BLACK METAL DAILY’S LISTCRUSH 2023: The GOS Edition

~

By GOS (Order ov the Black Arts / ViaOmega Magazine)

~

All my kin at Order ov the Black Arts and Black Metal Daily… It is time. Time for those of us so inclined to agonize in the depths of our own minds and memory, feebly declare war against the inner demons of self doubt and existential futility, and  toil on the very brink of madness in the ever-anticipated and thoroughly Sisyphean of labors: Black Metal albums-of-the-year list and review. The placement of albums here isn’t particularly solid but more generalized with position shifting relative to mood and context.

It is also that time of year when I celebrate the mark of another orbit of Helios, embarking on my 5th decade towards the unknown beyond. Accordingly, it would be my honor to present, as a gift of myself, to you if you will indulge me, 50 albums from 2023 which I felt compelled to address, if briefly. Though the ultimately favored tend to appear towards the end, the specific placement is of only marginal importance, and their positions never stagnant, but ever shifting and relative to mood, activity, and the Hericlitean spirit of fire and eternal flux.  

~

TETRAGRAMMACIDE – Typho-Tantric Aphorisms from the Arachneophidian Qur’an [Iron Bonehead Productions]

Orientation: Radical and militant inverters of all that is sacred from India move away from noise and towards death with sophomore full length album. First on the list because it is death metal and not black metal, not because it isn’t badass.

Sounds like: Nostalgic brutal death metal of old, and what I cut my teeth on, such as HATE ETERNAL’s King Of All Kings or NILE’s Black Seeds of Vengeance, but benefiting from some modernization in the mix; needless to say, the fucking drumming is full-onslaught, batshit crazy, and one of the main listening points.

~

THE ARCANE ORDER – Distortions from Cosmogogy [Black Lion Records]

Orientation: Death metal adepts from Denmark relinquish their 4th album since 2006 and make the list at the beginning because they are death and not black metal… don’t let that fool you, probably in my top 10 for this year overall.

Sounds like: Self-described as death/thrash but I’m not really hearing that; sounds to me like excellent melodic / progressive DM similar to something like SLUGDGE or HATH or early BLACK CROWN INITIATE with some sparing but fucking great synth and some semiclean vox.

~

SULPHUR AEON – Seven Crowns and Seven Seals [VÁN Records]

Orientation: Renowned Lovecraftean blackened (kinda, barely) death metal band  from Germany release much-anticipated 4th album, and it is pretty damn good (but not as good as their last one… or two?).

Sounds like: Patented, fairly unique combination of brooding yet monstrous yet cosmic progressive death metal with a fair amount of lofty echoed cleans; the last track is particularly great.

~

TORTURE CHAIN – The Reign of Deimos [Hosptital Productions]

Orientation: Surprisingly developed-yet-unknown project from New York, born in roughly 2008, and composed by one man (Torturer aka Brendan Radigan, who is also in a bunch of other bands which I have never heard of but feel like I should) drops 4th album… and my jaw just a bit, squeaking in on the list in the final hours.

Sounds like: ABIGOR. A LOT; also somewhat less so like FANISK or ELDRIG with the synth at times, but this is more guitar-driven (like ABIGOR); note that this album is huge, clocking in at around 70 minutes. 

~

THE COLOR OF RAIN – Oceans Above [Void Wanderer Productions]

Orientation: Progressive black metal trio from the Netherlands pumps out a few singles then promptly delivers a neat debut album, which is colorful in more ways than one; probably belongs somewhere ‘higher’ on my list but I’m not sure where, so here it is.

Sounds like: A combination of postblack like AGRYPNIE, ANOMALIE, or HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY, with acoustic bits not unlike AGALLOCH, and some sort of progressive metal like RIVERS OF NIHIL or FALLUJAH… with a measure of A FOREST OF STARS and even a sprinkle of DSOish dissonance thrown in there, just in case things weren’t eclectic enough. 

~

RORCAL – Silence [Hummus Records]

Orientation: Abstruse, wholly pessimistic, and incredibly heavy blackened something-or-other band from Switzerland descends further with sixth album, and I wonder if it should even be included on a black metal AOTY list, it is somewhat irresistible.

Sounds like: blackened post-hardcore/doom/sludge/noise (yeah yeah, I know); heaviness to the point of obliteration, asphyxiating density, with a compressed-yet-crystalline sound which has always been hard to describe; CELESTE (Fra), ANAAL NATHRAKH if they had headed towards noise instead of groove… or … something like that.

~

AVDAGATA – The Faceless One [At Dawn Records]

Orientation: Relatively new symphonic/melodic blackdeath trio from Sweden, with members from DARK FUNERAL, NIGHT CROWNED, and REVERORUM IB MALACHT (among others) lays down a good debut full length after buttering us up with a GREAT debut EP in 2021 (Damnatio Cursus, on Black Lion Records).

Sounds like: Well… they USED to sound a lot like little known (but excellent) symphonic blackdeath commanders GLORIA MORTI, but now they have softened slightly to somewhere between that and later OLD MAN’s CHILD; good, with earworm guitar hooks and good blasting.

~

BLACK VOID CULT – …Even The Stars Have To Die [self-released]

Orientation: Relatively new black metal trio from Mexico offers up a diverse and solid second album with some interesting musical additions.

Sounds like: Mostly guitar-driven with tight drumming and dual vocals, tends to muscle it’s way in with straightforward blasting, then show off with some damn sweet synth and / or guitar work before jumping back into the pit; kind of a combination of cosmic black metal and blackthrash, while incorporating some elements of symphony and Mexican flavor.

~

NORDIC FROST – To Make The Acquaintance Ov Death [Rebel Pyro Musick]

Orientation: Symphonic black metal duo from California delivers 4th album; isn’t blazing any new trails, but targets a specific era of SBM for which I have a particular soft spot.

Sounds like: Contemporary symphonic black metal acts like CRADLE OF FILTH, OLD MAN’S CHILD, and DIMMU BORGIR (moreso), but importantly harnessing the tenuous magic which occurred after the said bands had modernized but before they really took a full nosedive (ie circa 1999-2003); clean, straightforward, well-but-not-overly-produced melodic black metal with piano and synth.

~

MØRKT TRE: Зазирни за Обрій [Darker Than Black Records]

Orientation: Avant-garde blackfolk from Ukraine creates an eclectic but confidently cohesive third album incorporating various labyrinthine elements too numerous to mention.

Sounds like: Similar to the likes of ENSLAVED, NEGURĂ BUNGET, DORDEDUH, but inevitably with its own take due to the unpredictable, unique and progressive nature implied with those comparisons; the old world, expanded and extended into the synthy astral future. 

~

SORATHIAN DAWN – Radiant Terror [self-released]

Orientation: Australian melodic blackdeath band is unnaturally excellent after waiting 11 years for a second album… and desperately needs to be signed to a solid label, or at least make some damn physicals (take my money!).

Sounds like: Riff-rich with flowing percussion and overall triumphant melody, highlighted by fantastic soaring lead and solos, nuanced synth,  and harsh screamed vocals, toneless and whispery… the one-dimensionality of which are my only real complaint; guitar work is fucking gorgeous. 

~

URBAIN – A Soul Purged [Hypnotic Dirge Records]

Orientation: Progressive black metal supergroup from Texas, composed of members of WILLS DISSOLVE, OVNEV, FATHER RUST and GOLGOTHAN, composes a specifically urban-dystopic debut.

Sounds like: A conglomerate of various emotive and conceptual energies such as entropy, sorrow, rage, beauty, pride, power, grandiosity, hubris, suffering, and hopelessness; a surprisingly cohesive mix of very different purveyors of urban destitute: ULVER, VOICES, WHITE WARD, MOURNING BY MORNING, and WORM SHEPHERD. 

~

ÚKRYT – 1897 [Starved Light / self-released]

Orientation: Australian partners S (of DÉPARTE) and M (of VERËVKINA) produce an instrumental  full-length opus (after an initial EP, 2019) featuring two 16+ minute tracks. 

Sounds like: An expansive, sprawling, and beautiful odyssey towards the edges of every unknown, both internally and externally, tugging on the spirit with a soft yet deadly undertow, and pulling the listener out to sea upon waves of epic atmosphere which is surprisingly crushing at times.

~

FALAISE – After All This Time [Flowing Downward]

Orientation: Italian post-black/gaze project manages to make itself my guilty pleasure with a fourth album full of meandering guitar and piano hooks.

Sounds like: Equal interplay between wonderment, melancholy, and rage; blackened out with periodic volleys of steady double kick and black metal vocals; atmospheric, but distinctly urban; lots of feels; DRAWN INTO DESCENT, AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN, ALCEST

~

SÓL ÁN VARMA – Sól án varma [VÁN Records]

Orienation: Authoritative supergroup of Iceland, this is a project originally commissioned back in 2018 and was founded by D.G. and T.I., but also features five (yes fucking FIVE) additional prominant Icelandic artists to produce a near 70-minute triumph.

Sounds like: … fucking ICELAND, it sounds like black metal from Iceland – alas – how could it sound otherwise? MISÞYRMING, CARPE NOCTEM, ÁRSTÍÐIR LÍFSINS, NAÐRA, SVARTIDAUÐI, ANDAVALD, ALMYRKVI.

~

FATAL EMBRACE – Manifestum Invernalis [Black Lion Records]

Orientation: Swedish meloblackdeath veterans who have been around since ‘92 and released their debut in 1997 take their time creating a sophomore release… and it was time well spent.

Sounds like: Powerful, modern symphonic black combined with melodic death; aggressive, heavy, polished, similar to …AND OCEANS, but more terrestrial and grants the listener more breathing room, although it is also more brooding and dark.  

~

ASAGRAUM – Veil of Death, Ruptured [Edged Circle Productions]

Orientation: Pre-eminent all-female orthodox melodic black metal from the Netherlands fires off with 3rd album and stays relevant as fvck.

Sounds like: Not far off from fairly standard melodic, satanic, mostly Swedish black metal fare (WATAIN, DARK FUNERAL, NECROPHOBIC, NAZGHOR, VALKYRJA, THULCANDRA, KVAEN, FÄUST, etc.) but more dynamic, more interesting, more authentic, or more consistent than the more well-known names. This album utilizes limited dissonance which I have not noticed before.

~

ASTWIHAD – Gatha 1: Asto-Vidatu [Ardawahisht Kollective]

Orientation: One of a cluster of fucking fantastic and varied bands from Iran (including Ardwisur, Broken Pillars, Désespéré, Enscelados, Erancnoir, Forelunar [my favorite], and Menakere, among others) which make up Ardawahisht, ASTWIHAD emerges with a debut mini album, possessing an immensity that has nothing to do with its play time.

Sounds like: Incredibly oppressive yet cosmic black metal with some brief Middle Eastern percussive elements; a more savage and overtly demonic (ok to read *better than*) DARKSPACE, and closer to old BORGNE, but even still more monstrous and devastating… yet with a breathtaking synthy beauty.

~

ALDAARON – Majestic Heights, Melancholic Depths [Paragon Records]

Orientation: Atmospheric pagan black metal band, founded in 2007, crystalizes a fourth aptly-titled album; from France, but I keep thinking they are from Russia, if that means anything *shrug*.

Sounds like: Gripping, blazing fast, wintery atmospheric black metal with robust production, driven by pretty obvious programmed drums (which add their own endearing aspect), and intermixed with various tidbits of dark ambient, lightly distorted guitar soloing, and martial atmospheric interludes.

~

FAUSTIAN – We Come As Angels [self-released]

Orientation: Silly bois from death metal band WEREWOLVES (and a veritable shitload of other bands including THE BERZERKER, THE ANTICRHRIST IMPERIUM, PSYCROPTIC, THE AMENTA, ABREMALIN, and ex-AKERCOCKE) decide to make a black metal album, and it’s pretty damn good!

Sounds like: Competent and suspiciously catchy and quite blasty modern black metal; basically what the new PANZERCHRIST album *should* have sounded like (god dammit), although FAUSTIAN could have mixed in more death metal vocals to get it even closer.

~

IRITYLL – Schlafes Bruder [Rebel Pyro Musick]

Orientation: Debut full length duo out of Austria is like a black metal meal with a fuckload of death metal seasoning. Pretty tasty if you don’t mind your food mixing. 

Sounds like: They are using a Boss HM2; deathened the fuck out blackdeath with heavy yet glassy almost deathcoreish mix or production… but still black metal; thicc but sharp and acerbic, almost wintery at times; something like new …AND OCEANS but with less synth, and LOUDER; HORDA, HORRENDA.

~

GRAVE GNOSIS – Pestilence Crowned [self-released]

Orientation: Dead-serious occult black metal entity from Florida releases a stone-cold insane third album, so wild that it brushes up against my eccentricity tolerance threshold yet leaves me in awe.

Sounds like: Somebody spiked the blood chalice for the zealous satanic ceremony with a fuckload of LSD; blackened psychedelic fever ritual.

~

PANOPTICON – The Rime of Memory [Bindrune Recordings]

Orientation: Still-standing-strong pillar of American black folk, like MEPHORASH (see below), seems to have journeyed away from black metal proper with a massive tenth album focusing on the balance and struggle between life and death. 

Sounds like: Should probably be considered more blackened doom folk than black folk; even when the drums are flying, the entire sensibility of the album, repetition, and pacing is much more aligned with doom characteristics, and the folk elements with extended instrumental sections are more prominent than ever; fantastic when the mood strikes.

~

MINENWERFER – Feuerwalze [Osmose Productions]

Orientation: Translation: “Firestorm”; formerly “atmospheric” war-themed black metal duo from California decide to firebomb the atmosphere and focus on obliteration via shrapnel with 4th album.

Sounds like: An aweing level of hysterical black violence that borders on war metal; relentless martial battery delivering pure overt aggression and cutthroat, rabid guitar lead in equal measure; ENDSTILLE, 2000’s ENTHRONED, AD HOMINEM, PRECAMBRIAN

~

RINGARË – Of Momentous Endless Night [Avantgarde Music]

Orientation: Two incredibly prolific US BM musicians Alex Poole and Jake Blackburn (both of many bands, including CHAOS MOON, ENTHEOGEN, GARDSGHASTER, SKÁPHE, KRIEG, NATTFÄRD, and more) get with Swedish vocalist Likpredikaren (NATTFÄRD, ARS HMU, MUSMAHHU) to do some great things; Swartadauþuz is surprisingly absent.

