HYLI Vol. XCII - Suicide and Blut aus Nord

Today is Halloween and we are back after a long break to bring you two spooky albums to listen to!

Queue up some Thin Lizzy because the Boys are Back in Town baby. Andy wrote one sentence and thought that was acceptable for an intro. We’ve been gone for seven months and we are so fucking back. What are y’all being for Halloween? This is the first Halloween where my child can walk (fully) and talk (kind of) and she has been just meowing all over the house so she is being a black cat (Andy: I’m also being a black cat) and my wife and I are being skeletons again because we forgot to buy costumes this year (having a child that is running all over the place makes shopping difficult). Hope y’all are ready for more of the classic HYLI model and all of the bitchiness that it entails. We’re back!!!

Suicide - Suicide

Patrick: When we came up with the concept of doing spooky albums for our first week back, this was my immediate gut reaction. What a fucking creepy and cool record. I first came across this because I was a little high school dork hearing Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen for the first time and dialing up Wikipedia and seeing Bruce say this album was an influence for his record (Andy: this is shocking to me). I downloaded this off Limewire and was immediately won over until I heard “Frankie Teardrop.” I wasn’t ready! I was just a kid playing football and watching Smallville! It is now easily my favorite song off here and one of my favorites of this era of the late 70s. Something about the tone of the drum machine and the vocals feeling like they were delivered a millimeter away from the microphone gives this such an unsettling feel. It’s like listening to something you weren’t supposed to hear. It’s lovely.

I’ve been watching Twin Peaks a lot lately and this feels like such a David Lynch sounding record. Suicide were clearly going for the same 1950s nostalgia as much of Lynch’s work, with so many pop early rock and roll chord progressions and keys sounds but there’s just enough wonkiness and dark production that it gives it a feel that is just off. “Girl” has this pulsing bass synth sound that just reminds me a ton of the score from Angelo Badalamenti on that program and his work with Lynch’s films as well. “Cheree” and “Che” kind of epitomize this the best. These could easily be songs by Spacemen 3 but the chimes in the former and the keys riff in the latter make this feel like it could score a Robert Eggers or some “elevated horror” type flick.

But, really, this record could be mostly bubblegum pop and if it had “Frankie Teardrop” near the end, it’d be a satisfying pick for a spooky record. Just what an unsettling song. Is there anything creepier Alan Vega’s vocals in the middle? The blood-curdling scream gives me goosebumps every time. I know Andy’s bit is “lyrics don’t matter” but the lyrics describing Frankie obliterating his family really just adds to the horror. As a husband and father, I don’t think Frankie should have shot his child and spouse with a shotgun. Just my take. I will not be hearing it for Frankie but I will be hearing it for this record. Hope You Like It!!!!!!!!

Andy: Brother, I’ve missed this so much (Patrick: me toooooo). I've been lost in my own little spiral of death metal and beatdown and i’ve been in dire need of something wild and new to me. And Patrick—true to form—delivered exactly that.

I really liked Suicide by Suicide—it’s one of those albums that grabs you right from the start because it’s so raw, eerie, and flat-out insane. What is this? Electro-punk (Patrick: Wikipedia says “synth-punk,” but this is a pretty singular group to me)? It’s definitely some form of punk, whether it admits it or not. Mesmerizing drums, sporadic keys, and chaotic vocals. Bag it.

The vocals walk a thin line between “What are we doing?” and “Hell yes,” and honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. He always sounds like he’s just on the edge of letting it rip (sometimes he does), and that anticipation is cathartic for me. All he does is mumble, screech and make odd noises—but somehow, it just lands (Patrick: you love an odd noise) (Andy: Blame Serj and SOAD).

Brother, what is going on with “Frankie Teardrop?” Is this why it was picked for our “Halloween” edition (Patrick: yes lol and stay tuned for our friends at Even Better's newsletter on spookiest songs where I go more in-depth on this track)? What a wild ride of a track. Alan Vega’s vocals keep building—intense and desperate, until he’s screaming by the end. Martin Rev’s relentless synths drive it all into a tight, claustrophobic corner…an anxious feeling you literally can’t escape. It’s not comfortable to listen to and I think that’s the point. You can feel the despair and frustration, and it leaves you exhausted, in the best way. I loved it (Patrick: fuck yeah).

Yeah, this is perfect for Halloween. It’s eerie, it’s hypnotic…and somehow, it’s easy listening? You could play this at a party, and people would act like it’s just background music—but they’d all feel that underlying weirdness without quite knowing why. It doesn’t quite cross into that “I wish we were all being killed at this exact moment” vibe like I went with for my pick. To each their own. I Loved It.

Blut aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

Andy: I immediately knew what to pick when given this prompt. Blut aus Nord’s The Work Which Transforms God is a 12-track, 52-minute journey. Honestly, this might be one of the most suffocating, oppressive albums you’ll ever listen to. There’s no escape and that’s the point. It is bleak, it is heavy, and it fucking rules. Pure, eerie chaos.

Every component of this album is unrelenting. I don’t know the proper term, but when they play a riff and then play the exact same riff again, just slightly differently so it sounds corrupted, twisted, and evil—oh man, that’s the good stuff. The vocals are just gross shrieks or haunted screams, reminiscent of that early 90s black metal. And the atmosphere this thing creates? Give me a break, man. The deep bass drum in the middle of “The Choir of the Dead,” the muffled screams on “The Howling of God”—so good. The drum programming (sorry Patrick) only adds to the mechanical, dehumanizing sound. Its all so eerie and otherworldly.

I’m sure Patrick is going to regret bringing me back into the fold, but, man, did I absolutely nail this prompt. A great album from a great band. Sorry to start you off in the deep end! Hope You Like It!

Patrick: What the hell man. I get no credit for how far I’ve come as a metalhead through doing however many issues of this newsletter. I liked this! It fucking rules!! I kinda love the cheap sound of the production and the drums sounding like they were recorded from inside of a tin can. It adds to the charm/creep-factor!

I vaguely remember hearing this band’s name like a decade ago as an influence on Sunbather by Deafheaven and hearing something from this band now, that kind of makes sense to me. There are a lot of guitar parts throughout that almost feel shoegazey, maybe most so on the opener “Choir of the Dead.” There’s a weird, almost watery, feel to the guitar tone. Like wading out onto the fucked up lake from Lord of the Rings outside of Khazad-Dum where shit devolves into insanity (Andy: The Watcher in the Water).

Perhaps predictably, I wasn’t totally crazy about some of the vocals. The actual proper lead black metal vocals fucking rule but dude does something on and off here where it just sounds like he’s burping or running his vocals through some sort of synth or something and I’m not rocking with it (Andy: Grow up). Also, kinda wish the interludes were doing more other than just “ominous tones.” Like, if you’re gonna have a song named “Devilish Essence,” give me some Satan and not just a player-piano riff. More devil, less essence (Andy: “Density “is literally 18 seconds of silence!).

But to be more positive, like I said, the lead vocals are sick. The guitar is fucking massive and rules. The drums are … “unique” and bad but cool (Andy: bad but cool is orobably the best descriptor of my interests). I particularly love the vocals on “Metamorphosis,” especially once they layer over the guitar motif that comes on towards the end. There’s also a great little solo on “Our Blessed Frozen Cells.” Maybe I’m just excited to be back doing HYLI with Andy but I had such a great time listening to this over the last week. We are back, baby, it’s better than ever.