Black Metal History Month - Ponte Del Diavolo : "Blades From the Tomb"

 

This Italian band is doing something different. Well to an extent. Hexvessel did make a black metal album with sung vocals last year, this band is taking that and giving it a more dissonant spin. Though there is plenty of melody to be found. They are taking post-punk and colliding it with black metal. Once again, it's not the first time thanks to Tombs, but this is done with this band's thumbprints. Proving you do not have to totally remake the wheel, to create relevant new music. Their singer will use harsher accents to the vocal but generally sings with moody melodic flare. 

Things take a turn towards doom on "Red as the sex of She who lives in death". This is a logical sonic step. Over the course of this epic, they manage to find their way back into the more blasty side of black metal. However, this is only one color they use to shade the song. They stay on this darker almost more progressive path until accelerating back into the blast of "La Razza". " They take post-punk tense and make it groove before throwing against the more aggressive black metal undercurrent. They dig into this with varying levels of heaviness. This is more of a mood rather than some of the more overt artists we have covered during Black Metal History Month this year. 

It does take me a few minutes to realize that "Zero" is not the previous song, meaning that even when doing things as interesting as this band does you can still fall into the lull of a uniformity in your sound. We can blame the blast beats. Male vocals add a new color to "The Weeping Song" which closes the album more intentionally. I will give this album a 9.5, and see how it grows on me. If you like goth, post-punk, black metal or doom, this is worth your time. 

pst76

Black Metal History Month- Hail Conjurer : "Satanic Phenomenology"

 

We continue our tour of Scandinavia with a trip to Finland. Finnish Black metal tends to fall along the more raw and under-produced side of things so I normally do not dive into as much. This album falls closer to the side of early Mayhem in the noise it kicks up. The vocals often erupt from more of a croak. It has a very dark mood so that is playing to the first song's favor.  There are creepy interludes of sound sprinkled about and they are not shy about leaning into doomy tendencies. I am not sure that is as ritualistic as they think it is, but  I am fine with the vibe. 

This is almost an EP if you take away all the interludes that are almost as long as the actual song. There is almost more of a Venom stomp to the blown-out beast that is "Katharsis". It is not as refined of a song as the previous song but works for the type of midnight grave robbing they are painting with the sounds being cranked out here. I am impressed that this is not a blast fest, even though it sounds like this is being played by cavemen, it still works with its primitive charm. 

I often do not think of Celtic Frost as one of the originators of black metal despite their name being brought up all the time, but I can hear their influence on "Fiery Serpent". The last song is twice the length of the others at almost ten minutes, It is less doomy, and more like you might expect from Finnish Black Metal. Overall I enjoyed the mood this album created, it's raw and cvlt sounding but still is made of well-crafted songs, showing why not do both. I will give this a 9. 

pst75

Nadine Shah : "Filthy Underneath"

 

This marks the 4th album we have reviewed by Nadine Shah. Her first is our favorite so far. She has progressed past the point of being post-punk. There is a stark mood that still lingers around the smoother grooves she continues to polish.  On the lead single "Topless Mother" her voice feels like it is taking the role a horn section would normally occupy in the arrangement. It is not the hook fest you might imagine a single to be. "Food For Fuel' feels more interesting with its snake-charming bass line. Though the first three songs are all very effective at what they do, they just do three very different things. 

Shah does have a great voice, but her main strength as a singer is knowing where to put her voice that best serves the song which is a skill she continues to sharpen on songs like "You Drive, I Shoot". The beat is minimalist, but she makes the most of it. However, this skill alone is not enough when the instrumentation is not aiding her with an attempt to groove, which can be heard in "Keeping Score" . Sure it is better than most of what you hear on the radio these days, Taylor Swift excluded, but we have heard better from her, and that is the bar we are measuring this album by. 

"Sad LadsAnonymous" is spoken word over a bass groove, that feels like a Tricky b-side. Lyrically there is more attention to detail in the bitting commentaries she has built this album around. This is much less of a rock record than what we have heard from her in the past, as is more beat-reliant in a manner that puts this closer to pop music, just without the commercialized aspirations. She allows the moods to drone and speculate. "French Exit" has a slightly darker touch to it, that reminds me as a whole this album has not been all that darker. The mood is more of a skeptical hope. It works off a tension that never climaxes. Still her voice sounds great and overall everything typically works certainly better than most of the pop music on the radio, I will give it a 9, which puts it alongside her other albums. 

pst74

Black Metal History - Dead Earth : "Et Disperdam Illud"

It is not surprising that another Scandinavian releasing a new album has deep ties to black metal, and metal in general given the fact that Mathias used to play for Hypocrisy. He is also from the band Algaion. Given his veteran status., he knows a thing or two and had the good sense to bring in some friends to help him with this album rather than trying to do it all himself, when playing drums is not his forte. This also prevents him from having to resort to drum programming. Kim Arnell from Morifade handles the drum duties. There is not a great deal of new ground being broken, however, what he is treading upon here is really well done.

By the third song "Doom Cerulean" there is more of a mid-tempo feel and flourishes of melodic ambiance.  Interestingly, cerulean is in the song's title, as the word which looks and sounds cool, just means the color blue that is found in the sky. Not very dark in concept.  In some regards, the same could be said about what is going down here, but the purposeful manner of the execution almost makes me forget this ominous sound is just referring to the sky, even the lyrics being screamed refer to stars shining. Perhaps it is an ominous metaphor about aliens. "Swords Drawn" is more along the lines of the kind of typical black metal you expect to hear in 2024. Once again really well, and enough thought was put into it that convinced me they care about the song. 

