Black metal – Page 150 – Wonderbox Metal

Chiral – Night Sky (Review)

Chiral is an Italian one-man band. This is his second album.

I have enjoyed watching Chiral’s development over the course of his releases that he’s put out so far. From the primitive Proto-Death/Black Metal of Winter Eternal, to the frozen Blackened landscape of Abisso, to the more ambitious Atmospheric Black Metal of his splits with Haate and Nebel Über Den Urnenfeldern/Eternal Sleep…the brain behind Chiral as consistently impressed with both the quality of his music and his progression within it.

So what of this latest release then? Showing that he doesn’t sit still, Night Sky continues the previously developed themes of Atmospheric Black Metal, only this time adding a Post-Black Metal element to the music, resulting in an album that favours mood and texture over all else.

For a surface comparison to to other bands, I’d say Night Sky combines elements of Wolves in the Throne Room, Falls of Rauros, Falloch, Vinterriket, and Opeth.

The songs are long and ambitious tracks that show a love of both Black Metal and a more naturalistic sound that is quite atavistic in its realisation. Folk melodies and influences would be an appropriate description, although it feels somehow older than this.

Acoustic passages, Folk instrumentation and Progressive Metal tendencies work together with the icy, Blackened core to create Atmospheric Post-Black Metal that takes in many influences over the 58 minutes of material and ably demonstrates the talent and skill of Chiral.

These songs are slow-builders; ramping up the atmosphere and emotional content over the span of the playing time and layering just enough keyboards and extra instrumentation on top to really provide a consistent sense of space, flavour and feeling.

So there you have it. Another quality Chiral release, his best work yet I’d say.

Fans of Atmospheric Black Metal take note.

Show Me Wolves – Between Man, God and False Idols (Review)

This is the début album of Icelandic one-man Black Metal project Show Me Wolves.

So, this is a little different. Here we have Progressive Black Metal that takes elements of both Old-School Black Metal and cutting-edge Post-Black Metal as well as, believe it or not, bits of modern Metal here and there. Okay, so on paper it sounds a mish-mash of genres that normally never meet, but when you listen to it it does all make sense. For the most part, anyway.

Black Metal with a modern, Progressive flavour is the main order of business, but there’s a good deal of other stuff going on here. The modern Metal influence is not as jarring as it first might seem, as in reality this mainly means the Progressive Black Metal is added to by some stirring, upliftingly bright melodic guitars that serve as an icing on top of a Blackened cake. Think the types of melodies used by bands like Killswitch Engage and the like, only Blacken it up some.

It’s an unusual route to take but it works well due to the coherent delivery. Ultimately, this is Post/Progressive Black Metal that’s modern and forward-thinking, yet retains an atavistic violence at its core.

The vocals are harsh screams, unyielding in their extremity and a definite counterpoint to the largely shiny, resplendent music. He sounds angry, and I like that. Clean vocals also appear occasionally, lending a despondent, lonesome edge to things.

Before listening to this, the low-rent album cover led me to believe I was in for some Old-School Darkthrone clone, but I was quite wrong. Between Man, God and False Idols has impressed. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than a lot and shows massive promise.

One to check out, for sure.

Meuchelmord – Apathie (Review)

Meuchelmord is a one-man Black Metal band from Germany and this is his latest release.

This is Depressive Black Metal that starts gently with a soft piano intro and quickly descends into the kind of despondent, oppressive music that Depressive Black Metal is all about.

Aspects of Shoegaze are present in the mix and the songs easily invoke feelings of sadness and nostalgia in the listener.

The vocals are mainly high-pitched screams that are just as serrated and barbed as you would expect, lashing out from the down-beat music like savage whips.

There’s a decent, fuzzy guitar sound that strikes just the right tone between being cold and emotive. The tracks are straightforward takes on the sub-genre and have enough dynamics and content to work.

Piano parts are artfully laced throughout the tracks just enough to add a further veneer of melancholy to things.

I favour this kind of music the slower and more miserable it sounds, and Apathie is no different.

Try this out for size.

Favourite Track: Jahr.

Stellar Master Elite – III: Eternalism – The Psychospherical Chapter (Review)

This is the third album from German Black Metallers Stellar Master Elite.

Here we have Black Metal that managers to foster an air of festering rot alongside a sophisticated malevolent darkness. It’s an intriguing combination that gives Stellar Master Elite a distincive flavour when compared to a lot of bands.

Their music has a depressive, Doom-drenched Black Metal base that’s not a million miles away from a band like Forgotten Tomb in spirit, although in reality they don’t sound too similar. The music is powerful and atmospheric without being pompous or overblown. This is very definitely epic music, but in a miserable, negativity-infused way.

The deep growling vocals consolidate the feelings of Funeral Doom/Death-gone-Black Metal. The singer’s voice is full of dark promise and has a gruff, tight character that allows it to be both brutal and compact. The screamed vocals are more typical-Black Metal, but no less effective for this. Clean vocals appear on the fourth track, adding yet another dimension to the band’s music.

