Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Pandemonium of EgregoresOut 26th December on Osmose Productions I’ll happily eat a hat or two if I made the wrong call, as it seems I did in writing off Meyhna'ch after the middle age tantrum that was ‘Black Metal Cult’. But the difference between an exceptional artist and a quite good one is the former’s... Continue Reading →
Supuration: Sultry ObsessionOut 27th November on La Caverna records (originally released in 1990) By 1993, Supuration had developed a unique voice within death metal, bridging the richly textured gloom of the Nordic style with the brighter prog permutations developing on the other side of Atlantic, adding their own distinctive goth sensibility to the mix. With... Continue Reading →
Beithioch: A Cold Eye on Life and DeathOut 14th November, self-released After the barbaric primitivism of the ‘Beowulf’ EP back in 2023, this latest single sees Beithioch reach for a richer, expressive panorama of blackened doom metal reminiscent of The Ruins of Beverast amongst others. The flow is somewhat episodic, a ten minute plus piece... Continue Reading →
Sacrilege InfernusOut 25th July, self-released Access to culture has never been easier. Deciding what to access and spend time with near impossible. People idolise the traditional underground for its asceticism. The implied discipline required to enter an obscure channel of culture. The music itself a challenge of dense, alien sounds born of a hermetically sealed... Continue Reading →
Lord of NightmareOut 25th July on Hessian Firm (originally released in 2006) Endless Dismal Moan, the brainchild of one Chaos 9, who sadly took their own life in 2008, was an enigmatic Japanese black metal entity that typified or even perfected the dark, urbanist turn the genre took in the early 21st Century. Hessian Firm’s... Continue Reading →
Décryptal: SimulacreOut 11th July on Me Saco Un Ojo/Rotted Life Attempts to forge links between the old and the new in death metal via a survey of muscular old school traditions through the crushing swing of the Earache crowd to darker 2010s caverncore. In this endeavour it retains a refreshing focus and coherence, marking it... Continue Reading →
Mortalha Negra: NecromanteOut 18th June on Helldprod Records Essentially a thrash metal rendering of ‘Under a Funeral Moon’. Excitable yet austere, riffs reach through the old school filter, reinjecting archaic speed metal elements into an unambiguously black metal setting. The latter elements of which are deployed as developmental material. This in turn injects the music... Continue Reading →
Grog: Sphere of AtrocitiesOut 13th June on Helldprod A collection of generic brutal and semi technical death metal furniture, delivered with the random freneticism of grindcore. Swirling between ideas, Grog are just as liable to hack up the momentum with abandon as they are to repeat themes and riffs in order to hammer them home.... Continue Reading →
Ahamkara: The Harrow of the LostOut 25th April on Bindrune Recordings Blends the vast sweeping atmospheres of Wodensthrone and the idiosyncratic polyphony of Obsequie into a vapid mulch of emo black metal. Trivial harmonic material decorates a slue of anthemic riffs rendered with a black metal aesthetic for an audience incapable of confronting the music's... Continue Reading →
Voodus: Emanating SparksOut 28th February on Shadow Records/Regain Records Modestly melodic Swedish black metal that ups the game as far as their own standards are concerned. The overall packaging is still thoroughly domesticated, renting a generous helping of ideas from ‘The Somberlain’ whilst flattening off its longform ambition in favour of crowd pleasing speed thrills,... Continue Reading →
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