The North
The North Threads
So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.
This month’s feature release for The North has been nominated by myself. It's the 2011 split E.P. from US black metal artists Tukaaria & Odz Manouk, a release that's been receiving high praise from the underground scene in recent years & one that I've been meaning to revisit in order to fill one of my more obvious ratings gaps.
https://metal.academy/releases/32406
Alcest - "Les voyages de l'âme" (2012)
I’ve undergone quite the transformation with French blackgaze godfathers Alcest over the last couple of years. I’d previously struggled with their whispy positivity & dreamy atmospheres but I’ve finally come to grips with them in my old age & now tend to find a lot of enjoyment in the majority of their releases. It’s been a good decade since I’ve heard their 2012 third album “Les voyages de l'âme” though & my recollections are that it was another record that I found to be too lightweight for my taste at the time but, given my newly found affection for Alcest, I won’t be surprised if this record is yet another one that sees me awarding one of my more respectable ratings in retrospect.
I’ve enjoyed both of Alcest’s first two albums in recent times, particularly the blackgaze of their 2007 debut “Souvenirs d'un autre monde” which offered less of a post-rock influence than 2010’s “Écailles de lune”. “Souvenirs d'un autre monde” ended up being more a post-blackgaze effort & I didn’t connect with it on quite the same level. With “Les voyages de l'âme” we see Alcest pushing their shoegaze sound a little harder again which sees it being the primary genre here. The black metal component is certainly still relevant though with songs like “Là où naissent les couleurs Nouvelles”, “Beings of Light” & “Faiseurs de mondes” offering enough black metal characteristics to justify a dual blackgaze tag. The strong post-rock elements that played such a strong role on “Écailles de lune” have been eased off a bit here & I don’t think “Les voyages de l'âme” justifies a place in The Infinite. If you were a fan of Alcest’s previous material then I don’t think you’ll be terribly surprised with what you hear as this record essentially pulls together all of the elements that were already at play on past releases & presents them in a highly professional way that sees the listener taking a deep breath, recoiling back within themselves & returning to joyous times of youthful adventure.
It’s blatantly clear that Alcest are a class act thoughout the 50 minute runtime. The effortlessness with which they create their nostalgic, dreamlike soundscapes is impressive with Neige’s dream pop-style vocals washing over the listener with a child-like feeling of comfort. Tracks like the title track & closer “Summer's Glory” sit far more in the My Bloody Valentine camp than in anything Metal Academy covers while the gorgeous two-minute post-rock instrumental “Havens” is perhaps the best moment on the album with its ambient sophistication removing any sort of stress from my limbs & torso. I don’t think it’s surprising that the more aggressive black metal influenced material is more appealing to my ears than the straight up shoegaze stuff though & it’s the wonderful use of sweeping tremolo-picked riffs that gets me going more than the occasional blast beats or blackened shrieks.
“Les voyages de l'âme” is another very strong Alcest record in my opinion. Most metalheads seem to have a strong preference for the band’s first two albums (perhaps due to their greater black metal component) but I’m a bit unusual (I know, a big shock, hey?) in that I prefer their later material with 2016’s “Kodama” (an album that I don’t regard as being a metal release) still being my favourite Alcest full-length. “Les voyages de l'âme” has done really well to just edge out “Souvenirs d'un autre monde” for second place & I’ve very much enjoyed the experience. Perhaps it might be worth me taking a return visit to Alcest’s 2014 follow-up “Swelter” (an album that I’ve previously had no time for) now to see if my feelings have changed there too. In an analogy that seems strangely apt for a band like this one, it’s been really exciting to finally discover the gooey centre at the heart of the Alcest donut.
4/5
P.S. "Hello, is this Alcest? Yes, hi there. It's Opeth calling from Sweden. I can see that you've borrowed our album cover. Would you mind returning it immediately?"
Imperium Dekadenz - Into Sorrow Evermore (2023)
Released 20th January on Napalm Records
At one point I found myself over-saturated with black metal and consequently for the last year or so I have paid it very little attention, other than for a few releases from acts I was already familiar with. So to a new year and I feel ready to put black metal back on the menu and as fate would have it, the first release to cross my path was the new album from German atmospheric black metal duo, Imperium Dekadenz. My only previous contact with the band was via 2007's Dämmerung der Szenarien album which I found to be a solid, if not especially earth-shattering, effort, so it has been a while since I paid the band heed.
Well, even after a solitary playthrough, Into Sorrow Evermore had a firm hold on my attention as it was immediately apparent that this was a cut above your run-of-the-mill atmospheric black metal release and was one that demanded further scrutiny. Most of the tracks here tread a line between atmospheric and uptempo melodic black metal, erring more on one side or the other depending on the track and are atmospherically epic and expansive. There is plenty of variety, though, with a couple of tracks that have a slower tempo and a greater emphasis on post-metal-derived melancholy, almost channelling a doom metal sensibility, in the vein of the stuff someone like Deha produces on a regular basis. The riffs are great with a fairly meaty sound for black metal, with each being sufficiently melodic and memorable that they live long in the memory, a trick too many atmo-black bands are unable to replicate. Vocalist Horaz has a great line in washed-out shrieking that fits the blasting and riffing perfectly and it is always great to hear real drums on an atmo-black album, they just give it a natural authenticity that programmed drums are unable to reproduce convincingly.
