Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Ayyur: Hidden Rooms Sessions IOut 11th November on Xenoglossy ‘Hidden Rooms Sessions I’ is the first instalment of a new trilogy from this Tunisian outfit, consisting of obscurantist, atmospheric black metal of a decidedly drab aesthetic. But given the sheer quantity of artists and releases that fall under these banners the descriptors seem almost superfluous.... Continue Reading →
Galicia: PrecipiceOut 21st October on Hessian Firm An odd concoction greets the ear on Galicia’s debut album ‘Precipice’. Hailing from California, this outfit whip up a strangely hypnotic interplay between the informal violence of war metal and the melancholic melodic aspirations of Nordic black metal, employing elements of death and blackened thrash as mediators supervising... Continue Reading →
Somehow, in the field of culture as elsewhere, the results of bourgeois society and historical progress, long conceived as a co-ordinated forward march of the human mind, were different from what had been expected. The first great liberal historian of German literature, Gervinus, had argued before 1848 that the (liberal and national) ordering of German... Continue Reading →
Tsalal: AgnosthesiaOut 13th October, self-released Akin to witnessing the emergence of black metal from the primordial soup of noise itself, the new demo from blackened drone project Tsalal undulates between the most basic of raw black metal structures, into disjointed noise, minimalist industrial, and dark ambient. Melodic qualities in the traditionalist black metal sense do... Continue Reading →
The other day I came across this musician’s take on what the purpose of music criticism is. The basic premise being that music criticism is an entirely distinct craft from the creation of music itself. Despite the requirement for intimate knowledge of what they are critiquing, talent for punchy writing, and regular engagement in their... Continue Reading →
It’s not hard to see why Greek extreme metal is currently undergoing a renaissance. Whether it be latter day Varathron or Medieval Demon, Katavasia, Caedes Cruenta, Synteleia, the rich melodicism and unabashed melodrama of this style has spread well beyond the borders of Greece itself, growing into a significant pillar of modern metal. The cross... Continue Reading →
Looking back on the pocket of explicit futurism couched in the landscape of early 1990s extreme metal always brings on a sense of melancholy. One not so much born of the oppressive textural offering of the music itself, but by the fact that a sincere and eminently promising attempt to expand metal’s timbral, percussive, and... Continue Reading →
InvgarrThe Hopeless Resistance of Emberdrin’s Army As if endeavouring to elevate the aesthetic standing of archetypically traditional dungeon synth, Italy’s Ingvarr attempt to bring greater depth and nuance to what is otherwise thematically well trodden ground for the genre. Dungeon synth prides itself on – and presents as absurd because of – it’s allowance for... Continue Reading →
Acausal Intrusion: Seeping EvocationOut 30th September on I, Voidhanger Records Acausal Intrusion throw a plethora of disorientation at the listener on this album, as if willing us to loosen our grip on the threads running through each piece only to eventually let go entirely. ‘Seeping Evocation’ is best viewed from a non-linear angle. Rather fittingly... Continue Reading →
Imprecation: In Nomine DiaboliOut 14th October on Dark Descent Records Listening to Imprecation is akin to having your ears syringed of wax after years of poor hearing. Surveying the contemporary death metal landscape offers scant gems. There are apparently many releases boasting worthy talking points. Or so it would seem until one listens to an... Continue Reading →
