Hate Forest - Innermost (2022)

•  †  •

The Unquenchable merchants of aural fury and barbarism ride into the end of the year with a late release of their trademark black metal and its sheer immensity picks up right where 'Hour of the Centaur' left off. Buoyed by the tumult of this year, and no doubt the years prior, intensity and animosity is a palpable force on 'Innermost' as torrents of icy riffs wage war with the galloping bombast of Hate Forests' typical unrelenting blast-beats and of course Romans gruff vocal belt, which atypical for the genre, lends bulk and threat behind its framework.

It's because of releases late in the year like this, that I try to hold off on cementing any type of year end list. The more spins I rack on Innermost, the more it creeps into my list… The riffs are compelling and impactful, and few out there match the primitive velocity Hate Forest conjure. The riff a minute into "Temple Of the Great Eternal Night" is a Bolt Thrower level war anthem!

As of the day of this posting, 'Innermost' is set to be released by Osmose Productions tomorrow, so I don't have a bandcamp link directly to the album, but me and everyone else without an early-listening link have been listening to it through this YouTube link the label provided.

Foreseen - Untamed Force (2022)

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Finland's Foreseen have been around for a better part of a decade, throwing their weight around in the arena of thrash and crossover, and they have never before faltered in their approach of agitated dirge. They continue the destruction on Untamed Force upping the ante with riff after riff under a production that is right on the money here—Mirky and heavy to the point of crumbling but not brittle under its own weight.

This is what crossover sounds like when you listen to English Dogs, Crumbsuckers, Whiplash, Razor, Verbal Abuse, etc.—Drawing upon the well but never sucking it dry without throwing your own thoughts and ideas into the pot. I'm into everything about this record!

Foreseen - Untamed Force (bandcamp)

Chasm Shroud - Manna From Heaven (2022)

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You peer into the void. You see nothing, but hear faint sounds in the distance emanating from the yawning maw of black space…

Manna From Heaven came out of nowhere, suddenly appearing (no demos or EP’s prior) and carrying with it some of the most intriguing black metal I’ve heard all year—It’s hard to pin down exactly, but a strange energy circulates here, like it’s been ritually charged and imbued with unknown intent.

The above statement might feel hyperbolic or even trite, but the overall sense is something palpable—An ominous portent of oblique black metal soundscapes reverberating around hypnotic dirges in a hallucinatory haze of frenetic dissonance. NAME YOUR PRICE, don't be a knucklehead!

Chasm Shroud - Manna From Heaven (bandcamp)

Ara - Gurre (2022)

•  †  •

Channeling the same austerity and heft as was circling around the fjords of Norway in the 90’s black metal sound, Ara (meaning “Era” in German) ride under those same black banners—Evincing a similar raw power through a bottom of the barrel production and a flurry of icy tremolo picking.

It’s form over function and it sounds PRIMITIVE! A thousand other bands released albums in 2022 that tried to do the same thing, but few captured Gurre’s ability to do more with less. This has been flying under the banner of most from what I can tell… I think it's a great black metal album with a grimy punk tinge to it. Recommended for fans of Okkultokrati, Bone Awl, Raspberry Bulbs, etc.

Ara - Gurre (bandcamp)

Leucosis - Leucosis (2013)

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This is a record that's been put up on here before but it's high-time for a re-up since it's been buried by a swath of posts that have come after. Leucosis' self-titled output from 2013 is the bands pivotal release, in my opinion—Its heft hasn't been dulled by the years one fucking bit! It remains a force of brute and murky doom metal flanked by a raw and oppressive black metal, unpolished to the point of practically having a veneer of patina over every track.

Albums are often over-credited with being monolithic without actually having an over-bearing power or stature. Leucosis' self-titled is a towering monolith, with a running time of something like 75 minutes. It's a weighty vestige to second-wave black metal with a backbone of doom, often serpentining throughout itself with pure dirge, crawling and atmospherically devastating.

This whole album is exemplary but its shining achievements are what puts it above its contemporaries. Those being the way is was produced and mastered—raw and gritty. Moreover, the way the drums sound in particular is unlike anything I've heard before. It sounds improvisational and the timbre of the kick sounds burly and under-produced… which results into something completely unconventional. SOUNDS LIKE A HAMMER FROM HELL!

Leucosis - Leucosis (bandcamp)

Ærekær - Avindskjold (2019)

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I can't recall if I have already posted about these guys back when they released their first full-length back in 2018—Blowing right passed the process of writing and recording a demo or EP this Danish duo launched themselves into the sonic stratosphere via a full-length album rife with atmosphere and tonality through a musical cloth woven from early 90's black metal and soundscapes that traverse the entire range within dungeon synth.

