The End - Elementary (2007)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

The End - Transfer Trachea Reverberations from Point: False Omniscient (2001)

Years before Tesseract, Periphery, and their legions of disciples were fusing heady, math-y heaviness with dark, melodic alt metal, there was Elementary. It kinda sounds like if hardcore-Cave In and alt-Cave In made a record together. Unfortunately, fans of The End never stopped pining for the Calculating Infinity-worship of their debut EP, and they never really found a new audience to replace the old one. Thus, both of the band's excellent Relapse albums were largely either ignored or hated on, and they broke up shortly after the second one (Elementary) was released. Frowny-face.

Track listing:

1. Dangerous

2. The Never Ever Aftermath

3. Animals

4. The Moth and I

5. Throwing Stones

6. My Abyss

7. Awake?

8. A Fell Wind

9. In Distress

10. And Always...

When it seems like all you're made to do is suffer

You'll be pleased to know that miracles do occur

Also listen to:

Eryn Non Dae - Hydra Lernaïa (2009)

The Contortionist - Intrinsic (2012)

The Armed - Only Love (2018)

Colorful, dense, ecstatically heavy, spastic-hardcore-based sounds from Detroit. Love the way this album is structured -- more and more melody starts seeping in as it goes on, but without sacrificing an ounce of intensity, then they burn it all down in a glorious, atonal, yet somehow beautiful inferno. But I'm just another voice in a large choir of people around the internet currently singing this record's praises, so let's not waste any more of your time or mine -- if you haven't already, go read what someone else has to say about it. Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:
1. Witness
2. Role Models
3. Nowhere to Be Found
4. Apperception
5. Parody Warning
6. Fortune's Daughter
7. Luxury Themes
8. Heavily Lined
9. Middle Homes
10. Ultraglass
11. On Jupiter

Sparks fly from their eyes
Birds fly from their mouths

You'd also enjoy:

Gasp - Drome Triler
of Puzzle Zoo People (1998)

Wildildlife -
Six (2007)

Trephine - Trephine (2005)

Related:
Meatjack - Days of Fire (2003)
Darsombra - Climax Community (2012)

Heavy instrumental math rock, or math-y instrumental post-metal, or whatever other combination of interrelated subgenres you feel like tossing in a blender. A great band with extremely dialed-in tones.

Track listing:
1. Goes to Hell, Mr. Wiggles (Part One)
2. Age of Reptiles
3. Metal Detector
4. Devil's Activist
5. Axolotyl
6. Resident Advisor
7. Adrenochrome
8. Goes to Hell, Mr. Wiggles (Part Two)

Yes, people do die from fear

You might also enjoy:

Wildildlife -
Six (2007)

Eagle Twin - The Feather
Tipped the Serpent's Scale (2012)

The Avenging Disco Godfathers of Soul - The Ultimate in Authenticity and Musical Usefulness (2002)

Chaotic, math-y, all-in-all bonkers hardcore/screamo. A great deal of synth, as well as some other unorthodox instrumental choices, assure maximum mind-fuckery. As unfashionable as they may seem -- the cringe-y name, the wackiness, their style hasn't been relevant in almost two decades, etc. -- none of that stops TADGOS from delivering the fucking goods. Plus, go ahead, try to tell me that "Headache in My Ass" isn't a song title for the ages.

Track listing:
1. Somewhere in the Arteries
2. Caribbean KnifeFight
3. Invisible Jacket
4. Reflex Point
5. Revelations Part 2
6. Headache in My Ass
7. The Clone Chamber
8. Witch Hunt
9. Revelations
10. Burned at the Stake

I'm from hell, open a windle

You might also like:

Love Lost But Not Forgotten -
Love Lost But Not Forgotten (2000)

Curl Up and Die -
Unfortunately We're Not Robots (2002)

Curl Up and Die - Unfortunately We're Not Robots (2002)

Chaotic, math-y hardcore. Unfortunately We're Not Robots has a great arch to it -- keyboards quietly creep in about halfway through, and things pretty much just get weirder and weirder from there. Plus, you know it HAS to slay, as I'm posting it despite it having one of the most insufferable track listings of all time.

Track listing:
1. We
2. Are
3. All
4. Dead
5. 100 M.P.H. Vomit Dedicated to Jon
6. On the Run from Johnny Law Ain't No Trip to Cleveland
7. Ted Nugent goes AOL
8. Total Pandemonium
9. Doctor Doom, a Man of Science, Doesn't Believe in God, Why the Fuck Do You
10. You'd Be Cuter If I Shot You in the Face
11. Make Like a Computer and Get with the Program
12. Your Idea of Fascism and Global Intervention Make Me Puke
13. I Lost My Job to a Machine
14. Kissing You Is Like Licking an Ashtray
15. Rich Hall (Runner Up in a Carson Daly Lookalike Contest)

An uncomfortable routine

More along these lines:

Gaza - I Don't Care Where
I Go When I Die (2006)

Pariso -
Consanguinity (2013)

Eryn Non Dae - Hydra Lernaïa (2009)

French progressive metal. Math-y time signatures and prog-death filtered through the expansive feel and crushing heaviness of post-metal. Primo beardo material.

