Nov 072024
 

(written by Islander)

The last time I attempted to find words for the music of Auriferous Flame I deployed adjectives such as “dire and deleterious,” “hypnotic” and “mystifying,” “deranged and dervish-like,” “molten” and “exotic.” The occasion then was an album named The Great Mist Within, released by True Cult Records in the summer of 2022. Now we have a new occasion because of a new album by this Greek black metal entity, which is one of the several guises assumed by the masterful Ayloss (with Spectral Lore being the best-known of those).

The new album, The Insurrectionists And The Caretakers, will be released tomorrow by the same True Cult Records. It is three songs long, and its overarching subject is revolution. Continue reading »

Nov 072024
 

(Andy Synn highlights three recently-released examples of the blackened arts)

A couple of nights ago I went to see the documentary film “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story“.

It’s a movie about heartbreak, and about hope. About the toll which a loss like that takes on a man, and upon his family, yet also about resilience and how the simple act of perseverance – in the face of despair – can represent the greatest heroism.

Quite honestly, it moved me to the verge of tears several times – not just because of the power of the story being told by all those involved, but because in those people up on the screen, often captured in moments of candid openness and raw vulnerability, I also saw myself and a reflection of my own humanity.

But, then, that’s what art does – it allows us to communicate something ineffable about what it is to be human.

After all, we may all share this planet together, but each of us, in a very real sense, is an island unto themselves… and it’s through our art that we try to bridge those gaps between us.

Ultimately this has very little to do with the subject(s) of today’s article – which covers three recently-released Black Metal albums which I believe more people need, and deserve, to hear – beyond the fact that each of them, in their own way, is art.

Continue reading »

Nov 072024
 

(We welcome the return of Dan Barkasi with another one of his monthly collections of reviews, this time focusing on eight albums released in September of this year.)

Sequels – the often lame, half-baked follow-up to a film that sullies and dilutes what made the original great. Or worse – a next chapter to something which wasn’t anything you wanted to see in the first place. The latter aptly describes our time since our last rendezvous on this fine site.

I mentioned the devastation of hurricane Helene, which grazed past our specific location with minimal issues, other than a day without power (we were incredibly lucky). Then, the dreaded sequel named Milton showed up. Seemingly seeking vengeance for being given such a name – apologies to the fine folks who have been bestowed said moniker – Milton was the most destructive storm to hit west central Florida in over 100 years.

We ended up having to evacuate along with our large army of fuzzy family members to Ft. Pierce and the wife’s cousin’s place, who were incredibly accommodating in hosting us for a few days. The wild part is that an EF3 tornado struck a few miles from their house. This showcases the wide and frightening impacts that this storm brought. Continue reading »

Nov 062024
 

(After a bit of a break our Vietnam-based writer Vizzah Harri returns to our miserable halls with reviews of six albums that struck some chords in his head, and may have damaged them.)

On the 9th of October ominous news surfaced that a group of hackers decided to lay siege to an internet institution that can generally be considered as a universal good. It was universally seen as a dick move. The Internet Archive is a library of audio, visual and textual resources as well as old website archiving with the mission of providing a library with omniversal access to all knowledge.

Flummoxed at the stupidity, because 99.9% of hackers love this site, and unable to use the Wayback Machine (it is back up now so this link is not compromised as of this writing), I simply had to take a hard stare at my ‘Catching Up’ list. October has been another stacked month for releases and November still has some serious offerings before the end-of-year bonanza. The list of what we weren’t able to get to is not always a question about quality or subjective – or even objective – partiality, it’s the sheer volume of content out there.

With the year almost over, I took it upon myself to go on the ‘way back machine of metal’ and jump back 282 days to January 26th. On its own an insane day for metal releases, two of the releases below fell on that same day. Continue reading »

Nov 062024
 

(written by Islander)

For as much music as we’ve written about in our nearly 15 years of existence there are still many bands, even long-lived ones, that we’ve managed to overlook. The German black metal band Asenheim is one of those.

Principally the vehicle for vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Tiwaz, joined in partnership by drummer Valfor for the last seven years or so, Asenheim has been releasing music since 2007, with eight albums to their credit and a multitude of demos and EPs.

Not surprisingly for a project of such duration and prolific creative output, the nature of the music hasn’t remained entirely constant, though its connection to pagan legends and other themes beyond the confines of the mundane world have been throughlines of long standing.

