Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Adorior: Bleed on my TeethOut 27th September on Dark Descent Records The long awaited return of Adorior fails to pick a lane, and in doing so offers an experience more akin to a series of medleys than a coherent sound document. Melissa Grayโs vocals are a delight to listen to, boasting one of the most... Continue Reading →
King Crimsonโs โRedโ recently turned 50. And apparently itโs okay to broadcast oneโs love of prog now. No longer requested in hushed tones, served under the counter in a brown paper bag. People are poring over this lurid filth in full view of the public. โRedโ, โClose to the Edgeโ, โMirageโ, these were exceptions to... Continue Reading →
PolemicistOut 27th September, self-released The paradox of well known phrases is that, by virtue of wide usage, their meaning becomes unknown. The commonplace phrase goes unexamined. Melodic black metal is one such example. Prima facie an obvious, self-explanatory subgenre. But one that has thus far avoided re-appraisal or revision since the subgenre's solidification in the... Continue Reading →
Father Befouled: Immaculate PainOut 13th September on Everlasting Spew Father Befouledโs by now lengthy career of Incantation mirroring has evolved from the uncanny to the surpassing, as their material has ascending in tandem with Incantationโs descent into a dull autopilot. This latest EP does little to shift the formula. Although one can hear other influences... Continue Reading →
Many Things Afflict Us, Few Things Console UsOut 20th September on Cold Spring Records Khost have the unfortunate burden of being a metal adjacent industrial outfit from Birmingham, meaning their output will forever be benchmarked against Godflesh. Whilst there are similarities, Khost go far beyond Broadrick (at least in the guise of Godflesh) in pushing... Continue Reading →
Flames of SamโลซโmOut 8th September on Dark Adversary Productions Black Funeral are perhaps the unlikeliest latter day acolyte for such staunchly conservative, by-the-numbers black metal. One of the USโs earliest adopters of the form, pillars of the third wave along with Judas Iscariot, Krieg, and Demoncy, their run of albums from 1995 to 2010 delights... Continue Reading →
B-tier black metal and the break of autumn Your tastes are not your own. Your moods are orchestrated by nefarious digital platforms. Everyone knows this now. โInceptionโ may have been right that the mind can always spot an idea implanted by a foreign agent. That we would somehow care, or not act on this idea... Continue Reading →
A life in death metal 1987-1997 By David E. Gehlke Death metal was rockโs first truly underground cultural artefact. One only has to look at the way it crumbled and fragmented whenever it sniffed the bright lights and fanfare of โmainstreamโ attention. Look at heavy metal by contrast. Perfectly comfortable with a little big budget... Continue Reading →
Skognatt: AndromedaOut 6th September, self-released Synths, arpeggios, drum programming, the futurist starter pack melded with a batch of traditionalist black metal riffing and vocalisations binds together this new space themed direction for Germanyโs Skognatt. Berlin school ambient and drone modernism meets an undercurrent of antiquarian lamentation as the cold naturalism extends its outlook upwards. Skognattโs... Continue Reading →
Some of our regulars have a casual chat about Floridian death metal to ease us into triple figures and a new era for Necropolis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxoN4q56Aow
Hate Meditations 