During lockdown, I’ve had to look for music away from gigs. I’ve mentioned BBC Sounds a few times. I’ve also been looking around Bandcamp more. Recently, I stumbled across Transylvanian Tapes, a tape label in Oakland, California, putting out stuff from the stranger end of metal.

I liked the couple of things I listened to. Then I saw the whole Transylvanian Tapes digital catalogue was for sale for $2. Had to check that a few times, but yes, all 72 releases for $2. Okay, why not? In some very tiny way, it helps the artists.

But it doesn’t really, does it? Even though I paid over the asking price, it’s still pennies. The least I can do is encourage you to do the same. Even if you’re not into this sort of music, I expect you can find something you are for an equally silly price.

However, now I’ve got all these releases, what to do with them? It’s about a day & a half of music, which is pretty daunting. Do they even really exist if I don’t go on about it on the internet? So, in 280 characters or less, I’m going to review every release. Here goes…

Abyssal; Misanthrope. Slow, sombre & riff heavy, with occasional vocals sounding like they’re coming from the depths of a tomb. Good if not innovative doom metal. From Tijuana, confounding Krusty the Clown’s assertion it’s the happiest place on Earth. Off to a flying start.

Atone; Atone. More upbeat and dynamic than the Abyssal release, but these are relative terms. It’s still very slow, heavy and fuzzy. Twin vocals, one shrieking, the other gargling gravel. Bracing in the way a cold shower or a good horror film is. Two out of two.

Badr Vogu; Agglomeration MMXIV. Approaching conventional metal here. Intelligible vocals sometimes, guitars that come close to sounding like they’re about to take a solo, and the ghost of a groove about it. Still pretty much howling sonic agony, and all the better for it.

Barren Altar; Entrenched In The Faults Of The Earth. I’m no expert, but I think the amateur can generalise the genres as; slow with groaning vocals = doom metal, fast with shrieking vocals = black metal. By that theory, this is black metal. Not my thing, but intriguing.

Battle Hag; Tongue Of The Earth. Flamboyantly theatrical doom, invigorating if not entirely to my taste. I can’t help thinking that all concerned would be a lot happier if they went full prog and let rip with a wild, psychedelic flute solo & some fiddly jazz drumming.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm doing one of these a day!

Beira; Vol I. I didn’t know when I did Battle Hag the next release had an actual flute on it. Not much though. Veers between being standard metal with clean vocals, prog rock and more experimental arrangements. Kept me guessing where it was going, and that’s a good thing.

Blazar; Phase Omega. Back to the deep, crushing sludge of very, very doom. Riffs as heavy and dark as a black hole. Apart from a couple of almost guitar solos, this is exactly the kind of stuff I’m after. The second song is even bleaker. Shame it’s only 2 relatively short tracks.

Body Void; Ruins. One of the tracks on this is called Monolith. That’s a pretty good description of the music here. Monumental guitars tower dizzyingly overhead, only to be demolished by sledgehammer drumming. Vocals from a cyclopean realm. Magnificently horrible.

Brume; Donkey. Extreme metal acts often express a fondness for shoegaze. Here’s where the genres meet. Heavy & hard as granite, with shockingly beautiful vocals mixed slightly lower than commercially sensible. First of these where I’ve checked out their discography straight away.

Caffa; Day Of Disease & Mental Enslavement. 2 Caffa releases together as I’m not enough of a connoisseur to pick out the nuances. I’d forgotten how enjoyable really grinding, grunting metal like Scum era Napalm Death is. I won’t be back often, but it’s good to know it’s there.

Cartilage; It’s Necrotic & Dialect Of The Dead. The tracks on the first release all feature on the second one, so I’ll take them together. Far too like conventional metal for me. It’s hardly Whitesnake, but it doesn’t go anywhere unexpected & there’s actual guitar solos. Nope.

Cease; Humanity & Unfold. 2 together & again not doing it for me. Nasty, brutish & short, often a good thing. The guitar solos are putting me off. If I’d listened to Caffa, Cartilage & Cease in a different order, I’d have liked the first & shrugged at the others for being samey.

Chrome Ghost; The Diving Bell. Musically, I like how this carves a path between melodic doom, (is that an oxymoron?) & heavy post rock. The emo-ish vocals.... not for me. This could have gone somewhere startling like Brume, but instead flounders, unsure of what it wants to do.

Chrononexus; Outreach From A Withered Hand. A slab of black metal misery, but as Mrs Doyle said in Father Ted, I might like the misery. Indeed I do, especially when it’s loud. Fiddly guitar solos, not so much. Thankfully there’s only a couple so they don’t spoil the effect.

