The New Music Thread : The North Edition
Yeah I've given "Le tyran et l'esthète" four full spins over the last couple of days & I really dig it. I'm not generally too keen on any release that commands a subgenre tag with the word "melodic" in front of it & there is some stuff here that's a little too melodically inclined for my taste to be fair but Les Chants de Nihil always manage to keep me interested through sheer chaotic violence. I mean this is blasting as fuck for a record that's being labelled as melodic but the band have somehow managed to find a beautiful balance between melody & brutality that means that the tag still seems to fit. The black metal vocals have real anger & spite in them & they suit the music well while the drumming is spectacular & represents the clear highlight of the album. In fact, bands like these guys & Deathspell Omega leave me wondering how the French manage to produce such consistent talent in this regard.
I'm not much of a fan of the chanting vocals to be honest but that won't surprise people that know me well. They're inevitably the weakest moments on the album to my ears. The tracklisting also could have been a little more consistent too but there are no genuinely weak tracks & the couple of clear highlight tracks are particularly impressive. I mean find me a better modern black metal track than "Danse des mort-nés" & you'll be doing well. It harnesses all of the things that made the Norwegians so great in black metal's heyday.
This is some high quality black metal right here & Ben will definitely love it. Thanks a lot for the tip Sonny.
4/5
Another great album from Andy Marshall (Saor), his second under is Fuath alter-ego.
Also, I'm a bit late to this one, it being released in early February, but this is a fantastic black metal album that tells the story of the Battle of the Wabash, a massive victory for the Western Confederacy of Native Americans against the American Army in 1791.
I've put together a Spotify playlist of tracks from my favourite black metal albums of the year to date (although I couldn't access the Pan-Amerikan Native Front album unfortunately, so i've had to give it a miss).
Black Metal of 2021 playlist
I've really been enjoying Little Turtle's War this year, consistently been going back to it for the past month or so. Has a great theme and some great songwriting.
And I didn't know that Saor had a separate project, looks like I have some stuff to catch up on.
I'm starting to feel a bit spoiled by black metal releases this year. This weekend has seen another terrific album released.
This time it's a band fairly local to me and a band I feel are heavily underrated - Manchester's Wode with their Burn in Many Mirrors album.
My favourite band Darkthrone announce their new album called Eternal Hails...... out on 25th June.
Five tracks from seven to nine and a half minutes and according to the blurb on Bandcamp should be a bit more doomy than usual.
"With the highly revered Norwegians remaining ever-dedicated to the art of the riff after 35 years of existence, Darkthrone return for album number nineteen and a new dose of metallic godliness. On the back of 2019’s triumphant ‘Old Star’ opus, the duo of Nocturno Culto & Fenriz present a 41 minute maelstrom of Epic Black Heavy Metal across five sprawling compositions. Organic and dynamic, the album is an exploration of the very finest vintage metal and the best of doom, all delivered in the unmistakable Darkthrone style, whilst also incorporating instruments such as the Moog to further expand upon these soundscapes."
Can't wait...
...and here it is. This is some real necro-sounding shit. Sounds like the corpse of Celtic Frost has been dug up and been made to perform one more time, despite having been rotting in the ground for years. First wave blackened heavy metal meets doom metal done as only Fenriz and Nocturno Oculto can. My oxblood vinyl is on it's way as we speak:
Wolves in the Throne Room's new album is called Primordial Arcana and is due out August 20th on Relapse.
The preview track is album opener Mountain Magick:
Vancouver crusty black metal crew Wormwitch have a new album out on August 27th called Wolf Hex.
The preview track is called Abracadabra:
Havukruunu - Kuu Erkylän yllä (2021) (EP)
Havukruunu continues to never miss on any of their records thus far, I think this is a phenomenal EP that makes me wonder why this isn't just the first half of a full album. Can't wait for their next full release. Any fan of Pagan Black Metal needs to check this out despite the cover being kind of silly, wish they would have kept the black and white motif.
Havukruunu - Kuu Erkylän yllä (2021) (EP)
Havukruunu continues to never miss on any of their records thus far, I think this is a phenomenal EP that makes me wonder why this isn't just the first half of a full album. Can't wait for their next full release. Any fan of Pagan Black Metal needs to check this out despite the cover being kind of silly, wish they would have kept the black and white motif.
