(written by Islander)
We wish you a Happy June Solstice, the longest day of the year for everyone living north of the Tropic of Cancer and the shortest day for people living south of the Tropic of Capricorn. (I hope I got that right!) We also wish a Happy Father’s Day to fathers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, and Ireland — and maybe some other countries, but I haven’t checked. I also haven’t checked on how often the June Solstice and Father’s Day coincide here in the U.S. and in those other countries, but they’re coinciding today (the last time was in 2021).
I spent a big chunk of yesterday outside in an early celebration of Father’s Day, a day early because the dads planned to spend today with their families, and probably didn’t want those families to see how tilted they were getting during this 8-hour outing (I prefer “tilted” to “wasted” because it’s the Earth’s “tilt” that produces the solstices). The setting was beautiful, the weather was glorious, the beer was cold and plentiful, and the sun still hadn’t set here in the Pacific Northwest when I collapsed into bed around 9 p.m.
All that brightness and conviviality weren’t conducive to the contemplation of dark music. It’s still very bright where I am this morning (though fog is in my head), and looking ahead to the longest day compounds the difficulty of immersion in dark music. The sun pulls one way, the black metal pulls the other way. I’ve attempted to find an equilibrium by recommending a few things, but not as many as I might have on a different Sunday.
P.S. Happy International Day of Yoga to those who celebrate it by stretching their bodies and calming their minds, neither of which I’m any good at.
AGONANIST (U.S.)
I’m starting off with a song from the forthcoming second album of Agonanist, The Spirit of Gravity. I think I must have missed the debut album, The Cynicism of Solitude, which came out in the plague year of 2020. A press release we received last week caught me up, and effectively pushed me into checking out this song.
That PR missive explained that Agonanist is “the experimental music project of multidisciplinary artist Tyler Henthorn, based in San Francisco.” And further:
“It was produced in Ho Chi Minh City and the entire album features guest work by Andrew Lee (Ripped to Shreds), Colin Marston (Krallice, Gorguts, Behold the Arctopus), and Kevin Paradis (Benighted, Svart Crown). Microtonal guitars, bass, and keys are used throughout the album, with side A being a mix of 17ET and 12ET, and side B of 22ET.”
Lastly, I’ll include this excerpt: “The name AGONANIST is taken from an English translation of a short story by the Polish science-fiction writer Stanisław Lem, wherein a civilization has engineered itself beyond recognition and robots have created a monastic religion which promises nothing.”
For a reader like me, they should have put that paragraph at the beginning of the press release instead of the end, because I’ll dive into anything that draws any inspiration from Stanisław Lem.
The first single from the new album, “Effacement“, was revealed through a video premiere at Decibel. That same feature included a short interview with Tyler Henthorn, which is worth reading. But we ought to get to the song.
Immediately, drums blast away; horrid growls, vicious howls, and crazed screams explode; and dense riffing and synths sear but also manage simultaneously to sound dismal. Deep below, something immense undulates. High above, other frequencies convulse.
When the drumming rocks and the bass throbs, the upper range of sounds become nova-like in their blazing but feverishly writhing intensity. Eventually, brightly pinging notes dance their way through the buzzing and burning abrasion, reminding me a bit of something from L.A.’s Drab Majesty, and gnashing growls chill the skin. Gradually the song expands again — vast, eerie, dangerous, and deleterious.
I had a very tough time moving on from this. I had it on a loop trying to understand better all the ingredients and how they worked together. It’s not conventional black metal by any definition, but it sure got its hooks in me.
Transylvanian Recordings will release The Spirit of Gravity on August 28th. They describe it as: “Dark, Hypnotic, Dissonant & Mystical Black Metal. Somewhere between a fever dream and a claustrophobic nightmare. Sonically unruly, jarring, & entrancing.” And they recommend it for fans of bands like Xasthur, Leviathan, and Wormlust.
https://transylvanianrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/agonanist-the-spirit-of-gravity
https://www.facebook.com/TransylvanianRecordings/
STARER (U.S.)
On June 15th a Mexico-based organization called Music Fighting Cancer released their third compilation of songs, by nine bands. As best I can tell, they donate the proceeds to other organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life of cancer patients and their families.
The new comp snagged my attention because it opens with a new song by Kentucky-based Starer, whose music always snags my attention. Starer’s Josh Hines composed this song, “Consolations“, to support the efforts of Music Fighting Cancer. In a message to Starer’s Bandcamp followers, he wrote that both of his parents are cancer survivors, and that the song’s lyrics are taken from Seneca’s Consolations.
Based on what I’ve just written, you would expect “Consolations” to be a passionate piece, and you’d be right, though it may not line up with what most people imagine when they think of being consoled. The drums race with blistering speed; grand waves of symphonic melody wash overhead — channeling moods of anguish and yearning; and flickering guitars flash sparks.
When scorching, larynx-rupturing vocals take the stage, the drums shift gears and the music urgently thrusts. When solemn singing dramatically soars, the music becomes more gently panoramic. Starer repeats these progressions, sinking each of them deeper into a listener’s head, and then significantly slows and strips away the music’s ingredients, making room for solitary guitars to double-down on the song’s manifestations of grief.
