Even for a black metal, a genre that thrives when cloaked in an air of mystery, it is usually possible to unearth the details behind obscure artists/bands when you buckle down and commit yourself to hours of mining the internet, even if it is just for mere pebbles. Besides discovering the entity behind Måneskygge is also responsible for the ambient/dungeon synth endeavor Bergtatt and that they reside in "The Beaver State" aka Oregon, there is N O T H I N G more to be found about this enigmatic black metal project; N O T O N E I O T A. And honestly? It kind of makes their music all the more irresistible.
Måneskygge's introductory demo feels like the work of a lonesome and wizened winter apparition. For those who can read between lines of this untitled effort'sgrainy production, they are rewarded with exquisite shards of frostbitten black metal, an aural conjuring of glacial beauty that can only be achieved through reflective isolation. I will repeat this line ad nauseam - winter black metal, for the most part, is BORING - however, there are few acts that manage to buck the trend, which Måneskygge skillfully does. Worth listen for fans of raw and uncompromising black metal.
Sources of Human Satisfaction is an utterly blistering approach to melding the powers of grindcore and harsh noise. From the first mechanical screech to the cataclysmic end of "Bloodline," Transient and Bastard Noise (you may know the latter as Man Is The Bastard) come together to form a beautifully decrepit marriage of harsh feedback and face melting riffs. "Night Ass," "Mandala," and "Leeches" show this in full force, with pummeling song compositions and performances that hit the ear drums like a brick hits glass. The noise that complements the speeding grind are sound like robotic screams of agony. Everything here screams of passion and intensity: the shrill shrieks of the vocalist, the roaring guitar, the body-battering percussion. Auditory violence is the name of the game and these two powerhouses are in it until the bloodied end. It's wild how so much aggression can be bottled into such a short record, but here it is. Transient and Bastard Noise are like two freight trains on the same track and Sources of Human Satisfaction is the resulting collision.
Enbilulugugal is the perfect anti-thesis for the seriousness of most black metal. In the least humorous and most try-hard of genres (I say this as a fan), we have a group dedicated to only a few things - lard, obesity, and their lord above all else, Curlyton. They can barely play their instruments, they write with the crudeness of Nunslaughter and the coherency of Captain Beefheart, they sample episodes of Futurama and corny stand-up bits, and they do it all with the cacophony and exuberance of groups like Ahulabrum and Havohej. Songs like "Bovine Sized Sloppy Jose Value Meal Track as Requested by Our Lard Curlyton" show that they've found their stride in being a particularly explosive novelty group. To call Enbilulugugal genius would be an exaggeration, but to call them mindless would rob them of their unique brand of artery-clogging wit. Enbilulugugal is a remarkably refreshing project in a sea of noisy black metal that refuses to have any fun. Because of this, these overweight clowns are exactly what a scene this deathly serious needs - a reminder that a lard-caked sense of humor never killed anybody.
SQRM have always confounded me. Even to this day - 9 years after the release of their last album - I was never able to place whether they were cerebral hardcore deconstructionists or noisy hardcore savages. I've always preferred to believe the former; that their cover, a miserable clown, was some kind of cynical commentary on the state of happy-go-lucky hardcore. Or perhaps it's just a teaser of the misery in store for all those who listen? I guess I'll never REALLY know if SQRM is as subversive as I want them to be, but what I can tell you is Rodeo, their sophomore and final effort, is one of the most disgusting, sludgy, and filthy slabs of hardcore I've ever heard. Oscillating between noisy half-tempo dirges and near powerviolence bouts of aggression, SQRM's schizophrenic assault corrodes your mind until you feel as insane as the music portrays itself to be. In the middle of the bedlam stands front man Tony P., feverishly yelling lines of lunacy like "I'M A FUCKING FREAK, SPIT ON ME", further cementing the band's commitment to their uber-negative, self-deprecating style of hardcore. For me, Rodeo still feels like a fresh if not absolutely vile take on the genre, with SQRM feeding you a palate cleanser of dirt and Clozapine while they convulse in the corner.
