BLACK METAL DAILY’S LISTCRUSH 2022: THE GOS EDITION

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Well, fuck. Here we are again.

2022 has been a weird year for me. When I scan my mind for a definitive favorite, an unquestionable AOTY, nothing really stands out as readily obvious enough to take the crown (at least for now, I’ll probably have it figured out by May 2023!). But at the same time black metal has seen such a wide variety of fantastic releases in 2022… enough so that in order to wrap it up I basically just had to sit down and start writing, and really only AFTER I did that was I able to start getting it sorted to the extent that I did. So here’s that narrative, my journey through black metal 2022, although not in chronological order. Things to keep in mind:

[+ I spent more time with these albums]

[++ I spent the most time with these albums]

[*mentions as criticism are in asterisks*]

[AOTY contenders are in BOLD]

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IMMEDIATE STAND-OUT ALBUMS & EPS

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Most Difficult To Pinpoint Why It’s So Fucking Good, But It Is: ++ SAIDAN (US) – Onryō II: Her Spirit Eternal

Most Unrecognized On The Top Shelf: ++ ETERNAL HELCARAXE (Irl) – Drown In Ash

Most Earworming: ++ MOONLIGHT SORCERY (Fin) – Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity (ep)

Most What The Fuck Another EP Already?!: MOONLIGHT SORCERY (Fin) – Nightwind: The Conquerer from the Stars (ep)

Most Chiptune: + SKRELLE (US) – Skrelle (ep)

Most Instantly Awesome: ++ SPECTRAL VOID (Fra) – Doomsday (ep)

Most Exclusive Physical: STARER (US) – Remorse Defines Me (ep) [Clear square 8″ lathe cut record from Gorbie Lathe Cuts. Hand numbered edition of 15.]

Most Short But Sweet: ANGELBLAST (Swe/Can) – Throne of Ashes (ep)

Most Album Released By Circle (Order) ov the Black Arts!!!: STRICHT (Aus) – Stricht (ep)

Most Band Name Which Fits The Music: ROSENKREUZGESELLSCHAFT (Twn) – Rosenkreuzgestllschaft (ep)

When considering 2022, the (black metal) albums which tend to come to mind first are SAIDAN’s irresistibly ensnaring and euphoric Onryō II: Her Spirit Eternal and ETERNAL HELCARAXE’s hopelessly catchy, subtly epic and incredibly beautiful Drown In Ash, plus a few others. But my mind immediately considers others and I can’t settle. Then my thought springs to what I have been playing the most and appreciating the longest in 2022. I think that the answer there would have to be MOONLIGHT SORCERY’s mind-blowing symphonic ep Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity, which was shortly followed by a second ep in November called Nightwind: The Conquerer from the Stars. Man, there were a few great eps this year. SKRELLE’s self titled is fucking awesome. SPECTRAL VOID’s Doomsday is fucking awesome too. Also STARER’s Remorse Defines Me, and ANGELBLAST’s Throne of Ashes. Also I was really fucking amped for Order ov the Black Arts’ creative wing/label Circle ov the Black Arts to release the hypnagogic, abberant, self-titled STRICHT ep. Finally, ROSENKREUZGESELLSCHAFT snuck in at the last minute with a wild little self titled flash of well-orchestrated atonality. Though brief, these releases do well to represent a recurring theme to a lot of what I appreciated this year: classic melody, blasting speed, symphonics, and a little bit of avant-garde dissonance.

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MODERN CLASSICS

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Most Swedish: + KVAEN (Swe) – The Great Below

Most Swedish But Not From Sweden: + FÄUST (Fra) – Death From Beyond

Most Interludes: ++ STORMRULER (US) – Sacred Rites & Black Magic

Most Half Swedish: IN APHELION (Swe/NL) –  Moribund

Most Emperory: +GEISTLICHT (Ger) – Fading Light

Most Second-Wave Nostalgia: CRYPTOSPITAL (Blr) – The Epitome of Dystopia

Most Better Than I Thought It Would Be: ++ WATAIN (Swe) – The Agony & Ecstacy of Watain

Most Satisfying Return To Form: +BELPHEGOR (Aut) – The Devils

*Most Disappointing But Not Surprising Meh: BEHEMOTH – Opvs Contra Natvram*

Alright, lets talk about that classic melodic black metal, which I mostly associate with a traditional Swedish sound (ie old DISSECTION, SACRAMENTUM, WATAIN, NAGLFAR, DARK FUNERAL, NECROPHOBIC, VALKYRJA, etc.) and which seems to be experiencing resurgence this year with albums like KVAEN’s The Great Below (a rapid follow up to 2021’s The Funeral Pyre), FÄUST’s Death From Beyond, and STORMRULER’s Sacred Rites & Black Magic (a rapid follow up from 2021’s Under the Burning Eclipse). Those were my favorites in this particular vein, but I also enjoyed IN APHELION’s Moribund. GEISTLICHT bore a different sort of classicism with their second album of the year Fading Light, closer to 90’s Norwegian symphonic pillars like old EMPEROR, DIMMU BORGIR, and WINDIR, and thus might also be thought of as 2022’s answer to STORMKEEP. CRYPTOSPITAL returned in short order with The Epitome of Dystopia and their brand of moving raw nostalgia. And of course we can’t forget that WATAIN itself dropped a new album The Agony & Ecstasy of Watain which, while still not reaching the heights of their apex (Sworn to the Dark and Lawless Darkness), still managed to put out their best offering since then. A similar thing can be said for blackdeath titans BELPHEGOR, whose album The Devils is better than at least the previous 5 releases. The same cannot be said for BEHEMOTH. 

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BLASTERS & DISSONANT / AVANT-GARDE

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Most Damn Fastest: ++BLACK SHADOW – Last Stage of Transformation

Most Misleading Album Art: VODOEM – Seasons of Silence

Most Relentless: + MISANTHROPÆ (US) – Untitled

Most I Was Forced To Concede: + DEATHSPELL OMEGA (Fra) – The Long Defeat

Most Lovecrafty: BLUT AUS NORD (Fra) – Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses

Most Like A Black Metal Ulcerate, Probably Because JSM Is Drumming: ++ VERBERIS (Ger) – Adumbration of the Veiled Logos

Most …Transformational: ANTECANTAMENTUM – Saturnine December

From BELPHEGOR, segway right in to mentioning a few releases which just fucking annihilate in terms of the aggression, driven primarily by percussion. BLACK SHADOW’s Last Stage of Transformation, for instance. Holyfuck. If anyone hasn’t heard that yet, get on it and at least get through that first solo in the first half of the first track to see just how it wants to burn your soul. Same with the avant-garde industrialesque barrage from VODOEM’s Seasons of Silence, sounding something like one might hear from the likes of REVERORUM IB MALACHT or ENTROPY CREATED CONSCIOUSNESS. The drums are programmed, but I don’t care, that shit annihilates. Even more so with MISANTHRPÆ’s self-titled and more dissonant offering of tireless blasting. Speaking of dissonance, DEATHSPELL OMEGA’s fantastic The Long Defeat won me over more than anything that they have put out since at least Paracletus and perhaps even back to Si Monvmentvm. It also won me over against BLUT AUS NORD’s predictably good Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses, and usually it’s the other way around. Inthis camp we also find VERBERIS’ Adumbration of the Veiled Logos which essentially sounds like a more blackened version of death metal enigma UCLERATE  (no wonder since both projects have the same drummer) and the decidedly lighter, but incredibly complex, progressive avant-garde wall of sound which is ANTECANTAMENTUM’s Saturnine December.

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MORE BLASTING!

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Most Obligatory Mentions: NORDJEVEL (Nor) – Gnavhòl    -&-   NOCTEM (Esp) – Credo Certe Ne Cras

Most Headlining at Legion ov the Black Arts Fest!: BLACK FUCKING CANCER (US) – Procreate Inverse

Most Auditory Eternal Blizzard: + BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ (Swe) – De Dunklas Sorgeakt

Most Listenable Swartadauþuz: GREVE (Swe) – Föllo af Svavel, Lifvets Dimridå

Most At War With Heaven: ++ TROLLDOM (Swe) –  I Nattens Sken (Genom Hemligheternas Dunkel)

Most Like An Owl’s Flight Through A Black Winter Night: + TROLLDOM (Swe) – Av Gudars Ätt…

Most Agonizingly, Fiercely Cathartic: NEAN (Fra) – The Ominous Catharsis

But I digress. About that blasting… There are always the obligatory mentions like NORDJEVEL  with Dominator behind the kit on Gnavhòl, and NOCTEM’s  deathened black battery Credo Certe Ne Cras. And then there’s the 1349-but-heavier-esque BLACK FUCKING CANCER (one of the headliners for our Legions ov the Order fest in July) release Procreate Inverse. Those aside, how can we not mention Swartadauþuz? Dude released NINE albums across seven projects this year, of which I am just starting to scrape the surface. For now I have been most impressed with BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ’s massive, dense, and frigid De Dunklas Sorgeakt, GREVE’s more melodic and accessible Föllo af Svavel, Lifvets Dimridå. But my favorites are TROLLDOM’s duel album drop: the infernal I Nattens Sken (Genom Hemligheternas Dunkel), an AOTY contender with full-on, raging astral symphonic black metal and basically zero restraint within those parameters and with relentless, almost mechanically captivating progressions -and- Av Gudars Ätt…, majestic in a much more “natural” and worldly sense, with drawn out and grandiose movements which focus on atmosphere, emotive variance, and epic soaring. It is entirely worth mentioning that any who may be a fan of that somewhat noisy but epic wall-of-sound approach of Swartadauþuz (particularly BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ) should definitely click on The Ominous Catharsis by NEAN.

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COSMIC

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Most Like Slowly Drifting Towards A Black Hole: NUMEN NOCTIS (Aus) – Sanctus Simulacrum

Most Rave Worthy: DÉHÀ (Bel) – Decadanse

Most Like Visiting Space Inside A Cool Spaceship: + VORGA (Ger) – Striving Toward Oblivion

Most Sloooooowwwww But Good: LUNE (Aut) – Hymns to the Lunar Realm

Most Lost Amidst A Vibrant Galaxy: JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS (US) – Infinite Universe, Infinite Death

Most Absolutely Beautiful: FORELUNAR (Irn) – Beloved and a Thousand Seraphim

It seems like a few of the mentions above start to edge near cosmic in sound, so might as well go further and mention the few specifically cosmic acts which caught my attention. NUMEN NOCTIS launched me into empyrean realms late this year, channeling the likes of DARKSPACE and BORGE with sophomore album Sanctus Simulacrum. One of DÉHÀ’s (many) releases this year, Decadance, had a similar sound although distinctly more industrialized, while VORGA’ Striving Toward Oblivion was one of the first things that I heard this year, providing a more traditional melodic cosmic orbit. LUNE’s incredibly grandiose and expansive Hymns to the Lunar Realm, complete with overt symphonics (including brass) and choirs, could only be described as blackened atmospheric funeral doom, whilst JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS graced us with Infinite Universe, Infinite Death, a modern deathened symphonic black metal goliath of galactic proportions. FORELUNAR (my last addition to this list) is technically regional (album is dedicated to women killed in Iran) but the sound is transcendent, celestial, lush, with almost a heavenly drone in its beautiful orchestrated melody, supported by ecclesiastical choirs.

