BLACK METAL DAILY’S LISTCRUSH 2021: The DEX Edition – Full-Length Albums

Not with a whimper, but with a fucking BANG – okay fine, a dull thud at this point, we’re already at least one knuckle deep into 2022 – our long drawn out 2021 LISTCRUSH series finally comes to an end.

Pretty sure I’m the last person anywhere on the planet to publish their albums list each year, but anyway – there were over ten thousand black metal releases vomited forth into the void of rampant consumerism and discogs flipping (or unnoticed and abandoned Bandcamp limbo) throughout 2021. Here I present my 40 favourite full length albums of the thousand-plus I listened to and the couple hundred I shortlisted, a final curation that’s a damn sight slimmer than last year’s overblown top 100 but hey, I’m trying to reign myself in and practice a little restraint. New year, new me and all that (again). Also included are a handful of near misses that I really wanted to make the cut but couldn’t cram in – be sure to hunt them down as well, all of them deserved a spot on the final list.

If you somehow need even more from my curation of superb stygian artistry, seek help, but also feel free to check out my already published TOP 30 DEMOS/EPs and TOP 25 SPLITS lists as well (and scope Tom and Gos‘s lists while you’re at it, they both have impeccable taste). As always, eternal thanks and respect to all artists, labels, reviewers and promoters for keeping the black flame alive. You are all excellent. Support the artists, buy physical copies… aside from that, onwards, ever onwards, forging into the sunset.

Hails.

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NEAR MISSES

• Black Kruud – Delusions Of Gangrene
• Weathered Crest – Blossoming Of The Paths
• Labyrinthine Haze – Descending Into The Deep
• Archgoat – Worship The Eternal Darkness
• Concilium – Desecration
• Ofermod – Mysterium Iniquitatis
• Burden Of Ymir – From Élivágar
• Solipsism – Cruelty & Necrospection
• Nächtlich – Satanas Solum Initium
• Starer – 18° Below The Horizon
• Henbane Chariot – Allpine Séance
• Arazubak – The Haunted Spawn Of Torment
• DSKNT – Vacuum γ-Noise Transition
• Ungfell – Es Grauet
• Yoth Iria – As The Flame Withers
• Ifernach – Capitulation Of All Life
• Norse – Ascetic
• Korpituli – The Ancient Spells Of The Past
• Inferno – Paradeigma
• Lamp Of Murmuur – Submission And Slavery
• Abstracter – Abominium
• Miasmata – Unlight: Songs of Earth and Atrophy

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TOP 40 ALBUMS OF 2021

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40. Bræ – A Thousand Ways To End It All (Amor Fati)

Sounds like: a completely anonymous album released with no fanfare at all that zero people paid attention to. Seriously, I saw nobody talking about it, perhaps because at first glance/listen it’s quite nondescript. However, settle in and let this noisy, hypnotic and abrasive monolith of longform depression obliterate your soul and I’m sure you’ll agree: more people should have paid attention to this shit.

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39. Pan-Amerikan Native Front – Little Turtle’s War (Les Fleurs Du Mal / Stygian Black Hand / Nuclear War Now! Productions)

Sounds like: triumph, tragedy and pure grit, passed down through tales and shamanic rituals for eternity. Kurator of War‘s second full-length was the perfect prelude to his astonishing split with Kommodus; this man is never short of a riff.

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38. Firienholt – By The Waters Of Awakening (Fólkvangr Records / Naturmacht Productions)

Sounds like: Caladan Brood, but somehow even more enjoyable. This mysterious horde of UK Tolkien fanatics knocked it out of the park on their first full-length effort. More please.

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37. Nansarunai – Ultimul Rege (Banner Of Blood / Ancient Horror Records / Black Gangrene)

Sounds like: that moment when you’re deep in a tomb filled with the corpses of ancient warriors and kings… and they all suddenly come to life and want to kill you, so you’re torn apart by undead royalty from a bygone era. Something like that. Cold, vicious and powerful raw black metal filled with yearning, this is about to cop an LP release via Black Gangrene. Grab it if you’ve missed every other version, you chump.

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36. Lionoka – Tides Of Triumph (Old Mill Productions)

Sounds like: stunning traditional acoustic instrumentation woven around furious black metal. The naturalistic sound alone of this US First Nations black folk solo project is incredible and will hit you deeper than you could ever have expected.

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35. Nazxul – Irkalla (Seance Records)

Sounds like: vibes. No, seriously – the third album of an almost thirty year expression of darkness from these legendary Australians is less of a “pay attention to the intricacies” type of deal (not that those intricate details aren’t fucking fantastic) and more a just let it wash over you and sear your soul kind of record. Irkalla is an album you FEEL, and it grew on me every time I heard it. The perfect album to have playing in the background as you go about your day – it’ll infect everything you do.

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34. Blurr Thrower – Les Voutes (Les Acteurs de l’ombre)

Sounds like: being lifted out of your corporeal form and dragging your spirit downward; sinking below in a burst of pale light like some kind of transcendent reversed rapture. As I said in my REVIEW, anyway. The kind of album that makes you enjoy it – the choice is not up to you.

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33. Burier – Cremation Of Lingering Hope (GoatowaRex)

Sounds like: MAGGOTS UNDER YOUR SKIN CONSUMING YOUR FLESH but you’re still conscious and can feel every tiny bite but it feels soothing and right and you realise you are one with the earth and this is forever now. This Australian project loves death, dying and being dead, and I love this Australian project.

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32. Lunar Spells – Where Silence Whispers (Northern Silence Productions)

Sounds like new Greek black metal that sounds like old Finnish black metal. Everyone knows I’m a huge fan of albums that make me feel like the last twenty years never happened (shut up, I have a great life) – Where Silence Whispers falls firmly into that category.

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31. Fosso – Solo Amargo (Galafoice / Death Manifestations)

Solo Amargo sounds like witnessing some strange, strange magic at work in the dizzying heat of the deepest, most clandestine forests of Brazil. The synth? Spot on. Bass? Perfection. A remarkable debut that deserves both more attention and a follow up. Stat.

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30. Gorgon – Traditio Satanae (Osmose Productions)

Sounds like: the French pioneers once again showing everyone how it’s done. I rated this 4/5 in my REVIEW and I’d rate it even higher now. If you don’t like this you’re a coward, I don’t make the rules.

