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...Stay... - tears of happiness

 Highlights of 2023: part 1

I am (sort of) back, with plans to restart writing about music in 2024. As a teaser, I have some albums from 2023 I really enjoyed to share with you. In lieu of a top ten list, or an Album of the Year post, you instead get a small selection of albums I think were stand outs in the past year.

First up is ...Stay..., a depressive suicidal black metal one-man project in the vein of Sadness and None (one word dsbm band titles seem to be a through-line in my album picks).

I am a sucker for this type of dsbm. Depressive Suicidal Black Metal essentially comes in two forms: Goth dsbm, focused on mood and texture and calm despair; and school shooter dsbm, focused on shrieking anthems to, well, shoot up a school to. Both have their place in my rotation, but the gothier end of things is what I dig most.

Call it griefcore - music that attempts to lure you into drowning yourself in a swamp, to wandering into the woods alone never to be seen again. The sort of album that doesn't wonder if it can get the cops to shoot it once its shot all its classmates, but wonders if it kills itself inside a dumpster, would that inconvenience less people than if it did so in a bathtub.

This is a more metal focused offshoot of Fernando Mejía, the force behind A Rose Dying In The Rain, one of the best blackgaze projects going these days. Viva Guadalajara, Viva muerte

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