Dark Depths: Shadow Woods Thursday Preview

By Kaptain Carbon. Shadow Woods is an outdoor metal festival held in the upper reaches of Northern Baltimore. Shadow Woods stands are one of the few “open air” metal festivals left in the US and perhaps one of the even fewer overnight camping events.

By Kaptain Carbon.

Shadow Woods is an outdoor metal festival held in the upper reaches of central Maryland. Shadow Woods stands are one of the few “open air” metal festivals left in the US and perhaps one of the even fewer overnight camping events. While the US has a while to catch up the Europe in terms of camping festivals which do not involve drum circles, sandals, and the guy in the Free Hugs t-shirt. Shadow Woods is interesting because despite having a large amount of black metal, is still a diverse array of music. From death to doom to psych and folk metal, this is a three day event which will allow one to get in touch with nature and find the underworld beneath the soil.


After traveling a few dozen miles outside of Baltimore, the concrete and grime of the city drops off for scenic nothingness filled with sprawling fields and supposedly a pleasant sunflower patch. Here at Camp Hidden Valley, a few hundred metal fans converge for three days of music insulated by trees, hiking trails, and deep magic. I wrote and took pictures of the inaugural event and the announcement for the second Shadow Woods was more than welcome. One of the things I enjoy more than going to the woods, listening to extreme metal, and eating pop tarts for the weekend, is going through an entire festival roster and previewing every single band. This is a favored activity since it allows me to plan around specific acts but also introduce myself to pretty much most of the roster. Shadow Woods specializes in local and regional talent that have yet to make an impression on the larger metal community and for that reason is a treasure trove of new and exciting acts. Perhaps this article is the first step to finding my new favorite band and/or a dark omen to a stomach ache after eating too many pop tarts.

Thursday • Friday • Saturday

Let us start this festival off right with a 6 pm performance from North Carolina’s Heron. Welcome. Hopefully you got your tent set up because it is time to wither and die. Cold and distant black metal in the style of the old depressive type which will perhaps sound amazing as a welcoming committee for a woodland festival. Listen to the echoes of sadness as they bounce off the treetops. I know some people do not think black metal in the day time works but the waning sunlight during dusk is going to be an immense backdrop for this band.

Since Shadow Woods is outside of Baltimore, one gets to see the variety of extreme metal from the area. Despite my travels to the surrounding area, Xeukatre is unknown to me yet their brand of raw and unhinged black metal is going to be a fantastic experience right around dinner time. Taking their cues from the Les Légions Noires book of black metal this band emphasizes lo-fi darkness which feels pressed under the weight of the world. Also the band’s only release takes its name from the Latin for "I shall either find a way or make one,” which was attributed to Hannibal when crossing the Alps. I do not know why this fits but I feel it is perfect.

Here was a blurb about Numenorean from Canada playing the fest, but this just came through the wire: "Unfortunately Numenorean were not able to get visa into the US from Canada. Frosthelm will replace them. Mantar will move to the outdoor Field stage at 7 p.m. and Frosthelm will play inside at 10:10. All other set times remain the same for Thursday."

If one thing is going to be said and written about Shadow Woods is its diversity. In the fray of extreme metal, Darsombra stands still eating peyote and looking like they are about to burst out laughing. With feet firmly planted in the realm of cosmic space rock, these groups of Krautrock weirdos are set to bring the sounds of echoing psych and space drone to the ears of people who may not be ready for it. I will of course be ready for it because this sound is awesome.

Ghost Bath has had a strange journey from depressive black metal obscurities with strange location details one day to underground superstars the next. The release and promotion of Moonlover took this band to a level that was perhaps surprising even for them. With similarities drawn between polarizing acts such as Deafheaven, Silencer and Austere, Ghost Bath is an emotional ride which leaves little behind closed doors and wears all emotions on its sleeves.

I enjoy doing these types of articles, because I can at least catch up on a bunch of different bands that went unnoticed. Enter Mantar and their combination of doom, black, and artsy sludge which has been hard mixed into something that is raw and slimy as hell. Traveling all the way from Germany and appearing after a particularly long US tour, this band is deserving of attention and possibly a beer or two. This is of course after a performance of nihilism being wielded like a baseball bat.

The tags for this Rhode Island band include black metal, occult and rituals. If I were to take the same tags and apply it to what I think of Shadow Woods, there would be a large overlap. Haunting and mysterious, this group is set to close the night with a performance which I am sure will at least open a few dimensional portals. Add to this Haxen led me to discover a wonderful Rhode Island based label called Eternal Death which seems to specialize in all forms of moral depravity and cassettes. Thursday night should be wonderful and I hope Haxen allows me to live through the coming weekend.

