Noctem’s Art Gates Records– released The Black Consecration was a strong contender for 2019’s black metal album of the year, based on its return to basics and raw, unfiltered and uncompromising attitude. We asked frontman Beleth for his opinions on a number of related topics.
Exploring uncharted waters while remaining true to their original sound, Caronte has delivered an excellent doom metal album in Wolves of Thelema (Ván Records), one which touches on the occult, old school heavy metal, and more.
Cold Black Suns (Season of Mist) is an unforgettable piece of occult black metal art, fusing savagery with frozen beauty – but it is also a selection of nine very separate songs that can each stand on their own as near-perfect examples of the craft Belgium’s Enthroned have been honing for a quarter of a century.
Shem Ha Mephorash, the fourth full-length from Sweden’s Mephorash for Shadow Records is neither short, sweet nor easily digestible: rather, it is provocative, engaging and even a little frightening in its intensity. Or put another way, as near to a perfect black metal record as you could hope to encounter.
While not known as widely as their more radio-friendly releases, 45 years on, Secret Treaties (Columbia) remains an important and well-respected entry in the impeccable Blue Öyster Cult catalogue.
Out now via Svart Records, Demon Head’s latest occult rock offering, Hellfire Ocean Void, is the sound of a band staking their claim, and doing so in grand style.
Due via Iron Bonehead Productions, Black Funeral’s The Dust and the Darkness offers a short but stirring paean to forgotten underworld figures, phrased in music that is at once primitive in its emotive delivery but highly sophisticated in its composition and arrangement.
While Enigmata does have its catchy moments, they aren’t plentiful. The album frustrates more than it fascinates.
A true work of ritualistic, dark, spiritual and Satan worshiping art, this album is especially fascinating.
Occult black metal tyrants Ascension have released “Deathless Light,” the first track taken from their forthcoming new album, The Dead of the World – listen below. The band will release The Dead of the World on December 24th in North America on CD. The track list and album art for The Dead of the World can be seen below.
The much-hyped group Bloody Hammers has already begun some intense promotion in light of the pending June 10th North American release of their new album Under Satan’s Sun (Napalm Records). Featuring 10 new tracks teeming with the band’s signature concoction of heavy rock, which boasts everything from gothic and psychedelic rock to doom and stoner metal, this recording is already looking like it may come in as the band’s best to date. We chatted via email with lead vocalist and bass player, Anders Manga, about the key gear he used to create the band’s wickedly fuzzy sound on this new album.
The Devil’s Blood announced at the beginning of 2013 that they have “returned to nothingness.” At the same time, they announced that plans had already been put into motion to release new material. The new seven song album, III: Tabula Rasa or Death and the Seven Pillars, will serve as the band’s final full-length release. A new track, “White Storm of Teeth”, has been made available for streaming – listen below. III: Tabula Rasa or Death and the Seven Pillars will be available for purchase on iTunes April 30th, via all other digital outlets on May 28th, and on CD and vinyl June 11th.
Aluk Todolo’s Occult Rock is not going to be for everyone. According to their bio, the band are an instrumental trio that play, “Occult Rock, a methodical exploration of the powers of musical trance.” Got that? Now, when I read that I immediately thought that the sound was going to be old-style black metal a la Darkthrone’s Transylvanian Hunger or even early Darkrthrone. And true enough opening song “Occult Rock I” (all of the songs are called “Occult Rock”, followed by a number) is a trance-inducing black metal song through and through – minus any shrieks of course. Most of the rest of the songs however, sound like heavy metal with the occasional dose of black metal.