Noise Pollution #53: When It Stops Being a New Year

Published: January 30, 2025

So far, January has been an absolute blur. Between the clever “ARE EGGS CHEAPER TODAY?” posts I saw seven dozen times on the 21st and the dismantling of the last few collective brain cells we had as a country to the growing possibly Putin is going to nuke London (hopefully not before my Lungtoucher LPs are mailed) to whatever catastrophe happened while I typed this paragraph, it’s been a long fucking year and we still have 48 weeks to go. 

But it’s not all bad. Calmed By Nature has a new streaming winter scene, the first the channel has done since I became a fan (normally they skip straight to spring after the holidays) so I’m optimistic that this will indeed be my year. 

Fuck yeah.

January has also been absolutely fucking packed with new music, the strongest start to a new year I’ve frankly ever seen. We’re inching ever so closer to the new Nyredolk, which I talked about last time, but I also mentioned another Danish project, Hersker, would probably be doing something new this year. And the day after the last column went up I was proven to be psychic because they released a new digital-only (for now) EP, and it’s the best thing they’ve done so far, so I figured we’d return to Denmark for a bit.

JordMord takes the formula they’ve laid out over the last few years and intensifies it. Seven tracks of violent and stomping black/punk, in line with countrymen Nyredolk, this is a major leap forward from their already impressive debut full length. 

In keeping with both Denmark and the lads from Hersker, they released a demo from another project of theirs, Betændt, two years ago that I somehow missed chatting about at the time. Betændt is the first proper mix of powerviolence and black metal that I can remember hearing, Sex Prisoner/Dropdead meets..well..Hersker. You get the idea, I hope. Mandesvinet is a fairly short listen, like most powerviolence records, but it’s a fucking ripper. Give it a bit of your time today if this description sounds at all tickling to your fancy.

And while I considered keeping this week in Denmark, there’s just so much going on musically worldwide this month that I figure I can return to the Danes to celebrate our invasion of Greenland or whatever dumb shit that’s being planned whenever that happens. 

I don’t consider myself very lucky when it comes to grabbing limited pressings, especially when they’re posted on Arcane Altar. I’m fairly certain flippers have bots set up for every time AA posts an update on IG. I’m especially unlucky when it comes to grabbing Ixiol Productions releases, case in point being Tírad Dûr’s Fell Light in Windy Cloud, the vinyl pressing of one of my favorite demos of 2022. Yet somehow the fates aligned and I was able to pick up the follow up, Skeletal Sun, alongside the new 7 inch from Anonymous Skull that doesn’t have any samples up that I could find.

Fell Light..had very much an Old Wainds feeling to me, a very cold and oppressive vibe. Skeletal Sun, however, opens that sound up a bit, putting the vocals a little further back in the mix,  and giving the whole thing a more analog feeling overall. I’d be wary of using “warmth” as a descriptor there but it’s close enough. Another exceptional recording from this project

My legal council, Daniel Katz, continues to keep me up to date on bands and records I might have otherwise missed. This week he introduced me to Knelt, a hardcore band from Massachusetts that comes eerily close to His Hero is Gone/Tragedy without feeling mediocre or derivative. Throw in a nicely pronounced Cursed influence and you’ve got the first truly exciting punk release of 2025 to me.

Considering that last Tragedy EP was seven (!) years ago and honestly a bit of a letdown it’s great to hear bands reigniting that torch and running with it. 

And yes, I understand that bands in that vein for crust are like Darkthrone clones for black metal, go fuck yourself you pedantic prat, I mean that it’s great to hear sincere and exciting music in this genre. I seem to get one crust record a year these days (Wreathe in 23, Retsu in 24) but maybe this year will be different. If this is the only one I grab this year, though, it’s still a solid fucking year. 

So I’m still wading through the massive Ancient Records catalog after becoming obsessed with several of Swartadauthuz’s releases from last year. Gnipahålan popped up on Youtube via the Ancient Records channel late last year but the vinyl isn’t out yet so I’m throwing it in the 2025 category. My column, my rules. I’m not entirely sure when the vinyl will be released but the CD version is out now.

Layers upon layer of black melodics cover this one, with, as one commenter astutely stating that it’s very much in line with the No Fashion school of black metal circa 94/95, right before that label decided that it was time to flood the market with as many At the Gates clones as possible. This is a lengthy journey through over an hour’s worth of spectral black metal with every minute worthwhile. 

I had long ago given up hope for any sort of new Naked Whipper recording. Painstreaks alongside the self titled EP and Moloch EPs were all exceptional displays of brute force black/death, with Painstreaks in particular being a perfect record for me, so it wasn’t like I didn’t have anything to listen to. But, like when Archgoat, Profanatica and Beherit all reactivated and began releasing some of the best records of their careers, I still for whatever reason didn’t have any hope of a new Naked Whipper. The end of 2024 proved me wrong.

On 1/31 Chapel Defilement will be released and so far, from the little I’ve heard, it’s a fucking monster. Naked Whipper are one of the few projects that really were able to meld guttural deathgrind with black metal without somehow making either genre an afterthought or using black metal imagery for a death metal band for attention, which was the style for a bit years ago. Chapel Defilement appears to continue that tradition, only with Dominus A.S. sounding more bestial and unhinged than he did thirty years ago. This is truly a welcome return to form and a really big record for me. Even with the world going to absolute shit, I am giddily excited to open a package containing a new Naked Whipper record, an experience I never thought I would have.

And that’s just some of what’s either come out or soon to come in 2025 thus far. Next time I’ll take us somewhere to get comfortable, candles lit and, in the spirit of the season, I’ll probably spontaneously ejaculate and fall asleep. It’s Valentine’s Day soon at Noise Pollution! See you then. 

Rock / Metal / Alternative
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