Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Vortex of the DestroyerOut 28th March on NoEvDi Records One could read Svartsyn as a direct descendant of ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'. In the sense that this is one way of achieving a “post riff” form of black metal without leaning on ambience. Rudimentary riffs are still present and correct, but their existence is now... Continue Reading →
Clactonian: Everlasting PaleolithicOut 28th March on Prehistoric Sounds Clactonian return for another brief skirmish of dark war metal. Here we see them combine the violent intensity of early grindcore with the haunting darkness of Von. Pivoting on a basic, punk riff, hammered home with an almost ludicrous determination, with only brief variations in pitch or... Continue Reading →
Sadist: Something to PierceOut 7th March on Agonia Records If you want to understand the paradox of progressive metal, studying the career of Sadist can be highly instructive . The more influences the genre imbibes, the broader its expressive range, the march toward unchecked eclecticism, the more its core identity recedes into a distant memory.... Continue Reading →
Zora: Scream Your HateOut 28th February on Great Dane Records (originally released in 2016) Direct, linear death metal benefits the form by stripping away any unnecessary fat, leaving a precision timed device of aggressive, energetic percussive noise. The format may be simple, but the playing is precise, with pin sharp rhythms forcing what are at... Continue Reading →
Oblations in AtrocityOut 15th February, self-released Captures a sense of amateur possibility missing in much of the overly curated gestures to lo-fi black metal in the contemporary landscape. In this regard it mirrors early Ungod in its bisection of idiosyncratic riff signatures that nevertheless thrive within traditional melodic forms elevated by a drab ambience that... Continue Reading →
EspressoOut 23rd August on Island Records Sabrina Carpenter develops the form of trancelike black metal by pivoting on a simple yet effective interchange of two chords, using this framework to hang harmonic interplay arriving in whimsical sequences that take time to unpack on repeated listeners. Percussion adopts a similar poise by fleshing out a basic... Continue Reading →
Sunbathed slime March is an odd time of the year in England. Daylight bulges. The interval between dawn and dusks sags alarmingly. As if saturated by the merciless spring rain beating the ground with violent regularity. But this emergent excess of sunlight reveals a world still utterly dead and utterly miserable. Decaying leaves continue to... 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 today’s standards. The chief source of dreamscaping invoked by music to “stimulate the fantasy of... Continue Reading →
Tubal Cain: Slime AbyssOut 27th February on Darkness Shall Rise It remains curious to look at black metal as the completion of metal's evolutionary circle. A symptom of the hysteria and panic that gripped metal fans as death metal bands proudly displayed their tracksuits and time signatures. Black metal’s closer alliance with linear heavy metal... Continue Reading →
Vengeance EvangelOut 14th February on Lavadome Productions “Technical death metal” is a problematic label. Genre names often refer to some specific technique or dominant feature of the music itself. To apportion off a subgenre by simply asserting that it’s more technically demanding than its mothership can be something of a misnomer. Just exactly how or... Continue Reading →
Hate Meditations 