Strange Flowers for a New Year: Kaptain Carbon’s Mid Year Review

By Kaptain Carbon. When Max offered me a chance to write an article, I knew I wanted to go over a bunch of extreme metal bands that were experiencing popularity in 2016. The albums discussed are also from bands that have been recently formed or used 2016 as the year to come out with their first or second release.

By Kaptain Carbon.

When Max offered me a chance to write an article, I knew I wanted to go over a bunch of extreme metal bands that were experiencing popularity in 2016. The albums discussed are also from bands that have been recently formed or used 2016 as the year to come out with their first or second release. The bands could be considered newcomers or freshman to the world of black and death and are also enjoying buzz among internet forums. These releases also share similar strands of cavernous occult theme, atmosphere, and production; it would not be that much of a stretch to see how each of these bands could fit into a twisted family tree.

While I would love to profile every new band of 2016, and particularly every far off but excellent release, that would require a lot more coffee and a sabbatical away from my day job. Every year is a great time for heavy metal, and the first half of 2016 sounds as hellish as ever.

Artwork by Paolo Girardi

The internet is a weird place, and even though Le dernier crépuscule feels already discussed in reviews like this, if you step back a few spaces, this Canadian death metal band is still relatively hidden from the majority of people. Chthe'ilist lies in a special place of both death metal bands that pay tribute to the murky hell sounds of Demilich and bands that I have to type their name really slow to spell right. Le dernier crépuscule is the Profound Lore Records debut following an obscure self released demo no one heard or can even spell without looking at. Chthe'ilist's cavernous sound is catching the hearts and imaginations of people, who are finding that it won't let go and is constricting their breathing. Slow moving and eroding of sanity, it was only a matter of time before this sound crept up in popularity. Add to this the band's not so hidden love for the Zelda mythos and you have tens of fans falling over themselves in ecstasy.

Artwork by Zbigniew Bielak

In the small microcosm of the internet metal community, Icelandic extreme metal has experienced a surge in interest following great albums by Svartidauði, Sinmara, and Misþyrming. Zhrine comes in with a more monstrous disposition, as their love for death metal has crept into their sound giving it a more focused aggression. While still on the low end, Unortheta retains hypnotic qualities as if guided by the thoughts and whims of extra terrestrial aberrations. Zhrine is also enjoying the attention of Season of Mist, which is supporting this release and thus bringing the sound of Iceland's small but vibrant extreme metal scene to more people. This is death / black for the misty terror creeping closer into full view.

Cover artwork by Denis Forkas

Oh shit, look at Gevurah. This Canadian band was first exposed to audiences on the Svn Okklt tape compilation released by Fallen Empire in 2011. Gevurah sat along side of Witch in Her Tomb, Axis of Light, and Xothist for a hellish 4 sides of destruction. Somewhere between here and now, Gevurah caught the attention of Profound Lore, which not only sponsored this year’s debut but the band’s 2013 EP. Gevurah has always been interested in deep production with Hallelujah! being the pinnacle of their years of work. Ruminating spirituality runs through the heart of this record, which goes beyond the standard dark themes and becomes something more complex and frightening.

Cover art by Kris Verwimp

Melodic black metal is not a style that has aged well. While most of the bands discussed here have a similar cavernous occult outlook, Uada leans more towards older bands like Dissection and newer bands like Mgla. This is black metal that is not only grinding and hypnotic but also entertaining to listen to. Devoid of Light is a shorter record compared to contemporaries but the depth and richness of the sound makes this 33 minute release well worth the travel. I expect many people to stumble backwards into this release as no one expects melodic black to be hiding in the corners. Uada could be this year’s surprise that no one saw coming.

Cover art by Skaðvaldur

We are back to Iceland and, unlike Zhrine who had minimal ties to the known black metal scene, Naðra is right in the middle. With band members sharing duties in Misþyrming, 〇, Carpe Noctum, and Mannveira, this band is only a few steps away from a bounty of soul wrenching music. Having vocals strangled and prominent in the mix help the emotional components in Allir vegir til glötunar make the black metal qualities even more effective. The band also released Form, a followup digital EP, which is sometimes just attached to their 33 minute debut. With both of the releases high in quality, this nebulous entity is a hammer swinging into the side of 2016.

Cover art by Business For Satan

I have been writing about LVTHN since the band’s first 2014 demo. Eradication of Nescience is the logical conclusion for a band who has measured themselves with careful precision in terms of releases. With a long carpet of lo-fi and raw black preceding this debut, Eradication of Nescience fulfills the promises of the demos and splits with a swarming hornet’s nest of black metal. This band also has the extra benefit of being from Belgium and is comprised of 5 people who have not had their identities revealed. LVTHN could be a collective of well known black and death metal musicians just under the auspices of mystery.

