Dylan Carlson - Conquistador (Sargent House, 2018)

With Earth seemingly on hiatus, Dylan Carlson has gone the solo route. A couple albums released under the Drcarlsonalbion moniker and then this, his first under his given name. It's a scant 32 minutes, and described by Carlson as the soundtrack to an imaginary Western. This is a little odd, because if you recall Earth's mighty comeback album Hex; or Printing in the Infernal Method was kind of a soundtrack to a Western that didn't exist - specifically, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Western themes have been a staple of current-era Earth so if this sounds like well-trod ground to you, well, it is. It's a mostly solo electric guitar effort with tracks ranging from droning and methodical like you saw on Hex to more noise-oriented, ragged, harsher explorations. Which is to say it's all well and good but no doubt a minor entry in the ever-expanding discography of Mr. Carlson.

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Corrupted - Felicific Algorithim (Cold Spring, 2018)

For whatever it means, this is the beginning of Corrupted's "Hollow" series. Maybe the clue is in the music? Unlike Corrupted's traditional ultra-slowed down, Spanish-sung, Japanese doom metal this is instrumental harsh noise. Still filthy and angry and depressive but sans vox and also more or less sans metal. Both untitled sides are meant to be played at either speed. The result? Meh. I miss Corrupted's brand of doom, this relatively anonymous harsh noise is fine and all but if I'm listening to Corrupted...well I know what I want. Skippable.

Abstracter - Cinerous Incarnate (I, Voidhanger, 2018)

I was not aware of these guys, who formed in 2010 as a noise duo, and slowly evolved and added more members and turned into a kind of death/blackened doom metal project. They've got ties to other noise acts I don't know (Sutekh Hexen) and other industrial acts I don't know (Only Now). Quite a stew and the band pulls of something that sounds truly different. It's got a tentacle in each of the aforementioned genres but blends them really well. It's quite hard to pin them down in fact. Big, heavy riffs with a production level along the lines of a sludge/black metal record but sharp instrumentation and just a dirty atmosphere...ambient noise passages separate a couple tracks as a nice diversion...very cool

Grouper - Grid of Points (Kranky, 2018)

I've never really liked Grouper much, lots of other wogs go ga-ga over anything she puts out but it all leaves me cold. I wrote her off for a while, heard some hype for this new one, and I'm back to writing her off again. It's the same ghostly vocal samples/quasi religious/hymnal vibes..haunting and ethereal and...nothing that gets me all wound up. Pass.

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