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REGIONAL

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Most Cowboy: ++ DARK WATCHER (US) – Frontier (comp)

Most Native American: + VITAL SPIRIT (Can) – Still As The Night, Cold As The Wind

Most Frogs Excellently Used In An Intro: ++ SWAMPBORN (Rus) – Beyond Ratio

Most Siberian Hypothermia: GRIMA (Rus) – Frostbitten

Most Hopelessly Melodic Hooks: + MORGREIM (Pol) – XXII

A handful of releases I enjoyed immensely were quite the opposite of cosmic, regional tomes with specific endemic auditory themes. DARK WATCHER is at the top of my list with Frontier, and I’m cheating a bit here because this ‘debut’ album is really a compilation of previous eps Hymns to a Godless Land and Dark Watcher, but I don’t care because the band’s blatant use of spaghetti western black metal flavor is enough to make WAYFARER blush, and I fucking love it. The slightly deathier VITAL SPIRIT similarly infused Western Americana into their fantastic debut Still As The Night, Cold As The Wind, an ode to Native American decimation and violence. SWAMPBORN came out of nowhere with a fucking AWESOME debut Beyond Ratio, channeling some sort of Slavic ranine marshland gypsy vibes with an incredible array of instrumentation including keys, brass, cello, and accordion. And GRIMA returned once again with Frostbitten, a predictably enjoyable fifth stab at black Siberian folk atmospherics. MORGREIM’s album XXII, while more difficult to pin down a specific local sound, features over the top epic naturalistic melodies (sort of like a blacker, less layered Polish WINTERSUN), submerged screams, and lots of clean female vocals which are pretty good but sound a bit like an anime soundtrack, if one can handle that. 

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OTHER SUPERIOR ALBUMS

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Most Powerful Slow Burn: ++ PANZERFAUST (Can) – Suns of Perdition Chapter III: The Astral Drain

Most Mysterious: ++ SKARE (UK? Fra? Aus?) – Skare

Most Ancient Demonic Bloodlust: +SUMERIAN TOMBS (Ger) – Sumerian Tombs

Most Well-Rounded: VANANIDR – Beneath the Mold

Most Portuguese But Better Than Gaerea: ++ ANZV (Prt) – Gallas

*Most Sticky Fingers: GAEREA – Mirage* 

Most Wrenching Vocals: WOODS OF DESOLATION (Aus) – The Falling Tide

Most Grand Finale: + MOURNING BY MORNING (US) – A Step Away From Light; A Step Into Abyss

Most Unsurprisingly Fantastic: + MISÞYRMING (Isl) – Með hamri

Most …National: + HATE FOREST (Ukr) – Innermost

Alright, so where the hell does that leave us? PANZERFAUST, for one. Suns of Perdition Chapter III: The Astral Drain came out this year to wrap up the trilogy, and it is momentous. It is getting overlooked, but there’s a reason (and a remedy). The singles were misleading due to most of the tracks being slower, but there’s enough aggression to balance things out IF the tracks were rearranged and the fairly pointless short interludes were omitted: the order 3 > 9 > 8 > 5 > 7 > 1 is a fully satisfying listen, providing two calm-towards-aggressive waves with the instrumental in the middle and the long epic capstone to conclude. It might also be noted that track 7 is perhaps the best track they have ever written. SKARE’s self-titled debut is a bit of a mystery drop (bandcamp says origin is “France, world”, Encyclopedia Metallum says “Australia”), but an attentive listen convinces me that this is none other than another project from UK prodigy O.W.G.A., the man behind AULD RIDGE and ALBIONIC HERMETICISM, and the Hermetic Order of Ytene label. SKARE is similar in sound to both of those projects albeit slightly more melodic and atmospheric, and I have been absolutely obsessed with all three projects for the last 18 months. SUMERIAN TOMBS returned from the vampiric coffin with a tremendous self-titled tome of contemporary heavy warmth, epic density, and traditional savage and brazen demonic orthodoxy, while VANANIDR’s Beneath the Mold offered up a modern cohesive mix of classic melody, off-kilter savagery, and brooding calculation. 

ANZV dropped debut Gallas hot on the heels of a couple of singles and immediately established themselves for me as absolutely the the most prominent band from Portugal (and one of the most prominent albums worldwide) this year with their ritualistic deathened black metal, far above the likes of their moody, “cathartic”, thieving brethren. If you want catharsis, I recommend WOODS OF DESOLATION’s hotly anticipated opus The Falling Tide. Pioneers of post-black melancholic melodicism, this album is no different and features a vocal delivery which is particularly unhealthy and wrenching but avoids that annoying wailing sound that a lot of DSBM bands seem to employ. MOURNING BY MORNING took me by surprise with a fantastic symphonic black metal offering A Step Away From Light; A Step Into Abyss, which features just a little bit of ‘core heaviness. Finally, a few late releases that could potentially evolve to take AOTY (but at the time of writing this I just have not listened to either of them enough yet). First, MISÞYRMING’s Með hamri, which brings unquestionable and orthodox fury similar in sound to labelmate FUNERAL MIST but with moments which are perhaps even more epic. Upon a cursory listen, I like it more than 2015’s  Söngvar elds og óreiðu, but not as much as 2019’s Algleymi. Lastly, HATE FOREST’s Innermost. I have never really engaged with HATE FOREST up until this point, however Innermost turned the tide with it’s militant blasting, largely gutteral vocal style (with some variety), and engaging melody (which, according to reliable sources is a bit of an evolution with this album and is probably largely the reason that it is sitting so well with me). 

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“BLACKENED”

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Most Seems Like It Came Out In 2021, I Have Played It So Much: ++ HATH (US) – All That Was Promised

Most Gratifying Anticipation: ++ AN ABSTRACT ILLUSION (Swe) – Woe

*Most Surprisingly Disappointing: SAOR (Sct) – Origins*

*Most Okay But Disappointing Compared To The Last Album: DISILLUSION (Ger) – Ayam*

Most Ambitious Debut LP: + TÓMARÚM (US) – Ash in Realms of Stone Icons

Most Warm Weather Jam: INEXORUM (US) – Equinox Vigil

Most Mind Fucking Blown In The First Ten Seconds: + FREEDOM OF FEAR (Aus) – Carpathia

Most Difficult To Describe: WAKE – Thought Form Descent

Okay, let’s delve into the margins of black metal and check some of that stuff on the “blackened” periphery. HATH and their form of irresistably catchy, modern, barely-blackened death metal fucking brought it at the beginning of the year with All That Was Promised (I have a feeling that one has a LOT of staying power). But AN ABSTRACT ILLUSION was perhaps my most anticipated release of the year besides SAOR and DISSILLION, and unlike those latter, Woe did not disappoint with their absolutely next level combination of progressive metal, melodic/semi-technical death metal and black metal, shifting seamlessly between elements of technicality, heaviness, darkness, brutality, suffering, and fragility whilst all wrapped up in epic melody to create a complete masterpiece. Same with TÓMARÚM’s debut full length Ash in Realms of Stone Icons, which features many of the same elements mentioned above but with black metal consisting of the foundation instead of progressive death metal, an incredibly ambitious work of maturity, complexity, and depth. INEXORUM flexed their optimistic wind-in-your-hair brand of blackened melodic death metal with Equinox Vigil, while FREEDOM OF FEAR seamlessly melded a greater diversity of upbeat elements of death, thrash, black, and even a touch of power metal with their new album Carpathia. WAKE made some waves with Thought Form Descent and their somewhat difficult-to-pin-down, bristling combination of progressive black metal and melodic grind.

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DEATH METAL & OTHERS

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Most Randomly Made Me Obsessed: ++ JADE (Ger/Esp) – The Pacification of Death

Most How TMDC Should Be Sounding – BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS (Aus) – Abomination of the Flames

Most How Gojira Should Be Sounding – NEUROTIC MACHINERY (Cze) – A Loathsome Aberration

Most How Behemoth Should Be Sounding – SIRRUSH (Ita) – Molon Labe

Most Shameworthy Pleasure: ++ LORNA SHORE (US) – Pain Remains

Most Trancelike Experience: ++ HEILUNG (Den/Nor/Ger) – Drif

I got struck with a gnarly recent obsession that has been JADE’s more melodic The Pacification of Death. BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS’ Abomination of the Flames did a damn good job of picking up where THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT has been lacking, NEUROTIC MACHINERY showed me what GOJIRA could have sounded like with A Loathsome Aberration and SIRRUSH’s Molon Labe may hit the spot for those pining for BEHEMOTH’s Demigod era. And then there’s LORNA SHORE’s Pain Remains. Fuck off, okay? I like it. It’s like DIMMU BORGIR took so many steroids that it bro’ed out into deathcore. Reminds me of FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE in some ways, although it has the drawback of it’s foundation being deathcore and not brutal death metal. Still though, butween fucking stellar blasting and outlandish orchestration, the engaging guitar hooks, and entertaining vocals, it is enough for me to be willing to tolerate the breakdowns. Special shout out though to the tribal ritualindustrial darkfolk act HEILUNG who dropped new album Drif. True to form, it contains a few tracks on it which are absolutely stunning (tracks 1-3: “Asja”, “Anoana”, and “Tenet”). I was fortunate enough to catch the subsequent tour date in San Francisco and it was one of the best live shows I have seen in years.

Well, that’s it for 2022… until February when I discover too late all those which “got away”. Sincere hails to anyone still reading. Hails to Black Metal Daily and Order ov the Black Arts. Hails to all the great artists and labels out there. Hails to Black Metal!!! Bring on the next round!

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BLACK METAL DAILY’S LISTCRUSH 2022 WILL CONTINUE.

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Of Malingerance and Existential Violence – A Review of ‘The Suns of Perdition, Chapter III: The Astral Drain’ by PANZERFAUST

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By GOS (Order ov the Black Arts)

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Well well well. Here we are once again covering Canada’s PANZERFAUST, which has been, for me, one of the most prominent and anticipated bands that I have “discovered” in the last three years. The credit for that goes almost exclusively towards the heavy ordinance of the first installment of The Suns of Perdition trilogy, entitled War, Horrid War (2019) which debuted quite high on my overall hierarchy for that year and just kept climbing the ranks as time went on. Chapter II: Render Unto Eden followed in 2020 and I think threw many fans for a bit of a loop due to embracing a sound which was not as hard or violent, and more (as I said then) “ritualized and contemplative, borrowing more from progressive blackened doom sensibilities than its predecessor”.

Chapter II still retained a fair amount of aggression throughout, especially with the crowning track ‘The Snare of the Fowler’, but the overall increase in subtley caused many fans to question where Chapter III would be headed… and now that question has been answered. Let’s put it this way, if Chapter II could be called “contemplative”, Chapter III: The Astral Drain is downright meditative, at least at first, really playing out the execution of open space and the slow, nuanced, atonal exploration with the 10-minute first track ‘Death-Drive Projections’. This is accentuated by the inclusion of more or less atmospheric interludes (the first is called ‘The Fear’) between each main track throughout the album. Conceptually, the continued movement away from more straightforward blasting makes some sense; the lyrical themes abstracting even further both ontologically and spiritually than the material and religious motifs of the previous two albums, respectively.

