“Black metal is a petty mistress, a femme fatale. Promising the void with cupped hands only to say “made you look” when thousands of one-man bedroom projects jump on your face like deranged sugar gliders, black metal will lull you in and punish you for your optimism. That said, I know better, so I approached the Dutch duo Nahasheol cautiously.” Fear of the dark (and snakes).
“Anonymous Belarusian act Pa Vesh En’s track record is impeccable, nearly every installment providing another unique vista of smoke and fog – but always narrowly missing the craved medal of excellence. Anchored by a doomy pace and thunderous percussion, Pa Vesh En has always balanced its more scathing raw black tremolos and shrill shrieks with a thick haze of ambiance.” Raw meat for blackened souls.
“Ah, black metal, my old friend. While I’ve been spending much of 2021 either trying to get my baby daughter to smile or try to steal as much weird death metal from Kronos as possible, I can’t deny the blackened shred that settles comfortably into the crevices of my soul. I’ve long anticipated a comfortably atmospheric, aptly scathing breed of second-wave shenanigans to sink my teeth into, and there’s no time like the present.” Semper lo-fi.
“Another day, another raw black metal act. I was gonna go into the obligatory rant about how it’s the aural form of licorice, but suffice it to say: you either hate it or you love tolerate it. If you’re a masochist who likes to have your ears bleeding on the reg, dive in. If you prefer your music tasteful and somewhat reasonable, stay away. Unless it’s Pa Vesh En, who, along with acts like Black Cilice or Lamp of Murmuur, regularly provide tasteful interpretations of barbed wire tones.” Angry cargo.
“Industrial black metal has not boded well in 2020, with groups like American snoozers T.O.M.B. and Dutch painmongers Ulveblod earning some of the lowest ratings I’ve awarded during my tenure. Dkharmakhaoz’s Proclamation ov the Black Suns, blessedly, is extremely well-written and densely punishing second-wave foray into atmospherics that never neglects its highlights.” Black sunshine.
“For those of you acquainted with the Dutch black metal scene, this is another project from Maurice “Mories” de Jong, whose sadistic tendrils puppeteer acts like Gnaw Their Tongues, De Magia Veterum, and Obscuring Veil, to name only a few. He and an anonymous member released three demos and an EP in 2019 under the moniker Dodenbezweerder, which attempts to fuse the sprawl and evocation of ambient black with the edge and claustrophobia of raw black.” Noise as a weapon.
“Pa Vesh En’s Pyrefication begins as many black metal records begin, with a foggy sequence of sustained riffs and electronic noises that draw an atmospheric veil. It takes a moment to adjust to this tenebrosity. The music appears monolithic at first, until silhouettes of individual ideas start revealing themselves. Like a symphonic orchestra attuning their instruments in preparation of a concert, the Belarusian one-man project uses the opening “…In the Ghostly Haze” to timidly set the stage of its second full-length release, exploring and expanding into sound spaces.” Purity through fire.
