ALBUM PREMIERE & INTERVIEW: ‘Εἴδωλον’ by BENTHIK ZONE

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Through the mythical portal

And intoxicated by reflection

I dream of her naked

In the illumination of present

Which spectrum

From the lost zone in time

Immense abyss of the submerged kingdom

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Today, we at Black Metal Daily are proud to partner with the lords at Onism Productions to procure for you a twisted journey through mythology and madness. An experience dazzling, discombobulating and deeply disturbing, that cannot be easily explained. Ladies and gentlemen, we present you the exclusive full-stream premiere of Εἴδωλον, the third album of Portuguese experimentalists BENTHIK ZONE.

If you’ve previously encountered the unconventional works of Messrs Bragadast / Francisco Braga and Einsichtmartur / Artur Leão you’ll no doubt be well aware of their peculiar qualities – Εἴδωλον, which translates as “Eídolon” from ancient Greek, blows all of those previous works away. Thematically dense and expressing “a parallel between classical antiquity and contemporaneity by creating a poetic dialogue with various myths”, this innovative album is a myth unto itself as strange melodies wind and dissipate with increased clarity within an hallucinatory maelstrom built of the familiar and very alien, one moment unbelievably beautiful and the next raging with a fury that seems to shimmer in and out of multiple dimensions. Songs roar then abruptly end and become the gentle sounds of running water, there are devastating noise passages that seem to deconstruct existence… the album even ends and begins in a loop as the final track becomes the first, so once you’re lost in its thrall you might not even know how long you’ve been listening and may come to realise you’ve been stuck within infinite tumbling realities, time has become abstract and meaningless, and you’ve probably heard the record six times over without realizing.

If I had to pick a similar artist to help describe what they do, I would suggest looking towards Entropy Created Consciousness for a similarly fearless and intricate sonic approach with an intellectual lyrical slant; but even that sells this short and is, to be honest, entirely misleading. Nobody does what Benthik Zone do and Εἴδωλον is, without a shadow of doubt, their crowning achievement. The best thing they’ve ever done.

Thus; listen to the full-stream of this extraordinary release and read an in-depth interview with the enigmatic entities behind its creation below… with Εἴδωλον, Benthik Zone are creating their own wild and untameable mythology, inexplicable by its very nature. All we can do is dive in.

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Greetings, Benthik Zone. It is a pleasure to be speaking with you today for the full-stream of your third full-length, Εἴδωλον. 

Now, I must talk about something straight off the bat. Accompanying the album was a fascinating text explaining that Εἴδωλον is you looking through a portal created by the transition between using mythical language and… well, I’ll let you explain it as I’m not quite sure I’ve understood it correctly. Can you tell us what is going on throughout Εἴδωλον?

BZ – This portal is somehow paradoxical, as it marks a simultaneous rupture and continuity between our last release and εἴδωλον. This is due to the fact that in the single ‘Metaphysics from the Eleventh Dimension’ the focus was to explore the concepts derived from the hypothetical über-string theory known as M-theory that consists in the possible existence of 11 dimensions of reality, beyond the 3 spatial dimensions and the 4th temporal one. This theory investigates the possibility that our reality in its 11th dimension is made-up of all the possible elements that represent all the possible branches of every possible timeline of all the potential universes, thus, opening for us a portal to the world of εἴδωλον. We tried, in this new phase, to make a greater evocation of the symbolical language of myths, and so, distancing ourselves from the rationalism that characterized previous works. Putting our focus on creating multiple narratives, small stories with fantastic and contradictory plots in which the richness of mental images would be suggestive and more open for interpretation. In other words, the great difference between the past releases and the current one lies in the use of verbal/non-verbal language that is in nature more fictional and less factual, which was provided in the last release to us through the knowledge of the hard sciences. Their great similarities lie in the fact that both approaches are concerned with diving deeper in order to find the primordial essence of nature. 

Εἴδωλον translates as “Eídolon”, Greek for “sacred image”, “shadow” or “phantom” – which is intriguing. What meaning does this title hold in relation to the album and its themes?

– We found this term on a fragment of the book L’Homme-cerf et la femme-araignée: Figures grecques de la metamorphose by Françoise Frontisi-Ducroux. This book describes and examines a series of classical myths that proved to be of interest to us. It was in fact the whole point in reading it, thus obtaining a source of the descriptions and specific moments of narration that consubstantiated one of the starting points for creating the lyrical basis of the album. 

Going through the text of the book, one of the analyses of myths that we decided to pay attention to, was the one speaking about the story of Actaeon. We were very quickly fascinated, on the one hand, by the idea of being able to follow and imagine the highly complex transformation that occurred in the body of this character through the poetic and musical universe, but also by the uncanny nature of the punishment inflicted to Actaeon after seeing the goddess Diana stripped naked. We were inspired by the unfortunate posthumous physiological configuration that came as a consequence of his act of voyeurism. The allusion to this myth appeared in the song ‘da zona perdida no tempo’.

We now go on to quote the passage from this analysis that led us to use the term eidolon: 

“Everything takes place as if the dogs, in devouring the corporal wrapping of Actaeon, had brought forth the image in two successive forms: first, his eidolon, an inapprehensible and fleeting double, then his agalma, a durable statue, in bronze and stone, to fix the former.” 

Beyond this interesting convergence between the term εἴδωλον and the culmination of the myth (Actaeon) from which we were inspired, it was perceived that in general terms the meaning of particular interest to us, in the context of this album, was that of a spectre, ghost, that has been vexing us at every stage of our work. 

For this album, you seem to have taken in an incredible amount of influences – the first streaming single ‘na iluminação do presente’ alone was inspired by the writings of Apollonius of Rhodes, Two Strange Tales by Mircea Eliade, and even the Princess Mononoke anime. What other noteworthy influences became a part of Εἴδωλον, and how do you utilise them to explore the overarching theme of the album?

– Given that this album has as its core theme the universe of mythology, namely mythological stories from classical antiquity with a focus on some of its topics such as metamorphosis, we cannot fail to mention the importance of the reading we did of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This work is a reference collection because it is a powerful repository of mythological stories that combines in its structure and text the Greek and Roman tradition. Besides this author’s focus on the theme of metamorphosis, we also identify a brilliant exploration of the concept of love in its broadest sense, of the art of seduction, as well as of the various psychological tones that he distils in each of the characters he tackles in this poetic work. 

The approach and preparation for the exercise of writing and musical composing was done through the passionate reading of the third book belonging to Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In this reading, besides the myth of Actaeon, we came across the interesting story of Narcissus that aroused significantly our curiosity. Son of the nymph Liriope, also punished for his vision, falls madly in love with his double, eventually succumbing to death. It was from the focus of this myth that emerged, for example, the song ‘e embriagado pelo reflexo’ in which we explore our idée-fixe with the Doppelgänger, something that was extremely difficult especially when trying to mimic and translate it through words and sounds. 

For instance, we chose, or allowed to be influenced by, this mythological theme (Narcissus) because we understood the potential that mobile phones and cameras have today, we see that the possibility of rapid capture and the automation of functions are factors that lead to a more trivial and less premeditated capture of images. This new reality creates the environment and conditions for the easy emergence, on the one hand of a falling in love with the image and, on the other hand, with the image of the “double” that technologies now allow each one of us to capture with the greatest of ease. The individual may thus succumb to these practices and, through these mechanisms and without any real awareness of their action, operate on behalf of their vanity and actively participate in a process that promotes narcissistic obsession, which is what they feel for their self-representation. 

Naturally, the album remains as extraordinarily experimental as previous works – each track is a mind-expanding experience, with myriad sonic techniques and textures apparent. What is the making of a Benthik Zone track like for you? What happens to create this magic?

– First there is the constant subconscious absorption of stimuli that we are faced with daily. These can be stimuli of artistic nature or of mundane events. Musically, we are fascinated by many languages and genres of expression, and so, the instinctual curiosity to understand how these expressions come about makes us want to start playing. Starting is often the hardest part, the challenge being able to discern the different degrees of power that arise from the essence of initial gestures. However, once that first riff, rhythm or atmosphere is found, the track starts taking autonomy of the whole process and we become vessels for what it is that the track wants to become. 