Sounds like: Atmospheric symphonic black metal with a distinct emphasis on the drums, almost as if the percussion acts as the lead instrument instead of the guitar, which I can dig because the drums are mind-blowing; vox could be dialed back a bit.

~

VVILDERNESS – Path [Beverina]

Orientation: One-man Hungarian post-black / black folk project, releases a 4th album since the debut in 2017… every one of which has had placement on my end-of-year lists, although the first is still the best.

Sounds like: A unique and unmistakable hybrid of black metal, Hungarian folk, progressive metal, and post-rock, with a distinct naturalistic flavor due to use of acoustic guitars, folk influences (read: hurdy-gurdy, talharpa, nyckelharpa), breezy melodies, and a forested aura. 

~

OUTLAW – Reaching Beyond Assiah [AOP Records]

Orientation: Brazilian band, notably featuring Tommi “Tomahawk” Tuhkala on drums (MOONLIGHT SORCERY, ONDFØDT, KVAEN, SPELL OF TORMENT) radiates third album of anti-cosmic Luciferian black metal. 

Sounds Like: Taking what WATAIN achieved with apex album Lawless Darkness, and springboarding off of it to create orthodox melodic black metal infused with some subtle post-black tendencies; progressive, more consistently harmonic, and fucking epic. 

~

PASSÉISME – Alternance [Antiq Records]

Orientation: Relatively new (founded in 2019) three-piece from Fran – wait… Russia? Russia. Not France? Are we sure?  Ok, from Russia – get my attention with an incredibly talented if quirky sophomore album.

Sounds like: Sounds like it is from fucking France. Like SÜHNOPFER, or AORLHAC, or (to a lesser degree) VÉHÉMENCE or NÉCROPOLE, wherein guitar is just constantly leading in a way that sounds like a non-stop solo. In PASSÉISME’s case it has a wild, mischievous, woodsy, and impromptu character, with the Greek god Pan appropriately adorning the cover art; the straining shouted vox might throw some listeners.

~

THE KRYPTIK – A Journey to the Darkest Kingdom [Purity Through Fire]

Orientation: Significantly overlooked black metal duo from Brazil unfurl an ambitious third album, with 7 long tracks clocking in at almost 70 minutes, the shortest one almost 8.

Sounds like: Symphonic black metal that sounds like it should have epic blue cover art… and it does; tends towards more “atmospheric” grandiosity rather than in-your-face orchestration, and strikes a balance between the two, sort of a midline between AEON WINDS (see below) and EVILFEAST.   

~

… AND OCEANS – As in Gardens, So in Tombs [Season of Mist]

Orientation: Veteran Finnish dark industrial act releases second album after significant, and much -needed auditory overhaul.

Sounds Like: High-octane, impeccably mixed, full, powerful, and modern symphonic black metal; DIMMU BORGIR-level orchestration with LIMBONIC ART-like cosmic elements, but with aggression more akin to Diabolus/Attera-era DARK FUNERAL or even BELPHEGOR’s blacker edges.

~

BLOEDMAAN – Castle Inside the Eclipse [Immortal Frost Productions]

Orientation: One-man upstart from Belgium grabs some deserved attention with a short-but-sweet EP-sized album with undeniable appeal.

Sounds like: Crazy melodic “French” riffs similar to FORTRESSE or FERRITERIUM but a bit more light-hearted and fantasy-oriented like MOONGLIGHT SORCERY or ALDAARON; fucking epic and awesome. 

~

ARGENTHORNS – The Ravening [Avantgarde Music]

Orientation: Third solo project from Finnish virtuoso Lord Vechi Vrăjitor, best known for being the sole creator behind both WARMOON LORD and OLD SORCERY adds to the emerging 90’s SBM throwback motif of 2023.

Sounds like: An excellent ode to a fucking army of classic symphonic black metal pillars (in all cases, specifically their early output): EMPEROR, DIMMU BORGIR, LIMBONIC ART, CRADLE OF FILTH, ANOREXIA NERVOSA, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, as well as more oddball flourishes like FINNTROLL, VESANIA, and even OPETH.

~

ALBIONIC HERMETICISM – Nova Nativitas Mundi [The Hermetic Order of Ytene]

Orientation: Prolific riff-god O.W.G.A, of Great Britain, sole creator behind this and additional currents (most notably AULD RIDGE, see below), casually drops 8th and 9th full length in the last 3 years (across all projects) and continues to emerge as one of the best contemporary authentic black metal artists in the world.

Sounds like: O.W.G.A.’s unpolished, spontaneous, and wholly authentic foundation, here conceptually focused on occult fantasy and satanic science fiction, with the music appropriately and spectacularly leaning into more avant-garde, cosmic, psychedelic, and progressive rock territory while still being unmistakably black metal. 

~

ONDFØDT – Det Österbottniska Mörkret [Black Lion Records]

Orientation: Finnish occult black metal traditionalists offer a savage fourth album, rack another great release up for Black Lion, and spurn, for me, one of those deep and oft expensive dives into the entire historical repertoire. 

Sounds like: Solidly in the camp of King / Ghaal era GORGOROTH, albeit perhaps with slightly more traditional melodic hints like VALKYRJA or SEHTERIAL. Makes me want to mentally add them to what I think of as the subgenre of modern hyperblasting authentic black metal ala NORDJEVEL, AVSLUT, WHORDOM RIFE, DJEVELKULT, etc.

~

STARER – Wind, Breeze, or Breath [Snow Wolf Records / Fiadh Productions / Fólkvangr Records]

Orientation: Completely ass-kicking one-man black metal project from Kentucky (with a penchant for covering rock and alternative) and owner of Snow Wolf Records sinks a third full length in as many years. I’m really hoping for a vinyl press at some point.

Sounds like: Surprisingly-hard-to-describe-other-than-”American” symphonic black metal which aggresses up to TSJUDER (etc.) levels, but also leaves space for orchestration, expanse, atmosphere, doomy parts, tasteful clean vocals, groove, and more. Something about it (the mix maybe? the percussive flow?) reminds me of mid-era PANOPTICON (except symphonic instead of folk), but I can’t figure out if that is a legit association or just because *Kentucky*.

~

TAUBRĄ – Therizo [Debemur Morti Productions]

Orientation: Swiss offshoot of AARA unleashes debut album of satanic orthodoxy, featuring two AARA members on guitars and drums, and support from T of MALPHAS and R of ILHALUNG on bass and vox, respectively. 

Sounds like: Darker and more violent than AARA. Relatively straightforward blasting modern black metal, with riffwriting reminiscent of the last two MISÞYRMING albums… except, considering mixing/mastering by S.D. (AVERSIO HUMANITATIS) at Empty Hall Studios, predictably cleaner and thicker and less unhinged or feral in production. 

~

WAYFARER – American Gothic [Century Media]

Orientation: Black “folk” pioneers from Colorado, after peaking in 2016 or 2018 (in my opinion), recover significantly with 5th album American Gothic, a release notably stronger than 2020’s A Romance With Violence. Noticing while writing this that they jumped labels from Profound Lore to Century Media.

Sounds like: Progressive black metal with the quintessential, distinctive Western-Americana flavor which is their schtick; with every album they seem to stray further from black metal proper and towards a more generalized still-marginally-blackened “progressive extreme Western-metal” sound , which, luckily, they seem to be getting better and better at (although the earlier albums Old Souls and World’s Blood are still my favorites).  

~

ERSHETU – Xibalba [Debemur Morti Productions]

Orientation: Two unknown badassess from France and Norway get together to do themed albums which each revolve around death in specific culture. They recruit more renowned badassess (Vindsval aka BLUT AUS NORD, and Lars Nedland of BORKNAGAR) to help out. Debut album Xibalba tackles Mayan lore.

Sounds like: Ritualistic black metal mixed with native South American wood and wind instruments; WARDUNA meets MAQUAHUITL (but the black metal aspect is often more ceremonial, epic, and measured, and less riffy and chaotic); band describes music as cinematic and taking inspiration from film scores.  

~

CELESTIAL ANNIHILATOR – Annihilation for Esoteric Nascency [self-released]

Orientation: From South Korea. One-man cosmic black metal project, creator of which is also sole soul behind AMBRIXIAK (also excellent), and guitarist for DARK MIRROR OV TRAGEDY and METAMORPHOSIS. Seems to get better and better with each thing he has his hand in. 

Sounds like: Guitar and percussion-driven cosmic black metal, which sounds exactly like it should. The fact that synth isn’t the main thrust gives it a more aggressive or visceral feel, although still distinctly cosmic. FFO MARE COGNITUM, BEZMIR, NUMEN NOCTIS, INHERITS THE VOID.

~

AEON WINDS – Night Sky Illuminations [Avantgarde Music]

Orientation: Established but underrecognized symphonic black metal from Slovakia – with numerous singles, splits, EP’s, etc. filling the space between albums – gusts in with a third full length. 

Sounds like: Synthladen contemporary symphonic black metal with some slight deathy heaviness and groove making it a bit more melancholy than similar ARGENTHORNS and any of the other SBM listed above; forceful and darkly triumphant, often with an almost marching / martial quality and 50-caliber double kick; grandiose yet deliberate.

~

ASET – Astral Rape [Les Acteurs de l’Ombre]

Orientation: Occult supergroup of an unknown number of reportedly fluctuating international artists, *some* of which are from ORANSII PAZUZU and SETH, focusing on Egyptian necromantic themes, descends with a debut out of fucking nowhere and turns a bunch of heads for good reason.

Sounds like: A “plunge into the mystical astral” (band’s words); a shockingly masterful apotheosis of aggressive fringe orthodox black metal which is equally immense, ritualistic, and dissonant; imagine a near perfect combination of AKHLYS / AORATOS / NIGHTBRINGER and MEPHORASH and DEATHSPELL OMEGA, also might be compared to FYRNASK and DODECAHEDRON.

~

MOONLIGHT SORCERY – Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle [Avantgarde Music]

Orientation: After getting everyone’s attention with two incredible EPs in 2022 and buttering up the hype with a couple of singles, Finnish trio (plus Tommi “Tomahawk” Tuhkala on drums [OUTLAW, ONDFØDT, KVAEN, SPELL OF TORMENT]) flower their debut full length, and it was exactly what we were hoping for.

Sounds like: Fantastical and incredibly addicting black metal mixed with the best parts of power metal, to put it succinctly, overtly and beautifully reveling in the adventure which these two genres have to offer, whilst avoiding the pitfalls (ie no power metal vocals… thank fucking god). STORMKEEP, STORMLORD, blackened CHILDREN OF BODOM.

~

MYSTICAL FULLMOON – Hermits Amidst the Marvels of Darkness [Zazen Sounds]

Orientation: Relatively unknown but longstanding (originated 1994) band from Italy verify that they are veterans with an excellent 3rd album of mixed extreme metal.

Sounds like: A mix of symphonic black metal and melodic death metal with classical elements; orchestration so robust that it is cinematic, yet not overbearing in the overall sound, with a somewhat homogenous production; having a hard time figuring out what other SBM band they REALLY sound like, even though it shouldn’t be difficult… perhaps that is some of the appeal; maybe a blacker and MUCH better SEPTICFLESH.

~

ΣARΚ – Inumbris [self-released]

Orientation: Mysterious and almost completely unknown one-man project from Greece demonstrates rapid development by unfolding an immense fourth album after three prior since 2021. There is very little information available. Support this person.

Sounds like: Multilayered, massive, crushing black metal with shades of cataclysmic industrial, cavernous atmosphere, hypnotic doom, and eerie dissonance; INCREDIBLY good for how underground it is; *sort of*: ALMYRKVI, RUINS OF BEVERAST, BLUT AUS NORD, but also DEATHSPELL OMEGA and new GRAVENCHALICE (but better).

~

HELLERUIN – Devils, Death, and Dark Arts [New Era Productions]

Orientation: One-man black metal riff machine from the Netherlands ignites a second album in jet-black fashion, garners legitimacy points by almost immediately having his Bandcamp profile deleted for no apparent reason.

Sounds like: Ferocious, full melodic black metal with copious tasteful blasting, entirely adequate vocals, and riffs that Just. Don’t. Fucking. Quit. MGŁA, SARGEIST, and TAAKE comparisons seem like low hanging fruit and less on-target than SPECTRAL WOUND, GRAFVITNIR, and DÉLÉTÈRE.

~

HASARD – Malivore [I, Voidhanger Records]

Orientation: Debut black metal manifestation of French composer Hazard, best known for grandiose dark experimental neoclassical / extreme avant-garde opera project LES CHANTS DU HASARD; an immediate top contender for AOTY.

Sounds like: The march of an immense doomsday engine combined with the terror of a celestial air raid siren; increasingly orchestrated and industrialized advance dissipating into horror-drenched, brooding, malevolent atmosphere; impossible symmetry of chaos and momentum like the holographic scaffolding of some horrific sonic fractal; pure apocalyptic rapture; AKHLYS / NIGHTBRINGER, DECOHERENCE, early AXIS OF PERDITION, a more violent BLUT AUS NORD, ALMYRKVI, REVERORUM IB MALACHT.

~

VAHRZAW – In the Shallows of a Starlit Lake [Bitter Loss (RID), self-released]

Orientation: Death / slightly blackened death metal band from Australia tries their hand at classic 90’s-style symphonic black metal…  and fucking kills it.

Sounds like: Unclean melodicism, slightly muffled blasting, malevolent vocals, flows of synth; an authentic, unvarnished and unequivocal homage to the time-honored sound of Norwegian and Swedish spirits of old; EMPEROR, CRADLE OF FILTH, DARK FUNERAL, SATYRICON, 1349, and GORGOROTH.

~

AULD RIDGE – Folklore From Further Out [The Hermetic Order of Ytene]

Orientation: Prolific riff-god O.W.G.A, of Great Britain, sole creator behind these and additional currents, casually drops 8th and 9th full length in the last 3 years (across all projects) and continues to emerge as one of the best contemporary authentic black metal artists in the world. Note: We at Black Metal Daily were honored to get an exclusive interview regarding all of his projects after first completing conversational reviews for 2023 AULD RIDGE and ALBIONIC HERMETICISM albums.

Sounds like: Organic, brilliant, and audacious black metal perfection; heroic folktales provide the album concept and free-flowing, instinctive, metalized folk melodies provide the musical underpinning, particularly in the stone-cold insane improvised guitar lead (think of a more feral WINDIR, sort of), viola, and Irish bouzouki; acoustic folk interludes between each black metal track.

