Until only ashes circle around the moon
Back in the Worm Gear haven, away from the autumn winds already returning after this short and cold summer, worn down in mind and body from the past few months of toil in the crunch months of a tourist economy, anticipating a few more hours of sleep, and all I can do at this moment is appreciate this quiet moment to discuss and listen to music I love with good friends. If we have a question for you this week, it’s this: What’s the real value of this music to you? What does it help you deal with? How does it inspire you? Is it something that brings you together with others, provides a private moment for contemplation or escape, or some combination? Let us know, and thanks for reading. -Jake
Jake Moran Playlist
Tempestuous Fall – The Stars Would Not Awake You
Blood and Sun – White Storms Fall
Endlichkeit – I-II
Endlichkeit – III-V
Grouper – Hold / Sick
Obsequiae – Demo
Unwilling Flesh – Between the Living and the Dead (promo)
Gehenna – First Spell
Hades – Alone Walkyng
Katatonia – Dance of December Souls
Jim Clifton Playlist
Spectral Lore/Nachtreich – The Quivering Lights split LP (pre-master)
Coldfells – s/t (demo)
Dead Register – TRVNS BLVK (demo)
Agalloch – The Serpent & The Sphere
Shards of Humanity – Fractured Frequencies
Loudblast – Burial Ground
Darkest Era – Severance
A Tribe Called Quest – Anthology
Blaze Foley – The Dawg Years (1975-1978)
Reverorum ib Malacht – De Mysteriis Dom Christii
Marty Rytkonen PLaylist
Brimstone Coven – S/T
Horrendous – Ecdysis
Unwilling Flesh – Between the Living and the Dead
My Dying Bride – As The Flower Withers
My Dying Bride – A Map of All our Failures
Falls of Rauros – Believe in no Coming Shore
Nachtreich/Spectral Lore – The Quivering Lights Split LP pre-master
White Medal – Yorkshire Steel
White Medal – Guthmers Hahl
Wodensthrone – Curse
Worm Gear 
Great reviews this week! Eagerly anticipating that new Horrendous.
What is the real value of this music to me? It is one of the things that means the most to me. It inspires me in my work and sometimes in my life. It’s a constant source of creative innovation that which each day manages to blow my mind. It’s something I want to talk about, share and be a part of constantly.
Enthroned – Sovereigns
Obtained Enslavement – Witchcraft
Nasheim – Solens Vemod
Merkaba – Bones of the Sacred Forest
Winter of Sin – Violence Reigns Supreme
Sorgeldom – Inner Receivings
Mgla – With Hearts Toward None
Saiva – Finnmarkens Folk
Endlichkeit – Endlichkeit I-II
Endlichkeit – Endlichkeit III-V
Vaiya – Remnant Light
Ulvegr – The Call of Glacial Emptiness
Witherscape – The Inheritance
Perished – Seid
Nightwork – Diabolical Masquerade
Pallbearer – Foundations of Burden
Botanist – VI: Flora
So Hideous – Last Poem/First Light
Perished – Kark
Yob – Clearing the Path to Ascend
Avichi – Catharsis Absolute
Cardinal Wyrm – Black Hole Gods
Veldes – Skyward
Der Weg einer Freiheit – Der Weg einer Freiheit
Old Graves/Paths – Split (NEW)
Hypocrisy – A Taste of Extreme Divinity
Hypocrisy – Penetralia
Hey Kevin… how is that Witherscape? I completely forgot about picking that up. Gotta keep the Swano fix rolling!
Martyworm, it’s Swano-rific.
Great reviews, Gentlemen; thanks as always.
The value of this music?
Initially … it reminds me of what is most important to me; the sounds bringing forth ideas and images that resonate fully with my natural affinities.
Some of it just rocks, and adds to the simple (but no less important) enjoyment that comprises daily life. Looking a bit deeper …
It allows my imagination to soar into the past, into the impossible, and into the world within. I use it to augment and concretize my experiences/discoveries in life. There are countless moments in my life that I can readily identify with a particular song or sound-strand. It is a tool for interpreting the world around me … and for gazing into the ‘beyond’.
It both awakens and nourishes something primal deep within. Not only in the sense of simply fueling specific, straightforward emotions. I feel it feeds the core of my being, and allows me to ‘compound’ my thoughts and actions in a way I would not necessarily come to as easily otherwise.
It may sound odd, but when a record really clicks with me, it often feels as if I am listening to ‘myself’. Each different album, each particularly inspiring song, allows me to discover a new aspect of myself and/or the world around me. It is like looking at the world through your own eyes, but from a wholly new perspective … from a complex and varied vantage point that you would be unlikely to achieve without its ‘unlocking’ assistance.
In short, I believe music is one of the most powerful and useful ways to discover, experience, and celebrate everything the universe holds … emotions, concepts, truths … around, within, and beyond.
There is no doubt in my mind that the music I/we so strongly resonate with is being created by individuals (both purposefully, but also oftentimes subconsciously) drawing upon something more powerful and amazing than we can yet fully understand. Music is the tool … the key that unlocks the gate which leads to that far-off knowledge.
If we are the ‘pilot-light’ … then I use the music to ignite and illuminate the whole of my existence. It is awe-inspiring, engaging, transcendent, and completely profound in every sense of the word.
Cardinals Folly – Our Cult Continues
Crimson Relic – Purgatory’s Reign
Winter Bestowed – Within My Labyrinthine Heart
Azrael Rising – Anti Gravity
Evilfeast – Wintermoon Enchantment
Reverorum Ib Malacht – DMDC
Panopticon – all
Seidr – For Winter Fire
And this one just will not quit, ever. The odd and maniacal vocals of Mr. Bjorkman have always been a favorite of mine. At 3:22 … his howling invocations finally call forth the deluge
The Horrendous album is horrendous. Confused fusion amuck. Just sounds soooo bad to these ears. Yet, the 1st album was DM that I didn’t like, many did, this is taking a step, well somewhere for sure. Just not good.