From a technical standpoint, did you approach the creation of Εἴδωλον in any differing fashion to your previous albums?

– Yes, we did. 

B – In the works of our ACVCO anthology and in M11thD I navigated us through those concepts. So, when I was composing, I knew what I was after and Leão wrote the lyrics according to some brief guidelines I gave him. In this project we decided that he was going to have complete independence in the conceptual and lyrical aspects of the album. This was a process that adapted itself as it went forth since we were trying something new, hence, in the beginning, I merely presented instrumental tracks to which he then chose the poem best fitting to it. Yet, I still wanted for the album to have a journey-like feeling to it, so I needed to know of some order to be ascribed to the poems, to be able to consider the transitions between the tracks, next to the dynamics of the whole album as a piece. For the first time I had to use drawing as a tool for this understanding of the song progression.

Now, the greatest change came about when I was left with three poems. I then decided to have direct inspiration from the atmospheric evocations that the words provoked in me, reading verse by verse and then creating a suitable musical interpretation. The poems had infused entirely into my creative process, and then, I just told Leão how that interpretation was by me sought-out so that his vocal depiction would fit in it.

The album features some truly fantastic additional instrumentation, courtesy of Guilherme Correia. What was it like to work with him? Did you already have preconceived notions and provide direction in regards to what you wanted him to bring to the table, or did you give him free creative reign to add to your compositions? 

– We let him listen to the album and tell us where he would like to participate, even though between ourselves we knew where we wanted it, nonetheless we still sought to hear some outside perspective. Our views coincided almost entirely, and that made everything happen quite smoothly from there onwards since we also knew him to be a quite extraordinary musician. To answer your question, yes, he did have some creative freedom inside that which is the nature of interpreting an already quite defined piece of work. He was able to add some charm and depth to the segments which otherwise would lack in these and other qualities.

Once again, as always, you have bestowed the album with some fascinating and symbolic cover art. Fitting with the themes, it seems to take on more of a fantasy aspect than previous releases – an ornate frame looking through into another world, and that world creeping through into ours. Could you tell us a little more about this piece? Who is the artist?

– The artwork for this cover, unlike the previous ones, was the result of a collaboration between both of us. Leão was responsible for capturing the phantasmagorical image of the tree located on the centre of the cover, which we identify as the “punctum” and is the direct link to the name of the album. This image was retrieved from a project he, Leão, carried out in the context of an artistic residence (2019), in which he decided to use the photographic medium as a vehicle to explore a surrealistic gaze by visually portraying a protected landscape called Corno de Bico in Northern Portugal. The images were marked by a strong monochromatic identity that brought a particular atmosphere helping the viewer to understand the territory, the dynamics and movement of the beings inhabiting this protected landscape. These images were those already used in the context of this release to promote singles or to embellish CDs and Cassettes.

Leão was also responsible for the elaboration of the frame full of stellar figurations that represent the characters contained in the narratives of εἴδωλον. Braga, on the other hand, the one who usually conceives the whole cover artwork, painted in acrylic the narrow portal that surrounds the tree and edited the image in a digital laboratory to create a more harmonious piece. 

Listening through the record, there are certainly progressions and evolution apparent from your earlier works – both thematically and sonically. With Εἴδωλον, do you feel you are getting closer to any original intentions that you may have had for Benthik Zone when you began it in 2016, or has the project now transcended your initial ideas for it?

– It has transcended our initial ideas for sure, not only in terms of the concepts behind the albums but also in the performance of the musicians. Furthermore, the attainment of a clearer sound that was undoubtedly a path to be taken in our project helped us to remove some of the naïve clutter we left behind. 

We sometimes say that this is our first release, and that the anthology was but a demo where we freely experimented with whatever came to us. This experimentation worked as the foundation to what we are now, both conceptually and sonically, and then, alongside our individual personalities, Benthik Zone gained a new and more mature nature of expression.

For those unaware, let us also travel briefly back to your formation. What desires or circumstances did lead to the original spark and creation of Benthik Zone?

– Our musical project was born when we were still playing in a band of 5 elements. It was at this stage that we started to gain a passion for the creation of sound structures that were somewhat related to black metal music. Our technical skills and our ease when performing this style of music started growing, and in 2015 we left the band due to some lack of similarity with the project’s intentions. After Braga tried out for himself to establish a comfort zone in composing, through his solo project “Afogado”, we realized that 2 elements were enough to tell a story through music that would be the vessel for our fantasies, fictions and critical viewpoints about contemporary society, which, by this time, were still only in our minds. The basic idea and starting point of this project was to combine the fictional and documental worlds, approaching openly the topic of the deep ocean and the species that inhabit it. Our intention was to create an atmosphere and cavernous environment, fearful… The depths of the ocean were the proper place to imagine this same environment. That is also where the designation “Benthik Zone” came from. 

Even though we are not necessarily always making a direct relation with the ocean, the term “benthic zone” is still applicable to our work. It serves as a metaphor of diving deep within ourselves, in the collective unconscious, and bringing out what we find. 

After the dust has settled on Εἴδωλον – where do you see Benthik Zone heading into the future? 

– Only time will tell us that. 

We are left adrift in the infinite realms of existence that the 11 dimensions have shown us, and so, every work we put out from here onwards will be sourced from this extremely open field of possibilities. 

And finally – as we are premiering the full-stream of Εἴδωλον today, I will leave the last words about it to you. What would you hope for someone experiencing the album for the first time, or indeed, entering the bizarre and dazzling world of Benthik Zone for the first time with this album? What lies in store for them within Εἴδωλον?

– The synthesis of this pre-diving experience can maybe lie in the text that we wrote on our album page. We invite you to read it.

Sincerest thanks for your time, Benthik Zone – and congratulations on another superb addition to your unique discography. Any parting words or wisdoms you would like to leave us with? 

– We are also very thankful for your words and consideration, as well as the support you bring to the underground and the underwater black metal scene.

Finally, a deep thank you to any of the people directly and indirectly involved with the Benthik Zone. 

Εἴδωλον releases January 28th via Onism Productions.

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Pre-order Εἴδωλον on CD, cassette and digital from the Onism Productions Bandcamp HERE or the Benthik Zone Bandcamp HERE.

Support BENTHIK ZONE:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Instagram

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Follow Black Metal Daily on Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and Bandcamp HERE for more cult sounds and tonal blasphemy.

The Past Never Dies – A Review of ‘Dance of the Witches’ by CULT OF THE NIGHT

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The time has come to attack

We can’t lose with the devil at our back

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ATTENTION, TRUE MANIACS: reigniting the blaze of ’80s speed/black metal destruction, the fiends of CULT OF THE NIGHT are here to enslave you to the RIFF and brand you with the diabolical mark of SATAN!

Yep, it’s been a hot minute since we covered anything like this so perhaps unsurprisingly, I’m fucking pumped. Spawned in my hometown hellfire of Melbourne Australia in 2018 via the collaboration of Penetrator on vocals and Aaron “Axe Attack” Maniac on guitar, the CULT initially distributed a three-track demo within clandestine circles in 2019. In 2022, they are now gearing up to unleash their debut full-length assault upon an unsuspecting public. Entitled Dance Of The Witches… it fucking RIIIIIPS.

One look at the track titles gives you an idea of what you’re in for, and as ‘No Stranger To Evil’ kicks into high-octane gear those assumptions are gloriously confirmed: falsetto wails, galloping drums trying to hammer your skull to pieces and thrashing guitar mayhem are the order of the day here. No expense is spared in the worship of the past, with both old heads and fans of newer speed riots like Bütcher undoubtedly finding shitloads to like. ‘Metal Riot’ gets even more iron-bolted METAL, and you can just tell both members are having the time of their fucking lives as catchy downpicked supremacy rules and Penetrator sounds like every drunk hellrocker headbanging and hollering his heart out to old Celtic Frost playing over the PA in the break between bands at shows that you’ve ever heard – in the best possible way. ‘Lusting To Burn’ slows up to a menacing stomp, ‘Maniac Killer’ is a personal favourite (tell me that riff doesn’t sound eerily like Beethoven‘s 5th), whilst the titular closer ‘Dance Of The Witches’ sums up everything that has gone before in a devastating explosion of sinister, leather-winged and sorcery-slashing force. All of these songs are well crafted, none of them are duds – these gents know their stuff and clearly grew up with this sort of thing instead of trying to mimic it decades after the fact.