‘B22: The Hive and the Hole’ picks up just a bit with a steady, plodding cadence which really reminds me a lot of Chapter I‘s excellent final track ‘The Men of No Man’s Land’, and feels a lot like a build towards some sort of explosive release. This anticipation causes me to look for clues to its timing in the vocals, which hands down remains one of my favorites in the black/death genre, with a unique roaring quality often bordering on particularly growly, menacing singing. The explosive release never arrives and the track gradually slows and transitions to the second and fully ambient interlude ‘The Pain’. Any momentum has somewhat frustratingly dissipated and ‘The Bonfire of the Insanities’ is just as crawling as the first track was, although it does have some pretty cool inconspicuous chanting and throat singing. Quite beautiful actually, if one can get over the fact that the album is now halfway over with not a headbang in sight. BUT, just when we think that any hope of such is lost, it finally happens! With 45 more seconds to go, ‘Bonfire’ suddenly kicks into gear for a ballistic, frenzied and paroxysmal outro which is far too brief!

‘The Fury’ is the next interlude, but dammit, I’m just mad the last track ended right when it just started kicking ass, and that the said ending was WAY THE FUCK more furious than this droning noise is. However, ‘The Far Bank at the River Styx’ is the next track, and I’m just going to lay it out plainly: this is one of best tracks that PANZERFAUST has in their entire discography. It’s fucking GREAT. Sufficient ramp up and then it rolls right into a forceful, energetic momentum with a perfect tempo and undeniable groove, akin to a more dissonant and less polished cousin of BEHEMOTH‘s ‘Oro Pro Nobis Lucifer’ or even ‘No Sympathy for Fools’. Fucking love it. Next is ‘Enantiodromia’, and clocking in at 5:55 this very tribal, ritualistic, yet mechanically creaking track seems like it could better be described as a full instrumental track rather than an interlude, but whatever. ‘Tabula Rasa’ is the finale here and while not quite as exhilarating as ‘Styx’, still manages to manifest more of what I think that most fans, myself included, are looking for in terms of savage and militant bombardment.

While my feelings were mixed on the initial playthrough, the more dynamic moments of The Astral Drain always shone through and repeated listens have allowed me to appreciate the more tempered elements (particularly ‘B22’ and the first half of ‘Bonfire’) which ultimately do dominate the album as a whole. I am a bit loath to remark on the creative aspects of someone else’s art, but I really think something could have been done with the order of the songs (and interludes) in order to balance it out. Something like ‘B22’ > ‘Tabula Rasa’ > ‘Enantiodromia’ > ‘Bonfire’ > ‘Styx’ > ‘Death-Drive’ seems like it would have provided two calm-towards-aggressive waves with the instrumental in the middle and the long epic capstone to conclude. At any rate, it is somewhat misleading that the first two singles are the two most aggressive tracks on the album; the quality IS there, and the slower songs have their own draw, but the slowest tracks (and somewhat pointless inderludes) comprising more than the entire first half threatens to derail a listener during a full playthrough who is expecting Chapter I style aggression throughout, based on the singles.

FFO: SCHAMMASCH, AVERSIO HUMANITATIS, THE RUINS OF BEVERAST

The Suns of Perdition, Chapter III: The Astral Drain releases July 22nd via Eisenwald.

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Pre-order The Suns of Perdition, Chapter III: The Astral Drain on LP, CD or digital from the Panzerfaust Bandcamp HERE, or on LP and CD from the Eisenwald webstore HERE.

Support PANZERFAUST:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Instagram
• Official Reverbnation

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BLACK METAL DAILY’S LISTCRUSH 2020: THE GOS EDITION

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For four years in a row now I have developed a list of my favorite albums of the year. One would think that I would have developed some sort of solid format at this point, but strangely, this is not the case. For reasons not entirely clear to me, the way I organize and categories the list changes from year to year. What worked perfectly for 2019 (a tiered selection) did not work at all for me for 2020. I simply could not make sense of it, could not organize releases in a way that seemed coherent using that method. So, I reverted (it almost seemed that I was forced to revert) back to something I did all the way back in 2017, which was to break up selections into some broad and subgenres and categories, which should be fairly self-explanatory, although of course open to interpretation. I also borrowed from what I did in 2018, which was to forgo a solid ranking and to instead place releases according to “quantum” principles, wherein each release (save the AOTY) does not have a solid location, but shifts around in the general vicinity of its placement depending on my mood etc. So, while I have chosen an AOTY, the top few picks in each category might very well be my favorite thing of the year at the moment of any particular time or mood. Am I being wishy-washy? Perhaps a bit. Am I overthinking it? Almost certainly, but I suppose that if this conceptual apparatus is what it takes for me to be satisfied with a summation my assessment of black metal in 2020, then so be it. Of note: the United States KILLED IT this year for me, and that is a first. Thanks for checking this out, and may thy will be done.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

AKHLYS [United States] – Melinoë

Anyone familiar with Naas Alcameth’s monumental output of immense, perseverant, and absolutely malevolent black metal in the forms of NIGHTBRINGER, BESTIA ARCANA, and AORATOS will immediately recognize the signature auditory maelstrom of perhaps his most notorious project, AKHLYS. A journey inward, a manifestation born of terrifying psychic nightmares, and the dread spirits which inhabit them, the dense murk of harrowing antipathy ascending from the depths with only a futile glimmer of warning before we are consumed in torrents of synth, writhing layers of pitchshifted guitars, measured percussive severity, and the hellish, maniacally spectral voice of Alcameth. The rhythm guitar and bass help to keep everything from tearing itself asunder, and periodically they pull the other instruments into their less frenetic trajectory for powerfully bombastic, cadenced movements across the whole instrumental continuum. Menacing builds towards abrupt eruption in absolute fury and malice. Lavish, orchestrated melody, tragic, compelling, terrible, and beautiful… imposing and utterly demonic black metal terror that is sustained, pensive, ominous, oppressive. {full review and interview}

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HYPERAURAL

(11 selections)

PANZERFAUST [Canada] – Suns of Perdition Pt. 2: Render Unto Eden

Centering on religious and spiritual motifs: humanity’s sin and virtue, suffering and denial, fall from redemption, descent into ruin, and impending judgement, PANZERFAUST continues to dish out monstrous, crushing, black/death with overpowering, uniquely roaring vocals (a standout feature among a litany of compelling characteristics), and an overall sense of progressive, desolating inevitability. The shift in focus from the first Suns of Perdition installment is not only represented with the album title and lyrical themes, but also with the sound itself, which seems overall to be a bit more ritualized and contemplative, borrowing more from progressive blackened doom sensibilities than its predecessor did, and perfected in terms of execution, production, and mix. Render Unto Eden is, overall, a more than adequate follow up to War, Horrid War, a powerful yet reflective specimen of God-tier blackened art, and to no surprise, PANZERFAUST have produced truly one of the best albums that I have heard this year. {full review}

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ANAAL NATHRAKH [United States / England] – Endarkenment

Endarkenment is really damn good, and better than I thought it would be. I’m particularly appreciating the lack of forays into djenty or metalcore territory and it seems like there’s several angles from which NATHRAKH has dialed up the ferocity factor. I’m surprised at the increased transparency that the band is providing, as well as the number of songs that decline to swing into that pattern of melodic chorus with clean vocals. While I frequently like those parts in other albums, I’m finding myself particularly drawn to tracks that don’t do that as much here. Even so, a few of those clean melodic choruses have undeniable hooks which don’t easily leave my head. After A New Kind of Horror (2018) I was pretty concerned that NATHRAKH was going to stray afar from black metal altogether, but I think those concerns have been laid to rest. {collaborative review}

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DECOHERENCE [United Kingdom] – Unitarity

With virtually no introduction, the listener is confronted with a celestial wall of overwhelming cosmic black metal. Where the previous album Ekpyrosis (2019) had room to breathe around a more staggering pace, here much of that space filled with blasting maelstromic percussion, a molten dense core of bass, searing trajectories of guitar dissonance, more sustained cataclysmic ambience and well-embedded vocals that roar through the tracks like some sort of abrasive solar turbulence. While initially more saturated and massive, the journey through Unitarity proves it to be also more epic and nuanced. As the final orbit is traveled it is clear that DECOHERENCE have created an elite, immense constellation of black epic industrial atmospheric insanity, decimating in execution and universally apocalyptic in scope. {full review}

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ABIGOR [Austria] – Totschläger (A Saintslayer’s Songbook)

Well, I guess this one is really a surprise to nobody, except maybe me. Never been into ABIGOR before this for whatever reason. I just found it too… technical? Thin sounding? Just too fucking weird? Yeah, this is different. Came out of nowhere in the final moments of the year but already I have listened to this compulsively more times than many other entries on my lists. Grandiose, varied, aggressive, complex, dynamic… I just don’t have time to do this album justice with words this late in the year. This thing is just a gaddamn masterpiece and we all know it. 

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…AND OCEANS [Finland] – Cosmic World Mother

Well-produced, aggressive, mature, mainstream symphonic/industrial black/death and it is phenomenal. This album has a particular sharpness, crystalline, and pristine quality to the overall production that I think perfectly expresses what the band was trying to achieve. This album got a lot of playtime from me, particularly early in the year. FFO mid-era DIMMU BORGIR, BELPHEGOR, GLORIA MORTI, SHADE EMPIRE, EMPYREAN THRONE, DAWN OF ASHES, ID:VISION

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BORGNE [Switzerland] – Y

Expansive, cosmic, electronic, epic, black madness. Sustained atmospheres and beautiful keys float over a blistering percussive attack and razor-sharp riffing, which in turn radiate from a dense core of bass and ebbing industrial noise effects, all accentuated by mostly frigid vocals with some haunting cleans. This is a perfect follow up to 2017’s [∞], and utilizes much of the same postapocalyptic impressions and melancholic vastness. Herein we may witness the cold, detached power of an ever-expanding universe. 

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MAZIKEEN [Australia] – The Solace of Death

By the time the modest intro of the first song breaks into a well-timed barrage of double kick, cascading piano, shredding riffs, and triumphant roaring, it is readily apparent that every element of Solace of Death is orchestrated with immense, grandiose, overwhelming intensity. Vacillating between charging power and insistent groove, unhinged frenetic pacing, downright assaultive synth progressions, incinerating guitars and almost constant minigun battery on the drums… just as the listener starts to adapt to this exquisite barrage, we are treated to a fucking beautiful acoustic interludes, melody with a tempered intro of acoustic guitar and fantastic piano, grandiose and almost majestic sections. This is nothing short of a symphonic black/death metal masterwork, with complexity, precision, and fire. {full review}

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BELTEZ [Germany] – A Grey Chill And A Whisper

Conceptually, the black spires of a colossal, horrendous evil preside over a helpless, abject populous as a lone individual struggles in desperation against incomprehensible malice and inevitable doom. The sonic representation is an opus of contemporary black metal: persistently massive, forcefully heavy with elements of doom, and almost grandiose in its complex, blackened melancholy. Misery, desperation, hopelessness, and despair find auditory expression through layers of elaborate and epic guitars, a veritable onslaught of vicious percussion, immeasurably dense bass progressions, haunting and mesmeric synth, and varied ferocious vocal manifestations. Yet, amidst this impenetrable darkness, we can find a faintly glimmering ore of heroism, strength, loyalty, hope, love, sacrifice, and tragic beauty. {full review and interview}

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OBSCURAE [United States] – To Walk The Path Of Sorrows

Sort of similar to BORGNE in its expansive, nocturnal cosmic aesthetics, except the atmospheric onslaught is ratcheted up to the highest possible degree. Whereas BORGNE’s cosmicism leaves plenty of room to breathe, OBSCURAE’s layers upon layers of texture and nuance greatest a density which is just absolutely crushing yet profoundly beautiful. It was love at first listen for me, and To Walk The Path Of Sorrows was a late but instant addition to both my end of year list and my vinyl collection. 

