Oak - Oak (2009)

Disgusting, dissonant, raw sludge-drone-death from Baltimore. True sounds of despair and malevolence from the B-more underground. Oak started out with two members of my old band Wake Up On Fire --  drummer Kevin (R.I.P) and vocalist Joe -- but I believe Kevin was only in the band for a few months and is not featured on this album.

Track listing:

1. Saline

2. Inside the Circle

3. Owl Eyes

4. Gates Are Open

Dead bodies fill the shore

Piled up for the taking

One face after another

Friends of:

Inure - Inure (Rough Mixes) (2003)

Moonshine - Moonshine (2005)

Aelter - Dusk-Dawn (2009)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Aelter - Aelter II: Follow You Beloved (2011)

Aelter - Aelter III (2011)

Under normal circumstances, I maybe wouldn't post yet another Aelter album, but I'm currently feeling like shit due to getting my COVID booster, and this dark, droning, sickly sound is exactly what I need right now, and it actually works perfectly for Halloween season, so that's what you're getting. Hey I just remembered the time that I had swine flu, which was one of the most wretched fevers I've ever had, and I apparently fully blacked out while listening to ØØ Void in bed, as I came to standing on the stairs with my wife tapping me on the arm.

Track listing:

1. Dusk

2. Dawn

To rest but never sleep

To sleep but never dream

You'd also like:

Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday (2008)

Blood Fountains - Floods (2009)

Atavist - Atavist (2006)

Crushing English drone-doom/sludge/post-metal. Strikes a great balance between the raw, abject misery of sludge and the melodic aspects of post-metal, including a few surprisingly effective major-key sections, like the one towards the end of "31:38" that's very reminiscent of the big payoff riff in Boris' Flood. Yes, those track titles are also the track lengths, so get comfy.

Track listing:

1. 31:38

2. 20:11

3. 14:12

"I live in the weak and wounded, Doc."

Also listen to:

Buried at Sea - Migration (2003)

Abandon - The Dead End (2009)

Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine - Rampton (2002)

Related:
Cathedral - Cosmic Requiem (1994)

Cathedral - Supernatural Birth Machine (1996)

Sarin - Nihilist (1996)

Iron Monkey - Iron Monkey (1997)

Iron Monkey - Our Problem (1998)

Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer (Seven Psalms for Our Lord of Light (1998)

Lotus Eaters - Alienist on a Pale Horse (2001)

Khanate - Things Viral (2003)

Ginnungagap - Remeindre (2004)

KTL - 2 (2007)

Ascend - Ample Fire Within (2008)

Sunn O))) - ØØ Void (2000) + Dømkirke (2008)

Sunn O))) - Rehearsal Demo Nov 11 2011 (2012)

ÄÄNIPÄÄ - Through a Pre-Memory (2013)

Given that mass of links, it should be obvious that Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine (named for an Earth song) is a supergroup. Essentially, it's Sunn O))) with drummer Justin Greaves (of Iron Monkey and many others) and the great Lee Dorian on vocals. As should also be obvious, they played massive, mean, monumentally heavy drone-doom. Too bad they only made one album.

Track listing:

1. He Who Accepts All That Is Offered (Feel Bad Hit of the Winter)

2. New Pants and Shirt

3. The Smiler

Within her hands are gifts for the damned

More like this:

Bunkur - Bludgeon (2004)

Circle of Eyes - Circle of Eyes (2011)

Hyatari - The Light Carriers (2004)

A crushing monolith of instrumental post-metal/drone-doom, divided into seven movements. Towering waves of guitar crashing down around simple, programmed drum patterns, and filled out by keyboards, samples, and one instance of chanting, reverb-drenched vocals.

Track listing:
1. Sheet of Flames
2. Freeform for the Disenfranchised
3. The Light Carriers
4. Fourth Realm
5. 14,000,000,000 Years Ago
6. Harvesting Sod
7. Collapse

Ooze

You'd probably also like:

Boris -
Amplifier Worship (1998)

Old Man Gloom -
Seminar III: Zozobra (2001)

Harvey Milk - Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men (1996)

Mind-blowing experimental sludge. Harvey Milk did a great job of throwing down the gauntlet right off-the-bat with "Pinnochio's Example", an almost absurdly difficult album-opener whose obnoxiously minimal, single-note-riding theme accounts for most of its 10-minute runtime, teasing a catharsis that never quite arrives, then quickly dissipating into a pretty, low-key outro as soon as you think it's finally hitting. They spend the rest of the album -- and their discography, for that matter -- relentlessly subverting expectations, and generating some of the most crushingly heavy music in existence.

