(Andy Synn offers another four killer examples of albums you may have overlooked last month)
This particular edition of “Things You May Have Missed” is definitely less diverse than yesterday’s article (which you can, and should, read here if you haven’t already), but that doesn’t mean it’s totally lacking in variety, as while there’s definitely a focus on the more “blackened” side of the spectrum – not by conscious decision, I might add, that’s just what ended up making the cut this time around – there’s also a wealth of twisted dissonance, grinding fury, sludgy groove, and depressive angst on display across these four albums.
So, without further ado, let’s see what else you may have missed… but shouldn’t… last month.
AUZAWANDILS – LASTE ECLIPSE OUER GOLGOTHAS PYTT
I’m often somewhat sceptical of “one man bands”… not that there’s anything implicitly wrong with them, by any means, it’s just that I find that the collaborative experience of a whole band (even if there’s a clear main contributor) tends to result in more interesting outputs, as ideas are shared and shaped and bounced back and forth between everyone involved.
There are, however, always exceptions to this rule (and, to be fair, it’s less of a “rule” and more of a general guideline, when all is said and done) and the debut album from Auzawandils is a welcome exception indeed.
it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, if you’ve given Laste Eclipse… even a cursory listen already, to learn that Auzawandils is the latest project from Alexander Poole (AKA Graf Auzawandils), who was previously the main mind behind Skáphe, and is currently one of the key players in similarly esoteric outfits like Martröð, Ringarë, and more, as the album bears his unique, unconventional fingerprints all over it.
From the way that the songs coil and contort into ever-stranger, almost stream-of-consciousness shapes (while still allowing fractured reflections of previous elements and ideas to echo down the timeline of complex, cataclysmic compositions like “Alle Seyntes Consumed In Sulphurous Dreeminge” and “Blacke Mylke And Saturnyne Ecstasies”) to the poisonously psychedelic aura – both harshly hypnotic and dissonantly melodic at the same time – which permeates the likes of “When The Moone Did Unbutton Her Pallid Flesh” and “The Particioun Betwixt Ye Carrion And Ye Torne Veiles”, there’s a distinctive voice and vibe here that is both instantly recognisable yet also utterly inimitable.
And that distinctive voice – quite literally, in the case of the ragged, expressive vocals, full of warts and wounds and ergot-infused witchery – simultaneously aligns Auzawandils with the legacy and lineage of Poole’s previous works while also allowing it to stand separate and proud on its own two feet, with moments like the mesmerising, anti-melodic undercurrent of the outlandishly abrasive “Ye Sepulchre Wherein Angels Rotte Awake” and the lithe, wandering bass-lines guiding the aforementioned “The Particioun…” to its captivating conclusion, serving as impressive markers of just how much care and effort has gone into each and every multi-layered, multi-faceted composition here.
LIBRANOS DEL MAL – LAS COLUMNAS DEL CIELO TIENEN BASE EN EL ABISMO
Batten down the hatches and prepare yourselves for a beating before pressing play on the debut album from Colombian Blackened Grind quartet Libranos Del Mal, as the unnerving intro of “Eterna Manifestación de Desesperanza” is pretty much the only moment on this album that isn’t trying to rip your face off and smash your skull in.
Sitting somewhere between Nails, Antichrist Siege Machine, and early Anaal Nathrakh (to my ears, anyway, though they’ve been so scalded and scraped raw by this album that I’m probably missing a bunch of other references that might help prepare you for the audio onslaught) Libranos del Mal blast and bludgeon and brutalise (almost) without mercy or restraint across the fifteen tracks (well, fourteen and one intro) which make up Las Colmnas del Cielo tienen base en el Abismo (most of which come in at under two-and-a-half minutes).
That’s not to say the group are totally afraid of dynamics – passages like the gnarly, bass-heavy grooves of “Juicios & Tribulaciones”, the gruelling, slow-grinding conclusion of “Suplicio” and the disgustingly ugly slow-burn chug ‘n’ churn that defines the latter stages of second-half highlight “Desgarrar al Dios en el Hombre” are all proof of this – but for the most part this album is all about punishing, pedal-to-the-metal, d-beat and blast-driven, shrapnel-spewing savagery from beginning to end.
Picking out highlights, as a result, is somewhat hard – these “songs” (if that’s even the right word) aren’t necessarily meant to be enjoyed, they’re meant to be endured, with the idea that what doesn’t kill you (and they just might kill you) should somehow make you stronger – but I’ll admit that the punky apoplexy of “Bajo el Cadáver de una Madre Muerta”, the scorching, stop-start smash ‘n’ grab of “Bendecido por la Maldición Eterna”, and the disturbingly dark “Cada Parto Condenado Sumirá al Hijo en una Vida Miserable” (which definitely gives off some Nathrakh-esque vibes) have left a serious mark on me.