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WAKE [Canada] – Devouring Ruin

Pensive yet savage, technical but with no small expression of agony, forceful yet nuanced, Devouring Ruin is a near-perfect example of black/death/grind hybridization, which has been at the forefront of my attention for the majority of the year. FFO (pre SIDABS) ULCERATE, ULSECT, EMBRA, NOCTAMBULIST

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SKÁPHE [United States] – Skáphe³

Skáphe³ manages to ride just on the right side of the very limits of what I’m able to tolerate in terms of unpredictability and erraticism in black metal. And it does so beautifully, each element really standing out as exceptional, and the combination of them is a beautifully psychotic journey to the heart of spiritual abyss.

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ORTHODOX

(11 selections)

KVAEN [Sweden] – The Funeral Pyre

One would be hard-pressed to deny that the modern black metal scene is becoming ever more saturated with an array of musical variations which increasingly depart from the traditional foundations of the orthodox cannon. Thus, for me there is a distinct sense of appreciation when an album comes along that manages to, for a time, sweep all of the frills off the table and demand full attention with pure, austere, straightforward hyperscandinavian fucking excellence. While The Funeral Pyre isn’t breaking new ground, this debut album establishes KVAEN firmly alongside an extremely impressive plethora of god-tier Swedish peers. Every damn song is born a classic, every note is pure gold. {full review}

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GRAVENCHALICE [United States]  – Apparition

Apparition is currently top of my list for most under-recognized masterpiece of the year. They got a bit of recognition in the Order but no label? Someone needs to sign these dudes stat! I mean, give the first track just a few minutes and focus on those layers of guitars. How many do they have simultaneously? Two? Three? That shit is artful as fuck and damn near orgasmic. This reminds me of why I enjoy Si Monvmentvm from DSO, but sort of fell off afterwards. Some amount of atonality with the riffing but the progressions themselves are classically coherent and awesome. And the vocals are awesome. And the cover art is awesome. IT’S ALL AWESOME.

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HORDE OF HEL [Sweden] – Döden Nalkas

Döden Nalkas is not only one of the most unabashedly savage and vehemently apocalyptic albums to be unfurled this year, it is in fact one of the most puritanically decimating traditional black metal offerings of recent memory. The auditory foundation for this maelstrom is an absolutely devastating assault of blistering black metal aggression and aural hatred of the most authentic and blatant variety, reminiscent of pillars of Swedish aggression like 90’s classic DARK FUNERAL and MARDUK, combined with the unbridled, unflinching darkness of FUNERAL MIST. The riffs? Incinerating, burning through the tracks and embedding in the flesh of the psyche like the razor-edged spearhead of death itself. The vocals? unhinged, ragged, varied, powerful, and ruthless. The torrential, relentless ballistic percussion is provided by none other than the ineffable king of artillery Nils ‘Dominator’ Fjellström. But what really pushes HORDE OF HEL to its darkest capacity and solidifies it as unique among a host of impressive peers is the massively effective incorporation of an evil, catastrophic, and inexorable industrial edge to the blasting turmoil. {full review}

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ONDSKAPT [Sweden] – Grimoire Ordo Devus

Not much I can really say about this which hasn’t been said by people who are more familiar and more versed on the history of ONDSKAPT’s discography. Bottom line: its just fucking great. To my ears it basically sounds like top-notch Swedish orthodoxy with furious guitar lead, mixed with that heavier/deathier aspect that Poland often brings to the table. Creative combination and a terrific album. 

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DEVENEROR [United States] – Malleus Philosophorum

Malleus Philosophorum retains many fantastic elements of DEVENEROR’s first album Kenoma (2019): blasting percussion, savage and layered vocals, incinerating guitars, and imperious, fully audible bass, carefully crafted together with just the right amount of dissonance (an element which I have seen highlighted in various descriptions of the album, but which, to me, really shows itself to be only one aspect of a full spectrum of awesomeness) and an impeccable mix. What it does shed is some of the sporadicism and in its place, develops a lot more of everything I really like in black metal. It is more melodic, more structured, more cohesive, more coherent. Less infernal and chaotic perhaps, but certainly more thoughtful and engaging. {full review and interview}

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YMIR [Finand] – Ymir

Punchy, upbeat, aggressive, snowbound fire with plenty of blasting and continuous riffing. That and a combination of really epic elements, overt melodicism, and lots vocal variety which doesn’t overpower the music (as is the case with much Finnish BM) elevates this one above other similar offerings this year for me. This one’s doing for Finland what KVAEN is doing for Sweden in 2020. Perfected classic traditionalism which hits all the right targets.

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NEXION [Iceland] – Seven Oracles

Like ritual artifacts placed purposefully around the perimeter of a prophetic shrine, every title, word, image, note, sound and utterance from Icelandic black metal entity NEXION has been crafted together with a full intention to create a coherent meditation on pursuit of decimating esoteric wisdom. Forgoing the overtly claustrophobic and oppressive signature Icelandic black metal style for one that is more dynamic, aggressive, catchy, melodic and with hints of death metal brutality, while The lyrics articulate the dissolution of human construction and belief from seven perspectives, and tend to revolve around messages of ontological violence, cataclysmic revelation, corrupted sanctity, existential death, cosmic darkness, abyssal wisdom, pestilential chaos and the prophecy of some sort of oblivion messiah. {full review}

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DUMAL [United States] – The Confessor

The much-anticipated follow-up to The Lesser God album (2017). Straight up melodic USBM, which (like a shitload of other similar bands i.e., WORSEN, DEVENEROR, GRAVENCHALICE, VOID OMNIA, INEXORUM) doesn’t get nearly the hype that it deserves and is much better than *other* US bands that get a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons. Uncomplicated, catchy, groovy, accessible… it’s so simple, and so awesome in its simplicity. No synth, basic melody, no massive sound, no ambient textures, vox is nothing radical… no aspect of it is really overbearing, yet when it all comes together it’s just incredibly solid! KVAEN is to Sweden what YMIR is to Finland is what DUMAL is to the US this year.

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THE COMMITTEE [Germany] – Utopian Deception

Proclaiming that “they do not tell the story of the victorious powers, but the story of the forgotten”, Utopian Deception paradoxically takes on the role of the social dystopian Orwellian engineer and propagandist in the lyrics as a criticism in this album. So far, so good. Musically, it seems to be fairly straightforward but well-executed melodic black metal, maybe with a touch of ‘progressive’ thrown in. Nothing particularly mind-blowing but uncannily addictive, and I have come back to it over and over since it dropped.

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KRYPTAMOK [Finland] – Verisaarna

With KRYPTAMOK, speed metal aggression yields to healthy doses of orthodox Finnish melodicism, which in turn pushes the envelope even further towards downright epic horizons. Pace fluctuates between what seems to be a baseline frenetic, driving bloodlust and a more measured predatorial malevolence all driven forward by blistering percussion while spearheaded by riffs to freeze your heart and a poisonous vocal delivery. Verisaarna also throws us an array of fantastic elements to an already accomplished timbre: war-horn brass, vaguely symphonic elements, choirs, bells or chimes, electric organ, etc. It’s not often that a progression can go from stripped-down, galloping, no-shits-given d-beat belligerence to classic Finnish snow-swept frigidity and then to the far battle sagas of Middle-Earth, but KRYPTAMOK pulls it off seamlessly and naturally.

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DOMMEDAG [Sweden / Norway] – Marburg

Man, this is just a hard-hitting, in-your-face, fast, violent, thrashy, riff-centered example of Scandinavian black metal orthodoxy, most comparable I think to the legendary TSJUDER. A clear example of when one should not judge a book by its cover, because I really think that the album suffers quite a lot from the gothic/darkmetal style choice of cover art. Marburg looks like NIGHTWISH, but it does NOT sound like it. At all. Give it a listen if you want a good pummeling for your false assumption. That’s what I did, and I’m happy I did so.

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UNORTHODOX

(11 selections)

INEXORUM [United States] – Moonlit Navigation

Out of all the albums on my list this year, this is the one that probably suffers from the biggest divergence between how much I love it, and how much I have “given” to it in terms of posts, shares, etc. It’s one that I should have done a full review for, but by the time I realized it, I was busy with other reviews, and that ship had sailed. Outstanding USBM which boasts the unorthodox quality of actually being somewhat… well… fun. Borrowing from rock and punk, the upbeat, wind-in-your-hair cadence of the tracks, fueled primarily by persistent and artful percussion,  are augmented by phenomenally enjoyable, often harmonized guitar arrangements. The vocals, with lyrics which focus on struggle and perseverance, are probably the darkest element of the album, and are consistently growly, which is good because the aesthetic overall is so lite that softer vocals might have pushed it too far in that direction. Each track is well-crafted with memorable hooks and fantastic moments. Ha! To be completely honest, relistening to Moonlit Navigation again now at the end of the year, it occurs to me that one could label it as melodic death metal just as easily as unorthodox melodic black metal! Whatever though, this one makes the top of this list either way.

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WAYFARER [United States] – A Romance With Violence

The Colorado black metal cowboys return for a much-anticipated 4th full length! Borrowing heavily from American West folk and country not only in terms of timbre, but also lyrical themes and visual stylization, WAYFARER have practically created a subgenre of their own. A Romance With Violence is noticeably and purposefully more theatrical than World’s Blood (2018) was and some of the latter’s grittiness of the production was dusted off for an album that is overall more elaborate, refined, and epic, much like the excellent earlier album Old Souls (2016). With everything from the saloon waltz of the intro to the melodic black metal riffs of ‘The Iron Horse’ to the doomier psychedelia of the epic closer ‘Vaudeville’, A Romance With Violence has a LOT to offer. {full collaborative review}

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JORDABLOD [Sweden] – The Cabinet of Numinous Song

Joining the growing number of bands who are tapping into what American western and rock can offer to black metal, with this release JORDABLOD is even more upfront about it, and so much the better. The Cabinet of Numinous Song takes these influences and crosses it with somewhat of a semi-claustrophobic and more psychedelically unrestrained of the Icelandic (sounding) sound to fantastic effect. There’s even a track on there (‘The Beauty of Every Wound’) that features almost a dead-on black metal replication of the central riff from STEPPENWOLF’s ‘Born To Be Wild’. Sounds fucking awesome? You bet your ass it does. This was an early 2020 pick for me and hands down my favorite release in January.

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DZÖ-NGA [United States] – Thunder In The Mountains

This is a beautiful, expansive, epic, and accomplished atmospheric post/pseudo black metal opus with a focus on Native American folklore and auditory aesthetics. It features huge number of great highlights: pristine and sorrowful melodies, lots of clean female vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, violin, and amazing solos, while still maintaining more mainline BM elements like harsh vocals, driving percussion, thrashy moments, and hints of folk. FFO SAOR, SOJOURNER, SKYFOREST.

