Tints of Obsidian

By Justin C. And before anyone asks, no, of course I didn't steal the idea for the title of this post from No Clean Singing's "Shades of Black" feature. Just look--they're completely different words! I was introduced to Noltem

By Justin C.

And before anyone asks, no, of course I didn't steal the idea for the title of this post from No Clean Singing's "Shades of Black" feature. Just look--they're completely different words!


I was introduced to Noltem via a Facebook post by John Kerr, whose Marsh Dweller project got a lot of attention last year. The post simply said, "In case you missed it, here's a Tree Album we put out in early 2016." The "we" includes Mr. Kerr on drums and vocals and Max Johnson on keyboards and stringed instruments of various kinds, and the Tree Album in question is an EP called Mannaz, released in the summer of 2015.

"Tree Metal" turns out to be pretty apt, especially considering that Panopticon's Austin Lunn helped record the drums out in the woods of Minnesota. The intro to the EP's second track, "Windhall," shows off some particularly cool folk-ish/tribal drumming. Beyond that, this is a particularly well-done chunk of atmospheric USBM with satisfying mid-range roars and plenty of acoustic guitar accents. I don't usually do "recommended if you like"-type statements, but it's hard to imagine anyone who likes Marsh Dweller, Panopticon, or Falls of Rauros not also digging this.

Varaha's self-titled EP is a bit trickier to pin down in terms of genre. Definitely post/black/dark metal, but to my ear, the opener, "Cubicle," definitely has some gothy undertones. Here's the point I'm going to fail you as a reviewer, because I just don't know goth well enough to pick out influences. The clean vocals that the song opens with, the melancholy lyrics, and the melodies put me in mind of something with an 80s goth feel, though. Not that the song stays there--some serious growls break out before the track is done.

"La Mela" is an instrumental interlude, and although this is a somewhat strange statement, I'm going to go ahead and nominate it for "Interlude of the Year." This is how you make an interesting breather. It has waves of saxophone intertwining and crashing into each other in waves and echoes.

The EP closer, "It Takes a Ghost to Kill a Ghost," is a different animal from "Cubicle." There's still some soaring clean vocals, but the high rasps that come in after the two-minute mark are particularly vicious, and the song breathes into fiery life. There's still a hint of goth here, but this song is an insanely catchy bit of black metal. It makes for a slightly schizophrenic EP overall, but I think this is a band that's still refining and distilling their sound. if they keep writing songs like "It Takes a Ghost," though, I'm more than happy to let them grow.

The look on Laurie Shanaman's face in the art for "Dead Metaphors" is a lot like the face I made when I found out about Ails. If you don't recognize Shanaman's name, then shame on you: She was the vocalist of the late, great Ludicra. In Ails, Shanaman is joined by guitarist and fellow Ludicra alum Christy Cather. The regard Ludicra has in the history of USBM is well earned, so a new project by two of its members is worthy of celebration. There's a warm glow of familiarity when you hear their clean, harmonized vocals at the beginning of "Dead Metaphors," and as the song ramps up, it's time to start running around like a maniac. The first variation of many riffs to come pairs a tremolo with a sludgy/thrash riff that should somehow be made solid and turned into one of those stress-reliever balls. And of course Shanaman's vocals are as powerful as ever. Check out her scream at 6:35. When I first played it in my car, it tore a hole in space and time and I traveled to worlds as-yet unexplored.

The other track they've released so far, "The Seven," is a lo-fi demo, but the rougher sound makes it feel even more feral than "Dead Metaphors." Sure, there's a "gentler," eastern-tinged intro, there are some sweet guitarmonies, and the guys in the band add some clean background vocals for texture here and there, but this song as a whole is as intense as any BM you're likely to find this year. I can't say enough good things about this quick taste of new material, and I can only wait on pins and needles for what's (hopefully) to come.

From The Metal Archives Vol. 5 - Self Mutilation Services

[When I add labels to the Metal Labels on Bandcamp page I usually scan their releases looking for anything interesting I might have missed. The reviews on The Metal Archives are a great help when doing this: a couple of great reviews

By the reviewers from The Metal Archives.

[When I add labels to the Metal Labels on Bandcamp page I usually scan their releases looking for anything interesting I might have missed. The reviews on The Metal Archives are a great help when doing this: a couple of great reviews means an album I should probably check out. With this series I'd like to share some of my finds - in this edition we feature three very non festive releases from the Mexican black metal label Self Mutilation Services.]


While listening to atmospheric black metal releases, I do not often feel the sorrow transported with the music, which is intended most of the time, of course. It certainly is very prominent on this one, though. Sorrow can be chained together with other emotions like hate, envy, frustration, and loneliness, which makes it not very easy to listen to this stuff, but also gives it an indescribable beauty. And Alrakis manages to bring this combination of two seemingly opposite feelings to damn near perfection. And this one word just mentioned summarizes the album quite good: loneliness. An atmosphere is created where you can flow around in an endless universe with nothing but the stars around you... and it actually works for me. [read Urnoev's full review here.]

