Having named themselves for a particularly nasty-looking, fast-spreading, difficult-to-remove, and potentially dangerous fungus, Portugal’s Black Mold churn out a nihilistic amalgam of black metal and punk that makes their disgusting namesake seem mild.
You would know that if you had caught their 2020 debut album The Inheritance of Evil or their 2023 EP The Unnatural Red Glow of the Night, or the two demos that preceded those releases. You will definitely know it when you have the chance to hear their second album In the Dirt of Oblivion, which will be released by Helldprod Records on September 20th — or even just the one song from the album we’re premiering today.
The label warns: “[T]hese true spirits of the underground only have one thing in their minds. To drain the soul out of your body and fill it with darkness, hate and despair”. We have warnings of our own.
“Toward the Black Horizon” is the name of the song we’re premiering today. In less than two minutes it delivers a gutting and cutting barrage. It’s propelled by fast-pumping drum-and-bass pistons, scampering punk beats, and acrobatic fills, and voiced by unhinged vocal fury with its own jagged edges.
The riffing creates a wild, roiling turmoil but also slashes with flashing blades and blares like rising sirens of agony. In a short space of time it radiates sensations of despair and delirium, in tones that straddle a line between filth and the honed edge of steel, and it gets the adrenaline flooding too.
Helldprod will release In the Dirt of Oblivion on cassette tape, limited to 80 copies (at a special price until September 20th) and as a digital download. Pre-orders are available now via the links below.
We’re also including a stream of the new album’s first advance track, “Faint In Obscurity“. It’s about a minute longer than the track we’ve just premiered, and showcases both vibrantly ringing punk chords and nimble bass maneuvers, both sinister shining waves and rambunctious drumming, and of course another dose of those raw and ragged throat-cutting vocals.
It also proves again that Black Mold have a talent for effectively channeling an array of dark emotions in a short span of time, even as they get the listener’s pulse-rate jumping.
PRE-ORDER:
https://helldprod.com/shop/
https://helldprod.bandcamp.com/album/black-mold-in-the-dirt-of-oblivion