Lotan – Yetzer Hara Review

By Samguineous Maximus

It’s always interesting to follow a band’s career arc through AMG reviews. The last time Lotan appeared in the hallowed halls of this fine site was in 2023, when my superior Thus Spoke took a righteous hammer to their debut. She found the Danish band’s take on the “trvest of stvles” underwhelming—citing unfocused black metal stylings, monotonous pacing, and lackluster production as key shortcomings. Now, Lotan is back with Yetzer Hara, a slab of blackened death inspired by Cain and Abel, with the intent to explore and embody “the destructive urges that define Humanity’s fall from grace.” Can Lotan surpass their debut and carve a name for themselves on the black/death pantheon’s gnarled mural?

Yetzer Hara is remarkably consistent in both ferocity and misanthropic grandeur. Lotan have found their own sound by splitting the difference between mid-period Behemoth and Mgla while leaning into the knuckle-dragging heft of blackened death’s slower moments. This record consists of more than just blast beats and tremolos, with every song oscillating fluidly between satisfyingly ignorant chugs, wintery minor chord arpeggios and even Panzerfaust-flavored atmospheric pullbacks. These pieces are deployed sensibly and arranged with a keen sense of pacing that makes each tune’s blackened bounty a joy to partake in. Subtle differentiations like a menacing clean break (“Scorched Tyranny”), a thrash-infused breakdown (“Heksenat”), and a harmonized tremolo-led climax (“Violent End”) help inject just enough variety to prevent Lotan’s aural assault from growing too stale, though many of the songs tread fairly similar territory.

It helps that this vile batch of tunes is aided by a stunning production job that sounds modern and massive but not overproduced. Lotan clearly took the criticisms of their debut to heart and have corrected course with a Jakob Gundel (Blazing Eternity, Ethereal Kingdoms) mix and master that maintains brutality without sacrificing clarity. This allows vocalist Martin Rubini’s venom-drenched snarls to cut through with particular force on repeated choruses like “Crown of Rope” and “Righteous Fury.” Bassist Philip Kaaber provides a thick, grounding low end, while drummer Jon Elmquist shines with a dynamic, full-bodied drum tone that gives his blistering blasts and agile tom work a serious punch. This makes tracks like the 1914-tinged blood-pumping opener “Minenwafer” and blackened riff showcase “Omnicide Manifest” hit that much harder. Yetzer Hara sounds so great as to nearly mitigate its potential weaknesses.

I only wish Lotan brought a tad more originality or creativity in the construction of the parts themselves. Guitarists Lasse Heiburg and Andy Dragsberg deliver a solid showcase of riffs and offer some nice interplay between each other, but they lean too heavily on genre comfort zones. Yetzer Hara features no fewer than 5 distinct riffs that are only slight variations of the classic Emperor “Ye Entrancempereum” motif. This isn’t necessarily a cardinal sin (it’s a great riff to crib from and plenty of bands have), but alongside the occasional generic tremolo run or faceless chug, it can leave certain stretches of the album feeling somewhat anonymous. There are points where this approach works—like the “so-dumb-it’s-good” Oppenheimer “I have become death” sample into satisfyingly ignorant breakdown on closer “Righterous Fury”—but overall Yetzer Hara could use just a touch more inventiveness in its riffcraft to differentiate Lotan from the unwashed ranks of blackened death hopefuls.

Lotan have stepped up from their disappointing debut to deliver a solid slab of bludgeoning blackened death metal. Yetzer Hara is equal parts barbaric and treacherous, and its brisk 40-minute runtime makes it ideal for concentrated blasts of “kvlt” injections. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it sharpens the spokes and sets it on fire, which is sometimes enough. If on a future record, Lotan can bring more originality to their writing without sacrificing their newfound focus, they might just carve their name into the obsidian stone they’re so eager to chisel.

Rating: Good
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Emanzipation Productions
Websites: facebook.com/lotanband
Releases Worldwide: August 15th, 2025

#1914 #2025 #30 #Aug25 #Behemoth #BlackMetal #BlazingEternity #DanishMetal #EmanzipationProductions #Emperor #EtherealKingdoms #Lotan #MelodicBlackMetal #Mgła #Panzerfaust #Review #Reviews #YetzerHara

Stuck in the Filter: January 2025’s Angry Misses

By Kenstrosity

We enter January under the impression that our underpowered filtration system couldn’t possibly get any more clogged up. Those blistering winds that overwhelm the vents with an even greater portion of debris and detritus pose a great challenge and a grave danger to my minions. Crawling through the refuse as more flies in all william-nilliam, my faithful lackeys brave the perils of the job and return, as they always do, with solid chunks of semi-precious ore.

And so I stand before you, my greedy little gremlins, in a freshly pressed flesh suit that only the elite like myself adorn, and present January 2025’s Filter finds. REJOICE!

Kenstrosity’s Fresh(ish) Finds

Bloodcrusher // Voidseeker [January 9th, 2025 – Barf Bag Records]

The sun rises on a new year, and most are angrier than ever. What’s a better way to process that anger than jamming a phat slab of brutal slamming deathcore into your gob, right? Oregon one-man-slammajamma Bloodcrusher understand this, and so sophomore outburst Voidseeker provides the goods. These are tunes meant not for musicality or delicacy but for brute-force face-caving. Ignorant stomps and trunk-rattling slams trade blows with serrated tremolo slides and a dry pong snare with a level of ferocity uncommon even in this unforgiving field (“Agonal Cherubim ft. Jack Christensen”). Feel the blistering heat of choice cuts “Serpents Circle ft. Azerate Nakamura” or “Death Battalion: Blood Company ft. The Gore Corps” and you have no choice but to submit to their immense heft. Prime lifting material, Voidseeker’s most straightforward cuts guarantee shattered PRs and spontaneous combustion of your favorite gym shorts as your musculature explodes in volume (“Slave Cult,” “Sanguis Aeternus,” “Blood Frenzy”). If you ask me, that sounds like a wonderful problem to have. As they pummel your cranium into dust with deadly slam riffs (“Malus et Mortis ft. Ryan Sporer,” “Seeker of the Void,” “Earthcrusher”) or hack and slash your bones with serrated tremolos (“Razors of Anguish,” “Methmouth PSA”), remember that Bloodcrusher is only trying to help.

Skaldr // Saṃsṛ [January 31st, 2025 – Avantgarde Music]

Virginia’s black metal upstarts Skaldr don’t do anything new. If you’ve heard any of black metal’s second wave, or even more melodic fare by some of my favorite meloblack bands like Oubliette, Stormkeep, and Vorga, Skaldr’s material feels like a cozy blanket of fresh snow. Kicking off their second record, Saṃsṛ, in epic fashion, “The Sum of All Loss” evokes a swaying dance that lulls me into its otherwordly arms. As Saṃsṛ progresses through its seven movements, tracks like the gorgeous “Storms Collide” and the lively “The Crossing” strike true every synapse in my brain, flooding my system with a goosebump-inducing fervor quelled solely by the burden of knowing it must end. Indeed, these short 43 minutes leave me ravenous for more, as Skaldr’s lead-focused wiles charm me over and over again without excess repetition of motifs or homogenization of tones and textures (“From Depth to Dark,” “The Cinder, The Flame, The Sun”). Some of its best moments eclipse its weakest, but weak moments are thankfully few and far between. In reality, Skaldr‘s most serious flaw is that they align so closely with their influences, thereby limiting Saṃsṛ‘s potential to stand out. Nonetheless, it represents one of the more engaging and well-realized examples of the style. Hear it!

