Back To Bandcamp: March 26, 2016

Pyre of Ash - Scattered Toward The Glens
(https://pyreofash.bandcamp.com/album/scattered-toward-the-glens)

It's too soon to fully understand what the legacy of maximalist post-black metal à la Panopticon will be for the genre, but the dynamism of projects like Pyre of Ash gives me a lot of hope. Pyre of Ash layers unrelenting riffs and drums, melancholy synths and strings, and visceral, emotional screams on "Scattered Toward The Glens," creating a sound that's both atmospheric and deeply personal. The subject matter, the death of a father, is perfectly complimented by the song's bleak melodies and sense of isolation. It's really a shame this release is just one song, because Pyre of Ash can clearly craft excellent and evocative post-black soundscapes and I'd love to hear more from him.

Highly Recommended.

Moonspawn - Parasite Dimension
(https://moonspawn.bandcamp.com/album/parasite-dimension)

Poland has been at the top of the black metal world for the past year or so, with great releases from bands like Batushka, Blaze of Perdition, Outre, and Mgła, and when a scene thrives at the top, that creativity and energy tends to trickle down into the underground ranks. Moonspawn was formed in the middle of the Polish black metal Renaissance, but the band doesn't seem interested in aping the dynamic, crisp style of the movement's big names. Instead, Moonspawn crafts walls of dissonant darkness with a slightly industrial flavor. There's a clear Burzum influence here, with synth lines occasionally piercing through the cacophony to form a melody. The riffs are simple, noisy, and repetitive. but work with the band's loud and raw style. "V," the longest track on the album, is one of the strongest, highlighting the best elements of the band.

Recommended.

I'll hopefully have a new full-length review coming out in the next couple days. Also, I'll be embedding tracks with reviews from now on so you can judge the music for yourself.

Back To Bandcamp: March 19, 2016

Sanguine Relic - III - The Vampyre Weeps In Secrecy Of The Night
(https://defiledlight.bandcamp.com/album/iii-the-vampyre-weeps-in-secrecy-of-the-night)

Despite a few definite misses (see my review of Atel/Bastard of Majesty Sin's split), Defiled Light have a solid record of mysterious, atmospheric lofi black metal releases with indistinguishable cover art. Sanguine Relic, an anonymous black metal project from some unknown location with a vampire obsession (all good signs), are behind the label's latest release, III - The Vampyre Weeps In Secrecy Of The Night, a collection of simple, lofi, chaotic black metal tunes. The material point: if you like the rest of Defiled Light's catalog, you'll probably like Sanguine Relic's latest release as well. The noted standout of III's otherwise numeral tracklisting is a cover of "The Anchor Song," the closer of Bjork's Debut. The barely-recognizable re-imagining transforms the warm saxophone melodies of the original into chilling black metal tremolo riffs. It's a highly unintuitive cover that nonetheless incorporates Sanguine Relic's strongest elements: jagged howls, traditional black metal minimalism, and a touch of the experimental.

Recommended.

Heretic Rites - In Satan's Claws
(https://hereticrites.bandcamp.com/album/in-satans-claws)

Considering "Ratkovo" is about the most metal-sounding name for a city I've ever heard, it's no surprise these Serbian doom-rockers know what they're about. Heretic Rites, perhaps best described as Uncle Acid's pentagram-obsessed brother-in-law, have great riffs, creepy vocal melodies, and a raw production aesthetic—the perfect formula for occult metal. There's also plenty of variety in the band's songwriting: "Boot Knife Sacrifice" and "Return to the Castle" break up their plodding doom with passages of old-school heavy metal speed, while "Holy Place" combines the band's creepy aesthetic with up-tempo hard rock. In a market increasingly overcrowded with indifferent Ghost and Uncle Acid knockoffs, don't miss this trio of Serbians that do occult rock right.

Highly Recommended.

Black Mantra - From The Grave of Madness
(https://black-mantra.bandcamp.com/album/from-the-graves-of-madness-ep)

Typical stoner-doom bands build their songs around enormous, filthy riffs and leave the other instruments to unobtrusively fill up the remaining space. It's pure guitar music through and through—the unabashed worship of the distorted riffs to which all other instrumentation, including the vocals, must submit. Brazil's Black Mantra, by contrast, presents a fascinating inversion of stoner/doom minimalism, with the band's guitars merely undergirding a cacophony of organs and electric keyboards. Not that Black Mantra can't do a big, tasty riff—"Stillborn" and "The Left-Handed" certainly prove that they can—but the spooky doom act focuses instead on gothic atmospheres, a kitschy B-movie aesthetic, and the slow, creepy melodies that some metal fans call "processional." Imagine if the hippie cultists of Menace Ruine exhumed and reanimated Peter Steele as their new frontman and you'll get an idea of what Black Mantra are doing here—deep, vampiric vocals and all.

Highly Recommended.

