Album

Atra – Death Coven [Australia, Raw Black] (2023)

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6-1-23 | Altare Productions

Eternally stoned. I once again got you ere under false pretenses. This record is a 2023 reissue of a 2010 album originally on the Portuguese label Discipline Productions. Atra is an Australian act which is apart of a circle of musicians known as Order of the Black Serpent. That circle is comprised of members from Drowning the Light, Erebus Enthroned, Eternum, and a whole host of others who have more projects than members of the group. Death Coven is one of two reissues by once again Portuguese label Altare Productions. This is abut the extent of knowledge I could gleam from Metal Archives age but suffice to say Atra along with their friends prefer to stay enshrouded in mystery. Death Coven is a feature length album complete with introductions and interludes which makes up a theater of the macabre. If your idea of a party is stalking in a graveyard after dark, then take this ghoulish limb by the hand. .

Fathomage – Autumn’s Dawn, Winter’s Darkness [Australia, Epic Black / Dungeon Synth] (2023)

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Self Released | 3-10-23

For anyone curious, the cover for this record is “Multnomah Falls” by Albert Bierstadt. The use of canonical western art in black metal album covers is wild and hilarious especially given that I would like to know what Bierstadt, and maybe the rest of the Hudson River School painters, would think about their work being paired with atmospheric black metal. If I would hazard a guess and as long as Bierstadt was cool, he would find this paring complementary. Fathomage is an Australian act with lyrical themes ranging from fantasy to Christianity. Autumn’s Dawn, Winter’s Darkness is the seventh full length album since 2018 and honestly the sound feels so much more accomplished than what one would expect from a self released Bandcamp album. Fathomage feels like they have much more to investigate beyond this album including some of the lyrical content and a dark ambient beginning. For now one can rest assured that Autumn’s Dawn, Winter’s Darkness is a fantastic album from an artist that has been operating in the shadows way too long. Bierstadt would be proud.

Mithrandir – Towards the Spires of Dol Guldur [Finland, Black] (2023)

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Self Released | 3-4-23

I seem to be finding more raw black adjacent material through dungeon synth searches than the more general new metal release searches. This is fine with me as I get to come across raw Finnish black debut is completely into Tolkien. Mithrandir is mostly a fantasy based project though I suspect some of the non fantasy (maybe?) titles of the tracks are remnants of earlier work. This is fine since a dedicated Tolkien metal project isn’t the most novel of an idea so having something which feels fantasy related but also uses colloquial terms like “välikuolema” is intriguing. Towards the Spires of Dol Guldur is a raw love letter to many themes and throws anything on hand into a melting pot. Black metal, dungeon synth, dark ambient all go and get melted down into a thick murky soup. There is no expectation from the band nor the audience which makes Towards the Spires of Dol Guldur a delightful find that I would have missed had not been in the right search.

Astarot – Journey from Melancholy Landscape II [Mexico, Dark Ambient] (2023)

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Self Released | 3-3-23

Journey from Melancholy Landscape II is a “compilation of Dark Ambient / NeoFolk / Neoclassical tracks from 2017-2021.” This is the second volume of ambient tracks with the first being a 2017 collection of ambient tracks from 2012-2016. It is a strange thing to only have a relationship with one style of music from an artist. Even though Astarot is a black metal act, these two compilations are entirely in a separate space. This space is contemplative, emotional, and eerily mystical in its foundations. Ambient tracks within black metal records are suppose to set mood and tone and now removed and placed within their own album, that thematic aura echoes off each other. While I enjoy listening to black metal, I am thankful these types of songs can be enjoyed on their own as they possess a personality that can be appreciated. If this type of stuff is interesting, one might be inclined to travel over to the 2023 release De Mystica Silva ad Cosmos which is the same type of atmosphere just added with atmospheric black metal. Astarot seems to deal in the trade of ambience and Journey from Melancholy Landscape II is a testament to that.

The Visceral Madness Condition – Amb​à​scia [Italy, Sludge Doom] (2023)

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Self Released | 1-24-23

It is my intention to start branching out from raw black and death reviews but we will see how this goes. I enjoy sludge despite the genre being saturated by tropes regarding sound and subject matter. I also say the same thing about other genres but I usually can listen to similar raw death for days. The Visceral Madness Condition is an Italian group who is continually complex the more one looks into their music. From odd looking band photos to the fact their song titles share the name with popular acid house songs from 10 years ago, The Visceral Madness Condition seems like it should be understood with a quick glance but weird things keep ones interest. Amb​à​scia is the band’s third release and continues their love for bands like Eyehategod, Sleep, and Acid Bath but this time around has them singing in Italian. If there is something I love it is native language used in popular forms of music. This combined with an odd woodblock print for the cover which looks like a black metal demo, Amb​à​scia holds enough interest to be fucking weird around you and gets one to think about it long after the record stops playing. The Visceral Madness Condition is the strange group your friends invite to the party but never leave and most likely drink all of your beer and ask for more.

