Tag: black metal
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Nest – S/T EP
Like a gratuitous steel-toed punt to a prone skull, NEST kick the shit out of restraint and then some with an overdriven, relentlessly brutal 2-man black-hearted doom beat down straight from the KEEPER/PRIMITIVE MAN/FISTER school of glacial extremity. Pummelling, ponderous drums wrestle with ursine-heavy guitars and some apropos samples on this raw, dynamic self-titled EP…
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Idol of Fear – All Sights Affixed, Ablaze
All Sights Affixed, Ablaze from Barrie’s Idol of Fear impresses right from the get-go with “Vanquish.” It lays the foundation for the album with a black metal base. The lead guitars are fantastic. They cut through the heaviness and burrow deep in your head. Screaming and screeching, they are nonetheless nearly permanently imbedded in my…
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Ramlord – Crippled Minds, Sundered Wisdom
Since unleashing the self-described “opus to [the] inherent filth of mankind,” Crippled Minds, Sundered Wisdom, blackened crust comrades RAMLORD have focused on fine tuning their attack. They’ve embarked on an ongoing series of split releases (including last summer’s crust-meets-USBM collision with Krieg), which have honed the trio into a truly formidable agent of sonic depravity.…
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Marduk – Frontschwein
There’s such a thing as a regular Marduk album. Regular Marduk albums fit the template for the frosty second wave of black metal and are usually pretty good. There are twelve previous albums and, even if guitarist Morgan is the sole remaining original member, the band has a sound and a developed quality. They’ve remained…
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Cowards – Rise to Infamy
France is pretty much the last place that comes to mind when you think of sludge metal. But that’s not to say Paris doesn’t have its share of unrest—they still shoot cartoonists there, after all. And let’s not forget that Louisiana was once a French colony… although I’m pretty sure that Mike IX and Kirk…
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Primitive Man – Home is Where the Hatred is
One needs not listen to a note of this EP to know that it’s gonna be bleak—the artwork is about *thisclose* to getting Relapse charged with supporting terrorism under the Patriot Act. And certainly, the band’s reputation precedes them, Primitive Man being known for downtuned, punishing sludge tunes and terrifying horror-movie music videos. And while…
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Bewitcher – Midnight Hunters
Unlike the vast number of their Pacific Northwest contemporaries, Portland, OR party kvlt BEWITCHER keep it simple, succinct and proudly Satanic. Eschewing lumbering, portentous doomdoomdoomDOOMYdoomdoomdoom in favour of a relentless, no nonsense speed metal attack, these lithe Bacchanal sonic sorcerers have conjured a confident, defiantly lo-fi sound. Over the course of their three demo EPs,…
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Zombitrol & Blacktooth Black/Doom showcase in Toronto, Nov 29, 2014
Zombitrol/Blacktooth Joint FREE BLACK/DOOM SHOWCASE starring Volür, Godstopper, Empyrean Plague, Sortilegia Saturday November 29th, 2014 Smiling Buddha, 961 College St., Toronto Great all-Canadian lineup put together by Andrew Epstein (Zombitrol Productions, The Governor’s Ball) and Blacktooth Entertainment on November 29th at the Smiling Buddha Bar as a free gig (on a Saturday night in Toronto, eh!). Volür volur.bandcamp.com Sortilegia www.last.fm/music/Sortilegia…
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Darkspace – III I
“We die praising the Star Maker, the Star Destroyer.“ With little tangible to pin down in a typical ‘kvlt’ sense (beyond corpse paint and obsidian stage pageantry), the mercurial interstellar ritualism of Bern, Switzerland trio Darkspace remains one of ambient black metal’s most intriguingly opaque and highly original offerings. Since their advent in 1999, Darkspace…
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Downfall of Gaia – Aeon Unveils the Thrones of Decay
Aeon Unveils the Thrones of Decay is in many ways similar to Suffocating in the Swarm of Cranes, the last album from Germany’s Downfall of Gaia. It’s also heavier in sound and less immediately accessible. Thus, the record is less memorable and cohesive-sounding as a whole but as equally rewarding with repeated listens. The slight…