Here I am thinking that "9 Crimes" by Damien Rice is the most depressing, most emotionally damning love song ever concocted then Hanging Garden come along with "Only in My Mind" and completely blow my hypothesis out of the water. Usually songs about love and heart break do nothing for me, but Hanging Garden present it in such a unique and profoundly emotional way that after extensive listening it is still impossible to not get affected by. Hanging Garden have took a concept that is universal to all of us; love, and despairs at it. In the same way that No Country For Old Men despairs at violence, Hanging Garden despair at the whole concept of love. Creating an emotionally devastating journey into the sick and tormented minds that make up this band. [read Nokturnal_Wrath's full review here.]

This is one of the saddest, most droning albums to come out of the genre in its entire history. I may be a bit biased due to my love for this style of music but this album really is something else, and I believe it to be essential listening.

The guitar tone on this album is extremely thin and raw, however, unlike a lot of other bands in this field, the bass is extremely thick. This is a rather investing anomaly that still surprises me after hearing this album four years after hearing it for the first time. A lot of these bands mute the bass completely out of the music or even go as far as to not utilize the bass guitar whatsoever. When Mine Eyes Blacken treats the bass quite different. It is at times even louder than the electric guitar. For example, take the song "Secluded Within Sorrow, Solace Awaits". The bass is extremely loud in the mix, and underneath, we hear the guitar riffs following the pattern of the bass. It sets the path for the music and the guitars and drums follow. [read BlackMetal213's full review here.]

Ingurgitating Oblivion - Vision Wallows in Symphonies of Light

By Bryan Camphire. Ingurgitating Oblivion is a Berlin-based group headed by Florian Engelke, who has hewn his visionary style of death metal for the past twenty years. Vision Wallows in Symphonies of Light, features a new cast of musicians

By Bryan Camphire.


Ingurgitating Oblivion is a Berlin-based group headed by Florian Engelke, who has hewn his visionary style of death metal for the past twenty years. Vision Wallows in Symphonies of Light, features a new cast of musicians, perhaps most notably Lille Gruber of Defeated Sanity on drums. Engelke remains as the band’s sole original member and functions as the group’s primary songwriter.

It bears contemplating the word ‘symphonies’ from the album’s title, because the album is just that. It is not difficult to imagine this music transcribed for an entire orchestra, as the record is rife with rich interlocking harmonies. The composer is clearly a careful student of the deep history of death metal. Rather than looking inward and provoking an old school revival as is commonly done, this music looks outward toward what death metal can become.

Visions... is a collection of four long-form tunes that are packed with dynamics. The heavy sections are chock full of unorthodox guitar harmony and blistering convulsive rhythms. The guitar uses a lot of sustain - letting notes ring out for several beats, which is a technique more common to doom rather than death metal. Interestingly, the rhythm section keeps churning and pummelling throughout, giving the music an almost seasick off kilter feeling like an uproarious crashing sea amidst a horrible storm.

A fair amount of space is devoted to more restrained sections of music, which serve as a sort of ballast, stabilizing the tunes between apoplectic fits. Still, during its quieter moments the record maintains its savagery. At such times it tends to remind me of post-hardcore masterpieces by 90s bands like Don Caballero or Rodan. Ingurgitating Oblivion do play pretty sections of music, yet these stretches always feel foreboding, with the possibility of an attack ever looming overhead like a sword.

The second track, the brilliantly titled, “A Mote Constitutes What to Me Is Not All, and Eternally All, Is Nothing”, begins with bowed vibraphone. If anyone can tell me of a heavy metal song preceding this one that begins with bowed vibraphone, I will happily eat my shoe. And the record just keeps getting stranger as it goes along. The piano outro of the third track sounds almost like an excerpt of Scriabin's mind-melting Piano Sonata #6. Still, make no mistake, this is very much a death metal record, and a crushingly heavy one at that.

With Visions…, Ingurgitating Oblivion show themselves to be a group with originality to burn. It is unusual enough for a band to have riffs that sound like no one else. It is especially rare for a band to have its own approach to timekeeping. Ingurgitating Oblivion's rhythms feel nuanced in a way that is entirely of their own invention. The phrasings leave the listener grasping for solid footing, like scaling a steep cliff face as rocks turn to dust in your hands and under foot.

Adventurous listeners will find themselves transported by this music into weird realms of dizzying heights.Visions… offers forth strange imaginings that travel beyond the frontiers of accepted knowledge of the form, arriving at a heavier and darker death metal. With all the buzzing dissonant harmonies and menacing rhythmic assault on display, the music seems to come at you like a swarm of enemy insects. It is almost too much to take in all at once, nevertheless there it is, and it is dangerous.