“It’s a common argument that winning formulas are difficult to beat and they can be repeated time and time again without diminishing appeal. The triteness of modern black metal has been well documented on this website, and it has to be admitted that I enter every black metal review these days with a sense of apprehension.” And rightly so, buddy!
“Pestilential Shadows comes from the land down under, where the women glow and men plunder. Listen closely, and you’ll hear their black metal thunder. Listen even closer, and you’ll run for cover. Gimmicky introduction aside, the men in Pestilential Shadows have been at work making some seriously bleak music since 2003, and their fifth album, Ephemeral, shows no signs of deviating from this path.” Anyone want a Vegemite sandwich?
“The latin phrase “Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius” comes from an incident in the early 13th century known as the Massacre at Béziers. The ironically named Pope Innocent II had declared a crusade against those he identified as heretics in Northern France, and the first town his assembled force attacked was the well-fortified town of Béziers. As the siege developed, it became a massacre, with more disciplined soldiers losing control of the mercenaries in the force who massacred the people, pillaged the town and ultimately burned it to the ground. The Massacre at Béziers has become emblematic of religion gone mad, persecution in its most extreme and dangerous incarnation, not just for the degree of the bloodshed, but for its indiscriminate-ness.” This is late, but also good. Nat knows her black metal!
“Alright, enough of the goddamn “V” replacing the “U” in band and song names! It’s dumb, trite, annoying, I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore! Moving on, Lvcifyre is a blackened death outfit from the U.K. and Svn Eater (irritating isn’t it?) is their sophomore outing. Having never heard them before, I admit to being pleasantly surprised by what they’re offering here, which is a fascinating mix of Norwegian black metal circa 1993 and hyper-riffy, technical and mega-brootal death metal. In a nutshell, their sound is vicious-as-fuck, mean-as-hell and heavy-as-a-two-ton-heavy-thing. You can expect to hear traces of old Darkthrone, Behemoth, Nile, Immolation and Deathspell Omega in a SINGLE SONG, all stitched together with power of the almighty riff.”
“My summer vacations weren’t very… productive. Here’s a quick laundry list of my early Grymmness: blowing on Nintendo cartridges to get that damn pink screen to stop flashing, trying (and failing) to learn how to skateboard, playing guitar in a proto-metalcore band that would make early Converge shake their heads in embarrassment, swimming in a ice-cold pool in New Hampshire, etc. Needless to say, my summers were for lounging and goofing off. So when I ask how was your summer and you say, “Oh, it was okay, I just spent the entire summer writing, recording, screaming, playing, programming drums, producing, mastering, and even doing the artwork for the debut album of my one-band progressive black metal band. Nothing major!”, you are either: a) gleefully full of shit, or b) multi-talented Irish lad Andrew “Manshrew” Millar, sole proprietor of Patrons of the Rotting Gate, and mastermind behind their impressive self-released debut, The Rose Coil.” Grymm sets his review phaser on fanboyish glee and blasts way about something you might have missed.
“Let me know if you can find a metal band that utilizes dissonance and technicality to a large degree that doesn’t cite Gorgut’s masterful work as an influence. I’ll probably be waiting a long time so I’ll bring a good book – it’s called “The Band That Pioneered Dissonance and Technicality in Death Metal” and it has the word ‘Gorguts’ repeated over and over. But it’s that huge sense of respect for the band and the enormous anticipation for this release that made it such a tricky one for the legendary act. 12 years is not only a long time for hype to build around a record, but it also gives newcomers and pretenders a chance to overtake the legends should they prove unable to live up to their own mammoth legacy. After all, a lot of bands are remembered for their creative peak, even when they can’t maintain that level indefinitely. So perhaps Obscura and From Wisdom to Hate era was their peak and all they’ll really conjure up this time is a solid record, right?” And here is the other neglected gem we wanted to get to, but didn’t until now. You’re welcome!
“The bustling streets of New York have delivered some notable bands over the years, Type O Neg, Sunn O))), Dream Theater, Suffocation and Immolation to name just a few. But I’ll be honest here, New York’s not the first place that comes to mind when I’m looking for black metal. It looks like Imperial Triumphant’s prompting me to rethink this faux pas with their latest EP release Goliath.” New York City is known for hardcore and death metal, but every now and then, it births a horrid, blackened beast that no one wants to stop-and-frisk. This one brought along an elephant for added fun. I’ll call him “Stompy.”
“Alright, so unless you live under a rock, by now you MUST have an inkling that Watain have carved another notch to their bullet belts with their fifth studio release — The Wild Hunt. This attractively adorned album (depicting the spoils of a lengthy musical journey) hit the shelves a few days back with all the usual hype and aggrandizement one would expect of a Watain album, released through their own label His Master’s Noise (under the umbrella of Century Media Records). Following on from their well received opus of 2010 (check out how Angry Metal Guy weighed in on Lawless Darkness here), The Wild Hunt sees Watain beefing up their orthodox brand of black metal, showing the middle finger to the dictators of the world and borrowing from a feast of decidedly odd influences. So what of it, have these gents from Sweden’s Uppsala, who cite the influence of Bathory and Dissection among others, delivered the goods.” Madam X breaks down the new Watain record The Wild Hunt. What does she think? The world may never know!
“Cast your mind back to Feb 2011 when Steel Druhm came across what he referred to as a particularly ‘insane, claustrophobia inducing, vicious, ugly, hateful’ blackened death album by brutal French metallers, Svart Crown. Witnessing the Fall quickly worked its filthy, sharp claws into Steel Druhm’s brain, battering and shredding his grey matter in a way that Behemoth and Belphegor have rarely done.” Can Svart Crown top their 2011 release? Join Madam X as she opens her mind up to a whole lot of evil to find out!
“I wouldn’t blame you for having the thought in the back of your mind for giving Slidhr’s album a miss based solely on the fact black metal has become rather over-saturated with copycats and generally uninteresting bands. I hear the pitchforks raising already so allow me to stress that I adore black metal, it being one of my favoured subgenres of extreme metal, but I really have fallen out of touch with recent acts over the last five years.” I for one, support the pitchforks coming out and the forming of angry blackened mobs…after you read what Noctus has to say about Slidhr.