Subterranean Lava Dragon // The Great Architect [January 23rd, 2025 – Self Release]

Formed from members of Black Crown Initiate and Minarchist, Pennsylvania’s Subterranean Lava Dragon take the successful parts of their pedigree’s progressive death metal history and transplant them into epic, fantastical soundscapes on their debut LP The Great Architect. Despite the riff-focused, off-kilter nature of The Great Architect, there lies a mystical, mythical backbone behind everything Subterranean Lava Dragon do (“The Great Architect,” “Bleed the Throne”). Delicate strums of the guitar, multifaceted percussion, and noodly soloing provide a thoughtful thread behind the heaviest crush of prog-death riffs and rabid roars, a combination that favorably recalls Blind the Huntsmen (“The Silent Kin,” “A Dream of Drowning”). In a tight 42 minutes, Subterranean Lava Dragon approaches progressive metal with a beastly heft and a compelling set of teeth—largely driven by the expert swing and swagger of the bass guitar—that differentiates The Great Architect from the greater pool of current prog. Yet, its pursuit of creative song structure, reminiscent of Obsidious at times, allows textured gradations and nuanced layers to elevate the final product (“A Question of Eris,” “Ov Ritual Matricide”). It is for these reasons that I heartily recommend The Great Architect to anyone who appreciates smart, but still dangerous and deadly, metal.

Thus Spoke’s Likeable Leftovers

Besna // Krásno [January 16th, 2025 – Self Release]

It was the esteemed Doom et Al who first made me aware of Solvakian post-black group Besna. 2022’s Zverstvá was charming and moving in equal respects, with its folky vibe amplifying the punch of blackened atmosphere and epicness. With Krásno, the group take things in a sharper, more refined, and still more compelling direction, showing real evolution and improvement. The vague leanings towards the electronic play a larger role (“Zmráka sa,” “Hranice”), but songs also make use of snappier, and stronger emotional surges (“Krásno,” “Mesto spí”), the polished production to the atmospherics counterbalanced sleekly by the rough, ardent screams and pleasingly prominent percussion. Krásno literally translates as ‘beautiful,’ and Besna get away with titling their sophomore so bluntly because it is accurate. Melodies are more sweeping and stirring (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Meso spí”), and the integration of the harsh amidst the mellow is executed more affectively (“Hranice,” “Bezhviezdna obloha”) than in the band’s previous work. Particularly potent are Krásno’s subtle nods and reprises of harmonic themes spanning the record (“Krásno,” “Oceán prachu,” “Mesto spí”), recurring like waves in an uplifting way that reminds me of Deadly Carnage‘s Through the Void, Above the Suns. Barely scraping past half an hour, the beautiful Krásno can be experienced repeatedly in short succession; which is the very least this little gem deserves.

Tyme’s Ticking Bomb

Trauma Bond // Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone [January 12, 2025 – Self-Released]

Conceptualized by multi-instrumentalist Tom Mitchell1 and vocalist Eloise Chong-Gargette, London, England’s Trauma Bond plays grindcore with a twist. Formed in 2020 and on the heels of two other EPs—’21’s The Violence of Spring and ’22’s Winter’s Light—January 2025 sees Trauma Bond release its first proper album, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone, the third in a seasonally themed quadrilogy. Twisting and reshaping the boundaries of grindcore, not unlike Beaten to Death or Big Chef, Trauma Bond douses its grind with a gravy boat full of sludge. Past the moodily tribal and convincing intro “Brushed by the Storm” lies fourteen minutes of grindy goodness (“Regards,” “Repulsion”), sludgian skullduggery (“Chewing Fat”), and caustic cantankerousness (“Thumb Skin for Dinner”). You’ll feel violated and breathless even before staring down the barrel of nine-and-a-half minute closer “Dissonance,” a gargantuanly heavy ear-fuck that will liquefy what’s left of the organs inside your worthless skin with its slow, creeping sludgeastation. I was not expecting to hear what Trauma Bond served up, as the minimalist cover art drew me in initially, but I’m digging it muchly. Independently released, Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone is a hell of an experience and should garner Trauma Bond a label partner. I’ll be hoping for that, continuing to support them, and looking forward to whatever autumn brings.

Iceberg’s Bleak Bygones

Barshasketh // Antinomian Asceticsm [January 9th, 2025 – W.T.C Productions]

My taste for black metal runs a narrow, anti-secondwave path. I want oppressive, nightmarish atmosphere, sure, but I also crave rich, modern production and technically proficient instrumental performances. Blending the fury of early Behemoth, the cinematic scope of Deathspell Omega, and the backbeat-supported drones of Panzerfaust, Barshasketh’s latest fell square in my target area. The pealing bells of “Radiant Aperture” beckoned me into Antinomian Asceticsm’s sacred space, a dark world populated with rippling drum fills, surprisingly melodic guitar work, and a varied vocal attack that consistently keeps things fresh. With the average track length in the 6-minute territory, repeat listens are necessary to reveal layers of rhythm and synth atmosphere that give the album its complexity. A throwaway interlude (“Phaneron Engulf”) and a drop in energy in the second and third tracks stop this from being a TYMHM entry, but anyone with a passing interest in technical black metal with lots of atmosphere should check this out.

Deus Sabaoth // Cycle of Death [January 17th, 2025 – Self-Released]

Deus Sabaoth have a lot going for them to catch my attention, beyond that absolutely entrancing cover art. Released under the shadow of war, this debut record from the Ukrainian trio bills itself as “Baroque metal,” another tag that piqued my interest. Simply put, Deus Sabaoth play melodic black metal, but there’s a lot more brewing under the surface. I hear the gothic, unsettled storytelling of The Vision Bleak, the drenching laments of Draconian, and the diligent, dynamic riffing of Mistur. The core metal ensemble of guitar, bass and drums is present, but the trio is augmented by a persistent accompaniment of piano and strings. The piano melodies—often doubled on the guitar—are where the baroque influence shines the greatest, echoing the bouncing, repetitive styling of a toccata (“Mercenary Seer,” “Faceless Warrior”). The vocals are something of an acquired taste, mainly due to their too-far-forward mix, but there’s a vitality and drive to this album that keeps me hooked throughout. And while its svelte 7 song runtime feels more like an EP at times, Cycle of Death shows enough promise from the young band that I’ll keep my eyes peeled in the future.

