Beats and yelling: Malacath

Eternal Roar of the Thunder and Rain
Out 21^st February on Eternal Death

Atmospheric black metal that takes the legacy of Burzum somewhat seriously, in that Burzum, especially on the first two albums, were never much of an atmospheric outfit by today’s standards. The chief source of dreamscaping invoked by music to “stimulate the fantasy of mortals” emanated at the level of construction and an idiosyncratic riff signature. Any atmospheric qualities as we understand them today arose as purely ephemeral features of this underlying world building.

I’ve come to accept that metal is a completed artistic sequence. Any bands explicit in their aspirations to originality should be regarded with suspicion. Chiefly because they leverage novelty by sleight of hand or rent their alleged originality out from adjacent forms. Uniqueness so often comes in the form of contrivance, laboured and convoluted tangents, attempting to somehow discover an artistic essence through excessive deviation from a perceived norm.

In this regard, Malacath are a breath of fresh. All the more so given that they hail from the land across the pond where metal has for the most part been drowned out by the compulsive need to convey a USP. Malacath see no need to communicate a stylistic signature at the individual level, and rather counterintuitively, this is actually a good thing. This is longform, modestly atmospheric black metal in the most general and basic sense of the term. In that, through its very sparsity, it creates space for a more expansive vision. Much modern extreme metal feels restrictive, urgent, almost desperate by comparison, burdened by the need to give voice to whatever atomised psychosis each individual musician may be going through at any given time.

Equally, ‘Eternal Roar of the Thunder and Rain’ feels austere, almost humble, when set against the opposing impulse within modern extreme metal to aggressively assert allegiance to a particular era, style, or aesthetic.  To borrow a tired aphorism, originality is not the destination but the road.

This album’s very frugality is its greatest strength. Basic mid-paced black metal references most obviously early Burzum but also elements of early Enslaved, Ulver, and even some harmonic material that would be quite at home on an Esoteric album. Lazy acoustic passages compliment simple, linear riffs of open string sequences consisting of barely three chords, onto which are stamped predictable yet infectiously dramatic guitar leads, functioning as contrapuntal developmental material. Despite the off-the-shelf vocal delivery, the restraint shown in applying reverb gives them an incongruous, indoorsy vibe making for a neat contrast to the distinctive openness within the music itself.

Gradualism reigns. It’s therefore redundant to dwell for too long on individual elements. Malacath are masters of the holistic view. The music presents a panorama of unified currents, introduced at different moments only to coalesce into a continuous flow of energetic momentum, each facet totally unremarkable but playing its part in bringing a well rounded experience to bear, quietly confident that the message of cathartic naturalism will be conveyed over and above the sum of the parts.

If modern extreme metal can often appear as a collective of petulant children acting out in a desperate plea for attention, or else modelling their parents out of sheer habit, Malacath presents us with a picture of a genre adopting a more reserved, dignified approach to aging. Stripping the craft of black metal back to its component parts to assess the meaning and potential therein. It may not turn many heads addicted to innovation by any means necessary, but the combination of laboured love and sheer joy in watching an execution of an idea with this degree of professionalism will hopefully reach the right ears.