SHADES OF BLACK: OLD WAINDS, VALONTUOJA, CALCARATA, PAENIL ERA (AND MORE)

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Sep 292024
 

(written by Islander)

As I did in yesterday’s weekend roundup, for today’s column I’ve chosen a mix of complete new releases and advance tracks from forthcoming records. I’ve also consciously mixed up the musical styles, all of which use black metal as a touchstone but throw other stones at us as well. At the end I’ve also embedded three new videos without commentary; they’re all worth seeing and hearing, even though I haven’t tried to explain why.

P.S. In certain parts of the Christian world today is Michaelmas, feast day of the archangel Michael, who is celebrated for casting the Devil from Heaven. The Devil has had a celebrated career on Earth since then, as today’s music helps prove. Today is also probably the birthday of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the author of Don Quixote, which will always inspire its readers to continue tilting at windmills, which thankfully all of today’s bands are doing. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: A COMMEMORATION OF THE DARK SOLSTICE

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Sep 222024
 

(written by Islander)

In the Northern Hemisphere today marks the autumnal equinox, the first day of fall and the point in which the Sun is directly above the equator and the hours of day and night are nearly equal (equinox is a Latin word for “equal night”). In the Southern Hemisphere, today marks the vernal equinox, the first day of spring.

From here on in the north, darkness will steadily increase, no longer merely equal, until we reach the winter solstice, which this year happens on Dec. 21, and then the process will begin to reverse.

I know you didn’t come here for astronomical info, and I’m confident that nearly everyone stumbling into this post already knew all that, but in a Sunday column devoted to black- and black-adjacent metal it’s hard to resist the observation that darkness now begins its reign once more, a coronation that doesn’t always fall on a Sunday.

To commemorate the ascending reign of darkness in our skies, here’s some dark music for you. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: BARATHRUM, MARRAS, THYRATHEN, ÄERA

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Sep 152024
 


Barathrum

(written by Islander)

I’ll put my cards on the table (it’s a very weak hand):  I got a late start on this Sunday morning and my beautiful black chariot will turn into a pumpkin very soon, which is to say that very soon I’ll have to leave home for the rest of the day due to other commitments.

Which is to say that, because time is short, I don’t have very much new black metal to recommend today. But I hope that the few things I’ve been able to hurriedly write about below will still succeed in ruining improving your day. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ANTE-INFERNO, ANTIKVLT, SKOGNATT, ANOMALIE, YOTH IRIA

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Sep 082024
 

Yesterday I bemoaned the trouble that weeks ending in Bandcamp Friday’s create for me in trying to compile the usual Saturday roundup for NCS. It creates similar troubles for picking music to recommend in these Shades of Black collections: just way too much potentially interesting stuff to check out.

Yesterday I tried to compensate (only slightly) by stuffing a greater-than-usual number of new songs into the roundup. For better or worse, I don’t have time to do that today — below you’ll find only four advance tracks and one new EP. I hope you like all of it, or at least find some one thing to brighten (i.e., darken) your day.

ANTE-INFERNO (UK)

In the fall of this year Ante-Inferno will release their third album in what is developing as a steady every-two-years sequence (our own Andy Synn reviewed their first two albums here and here). Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: DEADSPACE, ABERRATOR, LYCOPOLIS, ASCALAPHA, SEROTONIN

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Sep 012024
 

(written by Islander)

Sometimes when I compile these Sunday selections I plan ahead, doing lots of listening days in advance and narrowing the choices to a set before starting to peck out the words. Other times I wing it — listening, picking, and writing as I go, not knowing what the collection will look like until I just run out of time. This is one of those days.

So you could say that today’s collection is far more randomized than would be ideal. But the truth is, they’re always random. I can never listen to everything; I always have to reach a stopping point; and worthy releases always get neglected.

That would cause severe anxiety if I thought this site were the sole filter or funnel for new black and black-ish metal (or metal of any other kind), but of course that’s not true. People discover new music in a multitude of other ways (even if some of those will lead you astray), and eventually I remember that and the shakes go away… eventually. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ARKONA, GROZA, GAEREA, AETHYRICK, SVRM, EZKATON

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Aug 252024
 


Arkona

(written by Islander)

Yesterday I read a story about a recent lobster-boat race across Casco Bay along the coast of Maine. It was won by a man and his 14-year-old daughter, with his daughter at the wheel of their 32-foot diesel-powered fishing boat. The man summarized their race strategy to a reporter: “Point it and punch it!”

