“Not all black metal must be about Satan. There’s plenty of bands who can be obscure and straight-to-the-point with a peculiar image and, of course, very powerful music.”
That is how the Dusktone label announced the debut album from the Swiss black metal band Vígljós, and indeed, it is not about Satan. As signified by the album’s title itself — Tome I: apidæ — it’s about… bees. But there aren’t many bands who could have made an album like this one. Continue reading »
Today we renew our admiration for the Swiss duo Ernte, whose music we’ve previously described as “black metal that’s atmospheric and immersive, creating nightside experiences of mysticism and old magic”, but also simultaneously delivering “visceral punch and mind-scarring intensity”. Ernte’s music, we’ve written, “can be disorienting, depressive, unsettling, and even deranged, but it’s still very easy to fall prey to the music’s unearthly sorcery”.
What we’ve fallen prey to this time is a song named “The Witch (Was Born In Flames)” from Ernte‘s forthcoming third album Weltenzerstörer (“world destroyer”), which will be released by the esteemed Vendetta Records on June 7th.
Before providing the premiere of this song stream, we should put it in the context of the album as a whole, which Ernte describe as follows: Continue reading »
The phraseology of “diving into” a record is intended to capture the idea of an auditory experience in which your mind is quickly surrounded by the music.
Sometimes you want to get out of the stream and towel off as quickly as possible, left cold or, worse yet, finding the waters skin-temperature and drab. Or you might get pulled deep by heavy undercurrents, making it difficult to get even your head to the surface.
Or you might experience the thrill of discovering that the waters are shark-infested, and a leg that was once attached to you has just been chewed off, leaving the waters red and frothing as the horde of other predators begin joining the feast.
That’s the kind of dive you should prepare for in Submit Or Death, the EP from New Zealand’s Just One Fix that we’re premiering today in advance of its May 10 release. Continue reading »
Eight years after the release of their debut album Mutilation in the Chapel, and seven years after their EP Realm of Eternal Suffering, the bestial Dallas death metal horde Morgue Meat are returning at last with their second full-length, Apocalyptic Visions, which is now set for co-release on May 23rd by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Pest Records (Romania), emblazoned with stunning cover art by Mark Cooper.
To help pave the way toward the new album’s release, today we’re premiering a thoroughly evil song from the record named “Conqueror’s Wrath“. Continue reading »
Two years ago the long-running Israeli black metal band Arallu, whose roots go back to the late ’90s, released their latest album under the imposing title Death Covenant. And the music is also imposing — ferocious, heavy, often vast and towering — but it’s also complex, dynamic, and exotic (for want of a better word) in its seamless incorporation of Middle Eastern folk melody and instrumentation.
It’s a striking example of how a style of extreme music born in the cold regions of northern Europe can be reconfigured and reborn to suit the terrain and traditions of a dramatically different world. And its changing musical manifestations and elaborate songcraft make it an album that rewards careful and extended listening in addition to firing up the blood and casting spells on a first spin, the kind of record that reveals new discoveries with each journey through its 10 songs.
One of this writer’s favorite songs on Death Covenant is the penultimate track, “Empire of Salt“, and so it’s a real pleasure to host the premiere of Arallu‘s transfixing video for that song today — especially since we’re doing it on a Bandcamp Friday, a good day to pick up records like Death Covenant. Continue reading »
The Austrian extreme metal band Cadaverous Condition started in the early ’90s (their first demos were released in 1990-’92), and since then their discography has swelled significantly, though more than a dozen years have passed since their last album (Burn Brightly Alone), if one doesn’t count an album-length collaboration they did with Herr Lounge Corps in 2018.
Despite their significant number of releases, this seems to be our site’s first encounter with them. The musical histories we’ve been provided are intriguing, to say the least. We’re told that their path has taken “many twists and weird turns, incorporating neofolk (‘death folk’) and collaborating with a wide range of artists creating a weird yet coherent body of work”.