~

IMPERIAL DEMONIC – Beneath The Crimson Eclipse [Black Lion Records]

Orientation: Unnaturally engaging and endearing debut EP from Northern Ireland manages to take my AOTY when I am in a certain nostalgic mood… but is excellent enough to induce that nostalgic mood, and marks another (major) win for Black Lion for 2023 in the process. 

Sounds like: Absolutely classic-to-the-core, straight to the point in the vein of early 2000’s Dark Funeral and Naglfar, with some Old Man’s Child and Cruelty era CoF thrown in. Nostalgic as all fuck, bringing me back like 20+ years, when I was first getting into the genre, and I love it; kicks so much ass that it is almost cheesy. 

~

MEHPORASH – Krystl-Ah [Shadow Records / Regain Records]

Orientation: Supreme ritualistic occult blackened phenomenon from Sweden continues its trajectory astray from black metal proper with a metaphysicedelic fifth album, and takes AOTY in the process.

Sounds like: While still blackened, MEPHORASH has capitalized on a foundation of traditional Swedish black metal and has steadily transcended the genre with crowning sonic occultism (1557 – Rites Of Nullification, 2015), then prominent doses of ecclesiastical ritualism (Shem Ha Mephorash, 2019),  and now dark ascendant psychedelia; ecstatic elevation, rapturous layers, resonance beyond the auditory; a vast cathedral of consciousness, a battery of kaleidoscopic windows, fractals rotating, effortlessly melts and crumbles, builds, rises, melts and crumbles, over and over and over; material form, mental structure, rational thought caught in the ineffable tide of entropic cosmic connection.

~

LISTCRUSH WILL RETURN… MAYBE.

~

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

BLACK METAL DAILY’S LISTCRUSH 2023: The ALASKAN BERGWANDERER Edition, Part 2

~

Yes, it is that time of the year again, where “experts” drop their picks for the best albums of the year. Everyone has their ways of going about such a monumental task, some are very meticulous; tracking plays on Spotify, Bandcamp, and at home with physical media. Then there’s others such as myself, who face existential crisis this time of year, wing a list based on listening habits of the last two or so months, and just hope the picks they present are the *right* picks. Is it the most scientific method to put a list like this together? Absolutely not.

I had thought that 2022 was a difficult year for me to compile a list such as this, in my preferred realm of black(ened) metal, but 2023 proved to be an even more stellar year, with truly great releases being dropped seemingly every single day. This truly is the most difficult time I’ve had putting one of these things together, I cannot stress that enough. And with the onset of certain announcements for January, 2024 looks like it will strive to be better still. What a time to be a music fan!

Anyway, when I put these lists together, these should never be read as any kind of real “order” of best to least best. Well, yes and no. What I mean is, for instance, album #40 isn’t necessarily worse than album #30, and vice versa for which one would be deemed better. Outside of my TOP THREE, the rest of this is a true free for all. Any and all could have occupied another slot on a different day. There were so many killer albums dropped this year that I literally feel bad to not include them all here. Also keep in mind, if I have gone out of my way to buy an album, then chances are I legit liked it. Think of this as a selection of artists I feel are worthy to check out on your own, and worthy of support.

I present to you, the reader, my top 40 picks of 2023:

~

THE BEST OF THE REST

~

40) OLDE THRONE – In The Land of Ghosts
39) ALBIONIC HERMETICISM – Nova Nativitas Mundi
38) ORDALIE – Mass of Perdition
37) VALRAVN – The Awakening
36) INHERITS THE VOID – The Impending Fall Of The Stars
35) NEBELGRUND – An den Toren von Krieg und Tod…
34) FATHOMAGE – Autumn’s Dawn, Winter’s Darkness
33) SHADOWS OF ALGOL – Transformations Of The Desert Witch
32) WEALD & WOE – For The Good of The Realm
31) VAHRZAW – In The Shallows of A Starlit Lake
30) EMINENTIA TENEBRIS – Rise Of A New Kingdom
29) SCÁTH NA DÉITHE – Virulent Providence
28) TAAKE – Et Hav av Avstand
27) HELLERUIN – Devils, Death, And Dark Arts
26) FOREST THRALL – Amidst Pines
25) TAUBRĄ – Therizo
24) ARIDUS – Serpent Moon
23) KIIRA – Iättömän Sanat
22) SOMBRE HÉRITAGE – Inter Duo Mundi
21) MINENWERFER – Feuerwalze

~

AMONG THE BEST

~

20) HÄXANU – Totenpass

This is only one of a LOT of insanely high quality black metal releases that emerged from the US scene this year. Alex Poole, multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire, was a very busy dude this year. He dropped albums with Nattfärd, Ringarë, and Krieg this year to go along with what was probably the best of his efforts; this very Häxanu album you’re now reading about. This is melodic black metal of very high order, with soaring melodies to go with equally cut throat passages. Subtle synths help guide the music along the 45 minute journey these eight tracks provide. Great drum parts and a great vocal performance by ‘L.C.‘ are exquisite toppings on an already delicious black metal cake.

~

19) IMMORTAL – War Against All

Oh, surprised to see this here? To be quite honest, I would have been as well if not for the fact that Demonaz has successfully steered the Immortal brand back to its more vicious heyday, circa Pure Holocaust and Battles In The North. Now, is it actually as *good* as those two classics? Of course not. But you have to admit it is FANTASTIC seeing Demonaz being able to crank out the nasty riffage on an album himself after so many years of tendon injuries brought on by rehearsing the Blizzard Beasts material for multiple hours a day. And to be perfectly honest, I like his vocal approach. Sure, it’s not Abbath‘s trademark croaking that so many seem to get hung up on missing from these most recent efforts, but it absolutely fits the music regardless. The main riff in ‘No Sun’ ranks among the best of Immortal‘s discography. And no Horgh? No problem. Kevin Kvåle, of Gaahl’s Wyrd fame, more than handles the job behind the skins.

~

18) LE PROCHAIN HIVER – Talvi

What a unique entry from the always quality Antiq label. At the very core, this is very much French black metal; Swirling, melodic and very emotive guitars in *that* French style to go along with varied tempo changes and harsh vocals that just sound cool in the native tongue. So what makes this album unique? First off, the use of operatic female vocals. That in itself is nothing new, symphonic black metal bands have been at least attempting that for decades now. What Le Prochain Hiver does differently with them is actually use said voice as part of the songwriting process. It doesn’t sound like an afterthought or a gimmick. Ms Dame Pandora even goes into some more primal stuff at the beginning of ‘Facing The First Snows’ that gives off serious Heilung vibes. It’s glorious. The next thing that stands out at times listening to this album, is the synths. They’re used sparingly, but tracks like ‘Ashes’, for instance, have synth parts that sound more fitting for a Dungeon Synth album more so than a black metal album. Again, not unusual in itself, but more the fact that while there are bands that do the Dungeon Synth/Black Metal thing, most of those bands tend to make the synths be the focus above the black metal. This is inverted, where very much Dungeon Synth moments are used in support of the music around it. It does make sense when you realize that main songwriter and vocalist Hylgaryss does in fact have a couple of Dungeon Synth projects in his stable. The atmosphere of this album is very befitting of the band name (which translates to “Next Winter”), the album title (Finnish word for “winter”) and the album art itself: Cold.

~

17) DAEMONIAN – The Frost Specter’s Wrath

A damn fine discovery at the very beginning of the year, Japan’s Daemonian, specifically lone member Lord Metal, takes the template laid out by the Swedish black metal scene of the mid ’90s to the early 2000’s, but adds the machine-like technical proficiency that the Japanese metal scene is known for. This is melodic black metal played with absolutely insane focus. The riffs are literal buzz saws, ripping your head off and flaying your skin, but sounding oh-so-beautiful while doing it. This is a prime example of an absolute GEM that sadly flew under far too many radars this year. Of course, the odd decision to remove the full album streams from both YouTube as well as Daemonian‘s own Bandcamp page most certainly did not help. You can find one track online, ‘King Of The Daemons’ and it paints a fine picture of what to expect on this beast. An ultimate teaser, if you will, as it’s not even the best song on the album.

~

16) ATHEOSOPHIA – Shadowgate of Winter’s Spirit

More USBM here. It’s hard not to talk about this album and not mention two of three other albums that were released by one musical mastermind Taurus and (I assume) his label Blood And Crescent. This album, Fellwinter‘s The Dawn of Winter, and Gauntlet Ring‘s Beyond The Veil Of The Night are all prime examples of raw, second wave inspired black metal done right. Riffs are ripping and have a sense of melody to go with the obvious intensity. The vocals are primo throat shredding affairs. The bass offers a nice support for the surrounding riffs. So what sets this Atheosophia album apart from the others? Well, Fellwinter‘s album is probably the most raw of the three, with real precise and straightforward drumming by one Mercenary. Gauntlet Ring‘s album is a little more polished in sound (heavy quotation marks on “polished”), and more freewheeling as Mercenary is let off the reins and just goes absolutely bananas on the kit, giving off a sense of chaos. Atheosophia‘s entry is a nice mix of the other two albums, plus has the best overall sound. It’s still raw, but there is a sense of power that can be felt in the music on this one. The only knock is that its programmed drums, as it is 100% a solo effort by Taurus. However, they sound natural enough and have enough of a human feel that it’s not really that much of a deal breaker… obviously. Yet another top tier effort bubbling up from the deeper underground USBM scene, alongside the likes of Forest Thrall, Obsidian Grave, among many others. Quite honestly, this should be a three-for-one type of entry. You can’t go wrong with any of them.

~

15) OBSIDIAN GRAVE – Blood Of The Night

Speaking of Obsidian Grave… this album absolutely floored me upon first listen. While a little more on the raw side than I really typically listen to, the almighty RIFF drew me right on in. Much like the Tyrant album that shares the same cover art from last year, there is a heavier emphasis on influence from both the French and Finnish black metal scenes. The guitars carry both the medieval melodic flair of the former to go with the bulldozing wintry tones of the latter. No weak tracks to be found here, every song kicks you in the guts and dumps you headfirst into deep snow drifts. The vocals, in their mainly deeper mid-range levels give the impression of a predatory beast bellowing into the night and letting the winds carry it away. The fact this is on Dark Adversary Productions probably tells you all you need to know about its sound and quality. The USBM scene strikes yet again.

~

14) SAMMALE – Finno-Ugric

Hot on the heels of last year’s self titled effort, Zannibal (of Marrasmieli and Paisaunt fame) is back with another offering of his “Finno-Urgric Forest Metal”, which translates to epic and well written melodic black metal that focuses on the old Finno-Ugric languages, culture and history. The first album, while quite good, I felt was a result of leftover Marrasmieli riffs not used for last year’s ‘Martaiden mailta’, but they were quality enough to warrant use *somewhere*. ‘Finno-Ugric’ on the other hand, feels more like proper focus was given to the sound and lore that Zannibal was striving to create. This very much gives off a feeling of finding an isolated group of people living unaware of the world around them deep in a Finnish forest somewhere. I could go as far as to say its deeply “Pagan” in nature, which it surely is, but it’s not Pagan for the sake of having a Pagan title. Use of jaw harps, acoustic guitars and more folk-like arrangements help add to this ambience. Now, there’s no doubt one will find similarities to Marrasmieli, as that project also creates a feeling of being lost in nature, but not as intensely as this Sammale album. Fans of melodic and deeply atmospheric black metal would do no wrong in checking this one out.

~

13) ANCESTRAL BLOOD – Forgotten Myths and Legends-Chapter 1

More USBM on the docket. This is one of a number of releases that take melodic black metal and give it a good dash of classic heavy metal sophistication. Or, you have the opening of ‘The Cronos Stone’ which is straight up heavy metal. Unlike bands such as Moonlight Sorcery or Stormkeep, the guitars are the primary source of the melodies and ‘symphonic’ elements, using keys simply for underlying support. The compositions contained in Forgotten Myths… are of a virtuosic nature. Main songwriter Verigo shows off his fretboard technicality all over the aptly named ‘Sky Fortress of Wizardry’, as one prime example of many on this album. Another unique aspect to these proceedings is the fact that there is a female lead vocalist. While it is getting to be more common these days, it’s still not the norm. In fact, had I not double checked the band line-up in listening to this, I would have missed that fact. I did only find one glaring downside to Circe‘s performance, and that was the use of a really shallow, modern Dani Filth-like shrieking on ‘Through the Enchanted Forests of Illusions’. Thankfully, it’s an isolated incident, and ultimately does not take away from enjoying the album as a whole. If I’m being completely honest, *this* is one example of what I had hoped the newest Moonlight Sorcery would have sounded like.

~

12) VALDRIN – Throne of The Lunar Soul

Ok, this *has* to be the highest contingent of US bands I’ve ever had on any one of my best of lists. It seems the talent is exploding, and more and more are succeeding in getting their names out there. Valdrin, much like Ancestral Blood before hand, play a very heavy metal infused style of melodic black metal, but leaning heavier on the symphonic side of things. The compositions here are a bit more complex than Ancestral Blood as well, more virtuosic musicians on full display. A lot of wonderful interplay between the guitars and synths that would make any Finnish band proud, though not *quite* as pure-shred heavy in the lead guitars. Interludes ebb in and out of the songs with perfect flow, the energy never subsiding. Now imagine my shock upon discovering that a) this was album number FOUR, as I was completely unaware of this project before this one, and b) that this is another chapter of a continuous fantasy story they’ve been weaving together since the beginning, with ‘Valdrin’ being the name of the titular character in the tale. Ancestral Blood weaved together their own fantasy stories on their album, but it was more like a collection of short stories while Valdrin is putting together a musical equivalent to a Robert Jordan series. Absolutely mindblowing the dedication needed to pull off something like this. This is another example of what I wanted the new Moonlight Sorcery to sound like. You know, black metal with power/heavy metal elements, not the other way around.