These guys keep popping up on my radar and I never seem to get around to them. An EP might be a good place to start. Early impressions are enticing at least.
Deathspell Omega - The Long Defeat
Those cheeky French jokers are back with another lightweight collection of pop songs for our perusal...
But really... I've only given it three listens so far and I think I've still got a way to go until I've got a handle on it. Opening (and longest) track, Enantiodromia, is my pick of the bunch so far. The album contains the angular dissonance we are used to from DsO, and I have been getting quite a lot from it, but it just feels a bit short of their best material. It is still a far from comfortable listen, but it does feel a bit more conventional than maybe we are used to from the band. Maybe the recruitment of Mgła's M. has influenced the songwriting to some extent. As with most DsO material, this is obviously an album that provides greater rewards the more the listener is prepared to invest, so I had better get back to it!
Thy Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya (2023)
Released 10/01/23 on World Terror Committee Productions
It has been over eight years since the unholy Hellenic duo, Thy Darkened Shade, released the first part of their "Satanic Book", Khem Sedjet, but finally they are back with the second volume, entitled Mahapralaya. This latest instalment is an interesting combination of the accessible and the dissonant that has a distinctive Greek flavour and a progressiveness that gives the whole a narrative feel, as if the band are regaling us with an epic tale of satanic adventure. The songwriting is key to this feeling of progression through a narrative as it's complex and interesting structure leads us organically from one chapter of infernal doings to another.
Whilst there is a degree of technical dissonance employed throughout, the band are unafraid to resort to melodic passages and riffs, reminiscent of the recent, more accessible side of Deathspell Omega and symphonic flourishes to add a sweeping epic quality to the album. Personally, I find this more palatable than out and out dissonant black as I often find myself overwhelmed by that form of black metal and I find it difficult to fully absorb what is going on, but here I think TDS have struck a superb balance between the melodic and the dissonant which makes the experience much less alienating, although whether that is a good or bad thing depends on how unforgiving you like your black metal to sound.
Technically, the band sound excellent and with crystal clear riffs this is no raw as fuck demo-quality blaster. Drums are provided by guest musician, Hannes Grossmann, who is the current drummer with Triptykon and who provides a precision and skill that only enhaces the already impressive musical endeavours of multi-indtrumentalist Semjaza. Vocally there is plenty going on, from all-out black metal barks to almost spoken-word snarls and and on to choral flourishes that further expand the sound into more epic territory without ever sounding overdone or cheesy.
Overall, I found this to be a compelling listen with just the right level (for me) of dissonance to keep it from feeling too "cosy" without it tipping over into wilful angularity and there are sufficient hooks to allow it to remain in the memory after the disc has stopped spinning. The progressive songwriting leaves no possibility of boredom setting in as repetition is not an issue with Mahapralaya, yet it remains well-structured and coherent. I haven't been paying much attention to newer black metal over recent months, but with Thy Darkened Shade's latest my attention has been firmly attracted.
4/5
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
Austin Lunn (aka Panopticon) has released a single from his upcoming album, The Rime Of Memory, due out at the end of November. Sixteen minutes of atmospheric black metal wonder called Cedar Skeletons, Lunn shows that he is still producing great quality, nature-themed black metal that puts most of the competition in the shade.
Panopticon - The Rime of Memory (2023)
Even though I've gone through some Panopticon releases in the past, this is the first one that has really struck a certain chord with me. I can't exactly explain what's different since I enjoyed ...And Again Into The Light, but nowhere near this degree. I don't think there's a single thing I'd change about this one. Despite some sections feeling a bit too long, the overall pacing is handled with absolute perfection. Awesome stuff and I want to start being a bit more liberal with perfect scores, can always change 'em later if it ends up not holding up. Also, everyone seems to be talking about "Winter's Ghost" versus "The Blue Against the White", but as someone who didn't hear the single before the album, the ending of "Cedar Skeletons" is absolutely sublime in my opinion.
5/5
Nice one Xephyr. Got my vinyl copy delivered this morning. Only had chance to check out the first LP so far, but I am enjoying it immensely. Sounds a lot like ...And Again Into the Light, but the even longer track lengths seem to allow for a more narrative kind of song structure.
