What Are You Listening To Now - The North Edition
Marduk - Those of the Unlight (1993)
Marduk at their height were a full-on assault of unrelenting, martial brutality masquerading as a black metal band. Albums like Panzer Division Marduk and Plague Angel are exhilharating adrenaline-rushes that display little variation but are addictive as hell to those who love an all-out blastathon and just need a hit of aggression and nihilistic fervour. Yet this wasn't always the case with the Swedish black metal titans. Ten months after the blackened death metal of Dark Endless was released they unleashed their sophomore, Those of the Unlight, which is a huge improvement on the debut in my opinion, but is very different from their later, more well-known material. With Those of the Unlight Marduk tread a far more varied and melodic path than they would on later releases. There is an ambition to the songwriting that they lost once they had settled on their identity and the direction they wished to take. The melody on Wolves could well be whistling around in your head for days after hearing it and most of the songs feature some degree of development without constantly bursting out of the blocks. This doesn't mean this is a "tame" album, they still let rip fairly often - On Darkened Wings for example contains some intense blasting for sure, but it also has a nicely ominous atmosphere that is allowed to build and offers contrast to the aggressive passages when they hit, resulting in a more satisfying payoff. Those of the Unlight even features an ambient piece which, let's face it, would be completely out of character for later Marduk and despite my oft-touted aversion to a lot of ambient stuff on black metal albums, Echoes From the Past actually works really nicely here and is a great piece of music in it's own right.
The thing is that Marduk at their best are kind of unbeatable when it comes to relentless blasting, but Those of the Unlight also illustrates a band that have more than that to offer. I would never want to be without Panzer Division Marduk, it is one of my all-time favourite black metal albums, but Marduk also produced some rather unimpressive releases in similar vein and it would have been nice to hear them stretch their wings at some point too and realise the potential they showed with Those of the Unlight rather than just regurgitating the same tropes time and again. I guess there's still time, but with every lacklustre attempt to reproduce PDM it seems less and less likely.
4.25/5
Forteresse - Thèmes pour la rébellion (2016)
I felt duty-bound to check out the Quebecois four-piece's fifth album after being impressed by the track Spectre de la rébellion on June's playlist for the North and I am pleased to report that the album more than lived up to the promise of that sneak peak. This at once manages to sound beautifully lush and majesterial whilst also projecting a thrilling rawness - which is exactly how I love my atmospheric black metal to sound. Tremolo riffing and booming drum work combine to propel the tracks along with a triumphant sound that speaks of righteous rebellion. The vocals are of the distant-sounding shrieking variety and perfectly suit the mood, invoking tradition and calling the faithful to the ramparts. Despite this blistering aggressiveness however, the tracks never just blur together, each is memorable in it's own right and is distinct enough to remain in your mind long after the album has finished.
From what I've read these guys are Quebecois separatists, so there's plenty of political commentary surrounding their material, but to me it's all just blah, blah, blah... because what I'm here for is the music and that is exceptional. In truth, Thèmes pour la rébellion stands up as a premier atmospheric black metal release that is only bettered by the absolute best of the atmo-black world like Drudkh and WitTR. What I love about this kind of atmospheric black metal is that no matter where the band are from or what they believe, there is a certain unity of expression that speaks to common purpose and yet each manages to imbue it with an essence that is distinct and unique. This is a release I will definitely return to and will endeavour to procure a physical copy immediately.
4.5/5
Forteresse - Métal noir québécois (2006)
I've spent the last couple of days on a Forteresse binge after discovering Thèmes pour la rébellion via this month's North playlist and being completely bowled over by it. Métal noir québécois is Forteresse's debut and was released a decade before Thèmes. The difference between the two releases isn't as big as it first appears, but there had been some significant evolution in the intervening decade. Although Thèmes had implied rawness in spades, this is a lot more directly raw from a production point of view at least. The tracks of the debut are also longer and more repetitive and are increasingly hypnotic as a result, drawing the listener into a more passive state of listening when compared to it's aggressive and energetic younger sibling. This isn't a criticism per se, as this hypnotic, passive listening experience is a feature of a lot of atmospheric black metal. Part of the genre's appeal is often that you can allow it to wash over you and sweep you along with it and had I not heard Thèmes I would probably not even have commented on it. The characteristic tremolo-led melodies are also present but I found them to be significantly less memorable than those employed on Thèmes.
Production-wise this feels light-years away from the clarity of the later release and is quite muddy-sounding - those booming drums are often virtually inaudible here, much to it's detriment. Athros' vocals are still terrific and his shrieks cut through the muddiness quite easily. I think it is worth pointing out at this point that for the debut Forteresse were only a duo and mainman Moribond handled all the instruments whilst Athros contributed lyrics and vocals, whereas by the time of Thèmes pour la rébellion they had expanded to a four-piece with the addition of drummer Fiel and second guitarist Matrak, with all four members contributing to the songwriting. I think this expansion into a full band worked very much in their favour compared with Métal noir québécois which comes off very much as a typical solo black metal effort in comparison to the later work.
