Bowing and Scraping [Mixtape 34]

At The Gates • Dead To A Dying World • Dissolve Patterns • Morrow
Contemplator • My Dying Bride • All My Faith Lost... • Giant Squid • Grayceon

Direct Download [right click + "Save As"]

Bandcamp Picks - Dead To A Dying World, Vaura, Waste of Space Orchestra, PAK, NNRA

Dead To A Dying World continue to make strides with each album. Elegy is their most refined release yet, demonstrating they're equally adept at quiet introspection as they are at furious blasting. Rather than just another crusty black metal band employing cellos (believe it or not, there are a few), DTADW are shaping up to be a band that can integrate classical elements into metal while exploring the emotional depth of both. [$8 CAD]




DoC friends Vaura continue their chimeric evolution with their third album. Sables re-focuses the band's genre-blending compositions around new wave and prog rock - moving them away from metal but retaining its dark heart. A Cure for derivative heaviness. [$8 CAD]




Waste of Space Orchestra contains members of Oranzi Pazuzu and Dark Buddha Rising, and the fruit of their union is as out there as you'd expect. A space themed (and space rock influenced) take on avant garde black metal, Syntheosis is as unsettling as it is unconventional. Svart Records is being stingy with the number of preview tracks on the Bandcamp page, but trust me - this psychedelic mindfuck is worth checking out. [€7]

A collaboration between NY-based composer Ron Anderson and members of Imperial Triumphant and Cleric, PAK are cut from the same cloth as math rock heroes Don Caballero, but stitched by much rougher hands. Bestial is a confounding (mostly) instrumental album, full of unorthodox time signatures and dissonant anti-riffs. If you think Black Flag would have been better without a vocalist, this Ginn-soaked oddity is for you. [$5]



A project from the man behind the Middle-Eastern inflected post-metal band Ddent, Louis Lambert, NNRA similarly defies pithy categorization. Incarne fuses post rock with industrial elements to create instrumentals that are both atmospheric and futuristic. The album plays like a film score; appropriately enough, visual artist Sebastien Mathieu created seven videos to accompany the album's "movements". [Name your price.]

catching up with Dead To A Dying World

It's been a while since I  checked in with Dead To A Dying World, and they've hella been busy since then. In addition to re-issuing their debut and releasing their Roadburn set as a live album, the Dallas-based ensemble completed work on their third album Elegy, which is set to be released through Profound Lore Records in April. Bassist/guitarist James Magruder was kind enough to catch me up on what his band has been up to.