Track listing:
1. When Time Elapses
2. Blistering Hate
3. Existence Asleep
4. The Decline and the Fall
5. Lam Tsol Oua
6. Through Dark Skies
7. Opposites from Within
8. Echoes of Distress
9. Pure

Absolutely nothing

You might also wanna listen to:

Rosetta -
Wake/Lift (2007)

The Contortionist -
Intrinsic (2012)

The End - Transfer Trachea Reverberations from Point: False Omniscient (2001)

Some of the best mathcore I've ever heard. Chaotic, dense, and heavy, with a screamo (that's the old definition, mind you) edge, and a few moments of strange, woozy beauty.

Track listing:
1. Her (Inamorta)
2. Opalescence.I
3. Opalescence.II
4. The Asphyxiation of Lisa-Claire
5. For Mankind, Limited Renewal
6. Sonnet
7. Entirety in Infancy

To never be shown in the open world

If you like this, try:

Love Lost But Not Forgotten -
Love Lost But Not Forgotten (2000)

Majority Rule -
Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Plebeian Grandstand - False Highs, True Lows (2016)

Awe-inspiring French black metal. The dissonant, warped guitar style and enveloping, darkly dramatic overall sound for which the French black metal scene is known, channeled through a rhythmically complex approach that harkens to late 90s chaotic hardcore, and performed with unassailable musicianship that's worthy of the tightest of tech-death. AND, to top it all off, it's fucking free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:
1. Mal du Siècle
2. Low Empire
3. Tributes and Oblivions
4. Volition
5. Mineral Tears
6. Oculi Lac
7. Tame the Shapes
8. Eros Culture

Flail in the bliss

You'll probably also like:

Gigan - Quasi-Hallucinogenic
Sonic Landscapes (2011)

KZOHH -
IAOLTDOTAD (2014)

Gigan - Quasi-Hallucinogenic Sonic Landscapes (2011)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Gigan - The Order of the False Eye (2008)

Second and possibly best album from this criminally underrated band. The controlled chaos of tech death at its most gnarled, psychedelic, and all-around awe-inspiring. Light a spliff, turn this up loud, feel your mind catch on fire and slowly drip out of your ears.

Track listing:
1. Mountains Perched Like Beasts Awaiting the Attack
2. Suspended in Cubes of Torment
3. The Raven and the Crow
4. In the Tentacled Grasp of a Buried Behemoth
5. Transmogrification Into Bio-Luminoid
6. Skeletons of Steel, Timber, and Blackened Granite
7. Vespelmadeen Terror
8. The Fathomless Echoes of Eternity's Imagination

A vortex, pulling up yet pushing down
As though even cosmic omnipotence is conflicted

Pick yourself back up and try these:

Lost Soul - Immerse in Infinity (2009)

Altars - Paramnesia (2013)

Gigan - The Order of the False Eye (2008)

Chaotic, dissonant tech-death. Don't be fooled, though, as Gigan's style of tech-death is way less about trying to wow you with pointless displays of technical prowess (read: noodling) than it is about generating a gigantic, swirling, cacophonous atmosphere of clashing, slippery riffs and quasi-melodies. Features Erik Hersemann (ex-Hate Eternal) on bass, guitars, and synths.

Track listing:
1. Undead Auditory Emanations
2. Occult Rites of the Uumpluuy
3. Still Image Symphony
4. Imprisoned within Duality
5. Hiding Behind the House of Mirrors
6. Chrysalis
7. Interstellar Inversion of Consciousness
8. Space Coffin Hallucinations
9. [Secret track, sshhhh, don't tell!!!]

In the tentacled grasp of a buried behemoth

Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamless (2000)

Discordance Axis are arguably the greatest grindcore band of all time. This is their final full-length, and it is essential listening for any fan of challenging, heavy music. Thanks to my son Hell Mouth Yawns for reminding me about this band's existence. Keep on chasing those birch trees, you're my pride and joy!

Track listing:
1. Castration Rite
2. The Inalienable Dreamless
3. Sound Out the Braille
4. Oratorio in Grey
5. Vacuum Sleeve
6. Angel Present
7. The Necropolitan
8. Pattern Blue
9. The End of Rebirth
10. Loveless
11. Radiant Arkham
12. Use of Weapons
13. Compiling Autumn
14. Jigsaw
15. The Third Children
16. A Leaden Stride to Nowhere
17. Drowned

Damage