Alaska, The Last Frontier. Home to savage elements and captivating landscapes, but also home to a bleak Black Metal Underground, and by underground I mean you basically need to venture out into the tundra with a shovel to find some of these bands. Thankfully Alaska is also the place I call home so I’m here to shed some light on an otherwise dark and unseen niche. Continue reading
New York experimental black metal band Tombs grabbed my attention two years ago when I got their sophomore album ‘Path Of Totality’ in a Relapse Records blind bag deal. Tombs formed in 2007 with founding member and frontman Mike Hill. My expectations are high for ‘Monarchy Of Shadows’ as it follows their great 2017 record ‘The Grand Annihilation.’ On top of their last record they have the weight of ‘Path Of Totality’ on their shoulders, which won Decibel Magazine’s 2011 Album of the Year award. Consisting of Mike Hill, Justin Spaeth, Drew Murphy, and Matt Medieiros, Tombs rip their way into a new decade with some of their best songs in their entire discography on this EP ‘Monarchy Of Shadows’ which releases on February 28, 2020 via Seasons Of The Mist. Continue reading
Cradle Of Filth is the iconic symphonic black metal project of lead vocalist Dani Filth. Cradle Of Filth are from the UK and started off their career with an explosive start in 1991, releasing three demos over the span of three years in the early 90’s. Since then the band has released 12 studio albums, including classic albums such as ‘Midian’ and have sold more than four million records worldwide. Cradle Of Filth’s last album was 2017’s ‘Cryptoriana – The Seductiveness of Decay.’ The band has announced they are working on a new album and expect to release it around August of this year. Continue reading
*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every week from the featured state. This month’s state is North Dakota.*
Originally formed in 2009 within the dark, icy realms of where thrash and black metal collide emerges Frosthelm. Contributing in no small part to their sound is the extreme cold and bleak environment experienced by band members Dakota Irwin (guitar), Billy Zahn (guitar), Brian Helm (drums), Tyler Pfliger (vocals), and Jimmy Cherry (bass), hailing from the frozen plains of Bismarck, North Dakota. Drawing much inspiration from their surroundings, in 2015 the band released their full-length debut, ‘The Endless Winter,’ which Irwin aptly describes as “bitter, dark, angry, and disgusted.” The LP was critically-acclaimed, landing on numerous “best of 2015” lists, and receiving multiple glowing reviews by respected metal publications. Seeking to top their monumental debut, Frosthelm has just released their second album ‘Pyrrhic’ in March of this year. ‘Pyrrhic,’ defined as “(of a victory) won at too great a cost to have been worthwhile for the victor,” illustrates its bleak theme powerfully through punishing riffage and horrifying vocal imagery. Continue reading
*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state. This month’s state is North Carolina.*
Hailing from Raleigh, North Carolina, Mo’ynoq delivers a blistering form of American black metal whose self-proclaimed influences include Immortal, Nachtmystium, and Wolves in the Throne Room. Their style, which competently pays homage to the greats, embodies a vast, darkened soundscape of gothic proportions and atmospheric tension that envelops its listener like a dense fog. Since their inception in 2016, Mo’ynoq has released a couple of EPs, and in January of this year, their debut full-length album entitled ‘Dreaming in a Dead Language.’ Continue reading
*This is part of our State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state. This month’s state is Kansas.*
Black metal and a history lesson? Get your pencil and paper out, Marsh of Swans are about to school you in downtrodden riffage and local history. The black metal duo call Lawrence, Kansas home. They go by CJ and BC, sharing the writing and production duties. BC is the voice that is heard on the tracks and CJ does the drum work, however. Continue reading
Norwegian black metal stalwart ABBATH is back after a gap of three years, with their sophomore new album, ‘Outstrider‘. The upcoming second full length is scheduled to be released on 5th July, 2019 under the French label, Season of Mist. The first sneak peek you can get is in the form of an album teaser clip that the band has released, where a short section of the new tunes can be heard. Check out the same down below.
*This is part of our monthly State Of The Art series, showcasing bands every Monday from the featured state. This month’s state is New Mexico.*
Like the hot winds of Armageddon’s wrath, Sante Fe, New Mexico’s Vanum delivers a modern black metal inferno of atmosphere and intensity that harkens back to a classic sound. Their appropriately titled release ‘Ageless Fire,’ which just dropped last month on Profound Lore Records, could easily be the soundtrack to the end of days. While stylistically, Vanum’s sound is reminiscent of black metal’s golden era, thankfully they opt for a more modern, post-black metal production quality that gives the songs’ vast soundscapes the appropriate canvas on which to shine at their best. Not to be confused, however, the riffs on ‘Ageless Fire’ sound as filthy as to be expected while the drumming is able to effectively maintain a certain garage-like nastiness. Vocals genuinely and viscerally convey the primal screams of a tormented soul, especially during the music’s frequent, intense tremolo-picked passages. Continue reading
Hailing from Suffolk, England, Cradle Of Filth have become the torch bearers for all things extreme for nearly 28 years spreading their brand of extreme metal across the globe. The bands most recent offering, ‘Cryptoriana: The Seductiveness of Decay,’ arriving in the later part of 2018, sees the band continuing to showcase their vast influences by seamlessly blending gothic and symphonic metal with frontman Dani Filth’s penchant for singing about all things macabre. Continue reading
ROTTING CHRIST was one of the very first Greek metal band to break out of the Greek underground, and taste worldwide appreciation. With a staggering number of albums under their belt already, the band doesn’t seem to halt any soon, as they prepare to release their 13th studio album. ‘The Heretics‘ is just around the corner, releasing this coming week on February 15th via Season Of Mist.
The band has already released a couple of tracks from the forthcoming album, such as ‘Heaven and Hell and Fire‘ and ‘The Raven‘. Now adding on to the excitement, the Greeks have put out yet another track titled, ‘Ветры злые (Vetry Zlye)‘. It features Irina Zybina (GRAI) and is themed in Russian.
