HP Lovecraft

Scale the Summit

Scale the Summit’s “Odyssey”: The most epic five minutes of metal you’ll hear today

Scale the Summit: The MigrationScale the Summit: The Migration (Prosthetic, 6/11/13)

Did you grow a beard in hopes that one day you’ll enter Valhalla to drink and fight forever? Or only read JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or HP Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu after discovering that even the gods of metal worship at their altars? Have you been to more festivals with “hell” or “blood” in the title than sporting events?

Then enjoy the five minutes of glory that is “Odyssey,” the premiere track from Scale the Summit’s new record, The Migration. And after you reattach your face, go pre-order it from Prosthetic, Bandcamp, or iTunes.

Neurosis

Guest Playlist: Neurosis’ most vital predecessors

Neurosis: Souls at Zero (Reissue)Neurosis: Souls at Zero (Reissue) (Neurot, 2/15/11)

Neurosis: “To Crawl Under One’s Skin”

[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Neurosis_Souls_To-Crawl-Under-One-s-Skin.mp3|titles=Neurosis “To Crawl Under One’s Skin”]

Earlier this year, pioneering sludge-metal band Neurosis reissued its third studio album, Souls at Zero, on its own label, Neurot. Though it sounds just as fresh today, it has been nearly 20 years since that influential mixture of heavy grooves, diverse folk instrumentation, and mammoth metal riffs first cropped up. We asked frontman Steve Von Till to compile a playlist for us, and he came up with 11 bands that were instrumental in Neurosis’ formation and development.

Bands Integral to the Origin of Neurosis
by Steve Von Till of Neurosis

This playlist may contain the secrets to the origin of thousands of bands who became inspired to give it all.

1. Joy Division: “New Dawn Fades”

The driving bass. The melodic yet primitive guitar. The empty and bleak space as large as the riff. The words, “Me, seeing me this time, hoping for something else.” The emotions left behind.