Cover art: "Theoin II" by Agostino Arrivabene

Howls of Ebb is a little different from the above group of bands. For one, this 2016 release is the second following a 2014 debut. Additionally, the band seems to be completely insane and whatever we are listening to is just a manifestation of that insanity. With deep ties in some obscure US black/Death from the 90’s, Howls of Ebb takes that sound and sends it banging down a well to the underworld. The tenacity of this act in terms of composition and aesthetic choices is bizarre and frightening, which makes Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows not only exhilarating but also dangerous in terms of bodily harm.

Artwork and logo by View From The Coffin.

Sun Worship has always been an interesting band ever since their 2014 debut Elder Giants. Sun Worship has also been a band that is interesting for their visual themes and album art. From just their music, this German band seems pretty on top in terms of angular and entrenched black metal. Compare this to their artsy album covers plus band photos that go against the grain of many black and death metal photography and you get a very strange dichotomy. Their unorthodox presentation, compared to the very traditional sound of their music, makes Sun Worship an enigma that is only accelerated by the fact that their albums are devastating.

Altarage is from Spain and comes by way of support from Iron Bonehead. With a sound that is firmly rooted in the deepest and darkest caverns, these group of anonymous musicians is just waiting to experience a full blown explosion of hype and support. NIHIL is the debut record following a sinister 2015 demo which took 10 minutes of horror and expanded it into a landscape of grotesque atmosphere. If you were ever thinking if riffs could become monsters capable of devouring children whole, Altarage is finally the answer to the question you never wanted to say out loud

Kaptain Carbon moderates Reddit's r/metal as well as writes reviews for lesser known black, death, and doom metal for Tape Wyrm as well as Dungeon Synth, Tabletop, and Movie Reviews for Hollywood Metal.

Death - Leprosy

An Autothrall Classic. For the longest time the Death reissues on the Relapse Records' Bandcamp were only available in expensive ($25) editions with lots of frankly unnecessary rehearsal/live versions of the songs.

[For the longest time the Death reissues on the Relapse Records' Bandcamp were only available in expensive ($25) editions with lots of frankly unnecessary rehearsal/live versions of the songs. I mean four extra versions of "Open Casket"? That's only of interest for the most fanatical collectors. Thankfully Relapse has now released trimmed down editions for a much more reasonable price ($12). Half the price, half the number of "Open Casket" bonus versions. We approve, and we celebrate with:]

An Autothrall Classic. Originally published here.

Edward J. Repka

Where Scream Bloody Gore provided us with a glimpse of corpse strewn genius, it was Chuck Schuldiner's sophomore monstrosity Leprosy that would hammer in the final coffin nails: death metal had truly arrived, and with it an almost entire musical landscape would either book passage on the funeral barge or sink into the Lethe. Sure, thrash had of brilliance yet to offer, and to an extent, many considered Leprosy itself to fall under that category in its day. But as time has proven, it is by far one of the most expressive, beatific statements of brutality and evil that I've ever experienced, and I enjoy it with the same solidarity today as I did over 20 years ago. In fact, I hold it upon the same lofty plateau of carnage as I place a Consuming Impulse, Realm of Chaos, Left Hand Path, or Altars of Madness: a mastery of the genre's fundamentals, with unanimously catchy songs to boot.

Yes, I said catchy. Many might forget that the inauguration of death metal was not simply a thing of blunt, indifferent brutality or charnel atmospheres, but actual song craft. Such a large ratio of the genre's rabid followers today came into the fold in the 90s or beyond that I fear many might have taken (or still take) an album like Leprosy for granted. For example, you won't hear excess storms of double bass, blasting or technical drumming here where they're not viable. This was well before the market had been cornered by Cryptopsy or Suffocation. Bill Andrews' beats offer nothing more than a concrete foundation for the wondrous, insanely well written riffs and the thick as thieves bass lines, rolling on his bass drums where applicable. And know what? Nothing more is needed for this album whatsoever, because the star side of beef in this slaughter house is without any doubt the guitar riffing and the caustic vocal torments of Schuldiner.

They do not make riffs like this anymore, not often at least. Such simple but instantaneously memorable fare that manages to encapsulate the menace and threat of a worldly change for the worse. In today's climate of brickwalled, ProTools brutality, death metal has transformed into an acrobatic light show in which the most gallantly executed tricks are fawned over by brooding masses that forget them once the following weeks upstaging has transpired. But how many are writing a riff that might actually scare the fuck out of you? I mean, no offense to Deeds of Flesh or Behemoth (I enjoy some material by both), but if you were alone in a morgue during a power outage, would you feel terrified if their music started to play in the background? Fuck no you wouldn't. It's brutal, indeed, but it doesn't possess that same skin crawling atmosphere, conjured directly through its notation. You don't feel that instant repulsion as if being covered in spiders, or that wondrous, jaw-dropping disbelief you might have felt when watching human entrails being exhumed from their corporeal hosts by the zombies in an 80s Romero flick.

