In The Underworld Of The Long Dark
This month’s mixtape is titled “In The Underworld Of The Long Dark” a nod to Francis Weller and his book of essays “In The Absence of The Ordinary”. In it Francis repeatedly uses the metaphor of “the Long Dark” to talk about the place we find ourselves in today. So much is unsettled. So much feels uncertain. So many things that once brought a firmness and steadiness have become unreliable in the shadow of the “Technofeudalism” we find ourselves living in. As I’ve been working through these essays slowly I’ve found them to be immensely kind in the way they frame caring for souls, but brutal in the hard truths they deliver. This quote from the book is one I have latched onto, and I feel like it resonates with the broader themes of this month’s playlist:
So, let us return to simple things: stillness, story, beauty, compassion, and patience. This will not resolve quickly. The Long Dark will be with us for some time. Ritual, prayer, meditation, and creativity are ways to foster an intimacy with the world of soul and the soul of the world.
Many of these songs feel like they are products of the Long Dark, but that doesn’t mean they end with lament. Some of them do press forward into those “simple things” that we all need right now. Much love and happy listening! The mixtape is at the bottom of the post, why not click play now and then read about some of the albums that clicked with me the most this month.
Emo / Indie Stuff
Most of my musical appetite lately has swung hard into heavy territory, but these records brought some real joy in their own way. I found myself reaching for them quite a bit this month and I think you all should give them a chance as well!
Sweet Pill - “Still There’s a Glow”
Sweet Pill is one of my favorite “emo” bands doing the thing right now. They’re definitely fresh but still feel anchored in a lot of what I loved about the genre back in the late 1990s and early 2000s when I fell in love with the loud soft dynamics and rawness of the vocals. There’s a lot of heavier hardcore influence here and Zayna’s vocals shine with that backdrop. In Sophia Gabrelson’s review for New Noise she said:
In fact, after you get through the entire album more than once, you start to realize what a wonderful exemplification it is of the human condition … the way we hit some kind of bottom, grovel in it for a time, finally see the problem for what it is, kick ourselves before we can get up, but then eventually, we do get up and we get stronger.
Journey through the Long Dark indeed!
The Notwist - “News from Planet Zombie”
The Notwist have traveled a winding road of genres in their 35+ year career, and somehow this album feels like it sums up so much of what makes them who they are without feeling like an “across the decades” style sampler. It is very much an indie “chamber pop” kind of album, but their fingerprints come through no matter what era of their journey may have provided your previous entry point. The title “News From Planet Zombie” gives you a good sense of the lyrical content of the album, but does not mean the tone is just negative; as noted in the liner notes on Bandcamp, it “acknowledges the distress of our current geopolitical impasse, while reminding us there are collective ways forward.”
The song I added to the Mixtape is actually a cover - the original was by a band named Lovers from Athens, Georgia. It still fits thematically and felt to me like the most natural way to bring The Notwist into the mix. Planet Zombie probably has a lot of overlap with the Long Dark.
Post-* Beautiful Heaviness
Like so much of the music I listen to these days, the rest of these albums live somewhere in the Venn Diagram overlap of Heavy & Beautiful. They span various metal and hardcore subgenres, but they all have in common what feels like an attempt to me to hold together the beauty and horror of reality today. The Long Dark is indeed long and dark, but we don’t have to walk it alone, and the light of fellow travelers lends a beauty that shouldn’t be underestimated. I hope you find some of the “stillness, story, beauty, compassion, and patience” that Francis Weller mentioned in the quote above in the sounds and silences of these albums.
Neurosis - “An Undying Love for a Burning World”
I had essentially resigned myself to a reality where we never got another Neurosis album, so when I heard the news that a surprise album had dropped and that Aaron Turner was the new front man it felt beautifully redemptive. Turner (and his bands ISIS, SUMAC and Old Man Gloom) has been a longtime favorite musician of mine, and an undeniable descendant of the sludgy glory that was originally birthed by Neurosis. This new album feels like it folds in a lot of Aaron while still remaining true to what made Nuerosis the force of nature they have always been. “An Undying Love for a Burning World” is more than a title, it’s a statement of intent, a declaration of an orientation. It is a product of the Long Dark in every way.
