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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An Absurd Exercise In Labyrinthine Supremacy – A Review of ‘Angeist’ by ANGUIS DEI

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By GOS (Order ov the Black Arts)

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Have you ever gotten lost in an album? No, I don’t mean lost in the music because it’s so great (although this album does that too), I mean having actually found yourself disoriented while trying to navigate through the album. Ridiculous, right? Yeah, I think so too… but it happened nonetheless with Angeist, by ANGUIS DEI.

This review is different from any other review I have produced in multiple ways, all of which came together in a way that I’d like to think was non-coincidental to create, overall, one hell of a listening and writing experience. One: I decided to do the review after it was already released, instead of prior to its release. Two: I decided beforehand that this review would be done not by streaming, but by waiting for my copy to arrive and listening to the LP itself. Three: I decided to write the review in a “stream of thought” mode; without much (if any) reflection or layered intellectualization and voiced in the same way that I would normally speak, not how I would normally write. Four: This mode was… uhhhh… significantly *enhanced* by cannabis and done over two sessions, on two different nights. 

All of these circumstances converged to challenge me in what turned out to be… I mean, it started well, but as I plowed forward it became a goddamn labyrinthine feat, the result of which is the following review. Which I hope you can tolerate reading.  

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LP 1 – SIDE 1

‘Bortenfor Grensen’

Not how I expected things to start out, really. This is… warm, kinda trancy. Mmmmm, piano. Hey vocals! Woah, kinda weird vocals, like going clean right out of the gate? A bold move… slightly, just slightly cringe but not bad, kinda <code>-ish. Oh violin too! Aaaaand yup, there it is, went full Ihsahn with those high vox notes. Already. What are we something like 10 seconds in? Bold. Very bold. Let’s see how it plays out. Blast beat time! Not particularly brutal though, quite artsy. Man these vocals are all OVER the place, kind of a mix between, yes, Ihsahn, but also Dani Filth. Where is this band from? Japan? Sweet finger tapping. Man, this guitar is busy as fuck. Violin again… now piano again with a drawn out scream and hella groove. Jesus FUCK is that scream ever gonna end? How much breath does this dude have? That was awesome. These female choir vox aren’t bad either. Man, that violin is beautiful. Fade out. This is pretty damn cool.

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‘Through the Aperture of Time’

WHOA THERE! This is way more aggressive out of the gate. And symphonic. I love ANOREXIA NERVOSA and I love THIS. Goddaaaammmm that scream AGAIN! FEEERCK, either I’m way too stoned or that was WAY longer than the last one. No joke, like 30+ seconds, which doesn’t seem like much but its fucking long when you are listening to it. Yeah this is fucking awesome. This shit is like (good) EMPEROR, (good) CRADLE OF FILTH, (good) DIMMU BORGIR, ANOREXIA NERVOSA and VESANIA all wrapped into one. GUITAR SOLO! Nice. But at the same time this seems more avant-garde than all of those mentioned, except for maybe EMPEROR. 

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‘Angela Krudeliis Ambitiosa Nokturniis’

Damn this one comes in hot too. Was it me, or was there some super melodic/prog and clean shit at the beginning of this? Is that coming back? I feel slightly misled. Ok, don’t want to be too repetitive but I was super on-target with those vocal references. But with even more variety than those two combined. Is this just one vocalist? What I’m really loving about them is that they aren’t stagnant AT ALL. Always changing, always doing something interesting. Man this one has some low, heavy moments. Oh! Some kinda interlude or something. Got all cinematic and melodic. But also kind of… whimsical? Carnivalesque? That’s the aspect that sounds a bit like VESANIA. Back to blast. That was cool, nice little breather even though we were pretty close to the end. 

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LP 1 – SIDE 2

‘Angeist’

The hell? … this is… different. Mid-paced. Chunky. Almost numetalish riffing. But piano. And brass. Nice, this just got at least like 40% cooler with the horns. Repetitive, a-la ROTTING CHRIST. Weird synth, sounds like Gauntlet or Zelda or something. LMAO the fuck are those little vocals? Almost silly. Hey there’s some of those cleans again, kinda! Ok, the pace picked up and it took a step or two back down the weirdness scale. I mean… I was a little thrown off at first by that bit, but I feel like it will definitely make the song stand out as… the song that did… that. Anyway… the guitar work is pretty good. Nothing completely mind blowing but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t keep it interesting much like the vox. HA! The middle of this for a few seconds suddenly reminded me of VITAL REMAINS. Random. Man I do like what this brass is bringing. I kind of always like brass tho, gives things like a biblical, apocalyptic feel, amirite? The latter half of this track is some top-notch melodic black metal, gaddamn! Good stuff.

