Whether or not you find Hellveto’s unique, orchestral approach to pagan metal appealing, one thing cannot be denied is the immense talent of this prolific Polish group. One-man projects seem to be a dime a dozen these days in black metal, but certainly I’ve never come across one that crafts metal as skillfully arranged and complex as multi-instrumentalist L.O.N. does on each Hellveto release. Kry, the band’s 13th album and second in 2009, features a dense sound composed of intricate percussion, guitars and various symphonic elements which play off one another and blend together seamlessly.
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I’ll Eat Your Face seems far too talented to be giving away their album for free. This duo from Ireland, made up of guitarist/vocalist The Boy and drummer Barrytron, has managed to find the perfect combination of light-hearted weirdness and grinding insanity, making their debut full-length Irritant both a joy and a complete mind-fuck to listen to. Song titles like ‘Rat Milk Moustache’ or ‘Dr. Pancake’s Luxurious Ratskin Housecoat’ almost seem like they belong on a Primus album, but fortunately I’ll Eat Your Face have both the chops and the songwriting sense to write music that matches the subject matter in unfettered unpredictability.
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With their debut full-length Chertovorot, Russia’s Leshak joins bands like Korpiklaani, Eluveitie and Ensiferum in the increasingly crowded folk metal scene. Chertovorot runs surprisingly lean at just under 30 minutes, and contains only six actual metal songs. While portions of the album definitely make the band’s lack of experience evident, there’s also some good stuff here that makes Leshak’s debut at least a fun, lighthearted listen.
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Finland’s In Silentio Noctis’s debut album Through Fragments of Christianity is an interesting take on the usual female-fronted metal sound. The typical symphonic metal elements and operatic, melodic female vocals are of course present, but here they are combined with aggressive black metal musicianship to create something much heavier and more complex than fans of this genre are used to. Whether it works or not probably depends on your affinity for female singers, but In Silentio Noctis definitely deserves credit for trying to carve their own path.
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Rabid fans of Australia’s freakish abstract death metal entity Portal who have been looking for copies of the band’s seminal 2006 demo will be especially excited about Chrome Leaf Records’ upcoming release of the Lurker at the Threshold picture disc. The 7″ will contain two out the three tracks present on the demo, and both sides will be adorned with creepy, Lovecraftian artwork by longtime Portal artist Chimere Noire.
Both tracks on the 7″, ‘13 Globes’ and ‘Omnipotent Crawling Chaos,’ can also be found on the Outre’ full-length, and the one other track on the original demo that actually wasn’t present on any of Portal’s full-lengths was unfortunately left out. So while you’re not missing out on anything by not picking this up, the two grimy Portal incantations combined with the disturbing disc artwork makes this release somewhat enjoyable as a concentrated dose of Portal’s perverted vision. The two tracks presented here are a bit rougher and less polished than the versions that appear on Outre’, which almost elevates them to a new level of mind-warping horror. So if you’re a hardcore fan or just someone who seeks another chance to be fully immersed in the twisted world of Portal, the Lurker at the Threshold 7″ should be a welcome addition to your collection.
Australia’s Nazxul have returned after 14 long years with a new full-length album of imposing black metal, and while their keyboard-laden sound bears a superficial resemblance to bands like Dimmu Borgir, Iconoclast is probably one of the most well-constructed symphonic black metal albums you’ll ever hear, and definitely deserves its status as one of 2009’s metal highlights. Nazxul’s punishing, mid-tempo approach remains fairly consistent over the duration of Iconoclast, but repeated listens slowly reveal the subtle, dark melodies and minor variations in the songs which make this album a truly rewarding listen.
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Canada’s Nordwind have surfaced with their debut EP Thy Will be Done, a slab of fairly raw and traditional black metal. Nordwind is composed of bassist Chernobog and drummer Kveldulv from Godless North, who perhaps needed something to occupy themselves while guitarist Othalaz is off doing stuff with his other projects. Musically, the four tracks on Thy Will be Done are pretty straightforward black metal with churning, buzzsaw guitars, and poor production values. The one interesting aspect of the album is the vocal performance from Kveldulv. His delivery falls in the lower, more guttural spectrum of black vocals, very much like the infernal growls of Ondskapt’s Acerbus.
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For those that can’t wait for the release of Greek black metal horde Dodsferd’s upcoming full-length, the band has given us a small taste of what’s to come in the form of the Until Your World Go Down split. Dodsferd’s portion contains two unreleased tracks and one live recording, while Mortovatis, a side-project of Dodsferd mainman Wrath, contributes one lengthy track of experimental black metal.
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Although Vancouver, British Columbia is about the last place I’d expect a traditional, pagan-inspired black metal band to come from, Godless North certainly demonstrate that quality black art can come from Western Canada just as easily as from Europe. Having been around since 1996, Godless North is one of Canada’s most respected black metal bands, and Fimbulvetr serves as a compilation of pretty much their entire body of work. Encompassing one full-length album, two splits and the band’s demo, Fimbulvetr release is something of a mixed bag in terms of quality, but two discs worth of icy, raw Canadian black metal from one of the country’s best is hard to pass up.
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This first post-breakup release from Negura Bunget was bound to suffer some drop of quality, with the band having lost the main songwriting core of the band in founding members Huppogramos and Sol Faur. The band’s new album Vîrstele Pamîntului finally gives a taste of what this new incarnation of Negura Bunget will sound like. As expected, the magic that made the band’s last few albums so potent is not quite there, but the overall quality of this new release came as something of a surprise to me. The new lineup does an impressive job of retaining the band’s basic sound and feel. It almost comes across as an imitation of Negura Bunget’s glory days. But, this being Negura Bunget, a quality approximation of the band still makes for some great music.
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