Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Sprung has spring Thereโre flowers everywhere. Something my son, who recently learnt how to say flower, repeatedly reminds me of every time we pass a dandelion, which is many. Rain still pelts the soil with sporadic and utilitarian urgency. But the pauses between showers are now defined by glorious stretches of sunshine, its inroads into... Continue Reading →
High Speed Death: Damned GenesisOut 7th March on La Caverna Records (originally released in 1991) This restored and remastered version of a previously lost demo reveals an Italian outfit working at the peripheries of thrashโs transition into death metal. I am unable to find out if this material was written prior to 1991. As it... Continue Reading →
Eternal Roar of the Thunder and RainOut 21st February on Eternal Death Atmospheric black metal that takes the legacy of Burzum somewhat seriously, in that Burzum, especially on the first two albums, were never much of an atmospheric outfit by todayโs standards. The chief source of dreamscaping invoked by music to โstimulate the fantasy of... Continue Reading →
How to avoid sex through music Spring is here. Trees are budding. Birds engage in their annual renewal of the housing stock. Days are lengthening, and somehow even the rainfall seems charged with heavy handed virility. The very air you breathe oozes sex. Of course this is all something Iโm thoroughly against. The listening rotation... Continue Reading →
Vspolokh: ะัััะฒะพะทะตะผัOut 25th December on Purity Through Fire Coats the stoic austerity of Slavic black metal with a dusting of populist melodic metal sugar, resulting in an exhilarating and rewarding experience on a visceral level, but one that nevertheless leaves one feeling cheated. Architecturally, there is a clear articulation of identity, intent, and purpose. A... Continue Reading →
At the Altar of the Horned God: ElementsOut 13th December on I, Voidhanger Records Having already signalled their love of various goth formulas through their manipulation of ritualistic melodrama and black metal furniture to create a kind of hybrid style that was appealing in concept even if it fell short in execution, itโs unsurprising to... Continue Reading →
The riddle of steel So that was Christmas. The auditing fury of December gives way to new projects launched, ideals dusted off, promised resolutions, and a renewed drive to make life better, cleaner, more focused, efficient, slicker, or otherwise optimised. If youโre a hustler psychopath that is. For normal folk it just means a fucking... Continue Reading →
Na utriniOut 27th December on Osmose Productions CMPTโs debut album โKrv I pepeoโ released in 2021 caught me off guard for its slick development of Burzum style black metal, dragging the form in a more expressively riff based direction whilst retaining the liminal, dreamlike atmosphere that seems so lacking in many paler imitations of Vargโs... Continue Reading →
FolkstormOut 25th December on Purity Through Fire With a release schedule as adversarial as its nature, a lot of black metal tends to come out in the latter half of December. As if to disrupt pundits keen on tying up their AOTY lists before Christmas. Gnipahรฅlan, as a shamelessly traditional, lavish, opulent, overwhelmingly cacophonous outlier... Continue Reading →
Peccatum MortiferumOut 13th December on Void Wanderer Productions Energetic, warm occultist black metal with aspirations toward high melodicism, and subtle yet effective gestures toward epic narrative storytelling. The soft, pillow punching snare combined with a bass guitar lead and a generally strained and dramatic poise will inevitably invite comparisons to Necromantia, Mortuary Drape, or Masterโs... Continue Reading →
Hate Meditations 