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 - Skeleton (2020)

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The formula on this self-titled is an easy enough one to pin down, a grab bag influence of first wave black metal riffs and vocals with early thrash and hardcore passages a la Venom and Bulldozer and tempo shifts with a barebones structure of early Entombed death metal and a fraction of the meatiness that Bolt Thrower had with some of the rough around the edges punk of all those bands. I was healthily skeptical of this debut release from Austin, Texas, but the more spins I inevitably cycle through, almost out of compulsion, the more I accept its unavoidable filthy and unrefined charms. it's hard not to be a sucker for an amalgamation like this, and it's done well to boot. Dig in, creeps!

Skeleton (bandcamp)

Fetid - Steeping Corporeal Mess (2019)

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This record to me stood out most last year, not to say it was my favourite release in 2019, but without a shadow of a doubt one of them anyway, it stood out for how swept under the rug this release was. Why? Erstwhile Blood Incantation and Tomb Mold lap up the hungry attention from hordes of mouth frothing neanderthals. Both those bands released great records, so thats cool, but what Fetid released was better wasn't it? Churning death metal that managed to dip its greasy paws into every primordial soup the genre has to offer with uncanny poise and precision, sounding like weathered vets rather than a three-piece releasing a debut album.

I can go on at length as to why this is such a good album, but rather than reading some carefully chosen adjectives that have been thrown around (here especially) a thousand times before I'll just say this in lieu of all that, if you have a penchant for death metal, listen to this and see why this monolithic albums towers over almost everything else. I've got to give credit to how good this whole album sounds too, drums are perfect. Immaculate even. Sounds so much heftier than the sum of its parts. Okay, I'm rambling and fumbling and my second coffee is starting to dance around in my soul and I'm starting to pass off my opinions as fact…

Fetid - Steeping Corporeal Mess (bandcamp)

Kringa - Feast Upon The Gleam (2019)

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I've posted Kringa on here before and I'll continue to do so so long as they keep making forward thinking second-wave black metal like this. Severely underrated, underrepresented, understand? Probably not, but that's okay, because you're here now reading this and within a few choice and overused adjectives I'll force your hand into looking into Austria's underbelly gemstone, Kringa and their debut LP Feast Upon The Gleam.

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Okay so now for those choice adjectives. Cold as a witch tit.
That's one.

Secondly, despite each chord, snare pop, and shrill bellowed being coated in Austrian frost, the overall feeling is one of ennui and pandemonium which is only in emphasis by the raw way in which this was recorded and mastered, which we (I) here appreciate accordingly. It's raw but not at all flat in its dynamics, I don't know man, I didn't goto music class, but it sounds like a rock n' roll gas station! Listen to the middle of the track 'Eroding Passage' for the summated experience, riffs haphazardly clanging together while the most simple drum pattern somehow is more fitting than a typical blast beat, and Kringa knew that and so did Neil Young. The split vocal deliveries from Spectres and Teeth standout in that they run the gamut from a frail and flimsy howl to orator of an underground sewer cult. This album is full breadth and creativity within the arena of black metal.

Go forth and listen.

Kringa - Feast Upon The Gleam (bandcamp)

Heaume Mortal - Solstices (2019)

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Heaume Mortal release a debut record that as from as I have seen has been slapped with the tag of (second wave), and though it delves into this territory the many hands (only 3 pairs total) grab at many genres. Black metal? Sure alright, but there's a whole roundup of sludge abound on here and nuances of doom, death, and maybe even a thin veneer of the darker side of hardcore floating about – Which all makes sense as the guitarist comes from the really great French sludge band Eibon and the singer cut his teeth in the blackened sludge band, Cowards.

There's many ways to cut a watermelon so I'll save the boring details for the refrigerator repair man (not an actual adage) but simply to the point; What we have here on Solstices is a brooding atmosphere swaying to and fro through some really great riffs, really great sounding drums, vocals and all that other stuff that makes noise sound like music.

Heaume Mortal - Solstices (bandcamp)

Murmurs - Fædd Úr Eldi (2012)

If Murmurs had a spirit animal, it would be a rabid wolverine. A wolverine that was birthed in a pool of toxic sludge giving it a hideously mutated body… forever neglected and cast aside by the wild. Murmurs is definitely neglected, releasing 4 demos in the span of three years until a year later they unleashed their debut Fædd Úr Eldi, to which you never really hear about.
 
The album rages on through its entirety with no scruples or halt, blistering black metal that explores ample vocal techniques, all of which are pretty fucking bleak and harrowing! The snare, toms and kick need to have just a little bit more oomph to them, it almost becomes lost in the mix, even though I dig the cavernous chaos it beholds.

Fædd Úr Eldi (Zippyshare)

Helta Skelta - S/T (2012)

A scum-punk/crust release from Helta Skelta of Australia, filled with a back-alley production soaked in vomit, urine and blood. Shit, imagine GG Allin's carpet in music form. Featuring dudes in the hardcore/power-grind band Extortion, one might expect a flurry of furious blasts under a barrage of anger, but really it takes the form of a different beast. Imagine a rabid possum, scouring day and night, rummaging through garbage and grime, engaging in raucous sexual acts with its nocturnal counterparts… And then bam, fucking hit by a car, guts everywhere strewn across the pavement in a morbid display. That's my visual representation for Helta Skelta's Self Titled debut. Bite at it you scum!

LOGN - Í Fráhvarfi Ljóss, Myrkrið Lifnar Við (In depth review)

I recently did a review for my pal Birkir over at Halifax Collect, I went in-depth on Logn's "Í Fráhvarfi Ljóss, Myrkrið Lifnar Við"… below is a small except from it, I suggest grabbing the album, enjoying it, and reading the words on your screen.


- This young (albeit mature in sound) band hailing from Iceland's capital, Reykjavík, set out to assail your auditory meatus with a cornucopia of musical influences. Audible throughout the unpronounceable album Í fráhvarfi ljóss, myrkrið lifnar við (say that 5 times fast - Icelanders, you can't play) is a palatable blend of crust, grind, hardcore, d-beat and nuances of death metal and sludge that take form in a muddied, non-polished aesthetic. A grizzly host of dark and pissed off tracks that seamlessly teeter in an out of pace, one moment being lulled into a foreboding melancholy that suddenly shifts the calm of the storm and your back on your ass being barraged by a flurry of blasts, pummelling riffs and shattering screams. The tone that permeates throughout the entire album gives everything a very woeful personality further enforcing its grittiness - it's presentation is decorated with subtleties that help it escape the clutches of "heard this before"... (click here for full article)

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To head to the bands bandcamp, click this fucker. (name your price buckos!)
To waste your time, click here.