Black Metal

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    Groza - Nadir (2024)

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    Unleashing waves of highly melancholic Black Metal, today we have Germany’s Groza and their latest opus “Nadir”. With a vibe similar to Ellende, Heretoir, and Harakiri for the Sky, this outfit explores the depths of darkness with fierce aggression and technical proficiency in six tracks that span over 42 minutes of excellent music. This emotionally charged release is a rollercoaster of unadulterated raw power that is rare to find these days.

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    Tour d'Ivoire - Tour d'Ivoire (2024)

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    Creating a very hypnotic and dream-like atmosphere, today we have Atmospheric Black Metal outfit Tour d'Ivoire with their eponymous debut release. With four tracks and over 33 minutes of music, the band’s sound reminds us of one of our favorite bands: Enid. With a good dose of synths, multiple vocal styles, heavy guitars, and a very mellow tempo, this release creates a very dense and immersive vibe that only a handful of more experienced outfits can deliver.

    Setting a very mystical mood with “La Tour”, we get a taste of lush atmospherics paired with a river of distorted guitars and harsh vocals. This harshness is masterfully contrasted by ethereal clean vocal choirs, creating a very dissonant and yet pleasing effect. With “Brouillard” and “Forteresse de Marbre” this outfit fully immerses the listener into their world with more waves of catchy and melancholic melodies that continue to showcase the band’s duality.

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    Winterfylleth - The Imperious Horizon (2024)

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    Over the years the Atmospheric Black Metal scene has exploded and many bands have crowded it, however, Winterfylleth has always been at the top thanks to their creativity and ability to greatly improve with each release. With “The Imperious Horizon”, the band takes their sound to a whole new level with over 70 minutes of bombastic music that perfectly balances aggression and melancholy.

    Setting an enigmatic and lush mood with the instrumental opener, the blasts away with the piercing “Like Brimming Fire”, a track filled with crushing drums and savage riffs, giving us a certain Der Weg einer Freiheit vibe. After the furious opener, “DishonourEnthroned” keeps the intensity but carves some masterful melodic elements into the mix, creating a very enveloping sound, with Chris Naughton harsh vocals brilliantly adding to the turmoil. With no sign of slowing down, “Upon this Shore” and the album title track perfectly deliver a delicate balance between ravaging brutality and melancholy, with some epic headbanging passages and dramatic keyboards/clean vocals.

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    Avmakt - Satanic Inversion of.... (2024)

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    Spewing a grim style of Norwegian Black Metal today we have Avmakt and their debut release “Satanic Inversion of....”. With a sound reminiscent of Dark Throne, Sarke, and Tulus, this outfit keeps the old-school flame alive with six crushing tracks. As a no-frills approach to the genre, this release is primal and raw, unleashing 45 minutes of gut-wrenching music.

    As the release opens with “Ordinance”, we get that raw and unfiltered vibe from the music as the riffing and drumming create that old-school vibe while the harsh snarls add that extra punch to the music. The band’s style is familiar and yet engaging enough to deliver tracks like “Poison Reveal” and “Sharpening Blades of Cynicism”, with their catchiness and subtle Black’n’Roll/Punkish elements.

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    Amiensus - Reclamation: Part II (2024)

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    Hailing from the USA, Progressive Black Metal outfit Amiensus returns with part II of their “Reclamation” saga. Released a few months back, part I showcased the band’s excellent musicianship and creativity, and with part II, the band continues to unleash superbly crafty and engaging songs with elements from bands like Enslaved, Agalloch, alongside their distinctive vocal onslaughts.

    Opening with “Sólfarið”, we get a pretty intense track that slowly builds up to a hectic cathartic closing, instantly reminding us of the proggy-ness of Enslaved alongside the band’s diverse vocal onslaught. After making an impression with the opener, “Acquiescence” has more of an Agalloch dreamy opening that quickly expands to heavy riffs, pummeling drumming, and hellish harsh vocals. The band expertly mixes slower and dreamy passages with some pretty engaging blistering sections that weave back and forth different moods and tempos.