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OVNEV [United States] – Transpiration

While lyrics focus on the synergistic elements of oxygen, water, wind, and mountains, gorgeous acoustic progressions and soaring lead guitar balance out with blustering riffs, scathing vocals, and a stripped-down, tumbling and charging percussive battery. The end result is a beautiful album which intentionally reflects the coherence of nature itself. FFO PANOPTICON, more aggressive AGALLOCH (ie Marrow of the Spirit, Faustian Echoes), ALDA, and NECHOWEN. [interview]

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AMIENSUS [United States] – Abreaction

From nature-based, blackened melodic pseudo-folk aspects of first album Restoration (2012), to the more progressive, epic sound of Ascension (2015), to more traditional synthphonic black metal aggression of All Paths Lead to Death (2017) AMIENSUS have consistently refined their sound. Abreaction takes all of these styles and combines them into a cohesive unity, pulling the listener through an elaborate, seamless gambit of sonic and affective approaches, from the full-on post-rock/alternative intro to the epic, roaring and heavy black/death/doom closing track. Here we find layered harmonizing electric and acoustic guitars, an array of vocal approaches including plenty of cleans, a variety of keyboard additions from orchestra to organ to piano to brass, and soaring cello mixed perfectly into what was already an eclectic musical template. FFO IHSAHN, XANTHOCHROID, WILDERUN {full review and interview}

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DISMALIMERENCE [United States] – Tome:1

This debut album is a beautiful and haunting account of memory and dysphoria, frequently rooting sorrow and reminiscence in natural metaphors such as the moon, lakes, rivers, gardens and wind, and while it generally has black metal as its foundation, it sits on the fringes and defies many expectations of the genre. Musically DISMALIMERENCE proves to be a harmonious mix between the naturalist tendencies of Cascadian black metal, the warmly radiating melodicism of atmospheric post-black, and the raw emotional content and impact of DSBM. Clean production finds soaring guitar lead and rasping vocals taking center stage over full bass and driving percussion, accentuated by synth; a near perfect balance of musical aggression and tenderness as meandering, pensive, sometimes apprehensive sensitivity repeatedly succumbs to distorted anguish and/or rage and vice versa. {full review}

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UNREQVITED [Canada] – Empathica

UNREQVITED consistently pushes the boundaries of what can be considered black metal proper, and typical descriptors such as “melodic” do not even begin to describe the immaculate, celestial magnificence of the project’s God-tier blackened cinematic atmosphere. Melancholic acoustic guitar, lofty choruses, and easy percussion repeatedly building skyward towards precipices and then cascade over into characteristically massive, widescreen waves of brilliantly layered synth, soaring guitar lead and distinctive, dejected screams, often with perfectly utilized double kick. The harsh vocals are characteristically removed from the forefront of the mix, distant, as if echoing from aloof vistas. Empathica is an exercise in radiant winter surrealism, a display of shimmering, brilliant soundscapes both pristine and vast, harnessing the particular elevating, epiphanic sorrow that only UNREQVITED can materialize. {full review}

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OSSAERT [Netherlands] – Bedehuis

Bedehuis starts off with some straightforward melodic riffs which begin to lift, careen and sway before the powerful, shouting vocals begin to push the listener under. Soon the beauty of the depths become evident as the vocals explore a variety of different modes, and aggressive punk-laced beats sustain even as the song evolves back to blacker melodic riffing. Bass is audible throughout, which provides a nice strong undertow to the swirling, churning currents which plunge into post-black melodic progressions, intoxicating vocals soaring above the surges. The closing track hits like a flood, a veritable torrent of massive, ambitious, beautiful waves of sublime, epic black metal reckoning. Bedehuis is a rich, fluid, roiling offering with a myriad of complimenting, varied features that are just as apt to overwhelm you under the crushing tide as they are to hold you buoyant above the eddies. {full review}

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CORPS FLEUR [United Kingdom] – Corps Fleur

Corps Fleur is a combination of traditional melodic black metal and more atmospheric post-black, but it would be more accurate to describe the album as starting out in the sunnier realm of the latter and moving towards the darker, more assertive edge of the former. The aggression is definitely kicked up with “Solace” and “Lament” (my two favorite tracks), and although it is perhaps most readily noticeable in the percussion, it’s really due to the overall songwriting. It is worth noting that it is not just the amalgamation of DSBM, post-black, and more classic BM rancor which makes the album stand out… equally important is the tight musicianship, skilled and effective technique exhibited by all involved, and also an incredible production and mix. {full review}

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MINI ALBUMS / EPs / SPLITS

(11 selections)

STORMKEEP [United States] – Galdrum

Galdrum is a blatant, unashamed ode to the 90’s era of symphonic black metal both visually and musically. The cover art is fucking stunning, but also have you seen the band’s promo photo and art? Candles, swords, dragons, spikes, axes… it’s just perfectly quintessential. Would almost be cringy if it didn’t seem so fucking authentic, and now that I can really comprehend the music, they hold their own in that department too. STORMKEEP taps into that Scandinavian nostalgia while still maintaining an identity of its own and stands well above most relevant contemporary acts, and alongside THE KRYPTIK and VARGRAV. Everything is top-notch, every element crafted together in such a way that I think Galdrum achieves exactly what it is trying to achieve: classic symphonic black metal euphoria. {full collaborative review}

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ALMYRKVI [Iceland] / THE RUINS OF BEVERAST [Germany] – (split)

ALMYRKVI marches forward like the steady, otherworldly stride of some planetary giant, footfalls heavy enough to shake the earth but with a crown amongst the stars. There is a measured and incredibly effective industrial aspect threaded throughout, giving the Icelandic contribution a sense of posthuman aloofness. Layers of dense melodies, grandiose to the point of celestial, creates a sense of being helplessly witness to something that is both cosmically transcendent and vaguely technological, with the gravitational inexorability of blackened monolithic power, a God of such prowess that humanity cannot help but plunge into the hypnotic depths of reverence and worship. Enter THE RUINS OF BEVERAST. The increasingly ecstatic chanting and steady pseudotribal cadence fantastically captures a tranced veneration encircling the deific monument which ALMYRKVI introduced. The impenetrable, crepitus bass seems to crackle like the black energy of a central locum of power while the rest of the elements meditatively, intoxicatingly, ritualistically cavort ‘round in a possessed doom orbit. The devotion to dark idols develops towards an increased tempo, enthusiastic groove, and soaring two-minute guitar lead, impressing concluding notions of a more elated yet violent elevation… rapture. {full review}

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MAQUAHUITL [United States] – Con Su Pistola en La Mano

Hard-hitting, galloping, cutthroat southwestern bandido black metal. It’s practically impossible to not mention WAYFARER (since they too put out a release this year), but best as a contrast: Con Su Pistola en La Mano is faster, harder, more focused, more aggressive, and more *black metal*, and would be better compared to 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 burn through three tracks on this EP with reckless abandon, leaving me wanting mucho, mucho mas. 

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SOUL DISSOLUTION [Belgium] – Winter Contemplations

Eschewing the pitch black, frigid, subzero atmospherics harnessed by a plethora of typically Scandinavian acts, Winter Contemplations adopts a more overtly post-black sunniness while still projecting distinct wintertide. The album eases in with the whistling wind before settling into an easy pace of plodding percussion, thick melodic strings, and somewhat monotonic yelling vocals. Soon we see where SOUL DISSOLUTION shines: when those elements are combined with warm, almost bluesy guitar lead which twirls and plays amongst the other instruments, mid-paced cadence, and lovely acoustic guitar progressions. Majestic synth puts on a pristine display as electric lead guitar foretells the heaviness of the nevertheless casual percussion. We catch the full cascade towards the end, all musical grandeur ecstatically conjoining atop torrents of rapid double kick before the album concludes in epic fashion. {full review}

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ANCIENT HOSTILITY [Ukraine/United States] – Anthropophagy

Comprised of efforts from the hyper prolific SadVoice (INNER SUFFERING) on music and the vocals of Imber (ALUDRA, ex-SYNODIC, PALUS SOMNI [tba]), ANCIENT HOSTILITY specializes in mid-paced, ruminating, slow-churning black metal. The music has a slight industrial edge, as well as an element of unnerving, almost haunting dissonance, while the scathing vocals convey unbridled, red-hot hatred. Anthropophagy succeeds in transmitting a sense of dread with tracks of haunting, anxiety provoking, smoldering malice. 

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THE KRYPTIK [Brazil] – Behold Fortress Inferno

Surprisingly good old-school symphonic black metal! The simplicity and earnestness of the 2nd wave, with sustained orchestral synth atmospheres, scathing vocals, sufficient drumming, and some solid guitar solos. This sounds perfect alongside early EMPEROR, EVILFEAST, VARGRAV, KATAXU, and perhaps this year’s ELFFOR.

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TENEBRAE AETERNUM [Switzerland] – Embraced By The Damned One

Heavy, thickened, black, almost meditative ritualism with hints of death metal, done extremely well and fully developed in every respect. I have been following this project for a while and every release just gets better and better. Blazing and monstrous, even for an EP. FFO (and I’m just gonna go a little crazy with the comparisons here because I love this particular sound so much): SCHAMMASCH, MEPHORASH, ORDER OF APPOLYON, GLORIA MORTI, THEURGIA, MESZAROTH, ANIMUS MORTIS, AVERSIO HUMANITATIS, TEMPLE OF BAAL, the newest PANZERFAUST, TEMPLE OF PERDITION.

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VITAL SPIRIT [Canada] – In The Face That Looks Through Death

A very cool combination of melodic black / post-black metal and, like several other releases this year (WAYFARER, MAQUAHUITL) Western/American folk aspects. VITAL SPIRIT centers their theme around Native American motifs, and although the cross-cultural aspect is a bit more subdued than those mentioned above, there are distinct moments where it really shines through.

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TÓMARÚM [United States] – Wounds Ever Expanding

There’s not much which I think can be legitimately called “technical black metal” but I think that TÓMARÚM fit the bill perfectly. Complex, melodic, and without the techdeath tropes that many bands try to pass off as “blackened”, Wounds Ever Expanding also includes some interesting things like clean vocals and keys. But, most importantly are the FUCKING AMAZING guitar leads. I’m extremely interested to see where TÓMARÚM goes from here and hopefully we will find out in 2021!

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ENTROPY CREATED CONSCIOUSNESS [unknown] – Innocence and Experience

Ok ok, I know this was technically a 2019 release – but because it dropped on December 31, there’s no way that it could have made it onto my list in 2019, and it really deserves it. Also, I checked my posts, and I first listened to it on January 1, 2020, so it is certainly the very first list-worthy thing I heard in 2020! This is an addendum EP to the Impressions of the Morning Star (2018) album and has a similar timbre: an avant garde, blistering, murky, almost droning onslaught broken up by epic splendor… inhumanly aggressive and impossibly beautiful at the same time. ECC also came out with the Antica Memoria di Dis double EP this year, and that’s growing on me (Lethe particularly) but the sound changed somewhat, and although Innocence and Experience is somewhat of a bridge between Morning Star and Memoria, I just like the earlier style better.

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ORCHESTRA OF THE DROWNED [Russia] – Northern Aurora

Alright, so the little-known one-man act ORCHESTRA OF THE DROWNED put out an album in 2018 called Revealing the Arcane, which I immediately associated as somewhat of a lighter, more psychedelic variant of BLUT AUS NORD… essentially, it sounds more like BAN’s Hallucinogen than anything else I can find, except it came out *before* Hallucinogen did. Northern Aurora, on the other hand, steps a bit away from the more programmed/industrial aspect and moves more towards melody and folky epic composition, with the vocals reminding me a bit of Dani Filth. Its pretty damn good and great wintertime music!

