Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Is metal transgressive? Before breaking up in 2023, Dawn Ray’d were one of the most prominent Radical Anarchist black metal bands. The video for their song ‘Go as Free Companions’ features the band performing in what looks like an abandoned factory. It cuts to shots of people putting on black balaclavas and gloves, who slowly... Continue Reading →
IncandescentOut 12th April on I, Voidhanger Records The second album from this Australian solo entity sees them move out of the downbeat gloom of blackened doom to bring a more thoroughly black metal expression to the foreground. Irredeemable darkness remains the raison d’etre, but the music is more active, busy, purposeful. Something articulated through riff... Continue Reading →
Vortex of the DestroyerOut 28th March on NoEvDi Records One could read Svartsyn as a direct descendant of ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'. In the sense that this is one way of achieving a “post riff” form of black metal without leaning on ambience. Rudimentary riffs are still present and correct, but their existence is now... Continue Reading →
Hateful Draugar from the UndergroundOut 28th March on Darkness Shall Rise Synthesises elements of early Enslaved with Burzum to great effect, but veers away from the detached cinematic narratives of the former, into something closely resembling the understated folk narratives of Isengard. The result is a satisfying reaffirmation of black metal as both an atmospheric... Continue Reading →
Words by Jason Kiss The Deep When we describe something as deep, we often imply that it goes beyond the surface and holds a kind of significance that eludes the realm of the superficial. Depth stands in opposition to shallowness and points toward a more reflective and nuanced reality than the socially accepted “truths” of... Continue Reading →
Daniel Lake of Decibel magazine joins for a discussion on the role and importance of music criticism. Mainstream journalism vs underground blogging: different paths or open hostility? Is it fair as a music critic to have an agenda? Can music criticism have a real impact in the scene? How to deal with hate: when the... Continue Reading →
Clactonian: Everlasting PaleolithicOut 28th March on Prehistoric Sounds Clactonian return for another brief skirmish of dark war metal. Here we see them combine the violent intensity of early grindcore with the haunting darkness of Von. Pivoting on a basic, punk riff, hammered home with an almost ludicrous determination, with only brief variations in pitch or... Continue Reading →
The Ichor of ChimeraOut 28th March on No Remorse Records Following the promising ‘Visions of Esoteric Splendor’ split in 2021 with Ezra Brooks, Serpent Rider return with an unapologetically heavy metal debut, sidelining the extreme metal elements of the EP. This is done for the sake of expanding on rich, longform tracts of classic metal... Continue Reading →
Time to hear different Strange things happen in your thirties. You become irrelevant. But instead of accepting this with grace, you desperately cling on, gestating within you a borderline intolerable personality. One that continues to hog the zeitgeist, unwilling to relinquish its toys to an upcoming generation desperately trying to push you aside. You nurture... Continue Reading →
Master of the Nebulous ReachOut 14th March, self-released Despite the unevenness of Dis Pater’s body of work, he remains an artist I enjoy following closely. This latest EP goes some way to remind me why I am enamoured more with the idea of Midnight Odyssey – and indeed the other projects he has dabbled in... Continue Reading →
Hate Meditations 