Coming out of Louisville, Kentucky is Volcandra with a brand new 4 song EP jam-packed and overflowing with melodic Black Metal fury. Their 2020 debut full-length debut, Into the Azure, was met with tons of fanfare thanks to their science fiction futuristic driven songwriting approach and furious live performances. Border World (Prosthetic) is just enough to satisfy their fan’s appetites until another proper full length can be produced.Continue reading
Once upon a time, I got a compliment on a hoodie I was wearing while ordering a beer at a brewery, and said bartender recommended a band called Falls of Rauros. I immediately checked them out and it was an easy win for my library of music. Now, the New England black metal group is back with another stellar release in Key to a Vanishing Future (Eisenwald Recordings/Gilead Media). Six tracks over the course of nearly forty-five minutes with each song keeping you intrigued is a true chef’s kiss.
One of the more fascinating projects to be revived during everyone’s pandemic-induced free time, Darkwoods My Betrothed has returned with their first album since 1998’s Witch-Hunts. Angel of Carnage Unleashed (Napalm Records) sustains their old style for the most part, showing off a variant of Viking Black Metal with hearty Symphonic flourishes. Of course, it’s always interesting to see how time will toy with a preexisting formula, especially one that has gone undisturbed for twenty-three years.
It used to be easy, doing the devil’s good work. A pentagram here or there, maybe an inverted cross on the forehead, and audiences would cower at your brimstone-summoning bravura. But the competition for our evil-seeking dollar and download has grown to unspeakable proportions. Just ask Sam Astaroth, vocalist for Toronto-based death metal gurus Astaroth Incarnate about the demands of wickedness in 2019. A Mephisto-summoning moniker doesn’t go far enough, even housed in a thorny, nigh-unreadable font. Add a few bullet-belted warlocks crawling from the backwoods with pointy guitars, not to mention Sam’s own demon warpaint. Yet, these hellacious Canadians are still restless and wild.Continue reading
Black metal with a clean, crisp production and actual melody isn’t going to work for everyone. To some, it’s just not “cult” enough if it doesn’t sound like it was recorded at the bottom of a well, but Infera Bruo are three records into their career now and they’re still able to sound vibrant and full of ethereal evil. The emphasis, as ever with Infera Bruo, is on the balance of dark ambience with hints of malice scattered throughout. However, while Cerement (Prosthetic) is more to-the-point than previous releases, it lacks the memorable flair of both of its predecessors.Continue reading
Québécois Black Metallers Délétère have often had an air of mystique and the outrageous in their cannon, and the overriding narrative of latest album De Horae Leprae (Sepulchral Productions) is arguably more conceptual, with it being devoted to “Teredinis, a simple leper whose calling it is to become a prophet of Centipedes, as well as an incarnation of the Plague.” With such a vivid and eccentric conceptual idea behind it, its surprising to note that De Horae Leprae is a comparatively simplistic listen, albeit one with plenty of wealth.Continue reading
Full disclosure here, something about Scumpulse piqued my interest enough to pick this one out of the myriad of potential albums to assault my ears with for review, but at the time, I wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe it was that I expected fun, ugly grindcore (which this isn’t)? Maybe it’s that I trust the source that it came from? Or just maybe it’s because the UK is a hotbed of talented, abrasive, creative intent bubbling and broiling just below the surface of everyone’s conscious right now and I didn’t want to miss out on the next thrilling, grimy rendition? Continue reading
2017 is shaping up to be quite a year for heavy music as Shores of Null are back with their sophomore release, Black Drapes For Tomorrow (Candlelight). Track by track, I found a similar theme across the entire record. While I can headbang through each song, there is also this overwhelming sadness that comes out from the riffs and the vocals. This is truly an emotionally polarizing experience which deserves everyone’s time of day.Continue reading
Reaction to Chicago trio Locrian has often been mixed: their melody-infused, Black-edged expression offending as many purists as it delights fans of obsidian innovation. Latest album Infinite Dissolution (Relapse) initially continues that progressive sound with opener ‘Arc of Extinction’ possessing the kind of introductory swell perfected by the likes of Yes and Pink Floyd. The blackened horror soon emerges, however: Terence Hannum’s rasps exploding against the sudden quickening of pace, André Foisy’s Post-black leads “bipping” furiously over a hissing cacophony à la fellow US dark experimentalists Liturgy.