There are some flaws, of course, but that’s the name of the game. Shit sounds juuuust the right amount like it’s about to fly off the rails in places – which is, of course, as it should be. Everything is obviously inspired (as the band themselves also note on Bandcamp) by Celtic Frost with touches of Running Wild, Venom and early Slayer thrown in for good measure, and therefore it does what it says on the label. However, rather than wallow as another half-arsed worship project / album, Dance Of The Witches nails the brief with a genuine blend of CULT power and self awareness – it’s fun as FUCK, and it’s supposed to be. I dare you to listen through these five tracks without headbanging or wishing you were out somewhere with mates listening to this stuff. It’s fucking impossible (the good news for anyone in Melbourne or surrounds is I’ve heard they are going to play shows soon, which rules – this shit is built for the live experience).

Mixed by Richard McMaster (Mar Mortuum) at Impure Sounds, mastered by Brendan Sloan (Convulsing, Altars) at Overland Studios and featuring killer cover art by Wendy J. Callisto, Dance Of The Witches is the all-around kick up the arse that 2022 needed to start off right (and drunk. Screaming claws-raised at the night sky. For Satan). The past isn’t only alive… with CULT OF THE NIGHT, it was never dead in the first place. Hails.

RATING: 4 / 5. NO STRANGER TO EVIL… YEAH!!!

Dance Of The Witches releases March 18th. Pre-orders available now.

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Pre-order Dance Of The Witches digitally from Bandcamp HERE. LP edition coming soon.

Support CULT OF THE NIGHT:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp

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Follow Black Metal Daily on Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and Bandcamp HERE for more cult sounds and tonal blasphemy.

BLACK METAL DAILY’S LISTCRUSH 2021: The GOS Edition

Well folks, it’s been a helluva year in black metal. Just like last year. And the one before that… and the one prior, and so on. Seems like a damn near impossible task at this point to keep up with all of the amazing music produced on a weekly basis in our obsidian corner of the metal world, let alone try to sift through and pick out those gems which, for each of us, really stand out and shine with that blackened light. Yet, here we are. End of the year list time again. Aside from borrowing from a handful of reviews I’ve already done this year, I’m just gonna start writing about the shit that I liked. Let’s call it … a memoir. My black metal top 50 memoir of 2021, ready? Here we go.

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ALBUM OF THE YEAR

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CÂN BARDD (Switzerland). My word, do I love that Devoured By The Oak album, currently listening on a daily basis! Came out towards the end of the year (November), but by my third playthrough I knew that it was in serious danger of usurping WINDFAERER for the number one spot of the year, a band which had laid claim to that position since like July or so. And I think it has done that. Not only did Devoured By The Oak manage, to some extent, to shove aside all other 2021 considerations, it also fuckkkking annihilates the previous CÂN BARDD discography, by a considerable degree IMO, reaching the grandiose folky realms already occupied by kings like SAOR, BORKNAGAR and WINTERSUN… and this somewhat sounds like a combination of those bands. Every song is a goddamn epic, and everything is perfectly timed and placed, all the somewhat awkward, clunky aspects of previous albums (which I never really got into at all) completely streamlined, cleaned up, and dialed in, particularly the drums. On top of that, it was released at the perfect time for me, the turn of the season into winter, right when I am in the mood to listen to exactly this sort of thing. It’s. Goddamn. Beautiful. 

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TIER ONE

[five creations of black art]

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And WINDFAERER’s (US, New Jersey) Breaths of Elder Dawns? It is excellent as well, right up there and by far my most listened to album of the year. Kudos to them for damn near achieving, with only violin (and a few extras here and there), the epic levels for which many other bands require an entire orchestra. They went from being a pretty good black metal band with good violin to really taking it to the next level in terms of composition and complexity and weaving it all together. They still very clearly have a black metal foundation, but there’s a lot of artistic, avant-garde elements which really make it massive, make it a masterpiece, yet without getting too off track. I think that with this album they have really broken free and reached a new pinnacle, not only in comparison to their own previous work but in comparison to any relevant subgenres of extreme metal in general: melodic black metal, post black metal, progressive metal, et cetera, with comparisons also to SAOR but additionally acts like NE OBLIVISCARIS, HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, and PANOPTICON. 

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FUNERAL MIST (Sweden). Can’t fuck with FUNERAL MIST. Surprise release with Deiform at the end of the year, but no surprise at all that it takes a top spot for me. Filled with blazing, unhinged riffs, unparalleled vocal variety, infernal blasting on all aspects of the drum kit, and a healthy dose of the religiously macabre, Mortuus delivers exactly what we would expect of black metal orthodoxy. Perhaps not as hellish as Devilry, not as blasphemous as Salvation, not as twisted and grotesque as Maranatha, not quite as contemplative as Hekatomb. Closest to sound to the previous two, but Deiform is darker and with more fire. It overtakes them on the speed/aggression factor and ultimately probably stands above Salvation as well. You cannot fuck with FUNERAL MIST.

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The atmospheric/symphonic subgenre, like the folk/pagan selections (overtaken by CAN BARDD), was the victim of a late coupe. While ANGUIS DEI had hung on since the beginning of the year, right at the end I became completely infatuated with the complex epic / symphonic / progressive / atmospheric project ETHEREAL SHROUD (England). Trisagion is made up of three massive tracks (four on the physical releases) which total out to almost 65 minutes (closer to 80 on the physical), each of which are comprised of three movements. It is beautiful and powerful, bright and melancholic, creative and devastating, contemplative and expansive all at once. Incredible release that I am just starting to scrape the surface of. 

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ANGUIS DEI’s (Japan) Angeist is a goddamn masterpiece. Man there is a LOT going on.  A ton of variety within an orthodoxically satanic, symphonic, avant-garde scaffold, successfully managing to combine, intentionally or unintentionally, many of the attributes of the very best sounds that symphonic black metal has ever had to offer. It sounds “classic” within the SBM vein, but the staggering amount of variability within that scaffold and overall cohesion is what really makes it a force to be reckoned with. It’s like… when the fucking five Power Rangers come together to make that big fucking robot? This is that robot, the rangers are CRADLE OF FILTH, EMPEROR, VESANIA, ANOREXIA NERVOSA and ROTTING CHRIST and if you are a fan of those bands then this album is essential. Every instrument is masterfully utilized and the vocals are just maniacal. 

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MAQUAHUITL (US, Tennessee) – Con Su Pistola en La Mano [ep] is hard-hitting, galloping, cutthroat southwestern bandido black metal. It’s practically impossible to not fall back on WAYFARER, but best as a contrast instead of a comparison: MAQUAHUITL is faster, dirtier, more focused, more aggressive, and more capital-B-and-M-Black-Metal, and would be better compared in sound to DARK WATCHER or VITAL SPIRIT or, even better, something more orthodox like SKAN or GLORIOR BELLI, yet allowing an even more cross-cultural elements to permeate the music, with Latin guitars, wind instrumentation, and cumbia percussion. The album revolves around the legend of Mexican outlaw and folk hero Gregorio Cortez attacking, killing, and evading American Texas Rangers on the Mexican-American border, June of 1901.

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TIER TWO

[ten creations of black art]

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FERRITERIUM (France) gave us a fucking excellent second album entitled Calvaire, which is very straightforward and clean, but not particularly innovative, original, raw, or any other extreme. Nonetheless, in some sort of way this album is… -perfect-. No frills classic melodic black metal with riffs that literally do not quit, there’s not a single thing about it that I do not like.

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A new discovery for me was the post/progressive WOMAN IS THE EARTH (US, Minnesota), with new album Dust of Forever, which manages to be surprisingly rabid, dynamic, and exalted all at once, achieving a breathtaking level of beauty without using any synth at all, as far as I can tell. The ever-soaring, unrelentingly  dynamic nature of it somewhat reminds me of stuff like SUHNOPFER or AORLAC possibly, although WITE is a bit more… ‘post-black’? At any rate, the melody and somewhat lighter aspect of it helps me keep up with the twists and turns.