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29. Crucifixion Bell – Eternal Grip Of The Nocturnal Empire (Crown & Throne / Dybbuk Productions / Inferna Profundis Records / Black Gangrene Productions / Banner Of Blood)

Sounds like: staring into a mirror as you slice your face open, peeling and tearing back the skin until you’re standing there screaming at yourself with your own bare skull. I said in my Splits Listcrush that Crucifixion Bell is one of the premier raw black projects around today – if you’ve heard his other works and STILL need more proof than this album, there’s no hope for you.

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28. Dødsferd – Suicide And The Rest Of Your Kind Will Follow Part II (Fucking Your Creation Records)

Sounds like PURE FUCKING HATRED OF ALL HUMAN LIFE from the Greek underground legends. The title alone of this album will get you banned on social media, which ironically is just another example of how shit things are and how much we all suck. This record doesn’t suck, though. Read my REVIEW of it if you don’t believe me.

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27. Morte Incandescente – Vala Comum (Signal Rex)

Sounds like: black metal that absolutely does not give a single fuck about you, any current genre trends, or anything else at all. Portuguese legends Vulturius and Nocturnus Horrendus have been in the game since before you stopped shitting in diapers, and it shows. Killer. Bang your fucking head.

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26. Funeral Winds – Gruzelementen (New Era Productions)

This tasty slab of demoncy goes HARD. The word Gruzelementen translates to “smithereens”, and that’s exactly what will be left of your head after it’s been shattered by the sheer orthodox fury of this record – the way it maintains its horrifying hunger throughout is beyond impressive. Whilst other bands try to sound “Satanic”, Funeral Winds, the product of one Dutchman Hellchrist Xul, honour the ancients and achieve it effortlessly. Sounds like: being swallowed by the gaping maw of the dark lord.

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25. Stygian Ruin – The Blackened Temple (Independent)

I discovered this one thanks to Aesop of Agalloch, to whom I owe my gratitude – this Norwegian blend of dungeon synth and black metal surpasses all the usual results of that all-too-common marriage and becomes almost cinematic in scope and execution. Sounds like the soundtrack to the coolest movie you’ve never seen.

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24. Nigrum Pluviam – Eternal Fall Into The Abyss (Signal Rex / Asylum Tenebris)

Sounds like: the abyss staring back into YOU, as I wrote in our PREMIERE of this raw French insanity. This is probably the kind of thing that many of you would skip over in a second, but it’s exactly the type of thing that many of you SHOULD be listening to in order to plumb the wretched depths of the darkness within. You’ll feel better for it, trust me. An all-consuming vortex of primitive negative energy, older than time itself.

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23. Tyrannic – Mortuus Decadence (Seance Records / Iron Bonehead Productions)

This Australian oddity sounds like throwing your head back, howling in rabid, slavering fervour at the moon and diving headfirst in to a reeking open grave. I returned to this far more often than I originally thought I would. A criminally underappreciated band – Tyrannic operates in a space far and away from others of their ilk.

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22. Vahrzaw – The Trembling Voices Of Conquered Men (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Sounds like: me putting this in here because George said he’d break my legs if I didn’t. I kid – album kills. This is the best record these surly Australian black-death bastards have done since the last best record they did, so you should probably buy it. Word is their next one will be a complete change of direction as well… get keen for that.

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21. Крюкокрест – Домовина (Cold Sword Productions)

Sounds like: withering Ildjarn-esque black punk with enough wrath and spite to fuck anyone up. The debut album of these Russian Pleskau Brethren members annihilates their already great first demo and split with Леший from 2020. Here’s hoping they bring the ruckus again in 2022.

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20. Ahulabrum – Daimonic Reality (Atrocity Altar)

Most people will probably hate this, but it sounds like if cryptids made tape montages of themselves terrorizing people and the resulting recorded testimonies of the victims, mashed up like audio scrapbooks. Returning (with old unreleased material, the project is laid to rest) extraterrestrial US raw black/noise/ambient project Ahulabrum quietly released one of the most fascinating and weird tapes of the year. The truth is out there.

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19. Baxaxaxa – Catacomb Cult (The Sinister Flame)

Sounds like: the continuation of a MIGHTY return. The legendary Baxaxaxa keep the flame burning strong with an album of old school purity that does everything right; I hope we get many, many more records from them now that they’re rolling again.

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18. Mork – Katedralen (Peaceville Records)

Sounds like… TRVE NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL. I said it best in the introduction to my INTERVIEW with Thomas: “Katedralen represents a more confident and honed collection of songs than Mork has ever had, at once immediately recognizable as Mork and becoming the natural evolution of the sound Thomas has been building since the inception of the project. These tracks marry a chilling aura of rising nocturnal demoncy with the storming caliginous fire of quintessential TNBM, rocking like a bastard whilst soaring with unmistakeable grandeur and grimness – the perfectly executed juxtaposition of epic, longing elements against primal neck-wrecking riffage ensure tracks ‘Arv’ or my personal favourite ‘Det Siste Gode I Meg’ (and any others really, they’re all fucking fantastic) will remain seared in your memory for an age.”

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17. Sarkrista – Sworn To Profound Heresy (Purity Through Fire / Worship Tapes)

Sounds like even more Finnish black metal perfected (by German transplants). Can you tell I’m partial to classic Finnish melody? Sarkrista are one of my favourites, and for very good reason – their third full-length uses those melodies to immediately plunge into a feeling that does not waver or fail for the entire record. A marvellous achievement from a band that hasn’t fucked up yet, and seemingly never will.

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16. Black Spirit – El Sueño de la Razón Produce Monstruos (His Wounds / Infinite Night Records)

Spanish raw black solo entity Black Spirit has been a regular showing on my Listcrushes of late, but this evocative full-length based on an aquatint by the late Spanish artist Francisco Goya is the sound of main man Javi hitting next level. Just released on vinyl via His Wounds a few days ago, too – order it or hate yourself. The sleep of reason produces monsters indeed.

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15. Misotheist – For The Glory Of Your Redeemer (Terratur Possessions)

Speaking of hitting next level, these Norwegians jumped up another three or four levels with For The Glory Of Your Redeemer. Immense, sprawling, intricate, multi-latered and multi-textured – no matter how many descriptors I spew out, the fact remains that this is purely and simply one of the finest examples of mystically and spiritually resonant black metal to emanate from Scandinavian shores in some time. Oh, and the LP packaging is probably the most luscious I received all year as well. Impressive all around.