Shadow Woods Metal Fest.
21+ ONLY.
Thursday 15 September through Sunday 18 September 2016 at Camp Hidden Valley, 4722 Mellow Rd, White Hall MD 21161.
More details
Weekend pass (includes on-site tent camping) $130 in advance or $150 at gate. Limited cabin bunks available for an additional charge. Single-day tickets also available.
Buy tickets

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.

Fyrnask - Fórn

By Steven Leslie. While Germany has a long history in the black metal world, they have often played second fiddle to their northern brothers in arms. If there is any justice in this world, bands like Fyrnask will start to change that perception.

By Steven Leslie.

Artwork by Glyn Smyth

While Germany has a long history in the black metal world, they have often played second fiddle to their northern brothers in arms. If there is any justice in this world, bands like Fyrnask will start to change that perception. While Fyrnask’s previous two records have been excellent, the newest manifestation from sole creator Fyrnd is the band’s masterpiece. Fórn is a record that demands your full attention across it’s 54 minute run time. It is not an album of individual songs, instead it is a spiritual and ritual journey divided into 11 compelling parts designed to be listened to has a whole.

Fyrnd is the shaman opening up the arcane and esoteric nature of the world and guiding you through this spiritual expedition. While many of the more atmospheric black metal bands and albums require a certain mood to truly appreciate them, Fórn inherently creates that mood by itself. It is this very ability to control and direct the listener’s emotional response that indicates just how special and powerful this album is. Expertly weaving meditative, ritualistic movements with searing black metal assaults, Fyrnd displays his compositional brilliance by ensuring that not a second of the album is wasted. There is no part of this record that could be cut or embellished upon to make it more impactful. Each trance inducing candlelit ambient instrumental and every ferocious metallic outburst is made more powerful by their deft juxtaposition and intuitive flow. There is an elegance to the songwriting and overall performance that really sets Fyrnask apart from other modern black metal bands.

While the musical compositions are spectacular throughout, Fyrnd’s vocal performance deserves special mention. From the more traditional spiteful black metal roar to ritualistic chants, stirring shouts and haunting whispers, each vocal line is handled with exceptional care. It is rare to find a vocalist who sounds as powerful and effective across all these various styles of vocal delivery. Even more rare is Fyrnd’s ability to understand exactly what type of vocal each section of a song needs to make it transcendent.

This is an album that you will want to invest some time in and in turn will reward you for the effort. Each listen brings new elements to the fore, not because the album is so dense and layered, but because its individual ingredients are so expertly crafted and performed that your focus can shift without the album losing any of its potency. It is pointless to try to analyze individual tracks, as the whole is so much more powerful than its component parts. That is not to say that tracks like "Blótan", which show that for all the album’s focus on atmosphere and ritualistic instrumentals, they can still stand toe to toe with any of the more traditional second-wave worshiping modern black metal bands. But taking the album as a whole allows for the introspective and alchemical nature of Fyrnd’s creation to truly take hold. If you are looking for unrelenting, tremolo-picked blast of fire and brimstone, look elsewhere, but if you are looking for something more personal and introspective, Fórn may well be your black metal album of the year.

Giveaway - A Fortnight Spent Beneath Ashen Skies t-shirt by Christian Degn

[Welcome to the second Metal Bandcamp giveaway! Recently I fell in love with a t-shirt featuring the gorgeous drawing A Fortnight Spent Beneath Ashen Skies by Christian Degn. After procuring it a thought entered my mind: more people should know about this shirt

The giveaway is over. See who won at the bottom of the post.

[Welcome to the second Metal Bandcamp giveaway! Recently I fell in love with a t-shirt featuring the gorgeous drawing A Fortnight Spent Beneath Ashen Skies by Christian Degn. After procuring it a thought entered my mind: more people should know about this shirt, so they can love it like I do. Hence this giveaway, enter it and you may win the t-shirt for yourself to wear.

Besides the giveaway we have music as well. Christian was kind enough to send me a Bandcamp playlist of albums that kept him company while creating the drawing. Enjoy, and check out his store for prints (and the t-shirt if you do not win it here).]


