“Earlier this year, our Angry Metal Overlord declared on Twitter that he was ‘done with atmospheric anything for a long time, but particularly black metal… Everything sounds the same and no one has any ideas.’ Now, your good pal Doomy cut his teeth on atmospheric black metal like Wolves in the Throne Room and Agalloch, so this was heresy to my eyeballs.” Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the bored.
De Tenebrarum Principio
Kaiserreich – Cuore Nero Review
“Black metal seems to, borrowing an excellent phrase from Erving Goffman, have been “permanently Wittgensteined” into meaning anything with screeching vocals, tremolo melodies, and blast beats that sounds a little chilly. The indie-black-gaze of Deafheaven, whatever Liturgy is, the poppy trappings of Alcest-core, and a lot of other nonsense seem to land under the umbrella that some of the best releases of the 90s and arguably metal in general built.” Join Diabolus as he tries to prove that black metal is rich and diverse.
Lustre – They Awoke to the Scent of Spring Review
Doom-infused black metal often evokes ancient cathedral walls, coated in the blasphemous muck of black metal with snail’s pace riffs coming down like the wrath of Satan himself, but Lustre goes the other way with the pace being dictated by a introspective melancholy.
Moonreich – Loi Martiale Review
The French metal scene has been growing and more interesting in the past few years than I can ever remember. While the following review will be of Moonreich’s Loi Martiale (Martial Law), it is important to say that in general I’ve been really impressed with the quality of all the metal I’ve been hearing out of France for a while now. Bands like Sebka-Chott, Kalisia and Gorod all stand out as being excellent examples of a metal scene in full bloom right now, full of new thoughts and ideas. Hell, even French black metal is forward thinking and innovative these days if you look at Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord, and black metal hasn’t been innovative as a scene goes since the early 1990s. So you can say that I entered into this one with some high expectations.