GardensTale’s Tab of Acid

I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs // I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs [January 27th, 2025 – Self-released]

When you name yourself after a famous Salvador Dalí quote, you better be prepared to back it up with an appropriate amount of weird shit. Thankfully, I Don’t Do Drugs, I Am Drugs strives to be worthy of the moniker. The band’s self-titled debut is a psychedelic prog-death nightmare of off-kilter riffs, structures that seem built upon dream logic, layers of ethereal synths and bizarre mixtures of vocal styles. The project was founded by Scott Hogg, guitarist for Cyclops Cataract, who is responsible for everything but the vocals. That includes all the songwriting. Hogg throws the listener off with an ever-shifting array of Gojira-esque plodding syncopation and thick, throbbing layers of harmonics that lean discordant without fully shifting into dissonance. But the songs float as easily into other-worldly soundscapes (“The Tree that Died in it’s[sic] Sleep”) or off-putting balladry (“Confierous”). BP of Madder Mortem handles vocals, and he displays an aptitude for the many facets required to buoy the intriguing but unintuitive music, his shouts and screams and cleans and hushes often layered together in strange strata either more or less than human. The combined result resembles a nightmare Devin may have had around 2005 after listening too much Ephel Duath. It’s not yet perfected; the ballad doesn’t quite work, and the compositions are sometimes a bit too dedicated to their lack of handholds. But it’s a hell of a trip, and a very convincing mission statement. A band to keep an eye on!

Dear Hollow’s Gunk Behooval

Bloodbark // Sacred Sound of Solitude [January 3rd, 2025 – Northern Silence Productions]

Bloodbark’s debut Bonebranches offered atmospheric black metal a minimalist spin, as cold and relentless as Paysage d’Hiver, as textured as Fen, and as barren as the mountains it depicts, exuding a natural crispness that recalls Falls of Rauros. Seven years later, we are graced with its follow-up, the majestic Sacred Sound of Solitude. Like its predecessor, the classic atmoblack template is cut with post-black to create an immensely rich and dynamic tapestry, lending all the hallmarks of frostbitten blackened sound (shrieks, blastbeats, tremolo) with the depth of a more modern approach. Twinkling leads, frosty synths, and forlorn piano survey the frigid vistas, while the more furious blackened portions scale snowbound peaks, utilized with the utmost restraint and bound by yearning chord progressions (“Glacial Respite,” “Griever’s Domain”). A new element in the act’s sound is clean vocals (“Time is Nothing,” “Augury of Snow”), which lend a far more melancholy vibe alongside trademark shrieking. Bloodbark offers top-tier atmospheric black metal, a reminder of the always-looming winter.

Great American Ghost // Tragedy of the Commons [January 31st, 2025 – SharpTone Records]

Boston’s Great American Ghost used to be extremely one-note, a coattail-rider of the likes of Kublai Khan and Knocked Loose. Deathcore muscles whose veins pulse to the beat of a hardcore heart, you’d be forgiven to see opener “Kerosene” as a sign of stagnation – chunky breakdowns and punk beats, feral barks and callouts, and a hardcore frowny face sported throughout. But Tragedy of the Commons is a far more layered affair, with echoes of metalcore past (“Ghost in Flesh,” “Hymns of Decay”), pronounced and tasteful nu-metal influence a la Deftones (“Genocide,” “Reality/Relapse”), and more variety in their rhythms and tempos, reflecting a Fit for an Autopsy-esque cutthroat intensity and ominous crescendos alongside a more pronounced influence of melody and manic dissonance (“Echoes of War,” “Forsaken”). Is it still meatheaded? Absolutely. Are its more “experimental” pieces in just well-trodden paths of metalcore bands past? Oh definitely. But gracing Great American Ghost a voice beyond the hardcore beatdowns does Tragedy of the Commons good and gives this one-trick pony another trail to wander.

Steel Druhm’s Detestible Digestibles

Guts // Nightmare Fuel [January 31st, 2025 – Self-Release]

Finland’s Guts play a weird “caveman on a Zamboni” variant of groove-heavy death metal that mixes OSDM with sludge and stoner elements for something uniquely sticky and pulversizing. On Nightmare Fuel, the material keeps grinding forward at a universal mid-tempo pace powered by phat, crushing grooves. “571” sounds like a Melvins song turned into a death metal assault, and it shouldn’t work, but it very much does. The blueprint for what Guts do is so basic, but they manage to keep cracking skulls on track after track as you remain locked in place helplessly. Nightmare Fuel is a case study into how less can be MOAR, as Guts staunchly adhere to their uncomplicated approach and make it work so well. Each track introduces a rudimentary riff and beats you savagely with it for 3-4 minutes with little variation. Things reset for the next track, and a new riff comes out to pound you into schnitzel all over again. This is the Guts experience, and you will be utterly mulched by massive prime movers like “Mortar” and “Ravenous Leech,” the latter of which sounds like an old Kyuss song refitted with death vocals and unleashed upon mankind. The relentlessly monochromatic riffs are things of minimalist elegance that you need to experience. Nightmare Fuel is a slow-motion ride straight into a brick wall, so brace for a concrete facial.

#2025 #AmericanMetal #AntinomianAsceticism #AtmosphericBlackMetal #AvantgardeMusic #BarfBagRecords #Barshasketh #BeatenToDeath #Behemoth #Besna #BigChef #BlackCrownInitiate #BlackMetal #BlindTheHuntsmen #Bloodbark #Bloodcrusher #BrutalDeathMetal #Converge #CycleOfDeath #CyclopsCataract #DeadlyCarnage #DeathMetal #Deathcore #DeathspellOmega #Deftones #DeusSabaoth #DevinTownsend #DoomMetal #Draconian #EphelDuath #FallsOfRauros #Fen #FitForAnAutopsy #Gojira #GothicMetal #GreatAmericanGhost #Grind #Grindcore #Guts #Hardcore #IDonTDoDrugsIAmDrugs #Jan25 #KnockedLoose #Krásno #KublaiKhan #MadderMortem #MelodicBlackMetal #Minarchist #Mistur #NightmareFuel #NorthernSilenceProductions #NuMetal #Oubliette #Panzerfaust #PaysageDHiver #PostBlack #ProgressiveDeathMetal #ProgressiveMetal #Review #Reviews #SacredSoundOfSolitude #SamSr_ #SelfRelease #SharpToneRecords #Skaldr #Slam #SlovakianMetal #Sludge #Stormkeep #StuckInTheFilter #SubterraneanLavaDragon #SummerEndsSomeAreLongGone #TheGreatArchitect #TheVisionBleak #TragedyOfTheCommons #TraumaBond #UKMetal #UkranianMetal #Voidseeker #Vorga #WTCProductions

Darkthrones Panzerfaust Album wird dieses Jahr 30.

Dachte damals, als ich sie in meinem Kinderzimmer das erste mal hörte, "Jup, so muss Black Metal". 🖤

#Darkthrone #Panzerfaust #BlackMetal #TeenageMemories #nowplaying

https://song.link/ch/i/1189265375

Carcharodon and Cherd’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024

By Carcharodon

Carcharodon

I’ve been writing here since 2018. This has been the hardest year to date. I feel like I say this every year right around this time but, for whatever reason, I’ve really struggled this year to find the motivation and inspiration to write. Indeed, I’ve often felt that I lacked the passion for the music. Rather than exploring the murkier depths of Bandcamp, I was often to be found in the company of old, non-metal friends like Nick Cave, 16 Horsepower and Tom Waits.

