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. Peppers are hot, hot hot. I’ll pick out my favourites (no highlighted albums means there wasn’t anything I really loved this week), the rest is in the playlist!

Back from holiday! I’ve updated the playlist last week with over 100 new songs to keep up. And this is a great release week, for me. Three bands I’ve loved for years have new albums out. And there’s a lot to discover, too. Dig in!

For support please head over to Patreon.

🌶️ Wolves in the Throne Room (atmoblack from the USA)

I’m not much for walking into snowy forests burning incense, plucking my beard and wonder at nature - but listening to this band does evoke the feeling and I’ll never not love it. They’re sometimes slow and gracious, crawling on thick layers of synths and guitars, and then fast and empowering like crushing sheets of glass.

🌶️ Deafheaven (blackgaze from the USA)

They can still surprise, huh? I didn’t know what to make of the singles. I didn’t think the first one was any good, but I liked ‘The Gnashing’. The record as a whole makes more sense, as it’s a melancholic statement that’s new and fresh, and at the same time pure Deafheaven. I do miss ‘Black Brick’ Deafheaven, but that doesn’t mean that Infinite Granite isn’t worth your time.

🌶️ Between the Buried and Me (progressive metalcore + every other genre ever, from the USA)

Another record that will need a little (more) time to digest. BTBAM is a band I love deeply, but they’ve kind of lost me the last five, six years. Bringing back the raw energy of Colors into this decade seems a good starting point for a new record. But is it enough? It is at times.

There’s more: Sodom (thrash from Germany), a split from Portrayal of Guilt & Chat Pile (black/screamo from the USA & noiserock/sludge from the USA), Silent Thunder (ambient black from the USA - this dude is also behind Lamp of Murmuur), Ox en Mayo Alto (🌶️ post everything from Argentina), Woman is the Earth (black from the USA), Necronautical (black from the UK - with the guitarist from Winterfylleth, drumming here), Ushangvagush (🌶️ raw black from the USA), Arcane Existence (🌶️ melodic black/death from the USA), Arkenfire (heavy from Canada), Despondent Moon (black from the UK), Sarcoughagus (stoner/death from the USA) and a live album from Ulver (🌶️ experimental electronic from Norway).

There are new songs out from: Iron Maiden (nwobhm from the UK), Earthside (🌶️ cinematic prog from the USA), Destruction (thrash from Germany), Exodus (thrash from the USA), The Silver (🌶️ black-ish from the USA - members of Horrendous and Crypt Sermon), 1914 (🌶️ blackened death/doom from Ukraine - this song featuring Paradise Lost’s Nick Holmes), Undergang (death from Denmark), Rolo Tomassi (progressive hardcore from the UK), Aeon (death from Sweden), Kowloon Walled City (🌶️ sludge from the USA), Outre-Tombe (death from Canada), Obscura (prog/tech death from Germany), Iskandr (black from the Netherlands), Aborted (death/grind from Belgium), Mortal Vision (thrash from Ukraine), Hate (blackened death from Poland), Inferi (tech death from the USA) and Beyond Grace (death from the UK), Dreamwheel (post/alternative from Austria/France). The rest is in the playlist!

Non-metal album of the week: I haven’t heard anything great!

I’m looking forward to next week because of: Hooded Menace, Spirit Adrift, Ex Deo, Jinjer, Wormwood, Wormwitch, Leprous & Nunslaughter

Have a great weekend! - Peter