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14. Kæck – Het Zwaarte Dictat (Folter Records / Hessian Firm)

Sounds like: a fucking tank (or something equally as heavy) crushing every bone in your body to dust. I REVIEWED this beast from the Dutch destroyers and gave it 4.5/5; in hindsight it probably should have broken the rating system and stood on its own because nothing else released this year was as infused with such ULTIMATE NEGATIVITY. So overwhelmingly bleak and brutal it becomes almost beautiful to witness.

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13. Los Males Del Mundo – Descent Towards Death (Northern Silence Productions)

I first heard this album when I was in intense physical agony whilst walking at night in the rain, and it hit me in such a way that it left an indelible mark on my soul. In fact, I think it ruined every other album of similar style that was released last year – nothing else matched up and all just sounded rather boring. Ergo, I have returned to this many times since and will likely continue to for many years to come. Sounds like: the very essence of trial and tribulation.

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12. Aquilus – Bellum I (Blood Music)

Sounds like: listening to someone far too talented to be creating music within the sphere of extreme metal. Speaking in a compositional sense Australian Horace Rosenqvist is streets ahead of everyone else on this list and Bellum I, unveiled ten years after his last release, is spellbinding as he trips the light fandango through a maze of gorgeous neoclassical or progressive soundscapes and technical blackened brutality with startling ease. I even get more out of tracks like the purely piano ‘Moon Isabelline’ than anything, which is saying a lot.

“What did the music mean to you?”

“I don’t know. It is full of emotion… but it’s not happy.”

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11. Pestilential Shadows – Revenant (Seance Records)

Australian black metal project Pestilential Shadows has been around for quite some time now. The masterful Balam created the project in 2003, and I can say with hand on heart – out of five previous full-length albums and a handful of splits and demos, 2021’s Revenant is, in my humblest opinion, his finest hour with this project. The type of record that needs to be sat and listened to in order to appreciate the depth and spiritual resonance within, this took me completely by surprise – and I already expected it to be good. Just sit and listen. You’ll see.

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10. Koldovstvo – Ni Tsarya, Ni Boga (Fólkvangr Records / Babylon Doom Cult Records / Extraconscious Records)

If you want to understand the magic of this mysterious (possibly Russian?) entity, listen to the second track ‘II’ from their quietly affecting debut album Ni Tsarya, Ni Boga – if the combination of catchy eastern European melodies emanating from ancient aeons past, haunting clean vocals (that somehow remind me of Garm‘s opening cleans on ‘Wintry Grey’ every time I hear them even though they sound absolutely nothing alike) and harrowing shrieks all wrapped up in a delicately crumbling production doesn’t leave your jaw on the floor, you’re either one cold motherfucker or probably dead. The rest of the album is also neat. Will we see more from this enigmatic entity? Here’s hoping.

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9. Reverorum ib Malacht – Not Here (Rubeus Obex)

Sounds like: a biblical depiction of total and complete destruction, obliterating all, from the very mouth and voice of God Himself. I’m going to take a bit of liberty here and say you NEED to also listen to the pseudo-companion piece Svag I döden that was released alongside this record as well, because in my opinion, they are best consumed as a complementary pair. Both albums are impossible to fully explain or quantify in this short paragraph… just read my REVIEW to get an idea, then listen and be blown away.

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8. MOON – Pandimensional Gnosis (Moribund Records)

Sounds like: early Xasthur being sucked into a black hole. Or a k-hole. Or both at the same time. Australian wretch Miasmyr‘s first full-length album in over five years did not disappoint in the slightest and only becomes more and more dysphoric and dissonant the deeper you fall in; I dare you to listen to this and not completely detach from reality. Supreme atmosphere.

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7. Grey Aura – Zwart Vierkant (Onism Productions / Kunstlicht)

Sounds like: ART. Six and a half years in the making, Zwart Vierkant not only is a work of art but deals with it in its subject matter as well. It’s based upon a novel written by founding member Ruben Wijlacker which “tells the story of an early 20th century painter who becomes obsessed with the Russian art movement, Suprematism, which idealises the abstract and rejects traditional artistic concepts” and this synergistic approach seems to inspire great creativity – which includes the disregarding of any elitist-imposed boundaries to carefully construct a dazzling stream of post-modern, almost surreal wonders and ruinous black metal to tell that tale. They take that black metal and wind it around their fingers like a cat’s cradle game, seamlessly incorporating different colored threads from any genre they see fit to create startling patterns; truly genre-bending and unique in the best spirit of the form and proving once again that the Dutch scene is one of the most forward-thinking in the world. An astonishing album that I had the pleasure of PREMIERING and speaking about with its creators, this is a modern classic that made an impact.

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6. Warloghe – Three Angled Void (Northern Heritage)

Sounds like: an album recorded in the ’90s, buried in a box under six feet of soil and only unearthed last year. No matter how eclectic my tastes can be these days as an old fuck, I’ll always remain that teenage elitist deep in my heart – you know, the guy saying black metal should be disgusting. It should be dark as pitch. It should attempt to summon forces beyond our reckoning. It should be the rotting, cancerous tumour destroying the world via sheer force of hatred… it should sound something like Warloghe‘s Three Angled Void.

I didn’t know this legendary Finnish project was busting out another album, but it certainly hit an unexpected and very welcome sweet spot for me. Building on their 2017 comeback EP Lucifer Ascends whilst ironically descending to more horrifying depths than they ever have previously, it might be nothing that people who’ve been around since before the Y2K bug fizzled out haven’t heard before – but it’s probably exactly what those people wanted to hear in 2021 without even realizing it. If Kæck up above was pure negativity, then Three Angled Void is the audio manifestation of loathing personified. Magnificent, and absolutely vile.

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5. Negură Bunget – Zău (Lupus Lounge)

Stright up – I did NOT expect Zău, the final swansong of Negură Bunget and tribute to Negru, to be this damn good. The previous few Negură Bunget records didn’t particularly land with me as they should have, but as soon as I pushed play on Zău I was breathlessly captivated from beginning to end and lost within the realm created by it. I’m listening to it again right now as I type, and still cannot believe how incredible it is. Sounds like: wandering the magical caves, mountaintops and glades of an icy world so pure, crystalline and beautiful you’ll feel your very spirit reinvigorate just by breathing the air of an album so immersive you can almost feel it in your lungs. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect parting note.

