“Time to turn over another rock for yet another black metal garage project! Yet another slice on the Australian Metal Genre Roulette Wheel, Arkheth is a self-described experimental black metal project coming off an eight-year hiatus. “Experimental” as a subgenre label can be vague even at the best of times (that is, when it’s not an outright lie by marketing), but it’s still a head-turner for fans of strange music.” Strange brew.
“Well, this is an interesting completion of the circle. Djinn and Miskatonic’s Forever in the Realm was a number of firsts for me: first impulse-purchase of an album on band name alone, first real exposure to doom metal, first exposure to the burgeoning Indian metal scene, and the subject of a writing sample to This Very Mighty Website! That debut, stuffed to the gills with Sleep and Sabbath-esque riffage, was also unfortunately possessed of spotty songwriting and editing issues. Their sophomore album, Even Gods Must Die, promises a platter of six potent songs, this time with the Sleep influences dialed back to bring more Electric Wizard and Reverend Bizarre into the mix.” Djinn and doom juice.
“Founded way back in 2002, Beirut’s Ayat pumped out a string of demos culminating in their well-received 2009 debut Six Years of Dormant Hatred. Not-so-hot off the heels of that release, (wonderfully-named) founders and only constant members (Reverend) Filthy Fuck and (Mullah) Sadogoat are back with another viscerally angry cut, this time with a side of politics, for reasons that should be self-explanatory in 2017.” Angry worms.
“With so many bands coming out of Finland, I’m starting to wonder if there’s a single sub-genre of metal unrepresented. Today’s platter is the fourth full-length from one-Finn drone project Opium Warlords. Masterminded by Albert Witchfinder (Azrael Rising, Spiritus Mortis), the album promises a vision of humanity scraping primitive survival from the husk of nuclear apocalypse, set to a soundtrack of bluesy minimalism. Or at least, that’s the ambitious byline the label tries to sell.” Some things sell themselves.
“Unlike the more northerly regions of Europe, the Iberian Peninsula is not often thought of when the metal scene is considered as a whole. There are bands, many of them well-known and respected, but the area is not Germany or Finland. Thought of even less is the Galacia region of Spain. But all the same, it’s spat up a lively little melodic death three-piece (after some down-sizing) in Bloodhunter. The name might be a little silly, but the music is not, fusing a traditional Gothenberg sound with hints of mid-period Death for their sophomore album The End of Faith.” The Iberian conspiracy.
“Norway. A country home to a beautiful language, gorgeous fjords, and hideous metal. While most, including me, associate the country with black metal, there are other brands attempting to make their mark, including this offering, Vanora. Playing a mixture of djent and more traditional progressive metal that feels distinctly of the current trends in metal, Vanora’s debut Momentum claims to promise sharp riffage, a nice mixture of singing and growling, and big, heady synth lines. Wait, what?” Putting the prog in Norway?
“I suppose this hokey shit is penance for my last review, which was of a great album. Here we have a third album following a sophomore release which was actually a Christmas album (no, really), West to East Pt.1: Frontier Vigilante is a Western-themed slice of Euro-power cheese, with members from Sweden, the US, and the Philippines. An international posse such as this usually brings a menagerie of influences to the table, planting seeds for great work, but whether that potential pays off is always uncertain.” This dog don’t hunt.
“As an armchair linguist and general language nerd, I love listening to material in a language I don’t know. A sextet of Finnish Satanists and black metal veterans, Ajattara have a platter that fits that bill, and because of my total unfamiliarity with them, I approached the record with totally open ears. Lupaus, the band’s ninth full-length following a six-year hiatus, is a bit of a genre puzzle, as it’s hard for me to call it straight black metal.” Blackness, death and declension.
“Hailing from Who-the-hell-knows-where, USA, the generically named Ruin originally formed in 1991, only to have its membership swallowed by time in the slammer and/or sanitarium. Reformed in 2015, they’ve sluiced out a swampy sort of old-school death metal their label promises will be reminiscent of early Abhorrence and Bolt Thrower.” Out of the penal league, into the venal league.