~

11) ALDAARON – Majestic Heights, Melancholic Depths

For those uninitiated, Aldaaron plays that distinctly French style of almost hyper melodic, high speed black metal. Not as “medieval” as say Sühnopfer, Véhéhmence, or perhaps Aorlhac, but you get the idea in regards to the riffs and intensity of the compositions. The melodies are absolutely infectious, the songwriting strong enough to make songs that range from 7 to 8 minutes on average not feel like a beatdown on your eardrums. A lot of emotion that pours out of every note plucked, every word screamed, and even every programmed drum beat, as cheesy as that may be. What is most shocking about this album, is how much of a step up it is from Arcane Mountain Cult, just released last year. And a very fine album in itself, a list-worthy effort. But the compositions here are tighter, the playing is tighter, and the production is absolutely divine. Some people may be put off by the programmed drums on this, as there are some pretty ludicrous tom fills throughout… but then you realize a former member in drummer Mörkk plays those exact same kinds of fills on Ordalie‘s Mass of Perdition (also released this year), not to mention the first two Aldaaron albums, and it puts into perspective that a human being absolutely could play these parts. Another sticking point may be how they approach their cover of Dawn‘s The Knell & The World. Instead of playing a note for note cover, they instead reimagined it to be a composition that would fit better overall for the album as a whole. Brilliant move, quite honestly. Can’t recommend this one enough.

~

THE BEST OF THE BEST, THE BLACK METAL KNIGHTS

~

10) AŪKELS – Meddjan sklāit ten

There had to be at least one extremely late season offering… and this had to be that one. Having dropped on Winter Solstice, I’ve listened to this one multiple times pretty much every day, and I knew it deserved a spot in the top 10. Aūkels is one of a few noteworthy black metal projects by the one simply called ‘W.’. You probably know his other bands, which include Wędrujący Wiatr and Stworz. Aūkels is the project that focuses the most on the importance of nature and returning to the wild. Or as he puts it on the Aūkels Bandcamp page: “Anti-civ anti tech black metal”. The previous two albums featured a decidedly monotonous and repetitive approach to atmospheric black metal, in the best way possible. Not unlike a lot of Slavic bands, specifically ones from the Russian or Ukraine scene, its an approach that helps set an almost meditative mood. Or, an approach that allows the depth and layers of any given song to emerge as you simply sit and soak the music in, using subtle changes and builds throughout the track. In the case of Aūkels, the best place to experience this would be deep in the woods or on top of a mountain somewhere, observing the natural world around you. Well, Meddjan sklāit ten *is* a bit similar in approach, but with more variety to each song, a lot more ebb and flow between fast paced black metal to more introspective moments. Quite honestly, this album reminds me a LOT of the more recent Stworz efforts, except in a “nature rules all” kind of way instead of the “Pagan pride” kind of way. Every moment on this album (which clocks in over an hour in play time) is cohesive, everything fitting into place. Each track flows right into the next, no breaks. Field recordings of birds and nature sounds helped to set the “anti-civ anti-tech” aesthetic. Even 16min ambient tracks like the closing title track absolutely fly by, thanks to the impeccable songwriting and slightly different songwriting approach that keeps a listener engaged throughout. To break down the music itself, this is very guitar-driven material, with very emotive riffs and musical moments. They say “third time’s a charm”, and that is certainly the case here, as this is far and away the best of the Aūkels brand to date, and I would put this up against the newest Wędrujący Wiatr to battle for some of the best atmospheric metal music that W has come up with. No joke.

~

09) MOURNING FOREST – L’Immonde Fanaison

Modern melodic black metal in the signature French way, plain and simple. Plenty of 2nd Wave inspiration, plenty of *those* French melodies on the guitars, plenty of awesome bass playing, and plenty of fantastic drum work, to go with a vocal performance that is a bit reminiscent of one Attila because of how Balkor uses his voice. And not to mention a rather high quality level of production to ensure everything is heard as intended. This was an album I got into at the beginning of the year, and the holding power it has is for real. Their use of build ups to explode into intense parts is almost unrivaled by many on this list. Almost. More on that one later. This being another rather lengthy album (75 min to be specific), there *are* times that things start hitting a bit of a lull, your attention can start to waver… but then a most glorious and epic riff erupts out of nowhere and brings you right back in. After a few of those moments, I came to the conclusion that this had to be a conscious decision by the band. They knew exactly what they were doing with the songwriting. They knew they would have listeners wrapped around their fingers. The bastards… anyway, this flew under a lot of radars and definitely deserves a lot more attention.

~

8) SÜHNOPFER – Nous sommes d’Hier

What can I say about this that I have not already said in my review on this very hallowed site? This is the cream of the crop as far as that baroque style of hyper-melodic and medieval black metal, no doubt. To reiterate a couple points from said review; This is a fine return to form, a true sequel to 2014’s Offertoire. Listening to this truly makes 2019’s Hic regnant Borbonii manes feel like a departure, a side quest if you will, in its exploration of melodies and such that is key to the medieval French province of Bourbon. A fine album in itself, no doubt but Nous… is *the* sound we typically associate with Sühnopfer, and as I said in the original review, this is possibly the best Sühnopfer album to date. Read all my other meandering thoughts (*HERE*).

~

7) KRAHNHOLM – Конец Трагедий

Man oh man… this is a band I have greatly appreciated for a few years now, having their full discography to date, and enjoying the progress they have made in their sound over time. Previous efforts, especially 2021’s A Wind In The Cold Night, could be compared to the likes of perhaps Drudkh or Vspolokh and the like, Конец Трагедий (Konets Tragedy) would be something that would appeal to fans of the Blazebirth Hall, at least musically speaking. ‘A Wind…’ had hints of this influence for sure, but had a variety of melodic bridges to change the mood and break things up. Конец Трагедий is lean and mean, very stripped down, not unlike the BBH old guard. Another point of comparison could be Windswept‘s The Great Cold Steppe. In either case, the mood-changing melodic bridges I mentioned earlier are dumped off on the side of the road somewhere and we are left with droning, occasionally melodic riffs that are all instant earworms and just create that vast atmosphere of being lost, standing on a cliff looking over a massive mountain valley. Oh, and a snowstorm is blowing in. Can’t forget that. My favorite moments on this album are ones like the latter part of Тирании Предел (Tyranny’s Limit). We go from a very methodical and plodding pace and suddenly explode into blast beats, while keeping that droning, meditative riff approach. So good. This album is SO GOOD. There are still a very limited number of CD’s available for sale outside of Russia, and I would highly suggest picking one up. And pick up their other albums while you’re at it. This is an unheralded band in a historically great scene!

~

6) BLODTÅR – Det Förtegna Förflutna

Ok, explain to me how a label, a reputable label, like Nordvis can release an album like *this* and get little fanfare for it. Right from the get go, opening track ‘En krona av is’ establishes that this is going to be heavy on the Scandinavian folk melodies, not unlike Storm or Isengard. But then tracks like ‘Ur mörker’ and ‘Den fördärvande sorgbundheten’ kick you in the teeth with pure black metal moments delivered with the intensity of a Dark Funeral or classic Thy Primordial. I’ve even referenced this album as Windir played at the intensity of Dark Funeral, in fact. You know what else this reminds me of? Way back in the day, twenty years ago, there was a band from Norway called Ásmegin that released an album called Hin vordende Sod & Sø, and contained therein was a volatile mix of metalized Norwegian folk music with more intense black and death metal moments, with some over the top blast beats and double bass. While it could be a bit jarring when they jumped from one extreme to the other (which really wasn’t as often as you’d think), I feel like it was a template that was established, and now Blodtår emerges with what that mix could be. The transitions between the folk and the fury is smooth as silk, with the guitars leading the way. Carl proves to be yet another top-tier Swedish guitar talent, to go along with his savage vocals and melodic bass playing. But, I think the true star of the show is drummer H. Alarcón C. Until I actually looked on Metal Archives and in the booklet, I had assumed it was programmed drums. We’re talking moments that approach peak Dominator at times, between the blast beats and the fills. All in all, this is a wonderfully varied album that keeps one foot in old Folk Metal traditions while keeping the other in extremely melodic black metal. Superb.

~

5) ГРОМОВЕРЖ (GROMOVERZH) – Издревле (Izdrevle)

Do you miss the glory days of Temnozor? Specifically albums like Вольницей в просинь ночей (Folkstorm of the Azure Nights)? Well my friends, have I got news for you! The one and only Stringsskald, perhaps most notable for the one lone Walknut album, wrote a bunch of music between 2001 and 2010 during his time with Temnozor. He started working on doing something with this music in 2015, and some 8 years later we have the GLORY that is Gromoverzh. This truly is a long lost Temnozor record, with everything from the raging Russian black metal riffage on up to the multiple flautists (yes, multiple) laying down enough flute tracks to make Ian Anderson proud. While it is a point of contention for some folks, I for one am all about the use of it. It is such an unusual thing to slap on top of a black metal album, but I love the fact that it’s not a typical instrument for such a record in this genre of music. The songwriting, unsurprisingly, is top notch. Good enough to where they can slap a just about 30 minute track smack in the middle of this album and you really don’t notice the difference. The multiple movements of ‘Меч Вольгаста (в 6-ти частях)’ ( Volgast’s Sword (in 6 parts) ) flow right on into another, and it just… flies by. Somehow the song does not get crushed by its own atmospheric weight, and in fact feels like there really is not much fat to trim off of it. Aside from that one lone (and very long) song, every track here has Stringsskald‘s trademark riff mastery that sounds equally like past black metal relics as well as the modern day sound. One helluva way to get your name back on the scene! No clue if this is something that will be a one and done type of thing, or if the project will continue to push forward with this style of folky, Pagan-themed melodic black metal. We shall see…

~

4) TREST – Sorginak

The anonymous Germans returned this year with more tales of wrongfully convicted and executed so-called witches, this time on Sorginak highlighting six victims (by name) of the Basque Witch Trials, at the tail end of the Spanish Inquisition. To musically represent this, I felt that Trest takes a very Slavic approach to their black metal; pummeling drums, droning riffs, atonal melodies, and deeper register vocals that just reek of horror and impending doom. Each time I listened to this, I pulled more finite details out of the murky production. You can read my expanded thoughts in my original review (*HERE*).

~

3) WINTARNAHT – Anþjaz

I tried like hell to get people turned onto this one upon its release way back in March, to little avail. Even so-called Dauþuz fans couldn’t seem to be bothered with this, and I could not tell you why. The riffs are quite reminiscent of what you’d hear on a Dauþuz release, the mass variety of vocal delivery is like what you’d hear on a Dauþuz release, and that is no surprise given the main man Grimwald is also one of the main guys *in* Dauþuz. Alas, we are not talking about a Dauþuz album, but instead one of the very best Pagan themed black metal albums of the year. As I originally stated in my review, this is no gimmick. Grimwald dives deep into Germanic history, using the ancient Old High German language and going deeper into Shamanistic atmosphere. No surface level fake shit to be found. Read all about it (*HERE*).  

~

THE PRINCE OF THE KINGDOM

~

2) STRAHOR – Gde Vukovi Zavijaju

Despite being numero dos on my list for the year, this was quite likely my most listened to album this year. The young buck behind this Serbian based project, Volkh, graced us with a volatile mix of freezing Slavic riffs, second-wave sensibilities, and ran it through a COARSE heavy metal filter, all while not being afraid to inject a little thrash and a little folk and doom elements here and there. Every song was an absolute earworm, with ‘For Those Who Follow The Heart’ easily being my anthem of 2023. Volkh was limited by having to self release this and promote himself best he could via the usual social media means, but this is yet another album GROSSLY underappreciated by the general black metal masses. May Volkh‘s wolves forever howl for years to come. As with all of my top 5 picks, I did write a full review, which can be viewed (*HERE*).

~

THE KING OF THE REALM

~

1) AULD RIDGE – Folklore From Further Out

I called it. I proclaimed it in the collab review I did with fellow BMD scribe GOS. I said that, and I quote, “O.W.G.A. is standing on a castle turret, awaiting all challengers to come and lay claim to the throne he is currently occupying. The gauntlet has been thrown down”. I said this back in early May, and the prophecy has been fulfilled. Nobody took the throne from O.W.G.A., although Strahor made a good run at it. I mentioned that the Strahor was my most listened to album of the year, so what gives? How did this still be number one? Well, whenever I had any thought of Strahor taking my number one spot, I would throw this guy back on, and it was as clear as day why this wouldn’t budge. Think of the difference between a brash young warrior and a seasoned knight/chieftain/what have you. The brash young warrior has the strength, charisma and power to win duels and battles on his own, sure, but the seasoned one has refined his skills, distilled his art to deadly precision. Strahor has exuberant riffs and a lot of exciting ideas all over the place. Auld Ridge is more calculated, every note of every part in the place it needs to be in to make the entire album as a whole impenetrable and be able to dispatch all comers with far less effort. It’s a level of class that is really difficult to describe except that you can just simply HEAR it in every song. Even the folk tunes are presented with the same level of care as any of the metal tracks, they were not thrown on as gimmicky interludes. This is god-tier stuff.

And, perhaps I’m just simply more vested in this project than any other from this year. Hell, I’m more vested in this *circle* of projects than any other this year, as The Hermetic Order of Ytene puts out truly elite material. I got to do the collab review for this (see it *HERE*), as well as Albionic Hermeticism‘s Nova Navitivas Mundi (which is *HERE*), and also had the opportunity to help GOS with the ONE AND ONLY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW that O.W.G.A. granted this year, which you have to check out. Go *HERE* and be blown away by the thorough and thoughtful responses. It was destiny that this would be my number one, and STAY my number one.

All hail the king, Auld Ridge has claimed the throne of my 2023 Black Metal Albums Of The Year! 

~

LISTCRUSH CONTINUES SOON.

~

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

ALBUM PREMIERE & INTERVIEW – ‘In The Shallows of a Starlit Lake’ by VAHRZAW

~

Her perfume seeps through cold mortar

The acrid stench of your murdered daughter

~

Australian black/death metal bastards VAHRZAW have been around and seen some shit. Formed way back in 1992, they’ve attacked many challenges in the decades since and been shafted over countless times – but that’s never bothered them. They always push forward with their mission, solely for themselves, fuck everything and everyone else. When the premiere of their fifth full-length In The Shallows Of A Starlit Lake was organized yet failed to materialize not once but TWICE, through two separate publications, they said fuck it and took matters into their own hands once again, launching it on their own YouTube channel – and it’s taken off, racking up 5.6k well-deserved views in a couple of weeks. DIY until you fucking die, the spirit of the underground lives.

However, because we think the album is superb and the best thing they’ve done, we reckon it still deserves a proper (albeit belated) premiere piece. So here, presented in full, is their return to the days of old, cold, pure BLACK METAL (which our GOS called “an album which will be difficult to beat as an example of authentic, unvarnished and unequivocal symphonic black metal; a homage to the time-honoured sound of Norwegian and Swedish spirits of old” in his review) alongside an interview with guitarist and main composer Scott Williams exploring it’s intricacies. Listen and read on below… and buy yourself a copy right now from Bitter Loss Records, for fuck’s sake. Support the underground. Hails.

