Ah. FINALLY. The summer fades. Leaves wither and die. The morning dew turns to a light dusting of frost. The wind becomes chill, its previously warm embrace now a cool warning of things to come. The cold beckons.
It’s black metal season.
Been a minute since our last entry into the annals of Kvlt Kolvmn, but like each winter we return ice cold. There have been a number of fantastic black metal releases smattered across the past few months, and we’re here to deliver a selection of our favorites. So partake, enjoy, and as always…
Stay frosty.
-Jonathan Adam
Winter’s Crown
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
I’ll come right out of the gates with this: I’m a sucker for the surging Indigenous American-influenced metal scene. Between bands like Nechochwen, Mawiza, Burnt Lodge and Vital Spirit, there are ample creative juices flowing in this burgeoning category of heavy music.
One of the chief purveyors of the scene’s blackened offshoots is of course Blackbraid, hailing from the Adirondack mountains in New York state. Whatever controversy has arisen about the actual heritage of frontman, main visionary and sole official member Sgah’gahsowáh aka Jon Krieger and the ugliness that probably transpired at Midgardsblot (I’m inclined to take the band’s word for it there but who can tell), what definitely is above questioning is that Blackbraid know how to write some blistering songs.
Showing a steady upward trend in quality since the 2022 debut album, Blackbraid once again delight and demolish on Blackbraid III. Gloriously galloping black metal riffs, triumphant melodicism and a slick finish offer the full package, interspersed with the occasional strummy, folksy or avian-embellished atmospheric interlude.
Beyond atmospheric interludes and bird sounds, it’s riffy gems like “The Dying Breath of a Sacred Stag”, “Tears of the Dawn” and “And He Became the Burning Stars…” that get the blood pumping and the fires burning. There’s a Kanonenfieber- like quality in the way Blackbraid is breaking out of a small, conceptual niche in black metal and taking names, scalps and scrobbles with a modern and punchy style of black metal that is deeply rooted in a powerful concept.
Controversy and cultural capital aside, it’s all about the riffs. And Blackbraid has them.
-Boeli Krumperman
Best of the Rest
Imperishable - Revelation In Purity
Believe it or not, Nile makes some killer black metal too! Formed as a side project back in the early throes of Covid (2020 literally feels like it happened decades ago), Imperishable is a black/death outfit comprised of members of the above-stated tech death legends alongside members of Olkoth and Hate Eternal. The goal of the project seems to be fairly simple: Blackened riff-heavy annihilation. No breaks. No filler. Just mayhem. And on those grounds their debut full-length record Revelation In Purity succeeds beyond expectation.
As a whole, it’s clear that Imperishable are influenced by particular branches of both death and black metal trees, and pick the fruit of those inspirations with a natural ease. The seething melodicism of Nightside Eclipse-era Emperor can be heard clearly in the title track, while on the death metal side the diabolical rip/tear of Morbid Angel is abundant across the record. These two sounds marry beautifully throughout Revelation In Purity, as it becomes increasingly obvious that this project knows how to construct a face throttling blackened death tune. Opener “Oath of Disgust” is an absolute delight, showcasing from the rip Imperishable’s full mastery of these styles. There’s also room for just a bit of variety, with “Iniquity” presenting some delightfully doomy elements into the mix. Track by track, it’s hard to deny that Imperishable know exactly what they’re doing and exhibit complete control of their art.
On the whole, I’m having a hard time thinking of an album in this particular space that gave me as much joy as Revelation In Purity. This is unpolished, brazenly aggressive blackened death metal at its finest, with few to no missteps in construction or execution. While technically a side project, I wouldn’t be surprised if we received more from this outfit in the coming years. The talent is undeniable, and as a debut record Revelation In Purity is as impressive a collection as one would expect given the names attached. Here’s hoping. But if this ends up being the project’s only release, we can consider it a rousing success.
