Back to Bandcamp: February 28, 2016

Appalachian Mudd - Demo
(https://appalachianmudd.bandcamp.com/album/demo)

I wish more American black metal sounded American. Not in a "them dern fereners" sort of way; I just wish more bands made black metal their own in the way that Panopticon or Batushka or Deep Mountains have, adopting and adapting black metal to local themes and influences. You can imagine, therefore, how pleased I was to see a black metal duo from North Carolina calling themselves "Appalachian Mudd"—a name so American it sounds like an awful craft beer.

Appalachian Mudd sound as earthy as their name. Playing a stripped, minimalist version of Cascadian-style atmospheric black metal with depressive-style vocals, Appalachian Mudd evoke the loneliness of the Blue Ridge Mountains' foggy peaks and dense pine woods throughout the 15 minutes of "Cradle Of Forestry///Forks Of Ivy." This is a truly rough demo, with a few noticeable production problems (including a fair bit of clipping and poor mixing), but the riffs and songwriting are solid and the gloomy mood holds well throughout the recording. A promising demo brimming with American wilderness spirit.

Recommended.

Schema - Miasto Nierzeczywiste
(https://schemamuzykakresu.bandcamp.com/album/miasto-nierzeczywiste)

Poland has more than pulled its weight in the black metal scene for the past few years, but you don't come across Polish doom metal all that often. Though this Warsaw band is certainly doom, Schema's take on the genre is far from typical, borrowing from everything from depressive black metal to thrash on "Industria," while crafting a slow, chilling metal ballad on "Bezsenność." Vocalist Filip has a deep, menacing, and raspy bellow that reminded me forcefully of Rammstein's Till Lindemann—perhaps because like Lindemann, Filip snarls in his native tongue instead of English (something I'd love to see more of in metal as a whole, but especially in doom). Schema are a new band, and clearly still nailing down their sound, but Miasto Nierzeczywiste is full of interesting songwriting and a few great ideas.

Recommended.

Just two mini-reviews for this week. I'll be continuing the "How To Metal" series in the next week or so with symphonic and power metal.

The Thurible's How To Metal, Part 2: Northern Darkness

I'm not convinced it's possible to ease a newcomer into black metal. Heck, a lot of lifelong metalheads don't mess with this stuff, what with the shrieking, challenging production, and extreme lyrical themes (surpassed only by brutal death metal and grindcore). But I'm going to try.

First, a little history. The first band to play black metal as we know it now (often called "second wave black metal" or simply "Norwegian black metal") was Mayhem, a group of Oslo teenagers that hammered our deliberately terrifying music influenced by thrash and death metal with low fidelity production and an extremist ideology. An entire school of Norwegian bands would follow them, including Darkthrone, Emperor, Gorgoroth, Immortal, Satyricon, and (most infamously) Burzum. A few murders and church arsons later, black metal was internationally notorious and angry teenagers everywhere were donning corpse paint starting their own black metal bands. Today, black metal is probably the largest and most diverse metal scene in the world, with prominent regional scenes in Norway, France, Greece, Poland, Quebec, the New York area, the Pacific Northwest, and elsewhere.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it: black metal has a hateful streak. Many black metal musicians despise organized religion (especially Christianity and Islam), and a few (like Burzum's Varg Vikernes and Peste Noire's Famine) are definitely racists. But neither are a majority. Lyrical themes in modern black metal range from depression to Norse mythology to queer issues to environmentalism, and the most extreme bands (like Russia's National Socialist scene) never move beyond the fringes. In fact, a genre that once prided itself on intolerance has become surprisingly diverse over the past decade or so, as you'll see from many of the acts below.


So, if all that hasn't scared you off and you're ready to brave the worst black metal has to offer, start with Myrkur. Both accessible and hip (and consequentially highly controversial in the hyper authenticity-conscious black metal community), Myrkur combines simple, traditional black metal with the folk music of Denmark. If you need evidence that black metal can be beautiful, look no further than Myrkur's marriage of choral arrangements to black metal riffs throughout her debut EP and M. There's a bit of screaming (get used to it), but it's essentially gorgeous, uplifting music. Myrkur is somewhat unique in the black metal world, so I won't go any further than recommending checking out the early works of Ulver, Myrkur's biggest influence, if you like her stuff.


