PODCAST: December 2020 Episode

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EPISODE NOTES & HIGHLIGHTS:

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In closing this long, strange year, we arrive at both the mouth of winter and the crest of the new-fallen holiday season. Those two factors will certainly color this episode's tone, but it's not a fully-themed show. Scattered throughout, you will find odes to the season at hand -- cold, sparse songs, fit for a frozen, pensive landscape. You'll find a special set in the middle carrying most of that weight, along with a handful of actual Christmas songs, but the bulk of the show will be comprised of the new, non-seasonal dark music that you've come to expect, along with a few classics from the vaults to balance the journey.

We begin with a not-so-holly-jolly song from the new ROME album, The Lone Furrow. Perhaps it's the difficulty of our times speaking, but the tone of "Kali Yuga Über Alles" just felt right at the front of the line this month. From there, we kick off the first full set with some trad-goth music from Nashville's own Shadow Assembly, whose new album Arcane Fusion features many guest vocalists that you will recognize, including Sonsombre's own Brandon Pybus. What you'll hear on this episode (despite my mix-up in the talk break) is actually an older track featured on Cleopatra's new compilation, "The Unquiet Grave 2020." We then dip back to 2018 for some energized post-punk from Blood Bells (also featured on said compilation) before finally checking out a song from the new Rosetta Stone album, Cryptology, which sees the return of more traditional songwriting to the project, but with more stripped-down, less "wet" production than the '90s incarnation.

We then visit Ukraine for a dose of sparse, melancholic post-punk/minimal-darkwave from The Glass Beads' new Therapy album. Having finally issued their first physical release in many years, The Fairmount Chronicles: Chapter One, Seraphim Shock returns with another new single, this time of the piano-based and more somber variety, which suits this episode just fine. Speaking of which, The Last Dance goes beyond somber to heartbreaking, with a set-closing, December-themed classic from 2005's essential, Once Beautiful.

Set two is where the seasonal songs have mostly been, uh... quarantined? Rogue and/or The Cruxshadows start things off with their 2020 holiday song -- a bouncy, danceable number this time (grab it here) -- followed by an equally danceable, but far more frosty take on winter's lore by Iceland's own ice queens, Kælan Mikla. Mephisto Walz then give us "A Winter Song" from their more recent output, before we dive into a pair of especially-goth takes on traditional Christmas songs, courtesy of Lycia (featuring The Unqiet Void) and Eva O. Both songs appear on Projekt Records' "Excelsis 1 (A Dark Noel)" compilation, which turns 25 this year. Finally, a new entry from Detroit's Vazum rounds out this set by turning the very same holiday classic you just heard on its ear as a deathrock/darkwave inversion. You can find that, and a couple of other twisted takes, on their holiday EP, Vazumnacht.

 

Set three returns us to reality, beginning with a small tribute to the memory of Dariusz Malinowski, bassist/vocalist for cult Polish post-punk band Siekiera, who died earlier this month. In his honor, we begin with the immortal title track from the band's landmark 1986 album, Nowa Aleksandria.

Siekiera's Dariusz Malinowski (center), R.I.P.

 

A 2018 cut from NONE's Havoc album continues the set, leading us to a new single from Chile's Diavol Strâin. And I'm late to the party on this, but Oakland's Cult Strange steps up next, featuring at least one member of Altar de Fey, to give us even more quality California deathrock from their early-2020 EP, Rites of Passage. The Nephilim-esque sounds of Sweden's The Last of Us come riding into the sunset after that, leading us to the set's closer from New Skeletal Faces, who have a good buzz around them at the moment for their late-2019 release, Celestial Disease. If you like to walk the borders of deathrock and metal, don't sleep on this one like I did for a while. And check out their new video here. 