Despite my disappointment with the world, most of which is on literal or metaphorical fire, and my disillusionment with people, whose choices have caused most of that, there were bright glimmers. The phenomenal response to our Gondor-esque call for aid, when Kenstrosity‘s life was ripped apart by Hurricane Helene, reassured me there are still a few good people out there, a good number of whom read this blog.

Still, I managed to turn out a few reviews this year, including my first ever 5.0—more of which below—which was worth it for the Steel Ire it evoked alone. And there was the Fifteenalia, a celebration the like of which we will not see again (for obvious reasons), which I had the honour of steering from questionable inception to creaky delivery.

Ironically, despite my struggles on the writing front, This Place has played a significant part in keeping me sane. It’s been tolerable to welcome a few new staffers—some even raised up from the awful Place Below—to our serried ranks, while the older hands feel almost like family at this point, with everything that that entails. As ever, particular thanks go to Steel Druhm for his tireless intimidation, which just about keeps us honest, while Dolph, Dear Hollow, El Cuervo, Grier, Maddog, Sentynel and Thus Spoke, among others, have proved adequate companions for banter and gigs.

And with that, I wish you all the happiest of Listurnalias.

#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera – A very late entry to this list, Pillar of Light should be a cautionary tale to bands and labels: release your shit earlier! With more time, the stunning Amenra-meets-Cult of Luna post-misery of Caldera could easily have placed in the top half of this list. While I know this is an album I will come to love and fully expect to regret not placing it higher here, the reality is that other entries have had longer to sink their hooks into me. I will just say that, for me, the apparently divisive vocals are a perfect fit for Pillar of Light’s style.

#10. Seth // La France des Maudits – Way back when,1 French black metallers Seth snuck onto my list of Honorable Mentions with La Morsure du Christ, a fantastic return to form after a lengthy absence. After a short gap, they’re back and this year’s La France des Maudits has cracked the list proper. Melodic, bordering on symphonic with the keys and choral arrangements, but also visceral and feral, Seth dropped an absolute banger. It doesn’t hurt that, as Thus Spoke pointed out in her review, it’s “downright impressive how rich and dynamic this sounds.”

#9. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales – The Vision Bleak is not, to paraphrase Dr Grier, a band that has ever ‘got’ me. Or perhaps, I’ve never got them. But Weird Tales resonated with me enormously. And perhaps that’s because it’s not really like anything The Vision Bleak has done before. Structuring their gothic black metal (or should that be blackened goth metal?) into a single, flowing song (albeit one broken into parts) got my attention. But they held my attention because they actually managed to pull off this very-hard-to-execute vision. Weird Tales’ Type O Negative / Moonspell-inspired blackened sound clicked into place almost instantly for me and now I need to go back to TVB’s discography with newly-opened eyes.

#8. Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal – The first 4.0 I delivered in an alarmingly high-scoring year, Necrowretch’s black-death fusion is something that I have returned to again. Hiding beneath the vicious, downright nasty surface of Swords of Dajjal, is a surprisingly subtle and well-crafted concept album. As I said in my review, there is zero bloat or filler on this record, which blazes with intensity, driven as much by the scything, razor-sharp riffs as the rasping, sepulchral vocals. The range of influences cited, both by me and by impressed commenters, shows how many different aspects there are to this killer record.

#7. Panzerfaust // The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion – After Chapter III: The Astral Drain, I was worried that Panzerfaust were running out of steam and inspiration to close out The Suns of Perdition saga. Thankfully, my concerns were misplaced. To Shadow Zion reeks of doom and destiny. Huge, brooding and intense, it is a captivating listen, with the stunning “The Damascene Conversions” sitting at its heart. From the sulfuric vocals to the masterful drumming, this was a worthy final chapter for The Suns of Perdition, which must go down as one of the best executed, most consistent multi-album concept pieces in metal.

#6. Spectral Wound // Songs of Blood and Mire – Spectral Wound just can’t miss. For a band that, superficially at least, plays fairly old school black metal, songwriting chops paired with brilliant execution mean these guys are anything but derivative. My favourite album of theirs to date, Songs of Blood and Mire is just tons of wicked, nasty fun. It’s hard to say exactly why, but I feel like everything Spectral Wound does has a slight knowing wink to it, which suggests that the band doesn’t take itself too seriously. For me, this is a huge positive, as a lot of black metal is so tediously earnest, where this is unflinchingly harsh, surprisingly melodic and drowning in swaggering groove. Great stuff.

#5. Mother of Graves // The Periapt of Absence – I’m a sucker for death doom. And The Periapt of Absence is some fucking great death doom. Mother of Graves were unknown to me before I stumbled across this album but their blending of old school Opeth (think somewhere between Morningrise and Orchid) with early Katatonia and Paradise Lost, plus a sprinkling of Clouds is stunning. All wrapped up in a pleasingly tight package, Mother of Graves smother the listener in unflinching, heartwrenching misery. And I love every minute of it. It’s that Peaceville Three sound we love, but feeling fresh, vibrant and vital.

#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – Me and death metal don’t always see eye to eye, and the last Devenial Verdict left only a passing impression. But Thus Spoke‘s tireless tongue-bathing promotion of Blessing of Despair convinced me to give it a chance. While I enjoy the stomping thuggery of Devenial Verdict’s dissonant death well enough, it’s the sudden mood swings into what TS described as “lethally graceful restraint” that really hooked me. Although worlds apart stylistically, on Blessing of Despair DV achieved what Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean did on Obsession Destruction: knowing precisely how far to push the suffocating, claustrophobic heaviness, before taking their foot off your throat for a minute. Then stamping on it again.

#3. Julie Christmas // Ridiculous and Full of Blood – Maddog predicted that I would lambast him as an underrating bastard for the 3.5 he deigned to award Ms Christmas. And he was quite correct. He’s a charlatan of the highest order. However, even I’m surprised by how high Ridiculous and Full of Blood has landed here. But, as someone not given to overly emotional reactions to music, I’m continually stunned by the reactions Julie—Can I call you Julie? No? Ok—extracts from me. I’m often on the edge of tears by the end of “The Lighthouse,” just like that cad Maddog, while the likes of “Not Enough” and “End of the World” (the latter with CoL’s Johannes Persson) have a scary edge to them, with Christmas at her maniacal, crooning, possessed, unpredictable best.

