Blood Tyrant/ Departure Chandelier - Split 7" EP

Blood Tyrant/ Departure Chandelier Split 7" EP

(Nuclear War Now! Productions)

Blood Tyrant’s brooding vehement style of black metal is a perfect opener for this split. The riffs on “The Dark Decree” are frantic and manic in the tradition of black metal’s classic second wave. Indeed, nostalgic melancholy permeates around the entire five-minute track. An atmospheric tandem of keyboards and guitar spreads ominously across “The Dark Decree” until Blood Tyrant reaches the climatic and chilling conclusion powered by thunderous heathen ritual drumming.    

Departure Chandelier is no less chilling. Their magnetic aura is crafted within layers of intense tempo shifting total riff devastation that cuts to the bone. The bedlam of this Canadian trio is a gift for those who are eager for more of that cold old school gut wrenching black metal.

Vehementer - Replenishment Circle (The Black Spectrumfest)

Vehementer

Replenishment Circle

(Blood Harvest)

Serbia’s past is shrouded in a realm of horror and violence that few modern day westerners can grasp. Vehementer easily conjures that reality into music that above all else is apocalyptic and barbaric. Replenishment Circle bursts forward with Satanic black thrash assaults that the true legions of underground metal will surely appreciate. Their music pays homage to the juggernauts of Scandinavian black metal like Bathory, Darkthrone, Aura Noir, and Nifelheim. Although the album is only four short tracks long, it's an EP that really hones into the delivery of how old school thick black metal used to be. Each riff sounds like it was literally dug out of a graveyard with the intent to devour the world in grim shocking death. Where the music decays into frantic charges of malevolent speed, Vehementer is at their strongest. Bound by oaths to drive the origins of true black thrash metal, Vehementer succeeds in crafting 12 minutes of Serbian carnage.

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Barbaric Horde - Tainted Impurity

Barbaric Horde
Tainted Impurity
(War Arts Productions)

From the moment Tainted Impurity’s first track hits I knew that this was an onslaught of no nonsense black metal ushered forth by diabolical Portuguese diehards staying true to their blasphemous roots. Barbaric Horde executes crushing aggression in each tainted riff. The guttural grunts and godless frantic cadence of these primal hessians shall surely satisfy all of your desires for savage pure black metal witchery.

Barbaric Horde are truly among the elite in Europe’s ripe black metal scene. Barbaric Horde's second album comes out on August 4th 2017.

https://soundcloud.com/war-arts-prod/barbaric-horde-bestial-offender

Album Review: River Black - River Black

River Black River Black (Season of Mist)

Raw, pummeling, and aggressive; River Black is a righteous blend of hardcore, thrash, and death metal that mixes into just the right cocktail of sonic intoxication. Thick grooves conjure wave after wave of unholy face melting hell.

River Black is a wailing monstrosity of unforgiven blues summoned forth from elite veterans in the metal scene. After the fall out of Burnt By The Sun, drummer David Witte (Municipal Waste) and guitar player John Adubato carved out the path toward their reawakening. Insert the technical prowess of Revocation’s Brett Bamberger and former Burnt By The Sun vocalist Mike Olender, and you have the aftermath of this New Jersey unit’s extreme revival.

Out forth pours River Black, thirty-five minutes of pure organic American metal chopped up into 12 tracks. Bandcamp

Shroud Eater dropping ravenous sludge with new tracks off upcoming album!

It's 2017 and I have a bunch of shit on my mind that I hate. There seems to be no resolution for all of the terrible things that humanity is capable of conjuring up on a daily basis. As I am rowing myself down this river of putrid crap which bears a stark resemblance to Styx (not the band), the enchanting shroud of gloom emanating from guitar player and vocalist Jeannie Saiz drives me on over the edge and into the pit.  

The two frontwomen of Shroud Eater are like feral dogs exploding with rapture.  Janette Valentine, bassist and backing vocalist, channels a hypnotic groove while Saiz lures the listener into a tormented meltdown of beautifully toxic energy. 

The Miami three-piece has been impressing fans of the sludge genre for several years now, and Strike The Sun represents a huge leap forward musically for the band. Although the primal fury of Dead Ends and ThunderNoise were definitely leaving craters in the doom metal community, they lacked the songcraft to elevate the music to a point where it stuck.

One listen to the track "Awaken Assassin", and it's clear that they've crossed the threshold; this is a band capable of mentally conceiving deeply woven threads of intrigue and conflict, then they break it down into good rock music. 


Beyond the wall of pummeling fuzz and distortion that has become a staple of sludge, Shroud Eater writes good music.

"Awaken Assassin" is a revelation of death on the hunt guided by the furious tempest of Shroud Eater's dark metal opus."Futile Exile" represents the powerful grip of paranoia, as explained by Jeannie Saiz, it's about a beast that never stops hunting upon fear.

Strike The Sun comes out via STB Records through digital format on July 7th and on vinyl July 8th.  Be sure to pick up what this Miami doom trio is putting down below.

Album Review: Perished - Kark

Perished

Kark

(ATMF)

True Norwegian black metal formed in the womb of the genre's darkest days, Perished's Kark is a grim voyage through the darkest depths of twilight with a symphony of cruelty. Originally recorded in the late '90s, the album retains all of the dissonance and raw shredding that made black metal so visceral in that time period. 

Album Review: Circle - Terminal

Circle
Terminal
(Southern Lord)

Circle’s Terminal album is an opus that crosses into powerful ambient territories in zealous defiance of modern rock's standard structures. There is nothing that one would consider normal from this Finnish quartet. Their energy is frantic and passionate, however, orchestrated through the brilliant clockwork of their elite genre bending song craft. Few bands can artfully move through a mosaic of styles so seamlessly without rendering their efforts to filthy and painfully pretentious noise. At its core Circle revolves around a maelstrom of rock one could immediately liken to the confrontational proto-punk meltdown of The Stooges. The Finnish vocals conjure a rabid esoteric mantra of eclectic tribal Norsemen dancing dangerously close to insanity, as the music dives through psychedelic, glam-pop, and furious acid rock riffs. Terminal is the example of how far rock music can continue to grow without the boundaries of stereotypes and genre models. 

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