 

The dark metal set begins with a pair of new Finnish black metal releases. First, a taste of the new Horna LP,  Kuoleman Kirjo, then -- to make sure you have not a moment's rest -- a new one from Valravn's Prey LP jumps right in. Moving over to Sweden, we then hear the first single (and video) from the forthcoming Tribulation album, Where the Gloom Becomes Sound. Nashville strigoi-synth vamp, Crypt of Carmilla, creeps in next with his new Winter Solstice single, a cover of Onoskelis' "Hierarchic Battle of Pagan Storm." Finally, more new Swedish black metal from Ondskapt closes the set, with a track from their new Grimoire Ordo Devus album.

Finally, as it has become something of a tradition, I allow Edward Ka-Spel (and the rest of The Legendary Pink Dots) to close the December show with one of his famously bizarre, creepy-quaint tales. This one is taken from the just-released The Legendary Pink Dots Christmas Special 2020. Sing while you may...

 

All of that PLUS: Soundtrack selections to suit the wintry/holiday vibe; new dark ambient from The Unqiet Void; a promised rarity from Elliot Goldenthal's "Interview with the Vampire" recording sessions; and more.

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PLAYLIST BEGINS HERE
Format: Band Name - Song Title [Album Title, Year]

(each band name is also a website link)
(sets and talk breaks separated by dashes)

"Out ov the Coffin" w/ Ichabod
  Show recorded: December 22nd-23rd, 2020

Opening Theme: 
Elliot Goldenthal - Libera Me [from "Interview with the Vampire" (soundtrack), 1994] 

ROME - Kali Yuga Über Alles  [The Lone Furrow, 2020]
-
Danny Elfman - The Cemetery / The Lair (Part II)  [“Batman Returns” (soundtrack) 1992]
-
Shadow Assembly (feat Brandon Pybus) - Languish  ["The Unquiet Grave 2020" (comp.)]
Blood Bells - Destroy  [A Time for Roses, 2018]
Rosetta Stone - Remember (Don’t)  [Cryptology, 2020]
The Glass Beads - Dark Side  [Therapy, 2020]
Seraphim Shock - We Bleed  [The Fairmount Chronicles: Chapter One, 2020]
The Last Dance - December  [Once Beautiful, 2005]
-
Ludwig Göransson - Beneath the Ice  [“The Mandalorian” Season 2, Vol. 1 (soundtrack) 2020]
-
Rogue/The Cruxshadows - Persephone (Love in Winter)  [single, 2020]
Kælan Mikla - Draumadís  [Nótt eftir nótt, 2018]
Mephisto Walz - A Winter Song  [Scoundrels, 2017]
Lycia & The Unqiet Void - We Three Kings  ["Excelsis 1 (A Dark Noel)" (comp.) 1995]
Eva O - O Holy Night  ["Excelsis 1 (A Dark Noel)" (comp.) 1995]
Vazum - Unholy Night  [Vazumnacht, 2020]
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Johnny Douglas & Robert J. Walsh - Hssssssssss! / Drama Underfoot / Snowy Mountain Calamities  [“G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero” (soundtrack) 1983]
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Siekiera - Nowa Aleksandria  [Nowa Aleksandria, 1986]
NONE - Mystery  [Havoc, 2018]
Diavol Strâin - Destino Destrucción  [single, 2020]
Cult Strange - Slave to the Algorithm  [Rites of Passage, 2020]
The Last of Us - Draw  [The Last of Us, 2020]
New Skeletal Faces - Leather Funeral  [Celestial Disease, 2019]
-
The Unqiet Void - Song of My Soul  [“The Unquiet Grave 2020” (comp.)]
-
Horna - Saatanan Viha  [Kuoleman Kirjo, 2020]
Valravn - Throne of Blood  [Prey, 2020]
Tribulation - Leviathans  [Where the Gloom Becomes Sound, 2021]
Crypt of Carmilla - Hierarchic Battle of Pagan Storm (Onoskelis Cover) [single, 2020]
Ondskapt - Excision  [Grimoire Ordo Devus, 2020]
-
Elliot Goldenthal - Claudia’s Theme for Glass Harmonica (v1)  [“Interview with the Vampire” (The Recording Sessions) 1994]
-
The Legendary Pink Dots - A Feathered Friend  [The Legendary Pink Dots' Christmas Special 2020]

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