(Andy Synn presents four albums from July which may have passed you by)
So apparently it’s August already? How the hell did that happen?!?
And spare me your scientific hocus-pocus about “the linear passage of time” and “the direction of entropy”… all I know is that it was just yesterday I was doing one of these “Things You May Have Missed” columns for June, and someone needs to answer for where all that time in between went.
Now, I know that there were some people who felt like July was a bit of an “off” month – both in terms of quantity and quality – but I’m here to tell you that those people are fools and not to be trusted.
Heck, I could have done an entire separate piece on “Black Metal You May Have Missed” (in fact, I did just that last week) and the number of artists/albums which ended up on the proverbial “cutting room floor” this month was enough to cause me almost physical pain.
Still, I think you’ll enjoy the four records I’ve selected for this month’s article, which cover a pretty decent spread of styles/genres, meaning there should be something for almost everyone.
BLACK HOLE DEITY – PROFANE GEOMETRY
I am honestly shocked that Profane Geometry was still available to write about, considering the fact that Black Hole Deity‘s particular brand of highly-technical, yet still song-focussed, Death Metal ticks a lot of boxes for the entire NCS crew.
But, for whatever reason, this one slipped through the cracks last month – more than likely we all thought one of the others would cover it – which means it falls to me to finally give the band their due.
Clocking in at just under thirty-two minutes (much closer to thirty-one if you disregard the largely superfluous intro track) Profane Geometry fully capitalises on all the promise and potential of the band’s 2021 EP, Lair of Xenolich with some of the most inhumanly intense, lethally focussed riffage you’re likely to hear this year (just give OTT opener “Blast Pit” a listen if you don’t believe me).
But by balancing their ridiculous technicality (these guys can really shred, no doubt about that) with some hefty hooks and hammering grooves (check out the stunning second half of “Crucible Knight” for proof) the band strike an impressive balance between both the “Modern” and “Old School” styles of extremity, with songs like the impressively vicious and vividly melodic title-track and the crushing “Swarm Attack” landing somewhere between Fractal Generator and God Dethroned on the Death Metal spectrum.
Sure, there’s still some room for improvement (in the songwriting, I mean – the band’s technical talents are already top notch) as the over-reliance on relentless blasting does end up making a few of the lesser tracks blend together a little (nor is there anything that quite hits the same level as “Railgun Combat” from the EP, although “Spell of Hecate” comes close), but for sheer sonic punishment you really can’t go wrong with this one.
BLIND GIRLS – AN EXIT EXISTS
One of our ex-staffers (you can probably guess which one) once voiced his surprise that I was considered “the Hardcore guy” here at NCS… but when I pointed out just how many bands and how many different ‘core variants (from Math- to Metal- to Post- to Death-, etc) I’d written about here all over the years he soon changed his tune.
That being said, while I definitely/probably write about Hardcore more than anyone else here, it’s not the genre I write about the most, since I’m pretty picky about what turns my head these days – but when a band like Blind Girls drops an album like An Exit Exists you know I sit up and take notice.
From the scalding assault of aptly-named opener “Dissonance” through to the final fading cymbal crash of chaotic closer “Home Will Find Its Way”, An Exit Exists is all jagged edges and savage, spontaneous fury, with songs such as “Loveless” and “Less Than Three” being the auditory equivalent of an anxiety-attack set to music.
But it quickly becomes apparent that, for all its abrasive intensity phlegmatic vocal violence (Sharni Brouwer delivering an almost unrelentingly unhinged performance behind the mic), there’s a lot more to this album than first meets the eye (or ear) especially when it comes to the band’s increasing use of claustrophobic ambience (take the absolutely haunting second-half of “Blemished Memory”, for example) and their use of eerie melody during the likes of the moody “Make Me Nothing” and the harshly hypnotic “Closer to Hell”.
That doesn’t mean the band have gone soft – both early highlight “Less Than Three” and absolutely punishing penultimate track “It’s Starting to Rain” hit just as hard, with just as much reckless abandon and wild, contorted catharsis as anything the band have done before, while also demonstrating more sonic depth than ever – it’s more that they’ve found new ways to hurt you, both physically and emotionally, this time around.
GLASS OX – A CELEBRATION OF DEATH
If there’s one thing you can say about Glass Ox it’s that they don’t fit neatly into a specific box (hey, that rhymes!).
Combining (Black) Metal, (Crust) Punk, and (Metallic) Hardcore (verging on Grind, at points) elements, these eleven tracks are absolutely steeped in gloom and grime, running the gamut from the spiteful savagery of “Grit” and the sinister swagger of “Sinking Down” to the eerily anthemic title-track and the brooding, doom-laden strains of “Eternal Flame”, criss-crossing and cross-matching genres with blatant disregard for convention.
This is even more notable in the back half of the record, where the absolutely massive “Blood Labyrinth” (already a candidate for one of my “Songs of the Year”) gives way to unorthodox tripartite instrumental track “The Seal” (made up of “Blood Into Wax”, “Black Ink”, and “Overlord”, respectively) which takes the listener on an even darker and more desolate journey where blackened atmospherics, sludgy dynamics, and gloomy Heavy Metal heroics are all interwoven in a dreary tapestry of despair.
In case you hadn’t guessed by now, what with the verbose language and all, A Celebration of Death is not a happy record by any means – and yet it still possesses a weirdly invigorating sense of energy, the type which makes you want to face the oncoming end with a spring in your step and a shit-eating grin on your face, all of which makes the fact that the album ends with the mix of Post-Punk melancholy and brooding, blackened melody of “Castles in the Sky” a more than appropriate way to tie the whole thing together while also, hopefully, keeping you coming back for more.
ULTRA MUNDUM NOSTRI ASSEMBLY – UMNA I : MISTAKEN BY THE HEGEMONIC MONOTHEISM – CENTURIES OF ABSTRACT REVELATIONS
Of all the Black Metal albums I heard last month (and they were a lot of them) this one might just be my favourite… and the most unusual.
Unlike most groups, the Ultra Mundum Nostri Assembly don’t have a distinct or definitive line-up – rather, the purpose of the project is to serve as a singular outlet for an amorphous collective of musicians to creatively experiment outside of their regular bands, with each successive album (beginning with this one) intended to have a different cast of collaborators and contributors as determined by the different needs of each record.
This unorthodox approach is further established by the way each track on Mistaken by the Hegemonic Monotheism… is presented as a “lecture”, with the almost liturgical (yet also, at times, undeniably hypnotic) lyrics referred to as a “reading”, all of which serves to reinforce the central concept and core conceit around which the record is constructed.
As sharp, and as dark, as the music is however – “Lecture 1” in particular cuts right to the thesis with its razor-wire riffs and rivetingly intense drums – there are deeper layers to be found on every single track (sorry, “Lecture”), with the gravel-throated “Gethsemane!” hook of the former guaranteed to burrow its way into your brain just as easily as, say, the compelling contrast between dissonance and ambience, melody and complexity which makes up “Lecture 2” will continue to haunt you for hours afterwards.
It’s the longer, more involved tracks (“Lecture 3 & 4” and “Lecture 5 & 6”) which really showcase what this particular iteration of the Ultra Mundum Nostri Assembly are capable of, however, with the former’s juxtaposition of blistering heaviness and brooding atmosphere (replete with some impressively undulating bass work) and the latter’s clever blend of spiky discordance and moody soundscapes more than capable of going toe-to-toe with some of the group’s more notorious peers.