Church; Unanswered Hymns. The name’s been used folks, but I’ll let it go because this is 3 slabs of near perfect doom. None more down tuned guitars playing at a crawling from hell pace, a lovely shoegaze section to throw the rest into stark relief, & no fiddly guitar solos. Yes!

Cloak; Succumb. Black metal tinged with grunge, & it’s really rather good. Not as bleak as I’d expect from black metal, but none the worse for it. Energising and bouncy, which I’m not entirely sure is what black metal is supposed to do, but hey, works for me.

Cosmic Reef Temple; Age Of The Spaceborn. There’s a saxophone. It’s very out of keeping with everything else so far, a messy mix of jazz, surf, psych and sludgy metal. It’s all space jams, potentially dodgy ground, but pretty enjoyable even so. The sax, less said the better.

Crushing The Scepter; Echoing Screams Of Madness And Delusion. Look, I only have 280 characters to write about this, so don’t go using 20% of them with the name & title. Oops, almost run out. Devastating epic doom, heavier, if not as experimental, as the Church release.

Cyanic; Demo & Litanies Of Lust Unholy. Of these 2 releases, I prefer the demo. It's brief & less polished, which is better when you're listening to the musical equivalent of a slap in the face. It's painful yet bracing in small doses, but eventually loses the impact.

Daxma; The Nowhere Of Shangri-La. Pronounced Docs-Ma apparently, after Zoroastrian burial mounds. Lovely, gloomy gothic post rock, if curiously insubstantial. A single epic 30 minute track, yet sections of it drifted by in an ambient haze. Worth further investigation however.

Dearth; Of Martyrdom And Polluted Faith. 3 chunks of sonic agony dished up in a black metal soup. Harsh, in a good way. Lacking in any fiddly solos to distract from the punishment on offer. Yep, more of this sort of thing.

Defecrator; Tales Of Defecration. Listening to this I thought I'd slipped back to 1989, a hardcore all dayer at Bradford Queens Hall. Every band sounded like this. Every other John Peel session of the time sounded like this. Strange how gutteral noise can evoke fond nostalgia.

Demonsmoke; Morphine Moonshine. Really good sludgy riffs all the way through this. It's the audio equivalent of wading through a swamp, an unusual experience but after a while you wonder where the end is. Not one I'll be rushing back to, but wouldn't avoid it either.

Denunciation; Garbage Burial. Another one that strays too close to conventional metal. On the plus side it's fast & nasty, but I can still hear too many frilly guitar parts. Fine for what it is, but not for me.

Devoid; I & II. Been looking forward to this since seeing Devoid were an early version of Body Void. Doesn't disappoint. The sonic equivalent of being sucked into the abyss, atom by atom. There's a level of surface noise to this that somehow makes it all the heavier. Ace.

Dipygus; Long Pig Feast. Not entirely sure what to make of this one. Only 2 tracks, but the first is over 10 minutes long and it tries to cram in as much metal as possible. Can't say I'm that keen, too much guitar fiddling again, but I admire the intent.

Dismembered Carnage; Deranged Butchery. You'd be surprised to learn with that name and title that this is all delicate piano ballads,wouldn't you? Of course it's not, it's exactly the grotesque racket you'd expect. And there's nowt wrong with that.

Dwel; Lodestone. Like a couple of other releases on this thread, top class post rock that trips up a little by forcing itself to be more metal. Less vocals & this would be up there with Godspeed, especially the epic closer 1869. Definitely worth some further investigation.

Ensepulcher; No Sanctity In Death. 4 tracks, barely over 5 minutes long, no chance to wallow, barely time to catch breath. If you're going to go all out horrorcore, do it like this, quick, vicious and dirty.

Evulse; Call Of The Void. I'm sure there are subtle differences between this and the Ensepulcher release, but I can't hear them. More snarling, gnashing horror. I like it, but I don't think I could listen to more than 10 minutes in one sitting.

Exulansis; Sequestered Sympathy. Quite different to the last couple, in fact different to much of what's gone before. Black metal as a template, with loads more chucked in to create an intriguing mix. There's a post rock, gloomy ambience, folky bits and some feverish fiddle.

False Figure; A Promised End. This is unexpected. Old school goth from 1983, like Southern Death Cult or Artery. I can almost smell the burnt hairspray from crimping it. I was a teenage goth so I'm bound like this, but I'm startled anyone sounds this way in the 21st century.

Fiend; Demo 2013. I've made reference before to some of these releases reminding me of the UK hardcore scene in the late 80s. This takes the biscuit for sounding like a Scum-era Napalm Death support band. 7 tracks, all less than a minute long. Nice.

Gravecoven; Coughing Blood. Good title, describing the vocal style accurately. Black metal with doom influences, which means an absence of fiddly guitar solos. By now you'll know I'm not into solos much. It might not be particularly original, but it is very good.

