Charnel House – Black Blood (Sygil Records, 2013)

My first exposure to the mysterious Indiana duo known as Charnel House came earlier this year in the form of Contagion, an older album from the band that was sent my way as part of a package containing various releases from the great Sygil Records.  Contagion was an instant standout, which is really saying something considering the high level of quality that runs through Sygil’s catalog; the album is a maelstrom of black metal/ambient/noise/doom that sounds like nothing else out there in spite of incorporating these familiar influences.  I had hoped to hear more from them in the future, not realizing that their new album would be showing up on my doorstep just a few months later in the form of the awesome Black Blood.

Avakr – A Word From Within (Sygil Records, 2013)

Of all the labels that have contacted me within the past year or so requesting coverage, Sygil Records is surely among the most interesting.  These guys have an ear for excellence from across the spectrum of extreme music, from drone to doom to black metal, and I’m pretty enamored with all of the various releases they graciously sent me for review.  First and foremost among them is A Word From Within, the debut full length from Bloomington, Indiana black metal duo Avakr.

Racebannon – Six Sik Sisters (Tizona Records, 2012)

The music of Bloomington, Indiana’s Racebannon falls somewhere between the demented sludge metal of the Melvins and the lurching, discordant pig-fuck of the Jesus Lizard, as if those two bands got together to do a fuckload of coke and orchestrate the ultimate noise rock jam session, but ended up getting slaughtered in a standoff with DEA agents while their rehearsal space burned to the ground.  Their latest album, Six Sik Sisters, is a truly unsettling listen, a chronicle of monumental musical depravity that sounds like it could come unglued at any given moment.

The Lurking Corpses @ Bombay Bicycle Club, 10/21/2011

I’ve often remarked that when the Halloween season rolls around, all I want to listen to is Misfits and Type O Negative.  It seems I’ve been a bit remiss with that statement, because there is another very special band that needs to be added to that list.  The band is Fort Wayne, Indiana’s The Lurking Corpses, who proved themselves worthy and then some of being mentioned in the same breath as those (un)hallowed bands with their all-too-brief but highly enjoyable set late Friday night (Saturday morning?) at the Bombay Bicycle Club in Clive, Iowa.