Atmospheric Black Metal - Tumblr Posts
Genital Shame - Chronic Illness Wish - 2024
Aprilmist - Homesick - 2023
Magic night 🌙
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GB WANDERER
The Offering - ink. 2023
GBFA
-Convulsing- New release from one man Australian Atmospheric Blackened Death project.
Artwork by Jeff Whitehead (Wrest) of Leviathan.
Album can be purchased on Bandcamp.
Grievous by Convulsing
-Morke- Atmospheric Black Metal from Minnesota. One Man Project. Absolutely fantastic material, great soundscapes, vocal work, and instrumentation.
Music can be purchased on Bandcamp.
Solar Temple
Fertile Descent
Preview of new album from Dutch Atmospheric Black Metallers. Superb fuzzy blackened trance.
Reblogged from @reptileshrine
Panegyrist
Red River Family Fest III
Their first live performance. Beautiful avant-garde ritualistic black metal with symphonic and folk elements and clean vocals mixed in.
Photos by blogger. Barracuda, Austin, Texas, September 28, 2018, Red River Family Fest Year III.
Uada
Oregon black metallers played a fantastic live show yet again at Red River Family Fest III
Photo by blogger. Barracuda, Austin, TX. Red River Family Fest III, September 28, 2018.
Classic Greek black metallers Rotting Christ released a "Best Of" album last year to celebrate 30 years as a band, and it's been finding heavy rotation in my listening of late. I've always enjoyed the band, but they've really struck a whole new cord with me over the past year or so.
I've really found them to sort of transcend black metal into a wholly spiritual realm. They do get some flak for their modern releases not keeping the classic raw black metal sound, which is a shame. The atmosphere they've learned to build and maintain is exceptional, and one of my favorite aspects of their music. And their growing experimentation with folk elements, world music, and inversions of traditional Christian music traits creates a powerful listening experience. I've never tended to feel very spiritual, but these days I'm finding more and more black metal that challenges that. And this band is at the top of that list.
Dare I call them "magical"? They certainly invoke some ethereal force within me, and I am most grateful for it.
I look forward to finally sitting down with their newest album in the coming week, once I wrap up my Master's Thesis, which has been a serious distraction. The singles I've heard are promising and I'm quite excited.
Dutch progressive black metal duo Urfaust are easily one of my favorite 21st century black metal bands. Their mix of ambience, atmosphere, and the avant-garde is excellent, and they consistently release quality music.
Their 2016 release, Empty Space Meditations, is a slow building crescendo of ambience that morphs into aggressively majestic howls, a bellowing wail into the void of existence. Each track builds upon the last, flowing seamlessly into one another while still maintaining individual identity.
This duo are exceptional musicians, and they work together flawlessly. This is some of my favorite black metal vocal work, from the tormented screeches to the majestic roaring cleans. And the drumwork. Meditatum V is my favorite track, mostly for the drumming. Its perfectly woven around the chant-like vocals, blending wonderfully with the riffs in a ritual of cosmic comprehension.
I believe most of their material is available from Van Records, and can be found easily on Bandcamp. Highly recommend them if you want a powerful and magical music experience.
Rotting Christ
The Heretics
Greek black metallers Rotting Christ released their newest album earlier this year. Interestingly, perhaps due to their Best Of album from last year, I feel The Heretics harkens back to the melodies of some of their bigger hits. This album is fire and brimstone but with an anthemic bent, and it maintains the atmospheric approach they've taken with their latest releases.
One of my favorite elements of this album is the vocal work. Sakis Tolis continues his grandiose growling screeches we've come to expect, but also capitalizes on some fantastic guest vocalists. Dayal Patterson's spoken narrations are moody and evocative, and a lovely inclusion. Irina Zybina's vocals on the second track recall Russian blackened folk metal band Arkona, and make the track one of my favorites.
The melodies and rythym recall some of my favorite songs such as In-Yumen -Xilbalba, careful whispers dancing around chants, tribal drumming, and atmospheric riffs. Songs like "Heaven and Hell and Fire" and "Fire, God, and Fear" take their titles literally, auditory infernos blistering your ears with an intense roar. The album also maintains that magical, spiritual element I love about their music, invoking beings of the abyss with utter gusto.
Overall, this is a solid album, and I thoroughly enjoy it. You can pick it up from Season of Mist, Bandcamp, Amazon, etc.
Airengrav
Storms of Agony
This release from one of Zane Young's (Elegiac, Gormanudr, Blitzgeist, Sacrificial Sounds Label, etc.) numerous black metal projects is one of the best black metal releases I've listened to this year. It's a concise, powerful, ferocious album that blends black metal with noticeable heavy metal melodies.
The vocals are superb agonized howls and vengeful roars, and accompany the pummel of the music perfectly. The opening vocal work on Anchor for My Burning Soul is exceptionally vicious, and one of many reasons it's my favorite track. The guitarwork is a great mix of rapid, headbanging tremolo riffs and pleasant Iron Maiden-esque passages, usually as openings and interludes. Songs such as Dualities of Dominance and Amphimixis tap this classic metal sound to create memorable melodies before throttling you. I also enjoyed the riffwork in Like Wind Against Flames, a mournful, desolate tone that reminds me of Elegiac's Pagan Storm album from last year. And Barbarian Hammer is a full tilt flaming roller coaster of a track.
