FROM THE SWAMPS

Keiji Haino is a musician and thinker who requires no introduction. Truly the musical embodiment of the Kyoto School of Nihilism, his work entrances the listener beyond the veil, into pregnant nothingness. What you get with this album is a level of simplicity on par with Soliloquy For Lilith  by Nurse With Wound: purely a tone generator, Haino's voice (which does not make an appearance until at least a half an hour in I believe), and the rare interjection of a stringed instrument that sounds somewhat like a sitar but most likely is not. A profound psychological experience all the way through, modern monophony in its stolid singularity provides a prism for self-effacement. So, Black Is Myself

Grand Mutation is the result of an hour-long jam session between noise artist Lasse Marhaug and accomplished organist Nils Asheim. Accurate words to describe this album would be (of course) dark...atonal...commanding...hypnotic...and these artists achieve a synergy that works very well.  Another great installment in Marhaug's staggeringly prolific discography. Organ music is perfect for Halloween time, no? Grand Mutation

Nadja is a music project between husband and wife, Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff, that mixes elements of dark ambient, doom metal, drone, and shoegaze. They've put out a ton of stuff, and have pretty much stayed active since Nadja started as a solo project by Baker in 2003. Once Buckareff joined the project, their sound definitely changed, and not necessarily for the worse. It just depends on one's own personal preference, if you like shoegaze-type stuff better, their later stuff as a duo is definitely for you. If you want more of a metal sound, stick to their earlier albums . I chose to post this because A) it's one of my favorite albums, B) for some reason, ever since Touched  was reworked in 2007 by Nadja as a duo, the original 2003 version of the album is kind of hard to find online, and C) since I fell in love with Nadja via the 2003 version of this album by finding a copy of the CD in my local library a long time ago, I thought it deserves more exposure, especia...

Velvet Cacoon was a black metal band from Portland, Oregon that heavily incorporated dark ambient elements in their music. They existed only for a short time, from 2001-2009, and during then released a few albums, including Genevieve , that helped define the then-developing subgenre "atmospheric black metal," or "ambient black metal." The "atmospheric black metal" sound varies widely from band to band, but in the case of Velvet Cacoon, they can be placed in this category based on their steady wall of hazy and cold guitars, hypnotic and ocean-like deep drones beneath the haze, as well as unusual vocals that are low in the mix, contributing more as instrument in itself rather than taking the foreground. In addition to their unique sound, they're just a couple of weird dudes. If you're interested, here's the link to an interview  they did with their label before releasing Genevieve . DXM addiction, asexuality, self-mutilation, eco-terrori...

My name is Catfish, and welcome to my swamp. Here you may find dark music of all kinds--take what you like--but remember to support the artists/bands mentioned as best as you can. We all have our methods.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ...