Eldur: Rituals of Death and Necromancy
Out 25th August on ATMF
Combines the purposeful militarism of simplistic Swedish black metal with a mystical eccentricity borrowed from modern occultist metal. Whilst balancing these two competing forces occasionally pays off, Eldur lean into basic thrash or melodeath riffing to plug the gaps, thus rendering what could be quite esoteric material into domesticity, mundanity. Expressive keyboard lines elevate what are oftentimes rather flat riffs, compensating for repetition through effective harmonies. But at times they lean too heavily into the camp theatrics of occult metal which amounts to little more than children’s Halloween songs played by adults with guitars. What results is an album that has tried to disguise how bland it is through quirky affectation. The results are not nearly as annoying as they could be. There remains an underlying purpose to these pieces, a forward motion that at least grants them a sense of identity. But ultimately when the material is not stale it presents as being weird for lack of anything better to do.
Execrari: Desolation Manifest
Out 29th August on Hessian Firm
Jagged, technically minded symphonic black metal attempts to create a sense of vertigo in the listener through lead guitar lines defined by their steeply inclining ascents and descent. Despite the density of the material, individual refrains are relatively simplistic. The gradualist austerity of cut and dry black metal reinterpreted through the restless chaos of the melodic end of the genre, alongside all the splicing of death metal offcuts entailed by this. The flow of each piece is cautious despite the frequent bursts of speed. The music proceeds tentatively, as if unsure how to proceed following any great leap forward. Over eager vocals veer from toneless outbursts to corny heavy metal crooning ill fitting to the feigned gravitas of the surrounding material. The result is a stylistically confused but nevertheless intriguing release of modern extreme metal. Imaginative and well thought out, yet uneven and lacking focus in execution.
Pestilential Shadows: Wretch
Out 5th September on Northern Silence/Brilliant Emperor
Patient if generic black metal achieves a clear development of theme across a piece, but falls back on skeletal post rock riffs to contrive a sense of longform narrative where none is forthcoming. All focus is placed on building a wall of sound formed from layers of rich guitar lines in a manner that calls to mind Primordial. Ideas are recycled, supplementary material being introduced piecemeal to create at least the feeling of development even if we remain largely in stasis. The result is an endless pivot between laboured repetition punctuated by unexpectedly fluid progressions. One could praise the ambience of this album, an immersive, pleasing textural showcase, but despite the rich and warm production furnishing this music with a degree of character, the results are too forgettable to be worth the effort.
Cult Burial: Collapse of Pattern, Reverence of Dust
Out 5th September, self-released
Extreme metal is often perceived to be hyperbolic. This makes it attractive for artists with nothing to say. It is hoped that the surplus activity, technique, and dark aesthetic will cover a total lack of coherence, ideas, or artistic merit. If no sense can be found, one can lean back on this ready crutch and claim that nonsense was precisely the point. It’s also been apparent for some years now that artists are attracted to extreme metal because they see it as license to vocalise all manner of gauche emotive outbursts, which, being rarely earned, setup, or established within the material amounts to nothing more than tantrums. Hysteria, contrivance, and indignity propped up by empty grooves, contrast with no meaning, and pointless dissonance.
Cult Member: Gore
Out 19th September on Loyal Blood Records
Manages to express the inner heart of early thrash/crossover through ordering chaos. Percussive power chord riffing forms the core of each track, forging an unshakeable rhythmic backbone reminiscent of marshal fanfare. Drums are relegated to a mere framing device, providing additional context to the simple yet compelling riffs, reaching all the way back to the early days of thrash metal and its ancestry in d-beat punk. Sporadic guitar lines that do deviate from the rigid power chord party line, alongside the strained, emotive vocals and well placed drum fills create chaotic fauna to contrast with the military precision order and timing of the music itself. Thus giving voice to hardcore punk’s original impetus, urgently revealing the insanity behind a world increasingly dominated by order and rationality. Whilst many riffs are lifted straight from Slayer circa ‘Reign in Blood’ or early Kreator, The Exploited, Discharge, and Onslaught are the more prominent after echoes across this brief album. The open mix giving the music a sense of implied scale. Refreshing for its focus and austerity, this album deserves praise for stripping punk back to its barest rudiments, thus re-acquainting it with a sense of mission and drive beyond being just a more exaggerated version of last decade’s messaging.
Impending Rot: Anatomical Discorporated Aberration
Out 19th September on Blood Harvest (originally released in 2023)
Whilst the intro to this EP reaches for an eeriness almost reminiscent of ‘Soulside Journey’ the subsequent material settles for a tour of tired deathgrind fodder, circling through recycled ideas almost at random in the hope that if one dances vigorously enough the onlookers are bound to applaud something. At this point extreme metal looks more like a bunch of half concussed pond dwellers bellowing film quotes at each other and laughing. Context, if it ever mattered, is now long forgotten. What matters is the mere invocation of the thing, an act which in and of itself is expected to be praiseworthy because the audience know what it is, and don’t want to miss out on liking the thing, or at least pretending to like the thing because it is expected of their outward persona. Art by meme. A series of loosely associated images designed to illicit a response. Why? To what end? Those are yesterday’s questions. Today, all that matters is the thing itself. The stuff plugging up our lives between dawn and dusk. Drowning out any thought that dares to linger for more than three seconds.
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