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VORTEX OF END’s (France) Abhorrent Fervor is a slightly death-tinged, powerful, rabid yet artistic orthodox black metal album with an array of exciting elements, not least of which the goddamn vocals (handled by no less than three members) accounting for the insane variety of screams, roars, growls, yells, chants, whispers, and cleans. FFOs include other French acts like AOSOTH, ANTAEUS, TEMPLE OF BAAL, and (definitely) ARKHON INFAUSTUS, but also (and maybe even more so) the unabashed horns-in-the-air rocking-fucking-black metal of MISÞYRMING’s Algleymi, a more muscular evolution of ASCENSION (particularly the auditory occult mysticism of Consolamentum), and the infernal, grinding-riff ferocity of Gaahl/King era GORGOROTH. 

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Gonna admit that although I am (still!) having a bit of trouble absorbing it fully, I’m pretty damn intrigued by FYRNASK’s (Germany) new opus VII – Kenoma, which for me falls right in with the likes of the heavily meditative SCHAMMASCH and vividly ritualistic MEPHORASH, although it is more dissonant, dense and abstract than both. 

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VVILDERNESS (Hungary). Significantly more of a banger than previous releases, As Above, So Below nonetheless manages to maintain the sublime Hungarian folk sounds which are completely unique to this band and meld them with a heightened momentum and aggression for a really cohesive listen. Although it is hard to beat the serene natural harmony of Devour the Sun (2018), I do think that I am enjoying this new one even more than 2020’s Dark Waters.

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You know who else got heavier? PANOPTICON (US, Minnesota). Fantastic right? Austin has always had that amazing Americana folk aspect and it’s in full effect with …And Again Into The Light, but as a whole the album is way heavier than I thought it would be, bringing in some doom and death elements, and so massive that I still feel like I’m just beginning to scrape the surface of that one. Fucking huge, and I love it. 

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The INHERITS THE VOID (France) album Monolith of Light is stellar cosmic black metal. I absolutely love the cinematic, epic melodies on top of that speedy percussion, the chaotic swirling on the guitar layers, and the sheer immensity of everything that’s going on, all of the different simultaneous tracks and layers. There’s so many things about this that sound atmospheric, from the keyboards to multiple guitar tracks to the drums… I want to get to know this album well, to find all of those intricacies and nuances that I can tell are there but can’t possibly absorb without more playthroughs. FFO: MARE COGNITUM

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ARISTARCHOS (Scotland) gave us an excellent self-titled debut which, harnessing blackened stormwinds, is more terrestrial but no less catastrophic. Although unrelated, ARISTARCHOS’ sound is directly in line with that perfected by Naas Alcemeth’s projects, specifically NIGHTBRINGER, with a similar layering of falsetto guitar lead, although somewhat less massive and overwhelming in general. Nonetheless, I fucking LOVE the sound and I knew that this album was placing somewhere on my year-end list on the first listen. 

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Kudos to NULL (US, Virginia). I’m actually a little surprised I like Hiraeth so much, considering its immense diversity. It has a black pagan/folk scaffold but that structure is filled in with damn near everything: neofolk, thrash, epic melodeath, rock, spaghetti western, pop punk, humppa, American folk… the list just goes on and on, and every time I listen to it, it seems like I find something else. The double-CD album allows for a ton of FFOs (including FALKENBACH, FINNTROLL, SAOR, WINTERSUN, ELUVEITIE, UNREQVITED, CATAMENIA… shit, even old OFFSPRING!) with 18 tracks and a runtime of about 110 minutes, it’s honestly good fortune that the entire thing is as great as it is. 

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Since I already have so many FFOs flying around here, I might as well get into another fairly obvious parsing together of amazing elements from black metal history and talk about the STORMKEEP (US, Colorado) album Tales of Othertime. Between 90’s era EMPEROR, DIMMU BORGIR, BURZUM, SATYRICON, and WINDIR, there isn’t really much that hasn’t already been done here, but goddamn they put it together SO fucking well and have such masterful songwriting, that this debut LP was born an instant classic. 

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TIER THREE

[twelve creations of black art]

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Near the top of the ‘orthodox’ list is a close-to-my-heart Order ov the Black Arts-born debut which features elements of both cosmic and industrial black metal, but still manages to emit a distinctly demonic air: PALUS SOMNI’s (US/England) Monarch of Dark Matter. Comprised of members of ANCIENT HOSTILITY / ALUDRA, DECOHERENCE, and AKHLYS, it is a debut which is industrialized but raw, vast but dense, measured but chaotic, and progressively driving with increased conviction towards inevitable galactic annihilation. I had the honor of facilitating a bit of networking for the creation of this project, and also the honor of contributing the sigil logo.

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Also hellish but in an entirely different way, MORGAL (Finland) came out of nowhere, amirite?! Nightmare Lord is blazing, beer-drinking black metal combined with a nostalgic NWOBHM classicism… it’s like if you took the ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ (Iron Maiden) cover by CRADLE OF FILTH, cranked up the ferocity factor a bit, gave it a bunch of cocaine, and then made an entire album out of it. There’s also a sort of more belligerent thrash or almost punky aspect to it, and some parts remind me of TSJUDER or RAVENCULT.

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THERMOHALINE’s (Brazil/Portugal, Belgium, Argentina) mind-blowing avant-garde, ocean-themed album Maelström was the first album that I reviewed this year and it set the bar high. It has a massive, multilayered array of complexity and depth as well as almost baffling progression, disparate approaches, and seamless melding of many different styles and details, including industrial elements. This is avant-garde extreme metal at its best, and it could certainly claim black metal as a central core, but what is being presented with Maelström (apt title) goes way beyond that. 

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Moving from outer realms towards inner depths, we have the particularly hellish and subterranean Paradeigma: Phosphenes of Aphotic Eternity from the ever-evolving INFERNO (Czechia). Notable with this latest and highly anticipated album is the truly cavernous and oppressive direction, not least of which is exemplified by the buried vocals and hallucinatory, esoteric crush of doom-laden black delirium. 

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Then, on to AULD RIDGE (France) and his latest offering of venomous Consanguineous Tales of Bloodshed and Treachery, featuring fantastic fiery riffing, galloping percussion, spiteful vocals, excellent use of menacing, epic synth, folky acoustics, and even some twang once in a while. Think the riff / vocal savagery of GORGOROTH’s Under the Sign of Hell, combined with the bombastic synth grandiosity of LIMBONIC ART’s The Ultimate Death Worship… with some pagan influences thrown in. Somewhat arbitrary to include this album (released in May) or December’s Consanguineous Tales of Faith and Famine.

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MALIGNAMENT’s (Finland) debut album Hypocrisis Absolution, was released in September, but is officially the last album I found which made the list, not discovered until the first week of January, 2022 and sneaking into placement on the last edit. I wish I had found it sooner! It forgoes the typical Finnish top-of-the-mix vocal abrasion for some more subdued and slightly deathened style which includes what comes close to chanting yells at times. Somewhat like PANZERFAUST. Musically it has a similar groove at times but with fiery riffing appropriate for the country, and Viking elements thrown in. Thanks to Hells Headbangers for advertising this one for purchase… don’t mind if I do!

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FRIISK’s (Germany) new album …un torügg bleev blot Sand seems to skate that line between being orthodox but also melodic and atmospheric. What it really reminds me of is the defunct ANTLERS (also from Germany), to the point that I thought it was a continuation of that project, expertly incorporating grandiose melancholy, somewhat subdued vocals, highlighted epic lead guitar, pensive plodding intermixed with driving aggression, and even the use of somewhat martial percussion (ie. compare ‘Mauern aus Nebel’ with ANTLERS’ ‘Hundreds’). Even the logos are similar. At any rate, fantastic stuff. 

