Every year, I grow more impressed by the breadth of new ideas introduced into the world of black metal. I’ve long held the belief that the “blackened” prefix manifests in more unique ways than any other metal subgenre. Even the lightest introduction of black metal aesthetics can significantly alter the…
Hailing from the perpetually sunny, oftentimes snowy state of Colorado comes with its fair share of outdoor rituals. One of these, found deep in the throes of deepest winter, manifests itself as shoveling stupid amounts of snow off of my driveway. Waking at 6:00am to clear a path for my…
I said in my write-up for Of Rot and Ruin for our April Editors’ Picks post that it was going to take “something pretty special” to beat it out as my album of the year. Here we are eight month’s later and, while the year produced some strong contenders, nothing…
Welcome, friends, to the final installment of Kvlt Kolvmn in the year of our infernal overlords 2019. What a year it’s been. From releases by foolproof genre legends like Mayhem, Blut Aus Nord, and Abbath to seething experimental shots across the proverbial bow from Liturgy and Botanist, this past year…
The holidays are in full swing. Here I sit, engorged with fowl meat and more than slightly drowsy due to my more-than-slight overindulgence in wine. Last week’s festivities have yet to wear themselves off, and the month of December will only see the excess worsen. Thankfulness, I suppose, exists even…
Irish quintet God Alone may be young enough to have no functional memories of the nineties, but they are already up to their third release – a self-titled EP that you can find linked at the bottom of this article – and have cast their net of influence wide enough…
For a six-year run leading up to and through The Ark Work (2015), Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s output as Liturgy made him public enemy number one in the black metal community. Some of this wasn’t entirely his fault, namely the unexpected “indie seal of approval” bestowed on Aesthethica (2011). The album’s response…
An album doesn’t really end when its last note is sounded. Or, at least, great albums don’t; there are definitely works out there that only span the time during which the music is playing. But truly great releases, like all great art, stick with their consumer far beyond than the…
Deafheaven’s Sunbather may have blown up the post-black metal sound to a wider audience in 2013, but it was France’s Alcest — lead by prolific black metal musician Stephane “Niege” Pault — that is perhaps ultimately responsible for the wash of reverberating tremolo picks, blastbeats, and emphasis on melodic and…
Uniqueness is often conflated with interesting ideas in our modern music consumption landscape. There’s plenty of experimental music that, while undeniably different, is pretty deniably good. I’ve encountered albums of all-acoustic black metal and blackened trip-hop on my travels, both of which defied the norms of their genres but were…