Washington's Wolves in the Throne Room are the iconic environmentalist black metal band—they've spawned a whole scene of imitators and released some of the best metal music recorded in the past 10 years. Their most recent project, Celestite, is an instrumental ambient project—don't bother with it. Start from the beginning with Diadem of 12 Stars work your way forward. Much like Myrkur, Wolves in the Throne Room's brand of black metal is devastatingly beautiful; a journey of longing and wonder through the forests and mountains of the Pacific Northwest you won't regret taking, if you can just pardon all the shrieking. If you're as into songs about trees as these Cascadians, check out Enisum, Panopticon, Dead to a Dying World, Botanist, Agalloch, and Winterfylleth.


If you've heard of black metal before, it's probably because of Cradle of Filth. Although the biggest British metal band since Iron Maiden hasn't played true black metal for over a decade (2000's Midian marking a definitive shift towards "gothic extreme metal"), the band is still strongly influenced by black metal music and fashion, from blast beats to corpse paint. Filth have made a career out of being a crossover act, delivering the stylings of black and death metal in a friendly symphonic/gothic metal package, making them ideal for the new black metal listener. Start with their biggest hit, "Nymphetamine Fix," then try "Her Ghost in the Fog," "The Death of Love," and their cover of Heaven 17's "Temptation." In case I haven't made it clear: Cradle of Filth aren't black metal, but their music is full of black metal progressions, time signatures, and aesthetics. If Cradle of Filth's romantic and kitschy brand of evil charms your gothic heart, check out Dimmu Borgir, Chthonic, Graveworm, and Abigail William's early work.


Hunter Hunt-Hendrix of Liturgy is the Kanye West of the black metal world: widely reviled for his narcissism and pretentiousness, but also an undeniably fascinating musician. Whether Liturgy's most recent album is even black metal at all is highly debatable, but it's a serviceable door to the world of experimental black metal nonetheless. 100% scream-free and containing elements of everything from trap to noise rock, The Ark Work was easily the most controversial and strangely addicting black metal-ish album of 2015. Don't be afraid to dive straight into the record—it's really weird, but it doesn't bite. If Liturgy's brand of experimental black metal is your kind of transgressive, check out Krallice, Deathspell Omega, Hail Spirit Noir, Kayo Dot, and Oranssi Pazuzu. Oh, and don't tell anyone who's really into black metal that you like Liturgy. Ever.


What with Pitchfork basically pummeling the universe over the head with this band, you may have heard of Deafheaven. Infamous as "that black metal band with a pink album," Deafheaven play emotional and evocative post-black metal inspired by the melodies and soundscapes of shoegaze. Start with Sunbather, the band's breakout album, and then try its follow-up New Bermuda. The openers of both albums are fantastic, exuberant songs. If you enjoy Deafheaven's fusion of black metal, shoegaze, and post-rock, check out So Hideous, Ghost Bath, Bosse-de-Nage, Harakiri for the Sky, and Alcest.


If by some miracle you've been completely sold on black metal and want to dive horns-first into the classics, here's a list to get you started: Burzum's Filosofem, Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger and Panzerfaust, Mayhem's Deathcrush and De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Gorgoroth's Pentagram, Bathory's self-titled debut and Hammerheart, Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse, Immortal's At The Heart of Winter, Ulver's Bergtatt, and Venom's Black Metal.


If you'd rather check out what's hip (and controversial) in black metal right now, here's a list of great releases from the past year or so: Leviathan's Scar Sighted, Obsequiae's Arial of Vernal Tombs, Yellow Eyes' Sick With Bloom, Krallice's Ygg Huur, False's Untitled, Mgła's Exercises in Futility*, Tribulation's Children of the Night, Panopticon's Autumn Eternal, Ghost Bath's Moonlover, Batushka's Litourgiya*, and Aluk Todolo's Voix.

*Mgła and Batushka's albums aren't on Spotify, but you can stream them on Bandcamp

Back to Bandcamp: February 20, 2016

Atel / Bastard of Majesty Sin - Atel / Bastard of Majesty Sin
(https://atelblackmetal.bandcamp.com/album/atel-bastard-of-majesty-sin)

Well, at least the minimalist cover art doesn't hurt to look at.

