“While The Eye featured as many ideas as the many heads of a hydra, Position | Momentum streamlines them into a more focused beast. Expect second-wave tropes in tremolo, blastbeats, and vocalist Matteo Rizzardo’s ferocious shrieks (in his native Italian), but like Calligram’s catalog, the sophomore effort ascends beyond the Darkthrone and Mayhem worshipers of the cold dead world.” Calligram calling….
“Voids are not an uncommon thing to discuss in metal. Somehow putting to music the vastness, the unfathomability, the colossus of nothingness is a feat in and of itself, and many have attempted to bring it to life. It’s the ultimate futility, the great vanity. While many have tried, from the mysterious Prava Kollektiv’s Voidsphere, the Swiss enigma Death. Void. Terror., and the dense death metal of Desolate Shrine or Abyssal, they are mere glimpses of the monument, the perspective of madness. When the cold nothingness attaches to the skull and does not shake, will Predatory Void provide the siren’s song sprinting to the early grave?” When voids attacks.
“I was first introduced to Italian noisemongers Hierophant with their 2013 sophomore effort, the provocatively titled Holy Mother: Holy Monster. An absolutely punishing release, it included all the hallmarks of acts like Oathbreaker, Celeste, and Hexis in its blackened hardcore/sludge combo. However, with a cutthroat crusty edge, it forsook all subtlety for punishing vitriol, excruciatingly dense and brutal.” Death sieges us all. Hold fast!
“While Hexis undoubtedly draws much comparison to the blackened hardcore/sludge of Celeste, Oathbreaker, The Secret, and even Amenra, there’s a liturgical element about them. Although its lyrics draw from the well of blasphemy and trod the well-worn path of nihilism, pitch-black reverence settles like cancer in the blood.” Hex marks the sore spot.
“If you’ve never heard of Celeste, the name and the aesthetic can be misleading. Gorgeous and contemplative black and white photographs of artistic poses and strange characters greet the eyes with a moniker that points to the heavens. If you were to guess the style, you might say post-black or prog, maybe an indie acoustic troubadour, or a bedroom jazz project. However, you’d be hard-pressed to find another act as suffocating and pissed off as Celeste. A visceral fusion of black metal, hardcore, and the filthiest outskirts of extreme subgenres, these Frenchmen are the epitome of scathing consistency, releasing album after album of hypnotic tunes.” Assassin’s breed.
“Trenches is a band formed by Jimmy Ryan, former vocalist of Christian metalcore heavyweights Haste the Day. Releasing one album through Solid State Records, Jesus’ vacation home of all things -core, 2008 debut The Tide Will Swallow Us Whole instead opted for a Neurosis’ Given to the Rising-esque sludgy ‘n slow take rather than the second coming of When Everything Falls.” Jesus wept.
“It’s hard to have hope sometimes. We live our lives constantly getting up and going, always moving onto the next thing—moths chasing flames that grow more elusive as the dawn approaches. We’re tortured by silence in a screaming year, laced with events of turmoil and perpetual change—a silver silence that holds a mirror up to our faces and our truths. And we don’t always like what we see. It’s hard to have hope when we’re distracted, romanced by the illusion of productivity, blinded by privilege, and shielding our weary eyes from discomfort. This is what makes Svalbard so important; they force us to look.” Dying to heal.
“How can music communicate the feeling of dread? While all styles are able, metal’s inherent darkness fits like a glove. While it’s easy to provide aural bludgeoning or emphasize excess, the discipline of restraint takes time and effort. From the post-metal dirges of Neurosis, the avant-garde buildups of Eryn Non Dae., the spiraling doom of Swallowed, the blackened payoffs of Cultes des Ghoules, and the death metal environs of Desolate Shrine, it revels in darkness, plays with menace, but most notably, waits patiently.” Waiting in the darkness.
“Take a gander at The Fifth Alliance’s new band promo shot below. What’s the first thing that comes to mind? After my first glance, I couldn’t shake the uncanny resemblance of the spotlighted line of band member heads to the Game of Thrones Hall of Faces, a seemingly endless room full of pillars housing the skinned faces of the dead sitting in wait to be wielded by one of the Faceless Men. Too grim of an intro? Perhaps, but I don’t think The Fifth Alliance would think so.” Face the darkness.
“Although Carcharodon come from the filigreed halls of Italy, legendary for its theatricality, they named themselves after the genus for the great white shark and the megalodon, and they call their music macho metal. If you still don’t know which side of the subtlety fence they fall on: there’s a song on here called “Whalefucker.”” Macho, macho metal.