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4. Antichrist Siege Machine – Purifying Blade (Profound Lore Records / Stygian Black Hand)

“But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.” – Jude 1:10

You checked out the latest offering from blasphemic US annihilators Antichrist Siege Machine yet? If not, you’re fucking up in a big way because whilst 2019’s debut full-length ‘Schism Perpetration’ was an insane achievement, they’ve outdone themselves here – against massive odds, ‘Purifying Blade’ is a step forward in every aspect. A more razor sharp production means these riffs utterly lacerate your flesh as your bones are pummeled to dust, whilst their relentless savagery is given more dynamism (meaning they can now kill you in 36 different ways before your body hits the floor). Not one track is a dud, the interludes of bible verses are spot on – is it the best war metal release of the year? Yes. Have the piss beaten out of you and witness heaven being torn asunder by the entire thing below, if you don’t believe me. Vicious shit that sounds like… a knife in the very heart of God.

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3. CODE – Flyblown Prince (Karisma Records / Dark Essence Records)

And thus, the mighty and malignant < c o d e > did return. The UK progressive/avant-garde black metallers finally unleashed their wonderfully wretched and weird fifth full-length Flyblown Prince last year, and all I can say is… FUCKING HELL. Coming home to the experimental black venom of their early days yet also utilising some of the same softer-textured approach of their later work when necessary, the record is quite literally astonishing from the very first listen. This dark and dissonant nightmare fantasy was a hair’s breadth from taking out my album of the year slot, and is probably on equal footing with Resplendent Grotesque as my favourite of their works. Stunning.

“We hope you enjoy the album, and that the pain and toil was worth it. You eternally indebted wayside pastors…”

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2. Plebeian Grandstand – Rien Ne Suffit (Debemur Morti Productions)

If Flyblown Prince was a “FUCKING HELL”, Rien Ne Suffit by eschatonic French maniacs Plebeian Grandstand is a “HOLY FUUUUCK”. Idiosyncratic, intense, insane, barely music at times – Rien Ne Suffit cruelly smashes avant-garde black metal, jazz, hardcore, abrasive noise and mangled electronics together into something that sounds like total, ravaging mental torture. This record alternately makes you what to tear your hair out and smash through a fucking wall. You want the most messed up album of the year? This may just be it. And after two of the most mental albums you’ll hear in your life taking up the number three and two positions, we come to…

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1. Djevel – Tanker som rir natten (Aftermath Music / Tour De Garde / Mindscrape Music / Impure Wedding Productions)

…my album of the year. I fell in love with the seventh album from these Norwegian legends from the very first notes; by the time I’d finished my first spin I knew it would be an album that would become part of my musical DNA from that moment forwards. Why? Because this is absolutely quintessential, classic TNBM executed to perfection. The type you can feel. Moonlit magic whirls from these songs and embraces your soul with yearning, the riffs are incredible, hell even the acoustic break of the title track is mesmerizing – I’m not sure if it was the addition of Kvitrim of Mare on vocals/bass that’s made a difference (I certainly enjoy his vocals more, for what it’s worth) but whilst every Djevel album to this point has been great, Tanker som rir natten sounds like a band hitting upon their ultimate, true form. I never reviewed this, but I’d be hard pressed to not give it 5 / 5 and have almost worn the tape out already… if you haven’t listened yet, or you did and it didn’t click at the time, my sincerest advice to you is to give it another try. Majestic in every possible way, and I very, very rarely say this with any degree of seriousness… a modern masterpiece. Hail Djevel.

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BLACK METAL DAILY’S LISTCRUSH 2021: The GOS Edition

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

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ALBUM OF THE YEAR

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

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TIER ONE

[five creations of black art]

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

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

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

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

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

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TIER TWO

[ten creations of black art]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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TIER THREE

[twelve creations of black art]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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TIER FOUR

[twenty creations of black art]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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HONORABLE MENTION

[not black art]

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

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And He Shall Come – A Double Review of ‘Svag I Döden’ & ‘Not Here’ by REVERORUM IB MALACHT

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The Swedish collective of REVERORUM IB MALACHT is one that is incontrovertibly unique. I mean, aside from the obvious fact that they play Roman Catholic Black Metal – which already makes them stand out like a Nun playing hockey in a Bathory shirt – they really do sound like nothing else out there. Since their birth from the union of two previous entities (Symphonia Sacrosancta Phasmatvm and PTC) back in the heady days of 2004, the steady evolution from sedated, reverential and heavily atmospheric black metal with noise and scattered industrial elements into one of the most unpredictably mind-bending and reliably terrifying outfits in the entirety of the subgenre has been equal parts confusing and exhilarating to watch. This is obviously driven in no small way by the fact that they operate on another level to everyone else in the scene – in terms of orthodoxy, God has always been a far more fathomless and frightening prospect than Satan, which inspires them to create art like no other.

Yes, Malacht have already grown into one of the few bands where one genuinely has no concrete inkling what shape their next offering could take. Of their most recent full-length works, 2018’s Im Ra Distare Summum Soveris Seris Vas innoble presented possibly the most intense experience committed to tape by… well, anyone in years, whilst last years Vad är inte sju huvud? was nothing short of completely and utterly baffling. The core duo of Karl Hieronymus Emil Lundin and Karl Axel Mikael Mårtensson (joined by a multitude of surprising figures like Sir N of Grifteskymfning and Janne from Dark Funeral / Night Crowned on session drums) seemed to be inching ever closer to expressing the sheer incomprehensible horror and beauty of God in perfect form – a task impossible by definition, sure. But you just go back and listen to those records and tell me they aren’t the nearest thing you’ll ever be likely to hear, and the idea that going forward they might hone this audial expression of God even further was and is, quite frankly, thrilling.

So, now that they have returned with not one but two new full-length albums, entitled Svag I Döden and Not Here… where do they take us?

