Pushing the death metal envelope, Finnish trio Ligation unleash their brand of 'death mental' with their debut album, After Gods. Working within the confines of that cold, dark, Scandinavian sound, Ligation further their agenda by integrating uncommon, but highly welcome, elements like harsh noise and saxophones. Integrating the three tracks from their two prior split EPs, After Gods showcases the band in all their mighty glory, tearing new holes in the death metal fabric, allowing other dimensions to saunter in and wrap their tendrils on an unsuspecting audience. 

In the field of music, you don't have to look very far to find meditations of all kinds; David Shea's Meditations is something else. Taking its cues from the actual IRL act of meditating, grounded in Buddhism and the Heart Sutra in particular, the eight pieces that make up this album are born out of meditating, sometimes even musically, and are designed to accompany or engender that process. I guess that means listening and being attentive to the other performers, like those who round out the album's lengthy roster and their instruments--vibraphones, guitars, ebows, and yes, singing bowls, among others. 

For 10 Musicians is a modern ensemble suite, at its most stark and spare. The four-track work is built around spaced piano notation, with which the wind and string instruments are sometimes connected. It creates a work that is more about mood/ presence, and less about melody/ structure- though those do sometimes occur.

Les Signes Passagers brings together seven compositions written especially for the fortepiano- an early version of the modern piano, named for its ability to play both softly (piano) and loudly (forte). The works here are penned by Swiss composer Jürg Frey, and played by pianist Keiko Shichijo- who is a specialist in the instrument. The resulting album stands as one of the more pared-back/ sparse/ fragile keyboard-based recordings I’ve ever heard.

The Recordings is a four-disc set bringing together all of the 70s output from Gracious!, a Surrey prog rock band, who had an adventurous/ dramatic sound that blended blues, rock, classical, symphonic, and beyond. The set brings together three CDs and a DVD, which features the band's short set at the 1970s Isle of Wight Festival

The Maiden is a 2022 drama written and directed by Canadian Graham Foy (Paradise Falls, Mouseland and August 22, This Year) and shot on 16mm film. The Maiden is his debut feature-length film.  The cast is made up of mainly first-timers, with no previous experience in cinema. Jackson Sluiter plays Kyle, Marcel T. Jimenez plays Colton, Hayley Ness is Whitney, Kaleb Blough is Tucker Siena Yee is June, and Charlotte Clarke plays Charlotte.

Going from Emma-Lynn’s bandcamp, this is a recently formed project from Untah, with this release & one other to its name. This is around a twenty-five-minute ep, takes in three tracks that sit in the more weathered ‘n’  hope rattling side of the walled noise genre.

Bleached Bones Flayed Skin is decidedly gnarly ‘n’ ragged example of the wall-noise form. The dead on twenty-minute track finds this Scranton, South Carolina project serving up yet another example of crude & corrupted walling.

Pure Visuals is a forty-minute slab of dense 'n' cranium-churning walled noise from this highly prolific/long-running California project. The track is simple/ set in its attack and form, though it works very effectively as a world-blocking-out sonic mass, which I found oddly soothing.

My Name Is 'A' by Anonymous is a 2010 teen crime drama, which shifts liberally between brain-numbing vapidity & deeply troubling behaviour. The film blends cinema vertia,  found footage, and low-key artiness with a structure that drifts in & out of its loose plot.  Here from Wild Eye Raw’s series is a release of the film, taking in three different versions of the film, and a few other things.

You’re All Doomed is the new slasher throwback film from long-running/low-budget horror/ sci-fi director Mark Polonia. He’s been active since the 80s, with around a hundred features to his name- including SOV classics like Splatter Farm & Hallucinations. The film to hand truly is a love letter to stalk ‘n’ slash films of the 80s, with some lines/ scenes directly mimicked. Here from Wild Eye Releasing is a DVD release of the film, taking in Mark’s always worthy, interesting, and down-to-earth director's commentary track.

Dawn Of Inhumanity was the 6th, and to date, final studio album from this Oakland, California, Death metal band.  After the more creative/ moody genre mixing ‘n’ matching of some of their earlier work, this album largely focuses on a more straightforward blend of death & doom metal. Here from Peaceville is a CD reissue of the album, which adds an extra thirteen bonus tracks- featuring assorted 7”, demos, and split release tracks.

From the mid-70s, The House Of Laughing Widows stands as one of the more formally chilling, at points downright unsettling/disturbing examples of the giallo form.  It regards a young art restorer going to an isolated village to work on a decidedly macabre fresco in the local church.  The film may not feature a particularly high or creatively executed set of murders. However, it takes in some great uneasy settings, a compelling/ strange mystery, and moments of true bone-chilling terror and alarming horror. Here from Arrow US, as either a UHD or Blu-ray, is a recent release of the film. It takes in a new 4k scan,  two new commentary tracks, a new feature-length documentary, and more.

With a title like The Killer Must Kill Again, and a release date of the mid-70s, you’d imagine a gory proto slasher. But in reality, this Italian production is seen by some as a gialli, but I’d say it’s more of a straight-if-at points-suspenseful thriller. It features, in its lead, Mr Giallo himself as George Hilton, as a husband who decides to get rid of his wife, but things don’t go quite as planned. The film has a fast-moving, fairly simple but effective plot- with some great moments of tension, and light touches of sleaze & gory murder.  Here from Rustblade- is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in an interview with the director and a few other things.