Hallucinator; Primeval Power. Spooky intro & outro aside, this is the musical equivalent of a very angry dog making its presence felt with its teeth. Aggressive & abrupt, even the few guitar solos sound choked off as if caught in slavering jaws. Impressive more than enjoyable.

Hands Of Thieves; Feasting On Dark Intentions. Heavy stuff, even for the company it keeps in this thread. Manages to mix the dynamics of black metal & doom without losing the viciousness of the former or the awesome sonic density of the latter.

Hellish Form; MMXX. OK, this is the heaviest thing yet. Shouldn't be surprised, features members of Body Void, one of the best finds on this little odyssey. 10 BPM at most, guitars tuned down so low the strings must be hanging off, reminds me of early Swans. Yes, THAT good.

Letharia; Letharia. A mix of doom and black metal, the former works well, the latter less so as it veers into fret bothering guitar solos and drifts perilously close to going prog. Good pounding noise overall. The wall of drums on the closing track are particularly head mangling.

Modraniht; To The Dark Mothers. Quite spooky & unsettling. Impressive considering how far I've come with this. Partly it's the way it's been mixed to sound like it's closer to you than expected, partly the witchy subject matter. Good, but not one for a dark night on your own.

Mortuous; Demo 2012. Don't really have much to say about this one. It's not bad, I actually quite like it for its aggressive dynamics. Thing is, it's that kind of metal that sounds like demented warthogs let loose on guitars, and I think I'm reaching capacity for that now.

Mystic Priestess; Mystic Priestess. I like this lots. Not just because it's different from much of the preceding, angry goth punk like early Xmal Deutschland, nor because it's very political, but also because the drummer doesn't bash the cymbals so much they eat the guitars.

Naught; Tomhyggjublus. Incredibly heavy doom from Iceland, proper Black Sabbath at 16 rpm with the batteries running down sludge rock. The title track sounds very much like Earth at their best. I would have been happier with less vocals, but that's a minor gripe.

Nostrum; Infernal Tomb. Starts well with the leaden throb of doom, then goes a bit awry with sweet vocals, reminding me of dismal folk goths All About Eve. False alarm, the voice switched to Regan from The Exorcist vomiting a demon. Proper heavy, just right for Hallowe'en.

Occlith; Obscure Heresies + Gates, Doorways And Endings. Two together as the first is only 2 tracks, & one of those is on the second. The production is a little too polished for me, & after a while the gravel gargling vocals become a distraction. Otherwise, high quality doom.

Oozepus; Lypemania. I started dabbling in metal when I made the connection with the crushingly heavy sound of Swans around the Children Of God era. I think Oozepus have travelled a similar route, and very good it is too.

Owl Coven; Cosmic Void. This is excellent, howling across the wastelands, desolate doom. I don't know why, but whenever I come across French bands doing heavy music (these are from the Loire) , they're really good at it. Also features that rarest of things, a good guitar solo.

Pastoral; Pastoral. This is what brought me to Transylvanian Tapes, & it’s as different from everything else as can be. Sparse, melancholic solo guitar echoing through deserted spaces, and nothing else. Not just my favourite release here, one of my records of the year. Wonderful.

Rapid Decline; Less Power, More Violence. Nothing was really going to be able to follow Pastoral, but this snarling, spitting ball of anger has a bloody good go. This is the sort of stuff the US military used to play over & over at high volume to force dictators out. Hint hint.

Rhizome; Rhizome. More of the same really, more shrieking fury and crunchy guitar noise that would be loads of fun down at the front at a sweaty, moshy gig. There would be bruises and they would be worth it. As you can tell, I miss live music.

Sectarian Bloom; Sectarian Bloom. Dark post punk it says. The word you're looking for is goth, like early Sisters or The March Violets. The kind of goth that spent ages backcombing its hair, then ruined it by chucking itself about the dance floor. That's a good thing.

Shrinkwrap Killers; Parents + FBI = Cahoots. Drum machine found at a car boot sale, only one setting but who cares? Power through with riffs and thuggish vocals. There's a vein of dark humour running through this, sort of like Wall Of Voodoo and I quite like that about it.

Sky Pig; Hell Is Inside You. Another one deviating from the doom & black metal path, but not so much this time. It's heavy sludge riffing and pained vocals, like when in the mid 90s anything vaguely grunge was signed by majors and Melvins were briefly mainstream. Very briefly.

Swamp Witch; Gnosis. As far as I can tell, Swamp Witch are pivotal to Transylvanian Tapes. This is 3 tracks of very good if not particularly original doom. What's really eye opening is how all 3 tracks are then remixed & slowed with a layer of sonic dirt to make them weirder.