Ærekær's sound is the perfect amalgamation between something that sounds both abrasive and pleasant—An abstruse combination of compelling synth arrangements that feel entangled in some other realm backed up against a barrage of caustic and raw black metal.

This is one of those instances where words feel like they fall flat… I can throw a slew of adjectives into this paragraph but it feels like it doesn't matter. Simply put, if you're a fan of densely atmospheric, ambient black metal there isn't a single reason I can conceive why you wouldn't like this. Listen through!

Ærekær - Avindskjold (bandcamp)

Sepsis - The Divide 7" (2022)

•  †  •

Here's an illusive slab of frenetic crust punk/hardcore from the murky depths of Australia few here will be privy to but likely interested in! Drenched in reverb and grime. every corner of music is ransacked by overblown tone and bass, giving little time for reflection beyond total destruction—It sounds and feels like the halcyon days of newly-shaped hardcore, when early thrash was in its conception, but with ample energy taken from the UK crust scene of yore and what the band claims as a strong influence from the Swedish hardcore scene.

Taken from their bandcamp page: "Sepsis! A charged 4-piece crust bombardment from Naarm, Australia. Following hot off the heels from their sold out demo, they offer up 4 tracks thats are inspired by early UK crust with a strong Swedish hc backbone. For fans of Absolut Country of Sweden/ Scandinavian Jawbreaker era Anti Cimex, Hellbastard and Sacrilege. Maximum Devastation! Limited to 300 hand number copies."

Sepsis - The Divide (Bandcamp)

Interview W/ Negativa (Hässlig, Délirant)

I reached out to D.B. during the tail-end of the pandemic to see if he had any interest in chewing the fat with me about the many projects he's been involved in—Negativa had just put out a new record and it quickly became something I overplayed, which spawned a relatively short discussion as you see it below! D.B. doesn't miss, so check out all of his releases through Negativa, Délirant and Hässlig as well as an ear to the ground with his label Bile Noire… And it goes without saying, if you're not staying up to date with what Mystískaos and Dissociative Visions are releasing, you're just fucking the dog, as far as I'm concerned.

•  †  •

SHOM: First of all, it’s gotta be said that I have thoroughly enjoyed every release you’ve put out thus far under your many banners—Whether it’s through Délirant, Negativa or Hässlig. How is it you manage to put consistent energy into three different bands?

DB: Thank you and glad you enjoyed them.

I think spontaneity / improvisation play a big role in there. My guitar skills are VERY basic and I know nothing of music theory, so when I pick my guitar there is no other plan than playing and recording some "random" riffs. 

I'm sure if I told myself "let's compose some music (specifically) for Negativa instead of simply playing whatever comes naturally, I would have a hard time doing it.

SHOM: A whirring, almost hallucinatory tone seems to penetrate most, if not all of your songs. Is this something that is intentionally done or is it more of a tertiary side-effect when pursuing the type of raw and abrasive sound you have?

DB: It was intentionally done in Délirant as the first thing I did for the album was getting a kind of psychedelic and cavernous sound. Basically, it was inspired by its own production, which worked very nice since I managed to finish the entire thing in 4-5 days.

For the rest of my recordings, I'd say its a non-intentional side-effect.

SHOM: Which one word would you use to describe your general sound?

DB: Negativity? (ha!)

SHOM: If Negativity is the word you’d use to describe your sound, could you say the outcome could be used for positivity? In other words, if negativity was poured into it as a form of creative catharsis, do you believe the listener can use that same energy for their own catharsis?

DB: Well it could be… Only unintentionally though, because you can't "induce a catharsis" with music onto someone else (intentionally), I think—That's something that varies from listener to listener, and only they can feel it... Which is why music is (or should be) made for oneself and not for others.

SHOM: How do you tackle the design/layout for all your releases?

DB: I actually work as layout designer so that part is among the easy ones, specially for my releases which tend to be pretty minimal on purpose. If you want to check out some of my work: @visionsnoires on IG.

SHOM: Negativa already has a staunch black metal album release in 2022, any plans to release a record this year between either Hässlig or Délirant?

DB: Honestly, it's been close to a year since I picked up an instrument for the last time, so it’s hard to say…

There is a second Délirant album already recorded since the last 2 or 3 years, it's just missing vocals... Demotivation and the lack of mental health have made me procrastinate with it forever and I have no idea when that will be finished. Hässlig EP will come out on vinyl soon but no new recordings so far.

SHOM: Is this due to musical burn-out or other outward forces in your life?

DB: A mix of things. Musical burn-out, unhealthy habits, massive lack of motivation and mental health (as I said earlier), as well as myself not doing anything to help it and medication doing the opposite of its job. Being tired of everything in general.