Perhaps this is a joke and this is really blue metal, since  "Lazurite Throne" is also a song on this album, and Lazurite is blue. The growl to this blue metal classic is lower and more death metal, finding the song itself leaning in more of a death metal direction."Speaking Silence' is a more deliberate gallop that not only flows better but sets the stage for sung vocals that break the mood up and add more colors aside from blue and black. "Pyres" just blasts along with epic bombast. It hits all the places most people want, but is also not all that original. To this project's credit, the songs are not long winding droning sprawls of sound, but very purposeful songs. I think they have covered almost every style of black metal scream. They write some riffs with an eerie ring to them, which goes a long way in my book. I will give this album a 9, it sums up a great deal of Swedish Black Metal. 

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pst73

Black Metal History Month : Jordsjuk : "Råtner På Rot"

 

This band has quite a Black Metal history, featuring members of Urgehal, Djvel, and Koldbrann. They are pretty straightforward and feel more like they are from Sweden than Norway, but what they do work, as they are more riff-oriented than holding a static tension with the buzz of tremolo picking. This is just a four-song EP , but it gives you enough info to show you what these guys are about. The first song reminds me of Watain when they are in their more feral jackhammer-at-you mode. It works well enough for what it is, but not something I would want an entire album of. But that is ok because they do have the sense to switch things up and hit you with various tempos. In the fact the first song is one of the few moments where they revert to blast beats. 

Their reluctance to blast the night away plays in their favor. This is not to say that all of the songs are more pulsing, in fact, they do return to blast beats on the last, song which puts them at fifty percent. This is a better percentage than most black metal bands. It is not that I do not like blast beats, I think there is a time and a place for them. These guys seem pretty confident that they are using them in the most prudent manner. In some ways, they remind me of Marduk, in how they are almost like a black metal version of Motorhead, stripped down, with no synths or atmospherics, the vocals are a coarse mid-range rasp that delivers the lyrics with the needed aggression, but nothing above or beyond that. 

The last song is my favorite "Viva La Apocalypse". It pulls everything together and lets me know what these guys are about. There is nothing spooky or Satanic about them, but the fact that they are celebrating the apocalypse is enough for me. It goes to show there are other ways to be convincingly at one with darkness without being suicidal or satanic. Not that I disapprove of either of those sentiments, I would rather hear the angle this band takes than have some one just pretending to be depressed or down with the Devil. I will give this one a 9, they care about writing songs, and it pays off for them. 

pst72

The Dead South : "Chains & Stakes"

 One of the best modern bluegrass quartets is back with a collection of songs that finds them moving back in a darker direction. They move back in the direction of Murder Ballads. The first song gradually gains momentum as their fleet fingers dance up the necks of their respective instruments. "Yours to Keep" has some swagger in its strut, while "20 Mile Jump" is slightly more upbeat. "A Little Devil" is one of the album's lead singles for good reason. It demonstrates what is most effective for the band and finds them firing it off perfectly. Punchy accent that brings an almost rock feel to instrumentation that is clearly not. The vocal harmonies are smooth with a touch of melancholy. 

They play a more conventional bluegrass version on the song "Son of Ambrose". While they are certainly skilled at it and even then bring their fingerprint to it, it leans closer to being too straightforward for my taste. But appreciate their ability to play by these rules, as you could play it for your hillbilly grandparents and they would be prone to dance a jig. There are a few instrumental interludes that I am not counting for the purpose of this review some of them carry sonic shade I wish would have been worked into actual songs. "Completely Sweetly" is another really strong contender for being the album's best song. The vocals sit just right in the darker groove of the song. 

The ballad " A Place I Hardly Know" works really well with the regaling drunken turns of fortune.  "Cured Contessa' is about how momma loves her bacon. "Tiny Wooden Box" is another one of the singles that preceded the album, and was also wisely chosen. "Father John" closes the album with a moody introspective that still works pretty well even if it is not the album's strongest song. Will give this album a 9.5, as it finds these guys remaining consistent in what they do which is already pretty great. 

pst71

Infected Rain :'TIME"

If there was ever a band that supported my claim that djent is really just technical nu-metal, this band would lend credence to my theory. They are dark and emotive while banging out dense grooves with industrial-strength guitar tones. They do care about songs and bring a side of atmosphere and thoughtful vocals to things. The vocal hooks sometimes stick better than other times, though typically speaking Lena Scissorhands shows more spunk than most of the other female metal singers trying similar approaches. This album does feel heavier than their last, as the guitars have a bigger more aggressive edge to them. 

"Never to Return" shows their gentler side to some extent, though this is the kind of soft-to-loud formula nu-metal kept popular in the 90s. They may be taking it to a more extreme realm here. "Lighthouse" places the spotlight on Scissorhand's voice more solidly, which seems to have expanded its mastery over her cleaner singing on this album. This plays in the favor of their songwriting here. Atmosphere is used in a manner not unlike what Deftones do. With a song like "The Answer is You"  there is the chance to hear how easily nu-metal can also be connected to metalcore. The vocals focus more on being punchy than hooky here. This is done but with more ambiance on '"Vivarium".  

A more uniform bouncing pound settles into things for a couple of songs, with the mood broken up by the melodic middle section to "Enimity". I like her vocal phrasing on that one.  Though lyrically it's a little self-pitying. Yet that was a theme of nu-metal. Ironically around "Unpredictable" things become predictable, though in the case of "Unpredictable," it is more tightly written than the songs that begin to blend with its pulse. "Game of Blame" is more like a pop ballad. Despite the guitar lurking closer toward the back of the mix at times, and the more growled progression there is something about it that reminds me of Madonna. "Paura" feels like it picks up where the previous song left off when it kicks in. There is more dynamic nuance that gives the vocals more room. I will give this album a 9, as they have really dialed their sound in and she continues to grow in interesting ways as a singer. 

pst70