Cosmic Putrefaction is one of several solo projects of Italian multi-instrumentalist G.G., and though I have yet to hear those other works, Cosmic Putrefaction is good enough to the point where I think I'll need to investigate this backlog. What initially jolted my interest was the fact that Brendan Sloan of Convulsing -easily one of my favorite contemporary extreme metal acts- was providing the majority of the vocals for this album; however what keeps me coming back is the entire package. It's an album that certainly lives up to its name, exuding a certain celestial quality from it's off-kilter onslaught. In a lot of ways it reminds of me a modernized version of Blessed Are The Sick-era Morbid Angel, with a very Azagthothian feel to how G.G. pairs stuttered, thrashy riffage together with more conventional death metal fare. Brendan unsurprisingly delivers a performance on par with the work in his own band, with his guttural lows feral but also wielding a good deal of emotion. Overall this album is a successful experiment, one that I hope comes together again to give us more excellent death metal.
There are quite a few releases I am looking forward still in 2019, but none of them eclipse my excitement for the return of a certain triumvirate of bands. Connected not only through their intertwining lineage, but a thread of sonic filth, these acts have established themselves as some of the best death metal to come from the US in the last decade, and surely their upcoming efforts will only further their standing in death metal's putrid canon.
If you read my previous post regarding Prosanctus Inferi, you'll know that they are a band I hold in very high regards. After a six-year silence, I was worried they had died an innocuous death, but luckily I was wrong; they are alive, kicking, and gearing up for the release of a new album entitled Hypnotic Blood Art (release date TBA). It would seem Pulpit Sycophants a demo that has so far only been released via Youtube, consists of rough versions of this upcoming full-length. Despite their being incomplete, the material on Pulpit Sycophants is impressive nonetheless, and seems to hint at the band returning to the bestial and crude blackened death metal they wielded on their earlier releases like Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitation. Despite my love for their last record Noctambulous Jaws Within Sempiternal Night and its more pronounced death metal influence, I am still very much looking forward to what's coming next.
C O M M O N T H R E A D: Vocalist/guitarists Jake Kohn served as the bassist for Father Befouled from 2009 to 2012, appearing on two full-lengths and one split. Oh, and speaking of Father Befouled....
When I first discovered Father Befouled, they were EASILY my least favorite of the three bands included in today's post; don't misunderstand, I still thought they were a fantastic band, but they didn't quite hit me like the other two projects. This internal ranking was shaken with the release of their last album, the excellent Desolate Gods. Like their previous entries, Father Befouled still promulgated a particularly doom-y and Incantation-esque version of death metal, however UNLIKE the albums that proceeded it, there were these insanely brief moments of melody that shone through the dirt and grime. Whilst melody in death metal isn't exactly groundbreaking anymore, it is rare that a band as dirty and cacophonous as Father Befouled to feature anything of the sort, and the result truly elevated the piece above not only their prior efforts, but many of their peers (**cough Incantation included cough **). With their upcoming EP Holy Rotten Blood, it is unclear if they will further indulge in this progression, but the slight chance of it alone is enough to be excited.
C O M M O N T H R E A D: Father Befouled's current frontman/guitarist Justin Stubbs is also the frontman of Encoffination, two-piece he shares with ex-Father Befouled drummer and multi-band extraordinaire Elektrokutioner. Which actually reminds me...
Encoffination - We Proclaim Your Death O' Lord (2019)
Encoffination are the slowest band I've ever heard in my fucking life. At first listen, they ALMOST seem like a parody of funeral doom. However, the further you delve into the bottomless pit of their music it becomes clear they are very serious about what they do. Imagine taking a single riff from Incantation (yes, they are a relevant comparison here too), stretching it out to ten minutes long, and adding a choir of unsettling atmsopherics not limited to but including the imposing ring of old, cracked bells and the inherently terrifying church organ. Utilizing these paragons of what should be light and then twisting their visage into something dark and wretched only makes their delivery more horrible and impacting, the exact effect Encoffination aim to achieve. We Proclaim Your Death O' Lord only promises to further instill fear in the religious and enthrall the blaspheming.
C O M M O N T H R E A D: If you've been paying attention, you get it by now.
Atmospheric death metal has always felt like one of those more head cannon-y sub-genres. It's without clear-cut parameters to truly define what it is, and for that reason you have everything from Australian instrument-torturers Portal to Finnish filth-lords Desolate Shrine -two very different sounding projects- performing what could in essence be called atmospheric death metal. It's one of those "you know it when you hear it" types, where the finer details don't matter as much as the finished product.
The reason I bring all of this up, is another project, the incomparably weird An Isolated Mind, seem to fall within this vague and nebulous extreme metal genre. Exuding a stifling sense of psychedelia and featuring a range of oddities - everything from jazzy saxophone interludes to moments of ambient claustrophobia - I'm Losing Myself does its name justice with its variation without ever becoming too overbearing or experimental for its own good. The balance struck between straightforward and atmospheric, dissonant and melody is incredibly well-executed, offering a multi-faceted approach that begs repeated listens. This is very fucking good, and highly recommended for fans of Cynic, Gorguts, Portal, and anything in-between.