SHOM: Mystískaos and Dissociative Visions are labels that I try to follow pretty closely. How’s it been working within these esteemed parent labels? Would you say you share common goals/aesthetics?

DB: It was all very smooth from the beginning. I sent them a promo for the Délirant album (which was originally an EP under a different name) with no expectations at all. Surprisingly they replied a few days later saying they were interested and we started discussing different ideas like making it a full length by adding another track (a 4th one) and finding a more appropriate name for the project, artwork, etc.

Later on I started talking regularly with the head of MSK / Dissociative Visions, doing some visual work for the label(s) and sharing my music with them. We share similar views, ideas and musical taste at least, and considering they have released everything I've done after Délirant, I guess they like it.

SHOM: Which artwork have you done (excluding your own bands) for Mystiskaos/Dissociative Visions? 

DB: Oh, I haven't done artwork for them. Mostly flyers, some trippy videos for promotion, the Dissociative Visions logo, as well as both MSK and DV websites (which are pretty minimal in design, so not too much to see there).

SHOM: Obviously the Mystiskaos/Dissociative label is heavy with an Icelandic Black Metal approach, would you say your Negativa stuff is directly influenced by this sound or just a slight reflection of it with a host of other influences in the mix?

DB: I don't think so... When I think of "Icelandic BM" the first thing that comes to mind is the production, since most of the stuff coming out from there is produced by the same studio. I mean, all the bands sound exactly the same and I can only relate the term "Icelandic BM" with THAT production, (which got boring pretty fast, but that's another story).

SHOM: If you had to pick out one release of all the releases out through Mystiskaos/Dissociative Visions, which would stand as your most listened to?

DB: Now that's a tough one. Most likely Vonlaus' second EP. Andavald LP would be up there for sure but pretty much all releases are great!

•  Ω  •

SHOM: Thanks again for chewing the fat with me, looking forward to your next releases and hopefully we'll be back for a part two soon enough!

DB: Of course to both! Thanks!

Chaotian - Effigies of Obsolescence (2022)

•  †  •

Denmark’s murky death metal scene has been fertile ground for a death metal sound that I would say is uniquely its own—Purveyors of an atypical cavernous and oblique output with festering guitar chords and drums from hell!

It’s not that these things aren’t being done elsewhere, it’s just that Denmark is on its own level with its own ethos—Similar to New Zealand, Canada, Iceland, etc. Always dynamic and unhinged in a way that is both feral in energy and in production. Listen back to what Phrenelith, Taphos, Sulphurous, Tardus Mortem, Undergang, Septage have done in the last while (hell, listen to Ascendency’s latest EP) and you’ll see what I mean.

I digress, Chaotian's debut album is out in June and it sounds like it’s going to be a putrid pile of nebulous death metal as we’ve come to expect out of Denmark’s quiet, but venerable scene. Take notice and support!

Chaotian -  Effigies of Obsolescence (bandcamp)

Assumption - Hadean Tides (2022)

•  †  •

In the arenas of doom/death metal, Assumption are a brutish juggernaut of sheer force and gargantuan magnitude, wielding —Hadean Tides was officially uncaged yesterday and its presence is a seismic amalgamation of glacially paced doom with bouts of frenzied death metal peppered throughout.

As I search my skull for fashionable adjectives and pithy aphorisms to describe this I can't help but think of Convocation's debut album "Scars Across". It's equally as crumbling and bulky in its weight, with emphasis on a slow churn and plodding rhythms, albeit with flickers of a gallop but never quite hitting a sprint. Kudos to the artwork being the underbelly version of a Turner painting, bang on!

Assumption - Hadean Tides (bandcamp)

Häxenzijrkell - Urgrund (2022)

•  †  •

Häxenzijrkell's, Urgrund, is some far out there black metal, heavily entrenched in a angular and obscure atmosphere that practically exhales something arcane… something at the very least, different then what we've all come to accept under the banner of black metal. A whirling plume of esoteric sounds swirl around here in a woozy haze of mesmerizing black metal, at times feeling like a mid-tempo cross between the obscurity of Cultes Des Ghoules mixed with the psychedelic downward spiral of Wormlust built upon the janky foundation of Urfaust.

Angular guitars which mostly move away from the typical frenetic tremolo picking and into a territory that is far more glacially paced and hypnotic, are the backbone on Urgrund, but the driving force to me is the interplay between the ritualistic like drumming and the way MK (of Rraaumm) delivers his charged (at times anthemic) vocal howls, anguished and from the larynx.

Leave it up to Amor Fati Productions to bring into the light this piece of obscure and ritualistic like black metal. Go and show your support!