~

~

Greetings, Vahrzaw! Your latest album In The Shallows Of A Starlit Lake has recently been released, and there’s a noticeable change in your attack – you’ve gone completely back to your roots in second wave black metal, hearkening back to your demo days. What instigated this return to the core?

S: A few reasons. One being we were sick of studio costs and the travel and rehearsal time and the back n’ forth with editing and mixing. The second was the great plague of 2020. So during the wait for The Trembling Voices… to be released (it would take nigh on two years) we began writing something new, and as it turns out, in one of the longest lockdowns on the planet. So we purchased some basic gear and I set about recording it. Put the time to good use. It was the easiest and smoothest writing and recording we’ve ever done. The third reason being we had mined the black/death thing on the previous three albums and it unconsciously pushed out songs leaning towards the roots of the band. The home recording and isolation also pushed it in that direction too. A product of the time.

There’s some fucking killer influences to be heard in each track; if one were to write them all down you’d end up with a who’s who of ’90s black metal royalty. You must’ve been having a ball writing it. Are there any “Easter Eggs” in terms of influences during the writing process that nobody’s picked up on yet?

S: I think most of the obvious ones have been covered. The clear ones are of course old Emperor, Satyricon, Marduk, Mayhem, Impaled Nazarene, Ulver. The not so clear ones are the demos of Setherial, Thy Serpent, Sorhin, Primordial, Carpathian Forest & Gorgoroth. We flogged those demos to death back in the early ’90s and some of that found its way in there. Not intentionally either, I can just hear them in the tracks.

The lyrics are typically eclectic, with a wide variety of topics approached… George certainly keeps us on our toes once again. For those who haven’t read them, a little info: what does the title refer to, and what is happening in the title track ‘In The Shallows Of A Starlit Lake’?

S: To put it quite simply the title track is about a vile infanticide, there’s two tracks regarding that topic. It portrays a mother who drowns her child in the shallows of a lake. 

So the cover portrays something peaceful but under the surface lies something sinister and unspeakable.

I love this record… but then I also love your early demo stuff. What do you think when you go back and listen to those early recordings these days? 

S: It’s a weird listen. We were very young. The band formed about 2 months after I picked up a guitar. We were all new to being musicians. No idea how to write or arrange. No local mentors besides a Metallica cover band. But the idea was to be original from day 1. Write our own songs. As shit as they were in Necromancy, it was something. When Ben joined in 1994 we had a few ‘better’ tracks and that’s when the Midgard demo was done. It’s rough as fuck and out of tune, but recorded live into one mic. Considering we were 15, 17 & 18 it has certainly time-stamped our capabilities.

There are some gems though. I still think ‘Namiros’ is our best track of the ’90s and the Black Resplendent Waters demo is pretty good for a live studio recording in 1996.

Capable… amateurish… but I enjoy the old stuff for what it is. The passion was there.

And on the flipside: what do you think your younger selves would have thought if you’d been able to travel back in time to show them this album?

S: I think we’d have loved it profoundly. If only eh… 

It’s not just a stylistic change, but his album was recorded quite differently to the preceding few – you did it all yourself, and if I remember correctly, it barely cost you a cent. Why did you decide to also completely switch up your production process for In The Shallows Of A Starlit Lake?

S: As stated above, cost and pandemic mainly. I wanted to have control over the sound of it too. Have that bass fuzzed out, the guitars like a noisy blur, the kick drum as a thud and not a clicky up-front distraction, old dodgy sounding keyboard parts. In true black metal form, the opposite of current death metal. No plug-ins. No amp sims. No over editing. No quantisation. We even left mistakes in to give it a live raw feel. To strip it back to basics. Simpler arrangements. Simpler production. I think we achieved the goal.

We used very basic equipment from top to bottom. Less mics on the drums. A smaller amplifier. A podcast microphone. 

The entire production cost us a slab of Jack Daniels and a carton of cigarettes to do the drums, & an $80 interface for the rest.

We did no rehearsal & the only time any of us were in the same room was to record bass and vocals.

You’ve also gone with an Australian label this time, Bitter Loss Records. What’s the story there, just keeping it all local?

S: The intention was to just release it independently and move on pretty quick to the next one. Maybe 50 CDs and tapes. 

I sold some stock to Bitter Loss and the conversation came up about the new album and Rob offered to release it. How could I say no?? Australian. Independent. Great roster. Name getting out there. So that was perfect timing. It’ll have a better existence for sure. 

The album seems to be having a great reception since release, with some killer reviews… I’ve even seen people calling it album of the year. Are you pleased with how it’s being received so far?

S: Yeah, I think it’s going really well. Kind of unexpected really as it’s self-produced and forged together so easily. AOTY is thrown around as much as ‘masterpiece’ these days (people comment that on modern Darkthrone albums for some insane reason) so I don’t pay much attention to that, but it’s a solid sentiment. I’d certainly be humbled if people enjoyed it on that level. 

It would’ve had vastly more exposure if Black Metal Promotion ran it, but he decided not to for some reason. But alas, the YouTube stream, Spotify and sales did just fine on its own steam. 

People have checked it out regardless, and we thank those that have and will continue to in future.

I know we’ve spoken of this before, but whilst the Vahrzaw sound is constantly evolving, you do seem to group your releases into larger stylistic blocks – as in you do a few of one type before you move on to the next metamorphosis. For those slackers who haven’t read previous interviews: is that a conscious thing? Does this mean we’ll get more Vahrzaw in this glorious vein of old, cold black metal, or are you going to take a wild turn towards dungeon synth or something for the next release?

S: Yes, we do. Usually in blocks of three. They’ll have similar elements. In this current era it looks like it will be all home produced and treated the same way in terms of writing and arranging. We already have an EP written (it was completed in 2022) that’s just waiting to be recorded, but I thought I’d give it some space for new elements to be integrated and for the current one to run its course. We plan for three in this style. The third is in planning stage as we speak.

After that… well, we’ll see how old we are.

I hate dungeon synth… little blocks of it in songs, fine, but whole albums, please no.

And finally, I’m sure I already know the answer to this, but… gonna do some live shows for this one?

S: Absolutely not. I hate playing live, as does George. Brandon plays live quite a lot with Eskhaton though.

Sincerest thanks for your time, Scott. Any final words or wisdom for us all?

S: Thanks again for the support! Much appreciated as always. 

In the sodden mire that is music these days any point to grab attention for 5 minutes is worth the time. 

In The Shallows Of A Starlit Lake is available now via Bitter Loss Records.

~

Pre-order In The Shallows Of A Starlit Lake from the Bitter Loss Records webstore HERE and Bandcamp HERE.

Support VAHRZAW:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Instagram
• Official YouTube
• Official Spotify

~

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

Reflections of Obsidian Illuminance – A Review of ‘In The Shallows of a Starlit Lake’ by VAHRZAW

~

By GOS (Order ov the Black Arts)

~

Aaaaahhhh, dammit. I hate to be THAT guy who starts talking about AOTY contenders during the birth cries of the new year, but goddammit if I can’t help myself. Plus, when it all comes to a close in twelve months, and let’s just say it turns out that VAHRZAW‘s razor-sharp traditional black metal offering In the Shallows of a Starlit Lake stands strong amidst the inevitable and bloated onslaught of the next four seasons for a top spot… well then, won’t I be so smug to know that I fucking called it in the first two weeks of January?

Why, though? What exactly about this Aussie offering (Australia has been fucking killing it by the way… STRICHT, WOODS OF DESOLATION, NUMEN NOCTIS, FREEDOM OF FEAR, KRVNA and BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS have all kicked ass lately), is getting me so haughty with such bold claims?

Well, bottom line, it’s just an excellent example of archetypal black metal (with tasteful symphonics) done extremely well. Which, by the way, initially caused a bit of a double take and an eyebrow raise on my part. You see, I thought VAHRZAW was death metal. I had to go back and review: The Trembling Voices of Conquered Men, released by the indomitable (but death/doom oriented) Transcending Obscurity Records in 2021 is indeed death metal. Blackened perhaps, but still. Husk (2018) was as well, although more cavernous. The more stripped down and cutthroat Twin Suns & Wolves’ Tongues (2014) seems to straddle the line equally between black and death metal, and debut full length Defiant (2009) definitely sits in the death metal camp (OSDM even).

Anyway, long story short, VAHRZAW, while dipping a toe (okay, maybe a foot) into black metal over the course of their studio discography, I would still classify as a death metal band. Not this time. As sustained riffs tear out of silence, thrust forward by organic volleys of percussion, highlighted by odes to classic symphonic black metal (ie early EMPEROR, etc.) and creepy gothic spoken word (like CRADLE OF FILTH, y’know, that voice at the beginning of ‘Her Ghos-‘… errr, ‘Queen of Winter, Throned‘), with an awesome early DARK FUNERAL-esque riff (‘An Apprentice of Satan‘) to conclude ‘The Amber Glow of the Gaslight’, there is nary a hint of death in sight. It is clear that they have gone all-in on the black metal front. And that’s just the first track.

What follows is a more-or-less consistent stream of unclean melodicism, muffled blasting, scathingly malevolent vocals, and occasional flows of synth which sound like they are straight out of the late ’90s. Along this journey we find some dark lakeside ambience adorning the title track, ebbs of complex basslines in ‘Phosphorescent Sunrise’ (this stands as the element closest to the death metal nature of the previous album), and an absolutely epic 1349-esque riff comprising the spearhead of ‘Pale Lechery’ (sounds somewhat similar to ‘Celestial Deconstruction’). We also have an unsettling and uniquely dissonant acoustic introduction to ‘At the Mercy of the Shrike’ (fun fact, shrikes are a family of cute birds known as ‘butcher birds’ due to the proclivity of impaling their prey on sharp objects to munch on later) which breaks into an almost GORGOROTHean vehemence, and a devastating apocalyptic rhythmic heaviness combined with a rabidly belligerent lead in ‘Six Verses’. The final track ‘To Breath In Leviathan’ wraps things up nicely by channeling Stormblåst/Enthrone Darkness Triumphant-era DIMMU BORGIR, albeit with the synth presence dialed back a bit.

In sum, VAHRZAW have pivoted expertly from their previous death metal tendencies to kick off 2023 with an album which will be difficult to beat as an example of authentic, unvarnished and unequivocal symphonic black metal; an homage to the time-honored sound of Norwegian and Swedish spirits of old. I’m not sure what lies ahead for the band, but for now In the Shallows of a Starlit Lake (relative to my own extreme metal proclivities of course) far outshines anything they have done in the past, and it joins the ranks of releases by the likes of VARGRAV, THE KRYPTIK, WARMOON LORD, CRYPTOSPITAL, GEISTLICHT, and STORMKEEP in the essential ‘new wave’ of old-school symphonic black metal albums.

Wade in, and sink into the crepuscular brilliance.

In The Shallows Of A Starlit Lake releases January 28th via Bitter Loss Records.

~

Pre-order In The Shallows Of A Starlit Lake from the Bitter Loss Records webstore HERE and Bandcamp HERE.

Support VAHRZAW:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Instagram
• Official YouTube
• Official Spotify

~

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

TRACK PREMIERE: ‘Pale Lechery’ by VAHRZAW

~

She slits your throat in your dreams

~

If you’ve got your finger on the pulse you’ll surely have already heard the first maximum speed, minimum fuss track from vehemently old-school Australian black death outfit VAHRZAW‘s upcoming fifth album In The Shallows of a Starlit Lake. At least, you should have when we had the honour of premiering ‘The Amber Glow Of The Gaslight’ back in October (seriously, stop pissin’ about and listen to it if you haven’t). Now, strap yourself the fuck in, raise those claws to the sky and prepare for the second strike of this glorious return to the days of old-school black metal triumph, because we’re back to proudly present the stunning, deliciously classic slashes of the fourth track in the running order: ‘Pale Lechery’.

If you thought that previous track had teeth, just wait until you hear this bastard. On an album the band describe as “a return to our black metal roots where the old guard dominated extreme metal. Early incarnations of Satyricon, Emperor, Impaled Nazarene, Ulver, Gorgoroth, Mayhem… and the demos of Carpathian Forest, Sorhin, Setherial & Thy Serpent“, that fucking riff is EXACTLY what they mean, charging forth with an ice-cold, blistering fury only the sorcerous ’90s could bring. The acoustic break is simply magical, too – the spirit of the first Satyricon records courses strong through these veins, the entire composition filled with the snarling majesty of the night.

About the track, the band shares a rather apt illustration of the darkened themes within: “Pale Lechery is a song of vile infanticide where the spectre of a man’s daughter returns nightly to remind him of his foul deed and to make him pay his penance in blood, only for him to reawaken the next day pleading for the end.”

Pure evil.

So, if you somehow weren’t convinced by the first single, listen above. ‘Pale Lechery’ will go right for your jugular and leave you breathless. The wolves are no longer just coming home… they’re at your door, and they want blood. Order your copy right now. Hails.

In The Shallows Of A Starlit Lake releases January 27th via Bitter Loss Records.

~

Pre-order In The Shallows Of A Starlit Lake from the Bitter Loss Records webstore HERE and Bandcamp HERE.

Support VAHRZAW:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Instagram
• Official YouTube
• Official Spotify

~

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

TRACK PREMIERE: ‘The Amber Glow of the Gaslight’ by VAHRZAW

~

Now your blood is on my hands

~

By now, regular readers should be WELL fucking aware of the name VAHRZAW. Vehemently old-school Australian black death forged way back in the darkest days of 1992, we’ve covered them countless times and bass / vokill demon George Van Doorn has even turned his venomous tongue to eviscerating bands right here on our stained pages. They began as the purest of ice-cold black metal, later metamorphosing into an idiosyncratic blend of snarling, progressive blackened death for their recent run of albums – but now, the past is reanimated. The wolves are coming home… so strap in and prepare to be ripped right back to the glorious early ’90s, as we partner once again with the mighty pair of Transmissions From The Dark and Bitter Loss Records to bring you the first taste of their ravenous return to full caps BLACK FUCKING METAL with In The Shallows of a Starlit Lake.

The fifth full-length birthed during their reign as kings of the filthy and no-fucks-given Aussie underground, the band say this album is… “a return to our black metal roots where the old guard dominated extreme metal. Early incarnations of Satyricon, Emperor, Impaled Nazarene, Ulver, Gorgoroth, Mayhem… and the demos of Carpathian Forest, Sorhin, Setherial & Thy Serpent. Everything raw and live sounding with the addition of synths and soundscapes. Minimal fuss. Maximum speed.”