Svag I Döden (translation: “Weak In Death”)  has been billed as a return to something resembling classic black metal, and for the most part that proves to be true as the band continues down the esoteric pathways laid out by some of their mid-period works (think Urkaos). This may spark slight disappointment at first – will this be a mere rereading of what has already been? Well, fear not. The answer is no, of course.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s up there as one of the best overall album experiences they’ve ever made. Big words, but that is a fairly quantifiable statement. Whilst there are still electronic/noise elements and ambient spoken word moments (‘Joh 1’), there’s barely anything as bizarre as the similar parts of, say, Vad är inte sju huvud? for example, which creates a more coherent and digestible experience (relatively speaking, of course), allowing the listener’s focus to rest almost solely on digesting the songwriting – songwriting which has rarely been more potent. Seriously, the atmosphere created across ‘De Christo, Servo Dei’ for example is incomparable as devastating orchestral synth layers stack higher and higher, swirling and irresistible; paralyzing the listener as the rest of the instrumentation swirls in coruscating, fervent incandescence. The vocalist is even apparently overwhelmed by it all at one point, devolving into unsettling strangled shrieks around the six and a half minute mark.

As longtime acolytes would know, traditional things like “riffs” are arguably an element of secondary importance in the world of Reverorum ib Malacht. Their main goal is more along the lines of expressing that which cannot be expressed (and as a byproduct of that, to make the listener question and explore concepts and feelings that they may not have before) and the means to that end is far more varied than any strain of standard metal tropes, instrumentation and/or structures. However, the entirety of Svag I Döden contains frequent reminders that no matter how strange Reverorum ib Malacht may get, at their core they are a unit of incredibly talented musicians. The opening and recurring riff of ‘Miserere mei, Deus’ is one that any remotely melodic black metal band would burn their ill-fitting leather pants to have written. ‘Dei Messia eusque Precursore’ is much the same, whilst the sinister ‘Canticum Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus’ is a fucking superb song on its own, loaded with dissonant guitarwork (at 6:00 is a particular favourite), and later stirring the blood and spirit with near martial proselytizing and venerating horns. And once more, the orator seemingly breaks down – this time at the very end, in tears, overwhelmed by emotion.

It’s all these things and more, done so well and uninterrupted by any truly perplexing entries in the playing order, that make this one of their best to the average listener. Whilst not exactly pure classic black metal (as if they would ever be), Svag I Döden utilises their particular idiosyncratic brand of it more directly and in more holistically “palatable” fashion than they have in a good minute, but does not lose an iota of their intent in the process. It’s a great summation of what they are with some of the finest songs they’ve written, and is a solid jumping off point to boot; if an interested party wished to dive into their discography having never heard a note, you’d be hard pressed to find a better starting recommendation than Svag I Döden.

Not Here, on the other hand, is an entirely different beast and throws all of that shit smartly out the window. But, perhaps not in the way that you’re thinking – instead of returning to more abstruse ambient weirdness, it is, without a shadow of doubt, the most brutally impactful Reverorum ib Malacht record yet.

How? Through ditching almost all “easily palatable” aspects of the sound. Without fail, the inevitable first thing to smack you in the face upon the initiation of opening track ‘Amen’ is the inhuman-to-the-point-of-obscenity programmed drums. Relentless and pushed to the fore in flagellating punishment, they’re so overpowering and overwhelming that by the end of the track they’ve almost ceased to exist other than as a (likely intentional; nothing Reverorum ib Malacht do is at random) metaphor for the constant, crushing weight of God’s presence. As hints of dire melodies struggle to drift through the onslaught and the vocals expand into lacerating mists and liturgical spoken word/ecclesiastical lilts, one cannot help but wonder if, indeed, the track may be intended as an illustration of the searing enormity and metaphysical implication contained the simple phrase “Amen”.

Folllwing a brief, gorgeous and incredibly affecting cello introduction, second track ‘God Is’ (another simple phrase shattering in its immensity when considered) continues along these same devastating pathways but writhes in ecstasy/agony as it bumps the violence up to a more transcendent level. When industrial elements appear and explosions pepper the sonic landscape it all begins to sound like the rapture itself is occurring, bathing the earth in the holiest of eschatonic flames. However, following the initiation of this rapture, that’s when the album really takes off.

There is a passage in the bible, Ezekiel 1:1–28, that describes the awesome and dreadful arrival of angels. They appear in monstrous storm of sound, wind, flame and lightning; having the mind-bending appearance of the faces of a lion, ox, eagle and man all at once, with four wings, hoof-like feet and gleaming wheels full of eyes. Ezekiel says “such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord”… and thus, such is the appearance of ‘No Death’, the monumental third composition. My personal favourite, those churning industrial elements come well to the fore (sounding for the sake of feebly grasping comparison as if Deus Salutis Mae era Blut Aus Nord had actually transformed INTO God) and deliver the obliterating awe and disintegration of mind that witnessing the arrival of these cherubim must induce. At this point in the album it’s almost as though once you have suffered enough you are fit to witness the frightening holy magnificence of the angels, and it is more than anyone could comprehend. “And when I saw it, I fell on my face”. Indeed.

And then, the final circumstance. The titular ‘Not Here’. Quite simply the most staggeringly intense piece on the album, to the point where after the previous rapture and arrival this ultimate composition could even be seen as an ascension into heaven – however, the meaning is much deeper than that, and it is one that can barely be put into words. I’m not shirking my responsibility as a writer by saying that, either; the concept is one necessary to be meditated upon for some time, and only then will one be able to glean some personal understanding of the immensity of this track. I can only offer you these words to consider and spend time with, from the band themselves:

The Divine is transcendent and immanent. He is not here in that nothing in creation is comparable to God, and that He alone is the immutable and necessary ground of being, different beyond time and space: existence itself. The great I AM which is limited by nothing and comprehended by none — yet who in perfect humility comes to us in Christ so that all of creation can come to fully know and love Him.

Who was here.

Is here.

And he shall come.

Closer to us than ourselves. God is immanent in that every being is preserved in existence by Him. All of creation is permeated by the Divine; it is fully contingent upon His ineffable love and effusive goodness, and could not persist were it not by His grace alone.

We are.

And still, He deigns to meet us in the flesh. To unite us, and thereby all of creation, to His transcendent perfection, so that we shall finally have true life, and life in the fullest. For our souls are eternal, preserved for life —

Not here.

As the cleansing severity of the album washes over you, beginning to inexorably alter your mental state (as so many RiM albums are want to do), it’s not difficult to see the whole of Not Here as a type of meditation aid. One really does get the feeling we are meant to ruminate on each simple phrase contained in each title and that these attached compositions are the sheer vastitude of those phrases and concepts in audio form, assisting revelation to hit with profound resonance. The soundtrack to discovering the infinite, if you will.

