Listen: it’s no secret (because we choose not to make it a secret) that a vast majority of the writers and editors here at Heavy Blog belong to the

5 years ago

Listen: it’s no secret (because we choose not to make it a secret) that a vast majority of the writers and editors here at Heavy Blog belong to the left side of the political map. There are exceptions and there is variety; “the left” is not some monolithic, featureless plateau where everyone thinks the same (no matter what Jordan Peterson might tell you). We have our disagreements and our differences, but we all agree on one thing: voting is better than not voting. Now, don’t get me wrong, voting is not the end-all-be-all of political activism. In fact, one of the major problems of our current political climates is that belief; that voting is where a person’s obligation to their community, political or otherwise, end (both in the U.S. and in Israel, where I’m from).

There’s a lot to be done. We, like everyone else who has ever lived, live in troubling times. In many ways, we are now, more than ever, forced to consider the political system called democracy and decide how we want it to look in the future. Don’t be fooled; everyone operating in politics today, whether on the left or on the right, knows that big changes are happening and will continue to happen. Facing those challenges will require a lot more than just voting. It will require that we rethink and re-engage with the basic tenets of our society. It will require that we work hard and do so for a long time, just like people have before us, on the basic questions and answers which, together, make up our families and communities.

But, in the meantime, we can and should vote. We shouldn’t stop being politically active at the polling booth or when election season is over but we sure as hell should show up to vote. Voting, like it or not, still has tremendous power. Forget the President. It’s no mistake that the people in power would like you to think just about that electoral race. Think about governors, representatives, functionaries on the federal, state and, indeed, global level. Think about mayors and comptrollers and district managers. These people are all, in one way or another, affected by people voting. These people are all, in one way or another, the people who change the fabric of our society for better or for worse.

And it’s damn important that more people engage in voting for them. And it’s even more important that the state, as flawed as it is, protect those people’s right to vote. And in the U.S., and across the world as well, it hasn’t; on the contrary, that right is being attacked again and again, by conservative forces on both sides of the political map. It’s in the interest of those in power currently that fewer people can vote. It’s in their interest that fewer people of color and young people can vote. It’s in their power that fewer working people can vote. Because those are the people who stand to lose the least and gain the most from a sea change in how we envision and engage with politics (and yes, my Marx is showing there. Sue me).

So, this Friday, we stand with Bandcamp who are, once again, lifting up the call for a worthy cause, just like they did when they supported the ACLU. This Friday, Bandcamp will be donating 100% of their share of all sales to the Voting Rights Project. As such, we have compiled a list of new releases, like we do every Friday, and added to it notable releases from this past year and a bit further back that you can purchase on Bandcamp. You can read more about Bandcamp’s efforts, as well as their reasoning and some statistics, on the page they’ve dedicated to this project. You were probably going to buy music from this post anyway, and most of the links we put here every Friday are from Bandcamp. Won’t it be even greater to know your money is going to a cause we should all, from either side of the aisle, support?

Let me end this intro on a personal note: please, for the love of whatever you might hold holy, go out and vote whenever and wherever you can. Go beyond that; look into politics. Start or continue reading. Talk about it with your friends, earnestly. Post about it online, earnestly. As a student of history, I won’t tell you that we’re at a crossroads because here’s the secret: we’re always at a crossroads, forever and always. Don’t get into politics because of some romantic vision of this political moment mattering. Get into politics because all political moments matter. We’re glad to stand with Bandcamp at this crucial moment; we hope you join us, now and beyond.

-Eden Kupermintz

New Releases – Sept. 28, 2018

A Forest of Stars – Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes (avant-garde black metal, psychedelic black metal)

All Them Witches – ATW (psychedelic blues rock, stoner rock)

Anaal Nathrakh – A New Kind of Horror (blackened deathgrind)

Ascariasis – Kintsukuroi (atmospheric deathcore, blackgaze)

Binah – Phobiate (death metal)

The Black Queen – Infinite Games (darkwave, synthpop)

Bliss Signal – Bliss Signal (electronic blackgaze, industrial metal)

Blood of Serpents – Sulpher Sovereign (blackened death metal)

Cumulus – Comfort World (indie pop, indie rock)

Dödsrit – Spirit Crusher (melodic black metal, crust punk)

Elysian Fields – Pink Air (dream pop, slowcore)

Entropia – Vacuum (psychedelic black metal, post-metal)

Exploded View – Obey (krautrock, post-punk)

Field Works – Pogue’s Run (ambient, field recordings)

Gouge Away – Burnt Sugar (hardcore)

[bandcamp video=3035230837 width=560 height=435 bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Heads for the Dead – Serpent’s Curse (death metal)

[bandcamp video=2450276042 width=560 height=435 bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Tim Hecker – Konoyo (ambient, glitch)