Crouch - “Breaking the Catatonic State”
With members from Amenra, Wiedgedood, and Oathbreaker, this three piece post-metal / post-hardcore assault out of Belgium comes with a heavy pedigree. A “supergroup” of sorts, this sounds like something wholly unique while drawing on some of the weirder & mathier metalic hardcore of the 1990s that I fell in love with in my late teens. The Bandcamp notes call out both Coalesce and Botch as influences and I can hear a lot of that without this descending into derivative mimicry. It is uniquely and fiercely it’s own thing. It brings fistfuls of political angst and anger and is absolutely engineered to be a soncic weapon that can “break the catatonic state” that the Long Dark threatens to lull us all into. I am not responsible for any revolutionary activities this may inspire (though I will likely join in myself)!
Ashbringer - “Subglacial”
I’ve been familiar with Ashbringer as an idea for a while now, but this is the first album I’ve spent any significant time with. Repeated listens have continued to reveal layer after layer of rich musical and lyrical depth. I’m a sucker for good black metal that won’t stay in it’s lane these days and this really fits the bill. I have connected deeply with some of the album’s lyrics and the song I added to the mixtape is no exception. The title track for the album, it’s called “Subglacial” and carries with it the expected coldness that a name like that implies. It doesn’t stay there though, it ends on an absolutely beautiful note, both lyrically and musically and I have found it to be an anthem of hope as I walk my way through the Long Dark. These two lyrical passages that fall over the same musical landscape represent the turn I continue to push for in my own life and experience:
When the night withdraws and the ice all thaws
I’m still freezing inside
When the trees bear fruit and the ground is lush
I’m still hollow, despondent
…
When the sun shines bright and defeats the night
I’ll feel humble, at peace
When the lake is still and the waters are clear
I’ll know I’ve found safe passage
Ellende - “Zerfall”
I was unfarmilair with this band before I stumbled on their latest album, and it delivers more of the post-black metal / atmospheric black metal goodness that I am a huge sucker for. The band is from Austria and based on what I could find was originally a solo project that grew into a full band over time. The bandname seems to looselly translate to misery or woe, and the album title “Zerfall” means decay, collapse or disintegration. This is more of the “Long Dark” thematics that seem inescapable, but like I noted with Ashbringer, it isn’t pure nihlism. There is hope. The track I added to the mixtape ends with this beuatiful multi-voice chorale part that feels wonderfully beautiful. For me it invokes feelings of coming over the hill and seeing your home after a long journey away. The song is titled “Ode Ans Licht” which translates to “Ode To Light”. The lyrics are worth quoting in full:
So bitterly cold in an empty field
Open your eyes and life sprouts
Loneliness and sadness are quickly hidden
One is allowed to live and one is not
Deep anger and pain are quickly hidden
Life is worth it, sometimes I don’t see that
I feel so alone where the darkness is
Do I shine brighter myself?
Ode to light! (x6)
De l’Abîme Naît l’Aube - “Rituel: Initiation”
More Blackgaze / Post-Black / Atmospheric Black Metal goodness here. If you dig Alcest and other bands in that vein then you’re gonna love this shit. Hailing from Switzerland this is their first full length. I don’t know a ton about them but it seems they’ve all played in other metal bands across genres before. The band name is another Long Dark resonator - it translates roughly to “From the Abyss the Dawn is Born.” The song added here is great, but the album really shines when you sit with it and take it all in at once. The bandcamp notes say that the album explores themes of “transcendence, disintegration, and rebirth” and that sure feels like a familiar journey to me. This is a wonderful soundtrack for walking the underwold trail of the Long Dark.
Mixtape Links
Here’s “In The Underworld Of The Long Dark”. I hope it brings you some of the same catharsis and beauty it’s brought me this month. You can find it on Buy Music Club or on Apple Music.