International Harvester - Remains (Silence, r. 2018)

5xLP box from these Swedish psych/prog titans. Compiles the absolutely legendary Sov Gott Rose-Marie, the less interesting Hemat (released as Harvester) and then three LPs of rarities which are the real prize. I won't waste more bytes on Sov Gott but drop everything and seek it out now. The rarities are awesome, especially LPs 3 and 4 which contain three tracks apiece, all six long droning stomps a la "I Mourn You" from Sov Gott. Some of these must have ended up as Trad Gras Och Stenar tunes (the band after Harvester), one is a longer variant of the Sov Gott main theme and another appeared in much shorter form on Hemat but they all sound great and absolutely essential. The last rarities LP contains mostly shorter tracks, the band sounding a little more in Can form. These are rougher, jammier, more demo-sounding tunes but check out "Dada Babble Boogie" an absolute stomper. Great collection overall.

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Nachtmystium/Leviathan - In the Valley of Death, Where Black Metal is King: An Homage to the Roots (Ascension Monuments Media, 2018)

What the fuck is that title. Okay I get the first part is a Judas Iscariot tribute, but did we really need "an homage to the roots" in there? Hey wouldn't it be funny if these were actually covers of the band The Roots? Anyway. This album was supposed to come out 10 years ago, but it was blocked by the bands' respective labels. Now I guess they've figured out a way, or Blake Judd needs money for drugs so he's figured out a way, to put this out. The Bandcamp version has 8 tracks, 5 from Nachtmystium and 3 from Leviathan, but I've seen a 10-track tracklisting elsewhere. On the version I have, we have Nachtmystium covering Judas Iscariot, Ildjarn (twice), Von and Burzum. Leviathan tackles Ildjarn (twice) and Von once. I seem to be missing Leviathan's Judas Iscariot cover ("Where the Winter Beats Incessant") and one of Nachtmystium's Von covers ("Von"). Weird. Wonder if there were some licensing issues or something. All four Ildjar...

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.

Legend of the Seagullmen - Legend of the Seagullmen (Caroline/Dine Alone, 2018)

You may be familiar with the hype surrounding Legend of the Seagullmen, mostly because of the involvement of Danny Carey (Tool) and Brent Hinds (Mastodon). I wasn't expecting much but these were key bands of my youth, so I gave it a whirl, and it's whatever. It sounds kind of like a more rock/less metal version of Mastodon, maybe a less punk-y Turbonegro, a touch of Melvins (minus all the inventiveness), with horribly stupid lyrics and power rock moves like anthemic choruses and extreme guitar soloing. It's not as bad as the first track "We Are the Seagullmen", a real piece of shit, threatens, but it's not much better. It's a concept album that takes itself only semi-seriously...with the marriage of technical skill and tongue in cheek humor it's along the lines of a Green Jello, Tenacious D or a Les Claypool sideproject. But musically there's nothing here of interest, give it a skip.

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