Track listing:
1. Pinnochio's Example
2. Brown Water
3. Plastic Eggs
4. My Broken Heart Will Never Mend
5. I Feel Miserable
6. The Lord's Prayer
7. Sunshine (No Sun) Into the Sun
8. Go Back to France
9. A Good Thing Gone
10. One of Us Cannot Be Wrong [Leonard Cohen cover]
11. The Boy with Bosoms

I lit a thin green candle to make you jealous of me
But the room just filled up with mosquitoes, they heard that my body was free

Similar listening:

Boris -
Amplifier Worship (1998)

Prizehog -
Re-Unvent the Whool (2014)

Earth - Sunn Amps and Smashed Guitars Live (1995)

Witness the creation of drone-doom, which, according to Dylan Carlson (the man behind Earth -- I don't have to tell you that, right?) was made to be the ideal music for doing heroin and nodding off to. Despite the album title, only one song here was recorded live, and it's the all-guitar, 30-minute-long, album-opening monolith, "Ripped on Fascist Ideas". The rest are studio tracks from five years earlier, each of which consists of slo-mo Sabbath riffs over (mostly) programmed drums, and one of which ("Divine and Bright") features a haunting, ethereal vocal performance from Kurt Cobain and is one of my favorite songs in the world. (Why are there so many parentheses in this writeup?)

Track listing:
1. Ripped on Fascist Ideas
2. Geometry of Murder
3. German Dental Work
4. Divine and Bright
5. Dissolution 1

Doll steak
Test meat

You're also gonna wanna hear:

Boris - The Thing Which
Solomon Overlooked (2004)

Sunn O))) - ØØ Void (2000)
+ Dømkirke (2008)

Boris - The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked (2004)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Boris - Amplifier Worship (1998)

Raw guitar-drone abstractions. The first two tracks glean strange, vicious beauty from feedback and harsh noise as only Boris can, while the third and final track -- a blown-out, extremely down-tuned, extended gaze into the lightless void -- is drone-doom in its purest, most minimal form.

Track listing:
1. Scene 2
2. A Bao A Qui
3. 見せ続ける死角 - The Dead Angle Which It Continues Showing

The evil one which sobs

You should also hear:

Otesanek -
Otesanek (2004)

Sunn O))) -
Rehearsal Demo Nov 11 2014 (2015)

Vrolok - Resurgence III: Order of the Sphere (2007)

Related:
Sick - Filth and Ugliness (2005)
Vomit Orchestra - Void Paradigm (2005)
Vrolok - Void (The Divine Abortion) (2007)

Unsettling US experimental black metal. Dissonant, nauseous guitars, stuttering drum machines, anxious, distorted howls, and an album-ending monolith of pure, minimal, pitch-black drone that makes Sunn O))) sound lively. According to the liner notes, Resurgence III was recorded over the course of four consecutive sleepless days and nights, and that's exactly how it sounds.

Track listing:
1. Concerning the Human Entity and Its Absolute Denial of the Chaotic Spiritual
2. The True Elements of the Afterlife and the Elimination of False Hope Prevalent Throughout Organized Religion
3. The Machinery of the Inner Eye
4. Without Nomenclature
5. The Incarnate Form of Black Ecstasy and Rapture, Visual Purgatory

Infinite lucidity

You'd also like:

Malvery -
Mortal Entrenchment in Requiem (1999)

Sortsind -
More Days (2001)

ÄÄNIPÄÄ - Through a Pre-Memory (2013)

Related:
Sarin - Nihilist (1996)
Ø - Tulkinta (1997)
Mika Vainio - Onko (1997)
Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer (Seven Psalms for Our Lord of Light) (1998)
Lotus Eaters - Alienist on a Pale Horse (2001)
Khanate - Things Viral (2003)
Ginnungagap - Remeindre (2004)
KTL - 2 (2007)
Sunn O))) - ØØ Void (2000) + Dømkirke (2008)
Sunn O))) - Rehearsal Demo Nov 11 2011 (2012)

Abstract, experimental drone-doom from OPIUM HUM favorites/all-out brilliant artists Stephen O'Malley and Miki Vainio. Dissonant, downtuned guitars, minimal programmed drumming, scraping horror-movie strings, walls of drone and harsh noise, punishing electronics, and, occasionally, some pretty unsettling vocals. Without a doubt, Through a Pre-Memory comes off as an extension of Khanate.

