Chelsea Wolfe - Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs

Artist: Chelsea Wolfe
Album: Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs
Release Date: October 16th, 2012
Country: USA (Los Angeles, CA)
Genre: Folk/acoustic

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, and even though I don't know when I am officially allowed to say this (this might be far too early), but Happy Holidays! Sorry that I haven't posted anything in a while: I've been caught up in schoolwork and going home for Turkey Day. I think the total consumed was in the realm of about 4000 calories in one hour... but I digress. I'll be back and active on this blog for a while, and from now on I'll post something when I know I'll be away for a bit. So without further ado, as a welcome back we have here Californian experimental singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe's latest effort. As can probably be deduced from the title, this album is much more stripped down than much of her other stuff, but it's just as good and it really fits the Fall-Winter transitional period mood well. Finally, it's just under 25 minutes long, so there's no reason not to give this a try.

Tracklist, sample song, and download can be found after the jump. 

Oak Pantheon - From a Whisper (2012)

Artist: Oak Pantheon
Album: From a Whisper
Country: USA (Minneapolis, MN)
Release Date: September 25th, 2012
Genre: Atmospheric black metal/folk

Don't let the questionable cover art deter you, for this is definitely one of the better folky atmospheric black metal releases I've had the pleasure of listening to this year. First off, the vocals are excellent, going between piercing and harsh shrieks, Agalloch-esque whispering, and sparingly used, surprisingly tolerable, non-stupid cleans. It also doesn't hurt that these boys can write excellent riffs and that they are really adept at blending the folk sections into the metal sections without making the music seem gimmicky or forced.

Sample song, tracklist, and link can be found after the jump. 

Panopticon - Kentucky (2012)

Artist: Panopticon
Album: Kentucky
Country: USA (Louisville, KY)
Release Date: 06/05/2012
Genre: Atmospheric black metal/bluegrass


Description: One of Austin Lunn's weirdest albums yet, this one is his attempt at melding atmospheric melodic black metal with traditional coal miner bluegrass. There have been a spectrum of reactions to this so far, ranging from very positive to very negative, and while I invite listeners to make their own decisions I fall more toward the latter camp. This is a really cool and unique album and I wholeheartedly recommend it, although I believe we can all agree that the artwork sucks. 

Tracklist, sample song, and download are after the jump.