A.H.P: Alltid Imot Deg
Out 21st March on Purity Through Fire
Drab, pessimistic black metal lurches between torturous drone segments bolstered by little more than stumbling, slow rhythms into bursts of linear speed and open, humming guitar lines that retain a lackadaisical energy despite the blast-beat foundation. Raspy, mid-range vocals attempt to enhance the sense of melodrama, accompanied by a second voice on the track ‘Lust for Murder’ more in line with Shagrath’s regal flexes, lending all an air of arrogant dignity. Despite individual riffs and indeed the overall delivery being above par, A.H.P. fall into the same trap as 90% of the modern genre, despite being clearly more steeped in the tradition than most. Namely that all this is just an affectation. A pick ‘n’ mix of elements they like with little thought given to how the whole adds together, beyond delivering a certain edgy poise. The result satisfies to the extent that it offers a certain experience, like the artwork in a hotel room curated to match the aesthetic the establishment wishes to get across. It serves no other purpose than signposting the listener toward a set of symbols and signals, leaving them to interpret some deeper meaning behind them, all of which is lacking within the source material itself regardless of how rigorously we interrogate it.
Aerdryk: Onzuiver
Out 21st March on Amor Fati
This release ticks two boxes that the majority of Aerdryk’s peers appear incapable of even acknowledging as necessary for black metal (including this artist’s other project Erbeet Azhak). It envelopes us with an immersive atmosphere and imbues this with momentum and motion, allowing us to at least feel like we are being taken on a journey of sorts. Layer upon layer of melodic guitar noise forms the foundation of the sound, but much like Gnipahålan, they are studded with a host of detailed accents and phrases that work like intricate decorations within a much larger edifice. In turn the bedrock shifts in increments across each track, switching key or pitch, an effect all the more dramatic owing to the sheer inertia of the rhythm guitar tone. And because there is enough food for thought injected into this substrata, drums are left with the modest task of holding fort, maintaining a steady pulse throughout and relying on the sheer impact that a simple switch in tempo or beat emphasis will have in this context. Developments may be modest, the pieces a little too repetitive despite their relatively short length, but one comes away with the impression that they have at least experienced a work of substance. There is life in these hills, and it is worth traversing them to discover its nature.
Ainzamkait: Fluch des Nachzehrers
Out 21st March on Purity Through Fire
As a slab of standard fair melancholic black metal, one can do worse than perusing this album. What it lacks in originality it makes up for in patient builds in tension, a meditative flow, and an ethereal, wistful atmosphere despite the dark front it puts forward and the rather trite chord progressions propping up each track. Whilst it would be tempting to read ‘Fluch des Nachzehrers’ as another sordid love letter to second wave black metal, the pacing of each track more often refers back – deliberately or not – to punk and rock traditions. Simple builds to finales, the placement of which is all too obvious and predictable. The bounce of punk beats placed to re-energise the music with forward momentum, but often results in eviscerating the tentative ritualism accrued on the preceding material. Despite these touches of tired filler, a reasonable simulation of obscurantist black metal lingers beneath the surface.
Multiwomb: Anatomy of Gorelust
Out 23rd March on Grave Island Records
Brutal death metal delivered in miniature, as a small clutch of short tracks breezes by with impatient resolve. Aggressive, choppy vocals working in unison with consistently mapped out blast-beat runs – delivered on a snare that sounds more like a cowbell – are intercut with slower slam references or more elongated proto-melodic segments lifted from a more traditional death metal genealogy. Because the vocals dominate the lead section across most of these tracks, little space is left for the guitars to articulate any dominant identity outside of the rhythmic. It’s not until we get to the centrepiece instrumental number ‘Enema of Boiling Gore’ that we are treated to an extended, Suffocation derived introductory passage. But even here, Multiwomb shy away from distinctive high end material, favouring a percussive battering ram of compounding riffs, proving that they are able to convey muscular brutality without the need for constant speed thrills. The contrast between the traditional melodic orientation of these slower riffs with the mechanistic atonality that makes up the bulk of the speed sections is managed with rigour, bringing an album that at first appears impatient and uncertain of its orientation to bear with a confidence and consistency made all the more admirable for the multi-directional reach of influences and impulses on display here.
Teratoma: Longing Voracity
Out 25th March on Me Saco un Ojo Records
Achieves a similar degree of implied strength and complexity to Cruciamentum not only through the imposing, caverncore adjacent guitar tone, but through greater repetition of ideas than is common for death metal. Not so much the assertion of a main theme as browbeating sloganeering. Where Teratoma fall short is in developing these statements into something substantive enough to justify the length of these tracks. The central thesis is sound enough, but without evolution it can only take us so far. Supplementary material is either generically lacklustre filler or bears little resemblance to the context it finds itself in. Jagged chromatic material comes across more as playing for time than any genuine attempt to complicate the composition. Guitar leads lapse into the domesticity of blues, thus shifting the entire alignment of the track toward stoner doom than anything resembling death metal. Thus we are left at best bored by the end of the experience, numb to anything further that Teratoma may have to offer as faith in their ability to bring their ideas over the line dribbles away into yet another stale rock riff.
Barbaric Oath: Sword, Sorcery, Vengeance
Out 27th March on Caligari Records
This glum iteration of war metal garners dynamism through its emphasis on the subgenre’s early death metal influence. Blast-beat runs are balanced by staccato jabs lifted from a thrash lineage, placed alongside some darker melodic inflections that juxtapose neatly with the amorality of the overall presentation. From this angle there are at least hints of the sword and sorcery fantasy material Barbaric Oath draw lyrical inspiration from (and a generous amount of samples). But setting that aside, one is left with a straightforwardly dark amalgamation of grindcore, black, and death metal. Whilst the atmosphere is suitably cavernous, it is bolstered by a satisfying array of riffs aligned toward a clear sense of direction within each track. A welcome injection of eccentric high drama elevates the material further, most obviously delivered through the broad range of vocal techniques from a guttural homebase into torturous high end banshee wails and strained, punk barks. The persistence, the subtle sophistication of the structure, and the frequently hacked up momentum upsetting the balance, all lends this EP a degree of sobriety to the otherwise rather camp presentation.
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