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HONORABLE MENTION

ULCERATE [New Zealand] – Stare Into Death And Be Still

I won’t dwell too much on this because although it has some blackish elements, it’s really atmospheric death metal… buuuut although I didn’t really rank my list this year, but this would be somewhere in the top 5. Maybe top 3. Also, it’s sort of a situation wherein if you know, you know. Superior and absolutely compelling musicianship creates an impossibly complex, crushing hypnotism which does it’s best to achieve complete spiritual annihilation, both ruinous and transcendent. I can usually only handle one or two songs at a time but each time it is more and more devastatingly euphoric.  

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All Paradises Lost – A Review of ‘The Suns of Perdition: Chapter II – Render Unto Eden’ by PANZERFAUST

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By Ivan Gossage

(Order ov the Black Arts)

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Are you motherfuckers ready for new PANZERFAUST?! Heavy on the heels of 2019’s phenomenal War, Horrid War, the Canadian force return with the second installment of their Suns of Perdition album trilogy, this one entitled Render Unto Eden. Whereas War, Horrid War focused on themes of devastating human conflict, Render Unto Eden unsurprisingly centers on religious and spiritual motifs: humanity’s sin and virtue, suffering and denial, fall from redemption, descent into ruin, and impending judgement.

PANZERFAUST continues to dish out monstrous, crushing, black/death with overpowering, uniquely roaring vocals (a standout feature among a litany of compelling characteristics) and an overall sense of progressive, desolating inevitability. However, the shift in focus is not only represented with the album title and lyrical themes but also with the sound itself, which seems overall to be a bit more ritualized and contemplative, borrows more from progressive blackened doom sensibilities than its predecessor did, and is perfected in terms of execution, production, and mix. 

‘Promethian Fire’ vacillates between meditative instrumentation and heightened savagery for the duration of its ten-plus minutes and ends with a sublime vocal contribution from Maria “Masha” Arkhipova (ARKONA), while ‘The Faustian Pact’ starts out with a staggering, almost disjointed rhythm before going feral and maintaining an overall sense of almost frantic disorientation. ‘Aropagitic’ is more straightforward with waves of bestial vocals and scathing riffs vying for dominance over a driving groove, while ‘The Snare of the Fowler’ features addicting atonality ebbing towards aggression until one suddenly finds oneself immersed in the most violent minutes of the entire album. The closer ‘Pascal’s Wager’ is a slow build towards an inescapable ferocity before a pensive acoustic fade.

Render Unto Eden is, overall, a more than adequate follow up to War, Horrid War – a powerful yet reflective specimen of God-tier blackened art, and to no surprise, PANZERFAUST have produced truly one of the best albums that I have heard this year. It is available for pre-order now, and set for release by Eisenwald on LP (black and clear variants), CD and digital formats on August 28th, 2020. Render it unto thee.

FFO: SCHAMMASCH, AVERSIO HUMANITATIS, ABOVE AURORA, MESZAROTH, and sometimes THE RUINS OF BEVERAST

‘The Suns of Perdition: Chapter II – Render Unto Eden’ releases August 28th via Eisenwald. Pre-orders available now.

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Pre-order ‘The Suns of Perdition: Chapter II – Render Unto Eden’ on LP, CD or digital from the Panzerfaust Bandcamp HERE, or on LP and CD from the Eisenwald webstore HERE.

Support PANZERFAUST:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Instagram
• Official Reverbnation

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Email: blackmetaldaily@outlook.com

LISTCRUSH 2019: The Ivan Gossage Edition

Hails to Order Ov The Black Arts, Black Metal Daily, and any readers gracious enough to spend time reading what will follow. 2019 has been a hell of a year for extreme metal, and these are my top 57 picks of the year. There’s a hierarchy here, but only by tier… those that fall within a given tier are generally interchangeable and honestly even the margins of each tier are a little arbitrary to some extent, but this seems like the most feasible way to provide some sort of structure.

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FIRST TIER: ALBUM OF THE YEAR

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Disillusion – The Liberation

I could write a short novel about my experience with Disillusion, but that would be boring for you, too personally revealing for me, and marginally inappropriate for this forum since Disillusion isn’t black metal. Sitting midway between progressive epic death metal (think An Abstract Illusion, Ne Obliviscaris, or Eternal Storm [see below]) and progressive modern rock (i.e. Tool), Disillusion can be squarely described as epic progressive metal. Their 2004 album Back To Times of Splendor is THE album I would choose if I could only choose one album to listen to forevermore (except if I were living in the snow, then it would be The Mantle by Agalloch), and The Liberation is a sequel to Back to Times of Splendor. The music?… you will just have to listen for yourself, don’t expect anything too aggressive, and I’m never surprised when other listeners aren’t nearly as hyped about it because so much of my listening experience is wrapped up in subjective contexts. Just listen to ‘In Waking Hours’ and ‘Wintertide’ (songs 1 & 2) with headphones and no distractions… if it doesn’t resonate with you I get it, but I can’t really adequately express how this album resonates with me, and I’m not going to try. Bottom line, it’s probably my favorite thing that has been released since 2015 except for Schammasch’s Maldoror Chants EP. Favorite tracks: ‘Wintertide’, ‘A Shimmer In The Darkest Sea’ [Tool fans should check that one out], and ‘The Liberation’.

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SECOND TIER (six selections)

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Saor – Forgotten Paths

This was probably my most anticipated release coming into 2019 except for Schammasch and Fleshgod Apocalypse. Since it was released early in the year, because it is so short, and because my love of the album was reinforced by seeing Saor live at Fire In The Mountains festival, it almost certainly gets the award for most spin time. Three epic Caledonian tracks and a nice filler outro that I nevertheless bother listening to. Did I mention that it is short? Yeah, that’s my only complaint… the album length, as well as more nuanced details like the physical presence of the vinyl (regular sleeve instead of elaborate gatefold with poster like the previous 3 albums) makes me really want to accuse this release of being an EP. That aside, the music is PHENOMENAL. Three tracks make picking top songs pretty pointless, so I’d like to recommend full volume on the track ‘Forgotten Paths’ at 4:20 (do you hear that crazy rubbing sound that the bass starts doing at 4:28-30?! What the IS that?!) and the chorus’ of ‘Brón’. Saor has since signed to Season of Mist, and Andy is already working on the next album. Yes, please.

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Misþyrming – Algleymi

Unlike Saor and Schammasch, I was completely blindsided by this one. When it went up for preorder I blew it off because there was no preview track. Big mistake, which was almost instantly rectified upon hearing the first minute of the first song. Aggressive, catchy, subtly epic, and with good amount of attention paid to seriously rocking the fuck out… to put it simply, Algleymi has everything that I look for in black metal… not just in timbre, but in attitude as well: “It is our utmost conviction that the artist ought to stand beyond good or evil and that the pursuit of his or her artistic goals should therefore remain untouched by considerations pertaining to critical reception, the sensitivity of a potential audience, or anything that would detract from the full accomplishment of those artistic goals. Taking into creative consideration the very fragile current zeitgeist would render any piece of art absolutely harmless and devoid of worth … let us leave the world of binary thinking for a minute, concentrate solely on the individual of exceptional fabric, and dream aloud.” [D.G., Bardo Methodology interview, 2019]. Full Support. Favorite tracks: I don’t know… fucking… all of them I think.

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Aoratos – Gods Without Name

The prolific output of Naas Alcameth makes it difficult to resist exacting upon Aoratos a bit of comparative analysis against its infernal siblings. What Aoratos projects is a supernatural force which is both external and worldly, and can hence be more easily demarcated from the dread internal psychic nightmare of Akhlys, as well as from the more subterranean hellish inferno of Bestia Arcana. That leaves Nightbringer as Aoratos’ closest relative, but here there are important differences. Lacking the epic keyboards and heightened shrill falsetto guitar lead of Nightbringer and bringing instead a nuanced industrial edge, Aoratos forgoes the immense, sprawling apocalypse of Nightbringer and instead emotes a monstrous haunting; more local, more rural, and more terrestrial. The power of this album is absolutely annihilating. Recommended: ‘Gods Without Name’, ‘Thresher’, ‘Watcher on the Threshold’. See full review HERE.

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Schammasch – Hearts Of No Light

One of my two most anticipated albums of the year, Schammasch (unlike Fleshgod Apocalypse) did not disappoint. Overall, both lyrically and musically, Hearts Of No Light exudes something that is darker, more negative, and more personal than previous albums. Lacking the usual concrete motif, Hearts Of No Light instead consists of multiple tenebrous approaches to a wider and more varied array of areas deep within, where shadowy undercurrents hold sway, where rays of light are glimpsed, and where outward cohesion begins to dissolve. In this way, Hearts Of No Light signifies a progression not only in terms of wider musical variance, but also in the way that the whole is composed… while each track addresses different nebulous aspects of being and tends to individually move from a state of abstraction towards increased emotive cohesion, of the lack of a distinct overarching thesis is itself a statement about the chaos and darkness of inner existential turmoil. Recommended tracks: ‘Ego Sum Omega’, ‘I Burn Within You’, ‘Katabasis’. See full review HERE.

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Asagraum – Dawn of Infinite Fire

If you are looking for straightforward, no frills, epically aggressive familiar Swedish sound (ala Sworn To The Dark / Lawless Darkness and Vobiscum Satanas / Diabolus Interim) complete with persistently satanic themes, casually blazing riffs, relentlessly tasty ballistic percussion, scorching vocals and that horns-in-the-air ‘let’s burn this fucker to the ground’ insolence, look no further than this musical inferno. Everything about this release positively glows with sincere and authentic classic black metal audacity, and they are doing it WAY THE FUCK BETTER than more established contemporary acts (yes, looking right at you, Watain and Dark Funeral). These ladies are fucking DOMINATING right now and if you like that style and you haven’t been paying attention, please get off your ass, because Dawn of Infinite Fire is downright ruthless. Recommended tracks… fuck, same as Misþyrming, this whole thing is amazing.

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Mephorash – Shem Ha Mephorash

Shem Ha Mephorash is a work of massive ambition, and I have to admit that a significant part of the appeal is not just the music (which is fantastic but pointedly contemplative and ecclesial and not necessarily superior to 1557-Rites of Nullification in my opinion) but the sheer developmental advancement and enormity of the album (clocks in at 74 minutes), the stunning artwork of the physical product, and the overall level of ambition and coherence. The lines between the daemonic and theistic blur here as Mephorash seems to obscure such trivial distinctions, the trumpets of both Heaven and Hell harkening a sacred fire to the spirit, casting the listener simultaneously above as crystalized vapors of ethereal perfection and below to infernal ashes of annihilation. Woe to the profane secular flesh and petty ego, gasping and choking on the smoke from a numinous flame. A modern esoteric black metal masterpiece, Shem Ha Mephorash radiates with transcendence, sacramental power, and a terrible, beautiful white flame of holy judgement. See full review HERE.

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THIRD TIER (ten selections)

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Kaleikr – Heart of Lead

This one is a bit of an enigma. There’s a LOT going on here that Kaleikr managed to seam together very well. Starting out very close to the beautiful, utra-melodic, atmospheric black metal sensibility of Saor’s Forgotten Paths (ironic because the albums were released at almost the same time), Heart of Lead quickly evolves in a myriad of different directions, like more menacing progressive black metal, technical death metal, progressive death metal, and prog-rock. It even gets a little bit into that claustrophobic and suffocating Icelandic sound with the short title track… but this is minimal and not overdone. A good thing in my personal opinion.

