Unmother: State Dependent Memory
Out 20th February on Fiadh Productions
Although not entirely terrible, Unmother suffer from the garden variety shortcomings of much RABM, in that the music appears distracted and disjointed precisely because it is being forced to serve competing agendas. In the case of Unmother, it’s a simple checklist: from London, hardcore punk background, themes of urban living, indie aesthetic. Despite this however, Unmother are more adept at integrating these elements into a statement that feels very much “of” the black metal tradition, one repurposed into a surrealist, tense, eerie articulation of living in close quarters with millions of people and far from natural spaces. Indie flourishes from post rock and punk abound, and degrade the music into trivial domesticity as result, but there is a degree of forethought as to how to integrate these elements into a through composed narrative, and when not interrupting the flow of the piece with needlessly obnoxious interjections, this does actually furnish Unmother with a distinctive black metal riff signature that many of their RABM peers have so far been unable to articulate.
Vorago: Morulus
Out 20th February on Amor Fati
Essentially a rock band trying to play blackened grind, but even the latter endeavour is dubious as black metal seems to be an empty aspiration that never fully manifests across this material. What we are left with is generic early death metal ephemera punctuated by impotent lapses into death ‘n’ roll swing that, when not obnoxious, is little more than tedious. When Vorago pull themselves together and attempt to articulate some metal riffs we are left with nothing but filler, offcuts that superior bands would have either discarded or used as a link passages to get to the next significant phrase. The upshot being that we are left with nothing of value to take from this album.
Dwellnought: Monolith of Ephemerality
Out 20th February on Caligari Records
Longform blackened doom that attempts to strike a balance between torturous, cavernous segments and the non-metallic stylings of post and technical hardcore offshoots, delivered with all the requisite although hardly inspiring dissonance. Individual riffs, refrains, styles that appear intriguing at first go nowhere. So to fill out these hubristically long pieces they lean on droning chords, guitar noise, faltering drum patterns, and garden variety vocal eccentricities which, in the absence of anything substantive to contrast with these diffuse elements, come across as pure, tedious filler.
What ideas Dwellnought have managed to string together here remain woefully unloved in a sea of molasses that I suppose is “on trend” for a certain lover of dissonant black metal, here rendered on the doomier side. But even within that fanbase, they are better off listening to the source material than spending time with this album.
Misotheist: De Pinte
Out 20th February on Terratur Possessions
Simple speed drone black metal creates ambience through emphasis of open chords rather than leaning too heavily on the guitar tone itself, which is relatively clean by the standards of the genre. Persistent repetitions build to transitional landmarks defined by developmental material, even if the rudiments are in line with a minimalist philosophy. Simple, blasting drums create a solid throughline of momentum, driving the guitar lines forward even as they threaten to succumb to their own inertia. A gruff, distorted bark fails to integrate effectively into this setting however, making what is merely implied in the music explicit, thus rendering the final presentation more obvious than it needs to be. But ignoring this minor shortcoming, a serviceable slab of dark black metal on the borders of aggression and a more indifferent gloom emerges, deriving its vocabulary from both Mayhem and the resurgent war metal scene in equal measure.
Mactatus: Blot
Out 24th February on ATMF (originally released in 1997)
One of the many also-rans of Norwegian black metal, this reissue at least gives us the chance to pause time and consider symphonic black metal before it was conscious of itself as such. Sure there was already a clear distinction between this dreamy, keyboard driven wanderlust and whatever ‘Battles in the North’ was by 1997. But prior to the codification, at the time this was more a function of artists just trying on different hats and elaborating on specific features they enjoyed. In the case of Mactatus, they were clearly much more taken by what Dimmu Borgir were doing than anything the silverbacks of the genre were up to. And in this regard there is much joy to mined this album. It maintains a fantastical, unapologetically naïve presentation, defined by the bouncy, playful rhythms, all kept to relatively slow tempos. This allows simple, flowing melodic riffs the space to articulate a sense of adventure, bolstered by flowery but charming keyboard work. There is still some bite to this album though, just as there is speed, a dark, tremolo undercurrent referencing Mayhem as much as Gorgoroth. The voice of Mactatus struggles to emerge above their more well defined influences. But for fans of imaginative black metal, wide ranging and not a little bit sloppy, albums like this represent small gems well worth spending time with.
Vide: Aux enfantes des ruines
Out 27th February on Antiq
Given that metal has been oscillating around the same four subgenres for the best part of thirty years now, it’s not actually that hard to produce a serviceable record in any one style. The blueprints are already there, as are a wealth of techniques to draw upon. Shuffle these raw materials around a bit into a configuration you’re happy with and you’ve got yourself an album. The problem is making people care about it when they are served ten albums just like it the very same week. You could go back to the drawing board, figure out what you are actually trying to say as an artist and even reconsider whether your chosen medium is the right fit for you. Or you could just paint over the cracks with a gimmick. Which seems to be exactly what happened here. We have before us a functional atmospheric black metal album that achieves a sense of drab melancholia and some off-the-shelf melodic riffing, onto which are placed some children’s choirs to get more mileage out of these elements, allowing them to punch above their weight. But as one grows accustomed to the admittedly idiosyncratic atmosphere, there is very little on offer that one can’t find across a slew of like minded releases in this style, and very little reason to stick around as a result.
Hate Meditations 
Leave a comment