Spelljammer was featured in our Clandestine Cuts in 2012 and now they're all grown up and signed. Check out their debut full-length Ancient Of Days for its fuzzy, spacey, heavy, stonery, doomy goodness.

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Endorsed by: BloodTears

Chaos Ech?s are a prime example of why French metal has gained such a solid reputation for being very forward-thinking and experimentally inclined in the past decade. Typically labeled as death metal or death doom, this album doesn't stop there, with the band also adding in elements of black metal, drone, jazz, psychedelia, and more to their sound. At some points fast and incredibly heavy, at others meditative and transcendent, Transient is a bizarre, polymorphous beast that defies classification, and seems to be nothing more than a full embrace of the power of human ingenuity.

Go have a listen and ponder over the nature of improvisation.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: Deadsoulman, Marcel Hubregtse, X-Ray Rod, wormdrink414, BloodTears, BitterCOld, Darkside Momo, ScreamingSteelUS

With Twilight Cinema being one of the best and imaginative albums of 2014 (in my opinion of course), there is just no way you would not want to see this manic band perform this album almost in its entirety live and then do some more. That's right, not just hear but also see it live. Drop whatever series you were planning on watching and have a go at this one instead. This is just so much pure fun!

Watch on YouTube or listen right here.

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If you find Firebirds and energy weapons interesting, or maybe you're a sucker for witches and have nasty yankee mannerisms, you know--you're not listening to this obsessively yet why? Truly we're living in an age of great Clutch albums.

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Endorsed by: Introspekrieg, Ivor, X-Ray Rod, BitterCOld, Deadsoulman

Despite the long running time, Litany's numerous stylistic influences, great atmosphere & compositional depth keep the listener engaged for the entire duration of the album. In fact, with music this good the challenge isn't really about if you can get to the end without hitting the 'stop' button...but if you can stop yourself from immediately hitting 'play' again!

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Endorsed by: Deadsoulman, ScreamingSteelUS, X-Ray Rod, Starvynth

Nobody regurgitates slimy, unsettling grindy-death like Cattle Decapitation. The Anthropocene Extinction is on the one hand technical, cold, and rigid, and on the other a great, big, bloody mess of disgusting offal and pulsating remains. Top it all off with one of extreme metal's most remarkable vocal juggernauts, and the gory might of Cattle Decap cannot be contained. Whatever they've been doing these last few years has paid off immeasurably.

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Endorsed by: Deadsoulman, wormdrink414, psykometal

Chaos Moon return with a swell four track. Two atmospheric black tracks before they close out on a harsh note. Yippee.

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Endorsed by: Auntie Sahar

Ahab are constantly evolving . Every album adds something new to their repertoire. In this (theoretically) confined genre Ahab always finds another way to surprise us, another direction towards which to push the genre. The Boats of the Glen Carrig might be the most brilliant facet of this gem that is Ahab.

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Endorsed by: Marcel Hubregtse, Deadsoulman, Auntie Sahar, Nefarious, BitterCOld, BloodTears

These guys must be the illegitimate bastard brothers-in-arms of Iron Fist... The 4 track EP is under 10 minutes of, well, High Octane Anarchy, showcasing two tracks off a past album, two off a forthcoming one. "Deepwater Horizon" is a special version, performed in the band's native Viennese German. Heavy Metal Vomit Party time!

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Endorsed by: Marcel Hubregtse, Abattoir, wormdrink414

If you've heard Kekal before you understand that they are a weird Indonesian experimental band.
The production value on this is horribly raw and flat, but in a strangely endearing way. A few songs feature VOCALOID, which I assume from a google search is some sort of pillow waifu thing. There is also a prominent barf outro. From their bandcamp: "All musical contributions to this album are kept anonymous. Kekal has no official band members as of 2015." I don't understand, but I'll accept it. Recommended for fans of Unexpect (lots of chaotic electro abrasions mixed in), Sigh (esp. Imaginary Sonicscape), Mr. Bungle, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Ephel Duath, and Ved Buens Ende.
Highly recommended if you like Pestilence - Spheres or the raw vocoder days of Cynic.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: X-Ray Rod, Ag Fox, ScreamingSteelUS

Grooves, hooks, riffs and lots of melodies!

Features Travis Neal (Divine Heresy) and Shaun Glass (ex-Broken Hope, ex-SOiL)

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Better mixing. Better pizza. And I'm all out of gum, papa John.

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Endorsed by: X-Ray Rod

Having released one of the best EP's of the year in 2014 with their demo A Hunger Rarely Sated, Anopheli have followed this up with an equally brilliant yet slightly more refined debut album The Ache Of Want. This is 40 minutes of cello infused Crust punk/post-hardcore that deserves your attention, so go give it a listen NOW!

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Endorsed by: Darkside Momo, Deadsoulman, BloodTears, ScreamingSteelUS, X-Ray Rod, Starvynth

This album is an amalgamation of ambient atmosphere, structure and noise. It's convoluted yet sensible enough not to appear to be completely out to lunch. This is food for the restless mind. If you, like me, enjoyed their début album, this will definitely sit well with you.

Try the album teaser at SoundCloud.

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Endorsed by: Darkside Momo, BitterCOld, X-Ray Rod, Ag Fox, Auntie Sahar, psykometal

First offering from the former Runemagick members lives up to the name Heavydeath. Great doom tunes, deathy vocals - but a good share of droning elements are the perfect accompaniment. And it is a tad amusing that Eternal Sleepwalker was released on Caligari records.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: Marcel Hubregtse, Deadsoulman