-JA
Jordfäst - Blodsdåd och hor
Ah, another style of black metal with roots in cultural identity. While another subgenre I devour greedily, this one has its fair share of ethical pitfalls. Luckily, Sweden’s Jordfäst seem benign in the (political) intentions, and have brought us a powerful alloy of tastefully executed Scandinavian metal with ye olde viking embellishments, espousing themes of history (of steel!), the darker sides of human nature, the darker sides of actual nature, and incorporating fragments from Völuspá (part of the poetic Edda) for good measure.
Jordfäst steer their longships far from folksy humppa-stomps and glorified taverncore romps, dealing with a style of Scandi-fied black metal that makes you put up the horns without erroneously putting them on a helmet. Their sound lands somewhere between Vanagandr-era Thyrfing and a more mournful Havukruunu, while also tipping their fur-lined cap to Istapp and even approaching the deep, dark wilds of Árstíðir Lífsins occasionally.
Blodsdåd och hor (Bloodshed and whoredom) is the bluntly titled but sharply executed third album of these Swedish ironmongers, and is split up into two long tracks of 17 minutes, each in turn split up into four parts. Both “Ett altare av skärvor” (An altar of shards) and “Dit gudarna trälar är” (Where the gods are thralls) follow a similar climactic structure, starting with a recognisable and rather earwyrmy melodic black metal riff, before getting somewhat lost in the violence of a chaotic midsection, before regaining their melodic footing and offering strong and rather memorable third and fourth parts.
The third track of “Ett Altare…” especially striked my fancy, featuring an absolutely nasty arsenal of Havukruinous riffage and some powerful harmonies in the clean vocals. “Dit gudarna…” somewhat beats its recurring melodic motif to death with a battleaxe, but also manages to offer some powerful layered screams on the third section and offers an especially strong fourth and final chapter that really drives home the choral majesty.
The album's production also bears mentioning. While there are plenty of trebly teeth, the soundscape feels particularly dynamic, also offering enough base and lending a particularly satisfying depth and dynamism to the drumming. Like a ravenous pack of winter wolves, the instruments chase each other around the Jordfäst soundscape, snapping around the ears from audibly different directions, each getting close while all giving each other space to join the hunt.
Lack of sonic variety and less memorable midsections tin both tracks keep Jordfäst out of Asgard as of yet, but I’m definitely keeping however many eyes I didn’t trade for knowledge out for the next part of their saga.
-BK
Demon Sluice - Dancers Beneath Shores of Fire
What makes black metal heavy? The genre might actually have the most answers to this question out of any other genre of metal. Death metal might be the only other contender but I think it’s not even close. Black metal can be “cold” and depressing or bright and burning and still achieve the same level of heaviness. Then there’s the black metal that achieves heaviness through shoegaze’s sensory overload, and meloblack, and so on and so forth. Today, we have the black metal that dips its hands into thrash and punk and comes back with a hefty, furious, and “bestial” sort of sound in the form of Demon Sluice’s Dancers Beneath the Shores of Fire.
The thing that makes Demon Sluice’s approach to this sound stand out is that they’ve refused to compromise between black metal’s big, sweeping riffs, and thrash and death’s “thinner”, more agile riffs. Instead, the guitars on this album manage to somehow sound massive and quick at the same time, often pouncing on you with unexpected groove right after they’ve made some grand declaration of emotion. See the first track, “Sower of Dragon Teeth”, around the six and a half minute mark. Following an atmospheric mid-section, there suddenly arrives an absolutely vicious riff that somehow merges thrash’s electric buzzsaw sound with a more traditional tremolo sounding black metal riff. The end result is, as the kids say, super fucking sick. One might even say that it whips. Jokes aside, those adjectives are perfect as the resulting sound (which carries the track for four minutes, all the way to its end) is among the most engaging black metal I’ve heard in a long time.
Throw in a bunch more long tracks with plenty of more ideas, excellently abrasive vocals, and the production to make this whole thing shine with a red, haggard sort of light, and you’ve got yourself one for the ages. If you want the kind of black metal that achieves heaviness through sheer volume and attack, Demon Sluice has the juice (ew) you crave. Dancers Beneath Shores of Fire is a slab of aggressive, carefully constructed, and essentially unhinged black metal that’s sure to add some blood to your tired grin.
-Eden Kupermintz