SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): MORAST, ANTIMONUMENT, ISKALDE MORKET, DUSKSEEKER, BEZDECH

 SHADES OF BLACK  3 Responses »
Jul 042021
 

 

Happy Fourth to all of you in the U.S. Hope you have something worth celebrating, even if it’s mainly the chance to safely commingle in the flesh with people you haven’t seen in a while. As usual on a Sunday, I’m celebrating the discovery of new dire, dismal, demented, and demolishing blackened sounds.

In Part 1 of this thing yesterday I focused on a handful of individual tracks. Today, with some help, I’ve selected a group of full releases — most of which pay little homage to ancestral Scandinavian second-wave black metal. Like yesterday I’ve mostly kept my commentary briefer than usual. I’ve got other tasks ahead of me today, though they won’t include cookouts, fireworks, or drowning in beer.

MORAST (Germany)

I’m bookending this collection with recommendations from starkweather‘s Rennie, beginning with Morast’s new 7″ EP, The Palingenesis, which was released on May 21st by Ván Records/Totenmusik. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): ISKALDE MORKET, COLDWORLD, OMNIKINETIC, CRUSTY OLD TOAD

 SHADES OF BLACK  4 Responses »
Mar 232020
 

 

Here’s the second part of this week’s column, which I began here yesterday. As usual, I’ve been unable to write about everything I wanted to write about and have had to be (relatively) brief, but that’s because I have a couple of album reviews to finish writing — they will accompany premiere streams today, both of which will be worth your time.

All of the music you’ll find below was created by one-person bands — one from the UK, one from Germany, and two from Portland, Oregon. In these days of the virus, when most people follow the edicts of social distancing, we may come to increasingly rely on such one-person projects for new music. Not all of that will be as good as what you’re about to discover.

ISKALDE MORKET

This is the UK project I mentioned; its creator lives in Norwich. The album, Metaphysics of Mass Murder, was released on March 17th. The band’s thumbnail description of the music on Bandcamp is “Apex Dissonance. Labyrinthine Technical Black Metal”, and that happens to be not only evocative but also accurate — though it doesn’t go quite far enough. Continue reading »