I’ve always been partial to a bit of orthodox black metal. I’ve got my Peste Noire‘s mixed in with my Periphery‘s and my Transilvanian Hungers mixed in with my Tesseracts so I’m a pretty terrible fan when it comes to being a po-faced panda-painted warrior of the tr00, but I do try and keep an eye on the genre that has produced some of the most primally evocative and downright gruesome music around. But I don’t get many chances to write about it, even at my other usual haunts, so here’s a track that you could probably at least appreciate, even if you’re not normally a fan of this grim and frostbitten territory.
Stereogum, whose most commented on article this week is entitled ‘The Top 10 White Stripes Songs’, have the stream of a new Sargeist track, entitled ‘The Shunned Angel‘. It’s five minutes of sheer black metal rage, brimming with blastbeats, screeched demonic vocals, a dirty production and a guitar tone that is conjured up from some putrid hell.
So why do I think that just anyone could get a kick of this? Well, despite the fact that ‘The Shunned Angel‘ wastes no time in bursting into a cacophony of distortion, the track throughout borders on that style of black metal that is as much about immediacy as it crafting a huge and churning oppressive soundscape. Stylistically and coming from a perspective you may be more familiar with/enjoy more, it’s got something in common with post-metal, in that the track relies on atmosphere to push it forwards, but it trades dynamics and rough riffs for more tempo-defined sections and layers upons layers of filth. Call me crazy.
Regardless, if you’re a fan of black metal, you probably think I’m full of shit but an unfortunate amount of my time outside of writing about music is spent trying to convey ideas and perspectives to groups of people who may not be so immersed in them, so it’s always something I’m interested in.
‘The Shunned Angel‘ is taken from Feeding The Crawling Shadows, which will see a March 31st release through the World Terror Committee.
– DL