Häxenzijrkell - Urgrund (bandcamp)

Cer - The Conjuration of Nebula (2022)

•  †  •

The Conjuration of Nebula has seemingly flown under everyone's radar and it's a crucial misstep because Cer's newest (and apparently last) output has done all the right things, and has done them with total fucking control! Two tracks running three-quarters of an hour of blown-out ambient black metal annihilation.

The entire aural experience is drenched in a lo-fi tonal warmth, dancing between hypnotically dissonant chords and drums that sound like they're out of the metazoic period—Raw and primordial. Nothing is being reinvented on The Conjuration of Nebula but it redoes what's been done by many, albeit with considerable consideration towards the power of simplicity and not doing too much. This blend of mesmerizing black metal is best when it's given space to breathe and just be crude. I just bought this for a few bucks, give it a listen and consider doing the same if you can afford it.

Cer - The Conjuration of Nebula (bandcamp)

Negative Plane - The Pact [Single] (2022)

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This is a big one! A new Negative Plane release announced and committed to wax is something to be hopeful about—A full decade and one extra trip around the sun later of muted silence, New York's esoteric black metal sweethearts of the underground are back and just as infallible as ever… But I'm rolling my eyes into the back of my skull by all these eager underground zealots professing it to be the album of the decade after a single track has dropped. I'm not immune to conflated statements but it's okay to dial it back a bit.

Negative Plane's vaporous cathedral sound is one of antiquity, drawing from the wells of soundscapes that could be heard from early Mercyful Fate, Mortuary Drape or Cirith Ungol but it's also a sound of something new bubbling and taking shape in the cauldron of metal, and that innovative energy is palpable and exciting to those of us who are looking to latch onto something forward-thinking.

From the first track alone, we can glean Negative Plane are doubling-down on their particular blend of oblique black metal with an ardent zeal, offering that well-honed esoteric sound of reverberating guitars that seem to be wailing from a cavernous depth or from some infernal place of worship. Each tonal flair carries with it the weight and ambiguity of the occult, leaning into a hypnotic atmosphere fit for gothic cathedrals whirling in incense smoke and the sound of the 80's—A faint bell rings in the distance…

Negative Plane - The Pact (bandcamp)

MORTUUS INFRADAEMONI - Inmortuos Sum (2022)

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This record came out a few days ago through the always promising Iron Bonehead Productions, and since then, I have been listening to it every day picking it apart in my head. At first I thought this was going to be another black/death record with a penchant for the avant-garde, but upon the 4 minute mark of the first song (excluding intro) it was clear to me that this album was going to wonder around in some weird musical territory. Which it does. It lives there.

After over a decade deep sleep, MORTUUS INFRADAEMONI return with a third album and its fucking banner is already hanging in the halls of great black metal records! Inmortuos Sum exists as a strong pastiche to 90's black metal, with a sound that nods to all the progenitors and early adopters but not without heavy experimentation—Obscure sonic landscapes are painted with bubbling atmospheres thick with angular and bubbling guitars building upon that putrid energy of the past but not withholding the nuances of influences that come from the newer legions like Funereal Presence, Cultes Des Ghoules, Spirit Possession or Warloghe. With the added experience from their early days in Germany's Lunar Aurora. Great band with a great track record, in my opinion. 

An off-balance freneticism often found in these newer acts permeates each track, moving feverishly between blistering, cold and garish into something slow, gurgling and decaying. It's a balance often failed by over zealous bands who don't take the time to understand the how and why of these sounds. Anyone around long enough can tell the difference. Thankfully the drums on this record are mixed perfectly, sounding as drums should, primitive and trance inducing…As is the whole production, murky, raw and potent!

•  Ω  •

If you're a fan of both old and new Darkthrone I can see no good reason you can't get into Inmortuos Sum. It has the entire wide-range of influence both Fenriz and Nocturno Culto cultivate and utilize. 

MORTUUS INFRADAEMONI - Inmortuos Sum (bandcamp)

Véhémence - Ordalies (2022)

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Nowadays whenever I see anything that looks like this album (crudely illustrated) or is slapped with a "medieval", "epic" or sometimes even an "atmospheric" black metal tag I approach with the same type of caution Nosferatu might have towards a garlic factory. I used to gobble it up, things of this ilk. But now that I'm a decade older and grumpy it just mostly sounds like overproduced wankery with no real resonance—Aural or otherwise.

Véhémence of France completely deflect any suspicions that this album is just another cookie-cutter black metal record parading around as half-baked pseudo-traditional medieval songs infused with the barbarity of black metal. Ordalies for sure leans heavily into that medieval tone, borrowing chants and melodies that seemingly harken back to the crusades, but it's done with such poise that none of it feels contrived or lame, which is where most of the other battalion of metal bands fail when writing this sort of thing.

