The band describes this as "shoegaze black metal." And I guess that's a good starting point. There are the extreme drum fills of black metal, but the songs are definitely sung. Not particularly melodically, but with melody, anyway. There are doomy guitars and bass lines that pretty much do whatever they want. And all that is run through a Loveless scrim, so it's that much harder to really figure out what the hell is going on.

Wishfield Wishfield (self-released)

I think the members of Wishfield are happy to keep it that way. The comments on Bandcamp compare the band to Sunny Day Real Estate, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead and more. I hear plenty of grunge-tinged doom, but the noodly lead guitar work is in a world of its own.

Pretty much mind-bending. One of those efforts that screams "Gosh, I've never heard that before!" Which leads me to the most obvious reference: Slint's first album, Tweez. Almost unlistenable even today, mostly due to extreme self-indulgence, there are so many things that appear on that album that became staples within a few years. There's a reason why Slint's modestly more coherent second effort (Spiderland) remains a touchpoint for so many. But Tweez is possibly even more prescient in its bizarreness.

Do I think anyone is going to listen to this and say, "That's exactly what I want to do!" Probably only those without the talent to make it work. But taking a sound that is almost presented in razor-sharp focus (black metal) and hacking it up with waves of distortion and interludes from scads of other musical traditions is an astounding idea. Wishfield then executes that concept with extreme prejudice.

Um, wow. I've been listening to this for about a month, and I hear something new every time. It's not an easy listen, and it will scare the kids--wait, those are good things! Wishfield might not have been trying to reinvent the wheel, but there's an off chance it succeeded anyway. A singular accomplishment.

Jon Worley