Opening salvo ‘The Amber Glow Of The Gaslight’, which we are honoured to stream here today, is the very personification of that conviction. Calling to tortured mind many of their contemporaries listed above yet bestowing upon the blueprint their own “Vahrzaw” flair, Williams (ex-Elegeion) is in his absolute element as hyperspeed tremolo menace and melodic magniloquence make you howl at the heavens like the turn of the century never happened. The unstoppable Gawith (Eskhaton, Cemetery Urn, ex-Hobbs Angel of Death) does what he does best and annihilates the skins with impunity. Synths of exquisite vintage swirl perilously and whip up a diabolical storm whilst Van Doorn is a man possessed, delivering his most vicious performance to date.

~

~

Regarding the song lyrics, George says:

“‘The Amber Glow Of The Gaslight’ began when I was bored during one of the lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. I thought I’d put a call out on Facebook to see if people wanted to collaborate on song lyrics. Quite a few did, so I put together a messenger group. I had the song title and told people I thought gaslighting would be an interesting topic for a song. They all threw ideas for lines or verses at me and with my own lyrics added as well, I pieced together the song. There weren’t really any rules so it’s a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster of styles. I’d like to dedicate it to Glenn Tilson. He passed away recently and made a significant contribution to the lyrics.”

A mere taste of the devastation to come (trust me – stay tuned for further coverage), ‘The Amber Glow of the Gaslight’ is still a striking statement of intent. As many love to say, the past is indeed alive… but if you ask Vahrzaw, it was never fucking dead.

In The Shallows Of A Starlit Lake releases December 1st via Bitter Loss Records. Pre-orders available October 10th.

~

Pre-order The Amber Glow of the Gaslight from the Bitter Loss Records webstore HERE and Bandcamp HERE tomorrow.

Support VAHRZAW:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Instagram
• Official YouTube
• Official Spotify

~

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

BLACK METAL DAILY’S LISTCRUSH 2021: The 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.

~

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

~

TOP 40 ALBUMS OF 2021

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.”

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.”

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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…”

~

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…

~

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.

~

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

TRACK PREMIERE & INTERVIEW: ‘Death Of An Unknown Architect’ by VAHRZAW

~

Now you’re as white

as a tide-wrenching moon

~

It’s been called a masterpiece. A masterclass. Immaculate. Mind-boggling. A variety of other increasingly effusive descriptors. But if you asked the gents in the long-running Australian black death institution of VAHRZAW to describe their upcoming fourth full-length album The Trembling Voices of Conquered Men, they’d probably just say “ehhh… it’s alright” (and then tell you to fuck off).

Such is the no-bullshit attitude of Messrs Scott (also of Elegeion), George, and Brandon (Cemetery Urn, Eskhaton, Monoliyth, Persecution, Volant, ex-Hobbs Angel of Death), two thirds of which have been laying waste to the world with ravenous swathes of black, death and blackened death metal since the early ’90s. At this point they’ve done it all, seen it all – and what they do, they’re doing better than anyone else as each of their recent albums has topped the last, effortlessly blazing a path through fresh fields increasingly complex savagery. And guess what? With their new one on the cusp of dropping via the great Transcending Obscurity Records, we are proud to premiere another fine example of that here today… just wait until ‘Death of an Unknown Architect’ feasts upon your ears.

Beginning with an ominous drum pattern atop a queasy, lurching surge of sickly death chugs, the track doesn’t fuck about for long before hammering off full-throttle – and then changing direction so many times you’ll lose count. Chock-full of about five hundred tasty riffs, dazzling percussive dexterity and vocals that alternately sound like someone flinging chunks of throat at you or ripping their way back up from hell with their own bare hands, it’s an almost absurdly impressive performance that will have you pressing play immediately after it returns to that unsettling intro riff (this time replete with solo) and the final note fades out.

‘Death of an Unknown Architect’ proves beyond all doubt that even for as long as they’ve been around, these men are at the top of their game – they will never be conquered. Check it and a brief chat with the fellas out below, then grab yourself a pre-order now (releases December 10th). Hails.

~

~

Greetings, gents. Pleasure to be chatting with you again, this time for the premiere of ‘Death Of An Unknown Architect’ from your upcoming fourth long player, The Trembling Voices Of Conquered Men. Nice to see this album being unleashed after quite some time – how does it feel to finally have it inflicted upon the world?

S: Well, given how the planet has been the last two years, it’s a relief. Music moves slowly.

‘Death Of An Unknown Architect’ is the first proper song on the album after the intro, and it definitely sets the pace for the rest of the record (meaning, it fucking rips). What’s it about? Who is this mysterious unknown architect?

G: It’s about no-one in particular. If it’s about anyone, it’s probably about my wife. But, the connection is loose and, if anything, it’s an irrational fear of loss and, really, is just an idea for a song. To explain, architecture is a male-dominated profession, so I thought it’d be misleading to have the protagonist of the song be a woman. But, architects design things and supervise their construction. In the song, that ‘thing’ is a family and the architect took the family from nothing and shaped it into something important. Without the architect, the family is fucked. That probably won’t make sense unless you read the lyrics.

The music itself is a rather tasteful blend of the finest black and death metal, with exquisite riffage and some ace-as-fuck drumming. What was the writing process for this track like? Did you have any goals for it going in, or indeed for the album at large?

S: I wanted this one to be more technical with some prog elements, but without being ‘tech death’ and all over the place. The drum intro idea came from the chugging riff itself and some guitar noise I had stored in a looper pedal. No goals at all for the direction of the record. It’s a kitchen sink album. A good song is a good song. I’d rather variety than every track sounding similar in terms of structure or riffs.

Scott – that solo section that closes out ‘Death Of An Unknown Architect’ makes me think of something that I can’t quite put my finger on. I like putting my finger on things. What was your inspiration for this particular piece of delectable musical perfection?

S: I don’t consider myself a lead guitarist so I threw myself a challenge to improvise a solo, and I did. We were down to the last hour of paid studio time and that was all that was left to do. He recorded my practice take and we liked it so I did two more and we blended them together. That’s it. Total brain-to-guitar free playing. I left it as is from that point…no fixing mistakes. Along with the drums treating that end part like a solo too I wanted a ‘free jazz’ kind of feel and something totally unique to the album I couldn’t replicate again. A bit of a tribute to Vernon Reid from Living Colour.

George – your vocals are as on point as ever. Given that you blokes have only been doing an album every few years for a while now and you aren’t in any other bands, how do you keep your vocals so savagely brutal?

G: To be honest, I don’t really do anything. I think one of the benefits of the band is that we don’t tour and don’t play heaps of shows. So, after 29 years, I haven’t burnt my voice out. Yes, I’m looking at you Chris Barnes. Your voice is fucked. I’ve learned my limits with respect to how far I can push it, I don’t ‘sing’ when we’re not active as a band, and when we are I practice getting my voice in shape for a few months prior to entering the studio. But, that’s about it.

Brandon – as a drummer, naturally you are in a hundred other bands. How do you approach your playing with Vahrzaw, as opposed to your work in other projects?

B: I grab the vaseline and hope for the best.

Transcending Obscurity Records has whipped up an absolutely astonishing amount of merch for this album; they’ve really outdone themselves this time, I’ve never seen anything like it. What’s your favourite piece of fresh Vahrzaw merchandise and how / where will you use it?

S: There is so much merch… it’s amazing. I’m probably looking forward to lounging around wearing the trackie pants listening to the record and drinking from the mug. If only there was Vahrzaw coffee…

G: Vinyl. We’ve never been pressed to vinyl before, so that’s a highlight for me.

Now that this masterpiece is unveiled, what lies in the future for Vahrzaw? You guys seem to almost reinvent yourselves every now and again – will the next record be more of the same?

S: No, it won’t. That trilogy is complete. We wrote and recorded a new album during the great plague isolation of 2020. Complete opposite of the current album. A return to our black metal roots. It should be unveiled in 2022.

I’ll leave the final word about The Trembling Voices Of Conquered Men to you. Why should people buy it?

S: Buy it if you like it. There’s plenty on there to satiate black/death fans.

G: Because it takes a lot of effort and money to put an album out. Support bands and stop asking for free stuff you cheap fucks.

Sincerest thanks for your time once again, fellas. Any parting wisdom for us all?

S: Don’t cough in public. Also, follow our FB/Instagram/bandcamp and subscribe on YouTube. More the merrier.

The Trembling Voices Of Conquered Men releases December 10th via Transcending Obscurity Records.

~

Pre-order The Trembling Voices Of Conquered Men on digital, CD and LP from the Transcending Obscurity Bandcamp HERE, or on CD and LP from the Transcending Obscurity EU webstore HERE.

Support VAHRZAW:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp
• Official Instagram
• Official YouTube

~

Like Black Metal Daily on Facebook for more cult sounds and tonal blasphemy.

Email: blackmetaldaily@outlook.com

LISTCRUSH 2018: Artists, Label Owners and Contributors – Part One

Yep. It’s that time of the year again. The time when we head back over the year that was and select our “best” of what was yet another incredible twelve months for both black metal and music in general. This time around instead of just the usual ol’ BMD lists we’ve opened things up to a few of BMD‘s favourite artists, labels and contributors to share their thoughts on which releases clawed their way scratching and howling to the top of the heap in 2018. The only rule they were given was: there were no rules. No genre restrictions, list as many or as few as they liked, in any format they chose.

There were some… let’s say, ‘intriguing’ selections and submissions (hell, one very well-known atmo/post black artist even passed on submitting a list because he “didn’t want his fanbase to know what he really listens to”), and overall it’s a fascinating look into which albums spoke to and inspired some of our favourite artists this year. So check out Part One of what’s likely to be a three part series of LISTCRUSH 2018: Artists, Label Owners and Contributors.

~

SCOTT WILLIAMS (Vahrzaw)

I didn’t really acquire much from 2018, I was mainly focused on older releases and some other genres, but here’s a few I spun and like from this year. No particular order, just good releases. There’s even some synthwave for good measure.

Portal – Ion
Pungent Stench – Smut Kingdom
Grave Upheaval – Untitled
Immortal – Northern Chaos Gods
Crawl – Ritual
Ritual Necromancy – Disinterred Horror
Malthusian – Across Deaths
Neon Nox – Syndicate Shadow
Cist – The Frozen Casket
Vahrzaw – Husk *coughs*

~

ALEKSEY K. (Satanath Records)

1: Dead Can Dance – Dionysus
2: Daron Malakian and Scars On Broadway – Dictator
3: Evoken – Hypnagogia

…damn, I not remember other

+ all bands I released on my label of course!

~

JUSTIN COLEMAN (Krigsgrav)

Every year is an interesting trip around the sun. New music comes and goes like the ebb and flow of time, some albums just hit us harder than others. 2018 for me was a very rich year in metal, yielding tons of great material from all over the heavy landscape. Below is my top 15 list for this year with a brief explanation with each album as to why I picked them. Feel the misery (wait, that wasn’t this year?!).

1: Eternal Helcaraxe – In Times of Desperation (Naturmacht Productions)
Technically this album came out on December 29, 2017, but that just means it would be best of 2017 and 2018 for me honestly. I’ve been a fan of these guys since the To Whatever End EP, and they’ve made huge strides on each release, but In Times of Desperation is their absolute defining moment (at this point). It’s uplifting, aggressive, melodic, pissed off and rife with some of the best black metal I’ve heard in a very long time, well fucking done!

2: Necrophobic – Mark of the Necrogram (Century Media)
Honestly, Necrophobic could half-ass it and they would still probably make my list just because I have such an affinity for these guys and their premium lineage. Mark of the Necrogram is the best thing they’ve done since Bloodhymns and the return of original vocalist Anders Strokirk and amazing guitar duo Sebastian Ramstedt and Johan Bergeback finds the band back to full strength, and a welcome return it is.

3: Realm Of Wolves – Oblivion (Self Released)
This Hungarian troupe came out of nowhere with their fantastic mix of melodic black metal and post rock/whatever material. Realm of Wolves manage to create a sincere link between Storm Of The Light’s Bane era Dissection, Forefather and the atmospherics of Saor. A gem worth every second of your time.

4: Hinayana – Order Divine (Black Lion Records)
Like melodic doom/death metal that sounds kinda familiar yet will blow your socks off? If so, Hinayana is your band and Order Divine is your album. Order Divine is breathtaking, these guys are on to big things.

5: Aborted – TerrorVision (Century Media)
I’ll be honest: this kind of death metal usually isn’t my thing, but god damnit is this album fantastic. It’s creepy, riff laden, brutal and catchy all while crafting something wholly unique and worthy of repeated listens.

6: Skeletonwitch – Devouring Radiant Light (Prosthetic Records)
Much like Aborted I kind of wrote these guys off as beer/trash/black rehash which left me uninterested. Man, I was fucking wrong. Devouring Radiant Light is a fantastic release that is emotionally huge with a heady dose of old school Swedish black metal mixed with heavy metal. I hope these guys stay on this path from here on out.

7: Tribulation – Down Below (Century Media)
Premium deathrock black metal at its best. There’s plenty of bands playing their older style of death metal better, but few bands play this kind of ‘ghoul’ metal better. Put this album on while wearing your fringe tutu and twirl like a maniac while watching Suspiria for ultimate results.

8: Wolfheart – Constellation of the Black Light (Napalm Records)
Wolfheart make another heartfelt death and doom slab that hits you right in the soft bits, yet still holds you up to weather the storm.

9: Bloodbath – The Arrow of Satan is Drawn (Peaceville)
‘Old Nick‘ really hits his stride on TAOSID and sounds like a reanimated corpse who is flanked with the best house band hell has to offer. Best thing they’ve done since Unblessing the Purity.

10: Evoken – Valorous Consternation (Profound Lore)
Atmospheric doom and gloom at its best. Let’s hope these guys put out another one before the end of the century because Valorous Consternation is a masterpiece.

11: Giant of the Mountain – Nature’s Wrath (Self Released)
Giant of the Mountain are a Texas treasure, plain and simple. They mix literally all metal genre’s seamlessly together and Nature’s Wrath is their best album to date hands down. It’s black, it’s death, it’s prog, it’s…fucking fantastic. Get into this yesterday.

12: Soul Dissolution – Stardust (Black Lion Records, Fólkvangr Records)
Epic, melodic atmospheric black metal. Little frills, but maximum enjoyment on a cold winter’s night.