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 ‘The Darkenbound’

What we got here now? Interlude synth track. Ok, fair. This is majestic. Pretty. Sorrowful. Wow, really beautiful actually, with the switch to piano. 

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‘L’autre Serpent’

Damn, that is an ominous fade in! This shit gonna go ballistic? I mean, yeah a bit! Got some nice blasting urging things along. Wow I REALLY like the chorus of this. Not choir, I mean what I think is the chorus of the song. Enter some kinda bright synth and super triumphant riffing and there’s this exalted progression that spills over into a moment, which is suddenly stripped of darkness and sounds almost… hopeful? Joyous? A bit of a vocal-driven interlude and this is sounding suddenly very progmelodeath (in a good way) even though it is doing the same thing as it was before the interlude. Very clean. Man, I’m really just loving the positivity of this sound. Reminds me of AN ABSTRACT ILLUSION or something like that. Quite great. Side note: RMS Hreidmarr (ex-ANOREXIA NERVOSA) is doing guest vocals on this track!

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LP 2 – SIDE 1

Alright, on to the second LP, which… isn’t etched or blank on one side. Wait, this is only half done? Hold up, something isn’t right. How is there an entire additional LP but only two songs left on the bandcamp playlist? << Listening interrupted to figure out what the hell is going on.>> Ok, Angeist has eight tracks on YouTube, eight tracks on Bandcamp. Shit, eight tracks on the LP entry on discogs, (which… isn’t correct, there aren’t two tracks per side as it states, visually there are three). And there aren’t eight tracks total here, there are TWELVE! Holy fuck! Looking at the back of the gatefold (which I should have done sooner) and it reveals that the unaccounted for tracks are the four tracks from the Ad Portas Serpentium EP!!! WHAT A FUCKING TREAT!

(Also, as if this wasn’t enough of a puzzle, see the {NOTES} section at the end of this article for an explanation of the total mindfuck which occurred at this point in my review process.)

‘Separation of Æthyr’

Well now this ‘un starts out a little crunchy with that riff and the… is that sitar? Huh. This got kinda mediocre melodeathmetally. I do like the sitar, or whatever it is. Other than that, not really very dynamic. Little guitar wiggle there. Sitar again aaaaaaaaaaaand… oh. I thought it was gonna go apeshit, but no, back to the chunky melody. Ho hum. Waiting for… something. This gonna suddenly go off or what? I hope so. Ah, full orchestra, still following that melodic vein. Awwww, it went away. That helps some, still back to that easy pace tho. Almost to the end… some kind of rubbery sounding bongos or some damn thing. There we go! Took it’s time to pick up, however this is a badass solo. Overall, although the end is cool, I gotta say – I’m slightly bored with this one.

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‘Wrestoration’

Churchy singing, sounds Italian. With full-on gothic church organ. Here we go… cool! Liked that transition, I hope it comes back in epic fashion, but it instead overflowed into something a little different. Haha I thought it was going to go old DIMMU but it went new CRADLE instead, which makes sense considering said gothic church organ. Piano interlude too pointing in that direction. It’s a bit all over the place, almost like UNEXPECT. I might not be stoned enough for this now! Haha. Focusing into some grandiose orchestration now with some steady climbing afterwards towards… niiiiiiiccceeeee! Cut loose right towards the end, characteristic long scream, full on groove symphonics and focused blasting. Still not quite as savage as I prefer in order to really contrast with the rest of the song, but the guitar riffing is definitely helping out. Not bad, although with this one too I am finding myself impatient for what’s coming for too much of the track. Probably my problem.

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‘Maythorns Over Oroborus’ (from the Ad Portas Serpentium EP)

Alright, here we go, nothing like going back in time to crank it up a few notches amirite? Admittedly I don’t know this EP as well as I should. Sounds good so far though, with a more to-the-point approach. It has crossed my mind that at times the music resembles its English predecessor a little too closely. Which is to say, very beautiful, among other traits, but overall this track is so close that it seems to lose any sense of identity or uniqueness a bit.

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LP 2 – SIDE 2

‘Angela Krudeliis Ambitiosa Nokturniis’

What the fuck? I swear that this LP is just fucking with me at this point. This song is on LP 1, side 1. It’s track three. And here it is again. Maybe a demo version? But it sounds exactly the same to me. Hell, I dunno, go read my response to this track up above. *shrug*

Ok, here we go, last track(s). The last two, ‘Origin’ and ‘The Lionel’, while appearing as separate tracks online and on the record itself by looking at the groove pattern, are credited as being one track (‘Origin ~ The Lionel’) on the back of the gatefold. Jesus, fuck. That was like a goddamn labyrinth just to get to this point. Sent me in circles twice. So. Much. Confusion. 

