What’s old is new.
Desekryptor provide a good old fashioned sepulchral death metal beat down equal parts Incantation, left hand path Entombed infused with modern sensibilities building upon the cornerstone death doom sound of pioneering artists and albums. Dive bombs, relentless gibbering riffs from the void, hell chasm guttural vocals, thick and thunderous backline. This is death metal for the nostalgic and forward thinking. A balance between the past and future primitive.
Following a slow motion bomb train aesthetic is Canadian quintet Absorb. In a way Absorb remind me of Lesser Glow gone death doom. Slow, elongated riffs leaning more toward death doom than Lesser Glow’s post metal. Yet all the similar elements of gargantuan Crowbar tone meets “God of Emptiness” sewer crawl crossed with noisy riffs for atmosphere, and a mixed vocal attack. Hell, being this is Canadian, if you go back in the time machine you will find similarities to the outstanding IRE.
Speaking of Canada and time machines, Voivod released Morgoth Tales. A retrospective of sorts across Korgull’s space/time continuum. Re-recordings from the beginning of the Iron Gang career (the mighty “Condemned to the Gallows” opens things up) through the present, future and past (Public Image Ltd “Home.”) And, for good measure, their anthem for the 2023 Mystic Festival. Know this: Voivod is, and will forever be, the greatest metal band ever.
Profound Lore presents the debut Fabricant album, Drudge to the Thicket, a work that’s been a decade in the making. Looking at the cover one would think this will be a pastoral based cascadian black metal attack. Try bending focus Cynic, sound of perseverance Death to more discordant ends and abstractions that can be likened to Theory in Practice and Martyr. Technical ability from this trio is off the charts and intelligently wielded crafting busy arrangements and interesting riffs without resorting to overboard fretboard gymnastics.
Return of Berlin’s Nidare and their brand of “vntrve post black metal” with a three song blast in Naehe und Flackern. Could be the fact it is quite a few months removed from last year’s Von Wegen that the ep feels and sounds heavier and more aggressive than before. There’s an enormous bass tone at play, an excellent capture of the performance on the kit, stacks of guitars, impassioned vocal delivery. Even if this weren’t a German act the way they fashion their songs and tone would still remind me a hell of a lot like Intricate and Lash Out gone down the left hand path. With the vocals being in their native tongue it all sounds far more rabid to these ears. A big improvement in terms of the way Naehe und Flackern is presented on the sonic spectrum compared to the last recording. The drums are more audible this time out lending more impact and dynamic to the songs. The guitar tones are heavier without sacrificing atmospherics as separation between players is evident and the offsetting moments are effective. Nidare prove themselves to be quite the black star from Germany.
Another German black star on the move is Terra Builder. Debut album Solar Temple burns in full come late September. Four songs currently on display are a menacing death grind amalgamation. Think Prowler in the Yard meets Hate and Despise under the gaze of I the Intruder and Hamvak.
Philly psyche-sludge mavens Quiet Man (formerly God Root) teach you The Starving Lesson. Fuzzed out guitars with sustain decaying at different intervals to add dissonance, pounding drums, blower bass, vocals reaching from an opium haze to crazed. One of their best attributes is working in free form margins, gathering drifting notes and noise off three guitars, electronics, standard bass/drum back line and coalescing wandering particles for massive detonations.
Drifting from the sludge haze to a the blackgaze of NYC’s Strega Nona. Walk in Beauty is the second full length from the quintet and it builds upon Mirrored Pink’s foundation of 90s alt rock and shoegaze meets black metal blasts and riffing. Perhaps more melodic than before but nonetheless showing aggro flourishes throughout. Guitar interplay between Julia Simoniello and Jordan Isaza is exceptional from delicately playing off each others melodic lines to combining in furious union but not necessarily being a mirror image in terms of duplicating each others performance. Providing the grounding tether is Nicholas Guttilla on drums and bassist Anthony Guarneri and this duo add nuance and embellishments. Julia’s vocal performance reminds me a little bit of Djunah’s Donna Diane. Melodic, forceful and runs from disaffected to searing at a turn of a phrase.
Sophomore release from Nott has been announced and the duo of Julia Geaman (drums/percussion) and Tyler Campbell (guitar/bass/vocals) offer “Torn” as the first sacrifice. Hell mouth vocals, “where the slime live” Morbid Angel slither, Admiral Angry/Black Sheep Wall guitar tone, Confessor fractured propulsion is on full display. Pair this up or duel against Humanity’s Last Breath. While I think of HLB as more Meshuggah-nic and Vildhjarta-esque Nott feels more abstract like early Confessor or Coma Cluster Void and Thoren.
In case you weren’t already aware Swarrrm have a new album waiting in the wings. As usual with this Japanese stalwart act, they do whatever the hell they want. This track blurring screamo, grind, art-core, and, of course, those maniacal Tsukasa Harakawa vocals!
From one vocal maniac to another… new Secrelict track provides deliberate lo-fi Portal blackened death with Altarage vocal carnage. First Secrelict outburst after “Desiccate.”
The bitching and moaning I do about synths and keyboards is once again proven by The Salt Pale Collective. Leave it to a post act (or proper industrial and ambient act) to show how to properly integrate the technology in a metal adjacent style. First track off the debut album from this UK act sounds as if it will be a proper bludgeoning and proof positive last year’s EP is no fluke. The manner in which the Salt Pale Collective utilize their vocals can draw comparisons to Canada’s Mare or Cali’s Eyes of Fire when they employ multiple vocalists and vocal stacks creating different textures and moods. In the case of “Sermon of the Edacious Revenant” the vocals can be heard as the most musical aspect of the song that is a brontosaurus plod and trod rome plow that goes off the rails at the conclusion with noise and wrench in the machinery causing the rhythms to stagger, hitch and fall apart.
Remaining in the UK and maintaining all things atmospheric with Throth. Six feet beneath me sleep also strikes with a multi-vocal attack. Unlike The Salt Pale Collective’s approach, the Throth vocals recall outsider folk and psyche such as Pentangle, Comus and ilk one can find cited on Cathedral’s forest equilibrium. Drones meet madrigals? After a fashion it makes sense. I can’t help but laugh imagining the Carpenters fronting a doom act, but, moments here almost bring that to reality. There are moments such as those during “Coming around again” where a more earthy, nature obsessed Jesu come to mind.
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We’re gonna sign off with a pair of Swedish acts. Black Wound Warping Structure is exactly that… warping sound, space, time with Black Sheep Wall/Admiral Angry guitar tone underscored and overtaken by the gnarliest blower bass sound that is simultaneously buzzing and disintegrating in Primitive Man din. The snare drum and cymbals cut through this steel girder bending noise with reckless abandon as guttural vocals caterwaul through the sonic wreckage in pure agony.
Youtube offers Ofjattrad - Helvetets Kall. I can only assume this is Swedish given the name and title and lack of information anywhere at the time of writing. Absolute grim, grime slathered, raging black metal launched in an ugly, lo fi, ferocious assault.