An Elegy in Riffs: Albums to Help You Heal

Metalcatto

Time flies when you’re mourning. It feels like yesterday when Pappa Catto left for Valhalla. This past year, there were albums I would turn to when the emotional mess hit me hardest. You know what I’m talking about: the deep ache of loss and the nagging sense of existential meaninglessness, paired with the paradoxical need for brutal riffs to power through the day. Here are some of those albums that helped me navigate the pain. Maybe they can help you, too.

Ashenspire – Hostile Architecture: It might not be obvious amidst all the fart jokes, but I’ve always been deeply invested in social issues. When you’re mourning, you can feel a staggering amount of internal rage. Mine was directed outward—toward the world’s injustices, its profound apathy, its loveless and cold environments that cause so much unnecessary suffering. So many things feel pointless and wrong when you’re in that hole, which is why Hostile Architecture, with its revolutionary themes and caustic musical approach, helped during those furious moments. It kept me from decapitating the person who cut me off in line on an already terrible day.

Cult of Luna – Salvation: If you think I picked this one for any religious reason, you’re wrong. Essentially, anything Cult of Luna creates could fit my mourning mood, but in a strange twist, Salvation is the CofL album my four-year-old always asks to listen to. He didn’t know it, but in a way, he was guiding my cathartic process. By sharing this immense sonic experience with me, he reminded me there is still so much to look forward to—like sharing crushing, beautiful albums like this one with the family I didn’t have just a few years ago.

Am I in Trouble? – Spectrum: Why am I including such an obscure, random album here? Well, probably because this was the album I was playing most frequently just before tragedy struck. Even with its heaviness, Spectrum reminds me of happier, simpler times. In the beginning of any mourning process, it’s impossible not to return to the joyful memories you shared with the departed—whether relatives or close friends. So, when I wanted to revisit my childhood with Pappa, I’d remember it alongside all those haunting flute intros that grace this album.

Ellende – Todbringerin: Anything Ellende does is emotionally taxing, and Todbringerin is the album whose lyrics resonate with me most. After Pappa’s passing, I decided to retake the one language I had started learning but never finished mastering. Such an early loss taught me that my time to learn what I want is limited. Ellende‘s lyrical and musical work, though heartbreaking, possesses immense poetic value. Throughout this year, I’ve consistently returned to this album, allowing not only its music but also its words to speak directly to my experience.

Wayfarer – American Gothic: Don’t ask me why—maybe it was the sudden, sharp sense of loss, or the stark realization that the world can be a deeply meaningless place—but the entire literary genre of American Gothic kept me going when I needed something both philosophical and brutal. Yes, I read a few Cormac McCarthy books, and the best soundtrack for that nihilistic landscape was Wayfarer, with an album that, to me, is simply overflowing with creativity and awesome, sludgy riffs. These two combined mediums—literature and extreme music—helped pull me out of the emotional hole on several occasions, even if the tool was as blunt and bloodstained as American Gothic‘s thematic hammer.

Amenra – Mass IV: A Metal discussion about loss and sadness would feel incomplete without this album. Everything about Mass IV is devastating, and yet profoundly dignifying. Sure, any Amenra album requires patience and a willingness to engage with a vocalist who sounds like he’s being consumed by literal fire, but tracks like “Solitary Reign” frame loss in such a raw and powerful way. For me, it mirrored the beginning of my own unexpected reign as the head of a family—a role I was prepared for in theory, but one that carries immense emotional burdens. Now that I’m left with no “patriarch”, I’m the next in the line of succession, so responsibility and duty calls. Ultimately, Mass IV demonstrates that we can carry this weight with resilience and a somber, unbreakable dignity.

Well, that was heavy! Don’t worry, tomorrow we’ll be back to the snobbism and toilet humor you know us for. Cheers!