“Let’s get one thing straight with these guys: avant-garde, avant-schmard. Unlike many French compatriots, wacky innovation is not the name of the game here. Wyrms stick rigidly to the melodic template which has been honed to a fine sheen since Dissection and Sacramentum first did their thing. Sarkhral Lumænor is about as modern as a jousting contest, and as subtle and flexible as chain-mail armor.” The wyrm you know.
“It’s perhaps not without reason that romanticizing so-called “trve black metal” has become a meme. Avskräde seem to take seriously the idea that the more blistering, raw, and crusty-sounding music is, the more worthy it is of the black metal moniker, all else be damned. This mysterious Swedish duo presents their debut as an uncompromising slice of the past, containing “nothing but traditional BLACK METAL exclusively.”” Cult is for closers.
“No one likes to be misled. Money is tight, we have bills to pay, so we all wanna know what we’re spending our precious cash on. When you see an album entitled “Sworn to Profound Heresy,” with a cover featuring malevolent-looking priests surrounding a burning church, you probably think you know what’s in store. When those clouds of billowing smoke feature an image of the dark lord, and the band is named after a church sexton, you might think that this was some satanic, second wave-worshipping black metal, probably from a bunch of European veterans. Well… you’d be absolutely right!” Maximum Satan.
“If you haven’t gone back to the band’s humble beginnings, you’re missing a hell of a lot. And, not in the sense of the classic black metal of old. No, no. You’ve missed one LP (Marras) and two EPs (Tuoni and Sarastus) of acoustic beauty. There’re more acoustic guitars, pianos, and strings in that handful of songs than all the liquidated Guitar Centers combined. That said, don’t expect grandiosity and orchestral pretentiousness. October Falls’s acoustic discs sound like a couple of guys with guitars sitting around a campfire. A couple of musicians playing simple music for the moon, for the woods, for themselves.” Moon music.
““In mainstream literature, the anti-hero dies. In Ural literature, everyone dies.” This cheery adage is not only the plot of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, but also the philosophical basis for the music of Russian black metal group, Vspolokh. The band makes no bones about its admiration for its Ural heritage, playing a form of music it describes as “Ural Chthonic Black Metal.” Color me intrigued.” Blackness and death in a Russian winter.
“As I began my review of A Fall of an Epoch, my initial thought of the album morphed. I wrote the review, threw it away, and rewrote it again. I repeated this several times until it finally made sense. We all know that feeling: when an album transforms right before your eyes. Sometimes it’s a right-place-at-the-right-time sort of scenario. Other times, it’s something else. If you know anything about October Falls, you know not what to expect. Something the mighty year of 2020 is famous for.” Enigmas and Epochs.
It was said of the author, Michael Crichton, that he was unusually cursed. By some Faustian bargain, he was able to come up with exceptionally good ideas for his novels, but then cruelly denied the ability to see any of them through to satisfying conclusions. It’s why most movies of his works (Jurassic Park, The […]
“One-man bands make me both impressed and apprehensive. I’m impressed because having a musical vision is special to begin with and being able to execute it solo takes real talent. I’m apprehensive because there’s no give-and-take or real collaboration for the visionary, and most creators of any stripe lack the will to kill their darlings.” One man with a bully pulpit.
“I first became acquainted with Vananidr through the AMG metal forum. One of the contributors recommended the band’s second album, Road North, on the grounds that although it seemed, from afar, like a fairly straightforward, old-school black metal album, there was something compelling about it that kept him returning. Well, for once, the rabble was right: while Road North was far too long, it’s an unpretentious slab of second-wave, black metal goodness. It also sported that often-undefinable quality, possessed by bands like Immortal or Sacramentum, that brings you back again and again. I was impressed, and gladly signed up for the follow-up, Damnation.” X factoring.
“Once upon a time there was a dude named Maxime Taccardi. Max has a twisted and dark mind, and I fear it. His music is equally frightening, and it makes me uncomfortable. Yet, I can’t turn it off. Try as I might to fend it off his insidious vision haunts my imagination, conjuring the most depraved scenarios for me to weather. For Max, it seems, this place of nightmares which he creates represents the repugnant underbelly of his Paris home. And so he put all that we refuse to see inside the “most romantic city in the world” to music. Ladies and gentlemen, Griiim’s Pope Art.” Warhol’s twisted Id.