That being said, the band save arguably the best for last in the shape of the discordant, lurching anti-grooves of “Todas las Lágrimas de Todos los Santos” and the face-melting, throat-scraping “El Eterno Dolor de las Quemaduras que aún Afligen”, which should keep at least some of you coming back for another beating.
PS: how good is that artwork?
SAASTA – CESSPOOL
Are you a fan of bands like Bloodbath, Goatwhore, and Wolvhammer?
Then make sure to make some time to wallow in the grisly grit and grime of Cesspool, the new album from hellish Black/Death/Sludge hybrids Saasta, which delivers forty-seven minutes of virulent filth and visceral fury, with nary a moment – barring, perhaps, the 28 Days Later influenced melodic moodiness of “The March” – of reflection or restraint.
Sure, 12 songs might be a little too long (they do say that “less is more” after all, though I’m still not sure who “they” are exactly) but the highlights here are each – individually and collectively – more than worth the price of admission.
If you’re looking for a few hand-picked recommendations of specific highlights of course… well, I’m more than happy to help by pointing you towards the chunky, chugging riffs and slippery, strangulating bass-lines of “The Leeches” (indeed, keep an ear out for some excellent bass work both here and elsewhere on the album), the intensely infectious grooves and gut-wrenching gutturals of “The Coffin”, and the crushingly claustrophobic, Bloodbath-esque crawl of “The Imposter” (arguably the album’s best, and most brutally bombastic, cut)… as well as the humongously heavy, blackened Bolt Thrower style strains of “The Plagued” (and that’s just from the first half of the record).
The second half of Cesspool has just as much to recommend it, with the gruellingly gruesome, Death Metal heavy ground ‘n’ pound of “The Ironclad” (which gives “The Imposter” a run for its money) and the sludgy, punky swagger of “The Entrencher” being two major late-album stand-outs, while the morbid death-march of “The Retribution” closes things with a sub-three minute burst of hateful hooks and rugged, rumbling riffs which once again recall the darker, doomier stylings of latter-day, Nick Holmes-era Bloodbath.
So if you like your Death Metal cooked low and slow, and more than a little blackened around the edges, then Saasta might just be worth sinking your teeth into!
SOLIPSISM – PEDAGOGY FOR THE EXISTENTIALLY EXHAUSTED
Now this is my kind of (Post) Black Metal… bleak and haunting, yet stuffed with cutting riffs, keening melodies, and brooding, nerve-jangling bass-lines (and that’s just opener “K pádom a vstaniam”) it combines an intense sonic presence (the songs are layered and complex yet also instantly, insistently infectious) with an equally intense emotional resonance (if you’re not already existentially exhausted at the start of the album you most certainly will be by the end).
Reminiscent of the likes of Infestus, Wesenwille, and Der Weg Einer Freiheit, the group are just as effective at jangling your nerves and tugging on your heartstrings at their heaviest (“Strive for Meaning”) as they are at their calmest and most contemplative (“Strive for Meaning” again), and their willingness to explore both extremes – from the simmering melancholy which introduces “On Life’s Belongingness” to the visceral, blast-propelled precision of “K samému sebe” – wisely keeps Pedagogy for the Existentially Exhausted from wearing out the listener’s patience or attention.
Indeed, the fact that the music is constantly shifting and undulating – prioritising synaesthetic texture and the cathartic release of tension over pure aggression – is one of the album’s major selling points, as the likes of the densely-packed, broodingly dynamic “Everything Is Nothing (With a Twist)” and the electrifying-yet-introspective “V podkroví som našiel lano” spend almost as much time wallowing in depressive desolation (aided and abetted by some sinuous, sinister bass work) as they do blazing with burning, post-modern passion.
It’s the climactic pairing of “On Facing Outwards” (eight minutes of moody, Post-Black atmospherics, raw, anguished emotion, and intricate progressive twists) and the grandiose, pseudo-symphonic “Gallowswaltz” (which arguably puts anything from the new Dimmu Borgir to shame), however, that really demonstrate what Solipsism are capable of these days, having now finally shaken off the self-imposed shackles of Black Metal orthodoxy in favour of a sound that’s more brooding, more moving, and more captivating… a sound far more their own than it would have been had they followed the standard path… which should, hopefully, gain them a much bigger and much more dedicated fanbase after this.