(Andy Synn presents three recently-released albums from the stranger end of the Black Metal spectrum)
When I told you I was switching my focus to Black Metal… for this week, anyway… what I didn’t tell you was what sort of Black Metal I was going to be writing about.
In fact, some of what I’m covering today probably stretches the definition of the term “Black Metal” (though the boundaries of the genre are way wider than the more limited view some people try to impose on it)… but that just makes it more interesting, in my opinion.
So let’s not waste any more time on preamble, and just get weird, shall we?
BLOOD MOTHER – BLOOD MOTHER
Even the best of writers will sometimes find an album that they struggle to properly describe… not because they lack the words, per se, but because sometimes it’s hard to get across the precise flavour of something, without simply listing off the various ingredients and hoping for the best.
Such is the case with the self-titled debut from Blood Mother (aka Erik Ramsier, formerly of The Lion’s Daughter), which ostensibly sits under the “Black Metal” banner, but equally draws from the Post-Metal well (drawing comparisons to early Isis) and the Punk and Post-Punk scenes, combining these with a series of eerie ambient synthscapes and rust-breathing atmospherics (fans of Chat Pile‘s gloomy world view will doubtless recognise the album’s corrosive air of doom-laden Americana) into a sound that defies easy categorisation.
It’s quality, however, is pretty much impossible to deny – it’s well on the way to becoming one of my favourite albums of the year, in fact – due to the way that Ramsier has incorporated all these elements and inspirations (sinister, seething opener “The Night Fires”, for example, feels like an experimental collaboration between John Carpenter, Cult of Luna, and Caïna) into a greater whole that feels far more complete, and far more coherent, than the mere sum of its parts.
The baleful blackened doomery of “Bonecanter” – all ugly, distorted chords, grimy, throbbing bass-lines, and moody, haunted organ chords – contrasts cleverly with the rippling melodic simmer and ringing acoustic shimmer of “Trail of the Screaming Dead”, while the brooding synths and blasting drums (plus, I swear to god, what I think are some actual kettle drums) and Tombs-esque tremolo lines of “The Wound of Heaven” are balanced in turn by the Dying Sun style electro-metallic throb of “Lost In Thunder” (which also serves as a showcase for Reimer’s surprisingly expansive vocal range).
It is, ultimately, an album that needs – and deserves – to be experienced in its totality (and not “Pulled Apart”, as its anxiety-inducing, shape-shifting closer might suggest) to fully appreciate the way all the different ingredients contribute to the overall taste of the music, letting it linger on your mental tongue so as to better appreciate all its subtleties and nuances to the fullest.
ECHO ZERO – E0
The Polish scene may be largely synonymous with “Blackened Death Metal” in most circles, but some of us know that Poland is also one of the go-to places for truly weird Black Metal.
Think artists like Odraza and Furia, Gruzja and Biesy (whose mastermind just happens to be one of the key members of Echo Zero), Dola and Gorycz, Zmarłym and Uulliata Digir… the list goes on.
And now we can add Echo Zero to that list with their debut album, E0, and its eight tracks of experimental audio extremity.
From the mind-warping ambient intro of “Antena”, through the hook-happy, groove-heavy riffs and prowling, predatory bass-lines of “Nie Dla Wiernych” to the nerve-jarring, eight-minute ambient noise-scape of “Zorza” and the jarring discordance and juddering rhythms of constantly fluctuating closer “Obce Stworzenie” (which features some of both the heaviest and weirdest moments on the album), the band throw everything but the proverbial kitchen sink – including a fantastically unhinged, multi-tongued vocal performance on pretty much every track – into the mix while still maintaining careful control of the madness they’ve created.
It’s also worth noting that the weirdness never overwhelms or blunts the impact of the aggressiveness of these songs – “Góra Dół”, for example, is as abrasively dissonant as it is unnervingly melodic, while “Pierwszy Szczebel” marries punishing metallic intensity (the drums in particular hit extra hard on this one) to a plethora of constantly-mutating vocal patterns and vivacious, almost avant-garde, grooves – and that as odd as things often get (the sinister, almost sensual, pulse of “Do Syren”, for example, is a major highlight of the album’s second half) the group still maintain an air of infectious insanity throughout (just try not bobbing your head along to the dissonantly catchy strains of “Przypłyną Z Wszystkich Mórz”) which helps make E0 as devilishly compelling as it is downright disturbing!
HALO OF TEETH – MEDITATIONS ON DYING
The aptly-titled Meditations on Dying, the debut album from Australia’s Halo of Teeth, delivers a cleverly composed and artfully arranged combination of meditative melancholy and abrasive anguish – whether you choose to call it “Post Black Metal”, “Atmospheric Black Metal”, or whatever else – that sits somewhere between Respire and Altar of Plagues.
And while the band’s debut (featuring some absolutely stunning artwork by Alex CF) doesn’t quite rise to the same ecstatic heights as either of those two artists (though it certainly stretches towards them) it definitely plumbs many of the same dark emotional depths over the course of a little under 48 minutes.
Beginning with the disturbing, drawn-out ambient intro of “Unsilent Unseen” – whose creepy, skin-crawling atmosphere seems purposefully designed to weed out the weak and the impatient before the finally begins to blossom, unfurling into a provocative piece of subtly melodic, seemingly chaotic, blast-driven and angst-ridden Black Metal that builds to an ear-splitting crescendo – and ending with the brooding back-and-forth between introspection and intensity that is “Omega”, is one of those albums that you really need to be in the right mood to listen to.
Not because it’s bad – far from it – but because it’s a raw, gaping wound of a record, spewing blackened bile and sonic spite as it claws at your emotions in an ecstasy of anguish and despair… but also one that makes you wait for the pay-off, and demands your full attention in order to really earn the catharsis it offers, with the simmering, string-laced slow-burn of “Sleeping in a Nest of Flames” – think pg.99 meets Amenra (eventually, at least) meets Terzij de Horde) – being a prime example of how the band’s sound requires maximum engagement to get the maximum return.
That’s not to say they’re afraid of just cutting loose when necessary – “Plague Crucifix” inverts the formula by kicking in hard with a blizzard of pure blackened fury, only to ease off the gas during its incredibly moody mid-section – but there’s no question that Halo of Teeth are very serious about wanting you to meditate on your mortality here, and have provided the soundtrack to do so.