Since its release in 2013, Prosanctus Inferi's diabolical sophomore effort Noctambulous Jaws Within Sempiternal Night has been a favorite of mine, but thanks to their recent announcement of an upcoming third album, Hypnotic Blood Art (release date TBA), I've dug back into Noctambulous... in a way that I haven't in a long time. I still find it the ultimate culmination of black and death metal; Jake Kohn's spits bile with every blasphemous word, his delivery reminiscent of the vaunted Peter Helmkamp in its guttural rasp. Musically, Noctambulous... is easily the group's most muscular and death metal-oriented outing to date, however it still oozes a charred and blackened atmosphere. In many ways, it's very similar to early Morbid Angel, rife with Azagthothian off-kilteredness and an underlying sense of esoterica. When it comes to war metal that isn't completely Blasphemy inspired, Prosanctus Inferi's Noctambulous Jaws Within Sempiternal Night is the best you're going to get.
L'Acephale predated the Cascadian black metal boom by a few years, but was undoubtedly one of that movement's greatest inspirations. Now, about a ten years after Cascadia's nature-inspired black metal influence had started to decay, these innovators have returned with their most ambitious album yet. Though their "Cascadian" essence remains, L'Acephale, like always, has proven to be so much more; elements of dark folk run rampant throughout the band's self-titled effort, restraining a portion of the blackened fury present. This in of itself isn't **too** peculiar, but when supplemented by an eerie almost-martial atmosphere, L'Acephale feels more imposing than most other albums of its ilk. Cascadia may be dead, but its ghost remains.
Remete continues to be one of the only worthwhile cold and blizzardous black metal band worth investing in. This album rages with the tempest of only the fiercest winter storm yet the underlying ambience remains surprisingly soothing. It's a beautiful album and at this point D has cemented himself as a one-man wunderkind on par with Austin Lunn, M. Rekevics, and any other black metal visionary that's debuted in the last decade.
I AM BACK. After a seemingly eternal time away from (and forgetting) all about blogspot (and one of the venues I got my start as an online reviewer / wannabe connoisseur of all things dark, dingy, and metallic) a short trip down nostalgia lane convinced me to dust off my username and start anew. If you're familiar at all with my previous blogs (which I wouldn't expect anyone to be, at least not at this point) you'll recognize that T R V E K V L T V R E will fall along some similar lines while attempting branch out into something new. If the name itself wasn't a dead giveaway, yes, this blog will mainly focus on metal of the black, death, and general underground variety. However, now being at the ancient (or at least it feels that way) age of 28, it's only natural that my tastes have branched out since last time I posted. So, despite any visual aesthetic choices (right now my template is blank, but I assure you it will be some black and gray variation soon enough) and the name, this will be a blog featuring a myriad of different genres and styles of music. For any internet denizen who as continued to use blogspot, even as other mediums of music discovery have become available, it goes without saying that this platform has declined significantly since its golden age in the early 2010's. Because of this reduced importance, I am unsure at the moment if I will remain the sole contributor, or add any fellow writers. Of course, the goal would be to make this an oasis of varying opinions and thoughts brought you by a diverse cast of authors, but that will depend entirely on how I feel, and how well-received the first few weeks (months?) of the blog running are. As anyone who sees this will soon find out, I am currently an editor/writer for the online zine YER SCENE, which is a passion project with DIY ethos fueled by some of the most talented writers/artists/photographers I've ever had the privilege to work with. In fact, I have a feeling many of posts, and the general feel of this blog will be greatly influenced by my time at YER SCENE, and I feel that influence will make it something special within the current blogsphere. As much as T R V E K V L T V R E will be a very personal venture, I will also use it as a vehicle to promote YER SCENE when I can. Last but not least, while former blogs have run off of pirated links to albums I've either found or made myself, T R V E K V L T V R E will not operate as such. Most posts will be linked to a corresponding Bandcamp page, or artist-sanctioned space where the music in said post can be sampled and purchased. We, as fans, are responsible for keeping our favorites in business, and now thanks to the power of the internet and being able to more directly support bands/artists/creators in lieu of larger labels or corporate thugs, there is no excuse to not pay to and ensure the music we covet and its creators have some kind of financial stability/compensation that will ultimately benefit us all.