I feel that sensation every time I listen through Leprosy, for nearly the entirety of its 39 minutes. Even at its most goofy and uplifting ("Forgotten Past"), I'd need to hold your hand in the theater when the lights go out. The slow, sure chords of the title track de-Christen the album, dire melodies cycling across Chuck's bass lines before that ineffably damning death howl erupts around :40. Jesus fuck, I feel like I'm staring at my own corpse while cold, dead spectral hands are forcing me backwards into the maw of the underworld. Yet, it's all still catchy, in particular where the guitars cut in before 2:00 and the searing velocity of the riff after that. Not many bands can stop/start you this often and hold your attention. This one could. "Born Dead" arrives with almost playful deviance, a gaggle of gremlins and fiends dancing on your hide as they stab it with poisoned barbs, fast and brutal guitars alternating into the escalation of pure chord force in the chorus, and then the clinical tapping sequence after 1:00 which is legendary.

"Forgotten Past", as hinted above, is even more playful with an almost happy-go-lucky muted punk veneer to its introductory riff. However, it soon collides into a graveyard wall, and the lower bridge/groove rhythm at 1:00 is a knockout. "Left to Die" begins with one of the creepiest riffs on the entire album, a surgical thrashing that feels like you're watching some unfortunate be pumped with formaldehyde while still drawing breath. Big, swaggering grooves cede towards another of those glorious, thick rhythms, and I dare you not to explode at the chorus, one of the most tangible and enduring statements of DEATH METAL to date. "Pull the Plug" follows, one of the most popular pieces from this sophomore, another smorgasboard of splatter and horror with at least 5 unforgettable riffs, and a chorus that has probably broken as many bones in mosh pits as anything else in all of thrash or death (excepting "Raining Blood", of course). Listen to that riff at 1:20. That is all I should have to say...

Yet Schuldiner, Andrews and Rick Rozz are not finished with us here, and they burst out the meaty, meandering causeway of "Open Casket", with another monolithic, almost doom metal breakdown bridging the verses. I particularly enjoy the wild nature of the lead in this one, shrill and cavernous and resonant across the pathological plague-scape of the album. "Primitive Ways" has a similar, escalating brightness about it that we were teased with in "Forgotten Past", but once again composed front to end with perfect, plausible guitar lines and Chuck's unforgettable, flesh stalking vocals. "Choke On It" festers with some of the same, slower breakdown segues that populate other songs here, but is marvelously concise and offers another of the album's most malevolent, genius riffs just before 1:30. All of these are seasoned in a lyrical sauce similar to the debut. Still heavy on simplistic imagery, but more consistently composed.

We are living in 'old as new' times, folks, with many younger artists turning back to the past for their inspiration. But I'll be damned if I wouldn't pay a band double for an album that made such flawless use of inspiring, simple rhythms; or one that could conjure such morbid malignancy without simply steering towards the cavernous, deep guttural terrain. The production here is perfect, raw but resonating through the listener's mind like an autopsy on the television set. You want to turn away, you want to squint but you're glued to the gore, fascinating by the fleshy flaws and organs that lie within all of us. Leprosy was one of the most repulsive yet alluring metal experiences I was honored to undertake in the 80s, alongside the over the top Slowly We Rot or Cause of Death, or the thrashing unto death transition of Pestilence. It's probably cool in some circles to rally against Chuck from beyond the grave, and my own feelings on Death are mixed once he transformed into a philosophical cosmonaut on the fourth album (half forgetting what got him there in the first place), but I am sure as a starving bear in a spring thaw that this is one of the best goddamn things I've ever heard in my middle-age nearing existence. Leprosy forever. May the limbs of all unworthy poseurs fester in putrid permanence.

Hey, Check This Out! #2

Hey, Check This Out! is an irregular column of DIY reviews, where we give you just the basic facts about albums that we wanted to give a full review but for some reason it never happened.

Hey, Check This Out! is an irregular column of DIY reviews, where we give you just the basic facts about albums that we wanted to give a full review but for some reason it never happened. Without further ado:

Artwork by Andrew Millar of Patrons of the Rotting Gate

Band:	Patrons of the Rotting Gate.
City:	London, United Kingdom.
Genre:	Progressive Black Metal ~ Sorrowful dissonance.
Interesting fact:	The Rose Coil is the proud recipient of a 0% review from The Metal Archives, with the awesome line "If I wanted to drift aimlessly, I'd snort some ketamine."

Band:	DreamLongDead.
City:	Athens, Greece.
Genre:	Primitive monolithic punkish doom death metal.
Interesting fact:	Recorded in Universe217's studio. A band that's pretty much the opposite of primitive and punkish.

Cover art by Joshua Klegerman

Band:	Clad in Darkness.
State:	Chicago, Illinois/Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Genre:	Jazzy post-black metal.
Interesting fact:	Leading internet metal experts are trying to convince the band to make a new album. We give such endeavors our full support.