Brutal Death Metal and Unmet Expectations
Solid metal, funny tweets and wild merch
Alright, so this is the first time that you and I have had to have this discussion but, not all weeks are created equal. The first few weeks of this newsletter have brought some of the most exciting metal that’s been released all year. That impressive streak ended this week. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the week was a total loss. While the metal world was a bit of a letdown, the rest of the music world was bathing in a few glorious releases, some of which make a strong case for AOTY consideration. In any case, we still got some pretty good metal this week, even if nothing from this week is going to go down as a stone cold classic.
AOTW
Throane - Une balle dans le pied
Our album this week is actually an EP. I don’t believe it’s worth much to make a distinction between the two, so long as it provides enough substance to dig into. Throane’s Une balle dans le pied (A Bullet in the Foot in English) is a thirteen minute roundhouse kick to the face. Consisting of a single song, Une balle dans le pied takes a more dynamic route than most bands. The track shuffles through movements and genres as though it was a river meandering through distinct environs. It captures tones of doom, death and black metal throughout the runtime, making it easy to get lost in. Really it’s closer to being three or four distinct songs that are jammed together with perfect transitions. They pack a shocking amount into the thirteen minutes, but the album never feels too dense. Throne provided us with a masterclass in song construction. That they were able to do so with only thirteen minutes of material speaks volumes about their strength as songwriters.
Great Metal from this Week
Alas, the gods rained cruelty upon us this past week. Releases of note hid in the deep recesses of independent metal even more so than usual. But weak weeks happen, bouncing back is all that really matters. No album hit the coveted 8.0, so no bolded text for y’all this week. Next week looks promising.
Also yes, I know that HEALTH isn’t technically metal. No, I do not care, they make good music that sounds sort of like metal sometimes. It’s close enough for me.
Molassess - Through the Hollow
Aphonic Threnody - The Great Hatred
Label Highlight - Unique Leader Records
The extreme nature of metal tends to push people away from the genre. Today’s highlighted label, Unique Leader Records, doesn’t care about alienating listeners. An extreme metal label focused primarily on death metal, Unique Leader forces listeners to catch up or drop out. Their no holds barred approach pulls in listeners that are more likely to stick with the label and trust in its taste. Luckily, they have immaculate taste.
During the lull of last week I spoke with Jamie Graham, the CEO of Unique Leader Records, and dove into the history of the label, their approach to releases and what releases they have on the horizon. The following article has been informed by that interview and all quotes are directly from Graham’s responses with a few minor edits for clarity.
Erik Lindmark and Jacoby Kingston from Deeds of Flesh started Unique Leader Records in 1998. Built to promote interest in extreme death metal, the label became a haven for those whose tastes were extreme even within metal communities. Graham joined the label in 2017 at the age of 37. A veteran of the industry, Graham “started out in the business at the age of 18 working at One Little Indian, before (going) over to Century Media and then Sumerian Records.” Graham was put in charge of the label by Erik Lindmark in 2017 while Lindmark was dealing with an illness. Sadly, Lindmark did not recover, leaving Graham in charge of Unique Leader.
When asked to design a mission statement, Graham responded that their goal is “To be the leading label in brutal, extreme metal. I think we can safely say we are. There are bigger labels than us but we have a brand consistency people rely on. If it’s a Unique Leader release, you know it’s heavy.” As an avid fan of the label, Graham’s response isn’t bluster. No label releases music this consistently, absurdly heavy, and they’re well worth the time of anyone who is tired of stagnant, half-baked metal.
To ensure that this dedication to the brutally heavy remains intact, Graham and the folks at Unique Leader Record take a “very personal, hands on approach that a lot of labels seem to lack nowadays.” Treating each project individually, they escape the trappings of hunting for the bottom line. Each release feels unique to the bands themselves because the label’s “main aim is to further the careers of our artists so they can get bigger and fulfil their goals.” This approach has paid dividends over the past ten years. Originally focused on brutal death metal, a subgenre of an already inaccessible subgenre, their range has expanded as bands have spread the word of how easy it is to work with Unique Leader. This has nabbed them acts like Xenobiotic and Humanity’s Last Breath, who break away from the label’s brutal DM roots while maintaining their focus on releasing the heaviest music in the world.
Despite being in the game for over two decades, the past five years, and 2020 specifically, have seen Unique Leader establish themselves as a trendsetting label. When asked about what made the past few years so successful, Graham noted that quality control during the signing process was key to their recent explosion in popularity. Particularly, he noted that the bands “ have to be hungry, they have to have something to offer that stands out from the pack.” On top of that, he told us that “ the legacy artists who have been the label a while - they’re peaking and churning out their best material to date.” This success has allowed Graham to expand the label’s footprint. Over the past two years he’s signed bands that he hopes will “take the label to a larger audience.”
