascinating about a documentary about atomic power, really. One of the latest albums I've listened to might be of interest to you also...

Batushka - Litourgiya

A rather odd but fascinating black metal album from Poland, released at the tail end of last year. Little is known about them ('cause that sells know I see) but apparently the members are quite well known - the only Polish BM bands I know are Behemoth and Mgła and I definitely hear traces of both here, but less of the speculating. This is really quite interesting: there's prominent use of Orthodox imagery here and the album is seemingly structured (and titled) to be something akin to a Divine Liturgy. From what can be pieced together, the lyrics appear to be written in Old Slavic (the Liturgical language of the Orthodox Church) and very deep, Slavic voices that sound not unlike a religious choir serve as a counter point to the shrieking and machine gun drumming one would expect from a black metal record, though that isn't to say it is a typical BM piece. Musically there is a very strong emphasis on atmosphere, mostly from the juxtoposition between vocal styles, but there's some of that hipster shoegazey stuff creeping in at times. It sounds a little hardcore-y at times too which only increases the listenability and sense, almost, of fun, for me.

After Myrkur and Ghost Bath, the "not much is known about them but..." gimmick is getting tiresome and that might not be the only gimmick here, what with the fixation on performing an actual liturgy here (there are no song titles, rather, a series of "ektenias" or litanys). Like the aforementioned artists though, there's some really terrific stuff on here, moments of real beauty too, as well as the sense of mystery and, possibly, provocation (they either are Christians or performing some kind of critique on the Church, or both, and that yellow album art isn't going to fade into the background).

That Batushka album is one the best albums from 2015 for me. Some of the riffs are very Gojiraish, which is always a good thing. You like Gojira, DON'T YA BARTY?!

Myrkur - M

Nothing particularly exceptional, but I enjoy it.

Caravan - If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You

I never really got into Caravan before, but this is good stuff.

I listened to 3 different Caravan albums while working yesterday, because of this post. Some good stuff there. Thanks!

Led Zeppelin - II.

Stevie Wonder - Talking Book