Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Good clickbait draws in an audience even when they know they’re being baited. Rick Beato recently did this to me with his ‘Is metal dead?’ thumbnail. As an experienced Youtuber with an audience in the millions, he’s an adept practitioner of this dark art. In this case he’s served up a kind of double baiting.... Continue Reading →
UnwellOut 31st October, self-released Somewhere between jazz, industrial, progressive doom, and ambient comes this concept EP preoccupied with the theme of mental degradation. The narrative follows an elderly dementia patient in a nursing home, “haunted by the spirits of two children who claim he murdered them decades ago”. In keeping with the artist’s moniker, the... Continue Reading →
Hadopelagyal: HaematophoryktosOut 19th September on Amor Fati If we were to regard this in terms of presentation alone we would come away with the impression that Hadopelagyal are interested in little more than showcasing chaos. The ethos of blackened grind inflicted on dirge ridden black metal riffing to conjure a sense of random, nihilistic violence... Continue Reading →
Please read the following scenario carefully. A discussion will follow. Scenario One: Andrew Lee is an American of Chinese descent. He has a death metal band called Ripped to Shreds. Ripped to Shreds were booked to play a gig with a much older death metal band called Master, who were in the middle of a... Continue Reading →
All Powers of DarknessOut 22nd August on Hells Headbangers Medieval Demon, erstwhile outliers of the classic Greek scene, continue their eccentric second life with a run of occultist horror metal pitched plumb on the border between the sublime and the ridiculous. Where 2022’s ‘Black Coven’ was an articulation of shamelessly confident traditional gothic horror tropes... Continue Reading →
In 1985 Ray Belknap placed a 12-gauge shotgun under his chin and shot himself, dying instantly. His friend James Vance then took the same shotgun, placed it under his own chin, and pulled the trigger. He survived but was severely disfigured. The parents sued Judas Priest, whose music, they claimed, had mesmerised their sons, encouraging... Continue Reading →
Time to hear different Strange things happen in your thirties. You become irrelevant. But instead of accepting this with grace, you desperately cling on, gestating within you a borderline intolerable personality. One that continues to hog the zeitgeist, unwilling to relinquish its toys to an upcoming generation desperately trying to push you aside. You nurture... Continue Reading →
The unlikely story of dungeon synth By Jordan Whiteman I’m 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. I’ve maintained a mild curiosity about it ever since. Given all that, I would have thought... Continue Reading →
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