SHADES OF BLACK: VETER DAEMONAZ, SEPTUAGINT, NADSVEST, JOURS PÂLES, HEKSEBLAD

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Apr 212024
 

I got a late start on the day and my NCS time is rapidly running out, so I’ll skip the usual long-winded introduction and just quickly summarize what I’ve picked to recommend below:

This collection includes startling new songs from forthcoming records by four bands whose past releases I’ve enjoyed, and one recently released album from an equally startlng newcomer to these ears.

VETER DAEMONAZ (Russia)

To begin, I have a song from a new EP by the Saint Petersburg black metal band Veter Daemonaz, whose previous music I’ve commented about repeatedly in the posts collected here. The song is “На Север (первое видение)” (which means in English, according to Google Translate, “To the North (first vision)”). Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: SARPA, GRÁ, JOURS PÂLES, EMPYREAN VESSEL, STELLAR DESCENT

 Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK, SHORT BUT SWEET  2 Responses »
Dec 042022
 


Sarpa

The usual Sunday routine, waking up and not preparing for church, like some unfathomable number of people around the world do, but instead knowing that I’ll spend the next couple of hours listening and re-listening to nothing but variants of black metal, including the Satan-worshiping, Christ-hating variants.

It’s a habit I’m quite comfortable with, at least when I get a decent Saturday-night sleep and keep the Saturday-night drinking at a moderate level. The task of picking and choosing from what I’ve heard creates an inner tension I could do without, but it’s the need to choose that drives the listening. I wouldn’t be making choices if I weren’t writing this thing, and if I weren’t writing this thing I doubt I’d be spending Sunday mornings listening to black metal.

But I’d probably just be making other choices, and less pleasurable ones — wash the dishes? do a load of laundry? pay some nagging bills? heat up the leftover pizza or eat it cold? dig deeper into why 1,700 seals have been found dead on Russia’s Caspian coast?

Nah, I don’t want to make those choices. I made these instead: Continue reading »