Overall, whilst the experienced listener may find one record not quite as inscrutable in some ways as its recent predecessors, the other may be even more so, in a different manner. Regardless, they both still exist on that other plane to everything else and contain some of the most valuable works of this incredible (and incredibly divisive) project. Considered as a whole, there remains much to be unveiled for both fresh postulants and adepts alike – just don’t expect to ever completely understand. Your thoughts are not His thoughts, neither are your ways His ways.

RATING: ∞ / 5. His power towards us remains forever immeasurable.

Svag I Döden and Not Here are available now via Rubeus Obex and The Ajna Offensive.

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Purchase Svag I Döden and Not Here digitally from the Reverorum ib Malacht Bandcamp HERE, Svag I Döden on LP from The Ajna Offensive webstore HERE, Not Here and Svag I Döden on LP from the Rubeus Obex webstore HERE or Not Here on digital and LP from the Rubeus Obex Bandcamp HERE.

Support REVERORUM IB MALACHT:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official YouTube

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Email: blackmetaldaily@outlook.com

BLACK METAL DAILY’S LISTCRUSH 2020: The Dex Edition, Part 3 – Full-Length Albums

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Greetings, infernal warbröethers and all that. After a marathon stretch we’re finally here, hammering the last rusty nail into our 2020 LISTCRUSH series – the full-length albums that resonated most with me throughout 2020. At a cursory glance, Metal Archives has 3146 full-length black metal albums logged as being released last year. Of those, I probably only checked out around a thousand, tops. So remember: this is in no way a definitive list. I’m not the grand arbiter of taste or final word on anything. These are just the records that tickled my own personal blasphemy glands juuuust right.

The original shortlist was over 200 albums long and I’ve (excruciatingly) whittled it down to a hundred of the finest – there is no “near misses” section, because in a year in which we were absolutely spoiled for good music as most had much else better to do in quarantine, there are simply too many that would have very deservedly made the cut.

There are records that immediately blew my mind (number 92, number 2, number 8), records that crept up over time to become firm favourites (number 31), expected hypebeasts (number 4) and records that deserve FAR more attention (59, 63). There were things of beauty (58, 24) and ugliness (49, 38). There are records that I fell asleep to almost every night since they were released (number 3), thrilling new discoveries (95), old masters making a triumphant return (6)… and in the case of number ONE, records that unleashed their black irradiant glories extremely late in the year yet annihilated everything else that had come before.

If any of the album titles are highlighted, clicking that will take you to our coverage of the album (reviews, premieres, interviews and all that good stuff). This list is strictly black/blackened, so if you’d like recommendations for other genres hit me up – for example my top death metal album was Ulcerate, of course, followed by Atræ Bilis. I’d probably give label of the year to the untouchable Debemur Morti Productions and if you want to check out what I consider to be the strongest demos, EPs or Splits I heard last year, read Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE.

That’s it. Have at it, Listcrush is finally done for another year. Hails.

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TOP 100 ALBUMS OF 2020

100. FORTRESS OF THE OLDEN DAYS – Verlassenheit (Worship Tapes / A Pile Of Graves)

99. ENEPSIGOS – Wrath Of Wraths (Osmose Productions)

98. ANCIENT BURIAL – Beyond The Watchtowers (Signal Rex)

97. ONIRIK – The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity (I, Voidhanger Records)

96. BLATTARIA – Dream, Dwell, Die (Harlequinflesh / A Fine Day To Die Records)

95. OLD NICK – Pretty Much Everything They Released This Year (Grime Stone Records)

94. CURSE UPON A PRAYER – Infidel (Saturnal Records)

93. GRAVEIR – King Of The Silent World (Impure Sounds / Brilliant Emperor)

92. REVERORUM IB MALACHT – Vad är inte sju huvud? (Le Narthécophore / Rubeus Obex)

91. VAMPIRSKA – Tortuous Omens of Blood & Candlewax (Crown & Throne)

90. MAVORIM – Axis Mundi (Purity Through Fire)

89. MYSTRAS – Castles Conquered And Reclaimed (I, Voidhanger Records)

88. DUMAL – The Confessor (Fólkvangr Records / Vigor Deconstruct)

87. AKHLYS – Melinoë (Debemur Morti Productions)

86. YGG – The Last Scald (Ashen Dominion)

85. HORNA – Kuoleman Kirjo (World Terror Committee)

84. KHTHONIIK CERVIIKS – Æequiizoiikum (Iron Bonehead Productions)

83. GRÓGALDR – Illness Unto The Womb Of Spirit (GoatowaRex / Perverse Homage)

82. EBONY PENDANT – Incantation Of Eschatological Mysticism (ASRAR / Forbidden Sonority / Grime Stone Records)

81. STARLESS DOMAIN – Alma (Crown & Throne / Aesthetic Death / Tartarus Records)

80. GJENDØD – Angrep (Hellthrasher Productions)

79. STARCAVE – Final Sins (GoatowaRex)

78. FAIDRA – Six Voices Inside (Northern Silence Productions)

77. THECODONTION – Supercontinent (I, Voidhanger Productions / Repose Records)

76. AFSKY – Ofte jeg drømmer mig død (Vendetta Records / Old Mill Artefacts / Screaming Skull Records)

75. GUIGNOL NOIR – Mantric Malediction (Repose Records)

74. ODRAZA – Rzezcom (Godz Of War)

73. BAŠMU – The Encircling (Independent)

72. ABSTRACT THE LIGHT – Magna Sapientia Quaerere – to the depths of thy soul… (Talheim Records)

71. WEALD & WOE – The Fate of Kings and Men (Fólkvangr Records)

70. WARDAEMONIC – Acts Of Repentance (Transcending Obscurity Records)

69. MAQUAHUITL – At The Altar Of Mictlampa (GoatowaRex)

68. BLOOD STRONGHOLD – Spectres Of Bloodshed (Nebular Carcoma / Satanik Requiem)

67. OLHAVA – Lagoda (Avantgarde Music)

66. LAMPIR – Awaiting The Predatory Dreamscape (Altare Productions / Perverse Homage)

65. STREAMS OF BLOOD – Erløsung (Rising Nemesis Records / The Hidden Art)

64. PRISON OF MIRRORS – De Ritualibus et Sacrificiis ad Serviendum Abysso (Oration / Norma Evangelium Diaboli)

63. PETRINE CROSS – Centuries of August (Panurus Productions)

62. FLUISTERAARS – Bloem (Eisenwald)

61. OLDOWAN GASH – Hubris Unchained (Drakkar Productions)

60. VENGEFUL SPECTRE – 殞煞 Vengeful Spectre (Pest Productions)

59. VUAL – To End All Life (Independent)

58. NODUS TOLLENS – Melancholic Waters Ablaze With the Fires of Loss (Trepanation Recordings / Pacific Threnodies)

57. BLACK FUNERAL – Scourge Of Lamashtu (Iron Bonehead Productions)

56. VOUS AUTRES – Sel de Pierre (Season Of Mist Underground Activists)

55. OLD SORCERY – Sorrowcrown (Essential Purification Records / White Wolf Productions)

54. ÄKTH GÁNAHËTH – Crowned In Shadows (Death Kvlt Productions)

