Trumpet of Amdusias

  Not a new release, don't get so excited. As far as I know, there won't be another RÛR release after IV in 2018, but we can always hope. This was a standout album for me in 2017, and the fact that it is still in regular rotation here at the Forest Wanker Compound is proof that at the very least I know what I like when I hear it, I guess. This is the atmo-black soundtrack to late Summer rainstorms. Still a bit warm but the clouds are heavier now, and black around the edges. The rain too cold to be anything but a malicious reminder of how little nature cares if you live or die. Lightning cracks across the western skies, a lone bird flies in front of the approaching torrent. Time to bolt the door and wait for it to pass. RÛR by RÛR

  Post-black metal? Blackened post-metal? How do I jam "atmospheric" in there? The hairs must be split and the genre guardians appeased! Either way, it's three tracks of comfortably kvlt occult satanic-panic black metal from this two-piece from the home of railway museums and solid league one football. I like it. It's dense and atmospheric, and gloomy and depressing like a nice blanket on a rainy day. It is however pretty typical of the post-black genre and will not be winning any awards for innovation. Not that it has to. It is a nice textured album that fits the bill and does exactly what it says on the tin. Tangled Divinations by 𝕷𝖚𝖓𝖌𝖙𝖔𝖚𝖈𝖍𝖊𝖗

  Nihilistic misanthropy, spiked with violent anti-religious sentiment. Now we are back in my wheelhouse! Greece is something of a hotbed of mean metal bands, and none are quite as surgically brutal as Human Serpent.Six years into their sonic walk through hell, we get this, their fourth full-length album. 100% fiery spiteful black metal, there is also a keen sense of melody at work here. This is not your standard blastbeats howling into the void, but a coordinated attempt to actually suffocate you solely via your speakers. They started out the gate in 2014 hellbent on destruction, and every album has upped the ante. You can imagine them listening to a finished album and going 'nope, not apocalyptic enough. Let's start over'. Maybe they said that after this album was finished too, but for now it's the meanest evilest thing going. Heirlooms Eternal by Human Serpent

  To say that I am not a fan of lyric-heavy, singer-led music would be a slight understatement. It is also true that I have a real soft spot for Cascadian black-metal or whatever we are calling Portlandia Metal these days. This album though, is sitting uncomfortably close to the indie-rock end of the melodic black metal spectrum for me personally. Bouncy, almost happy, guitar leads and riffs reminiscent of power metal or, dare I say it, glam rock abound. Clean tones, theatrical solos, and a weird post-punk tone almost had me throwing this out the window by the end of the first track. Fortunately, they get angry enough soon enough, and the rest of the album is pretty damn solid. Yeah, the MAIDEN solos continue throughout, but not so obnoxiously. One thing for certain, this band is no Mgła clone, so you can put your memes away now. Djinn by UADA

  Kintsukuroi (金繕い) are back with a full length album.  When I last talked about them , they had released a single I was pretty smitten with. Now, mere months later, we have a new full-length to dig into. They introduce the album this way: "A burning pyre made of yellowing post cards and forgotten memories, standing beside it while witnessing how negative emotions dissipated as the wind swept the ashes away --- the ultimate indulging of loneliness in the black box you created for yourself. A poetry of depressive romance: this is how one would describe the music of Kinsukuroi. Based in Italy, Solitude Project used to be a solid dbm project. The duo changed their name into Kinsukuroi (金繕い/Golden Repair) in 2020 and have released an ep consisted of two songs that best exemplified their own musical aesthetic of post black metal's melancholy nature. In collaboration with Pest Productions, Kinsukuroi will release this ep and gave it a new title: Ode to Loneliness and So...

Remember when you were a teenager, and you loved evil sounding metal because it made you feel like a bad motherfucker in a bad motherfucker world? This is that. Mean as fuck music for mean as fuck people. NYC’s Gravesend arise with ill intent like a foul emanation from the aging sewage filled rot slowly winding its way beneath the city’s vast concrete walls and pavement pathways. A New York of discarded needles, noxious fumes, scavenging rats, broken bottles and cracked minds. An aural manifesto of urban blight and disgust, “Methods Of Human Disposal” works like a lone killer stalking the streets, internally seething with rage, preparing to cast off the last remnants of restraint. Bear witness to savage Black / Death Metal with a hellish Grindcore fixation, searing warped speeds, and the slowly swelling carnage of a derailed subway pile up. Like the centuries old cemetery that bears its name, the fetid stench of death and decay permeates Gravesend and the predatory wrat...

