SHADES OF BLACK: OFERMOD, PROFECI, SORGUINAZIA, HELLIGE, TRUUS, FLESIA, LAMP OF MURMUUR

 SHADES OF BLACK  7 Responses »
Sep 192021
 

 

I got a spike of excitement from a couple of of Bandcamp alerts, only to feel letdown after clicking them. One was for a new Cantique Lepreux release, but none of the songs are streaming there yet. The other was for a new Wormlust release, but there’s no page for it yet, or maybe there was and it got pulled. But it’s just as well, because I already had more to write about for this week’s column than time to write about them.

What you’ll find below are six advance tracks from forthcoming releases and then a pair of full releases that surfaced from the same band within the last couple of days.

OFERMOD (Sweden)

Ofermod wasted no time returning with a new album, just a year after 2020’s Pentagrammaton (which was itself a double album). The new one is entitled Mysterium Iniquitatis, and it  sees the original lineup joined together once again – Belfagor on guitar and vocalist Nebiros (Malign, Mephorash) – with session bass by Magnus “Devo” Andersson (ex-Marduk) and session drums by Calle Larsson. Continue reading »

SHORT BUT SWEET (PART 2): TRUUS, BRZASK, LEECHES, OMNIVOID

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jun 062020
 

 

This concludes a post I began here two days ago devoted mainly to new EPs I’ve been enjoying lately. This one is devoted to shades of black metal, and includes four debut releases.

TRUUS

I’ll begin with Dawn of Perdition, a stunning four-track assault by the band Truus from Bloomington, Indiana.

There’s a raw, scorching abrasion in the riffs, matched by the incendiary madness of the vocals, and a powerful low-end thrust coupled with dynamic, skull-busting drumwork. Opener “Fourth Seal” incorporates sensations of imperious power and wild writhing and wailing derangement, while the moaning and braying chords and flickering leads of the title track create an atmosphere that’s more ominous. Both tracks are tremendously intense, and manage to spawn visions of terrifying grandeur as well as spine-tingling violence. Continue reading »