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One-man monster KRVNA (Australia), gave us a blasting, stylized, subtly symphonic and precise black metal assault which boasts amazing drums and lead guitar. Dubbed ‘vampyric’ by its creator, Sempinfernus seems to be such in concept alone, and really seems to have sonic roots in 3rd/4th wave clean aggression, sitting somewhere in between turn-of-the-millennium DIMMU BORGIR, DARK FUNERAL, and BEHEMOTH, but the best of all three.

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Another marine-based album which came to the surface only in the last few weeks of 2021 was LHAÄD’s (Belgium) release. Inspired by the depths of the sea, Below ended up being much heavier than I initially assumed it would be, almost death-metalish in some parts, crushing in its fluidity. This surprise (along with the more deathy PANOPTICON), really helped to fill a void for me this year, since there ended up being relatively very little death metal which really caught my ear.

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CRYPTOSPITAL (Belarus)! Damn… Scythe of the Black Death caught me off guard. Fast-paced, unpolished, aggressive, melodic atmospheric black metal with cool as fuck vocals. Takes a minute to get going, but once that first track hits around 2 minutes and 15 seconds, it hits pretty damn hard.  Then holy FUCK! Listen to that part at 6:25 and then even more so at like 6:50, THEN AT 7:10 !!!! This is classic melodic black metal PERFECTION, no joke! And that’s just the first track!

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Man, the new OSSAERT (Netherlands) also kicks ass. Though not described as such, it almost makes sense to think of Pelgrimsoord as a sequel to the debut album Bedenhuis (2020), a surprisingly coherent mix of raw / melodic / progressive / punkened black metal, and exceptional songwriting. Track two, ‘De Val en de Beroering’ is particularly fantastic and contains one of the best progressions of the year, with a ludicrously badass driving progression, intoxicating lead riff, and a repeatedly thrashing, convulsing bassline that I can’t even really begin to describe. 

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AVDAGADA (Sweden) – Damnatio Cursus [ep] is well-produced, aggressive riff-based deathened black metal with nuanced synth and fantastic vocals. FFO GLORIA MORTI, KRYPTAN (see below). Not to get off topic, but GLORIA MORTI happens to be probably my all-time favorite band from Finland, so a comparison is definitely saying something.

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TIER FOUR

[twenty creations of black art]

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THE WOLF GARDEN (England) was a close-to-the-last minute addition that had initially escaped me in the oversaturation of the final months of 2021. It was my brother-in-arms Naph (co-conspirator in our conversational FERVUS CONJUNCTUM reviews at Black Metal Daily) who pointed out the verifiable virtues of Woven of Serpent’s Spines. Almost equal parts nature-inspired emotive atmosphere and driving, elevating post-black melody, I couldn’t help but notice a similarity between it and the also excellent WINDFAERER release (sans violin). An excellent album.

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For FELLED (US, Oregon) the expected Pacific Northwest, Cascadian folk tag is right on target with fantastic melodic passages, soaring guitars, tumbling drums, and an organic mix. The Intimate Earth also wields  imperfection well and embraces a certain looseness, a natural imprecision and unpolished quality which produces an unparalleled sense of grounded earnestness and honesty. 

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KRYPTAN (Sweden) – Kryptan [ep] Is classic ‘third wave’ melodic Swedish badassery with a dash of synth and a good dose of excellent vocals. Another band (read: NORDJEVEL, HORDE OV HEL, AVSLUT) which is doing DARK FUNERAL way better than they are doing it themselves. Also FFO: NAGLFAR, TRIUMPHATOR.

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The release which is more black metal than black metal, from a band which takes orthodoxy quite literally and manages to be often exponentially more demonic sounding than 99% of the scene at any given point of time… despite being devout Roman Catholic: REVERORUM IB MALACHT (Sweden). Though two albums were released at the end of summer simultaneously, it is the more aggressive and grinding Not Here which really caught my attention with its continual percussive battery, massively down tuned bass, terrifying and sublime vocals, and insidious industrial grind. I’ve said it before and it is still relevant: With this project, for me the end result is not *enjoyment* but *awe* instead. 

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SUMERIAN TOMBS (Germany) – As Sumer Thrones At Night [ep]. Far from the romantic or historical vampiric sound of current BM trends, what we have here is a connection to a bloodthirsty source which is more ancient, primitive, pervasive, and infernal… and this is reflected in a more orthodox and demonic sound. 

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RÜBEZHAL’s (US, Alaska) Remnants of Grief & Glory consists of exalted, triumphant black metal melodies gust over layers of deathened, burly vocals, and a harnessing percussion and overall songwriting. Expect fiery riffing, brief but effective guitar hooks and well-placed cascades of irresistible, driving blasting, and tempered sections which build and overflow into more commanding, groovy progressions. Each song provides its own take on this fantastic resonance of exaltation and brutality, utilizing a classic, melodic black metal approach with a weighty application of death metal and even doom elements.

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CARATHIS (Austria) – Hymns to the Tower [ep] is blasting, raw(ish), thrashy, and has riffs that smolder in your brain after just a single listen… just straight up unadorned classic black metal! FFO TSJUDER, RAVENCULT, ASAGRAUM

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SALQIU (Brazil) – Urban Post Black [ep] is a short, avant-garde and somewhat industrial black art offering, fantastically resonant and disorienting EP, the sound of which may be translated into the experience of a perfect, brief soundtrack to urban angst.

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GRAVENCHALICE (US, Florida) dropped another one! I don’t like Samael quite as much as their previous, it’s a bit more methodical and doomy, but still awesome. A concise description would be elements of the dissonant occult gravity and dynamic atonality of DEATHSPELL OMEGA, perfectly conjoined with the sublimely melodic, intractable momentum of MGLA, but better the most recent offerings from both. Finally, a few that are a bit more ‘old school’.

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NOLTEM (US, Connecticut) I perceive as having a heavily water-based sound overall, and Illusions In The Wake is like a lucid, surreal dreamstate, with meandering acoustic recurrence over nonchalant percussion which seems to unfurl in jazzy eddies, delirious distorted strings, and harsh vocals, often with a faint rush of turmoil, building inertia, and apexes which overflow into an expansive, beautiful cascade. It also boasts one of the most unabashedly colorful album covers in recent memory.

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An act that I did not realize was so melodic until I finally caught up with it was this year’s Dy’th Requiem For The Serpent Telepath was ESOCTRILIHUM (France). Mislead by perhaps a faulty perspective on previous releases, I expect oppressive, harsh, dense heaviness, not the pervasive melodic aspect which is present here. I’m talking real melody, classic black metal melody. Not just thrown in amidst a bunch of oppressive dissonant blasting, but instead a melody with emphasis and space created for it which brings to mind shit like old DIMMU BORGIR (think ‘Mourning Palace’), CALADAN BROOD, LIMBONIC ART, and FALKENBACH. 

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DARK WATCHER (US, Arkansas) – Hymns Of A Godless Land [ep] is high energy, horns-in-the-air, spaghetti-western-flavored americana black metal, short and sweet. FFO recent MAQUAHUITL, VOLAHN, and VITAL SPIRIT.

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MORKE’s (US, Minnesota) We Are The River is a must-mention; a very personal, genuine, melancholic, introspective, powerful, beautiful 80-minute release, poignant both from a conceptual and auditory perspective. Truly an ambitious project, which clearly demonstrates that the project needs a good label contract.  

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AGRYPNIE (Germany) graced us with Metamorphosis, boasting a fairly heavy symphonic element, and affixing it into an overall style which is altogether more modern and progressive, resulting in some massive, crystalline, and powerful material. Think HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY but more epic arrangements and less irritating vocals, and also FFO BELTEZ, GAEREA, and VUKARI. 

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With this year’s Arkivet, WORMWOOD (Sweden) went in the direction that I hoped they would. Each song is more in line with what I particularly appreciate from previous works (specifically the PINK FLOYD-esque guitar lead), and each one has nuances that continue to reveal themselves after a few listens. I venture to say that even though Nattarvet’s finish sets the bar for peak WORMWOOD, overall Arkivet is the better album. 

