Feeling a bit aimless today? Wondering what to do with the next 4 minutes? Sure, the rest of the webworld beckons, or you could get up off your not-so-comfy chair and actually do something in the physical world. But why decide now, when instead you could postpone the decision by watching this just-released video?

It’s pretty fucking cool. The song is “Of Night and Silence,” and the band is SOTHIS from L.A. It’s symphonic black metal from the frigid Southland. Not a fan of black metal? Dubious about the idea of a band from SoCal practicing the black metal arts? Do your close friends here at NCS a favor and watch it anyway.

Why? Well, if you’re not a black metal fanatic, this is pretty “accessible” music. And if you’re a trve black metal fanatic, you’d be doing me a favor because I have some questions for you, and it would help if you watched this video first.

I’m wondering if the “trve” black metal acolytes out there would condemn Sothis precisely because they’re not from Norway or because their music includes infectious riffs and waves of soaring melody, or for some other reason that eludes me.  Hey, I confess that I’m somewhere on the other side of the world from “trve,” so I don’t really care about purity testing. To my unpurified ears, the song sounds killer. (read more after the jump . . . and I got a coupla more questions for you black metal experts out there) Continue reading »