Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
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 →
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 metalโs closer alliance with linear heavy metal... Continue Reading →
The official history of Immolation By Kevin Stewart-Panko Immolation are the band that made me fall in love with death metal. Having purchased โDawn of Possessionโ on a whim back in 2005(?) on one of many surreptitious trips to Guildford HMV, something about this album clarified the small print of this genre for me. For... Continue Reading →
Vengeance EvangelOut 14th February on Lavadome Productions โTechnical death metalโ 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 itโs more technically demanding than its mothership can be something of a misnomer. Just exactly how or... 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 →
Aedes: Odius ImprecationOut 31st January on Blood Harvest (originally released in 2023) Essentially a modern love letter to early Morbid Angel via the more chromatic tangents of the mid-90s exercised by Trey and the gang alongside Immolation. Whether intentional or not, there is a rawness to the delivery, a sense in which the music is... Continue Reading →
Tribulated BellsOut 24th January on Hammerheat Records (originally released in 1992) Coinciding neatly with our recent discussion on Chilean metal comes this reissue from Hammerheat Records of Sadismโs โTribulated Bellsโ, an early intervention in Chilean extreme metal. Notable alongside the likes of Torturer for being one of a handful of bands to make inroads into... 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 →
The unlikely story of dungeon synth By Jordan Whiteman Iโm a longtime fan of black metal. In that capacity I was familiar with the music we now call dungeon synth long before its so called revival in the 2010s. Iโve maintained a mild curiosity about it ever since. Given all that, I would have thought... Continue Reading →
Megalit al PutrefacศieiOut 20th January on Memento Mori Not far into this competent but generic rendition of slow, primal, backward looking death metal, I was struck by a particular guitar lead that sounded awfully familiar. I immediately looked Putred up and found that they were from Romania. Another Romanian outfit (just) made my top picks... Continue Reading →
Hate Meditations 