13: Valdur – Goat of Iniquity (Bloody Mountain Records)
If you like your death metal blackened, or black metal deathened, Valdur have the album for you. Goat of Iniquity is filthy Archgoat-ish/Beherit love at its best that will up your necromancer game to the next level.

14: Thou – Magus (Sacred Bones Records)
Thou are fucking weird, and that’s a compliment. They mix everything together and Magus is a glaring monster that hates you but demands you listen to it at the same time.
15: Night Demon – Live Darkness (Century Media)
Night Demon are bad ass. Night Demon live, are really badass. This is Night Demon live on an album. It’s really, really badass.

~

THE SENTIENT RUIN OVERLORD (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

01. Judas Priest – Firepower
02. Knelt Rote – Alterity
03. Demonomancy – Poisoned Atonement
04. Nordvargr – Metempsychosis
05. Jyotiṣavedāṅga – Thermogravimetry Warp Continuum
06. City Hunter – Deep Blood
07. Mz.412 – Svartmyrkr
08. Eartaker – Harmonics
09. Assumption – Absconditus
10. Tårne Spirer – Varmblod

~

JAN KRUITWAGEN (Sammath)

Editor’s Note: I asked Jan and Sammath for a list of their favourite albums of the year – this is all I received in return:

Clearly getting in an early celebration for the fact that their next album ‘Across The Rhine Is Only Death’ is already a shoe-in for everyone’s lists next year, the lovely blokes did then send me one single EP as their best-of list a few days later:

1: VITRIOL – Pain Will Define Their Death (Everlasting Spew Records)

…with the sole comment that it’s “fucking brilliant”. They’re not wrong. Cheers fellas, here‘s to 2018.

~

TOM O’DELL (Dwarrowdelf)

Here’s my top ten albums! Hope you enjoy the read.

Cheers,

– Tom

10: Dragony – Masters of the Multiverse
Certainly the funnest record I’ve heard this year, as can probably be told from that ridiculously cool artwork. Every chorus on this album is huge, which is exactly what I love in power metal. The production, orchestrations and attention to detail on each track is exceptional.
Check out: “The Iron Price”, “Evermore”, “Angels on Neon Wings”

9: Obscura – Diluvium
I love Obscura, but Akróasis never really hit the spot for me like Cosmogenesis and Omnivium did previously. I knew that Dilivium would be a great album from the first time I heard the first single, and it doesn’t disappoint. Instead of being too self-indulgent, the German tech-death band finds a great balance of catchy melodeath riffs, progressive guitar wizardry and awesome vocal lines. Oh, and the bit in “Ethereal Skies” with the cello is so tasty.
Check out: “Ethereal Skies”, “Dilivium”, “Emergent Evolution”

8: Visigoth – Conqueror’s Oath
This is an unusual pick for me, as I tend not to listen to much traditional heavy metal. However, on instruction from a trusted friend I gave Visigoth‘s latest record a listen, and was not disappointed. Much could be said about the solid choruses, the tasty riffs, and self-editing skills they’ve picked up since their first album. Jake Rogers‘ powerful baritone voice is a force to behold, and a welcome change from the legions of power metal bands fronted by high-pitched wailers. Having seen Visigoth live in July, what stood out is how real they sound – the album might sound a touch bare due to the lack of ridiculous layering and overdubs, but it means that the songs are delivered live exactly as they should be.
Check out: “Steel and Silver”, “Traitor’s Gate”, “Outlive Them All”

7: Møl – Jord
2018 was the year I finally got into post-black-gaze(?), and Møl played a huge part in that with this beast of a record. In a genre saturated by stagnant songs that rely too much on over-repetition, not doing anything, or copying Alcest, the band stand out with their ability to keep their songs short yet lose none of the impact or atmosphere that the genre requires. The album displays exceptional range, from peaceful clean passages to the harshness that only black metal can deliver, and I absolutely love it. I understand they’re only a young group too, so I can’t wait to see what direction they take going forward.
Check out: “Bruma”, “Penumbra”, “Jord”

6: Amorphis – Queen of Time
What can I say about this album that hasn’t already been said? Amorphis are true masters of the gloomy melodeath that the Finns seem to so love. Queen of Time showcases a band at the peak of their powers, seemingly immune from the law of diminishing recordings that plagues so many bands at this point in their career (looking at you In Flames). If you’ve not heard it by now, I’d highly recommend rectifying that mistake.
Check out: “Wrong Direction”, “Pyres on the Coast”, “Message In The Amber”

5: Shylmagoghnar – Transience
Not many bands can pull off atmospheric melodeath like Shylmagoghnar do. With a brave mix of instrumental songs, a surprising mid-album folkdeath number, and one of the best opening tracks in musical history, this album somehow manages to be both unpredictable and cohesive in a way that is hard to describe. I’d suggest listening to it, and then listening again.
Check out: “Transience”, “This Shadow of the Heart”, “As All Must Come to Pass”

4: Beyond Creation – Algorythm
I’ve seen a few reviews giving Beyond Creation a hard time for enjoying being a progressive death metal band that likes jazz, saying that Algorythm gets too self-indulgent and never manages to reach the peaks of their spectacular debut album, The Aura. To them I say… fair enough, it’s not The Aura. Very few records are. But what Algorythm is is a damn good time, with an intriguing blend of musical influences and instrumentation. It’s not an album that you fully appreciate on the first listen, or the fifth. I probably still have more to appreciate from it, however many listens later (I stuck it on repeat a LOT); and I can’t wait.
Check out: “Surface’s Echoes”, “Binomial Structures”, “The Inversion”

3: Sojourner – The Shadowed Road
Their sophomore effort saw Sojourner outgrow their pure atmoblack metal origins, and create an atmospheric blend of melodeath, folk, and perhaps even some power. The production is flawless, the songwriting is slicker, and the performances are bolder. The album displays diversity within its theme, with stompy folk standing side by side with doomy gloom. Also, the outro for the title track has the jauntiest change of pace ever, and it’s brilliant.
Check out: “The Shadowed Road”, “Titan”, “Where Lost Hope Lies”

2: Hinayana – Order Divine
This album was put to me as “the best Insomnium album this year”. It is that. Although, don’t let that let you be fooled into thinking it’s a mere rip off of the melodeath masters; Hinayana take clear inspiration from the Finnish scene, but add their own definitive atmosphere. The riffs are crushing, the vocals are so, so, so low (like… come on, I wish I was that manly), and the chord progressions are beautiful in the most sorrowful of ways. I expect these guys to go far, if they can keep churning out ideas like the ones present on this masterpiece.
Check out: “The Window”, “Conduit Closing”, “Return to Nothing”

1: Architects – Holy Hell
Um, I didn’t expect my favourite album of the year to be metalcore either. But my god, this album… It’s raw, emotionally devastating, and imbued with the pain of the circumstances surrounding its conception. It’s also colossally massive, slick, and boasts the best low end production I’ve ever heard. Every riff is pummelling, every orchestral touch is tasteful, and every word Sam Carter spits out tears at the heartstrings. We all know that metalcore is one of those genres saturated beyond necessity with generic breakdowns and awful emo singing. Pretend that all of that doesn’t exist, because Architects just reinvented the game with this record. You want the best heavy album of the year? This is it.
Check out: All of them? Oh fine… “Death Is Not Defeat”, “Holy Hell”, “Mortal After All”

Honourable Mentions:
Temperance – Of Jupiter and Moons
Immortal – Northern Chaos Gods
Cân Bardd – Nature Stays Silent
Bury Tomorrow – Black Flame
Xenoblight – Procreation

~

ÞÓRIR GARĐARSSON (Svartidauði / Sinmara)

1: Craft – White Noise and Black Metal
2: Entropia – Vacuum
3: Wolvennest – Void
4: Obliteration – Cenotaph Obscure
5: Slidhr – The Futile Fires of Man
6: Jóhann Jóhannson – Mandy OST
7: Voivod – The Wake
8: Candelabrum – Portals
9: Archgoat – The Luciferian Crown
10: Convocation – Scars Across
11: Evil Warriors – Fall From Reality
12: Adaestuo – Krew Za Krew
13: Taphos – Come Ethereal Somberness
14: Emma Ruth Rundle – On Dark Horses
15: Ritual Necromancy – Disinterred Terror
16: Zealotry – At the Nexus of all Stillborn Worlds
17: Paragon Impure – Sade
18: Whoredom Rife – Nid
19: Ungfell – Mythen, Mären, Pestilenz
20: Carpe Noctem – Vitrun

~

SAM “DISHO” DISHINGTON (Départe / Writhe)

Alright. Here it is.

I present for your consideration and discussion, my “Best of 2018” list, for the few of you who are interested. Lists are in alphabetical order. It’s been an absolute winner of a year for music, at least for me, so this took a lot of thinking and whittling down. But, I endured, because I’m great, and now here we are.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Abraham – Look, Here Comes The Dark!

AUSTRALIAN ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Encircling Sea – Hearken

EP OF THE YEAR : The Secret – Lux Tenebris

TOP 15 INTERNATIONAL ALBUMS:
Talvihorros / Ben Chatwin – Drone Signals
Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want
Coilguns – Millennials
Imperial Triumphant – Vile Luxury
Infernal Coil – Within A World Forgotten
Kriegsmaschine – Apocalypticists
Hate Eternal – Upon Desolate Sands
Hundred Year Old Man – Breaching
mewithoutYou – [Untitled]
Noise Trail Immersion – Symbology of Shelter
Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
Slidhr – The Futile Fires of Man
Sonance – To Possess You Entirely
Svartidauði – Revelations of the Red Sword

TOP 10 AUSTRALIAN ALBUMS:
Bear the Mammoth – Years Under Glass
Consumed – Consumed
Convulsing – Grievous
Endless Heights – Vicious Pleasure
Eskhaton – Omegalitheos
Ploughshare – In Offal, Salvation
Portal – Ion
Rise of Avernus – Eigengrau
Sam Haven – Eden
Xenobiotic – Prometheus

TOP 5 EPS:
Deadspace – Mouth of Scorpions
Gevurah – Sulphur Soul
Hadal Maw – Charlatan
Hundred Year Old Man – Rei
selvə – D O M A

And because of course four lists is never enough, here’s my honourable mentions:

Ascension – Under Ether
Baring Teeth – Transitive Savagery
Barst – The Endeavour
Between the Buried and Me – Automata I & II
Birds in Row – We Already Lost the World
Bosse-de-Nage – Further Still
Conjurer – Mire
Devouring Star – The Arteries of Heresy
Dödsrit – Spirit Crusher
Erdve – Vaitojimas
Hissing – Permanent Destitution
Holy Fawn – Death Spells
Ingrina – Etter Lys
LLNN – Deads
Misrule – Forced to Suffer
Of Feather and Bone – Bestial Hymns of Perversion
Outre – Hollow Earth
Sectioned – Annihilated
Slugdge – Esoteric Malacology
Svalbard – It’s Hard to Have Hope
Talons – We All Know
The Black Heart Rebellion – TBHR plays A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
The Body – I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer
The Lions Daughter – Future Cult
The Ocean – Panerozoic I: Palaeozoic
This Will Destroy You – New Others Part One & Part Two
We Dream Alone – Æther
Wowod – Zemlya
Will Haven – Muerte

~

…and there you have it, Part One down. Stay tuned for parts Two and Three. Hails.

Like Black Metal Daily on Facebook for more kvlt sounds and tonal blasphemy.

Email: blackmetaldaily@outlook.com

Fear & Loathing in Traralgon East – An Interview with Vahrzaw

“Old, bitter, late to parties and with one foot in an early grave…”

…So says the press release for ‘Husk’, the latest and third full-length album overall from Aussie bastards Vahrzaw. Some bands might be a little put out by that description, but Vahrzaw are not your average band: They’ve just celebrated their 26th year of existence, play the type of ripping riff-loaded old-school atomic black death that could level a small town, and do not give one single fuck what you or anyone else thinks. Consisting of esteemed axe wielder Scott Williams (ex-Elegeion, ex-Army Corpse), throatsman/bass general George Van Doorn and master skin pulveriser Brandon Gawith (Eskhaton, Hobbs Angel of Death), I had the dubious fortune of getting all three members to sit down at the same time to talk shit about… Well, everything really. The result is something… Special? Read on below to see for yourself. It may be my favourite thing published on BMD yet.

“Tired of trends and half-hearted ‘extreme metal’? Want ugly music, for ugly people, by ugly people? Then dive into the 36 throttling minutes that is ‘Husk’ and hail the legacy that is VAHRZAW!”

~

Hails Vahrzaw! Hope you’re all well. Your new third full-length ‘Husk’ is finally out through Sweden’s Blood Harvest Records. How does it feel that this thing is finally seeing some air?

GVD: It feels like that time we broke down on our tour of Antarctica and had to “keep warm”; something’s not quite right.

SW: Definitely won’t fall for that again. Well, I think relieved is the word I would use. Should’ve been out last year. It’s been complete since August 2017. I’m not too sure what the delay has been. You can tell where we are on their totem pole of significance.

BG: Get fucked.

The first two teaser tracks were great, black death assaults both heavily riff-driven and old school as fuck. A natural follow on from the excellent ‘Twin Suns and Wolves Tongues‘, and possibly even more violent. For those yet to hear the whole thing: is this what they can expect from the rest of the album, or is it packed with ballads and yearning emotional atmospheres?

GVD: Thanks. It’s all about the riffs these days. We’re the John West of Blackened Death Metal – it’s the riffs Vahrzaw rejects that makes Vahrzaw the best. Sadly, there are no ballads. I keep saying “If Primordial got away with doing a god-awful ballad in 1993, then we can do one now. It’s 2018! People are open-minded.” But, Scott refuses.

SW: Ballads are for poser wimps and symphonic power metal fans… who are poser wimps too. Yeah, I think this one is more focused in its aggression. It has to supersede the preceding record. I’m not a big fan of emotional atmospheric-type black metal… or emotions in general, which can be difficult in this age when everyone is a fucking sook.

BG: Get fucked.

Press play on ‘Fiends in the Ether’ for example and you’re immediately struck by how good it sounds while it rips your face off. Where was the album produced, are you personally happy with the sound?

GVD: The album was recorded in a studio in Gippsland (i.e., Spectrum Studios) and mixed in our Producer’s studio. I like how it sounds (e.g., it’s heavy and clear given everything that’s going on), but I was fighting off a lung infection during recording so there are vocal parts that I’m not overly impressed by.

