Metal navel-gazers such as us here and many of our friends could probably kill hours debating whether “Vampiric Black Metal” is really a genre. It’s certainly a term we see thrown about in descriptions of music, but does it really mean anything?
It certainly has lyrical and inspirational meaning for some bands, who relish tales of the ancient undead and their horrid nutritional needs. Those tales are sometimes rooted in the folklore of an artist’s native region, but regardless of geography they’re also attractive to misanthropes who smile at the idea of human beings as cattle to be consumed, and to people drawn to visions of deepest nights and full moons, to graveyard mists and red eyes shining in the dark.
But the question remains, is there anything we can point to beyond lyrical themes and fonts of inspiration as a way of defining “Vampiric Black Metal”, anything in the music itself?
We might be drawn to the idea of fixating on a distinctive eeriness and chilliness, with the blood-freezing and blood-letting tales draped in musical shrouds of gloom, fear, and despair. And of course we would definitionally demand shrieked vocals that are adequate substitutes for icepicks jammed into eardrums.
On the other hand, when you hear a song like the one from Italy’s Morcolac that we’re premiering today through a lyric video — “Memorialmoon Narrates the Morbose” — we may have to reconsider our fumbling effort at a genre definition, or maybe decide that it really isn’t a musical genre at all, but simply a matter of inspirations and words.
Because this song, as much as anything else, is a blood-pumping dance, a wild spin that’s likely to get listeners’ nerves firing, heads bobbing, and faces breaking into evil grins.
To be sure, it’s eerie music, and the raging of the cracked and screaming vocals does sound authentically inhuman. But the riffing is a mad whirl and the hammering rhythms have the visceral impact of hearts beating in dazzled ecstasy (or fury).
The vibratory riffs are rough and dense in sound, and as their melody changes they begin to sound ill (there is some feeling of despair here after all), but the music continually levitates in glory and whirls like fanged dervishes.
The rhythms occasionally segue into rocking grooves, and beginning at about the 2:35 mark there’s the delicious surprise of dancing keys with a vibrantly pinging tone backed by jolting fretwork and drums. That keyboard motif turns out to be as much of a hook as the whirring guitars.
Near the end there’s also a beautiful solo, almost dreamy in its mood, and definitely transportive in its effect as it weaves its spell above gut-punching grooves.
Well, to return to where we started, far too many words ago, “Vampiric Black Metal” may just be whatever brand of black metal has captured a musician’s heart, coupled with the narratives of nightstalkers.
But wherever you come out in that thought exercise, one thing should now be clear from this one very catchy song: Marcolac are really good songwriters and have a deft talent for intertwining sounds and sensations in ways that kindle the imagination… and get the reptile brain interested as well.
Maybe you already knew that, because Morcolac already have two albums to their name. This new song is from a “Maxi-EP” (30 minutes of music) called Drawbridge To Citadel Of No More Dawn that’s set for release by the Dusktone label on February 2nd.
As the label says, Morcolac “draws inspiration from late ’90s Nordic black metal, in particular from the symphonic side and – geographically – the Finnish scene….” Dusktone further says:
“If you are into black metal and you want to experience dark forests, evil creatures and the grim side of fantasy worlds through their lyrics, Morcolac is for you!”
The EP will be released on CD and digital formats, and you can order it here:
PRE-ORDER:
https://dusktone.bandcamp.com/album/drawbridge-to-citadel-of-no-more-dawn
MORCOLAC:
https://www.facebook.com/people/Morcolac/100076320752633/
https://morcolac.bandcamp.com/
DUSKTONE:
http://www.dusktone.it
https://www.facebook.com/dusktone
https://www.instagram.com/dusktone/
http://dusktone.bandcamp.com