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‘Origin ~ The Lionel’

Piano. Right off the bat I’m guessing that ‘Origin’ is functioning as an intro here of sorts. Also, sort of weird that they chose to somewhat arbitrarily combine the songs on the back of the gatefold, since there’s that instrumental interlude ‘The Darkenbound’ back there anyway. Whatever. Yup. Piano. And… nice! Yeeeeesssss, nice and aggressive. Those strained, gritted growls are fucking cool. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before, not even from Mortuus / Arioch. Man this song ‘The Lionel’ is a rocker! Tight riffing, busy drums and the everpresent synth really feels like it’s really supporting a metal track, rather than the metal supporting an orchestrated movement. Short break and one last sprint with a quick solo and final, driving crescendo, leaving the best for the very end, as usual!

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Damn. That was, overall, EXTREMELY badass. My central criticisms are both related to one another: For one, In a few of the tracks there seems to be quite a lot of building towards the apex, sometimes for the majority of the track. This is cool in principle, but the curve of the build doesn’t always climb steadily and instead stays in the shallows for ¾ of the track, then spikes at the end. Two: When those tracks do spike at the end, it’s just a spike. There isn’t enough time spent working with that aggression and layering it on, and after it is over I am left wanting more of that last bit, somewhat unfulfilled. 

HOWEVER. In general, the album is a goddamn masterpiece. Man there is a LOT going on. TONS of variety within a 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. In that, 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, Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, 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. Standout tracks are, well shit, like half of them? I’d say ‘Bortenfor Grensen’, ‘Through the Aperture of Time’, ‘Angela Krudeliis Ambitiosa Nokturniis’, ‘L’autre Serpent’, and maybe ‘The Lionel’. I’m so fucking glad I bought this LP.  You too can get it, from Drakkar Productions, Bandcamp and webstore.

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{NOTES}

<<Alright, this is basically what happened. Gonna admit that for me this is fucking absurd and embarrassing, but for the sake of amusement, I’ll tell you. I do it for you readers, I do it for you.

I wrote up the review of the first LP at home and then emailed it to myself so I could continue working on it at work, shamefully abandoning my dedication to do the entire review via listening to the album in one hit, for the sake of time management. I reviewed a couple more songs (‘Separation of Æthyr’ and part of ‘Wrestoration’), via streaming at work (sober) a few nights later which is how I discovered the divergence between the streamable album and the double LP. BUT, in my distraction figuring out what was going on with that incongruence, when I came back at home in an *enhanced* state to do the rest of the review a few nights after that, I had forgotten that I had worked on those two tracks because I had left the writing on a laptop which I had left at work (I had been half sleep-deprived delirious when I wrote it, it was during a night shift) and because indeed, I was stoned again. So, when I worked on it again the third time, instead of finishing ‘Wrestoration’ and going from there, I started at the beginning of the second LP (‘Separation of Aethyr’). Maaaaaannnnn did that sound familiar, and I was high enough that it threw me for a major loop. Instead of figuring out what had happened immediately, I assumed that I had LP 2 side A confused with LP 1 side B (don’t ask me why, I think I thought that I was getting ‘Separation of Æthyr’ confused with ‘Angeist’ because they both start out sort of similarly) … until I went back to ‘Angeist’ and realized that I recognized it too. There was a LOT of switching LPs, needling down on tracks to compare them, looking at the tracklist online, listening to the tracks online, and scratching my head at the tracklist on the back of the gatefold… before I remembered the writing I had done at work and figured out what the fuck was going on. The icing on the cake is that I didn’t go on that loop until AFTER I listened to and reviewed ‘Separation of Æthyr’ AGAIN. Basically I recognized the track, but I thought that I recognized it just from listening to the album through a few times prior to starting the review and I wrote up another review of it before I fully realized something was awry. So then I had two different “stream of thought” reviews of the same track, which just happened to be the goddamn track that I like least on the album. It took me the better part of an hour to figure all of this out. I ended up keeping my second reviews of ‘Separation of Æthyr’ and ‘Wrestoration’ since the ones at work were false anyway (due to them not being written by listening to the vinyl) and staying WAY too late finishing up the review of the album (including also running into ‘Angela Krudeliis Ambitiosa Nokturniis’ legit appearing AGAIN on LP 2 side B, which thankfully didn’t fuck me up too badly because I almost immediately looked at the back of the gatefold and saw it credited twice, although it did make me glare at the LP and gatefold with renewed suspicion) and messaging Dex about what a fucking dumbass I am.>>

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Angeist is available now via Drakkar Productions.

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Purchase Angeist on digital, CD and LP from the Drakkar Productions Bandcamp HERE, or on CD and LP from the Drakkar Productions webstore HERE.

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