The Flenser

The Flenser was founded in 2009 by former musician Jonathan Tuite in San Francisco, who originally intended to focus the label on the American black metal scene at the time. However, the scene changed as The Flenser slowly gained prominence, so Tuite expanded the reach of the label to other genres. The label was named after the process of flensing – removing blubber from whales – which Tuite learned about from the novel Moby-Dick. Among The Flenser's more critically successful releases was its reissue of Have a Nice Life's album Deathconsciousness (2008; reissued 2014). Originally self-released in 2008, this lo-fi double album gradually developed a cult following; Pitchfork characterized its worldview as one in which "existence is bleak, gallows humor undergirds it, and sometimes wallowing in that sick paradox is the best revenge." Over time, its audience expanded beyond niche internet circles; Kerrang! described it as "a viral hit amongst internet communities like /mu/, Sputnikmusic and Rate Your Music," calling it "the stuff of internet myth." The Flenser reissued the album in 2014, helping introduce it to a wider audience and later released the band's follow-up albums, The Unnatural World (2014) and Sea of Worry (2019). In 2019, The Flenser began publishing literature, with their first full-length novel, To Sing of Damnation, being released in 2020. In the 2020s, the label saw success with Chat Pile's ''God's Country'' (2022). The band's debut full-length album was a critical success, blending sludge metal, noise rock, and industrial influences. It was named Best New Music by Pitchfork and topped Stereogum's year-end metal list. That same year, the label release the compilation Send the Pain Below, a six-song EP featuring multiple bands on the label covering nu metal songs. Its recent activities include Ragana's ''Desolation's Flower (2023), which appeared on multiple year-end lists, including those from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, as well as the compilation Your Voice Is Not Enough'' (2024), a tribute album to the band Low. The project was initiated before the death of drummer Mimi Parker and was later dedicated to her memory. The compilation features artists including Midwife, Planning for Burial, and Have a Nice Life. == Showcases and Events ==

Since 2019, The Flenser has organized and participated in several showcase events in New York and at festivals such as Oblivion Access and Roadburn Festival, featuring artists like Have a Nice Life, Midwife, and Chat Pile. To mark its tenth anniversary, The Flenser was invited to curate a showcase at the 2020 edition of the Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands. The lineup was set to include performances by Have a Nice Life, Planning for Burial, and Giles Corey—whose set would have been the project's live debut—but the event was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. == Artists ==

Current • Agriculture • All Your Sisters • Amulets • Black Wing • Bosse-de-Nage • Botanist • Chat Pile • Consumer • Cremation Lily • Crippling Alcoholism • Drowse • Echo Beds • Faetooth • Hand Model • Have a Nice Life • Heinali and Matt Finney • Hissing • Kathryn Mohr • Low Estate • Mamaleek • Midwife • Planning for Burial • Ragana • RLYR • Scarcity • Succumb • Sutekh Hexen • The Flowers of St. Francis • Trevor de Brauw • Uboa • Vale • Vile Creature • White Suns • Wreck and Reference Former • Deafheaven • Kayo Dot • Palace of Worms • Panopticon • Sprain • Toby Driver • Boduf Songs • King Woman • M. Trecka • Muscle and Marrow • Sannhet • Elizabeth Colour Wheel • Father Murphy • Street Sects ==Releases==

