���Last year's Climax might be my favorite contempo gloom-punk album that's come out in the past few years, delivering some of the catchiest music I've heard come out of the recent resurgence in 80's style deathrock and post-punk. Released prior to their debut album, Beastmilk's early EPs were just as darkly infectious and anthemic, essential stuff if you were hooked on Climax, but that stuff had been out of print for awhile. Beastmilk's US label Magic Bullet has just reissued these earlier releases though, and both are highly recommended; while it only has two actual songs and the whole thing is repeated on the b-side, I've been hitting repeat on the Finnish band's White Stains 7" all month. White Stains On Black Wax (the title a nod to Crowley's infamous book of erotic poetry) was Beastmilk's first release, a self-released cassette that came out back in 2010 that started all of the buzz around the band after Darkthrone member Fenriz hailed it as one of the best new releases of the year on his Band Of The Week blog. Little wonder, as this brief blast of apocalyptic post-punk burrows fast into your brain, opening with the maudlin, Misfits-meets-Killing Joke rocker "The Wind Blows Through Their Skulls", then slipping into the equally catchy "Blood (Under The Mill)", the song's driving, heavy sound tinged with an almost rockabilly-esque twang. The other track is little more than a short sound collage touting the glories of "Beastmilk", but this 7" still thoroughly wipes the floor with most bands of this kind, their songs fueled on dark energy and loaded with huge, gloomy hooks that'll stick with you for days, and fronted by the shadowed croon of singer Mat McNerney (Code / Hexvessel / D�dheimsgard). Fantastic stuff.