Integrity/Krieg Split

Combining two behemoths like Krieg and Integrity into one split is a near guarantee that the walls are going to tremble and floors will shake with blackened hardcore infused grooves. Cascading out of your listening device is a rapture of soul sucking metal from two veteran elite bands from their respective communities. Integrity are considerably far more mature and delve into sinister depths that are unlike the usual hardcore ilk of their Victory Records roots. It is reasonable to imagine that Dwid Hellion’s creative juggernaut would fit magnificently with the corrosive audible spawn of New Jersey’s Krieg. Their blackened branches may extend into different places but stem from the same bile.

It’s no surprise that Integrity kicks the door down with relentless force on “Scorched Earth,” a song that starts like screeching tires just before a car wreck before opening up into a maelstrom gut wrenching leads and palm muted riffs that tear at the psyche. Crashing and burning from out of the abyss lands Dwid Hellion, a charismatic enigma who somehow manages to contain all of the energy at his back and disperses it into malevolent guttural howls.

Yep, I think I’m going to like this split; Integrity’s transformation from metalcore (not that nicely polished 2000s stuff, mind you) into a legitimate blackened unit could not be any more successful. From the D-Beat inspired “Sons of Satan” to the unstoppable assault on “Flames of the Immortal”, Integrity are still provoking the hordes with intense creative bursts of sonic warfare.

Further tracing their lineage back to the vault of old school hardcore punk, Integrity performs a cover of G.I.S.M’s “Document One.” To put it simply, this song kicks ass and Integrity did a wonderful job of capturing the spirit of the original song while staying true to their own sound.

And then you have Krieg, a band with a storied reputation in the USBM scene, and if “Circle of Guilt” should tell you anything it is that they will have the mana to follow up Integrity. Their first track is a sick dose of negativity. Hammering down with a vicious force that will penetrate your will to live, Krieg’s pair of unreleased recordings and a live version of “The Sick Winds Stir the Cold Dawn” will leave any USBM purist salivating for more sonic dread.

Drudkh - They Often See Dreams About the Spring

Drudkh aren’t finished with with their zenith; They Often See Dreams About the Spring surges with sweeping harmonies and breathtaking cadences. Surely this is a renaissance for their career, as the Ukrainian based group follows up the critical success of A Furrow Cut Short with an even better album in my estimation.

It’s an unloading and cryptic album with hypnotic songs that dig down into the dirge of a warrior’s spirit. Artistically the album renders images of rolling landscapes and hideous flames purging all in its path. This is the purity of raw black metal in an environment that has fostered more than one thousand years of war torn poverty and oppression. It is no coincidence, in my mind’s eye, that this outfit has been releasing such tenacious material in the outcropping of a war that continues to tear apart their homeland.

Among Drudkh’s most persevering hallmarks is the ability to create music that rises above the tension. On one end of the spectrum is a style that relentlessly attacks in the form of their second wave inspired black metal assault, but they are also cultivating inspiration from folk ballads and the mystique of their culture. Beyond the maelstrom are symbols of faith and relief. Like the life of a forest that dies and breathes again, Drudkh lives out the tragedy of their struggle and relays inspiration out into the fog.

Release date is March 9th.

Horn - Retrograd 12"

Within the first thirty seconds of the first song, I was able to tell that I want to listen to this band. The pagan genre can easily come off as a redundant and cliché movement that has long since jumped its proverbial shark, however, it’s a mistake to overlook the genre for all its genuinely good bands.

Horn fits into that niche of good heathen metal music.  Its vibes are purely dark and esoteric. There are uplifting melodies that transition back and forth with a raw and almost serene barbarism; visions of ancient times conjured up by thick grassroots extreme metal riffs. The spirit of heathen culture is a  poetic struggle between life and death that ultimately ends in doom, which is why I strongly favor darker bands in this style. Horn doesn’t sacrifice the ancient gloom of medieval and dark times for epic shining ballads of virtue and valor, no, Horn reduces the genre to its primal architypes which is where it should stay rooted. 

They can do fast and they can do slow, combining elements of bludgeoning doom, hardcore melodeath, and black metal with their folkish spirit.

Óreiða/Holocausto Em Chamas - 10" Split

This split features sinister black metal from two different nations. There is absolutely nothing new or fancy about the style on this 10”, and neither do these bands hone on any of the rock friendly tones of first wave black metal or black n roll. Quite simply this is the Portuguese label Signal Rex at its best, offering the legions another crunchy wave of diabolical noise. 

Óreiða is the first band on the split. Early Darkthrone and Emperor influence is immediately recognizable on the pulverizing track “Blindur.” The return of this enigmatic Icelandic act carves out another necessary grab for their cult following, following their breakthrough demo. Clocking in at just under ten minutes, Óreiða’s track is an ominous whirlwind of complete black metal decimation.

Holocausto Em Chamas have an ethereal raw sound reminiscent of old school Darkthrone or Burzum. They’re a Portuguese duo with something to prove, as this is their second sonic malice, as well. The drum echo is dominantly heavy on each of their three tracks on this 10”, which is pretty characteristic of second wave black metal and its progeny of modern filth.

The split clocks in at twenty minutes. With no breaks or time to catch a breath, this pedigree of old school black metal courts the contemptable and depraved with no regards for safe metal.

Ignis Haereticum - Autocognition of Light

Autocognition of Light begins with the “Glorious Wounds”, a track that pulls the senses apart and pummels the listener with a ruthless incorporation of raw energetic blast beats and eerie rhythmic single note picking that cascades into a gloomy opus. The song peaks in and out at frequent transitional moments, but the band never wanders from the macabre ritualistic charm that drives their motif.

The minimalistic songwriting helps to drive the primal theme; however, the album certainly lacks strength in variety. Three songs into the album, Autocognition of Light presents itself for all that it’s worth, a chaotic instrument of Luciferian gnostic spiritual liberation, but ultimately cliché and short of outstanding.

Although I appreciate the atmospheric theme that bands like Ignis Haereticum are approaching, so often the template becomes the inevitable enemy of artistic ambition. In this case, I just found Autocognition of Light to be a desolate marker on the plain of esoteric antichristian gnostic bands, and I don’t mean desolate in the way that conjures cool blackened visuals either.

The cyclone of blackened material that sludges its way through 40 minutes could have been better if the whole thing did not feel so contrived, or if it were released simply as a three or four song EP.

Crown of Wallachia - Demo

Crown of Wallachia Demo Independent

Although one track alone is only a small offering to go off of, if this sample is any indication of the talent and composition behind Crown of Wallachia, then there is an unstoppable fury pulsing behind them. The band is a brainchild of an enigmatic resident of Oregon, who creates with guest musicians playing leads in the studio. As far as independent and individually run black metal projects go, Crown of Wallachia's quality is as pure as it is ambitious.

The band is a conceptual homage to the Wallachian lord who fought to keep the borders of Christianity in Europe with an edge of ruthlessness that will be forever remembered in the West. Count Vlad Tepes the Impaler was nothing if not an unleashed warrior with no limits, and that’s the spirit that the demo conveys.

The demo is superbly produced, and the machine gun instrumentation is captured wonderfully across the track. There are certainly no experimental or over the top elements in this song, but the purity of second generational black metal is utterly evident; raw rapid tempo music that channels all the maddening energies of the twisting nether. One could certainly picture a montage of Vlad Tepes reducing all of his enemies to pulps of human flesh and blood.

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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