(Andy Synn presents a quartet of recently released Black Metal recommendations)
For reasons we may never understand a huge percentage of the Black Metal scene decided to release their new albums last week – including a surprise drop from long-time NCS favourites Ultha – and, despite our best efforts, we’re probably not going to be able to cover all, or even most, of them here.
But I’ve chosen four visceral examples from this veritable smorgasbord of blackened delights to highlight here today all the same, as I refuse to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
NATURE MORTE – STILL LIFE
The term “Post Black Metal” can be a triggering term for some people in the scene, especially if they think that any use of the words “Black Metal” should be reserved primarily (if not solely) for bands who sound exactly like early Mayhem.
And if you’re one of those sorts of people (no judgement) you might want to skip the harsh-yet-haunting hybrid of Black Metal, Post Rock, and Shoegaze which makes up Still Life, the fourth album from Parisian trio Nature Morte, and go straight onto the next artist/album in this article.
If you’re still reading, however, then chances are you’re at least a little intrigued by what this band might have to offer (after all, if they’re being featured here it must mean there’s something good about them)… which just so happens to be an impressive combination of visceral intensity and emotional catharsis, coupled to a sublime sense of immersive introspection, which should easily appeal to fans of bands like Alcest, Agriculture, and An Autumn For Crippled Children (the latter especially) while retaining an altogether darker hue than the majority of the band’s current peers and/or predecessors.
The gleaming melodies of “…Not Horror”, for example, are woven into a scalding torrent of scorching distortion and scalding vocals, while the seething anguish and soaring crescendos of the more expansive, “Post-” genre approach of “Disgust” (think Envy meets Sadness meets Explosions in the Sky) and the richly-textured, ruggedly harmonic guitars of “YRAMESOR” demonstrate that even if the band aren’t going to be the purist’s choice – despite the fact that the blistering beauty of “Cvlt” is pretty much worth the price of the album on its own – they’re more than capable of weathering the slings and arrows of even their most caustic critics.
Sure, they’re not reinventing the wheel or rewriting the canon, but to my ears there is more depth and raw substance to be found on Still Life than is generally displayed by many of their peers in the Black Metal scene… “Post”, pure, or otherwise!
NON EST DEUS – BLESSINGS AND CURSES
Look, we’ve written about Non Est Deus – the other main project of Kanonenfieber‘s Noise – a number of times here at NCS (including this discography deep-dive back in 2022), so there’s a pretty good chance that most of our long-time readers will already be familiar with their particular brand of scintillatingly melodic Black Metal.
If this is your first time encountering their music, however, then you’ll probably want to know what to expect… which is a mix of hook-heavy, chorus-rich, and lyrically-sharp Black Metal anthems exploring the complexities and contradictions of organised religion that should appeal to fans of bands like Spectral Wound, Uada, and Woe.
And while Blessings and Curses doesn’t really add much new to the established formula – especially coming off the back of 2023’s career highpoint Legacy – it’s still more than strong enough to stand on its own, mostly due to the fact that Noise’s signature, streamlined songwriting style and knack for inventing infectious melodies is just as effective as ever.
Highlights include the piercing leads and pounding grooves of “Show Mercy” and the grim, God Dethroned-esque grandeur of “My Lord” (both of which showcase the artist’s enviable knack for putting together a killer chorus), as well as the blast-fuelled, hypnotically-hooky “Transgression” (where the author’s passion for both his chosen style and subject matter really shines through) and the rippling rhythms and razor-sharp riffs of “The Sacrifice”, but there’s not really any weak tracks here to bring the album down.
I’ll grant you that a slightly more cynical listener might observe that things can get a little same-y at times (though the use of “Prayer” interludes definitely helps break things up into cleaner, more digestible chunks) but what Blessings and Curses might lack in variety it more than makes up for in sheer vitality.
SISYPHEAN – DIVERGENCE
Sisyphean‘s last album, Colours of Faith, was one of the best Black Metal albums of 2023 (I even said so at the time) meaning that, even though the band might not be the biggest names in Black Metal, their long-awaited third album has been one of the most highly-anticipated new releases in certain dark corners of the music scene.
And, let me tell you, while tracks like “Occultation” and “Hunting For Answers” – all abrasive, dissonant arpeggios and dense, distorted riffage, propelled by a sense of desperate, ravenous hunger – don’t, ahem, diverge all that much from the approach established on the group’s previous record, each clashing dis-chord and clanking metallic bass note reaffirming the group as the obvious heirs apparent to the likes of Svartidauði, Mgła, and Skáphe, the totality of Divergence ultimately feels like a watershed moment in the band’s career that should, hopefully, take them from “the next big thing in Black Metal” to “the big thing, period”.
It’s not just due to the way the band continue to draw, like vampires, from this Skáphe-esque vein of hooky disharmony, blurring the lines between dissonance and melody until there’s little to no difference, only a series of sharp, piercing hooks that dig in deeper with every listen, but also a newly-developed sense of moody majesty, reminiscent – if you’ll forgive me another bold-faced name-drop – of latter-day Panzerfaust (moments like the dark, almost doomy, undercurrent of “Stupor Mundi” and the captivating, clean-sung climax of “Black Bird That Brings No Joy” in particular could give anything from the Sons of Perdition series a serious run for its money).
And yet, in spite of all these comparisons and allusions to other bands, Sisyphean have continued to refine – and define – a distinctive sound and style and a sonic identity of their own on Divergence, one which… hopefully… will finally see their star ascend to match the rest of their more famous (and infamous) rivals!
ULTHA – A LIGHT SO DIM
Let’s get one thing straight… Ultha‘s new album, which dropped out of the blue last Friday, is both really good and really long.
Not that I have anything against long albums (or short ones, as every album has a different optimum length in my opinion, and there’s no “one size fits all” measurement for what is the right, or wrong, run-time), or Ultha themselves – I’ve been a big fan for a long time, after all, and have lavished praise on several of their previous releases (with Converging Sins and All That Has Never Been True still being the stand-outs to me) – but there comes a point during A Light So Dim where it turns out it is possible to have too much of a good thing.
Thankfully when the band’s fifth album – which finds the group juxtposing their established, gloom-shrouded Black Metal style (as epitomised by the seething anguish and sinister synths of “Love As We’re Falling Down” and “Pink Lights Soiling to Copper”) with a bleaker, stranger, blend of blackened Post-Punk and Post-Metal influences that make tracks like “Her Still Singing Limbs” and “What’s Yours Is Yours to Carry” feel like a major step in the band’s ongoing evolution – is at its best you’ll likely find yourself too immersed in the darkness to care.
That’s not to say that the excessive length doesn’t eventually start to drag a little – especially since things feel like they reach their natural conclusion with the epic, melancholic climax of late-album highlight “The Quiet Current”, only to then continue on for another eleven (almost twelve) minutes in the form of “To Part the Abelia Springs” – but the decision to explore and combine these different sonic textures feels like it’s opened up a whole new set of artistic avenues for the band (with “Sister Faith & Sister Chance” in particular feeling like a glimpse into the as-yet-untapped potential of the group’s new sound) that I, for one, am excited to see them expand upon in even more depth.