Nahvalr - Nahvalr (2008)

Genre: Black Metal, Ambient, Noise
Country: United States

Before Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga was Have a Nice Life, they were Nahvalr. Very little similarities can be drawn from the two bands musically because one is a shoegaze post-punk band while the other is a noisy black metal band. Really, the only similarity that could be drawn are the feelings of dread that both bands evoke. The interesting thing about Nahvalr is that it's an open sourced album meaning that it takes fan made music and edits and distorts them. The beauty of this album is that despite being made from several different sounds across the globe, it still sounds like a cohesive album. Be warned because this is a really inaccessible album due to its noisy nature.

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Death of Lovers - Buried Under A World Of Roses (2014)

Genre: Post-Punk, Shoegaze
Country: United States

Death of Lovers is made up of members of Whirr and Nothing. The influence from the two bands' sounds aren't completely prevalent save for a couple of parts in some songs. The cold and depressive kind of post-punk sound is what really shines here and is certainly well executed. Taking influence from older post-punk bands and adding a dash from their other bands' sounds, Death of Lovers form a cold and haunting sound using spacey synths, baritone to whisper-y vocals, bumping basslines, clean guitar picking and strumming, and tight drum playing.

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Cirrhus - Cirrhus (2014)

Country: United States

Genre: Raw Black Metal

After years of demo and rehearsal tapes, CW Production's favorite group Cirrhus have finally unleashed their debut full-length album upon the world, and spoiler alert - it fucking rules. It's what you would expect; siix tracks of furiously melodic, yet raw as HELL black metal, punctuated by bursts of punk-fueled riffage.  The balance between the two is perfect, utilzing repetition, and then justifying it with hooks that you'll be humming to yourself a few hours later. The music is "epic" without the cheese usually associated with the term, and it's because of all this and more, that I think   Cirrhus may be the group's strongest set of songs to date. Fucking recommended.

 http://www.mediafire.com/?54epsw3i1zot12w

 

Cortez - Phoebus (2013)

Genre: Post-Metal, Screamo, Hardcore
Country: Switzerland

It's a little hard to pin these guys down into a genre but really those genre tags should suffice for now. Regardless, this is one hell of a record that kind of reminds me of Amia Venera Landscape with a more atmospheric approach to it and less metalcore. It sounds incredibly intense and it's well produced as well. Plus these guys are on Throatruiner so you know it has to be intense.

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Kulara - Fragmental Remembrance, a Switch of Resurrection, and My Hearing Vanished (2001)

Genre: Screamo, Experimental, Post Rock, Psychedelic
Country: Japan

I guess it should be no surprise that a really strange and experimental take on screamo comes from Japan. At times you can hear the traditional post rock/screamo similar to Envy and then they throw you off by adding some psychedelic, jazzy or whatever else genre they feel like adding. Don't go into this expecting some progressive psychedelic screamo like Gospel's The Moon is A Dead World because this is a completely different and intriguing beast of its own.

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iglooghost & cow yote - SEWER_RAP (2013)

Genre: Hip-Hop
Country: N/A

Think Captain Murhpy (ie pitch-shifted rap over futuristic beats) except done much better. Only consisting of two songs (well, two songs with multiple songs within them) the two work together with such chemistry in its short run time. The glitch-y beats could definitely survive and live up on its own but cow yote really brings them to life here and does them justice.

Bandcamp and download within the description if you look hard enough

Vampillia - The Divine Move (2014)

Genre: Black Metal, Modern Classical, Post Rock
Country: Japan

Featuring screamed vocals mixed with soft operatic vocals while string instruments and piano play on top of blast beats and fast riffing, this will without a doubt be one of the strangest and most interesting albums you'll listen to this year. It's all about build and release here and the pay off is definitely worth it. The climaxes mix up the two halves of this album (the soft and the heavy) beautifully and fittingly. It's a fun and beautiful experience as much as it's bizarre.

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