Dear Hollow’s Prava Kollektiv Collection [Things You Might Have Missed 2023]

Look, I get this shit is niche. Like real fuckin’ niche. Cherd of Doom‘s excellent Black Metal Muster from 2022 enabled a new generation of us black metal wanderers to flip off the doom and prog aficionados, emerge from our corpsepainted closets, and shriek in indecipherable tones until that Methodist church down the street burned to the ground. Here we are, praising black metal twice in one year, and it doesn’t get much better than the enigmatic Prava Kollektiv, an enigmatic and anonymous congregation based probably in Russia or Slavic states, whose releases are unleashed, often simultaneously, in conjunction with Amor Fati Records and Fallen Empire Records. It is known that its five bands share members, and as you may have guessed, they all share the black metal tag. It is unknown, however, what thread courses through all the releases, as themes of the void, consciousness, the cosmos, and other abstract concepts plague the sound and lyrics. What is more important is that the Prava Kollektiv is an unfuckwithable and unmissable collection of blackened tunes, with 2023 offering their most formidable array yet. Without further ado, let’s get kvlt.

Arkhtinn // 三​度​目​の​災​害 – The Prava Kollektiv’s flagship act is perhaps one of the more traditional of the bunch, conjuring the isolation of ice-crusted stars through its use of raw black and ambiance. The release of 三​度​目​の​災​害 also coincides with Arkhtinn’s ten-year anniversary. Reconciling both the iciness and star-borne darkness of Wintherr’s projects, Arkhtinn’s “third disaster” (in Japanese) proves far from it. Through its two tracks and forty-four-minute runtime, you will feel smothered by darkness then exposed to the vacuum in the course of every ebb and flow of the cosmic winds of tracks “一番” and “二番,” shifting from lonely ambiance to blasting raw black intensity fused with symphonic and crystalline ambiance that recalls Emperor or Vordven. As evident in the 2020 split Astrophobia with and in contrast to Starless Domain, Arkhtinn is also here unafraid to embrace a scathing quality that spits in the face of modern atmoblack’s stereotypical warmth. 三​度​目​の​災​害 is atmospheric and otherworldly, but uncompromisingly punishing work from the act that proves its mettle again and again.

Voidsphere // To Infect | To Inflict – Like Wintherr’s Darkspace to his Paysage d’Hiver, Voidsphere dwells in vicious and suffocating darkness, while Arkhtinn largely concerns itself with isolation and frigidity. You will see the tricks of swelling synth and ambiance, but the claustrophobic ambivalence of noise saturates empty space and adds a weight all its own in Voidsphere’s sixth full-length. The act’s forty-three-minute dive into darkness is less an experiment but a sharpening of craft, as the riffs are stronger and the honed melodies are less a reprieve to the punishment but a last scream cut short. As its name suggests, “To Infect” is far more creeping and subtle while “To Inflict” offers a no-holds-barred assault of blackened intensity. What the void-worshipers have long done above shoulders better than their counterparts is conjure the claustrophobia and darkness of its source material and the colossal quality of its artwork. It has long felt that Voidsphere is hurtling toward some grand and earth-shattering conclusion, and we should all tremble to ponder it.

Mahr // Odium – The denser and darker sibling of the Prava Kollektiv, Mahr separates itself by incorporating a more deathened and industrial take on second-wave worship. Odium is a furious offering, as its hate-themed title indicates, grinding and relentless throughout its forty-minute beatdown. Even its moments of placidity balance the onslaught with scorched earth ambient compositions that survey the wreckage, basking in obsidian tones and subtle industrial electronic beats. “Infames” offers a slowly unraveling structure, layer after layer being stripped across its blastbeats and thick tremolo, culminating in the central riff: suddenly death metal clarity punches through the blackened murk in a downtuned skull-crushing riff paired with death metal vocals that drags the entire industrial black palette to hell and back. Mahr dials the dread up in “Maledicti” with a nearly impenetrable fog of sound that makes the vicious attack even more devastating. Odium finds Mahr distinguishing itself from the Prava Kollektiv’s more household acts with a relentlessly bleak and brutally unforgiving attack.

Hwwauoch // Under the Gaze of Dissolution – While Voidsphere conjures the weight of the void and Mahr channels hate, Hwwauoch’s dissonant and fluid-structure has always felt like a twisted and perverse image of Freud’s unconscious “id.” The dissonance conjured from the act’s catalog has always hinted at something beyond simple menace of or even unknowable hugeness: they play the music of distorted consciousness and humans made in God’s corrupted image. What their fourth full-length constitutes, however, is a radical departure from the dense impenetrability of Hwwauoch’s catalog. They brighten vocals and scathing melody into something resembling free jazz, but into a crippled and limping image unlike the decadence of Imperial Triumphant. A rare semblance of humanity in a chunky riff or tangible vocal appears beneath the howls (i.e. “Voluntary Trepanation”), but across its six-track acid trip they stumble through wonky compositions, complete with jazzy basslines, tortured layers of vocals, wonky ambiance, and dissonant punk riffs. Hwwauoch accomplishes an album that stands out due to its shining clarity and the ultimate descent into insanity.

Pharmakeia // Maenadic Ecstasy – While the tricks don’t necessarily feel earthshaking, the Prava Kollektiv’s newest addition manages to sound the most traditionally “kvlt” while still reveling in devastating density. No frills black metal with no reprieve from the scathing tremolo and blastbeats, there is an undeniable rawness here that recalls the borderline noise of Upir or even Portal’s twisted guitar tone. However, in the refusal to succumb to atmoblack tropes, the breaks in the chaos are more like the raised fist between blows. There’s undeniable psychedelia and otherworldliness woven into Pharmakeia’s approach, which fits them neatly among the Prava Kollektiv’s ranks, while its sparsely used clean baritone adds a haunting liturgical weight. It adheres to the second-wave worship most consistently, that although “Execration” features a sliding riff, “Furore” and “Lunacy” offer viciously chunky riffs, and “Zeal” kicks you in the face with a synth passage, it never feels as if it departs from black metal’s roots. Perhaps the only Prava Kollektiv offering that strays from the “atmospheric black metal” tag, don’t let its youth fool you: Pharmakeia is worth all the pain it inflicts.