(Andy Synn catches up on some of last month’s bumper crop of Black Metal)
Despite what some people might believe, we’re big fans of the ol’ Black Metal genre here at NCS.
Sure, there’s certain artists we don’t fuck with, for reasons which are entirely our own, but considering how rich and fertile the field is right now (as today’s article so adamantly demonstrates – right down to the fact that I didn’t have time to also include the likes of Coldcell, Limbes, and Unholy Altar) there’s more than enough great options out there to keep us busy until the inevitable heat death of the universe.
So – since I didn’t want the next edition of “Things You May Have Missed” to be all Black Metal – here’s four short-but-sweet write-ups of some recent albums I thought would put a smile (although I guess it’s more of a grimace) on your corpse-painted faces.
DEVOURING VOID – ACROSS THE ETERNAL NOTHINGNESS
Right from the start (well, once the lengthy synth intro to savage, shapeshifting opener “Storm of Annihilation” finally ends) the band’s emphasis on big, booming riffs and powerful, pounding drum work reminds me a lot of martial US Black Metallers Death Fortress (current status: unknown), especially when they really cut loose during songs such as “Burnt Sacrifice Offering” or the icy avalanche of “Shrouded in Fog”.
There’s also a fair bit of Immortal‘s epic swagger to tracks like the gruesomely groovy “Dragged into a Bottomless Pit” and the rippling rhythmic coils of “Summoning the Flames of Old”, as well as a hefty dose of unorthodox melody and contorted, The Chasm-esque chord structures, all of which combines to give the group’s debut a “larger than life” feel to it.
I’ll grant you that pure originality isn’t really the name of the game here, but I’d counter that by saying that Devouring Void put enough interesting twists into their sound – especially in terms of songwriting/song-structure (both mid-album highlight “Swarming Famine” and the climactic ten minute title track, for example, are constantly twisting and turning between nasty, almost thrashy, hookiness and darkly proggy weirdness in a way that keeps you guessing but also constantly engaged) – to not just establish themselves as a band to keep an eye on, but to also keep you coming back to this album for a long time coming.
MACHUKHA – MOCHARI
Yes, Mochari was actually released back in June… but German/Ukranian Black Metal/Post-/Hardcore hybrids Machukha are absolutely worth breaking a few rules for.
On songs like the opening blaze of blast-furnace fury that is “Trymatys'”, the savage Blackened Hardcore sturm und drang of “Bezpliddya” and the seething “Kvit” the group put it all on the line with some of the most cathartic vocals, electrifying riffs, and blisteringly intense (yet also impressively creative) drums I’ve heard so far this year.
But there’s more than meets the eye (or ear) to Mochari than that, as demonstrated by the moodier, more Post-Black Metal leaning strains of “Dykhay” (especially during its hauntingly minimalist second half) and the sombre, almost cinematic, slow-burn of closer “Nezrushnist'”, while the brooding ambience of “Inodi Padaye Snih Tak Lahidno Krizʹ Sosnovu Khvoyu” and the bloodstained atmospherics of “Tsyu tayemnytsyu duzhe vazhko berehty” effectively form one long-form, shadow-drenched centrepiece to the album.
The record’s biggest strength, however, is the way it makes all of this flow so smoothly and seamlessly, drawing you in and holding your attention for its entire thirty-eight minute run-time while also seeming to practically fly by in the blink of an eye.
MAYHEMIC – TOBA
Looking for some seriously badass Black Thrash about a major extinction level event some 70,000 years ago?
If the answers to this are anything except “yes” and “get it in my ears, right the fuck now” then this album (and this site) may not be for you.
Sitting somewhere between the jagged fury of early Kreator and the helter-skelter momentum of latter-day 1349, tracks like frantic opener “Kollarbone Crushed Neanderthal” and the manic “Hazardous Prowler” possess such a raw, almost ramshackle, energy that they constantly seem in danger of shaking themselves apart as they barrel forwards without remorse or restraint.
The band aren’t afraid of letting a little grimy groove into the mix here and there, that’s for sure – “Valley of the Thundra” is a surprisingly effective, and subtly proggy, stomper that slows things down without neutering the album’s visceral impact – nor are they averse to a dash of melody either (ranging from the shreddy excess of “Extinction & Misery” to the almost classical hooks slotted into the chaotic “Olduvai´s Lullaby”) but for the most part Toba (including its climactic title track) is all about full-force, take no prisoners, in-your-face aggression… and all the better for it.
SILVAPLANA – LIMBS OF DIONYSUS
Last, but by no means least, we have something a little (or a lot) more experimental from Yellow Eyes spin-off Silvaplana.
Featuring only two tracks – clocking in at 23 and 17 minutes respectively – of seething discordance and frenzied, dervish-like drumming, interspersed with moments of moody contemplation and perfused with layers of disharmonic deviance, Limbs of Dionysus is precisely the sort of album which tempts one to use words like “ritualistic” or “hypnotic” to describe the experience.
And while those terms have become something of a cliché over the years, the truth is they’re more than valid here, not only due to the strangely mesmerising waves of dissonance and distortion which wash over you, minute by minute, but also due to the almost narcotic effect provided by every nerve-scraping needle of poisonous pseudo-melody injected into each unorthodox, unsettling passage of ear-scraping sound.
As borderline chaotic as it all is, however, there is a clear method to the music’s madness, while any fears that Limbs of Dionysus would end up being something of a one-note affair can also be put to rest in light of how the two songs (if that’s even the right word) serve as both contrasting, yet strangely complementary, sides of the same strange sonic coin – composed of the same elements, yes, but showing a different face to the audience whichever way they turn.