#2. A Swarm of the Sun // An Empire – Speaking of emotional responses, A Swarm of the Sun’s stripped back melancholy is right up there. If I say that An Empire is brighter and more uplifting than previous efforts The Rifts and The Woods, understand that this is a very relative statement. An Empire is drowning in sorrow and misery, and yet there is just a hint of brightness that shimmers and hovers around the edges, like a lunar halo. Slow and deliberate, haunting and cathartic, A Swarm of the Sun’s latest outing is just beautiful. End of. No discussion.2

#1. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Y’all know I dropped a 5.0 on Die Urkatastophe, so it’s no surprise to find it here, sitting pretty, atop my list. There’s not much more praise that I can heap on Kanonenfieber’s sophomore record than I already did in my review. For me, it has everything and is more than I dared hope for as a follow up to my beloved Menschenmühle (my album of the year for 2021). It is brutal and vicious (“Panzerhenker” and “Ausblutingsschlacht”), anthemic (“Der Maulwurf” and “Menschenmühle”) and more. Crafted—and yes, that is the correct word—with huge skill and attention to detail, it is the storytelling, based on original source materials, that elevates this record to the next level for me. And if you don’t speak German, or are simply not into narrative in your metal, just go bang your fucking head to “Gott mit der Kavallerie”!

Honorable mentions In alphabetical order by band:

• 40 Watt Sun // Little Weight – Little Weight actually carries a lot of emotional weight. Melancholic, beautiful post-doom and shoegaze, rife with a rough honesty.
• Anciients // Beyond the Reach of the Sun – Long-form (arguably too-long-form in some respects) progressive death, which is wonderfully ambitious and overblown in its scale and delivery.
• Crypt Sermon // The Stygian Rose – Fantastic trad doom, channeling heavy doses of Candlemass. Early in the year, I thought this was top-5 material but it’s uneven, with the back half much stronger than the front, and I’ve cooled on it a touch.
• Nyktophobia // To the Stars – Just great, stomping melodeath. As I said in my review, it’s not massively original but it’s tight and well written, and easy to just kick back to. Sometimes, I don’t need more.
• Silhouette // Les Dires de l’​Â​me – This fantastic post-black album had a place on the list proper until Pillar of Light bulldozed its way in there very late in the day. Haunting, harrowing and beautiful, Silhouette’s debut is Great!
• Sumac // The Healer – Nothing about The Healer makes it an easy listen but Sumac’s fifth record is curiously beautiful for all its wandering, free-form abrasiveness.
• Vorga // Beyond the Palest Star – While it’s hard to disagree with Kenstrosity‘s criticism of the production on Beyond the Palest Star, what can I say? I still love it. It’s chunky, well written, well paced and powerful.

Surprises o’ the Year Ordered by most astounding first:

• Opeth // The Last Will and Testament – It’s been a long time since I was last genuinely interested in an Opeth album (2005’s Ghost Reveries, in case you were wondering). But, wouldn’t you just know it, Mikael Åkerfeldt and co are back (roars and all). I’m not ready to commit to a score for The Last Will (though I think El Cuervo‘s was possibly a smidge high) as I’ve not been able to spend enough time with it. But the fact I want to spend more time with it is, after 19 years of having no interest in Opeth’s output, a surprise. And a welcome one.
• Grand Magus // Sunraven – Another Swedish favourite of old, which I’d all but given up on, Grand Magus roared back this year with Sunraven. As an equally surprised Steel Druhm said in his review, this was the album he “feverishly hoped to get from Grand Magus … a grand return to prime form with the fire firmly back in the Balrog … the best Magus outing since 2012’s The Hunt”.

Disappointment o’ the Year Limited to a single musical disappointment, to avoid submitting a lengthy thesis:

• Zeal & Ardor // GREIF – I’m not angry, or even very surprised, just disappointed.3 While I accept that this is the album of a band in transition, there’s no getting away from the fact that it was a hugely disappointing album from a band that has abandoned the sound that made it what it was. And for what? They have not transitioned to something new and exciting, but with kinks to be worked out. Rather, on this record, Zeal & Ardor became something so pedestrian that any number of post-rock bands could’ve written it and, probably, done a better job. I may have overrated it.

Songs o’ the Year

Cherd

Twenty-twenty-four was certainly a year that followed previous years and will precede still others. When I look back, I’ll likely remember it as the year I discovered the wonders of ADHD medication after decades of non-treatment, the difficult transition my poor Cherdlet experienced from kindergarten to first grade, and the incredible bucket list trip my wife and I took to Toronto to watch our favorite TV franchise filming new content courtesy of my very important Hollywood connections. No, not Robert Downey Jr. Much more important and better-looking. Hmm? Margot Robbie? She wishes. I also had the pleasure of meeting several of my fellow writers in person, and they are all much homelier than they let on with the exception of Madam X, who is a goddamned ray of sunshine.

On the musical front, I was able to check two bands off my “need to see live” list in Judas Priest and Archspire, whereby I discovered that Halford does exactly zero audience banter, and Archspire do nothing but. Fun shows, both. I didn’t listen to as much new music by volume this year than I have in previous years when I’d log between 200 and 400 releases, and that was largely due to my kid’s age and the level of interaction he needs. I have a feeling, however, that 2025 will see an uptick thanks to the new Heavys headphones I got for Christmas this year. As always, I want to thank the editors, particularly Steel Druhm and Doc Grier, for not sending me a mailbomb after all the late reviews I turned in (I’ll work on that in 2025), and the man himself, AMG, for building this community and for agreeing that Deep Space Nine is the best Star Trek show.4

(ish) Chat Pile // Cool World – This is what it sounds like when Chat Pile make a “mature” record. As I noted in my October review, some of the most glaring weirdness and black humor the band is known for is missing in Cool World, which is why it’s here on my list instead of matching the lofty heights of my 2022 AOTY God’s Country. That said, this is consistently bleak in a way I like, and it boasts what are in my opinion the two best–if not most memorable–songs the band have written to date in “New World” and “Masc.” I’m a sucker for these Oklahomans and look forward to how their sound evolves from here.

#10. Glacial Tomb // Lightless Expanse – I’ve had an up and down journey with Glacial Tomb’s sophomore record, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still view this as one of the best things I’ve listened to this year. To consider a record this closely means you have to listen to it a lot, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I logged more hours with Lightless Expanse than with any other album. I’ve made a big deal about the one-three punch of “Voidwomb/Enshrined in Concrete/Abyssal Host”, but it bears repeating since it’s my favorite consecutive stretch of death metal in 2024.

#9. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – If you peel back the veneer of disso-death and blackened blasts on Infinite Mortality, you’ll find a pounding hardcore heart comprised of equal parts beatdown and Converge. As technical as this music gets, and there is a lot going on here, Replicant never forget their primary duty as a metal band: snapping necks. On their third album, they’ve exquisitely composed a missive to unbridled aggression. I completely missed their previous albums, so I’m glad our Kenfren wouldn’t shut his excitable yap about this one.

#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos – “Alright skaters! This is the end of our free skate period. We’d like to once again thank you for spending your Saturday with us here at Family Fun Roller Rink and Arcade. It’s time to slow things down, down, way down, and you know what that means. That’s right, it’s couples’ skate. So, find that special someone you want to be interred on a cold stone slab with, gaze into each other’s empty eye sockets, and make your way around the rink as wave after wave of Spectral Voice’s death/funeral doom forcefully separates you from any light, hope, or happiness this wretched world might have accidentally given you. Remember, those who survive the next 45 minutes of tectonic plates colliding will get the chance to compete in roller limbo!”