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Musmahhu – Reign of the Odious

A fucking savage blackdeath offering curtesy of Swartadauþuz, mastermind behind Bekëth Nexëhmü, contributor to Gardsghastr (see below), and a surfeit of other extreme projects. This one ranks as perhaps the most violent of all my year-end picks, and might be compared somewhat to Aoratos as an immediate reference. Reign of the Odious is more death metal-oriented, but similar in terms of unremittent pitch-black maelstrom mixed with subtle industrial(ish) elements and an undercurrent of epic cataclysmic ruin. Completely necessary. 

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Eternal Storm – Come The Tide

I won’t get too into it because it isn’t black metal, but this is a magnificently written, powerful, very melodic opus of beautiful epic artful death metal, which got LOTS of playtime from me. For fans of An Abstract Illusion, Exsickator, and Rivers Of Nihil’s Where Owls Know My Name (but more melodic DM than technical DM). Recommended tracks: ‘Through the Wall of Light Pt. I (The Strand)‘, ‘Through the Wall of Light Pt. II (Immersion)’, ‘The Mountain’.

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Wormwood – Nattarvet

In 20+ years of listening to extreme metal, there has been only ONE time that an initial listening experience was so profound that I was almost brought to tears from the opening minutes of a song… What is crucial about ‘The Isolationist’ (the last song, track 7)  and in a more general sense Nattarvet as a whole, is the ability to capture a profound paradox: It is a journey both within and also beyond, aptly conjoining the psychological tragedy of isolation with the coldness of natural indifference, and achieving a dissolution of the self through immersion in the solitude that pervades reality as a whole. See full review HERE.

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Hath – Of Rot and Ruin

Another death metal album. A fantastic one… a near perfect combination of groove, speed, classiness, melodicism, brutality, progressiveness, and technicality, complete with tasteful acoustic interludes and fantastic vocal variation. For fans of Black Crown Initiate before Black Crown Initiate decided to try to sound like Tool. With vocals kind of like Travis Ryan ala Cattle Decapitation, but without those melodic highs. It’s really just badass in every way.

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Panzerfaust – The Suns of Perdition, Chapter 1: War, Horrid War

Monstrous, crushing, war-themed blackdeath with limited tasteful atonality, overpowering vocals, and some doomish sensibilities (mostly in terms of production and an overall sense of progressive desolating inevitability, not in terms of speed)… what can be said about this album that hasn’t been said before and more elaborately? This is one that just demands a listen in order to get it. It’s difficult for me to describe it in a way that makes the album sound unique, but it IS unique, and its short length and promise of subsequent installments makes it easily digestible, leaving one pining for more. I hope we get it in 2020.

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Totaled – Lament

You ever get those moments when you give your chosen listening device a raised eyebrow because of all of the asskickery that is suddenly occurring? Like it was sort of kicking ass in the first place but then it gets taken to the next level and hits that sweet spot when you are just like ‘fuuuuuck’? Well, Lament has a SHITLOAD of those moments. It’s a fusion of black metal and galloping no-damns-given punk/crust/core/grind/violence/something belligerence. On the BM side of things there’s some classic Swedish melody taking place, not unlike old Dissection or mid-era Watain, etc., but there also some much more aggressive, cutthroat Tsjuder-like ripping which really helps bridge the gap between the epic melody and the whateverthefuckitis in such a way that the tracks can vacillate between the disparate styles and sometimes outright mix them together while always sounding entirely seamless. I managed to pounce on the last fancy LP on Bandcamp and the package came with this really cool set of Tarot cards which match the cover art. Definitely highlights this as a top release for me.

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Vukari – Aevum

With only moderate hype, this album turned a lot of heads when it dropped (at least in my social media circles)… and for good reason. Progressive black metal done perfectly: great focus, great balance, great drive, great production. The sound, while not as “warm” as one would find with many post-black offerings, but it is certainly not “cold” either, and the mix embraces the sort of enveloping, balanced, crystalline density that one can find, for example, with Gaerea’s Unsettling Whispers (2018)  or Beltez’s Exiled, Punished, Rejected (2017) … the sort of mix where you can hear everything, nothing is in excess, and it all sounds terrific. There’s nothing here that isn’t downright tasteful, and it fucking rocks on top of it.

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Vortex of End – Ardens Fvror

Vortex of End definitely gets my most underappreciated band of the year vote. Despite one previous album already under the belt, captivating album artwork, a surprisingly elaborate physical product (I grabbed a gold LP), and my own best efforts, it never really seemed like Ardens Fvror gained much traction as the triumphant black metal monument that I think it is. Musically, this is undeniably compelling: a slightly death-tinged, powerful, ferocious, yet artistic orthodox BM masterwork with an array of exciting elements and plenty of room to breathe. The vocals are particularly noteworthy… varied, interesting, and effective. What it reminds me the most of is a more muscular evolution of Ascension’s acclaimed Consolamentum album, while simultaneously being much better than anything Ascension itself has put out since. PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS. 

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Rorcal – Muladona

Based on a novel of the same name by Eric Stener Carlson, and featuring narration of the story by the author, Muladona is the extreme auditory interpretation of a horrific tale of disease and decay, death, violence and stench, grotesque pubescence and entrenched evil. Heavy to the point of devastating, suffocatingly dense, and with a compressed magnitude which is a bit hard to explain, it is no surprise that Metal Archives inadequately describes the band as “Sludge/Doom Metal/Post-Hardcore” but, I’m somewhat curious that the “Blackened” tag is omitted. I’m not sure about older albums, but this one certainly warrants it. Much like the Reverorum Ib Malacht release last year (but sounding nothing like it) my reaction isn’t really “I like this”, but more like “I am in awe of this”.

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FOURTH TIER (fifteen selections)

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Blut Aus Nord – Hallucinogen

Hallucinogen is a prismatic, spiraling, inspired voyage that intentionally waxes towards both the outer realms of cognition as well as towards the far fringes of an eccentric discography which is already so varied and visionary that Blut Aus Nord holds a categorically exclusive, unique, and unmatched status within black metal at large. See full review HERE.

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Drawn Into Descent – Endless Endeavour

A melancholic and moving combination of DSBM (which I almost never listen to) and post-black warmth. Much like the Wormwood release, the album is full of quality tracks, but there’s one that really caused me to make the investment, and that was “Wither” (track 2), which a peer shrewdly described as “the ‘Sultans of Swing’ of black metal”… can you hear it? Since I do believe that ‘Sultans of Swing’ is probably one of the best 5 rock songs ever written, let’s just say I was convinced.

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Ashbringer – Absolution

Easy Americana-folk infused barelyblackmetal with meandering, woodsy melodies, lightly cascading percussion, straightforward vocals, positive Lennon-esque message, and a very organic, natural, mellow production. Very little distortion or aggression to be found here, this is for times of peace. My only complaint is that the vocals could use some variation, they stick to the Harakiri For The Sky-ish yelling pretty much exclusively. Quite beautiful overall though and probably my most laid-back pick of the year. Great tunes for a wayward northwestern drive amongst the trees, and truly a unique album, musically and visually.

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Akasha – Canticles Of The Sepulchral Deity

Malignant, audacious, and relentlessly abrasive, Akasha is a hybrid of venomous, frenzied raw black metal and savage, necksnapping D-beat driven crustpunk. Unlike Totaled, there is zero melody to found in these tracks, only slight variations of speed which ranges from paced predatorial malevolence to frenetic, driving bloodlust, all the while spearheaded by riffs to rip out your throat and vocals to mar your soul. Shockingly, singularly, and utterly vicious.

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Consummation – The Great Solar Hunter

Pummeling drums drive forward anxious riffing before seamlessly progressing to up-tempo headbanging extravaganza sections. Short but violent guitar solos are dispersed throughout, as downtempo passages featuring ominous chants emerge. Mid-paced groove proves to be one of the more stellar aspects of the album, among many other impressive qualities. Swirling, threatening, almost nauseating guitars atop simple ritualistic beats transition to more doomy, melancholic, and at times quite beautiful measures featuring soaring leads and spoken word. See full review HERE.

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Gardsghastr – Slit Throat Requiem

For me, there’s a lot to not like with about 95% of all modern symphonic black metal. Gardsghastr, essentially a supergroup comprised of Swartadauþuz (Bekëth Nexëhmü, Musmahhu, etc.), Alex Poole (Chaos Moon, Entheogen, Skáphe, etc.), the Blackburn brothers (Chaos Moon, Accursed Aeons, Guðveiki, etc.) and relative newcomer voice Glömd avoids all of those pitfalls, hurling forth an album that is at once grandiose and furious. Symphonic elements accentuate the songs instead of trying to carry them, and the tracks blast forward with surprising aggression and brazen scorn, tempting comparisons to more assaultive works within the subgenre like Anorexia Nervosa’s Drudenhaus (but less reliant on orchestration) and Nightbringer’s faster songs.

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Aihos – Hävityksen Maa

Immediately virulent melodies ala MGLA, Dumal, or Uada… helplessly addictive headbanging-in-traffic grooves… beautiful clean acoustic moments… unabashed black and roll qualities of Instinct / Assassins era Nachtmystium… the folk inspired flavors of Nokturnal Mortum… both the classic magnitude of Sworn / Lawless and the more stripped-down galloping orthodoxy of Casus / Trident Watain… fateful march-for-the-horizon-with-your-head-held-high epic ala Catamenia‘s Winternight Tragedies… and all wrapped up in just the right amount of Finnish fuzz. It might not be breaking any huge molds, but this album interweaves multiple facets of straightforward melodic black metal. An instant classic, second in line for most underappreciated album of the year.

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Ultar – Pantheon MMXIX

A critically underrated release from earlier this year. A soaring and complex melodic post-black Lovecraftian opus with a long list of fine attributes, not least of which is an amazing and varied vocal performance and soul-tugging guitar solos. While the music tends towards epic, bombastic scales, the vocals serve to maintain integration with both more traditional black metal currents as well as loop in some post-rock and black-folk elements (specifically similar to the little-known American one-man act Appalachian Winter). I was midway through the third track on the first playthrough when I found myself going for the Buy Record/Vinyl button.

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Grima – Will of the Primordial

Nature-centered and frost bitten, this Siberian black metal places a heavy emphasis on melancholic inflection, an icy subzero vocal delivery, and shitload of damn appropriate accordion. Not to mention other cool stuff like winter bells, blizzards of furious double kick, and whirling guitar riffs, and frigid synth. As a bonus, when Naturmacht Productions opened up preorders they also made the previous album, Tales of the Enchanted Woods available on vinyl for the first time. Thankyouverymuch.

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Sühnopfer – Hic Regnant Borbonii Manes

It is difficult to describe what takes place across the vast and furious sonic landscape of this album. The music embodies austere medieval granite… yet shimmers with golden empyrean aristocracy; the sound is gritty and hard… yet so clearly of the air and the heavens; belligerent and ruthless… but brimming with a passionate hyper-melodicism; a furious bombardment of harmonized antipodes. It is a shockingly flawless display of weightless chaos and choreographed intensity, breathtaking not only for its sheer aesthetic beauty but also because one can scarcely comprehend how such a beautiful maelstrom of orchestrated complexity is possible. Disorientation almost guaranteed unless full attention is given, and even then, it’s a gamble. See full review HERE.

