Get ready for some dark and ominous stuff that sidesteps your expectations, with Veilburner, Spider God, Alkymist and The Mosaic Window.
Veilburner – The Duality Of Decapitation And Wisdom
Genre: Progressive death/black metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Country of origin: USA
There is dark, grotesque magic at work here. Inspired by the album art, it’s easy to picture a heretical warlock performing various unspeakable rituals during the course of the album’s runtime, each with its own, unique, but similarly unfortunate outcome. The incantations are spoken as convulsive, throat-rending growls, and the malevolent, primordial energies released take the form of spasming rhythms, dissonant chugs and psychedelic melodies, each morphing dramatically with the erratic mood of the proceedings. Disorder certainly reigns overall, but that doesn’t mean that the prevailing impression you get is that of pure chaos. There’s also orderly, thrash-like, aggressively marching riff sections, serene dips into pure atmosphere, and a stylistic focus that keeps, at least each individual track, fairly coherent. Somehow, I think this band has the capacity to be even more dramatic and intentional with their artistic expression, but this seems a very important step on their journey.
Highlights: “A Shadow of a Shadow” and “Woe Ye Who Build These Crosses are Those Who Would Serve Us Death”
Spider God – Possess The Devil
Genre: Melodic black metal/metalcore
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 4/5
Country of origin: UK
What the heck is this thing? It’s like a black metal band and metalcore band got into a fight, and when they separated, they somehow didn’t realize that they’d swapped some band members... with the resulting material getting partially processed through the same computer system that cranks out MASTER BOOT RECORD’s music. It’s wild, but it totally works, like some magnetic creative force has brought the best of both worlds together. For those worrying – no, there is no clean singing or sappy melodic sections on this. It’s the kind of high-energy, no-fucks-given mashups that you expect when black metal and thrash join forces. The vocals are all-out raspy, you get a few instances of classic blast beats and tremolo, but mostly groove-loving melodic stuff in the vein of Vltimas, with a heap of hardcore and metalcore riffs and rhythm styles, and just a sprinkling of that aggressive folk-punk you get from bands like Kvelertak. It does not run out of steam at any point, and the more you listen to it, the more you start to get it.
Highlights: “The Wolf” and “Starcrusher”
Alkymist – UnnDerr
Genre: Doom/industrial metal
Subjective rating: 4/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: Denmark
Now for a slightly different doom experience. Danish band Alkymist seems not to mind being labeled, touting themselves as progressive doomers, but as for embracing the expected formula (as much as you can with a progressive variation of a subgenre), they have, in many significant ways, defied conventions. The tempo is quite high, even by classic, non-funeral doom standards. The traditional fuzz has taken on a much less natural, more synthetic crunch, which, coupled with a massive, foundation-shaking bass and steady, industrial beats, creates the sensation of an approach of something mechanical and unstoppable - a towering, electrically powered construction of dark stained metal, with groaning gears and heavy limbs articulated with hydraulic force. The vocals vary between sludgy rasps and a slightly hushed croaking, which further dehumanizes the expression a measure. The deep, oppressive tone of doom is absolutely still there, but the melodic effect is not that of instilling any sort of melancholy or sullen feeling of helplessness. Quite the opposite, it’s got more than enough groove to get some good headbanging going, and the heavy atmosphere is just the nature of the space you have to enter in order to enjoy it. Dynamically it could probably be quite a bit more daring, but on the other hand it does a great job of keeping the pace up.
Highlight: “Fire In My Eyes”
The Mosaic Window – Hemasanctum
Genre: Melodic black metal
Subjective rating: 3.5/5
Objective rating: 3.5/5
Country of origin: USA
This is a black metal project that does a (not entirely even) split between standard blast beats and more primitive black ‘n’ roll rhythms, quite lively detours into groove/heavy trotting, and also a few downtempo doom crawls. Does it still sound dark and evil? Yes, but in a way like it’s thrown on the devil’s cowl on top of its denim vest. So the intent is all there, but as its affinity for other styles pull it in slightly different directions, it doesn’t quite land as hard as a more focused effort might. That being said, non-purists like me will almost certainly appreciate the variety on here, and the mosh-inducing, clawed-hand-to-the-sky, aggressive energy radiating from this thing is undeniable.
Highlight: "Turibulum"
Comments