Back to Bandcamp: March 12, 2016

The North Gate - Center of Homes
(https://thenorthgate.bandcamp.com/album/center-of-homes)

The North Gate are a difficult band to define. They tie together elements of black, death, doom, and hardcore punk, without letting any individual element become their defining aspect. At times, the band feels like a heavier metalcore band—at others, a blackened sludge project. "Filthy Garments," for instance, opens with a black or death metal riff before transitioning into a sludgey bridge and ultimately ending with a dark acoustic passage. The only uniting features of the record, besides the general heaviness, are the prominent doomy basslines and raw, aggressive, punk-inspired vocals—both strong suites of the band. An interesting, if very short (and a little messy) debut from this New York band.

Recommended.

Necrolytic Goat Converter - Demo MMXVI
(https://necrogoatconverter.bandcamp.com/album/demo-mmxvi)

New York has no right to this many great metal artists. This one-man black metal debut has in spades what most releases by scene veterans lack entirely—tight songwriting, catchy riffs, and robust production. Tracks like "Absolution" and "Second Skin" highlight Necrolytic Goat Converter's straighforward and melodic take on black metal, reminiscent of Tribulation's most recent album in the best possible way. This is a true bedroom black metal album—recorded on a single guitar and produced in Garageband—but the drum arrangements are varied and tasteful and C. Voss avoids all the typical self-producing pitfalls, neither smothering the vocals in distortion nor drowning the guitars in reverb. A great debut from a great musician.

Highly Recommended.

The Thurible Presents: The Griminine Mystique

"Why aren't there any women making metal?"

It's funny how often that question gets asked, considering the (always growing) number of amazing female artists making everything from drone to doom to black to death metal. If you really want to see more women making (and listening to) metal, then support these great artists (signed and unsigned) that are already doing it:

Acid King: https://acidking.bandcamp.com/releases

A classic doom/stoner metal act featuring Lori S. on vox and lead guitars. Busse Woods is my favorite of their records.

Turia: https://montturia.bandcamp.com/releases

A newer atmospheric black metal band from Denmark featuring the mysterious "T" on vocals. Their debut is free on bandcamp.

False: https://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/album/untitled-2015

False, a scary black metal banded front by one "Rachel." Her voice is terrifying, and False's Untitled was one of the best black metal albums of last year.

Wolvserpent: https://wolvserpent.bandcamp.com/

Brittany McConnell is one half of this experimental doom/drone duo. They just released a new EP you should definitely check out.

Dark Castle: https://darkcastlemetal.bandcamp.com/music

Stevie Floyd (pictured center) plays guitars and shrieks in this excellent doom duo. Spirited Migration remains one of my favorite metal albums ever.

Menace Ruine: https://menaceruine.bandcamp.com/

This band actually sounds like a weird hippy cult. Geneviève's spooky singing and sinister songwriting are mostly to blame.

Myrkur: https://myrkur.bandcamp.com/

What's left to say? Amalie Bruun makes beautiful black metal, and anyone too kvlt for Myrkur can go lick Varg Vikernes' goatee. Seriously, go do it. I'll wait.

Blood Ceremony: http://www.metalblade.com/us/artists/blood-ceremony/

Alia O'Brien plays the flute in Blood Ceremony when she isn't singing. You shouldn't need any more information about this doom rock band to know they're something special.

Vile Creature: https://vilecreature.bandcamp.com/releases

Vic is one-half of this filthy Canadian duo that put the "Sludge" in "SJW."

I'm very proud of that joke.

Coldnight: https://dir666.bandcamp.com/album/waterfall-of-suicides

When people go on r/blackmetal asking about "depressive black metal with female vocals," they're looking for this solo project by plaintive shrieker (and, incidentally, pretty decent logo artist) Hypothermia.

Windhand: https://windhandva.bandcamp.com/

Dorthia Cottrell (pictured left) is probably the best doom singer in the world right now. I can't recommend Windhand highly enough.

Mire of Despondency: https://omenovtorment.bandcamp.com/album/december-winds-and-luciferian-mists

Young Pennsylvania artist Nokturnus is behind this atmospheric black metal project. I like it a lot more than my two reviews make it seem.

Oceans of Slumber: http://oceansofslumber.com/

This progressive band is fronted by Cammie Gilbert (pictured right), one of the only black singers in the metal scene. Her excellent vocal performances make this band.

Cairiss: https://cairiss.bandcamp.com/track/disgraced-demo

They're still only one song in, but Southhampton's Cairiss have already made significant waves in the post-black metal world, mainly because of singer Freya's amazing vocal performance.

Electric Wizard: http://www.electricfuckinwizard.com/

Electric Wizard is THE stoner metal band. Liz Buckingham joined her husband, Jus Osborn, in the band and helped save it from near-extinction in 2003. They've been going strong ever since.

Nachtlieder: https://nachtlieder.bandcamp.com/

True Scandinavian black metal without gimmicks or frills, composed and performed by Dagny Susanne. Her latest album, The Female of the Species, has been criminally overlooked by black metal critics and fans alike.

Happy International Women's Day from The Great Thurible of Darkness!

(Yeah, I didn't include Nightwish, Within Temptation, or Arch Enemy. There's no shortage of people buying their records already. Also: I hope to be back with another installment of Back to Bandcamp on the 9th or 10th. See you then.)

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.