Right off the rip this record blasts into a barrage of blistering black metal built upon the back of uncompromisingly frigid tremolo riffs which are layered upon a foundation of equally pummelling drums, both galloping, working eagerly in unison as Hyvermor's vocals scratch some primordial itch. His range (along with the group chants) carry with them a powerful weight. A genuinely antiquated atmosphere permeates every track on this album with absolutely clarity and force, which is really where 95% of the other bands fall short for me. One of the reasons I still like and listen to either Myrkgrav, Windir, Bathory or even old Moonsorrow is that they still strike a chord. No wankery, real fucking resonance.

It's completely negligent to talk about this album without mentioning how defiantly catchy it all is. Catchier than syphilis at the greasy truck stop with a strip-club called "Last Dance at Peeler's". When the first stream came out, I replayed it in full a second time once I made my way through the first listen. I never do that. Now of course that's my experience, but if you disagree you're just wrong man, and that's on you.

This is a mandatory album in 2022, don't sleep on it… Go ahead, play it more than the new Deathspell Omega record… I'd understand!

Véhémence - Ordalies (bandcamp)

Druid Lord - Relics of the Dead (2022)

•  †  •

I've been meaning to have this new Druid Lord album up on here since it came out in late January but got distracted somewhere along the way. Relics of the Dead is a perfectly executed pastiche of old school death metal a la Immolation with the mid-tempo execution of Disma flanked by the THC soaked doom of Acid Witch with less vintage horror campiness, albeit Relics of the Dead leans into the retro horror atmospherics with just the right amount of profanation—A small example of this can be heard 03:05 into  'Mangled as the Hideous Feed' as that 2-cent Casio chord of gothic organ emanate around a heavily down-tuned and slow doom section breaks through for the remainder of the track.

This album is at it's strongest when it's moving around between this incredibly drooling mid tempo churn to the almost dead-stop dirge, sounding like an impersonation of Ahab playing Bolt Thrower songs at half speed—I see a lot of comparisons to Hooded Menace being thrown around, but unlike Hooded Menace's last album, Druid Lord got the production right. Absolutely nailed down. I'd say it's more in line with Disma's pace, the grime and mire of Coffins, the horror drenched wooziness of Acid Witch with moments of occasionally dipping into the molasses paced territory of Encoffination… Fuck those guys are slow!

°  Ω  °

This comes highly recommended, so get listening. "This album is going to make a big splash in the year-end lists this year." —Nostradamus

Druid Lord - Relics of the Dead (bandcamp)

Qaalm - Resilience & Despair (2022)

•  †  •

I've been sitting on my hands patiently for Qaalm's debut album ever since Hypaethral Records announced it and then benevolently dropped me an early listening link—The small perks of being a sonic traveller is that you can use tact and guile to convince people to send you unreleased records in exchange that you might put together a few (positive) words to promote a record.

Qaalm's aptly named debut 'Resilience & Despair' needs no promotion beyond its sonic achievements. This album is an uncontested aural monolith of doom and sludge coalescing into four towering tracks drenched in dour semi-funeral doom tonnage rife with crumbling sludgy guitars and plodding drums as former Harassor overlord Pete Majors lays waste through that uncanny vocal rasp of his which bears more resemblance to coughing up blood and spewing bile than it does "singing"… totally charged and feral—A similar comparison can definitely be made with doom/sludge zealots as Baton Rouge's Thou and Chicago's Indian in terms of range and grit. 

'Resilience & Despair' is an "Abandon All Hope" sign aimed at everyone. It’s like being sucked into the nether, a slow and heavy trip into the abyss filled with down-tuned guitars and a pummelling energy. That being said, I’d be remiss not to point out the success that this album has when it segues into lighter territory, trading chopping block heaviness for compelling melodies and floating passages—It's the sonic equivalent of sour and spicy. A force meant to awaken and bolster its counterpart, which is done with aplomb here by Qaalm. Devastating heaviness coalescing into something purely atmospherical with a tonne of weight behind it! Abandon all hope.

°  Ω  °

Fans of Mizmor, Thou, Ahab, Convocation, Grief and Burning Witch will find plenty to like within the 1-hour+ runtime of this heavy hitter. 

Hypaethral Records (in connection with the esteemed Trepanation Recordings) was incredibly cool to send me 10 free download links for readers (and takers) of Severed Heads Open Minds on a first come first served basis… So big thanks to those guys! Drop a comment here or send me a message through Instagram to claim your download link ya heathens & GET THIS BILLOWOUS DOOM IN YOUR EAR CANALS.