53. MRTVI – Omniscient Hallucinatory Delusion (Transcending Obscurity Records)

52. ENTROPY CREATED CONSCIOUSNESS – Antica Memoria di Dis: Acheron & Lethe (Fólkvangr Records)

51. BÜTCHER – 666 Goats Carry My Chariot (Osmose Productions)

50. SVRM – Занепад (Vigor Deconstruct)

49. DEARTH – To Crown All Befoulment (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

48. VETËVRAKH – Dominion Of Terror (Black Gangrene Productions)

47. VOID PRAYER – The Grandiose Return to the Void (Black Gangrene Productions / Altare Productions)

46. BOREAL – The Battle Of VOSAD (King Of The Monsters / Nebulae Artifacta / Realm & Ritual)

45. DEATH.VOID.TERROR – To The Great Monolith II (Repose Records)

44. YMIR – Ymir (Werewolf Records)

43. ÁRSTÍĐIR LIFSINS – Saga á tveim tungum II: Eigi fjǫll né firðir (Ván Records)

42. BELORE – Journey Through Mountains And Valleys (Northern Silence Productions)

41. VASSAFOR – To The Death (Iron Bonehead Productions)

40. DWARROWDELF – Evenstar (Northern Silence Productions)

39. VOIDSPHERE – To Sense | To Perceive (Amor Fati Productions / Prava Kollektiv)

38. OMEGAVORTEX – Black Abomination Spawn (Invictus Productions)

37. MALOKARPATAN – Krupinské Ohne (Invictus Productions / The Anja Offensive)

36. DARKENHÖLD – Arcanes & Sortilèges (Les Acteurs de l’ombre)

35. HÄXENZIJRKELL – Die Nachtseite (Amor Fati Productions)

34. ISOLERT – World In Ruins (Nihilistische Klangkunst)

33. SERPENT NOIR – Death Clan OD (World Terror Committee)

32. SVARTSYN – Requiem (Carnal Records)

31. HYRGAL – Fin de Règne (Les Acteurs de l’ombre)

30. MÄLEFICENTT – Night Of Eternal Darkness (Night Of The Palemoon)

29. CÉNOTAPHE – Monte Verità (Nuclear War Now! Productions)

28. GRIFFON – ὸ θεός ὸ βασιλεύς’ (o Theos, o Basileu) (Les Acteurs de l’ombre)

27. FANEBÆRER – Den første ild (Nattetale)

26. AARA – En Ergô Einai (Debemur Morti Productions)

25. ACHERONTAS – Psychic Death: The Shattering Of Perceptions (Agonia Records)

24. HÖSTBLOD – Dikter om döden (Fólkvangr Records, Winter Sky Records, Le Narthécophore)

23. TURIA – Degen van Licht (Eisenwald)

22. SKÁPHE – Skáphe³ (Mystískaos, Iron Bonehead Productions, Vánagandr)

21. KAWIR – Adrasteia (Iron Bonehead Productions)

20. BURIER – In Communion With Death (GoatowaRex)

19. CETUS – Khaosmos (Elderblood Productions)

18. GRAFVITNIR – Death’s Wings Widespread (KFT Produktion, Carnal Records) 

17. SEVEROTH – Vsesvit (Avantgarde Music)

16. GRIFTESKYMFNING – Bedrövelsens Härd and Malignant Morningstar (Darker Than Black)

15. CARVED CROSS – Severance of Disparity in Absolute Acrimony (Death Shadow Records)

14. OBSKURITATEM – Hronika iz mraka (Black Gangrene Productions)

13. ANAAL NATHRAKH – Endarkenment (Metal Blade Records)

12. ORANSSI PAZUZU – Mestarin kynsi (Nuclear Blast)

11. IFERNACH – The Green Enchanted Forest of the Druid Wizard (Tour de Garde)

10. HAVUKRUUNU – Uinuos Syömein Sota (Naturmacht Productions)

9. AVERSIO HUMANITATIS – Behold The Silent Dwellers (Debemur Morti Productions, Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

8. PRECAMBRIAN – Tectonics (Primitive Reaction) 

7. KATAVASIA – Magnus Venator (Floga Records)

6. ONDSKAPT – Grimoire Ordo Devus (Osmose Productions)

5. SELBST – Relatos De Angustia (Debemur Morti Productions)

4. LAMP OF MURMUUR – Heir of Eliptical Romanticism (Death Kvlt Productions)

3. PAYSAGE D’HIVER – Im Wald (Kunsthall)

2. KOMMODUS – Kommodus (GoatowaRex)

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1. ABIGOR – Totschläger (A Saintslayer’s Songbook) (World Terror Committee)

I originally intended to keep it simple and wasn’t going to write anything at all about any album on this list, but I simply have to say a few words about this diabolical gem. After TT blew me away at the death of 2019 with the dazzling NEDXXX (well, personnel are still as-yet unconfirmed but I’d bet a solid hundred that he and Rune from Shaarimoth were involved) he’s done it again with Abigor‘s twelfth album, Totschläger (A Saintslayer’s Songbook). I’ve been listening to these nine tracks repeatedly since release and over countless spins each experience brings something new to appreciate and astound – be it tiny details in each intricate composition, or an entirely new favourite track each time. Silenius from Summoning puts in what may be the best performance of his life here, too – I liked Höllenzwang, but this proves Abigor remain at the absolute top of the game. I mean, just check out the final moments of album closer ‘Terrorkommando Eligos’ – what other band would have the testicular fortitude and sheer unbridled ability to pull off what’s ostensibly a minute or two of wild, slavering, black metal drum & bass?