Helrunar – Vanitas Vanitatvm (black metal)

Horrendous – Idol (death metal)

Hypnos – Set Fire to the Sky (hard rock)

Immortal Guardian – Age of Revolution (power metal)

The Joy Formidable – AAARTH (alt-rock, indie rock)

Marissa Nadler – For My Crimes (contemporary folk, singer/songwriter)

Mudhoney – Digital Garbage (alt-rock, punk)

Peluché – Unforgettable (neo-psychedelia, neo-soul)

[bandcamp video=3257600719 width=560 height=435 bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – King of Cowards (heavy psych, stoner rock)

Prophetic Scourge – Calvary (death metal)

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 track=3910955317 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

Psychotomy – Aphotik (dissonant death metal)

Restorations – LP5000 (post-punk, shoegaze)

Revocation – The Outer Ones (tech thrash, tech death)

Roosevelt – Young Romance (dance pop, synthpop)

Slow Crush – Aurora (shoegaze)

This Will Destroy You – New Others Part One (post-rock)

UN – Sentiment (funeral doom)

Vreid – Lifehunger (melodic black metal)

Walking Dead on Broadway – Dead Era (symphonic deathcore)

Well Wisher – This is Fine (indie rock, pop-punk)

Witch Ripper – Homestead (stoner metal, sludge metal)

Wolfheart – Constellation of the Black Light (melodic death metal, death-doom)

Other Noteworthy Releases

ADT – Insecurities (avant-garde jazz fusion)

Augury – Illusive Golden Age (tech death)

[bandcamp video=3683054592 width=560 height=435 bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Lea Bertucci – Metal Aether (electroacoustic, modern classical)

Black Matter Device – Modern Frenetics (mathcore)

The Central – Sick and Dying (experimental grind)

COAST – COAST (modern jazz, nu jazz)

Conjurer – Mire (blackened sludge metal, progressive death metal)

Convulsing – Grievous (avant-garde death metal)

Crispin Wah – Lemon Pepper (shredgaze)

Dawnwalker – Human Ruins (post-black metal)

Dead Now – Dead Now (progressive stoner)

FAUS – APESTATE (mathcore, metalcore)

Flora – The Bottom (math rock, post-rock)

FlyByNo – Endless Space 2 OST (soundtrack, video game music)

Future Usses – The Existential Haunting (post-metal)

Andy Hauck – The Winding Way (prog metal)

Hooded Menace – Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed (death-doom)

Horizon Ablaze – The Weight of a Thousand Suns (black metal)

House of Lud – Olden Void (stoner doom)

Howling Sycamore – Howling Sycamore (experimental prog metal)

In Decay – Spectral Slough (witch house)

Inoculation – Pure Cosmic Dread (tech death)

ION – A Path Unknown (psychedelic black metal)

La Armada – Anti-Colonial Vol. 1 (grindcore, hardcore)

Lack The Low – One Eye Closed (art pop, chamber pop)

Lesser Glow – Ruined (doom, post-hardcore)

Lonker See – One Eye Sees Red (avant-garde jazz-rock, psychedelic rock)

Lucis Absentia – Gehenna Gate (tech thrash, melodeath)

Malady – Toinen Toista (prog rock)

Mothmother – \ˈpe – sə – ˌmi – zəm\ (sludge, grindcore)

Mournful Congregation – The Incubus Of Karma (funeral doom)

Noname – Room 25 (abstract hip-hop)

Of Feather and Bone – Bestial Hymns of Perversion (deathgrind)

Old Faith – Old Faith (post-rock)

Ought – Room Inside the World (art punk, post-punk)

[bandcamp video=1500396324 width=560 height=435 bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Outed – Fucked (queergrind)

Power Trip – Nightmare Logic (crossover thrash)

Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name (progressive death metal)

[bandcamp video=3505360814 width=560 height=435 bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Sectioned – Annihilation (metalcore, beatdown)

Slidhr – The Futile Fires of Man (black metal)

Jeff Snyder – Sunspots (experimental electronic, minimal synth)

Subtle Degrees – A Dance That Empties (avant-garde jazz, modern classical)

[bandcamp video=3170512612 width=560 height=435 bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5]

Svalbard – It’s Hard to Have Hope (blackened hardcore)

Syrictus – Untitled (tech death)

Other New Non-Bandcamp Releases

Anchors & Seagulls – Lanterns (post-rock)

Beartooth – Disease (metalcore)

Cypress Hill – Elephants on Acid (latin rap, west coast hip-hop)

Dir en Grey – The Insulated World (experimental alt-metal)

Necronomicon – Unleashed Bastards (thrash metal)

Riverside – Wasteland (prog rock, alt-metal)

Stratovarius – Enigma: Intermission II (power metal)

Terror – Total Retaliation (hardcore)

Heavy Blog

Published 5 years ago