Serpent Column is a project that has been waiting to burst onto the larger metal scene for some time. Over the past few years, sole continual member Theophonos has conjured adventurous, meticulously crafted music that melds elements of dissonant death and black metal into a swirling pool of chaos and…
Up to this point, Jute Gyte has made an almost annual tradition of releasing the boldest black metal album of the year. With this project, multi-instrumentalist Adam Kalmbach has channeled the black metal blueprint through classical composition techniques—microtonality and serialism, primarily—and paired the results with elements of dark ambient, industrial,…
Black metal and politics have become (and, perhaps, have always been) inseparable. If you scroll through any social media comment section regarding black metal for more than ten seconds, it would be practically impossible to have avoided some line of argument regarding whether or not Drudkh is racist, Taake is…
The murky and amorphous style of extreme metal that has taken root in the wake of acts like Gorguts, Portal, and Deathspell Omega has seemingly become the predominate driving creative force in the underground extreme metal zeitgeist in recent years. The emphasis on weird, Lovecraftian atmospheres has infected both black and death metal, with acts like Imperial Triumphant, Artificial Brain, Pyrrhon, and Dodecahedron, to name a few, land on year-end lists with wonky, dissonant riffs, and a flair for the experimental. The trouble at this point is that when working within such an esoteric sound, it becomes difficult to carve out a niche and break out from the pack. Up and coming bands, take note: murk chords and blastbeats aren’t cutting it anymore.
Welcome to Kvlt Kolvmn, hellions. Here’s hoping your holiday is as frosty as the metal gods intended it. We’re approaching the end of the year, and prep for our Kvlt Kolvmn prospectus is in full swing. But in the midst of the maelstrom, we offer you a few choice selections…
Black metal has reached a critical point in development and rapid expansion through the past decade that introduced interesting sonic experiments to an otherwise insular and esoteric genre. Artistic waves came and went, and what was once avant-garde became commonplace in the genre. For instance, Deathspell Omega’s dark and twisted approach…
We here at Heavy Blog are proud to have been saying “what the hell is in Australia’s water?” for at least five years now. The music scene over there has been blowing up for at least that long, if not longer, creating some of the most innovative, crushing, intriguing and just plain excellent music in the world. To these by-now hallowed annals we can add Cancer, a black metal band that’s all about ambiance, abrasive tonality and depressing atmosphere. Hot off of their second release, Into the Heartless Silence, Cancer seem poised to add to the growing plethora of excellent black metal being made today, offering their own version on the formula with their own off-kilter and disharmonious touches to composition.
Naturally, hearing more about what makes such a band tick, since they seem to fuse black metal with a whole lot more influences operating in the background. And, indeed, when you look at the picks that John Pescod (vocals) included below and their write ups, you find classical black metal influences alongside more discordant and twisted takes on the classic genres. Thus, without further ado, we consign you to the able hands and vocal chords of Pescod, for a dive into what makes a modern black metal band work. Don’t forge to also head on over to the band’s Bandcamp below to listen and order the album. You won’t regret it.
Hello my Hellions, and welcome to Death’s Door. Don’t even bother wiping your feet on the mat this time around. The blood runneth over. What an absolutely insane summer it’s been for death metal. So great that we’ve had to eliminate a multitude of records from our monthly list because…
The fact we’re amid a death metal renaissance has been widely covered over the last several years, and particularly the last few months. Along with our usual monthly praises in Death’s Door, sites like Bandcamp and Toilet ov Hell have recently published odes to the modern crop of death metal ingenuity.…
“Experimental” and “avant-garde” may be the most overused and misapplied words in the entirety of the metal lexicon. Not because they are bad words to use generally (they are, in fact, quite good), but mainly because there’s no way in hell for a listener to know what a writer is…