THIS is, hands down, the best black metal album of the year for me. Listen to it. Hail Abigor.

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Ultimate respect to all artists, labels, writers and supporters of the black arts. You are all lords.

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Seven Heads – A Review of ‘Vad är inte sju huvud?’ by REVERORUM IB MALACHT

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I clip my wings and bleed water

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Are you familiar with the concept of a sensory deprivation chamber? Increasing in popularity and accessibility in the current age, these “float tanks” are designed to remove the connection to our senses and focus our being entirely internally. For the ninety-minute duration of your “float”, the body becomes buoyant in a bath of water infused with hundreds of pounds of magnesium sulfate, providing a sense of weightlessness. The pods you lay in are completely dark, to deprive sight, and soundproof, to deprive sound. It’s as if you aren’t even there. Anyway, the healing and relaxation properties of this are noted, but there’s another effect “floaters” may encounter – by removing sensory input and thus the demands on the nervous system, a float tank grants the mind access to an “essential state” where it might experience out-of-body sensations via theta brain waves, the type that also transition us into dreams. And then, some people add psychoactive drugs into the equation.

Whilst the results of these experiments have been well documented if you care to research for yourselves, one fictionalised depiction in particular that you may already be familiar with is in the 1980 sci-fi horror film Altered States, based on a novel which was in turn inspired by the research of American physician, neuroscientist, psychoanalyst, psychonaut and dolphin lover John C. Lilly who experimented with sensory deprivation chambers under the influence of psychoactive substances like mescaline, ketamine and LSD. During the film, the protagonist Dr. Eddie Jessup performs these experiments upon his own person, and ends up experiencing wild visions like being present at the birth of the universe in a pulsating celestial ovum, alongside a barrage of mind-melting religious iconography. As goat-headed men hang on the cross there is chaos, and then a ball of light, and then the light turns into a crack, and the crack opens onto Nothing, and that is all there was and all there will be… except for life itself, which has its only existence in the mind. Why am I mentioning these experiments, and these inexplicable profound hallucinations/revelations? Because, dear reader, those sense-deprived, hallucinatory trips along the edge of sanity are the nearest I can get to explaining what it’s like to listen to Vad är inte sju huvud? – the eighth full-length scripture by Swedish Roman Catholic black metal entity REVERORUM IB MALACHT. I’m going to skip right over the apoplectic elitists leaking squirts of rage-induced piss into their Dark Funeral underpants who have just now discovered that Roman Catholic black metal exists (although I will say: the band has been at it since 2005 so if you’re just discovering that exists right now then you’re the poser, dude) and jump right in.

In the days since the full-stream of the album premiered I’ve seen the record called many things, but one descriptor in particular stood out and nails it completely: “baffling”. Why is the record baffling? Allow me to do my best to explain. You don’t really listen to Vad är inte sju huvud? as such, you experience it – and swimming in its depths is indeed like floating in a void, losing all sense of reality and being communicated to in a language your brain cannot register by some kind of primal divinity, perhaps even God in his purest and most incomprehensible form. It’s a record that is definitely trying to speak to you… but you’ve no idea what it’s saying.

Straight off the bat, it’s far less “typical black metal” than some might be used to hearing from the band (not that their older works were typical, I mean that in a relative sense), drawing more from realms of noise and electronica than any recognizable “guitar and drums” combination that did still rear its head in tracks like ‘Skin Without Skin’ or ‘(Natten inuti) en tagg som sticker mig, en ängel från Satan som misshandlar mig (2 cor 12.7ff)’ from 2018’s exemplary Im Ra Distare Summum Soveris Seris Vas Innoble. This new offering is not less intense than its predecessor, but it’s a different kind of intensity; Im Ra… certainly had more structure. Something more resembling a clear and defined point to its madness (once again, relatively speaking). Vad är inte sju huvud? is a concoction is all its own, and as a result is terrifying and confusing in a way you may not have yet encountered.

As you immerse yourself into it, you will hang in that weightless void. Phosphene explosions will pierce the black; violent and beautifully hideous images of the holiest nature will assail you. Extended ambient pieces where one might be experiencing flashes of terror and revelation at once are frequent. Grotesquely distorted voices swoop in with terrifying cadence or linger in disturbing repetition, audio samples of ecclesiastical orations abound… this is truly a head trip. Whilst there are periods where something resembling obliterating industrial black metal is at the fore, other times you’ll be thinking the album has been entirely off on its own disturbing ambient noise tangent until you notice that blackened blitz has been faintly seething and boiling away in the background for minutes and you never even realised because your mind was ripped to other places. Moments within ‘Att drivas av Kristi Kärlek och utföra Hans uppdrag’ sound like a man undergoing some kind of primal transformation, as if he has heard the voice of God and its terrible glory is forcefully regressing him at the very core into some form of primordial life. The final minutes of ‘Driv ut Det Sjuka!’ are a raw, vomitous fit… whilst the final track is eight minutes of a skipping record playing the words “my wife” over and over and over and over again in a variety of distorted pitches.

And that’s not even HALF of the insanity or profound moments to be heard within this record. Yes, ‘Vad är inte sju huvud?’ is definitely trying to speak to the listener. But what the fuck is it trying to say? I’ve no idea, but the ways of God are mysterious and not to be understood by the minds of men. If you’re still not getting it, stop and look at the cover art for a moment, created by the band themselves. If you’re anything like me you’ll have no clue what it actually is… but it’s without a shadow of doubt the perfect visual depiction of the sounds contained within.

So to tie up this attempt at a “review”, I can only say – hear this album. It’s impossibly hard to quantify even considered within the vacuum of their own work (hence the rating given below), and is equally as difficult to understand. With ‘Vad är inte sju huvud?’, Reverorum ib Malacht continue to act as conduit for new worlds of sound, the myriad nuances of their warped hesychasm rearranging suboptimal cognitive patterns into hitherto unseen nor experienced pathways. Are these the pathways of God, experiencing himself as human thought? Who knows. Listen and attempt to decipher for yourself.

Rating: ∞ / 5. Immeasurable.

Vad är inte sju huvud? is available now via Le Narthécophore and Rubeus Obex.

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Purchase Vad är inte sju huvud? digitally from the Rubeus Obex Bandcamp HERE, or on LP from the Rubeus Obex webstore HERE and the Le Narthécophore webstore HERE.

Support REVERORUM IB MALACHT:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official YouTube

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