WPRB Princeton 103.3 FM

"Russia is a Sphinx. Grieving, jubilant,
and covering herself with blood
she looks, she looks, she looks at you—her slant
eyes lit with hatred and with love."

The Scythians - Aleksandr Blok (translated by Jon Stallworthy and Peter France).

Russian black metal, from the Pleskau Brethren Circle to the Murmansk scene and Blazebirth Hall.

"Masses of flakes flew directly into his face, then melted, freezing his features. They flew into his mouth and vanished with a faint watery taste, plastered his eyelashes, making him squint and blink, inundated his eyes until there was no hope of even trying to see-which would have been useless in any case, because the veil of blinding white obstructed his view and made the act of seeing almost totally impossible. And when he forced himself to look, he was staring into nothing, into white, whirling nothing."

The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann (transl. John E. Woods)

Untranslatable picks from 2025 releases that may have flown under your radar.

For when metal doesn't sound bad enough already

Noisy, weird, and sometimes beautiful avant-folk from around the world

He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and in shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.

Noisy free jazz paired with avant-garde metal, post-punk and post-rock

Post-rock, post-metal, post-folk, post-music

Weh mir, wo nehm ich, wenn

Es Winter ist, die Blumen, und wo

Den Sonnenschein,

Und Schatten der Erde?

Die Mauern stehn

Sprachlos und kalt, im Winde

Klirren die Fahnen.

Hälfte des Lebens - Freidrich Hölderlin

All things sludge metal, featuring the ugliest and most beautiful songs to be born out of the unholy combinations of sludge, black and death metal, post-metal, and industrial

Exploring the ways in which dissonance is used across genres, from classical to jazz and metal, while still sounding good (subjective)

Skeletons, plague doctors, and forests (some peaceful and some ominous) in sonic form. Atmospheric black metal inspired by folk music from around the world, the most late-autumn genre there is.

An exploration of Middle Eastern music, particularly experimental and fusion genres that blend musical traditions of Persia, Arabia, and Turkey with those more commonly associated with the West

Shoutout Minjie Chen but no, not that kind

A dive into metal and extreme music from South Asia, with a particular focus on India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.

Or: the hunt for the white whale

kvtty kvt mvsick