Besides industrial, the other thing I've been listening to a lot of recently is Swedish folk. Spotify has actually been a really great tool for this even if their genre tagging is less-than-stellar -- you just gotta know where to look if you wanna dig deep. For instance, how else would I know about Jonas Knutsson's various "Norrland" album collaborations with Johan Norberg? "Skaren: Norrland III" with Kraja? Maybe not as edgy as I usually go for, but it is undeniably gorgeous. Plenty more where that came from, too. Novices however, are very much encouraged to start with Hedningarna since they are (were?) an act that can do no wrong. "Tuuli", off the 1994 album "Trä" piles on the works: brilliant dense vocal harmonies, hypnotic beats, Wimme's excellent and unmistakable joik, witchy cackling and more -- everything the band is renown for, aside from their creative hurdy gurdy playing. Absolutely essential listening and a major influence on me and my interest in Scandinavian music.
Can't say that I'm all that excited about the new Opeth, but there's no denying that they are excellent at what they do and this new video for "The Devil's orchard" is actually pretty darn cool.
The closer we get to October 31, the more inclined I am to listen to all of my creepiest industrial/noise records. Not that I don't listen to the stuff year-round and not that I haven't been listening to A LOT of industrial/EBM lately (the new Pain Machinery record is fantastic btw, review forthcoming), but I'm all for seasonable-appropriateness and Interlace remain one of the absolute best post-millennium acts in the genre. 'Tis a huge shame they never followed through with a new album after the "Nemesis" single, but maybe the members are working on something new? Please enlighten me! And enjoy this track from their stellar 2004 record "Imago".
will be doing vinyl reissues of the first Aura Noir album "Black thrash attack" and Enslaved's 2nd demo "Yggdrasill" in October. The former comes out October 17 and will include a bonus cover of Venom's "Heavens on fire", the latter on October 31.
has uploaded a ton of music to SoundCloud for free streaming, including full albums from Dmitry Fyodorov, Boeoes Kaelstigen, Andreas Tilliander, The Bear Quartet and lots more: https://soundcloud.com/adrianrec/sets
"Itineranza" is the new single from Swedish gypsy-punks Crash Nomada and it will be released as a 7" on September 28 paired with a remix of "From town to town" on the flip.
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour are giving away the new tune "Major" as a free download in exchange for an email address: https://www.theasteroidsgalaxytour.com/
Look for the group's new album "Out of frequency" to be released on January 31 here in the US, and one month later on February 27 abroad.
Gaffa reports that Danish publishing/performing rights organization KODA is charging a tax to music bloggers who post music: https://gaffa.dk/nyhed/52883
More here: https://politiken.dk/kultur/musik/ECE1400625/musikbloggere-frygter-fremtiden/ (in Danish, also see the related articles at the bottom)
The fine print: 109,69 Danish kroner per month for non-commercial blogs with less than 2000 downloads or streams, 219.38 kr. for under 5000 and 329.08 kr. for up to 10k. Exceed that and you enter commercial media territory.
A Heavy Feather, the new solo project of the one-and-only David Sandström, now has a new website: https://www.aheavyfeather.com/
Look for his full-length debut "You're the lotion on darkness knuckles as it punches light in the face" to be released on October 12 via .