  So I went down a rabbit hole after discovering Lesath , and found his alter ego Raat . While still very much in the same vein, Raat moves in a more melancholic direction. Very atmospheric, and often bordering on dsbm, this is a dark, moody slab of discontent. Strummed acoustic bits, weird atmospherics, sneaky odes to nature embedded into everything... This is definitely my sort of firest wankery Raison D'être by Raat

  This is something different. I don't often see atmo-black albums from India. Definite shades of Mesarthrim here, but not in a derivative way. This is intense, highly emotive and personal music, but not in a sad boi noizes kind of way. Instead in a moody, grand, profoundly weird way. Spanning multiple genres, but tied together by vocals that play like another instrument (my favorite kind), this is quite a journey of an album. Heavenless by Lesath

  Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a one-man band called Afsky . This man/band was good at what they did, and spawned a need to play live. And so Afsky became, for part of the time anyway, a more-than-one-man band. One of those people was inspired to start their own project. And so a new one-man band was born. Udånde is that band. This is not your standard "alone in my bedroom howling into the void" dsbm lofi wankery, nor is it your standard three tracks of 20 minutes apiece of minor chord progressions inspired by "a fungus growing on the dead bark of a century old holm oak in the forest outside the now abandoned village my grandfather died in" kind of thing. This is actually good. Go listen to it. life of a purist by UDÅNDE

  And so we come to the end of what has been ROSK week here. We've looked at solo albums from three members of the band, so it's only fair we take a look at ROSK itself. That is a little bit difficult, because what began as a pretty straight-forward Solstafír -worshiping blackgaze project morphed between albums into a really interesting neofolk project, which is the album we have here. Acoustic blackgaze is maybe a better way to describe this than neofolk. This dark, acoustic album tells a story of dealing with old age, loss of the loved one and humiliating solitude. This is certainly in the sad boi noizes category of Forest Wanker discs, and will not appeal to everyone, but I find it to be a really haunting album. remnants by ROSK

  So, it has been ROSK week here at the Forest Wanker compound. We've looked at albums from two of the members of the band/collective; Krzysztof Traczyk and Mateusz Szymański . Today we are taking a look at the alter ego of Mateusz Sworakowski; Ennoven .  Back in 2014, ROSK did not exist yet. But the blueprint for it did. M. Sworakowski was already making the post-atmo-emo-black that would come to define the early sound of ROSK. This is, to me, a classic album of what would become overhyped as blackgaze in the years to follow. Expansive, shimmering walls of sound, anticipatory buildup, triumphant releases. It's all there, and on this album, it is all done very very well. Redemption by Ennoven   Oh, and he has teased a new album coming sometime soonish. No Warmth by Ennoven

  Yesterday we talked about Krzysztof Traczyk from ROSK . Today we are going to talk about another member of ROSK, Mateusz Szymański. Czary (Polish for "spells") is his second album; a follow-up to 2017s self-titled EP. I am a big fan of Norse mythology. Not in a white nationalist gym-viking way. In a "whole bunch of untrustworthy gender-bending shapeshifting drunks are sort of in control of the universe and accidentally made their own destruction out of sex and lies" kind of way. That makes me a sucker for pretty much any album about Norse mythology that is more intelligent than "WE VIKINGS WE SMASH". Fortunately, this exploration of the Germanic myth cycle is not just intelligent, but inventive as well. This is some really deeply felt ambient dark folk. highly recommended both for close listening and for pushing out other sounds so you can concentrate on writing about whatever nerdy thing it is you write about. czary by krzywdy

  Christopher Sawyer is Krzysztof Traczyk of ROSK , who you will be hearing more about soon. This is his debut solo album, an ambitious piece of melancholy. To quote his own description of the album: This is my piano-based electronic debut album, which I'd been writing on and off throughout 2019 and the beginning of 2020.  It's a melancholic, ruthless account of unveiling, admitting and facing the difficult truths. Or it's about eight hours of getting wasted.   Up to you. Indeed, it is up to us to decide.  Eight Hours of Heavy Drinking by Christopher Sawyer

  78 bands. 22 countries. 8+hrs of music International post-metal / black metal / sludge etc compilation. All money made from the sale of this compilation is going to Refuge - a charity that helps women and children who have experienced domestic abuse. ( refuge.org.uk ) It is a pay-what-you-want compilation so think of it as a donation to the charity while receiving some excellent music in return. Also it's really really, good.   Refuge: Part II by Ripcord Records