Now, after spending the last two paragraphs on all this negative comparison with their later release, I am still going to claim the debut as a solid effort of raw, hypnotic atmo-black metal that should appeal to anyone who is a fan of Burzum, Paysage d'Hiver, early Ulver or Drudkh and I'm familiar enough with black metal fans' opinions to know that there will be plenty of them who will prefer the rawness of Métal noir québécois over their clearer-sounding later work. Either way, Forteresse are a quality black metal band who deserve a decent audience.
4/5
Saor - Origins (2022)
I have been a huge fan of Andy Marshall's Saor project since virtually it's inception and I own physical copies of all his previous albums (in fact I own both CD and vinyl copies of previous album Forgotten Paths) and I have rated three of his four albums as 4.5/5 or better. First glimpse of new album Origins was the gorgeous cover art which is one of my favourite covers ever. So, initial thoughts after a couple of listen-throughs are that I have got to admit to being horribly disappointed. There seems to be hardly any black metal here at all, the beautiful and stirring atmospheric black metal soundscapes Saor have become synonymous with being replaced by fairly pedestrian celtic and folk metal. I have made no secret of my dislike of folk metal and I'm gutted that one of my favourite acts has resorted to such a banal trope. I will persevere with it just because I have such huge respect for Andy Marshall and I would love to own a vinyl copy for that amazing cover alone, but for the time being I remain unconvinced.
3/5
I just began listening to Origins this morning and despite having many of the same issues as you Sonny, Saor ended up winning me over with this one. The shorter tracks definitely leave something to be desired when compared to his previous songwriting progressions and atmospheres, the "extreme" side of his music is FULLY gone on Origins compared to the half and half of Forgotten Paths, and the folk elements do feel a bit phoned in...but Folk Metal done well is such a rarity for me that I can't help but give this album praise for managing to be a more Folk-centric album that I've immediately wanted to come back to. It's definitely shallower than his previous work, with a lot of the album's progression coming from individual song transitions rather than having a full experience packed into a 20 minute track, but I still found myself really enjoying the full album experience despite all the criticisms I can make. Saor fanboying has won again, but I can't help but f3el I'll drop my rating after a few more spins.
but I can't help but f3el I'll drop my rating after a few more spins.
Yup, I stand corrected. Origins just doesn't feel like it has the depth or character it needs to really stand out. Easily Saor's weakest album, even though I still enjoy listening to it.
Dropped to a 3.5 from a 4.
Saor - Origins (2022)
There seems to be hardly any black metal here at all, the beautiful and stirring atmospheric black metal soundscapes Saor have become synonymous with being replaced by fairly pedestrian celtic and folk metal.
I found myself questioning this record initially as well. The shorter track lengths meant that motifs could not be developed and mature as previous albums. The almost abandonment of atmospheric black metal for grooves that sound borrowed from thrash of all places is alienating. The transitions are not as concise and the clean vocals are lackluster if we are being generous.
But this album was also released on the same day as another folk metal album: Alestorm's Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum, which as I expected, is another paint by numbers Alestorm album. And it got me questioning the drastic change in sound palette here on Origins and whether or not it was a bad thing. Saor still knows how to write a beautiful melody, the incorporation of flute, strings and bagpipes has always been fantastic as to never feel like a gimmick. Their incorporation over something closer to post-metal with more major harmonies feels unusual, but not outside the realm of what Andy Marshall is capable of. The use of folk elements is not uncommon for Saor and the greater importance of them on this record should fit right in. Structurally, is Origins Saor's least cohesive album? Yes; by a considerable margin. Does anything here match "Farwell" or "Forgotten Paths"? Not even close. Is it still a tight knit collection of songs that takes the greatness of the band and pushes the boundaries of what Saor can be? Well... 
8/10
Scarcity - Aveilut (2022)
After requesting recommendations from what so far feels like an underachieving year in black metal, Ben kindly offered up his top ten list, #1 on which was this debut from Brooklyn avant-garde black metallers Scarcity. So, I must admit upfront that this was a massive struggle for me, especially during the first five minutes or so when I almost had to turn it off. But first I'd better explain some background. I am one of those people who is occasionally subject to sensory overload when subjected to overly busy sounds or visuals. When this happens it manifests as an almost physical discomfort and I tend to have to get away or block out the offending sensory input. This is why I struggle so badly with especially dissonant or avant-garde music and probably explains my love of more atmospheric and monolithic metal like funeral doom, drone or atmo-black. Anyway the opening minutes of Aveilut really triggered those feelings and I truly struggled to get through them. But persist I did and although there was a few passages that I did enjoy, on the whole I didn't really get a lot out of this I'm afraid. The whole thing is just too dissonant and unconventional sounding for me I think and whilst I understand that there are loads of people to whom this more challenging music provides huge satisfaction, I am sorry, but I just can't relate. This is a release I can't see myself returning to and yes, I realise that the fault is mine, but sometimes we just have to admit that something is not for us and move on. Sorry Ben.
