🌶️ To The Teeth: Pelican let the riffs do all the heavy work

Plus: Vauruvã, Full of Hell, Blood Monolith, Eleventh Ray, Youth Code, Fugitive, Slow Crush, Impureza & much more!

May 17, 2025

Welcome to the To The Teeth newsletter! Your weekly update of new heavy music. You can listen to (most) everything in the playlist on Spotify. If you like what you read, go to Patreon (receive a patch!) & Bandcamp (buy a patch!). Peppers are hot 🌶️!

“The label always has some sort of long-term plan for us, but we don’t really make plans. When we got stuff, we got it; when we don’t, we don’t.”

New Albums

🌶️ Pelican

Post-metal, USA (Run for Cover Records)

FFO: Isis, Russian Circles, Cult of Luna

There aren’t many instrumental metal bands that really click with me, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Pelican - especially their first three albums. I kind of lost track of them after that, but this feels like a strong return. Not once did I miss having a vocalist; the riffs do all the heavy work, and they do it well.

🌶️ Vauruvã

Progressive black, Brazil (self released)

FFO: Kaatayra, Panopticon, Nechochwen

I’m a huge Caio Lemos fan. His main project Kaatayra is one of the best acts I’ve discovered in the past ten years, and his more ambient/electronic side in Bríi is fantastic. Vauruvã, out with their second album, is more of a band affair, teaming up with vocalist Bruno Augusto Ribeiro. The black metal is much more present, but with the typical Caio Lemos-contraweight of beautiful, dreamy passages of warm, lush acoustics with clean vocals and an otherwordly atmosphere - especially for someone from the cold north, who’s a fan of everything latin. But I guess it’s for everyone who wants to feel something in their metal.

There’s more: an ep from Full of Hell (powerviolence/death/grind/noise, USA), Eleventh Ray (black/doom/thrash, Greece), Blood Monolith (death/grind, USA), Ondfødt (black, Finland), Kal-El (doom/stoner, Norway), an ep from Youth Code (hardcore/industrial, USA), Antropomorphia (death, The Netherlands), Skuggor (atmoblack, Sweden), Drouth (black/death, USA), Stress Positions (hardcore punk, USA) and Détresse (black, Austria/Canada). The rest is in the playlist!

Seven new songs

🌶️ Fugitive (thrash/crossover, USA)

🌶️ Impureza (death/flamenco, France)

🌶️ Slow Crush (shoegaze, Belgium)

🌶️ Leonov (post/doom, Norway)

🌶️ Grayceon (prog, USA)

🌶️ Weald & Woe (melodic black, USA)

🌶️ Abigail Williams (symphonic/atmospheric black, USA)

The rest is in the playlist!

Not-so-heavy & next week

Not-so-heavy album of the week: Lido Pimienta (latin/classical, Canada)

Next week: Chepang, Midnight, Witchcraft & …And Oceans.

What is your favourite? What did I miss? Let me know!