“We all have our dirty metal secrets that we selfishly keep to ourselves, only sharing with a select few close to us. Or alternatively, we incessantly talk up underground gems and spread the gospel to anyone that will listen, as we cherish our slice of underground cred. Into the Obscure aims to right the wrongs and unearth the artists/albums that for whatever unjust reason didn’t get the exposure or credit they sorely deserved the first time round.” Unlight up our lives.
“”Blackened ambient dungeon synth”—thus read the descriptor for this promo. “Sounds fun,” I thought, even if it meant enjoying it ironically. Odyrmos are quite serious, however. Their name means “heavy lament,” and their chosen medium with which to express this is, oddly, a combination of melodic black metal and medieval dungeon synth.” Dungeon drapes and oceanscapes.
“While We Sleep’s cover art is creepy but striking. Even in its edited monochromatic form, this 1890s painting piqued my interest. Looking at the shadowy whispering figure with billowing hair and the wide-eyed woman, shrouded in darkness but with her face glowing, I expected While We Sleep to sound evocative and mysterious. This was largely wrong. Austria’s In Slumber plays “direct melodic death metal” (their words, not mine), the least mysterious of genres.” Blue clues.
“We’re now a decade into Andy Marshall’s uniquely Scottish take on metal, blending furious black metal with majestic melodies and Scottish folk instrumentation. Saor is an experiment which has demonstrated great results, with the likes of Aura and Guardians being some of the strongest folk/black metal albums of the 2010s. 2019’s Forgotten Paths was solid but easily my least favorite release, but with a new decade comes a new record called Origins. Is it a return to Saor’s roots, or does it represent a new beginning?” Roots, icy roots.
“Most people don’t come to metal music in search of traditional “beauty” per se, but I’m always surprised and bewitched when I run into an album that is simultaneously heavy and gorgeous. Equinox Vigil, the third full-length from Minneapolis project Inexorum, is just such an album.” Beauty in the depths.
“This story — inspired by the incredibly cinematic and excellently composed third full length by Ukrainian black metal band White Ward, entitled False Light — begins where the preceding chapter concluded:
GUNSHOT, ABRUPT CUT IN:” False and Tricksy: The Movie
“We as a community speak often of defining and categorizing genres, but sometimes a promo comes along that legitimately challenges those definitions. Atlanta, Georgia’s Tómarúm received a generic “black metal” tag from Prosthetic Records’ PR team, and it falls short as a descriptor for what Tómarúm play. As you’ll surely deduce after giving debut album Ash in Realms of Stone Icons even just one spin, this nascent two-piece perform forbidden alchemy with myriad metallic ores, smelting a writhing, metamorphic amalgamation. It’s that very transmogrification that not only makes this album difficult to categorize but also exciting and satisfying to experience.” Pigeon holes don’t come easy.
“Back in 2019, I raved about Vimur’s sophomore album, Triumphant Master of Fates. It was a magnificent expulsion of incendiary black metal fueled by venom and vitriol. Three years later, the Atlanta quartet readies their next salvo, entitled Transcendental Violence. Lucifer only knows what the hell that means, but there’s no doubt that destruction awaits.” Violence as currency.
“Some things enter human culture and just don’t leave. What could be a better example than the epic fantasy spearheaded (in the West) by J.R.R Tolkien, spawning countless other artworks and fuelling many an obsession to this day. Similarly, the rise of solo projects within black metal is seemingly indefatigable. Cirkeln combines these two strands—the mainstream and the counter-culture—through a discography inspired by genre heavyweights of each. Tolkien and Moorcock on the one hand, Celtic Frost and Bathory on the other.” Ring of sour.
“This multi-instrument outfit continues to work with its traditional format of six tracks over forty-five minutes. But, while this new record doesn’t have anything you haven’t already heard, the band has a knack for execution. Somehow, they continue to breathe uniqueness into each effort and supply just enough originality to make each new record different from the last.” Vanishing returns?