1.5/5
Pan-Amerikan Native Front - Tecumseh's War (2016)
I've been meaning to get round to this for ages, so banged it on whilst going through my ever-expanding wishlist on Bandcamp (which is currently over 2400 strong and rising!). P-ANF are a solo project of Alan "Kurator of War" Avitia and he plays quite raw atmospheric black metal with a Native American lyrical theme. I really dug his 2021 album Little Turtle's War and it ended up in my personal top ten black metal albums of that year (even above WiTTR). This is very much in the same mould as Little Turtle's War and is almost as good, although I prefer the later album because it is more in-your-face and the songwriting has improved somewhat in the intervening years. This still stands as an impressive enough calling card however and paved the way for the later highs of Little Turtle's War.
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
Breaking my radio silence a bit to offer up some Black Metal discoveries I've been particularly addicted to recently, which has been a lot of Speed/Black'n'Roll influence surprisingly.
Hellripper - Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags (2023) - This one is a bit more Speed Metal than Black Metal and is exactly what you'd expect from Hellripper, but I think it's his best outing to date.
Spirit Possession - Of the Sign... (2023) - This one is more Black Metal than Speed Metal but has a serious old-school vibe and production that has only gotten better the more I've listened to it. The guitar work is phenomenal in my opinion.
Chapel - Satan's Rock n Roll (2012) - I found Chapel after reading some discussion about the new Hellripper album and this more unknown Black n' Roll album has become my all-time favorite in the primarily niche subgenre. It rocks ridiculously hard, every single song is either about Satan or alcohol, and it may be sort of dumb at times but I love it. 
Enslaved - Hordanes Land (1993) - Enslaved continue to surprise me after I thoroughly enjoyed their new album Heimdal. If anything, Enslaved might be the most consistent and interesting band in metal history, or at least they should be in the running. The fact that they've been able to continually reinvent themselves without crashing and burning like many other bands is impressive, but it turns out I was unaware of how good their technical "debut" album was. This is the same EP that shows up on their split with Emperor in 1993 and it's definitively a piece of Black Metal history that will take a few more listens to fully grasp. It's been a while since I listened to some seriously raw Black Metal, but I gotta say it's good to be back.
I'll be back to say hi to everyone officially again starting on the 24th.
Mork - Dypet (2023)
Bought this whilst drunk on the internet one night and so held little promise for it. I liked Katedralen from a couple of years back though so made the impulse buy based on that alone I guess. Listening through to Dypet, you get pretty much what you had on the 2021 release. As the album artwork suggests, this is a suitably cold affair, utilising the minimal approach to bm that we would all expect it to well. Full of sublimely drab melodicism, this is an album that revels in its own ravishing grimness. Which I do not mind of course, this accessibility coupled with some of the more dismal tropes I look for in my bm makes for a refreshing switch up from standard icy cold blasting that I find spinning on my turntable more often than not.
In fact, Dypet has an almost heavy metal undertone to parts of it. The riffs overall are relatively clean and as such make the transitions clearer which makes it very easy to connect with the record. Whether you are going from the beginning or jumping into a track on a playlist it is not hard to find parts of Dypet ringing around your head after just a few minutes of sampling its content. Still more or less exclusive performed by Thomas Eriksen himself (Hjelvik's Erlend Hjelvik does vocals on Høye murer), this is consistently played stuff that never strays into the realm of outstanding but needs no level of exceptional musicianship to shine.
That's not say there are not moments of unexpected sounds. The synth/organ on closing track Tilbake til opprinnelsen add a surreal dimension to proceedings to keep things interesting to the very end of the record. Then with some element of an anti-climax, Dypet is done with. No extended outro, no epic build to end, just a slight crescendo of a riff to end the album on the note of consistency that thrives throughout. So, for a drunken purchase, this proved wiser than you may have first thought. It holds its own against the previous release if not ever really topping it but still does a perfectly respectable job in the process.
3.5/5
Aosoth - The Inside Scriptures (2017)
Long been a fan of this release and finally got around to purchasing a vinyl copy from Season of Mist this past week. I can see I have this at full marks on the site but I think a full review and potential revision of that score is needed in the coming weeks.