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This would normally be the place I would place the ever-productive UNREQVITED, probably my favorite black ‘post / gaze’ project and a frequent entry on my AOTY lists. However, although it is good (and I still bought it) the ultralite Beautiful Ghosts album didn’t resonate with me as much as the quite similar but darker and more sinister HÆNESY (Hungary). Featuring lush atmospheric delirium, buried and indistinguishable vocals, and excellent black metal drive at times (‘Drowning In The Final Intellect’), Garabontzia certainly put this project on the map for me. 

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GRANDEUR (Austria) – Aurea Aetas is unfancy, violent, but melodic black metal with some fiery lead on top and blasting galore, hitting that prototypical black metal sweet spot and hitting it hard with the backing force of some driving crust/punk inertia! 

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VUKARI (US, Illinois) – Omnes Nihil [ep] is progressive black metal done perfectly: great focus, great balance, great drive, great production, this time a bit heavier than their last album. This band just gets better and better with every new release. FFO BELTEZ, GAEREA

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KAMPFESWUT (Germany) – Kampfeswut [ep] is stripped down, squealing, punky black metal with an AGALLOCH-ish folky acoustic element. 

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DUSK IN SILENCE (Indonesia) also hit a sweet spot with me for reasons which are a little hard to put a finger on other than the fact that Beneath the Great Sky of Solitude’s memorable riffs and outstanding progressions just immediately wormed their way to my mind loop to the point that I grabbed that LP one Bandcamp Friday. 

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HONORABLE MENTION

[not black art]

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To round out 2021 with a solid top 50, I’ve got FALLENSUN (Canada) – The Wake of the Fall. Epic progressive melodic death metal at it’s finest. I have a MAJOR weakness for this sort of stuff and my all-time favorite album (ever) would fall into this description (DISILLUSION – The Liberation). FALLENSON do it near perfectly, a gorgeous melding of deeply moving euphonies and deathened extremity, this debut album elevating them to the heights of fellow aeronauts AN ABSTRACT ILLUSION, NE OBLIVISCARIS, ETERNAL STORM, COUNTLESS SKIES, IOTUNN, IAPETUS, and DESSIDERIUM (who’s 2021 album Aria has at least some potential beat out The Wake of the Fall once I give it a fair shake). 

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Something More – A Review of ‘Transcend’ by SYLVAN AWE

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By Dex

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Black metal from my hometown of Melbourne, Australia always catches my interest. SYLVAN AWE especially much so, for a couple of reasons – the first being that by way of coincidental homophone their name rather sentimentally reminds me of the Silvan Dam (a bushland reservoir positioned near to where I lived for many years); and the second that songwriter Stu Callinan was once in a locust-swarming metal band with a close friend of mine, waaaay back in the days before Facebook was even a thing. So, you can bet your sweet ass I’m going to check out their latest album Transcend, unveiled late last year via the good folk at Northern Silence Productions.

Sylvan Awe‘s 2015 debut offering, entitled… uhh… Offering, was a solid outing through honest, naturalistic black metal of ancient reverberation, if slightly inconsistent and lacking just a little in the confidence to be itself. Exploring indigenous European, Celtic and Australian cultures and landscapes, it unfortunately didn’t gain too much traction (although it did cop a nice CD release through Natural World Records). Now, seven years on, the duo of Stu and now-permanent sticksman Adrian Horseman returneth. Will Transcend be the album to place them more in the spotlight?

This time around, right off the bat the compositions feel more deliberate, imbued with a greater internal strength and confidence. Stu put out his Scottish heritage atmoblack project Càirdeas Fala earlier in the year, and that ripped – I’m not sure which one he wrote first or indeed how long the writing process even was for Transcend, but he definitely feels more comfortable in what he’s going for here than he did back on Offering. However, despite the fact I’m usually loathe to make these sort of comparisons in reviews, there’s still a distracting amount of trace element Mgła to be found on the surface here. They’re not straight-up ripping off the grand exercisers in futility – Darkthrone would be stinking rich off suing a billion bands if similarity in sound counted as plagiarism – but I couldn’t shake the feeling. it’s often there in the way the hypnotic riffs slowly undulate atop the tempered storm of blasts and double kick; it’s there in the vocal patterns, phrasing and delivery that certainly aren’t a million miles away from what M does. Hell, if we’re stretching a bit they’re even a duo with one on drums and one taking care of everything else – thank fuck they’re not into that hooded look too, christ.

But yeah, whilst that comparison is not entirely a bad thing and might even sell it for some of you, there are of course many points of difference. Stu is a killer guitarist/composer and is clearly willing to work with a wider scope of ideas to achieve the best from his vision. ‘Zenith’ makes use of some shimmering astral synth to enhance the theme of the track; the spirited riffing at the start of ‘Unbound’ is something you’d never find M or his myriad imitators writing. The most noteworthy dissimilarity however is that whereas the popular Poles are more nihilistic in their general approach, Sylvan Awe dives deeper into ancient themes of triumph, self-improvement and heritage (for those concerned, it’s worth noting here that the Algiz rune emblazoned on that lovely earthen-poured cover apparently represents “the will to strive, to open yourself and not be limited by the mundane, to attack life and it’s struggles head on, a call for something more” and not lame political sketchy shit – the duo have said they do not tolerate ignorance and do support all cultures) and can also take the listener to wonderful areas of pastoral introspection outside of time. Listening to these moments sounds like you’ve been hiking for some hours and have arrived at a place that seems untouched by human hands; one that has existed as it is in nature for aeons, and all you can do is sit in quiet awe and drink in the overwhelming history.

The catch is, whilst Transcend is miles ahead of Offering in consistency, sometimes they still juuuust don’t nail it. The conclusion of ultimate composition ‘Winter’, intended as the profound parting moment of the record, just falls a little short and feels like it’s missing something – the track itself is good, it just doesn’t hit the right resonance as it departs. This happens at odd moments throughout the album. Not a huge problem, as through competent musicianship they don’t fail completely and it doesn’t taint the entire experience. There’s still a great deal to like… just with the addition of a few small kinks that could be ironed out.

With their sophomore offering the dyad have indeed transcended their humble beginnings and are growing more into their own. Transcend is a good record that feels like a band on the cusp of something great – I’m looking forward to witnessing where they go from here.

RATING: 3.2 / 5

Transcend is available now via Northern Silence Productions.

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Purchase Transcend on CD and digital from the Northern Silence Bandcamp HERE or the Sylvan Awe Bandcamp HERE.

Support SYLVAN AWE:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp

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TRACK PREMIERE: ‘Presages From A Restless Soul’ by PURE WRATH

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Hearken! Stellar news afoot for appreciators of top quality atmosphericism: Indonesian lords PURE WRATH are gearing up to release their third album Hymn To The Woeful Hearts on February 18th, and today we are proud to partner with our good friends and allies Debemur Morti Productions alongside a handful of esteemed publications across the globe to unveil a second track from this highly anticipated coming long player. Yes, I told you it was good news.

Again assisted by the skilled and energetic guest drumwork from Yurii Kononov (ex-WHITE WARD), on ‘Presages From A Restless Soul’, composer, maestro and mastermind Ryo once more weaves effortlessly between melodious and aggressive passages, although the overall mood of loss and grief that permeates the record is never abandoned – as you may expect, it packs a hefty emotional weight. With its dense atmosphere, the eight-minute-long song gives musical form to the heart-wrenching tragedies in the history of the artist’s home country Indonesia and perfectly balances howls of primal rage with tear-stained, hymnal sung passages, simultaneously vicious and yearning guitar-work, poignant synth, evocative acoustics and heartfelt thematic realism. Immerse thyself in the ebbs and flows of the track below:

Ryo hinself has also generously provided narrative regarding the musical and conceptual vision behind ‘Presages From A Restless Soul’:

“I remember the day I had met and talked to an old lady selling handmade bags in the middle of the busiest city in my country. Very skeptical thoughts and doomed opinions came out of her tired lips, since she spent the whole day calling people to check her bags. It turned out she witnessed her husband being kidnapped during the dark time I am generally talking about on this album. He never came back. She told me that this truth will remain hidden and will never be told to the newer generations, since she seemingly had lived her life as ‘a wife of the country’s enemy’, even though this had not been true. There is no justice to be found anymore. She just stopped being optimistic ever since. It really breaks my heart… I decided to tell this story in this song to make sure that I am doing the right thing by spreading knowledge about these events to my generation.