The music then swells again and marches like a procession, with a heart-breaking guitar solo leading the way — before igniting once more in breathtaking fashion, and reminding us once more of the song’s opening phases and startling vocal dynamism.
A very memorable song, and for a good cause. I haven’t listened to the other songs on this compilation, but I intend to — after I make a contribution and thereby acquire it.
https://musicfightingcancer.bandcamp.com/album/music-fighting-cancer-vol-iii
https://www.facebook.com/starermusic/
ATMOSSOMTA (U.S.)
“Ushering in the certainty of the evident at the indulgence of the vivid unknown.”
That’s the cryptic but intriguing statement that appears on the Bandcamp page of The Centipede Abyss for the self-titled debut EP of Atmossomta, which is a collaboration between Ben Vanweelden (Pillar Amongst Willows, Dandelion, Venomous Echoes) and Jared Moran (Ishimura, Vertebrae Fetish Totem, Ange de La Mort). That page also recommends it FFO Blut Aus Nord, Aeviterne, and Ulcerate.
You should check out the first of the four songs included on this debut — “Shrouds of Coffins“. Its synth-y overture is eerie and alien, though terrifying screams can be heard behind those shimmering sonic mists. And then the song breaks open in an assault of shrill, dissonant guitars, thundering low frequencies, fast-changing drum escapades, and an assortment of monstrous gutturals and berserk shrieks.
The densely layered guitars (and perhaps keys?) strangely quiver and shiver, twist and warp, but then some instrument issues slowly writhing and moaning sensations in a deeper register above rioting drums — yet the music is still very unsettling and just as likely to disrupt your inner ear, and thus to make you feel out of balance (probably best to listen to this while sitting down).
What’s left of the song after that is simply mad. Well, it’s not simple at all: the music is quite intricate, quite elaborately layered, and the drumming really doesn’t stay in the same lane for very long. But the way it all works together, the way its dissonant contortions put nerves on end, that’s madness.
When you add in the other three songs after “Shrouds of Coffins“, the EP runs for about 23 minutes, culminating in “incessant Terror“, which tips the scales at 8:20. I look forward to hearing them when time allows, and when I can get a quickly following psychiatric evaluation on the calendar.
This self-titled EP will be released by The Centipede Abyss on July 9th. The creepy cover art was made by Odilon Redon.
https://centipedeabyss.bandcamp.com/album/atmossomta
https://www.facebook.com/TheCentipedeAbyss
INCINATOR (Indonesia)
Rennie of starkweather slipped this next EP my way, calling it “black metal insanity” and “a ton of burning cinder blocks tumbling down”. On their Bandcamp page the band preview this EP (their debut release) as a bringing together of “aggressive instrumentation, dark atmosphere, and intense songwriting influenced by the spirit of bestial black metal and death metal.” There, they also explain the significance of the record’s title — Black Invocation Conquest:
“Black” symbolizes darkness and mystery, “Invocation” represents a call toward inner power and spiritual intensity, while “Conquest” stands for triumph through struggle and destruction. Together, these elements form a concept that captures the atmosphere and direction of the release as a whole.
When I finally got around to listening, I was gob-smacked by what I heard, perhaps especially because the whole thing (five tracks in total) rushes by in just 11 minutes. If Incinitor’s goal was to create experiences of violent chaos, I’d say “mission accomplished”. But the music includes other facets too, and that becomes immediately obvious with the opening track.
That opening song, “Black Invocation“, features a striking collage of instruments that collectively create a frightening experience, and although I’m no expert in traditional Javanese music, it seems connected to those traditions. It also includes sounds of clattering catastrophe and crashing immensity — and maybe horrid monsters are voicing their rage in there too.
After effectively putting stripes of fear down a listener’s spine with that piece, Incinitor unleashes “Serpent Fire Dominion“. It quickly introduces us to a humongously heavy low end, furiously bullet-spitting drums, typhoon-like riffing that scathes and broils, and unhinged screams and roars of fury.
Seriously, the bass is so immensely deep and prominent that it would seem to vibrate bones and buildings with equally fracturing consequences, and the fast-fretted guitars (and keys?) fly so high and with such incendiary impact that the contrast is dramatic. There’s also enough drum variation (including some light-speed fills) that it adds to the dynamism of a song that’s mainly just a flame-throwing cannonade.
The next three songs are mainly in line with “Serpent Fire Dominion“, though “Entity Death Rites” has a more dismal and decaying atmosphere (and a perhaps more pronounced symphonic element), and the vocals in the unbridled assault of “Chaos Through Eternal Desecration” sound like fanatical chants.
It’s only about 11 minutes, but you’d be well-advised to fill your lungs with air before going into it.
P.S. Incinitor is a solo project. I found an interview here which sheds a lot more light on it. In that interview the artist explains the choice of cover art (an excerpt from an 1890 painting by Cristóbal Rojas Poleo) and discloses that a debut album is planned for completion and release by the end of this year.
I hope Incinitor will use the occasion to create more variety, and perhaps to more frequently interweave the kind of music embodied in this EP’s opener. But this is a very good start, I think.
https://incinitor.bandcamp.com/album/black-invocation-conquest
https://www.instagram.com/incinitor.cult