The ensuing ‘Dark Shales’ begins with melancholic twangs, ethereal airs coating muffled tub-thumping, and some emotive soloing from Foisy. Here it becomes clear that Locrian has evolved from its nebulous indecision into a talented outfit, determined to parade all of their influences. ‘…Shales’ truly evokes grey, wash-battered stone beaches yet marries them to an odyssey through space, delicately yet with latent power. The first of the ‘KXL’ trilogy, meanwhile, incorporates industrial sampling into its mournful yet spiky melodies before squalling, ominous feedback reintroduces the band’s edge: a bitterness which infuses the spacier, grandiose parts of the second movement’s eerie, orchestral keys.
Symphonics play a subtle yet important role in Infinite Dissolution’s character. Lush Moogs, at times cosmic, at others Numan-esque, quell the van Eeckhout-style vocal agonies of ‘The Future of Death’. The swelling atmospherics of album centrepiece ‘An Index of Air’ ascend to frostbitten roars and a frenetic gallop, soulful harmonies climaxing the epitome of superior quality, inventive, melodic Black metal.
There are imperfections – it takes time for the pulsing rush of ‘The Great Dying’ to kick in but the heart is eventually piqued; the over-gentle rhythms and electronica of ‘Heavy Water’, meanwhile, are enlivened by the odd venture into harsher territory and more cold, “post” guitar. The main issue here is that the band still fall between two huge stools: still too soft and whimsical for pure Black hearts; whilst possessing too many harsh interludes for fans of melodious Rock.
Infinite Dissolution, however, is arguably the band’s strongest to date: a stirring, inventive work that will undoubtedly win Locrian much admiration.
7.0/10
PAUL QUINN
Nekrogoblikon aren’t doing this for critical acclaim, or good reviews, and as such, probably don’t give a Stench (sic – self released) what people think of their merits, or otherwise, instead doing this to have fun, stand out from a maddening crowd, and provide a platform for Goblin related buffoonery all to the backing track of some uptempo meloblack. If you’re looking for something progressive, epic, developed or overtly serious Heavy Meta (released on the band’s own Mystery Box label) probably isn’t for you. Swim in the shark-and-troll infested seas of Alestorm and Finntroll and you may have come to the right place, my fiends.
Crawling out of the underground cave where they undoubtedly concoct their foul brews, Scorpion, in his best Abbath croak, spits out “Babies, children, women and men, Get ready to implode on the count of ten. One… Two… TEN!” and we’re off into their stompy, earwormy world of melodic black metal and opener ‘The End of Infinity’. As the album progresses, keys dance and enhance over contagious songs, as the guitars chug and spray, hitting into Children of Bodom and more so (early) In Flames territory (for the choruses, Scorpion is reminiscent of Anders Friden) as accusations of a lack of technical proficiency that have blighted previous releases are well and truly laid to rest.
With both clawed feet firmly grasping onto the mid-90’s carnival world of the post-second wave – bands like Old Man’s Child, Borknagar, Arcturus and their ilk – this is catchy, theatrical and not a million miles from Dimmu Borgir’s more theatrical mid-paced moments, not afraid to open out into Gothic baroque tech metal territory (yep) on pairing ‘Snax & Violence’ and ‘Atlantis’, or just invoke a full on filthy party on the Andrew W.K. endorsed ‘Let’s Get Fucked’.
With elements of huumpa, Viking, classic, black, thrash and melodeath metal, Nekrogoblikon have a fair arsenal to bite, scratch and claw at your ankles and demand your attention. Ensuring each track is both memorable, likable and distinct from its predecessor, this is an enjoyable romp through a critter infested world that shows us just how these ‘gobli(ko)ns (black and) roll.
7.0/10
STEVE TOVEY