‘Presages From A Restless Soul’ is the second song I wrote for this album and originally it was meant to be merged with the title track. But in the end, I decided to separate them because I did not believe it will be helpful for the dynamics of the album if they are merged into one track. I actually had a hard time figuring out how to arrange the best position for each composition. They sound very different, but the feelings present on each track are the same and form a unity. This song ended up as the third one because it grants the listeners a rebound from ‘Years Of Silence’ which sounds way more pessimistic and has a sad ending.”

Early days yet, but on the strength of this track and the already-streaming opener ‘The Cloak Of Disquiet’, it seems Ryo may have forged yet another masterpiece. So, listen above and prepare for when Hymn To The Woeful Hearts will be released on CD, vinyl and digitally on February 18th… it may break your heart as well.

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Pre-order Hymn To The Woeful Hearts on CD, LP and digital from the Pure Wrath Bandcamp HERE, the Debemur Morti US webstore HERE and EU webstore HERE.

Support PURE WRATH:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Instagram
• Official Website

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TRACK PREMIERE: ‘Fortabt’ by TUGT

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Condensed Hopelessness

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Today, Black Metal Daily is proud to partner with our close comrades at Order ov the Black Arts to bring you something eight long years in the making: the first devastating taste of the debut album from Danish atmospheric black doom prospect, TUGT.

Translating as “discipline”, Tugt is the negative vessel of one lone wolf Skovgænger, whom you may recognize from Genfærd, Í Myrkri, Ildskaer and more. After forming back in the heady days of 2012 and releasing a debut entitled En Svunden Tid in 2013 (which seems to have been largely lost forever in the lengthening shadows of the past), Tugt fell silent. Skovgænger worked on a multitude of other creative projects… but, deep in the darkness, he was also crafting the next step in the journey of Tugt. Eight long years later, he now returns with a crushing debut album, Ved Lysets Ophør.

And what a debut it is. Marrying a churning, dissonant insistence with soaring/wretched black doom and a hollowed out, sinking depression under the stars of Scandinavian tradition, the record sounds like a man pulling you down into his darkest hours and reliving them over and over and over again with you until these moments of torture become your own, leaving you trapped – cursed to also wander endless mental halls of crumbling obsidian and dead trees for eternity. Whipping up whirlwinds of delirious and deleterious anguish, the track we are premiering today is ‘Fortabt’, meaning “lost” – an utterly wounding expression and the perfect introduction to what you will find on the album. But remember… this is just an introduction. The label notes that Tugt is for fans of Afsky, Make A Change… Kill Yourself, Lurker of Chalice and Leviathan, which may give you an idea just how deep this agony is seated.

To accompany this stream, Skovgænger shared with us some deeper meaning regarding the record:

“Ved Lysets Ophør (eng: At the end of light) is a reflection and outlet of personal thoughts throughout a dark and disorderly time of my life spanning many years, an impression which has been reflected musically to create an immersion into this mindfog of dismal patterns and hypnotic disharmonies.. After a dormant period where I dedicated myself to other projects, the pandemic offered me some time to finally return and materialize the album with the assistance of Saxtorph (Afsind, Saxtorph, ex-Genfærd) and Ahnstrøm (Afsind, Cause of death: Suicide). The result is an oppressive and bleak trip to the bridge between life and death.”

And as for how we should approach and listen to it?

“Ved Lysets Ophør is best enjoyed in solitude.”

…of course. Releasing February 11th on CD via Onism Productions and cassette under the banner of Virkelighedsfjern, Ved Lysets Ophør is sure to be a release that stays with you long after you hear it. Immerse yourself in the excoriation of ‘Fortabt’ above, and prepare to enter the end of light. Sink deep into the ever-present darkness… and become lost within yourself.

Ved Lysets Ophør releases Feb 11th via Onism Productions and Virkelighedsfjern.

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Pre-order Ved Lysets Ophør from the Tugt Bandcamp HERE, the Onism Productions Bandcamp HERE, the Onism Productions webstore HERE and the Virkelighedsfjern Bandcamp HERE.

Support TUGT:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Instagram

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Teeth and Ichor – A Review of ‘Pagan North’ by HELL WEHRWOLF

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Long live the Pagan North

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Once again cutting straight to the chase: under the light of the ever-burning churches, the second and final tape of this latest Elderblood Productions drop arrives – Pagan North, by Russian raw black demon HELL WEHRWOLF. This anonymous entity was only bestowed foul birth in the twisted flames of early 2021 but has proceeded to excrete no less than a remarkable TEN (!!) demos since; Pagan North is the ninth of these, and was originally unveiled by the Lord Hell Wehrwolf on November 21st last year.

This was my first experience with the project (eternal thanks to Elderblood for once again digging the most pure black gems up from subterranean caverns) and with a logo reminiscent of The True Werwolf emblazoning its intentions on its sleeve, expectations were high that this will be gloriously old school. I’m not let down when I push play. ‘Valkyries Will Take Me’ explodes from the speakers, a riotous amalgamation of punkish fire with TRUE black metal ire, and from then on the wild hunt is screaming down from the Northern skies.

The assault is relentless and all fat has been trimmed (some tracks are only just creep over a minute and a half in length), leaving a sleek and lethal beast to tear Christendom apart. Standout moments for me are the lupine ‘Howls In Carpathia’ as that sick riff gets your head nodding (or arching to the sky to call at the moon) and the cold, yearning nostalgic melodies of ‘Vinterhowl’ that sing from the heart of northern Europe – but the entire demo is filled with satisfying (if short) highlights that get in, attack and destroy before you know what hit you. The raw guitar tone has teeth, and the throatwork is fucking ravenous. There’s a lot to like, and not much to dislike; although I would be quite interested to witness the enigmatic spirit behind this focus his energies and spend more honing songs into even sharper weapons to create a full-length album at some point, Pagan North captures that rare instantaneous black spark, the core of what black metal is, expelled in a savage torrent of flaying claws and flying ichor. Raw not just in production, but in conception and delivery, in its very form… uncompromising, direct and immediate.

For those who resonate with that sort of thing, this demo is fucking great and you won’t want to miss it. Listen to the full-stream above then grab yourself a limited cassette pre-order from Elderblood now and howl your paeans to the night sky… the Wehrwolf has arrived. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to listen to his other eight demos. Hails.

RATING: 3.8 / 5

Pagan North is available now via Elderblood Productions.

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Purchase Pagan North digitally from the Hell Wehrwolf Bandcamp HERE or the Elderblood Productions Bandcamp HERE, or pre-order on limited cassette from the Elderblood Productions webstore HERE.

Support HELL WEHRWOLF:

• Official Bandcamp

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The Wretched Death – A Review of ‘Last Krieg Against Existence’ by FORGOTTEN SWORD

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The truth is in the gas chamber.

The truth has been in your stockyards.

Your slaughterhouses…

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Hails. I’m going to cut to the chase here, because by now you should well know that everything this label drops is fucking quality: the first tape we’ll be looking at in this drop of the mighty Elderblood Productions is the raw black / dark ambient dungeon crawling misery of FORGOTTEN SWORD. Forged in 2020 as a DS project, the Russian solo entity dragged itself completely over to the darker side of the crypt with last September’s Last Krieg Against Existence demo, plunging deep into the void of raw black metal for the first time. Noted as taking inspiration from Leviathan, Les Légions Noires, Krieg, Amebix and Katatonia, this list of influences may give you a mental image of what to expect from this tape… but, as you shall soon discover, that isn’t the whole picture.

