Fessus: Subcutaneous Tomb
Out 26th November on Darkness Shall Rise Productions
Competent if unremarkable OSDM apes the playful bounce of Autopsy alongside the heavier malevolence of Incantation. As a listening experience, ‘Subcutanerous Tomb’ is a “fill in the blanks” album. Moments of creative surrealism – usually expressed through the innovative lead guitar work – populate an otherwise rather flat array of filler riffs, sluggishly stitching together these brief moments of intrigue, the quality of which stands in stark contrast to the generic plod making up the bulk of the album. Meaning the listener is left to twiddle their thumbs until the band can work themselves up to an imaginative place. In this sense, Fessus may have been better off limiting this to a twenty minute, strong EP rather than reaching for full length glory off the bat. Whilst hardly unique in this shortcoming, there is a genuine attempt at uncanny, Weird death metal hidden behind what for all the world looks like yet another retro affair on par with low effort populist collateral such as Necrot or Skeletal Remains.
Death Yell: Demons of Lust
Out 28th November on Hells Headbangers
Belated comeback from Chilean veterans delivers muscular blackened thrash interrupted by moments of tension defined by lilting, tentative rhythms reminiscent of the barbaric ritualism articulated on Adorior’s latest effort last year. Although the pacing is initially frustrating, Death Yell deliver moments of payoff both rampantly violent and exhilarating in equal measure. Basic and sometimes illogical atonality is contrasted nicely with surprisingly majestic melodies, smuggled into the fray owing to their explicit darkness and aggressive delivery. The result is a work that is prima facie primal, overexcited, and at times near random. But closer inspection reveals a studied, patient exercise in how to build nuance and complexity from these guiding impulses, thus tapping into one of the key impetuses behind quality extreme metal, the harnessing of chaos into order, marshalling disparate, anarchic elements together into something that achieves a kind of meta order. Knowing when to submit to the central momentum of a piece and when to proactively interject with a more complex set of disruptive materials is an art unto itself that Death Yell have mastered across this album.
Summoning Hellgates: Spear of Conquest
Out 28th November on Osmose Productions
The latest in a seemingly endless conveyor belt of ostensibly black/death metal outfits, Summoning Hellgates embark on a broad, hyperactive survey of off-the-shelf blackened thrash riffing, supplemented by early death metal offcuts streamlined into linear speed thrills, all coated in a dark aesthetic to furnish it with black metal credentials. The problem with this type of music is not incompetence – Summoning Hellgates can actually write riffs – but squandered potential in the quest to play up to a particular stylistic current. Themes undergo some curious developments across these pieces, leveraging space and its ability to convey tension, alongside some tighter, disciplinary staccato punches that create a restrictive, claustrophobic demeanour alongside raw intensity and violence. Where this outfit falls short is the fact that these strengths present as incidental to the central picture, which remains limited and sterile. Efficiency of riffcraft and more draconian self-editing could go a long way to elevating this material from the merely serviceable into the genuinely dynamic.
The Ominous Circle: Cloven Tongues of Fire
Out 28th November on Osmose Productions
A lengthy, monosyllabic guitar noise introduction triggers a muscle memory expectation that the music will be dense, frantic, perhaps even dissonant death metal. But despite the deployment of some death metal riffs throughout, this is actually a sparse excursion into modern black metal with suitably fat production. Despite the stylistic whiplash this incurs, once one gets their ear into this album it becomes mildly diverting. Each segment is lengthier than the norm for contemporary extreme metal, offering modest distractions despite the fact that none of them link up into a coherent holistic statement at any point. Drab, dark, downbeat moods are conveyed with interest, but aside from the sheer enjoyment in the moment, The Ominous Circle are incapable of saying anything that lasts beyond the immediate as they seem to have given no thought to it. The fact that this manages to be more engaging than so many similar offerings that pivot on a single aesthetic current to the abandonment of any substantive artistry seems to be a matter of fluke rather than design.
Darvaza: We are Him
Out 5th December on Terratur Possessions
At first glance this looks like a vibrant exercise in polished black metal bursting with ideas and energy. But the façade gradually falls away upon scrutiny as one realises Darvaza are not actually communicating anything of value. What remains is a reasonable simulation of memory loss. Moment to moment things seem to make sense. But the music is unable to perceive or interpret reality beyond the perceptual present. For all the energy and enthusiasm injected into these tracks we are left with nothing but amnesia metal, a decaying edifice of memory slipping away into void. All the melodic contortions, vocal eccentricity, and no doubt competent musicianship cannot salvage artistry where a genuine vision is absent without leave.
Burning Death: Burning Death
Out 5th December on Caligari Records
This album has me thinking that maybe a more helpful label for “blackened thrash” would be “Euro thrash”. There are a few Slayer riffs in here sure, and a clear Bathory influence ticks the black metal credentials. But for the most part this is a very German affair, alongside the UK playing a backup role owing to this music’s debt to hardcore punk via bands like Onslaught et al. Why more genre pedantry? Black metal is a broader church than ever, yet ironically the term is also less contested than ever. If we’re not careful it may lose meaning entirely. That this album’s heritage comes from a time before black metal had any coherence, it feels odd to retcon the genre into what is essentially early dark thrash, a style that just happened to emanate primarily from Europe. That ‘Burning Death’ provoked this brief tangent speaks of an album that is at the very least conversant in the genre it purports to speak for. Beyond that, Burning Death offer nothing new beyond a reaffirmation of techniques and styles approaching five decades in vintage.
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