Where Asenheim proudly stands today is represented by a forthcoming ninth album, Wolkenbrecher, which is set for release on December 10th by the Dominance of Darkness label, and today we share with you a lyric video for a song from the album named “Im Zwielicht“. Continue reading »

Nov 062024
 

(written by Islander)

We’re in the camp of people who believe that album cover art is a vital part of musical releases, not merely as a way of attracting attention to what’s inside but as an end in itself.

Of course, we can all think of instances when bland cover art has accompanied fantastic music, and conversely when stunning artwork has heralded what turned out to be bland music.

But today the artwork and the music align. Both are fantastic. And both are terrifying. And both will freeze you in place. Credit to Belial NecroArts for what greets the eyes. Credit to Hierarchies for a self-titled debut album that will do a real number on your psyche. Continue reading »

Nov 062024
 

(Here’s DGR‘s review of Swallow the Sun‘s new album, which was released a couple weeks ago by Century Media.)

Listening to Swallow The Sun‘s newest album Shining, you get the sense that this is the sort of album every doom band has in them and one that they’d slowly been building toward for some time. In that sense, Shining is a fascinating release because after hesitantly testing waters more and more with each record, much of the material on Shining sounds like the band themselves were finally ready to make the jump.

Of course, with Swallow the Sun it is always going to feel like there is an overarching narrative because – credit to the band for being as brave as they are – they haven’t really been shy about personal struggles and tragedies over the years. Maybe, Shining is an album that Swallow The Sun needed to make, as a chance to escape and set themselves free of the artistic frost that they’ve long called home. Continue reading »

Nov 052024
 

(written by Islander)

Think of things you’ve witnessed that have astounded you, things that have shocked and surprised you but also popped your eyes and dropped your jaw in wonder. And not just sudden experiences that end after moments, but continuing cavalcades that catch you quickly, swallow you up, and allow no quick release.

Maybe a circus (when such things still existed)? Maybe a riot? Maybe a brazen symphony? Maybe blizzards and floods that weren’t forecast?

Asking you to recall such events is the best and briefest way I can think of to prepare you for Ploughshare‘s new album, Second Wound. Listening to their previous releases would be another kind of preparation, but not entirely adequate because on the new album these Australian experimental extremists have looped together both newer and older phases of their output to create an even more elaborate and more mind-lacerating (but wondrous!) experience.

Here’s how they briefly describe what they’ve done: Continue reading »

Nov 052024
 


photo by Marshall Kreeb

(Indiana-based doom metal behemoths The Gates of Slumber have revived and return with a new self-titled album that’s set for release on November 29th via Svart Records. Our Comrade Aleks needed to find out more, and the band’s founder Karl Simon graciously took his questions.)

There are the bands who are long inactive, and after some time checking their profiles on social medias or metal-archives in hope of finding any new information, you just give up. The same was true for me with The Gates of Slumber. I loved the heroic doom metal they played in the first album …the Awakening (2004); Suffer No Guilt (2006) was a blast; and I still listen to other albums too – especially Hymns of Blood and Thunder (2009).

Karl Simon (guitars, vocals) disbanded The Gates of Slumber in 2013 only to form Wretch, which didn’t last long. So Karl’s last official full-length was Wretch’s self-titled debut released in 2016, and I was surprised when Svart Records announced that a new The Gates of Slumber album would be released on November 29th.

Of course, it was a natural necessity to learn the album’s background, and the result of my curiousity is this interview with Karl. Continue reading »

Nov 052024
 

(Andy Synn dives back into the Death Metal scene)

I’ve been accused, not entirely unreasonably, of being a little jaded and cynical when it comes to Death Metal these days.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Death Metal, in all its different forms – ok, maybe not all its different forms – but… you’ve got to admit… it can get a little tiresome being told that [X] band is “the next big thing” or “the saviour of the genre” when all its doing is rehashing the same old HM-2/Swe-Death/OSDM revivalist tropes as the last band to get the exact same sort of hype just a few months previously.

Thankfully there are lots of bands out there who – while not necessarily breaking the mould or reinventing the wheel – are still more than capable of reminding us all, me included, just why we like what we like, hype be damned, and I wanted to highlight three bands, with three distinctly different flavours, for you today.

PS – while I couldn’t find time/space for them you should also check out the extremely promising debut albums from Weeping and Recidivist (though, at just over fourteen minutes, calling the former an album seems like a little bit of a stretch) as well as the riff-tastic new one from Ripped to Shreds (which contains one of my favourite Death Metal songs of the year in the form of the irresistibly hooky “冥婚 (Corpse Betrothal)”)

Continue reading »