Qaalm - Resilience & Despair (bandcamp)

Qaalm - Resilience & Despair (download link)

Reveal! - Doppelherz (2021)

•  †  •

Here's an album that is absolutely refusing to be pigeon-holed by arm-chair bloggers and critics alike, a giant fuck you to those of us who feel a compulsion to tie everything down with one of our genre packages—Sweden's Reveal! are one of the rare groups impure and brazen enough to traverse a rarely contested musical swath of influences running the gamut of everything declared under the banner of "Extreme Metal".

Doppelherz is a colourful mosaic of sounds both old and new, borrowed and invented, frenetic and calculated.—Throughout its entirety, creaky cathedral chords reminiscent of Negative Plane and Funereal Presence can be heard, which is not entirely uncommon, but definitely dubious when it's pressed up against something that sounds like early speed/heavy metal a la Mercyful Fate or disoriented black metal and thrash riffs in the vein of Obliteration or Spirit Possession… But somehow these guys fucking pull it off with gusto!

•  Ω  •

I'll spare the multitude of comparisons and say this, it feels like this record shouldn't work. Like there's a little too much going on and too many things being pulled and implemented for it to even feel cohesive, but there's just enough structure and swagger to make it work. And I'll be the first to admit, not having this album in my last years top albums of 2021 was an impermissible misstep, but as it usually goes with very late releases in the year, I overlooked and under-appreciated Doppelherz when it dropped mid December.

Reveal! - Doppelherz (bandcamp)

Dead Last - Where Do We Go From Here? (2022)

•  †  •

I haven't been overly hyped on a wide range of hardcore releases so far this year but this debut 7" by New York's Dead Last has been an obstinate ear-worm for me. Harkening back to the halcyon days of earnest straight edge hardcore with a valleys worth of potency and energy behind it, mining from the same vein as Mental, Unified Right, Righteous Jams, Mil-Spec, Youth of Today, etc.

Despite this albums short run time there's a definitive heft carried throughout 'Where Do We Go From Here' ushered in by the sheer magnitude of its sincerity and energy. Bang on! Very limited runs have been done through New York's Streets of Hate and the venerable Triple B Records. These will sellout, if you want one, get on it.

Dead Last - Where Do We Go From Here? (bandcamp)

Negativa - 04 (2022)

•  †  •

It's been in black metal's DNA to be dissonant, harsh and cold, but this record takes those fundamentals and beats you over the head with it for 40-straight minutes, which to those of us who beckon punishment, pounce on it like a werewolf.

Spain's Negativa has channeled these characteristics with aplomb throughout their entire discography, and the result of it has amounted to some of the densest black metal around today—Invoking a wall of sound built upon cascading guitar tones that whirr and drone between war hammer drums which favour force over speed and vocals that struggle to penetrate a thick layer of fog and noise.

•  Ω  •

It hearkens back to last years output by Voidsphere and Sulpur, both of which released albums in 2021 that were in my top 10—Which might say something about how highly I regard this particular form of black metal, spirit inducing and relentlessly oppressive. Don't sleep on this record, unless you want to be a dummy idiot, then go right ahead.

04 is 'Name your price' on Bandcamp, put that coffee money to something worthwhile and toss these guys (and their label, Mystískaos) a few bucks and help keep the underbelly of metal well lit!

Negativa - 04 (bandcamp)
Download (Zippyshare)

Crypt Lurker - Baneful Magic, Death Worship & Necromancy Rites Archaic (2013)

•  †  •

Every now and then, I'll glance backwards towards critically overlooked albums and resuscitate them for a few more gasps of life through this blog—That's more-or-less the function of this blog, pointing a shaky finger to the albums I like and hopefully giving them some more life.

Crypt Lurker were a flash in the pan of filthy and bloated doom metal from the outskirts of Liverpool, England, and their sound was a gargantuan accumulation of perfectly executed doom metal which flitted around the murky waters of sludge to breathe life into a genre that's more often than not way too clean with very little essence and hardly any depth.

Baneful Magic, Death Worship & Necromancy Rites Archaic is without none of those flaws, it's an incredibly heavy plod through serpentining tunnels of slowly churning guitar riffs, that flicker between the reverb drenched riffs of Witchfinder General to something even murkier, giving birth to something that reminds me of New Zealand's Meth Drinker—Caked in grime and molasses paced.

The drums on this album are spot on, the toms sound bulky and the cymbals sound like actual drum cymbals… Bonus points for using the bell on the cymbals appropriately. Listen to the 01:40 mark of 'Bearer of Two Torches' if there is any confusion. It's a kidney shot to the world of doom and sludge that these guys split-up shortly after, but this EP will live on forever!