Keyboards/synths/Hellsounds add a considerable amount to the already emotive Blackened dirge and it quickly becomes apparent that this is an integral aspect of the band’s music. They’re also creative and atypical in many respects, which is something I like.

This is a diverse and well-paced album, with lots to keep the listener interested and many different moods and palettes used effectively. There’s plenty of feeling thrown into the mix here, as well as a decent helping of prime-riffage. Occasionally the streamlined darkness that the band peddle brings to mind Enslaved and their sterling work in similar areas.

This is an impressive collection of long songs that successfully fuses Black Metal, Doom and all things dark and evil into 63 minutes of quality Metal.

Enjoy.

Deluge – Æther (Review)

This is the début album from Deluge, a French Post-Black Metal band.

The album cover alone was enough to entice me to listen to this as a priority, never mind anything else. For me, it’s a cover that promises much.

So on to the music – does it deliver on these early promises?

Well, it starts off without any fanfare or pointless intros; blast beats and an absolutely thunderous sound erupt from your speakers, and it’s like being hit by a wave of churning, violent noise. It’s a very strong opening.

Deluge play fast, violent Black Metal that’s enhanced and added to by more restrained and atmospheric Post-Metal influences. Merging these together, the band create Post-Black Metal that employs the best tools from both styles. But this is a merging that, for the most part, preferentially gives free rein to one or the other of the two; switching between styles with the effortless ease of a professional.

The songs benefit greatly from this approach. The blasting venom is first-rate and the more considered atmospherics are top-of-the-line as well. Resplendent melodies combine with the vitriolic Blackened delivery to create songs that are more powerful than if they were simply one thing or the other.

The vocals are angry Hardcore-esque screamed shouts that spit the French lyrics like they’re hot and poisonous.

Apart from the strength of the songs, (which is the main thing of course), and the album cover, the other main strength of Æther is the positively immense production. Sharp, modern and colossal; this is a recording that suits the band’s delivery and character.

So, back to the original question – does Æther deliver? Yes. Very much, yes.

Temple of Baal – Mysterium (Review)

This is the fifth album from this French Black Metal band.

Their fourth album Verses of Fire was 61 minutes of top quality Extreme Metal and was a welcome experience that was a slight change of direction from their earlier, purer Black Metal approach. That album brought more Death Metal influences into the mix, although their Blackened side was still a huge component in their sound.

Fast-forward to 2015 and Mysterium relegates the Death Metal influences to the back seat and their Black Metal roots get to set the direction once more. This is not the more primitive Black/Thrash of their older work though; this is more refined, epic and gloriously sophisticated in its realisation. As such, the songs are generally longer and more involved than their previous averages, and the thick dark aura of the songs is cloying with its aggressive malevolence.

This release is full of Blackened riffs, blasting fury and evocative melodies. There’s a driving majesty that underpins each of the tracks on this album, so regardless of the particular style of music that makes up any given section it’s holistically all brought together by an iron will and a coherent vision. This shouldn’t give the impression of an album that’s “all-over-the-place” or struggling to find an identity as there’s none of that here. Rather, this is sophisticated Black Metal that still takes influences from Death and Thrash Metal, but they’re subsumed into the overarching Blackened style and whatever the band does with these influences is consistent and reasonable within the confines of their sound.

These songs are well-written advanced exemplars of the style and each one brings something extra to the table.

The vocals are dark growling screams, perfectly suited to the environment they find themselves in.

The production of the album is a strong one; it’s huge and powerful yet manages to maintain the feeling of raw, restrained chaos and fettered Blackened evil that the songs exude as easily as breathing.

I was a fan of Versus of Fire, but this is better. The progression of their sound is welcome and it seems that Temple of Baal are one of those bands that are always looking to better themselves and to see what they can do better or different next time. It’s not a massive change in style, of course, but it’s enough to make Mysterium into an extremely compelling and engaging listen.

Overall, this album is a triumph and really, really strong. However, there are times on this release when they really outdo themselves. Sometimes, when the drums are blasting, the rhythm guitars are full of emotive darkness and the leads are exotic and powerful…well…it’s just a hair-raising experience.

Great stuff. I’m very happy with Mysterium.

Sacrilegious Impalement – First Three Nails (Review)

Sacrilegious Impalement are a Black Metal band from Finland.

This latest album collects together their three first releases – their début demo and two early EPs; Sacrilegious Impalement and World in Ashes.

The fact that their main songwriter is named Impaler Von Bastard means you know, or at least hope, this is gonna be class.

And it is.

With that in mind, this is raw and blasphemous Black Metal that takes the base skeleton of the genre and runs with it, faithfully recreating the core of the pure Black Metal style.