Thematically the album is on solid ground, the lyrics comprising a philosophical contemplation of the implacable majesty of the natural world and Man's place within it, a subject any atmospheric black metal fan will be extremely familiar with. There is no compulsion on the part of the duo to push boundaries and you won't be overwhelmed with layers of dissonance or overly complex rhythms and song structures, but Into Sorrow Evermore bears the hallmarks of a band who have been honing their craft and songwriting skills within their own field of expertise and if you are a fan of classy, natural-themed atmo-black in the nature of Wolves in the Throne Room you will find much here to revel in. For me, Imperial Dekadenz have definitely given me a big push to climb back aboard the black metal express and for that I am extremely grateful.
4.5/5
Bekëth Nexëhmü - "De dunklas sorgeakt (Ett nordiskt afvsked...)" (2022)
I don't mind the latest release from prolific Swedish one-man atmospheric black metal artist Bekëth Nexëhmü. It was his second album for the year, following just two months after "De evigas gravrit" which is self-indulgent enough in itself if not for the fact that this new record is 104 minutes long which is just taking the piss, isn't it? You can expect a very raw, lo-fi production, the consistent use of tremolo-picked riffs & blast-beats & those distant, tortured Varg Vikernes style screams, kinda like a more brutal example of the cold & atmospheric sound that other solo acts like Paysage d'Hiver, Trhä & Burzum champion. There are quite a few interludes included which comprise of some post-black metal inspired pieces as well as a couple of lengthy folk guitar instrumentals. The black metal material is hit & miss for me as some of the tracks can sound a bit too consciously epic & triumphant, occasionally turning to glistening melodic riffs that remind me of blackgaze artists like Deafheaven. The brutality factor is a definite plus for me though & the quality of some of the interludes is excellent with a few of those pieces being my favourite moments on the album. Overall, this release will probably satisfy a lot of our The North members (Xephyr in particular) but doesn't compete with the top tier in my opinion.
3.5/5
Darkthrone - Astral Fortress (2022)
If I was backed into a corner and was forced to choose my favourite metal band, then I would probably choose Darkthrone. Not just because of their classic black metal albums (although that is reason enough), but also because of their obvious passion for and love of metal that I too share, their absolute refusal to compromise in their musical endeavours and their lack of concern as to how they or their music are perceived by the outside world. Let's face it, how many metal bands would dare even think of putting out an album with a cover that is merely a photograph of the drummer ice skating?
So, anyway, Fenriz and Nocturno Culto return with their 20th studio album and continue with their crusty, blackened take on doom and heavy metal that came to the fore on previous release, Eternal Hails. This one is a take on late-80's, early-90's underground trad doom fed through a blackened crust filter, but updated with better production and, in truth, it differs very little from it's predecessor to the extent that they could both have been released together as a double album and no one would have batted an eyelid. I know most metalheads now want to shit on Fenris and Nocturno for not endlessly recycling A Blaze In the Northern Sky, but this is what they do now. Is it as good as their 90's stuff? Well obviously not, but I quite enjoy this tiny niche that the duo have carved out for themselves and their more recent material is kind of quaint in it's lack of pretension and total disregard for trends or adherence to the zeitgeist. For those who know of it, Fenris and Nocturno Culto kind of remind me of Lance and Andy from the BBC show Detectorists with their dogged refusal to be affected by the world at large and their almost idealistic existence in their own little corner of the globe.
Where I feel Darkthrone succeed most, is in their ability to gradually reshape their music in directions that interest them whilst still embracing a unifying "sound", as in the blackened crust that still forms the backbone of what they are about, whatever other genre thay may be focussing on otherwise. This continuity gives us diehard fans a way into whatever it is they are doing and with it comes a kind of surety as to what you are going to get. Darkthrone seem uninterested in suddenly changing direction for the sake of it and are unlikely to throw out too many jarring curveballs to their audience. Of course, this is much to the chagrin of a lot of the online metal community, whose almost ADHD-like desire for continuous change and intellectual challenge (from albums the majority will only listen to once or twice) makes a band like Darkthrone anathema to them and attracts huge amounts of criticism as the keyboard warriors vent their spleen against the duo. But of course by then, Fenriz is off skating up some frozen fjord and couldn't give two fucks what some music know-all from gods-know-where has to say about it!
Astral Fortress start out very strongly with Caravan of Broken Ghosts which has a great crusty trad doom main riff that gets even better when the duo put their pedal to the metal on the speeded up section that used to be one of the staples of trad doom, the track as a whole coming off as a necroticised version of Pentagram or early Saint Vitus. I think Nocturno and Fenriz take their feet off the gas a little on the next couple of tracks, Impeccable Caverns of Satan and Stalagmite Necklace. They are decent enough and I really like the main black 'n' roll riff of the former, but they lack dynamism and start to drag the album down a bit, sounding as they do like outtakes from Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales that didn't make the cut. So, despite side one tailing off to some extent, side two is a much more convincing experience. Kicking off with the bizarrely named The Sea Beneath the Seas of the Sea, the track itself is bookended by an intro and outro that sound a bit like very early (circa Fly By Night) Rush - believe it or not! The track as a whole is Darkthrone's own particular take on a ten minute trad doom epic that sounds like it's been dug up after thirty or forty years of decay. Next up, Kervorkian Times is my favourite track on the album with a killer main riff and Nocturno Culto spitting fire and bile, proving that even in their fifties these guys are still underground metal legends. A short instrumental and we're into final track Eon 2, which doesn't on the face of it have anything to do with the instrumental Eon off of Soulside Journey, but which does contain a Maiden-esque galloping riff before it settle back into the doom-pacing of the rest of the album.
Nocturno Culto's vocals are undiminished by time and he still fires out riffs left, right and centre and Fenriz is a complete legend so, to me, the world is a much better place with a band like Darkthrone and their love of metal and refusal to compromise still in it. So what I'm trying to say is "fuck the haters".
4/5