Grohot/Faunul din Smida: Hranind gurile infometate
Out 1st February, self-released
Grohot open this split with a suitably feral rendition of lo-fi black metal. Whilst we could roughly locate this in the lineage of Ildjarn, it actually has more in common with collaborator Nidhogg, or even their one off landmark outing as Sort Vokter. Frigid, primitive, rooted in hardcore punk for all its aggressive simplicity. But underlying this is a clear understanding of thematic development emerging organically from the amorality of the underlying static. Vocals take on a violent, almost martial sense of purpose, grounding the music with an immediate urgency that stands in sharp contrast to the ethereal mysticism motivating the direction of riffs. Faunal din Smida take a looser, more abstract drone approach to lo-fi black metal. Thematic fragments are treated more as backstops against an irresistible pull toward entropy. Uncanny, surrealist melodic content winds its way around the simple plod of two chord clusters driving the music forward when even the drums lose all cohesion. But lyricism weaves its way through these riffs like a faint ray of light glowing behind the mist, guiding the listener toward the promise of resolution. Electronica in the form of looped arpeggios stands as a background (and sometimes explicit) influence, with riffs taking the shape if not the exact form of this well trodden but highly effective compositional technique.
Seltsame Erden: Gedankentempeln
Out 9th February on Chaos Records
Black metal monomaniacalism teasing at the borders of farce. Seltsame Erden understand the value of austerity as a technique for drawing attention to the development of theme. But this tends to work better when the themes are clearly communicated. What at first appears as a fixed, repetitive dynamism ends up looking an awful lot like indecision. The result is a similar frustration one might feel when confronted with Hate Forest. The galloping blast-beats, powerful melodic riffing, subtle developmental material, all work toward establishing the music as a presence, an atmosphere, or idea, but the compositions are never quite brought to bear toward a telos, a dramatic break, or some revelatory moment of climax. Linear minimalism has its place. Here executed with a refreshing degree of competence. But it tends to subsume black metal into a form of pacifist ambience expressed via the language of the riff. It transfers the listener to a place of sparse, barren openness, but fails to confront them with any sense of conflict or challenge. The result is motivated by no higher end than a simple reaffirmation of aesthetic forms expertly expressed. Any more substantive communique on the trials of existence is not forthcoming.
Throat: Blood Exaltation
Out 9th February on Primitive Reaction
The evolution of Polish black metal has in many ways take an equivalent journey to that of the USA and Western Europe. From obscure, paganist, epic tracts on mortality, spiritualism, conflict, and naturalism, gradually devolving into nothing more than a creepy affectation. Communicating horror and darkness in the abstract is seen as by definition more sophisticated than those silly bands taking photos of themselves LARPing in the woods. Throat are the latest chapter in this lament. ‘Blood Exaltation’ pivots on highly rudimentary riff fragments, arranged in a series that makes no logical sense outside of vague gestures toward contrast. It borrows heavily from the pastiche occultism of heavy psyche and stoner metal, given a dark lick of paint and some additional minor thirds to create at least the facsimile of black metal. The actual momentum of these tracks is built around the contrast between drab drone segments and faster chaotic bursts, but as there is little meta direction guiding these competing energies, one leaves with the impression that this is nothing more than a display case for emotive and aesthetic indulgences, with any weighty compositional logic folded in as mere happenstance.
Dead Earth: Et Disperdam Illud
Out 16th February on Chaos Records
Polished, flowery black metal that treats their melodic program as one of lyricism over world building. Individual refrains stand out for their ability to meld catchiness with an internal logic unpacked within developmental material. But an overreliance on basic rock cadences and trivial lead guitar lines drags the music to a place of domesticity. Each molecule makes sense on its own terms, but fails to build into the next, leading to an episodic, individualised experience. This latter is not helped by the fact that the tonal framing of these pieces relies too heavily on poppy devices that fail to elevate it much above radio friendly fluff. The intent is clearly toward disposable therapeutic emotional catharsis over any serious meditation. The result is a flat, sterile, clunky procession of tedious hysterics that occasionally picks up the language of black metal, with greater emphasis placed on highly commercialised power metal via the lead guitar work and solos.
Morbonoct: The Highest Purpose
Out 19th February, self released
Essentially a stadium rock album with tempo changes. Takes the Muse approach to creating a cosmic atmosphere by throwing a plethora of technique and timbre into a spacious mix and letting the contrasting textures do the work of creating purpose. No one could deny the musicality on display here. But the compositional crutches are all too obvious (and trite) to provoke any meaningful response on the part of the listener. Morbonoct lean into creating a dark, cavernous atmosphere through the detritus of death metal riffing, before attempting to work the music into a cathartic, triumphant finale replete with major chord progressions in the ascendant, and drums switching from blast-beats to half tempo rolling fills in a cliched attempt to contrive resolution. But this latter is so unearned, forced, and processed through endlessly wacky deviations that the all too frequent crescendos feel at best trivial, and worst insulting to one’s intelligence as a listener. Look to Esoctrilihum for a similarly skewed perspective toward competing textures and mixing desk tricks as opposed to any focus on compositional forethought. These acts are not wanting in raw talent, but what they present displays an underlying disinterest in forming music around a conceptual whole, indicated most obviously in their incontinence when it comes to sheer content.
Hadit: Metaphysical Engines Approaching the Event Horizon
Out 15th March on I, Voidhanger
What at first appears as a tightly packed delivery mechanism for dense sonic information quickly unravels on even a cursory inspection. Gauche stylistic clashes that probably felt boundary pushing to compose achieve little more than the perception of paralysing indecision. Tedious post metal flourishes bleed into moments indistinguishable from technical emo, thrust against superfluous slam riffs smuggled under the radar by oddball melodic orientations. This album treats the breadth of extreme metal as a well of disposable ephemera, stitching styles, eras, and tonal shifts together with little regard for how each unit feeds into a macro perspective. Knitted between these directionless divergences are frequent nods to populist metal subgenres from metalcore, deathcore, and what frequently gets called progressive metal but in reality is little more than bratcore. The hope was probably that if enough reference points were integrated into these pieces there would be something to please everyone, or else a reluctance to jettison one influence for the sake of another led to stuffing these pieces to the point of creaking under the sheer weight of overindulgence. Whatever the sorry tale behind this album, it views extreme metal as little more than a toybox full of curiosities to throw around and discarded just as quickly.
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