Black metal – Page 149 – Wonderbox Metal

Non Opus Dei – Diabeł (Review)

This is the seventh album from Polish Black Metal band Non Opus Dei.

I really enjoyed Non Opus Dei’s Split with Morowe a few years ago. It even made it onto my Best of 2013 End of Year List, so it’s good to have this new release from them rear its head.

The band continue to play Black Metal that’s atypical and unusual. Sure, most of the hallmark features of the style are here, but Non Opus Dei seem to have this unfailing ability to do things a bit different than the norm. Which is great, of course.

The stylistic riffs give the band a modern sheen, yet the fact that the guitars and melodies are deeply Blackened results in songs that sound trapped between the atavistic, more obscure past of Traditional Black Metal and a more stylised, sophisticated sound. It works though, as the band take the best of both worlds and meet it in the middle, ensuring Diabeł reaps the benefits of this hybrid approach.

The inclusion of Progressive and Technical aspects in their sound in addition to the raw emotive platform of their Blackened core means that, once again, they are taking influence and inspiration from various, sometimes conflicting, sources and fitting them, (successfully), into their music. The resulting songs merge the simplistic older style with a newer, more complex style to great effect.

Highly recommended.

Dead to a Dying World – Litany (Review)

Dead to a Dying World are a Blackened Doom band from the US and this is their second album.

Featuring a wealth of instruments and influences, this is an epic album that lasts 73 minutes and takes the listener on a tour of all of the dark places.

The bedrock of the band’s sound is grim, murky Black Metal; this immediately differentiates them from some other Blackened Doom bands as usually the style is predominantly Doom with added Blackness; here it’s a good mix of two, probably leaning towards the Black Metal side of the equation a little more overall. There’s plenty of serrated Blackened parts to keep the blood pumping.

Elements of Crust, Post-Metal and pure Doom work their magic in among the blood-fed trees of the Black Metal forest in which the music grows. Litany is powerful, wonderful, ambitious and terrifying in equal measure. Taking aspects of bands like Hope Drone, Neurosis, Wolves in the Throne Room, Myrkur, Usnea, Nux Vomica, Bergthron, Lycus and a whole host of others, this is an impressive body of music that brings something different to the table with each track, all within the established framework of the band.

Sharp Blackened screams are juxtaposed with softer cleans, both male and female. Dark growls populate the undergrowth and harsh, rolling shouting stabs in like spikes. Guest vocals appear throughout the album, making the entire performance varied and interesting for the listener.

The overall feeling is one of a refined, sombre misery. Viola and other instruments give the music an additional air of sophistication and Dead to a Dying World are nothing if not accomplished at the spells they weave; the band are adept at creating thick atmospheres and dark moods.

The recording has a sickly, unnatural warmth to it, like something alive that shouldn’t be. It’s soft when it needs to be and roiling, churning and destructive at other times.

This is a long, involving and emotive listen that builds, crests and waves through the six tracks like a dark tsunami, crushing and destroying yet followed by calm and retrospection, reflecting on all that has been lost.

A very special album.

Maïeutiste – Maïeutiste (Review)

This is the début album from Maïeutiste, who are a French Black Metal band.

This is a long one – 76 minutes of Black Metal that’s grim, mysterious and not afraid to experiment and stretch the tenets of the genre.

Maïeutiste is infused with a playful experimentalism involving elements of Doom, Jazz and Progressive Rock. Traditional Black Metal is the core of their sound though, so don’t mistake this for a free-form, substance-free exploration of whatever the band feel like; instead we simply get Black Metal that adds to, and spreads out from, the core of the style, like a grand contagion.

The music sweeps like a cloak of darkness and the performance is varied and interesting. One moment you could be listening to misery-drenched Depressive Black Metal, and the next you could be listening to a stirring, epic refrain akin to the best that Viking metal has to offer. This is one example of many and demonstrates the talent and ability of Maïeutiste.

It still sounds coherent though, which is an important factor when considering a band like this. It doesn’t sound all-over-the-place and it’s not too varied as to make you wonder how it all fits together; under the darkened funeral moon of Black Metal, that’s how, as this makes up the bulk of the material here.

It’s a long and involving album, but ultimately a rewarding one. Check out Maïeutiste and see if it hits that spot for you.

Formicarius – Lake of the Dead (Review)

Formicarius are a Black Metal band from the UK. This is their first release.

Here we have almost 12 minutes of music, made up of two originals and an Emperor cover. Formicarius’ Black Metal is Symphonic, Old-School and dark. Harking back to an early era when bands like Cradle of Filth, Emperor, Dimmu Borgir and Emperor were still young, Formicarius are attempting to herald a return to such times.