Crypt Lurker - Baneful Magic, Death Worship & Necromancy Rites Archaic (bandcamp)

Festung - Der Turm (2022)

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Well articulated raw black metal drawing from a deep well of sonic intentions running the gamut of dungeon synth, ambient black metal, atmospheric black metal and I'd even make the argument for an early black metal/punk inclusion somewhere in the fray as well. This album as a sound is definitely monolithic but the length too is a monolith, standing in at 80 minutes of towering black metal, which only serves to bolster the immensity of it as a whole. This was one of those listens that instantly gripped me and impressed from the start to its billowous end… This comes highly recommended, don't sleep on it!

Festung - Der Turm (bandcamp)

Hässlig - Guillotine (2021)

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Somehow this debut release completely flew under my radar all of last year until a few weeks ago, where I have been over-listening to it ever since. Crude and primitive black metal punk a la a similar attack as Raspberry Bulbs and Bone Awl, with emphasis on raw aggression and a firm grip on how to effectively use unpolished riffs and chord progression to take something simple and make it compelling. I found this through the reliability of the Mystískaos bandcamp page, check it out or forever be a dud!

Hässlig - Guillotine (bandcamp)

Desolate Shrine - Fires of The Dying World (2022)

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Three-piece Finnish firing-squad via pummelling death metal as we've come to expect from Desolate Shrine's decade long crusade against the status-quo of recycled riffs and puny atmospherics. All we have to go by is the one song teaser via Dark Descent Records, but it's really all you need to deduce the crushing ferocity Fires of The Dying World is looking to discharge upon our feeble minds. Happy to hear some tempo changes on a death metal record again… LOOK OUT

Desolate Shrine - Fires of The Dying World (bandcamp)

Det Eviga Leendet - Reverence (2022)

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The sophomore release by Sweden's hidden treasure, Det Eviga Leendet, came out a few days ago through the impenetrable forces that are Amor Fati and Mystískaos and the result is a potent blast of cold and unwavering black metal. The overall sound is cloaked in a dizzying atmosphere of reverb and transient gain, which is only compounded by a drape of layered guitars that weave in and out of inspired riffs and whirring chords as if it were trying to find the sonic equivalent to hypnosis—Another hallmark of success on Reverence is the way the drums sound, in the way that they are played and in the way that they're mixed, a compelling barrage of dynamic fills and blasts that have great interplay between a wall of tone and timbre.

Det Eviga Leendet - Reverence (bandcamp)

Dire Omen - Formless Fire Embodied (2018)

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I've posted this EP up on here before (closer to when it came out in 2018) but I'm posting it again because I have been revisiting the very small offering Dire Omen put out before their eventual disband (in 2019?), and I really like where they were heading within the genre of black/death—Nothing being reinvented, more like reformulated. The potency of Dire Omen's energy has always been at the helm of what made them great. A dense swirling churn of mirky black/death metal with great riffs and an undeniable atmosphere. So much reverence for what Dark Descent is doing!

Dire Omen - Formless Fire Embodied (bandcamp)

And in lieu of being fully prudent, here is their only full-length album put out back in 2014.

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Dire Omen - Wresting the Revelation of Futility (bandcamp)

Cloakroom - Dissolution Wave (2022)

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Here's another album I'm looking forward to based off the teaser tracks on their respective bandcamp page, Cloakroom's third full-length, Dissolution Wave. I can deduce, by unpacking what I'm hearing in these three songs that this shit is going to be a scintillating coast down sonic highways traversing shoegaze, drone, bits of sludge and indie with helpings of stoner rock and post-punk (just to namedrop a few more genres into the fray).

I would be jumping to conclusions to speak any more factually without actually hearing the full album first, but it sounds like it's the bands most cohesive effort yet, which is saying something for me because I was never really gung-ho about the two previous albums fully. Again, speaking preemptively, it sounds as if everything has come to full bloom on Dissolution Wave. The songs are robust and the production is right on the fucking money—when it needs to pack a hammer, it does so with force, when it needs to float in suspended animation, it gently sways along beautifully, when we ask it to marry the two forces, it answers with complete fluidity.

I find it tiring to read about music in an overly-intellectualized way, so I'll try to say this succinctly. The overall tone is a shifting one. Unfurling riffs and tone that hit like a megaton hammer towards gradually cascading into ephemeral shoegaze and drone that inevitably sputter into moments of dream-pop. Which is only to be cut back into a vast doom like territory filled with more crunching lo-fi guitars and reverb. Highly recommended!

