Mantar

Mantar, “Eternal Return”

I long ago ran out of stuff to say about Mantar, so let’s just have a close listen to this. The shift up to the double-time drums fifty seconds in is nice. And a nice change in the gallop shortly after the vocals kick in. There’s a restlessness here, where they’re refusing to totally settle into a groove, which is kind of nice. Although sometimes the fun of music like this is a nice punishing rhythm. Views differ, apparently even in my head!

Altar of Plagues, “Feather and Bone”

Altar of Plauges didn’t last very long, producing three albums, but the last two of those are masterpieces of metal. Fusing black metal with post-rock aesthetics, rooted in a willingness to let a song stretch out and breathe, I’d actually recommend the third Altar of Plagues album (Teethed Glory and Injury) to someone who wanted to give uncompromising black metal an honest try. However, I actually think their second record (Mammal, which gives us today’s track) is slightly better. It’s just a lot to take in, with only four tracks, the shortest of which is 8:17. But if you have the patience, and meet it on its terms, it’s brilliant stuff.

King Crimson, “21st Century Schizoid Man Including Mirrors”

The early pinnacle of prog rock, In The Court of the Crimson King set a standard that a bunch of other bands would strive uselessly to surpass, including King Crimson themselves for a while. Now, prog is inherently ridiculous, but it’s also hard not to enjoy the unbounded artistic ambition here. I’m not a huge King Crimson guy, because I think a little of this can go a long way, but this is very easy to just sit back and listen to.

Uh oh, the roll below the level / ‘cause I’m livin’ low

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, “Intro: A Song Of Fire And Wine”

My goodness, this is so corny. But, this song does set you up for the cheese sculpture that is this record, which is probably good. And I authentically love the album (So Divided), so I’m happy to hear this. I’m just bummed I’m not going to hear the rest of it right now.

A short little year-end roundup today, from Jamie Zawinski, who I’ve maybe been reading stuff from longer than any other person online, as I recall first encountering reading something from him back in 1995. I’m going to see about putting up some kind of year-end wrapup here myself towards the end of the month, I’d like some time to spend time with all the new stuff I’ve picked up.

Here’s today’s tunes. It’s a good set today!

December! Fear not, there will be no Christmas themed Five Songs to contend with here, unless shuffle pulls something up randomly (and there’s very little Christmas music in my collection). Maybe I’ll do some obnoxious metal-themed special on the 25th though. Here’s today’s tunes.

Mantar, “Cult Witness”

One of the things I like doing is going through “Best of the Year” roundups from various music blogs that do good work and just trying a bunch of stuff I’ve never heard of. Mostly, I do pretty well through this process, and even if they’re not all favorites, it gives me a chance to break out of my established loops and try and find some new bands. It can be easy, especially as I get older, to just rely on the same stuff I’ve always listened to, and this sort of explicit process helps shield against that.