Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Bokkerijders: Crush Kill DestroyOut 23rd October on Personal Records The debut album from this Belgium outfit smuggles in a surprisingly broad sweep of meditative, melodic, emotive black metal beneath a superficial faรงade of old school speed metal. Initially we are taken in by the homebrewed energy of Aura Noir or Merciless, only to be swept... Continue Reading →
Hรฆnesy: EsentiaOut 25th September on Purity Through Fire Five years ago this Hungarian outfit presented an interesting proposition with โGarabontziaโ, a black metal album crafted almost entirely from clean, reverb drenched guitar lines, working their way through oddly cathartic melodic hooks and chord sequences rich in pathos. There was no denying its proximity to post... Continue Reading →
Critical Defiance: Rivers of BloodOut 25th September on Dying Victims Productions 2024 was the year Critical Defiance suddenly caught the attention of a broader international audience with โThe Search Wonโt Fallโฆโ, a finely crafted treat of frenetic thrash fair alongside some well integrated oddball moments. The Chilean death and thrash metal scene has pulled well... Continue Reading →
Krolok: Hriฤov - Sรบฤพov - LietavaOut 25th September on Osmose Productions Slovakiaโs Krolok continue to grow into their skin with this third offering. A finely balanced ingredients list drawn from central European black metal, from Graveland, to early Root, Cult des Ghoules, and ethereal folk elements lifted from Romanian acts like Negura Bunget. But 'Hriฤov... Continue Reading →
Hail Conjurer: Abyss & EkstasisOut 23rd September on Into Endless Chaos Records / Crypt of the Wizard Over several albums, Finlandโs Hail Conjurer have been offering curiously deconstructive takes on black metal, pivoting on doom metal pacing, depressive moods, and dominant yet oddly fragile synth tones offering an eerily mournful counterpoint to the distorted backdrop.... Continue Reading →
What does the metalhead do on their day off and why is it ambient? I listened to all the โblack ambientโ releases from the 90s to find out. If you were to press me on a pithy definition of metal, I would say it's music written through the organisation of riffs. This means it can... Continue Reading →
Mittags-Abgrund: Mittags-AbgrundOut 15th September on Darkness Shall Rise Productions True to the legacy of Russian black metal, this is a piece of impeccably landscaped material, conjuring a fully scoped out environment before our eyes, vast and inhospitable whilst compelling the listener onward, provoking their impulse for exploration. However, Mittags-Abgrund go further in populating this terrain... Continue Reading →
Atomic Aggressor: The Occult ForcesOut 28th August on Hells Headbangers With a history stretching back to the mid-80s, Atomic Aggressor are arguably one of the first to enter Chileโs death metal race along with Pentagram. But following their reformation in 2007 this is only their second album, which may partly explain why they haven't receive... Continue Reading →
Rahaty: Bestial LustmordOut 28th August on Sentient Ruin Another attempt to bleed the deathgrind sponge dry without refreshing the underlying template. This time by taking things in a blackened direction in the Finnish mould. Although this album nails a certain cavernous aesthetic, the underlying architecture fails to trouble anyone accustomed to the extremity foregrounded across... Continue Reading →
Vafurlogi: Gneisti af eldi GuรฐsOut 26th June on NoEvDia/Oration True to the spirit of Icelandic black metal, this is a rhythmically informal, cyclically structured set of layered guitar chords defined by loose dissonance and overlapping main themes that seem to emerge from the background before casually decaying away. But unlike Svartidauรฐi or Carpe Noctem, Vargurlogi... Continue Reading →
