FROM THE SWAMPS

Total was a side project of Matthew Brower, better known for his work with Skullflower and Pure. EBF is an album that could best be classified as 'psychedelic noise,' because it is most certainly noise music, but in the style of an extended, hallucinogenic Indian raga. If you can appreciate drone music but aren't so keen on noise, this may still be an album for you. It's one of their most accessible works, and probably their finest. Very surreal, and never a dull moment. Bitingly gentle, mesmerizing... Eternity's Beautiful Frontispiece

Alatyr was a Slovakian ambient black metal band that released only two albums before they called it quits in 2008, having only released one album. Since then their label put out another album from that time period, Zemou Zabudnutia, but since their self-titled is superior, I have decided to post this instead.  Truly hypnotizing stuff, not to mention a hidden gem. Alatyr

Atmospheric black metal before the trend really took off. Occasional clean vocals, and tastefully done keyboards. Very much so a German-sounding band, bearing similarities to Urfaust and Lunar Aurora in its epicness and ambition, while still not venturing into super raw territory .  Hünengrab im Herbst  

Great technical death metal with a foundation in old-school sensibilities. Lots of strange  Demilich -esque riffage with their own brutal edge to it. Very much so an overlooked classic in Finnish death metal! Psychostasia

Some super nihilistic sludge/doom for wintertime listening. FFO Grief, Noothgrush, Primitive Man Hymns of Slumber