“On initial listen, I can tell you that Den Tapte Krigen is no Vi Overlevde. Let that sink in as you consider the consequences of that statement. Is that good or bad? For one, Den Tapte Krigen is a tighter album (only eight tracks) with a formalized theme. There’s fluidity from the beginning to the end of this journey. What about those surprise transitions and standout songs, you ask?” Rejoin the Kult.
“Indecisiveness. Tragic flaw of many of art’s most enduring characters: Hamlet, Holden Caulfield, Spongebob Squarepants. It was also the feeling I got when I first listened to Luna and Aurora by German post-black metallers, Träumen von Aurora (Dreaming of Aurora). This looks, smells and is packaged as a double album, with Spring (Aurora) following darkness (Luna), a neat inversion of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The band, however, bills Luna and Aurora as their third and fourth albums respectively. Stylistically linked, released on the same day, but definitely separate albums.” Double troubles.
“The title of IATT’s third LP is not as ballsy as you might think. “Magnum opus” is one of those phrases that tends to be carelessly tossed around in art criticism without really meaning anything, so let’s break it down: literally, the phrase means “The great work,” specifically referring to the alchemical process of creating the immortality-granting philosopher’s stone. While some use the phrase as a placeholder for “masterpiece,” IATT is here wielding it with its proper connotation, as evidenced by much of the record’s subject matter. Taken this way, the title also serves as a metaphor in the context of IATT’s career.” Magnum force.
“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.
“I know what you’re thinking: dark, fantastical imagery; Norse titles and lyrical themes; a spiky logo. Gates of Muspel by Karmanjaka must be the latest in Scandinavia’s bottomless sump of black metal. You’re not wrong. Muspel is a contraction of Muspelheim, the most Abrahamically hellish of the nine realms, replete with fire and destruction. Accordingly, this troupe most obviously aligns with black metal of the core metal sub-genres, advertised as for fans of Enslaved, Borknagar and Rotting Christ. These references are fitting; each boasts particularly progressive or theatrical forms of the style, and so it holds for Karmanjaka too.” Blackened Broadway.
“For the better part of the last two weeks I’ve done nothing but wrap my head around the entire output of Queens, New York black metal alchemists Krallice. This was difficult enough with their mathy, progressive first four albums, but the wildly experimental, technical second half of their catalogue knocked me slightly out of phase with this reality. I see in five dimensions now. I respond to things before they happen, because they have already happened and are never not happening.” Dimensional crosstrainers.
“On more than a couple of occasions, I’ve mused on decisions made by artists that one might label … pretentious. My musings have not, of course, led to anything useful but why should that stop me? Perth, Australia’s curiously-named, one-man project Seance Of is ready to unleash The Colour of Magick. The last – chronologically speaking – of three records written by mainman AR (also of Grave Worship), this is the project’s debut, with the other two to follow at some unspecified future time. Magnanimously, Seance Of has also decided not to name any of the tracks on this record, instead encouraging “listeners to create their own titles for each of these eight tracks: indeed, this unorthodox freedom is his intent.” Having initially written this off as a pretentious gimmick, it took the ever-wise GardensTale to point out that I was missing a trick here.” Boaty McBoatface metal.
“Lord Almighty, that’s some pretty artwork. An animal skull, painted with myriad pastel colors, conveys that sense of decay which defines so much of the metal art world. Meanwhile, a rich palette of greens and blues strengthens the impression that this skeletal creature’s surroundings teem with life. Plus, emblazoned atop the stripped-down scenery oversees this Lord’s unholy crest, gnarled and subtly overgrown while simultaneously resembling a fortress, the moon presiding over its kingdom. Needless to say, I was thrumming with excitement to get my hands all over this. Imagine my glee when the Bostonians’ sophomore record Wither—an apt name to go with the cover—didn’t totally suck.” Wither systems.
“It beats me how the grief-stricken yet gorgeous and woodsy, black metal of Minnesota’s Amiensus flew under the radar of my hawk-like colleagues here at AMG up until now. After my first few listens of the ten year old band’s newest material, however, I couldn’t help myself from feeling taken aback and even pouting a little. Where are the beautiful, aching cleans and shimmering synths of 2013’s Restoration and 2015’s Ascension, I wondered? Amiensus’s first two albums, arguably more accessible than their latest, were especially formative for me. They pulled me into the metal genre deeper than any other metal albums I had listened to before, more so even than Panopticon’s Autumn Eternal.” Gourd songs.
“A mere six months ago I wrote a TYMHM piece on the second Creature album Contes Funèbres, noting that while that album had a black metal base and clear elements of 70s prog, it also contained an anachronistic theatricality, like a corpse-painted staging of Les Misérables. If Contes Funèbres was broadway, Ex Cathedra is opera.” Shock me, Amadeus.
