AAC Anniversary Sale || Trespasser – Suffer Together, Suffer Alone (2017); Turtle Skull

Australian label Art As Catharsis are celebrating their 10th anniversary — a span during which they have had “more than 150 releases, covering doom, hardcore, prog, post-rock, jazz, experimental pop, noise, ambient music, art folk and beyond.”

As a special thank-you to their loyal followers, the label is currently (now through the 18th of February) offering 20% discounts on all purchases through Bandcamp using code aac10years at checkout!

And to offer you a little bit of guidance wading through such an extensive catalog, I’ve hand-selected two of the label’s numerous releases to share with you today.

Trespasser – Suffer Alone, Suffer Together (Art As Catharsis, 16 November 2017)

Turtle Skull – Monoliths (Art As Catharsis / Kozmik Artifactz, 28 August 2020)

First up we have the debut EP by Tasmanian quintet Trespasser. Seventeen minutes of miserable post-hardcore blended with crusty sludge; devastatingly roared vocals over thick riffs and disharmony — the end result of which is an amalgam that belongs in the collection of any fan of Noothgrush or Neurosis or anyone else in a similar arena. While it doesn’t appear the band has followed with any new material in the four-plus years since releasing Suffer Alone, Suffer Together, this listener will continue holding out hope for a sequel.

Next — another fivesome who also calls southeastern Australia home (Sydney, in this case), and whose name begins with the same letter. But that’s pretty much where the similarities cease. Turtle Skull‘s first full-length (and second release overall), which they put out nearly a year and a half ago, comes across as comparatively serene after the one from the previous paragraph. Slow and droney for the most part, but at the same time drenched in layers of heavy psychedelia, and featuring mellow harmonized vocals reminiscent of your favorite jam band (or if that term has negative connotations for you, let’s say your favorite old-school prog-rock band instead) — and with philosophical ponderances as lyrics that perfectly mesh with the hallucinogenic nature of the music: