Μηλινόη
despair, dementia, dissent
black, death, funeral, dungeon, dark ambient, sadgaze, harsh electronics, intense (neo-)classical
Angry Ambient Artists Vol. 3 (2018, Forwind)
When Ambient Artists get Angry, they sometimes get noisy, as on the third installment of this collaborative series. African Ghost Valley and Billy Roisz lay down some serious grit on this 30-minute split.
Alex Crispin’s soundtrack to Escape the Dark Castle (2018, Cobblers) is also eminently suitable for a night of Arkham Horror that culminated in Jacqueline Fine banishing The Dunwich Horror with a Bind Monster spell. Proper dark dungeon synth that goes well with any moody game.
Death - Leprosy (1988)
Carving a path through extreme metal history in between keeping up with newer stuff. Death’s sophomore effort has a wealth of mid-tempo bangers.
Just woke up from a siesta, so time to stimulate the ol’ pathways a bit. Nothing like some bracing death industrial from Catalonian duo DE·TA·US·TO·AS for that purpose. Vocals, riffs and drums obscured by thunderclouds. Purge your ego. The Immaculate Triumvirate is out on Bestiarie.
Dödsrit - Dödsrit (2018)
Sweden’s Dödsrit has an irresistible blend of melodic black metal and energetic d-beat. New album Spirit Crusher is out later this week, but check out their self-titled debut in the mean time. ?0⃣➕, so no fucking regrets.
With Elegy (2018, Prophecy), Finnr’s Cane have made one of most beautiful unbound black metal albums I’ve heard in a while.
Melancholic, melanchthonic. A perfect balance of autumnal contemplation and gale. With echoes of turn-of-the-century Agalloch and Primordial.
The new one from A Forest of Stars is pretty fucking mental. As theatrical as you’d expect, and manic to boot. Sounds from the seedy Victorian underbelly. Out next week on Prophecy.
Hallig from Germany deliver a confident melodic black metal effort with A Distant Reflection of the Void (2018, Talheim). Frantic drums and epic melodies take Nordic sensibility and myth to the astral plane.
Something stirs. Buried beneath the shaded desert sands are the remains of a doomed ‘civilisation’. Inner Vision Laboratory sets the stage for a future without mankind with Relics (2018, Winter-Light).
Up next is Krallice’s Go Be Forgotten (2017, Gilead). Dissonant, frantic, entrancing. And solid dark synth passages, too.
On tracks like “Failed Visionary Cults” you can feel that bass guitar whipping around your head as the riffs break down your barriers.
And “Quadripartite Mirror Realm”? The title alone gives me goosebumps. Stellar ambient work.
Mylingar - Döda Vägar (2016, Amor Fati)
First EP from this Swedish project. Extremely crushing death metal. Pure gravel down your throat.
Promethean serve up some ripping symphonic black/death on their debut Aloades EP (2017).
Heavy on the keys, epic, and with a classic vicious sound. Still too early to tell how impactful this band will prove, but it’s a worthy start.
Summoning’s latest, With Doom We Come (2018, Napalm), puts more emphasis on an old-school guitar sound again, besides delivering the epic synth-laden black metal we’ve come to expect. Highlight: the crusty vocals on the closing track, “With Doom I Come”:
Epic doom from Void of Silence on The Sky Over, released this summer on Avantgarde Music.
Long funeral compositions, dark ambient interludes, soaring vocals. High-strung, dramatic, and confident.