The title of the drawing on this shirt is "A Fortnight Spent Beneath Ashen Skies, an Eternity Under the Eyes of Our Lord” which was a phrase that kept repeating in my head as I was drawing it. This is usually how I name pieces, if they do end up getting a name. The only symbolism that I intentionally put into this image was the hour glass, and it’s meaning is actually not terribly deep, simply representing mortality. I suppose this whole illustration could be dedicated to this idea. Everything else is just there because I liked how it looked. I have plans to make more shirts with other illustrations I’ve done, but I figured I would start out with one of my older drawings. In total I probably spent around 20 or so hours on this piece, possibly more or less. It was on my desk for about a month while I worked on other drawings and school work, picking away at it slowly. Of course I had plenty of music keeping me company through this process, here are a few of the albums I recall playing regularly around the time of working on it.


This album was playing as I started this drawing. Originally I was only planning to draw the left half of the image. I had started it a couple of weeks before my birthday and was drawing it as as a sort of gift for myself, and with another year passing, an hourglass seems fitting. Xothist has a interesting songwriting style that really lets my mind wander with their meandering compositions, but it still has a rawness that keeps it very mysterious and menacing while demanding attention. I also had the Dwarfer cassette playing a lot as well around this time, though I’m not sure if the band has a stream anywhere. Either way, this stuff deserves way more praise than I see it getting. Really top notch stuff!

I’ve always been infatuated with Locrian’s music since I was first introduced to them, but this album really caught me off guard from track one. All their releases have a really long shelf life for me as well, if that’s the right way to put it? I mean I had this album in rotation regularly up until Infinite Dissolution which followed this release (and it’s kinda been the same story with that album!) My routine during this summer was to go for an evening run and come home and sit by the fan and blast this record while playing an hour or so of Metroid 2 on gameboy before working on art stuff. It makes for the perfect soundtrack to a lonely space exploration game! Locrian’s musical sensibility and aesthetic always has the feeling of intrigue and haziness, like seeing a mysterious door in a dream that you know you want to approach, but are apprehensive about. But the band shows you inside the door and it’s usually nothing to be afraid of, but something to find wonder in. I also always love seeing Terence Hannum’s collage pieces using cassette tape and design elements from labels. As a generally line-oriented artist, I’ve always taken a lot away from seeing his work. I hope I can see some in person eventually, I’m sure the light interacting with the tape provides a whole new level to the viewing experience. I’ll quit fawning now ha!

I always have to listen to a Krallice album at some point during a drawing. There’s something about hearing the way these dudes account for every detail in their songs that really lends itself to falling into that sort of zen state, where inking monotonous lines becomes more meditative than tedious. The word I always see people throw around to describe Krallice is dizzying, which really is probably the best way to describe any Krallice riff. The other thing I love about how detail-oriented this band’s discography tends to be, is that I can almost always find something new on every listen. Not a lot of bands do that for me! This was another album I was playing on cassette a lot, and hearing that extra layer of fuzz really makes you aware of how much influence these guys drew from that raw black metal sound. If you can find a copy I recommend you snagging it! (if only for the alternate cover art on the j-card, which has grade-A layout!)

I believe I may have actually stumbled across this album through this very site! I probably played it at least once during every drawing I did between 2014 and 2015. I really love how spacey this album feels, despite a pretty grind-y backbone. For me it feels a lot like Vektor meets Gridlink but a little bit more blackened? I think the thing that really kept me coming back to this release the most was actually the vocal mix. It has those sort of DSBM howls and it fits with the song writing excellently. I usually pay attention to guitars and drums more than anything so it’s rare for me to find vocals done in a way that actually make them the highlight. These make me feel like a little kid hearing heavy metal for the first time and being kind of scared but still transfixed. Also just like.. the riffs, man!

This might be my favorite album ever. It’s almost always in rotation, but I was listening to this more than usual right as I was finishing up on this drawing because, if I remember correctly, The Unnatural World had just come out earlier in the year. I thought about including that album instead, since it was as significant around that time for me, but I couldn’t bring myself to put it above this record which always really messes me up in the best way on every listen. I don’t know what I could say about Deathconsciousness that hasn’t already been said and said more eloquently than I’m capable of, but there’s no way I couldn’t give it a mention. Also I believe the Flenser just announced another pressing recently so I suggest jumping on that if you get the chance! The sleeve and zine included are absolutely stunning! A detail I love is that the Flenser pressing uses the Jaques-Louis David cover, and then uses the original LP cover for the zine. This album definitely demands your attention the first handful of listens. I suggest turning it up very loud and turning off all the lights! Repeat until you’ve gained enough immunity that you can actually draw to this album without sobbing all over your paper!

[The giveaway is over. Thanks to all who entered, and for all the nice comments. The randomly selected winners are:

Brad Sanders29 - bradscottsand AT gmail DOT com
AM30 - merschat AT gmail DOT com

The t-shirts have now been sent to Brad from New York and Artie from Texas. Congratulations to both of you!]