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    Gravenoire - Devant la porte des étoiles (2024)

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    Unleashing an extreme level of grimness and rawness, today we have France’s Gravenoire and their debut EP “Devant la porte des étoiles”. Trying to bring some of that 90’s Black Metal spirit, this relatively new outfit, featuring members (and ex-members) of bands like BA’A, Anorexia Nervosa, Seth and Diablation, delivers some of the most stripped down and yet intense BM music in the last few years. If you are a fan of uncompromising Black Metal removed from commercial gimmicks and current trendiness, this is the release for you.

    Setting a regal mood with “Pavens”, the band really lashes out at the listener with the piercing “France de l'Ombre” featuring crafty drumming, intense riffing and the signature vocals of RMS Hreidmarr, perfectly augmented by Vicomte Vampyr Arkames equal rawness and sheer aggression. Besides the dual vocal onslaught, the music has that old-school rawness thanks to a lo-fi production, said to be recorded in a live rehearsal, which delivers a very organic and natural incisive edge to the music as tracks like "Ordo Opera Cultura” and “Aux Chiens” demonstrate.

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    Ellende - Todbringerin (2024)

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    Today we have a very pleasant surprise from Austria’s Ellende, a re-recorded and reinterpreted version of their amazing second release “Todbringer”. With “Todbringerin”, the band takes control of the music behind this release by re-recording it (no studio masters from the original exist) and making it available in all formats for listeners. We are huge fans of the original, and have a physical copy of that release as one of our treasured items on our collection, so we were psyched to hear how the band, eight years after, would take on such an excellent release.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    True Black Dawn - Of Thick-circling Shadows (2024)

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    Finally! After an eight year wait, True Black Dawn is back with another incisive Black Metal release titled “Of Thick-circling Shadows”. Led by Wrath (Ex-Enochian Crescent), this outfit continues to push the boundaries of the genre, creating a very thick and enveloping atmosphere while keeping things raw and quite brutal for over 45 minutes. If you are a fan of BM that is forward thinking and incorporates interesting tempo changes, and a very sickening atmosphere.

    Opening with the vicious “Algol”, the band quickly sets a furious mood of harsh aggression with some restraints. After the opener, “The Depths of the Looking Glass”, “Night and Names”, and “The Wind from the Red Cloud” really show the band’s strengths in creating unique rhythmic patterns that go beyond your super repetitive tremolo-picking that is a staple of the genre. This allows for the music to be more sinister and incisive, and perfectly sets up Wrath to change the mood through his versatile vocals.

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    Uprising - III (2024)

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    Spawned as a side project from Jan van Berlekom mastermind of Waldgeflüster, this release delivers a swift and brutal onslaught of fierce Black Metal. With over 40 minutes of music, “III” unleashes six tracks of fierce music with a certain Uada/Mgła edge and crafty atmospherics. If you are a fan of uncompromising and yet well crafted and melodic BM, this is an interesting release to check out.

    Opening the release we have the oppressive guitar of “Eternal Mantra”, a fierce track that sets the tone for this high-octane and engaging release. As the crafty drums weave intricate patterns within the songs, we noticed that Austin Lunn (Panopticon) is actually performing them in this release, with tracks like “Uprise III” and “Raise a Glass” having interesting and engaging tempos. We appreciate that while the music is well polished, there are some experimental elements and melodic passages thrown into the mix to keep things interesting.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Occulta Veritas - Irreducible Fear of the Sublime (2024)

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    Unleashing an excruciatingly atmospheric release, today we have Occulta Veritas and their full-length “Irreducible Fear of the Sublime”. With a highly dissonant style, this outfit delivers six tracks and over 33 minutes of chaotic Black Metal with tense atmospherics and ravaging brutality. Like a mixture of NONE with Déhà and Acathexis, this release is violent, contrived, and yet extremely punishing and brilliant.

    Opening with the dissonance of “The Mirror Stage”, the mood is set with chaotic guitar work alongside furiously aggressive harrowing vocals. The song instantly creates a sense of desperation and uneasiness that is nicely flanked with a hefty dose of melancholy. The madness continues with piercing tracks like “The Sacred Horizons of Totality” and “Metonimia”, two songs that deliver intense guitar work alongside crafty drumming and hellish vocals.

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