Weird bands are making some badass high-tech, lo-fi impressionistic videos in Austin right now, and we are eating this stuff up. Latest in the line of Austin's most experimental artists to embrace abstract bizarro tech-created imagery for the visual representations of their music, a list that's recently included acts like Shmu and Rikroshi, are Deli-favorite doom sirens Troller.

The video in question is for the mightily-named and overwhelmingly pretty track “Storm Maker” from Troller's recent and sublime Graphic, and both it and the song itself are a departure, at least in surface aesthetics, from the majority of Troller's typically dark and heavy oeuvre. Here Troller applies their tremendous (in the true sense of the word) musical approach to being also gorgeous- the track is edgy, harmonic, modern, and outright heartbreakingly pretty. The subject matter is the typically heady and emotionally complex stuff you get with Troller (and, really, most all Holodeck Records acts), with no small amount of weltschmerz present, but as opposed to the overwhelming doom and crushing crescendos of their standard songs, “Storm Maker” is both audially and visually an assault of gorgeousness.

A large part of that in the song itself can be attributed to singer and deathbass maven Amber Star-Goers' thrillingly dynamic vocals, which are presented here in a manner that gives you a chance to hear her voice clearly and at its most skillfully dynamic. The woman hits notes in the crescendo that are shocking in their power and goosebumps-inducing, and this track is in one way a hell of an argument that Star-Goers' has the best command of her range in all of Austin music. Instrumentalists Adam Jones and Justin Star-Goers provide a slow, but driving drum pad-laced aural structure over which Amber's voice plays that is equally as entrancing and darkly lovely.

Troller is making Lord of the Rings-level epic fantasy music right now, but done by the hippest, smartest people you know, as if they weren't Austinite humans but the most truly metal avant garde band of dark elves and orcs ever to throw noise across the multiverse. The “Storm Maker” video here is perfectly constructed to match the music- a highly abstract and impressionistic take that's so very modern that it has that rare intelligent retro look at 80s and 90s computer culture that is only just now getting its due through burning edge artists like Macintosh Plus and PC Music, and now Troller. The song's a long'n' (Troller ain't afeared of nothin'), and it is thoroughly worth taking in as a whole at 1080p, preferably on some damn good headphones or a system worthy of the bigness of this sound and video.

Take a look below, check out the whole Graphic album here, and we'll leave you with this insightful Troller quote from the “Storm Maker” video premiere a la FADER:

“Lyrically, this song is about the cycle of chaos and order in life. When circumstances force you to re-evaluate and humble yourself, there is a somber process of accepting your own limitations. These self-reflective moments usually teach valuable lessons to better manage the moments when you actually are in control. It's the duality of being a Storm Watcher and a Storm Maker.”

OH, what a very most lovely and doomiest of days! Not only has Deli-beloved act Troller just announced that we're but months away from the release of their second full album, they've also deigned to bestow upon us ravenous Troller fans a new, dark, weird single from that album in the form of one hell of a music video for song “Not Here.”

It's damn good too, pairing a Lynchian setting and visual style with a gripping performance from drag queen Louisiana Purchase, whose piercing, manic eyes and understated, elegant and sometimes terrifying dance grasps your gaze and won't let go. The track, too, is of the highest Troller quality (which to us is a way to say it's killer as fuck), doing their gorgeous drones and dark cathedral melodies and industrial drum machines thing to perfection on this devastating, heavy track.

Both track and video are exquisite treatment and representation of pain, something we typically get fed to us in music through highly pop (Taylor Swift) or deeply self indulgent and stereotypical (Adele) ways, but here get from a thoroughly non-mainstream (even in 2016) and queer-positive perspective. It's done with beauty, finesse and a fine, sharp edge, and it bodes seriously fucking well for the upcoming album.

Watch and listen below, and look for Troller's Graphic LP on April 8 through Holodeck Records.

Troller is an Austin act that makes music to shatter worlds to. They’ve been around the scene for some years now, creating an extremely unique sound that you’ll understand if the terms “ultra-heavy psychedelic fantasy electronic horror metal” sound like a real thing to you. If that idea is hard to wrap your brainbox around, try out Troller’s newest track “Destruccion,” and you’ll get what we mean pretty fuckin’ quick.

“Destruccion” is heavy, awesome, and fantastical as fuck. With its electronic, metal and fantasy influences swarming together in one track, it’d go equally as well as the soundtrack to a flyover of Mordor as it would a brutal dystopic future cityscape. Shit is unrelenting, with vocals like the chants of a death cult of spacemonks, but it also has a brilliant point at 2:39 where a major-key bridge switch gives an unexpected burst of lightness and prettiness, like a plane bursting up out of a thick smog and into the sunlight to breathe fresh air and see the sparkle off the clouds below for just a brief moment before an Icarus-esque crash back into chaos. The dark crescendo the track ends on is ideally created by a group who knows their sound (that being big, thundering, epic and terrifying), and knows what to do with it.

Troller, as I’m sure they’d tell you themselves, is not for everyone, but if you dig metal, weird electronics or, better yet, think trip-hop and chillout are genres that could do well with more fantasy, heavy and experiemental elements addded in and then done live by a troupe of badasses, you’ll eat Troller the fuck up. This is some damn good weird electronic-y music y’all, and we’d expect nothing less of another band off of the great Holodeck Records. Listen below, and get ready to go on a gotdamn journey with this one.

Rounding up the bands highlighted in our Artist of the Month Poll is gothic electronica outfit Troller. The band seems to have found a fitting home with Austin’s Holodeck Records, through which their self-titled debut LP has already had a couple pressings.

Between official showcase spots at SXSW last month and Moogfest in Asheville, NC this month, Troller has been gaining a bit of (good) attention lately, and it’s all warranted. Through the heavy layers of synth and wide-horizoned vocals, Troller’s sound is dark yet cozy. –Written by Marie Meyers

They say all good things must come to an end.  (We don't really believe that, but for the sake of putting a metaphysical slant to a post, we'll claim allegiance.)  And, sorry to say, Free Week is no exception.  Waah.

But instead of bawling, let's go out with a BANG.  For tonight, we recommend going Holy Mountain or Red 7 -

Zorch, The Boxing Lesson, Boyfrndz, Tiger Waves, and Residual Kid will be doing the free thing at Holy Mountain tonight. 

And right next door at Red 7, on the inside you can find Troller, Marriage, The Sour Notes, Wet Lungs, and Spray Paint; whilest the outside stage will be taken over by White Walls, Cheap Curls, The Well, and Holy Wave.  

Saturday, we'd go:

The Mohawk has a huge going-out-of-Free-Week show with the outside stage hosting Silent Diane, FEATHERS, BOAN, and Rare Species.  Inside, we'll have The Sour Notes, The Couch, Shivery Shakes, Letting Up Despite Great Faults, and The Plastic Habit.

And Red 7 will host TV Torso, Oh No Oh My, Hundred Visions, and Tiger Waves. 

Last and definitely not least, you could scoot over to Club DeVille and catch Oh Look Out, Friday Avenue, (one of our best of 2012) Borrisokane, Knifight, and Hydra Melody on the outside stage, whilest inside you can see Pop Pistol and Migrant Kids.