Cloakroom - Dissolution Wave (bandcamp)

Μνήμα - Disciples of Excremental Liturgies (2022)

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I wasn't privy to black metal noise terrorists, Μνήμα's new album until I found it through the esteemed Arson Cafe's newest post—If you're not aware of his spot already, bookmark it because he's one of the very last bastions of defence when it comes to keeping the underground lit, and further more, putting words and flavour into what is normally rife with banality and feigned interest into blogs, zines and websites that rely on promotion more than integrity.

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I digress, Μνήμα have finally committed to a full-length album after a deluge of EP's and Demo's have been released since 2017, and it's more of the same assault on your auditory meatus, but with more tact and focus on letting the melody poke through the wall of screeching reverb and commotion. I can imagine old fans of Μνήμα being divided into two camps when it comes to this decision: Those that oppose their decision to refine their sound, and those that are not in opposition at all.

Me, I'm on the former, as I am sure most fans of Μνήμα are. It's not as if this choice has fundamentally changed their sound… Μνήμα are still incredibly raw and blown out, and the predilection to infuse traditional black metal with even more noise is still prevalent and in some cases even bolstered. Disciples of Excremental Liturgies is not casual listening, its inherent goal is in alignment with early black metal, a complete and utter rebellion to clean sound, and though they have taken a few liberties when it comes to the purity of black metal, it's still just and isolating as it needs to be to retain its potency. Go head first into THE BLACK VOID!

 Μνήμα - Disciples of Excremental Liturgies (bandcamp)

Deathless Void - Deathless Void (2022)

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In the endless sprawl of death metal, a new presence materializes out of The Netherlands thanks to the venerable Iron Bonehead—its form takes shape through a torrent of death metal and black metal which seems to mine from the same ore as bands like Aosoth, Bölzer, Abyssal and even Dephosphorus in the sense that it is as explorative and vacuous as it is frenetically delirious and crushing. 

From the singular track that exists through the Iron Bonehead bandcamp page we can easily take stock of the obtuse intensity that will come from the bands first album, and though I am carefully optimistic, I'm definitely looking forward to its whole release on February 04, 2022.

Deathless Void - Deathless Void (bandcamp)

Nocturnal Triumph - Nocturnal Triumph (2022)

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Amor Fati is quickly becoming the primary spawning ground for consistently putting out spirit inducing black metal that is simultaneously straddling the fine line of traditional and forward-thinking—And within a genre as worn out and tired as black metal has become since the late 90's, its a welcomed effort. Not to imply that black metal has gotten worse since its stave church burning days, I think that would be fatalistic and lazy to say, but it absolutely has become an over-saturated genre that's tripping over its own feet trying to rip off early Mayhem riffs and chasing clout.

That being said, Nocturnal Triumph's newest album came out a few days ago and it's right on the fucking money—Rife with a reverberating energy and a whole fjords worth of cold as hell riffs against a barrage of tightly produced black metal drumming. Mixed exactly right. The overall mix isn't quite blown-out enough to be lo-fi, but it's raw and foaming with a war chest full of compelling riffs.

Nocturnal Triumph - Nocturnal Triumph (bandcamp)

Verbum - Exhortation to the Impure (2022)

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I gotta say I am pretty eager to get my mitts on this debut Verbum record tomorrow. Most things Iron Bonehead Productions are high up on my radar and judging from the two-song teaser currently up on the Iron Bonehead bandcamp page it's going to be a trip through sepulchral like doom with murky death metal of the highest order—Arcane and primitive shit! 

Verbum - Exhortation to the Impure (bandcamp)

Grinning Death's Head - Cataclysm (2021)

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Youth Attack Records always has my attention. It's consistently putting out crude and bile filled records running the gamut of hardcore, punk and metal with rudimentary attempts to step outside the box. The box isn't important, only devastating bursts of ferocity count for something here—Mining the vein of anything and everything in between caustic and tameless.

This two-track EP by Grinning Death's Head made a big impact with very little last year, building upon what JW has already established over the years—something between hardcore and raw black metal. I don't know if I'm chomping at the bit yet, but I get it… It sounds like a cross between early Cobalt with healthy nods to acts like Bone Awl or Serum Dreg. I'm not convinced with the use of the synth in track-two but who am I to yuck your yum.

Grinning Death's Head - Cataclysm (bandcamp)

Direct Threat - Direct Threat (2021)

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There was a decent crop of angry and demented hardcore that was released in 2021 (omitted from my best of list mostly due to the amount of good metal albums floating around last year and the length in which these albums ride under—10-15 minutes) and this self-titled (demo?) is among them. 10 minutes of righteously pissed off hardcore with a sound that is just as much raw punk. Chomp down on this!

Direct Threat - Direct Threat (bandcamp)