Atel's half of this "primitive/lo-fi black metal" split is almost high school talent-show material, clumsy and repetitive to a fault. It's hard to tell whether the drumming is the work of an extreme amateur or the result of abusing the "humanize" function in a MIDI arranger; it's painfully bad either way, and only distracts from the band's already extremely forgettable riffs. I couldn't even get through Bastard of Majesty Sin's first song, a formless mass of reverberation and distortion. The possibility that this whole split is a stealth parody of the worst excesses of bedroom black metal—from unlistenable "lo-fi" production used to cover up shoddy musicianship to the plainly absurd song titles ("Desekrating The Servants To Jezuz Krist In The Ninth Circle Ov Hell And The Infinite Destruktion Ov The Trinity")—crossed my mind more than once. But in the absence of a knowing wink, I'll have to assume otherwise.

Not Recommended/Possible Poe's Law Violation

Megatherium - Megatherium
(https://hywelpayne.bandcamp.com/album/megatherium)

As an absolute sucker for anything Pleistocene, Megatherium's name and premise drew me in immediately. This short stoner/doom project has a bit of everything, from sludgy aggression on "Haft & Heft" to primordial post-rock soundscapes on "Megatherium" to vocoders and heavy, gloomy blues on "Black Mountain" and "(in search of the) Elephant Bird." The opening and closing tracks are the strongest, but it's a good listen all the way through. It also has a giant ground sloth looking majestic on the cover, so bonus points for that.

Recommended.

Urðarmáni - Njorun
(https://urdarmani.bandcamp.com/album/njorun)

Imagine if Burzum occasionally threw in a brief passage of bittersweet post-black and you've got a pretty good idea of what Urðarmáni (a name that can probably be pronounced by humans) sounds like. Although nominally a depressive black metal band, this Swedish band's spin on Scandinavia's grimmest export is actually much closer to latter-day Varg Vikernes, complete with strong folk influences, medieval melodies, and riffs that sound like they're lifted straight from Fallen. I don't mean that comparison disparagingly, mind you—believably channeling a black metal great through solid musicianship doesn't need an apology, and "originality is definitely overrated" would make a good slogan for the entire black metal scene. Njorun's three tracks are conservative, but they're good black metal all the same. Just know that if you can't stand Burzum's melody-heavy take on the classic Norwegian sound, I promise you won't like Njorun.

Recommended.

An Important Proclamation

The Great Thurible of Darkness now has a Twitter. Feel free to use it to hurl abuse at me.

https://twitter.com/ThuribleMetal

The Thurible's How To Metal, Part 1: Gloom and Doom

Because I get a lot of people asking me where they ought to start with metal, I'm beginnng a new series, The Thurible of Darkness's How To Metal. This series isn't intended for experienced metalheads (as I like to think my reviews are). It's a collection of "gateway drug" acts to ease new listeners into metal's various styles and genres.

We've all got to start somewhere, and some good old-fashioned doom metal offers several advantages to the unfamiliar metal listener. First, many doom metal singers (death/doom hybrids excepted) don't grunt, scream or shriek, and I can't tell you how many times I've heard people tell me they actually like metal, "except for the screaming." Heck, some doom singers have unquestionably pretty voices, and you can't say that for many metal subgenres. Second, doom is all about big, bluesy riffs—it's more rooted in traditional rock virtues and values than other metal genres, and consequentially isn't as big a leap for the unfamiliar listener as death or black or thrash metal would be. Finally, doom is pretty hip these days, meaning there's plenty of modern, fresh, and exciting young doom metal bands making albums with lots of crossover appeal. I'll introduce just a few of them here.


The easiest way to get started with the doomier stuff is with spooky Swedish goofballs Ghost. Most metalheads will probably roll their eyes at the suggestion that this anonymous band is doom, and they're right, to an extent. Ghost aren't doom metal, but they play with plenty of doom metal tropes: the classic riffs, the occult themes, the sinister crooning. This Swedish band keep their identities secret with masks and make-up—all part of a silly (but endearing) act intended to pay homage to (and poke fun at) the pseudo-Satanic stylings of early heavy metal. Meliora, Ghost's most recent album, is their best so far, packed with radio-friendly singles like "Cirice," "From the Pinnacle To The Pit," and "Absolution." It's a great way for new listeners to ease themselves into what they'll be hearing in the heavier stuff. If Ghost's ultra-spooky radio-friendly occult rock is your jam, check out Year of the Goat, In Solitude, and Bloody Hammers, as well as Mercyful Fate (not doom in the least, but still very accessible), the legendary 80s metal band that inspired Ghost's sound.