Winter Lantern - Festering Vampirism (2021)
All female black metal outfit from North Carolina in the US. One of many demos they have released over the past couple of years. With suitably lo-fi values and a clever use of some dungeon synth sections this has been a cold and welcoming start to Friday morning for me.
Predatory Light - Death and the Twilight Hours (2022)
Another band I missed completely to date. Criminal considering they are on 20 Buck Spin whom I normally keep some track of. Anyway, very Negative Plane like black metal with a hint of Mortuary Drape for good measure.
I was a much bigger fan of this Predatory Light album last year than the Negative Plane album that seemed to grab all the attention. I remember Negative Plane being a bit too goofy sounding to me while Death and the Twilight Hours was able to blend Black and Heavy Metal in a cooler and more exciting way for me personally. Even though the songs are super long the album itself is nicely concise, made it easy and fun to go back to.
Carpathian Forest - Through Chasm, Caves and Titan Woods (1995)
The debut EP from a Norwegian BM crew who, I think it is fair to say, never really lived up to their early promise. At this point in their existence Carpathian Forest were a duo comprising Nattefrost on vocals, guitar and keyboards and Nordavind on guitar and keyboards, with session musicians providing the rhythm section of bass and drums. The five tracks here were recorded in '93 and '94, three of them are punky, lo-fi black metal of a style familiar to any fan of early 90s black metal. The first of the remaining two tracks sits at the midpoint of the EP and is titled The Eclipse / The Raven which is a quite reflective, acoustic guitar-led piece with restrained synths and a croaking, whispered vocal from Nattefrost that is actually very effective. The other anomalous track is the closer and longest track on the EP, Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern, which is a viking-like folky acoustic piece, again with subtle keyboards and Nattefrost's shrieking vocals recorded as if heard from a great distance in the ice-laden, northern woodlands. Both of these tracks make this an interesting release in CF's catalogue as it is an aspect they didn't really explore further going forward, sticking more to the formula laid down by the other three tracks here. This is a great pity, because I think both of these tracks are effective in execution and provide a nice contrast to the punky, crusty sound of their more usual black metal fare and could have been well-suited as counterpoints in their later full-lengths.
Unfortunately Carpathian Forest never reached these heights again, mainly because they didn't sound like they took it all seriously enough. Their crusty, thrashy, punky version of black metal, their lack of urgency in getting material issued and their attempt to inject a degree of humour into their music all fell a bit flat after this and although I do enjoy some of their later output, it feels to me that after the strength of this initial release they have become Norwegian black metal's great underachievers.
4.5/5
Ebony Pendant - "Ebony Pendant" (2023)
Ebony Pendant is a solo project of S.C. (Simon Coseboom) and this self-titled release is his sophomore full-length, following 2020's "Incantation of Eschatological Mysticism" debut, a couple of splits and an EP (2021's "The Garden of Strangling Roots". He plays version of melodic black metal, but with quite a raw production which gives it a bit more of an edge (and air of underground authenticity) than your usual melo-black outfit. It doesn't exactly possess the thin sound you would usually associate with the rawest black metal, with enough bass presence to boost the muscularity of the riffs, but the production somehow gives the impression that it is a lot rawer and thinner-sounding than it actually is. Vocally, S.C. has a nice line in evil, demonic croaking, similar to Immortal's Abbath, which suits the material really well. Surprisingly, for a guy who is a drummer himself with both Seattle death metallers Degraved and black metal act Griefspell, S.C. has recruited his pal K.M. as skinsman for this album from the death doom band Cavurn of which they are both members (S.C. on guitar in that mob). K.M.'s drumming is decent, being pretty frantic, yet well-controlled and helps drive the riffs and maintain the breakneck pacing.
A couple of nice, gentle acoustic passages aside, S.C. makes no attempt to court the black metal intelligentsia who want black metal to constantly be pushing boundaries with experimentation, dissonance and genre-splicing. No, despite the melodicism of some of the riffs, this is pure black metal - adrenaline-fuelled, old-school, ripping with icy claws at the listener's sensibilities. The raw production gives Ebony Pendant's melodicism a cold and frigid edge that is the cornerstone of all truly awesome black metal and this frostiness gives tracks such as the more melancholic-sounding "Whispers of a Nameless Fear" or "Sentiment for a Time Long Forgotten" a cutting edge that it may have lacked with a fuller production. Ebony Pendant are new to me, but despite the fact that they will probably never raise their heads over the parapets of the USBM underground, they deserve much praise for flying a flag for unashamed old-school black metal blasting and have the potential to become firm favourites of mine.
4.5/5
Mānbryne - Interregnum: O próbie wiary i jarzmie zwątpienia (2023)
Picked up from The North clan playlist this month, some Polish bm for this wet Thursday afternoon.