Featuring veterans of the UK Metal scene, (including the guitarist of the excellent De Profundis), this is a band who are starting out from a very strong position, so although this is only their first release it very much sounds like they have been together for a lot longer.

The songs have a streamlined darkness that flows and winds around the ostentatious keyboards like vines trying to strangle the life from something. The grim music pulses against the throat of the bright orchestration but doesn’t dampen its enthusiasm. Indeed, it seems spurned on by its antagonistic partnership to even greater heights.

One thing that was largely missing from this style back in the day was guitar solos, so I’m pleased that these make a brief appearance here. Played well, the music in general is accomplished and enjoyable. The songs are relatively simple homages to the Old-School Symphonic Black Metal style, (a bit of a mouthful), that are well-written and perfromed by people who clearly know what they’re doing.

Although there is a good helping of nostalgia with music such as this, (very much so for me), this is still a band who are doing their best to bring the style into the modern age. Admittedly, there’s only so much of this which can be done before changing the music into something else entirely, but on Lake of the Dead it’s the small touches here and there that give the band a certain edge; a short melody, a certain riff or keyboard addition…it distinguishes them as a band who are from the here and now, regardless of how old a style it is that they play and clearly love.

And the Emperor cover is fucking great, too.

12:00 minutes of quality. Get it.

Eyelessight – Mantra Per Sopravvivere Inutilmente (Review)

This is the début album from Italian Depressive Post-Black Metal band Eyelessight.

Eyelessight give us 72 minutes of music across 7 tracks. This is Depressive Black Metal mixed with Post-Black Metal intricacies that bring out the subtle side of misery and melancholy.

The album starts with a lonesome piano to set the scene. Once the first song proper starts, we begin with a bit of Post-Metal before slowly building with mournful Blackened melodies and Post-Black Metal riffs.

Depressive Post-Black Metal is a new one to me, but it makes sense, with the emotional fragility of both sub-genres working well together and feeding off each other to produce these long songs.

Intense, screamed vocals stop just short of tumbling completely into insanity and spend their time shrieking and howling into the aether. They work almost as an addendum to the instrumentality of the music. Additional female cleans add real power and presence to the track Consumami, making me wish they appeared on more of the songs. Male cleans appear on occasion too, also adding to the atmospheres.

This is the kind of album that works best when listened to holistically, letting the moods and atmospheres wash over you and getting carried away by the despair.

Have a listen and see if they scratch your Depressive itch.

Telerumination – Telerumination I (Review)

Telerumination are from the US and this is their début release. They play Atmospheric Black Metal.

Purely Ambient/Drone/whatever music doesn’t really do it for me most of the time. Sure there are exceptions; I enjoy bands like Haate and Pogrom, as well as Wolves in the Throne Room’s experimentations. From a non-Black Metal perspective, you also have releases such as those from IIVII and Aires, which I have also taken to quite nicely. For the most part though, it’s not for me.

So, what’s this got to do with Telerumination? Well, over the years it’s occurred to me that one of the main things, (although not the only thing), that is missing from the style is drums. I’m a percussion man. I love drums, beats and everything associated with them. This rather long-winded introduction is essentially a way of saying that Telerumination is, at heart, a Dark Ambient release, only with percussion.

Hmm. Maybe I should have just said that at the start, brevity being the soul of wit, and all that…

Anyway, low-key drums, creepy, understated screams and the odd bit of guitar is added to a strong synth-based core to create music that takes the best of Dark Ambient and, in my mind at least, improves upon it.

One of the brains behind Telerumination is the guy who does Natanas, so in a way you can view this as a less evil, more atmospheric version of his work with his main project. Telerumination does have a restrained malevolence to it, but nothing like the overt nightmare sounds that Natanas fosters so well. If Natanas is a portal into the underworld, a vision of Hell and all damnation, then Telerumination is a mirror that shows what’s behind the suffering; the subtle torments that lie underneath.

This is an oddly relaxing release. I mean, it probably isn’t if you’re just Joe Public and you had to listen to it. God knows what they’d make of it. I imagine it would probably give them nightmares. For us seasoned music fans though, it’s as if a swathe of sentient darkness has been filtered through a lens so that only the finest and most subtle of horrors were allowed through, creating textured explorations of distilled Black Metal that can comfort and amiably disturb those who have the will to succumb to its soothing terror.

This is an impressive collection of music that succeeds in its task of spawning a Blackened Ambience that improves upon the purestrain parent style to become something greater.

Turn off the lights and enter the world of Telerumination.

Wilt – Moving Monoliths (Review)

Wilt are a Canadian Black Metal band and this is their début album.