Discography This is a list of works from The Flenser Catalog. The list is ordered by production date. • Palace of Worms – "The Forgotten" CD (FR01) • Panopticon – "Collapse" DLP (FR02) • Bosse-de-Nage – "Bosse-de-Nage" CD (FR03) • Ghast – "May the Curse Bind" DLP (FR04) • Palace of Worms – "Lifting the Veil" CS (FR05) • Skagos/Panopticon – "Split" CD (FR06) • Necrite – "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" CD (FR07) • Pale Chalice – "Afflicting the Dichotomy of Trepid Creation" CD (FR08) • Circle of Eyes – "Circle of Eyes" CS (FR09) • Seidr – "For Winter Fire" CD (FR10) • Panopticon – "On the Subject...of Mortality" DLP (FR11) • Bosse-de-Nage – "Bosse-de-Nage (II)" CD/LP (FR12) • Wreck and Reference – "Black Cassette" LP (FR13) • Panopticon – "Social Disservices" CD/DLP (FR14) • Otesanek, Loss, Orthodox, Mournful Congregation – "Fo(u)r Burials" CD (FR15) • Lake of Blood – "As Time And Tide Erodes Stone" LP (FR16) • Lycus – "Demo 2011" LP (FR17) • Wheels within Wheels/Merkaba – "Split" CS (FR18) • Obolus – "Lament" LP (FR19) • Coffinworm – "Great Bringer of Night" LP (FR20) • Worm Ouroboros – "Come the thaw" DLP (FR21) • Nick Millevoi – "In White Sky" CS (FR22) • Wreck and Reference – "No Youth" LP (FR23) • Bosse-de-Nage – "Bosse-de-Nage (III)" DLP (FR24) • Palace of Worms/Mastery – "split" CS (FR25) • Deafheaven/Bosse-de-Nage – "split" LP (FR26) • Grayceon – "Pearl and the End of Days" LP (FR27) • Botanist – "Mandragora" CD/LP (FR28) • Trees – "Sickness-In" LP (FR29) • Bell Witch – "Longing" DLP (FR30) • Vestiges/Panopticon – "split" LP (FR31) • Skagos – "Anarchic" CD (FR32) • Eight Bells – "The Captains Daughter" LP (FR33) • Wreck and Reference – "No Content" 7inch (FR34) • Panopticon – "Kentucky" Reissue DLP (FR35) • Loss Of Self – "Twelve Minutes" CD/LP (FR36) • Botanist/Palace of Worms – "Split" LP (FR37) • Vaura – "The Missing" CD/LP (FR38) • Have a Nice Life – "The Unnatural World" LP (FR39) • White Suns – "Totem" CD/LP (FR40) • Mamaleek – "He Never Spoke a Mumblin' Word" LP (FR41) • Have a Nice Life – "Deathconsciousness" DLP (FR42) • Mastery – "Valis" LP (FR43) • Planning for Burial – "Desideratum" LP/CD (FR44) • Wreck and Reference – "Want" CD/LP (FR45) • Botanist – "VI: Flora" CD/LP (FR46) • Coffinworm – "IV.I.VIII" LP (FR47) • Kayo Dot – "Coffins on Io" CD/LP (FR49) • Boduf Songs – "Stench of Exist" CD/LP (FR50) • King Woman – "Doubt" EP/CS (FR51) • Sannhet – "Revisionist" CD/LP (FR53) • Father Murphy – "Croce" CD/LP/CS (FR54) • Mamaleek – "Via Dolorosa" LP (FR55) • Planning for Burial – "Leaving" LP (FR56) • Bell Witch – "Demo 2011" LP (FR57) • Black Wing – "...Is Doomed" (FR59) • Bosse-de-Nage – "All Fours" LP (FR60) • Heat Dust – "Heat Dust" LP (FR61) • Giles Corey – "Giles Corey" LP (FR62) • Sannhet – "Known Flood" LP (FR63) • Kayo Dot – "Hubardo" CD/LP (FR64) • Trevor De Bruauw – "Uptown" CD (FR65) • Braveyoung – "Misery & Pride" CD/LP (FR66) • Muscle and Marrow – "Love" LP (FR67) • All Your Sisters – "Uncomfortable Skin" LP/CS (FR68) • Kayo Dot – "Plastic House on Base of Sky" CD/LP (FR69) • Wreck and Reference – "Indifferent Rivers Romance End" LP (FR70) • Street Sects – "End Position" LP (FR71) • Planning for Burial – "Matawan – Collected Works 2010–2014" 2CD (FR72) • Toby Driver – "Madonnawhore" CD (FR73) • Succumb – "Succumb" CD/LP (FR74) • Planning for Burial – "Below the House" CD/LP (FR75) • Heinali & Matt Finney – "How We Lived" LP (FR76) • White Suns – "Psychic Drift" CD (FR77) • Mamaleek – "Out Of Time" 2LP (FR79) • Drowse – "Cold Air" LP (FR80) • Street Sects – "Rat Jacket" LP (FR84) • Alis – "The Unraveling" CD/LP (FR85) • RLYR – "Actual Existence" (FR86) • Planning for Burial – "Quietly" CD/LP (FR87) • Bosse-de-Nage – "Further Still" CD/LP (FR90) • All Your Sisters – "Trust Ruins" CD/LP (FR93) • Elizabeth Colour Wheel – "Nocebo" CD/LP (FR94) • Drowse – "Light Mirror" LP (FR95) • Vale – "Burden of Sight" CD (FR96) • Wreck and Reference – "Absolute Still Life" CD/LP (FR98) • Have a Nice Life – "Sea of Worry" CD/LP (FR100) • CONSUMER – "In Computers" LP (FR102) • Midwife – "Forever" LP (FR105) • Planning for Burial – "When Summer Turns to Fall" LP (FR108) • Giles Corey – "Hinterkaifeck" LP (FR109) • The Flowers of St. Francies – "Vol. 5" Tape (FR111) • Midwife & Amulets – "In / Heaven" CS (FR112) • Botanist – "Photosynthesis" LP (FR113) • History – "History" LP (FR114) • Midwife – "Like Author, Like Daughter" LP (FR115) • Black Wing – "No Moon" LP (FR117) • Amulets – "Blooming" LP (FR119) • Midwife – "Luminol" LP (FR120) • Hand Model – "The Thinking Monster" (FR121) • Planning for Burial – "Matwan Collected Works 2010–2014 Vol. 1" LP (FR122) • Succumb – "XXI" LP (FR123) • Various Artists – "Send the Pain Below" LP (FR124) • Mamaleek – "Kurdaitcha" LP (FR126) • Scarcity – "Aveilut" LP (FR127) • Chat Pile – "God's Country" LP (FR129) • Street Sects – "Gentrification V" EP (FR130) • Cremation Lily – "Dreams Drenched in Static" LP (FR131) • Mamaleek – "Diner Coffee" LP (FR132) • Hand Model & Gloved Hands – "Game Changers" Tape (FR133) • Kathryn Mohr – "Holly" Tape, Digital (FR134) • Sister Grotto – "Song for an Unborn Son" LP (FR136) • Planning for Burial – "Matawan 2" LP, Digital (FR137) • Nahvalr – "Nahvalr" LP, Digital (FR138) • Drowse – "Wane into It" LP, Digital (FR140) • Chat Pile – "Tenkiller Motion Picture Soundtrack" Digital (FR141) • Chat Pile – "Tenkiller / Lake Time (Mr. Rodan)" Tape (FR142) • Planning For Burial – "Matawan Tape Collection" Tape (FR143) • Sprain – "The Lamb as Effigy" LP, Digital (FR144) • Have a Nice Life – "Voids" LP, CD, Tape Digital (FR145) • Midwife & Vyva – "Orbweaving" LP, Digital (FR146) • Low Compilation – "Your Voice Is Not Enough" LP (FR147) • Agriculture – "Agriculture" LP, CD, Tape, Digital (FR149) • Ragana – "Desolation's Flower" LP, CD, Tape Digital (FR150) • Chat Pile – "This Dungeon Earth / Remove Your Skin Please" LP, CD (FR151) • Hand Model – "Will Life Reign Supreme Even in Death" 7inch, Digital (FR152) • Chat Pile – "Bulls on Parade" Felxi (FR154) • Uboa – "Impossible Light" LP, Digital (FR156) • Chat Pile – "This Dungeon Earth" LP, Digital (FR157) • Chat Pile – "Remove Your Skin Please" LP, Digital (FR158) • Scarcity – "The Promise of Rain" LP, Digital (FR159) • Agriculture – "Living Is Easy / Circle Chant" LP (FR160) • Mamaleek – "Vida Blue" LP, Digital (FR161) • Midwife – "No Depression in Heaven" LP, Digital (FR162) • Mamaleek – "Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Words" Digital (FR163) • Chat Pile – "Cool World" LP, CD, Tape, Digital (FR164) • Kathryn Mohr – "Waiting Room" LP, Digital (FR165) • Midwife – "Signs" Digital Single (FR168) • Have a Nice Life – "Basic" Flexi (FR169) • Pyramids – "Pythagorus" LP, CD, Digital (FR171) • Planning For Burial – "It's Closeness, It's Easy" LP, CD, Tape, Digital (FR172) • Various Artists – "Cold Fronts Vol. 2" LP, Digital (FR173) • Chat Pile – "Live at Roadburn 2023" LP, Digital (FR175) • Dan Meyer – "Kneeling Man" Digital (FR176) Literature • "Blear" by Bryan Manning (TFB01) • To Sing of Damnation by Adam Washington (TFB02) • "Caryatid" by Bryan Manning (TFB04) • "Overcasts: Selected Writings 2019–2023" by Kyle Bates (TFB05) == See also ==