Black Metal History Month- Domhain : " In Perfect Stillness"

The shoe-gazing form of black metal might not be seen as problematic as the larger entity of the genre; perhaps it is due to the lyrics being more about getting into your feelings. Alcest certainly felt more like fairy music. This band from Belfast splits the difference between what Alcest does and Deafheaven. It is also very well proudced whic refines some of the sharper edges down to smoothly curved turns into the often dynamic passages that do not feel that dark, but perhaps some lingering melancholy.

"Footsteps" finds things heading in a more progressive direction; this reminds me more of Enslaved's later work, though not as dark or Nordic. They are great musicians, but I am not hearing any menace in what they do to make them feel heavy. Some tremolo-picked guitars come in to help hike up the intensity, but there is a difference between more intense and heavy. In truth, the title track is the first song that is actually black metal. The vocals get meaner, and some of the slick melodic sheen gets peeled back. Midway into the song, things progress to a moodier with almost too much of a silver lining, but it still works. 

The album closes with "My Tomb Beneath the Tide." The fall back into a more lingering prog tinged reflection, with very well done sung vocals establishing a mood in a more Katatonia-like manner. This is contrasted by a lower death metal snarl. An articulated snarl that allows the lyrics to come through. I will give this album a 9 as ot dark enough to be black metal, but great progressive post-metal, which is a rising niche market.

Black Metal History Month- Bizarrekult : "Alt Som Finnes"

I noticed today how some metal sites are beginning to steer away from black metal as it's and hateful for them, so I must pick up the slack and dig deeper.. Here is a project based in Norway that offers a rather dynamic take on the genres rooted in solid songwriting. The first song smurpose on the second while ending on where you are in the song. The vocals are a wrath-filled scowl. Though more singing appears the further into the album you travel. The drums are more deliberate than not. They lock into a dense throb for "Avmakt." It is more than just senseless blasting.

"Hap" is more atmospheric and finds them weaving a beautifully bleak shade into the sonic fabric of the song. There was a hint of the more depressive elements as an undercurrent, but I enjoy them coming to the surface here, making this my favorite song so far. They kick into a higher gear of intensity for "Drom". They shift through several dark and dynamic layers of anguished sound as the song unfolds. There is a more epic swagger, empowering gallop to the riff of "Verdens Verste". It brings Enslaved to mind.

"Aversjon" comes clsoer to what you might expect from black metal as it flows from a sweeping tremolo-picked riff. The drums drive the last song until it dips down into a more sparse melodic break. When they build back into the blast, there is a more Deafheaven feel. Overall, I like where they go with this album and the emotional range it is willing to venture into, so I will give it a 9.5. Out on Season of Mist.

Black Metal History Month- Into the Dark Castle of Dimmu Borgir's "Abrahadabra"

 

The bar was high for this album, as it meant this new incarnation of the band had to prove themselves after releasing the best album of the year, but without ICS Vortex, whose operatic vocal hooks were now a staple of their sound. They doubled down on the orchestrations with the drummer from Vader and Snowy Shaw on bass, who would also handle most of the clean vocals, though Agnete from Djerv also lent a hand most notably on the lead single "Gateways," which is one of the band's best songs. The opening track, "Born Treacherous," was hooky enough to work and prove they still had it. 

This album showcases Shagrath's best vocal performance, as he was forced to show up and carry more of the melodic weight. He is called to sing a couple of times throughout the album and does so in a low, gothic baritone.I love how crazed Agnete's vocals sound when she flies into "Gateways". The album's hookiest melody comes in as the song builds to its climax at the end. By the time we get to "Chess With the Abyss," it is clear the motto for this album is go big or go home. The orchestral elements are often the center of the songs, but things stay dark and anthemic, which is a unique balance. 

Snowy's voice sometimes almost sounds like Agnete's. "The Ritualist" is a case in point, and fitting that Snowy is on the track since he used to play for King Diamond, and the song reminds me a little of King Diamond. "The Demiurge Molecule" is a great display of songwriting. Darker than it is heavy, and the symphony haunting it does not detract from the tone by romanticizing it. The first song on this album that finds them embracing a more intense speed is "A Jewel Traced Through Coal". They, however, double down with the more aggressive "Renewal," which even then is balanced out by melody and shifts on the verse. The last song finds Snowy Shaw offering his best epic metal vocal to fill the gap left by Vortex, and it works.  While I like both of the covers on this album, they were bonus tracks, so for the purpose of this review not digging into them, but will go ahead and give this one a 10 as they overcame and proved themselves once again. It's underrated and if you like their earlier work is worth a listen. 

Carpenter Brut : "Leather Temple"

 

Technically, this is the French Synth wave purveyor's 3rd full-length since the first album wa a compilation of the eps. The opening track delivers what you expect, and the title track is hooky with its syncopated punch. They keep the momentum going, though the songs begin to run together for me about three songs in, as the uptempo drive of "She Rules the Ruins' sounds like video game music. I am not huge into instrumental music but have a surious respect for this genre and appreciate the aggressive nature of this music with its use of synths occupying the space guitars would normally occupy. 

"Start Your Engines" continues to use the dance beat that the synth melodies bob over in a lighter fashion than some of the previous songs that sound more like an anime soundtrack. "Neon Requiem" indulges the more 80s-inspired side of the genres main stream tendcies and includes a saxophone dipping in for a minute. There is a marginally heavier pulse to "Iron Sanctuary". 