It’s a relentless assault that’s cold and frosted to the touch. This is Black Metal that lacks subtlety, mercy or any redeeming virtues. These songs drip with grimness and bile, as is their birthright. It exists to be pure fucking Black Metal and that is all.

The production is decent despite the raw nature of the music, and everything is audible and where it needs to be. It’s not an overly polished sound though, and the requisite underground feel is intact.

Even though this release features three releases a few years apart it still sounds coherent and consistent throughout, despite the slight variations in recording and writing.

For a fix of true Black Metal played proficiency and verve, Sacrilegious Impalement hit the spot.

Alastor Sanguinary Embryo – For Satan and the Ruin of the Divine (Review)

Alastor Sanguinary Embryo are a Black Metal band from Costa Rica. This is their third album.

This is Melodic/Symphonic Black Metal, but not necessarily in the way you might be thinking. A lot of the time these days Symphonic Black Metal is polished, ostentatious and overblown; this is more Old-School Symphonic Black Metal, if there is such a thing. We’re back in the ancient old days of early Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, et al for this one.

The keyboards are subtle affairs, (relatively), working to add flavour to the Blackened assault rather than trying to be overly-prominent or ruling the roost, so to speak. For this kind of Black Metal this is the preferred state of things and Alastor Sanguinary Embryo never lose their dark bite because of it.

There are a variety of moods, speeds and feelings on this release, but I find that I enjoy it the most when the band are in full-on blast beat mode, with everything fast, screeching and trying to outdo everything else.

The scathing vocals, sharp guitars and understated atmospheric keyboards provide a lot of Blackened entertainment throughout this 58 minutes and I like that the blast beats are never too far away from proceedings. Also – you can actually hear the bass, which is always a plus point. But, and get this – BASS SOLO! Fuck yeah!

Ahem.

Although some of the writing could do with tightening up on occasion, this is ultimately a really good exemplar of how Symphonic Black Metal should sound if you want a good taste of what the style was originally about, rather than what it’s largely become today.

A refreshing blast from the past; it’s hard to not enjoy this release as there’s such palpable enthusiasm and passion on display here. The songs are just really enjoyable, especially if you were brought up on this kind of thing.

Check them out.

Todesstoss – Hirngemeer (Review)

This is the seventh album from German Black Metal band Todesstoss.

At 75 minutes in length this is a long album that only contains 3 tracks. I mention this purely to set the scene for the kind of sprawling, unconventional, Blackened vision that Todesstoss have.

This is Experimental Black Metal that takes the serrated core of Black Metal and adds Electronica, Ambient, Martial, Dark Rock, Avant-Garde and Depressive tendencies to it, creating songs that are unhinged marvels of deranged darkness.

Various instruments and flashes of sound compliment the core instrumentation and the mangled, psychotic vocals punctuate the music like stab wounds. His violent outbursts are quite disturbed and fit the uncompromising music.

Think bands like Bethlehem/Burzum/Deinonychus/Dødheimsgard, only stretched out to the extreme.

There are a lot of themes and moods spread across these tracks and it’s clear that a lot of work and effort has gone into perfecting the meaning and rationale for the existence of every part of this music. To some listeners it may seem as if occasional bits of noise or instruments are randomly inserted here and there, but I suspect that everything is where it is for a reason.

These certainly aren’t songs in the traditional sense, but rather canvasses of sound that are used for exploratory experimentalism by their creators to give voice to what dwells inside them. It’s a fascinating insight into a warped psyche as portrayed via the medium of mutated, corrupted Black Metal.

This is not an album you enjoy in the traditional sense. It’s an album you survive, and then, suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, you develop an affinity for the abuse it puts you through and eventually go back to it time and time again for more punishment.

Let your re-education begin.

Fluisteraars – Luwte (Review)

Fluisteraars are a Black Metal band from the Netherlands and this is their second album.

Fluisteraars forge their windswept Black Metal from a core of the harsh, razor-sharp second-wave sound and build on this with expansive and emotive qualities to produce the Atmospheric Black Metal that we have on Luwte.

As noted above; their approach to lengthy Atmospheric Black Metal is a sharper and more dangerous proposition than most. Luwte shares more in common with the darker, more epic side of Burzum and Darkthrone than it does with Atmospheric Black Metal bands that incorporate Progressive and Post-Black Metal sounds into their music.

Icy, Blackened riffs tear out from the music like a blizzard, but this harshness is restrained by more melodic passages. These sections still have an affinity with the biting frost, but it’s a more insidious, creeping cold, and all the more deadly for it.

The music has a tendency to blow like a storm, interrupted by moments of calmer beauty that are still dark and foreboding, warning of what’s to come. The songs are punctuated violently by howling screams, although these are relatively few and far between, with the music remaining the focal point of the band.

Fluisteraars have created a deeply engaging album with Luwte. Rather than relying on keyboards, additional instruments or elements of different sub-genres, it’s nice to see Atmospheric Black Metal that takes its cues from the original, raw, frozen style.

Highly recommended.