Who decided to file Portrayal of Guilt under Screamo? Where should we file them? I don’t know, that’s for folks who spend their time and energy in the endless heavy music genre debates and on websites like Encyclopaedia Metallum to decide. You know, the type of people that will insist that Annihilator isn’t a Thrash band as they really fall under Speed Metal. They are truly doing the Lord’s work. But to slap the screamo tag on Portrayal of Guilt, particularly on We Are Always Alone (Closed Casket Activities) seems a bit simplistic.
Post-metal group Chrome Waves will release The Cold Light Of Despair, a collection of both new and previously released singles, covers, and more. The record drops November through guitarist Jeff Wilson’s independent label Disorder Recordings. Following nearly five years of silence, Chrome Waves was revamped and relaunched in 2018 with a new lineup containing former members of Wolvhammer, Nachtmystium, Abigail Williams, Amiensus, and more. The band issued their excellent and highly anticipated debut LP, A Grief Observed, on their own in early 2019, after which it was picked up by Avantgarde Music for vinyl and European release. The band has toured several times throughout the year with the likes of Tombs, Without Waves, Amiensus, and others, and several covers, singles, and more have seen digital release along the way. Continue reading →
Underground post-Black metal supergroup Chrome Waves (members of Wolvhammer, Nachtmystium, Abigail Williams, Amiensus) has signed a new deal with long-running label Avantgarde Music, for the European vinyl release of the band’s recently released debut LP, the acclaimed A Grief Observed. Chrome Waves’ has booked a Midwestern June US tour with Tombs approaches and West Coast dates with Suicide Forest in August.Continue reading →
Midwestern kvlt band Chrome Waves, consisting of former members of Wolvhammer, Nachtmystium, Abigail Williams, The Gates Of Slumber, Amiensus, and more booked further tour dates for North American tour dates supporting their impending debut full-length LP, A Grief Observed, due out March 1st through Disorder Recordings. The record was engineered by Niko Albanese with the band’s James Benson and Jeff Wilson and finished with artwork by Wilson. Chrome Waves will tour dates through the Midwest from February 27th through March 3rd, with shows in Minneapolis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Milwaukee, the five-city trek sees the band joined by Without Waves. The band also now confirms a subsequent run of tour dates in April, with shows in Toronto, Ottawa, Portland, and Providence April 4th through 7th. Former Skeletonwitch drummer Dustin Boltjes will fill in on drums for all confirmed live dates.Continue reading →
You know you’ve got a chuckle fest on your hands when an EP opens with samples from Darren Aronofsky’s movie, Requiem for a Dream (just save yourself some time and watch a few baby seals being clubbed to death: same effect.) And so it proves to be the case with Resilient (Prophecy), the four-track comeback release from Black Metal happy campers Nachtmystium.Continue reading →
Enigmatic, but genius band Nachtmystium, led by Blake Judd, who helped usher in the current generation of atmospheric black metal in the US has returned. The band have signed with respected Prophecy Productions and will release a new EP, dubbed Resilient in early 2018. Details below:Continue reading →
It’s not a bad time for the American Black Metal scene. Seems like every year we’re getting superb releases from upstarts and institutions like Leviathan, Krallice, Nachtmystium (RIP), Wolves In The Throne Room, Vattnet Viskar, and dare I say, Deafheaven. Woe, and their latest album, Hope Attrition (Vendetta) are no exception to this budding tradition.Continue reading →
Fortune favours the brave, and Carach Angren are forging something of a name for themselves by putting effort into the narratives of their albums, and looking to create something that at least pokes a toe outside the rigid walled box labelled “Black Metal”. A concept album that unfurls telling a story of two children caught up in a chilling horror (no spoilers here, if you want to find out the full extent of a tale that makes King Diamond’s tales seem like bedtime stories you will need to find out the hard – and heavy – way), This Is No Fairytale (Season of Mist) is the Dutch orators most compelling release to date.
Eschewing the usual black metal practice of ripping off thirty year old albums (praise be the dark lord!), Carach Angren are trying something different, with reference points of Abrahadabra (Nuclear Blast) and Grand Declaration of War (Necropolis), This Is No Fairytale takes the blood-curdling scream of black metal, and mixes it in the cauldron with a caustic steampunked Nachtmystium, darkened Imaginaerium (Nuclear Blast) symphonics and a liberal dose of Tim Burton.
While the resultant “whole” unfortunately doesn’t quite equal the sum of its parts, there are some very good parts here. The Dutch trio’s fourth album is an ambitious and enjoyable album, though at times it does allow certain tracks to outstay their welcome (‘Two Flies Flew Into A Black Sugar Cobweb’) and perhaps lacks a certain je ne sais quoi in the hook department.
This isn’t to put This Is No Fairytale down, because “when you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either” (Leo Burnett) and this stomping, frictional theatrical album conjures twisted Burton-esque images, especially during interlude ‘Dreaming of a Nightmare in Eden’. Carach Angren are at least looking to carve their own niche, and they aren’t too far from pulling the twisted nails of faith together to make their own maddened masterpiece.