My final two questions for Graham focused on what they have coming up in the near future and how they deal with merch. Unique Leader, compared to most labels around their size, is surprisingly lax about merchandising. “We leave all merch to our artists, we tend not to interfere with any of that as it’s their main source of income,” Graham noted. “We have usually 3 designs allocated to us per album, one of which will include album art. Everything else gets left to the band to hustle with. Demanding all the merchandise rights for a band is definitely not cool. So we don’t do that.” As much as this may seem like common sense, it’s a pretty revolutionary idea. Metal merch isn’t like a shirt for an indie band, there are identities and design history and plenty of thought and care that goes into merch. By leaving this to the artists, Unique Leader lets them express themselves in the way only they could, while letting them profit off the merch they designed.
Finally, we looked to the future to discuss what music they had on deck. While Graham had great things to say about his whole roster (and this roster truly deserves all the compliments they get) he noted that “new Deeds of Flesh is a genre classic. Also, the next Humanity’s Last Breath record is pretty damn special. They’ve conquered the whole Blackened Death sound. The new Dyscarnate record is also going to take the band to new heights, for sure. It’s incredible.” After checking them out, there’s not a single lie in his statement.
Labels like Unique Leaders push metal forward. Their unwavering focus on sticking to heaviness while expanding their appeal provides a massive amount of opportunity for bands that can be hell to market. A huge thank you to Jamie Graham of Unique Leader Records for taking the time to respond to my messages. Take some time to head over to their bandcamp or their website and give some of their roster a listen. I highly recommend Xenobiotic’s Mordrake, one of my favorite records of the year.
Metal Merch
Those of you who are at least older than 20 might remember a brief, ill advised period of time where we, as a society, decided that large belt buckles that said band names were cool. Given that most of us were not cowboys, it’s best that we continue to remain amnesiac about the whole affair. Arkheron Thodol, claimants to the album of the week throne last week, have some pretty great merch to match their music, and at least one big ass belt buckle right in the middle of all of it. Regardless of belt buckle opinions, it’s cool to see stuff as varied as pendants, buckles, incense burners and athamé. It’s clear that they take the Norse Pagan lifestyle a little more seriously than just fad, and that sort of genuine enthusiasm might just be good for metal, even if it’s bad for our wallets.
Something Completely Different
Look, y’all just really needed to see this if you haven’t
Non-Metal AOTW
Woodkid - S16
As much as the world of metal let me down this week, the world outside impressed. It was extremely difficult to choose the best album of the week, and the runner ups, Dorian Electra, Sturgill Simpson and Autechre all deserve huge props for releasing monster albums last Friday. That said, Woodkid’s latest album S16 manages to perfect the British Electronic R&B genre with shocking restraint and an ear for the magical. If that sounds fantastical, it’s because the album truly is just that. Blending monumental symphonies, noisy electronics, sweeping synthesizers and an unwavering ear for restraint, Woodkid cracks the code on how to make the intimate sounds of indie R&B feel massive. Each track feels like a battle song. You can practically picture the marching troops as this track plays behind them, like a less excessive version of Fury Road mixed with Tron. As much as Woodkid’s immaculate voice strengthens the record, notably so on “Drawn to You” and “Highway 27” it’s the percussion that rules this album. Cold, sparse, and isolated, the drums haunt the halls of this record, imbuing it with a sense of potent dread and emptiness that makes it all the more impactful when the strings swell beneath a lift in Woodkid’s voice. An immaculate calm blankets you. A warm glimmer of hope pierces through the clouds, for a moment everything is fine. Whether intentional or not, it’s the balm that I needed in the moment. And it has continued to serve as that salve every moment of the past week.
Non-Metal Merch Item
Lately, I’ve been tinkering with the idea of patches and battle vests/jackets, which of course makes no sense as no one will be able to see the finished product in public until (date has been removed for legal purposes). But patches are still cool, and they can go on more than just jackets. Andy Shauf, one of the best storytellers in modern indie, seems to agree. His series of patches are mostly based on his album art, and the retro 50’s aesthetic of his patches for The Party are among the most interesting pieces of merch outside of metal. Don’t let the patches die! We demand to look like five star generals of taste!
Peering Out from the Crow’s Nest
The metal world may have been sleepy over the past week, but Friday saw a few big name releases as well as a couple small ones that are worth keeping an eye on. The non-metal world continues to bring heavy hitters to the plate with groups like clipping., Gorillaz and The Mountain Goats. Let's hope that a few of them can knock it out of the park.
Metal
Pallbearer - Forgotten Days
Poppy - Music to Scream to
Sevendust - Blood & Stone
Rïcïnn - Nereïd
Summer of Seventeen - Summer of Seventeen
Non-Metal
clipping. - Visions of Bodies Being Burned
tricot - 10
Gorillaz - Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez
The Mountain Goats - Getting Into Knives
Laura Veirs - My Echo
Shrinekeeping
As always, if you liked the letter, feel free to share it with a friend or colleague. It’s really difficult to keep this thing rolling if I don’t have enough sacrifices lined up for the rest of the year. My human sacrifice supply chain has been absolutely wrecked.
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Here’s hoping that this upcoming week has plenty of metal that blows us away. Lord knows we’ll all need something very very very very loud to drown out the sounds of (redacted events taking place in early November).
No matter what happens, Apotheosis will continue to bring you the best metal in existence. So don’t go anywhere. No seriously, don’t. I need you to hold still so I can properly adjust the torture rack.