The rythym is also fantastic, an all out battery attack that weaves around the riffs just right. The latter half of Anchor for My Burning Soul hits especially hard, a raging, riffing, pounding track that howls into the abyss. Again, probably my favorite, though that's a tough call when all of the tracks are this good.
Particularly enjoyable is the build from Faint Glowing Embers into the pure black metal majesty of Black Magic and Metaphysics. An apt title, because the track is classic second wave black metal through and through. Frankly, the entire album is raw, unapologetic black metal that deserves your full attention.
Tapes can be picked up from the Sacrificial Sounds Bandcamp page if still available, and is also always available digitally.
Ghaal's Wyrd
"GastiR- Ghosts Invited"
So I started writing this review before even finishing the album, because quite frankly, it's that good and I had to say so. And then the album finished and I immediately started playing it again. Don't expect a long review, because really just do yourself the favor and go listen to the album.
Musically it's superb. The guitar work runs the gamut of classic burning black metal riffage to haunting atmospherics, and works in tandem with Gaahl's voice wonderfully. The two blend perfectly to emphasize the intended feel and atmosphere of each song, from howling rage to melancholic contemplation. The drumming is precise, never too much or too little. It's organic and paced, fast when it needs to be and spread out when called for. Blazing speed to haunting slow tribal doom. And the bass is not only noticeable, but superbly done. Rumbling underneath the vocal melody and gluing the guitar and drums together, all while maintaining its own presence.
The vocal work, bluntly, is some of the absolute best I've heard. Gaahl has always been one of my favorite vocalists, but he takes it to the next level here. From his classic burning roars to hauntingly beautiful tones that are on par with the Peaceville gothic metal staples, he does it all. Dark chanting, ethereal howls, melodic singing, and high pitched wailing. And he does so at the perfect moments, delivering nuanced performances that suit each song and truly push the album above and beyond.
Its aggressive, contemplative, melancholic, celebratory, ancient, primal, beautiful, spiritual, and altogether powerful. I cannot recommend giving it a spin enough, even if black metal is not normally your thing. Even at its most aggressive it never loses its melody, never sacrifices its nuance.
You can pick up copies via Bandcamp and Season of Mist!
Tundra-Demo
Boreal Hymn
Just released on US label Sacrificial Sounds, this little demo is stunningly beautiful. The duo contains a member of Wormwitch, whose album Heaven That Dwells Within was one of my favorite black metal albums in 2019. It's the raw, aggressively beautiful pagan black metal I've come to expect from Sacrificial Sounds releases, and it is done exceptionally well. This reminds me of a mix of the stellar Gaahl's WYRD album released last year and the aforementioned Wormwitch album. It's haunting, ritualistic, animalistic, and powerfully evocative of it's namesake.
You can pre-order the cassette, or just pick up the digital version, from the Sacrificial Sounds Bandcamp.
Adversarial Light
Lothric
There's not much I can say about this album just yet, except that I bought it after just one song. So far it has been a fantastic modern homage to second wave black metal, and I found the riffs to be exemplary. The vocal work is really well done as well, it has a sort of lilting quality to the harsh bellows before transforming into fiery damned roars. And the drumming remains consistent even while galloping at full pace with the guitar, making nice complex transitions to underline vocal and riff changes. As I explore more of it I'm also finding some superb Viking/Folk metal forays with the guitar riffs and overall song pacing that pleases me greatly. Overall, I strongly recommend checking out this project.
The album can be picked up digitally from the artist on their Bandcamp page, unfortunately it looks like physical copies are currently all out of stock, not that I can blame people for snatching them up.
Listening to this again and it's safe to say, still one of the best black metal releases of 2020.
Tundra-Demo
Boreal Hymn
Just released on US label Sacrificial Sounds, this little demo is stunningly beautiful. The duo contains a member of Wormwitch, whose album Heaven That Dwells Within was one of my favorite black metal albums in 2019. It's the raw, aggressively beautiful pagan black metal I've come to expect from Sacrificial Sounds releases, and it is done exceptionally well. This reminds me of a mix of the stellar Gaahl's WYRD album released last year and the aforementioned Wormwitch album. It's haunting, ritualistic, animalistic, and powerfully evocative of it's namesake.
You can pre-order the cassette, or just pick up the digital version, from the Sacrificial Sounds Bandcamp.
Eden in Reverse
Hail Spirit Noir
(Preorder/Upcoming)
Looking forward to the newest release from Greece's psychedelic black metal wizards Hail Spirit Noir, to be released June 19th from Agonia Records. Two tracks have been released so far, with the second featuring guest vocals from Borknagar's Lars Nedland (who released a fabulous album last year).
So far the tracks have leaned heavily towards prog, capitalizing on the bands kooky, ethereal capabilities. The insane spiraling synth of The First Ape on New Earth is simultaneously creepy and beautiful, with the guitars following suit. And the soft clean vocal work hides an undertow of foreboding that permeates the track.
Nedland's vocals work wonderfully on Crossroads, a perfect match of progressive musical beauty. The track might have almost fit in on Borknagar's last album, but yet not at all, with HSN injecting their usual infectious strange into the track.
I've definitely enjoyed the teasers, but really look forward to getting to hear the whole thing, as HSN are one of those bands where the whole album is simply an experience unto its own.
----The album is available for preorder, though depending on your location you may not want to preorder physical copies from Agonia Records' Bandcamp page, as shipping is rather hefty. You may check local record distributors for your home country, and it also looks to be available on at least the American Amazon store as well, depending on where you shop. -----