The last decade has seen an explosive abundance in the national and international tours spiraling out of the global metal, doom, hardcore, and noiserock scenes. The bands that represent these sounds have now come to encompass melodicism and atmospheres lifted from shoegaze and spacerock, eruptions of heavy psych rock, industrial drumming, synth exploration and electronic atmospheres, and pure experimental noise. This winter sees a representative cross-section of all things metal in Japanese psychedelic and noiserockers Boris return to The Crocodile, for their 20th anniversary performance of their classic album, "Pink", in their ongoing pursuit of "Noise is Japanese Blues". The following week, in their "Search for a Better World", Primitive Man deliver the first live representations of "Obervance"'s explorations of sludge and doom at Chop Suey. In December, all things doom, black, noise, sludge, hardcore, grindcore, post-rock, stoner, and heavy psych are to be heard in a lineup that includes Ragana, Acid King, Mizmor, Tithe, and Electric Citizen at Rain City Doom Fest at El Corazon.
The festival is representative of the expansiveness that is to be heard in 21st century metal, as documented by The Quietus in their "Untrue And International: Living in a Post-Black Metal World", with complimentary curation from this sphere found in the excellent selections of The Quietus' Columnus Metallicus. In recent years, Bell Witch, the Northwest's prime purveyors of weighty atmospheres have undertaken a series of even more tectonic works for the Profound Lore label. The first of these was a collaborative album with Aerial Ruin in 2020's, "Stygian Bough Volume I", and the beginnings of an epic trilogy, titled, “Future's Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate”. This month, "Stygian Bough Volume II" arrives alongside an accompanying west coast tour and night at The Clockout Lounge. The Quietus spoke with Bell Witch on the eve of "Clandestine Gate"'s release, bridging such concepts as about the cyclical nature of existence and taking their time with process and creation, such as the first entry in their new triptych of albums, "Same as it Ever Was: Bell Witch Interviewed".