Track listing:
1. Muse
2. Toward All Thresholds
3. Mirror of Mirror Dreams
4. Watch Over Stillness / Matters Principle

Impassable fears

You should also hear:

Ascend -
Ample Fire Within (2008)

Circle of Eyes -
Circle of Eyes (2011)

Cavernlight - Corporeal (2015)

Crushing, atmospheric art sludge from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Huge, layered sludge, carefully controlled tension-and-release, and tortured vocals, eventually collapsing into a massive pool of whirring electronics and droning feedback. One of the more interesting post-metal bands currently in operation.

Track listing:
1. The Ember That Burns in the Endless Dark
2. Wander
3. Upon the Threshold of Reason, Embracing Our Corporeal Forms
4. Through the Fog...

To wallow in the filth that dwells where despair is born

Also listen to:

Old Man Gloom -
Seminar III: Zozobra (2001)

Buried at Sea -
Migration (2003)

Prizehog - Re-Unvent the Whool (2014)

US art-sludge. Prizehog's deconstructed, psychedelic, often weirdly beautiful approach to sludge puts them in the company of bands like Melvins and Boris while carving out their own undeniably singular niche. An absurdly underrated record from one of Portland's finest.

Track listing:
1. Parradiggum
2. Whoady
3. Shed
4. Awsme Bube
5. Irrevelant
6. Gnumskull, the Ruler
7. Direction to the Valley

Triple lies and neckties divide
This will be his size

You'd also like:

Thrones -
Alraune (1996)

Bloody Panda -
Summon (2009)

Khanate - Things Viral (2003)

Related:
O.L.D. - The Musical Dimensions of Sleastak (1993) + Formula (1995)
Sarin - Nihilist (1996)
Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer (Seven Psalms for Our Lord of Light) (1998)
Lotus Eaters - Alienist on a Pale Horse (2001)
Khlyst - Chaos Is My Name (2006)
KTL - 2 (2007)
Sunn O))) - ØØ Void (2000) + Dømkirke (2008)
Sunn O))) - Rehearsal Demo Nov 11 2011 (2012)

Deconstructed, minimal drone-doom mastery. The first time I ever heard Things Viral was at a bar in Florida, and I remember thinking that it was the most fucked-up music I'd ever heard playing in a bar. Drawn-out, dissonant, half-distorted chords, humming feedback, razor-sharp drums, and legendarily unhinged vocals from Alan Dubin.

As well-known as they are, I've always felt that Khanate doesn't get enough credit. To me, the entirety of their output is some of the most advanced, unsettling heavy music in existence, yet tons of people act as though the only really good thing they ever did is the self-titled. BULL. SHIT. Things Viral, and their other two records for that matter, are as anxiety-inducing and terrifying as any horror movie, and that's a pretty remarkable achievement.

Track listing:
1. Commuted
2. Fields
3. Dead
4. Too Close Enough to Touch

I'm gonna put you under
Under an open field

You should also listen to:

Otesanek -
Otesanek (2004)

Bloody Panda -
Summon (2009)

Ocean - Pantheon of the Lesser (2008)

Just got back from four days of insanity on a houseboat, and am feeling haggard as fuck. So while I'm settling back in, here's some slow-ass heaviness. US drone-sludge delivered with the sloth-like pacing, minimal playing, and carefully structured, miserable grandeur of funeral doom. The second and final album by this unfortunately short-lived band.

