Happy Friday, all! We have a really interesting New Music Friday lineup for you today. There's a lot of electronic-based music this week, some of which is fun and danceable, while other releases are about as much fun as a black hole. We've also got some black metal, some sludgy post hardcore, and a couple of very, VERY experimental releases. Into the pit!

Up first is "Tales of Trees," the third single on Enslaved's upcoming album, Mio. This one features Enslaved's standard mix of clean and harsh vocals with shredding guitar and soaring harmonies. As a newly minted Enslaved fan, I'm pretty pumped to hear this complete album next month. 

Thief is the project of Dylan Neal, formerly of black metal band The Botanist. Described as "what happens when Portishead and Nine Inch Nails have sex in a haunted church," Thief combines various electronic music subgenres under a black lace cloak and adds shredding guitars and harmonic distortions. The full album doesn't come out until late November, but you can add the first single, "Moon and Kill," to your Halloween playlist now. 

Speaking of Halloween playlists, I reviewed Black Cats by Minneapolis' Toilet Rats earlier this week, and it has several tracks that are perfect for Spooky Season. I've had "Crystal Lake (I Don't Wanna Go To)" stuck in my head for a week. It's a lot of fun and while it's not a traditional metal album, Toilet Ratz mastermind Tommy Ratz told me that he's a big Godflesh fan, so that's good enough for me!

Speaking of Godflesh, their new album Decay is out today. It is grim and icy, and bathed in static from start to finish. But hey, that's what we want in a Godflesh album! I reviewed the album here, and you can read a really great career retrospective interview with Justin Broadrick over at Bandcamp. 

Up next is State Violence, the new album from Remote Viewing. This album dropped last Friday, but I didn't hear it until this week and knew that I absolutely had to cover it. A monstrous fusion of noise rock, sludge and doom that reminds me of Great Falls, I was completely sold on this album 27 seconds into the first track. Remote Viewing have been around since 2018, and I definitely plan on going back and checking out the rest of their catalog. 

Collateral Gore, the debut album by Place of Rescission, released on September 4, and I first heard it on Monday. I've been absolutely fascinated with it ever since and I've listened to it at least once a day since then. What is it? The easiest way to categorize it is industrial, but as conceived by the genre's originators Throbbing Gristle rather than what you're getting with the Godflesh album above. It's an incredibly dark album that thrums with menace, and it was largely composed with "noise boxes" hand-build by Place of Rescission's K. Schaaf. I absolutely had to learn more about this one, so I reached out to Schaaf and will have a lengthy interview with him next week. 

We don't do a lot of live recordings, but this new EP from Uboa is for a good cause. Every Reactor Four a Friend (Live at Roadburn 2024) is a nightmarish soundscape record from the experimental musician, but proceeds from this record will help Uboa creator Xandra Metcalfe with some chronic health conditions. I'm a sucker for benefit releases, but it helps when the music is heavy and interesting. 

Yes, we have a lot of stuff this week that's not strictly metal. I'm always going to cover music that I find interesting even if it doesn't fit neatly in the metal box. Most of it, however, will qualify as "heavy" in some way. Case in point: the new album by Protomartyr, Hotel Usona. It's a concept album about a crumbling old hotel as a metaphor for the decline of the United States. A heavy topic for sure, but songs like "Feed the Sewer" definitely qualify as sonically heavy as well. 

Finally, let's close with some doom-laden occult rock. Mama Doom is a three-piece band with bass, drums, keyboards, and female vocals. The new album, Eminent Womb, has the heavy/dreamy/retro vibe of bands like Witchcraft and Lucifer. This album is another excellent addition to your Halloween playlist.

Have a good weekend, everyone.