“Black metal has a weird reputation. If you ask anybody walking down the street about it, given its nuances of church burning and Satanism, they’ll shudder and tell you “that stuff is scary, man.” However, if you ask a person who regularly listens to it, it becomes a different beast entirely: using Burzum’s self-titled as an example, you’ll hear an angsty Ewok grumbling about his mom taking away his Satanic Bible while abusing a Walmart guitar.” Fear and loathing in Portugal.
“If the metal genre as we know it were an animal shelter, the two most isolated beasts, sitting abjectly in the corner, would be the ungainly, lumbering, shaggy Funeral Doom and the feral, bestial, slightly-rabid Raw Black Metal. Even within this shelter, these are the least loved of the myriad metal breeds.” Bully breeds.
“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.
“Even if readers are not familiar with Merda Mundi’s brand of chaotic raw black metal, they will likely be acquainted with its lone band member Déhà, Belgium’s hardest working metal musician. Among his—I’m gonna go with thousands of—other projects, he is also the lone or primary member of post-black project Déhà and funeral doom band Slow, both of which have been covered—by which I mean sprayed with Muppet juice—on this here site. But if those projects represent Déhà’s ego and superego, Merda Mundi is his raging id.” Hatred now!
“‘There are few things in this world as pleasant as raw black metal.’ What foolish KenWords those were. I was young then, impressionable and naive. Akantha has since extinguished the innocent light from my eyes. In my newfound wisdom, I now believe that raw black metal is one of the ugliest things in this world.” Ugly is as ugly does.
“There are few things in this world as pleasant as raw black metal. The kind that barely registers as music to the ears of the unwashed. The kind that gives all of your family members doubts about your competency. The kind that elicits concerned glares from passers-by. You know what I’m talking about. So it was with great anticipation that I plucked Finland’s Celestial Grave from the AMG promo vault for a look-see.” When the void plucks you.
“I look upon the squiggly logo lightly imposed upon a dusky, yet colorful landscape and I realize that almost a half an hour has passed. Boy where does the time go? I finally break out of my trance and hit the play button, having queued up Asgrauw’s third offering, Gronspech. Well, I could have seen that coming miles away; this is quintessential 90’s black metal. Normally I feel ambivalence towards this particular strain. It drains me, the grating guitars and the wanton shrieks sapping my will to continue more quickly than most other subgenres of metal might. But this time I am finding myself once again entranced by what Asgrauw have on display.” Blackness from the land of orange.
“”Do you realize that if you fall into a black hole, you will see the entire future of the Universe unfold in front of you in a matter of moments and you will emerge into another space-time created by the singularity of the black hole you just fell into?” Neil deGrasse Tyson probably didn’t picture those words describing the unfolding, infinity of one-man black metal artist Vardan’s latest journey into heartbreak and isolation, but they certainly do.” Black holes, ESL failures and a one man black metal act with awful corpse paint. It’s all here, folks.
“”No rules and no respect for none!” These wrath-filled words of wisdom give me the impression this Greek band of misfits like their metal the same way that they take coffee, straight up, black and nasty as hell. I’m new to Dodsferd, but from what I can gleam on the interwebs, it’s the principle project of Wrath, frontman for the likes of Nadiwrath, Kampf, Grab and ex-Drunk Earth (now adopting the moniker NunOnBong!).” Greek black metal is so very…Greek. Madam X can tell you more.
“You know that scene in The Midnight Meat Train, just after the butcher’s death, the one where the conductor introduces Leon to those unholy reptilian creatures that live beneath New York City? Or maybe you’ll better remember it as the scene where Leon’s tongue is ripped straight from his mouth and he’s told, you’re it, you’re the next butcher! When I think of Teloch Vovin, that’s the first place my mind travels to. They’re also from the seedy underbelly of New York.” Madam X seems enthralled with New York’s seedy underworld… could it have been the lure of sacrificial blood that drew her, or was Teloch Vovin’s sticky, murky black metal the attraction? Maybe it was the smell of garbage and falafel.
