Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
After my recent survey of modern black metal, a death metal follow up was all but inevitable. Commercially speaking, death metal seems to be in a healthier place than black metal, with bands like Blood Incantation threatening to transcend the genre in terms of their brand reach. Tastes in death metal also seem to behave... Continue Reading →
Witch Wife in an Alien WorldOut 9th October on Cruz del Sur Music As the erstwhile darlings of the new wave of traditional lesser spotted heavy metal, this album is a bold move for Smoulder. Sure, aside from a clear pivot away from doom into faster classic metal stylings, the material is contiguous with previous... Continue Reading →
DecayOut 25th September on Relapse Records Hellfest 2010 was a pretty special festival. John Garcia got 75% of the band back together as Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri took the stage for a few numbers during his Kyuss classics set. Immortal, Asphyx, and Carcass were all in their post revival pomp, affording a younger generation... Continue Reading →
Sepulcrum: LaceratorOut 24th July on Chaos Records Chile’s Sepulcrum land the second album with ease, delivering a near perfect elaboration on 2023’s ‘Lamentations of Immolated Souls’ without over stretching themselves. If anything they are an even more efficient beast than before, expanding their expressive range whilst keeping the runtime to a crisp thirty six minutes... Continue Reading →
Sallow Moth: Hydrophilous BroodOut 24th July on Willowtip Records Surrealist brutal death metal redrafts elements of ‘Obscura’ and post 2000s Suffocation, but as with most contemporary avant-garde progressive extreme metal, it conflates stylistic incontinence with a density of ideas. Sure, for solid stretches of this album Sallow Moth work the Rubik’s Cube of tightly packed... Continue Reading →
Death is the Master of this WorldOut 8th July on New Era Productions From the mind of Jan Kruitwagen of Sammath and Kaeck fame comes this new dark ambient project. Split neatly into two fifteen minute segments, in essence what we are presented with is a re-evaluation of ambient black metal. Paradoxically by removing any... Continue Reading →
A hundred death metal albums not from the USA Between 1993 and 1994, death metal popped its head above the underground parapet to peek into the mainstream. From airplay on MTV’s Headbangers Ball, to Morbid Angel being the first death metal band to get major label backing with a signing to Giant Records, to bloody... Continue Reading →
Ultima RequiesOut 26th June on ATMF The third album from this Italian outfit relives the streaming lamentations of the Blazebirth Hall scene, but populates this infamously barren Russian style with stark features by which to navigate. Most obviously via rhythmic variation and clearly marked out phrasing, over and above the addition of rich keyboard decoration... Continue Reading →
Waan van de leegteOut 6th June on Terratur Possessions Similar to the recent Selenite Scrolls in its ability to insert itself into a very crowded style and still find room for a USP. This debut slots in somewhere between early Enslaved and Ulver with a less explicitly folkist orientation. The album washes over the listener... Continue Reading →
Channeling the EgregoreOut 15th May on Medieval Prophecy Records The debut album from this Belgium outfit marries the uncanny, atmospheric mysticism of Beherit and Demoncy with a more symphonic ambition. It borrows the subtle, haunting style of early Ancient or Gehenna, but presents it with a relaxed yet intentional pace. Atmospheric, understated, a little loose... Continue Reading →
