Henki - Richard Dawson and Circle (2021)

Ideated from: things I missed and only picked up on when they made somebody else’s best-of-the-year lists.

I know the name Richard Dawson (as a singer, not the guy who was on Hogan’s Heros and hosted Famiily Feud) as an oddball post-folkie, but I hadn’t really listened to him. This record teams him up with Finnish post-rock / post-metal band Circle.

It’s about… plants, I guess?

Henki’s seven tracks deal with special plants throughout history, making it the greatest flora-themed hypno-folk-metal record you’ll hear this year.

I can’t really argue with that. Not because it’s right; you just literally can’t argue with it.

But it is a pretty solid record and the two artists gel well despite being from very different worlds. And really, the thing is just filled with immaculately bizarre lyrics about riding panthers into the underworld and grating laserwort over braised flamingo hearts.

I kind of spun this for a laugh initially, but it genuinely won me over with its over-the-top, unapologetic weirdness.

Tracks I Liked

Ivy - builds up some pretty great post-y grooves and rides them to a truly metal crescendo.

Methuselah - some glorious, full-bore old-school heavy metal