Windhand is another good option for a doom metal beginner. This Virginia band formed in 2008 and play a fresh spin on the traditional doom and stoner genre. Dorthia Cottrell, the band's singer, has a beautiful voice, and the band's slow, funereal (get used to that adjective) sound highlights all of the best aspects of modern doom: soaring melodies, rumbling guitar riffs, and rich, full production. Grief's Eternal Flower, the band's most recent work, brims with eerie doom metal dirges like "Two Urns" and "Crypt Key," but also features two acoustic ballads that showcase Cottrell's melancholy croon. If you like Windhand's sad and sonorous modern gloom, check out Mount Salem, Monolord, Alunah, and Pallbearer. Oh, and check out Dorthia Cottrell's solo album as well—it's dark folk, not doom, but it's performed with the same sinister spirit.


If "sad and sonorous" doesn't sound at all your goblet of blood, meet Mastodon. If you want an introduction to sludge metal—the bastard child of doom and hardcore punk—with a healthy dash of prog, these four jokers are your boys. Start with their most recent album, Once More 'Round The Sun, and work backwards, making sure you don't miss essential listens like "Oblivion," "Curl of the Burl," "Colony of Birchmen," and "Blood and Thunder." The band have a natural knack for writing good rock songs that transcends genre boundaries, and they're respected veterans throughout the metal scene to boot. If you like Mastodon's high-energy progressive sludge rock, check out Baroness, Kylesa, and Black Tusk.


If nothing so far has quite hit the spot for you, try a tab of Uncle Acid. I like to describe Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats as band from an alternate 1960s where John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr got together to form a band called Black Sabbath. The takeaway: they're heavy, retro, and psychedelic, but these nostalgia-obsessed Brits also write incredibly catchy hooks. True Uncle Acid fans will say their older stuff is their best, but their most recent record, The Night Creeper, is still a great album and not at all a bad place to start. If Uncle Acid is your drug of choice, check out other stoner and psychedelic-influenced retro-doom acts like Witch, Demon Head, and Doctor Smoke.


And, of course, there's always Black Sabbath themselves. Most people already know a few songs by these legends ("Iron Man," "Paranoid," "War Pigs"), but those songs are just the highlights of this band's long and excellent musical catalog. Paranoid is the best place to start for beginners, but Master of Reality and the band's self-titled debut also have incredibly catchy riffs and choruses and classic, solid heavy metal songwriting. I don't recommend starting with 13, the band's more recent work; it's a good album, but I doubt any Sabbath fan would pronounce it their favorite.


If you've made it to the end of this post and you're still hungry for more doom metal (but would rather start with the classics), here's a good list to get you started: Candlemass's Epicus Doomicus Metallicus and Nightfall, Electric Wizard's Dopethrone, Cathedral's Forest of Equilibrium, Sleep's Dopesmoker, Saint Vitus's self-titled debut, Pentagram's Day of Reckoning, Witchfinder General's Death Penalty, Reverend Bizarre's In The Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend, and My Dying Bride's Turn Loose the Swans.


If you'd rather hear more of what's hip in doom metal right now, here's another list of great releases from the past year or so: Khemmis's Absolution, Elder's Lore, Witch Mountain's Mobile of Angels, Sabbath Assembly's self-titled third album, He Whose Ox Is Gored's The Camel, The Lion, The Child, Bell Witch's Four Phantoms, YOB's Clearing the Path to Ascend, Lycus's Chasms, Crypt Sermon's Out of the Garden, and Thou's Heathen.

