HYLI Vol. XXXV - Angel Du$t and Mare Cognitum
Patrick sends Andy some punk from Baltimore and Andy sends Patrick black metal from Portland.
Hey y’all. Not much here for me this week. It’s just another week, you know? It was my anniversary last week so me and my wife ate a nice dinner out on the lake and that was cool. Good food rocks almost as hard as good music. The only other thing of note that I have is that power-pop sicko and all-around great guy Mo Troper released his fifth album, MTV, last Friday and it fucking rules. Check it out! (Andy: Shoutout to my brother Tommy who got married in Banff last weekend)
Angel Du$t - Rock The Fuck On Forever
Patrick: Angel Du$t fucking rocks. I love the current scene of Baltimore kinda hardcore kinda just rock bands so much. Rock the Fuck on Forever is pretty close to a perfect album for me and the best from Angel Du$t. The earlier stuff that’s closer to hardcore and the later stuff that’s essentially just pop rock works for me, but nowhere near as well as this album, which feels like as concise of a statement for this band and general scene as you could hope for.
Almost all of the songs are under 2 minutes here. That fucking rules. They don’t overstay their welcome, getting in with the hooks and getting the fuck out. I love that. And, man, there are some fucking hooks. This is pretty close to traditional “punk rock” but is one of the hookier versions of it since, like, the Ramones lol. Justice Tripp is one of the better songwriters in this space going and has been for over a decade now. It’s absolutely sick. I love the guitar tone on this. Ideal stuff. Hope You Like It.
Andy: I listened to one Angel Du$t (this is an all time bad band name imo) (Patrick: so bad that no less than three bands have used it) album a few years ago and it wasn’t my jam at all so I was a bit hesitant going into this. Pat said I would like this one better and I hate when he is right.
This was fun as heck. I didn’t realize that Trapped Under Ice singer Justice Tripp was part of this band (Patrick: he is basically thee band). Love a 21-minute 13-song album. So easy. I bet I listened to this at least 2x a day since Pat recommended it the other week. I loved the sax solo on “Stranger Things.” “Toxic Boombox” has got to be a banger live. Very fun melodic punk. I definitely prefer when my punk/hardcore isn’t as upbeat as this but it really works well here for me. I just wanna smile and mosh and scream lyrics with a bunch of sweaty people (Patrick: hope to get to do this with you again some day, my brother).
I usually listen to both the album Pat picks and also the album I pick multiple times each week. For some reason, I felt like these paired really well? I am far too tired and stupid to articulate why a melodic upbeat punk band paired well with a space-themed atmospheric black metal project but it really worked well for me. I Liked It.
Mare Cognitum - Luminiferous Aether
Andy: Mare Cognitum is a one-man space-themed atmospheric black metal band conceived by Jacob Buczarski. That’s right. We’re back on that black metal grind my guys and gals.
Mare Cognitum (the name of a specific mare of large, dark basaltic plains on the surface of Earth's moon) (Patrick: uh huh) was one of those Bandcamp-spiral finds back in 2014 and I’ve been following him closely ever since. Great spacey and atmospheric production really vibes with the outer space art direction. Honestly, one of my favorite atmospheric black metal albums. Buczarski just gets it, man. The guitar on “Heliacal Rising” (or the phenomenon of a planet, when it first becomes visible above the eastern horizon at dawn just before sunrise after a complete orbit of the earth around the sun…obviously) (Patrick: right, for sure) gets stuck in my head with each listen and the more traditional “Occultated Temporal Dimensions” (dude likes space) shows that Buczarski isn’t just a spaceman gimmick.
Atmospheric-one-man-black-metal is arguably one of the most crowded scenes around and I’m not sure who is doing it better than Buczarski (Patrick: whom else is doing it at all). This might be the best black metal album of 2016? I’d have to consult the records but it definitely has a shot. I love black metal. Hope You Like It.
Patrick: I had a nice like four weeks of thrash in here (Andy: it was only two, you’re so bad at math). I feel like Andy is going to anticipate that since we are moving into some weirdo shit again that I’m going to be a baby, or something like that. He’s always so rude to me. Well, guess what, loser, not this week. Luminiferous Aether kicks ass.
I’m pleased to find out that this project is basically a one-man-band formed by some dude named Jacob Buczarski. You reading this, Jake? Good job, I liked your album. The vocals in here are consistently treated almost as if they’re another instrument, which is something that seems to pop up a lot in black metal that I enjoy, never really stealing the shine from the guitars or drums but not being totally insignificant either. Just a consistent tone throughout in a “““““pleasant””””” way.
There’s almost a bit of like a space-rock element to this, which I guess you can gather from the artwork, that is missing from a lot of black metal that I really enjoyed. This feels especially evident with “Constellation Hipparchia,” to me. With so much of black metal feeling like it’s either set in the Mines of Moria (shoutout to all my LOTR: Rings of Power fans) or in some snowy forest, it’s cool to go out to Space. The guitars really shine with that aspect, adding in some delay and reverb and not just your standard Boss HM-2 tones. I wouldn’t say I “loved” it but I certainly Liked It A Lot.