There is more of a break beat to "The Misfits the Rebels," which hits with a more in-your-face energy when it kicks in, but ebbs back down to the more electronic shuffle. Artists like this can struggle with the balance of sound vs a song, since the entire genre is built on capturing this sound. But there are enough dynamics in play to prove he cares about songs. Funny enough to be called "Speed or Perish," the song is not the album's fastest and works off a pretty solid mid-paced groove. 

Speaking of groove, the last songs find and almsot Nine Inch Nails-like groove. It's on the slower, more introspective side. Think "Fragile", not "Downward Spiral". In fact, this album is not all that dark or heavy, though perhaps heavier than some of the Miami Vice soundtrack styled synth wave bands, but aside from the title track and maybe two other songs, this album is less metal adjacent in its heavier leaning. I will give it an 8.5. If you are into this sort of thing in the broader scope, it is going to deliver the soundtrack to the dystopian future you fantasize about that is not as dark as the one I have in mind. 

pst73

Black Metal History Month- Misotheist : "De Pinte"

Yes, there is still new Black Metal coming out of Norway, though four albums into their career, Misotheist are still new if you are comparing them to Mayhem and Burzum. There is also a fair amount of death metal aggression buried inthe cavernous darkness of their aggressive sound. The vocals bellow with a lower throaty growl. On the rawer more early second wave side of the classic equation, they balance this out with the sheer heft of their sound. To their credit, they are also not just dependent on blast beats. They can still summon a swirl of sound with this. I enjoy the opening track, so let's see if the rest of the album can hold up. 

The second song, "Blinded and Revealed," hits with a more intense punch that harnesses a more chaotic anger. It reminds me of Marduk in the straightforward manner they hit you head-on with the sonic hammering; it is not until later in the song that an eerie melody rings out within the layers of guitar. "Kjetterdom" slows things down to a more icy tension, which helps the overall dynamics of the album and gives your ears the needed break. 

The title track that closes the album is 21 minutes, and I can not think of any reason that a song needs to be that long. A great deal of the fat that needs to be trimmed is in the intro. It takes three minutes for the vocals to come in. The song moves at a slower pace that might warrant an 11 minutes if they are taking us to the intersection of funeral doom and depressive black metal. But it turns into a cavernous death metal closer to Incantation until the end of the song, when things take on a more intense darkness, cool sounds, but no reason for over twenty minutes of them. I will give this album an 8.5; it solidly puts them on my map, I wish they would focus more on songwriting, but if you want some black metal that takes from the Scandinavian roots and adds a more modern sonci intensity, this is worth your time. 

3.7

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pst72

Black Metal History Month - Into the Dark Castle of Dimmu Borgir's "In Sorte Diaboli"

 

Sometimes there are albums like this one that jsut hit the perfect place in time. It almost feels silly to review something this perfect. Hellhammer's playing solidifies his place as black metal's best drummer. It is the last Dimmu Borgir album we are going to hear ICS Vortex's voice on, which hurts them on albums to come. When everything falls into place like this, your dodn't want to mess with this chemistry. But the show had to go on, and the album after this is really great, but I think they set the bar so high for themselves it is intimidating to them to go back into the studio. 

It is an aggressive album. But there are tremendous riffs that pull it all together. The production is stellar. The mix had to be rough as there is so much going on at the same time at great speeds. While I think Shagrath's performance reaches his peak level on the next album, it's clear the production is dialed in, and he covers a great deal of dyanmic vocal colorswith the limited range he has to work with, making him one of the best black metal vocalists. The lyrics are even more pronounced on this album. This is highlighted on "Sacralicious Scorn". Vortex's vocal hook is one of his strongest performances ever. The epitome of hooky black metal. 

 "The Sinister Awakening." find Hellhammer playing like a machine as the tension flows in a manner that makes the riffs more effective when they do punch. There is a harder-hitting syncopation to "the Fundamental Alienation." They are consistently packing the most dynamics and sonic layers into this five-minute format. One thing I like about digging back into older albums is the chance to rediscover songs I might have overlooked on previous listens, which is the case with the last song, which is pretty dark for a band that deals in a darker form of metal, but is a more cartoonish super villain manner to some extent no matter the amount of pentagram used. I will give this album a 10, it's almost an 11, more than likely would be in my top 40 metal albums of all time. 

pst71

Qveen Herby : "Isle of Qveen"

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This is the pop artist's second full-length. She combines a catchy blend of rapping and singing. The wheel is not being re-invented, but what she doe ha a smart streak of creativity and perhaps more attitude now than when I first heard her. For someone from Nebraska, her approach is rather racially ambiguous, which plays to her favor when it comes to the more hip-hop elements. Her approach to rapping is fresh as she has plenty of hooks and an effective voice and lyrics that are almsot equal parts ghetto and whimsical. One of the lead singles, "The Fool"  features Thot Squad, which helped pique my interest, though this is not the first time she has been reviewed here. 

The more sexual elements do not feel like she is exploiting it any more than any other female rapper. But image-wise, she is not flaunting it, and her look is fairly conservative for rap. Almost more of a refined Lady GaGa thing going on. Why am I talking about her look rather than her music, ok go ahead and complain how if it wa a male artist, I wouldn ot do the same thing, which I would then refer you to reviews of bands like Ghost, Sleep Token, and President, who are selling image in equal proportion. 

By the time we get to "High Priestess," it feels like the formula is well in place, even though it leans in a more melodic direction. "Medicine Woman" feels more like a song Shanin Blake would do. "Hacky Sack" is more in her wheelhouse, but this syncopated style of singing she employs is less varied than the first half of the album, so it kind of sounds like something we have heard from her already. I will give this a 9 as she understood the assignment and made a fun pop album that grooveswith enough hooks. 

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