IN ROTATION: Our most played albums in January 2020

GOTH MARK’S JANUARY’S IN ROTATION LIST

January? Bleh. The start of the year is always a bit weird, innit? Cold (if you live in the northern side of the planet like I do, especially in Britain), boring, grey, and everybody is just on a massive Christmas comedown aren’t they? All that build up for a week and BOOSH – gone inside of two weeks that are a blur of alcohol, and stuffing yourself with food until you burst. Apparently, a new decade too – although personally it doesn’t carry the same gravity as the 1980, and 1990s ending. Personally, right now I’m waiting for Giant Meteorite at the moment – because face it, the world just seems to be getting more and more awful; and metal appears to be the only saviour in a world of madness. Anyway, enough of my gloomy pissing and moaning – here’s my musical stimulants for January.

Godflesh – A World Lit Only By Fire

Most scene veterans like me have been into Godflesh for donkey’s years, usually by being into Napalm Death and learning that Justin Broadrick was at one point in the band in late 1980s on the ‘Scum’ album (If my metal history is correct, he was on Side A whilst Lee Dorrian was on Side B; the latter on vocals for ‘The Peel Sessions’ album). I knew of the name as far back as I can remember when I first got into metal, but it took me until the release of 2014’s ‘A World Lit Only By Fire’ to finally check them out where it was nominated in my Top 20 for that year. Needless to say, I worked my way backwards through the discography and thoroughly enjoyed all what I heard. Especially this crunchy groove laden bastard of a tune, called ‘New Dark Ages’ that can quite frankly raise the dead and make them “throw phat metal shapez”. Better late than never, eh?

Pitchshifter – Infotainment & Desensitised

I was digging back through my record collection to verify if I had some albums that are now worth an arm and a leg (thanks to this bizarrely irrational vinyl craze that’s being doing the rounds for a couple of years), and rediscovered that I’ve got some Pitchshifter albums. Not that I’m willing to part with them, or course – but then it had me playing them all over again. Annoyingly, Spotify revealed some glaring gaps (Digby pissing bands off on his label again?) that I had to upload onto Google Music so I had them as a much needed running soundtrack (yes, I’m still going the Couch To 5K and lost 1.5 stone so far). ‘Infotainment’ and ‘Desensitised’ are perfect Industrial Metal albums that have stood the test of time very well indeed, and it’s a shame that allegedly the band has “sent these albums down the memory hole” and are reluctant to play the tracks live. The less said about the release of ‘Un-United Kingdom’ (20th Anniversary Brexit Edition)’, the better. Urgh…

Sur Austru – Meteahna Timpurilor

It was a sad day to see Negură Bunget come to an end due to the untimely death of Gabriel Mafa (aka Negru) of a heart attack in 2017; and alarmingly at the age of 42 (which makes yours truly freak out quite a bit, seeing as I’m this old right now). Anyway, at some point last year completely unknown to me Sur Austru rose up from the ashes incorporating band members that were responsible for working on the incredible ‘Tau’ and ‘Zi’ albums, ‘Tau’ in particular being one of the most stunning black metal albums to come out of Eastern Europe. If you loved Negură Bunget’s albums past and present, then this is a complete and total no brainer; especially when you’ve had the good fortune like myself to see the band play live and see them play a bloody massive bucium (alphorn) on stage, flute and a semantron (xyplophone) as accompanying instruments for their refreshing and super weird but glorious blend of black metal. Now, the spirit of Negru’s work lives on as a logical and perfect continuation of his work.

Moonspell – Irreligious

Inspired by the the last Years of Decay article where we talked about what was released in 1998, yours truly decided to dig back through his album collection to check out Moonspell, notably the ‘Irreligious’ album. Their second release marked for a departure from their black metal leanings. as heard on their early demo/split/EP’s and their much lauded ‘Wolfheart’ full album debut; but despite the style change propelled the band to further exposure and a whole bunch of worldwide tours. It wasn’t a sea change as bad as…say….Metallica or Paradise Lost – but the change was unacceptable for some people who chose to stomp their feet about it, which is weird in some respects because it’s not like there isn’t enough quality black metal out there anyway. Still, it’s a – dare I say it – gothic metal banger and one of their better known albums that stood the test of time well.

Postvorta – Porrima

It’s actually about damn sweet time I mentioned a new release for once, isn’t it? These guys are from Italy, and the album is due to be released on the 20th February on CD, high quality download from Bandcamp, and also in a super limited number of 26 pieces worldwide recorded onto tightly bound ribbons coated in metal oxide, housed in a flat rectangular vessel that contains a curious and quaint mechanical system of sound conveyance for your delectable delight – the perfect physical medium for this Isis inspired post metal sludge to play back in your grandma’s 1987 Nissan Sunny automatic; whilst you take her out for her “everything medication”, and shopping for Batenburg Cake and Horlicks.

“Who are these, love?”
“Oh, it’s Postvorta – they’re an Italian post metal group”
“That’s nice. They make a lovely noise, don’t they?”…