Ambitious and progressive, razor-raw and unrelenting, the debut from Cape Town’s WILDERNESSKING is passionate and exciting, and I’d daresay an early frontrunner in my book for one of the best of the year.

Though it does not quite possess the potent and urgent vibe of Altar of Plagues’ Mammal, Social Disservices takes second place in my personal albums of the year. Hopefully it will receive even more recognition in 2012.

Main musician Jay Valena has crafted a powerful full-length record with many strengths even as it doesn’t often stray far from the sub-genre’s tried-and-true clichés. Its organic, earnest, and perhaps even retro sound lifts its five lengthy tracks above some of the contemporaneous releases of even seasoned veterans of the genre. What it lacks in polish and originality it more than makes up for in terms of epic grandeur. That this self-titled debut is mostly the product of a single individual makes it all the more impressive.

Musically, while True Traitor, True Whore is rooted in black metal -as dragged through a mire of nightmarish black psychedelia- it’s too experimental to be labeled as anything so straight-ahead. The record runs the gamut as it incorporates avant-psychedelic passages, as well as experimental progression within its bleak and damnable structure.

Crushingly heavy, riotously unconventional and passionately demoniacal, Through the Cervix of Hawwah is the sound of devolution.

If you are a fan of Mayhem, Immortal, Darkthrone, Emperor, or even a fan of post-Norwegian Black Metal (Dark Funeral, Nargaroth) then this would be a record worth picking up.

Sludge and college radio go together like chloroform and a dirty rag, so it’s only fitting that the new Noothgrush compiles two college radio appearances they made in the late 90’s.

“It’s really not our place to tell anyone how to do anything, or to make any sort of suggestion about how people should live. That’s something that we’ve never wanted to do and we never will do. That’s something that happens in a lot of music. A lot of punk music in particular has a political agenda of trying to convince someone of something. We’ve always been against that, and we’ve never wanted to appear that we’re sitting on a high horse trying to lead people. As you mentioned, living like we do is not an option for most people. It’s appropriate for us, but it’s just for us.”

Jonathan Smith in conversation with Aaron Weaver of Wolves In The Throne Room