Arizmenda - Stillbirth In The Temple of Venus (2014)

 

Genre: Black Metal

Country: United States 

 Arizmenda is the sound of black metal losing its mind. That's what makes them so ***ING good; the trepidation you can't help but feel when listening to them. That spine-chilling sense of paranoia like something is creeping just behind you. When listening to Arizmenda, you don't feel safe. They wouldn't have it any other way.

For all the bands that deal with matters of mental torment, Arizmenda has, since their 2007 inception, been among the best. Their debut album Within the Vacuum of Infinity... was a harrowing experience of atmospheric black metal. Follow-up Without Circumference Nor Center emphasized the psychedelic subtleties of previous record, igniting that fervor into feverish delirium. After what seemed like an eternal three year wait, The Black Twilight Circle's most notorious band have dropped their most accomplished work to date, Stillbirth In The Temple of Venus.

Building on the foundation provided by 2013's glorious compilation Tliltic Tlapoyauak, Stillbirth In The Temple of Venus dispenses with the free-flowing songwriting of the band's previous full-lengths in favor of a style that's more deliberate and consciously structured. The brilliantly titled "Cum In Your Wound" contrasts blackened psychedelia with claustrophobic atmospheres to create a hallucinogenic effect, while "Innocence and Illness" opens with vibrant melodies before descending into a chasm of anxiety-filled darkness. As a whole, Stillbirth... thrives on the dichotomy between deranged melodies and the band's trademarked discordance. Though the album features much more of the former than ever before, tracks like "Satyriasis" proves its increased implementation only serves to accentuate the insanity of the latter.

It's so relieving to see Arizmenda diversify. For as good as their style was, it would have inevitably become stale. Here, we see them progress without losing the core elements that make them such a unique entity. Stillbirth In The Temple of Venus is a black metal album all fans of the genre absolutely must hear; you'd be crazy not to.

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Eigenlicht - Sacral Regicide (2015)

Genre: Black Metal
Country: United States

This is the kind of raw shit that I love; melodic, muddy, and drenched in grandiose orchestrations. Hailing from Olympia, Washington these guys (for the most part) eschew any kind of association with the Cascadian BM scene, opting instead for a sound more heavily rooted in classic Hellenic black metal a la Agatus, or Deviser. It's fitting considering the lyrical content, which is rife with references to the Minotaur and sporadic uses of Latin. Musically, Sacral Regicide draws the perfect line between filthy and pristine, supplementing the cascading waves of rich atmosphere. The whole of the demo is a wonderful balance of synth heavy and just plain FUCKING HEAVY; when they kick it into overdrive, they are relentless.

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Yersinia Pestis - Finis Gloriae Mundi (2015)

 

Genre: Melodic Black/Death Metal

Country: United States

Swedish extreme metal since its beginnings has been one of the most potent and influential scenes to grace the genre. From the the buzz-saw aggression of their Stockholm scene to the more refined melodic style of Gothenburg, Sweden has influenced countless bands and will undoubtedly do so until the end of time. Hailing from New Hampshire (which is pretty metal, I guess?) Yersinia Pestis play homage to their spiritual Swedish forebears through raucous and downright savage melodic black/death metal. Think a downtuned Somberlain-era Dissection, and you have idea of what these guys sound like; there's excellent split guitar harmonies, and enough whirlwind aggression to keep fans of heavier metal more than satisfied. Overall, the juxtaposition of elements is very well done, and I'm super eager to hear from comes from these guys next.

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Devouring Ghost - Devouring Ghost Soundtrack (2015)

 Genre: Black Metal
Country: United States

In recent years Mark McCoy has imbued raw black metal with a sense of artistry that has allowed him to create some of the most interesting work in the genre. On the surface he offers everything fans of this style could ask for - blackened dirges delivered in succinct bursts of punk-fueled riffage - but conceptually his releases are often far from the simplistic racket of his contemporaries. His Arts project and its Vault of Heaven album contained all the crudity and ugliness of raw black metal while daring to toy with its structural convention. Hallow dissembled BM and noise into an experience wholly more harrowing than the sum of its parts. Even his more "straightforward" projects - Devil's Dung, Ancestors, Haxan - exude a modicum of depth rarely felt within the genre. His newest project Devouring Ghost continues this trend. Created as the musical accompaniment to his latest exhibition, Devouring Ghost is a soundtrack comprised of stripped down black metal tracks that represent "the transience and mutability of a technically-constructed world."

Devouring Ghosts is Armageddon set to a black metal album. It certainly delivers on Mr. McCoy's promises; it's a viscerally driven and bare-bones BM pieces that successfully employs each of the genre's most well known tropes. On a cursory run-through that may be all it seems, and while undoubtedly enjoyable, leaves a bit to be desired as a whole. However, like most of his projects, repeated listens begin to belie how sinister and complex these hymns truly are. An undercurrent of chord progressions and ambient embellishments sneakily move beneath the more pronounced music, lending tracks like "Intamin" and opener "Trail Severed Grain" vast and winding soundscapes that one would not initially expect them to possess. This grandiosity while awe-inspiring, is far from welcoming. Evocative of a world flaming in monochromatic post-apocalyptic destruction, there is something so mechanical about the record's cold tonality that perfectly satisfies its thematic ambitions. Close your eyes and see a gray-tinted wasteland, littered with the mechanisms we are now so heavily reliant on. If Devouring Ghost was meant to portray the ambivalence in which we race to our inevitable destruction, it has done so with frightening accuracy.

Mark McCoy never fails to impress, and his newest project is no different; in fact, it may be one of his strongest yet. If you're not the type who can be bothered with conceptual tom-foolery but are a fan of raw, destructive black metal than you can still find plenty of enjoyment from Devouring Ghosts. For those of you who enjoy a terrifying narrative woven into terrifying music, Devouring Ghosts will be one of your favorite black metal albums of 2015.

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Internal Rot - "Mental Hygiene" (2014)

Genre: Grindcore
Country: Australia

Internal Rot is a grindcore band from Australia. They play old school styled grindcore that consists of distorted riffs, unrelenting vocals and savage-like drumming. Features members of Agents Of Abhorrence, Roskopp and Super Happy Fun Slide.

Mental Hygiene

Zelienople - "Show Us The Fire" (2015)

Genre: Slowcore (with touches of drone and ambient)

Country: United States

From their bandcamp: Show Us The Fire is Zelienople’s first album for Chicago’s Immune Recordings and shows the band taking a more simplified approach to recording. These songs were written with live performance in mind, with each band member sticking to their primary instrument on every song. It is also the first release where Ha played an equal role in the band for every song. Zelienople, like Codeine before them, are masters of hushed anxiety, burying anger and discontent under layers of reverb and masking it with slow tempos. Many of the lyrics on Show Us The Fire focus on themes of wealth inequality and call for revolution, rooted in a call for social justice but also brimming with frustration. It is about the transcendence of hardships, not a wallowing in them. The effect is unsettling but beautiful.

Show Us The Fire

Show Us The Fire (bandcamp)

Deviser - Unspeakable Cults (1996)

Genre: Hellenic Black Metal
Country: Greece

Greek black metal back in the 90's was a spectacular departure from its Scandinavian counterparts; instead of cold and alienating, its warm Mediterranean mysticism was very much ahead of the times. More directly inspired by classic metal, Hellenic black metal bands like Deviser relished not just in black metal brutality, but the power of Olympian melodies that their music so often included. Unspeakable Cults is one the best examples of this early scene, as it is the ideal balance between chaos and harmony. Definitely recommended.


Ritual Orgy