Jan 182016
 

Divine Blasphemy-Beyond the Portal

 

Some weekends are a whirlwind, a flurry of unexpected events hitting from all points of the compass. Others are a soporific quagmire of sloth and malaise. Somehow, for me this weekend was an odd combination of the two. I rejoice that I’m still alive.

I also rejoice in the music I heard. And I heard so much good metal that I’m going to share it in two posts, the first of which is this one, which combines three album reviews. The music collected in this two-parter is mainly, but not entirely, black metal, so I’m taking slight liberties to anoint the two posts with the Shades of Black banner. Part Two will appear today or tomorrow.

DIVINE BLASPHEMY

Divine Blasphemy carry on the rich tradition of Greek black metal with their debut album Beyond the Portal. I heard the first song, and I felt elevated. “Where did these people come from?”, I wondered. And then I heard the rest of the album and realized that the first song was not a fluke. This is a wonderful ride on a red-eyed black steed — it tries to buck you off, but you hang on because the chaos is so exhilarating. Continue reading »