#7. Crypt Sermon // The Stygian Rose – Despite being one of the biggest doom apologists on this site, Crypt Sermon failed to grab me with their highly acclaimed debut nearly ten years ago. I chalk this up to my unfamiliarity with the traditional doom style at the time. In recent years, I’ve binged large amounts of Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Cathedral, Solitude Aeturnus et al., so I finally have the frame of reference to see just how well Crypt Sermon’s third LP captures the swagger, majesty, and grit of a style few contemporary bands seem interested in playing. After the growing pains displayed on The Ruins of Fading Light, these Philly natives have worked out the kinks and delivered an air-tight slab of doomy goodness.

#6. Full of Hell // Coagulated Bliss – I regret waiving my seniority claim to Full of Hell releases, thus allowing Dolph to snap up review duties for Coagulated Bliss. It’s not that he did a bad job of reviewing the prolific experimental grind outfit’s latest. He did great, and he awarded it a deserved 4.0. But then he had the cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity, and the gumption to incorrectly lower his score. To make matters worse, it appeared nowhere on his year-end list. Not even a goll dern honorable mention. I’ve told him to his cetacean face that he’s wrong and I’m likely to do so again because this is Full of Hell’s best work since Trumpeting Ecstasy. In fact, it might be better.

#5. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – For most of their existence, Ulcerate was a highly acclaimed band that I just couldn’t get into. That changed four years ago with the release of Stare into Death and Be Still. Little changed in their intricate approach to dissonant death metal, but there was something warmer and more human to what I had previously considered a rather detached style. That trend continues with Cutting the Throat of God. I find this record best when taken as a whole, letting the experience unfold over the full runtime, like dream-walking through a hedge maze or being trapped in a velvet sack and discovering it’s much larger on the inside.5

#4. Thou // Umbilical – I waited a long time for a chance to review a new record by Thou, and when it finally came, they did not disappoint. As I said in my June review, “Like their chimerical American metal brethren Inter Arma, it doesn’t matter how many influences the band stuff into one album. They are all unified in sound under Thou’s banner. Bryan Funck’s acid-bit vocals are unmistakable and apparently unchangeable after 20 throat-shredding years. Also unchangeable? Thou’s ability to craft the most metallic-sounding guitar tone out there. As the standard bearer for…hell, as the entire sum of the second generation of Louisiana sludge, the sound they’ve forged isn’t the kind of sloppy muck you may associate with the term. It’s certainly thick, but it has a quality like two enormous steel I-beams violently striking each other.” If that doesn’t sell Umbilical for you, then here is where our paths diverge.

#3. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – I didn’t listen to Blessing of Despair for several weeks after it came out in October despite the fact Devenial Verdict’s previous record, Ash Blind, made my year-end list in 2022. When I finally got around to it earlier in December, it threatened to blow the doors right off my still nebulous list, climbing fast and high until ultimately landing here at number three. There is more immediacy than on Ash Blind, which took me a while to warm up to. That doesn’t mean the band skimps on the kind of thoughtful transitions and atmospherics they’ve come to be known for. It’s just that Blessing of Despair HAZ THE RIFFS, including my favorite death metal riff of the year in “Solus.”

#2. Void Witch // Horripilating Presence – When I revisited Horripilating Presence with the purpose of sorting out this list’s pecking order, I expected death-doomers Void Witch to fall mid-to-late top 10. Obviously, the opposite happened. For the life of me I don’t understand how this album didn’t gain more traction amongst the other writers and you, the unwashed commentariat. As I said back in July, “…the material on Horripilating Presence is Mohamed Ali levels of confident. The editing of ideas in each song and across the album’s taut 39 minutes is masterful, especially for a debut. No song hews too closely to any of the others, but all are of a piece, locking comfortably into place like an intricate puzzle box, and Void Witch have such sights to show you.”

#1. Inter Arma // New Heaven – Inter Arma never miss. Aside from being one of the best live acts in metal, every album they’ve released going back to 2013’s Sky Burial has been one successful evolution after another. As a very wise reviewer once said, “They’re the same shaggy beast as ever, but beneath that matted, coarse coat is a rippling form mid-shape shift, stretching, pulling, and crossing back on itself constantly over the course of New Heaven’s shockingly concise 42 minutes…If being all over the musical map sounds like a negative, you’ve probably never heard an Inter Arma record before. It seems whatever they throw at the wall sticks, and the listening experience across their (usually much longer) records never feels uneven. This is because they play everything with the same smoldering intensity and volatile mean streak.” What a record.

Honorable Mentions:

• Convulsing // Perdurance – I like this quote from Dear Hollow‘s review, so I’ll let him do the talking: “…Convulsing explores every nook and twist of a rhythm and melody until its inevitable conclusion is happened upon in tragic and fatal fashion.”
• Spectral Wound // Songs of Blood and Mire – Pound for pound, Spectral Wound are probably the most consistent no-frills black metal band currently in operation. Songs of Blood and Mire is another rager that’s as melodic as it is acidic.
• Lord Buffalo // Holus Bolus – This record was one redundant instrumental away from landing higher on this list. Looking forward to where these gothic country rockers go next.

Songs o’ the Year:

In alphabetical order by band:

#2024 #40WattSun #ASwarmOfTheSun #Anciients #BlogPosts #BlueHeron #CarcharodonAndCherdSTopTenIshOf2024 #ChatPile #Convulsing #CryptSermon #DevenialVerdict #FullOfHell #GlareOfTheSun #GrandMagus #InterArma #JulieChristmas #Kanonenfieber #Listurnalia #LordBuffalo #MotherOfGraves #Necrowretch #Nyktophobia #Opeth #Panzerfaust #PillarOfLight #Replicant #Selbst #Seth #Silhouette #SpectralVoice #SpectralWound #Sumac #TheVisionBleak #Thou #Ulcerate #VoidWitch #Vorga #ZealArdor

Meine Neuentdeckung gestern vor #Kanonenfieber:
Die kanadische #blackmetal Band #Panzerfaust. Unglaublich fette und dunkle Atmosphäre mit viel Aggression. Zeitweise fast schon Elemente von Doom oder Hardcore und hat mich an Hexis erinnert. Auf jeden Fall hörenswert!

https://panzerfaust.bandcamp.com

#BlackMetalMonday #live

Panzerfaust – The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion Review

By Carcharodon

The Panzerfaust tetralogy, The Suns of Perdition series, began all the way back in 2019 with Chapter I: War, Horrid War. Despite being a great record, delivered by a band showing huge promise, this massive saga wasn’t one that I really expected to ever see finished. Bands break up, get dragged into controversies1 or whatever. But, five years later, here we are, at the conclusion of The Suns of Perdition series and the end of the world. For that is what Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion explores: the world slowly falling apart, as human society and civilization approach inevitable collapse, and descends into chaos. At my hands, the series to date has gone 4.02-4.5-3.5. Does the final entry represent a triumphant conclusion to an epic saga or Panzerfaust’s unavoidable descent into the reality of the cold light of day?