Back to Bandcamp: February 6, 2016

Behold Darkness - Unholy Filth
(https://psalm88.bandcamp.com/album/unholy-filth)

All too often, the "raw" in "raw black metal" means shrill, disembodied and tinny. And Behold Darkness are having none of it. This little release packs meaty black metal fuzz and riffs frostier than icicles hanging from Gaahl's beard. With piercing shrieks, lo-fi production done perfectly, first-rate musicianship and haunting riffs even Varg Vikernes would give an approving nod before going back to rambling about Odalism, it's hard to believe Unholy Filth isn't the work of a Scandinavian hermit (it's a Californian band, oddly enough). Easily the best traditional black metal release of this year (so far).

Highly Recommended.

Constellation - Constellation
(https://constellation-project.bandcamp.com/album/constellation)

No instruments were harmed in the making of this record, which is surprising considering how much visceral power and manic wildness Constellation packs into barely 10 minutes. Imagine death metal hammered out on an MPC AraabMuzik-style and you'll get a sense of how this experimental project unites the artificial and the energetic using only synths and samples. Short and sweet is usually a good road to take on a debut, but Constellation's six brief tracks of futuristic grind could have definitely been longer without anyone complaining.

Recommended.

Witchcryer - The Preying Kind - Demo MMXVI
(https://witchcryer.bandcamp.com/album/the-preying-kind-demo-mmxvi)

Slow and spooky, Witchcryer deliver more of a doom formula we're familiar with from bands like Mount Salem and Blood Ceremony. So what sets this Austin occult rock/doom trio apart? Not much, at this point. Not that they necessarily need it. Witchcryer craft a gloomy hook and vocalist Suzy Bravo's croon fits the band's retro aesthetic perfectly. Likewise, guitarist and doom metal veteran Jason Muxlow's riffs convey the sense of maturity and mastery necessary in a genre niche built on nostalgia. Certainly a worthwhile listen, especially if you're already into doom bands with "Witch" in their names.

Recommended.

The Thurible Reviews: Mire of Despondency/Omen Ov Torment - "December Winds and Luciferian Mists"

I really, really hated giving Mire of Despondency an unfavorable review last time. I mean, Nokturnus is in high school. Unless your name is Pyha, chances are you're still developing and growing as an artist at that age—I'm certainly glad no one reviewed anything I released in high school. And yet here we are again, reviewing another release from this gloomy Pennsylvania teenager. Why?

Because Mire of Despondency has the makings of a great black metal artist, and I'm going to keep criticizing her until she realizes that potential.

Fortunately, December Winds and Luciferian Mists, a split with San Diego's Omen Ov Tormet, surpasses Loch of the Degenerate Realm by every standard. The musicianship has improved significantly. Mire plays to her strengths much more effectively than on her last split, giving the melancholy melodies and plaintive vocals center stage on tracks like "Todesgalxia" and "Crystalline Castles." The drumming, a major weakness on Loch of the Degenerate Realm, functions much better and feels much more dynamic.

"Demise of Lugubriosity" steals the show, combining beautiful, evocative melodies with Mire's woeful shrieks in an outstanding union of all musical elements. This is a genuinely excellent piece of atmospheric black metal—no caveats or qualifications. It sold me the album.

The production still leaves a little to be desired. The shrieks still occasionally drown out the rest of the mix, and certain instruments (usually keyboards) tend to protrude over the others. Mire of Despondency continues to favor a lofi style on this split, and while it works well for her repetitive, atmospheric style, lofi black metal is an art in itself and Mire has yet to fully master it.

One of the benefits of the shrieking style employed by black metal artists is that you don't have to hear their (usually silly) lyrics. Omen Ov Torment (not to be confused with Oven Ov Torment, a great name for a black metal cooking show) apparently missed the memo on that one, because his very silly lyrics are plainly discernible throughout "Visions of Future Truth." It's not a particularly engaging track overall, and the earnest yet prosaic blasphemies ("Satan has won!") only distract from an otherwise forgettable (and much too long) piece of Leviathan pastiche.

"Luciferian Mists" dials down on the campy speak-screaming and focuses on the frosty riffs for a much stronger result. It's a more traditional, less USBM-influenced track, but still a good one. I'll never pass up a grim and gloomy atmosphere done well.

December Winds and Luciferian Mists certainly has its moments. It's amateurish, to be sure, but we kinda like that in the grim world of Internet black metal. And at $3 for around 40 minutes of black metal, it's not a bad buy. Check it out.

Recommended.