Árstíðir Lifsins - Hermalausaz (Released 21/12/23)
Árstíðir Lifsins have become one of my favourite pagan black metal bands over the last few years, mainly due to the quality of their two Saga á tveim tungum (Story in Two Languages) albums and their ability to craft sweeping nordic epics that stir the blood and lift the soul. Their latest release, Hermalausaz, supposedly an EP, consists of two lengthy tracks, Ýrr and Þistill, with a total runtime of over forty minutes, which once again illustrates the Icelanders' ability to compose saga-like epics as befits their own cultural heritage. The lyrics are written in Old Norse poetic form, as were the sagas of old and are, as is revealed on the EP's Bandcamp page, "inspired by the runic inscription of the western Norwegian Eggja rune stone", which is a rune-carved grave-covering from around 650-700 CE, the runes upon which tell the tale of a shipwreck caused by a mighty sea-creature and the journey of the lost to the land of the dead.
The instrumentation is first and foremost powerful and epic-sounding black metal, with quite a thick bottom end over which the tremolo riffing can sweep and soar and featuring a variety of vocal styles from throaty, shrieking howls to harmonised, baritone nordic chants. The pummelling double kick drums and punishing blastbeats of Árni Bergur Zoëga's drumming propel the tracks along with an intense fury borne of raw, old-school black metal. However, interspersed within this sweeping, metallic maelstrom are folk-inspired, mournful-sounding acoustic sections, that are mercifully bereft of the inherent cheesiness often associated with folk metal, but rather serve as tonal contrasts, representing the rising and falling of the narrative threads within the tales and allowing moments of respite from the black metal intensity. Other times a slower, melodic theme will take over, often with a piano or keyboard accompaniment, to introduce a different narrative thread and further variety within these epics' tonal pallette.
I see Árstíðir Lifsins very much as the torch-bearers for a narrative style of black metal championed by Enslaved on their early releases such as Vikingligr veldi's "Lifandi lif undir hamri" and Eld's "793 (Slaget om Lindisfarne)", although those were more stripped-back than Hermalausaz' powerful-sounding production, there is still a direct line of epic-storytelling running from one to the other. With only three members and only two being instrumentalists, the music Árstíðir Lifsins' put out is testament to the technical proficiency and adaptability of the band members, sounding like a veritable horde of norse heroes on a musical rampage through some poorly-defended coastal enclave. A massively underappreciated band with a glorious and epic vision of what they are about and the music they want to produce, I hope they ultimately get the praise they deserve.
4.5/5
Sardonic Witchery - Barbaric Evil Power (2024)
Released 4th January
Sardonic Witchery is a solo project of Portugal's King Demogorgon (Ricardo Mota) who used to be one half of black metal duo Infernal Kingdom. After a, frankly awful, intro, King drops the hammer on some reasonable blasting black metal with riffs that sometimes fly close enough to traditional metal that they almost come over as black 'n' roll. He has quite an acerbically harsh, roaring style of singing that comes across more as angry than evil at least until Merciless Warrior of Steel when he just sounds hokey as he tries to pull off some kind of Tom G Warrior-like "death grunts".
The production of the album is good, with the bass lines being nicely presented and boosting the riffs well, although the snares are pushed forward and get a little bit annoying after a while. There's not really a whole lot more to say, this is a decent enough piece of black metal that is best when it's blasting hardest, but which is also prone to fly close to black 'n' roll grooviness with trad metal influence shining through and some inherent cheesiness. As such it treads familiar ground, albeit mostly with professional aplomb. There aren't really enough stand-out moments that will keep you wanting to respin this, with the duo of Barbaric Bastards of Mass Destruction and Horizon's End being the section that meritted most attention from me and had me wishing the quality of those two tracks was reproduced throughout the album's almost forty minutes rather than being confined to a mere ten. So, ultimately I guess, it will end up on the pile of releases of the year marked "solid if somewhat unremarkable black metal" - and I am sure it won't be the last.
3/5
A couple of brand new The North releases hitting the shelves this month in Chinese black metallers Hoplites' fourth album "Παραμαινομένη" & the ninth full-length from Columbian black metallers Inquisition entitled "Veneration of Medieval Mysticism & Cosmological Violence". Hoplites have been building nicely with each successive album & this one is supposedly their best yet so I have high hopes for it while Inquisition records are always solid & never let me down (despite the questionable life choices of a certain band member).
