SHADES OF BLACK: DUIR, LORN, TYRANNUS, HAJDUK, BANSHEE MOON, LIVIDUS

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Apr 192026
 

(written by Islander)

I mentioned yesterday that I had collected 69 new songs or complete releases as a starting point for deciding what to recommend in this weekend’s usual columns. After yesterday’s selections that magic number had diminished, but not enough to make today’s choices any easier. Still, choices must be made.

I can’t identify any musical or thematic throughline for these six recommendations, so you’re in for a fair amount of bouncing around. I do have reasons for why I arranged them in the order I did, but I doubt those are very interesting so we should just get to the music.

P.S. I want to recommend something else today besides music. After a long time of anxiously waiting for the movie Sirāt to hit streaming services, I was finally able to watch it last night (it never played at any theaters anywhere close to where I live). I thought it was a stunning as the many stunned reviewers said it was. Be forewarned: it’s a desolate and devastating story, one that creates a shroud of near-ever-present tension. But it’s also a near-perfect piece of filmmaking, and if you see it I don’t think you’ll forget it. I’ll leave this link to a more comprehensive review.

P.P.S. These lines appear on the screen when the movie begins, and explain the meaning of its Arabic title: “There is a bridge called SIRĀT that links hell and paradise. Whoever crosses it is warned that it is narrower than a strand of hair, sharper than a sword.” Continue reading »

“RUINS OF HUMANITY”: A SPLIT BY HAJDUK, AKANTHA, NIMBIFER, AND SØRGELIG

 Album Reviews  1 Response »
Jun 022021
 

 

(We welcome guest writer Nick Awad, who shares his review of a 2020 black metal split release among Hajduk, Akantha, Nimbifer, and Sørgelig that deserves more attention.)

Though the style of Raw Black Metal is not particularly new, it is currently having a moment. These days, countless bands are emerging from the shadows with ominous promo photos, grainy audio production, and fast-selling physical releases. Depending on who you ask, this is either a golden age or the dumbest thing since the recent OSDM revival. As with most things, there is some validity to either stance. For every worthwhile Raw Black Metal project, there are about a hundred duds. Duds that may check plenty of the grim aesthetic boxes, but offer no real substance. That being said, those aforementioned worthwhile projects are absolute gold. Among those praiseworthy projects is a split released in the late summer of 2020.

Ruins of Humanity is a four-way split full of vicious songwriting and macabre ecstasy. The bands on the release; Hajduk (Bulgaria), Akantha (Greece), Nimbifer (Germany), and Sørgelig (Greece); prove themselves to be an arterial cut above the endless menagerie of aesthetic-obsessed internet vampires. Though the songs on this split do nod to the ideas that precede them, they are far from the soulless riff recitations of a “worship-style” project. They represent a culmination of traditions coupled with modern influence that does not stray from the necessary orthodoxy of the craft of Black Metal. Continue reading »