To say that Panzerfaust’s music is misanthropic would be an understatement. The entire thesis of The Suns of Perdition is that to put it bluntly, humanity is a collection of twats doing awful things, which will eventually lead to the apocalypse. Even measured against that yardstick, Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion is bleak. And unrelenting. Unrelentingly bleak, one could say. Gone are the shimmering adornments and twisted, yet familiar, touchpoints scattered across War, Horrid War. Gone are the dancing melodies that occasionally lifted the gloom brooding over of Chapter II: Render unto Eden. Gone (thankfully!) are the interludes that disrupted the threat of Chapter III: The Astral Drain. Panzerfaust is unleashed on To Shadow Zion, with nothing held back. From start to finish, this is the sound of The End. However, where a band like LLNN rendered the apocalypse real on Unmaker through sheer heaviness measured in metric tonnage, Panzerfaust achieves the same by tone alone. Don’t get me wrong, To Shadow Zion is crushing, with savage carnage on the likes of “When Even the Ground is Hostile,” as Goliath’s sulphuric, rasping roar rips out over the backing vocals and cascading tremolos of Brock van Dijk. But from the doom-laden overtones that open “Occam’s Fucking Razor,” with its half-heard, half-chanted backing vocals to the brutal but stripped-back closing third of “The Hesychasm Unchained,” Panzerfaust achieve a cohesive tone of desolation through a variety of means.

As on previous outings in The Suns of Perdition saga, so on To Shadow Zion, Panzerfaust’s true MVP is drummer Alexander Kartashov. His ability, and crucially willingness, to shift between metronomic, artillery-like blasts, doom-laden rhythmic patterns, and something altogether more progressive is what both holds Panzerfaust’s compositions together and drives them forward. Most evident on album highlight, “The Damascene Conversions,” Kartashov modulates his patterns to perfectly accentuate and highlight the bağlama3 (contributed by guest Ahmet lhvani). Far from introducing a lift in mood, the bağlama’s discordant, twanging harmonies bring a sense of mournful hopelessness. The epic closer, “To Shadow Zion (No Sanctuary),” is massive, its rolling guitar lines and thick, meaty bass steamrollering forward, as Goliath switches up his delivery in places, leaning into a snarling, half-spoken rasp that conveys nothing but contempt for his subject: us.

“Fuck hope” intones Goliath (or possibly van Dijk) toward the back end of “When Even the Ground is Hostile,” capturing the entire feel of To Shadow Zion. Panzerfaust has created a dark portrait of a world in flames and done so in five, tightly written tracks, spanning just 45 minutes. The Astral Drain devoted ten full minutes of its run to meandering interludes. These are abandoned entirely here, which means that despite being two minutes shorter than its predecessor, To Shadow Zion delivers more actual music and does so cohesively, without sacrificing its flow or tracks transitions. The production is good, without being stellar. A lot of emphasis is placed on the (excellent) drums and (trademark) vocals, but I do wish Van Dijk’s guitars were pushed just a little more into the foreground in the heavier passages. That said, the guitar tone in melodic places, like the melancholic opening to “The Damascene Conversions,” is perfect and the overall soundstage is dynamic.

The slight (and relative) drop in quality on last installment, Chapter III: The Astral Drain, notwithstanding, delivering a worthy conclusion to The Suns of Perdition saga was always going to be a huge challenge for Panzerfaust. On To Shadow Zion, they have risen to the occasion. “The Damascene Conversions” is likely to follow “The Far Bank at the River Styx” in finding a high place on my SOTY list, while the album as a whole delivers on everything that Panzerfaust set out to achieve. Whilst not quite reaching the stellar heights of series-highlight Chapter II: Render unto Eden, Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion has a devastating flow to it and it’s more than worthy of closing this epic saga.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Eisenwald Records
Websites: panzerfaust.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/PANZERFAUST.BM.OFFICIAL
Releases Worldwide: November 22nd, 2024

#2024 #40 #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackMetal #CanadianMetal #EisenwaldRecords #LLNN #Nov24 #Panzerfaust #Review #Reviews #TheSunsOfPerditionChapterIVToShadowZion

Kanonenfieber – Die Urkatastrophe Review

By Carcharodon

When I wrote up Menschenmühle, the debut full-length by Germany’s Kanonenfieber, in late 2021, I described it as “stunning.” The storytelling arc that it achieves, opening with the almost enthusiastic bombast of the early days of the Great War, through to the exhausted horror of No Man’s Land, is incredible. Cast in shades of blackened death metal, I ended up crowning it my Album of the Year, calling it a “masterpiece.” So how does one write the follow-up to a masterpiece? When I sat down with anonymous Kanonenfieber mastermind1 Noise in 2023, I asked. He admitted to “having some struggles […] I don’t know, I’ve written the album four times over now but somehow, I just don’t like any of it.” Scroll forward a year and I finally got my sweaty little fanboy fins on Die Urkatastrophe. Did Noise get through his struggles to produce a worthy successor to Menschenmühle?

Like its predecessor, Die Urkatastrophe (which translates as something like “The Original Disaster”) focuses on the tragedies of the Great War, taking its inspiration from reports, letters, and other documents created by the soldiers who fought in that conflagration. It is uncompromising and brutal. Whether it’s the tale of the suicidal member of a mining team, tunneling under the front (“Der Maulwurf”)2 or the grinding battle that saw Austria-Hungary retake Lviv / Lemberg from the Russians (“Lviv zu Lemberg”), there’s an almost frantic energy to Kanonenfieber that is both vicious and beautiful. Simultaneously heavier and more melodic than what went before, Die Urkatastrophe flits between taking in the whole, awful scale of the War, panning across its fronts (“Gott mit der Kavallerie”), while at others zooming in on specific horrors (“Verdun” and its counterpart “Ausblutungsschlacht” ).

Kanonenfieber has developed an immediately identifiable sound and sense of individuality that sets it apart from the many reference points I could cite. Sure, the likes of Bolt Thrower and 1914 still feature strongly in Kanonenfieber’s work but Die Urkatastrophe is much more diverse. A blackened thrash edge creeps into Skeletonwitch territory in places (“Gott mit der Kavallerie”), while “Panzerhenker” and “Waffenbrüder” (the latter featuring Maik Weichert of Heaven Shall Burn) draw Kvaen into the mix. The infectiously catchy “Ritter der Lüfte” evokes Panzerfaust. While all those references and more are valid, the truth is that from Noise’s razorwire rasps and snarling growls—now expanded to include funeral doom-esque roars (“Panzerhenker”)—to his crystalline tremolos and killer death riffs, Kanonenfieber is now a touchstone in its own right. Part of what makes that true, and what distinguished Menschenmühle, is the skillful incorporation of samples and original recordings. These give Kanonenfieber the weight of authenticity, which is taken to the next level on Die Urkatastrophe. The threads of its stories of bloodshed, death, and despair are tied together by perfectly integrated battlefield effects and spoken word pieces, which feel organic and an integral—even essential—part of the whole. The tension built into opener “Grossmachtfantasie,” as the first rumbling riffs rise beneath a crackling recording is enough to give me goosebumps.