No, Last Krieg Against Existence is more. It goes deeper. It is a rusty razor that scrapes all the worst filth, fear, sorrow and hatred from the very bottom of the well of humanity, then injects the noxious concoction directly into your veins – and the resulting contamination of the soul is more ruinous than you could have imagined. The black metal tracks show more LLN influences than any others mentioned and are pure raw miasmic primivism; stripped-back and minimal in the extreme yet oozing with an astonishing level of black-hole negativity, suggesting that despite the demo’s title, Forgotten Sword isn’t satisfied with just waging war on existence. Oh, no. Existence doesn’t get off that lightly. Existence must be utterly fucking defiled – each track is as a malignant tumor, inexorably spreading, its overwhelming malevolence consuming all in its path. M from countrymen raw black wraiths Logos mans the drum stool and the tempo is for the most part kept agonizingly slow, as if to torture both the listener and the artists themselves; ‘Cursed by the Breath of Light’ and ‘Wall, Rope and Cold Morning’ all feeling like that aforementioned rusty razor now scratching across the inside of your skull and then down your ribs. Charles Manson quotes even bookend ‘Feelings Toward Sharped Knife’ and they couldn’t be more fitting. These songs just want everything to DIE.

So far so good, but there is one thing that must also be noted: the demo almost feels like it is split in twain. Those first three ultra-primitive black metal incantations feel like the focused, poisonous intent of its creator; the ill will and misery pouring forth from their crude structures only becoming stronger and more withering as each minute passes. However, the final three tracks are an entirely different beast. ‘Church Of No God – Nihil Holy Nihil’ is a looping moan of chilling dark ambient terror. ‘Nobody’s Driving’ is a truly fucked up Amebix cover that’s faster than anything else on the record, and ‘Sardonic Suicide’ is ostensibly an acoustic, guitar-only black metal song left laying forgotten in the cold, distant fog somewhere… haunting stuff. The catch is that this final part of the demo seems almost unnecessary when the first is loaded with such excoriating acrimony and bitterness. They feel like bonus tracks, which isn’t a bad thing of course – you get more for your buck, and ‘Sardonic Suicide’ alone is a superb end to the wretched journey.

Overall, for his first foray into the realms of black hell, the dungeon lord hath summoned a resounding and suprising success. Despite its austere primitivism and scattered final half it strikes hard, deep and leaves its rotting venom deep within your veins like the rattling sigh of a dying breath – submit to its supreme misanthropic aura today and grab yourself a copy via Elderblood Productions now. All must end.

RATING: 3.6 / 5

Last Krieg Against Existence is available now via Elderblood Productions.

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Pre-order Last Krieg Against Existence on cassette from the Elderblood Productions webstore HERE, or digitally from the Elderblood Productions Bandcamp HERE and the Forgotten Sword Bandcamp HERE.

Support FORGOTTEN SWORD:

• Official Facebook Group
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Instagram
• Official VK

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Inexplicable Transcendence – A Review of ‘A Mighty Disposition’ by OLIM

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Being becomes reality

Secure in a link forged across

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Dear readers – I present you with something of a paradox. I’ve been listening to this album for at least seven months now and as a consequence have heard it innumerable times. I am about to write a review of it, and yet, because of unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances, I find myself with no time to do so. Thus, the review will be a short one. Luckily, this is an album that cannot be easily explained and quantified by mere words anyway… and therein lies the paradox.

You may know the sole mind behind it Joe Caswell from the many, many times we’ve covered his folk-black project Burden Of Ymir, but his atmo/post-black outlet OLIM allows us to witness a very different side of his creative spirit. When heading into A Mighty Disposition, the project’s debut album, dispense with everything you may be expecting – this transcendent blizzard of shimmering, lustrous white is like nothing you’ll have heard from him before, not only in sound, but in intent. How? I shall (quickly) explain.

The four tracks (and a lengthy instrumental/ambient outro) of gorgeous, cold-as-hell post black atmospherics to be found within don’t operate under conventional and accepted wisdom. At least, that’s how it seems. As the song titles like ‘Presence Beyond Words’, ‘Nearing An Infinite Height For The Familiar‘ and ‘The Ethereal Whim Bent Towards The Light’ suggest, A Mighty Disposition does not deal in absolutes or concrete things. It represents FEELINGS, unquantifiable and intangible ideas – things that cannot be expressed in any way we can grasp with our limited senses and language. The soaring synth, furious percussion plus ever-present and ever-changing tremolo lilt hit like a wash of transcendental light, whilst Joe‘s (fantastic) vocals sound like interdimensional winds blowing through your soul itself. The effect is one to make you lose track of time, of where you are and even who you are – the songs might seem to have no structure as this effect takes hold, becoming instead enveloping walls of miraculous sound. The entire experience becomes metaphysical, even celestial in nature. Which, of course, is incredibly enjoyable and renders all potential flaws as rather inconsequential.

Some may not like it; instead preferring a more defined and easily graspable journey. The production may not quite be as lush and over-polished as you’re used to if you’re a post-black connoisseur. Hell, if it doesn’t vibrate at your wavelength you might even find it boring. The album does not care about all of these things – it’s not an album for entertainment. It is an experience, wherein the concepts of beginnning nor end matter. Nor songs, although they are certainly there. It just IS, in the most massive of senses… and whilst you listen, you just ARE.

So, you see the paradox. A super quick review… that delves into a record that, by its very nature, expands into immensity and fills infinity, becoming boundless and timeless.

First released digitally mid-last year and dropping today on cassette and CD via Fólkvangr Records and Onism Productions, it is definitely worth spending some time with Olim… you won’t even know how long you stay within it. Buy it now.

RATING: 4.2 / 5

A Mighty Disposition releases January 14th via Onism Productions and Fólkvangr Records.

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Purchase A Mighty Disposition digitally from the Olim Bandcamp HERE, on cassette from the Fólkvangr Records webstore HERE and on CD / digital from the Onism Productions webstore HERE.

Support OLIM:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp

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TRACK PREMIERE: ‘The Drowned God’ by NAMELESS MIST

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If you’re not an avid follower of Fólkvangr Records (to which I can only say: more fool you) then USA based DSBM/atmoblack proposition NAMELESS MIST, product of the mind of one Lauren “Robin” Straily, could quite possibly have flown under your radar afore now. The project’s eponymous debut album was unleashed on a limitation of 50 copies back in June… and promptly sold out. Why? Because it was, as our friends at Moshpitnation.mi described it in their premiere at the time, an immersive, visceral and emotional experience. That first release was indeed superb, but the record we are exclusively premiering the very first track from today… well, this blows that first album out of the water.

Aptly and simply entitled ii, the follow up to that eponymous first offering is startlingly spectacular. Every single aspect of the album is honed and crafted to a higher level than anything on the debut, and not only from a compositional or production sense – the world it creates for you to inhabit is expanded. Colder. The songs dive deeper into second wave hardness than ever before, whilst also travelling further along atmospheric pathways of the soul. It IS visceral. It IS immersive, and it IS emotional… and it combines all of those elements in such eloquent and effortless fashion that the final result is breathtaking. It’s truly an immense album in every sense of the word, leaving my jaw agape at the growth and confidence that emanates from every note.

The track we are privileged to be streaming today is the storming opening salvo, ‘A Drowned God’. Based on surging, rolling melodic loops like waves that stir the blood and roar to a satisfying conclusion (if you’re not on your feet for the last 75 seconds you’re probably dead), whilst it barely scratches the surface of what can be found on the album, it remains a deeply affecting listen in itself and the perfect gateway to the devastating delights that follow. We reached out to sole practitioner Lauren to shed a little more light on this striking composition:

“’The Drowned God’ was among the later songs written for ii, but I felt like from the structure and the energy it had this vibe that just neatly sat between this album and the last. It opens with a strong melody like the last album did, with the same sort of stripped down arrangement, but then you’re introduced to these extra layers of guitar and keyboard. I’d say it helps to kind of guide the path between the two albums, helps bridge the gap a bit, and makes a powerful introduction to the new world being conjured up here versus the one you’re familiar with from the last album.”

A new world indeed… a world that is cold, cruel, hypnotic, inspiring and infinitely beautiful. Releasing on cassette January 14th and sure to sell out again, don’t let this stunning project pass you by a second time. Enter the Nameless Mist.

ii releases January 14th via Fólkvangr Records.

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Purchase ii on cassette from the Fólkvangr Records webstore HERE or digitally from the Nameless Mist Bandcamp HERE on Jan 14th.

Support NAMELESS MIST:

• Official Bandcamp

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Follow Black Metal Daily on Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and Bandcamp HERE for more cult sounds and tonal blasphemy.