Today’s collection includes new music from black metal bands who follow a similar strategy, but it also includes music that reveals a different strategy, something more like “slow it and sink it” (and maybe set it on fire first).

What ties all the music together is the presence of emotionally moving melodies and often the achievement of a certain scale and sweep (vast). Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: HÄXENZIJRKELL, BONJOUR TRISTESSE, TOUR D’IVOIRE, HYVER, HORNS & HOOVES

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Aug 182024
 


Häxenzijrkell – photo by Sophia W

(written by Islander)

Two days ago I woke up with a burst blood vessel in one eye. The entire space in the sclera between the iris and the inner corner of the eye had turned a deep and solid red, as if some devil-worshiping artist had figured out how to photoshop the real me.

It doesn’t hurt, nor has it affected my vision, but it looks hideous. The Mayo Clinic’s website says this condition (a “subconjunctival hemorrhage”) will heal itself in a couple of weeks, as the conjunctiva slowly absorbs the blood over time. The same site lists potential causes, but none of them seem to fit my situation, unless I rubbed that eye really hard in my sleep.

For the sake of symmetry, I’ve wondered if there is a non-painful way to burst a blood vessel in the other eye. I thought if I played today’s selections of black metal extra-loud, that might do the trick. So far, no luck; a blown-out eardrum is more likely, but blood draining from the ear canal would also create a kind of symmetry, yes? Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ISOLERT, DRAGSHOLM, SERVANT, FIRTAN

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Aug 112024
 

(written by Islander)

Sadly, this week’s collection of the blacker arts will be brief, not just smaller than yesterday’s Tyrannosaur-sized collection but smaller than the weekly average for this column. I’ve got to get out of the house with my spouse and join up with some other hooligans this morning for day-drinking and ping-ponging words (yes, even people just a stone’s throw from assisted-living age can act like hooligans).

So that’s all the intro I’ve got. I better get to it or this will be even shorter that projected.

ISOLERT (Greece)

I spilled a lot of words about the “devastating magnificence” of this Greek band’s last album, 2020’s World In Ruins — words such as “soaring”, “sweeping”, “near-celestial”, “blazing”, and “tumultuous”, but also “crushing”, “stately”, “dolorous”, and “sublime”. It created ruinous maelstroms but also reached epic heights of glory. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SWAMPWORM, ESOCTRILIHUM, ZEIT DER DUNKELHEIT, NOEN HATER OSS, HORRENDA, VICIOUS BLADE

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Aug 042024
 

It’s been tough sledding to pick music for this Sunday’s column. Not because of moguls — there’s no snow outside here in the Pacific Northwest, other than in the black metal, where it’s always snowing or sleeting somewhere. No, the sledding has been tough for the usual reason — too damn many options and not enough time.

Here’s what I chose for today before being thrown into a drift, head down, ass up. I think they will keep you off-balance.

SWAMPWORM (Germany)

Based on their name you might think Swampworm play some kind of murky, rotten-to-the-core death metal, but on their new EP Architeuthis they instead lay into a blast-furnace discharge of dissonant black metal and ruinous blackened grindcore, but with a few variations along the way. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: RAAT, PAYDRETZ, STARER, GEISTERFAUST, HAND OF OMEGA, SALQIU, MANṢŪR, MORK

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Jul 302024
 

Hopefully you noticed that we began the last NCS Sunday with a premiere. That song and video by Weald & Woe were well worth the time required to prepare the write-up, and it would have fit well into the usual Sunday roundup of new black and black-ish metal, but it did leave me with less time than I needed to pull together the usual Shades of Black column.

So, I’ve taken an extra two days to finish gathering together what I wanted to recommend this week. I’m very happy with these eight selections and hope you’ll also find all of them well worth your time. (Yeah, there’s a lot here — bookmark it, try a little here and a little there, in between trying to make a living, drinking yourself silly, washing your cat and your clothes, bathroom breaks, sleeping, etc.)

RAAT (India)

As steadfast visitors to our site are well aware, I’ve been enthusiastically following the progression of Raat‘s music since early days, and thus was eager to delve into the band’s fourth album, Enchantment, which was released about 10 days ago. Continue reading »

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