(Andy Synn transitions from covering Hardcore to Black Metal with today’s trio of killer cuts)
The UK is experiencing another sweltering heat-wave this week (let me tell you something, the shift from “temperate” to “temperate tropical” here is having serious consequences for a country whose infrastructure was primarily designed to retain heat and resist cold and damp) which means now is the perfect time to start listening to some blisteringly cold Black Metal, right?
Of course, since I’ve been writing about a lot of Hardcore in the last few weeks maybe a bit of a transitional step is required… so here’s three booming blasts of blackened fury from a trio of bands who also wear their Punk and/or Hardcore influences loudly and proudly.
LACASTA – OLIBANVUM
I was shocked… shocked, I tell you… to realise that not one of us (especially me, since I was such a big fan of their last record) had covered laCasta‘s new album, Olibanvm, when it was released last month.
But “later” is better than “never”, right? Especially when it comes to these Italian hellions and their barn-burning brand of crusty Blackened Hardcore, which invites extremely positive comparisons to the likes of Hexis, Tombs, and Black Anvil.
This latter comparison is particularly evident during the blast, rattle ‘n’ groove of tracks like “Melma” and “A Grave Makes No Distinction”, whose jagged hooks, ragged-edged vocals, and brittle, snapping drums (plus some surprisingly moody, nuanced bass work which is well worth keeping an ear out for) could, and should, also equally appeal just as much to fans of post-Volcano period Satyricon as lovers of Monuments.. era His Hero Is Gone, by sitting neatly at the nexus point between Black Metal and Crust.
Some tracks, of course, lean a little more one way than the other – “Feast for Parasites” is more the former, “Dogma” the latter – but overall the group’s second albums shows just how adept they are at threading the needle and blurring the boundaries between the two sides/sounds, especially during the likes of the unexpectedly melodic, lethally infectious “Overdose” and increasingly harsh and heavy, seven minute closer “Eradication”, both of which position them as a band more than capable of standing right alongside the very best of their peers and/or predecessors.
MAGDALENE – ASHEN
Portland’s Magdalene are a band we’ve had an eye on for a while now, as their particlar blend of Black Metal, Sludge, and Hardcore elements/influences ticks a lot of boxes for the core NCS crew.
But while previous works (2021’s Lightcarver and 2023’s The Dying Process) earned the group some positive comparisons to the likes of Iskra, Totem Skin, and King Apathy, their new record finds them plumbing an even darker vein of venom and viscera that has more in common with the likes of This Gift Is A Curse, Wolvhammer and – especially when they dial up the punky poison – Young and in the Way.
That’s not to say that Magdalene don’t have their own take on this sort of sound – indeed, there’s an unsettling undercurrent of sinister ambience running through stand-out tracks like “Bleed Through the Ashes” (whose mix of subtly melodic menace and merciless intensity, building to a sludge-soaked, slow-burn, scorched-earth finale) and “Canopy” (whose eerie introduction is matched in turn by a disturbingly discordant, doom-laden finale) – it’s more that the harsher, heavier approach found on Ashen has put them in even harsher, heavier company this time around.
And, make no mistake about it, the band’s third album is absolutely the harshest, heaviest thing they’ve done – the guitars chug and churn with more weight and impact (just give “Aqabal” a listen), the rabid snarls and gritty growls bite harder and deeper – but also, arguably, the most intricately arranged (cathartic closer “Exhausted” in particular is all push and pull between surging fury and seething dread), making it… yes… their best work yet.
WINTER GRAVES – UNDER THE MIKWAM
Delivering 10 (well, 8, actually, plus one intro and on interlude) track of ferocious, frost-encrusted (“Mikwam” is the Ojibwe word for “ice”, I learned after checking out this album) Black Metal Punk, the first album from Indigenous Canadian quartet Winter Graves is definitely more on the raw side of things, but to my ears that gives it a nastier, gnarlier edge and a greater sense of elemental energy, that a more polished production job would probably rob it of.
Sitting somewhere between early Darkthrone and Amebix, the likes of “Under the Mikwam” and “Corrupt Mortality” batter away at your senses with a barrage of blood-pumping d-beats, face-melting blastbeats, and ear-scraping, amp-distorting guitars should also appeal just as much to fans of more modern Punk-Metal warriors like Bone Awl and Invunche as they do to the scene’s most revered ancestors (and that’s no bad thing, either).
Equally unafraid of a sickendingly infectious groove (“Northern Spectre”), a hoof-pounding, early-Immortal inspired gallop (“In the Thralls of the Arctic Fortress”), or an obliterating blizzard of blasting intensity (“Dweller of the Silent Places” is reminiscent of Death Fortress at their most punishing), Under the Mikwam is as coldly compelling (borderline catchy at times) as it is nigh-on unrelenting, as befits an album which – in the band’s own words – was conceived and written in tribute to “the unchanging power of nature in its most unforgiving form.”