Μηλινόη
despair, dementia, dissent
black, death, funeral, dungeon, dark ambient, sadgaze, harsh electronics, intense (neo-)classical
Serious business on this forbidding doom split, out on Tridroid Records / Roman Numeral.
Body Void’s “Androgyne” smashes slow, and then it smashes fast, and it always smashes hard. Crusty sludge the way I like it. Keeper too are maintaining a steady level of uncompromising sludge pummels, even in the vocal-heavy second track “Twenty”.
Not for the faint of heart, but then again, few things I post are.
Big sad today. Perfect time to put The Cold Light of Despair by Chrome Waves (2019, disorder-recordings) in the spotlight. This one has been bouncing around my player for a while now.
Deep into the sad end of metallised shoegaze, CW bank on heavy slow blisses, hazy acoustics, and ethereal screams and plaints. They’re not afraid to be indulgent, and we shouldn’t be either.
Consciousness Torn from the Void. Now there’s a mood, haha, amirite, fellow youngsters? “Hard same,” you will say.
Seriously though: The Ember, The Ash (also: Unreqvited) is bringing some proper existential black metal here with saucy symphonic touches and gentle interludes.
A distinct late 90s feel is heavily present here, and I crave it often, so I’m very content. Restore my consciousness to the void, already. Sheesh.
(2019, Avantgarde Music)
It’s a little bit country and a little bit rock ’n’ roll — no wait, scratch that.
False’s latest album Portent (2019, Gilead) has a whole dollop of classic symphonic black metal, but the band have picked up things left by the wayside over the past twenty years of metal history.
There’s still breakneck speeds and walls of synth (praise be), but there’s a sensibility to the whole thing that makes this far less straightforward than pure worship of the classics would have been.
The main testament to how good this is is the fact that I was completely absorbed by their recent live performance of some of these tracks, without ever having heard their music before. This rarely happens, trust me.
Geistaz’ika - Trolddomssejd i Skovens Dybe Kedel (2019, Signal Rex)
This is that raw folky black metal shit that I crave. It’s got the acoustic bits, the background choirs, the grim organic melancholy, the dark folklore.
It’s very Bergtatt, but not too much, and few albums even get close to that realm, so let us be thankful.
Proper sad girl music hours up in here. And wow, is Ghostwriter ever the perfect companion! Kalee Beels serves up a potent, heartfelt blend of gloomgazy singer-songwriter tunes. RIYL crying. I know I tend to write ironically, but this really is beautiful stuff. (2019, Tridroid Records)
LES CHANTS DU HASARD are back with a very strong album of bombastic syntho-classical: Livre Second. Extremely dynamic, dark, and with scattered moments of calm beauty. The mood takes me back to old Elend, but LCDH definitely has its own signature. (2019, I, Voidhanger)
Serpent Column’s been putting out choppy, complex black metal records solidly over the past few years. Mirror in Darkness is the latest, übersolid, coming at you from various angles. It sure keeps me on my toes, at least. Out through Mystískaos.
Deliciously entrancing slow-burn black metal from NL. It’s ponderous, with a minimalism in composition, but an excellent timing throughout. And I do have a weak spot for these gorgeous Primordialesque guitar textures.
Turia’s Degen van Licht pierces like the eponymous blade, with Dutch lyrics driving home the point again and again that living is dying. Out right fucking now through Eisenwald and Haeresis Noviomagi.
Don’t mind me. Just squeezing thru with this massive ol’ sledgehammer of doom from Vile Creature. A Pessimistic Doomsayer is a single track EP (2016)—a dynamic composition, an array of vocal styles, and enough bludgeoning to keep my mind in check right now. I fucking needed that.