Noise’s vocal performance, already a selling point previously, is the strongest he’s ever given. This is amplified by the multi-tracking deployed across the record, as well as adornments, like the choral backing vocals on “Ausblutungsschlacht,” giving its ending an appropriately grand, symphonic feeling, as it details the slaughter at Verdun. As ever, the production is fantastic, although on this occasion Noise had assistance from Kristin Kohle of Kohlekeller Studio. The stellar guitar tone is hard to put into words. Whether it is the tremolo assault of “Menschenmühle” or the gorgeous percussion-free lament two-thirds of the way into “Lviv zu Lemberg” (recalling “Die Schlacht bei Tannenberg” from the previous album), the sound is organic and effortless, like a blackened Opeth in their heyday. The bass is also much more prominent in the mix, which is welcome, adding richness to the sound. My single critical comment is that Kanonenfieber tried to repeat a trick from the last album, ending with an acoustic semi-ballad. However, for me at least, Noise comes up very slightly short here. “Verscharrt und Ungerühmt” from Menschenmühle was lightning in a bottle; it tore out my heart and stamped it into the blood-soaked mud. Here, “Als die Waffen kamen” is a good song in its own right but lightning rarely strikes twice.

Die Urkatastrophe is more than I dared hope for. I’ve had this thing for nearly two months and must have listened to it fifty-plus times. The sole flaw is that its closing track doesn’t quite match the magic of its debut counterpart. Everything else is at least as good, and often better, with “Der Maulwurf,” “Lviv zu Lemberg,” and “Waffenbrüder” forming among the strongest three-track runs I’ve ever heard. The textures Kanonenfieber weaves into the sound, coupled with the subtle tempo and stylistic shifts, give this album an almost languid fluidity and make it a heart-wrenching joy to listen to. The skill and attention to detail that went into crafting this record are outstanding, while the one-man performances by Noise are phenomenal. What makes this record truly iconic, however, is the storytelling and Noise’s ability to tailor his chosen sound to each horror he is conveying, be it the insanity of the war as a whole (“Menschenmühle”), suicidal desperation (“Der Maulwurf”) or otherwise.3

In a review of Non Est Deus, I said that I would, reluctantly, have to pass on the reviewing baton for Noise’s projects. I lied. Obviously.4

Rating: 5.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Century Media Records
Websites: noisebringer-records.bandcamp.com | noisebringer.de | facebook.com/Kanonenfieber
Releases Worldwide: September 20th, 2024

#1914 #2024 #50 #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackMetal #BlackenedDeathMetal #BoltThrower #CenturyMediaRecords #DeathMetal #DieUrkatastrophe #GermanMetal #Kanonenfieber #Kvaen #MelodicBlackMetal #MelodicDeathMetal #Opeth #Panzerfaust #Review #Reviews #Sep24 #Skeletonwitch

Hulder – Verses in Oath Review

By Carcharodon

Originally from Belgium but now firmly ensconced in the Pacific Northwest of the US, one-woman black metal project Hulder caused some ripples with debut LP, Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry, in 2021. Steeped in dark medieval themes and even darker folklore, it channeled both an almost second wave black metal harshness and a folk edge to create a unique sound. Although a little rough around the edges, it promised much for the future. Hulder first graced these pages with the follow-up, 2022’s mini-album, the appropriately titled The Eternal Fanfare, which yours truly described as beginning to deliver on the promise of Godslastering. Will Verses in Oath be the album that sees Hulder fully make that transition and get the recognition she clearly merits?

Well, if it doesn’t, something has gone wrong because Verses in Oath is spellbinding. Dark and vicious, while also ethereal and strangely haunting, Hulder draws together many moods and influences and does so seamlessly. It’s no easy feat to develop a sound that feels simultaneously delicate and all-consuming, but the symphonic aspects of Verses in Oath do just that. These first surface properly on the gorgeous “Hearken the End,” which feels like Death Cult Armageddon-era Dimmu Borgir but with the edges softened by main woman Marliese Beeuwsaert’s choral clean vocals and lithe synth work, which rise and fall like a gentle swell over the raging blackened tumult. Her harsh vocals have also come on in leaps and bounds, with the first bestial, rasping roar on “Boughs Ablaze” immediately recalling Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt on Morningrise, while the battering assault of the title track smolders with a sulphuric intensity. No longer a solo project, Hulder’s new drummer, CK, should take a fair amount of credit for this also, as his work is excellent throughout.

Overall, Verses in Oath has the feel of Behemoth in their The Satanist pomp but amplified by the progressive atmospherics of Panzerfaust and the wild, organic folk-inspired charms of Grima on Will of the Primordial. The record opens to sound of cawing crows on the eerie “An Elegy,” while mid-album interlude “Lamentation” is deeply unsettling in its use of distorted, fractured operatic vocals and twisted synths. These lead into the swelling synth work of “An Offering,” which straddles the ground between interlude and Unreqvited outtake. However, just as you begin to relax, you are “Cast into the Well of Remembrance,” which unleashes pitch-black nightmares and ghostly echoes of beauty. The warped riff that opens “Enchanted Steel”—by a curious coincidence, “enchanted Steel” is also how Druhm refers to his old chap of a morning—briefly lends Hulder an almost death metal vibe, before the synths bring us back to more blackened reaches. Closing the album on a high, the blazing tremolos of “Veil of Penitence” are worthy of Vredehammer but, once more, Hulder soften the edges, like razor wire wrapped in velvet.

Coming in at a perfect 40 minutes, the songwriting on Verses in Oath is great. The album has a silky flow, moving between harshness and fragility, often effortlessly blending the two (most notably on the outstanding “Hearken the End,” as well as on the title track). The folk aspects of the Hulder’s earlier work are still present but, rather than standing apart as they previously did, these are now woven into the fabric of the record, lending it a delicate feeling of intimacy that belies its harshness. Beeuwsaert’s vocals and work on guitar are stellar, while new bassist Necreon adds real depth to the sound. This is enhanced by the production. Mixed and mastered by Finland’s Ahti Kortelainen (whose list of credits includes the likes of … And Oceans and Moonsorrow), Verses in Oath sounds fantastic, with a finely balanced mix, that allows the different constituent elements of Hulder to breathe and co-exist, as they need to for this record to work.

Verses in Oath is everything I hoped for (but worried we wouldn’t get) from the follow-up to The Eternal Fanfare. Hulder has maintained the black metal core of its sound, while skilfully weaving in all the other elements, from the symphonic to the folksy, to great effect. Even the atmospheric intro and interludes, both of which I normally deride, are executed with such skill that they feel integral to Verses in Oath. Hulder has delivered an outstanding record that is making an admittedly early play for my album of the year.

Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Websites: hulder.bandcamp.com | hulder-official.com | facebook.com/hulderUS
Releases Worldwide: February 9th, 2024

#20BuckSpin #2024 #45 #AmericanMetal #AtmosphericBlackMetal #Behemoth #BelgianMetal #BlackMetal #DeathCultArmageddon #DimmuBorgir #Feb24 #Folk #Grima #Hulder #Morningrise #Opeth #Panzerfaust #Review #Reviews #SymphonicMetal #TheSatanist #VersesInOath #Vredehammer #WillOfThePrimordial