Mining Metal is a monthly column from Heavy Consequence contributing writers Langdon Hickman and Colin Dempsey. The focus is on notable new music emerging from the unconventional metal scene, highlighting releases from small and independent labels, or even releases from unsigned acts.
Blood enchantment? Absolute everywhere? If it weren't for the fact that it's on Century Media, it would have made our list. Hell, we could have written four posts about it. It's that good, as you've no doubt heard ad nauseum over the past month. More than God's country, The lasting spiritor even Loathe's I let him in and he took everythingfeels like the biggest unifying metal album of the decade, which isn't to say it's the best metal album of the decade, but everyone heard it and had immediate thoughts about its release. That kind of wide-ranging discussion and enthusiasm (or criticism) doesn't happen much in metal, and rarely with as much fervor as it did with Absolute elsewhere.
Perhaps it's because Blood Incantation is still a big fish in small ponds (at the time of writing, Absolute elsewhereThe most popular song from “The Stargate”. [Tablet I]” has just over 700,000 streams on Spotify and the music video for “The Stargate” has over 250,000 views on YouTube. The latter has a phenomenal comments section, by the way), but this positive reception doesn't provoke me to derision or trigger my inherent contradiction. There hasn't been any major push for the band's music other than the promotion of their label and word of mouth. Some people are angry that Blood Incantation continues to play music other than death metal, but their complaints come with the territory.
Absolute elsewhereExtremely warm reception among everyone, but Profanica fans should have put me off because everyone liked it and wouldn't shut up about it. That kind of communal worship sucks to me. It's my durian. But for the first time in a long time, I was happy that Absolute elsewhere He gained so much attention and affection, almost happier than when I listened to him.
Nobody gets into death metal for interesting things, nor does anyone get into progressive rock, and even more so, kosmiche, for those reasons. That may have influenced why he was so captivated by how people received Absolute elsewhere. It's weird and people wanted it weird. I'm not projecting myself so much on the album as much as I'm excited to want to be part of the crowd here. I want to be aware of the hype because there doesn't seem to be any doubt on my part; to commune with others who hear the same qualities as me, and praise them for the same reasons as me, for such deserving work.
Plus, most of the people I turn to for music recommendations and smart insights enjoy it. My well-educated musical friends love it. My friend who just messaged me to check if I don't like Sleep Token's vibes. I rarely get carried away by moments, and after a year of the horrors happening elsewhere, this feels comfortable and livable. Individual people, not a crowd, praise Absolute elsewherethus feeling more like a unit of people than a faceless entity of yes men. This is why I feel good about congratulating. Absolute elsewhere even more so, without having to mention a single moment of his music.
But let's not forget, it came out through Century Media. So let's move on to the underground albums you actually got to read about.
– Colin Dempsey
Psst. I'm Langdon. Thanks for reading the introduction. As a gift, here are some honorable mentions, albums that were stellar and are still worth your time. It should be about a month of underground thunder! first we have giganThe magnificent new technical/progressive death metal album, the surprisingly strong heavy metal of ether vacuumthe surprisingly extreme and progressive doom of The king of the mountainthe very dreamlike, Formless Body-adjacent raw black metal/alternative rock of Jewelry box and the always impressive new album dawn walker who I have written to before. Enjoy!
– Langdon Hickman
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