Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
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 →
Thunraz: Incineration DayOut 22nd November, self-released Sterile, mechanical, jagged death metal meets an undercurrent of dark gothic atmosphere on the latest album from this Estonian entity. There is a clear intent to blend the abstracted violence of death metal with a more grounded, artificial aesthetic. Despite the clear industrial current running throughout 'Incineration Day', one... Continue Reading →
The Skorian // The GreyleerOut 29th November on Profound Lore Records The existence of Mefitis within extreme metal is in many ways metatextual. They imbibe its raw materials only to churn it up into a cocktail of inuendo, subversion, duality of meaning that would go largely unnoticed by anyone not intimate with the legacy they... Continue Reading →
Auriferous Flame: The Insurrectionists and the CaretakersOut 8th November on True Cult Records/Stellar Auditorium Productions โThe album explores the theme of revolution and delves deep into the complexities of resistance and change, offering listeners an intense and thought provoking experience.โ Given the eagerness to share the complex subject matter that inspired this album, one might... Continue Reading →
The World Down ThereOut 2nd November, self-released Croatiaโs Petrale return for another skirmish of suffocating, eerie, dissonant black metal. This latter descriptor is liable to evoke images of cold, clinical, sterile music replete with jagged edges, tempo change incontinence, and aspirations toward headier subject matter. None of which is completely absent from the world of... Continue Reading →
Bridges to nowhere October opens the gateway to winter. Darkness makes inroads into our lives. The vestigial traces of summer ebb away by the end of the tenth month. Declining temperatures herald the arrival of Novemberโs high autumn. This particular October has also brought with it a glimmer of the Northern Lights to my... Continue Reading →
Carmina Belli ApocalypsisOut 28th October on Black Mass Prayers Armed with a dark medievalist paint job, a murky atmospheric gloom, and a dynamic compositional package, this pleasing Italian oddity attempts a synthesis between early Satyricon and the suffocating malevolence of Demoncy. At times the results are about as unfocused as one might expect. Valadier have... Continue Reading →
ฮฆฮธฮฟฯฮฌOut 4th October on Tragedy Productions This may be purely anecdotal, but it feels like black metalโs popularity is waning. And that's a good thing. Finally allowing the genre to catch its breath and take stock. Sure, there are still the Goliaths of the genre that suck out the oxygen whenever they choose to resurface.... 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 →
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