Beats and yelling: Polemicist

Polemicist
Out 27^th September, self-released

The paradox of well known phrases is that, by virtue of wide usage, their meaning becomes unknown. The commonplace phrase goes unexamined. Melodic black metal is one such example. Prima facie an obvious, self-explanatory subgenre. But one that has thus far avoided re-appraisal or revision since the subgenre’s solidification in the mid-90s, leaving it vulnerable to misapplication. Polemicist, through their patient, focused study of classically minded, riff driven black metal – whose take on the form could just as reasonably be called harmonic black metal – stubbornly remind us how weak subgenre lexicons are. The reality of musical activity should drive our descriptive language, not the other way around, lest the whole edifice crumble into nonsense.

Polemicist jettison the naturalism of traditional melodic black metal at one end, its mythological preoccupations at the other, turning instead to the history of philosophy – namely ancient Greece and Nietzsche, although on this latest self-titled EP we see Kant make an appearance – as a means of unpacking tight, meditative studies on melodic sentences within the context of an austere, straightforwardly black metal presentation.

Whilst comparisons to Dawn or early Sacramentum aren’t unwarranted, Polemicist linger and unpack single ideas with a greater degree of patience and obsessiveness. Shifts in pitch, tempo, or emphasis do the heavy lifting of advancing the story, allowing us to explore a single idea from various angles. It’s only later in the composition that different elements are introduced and compound on one another. A tremolo picked conversation as an exercise in pure melody more closely resembles ‘The Red in the Sky is Ours’ than the pure, euphoric naturalism of melodic black metal. The manipulation of tension and intrigue takes place via a contrapuntal approach to twin guitar leads. Classic heavy metal furnishes us with finales via cathartic rhythmic breakdowns and conclusive, cadence driven solos.

Drum duties are now taken up by Elijah Losch, Polemicist’s third drummer in as many releases. Where the debut ‘Zarathustrian Impressions’ (2019) was energetic but linear, and ‘Return of the Sophist’ (2021) boasted a teasing, ambiguous rhythmic flow thanks to the ministrations of Mefitis’s Pendath, Losch, whether by accident or design links these two approaches together. A barrage of flowing blast-beats give the guitars license to ruminate on their material, chew it over, discarding only when fully digested. But equally, percussive thrash assaults upset the momentum, as do extended fills and half-tempo patterns, manipulating the melody into different guises. Forcing the issue in this way results in this EP being at once Polemicist’s most chaotic release at the molecular level, yet at the macro the most narratively distinct.

With inspiration taken from the realm of philosophical reflection – as opposed to the raw physicality of a forest or mountain range – Polemicist graduate melodic black metal into a place of pure abstraction. Compositions become self-referential, a bracing, dramatic conflict of competing ideologies and concepts. It hypnotises in its ability to undulate around themes before striking out into surprisingly direct, transparent expressive forms. A rich layer-cake of an EP and a long awaited compliment to their full length material to date.