It’s a crooked path that reportedly made them the first death metal band to cover The Sisters Of Mercy and Death In June and included their own interpretations of songs by The Decemberists and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and collaborations with such acts as Nurse With Wound, Thighpaulsandra, Tobias Nathaniel (The Black Heart Procession), and the afore-mentioned Herr Lounge Corps.
They also did an art project with Bill Drummond (The KLF) involving a specially made CD and sending a message in a bottle from the shores of Iceland.
Having read all that, we really had almost no idea what to expect from their new album Never Arrive, Never Return, which is set for a June 14 release via The Circle Music. What we found is something fascinating, something clearly rooted in death metal but with tendrils that taste of other terrains. As a sign of what we found, today we’re premiering a lyric video for the new album’s chilling but powerfully captivating opening song, “They Came From the Hills“. Continue reading »
(Andy Synn descends into the depths of the new album from Germany’s Naxen, out tomorrow)
As I’ve said before, the Black Metal scene today – in all its myriad forms – is in such rude health that it seems like you can’t go more than a day without stumbling over a fantastic new artist or album to fall in love with.
The downside of this, however, is that with so much quality material on offer – from the rawest to the proggiest, and everything in between – it’s getting harder and harder for bands to stand out and make themselves heard.
But it’s clear that Naxen have been hard at work themselves over the last few years, carving out their own particular niche – somewhere between the hypnotic intensity of Mgła, the infectious energy of Woe, and the gloomy despondency of Ultha – where they can plant their seeds, nurture them, and watch them grow.
And the fruit of their labours – which we have the distinct pleasure of premiering for you all today – is their new album, Descending Into a Deeper Darkness.
The Italian artist Selvans probably needs no introduction to those who regularly visit our site, but for those encountering Selvans for the first time today, we’ll share a few words from Selvans‘ label Avantgarde Music:
The singer and keyboardist Selvans, plays black/heavy metal with prog-rock influences. Lyrics and concept are inspired by Italian folk-horror tales and imagery. After two full length albums, Lupercalia (2016, Avantgarde Music) and Faunalia (2018, Avantgarde Music) in 2021 he released The Dark Italian Art EP, an artistic manifesto that sees the team-up with the horror writer Luigi Musolino.
We can also share that Selvans will be following The Dark Italian Art with a new album. Though a release date hasn’t yet been announced, we’ve all been given a preview of what it will bring through Selvans‘ recent release of a single named “Il Capro Infuocato“. To help spread the word further, today we’re presenting a lyric video for the song. Continue reading »
Vladimir Bauer is a musician originally from Odesa in Ukraine but based in Germany since 2017. He is best known for his band Schattenfall, whose music we’ve written about frequently over the years (as you can see here), and for his work in the early years of White Ward. But Bauer has another project named Der Ghul, and it’s the black metal of Der Ghul we’re focusing on today.
Der Ghul released a debut EP (available on Bandcamp here) named Pulse of Awakening in 2019 (which included Stefan Traunmüller as vocalist), and that will soon be followed by a debut album entitled Hunger Anger Decay, which is set for release on May 17th. One song from the album has been revealed so far, and today we premiere a second one — “The Rat King“. Continue reading »
On May 23rd Brucia Records will release Cor, a new album by the Italian black metal entity Ultio, the solo work of Giorgio Barroccu, who is also behind the music of Derhead. Brucia describes Cor as “the twistedly demented brother of The Grey Zone Phobia, Derhead‘s latest album released back in March 2023″. (We had some things to say about that album here.)
What does this mean? Brucia describes it this way:
Another side of the same, dark coin – Ultio shares Derhead‘s very same dramatic tension and despair, however showcasing here a magnificently unrestrained and raw soul: behind a gloomy wall of freezingly cold riffs and shrieking screams Ultio ascends maniacally, building a sense of impending peril and oppression – dissonance after dissonance. Continue reading »