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Remete – Into Endless Night

Steadily driving, foggy melodic black metal, courtesy of D, mastermind behind post-black prototype Woods of Desolation and the rawer(ish) and folk-energized Forest Mysticism. Synth and probably various other instruments adding heavy doses of melancholic presence make this some perfect wintertime midnight music which gets better with every subsequent listen. Into Endless Night is at the top of my list of albums that I’m willing to get pressed onto vinyl at some point. 

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Dead To A Dying World – Elegy

Sort of an odd pick for me if I’m being honest. Also, hard to categorize with some sludgy elements, progressive aspects, doom pacing, black metal flourishes, and “epic crust” is given a nod on their Bandcamp page. Also, multiple vocal styles of deep roaring, blackish screaming, male and female cleans, and array of interesting instrumentation including viola, hurty gurty, Hammond organ, piano, tubular bells, clarinet, hammer dulcimer, and cello. Forlorn, complex, and heart-wrenchingly beautiful much of the time, the wake of my own personal hype surrounding this release led me to retro-collect their entire catalogue, and I regret nothing. 

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Noctem – The Black Consecration

With The Black Consecration, Noctem have definitively annihilated any preconceived notions of what their 5th studio album should sound like… and it is tremendous. Abandoned are many of the death metal elements, grandiose epic flourishes, crystal clear pristine production, and overall vastness of musical concept. What has been embraced is something significantly more stripped down but not raw, focused but not primitive, and straightforward but not simplistic… something more… black metal, and with a noteworthy compacted production to boot. See full review HERE.

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The Great Old Ones – Cosmicism

Like some immense cosmic horror, tentacles reaching through time and space to spread its monstrous alchemy across the vast universe, Cosmicism is immense, Lovecraftian supernaturalism, carefully layered into ambitious and complex, deep yet expansive melodic black metal. The void’s cold smolder, the frothing of measureless and beautiful empyrean dread emanates from these tracks, not in a relentless explosion, but in a calculated, purposeful, majestic cosmic imperialism, more powerful with every return.

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Nihilism – Obscurite Noir

Jet-black and insidious, this album makes use of addictive, needling riffing (including something that sounds, awesomely, almost identical to parts of the anxiety-inducing film score in 28 Days Later [track 2]) and blistering percussion. It was one of the earliest albums I found this year that really resonated with me (Veldes being the only one of note that I discovered prior to it), and thus it has gotten a lot of periodic listens over the last 12 months, each time reminding me just how fucking solid it is. I would certainly buy this on vinyl, were it available.

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FIFTH TIER (twenty-five selections)

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Veldes – Flameless

This one has the benefit of being the very first album that resonated with me in 2019… earnest, verdant, nature-based melodic post-black luxuriance with prominent (if slightly overbearing) vocals. FFO Woods of Desolation etc. etc.

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Ancient Hostility – Ancient Hostility

Vitriolic black metal with scornful, torturous, and pensive mid-to-slow paced music and absolutely caustic, scathing vocal delivery courtesy of Imber (ex Synodic, Aludra, and hopefully more TBA!).

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Decoherence – Ekpyrosis

Unnerving dissonance, mechanized inertia, catastrophic atmosphere, and ominous spirit, this is Blut Aus Nord worship of the highest order, managing, like Almyrkvi (Umbra, 2017), to surpass the master.

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Qayin Regis – Doctrine

Excellent occult black metal, reminiscent of a more stripped down variation of Naas Alcameth’s various projects (mostly due to the vocals, but also due to a palpable sense of authenticity) with Schammasch-like meditative pacing and even DSO Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice style riffing at times.

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Beorn’s Hall – In His Granite Realm

American Viking/black, surprisingly pleasing despite (or maybe because of?) a particular looseness and rudimentary approach with timing, tempo, and production.

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Falaise – A Place I Don’t Belong

Urban, isolative, and despondent, this is warm post-black featuring a particular song that is heroin-level addictive (‘Leaves in the Wind’).

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Fleshgod Apocalypse – Veleno

FA will always have a place in my heart, at the very least due to at one point being an all-time favorite band. They’ve changed a lot. Veleno is good, but I hope this album grows on me more than it has so far.

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Misertus – Daydream

Lush, atmospheric post-black melodies absolutely drenched in an almost blinding distortion and featuring a vicious vocal approach, very cool combination of beauty and malice.

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Temple of Perdition – Homage to the Dead (EP)

Religiocritical hymns saturated in warm, heavy cathedralic aesthetics, and featuring choirs, celestial instrumentation, grandiose movements, blasting percussion, and transcendental nods towards ego dissolution and ascension. See review HERE.

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Worsen – Cursed to Witness Life

Hard-hitting melodic, misanthropic American black metal with thrashy flavors and hints of melancholy.

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Sulphura – Voidpulse

Instrumental atmospheric meditative ambient ritualistic drone side project of CSR (Schammasch). If you are familiar with the ambient bits of Triangle, Maldoror Chants, and Hearts Of No Light, then you know exactly what you are in for. 

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MGLA – Age of Excuse

Polish masters of melody return with exactly what you would expect: infectious riffs and absurdly complex percussion that only MGLA delivers.

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Heilung – Futha

Massive neo-folk tour-de-force in a style similar to Wardruna, with a profound live show, fusing tribal beats with a plethora of instrumentation highlights and a vague ritualistic dance quality.

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Haxandraok – Ki Si Kil Ud Da Kar Ra

Occult black metal managing to blend ritual and melody, featuring guitarist of Acherontas and primarily semi-clean pseudo-chanting vocals, similar to what Schammasch does on the regular.

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Imha Tarikat – Kara Ihlas

Unique and candid black metal with back ‘n’ roll sensibilities, a particular shouting vocal approach, and fiery solos.

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Meszaroth – Caro Data Vermibus

Caught up with this one earlier in the year and it did the trick keeping me tuned in and primed for that Mephorash / Schammasch sound before either of the latter dropped their new albums. 

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Thormesis – The Sixth

Very solid melodic progressive black metal, which sounds a lot like Harakiri For The Sky or 2019 Saor (except with keyboards instead of the Scottish instruments and more typical vocals). 

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Minenwerfer – Alpenpässe

A strange but alluring combination of almost Agalloch-esque woodsy atmospherics, raw BM primitivism, war-metal callousness, and World War motifs. 

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Stillness – Hermit

Warm, folky and fanciful with lots of synth, bagpipes, violin, piano, acoustic guitar, clean vocals etc. makes this damn near appropriate to make the family listen to during the holidays. Except when it’s not.

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Gorgon – Elegy

Polished, well-produced, epic, muscular, fully modern symphonic death metal with touches of industrial elements, fits snugly alongside bands like Dawn of Ashes, Empyrean Throne, Shade Empire, The Monolith Deathcult, and Septicflesh.

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Decarabia – Ancestral Kingdoms

Medieval black metal drenched in ghastly, murky, and archaic dungeon/dark ambience; also, vocals are quite submerged in the mix, which I have been appreciating lately, at times evoking a sense of ancient suffocating dread, despite being fairly easy to listen to.

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This Gift Is A Curse – A Throne of Ash

Blackened crust/grind/noise-core, surprisingly sophisticated and actually a bit epic at times, while yet exhibiting an unrestrained, almost hysterical barrage of white-hot hatred.

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Frostnatt – Rimfrost

A short melodic blackish instrumental featuring guitar / percussion (particularly cymbal) reciprocation and precision not unlike MGLA, except with a more synth heavy folky trajectory… think MGLA + maybe Falkenbach or Windir or something like that.

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Iapetus – The Body Cosmic

Aspiring and brilliant progressive death metal, flaunting a constellation of great approaches and talents, including percussion from Dan Presland (of Ne Obliviscaris, a reasonable comparison). Not a huge fan of some of the vocals but this album is a bit of a masterpiece in the progdeath world.

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Cult of Erinyes – Æstivation

The placement of this release is based almost entirely on how late it came to the game and the fact that it is still vying for position amongst everything above… a wild, occult auditory assailment, which, like Vortex Of End above, benefits heavily from fucking insane vocal performance and which, like Rorcal above, is almost supernatural in its ravening violence.

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And here, with Cult of Erinyes, an end-of-of year decimator which adequately represents the imminent black and extreme metal excellence that we will continue to see in the year(s) to come, seems like an appropriate place to stop and bid farewell to 2019. I want to give a humble salute to all purveyors of extreme music that I have interacted with this year, the fellow admins and superior members of Order ov the Black Arts, and Dex with Black Metal Daily and Rick with MoshPitNation for giving me the opportunity to ignite the flame with all reviews this year.

Forward, and may thy will be done. 

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Email: blackmetaldaily@outlook.com

Crimes Against Humanity – A Review of ‘The Suns of Perdition – Chapter I: War, Horrid War’ by Panzerfaust

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By George Van Doorn

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With a name like Panzerfaust, you might think this Canadian four-piece are either A: big fans of the last really good Darkthrone album (oh yeah! I went there), or B: the kind of band who’d get Antifa members to half-mast at the mere thought of cancelling their tour. Now, I don’t know these guys personally so I can’t comment on the former, but the latter doesn’t seem to be the case. Much like Bolt Thrower before them, Panzerfaust just seem to draw inspiration from war.

What I am certain about is that there are gyms in Canada because, if the promo photos are anything to go by, these guys like to work out. Either that or they lift moose, or squeeze maple syrup out of trees, or whatever Canadians do to stay in shape. Consider this a warning guys – if you whip your gear off in photo shoots I am going to hang shit on you. I’m Australian. It’s what we do. And… I’m a bit jealous.

Anyway, let’s crack on with the review. The Suns of Perdition – Chapter I: War, Horrid War begins with a few riffs that, to my ear, are a weird combination of Ordo-era Mayhem, Deathspell Omega and Morbid Angel with a dash of Fear Factory thrown in; much like adding a dash of cinnamon to your protein shake to zazz it up a bit. The bass sound here is crunchy as fuck, while one of the guitars has an old-school Swedish death metal sound to it. Nice! After a short, mid-song break, there’s a riff in ‘The Day After ‘Trinity’‘ comprised almost entirely of a single note, but Panzerfaust use bends to create an eerie atmosphere. Nice… again!

You could draw comparisons between what Panzerfaust do and the layered chaos of Deathspell Omega in that, at times, things can get pretty chaotic (in a good way). The start of ‘Stalingrad’ is a nice example of organised chaos. But Panzerfaust are really good at releasing the tension too, playing straight-forward, uncomplicated riffs when they are needed.

That said, I’ve reviewed a few albums where the band has thought a mid-album interlude with some background noises and a simple, acoustic-type riff was a good idea. Unfortunately, Panzerfaust are one of them. Sorry you niche-market strippers, but ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ did nothing for me. If you’re going to do that sort of stuff, refer to Ulver‘s ‘Høyfjeldsbilde’ for simple done well.

When I saw that the closing track was 13 minutes long I let out an audible sigh of resignation. Is this going to be 13 minutes of post-BM, shoe-gaze, droning wankery? Not quite. But, Panzerfaust maintain a tight grip on one slooooooowwww riff for long enough to make Enslaved jealous. And here’s the rub(down): while much of this album will pump you up so much you’ll want to work out like a shirtless Canadian black metal musician, a few parts are a little lax and will keep you in the Dad bod you’ve become accustomed to.

George’s Rating: 4/5

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The Suns of Perdition – Chapter I: War, Horrid War is available now on CD, vinyl or digitally via Eisenwald.

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Purchase The Suns of Perdition – Chapter I: War, Horrid War on CD, digital or vinyl here.

Support Panzerfaust:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Reverbnation

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