Track listing:
1. The Beacon
2. Of the Lesser

Here where nothing grows

Also listen to:

Buried at Sea -
Migration (2003)

Otesanek -
Otesanek (2004)

Thrones - Alraune (1996)

Mind-melting experimental drone-sludge from the great Joe Preston. He probably doesn't need an introduction, but just in case: Over the years, Preston has played with Earth, Sunn O))), High on Fire, Harvey Milk, Men's Recovery Project, and Melvins (his Melvins solo record was easily the best of the three), and many others.

Track listing:
1. Gifthorse
2. Ursa Minor / Buio Omega
3. Mercuric
4. Ted Williams
5. Googander

Have another glass

You should also listen to:

Boris -
Amplifier Worship (1998)

Asva -
Futurists Against the Ocean (2005)

Yhdarl – Drone Nightmares I - Endless Mental Wounds (2007)

Belgian lo-fi minimal blackened drone doom. An oppressive, razorwire-lined aural pit of rumbling, down-tuned, blown-out guitars with a deeply mournful emotional core that slowly emerges from the murk. When the melodic section hits at the end of "When the Unfair Betrayal Still Lives On", dams burst, scars bleed, and birds fall from the skies. Free/name your price via a bandcamp page that's definitely worth your time to explore.

Track listing:
1. Agnus Dei
2. Slowly, the Earth Starts to Decompose
3. When the Unfair Betrayal Still Lives On
4. Faces Yourself Through the Rotten Mirror

Among infested stars

More:

Abruptum - Obscuritatem
Advoco Amplectère Me (1993)

Sunn O))) - Rehearsal Demo
 Nov 11 2011 (2012)

Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer (Seven Psalms for Our Lord of Light) (1998)

Related:
Sarin - Nihilist (1996)
Lotus Eaters - Alienist on a Pale Horse (2001)
KTL - 2 (2007)
Sunn O))) - ØØ Void (2000) + Dømkirke (2008)
Sunn O))) - Rehearsal Demo Nov 11 2011 (2012)

After Thorr's Hammer and before Sunn O))), there was Burning Witch. Extended repeated cycles of warped, punishingly heavy riffs, sharp, hard-hitting drums, and a vocalist who alternates between ritualistic singing and a deranged shriek. A triumph of drug-addled misery. One of my top 10 doom metal albums, hands-down, even though it's technically a compilation of two EPs.

Track listing:
1. Warning Signs
2. Stillborn
3. History of Hell
4. Sacred Predictions
5. Country Doctor
6. Tower Place
7. Sea Hag

I showed you my big mistake

You will also like:

Boris -
Amplifier Worship (1998)

Buried at Sea -
Migration (2003)

Boris - Amplifier Worship (1998)

One of my absolute favorite records of any genre. Amplifier Worship is fucking perfect -- from the slow-burning, layered riff-drone à la Lysol intro, to the ridiculously heavy, pissed-off sludge that follows, to the careening, percussion-heavy, hypno-hardcore midsection, through to the mournful post-rock denouement and, finally, the cleansing, minimal filth of "Vomitself".

Track listing:
1. Huge
2. Ganbou-Ki
3. Hama
4. Kuruimizu
5. Vomitself

Frogs love to eat flies, the Devil's name, Beelzebub, lord of the flies. Evil spirits love to spiritually feed upon those whom Beelzebub rule.

You should also listen to:

Old Man Gloom -
Seminar III: Zozobra (2001)

Laudanum -
The Coronation (2009)

Buried at Sea - Migration (2003)

Eardrum-shattering, life-decimating, earth-leveling sludge. Many scholars contend that the moment when the whole band comes in, about thirty seconds into track one, is the heaviest sound in the history of recorded music.

Three untitled tracks

She lived for others but died for us

More very heavy music:

Bunkur -
Bludgeon (2004)

Otesanek -
Otesanek (2004)

Beyond Black Void - Desolate (2002)

Related:
Until Death Overtakes Me - Symphony I: Deep Dark Red (2001)

Depressing-as-fuck Belgian funeral drone/doom for a depressing-as-fuck day. Ridiculously simplistic, slow, repetitive guitars punctuated by drawn-out growls and extremely sparse percussion. It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel like shit.

Track listing:
1. Desolate
2. Storm Over Jupiter
3. Evervoid

Days without hope

Also relevant:

Bunkur -
Bludgeon (2004)

Of Darkness -
Death (2004)