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.
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