I wasn't overly keen on their earlier albums and I believe the Hoplites album is very techy and avant-garde, so not really one for me, but I am keeping an eye out for the Inquisition album (next Friday if I am not mistaken). What is the controversy with the one band member, Daniel, I haven't heard that one?
Oh, and there is a new Darkspace out in the middle of February that I am quite looking forward to.
Sonny, Dagon was allegedly found to possess a large child pornography collection.
Love me some Darkspace so I’ll get onto that one at some point.
Malist - Of Scorched Earth (2024)
Released 19th January
Malist is a solo project of Moscow's Ovfrost (Nick Kholodov) and isn't a project that I have followed too closely, but I did enjoy his 2020 album, To Mantle the Rising Sun, which was a well-done and enjoyable slice of melodic black metal. I have missed the two intervening albums, but here we are now with his latest, Of Scorched Earth. Whilst he is still ploughing the fertile melodic black metal furrow, there seems to be a greater influence from atmo-black that gives the tracks a more sweeping, grandiose quality. One trope in particular Ovfrost employs on multiple occasions here, is a calm, quieter core to tracks, with acoustic guitar strumming and a keyboard overlay, be it organ or piano, that acts as the still eye of the storm that contrasts with the heavy riffing and generally more frantic pace of the tracks either side of the still spot.
The songwriting indulges a fair bit of melodicism for a black metal album, yet I think it still retains enough of black metal's intensity and inherent savagery to satisfy all but the most demanding of BM kvltists. I suppose there are those who will bemoan it's clean production, pauses in intensity and melodic phrases, but there are more than enough passages where he lets himself off the leash, letting rip some frantic, black metal battery. For what it's worth, I would score this down a bit from the earlier To Mantle the Rising Sun, but it is nevertheless an interesting enough expression of riff-driven melodic and atmospheric black metal, that has it's roots planted firmly here in the modern day and not back in the savagery of the 1990s.
3.5/5
Hauntologist - Hollow (2024)
Released 8th January
Hauntologist are a post-black metal duo from Kraków comprising Mgła drummer, Darkside, and multi-instrumentalist, The Fall (Michał Stępień), Mgła bassist and backing vocalist for live performances. Hollow is the duo's debut full-length and seems to have been met with mixed reactions, a lot which seems to be based upon people's attitude towards Mgła and how much this does or doesn't sound like them. I don't mind Mgła at all, but I have only heard Exercises in Futility which I enjoyed, but not as much as many others did I suspect and so I'm going to buck the trend and take Hollow on it's own merit, not by it's comparison to another project.
I found this to be pretty interesting and hugely entertaining to boot, which may not be enough for some who need their world to be turned upside down by every release, but is more than enough for me. I often find post-metally BM to be a bit of a bore, to be honest, and went into this with a little bit of trepidation, but it kept me rapt pretty much throughout with some nice twists and turns, the three-quarters of an hour runtime seeming much shorter, which is always a good sign. Fast, intense passages of blasting atmospheric black metal are complemented by contemplative and melancholy airs that temper the furiousness of the black metal sections with more reflective atmospheres. There is a certain harshness to the production, coupled with The Fall's ascerbic vocals and icy-sounding tremolo guitar lines that gives the overall aesthetic an inherent frostiness. Darkside's drumming is top knotch throughout whether it's his withering blastbeats or skillful fills that are to the forefront at any one time. The faster sections aren't just composed of layers of indistinguishable tremolo riffing either, but rather The Fall focusses on producing cool and memorable riffs rather than just continuously swamping us with "atmosphere". Elsewhere there are the folky acoustic guitar and clean vocals of the title track and the gothic, post-punk vibe of Gardermoen but these sit well within the overall structure of the album and aren't at all distracting or obtrusive, giving the album a freshness of perspective. The album closes out with a gently self-reflective spoken word piece that leaves the listener slightly wrong-footed and provoking them to reconsider what they have heard during the previous three-quarters of an hour.
Overall this is a fine album of modern atmospheric black metal that draws on the tropes of post-metal and introduces influence from other, non-metal genres whilst still acknowledging the power of the riff in metal. It isn't very challenging to listen to and is, in fact, very easy on the ears, but I don't view that as an issue personally. The length is just about right and keeps things focussed with no tendency towards self-indulgence that may have blighted a lengthier runtime.
4/5