Welcome to the To The Teeth newsletter. I’ll bring you up to date with new heavy music. As always: listen to almost everything at the playlist on Spotify, check out the Facebook page and for support please head over to Patreon! Peppers are hot, hot hot.

I’ll pick out my favourites, the rest is in the playlist!

Plus: the year is halfway! That means it’s time to look back with the list of the best records of 2021 so far. You’ll find it (*deep voice*) down below.

🌶️ At The Gates - The Nightmare of Being (melodeath from Sweden)

No introduction necessary, but I will tell you this is one of my favourite comeback stories. I like everything they’ve done from 2014 onwards and I think it’s amazing they’ve come back this creative and full of bravado - and even a little proggy. Cool band, doing cool shit.

🌶️ Year of No Light - Consolamentum (sludge/doom/post from France)

You’ve got to put a little effort into this one: this band takes it’s time to build up and to take apart again. Layered intensity, carefully composed and brought with the perfect production: not too smooth, not too gritty.

There’s more: Drawn & Quartered (🌶️ death from the USA), Mannveira (black from Iceland), Friisk (atmoblack from Germany), Lost in Grey (symphonic from Finland), Dharma (🌶️ death/folk from Taiwan), Die Apokalyptischen Reiter (death/folk/heavy from Germany), Sallow Moth (death from the USA), Nifrost (viking/folk/black from Norway), Scythelord (🌶️ death/thrash from Sweden/USA), Noctambulist (black/death from the USA), Diabolizer (death from Turkey) and Stress Angel (blackened death from the USA). The rest is in the playlist!

New songs: Obscura (prog/tech death from Germany), King Woman (🌶️ doom/post from the USA), Shining (avantgarde prog from Norway), Poppy (groove/industrial/pop from the USA), Hail Spirit Noir (prog/psych rock/black metal from Greece), Kryptan (🌶️ black from Sweden - with members of October Tide), Netherbird (symphonic from Sweden) and Wraith (blackened speed/punk from the USA). The rest is in the playlist!

Here are the heavy records I loved most this year so far.

Have a great weekend!

Peter