Wilt play Atmospheric Black Metal that takes its time, fleshing out its expansive vision with Doom-drenched splendour and releasing negative vibes for all to feel and react to.

Despondent and glorious, Wilt play music that doesn’t lack for bite or venom, despite the fact that they know how to foster mood and atmosphere. Here, the two go hand in hand with a Blackened spite that seems to coast along the seas of guitars like a predator looking for prey.

The main bulk of this album is taken up by three long songs that are textured soundscapes writ large in considered, resplendent Black Metal. The riffs and melodies used are subtle and overpowering at the same time, creating songs that know when to use a splash of colour, and when to use shades of darkness.

Blast beats appear on occasion, underscoring the band’s Blackened core, but the majority of the material is slower and devoted to dark auras. Mind you, this is not too different a situation when the drums are going fast, as the main intention is not one of brutality, merely a dramatic emphasis on the shadowy feelings that the band evoke.

A Post-Metal influence can be heard in some of the guitar melodies, although this is only an aspect of their songwriting and is subsumed by the general Blackness and atmosphere of the music; Wilt can’t really be described as a Post-Black Metal band.

And the vocals? Despairing screams that stop short of the Depressive style, but not by much. Needless to say, you can’t go wrong with vocals like this and the singer’s performance works as a focal point for the ever-expanding atmospheres of the music. Creeping whispers also appear on The Elder, working gently to soothe the listener before the darkness closes in once more.

In the spirit of Epic Black Metal and the Cascadian style, Wilt have crafted a worthy addition to the sub-genre for anyone who likes this kind of music.

Black Lord – Black Ritual Forest (Review)

This is the début album from Black Lord, a Mexican Black Metal band.

After a rather pointless intro that goes on for far too long, we finally get to the meat of the matter as the first song erupts into life. Black Lord play underground, raw Black Metal that’s unfettered from any form of niceness.

The Blackened riffs have a Thrash influence on occasion. As well as using some dark melodies to enhance the songs, they have a loose, primitive style that nonetheless manages to gather the quintessential Black Metal darkness to it like a magnet.

The singer sounds like he’s howling into the abyss, almost independently of the music. Unhinged and maniacal, his performance is unforced and probably quite something to see in the flesh. Screams, growls, moans and chants emanate from the songs while the music charges forward with wild abandon and grim determination.

Black Ritual Forest is an expression of Blackened intent, with the band showing their passion for the style across 36 minutes.

Check them out.

Favourite Track: Spell of Darkness. Speed and rolling thunder propel the song forwards while the singer screams with spectral torment.

Narbeleth – Through Blackness, and Remote Places (Review)

This is the third album from Cuban one-man Black Metal project Narbeleth.

As I said about his second album, A Hatred Manifesto, this is the real deal. Here we have 35 minutes of Underground Black Metal, spreading darkness, disease and terror through all the lands.

Like the second album, this contains seven originals and one cover, (this time by Judas Iscariot).

It’s dark, icy music that sticks to the well-loved Orthodox Black Metal left-hand path and pays homage to the 90’s Scandinavian scene.

The production is sharp and clear, allowing the songs to scythe through the airwaves like a cold blade through flesh.

The songs are enjoyable and never attempt to be anything they’re not. The riffs are good and the guitars frozen in time. It’s a style that’s instantly familiar and comfortable to any fans of the genre, and on Through Blackness, and Remote Places it’s played well and with passion.

This is a release that it’s easy to like; unless you never got into the style or you’re just tired of it, you’ll find plenty to satisfy here.

Satanic Assault Division – Kill the Cross (Review)

Satanic Assault Division are from Denmark and this is their second album. They play Black Metal.

I’m guessing that the name alone is enough to let you know what kind of music this is. Yes, here we have Traditional Black Metal with lots of bite and plenty of violence. What might surprise you, however, is just how damn catchy and memorable this record is.

The songs are full of decent and substantial riffs. The guitars are dark and sharp, exactly as this kind of Black Metal should be. The band demonstrate very early on that they have good songwriting skills and these tracks make an impression.

Blasting drums provide plenty of speed and groovy, mid-paced riffs lend the music an extra energy, with the band firing on all cylinders. There’s even the odd guitar solo; these are usually understated and brief but provide extra interest when they appear. The solos, alongside some of the more Rocking guitars, lend this a Black ‘n’ Roll feeling in places, although this is but part of their sound.

The singer’s voice is full of bile and hatred, croaking out from the Blackened tunes as if in a murderous trance.

This is a band who have produced a Black Metal album with an emphasis on catchy music and the kind of songs that it’s easy to like.

14 tracks, (one a cover) – 55 minutes of scathing Black Metal. Best experienced at full volume.