This is the second album from Dawn Ray’d, a black metal band from the UK.
Dawn Ray’d play classic, second wave-inspired black metal, with moments of folk interspersed here and there. Violin features prominently, and enhances the music in unobtrusive ways. Continue reading
This is the thirteenth album from Blut Aus Nord, a French black metal band.
You never quite know what you’re going to be getting with a Blut Aus Nord release, and on Hallucinogen the band have mutated once again. Their latest incarnation is an avant-garde progressive black metal monster, emphasising atmosphere and feeling via engaging blackened soundscapes. Continue reading
This is the second album from Maïeutiste, a French Black Metal band.
2015’s Maïeutiste was a record that impressed. Full of wide-ranging content and engaging blackened exploration, it was an album of fire and mystery. Veritas continues the theme developed in the band’s earlier work, only to refine it further. Continue reading
Arallu are black metal band from Israel and this is their seventh album.
I always really like Arallu’s work, (check out Six, Geniewar, and Desert Battles – Descending to the Sands), so it’s exciting to see a new album emerge. Continue reading
Sur Austru are an atmospheric black/folk metal band from Romania and this is their debut album.
Featuring ex-members of Negura Bunget, Sur Austru play a black/folk metal hybrid that has surprised me by how much I’ve enjoyed it. Continue reading
This is the second album from White Ward, a Ukrainian post-black metal band.
2017’s Futility Report was striking and enjoyable, mixing cold black metal with an avant-garde modern edge. Compared to Love Exchange Failure, however, it’s almost as if Futility Report was the prototype of this new album. Expanded Continue reading
Ossomancer is a black metal entity from the US and this is their debut album.
Ossomancer combine old and new, taking a base of second wave black metal and transporting it to the present day. Continue reading
This is the second album from US black/death metallers Haunter.
Sacramental Death Qualia is a mutant, constantly-shifting hybrid of progressive black/death metal. Mixing impenetrable dissonance with grim blackened melody and classic progressive beauty, the music combines darkness and light in such way that it can be almost jarring on Continue reading
This is a live album from Winterfylleth, a black metal band from the UK.
Winterfylleth are one of those bands that I always think I should have gotten around to listening to by now, but never have. As such, this live album seemed like as good a place as any to sample their wares. Containing five live tracks taken from the band’s first four albums, and a synth version of a track off their second album The Mercian Sphere, we are overall presented with 49 minutes of material in its entirety. Continue reading
Asagraum are an international black metal band and this is their second album.
After 2017’s enjoyable Potestas Magicum Diaboli, Asagraum are now back with another 26 minutes of second wave black metal worship. Continue reading