SW: Yeah, it’s good. We run on a very tight budget so we don’t have the luxury of time. It is what it is. The pre-conceived notions I had before recording are forgotten. The guitars are nice and clear without drowning anything out. There’s one shit note bend… but fuck it eh. We’ve been working with Wayne and Brett at Spectrum for over a decade now. They’ve run a live music TV show out of the same studio the last few years.

BG: Get fucked.

What was the writing and recording process like? Has it changed a great deal from the early material, or even from ‘Twin Suns…’?

GVD: Writing takes a lot longer these days. We used to just throw riffs together, but we don’t do that anymore. Lyrics are the same. I wasn’t too concerned in the early days, but now my goal is to try to write better songs than on the previous release. Scott writes most of the music so he can describe his process.

SW: We’re better in the studio. We rehearse everything to perfect prior to it. A budget forces that line of attack. Writing… it’s a longer process. I try to weed out overly long parts (*coughs* Enslaved) or excess rubbish. Make the tracks more concise and punchy. Long songs are boring. Look at Iron Maiden… they have an 18min song about hot air balloons for fucks sake. Hot air balloons!! Most of the riffs are written with a looper these days, which makes arranging more interesting as I can split parts up and write new parts for parts that where once part of the parts I originally split. But in essence, it’s still me and a guitar sitting in my lounge writing riffs, exactly like the ’90s. I get a lot of ideas on the road in the middle of the night and I’m usually writing something down after work at 2am.

BG: Getting fucked up.

Taking into account a couple of line-up shuffles and name changes in the early days and then a few years hiatus, you fellas have been at it for over 25 years now. When you were fresh faced young ruffians, did you ever think you’d be still doing this decades later?

GVD: No.

SW: 26 now since forming. I think 19 active… and no.

BG: I wasn’t even a sperm cell.

You guys must have some stories after so long in the game. What’s the craziest thing you’ve had happen or seen in your past quarter century of raising hell?

GVD: I once saw a YouTube video of a rabbit fighting a snake. It was pretty crazy.

SW: I saw a giant seagull murder a pigeon in Venice… right there in front of me. That was as intense as the gelato I was eating at the time. We once hired a girl to dress as a cat and piss into… no, wait, that was Mötley Crüe. In all honesty, I’m quite reclusive and we don’t tour or play live often so there isn’t much to tell. I hate travelling.

BG: Seeing some dude slice his arms with a hunting knife then snorting speed from it.

I’ve heard whispered talk that you’re actually a band of intellectuals. Can you confirm or deny these rumours?

GVD: I can confirm that we deny these slanderous allegations.

SW: If ‘intellectual’ means watching Netflix and not regular shitty poor-person TV, then yes.

BG: Get fucked.

I believe your previous drummer Ben was also legally blind, which I find amazing. Did this present any particular challenges at any point?

GVD: He was legally blind, but he had an eye-transplant. An anonymous gorilla that was put down for inappropriately touching a zoo guest donated its eyes. As for challenges, it was always risky letting him drive to gigs while Scott and I got drunk in the back of the car.

SW: Fucking hell. Risky alright. It was a calculated risk though, being intellectuals and all that. The potential factors at play were discussed beforehand. What a whimsical hellride.
…and yes, moving that drum kit around was a real fucker.

BG: I’m blind all the time, does that count?

Ben was replaced in 2012 by Gawith. Did he have to go through any hazing rituals or perform any feats of strength to make the cut?

GVD: The standard. Take the drumstick up to the logo. Note: it’s been brought to my attention that some people may not know what this means. In the olden days, some young ladies wanted to get backstage to meet their favourite band member (it happens all the time at BM gigs). To do so, the road crew would politely ask these young women to insert a drumstick into a particular orifice. If the woman could take the drumstick to the logo, she got to go backstage. So, I’m saying that Brandon had to insert a drumstick into an orifice to get into the band. Explaining jokes makes them less funny, which (dangerously) assumes this joke WAS funny.

SW: I’d never heard that. “Can you make your mouth into a perfect circle” was the line I used… well would have… if metal had groupies and I wasn’t also a blithering idiot. Brandon is a gun on the kit. Kills it. He’s doing the last Hobbs shows soon and has a new album out with Eskhaton too. Ben is now a lawyer, the true dark side.

Who is the main lyricist in the band and where do they draw inspiration from, particularly for the themes present on ‘Husk’? And fuck it, I have to ask: Is ‘The Epitaph of Garmonbozia (Part I & II)’ a Twin Peaks reference?

GVD: I am. I wouldn’t trust the other two to write a review of a Grug book, let alone lyrics that I want to sing. I used to sing about Satan, ghosts, forests (i.e., very stock-standard BM topics), but now my lyrics can be about anything. If I think an idea is good, I’ll explore it. Husk has songs about TV shows, books, religion, personal struggles, historical figures, and cancer. As for Epitaph, the short answer is “yes”. It’s a reference to Twin Peaks. That was Nick’s idea. I thought it was clever.

SW: I’m not sure anyone would get the Grug reference anymore. I no longer write any lyrics. I was never any good at it.

GVD: Did you just call me old? I’ll get Antifa to boycott your shows… wait… that won’t work out well for me.

‘Epitaph…’ also features Nick from the excellent Greytomb lending his wretched screams to proceedings. How did you snag his services?

GVD: I’ve wanted to collaborate with someone outside the band (i.e., try something different) for a while now. We’d done a gig with Greytomb and we know Jack (guitars). So, I approached Nick. He was interested and so we bounced ideas/lyrics around until we were both happy.

BG: Get fucked.

GVD: Insightful. I’d almost forgotten you were here.

Speaking of vox, Van Doorn, you have some pretty versatile throatwork going on. Are there any vocalists in particular you’ve been inspired by over the years?

GVD: Maniac and Attila from Mayhem and Hat and Pest from Gorgoroth are favourites in BM. Old Chris Barnes is a favourite DM singer.

SW: Is he really? I didn’t know that. Barnes went to shit. He’s bloody awful. I think our older stuff had a real Sorhin/Setherial/Burzum-type vibe to the vocals. All the early ’90s demo days.

BG: The actors from 2 girls 1 cup.

GVD: Actors?! You’re setting a low bar for the use of that term. And yes Scott, Chris on Tomb is awesome. As for our older stuff, I (repeatedly) had people tell me I sounded like Jeff Walker (Carcass).

That cover artwork is great too, an evocative piece by Luciana Nedelea that matches what I’ve heard of the music perfectly. How did the collaboration come about? Were you fans of her work before you made contact?

SW: That was my doing. I had spotted her work online through various pages and checked her out. She does quite varied kinds of art so I picked an example and forwarded the basic concept that we fleshed out. It’s quite different from the original idea (a real emaciated human figure in the darkness) but I really love it. She’s since done work for Dark Funeral & The Satanic Temple plus countless others and it’s all quality stuff. Recommended. It was also a continuation of no digital art as it reeks now. Looks dated already. The booklet art is all original pieces from Jon Ernst too, a fellow Aussie.

The label press release states “VAHRZAW have really had enough of the bullshit associated with producing albums, and even EPs. Thus, ‘Husk’ will likely be the band’s final recording”. This can’t be true. Is Vahrzaw done, are you hanging up your boots?

GVD: No. The label asked us to write that just as we were wrapping up recording. We’re not major fans of each other after recording; there’s something about 5 guys being trapped in a small room for weeks on end that puts us on edge. As such, that write up reflects our animosity. We’re actually working on new material now… but that’s another story.

SW: The studio doesn’t bother me. It’s the fucking emails everywhere to do art and layouts for the various formats and label chat and mixing and organising time. It’s an arduous bore, especially if the communication is vastly one-sided.
That blurb pretty much sums it up… there was another one sent later that was ‘highly intellectual’ but they went with the humorous one, so fuck it.

The CD is currently out through Blood Harvest Records in the EU/worldwide, while you’ve just received your copies for all the slavering Australian maniacs. How has it been working with Blood Harvest? Any news on the vinyl version?

GVD: My mum always said “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. I don’t have anything nice to say.

SW: Vinyl for HUSK and TWIN SUNS is on the cards to the tune of 300 copies each but I’ve heard nothing about it. The layouts were completed along with the album last August, so who knows. The album was actually written for vinyl, 4 tracks and a short clean outro per side.

All the pressing plants are backed up from big labels cashing in on the vinyl trend with the 500th press of a Bowie record & other assorted shit we don’t need more of. I think there’s a picture disc of two Fawlty Towers episodes at this years record store day. Who the fuck would buy that?!

Hopefully ours is out soon but I doubt it seeing as it took 9 months to print the CD. Ask Blood Harvest.

‘Husk’ isn’t the only fresh chunk of Vahrzaw that’s been excreted of late: Your ’96 demo ‘Black Resplendent Waters‘ has copped a well-deserved tape re-release through Swedish/German label Cirsium Kollektivet, complete with an art upgrade from the great Jeroen Van Valkenburg. Are you pleased with how this turned out? What’s it like having the old recordings in the spotlight again?

GVD: I haven’t seen it yet.

SW: Looks great. Jeroen is a legend. You are partly to blame for the re-release as I found the label through this very page and just asked if they’d be interested. Turns out it was a “yes”. He was fantastic to work with. Got the job done quick. As for old tracks back in physical form…*shrugs*.

Time for some opinions. The band was formed in the thick of Black Metal’s arguably best and most fertile period. What do you think of the Black Metal “scene” these days, and how do you see that things have changed? Is it for the better?

GVD: Honestly, I don’t have much interest in the scene. On the odd occasion we play a gig or catch up with friends from the 90s, it seems to me that the scene in Australia cycles. As an example, when we first started out, everyone had to be ‘tougher’ than everyone (e.g., we’re the most extreme BM band ever). Then people chilled the fuck out. Then the pissing contest is back and people think they’re impressing people by claiming to be extreme. Dull!

SW: There’s too many bands all doing the same concepts as 25 years ago minus the mystique and originality. But that’s music. New ingredients get introduced to an older formula. Slight changes over time. Is the scene any better? No idea. It’s certainly more saturated though. Doesn’t seem to bother anyone, people are happy with regurgitated death and black metal. Don’t fix what isn’t broken, I guess. There’s still an abundance of theatricality and lame lyrics which is always good for a laugh. Besides those ‘anti-fascist’ dickheads trying to ruin a few shows with threats of violence, y’know, like a fascist group would, I think the scene is relatively sane. I’m not sure anyone cares what a 41yo male thinks anyway…they should though because we’re clearly the better generation.

BG: Most BM bands in Aust are hipsters or play shit raw BM in the style of shitty Darkthrone. Hail to those who venture into the more extreme and violent side of BM.

SW: Old Darkthrone is fucking ace.

With the advancement of home/portable recording technology and software, it’s increasingly easy to churn out albums in your bedroom, or even on your phone. As a result, there are more projects out there than ever. What do you guys think of this phenomenon?

GVD: I think we’d be hypocrites to criticise people for recording in their bedroom. Back when we had absolutely no money, we used to record demos onto a tape recorder. Now we have slightly more than $0, we’d prefer to record in a studio. But, other people can do whatever they want. I don’t have the energy to care.

SW: I have so many tracks by so many bands on my PC… I hear a bit of music and think “What a magnificent riff, who is this band?”…so I check it out and it’s us! Haha! Happens a lot. The PC recording gear is fantastic now, so why not do it at home if you can?! A bit more effort than a TDK 60 and one mic and running off 50 tapes one at a time on high-speed dubbing… but far less KVLT.

Off the top of your head: the best black metal band currently active, and the band you think should give up and pack it in?

GVD: Mayhem. Behemoth are good too (but probably more Blackened DM). Darkthrone should give up. So should Satyricon. Rubbish albums are destroying their legacies. Note: Please send all hate mail to Scott.

SW: Best… don’t know. I like elements of a lot of bands but most black metal is pretty boring. I will say that 95% of it (black and death metal) shouldn’t ever be pressed to vinyl. It’s A-grade horseshit. There ARE really good creative ones with unreal musicians though. A few bands spinning of late (of various genres) are Deitus, Void Omnia, Belus, Virus, Tchornobog, Beastmilk, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin/AFX, Frank Zappa, Rope Sect, Extortion, Discharge… all good stuff. Band to call it a day. Satyricon… awful. Such disappointing output since Rebel. Not black metal, but I’m glad Slayer are packing it in.

BG: Dead Congregation, unrelenting sonic power. Bands that should pack it in are all the shit bands with beards and flannies!

GVD: What’s wrong with beards?

SW: He can’t grow one yet.

And finally, school the kids: What is true black metal?

GVD: Ha. Trve BM bands will probably claim we’re not trve BM. So, I’m not sure my opinion is worth listening to.

SW: Don’t know. The opposite of what is trendy?! I think it’s moved on from the misanthropic nihilism and existentialism to some degree… but maybe that’s the crux of the genre in its true form?! They certainly aren’t stabbing people anymore. It could also be leather, spikes, and beer. A guy once told me he couldn’t listen to us because “we didn’t hate jews, Australia was a jew cesspool and black metal is ‘white’ music”. We probably play exactly the type of music we play to stick it to cunts like that. The opposite of what people like or the music that they want me to play. But… I’m 41, I honestly don’t give a shit.

BG: Anything that is new and creative and sounds tough! Not the Norwegian rip-offs and clones!

Cheers gents, sincerest thanks for taking the time to speak to us and suffering through yet another bloody interview. Any last words?

GVD: Thanks for the interview. Buy our album you cheap fucks. And to all the zines out there, you’re not getting free copies. And no, we won’t pay 120 Euros to appear in your piece of shit zine. Lots of love. George.

SW: What he said… plus, you can grab the HUSK album (on CD or digital) plus any older recordings straight off our bandcamp or message us on Facebook. Vinyl should be out later in the year. Should. Hassle the label about it. Thanks Aaron. Keep your eyes peeled for giant murderous seagulls.
PS: …and a big ‘get fucked cunt’ to the pleb that runs Third Eye Cinema.

BG: GET ETERNALLY FUCKED.

~

Purchase Vahrzaw‘s ‘Husk’ on CD from Blood Harvest Records here and the label Bandcamp here, and grab a copy direct from the band with a bonus 25th anniversary guitar pick here.

Support VAHRZAW:

• Official Facebook
• Official Bandcamp

~

Like Black Metal Daily on Facebook for more kvlt sounds and tonal blasphemy.

Email: blackmetaldaily@outlook.com