Imperial Cult - Spasm of Light (2019)

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Been listening to the new Mork album a decent amount, on top of a handful of other releases that will soon get their brief moment in the spotlight over here at SHOM soon enough, until then, satiate your need for raw and unrelenting black metal via Holland's Imperial Cult—Spasm of Light is a highlight of 2019 to be sure—Something about the current looming dread has caused me to have returned to it quite a bit as of late, and just assumed you might want to as well… and if not, that's just bent, man. One 35-minute track of downward spiralling black metal heavily entrenched in a wall of sound and atmospheric armageddon served on a brass platter next to the goats heads soup. No inner peace.

Imperial Cult - Spasm of Light (bandcamp)

Deiquisitor - Humanoid EP (2021)

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Denmark's Deiquisitor dropped a 25 minute EP on us this year and it's a steep descent into the meat grinder abyss of pummelling death metal. Focused on the chunkier side of death metal, there's always a purveying, simplistic brutality to their sound—nothing particularly cacophonous, but meaty with a lot of weight behind its hooks and any semblance of space is squeezed out with Deiquisitor's deliberate assault.

Deiquisitor - Humanoid (bandcamp)

Barbarian - Barbarian (2012)

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Here's an album I just wanted to remind everyone of! I have been heavily dipping into this gem of an EP quite a lot recently—I guess black thrash/speed is high on my radar right now and this Italian beast nailed everything on this 25-minute EP, spot on production and the best release from the band in my opinion. Dig in!

Barbarian - Barbarian (bandcamp)

Sulpur - Embracing Hatred and Beckoning Darkness (2021)

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Here's another Amor Fati Productions release that is cold as hell and well worth your attention! Embracing Hatred and Beckoning Darkness is the debut album from Sulpur, which (as of now) has no known information about the band, further bolstering its obscurity. Second wave black metal that hearkens back to the early 90's in a lot of ways but feels much less influenced by the early sounds of thrash and speed metal that the earlier progenitors latched onto—Instead Sulpur drinks from the same well as MGLA, Algor, Lluvia, and many of the Icelandic black metal bands (to name a region) wholly dedicated to this style built on a blistering tempo and a dense, frigid soundscape.

The songwriting here is essentially without any flaws—the riffs come in fast and cold as a witch tit, the drums are mixed perfectly down to the splash cymbal and even the pickup on the bell is right where it's supposed to be. The same can be said about the vocal work, which makes use of some nice versatility. No single track dips below the 7-minute mark and there isn't a single moment on this album that I could reasonably consider filler, nothing stale here, just blistering black metal that has done everything right. One of the best I've heard this year so far.

Sulpur - Embracing Hatred and Beckoning Darkness (bandcamp)

Skeleton - Ordainment of Divinity EP (2021)

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There are really only two things I am certain of in this world:
1) Nothing really matters.
2) Skeleton are keeping the underground lit.

A follow-up EP to their staunch debut LP has recently been released by Austin, Texas' Skeleton and it's a forward lunge into the sonic soundscape of the incredibly raw and already unfiltered sound of the band—which had no qualms trading proficiency for energy and cohesion for a crackling atmosphere. They doubled down on Ordainment of Divinity when it comes to the production, going even further into a blown out production, especially within the drum sound, denting the fidelity as much as possible to a point where the sound is as ghastly as it is garish.

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I think a lot of people will be disappointed with the decision to mess with the production to the extent in which they did but I think fans of the eponymous debut album will be even more slighted that most of the festering grooves on the debut have mostly been traded out for a barbaric ferocity with much more black metal than thrash/hardcore influence this time around. Me, I still like it. I think an EP is exactly the right time to start threshing around sounds and I think they really nailed a lot of it… The intro track sounds like a medieval funeral dirge and the way it bleeds into the first song is right up my alley! No apologies.


Skeleton - Ordainment of Divinity EP (bandcamp)