Offernat – All Colours Retract [Denmark, Sludge] (2022)

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Self Released | 9-2-22

Part of the reason why I first picked up this EP was the cover as it was so non descript and without any trace of bandname, release title, or anything. It is as if this release just materialized and we have to deal with its existence. Offernat is a Danish sludge / post metal (?) three piece who play music in the style of Neurosis and old Isis. While comparisons are easy to make at first, Offernat quickly becomes dense and complex. The only track available at this monument is a 14 minute preview called “The Winds” which is a raucous maelstrom heavy sludge which tempers into a slow ambient unravel of both form and temper before forming into something unexpected and delightful. “The Winds” is a powerful declaration from a band who has had just one EP to date. All Colours Retract, when release, has a possibility of being a robust release with music that is understated in its album cover.

Astral Coroner – Leaching the Ancient Void [US/ Canada, Death] (2022)

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Self Released | 6-22-22

This is my everything. Deathgrind obsessed with topics such as aliens, skinwalkers, and quantum suicide. If this was a book, it would already be on my shelf but here we are and these topics comes through a death ray aimed at the listeners chest. Astral Coroner is from both the US and Canada with no members listed so if we were in the conspiratorial mindset, we could assume it is the work of other death metal luminaries making even more underground music. Even if this group is a bunch of Coast to Coast AM weirodos who probably have some documentaries about The Goblin Universe, Leaching the Ancient Void is a punch to the throat which never stops being fun.

Kvad – Cold & Dark, As Life [Norway, Atmospheric / Raw Black] (2022)

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Self Released | 6-10-22

It is difficult to type the phrase Norwegian black metal” and not have it anchor to a certain time period. For better or worse this county and style elicits certain images which is a shame for bands and artists who are just making music for the void. Kvad is related to another Norwegian black metal act Darkest Bethlehem who had one single in 2021. Cold & Dark, As Life, for Kvad, represents the debut full length following an EP in 2021. This seems like the start for the act with an explosive 30 minute statement that is full of energy and entropy. There are obvious nods to Norway’s history in black metal with frostbitten aesthetics yet Kvad succeeds as a raw black act that sculpts landscapes of torment and demise. Each of the tracks which run 4-5 minutes feel like a swirling void where the vocals bounce around walls of madness. This is truly music for the distraught and Kvad commands its like a symphony.

Thermokarst – Thermokarst [Canada, Black] (2022)

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Self Released | 2-17-22

Oh hey, I know this one! A thermokarst is an irregular, pitted surface of marsh and bog that occurs near and around permafrost. I knew bumming around in Alaska during my early 20s would pay dividends in underground black metal cred. Well, Thermokarst (capital-T, don’t be confused) is a group based out of British Columbia who plays ferocious, punky black metal that screeches through the burial bog. These drums are painful and plentiful, thundering through the mix with an extraordinary hollow snare sound like smacking the decrepit chests of ex-wendigo lying in the mists. The vocals are pretty horrific in the literal sense: these are throat-shredders at their best. Give it a try for unhinged black metal maniacs.

S/T by THERMOKARST

Dracoempericon – Dracoempericon [Australia, Death / Black] (2021)

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Self Released | 11-14-21

Kap started off the year with reminding us that vegetables are a decent addition to one’s diet, and exercise will occasionally benefit your body and mind. I’m going to kick off my first post of the year with one of those albums that I’m pretty sure all 40 listeners on YouTube are people I know from the Discord network where it was shared. (Indeed, a Google search of this album brought up all of their Last.FM networks.) Dracompericon has no page on the Metal Archives, no member information, and no presence on social media outside of a lonesome Instagram account… and yet they are undeniably rooted in the fiery bowels of Australian black / death. Even the release date is suspect; the YouTube videos say November 2021, but that’s likely the date of upload and not the date of release. Even more so, one must wonder who is a part of Dracoempericon – this LP blasts out the gate with that ever-so-slightly reverbed production and exceedingly constructed extreme metal. To what other bands can I compare Dracompericon – and perhaps muse on potential membership? Well, I hear a bit of the frenetic spider-hand guitar playing that might point to Horror Illogium of Vomitor and Portal. There’s a bouncy bass aesthetic that doesn’t sound too out of place from StarGazer, though with such an emphasis on capital-A Atmospherics with hints of melody poking through the discord on the longer compositions such as “The Moon Is An Eye”. Whether a late addition to 2021 or an early favorite for 2022, Dracoempericon is an out-of-nowhere masterful addition to the Australian black / death canon.

Check out the LP on the band’s YouTube channel here.