Eldjudnir - Eldjudnir [2016]

Black metal's ability to constantly reinvent itself and transcend the sepsis of bland musical conformism has been, for me, one of its key assets. That is not to say every black metal band or album per se capably defies genre conventions to achieve and cultivate sounds or soundscapes that are highly divergent from the next one, but in general I don't think it's a great coincidence that the genre has been able churn out so many harrowing, innovative and effective practitioners on a level that would surpass, if not always dwarf, those produced by other genres' think-tanks. The variety and imaginative stretch, as often grim and nightmarish as it may be, (not necessarily a deficit according to my tastes) is undeniable. Yet this also invites the whole post-metal sub-genre into scrutiny, since the label is so often thrown under the black metal banner, yet features a myriad taxonomies of its own that often constitute great difficulty for the analyst's part to categorize. Boring semi-academic platitudes aside, Danish hopefuls have been one such band to offer such a caveat. While I find myself meddling over the authenticity of the atmospheric black metal tag as bequeathed by the M-A, their unique, desert-like brand of black metal has sold me consistently, spin after spin, giving credibility to my initial statement, to the extent that I no longer give a fuck whether I should term them 'black metal' or 'blackened gonzo avant-garde desert rock'.

Comparisons to the Norwegians avant-garde weirdos are justified. Granted, Eldjudnir does not swerve with the same wacky post-metal antics as The Virus That Shaped the Desert or their latest, Memento Collider, but swerve it does. Rather than the skedaddling waltzes of the Norwegians, Eldjudnir employ slow, intimate, distorted arpeggios and droning chord sequences that all fit into a mid-paced tempo. The bass lines here are fantastic: they gyrate effortlessly underneath the dissonant wave of chords, flowing out with jazzy, serpentine succor. What's unique about the Danes is that they seem to channel a sonic discordance that strikes a balance between the slower, somber undertakings of  French bands like Deathspell Omega, Merrimack and Blut Aus Nord and the crepuscular, desert leanings of Virus or DHM with their later, more progressive offerings. The album, coupled with the haunting visual of the cover art, presents this image of some antiquated train running across a lone rail track in the midst of a nocturnal, desert landscape, with derelict buildings or scraps of human development peeping about the ghost train. The Danes are certainly not industrial, but the mournful jangles of the guitars evoke such an atmosphere, leaving a trail of abandoned sickness as the tracks groove along.

Another obvious selling point for me are the vocals: they come in a scree of varieties. The more traditional, raspy black metal rasps, which are delivered with great accord to the harrowing aura of the record, are prominent, but more than those I loved the absolutely haunting cleans, these ritualistic timbers stretching across the illimitable atmosphere the Danes have constructed. The title track employs a healthy portion of both, with titillating melodies accompanying the rasps and the choruses ballasted by a choir of harrowing cleans. This goes on to show how much and how successfully Eldjudnir enjoy experimenting vocally, even when their bizarre but consistent riff fodder retains a stylistic cohesion throughout. The cleans, as on ''Mimer'', are not unlike Opeth at their best, and pull at the listener's heart's strings as though with a pair of mechanized phantom hands. On top of that, the band is brazen enough to boast a series of female vocals, like on the excellent ''Skade'', and yet their delivery does not loosen at the seams, actually proving to amplify the crippling, strange dolor of the record.

Clocking at a mere 36 minutes, Eldjudnir is an album I've found hard to break my jones for. Consistent, funereal and never really a drag; there are some sequences in some tracks where I wasn't wholly enamored, but certainly given the the brevity of each track (of which there are 7) there isn't ground aplenty to commit a lot of faults here. My biggest gripe, therefore, may simply be that I could not sink my teeth sufficiently into the plateau of ideas and musical desertification which they rather wonderfully shaped, however well it was construed, both in terms of atmosphere and production. The Danes' style is such that it can merely puncture a highly marginal niche even inside the black metal market, a small place alongside the likes of Virus, Hail Spirit Noir, DHM, Voivod, and maybe the more sophisticated dissonance of the French black metal school, but that quaint eccentricity which they espouse is precisely why I've grown to enjoy this record so much. Being so close to penning their own scripture, one that exists outside of the generic borders of black metal, I can merely wear out the humdingers on this on repeat until a third album pops into existence, out from the jarring and solemn womb of the Danes' imagination, and stamp this record as one of the finer yields of a crop that has already proved 2016 to be a blessed harvest.


Highlights:
Skade
Yggdrassil
Eldjudnir
Hræsvelgr

Rating: 85%

Impalers - God From the Machine [2015]

Danish thrash? In retrospect, I'm glad with the Danes Impalers putting out another record, not solely because it fills in the shortage of thrash metal premises, which, to my knowledge, have not been fulfilled by any band since the 80's except Artillery, but also because the band 2013 full-length ''Power Behind the Throne'' was already a forgotten disc in that endless mound of promos and albums which I acquire annually, without concessions. Nevertheless I'd say among the heap of neo-thrash acolytes who preach the wisdom and savagery of Kreator, Sodom or Destruction, Impalers stands out as by far one of the more potent, capable of serving instances of undiluted 80's chainsaw thrash action without adhering to some of the more stylistic conventions of the genre such as those whose trail was blazed by Watchtower, Toxik, Coroner and Artillery in the 80's and early 90's. Not that it's a problem... I'd feign to see some proper Coroner worship any time, especially since retro-thrash is in such a dire state nowadays, but granted Impalers isn't crossing that strait, we still have ourselves an enjoyable piece of 80's worship.

The sound of ''God From the Machine'' has an immediate Teutonic appeal, as if the ferocity of those early Kreator records  were somehow infused with brisker production values and slightly more growled vocals instead of Millie's signature verbal barks. That is to say, the album still bears a strong resemblance to Destruction's later work, following the explosive ''The Antichrist'', but Impalers is still more melodic than that, incorporating harmonies and modern metal melodies which fluidly bridge the ravaging chugs and rhythmic chops which demonstrate the group's finesse with their cutlery. Nearly every song here is a butcher's feast, with loads of delicious chops, palm muted tremolos and immense projections of chords like the verse riff on ''Prepare for War''. Impalers isn't exactly an Angelus Apatrida or a Suicidal Angels, which both possess too much inherent melodic death/thrash tendencies to be called 'pure' thrash outfits, because the sense of melody on this album is scarce, existing mostly in the spurious, bluesy leads. Mechanically clad, ''God From the Machine'' evokes then image of some unwarranted robot intruding into some city with huge, ballistic laser guns and rockets protruding from its soldiers... a feeling more apocalyptic than your regular thrash outing, perhaps as a result of the vocalist's haughty growls and dynamic drum work: either way ''God From the Machine'' somehow aspires to become something marginally different from its ancestors like Kreator and Sodom, who with records like ''Pleasure to Kill'' or ''Obsessed With Cruelty'' salvaged an antiquated sense of evil rather than the robotic mosh-fest present here.

That said, Impalers still owes a lot to the Bay Area scene. I can relate them instantly with the Germanic scene due the evident hostility of the guitars (the vocals help too) but I'm sure that the Danes owe something to Metallica, Vio-lence, Forbidden, Slayer and Overkill something as well. But I can also see that the band is somewhat on the edge of experimentation here: ''Beyond Trinity'' is a ballad that opens up with clean vocals and deliquescent guitar arpeggios, building gradually to a brisker array of riffs, something akin to a ''Welcome Home''. Any any rate, the Danes are more modern and polished than a thrash band out the 80's, and the riffs here aren't exactly recycled, with enough fury, memorability and in-your-face gang vocals to establish a firm kick in your balls. I would have definitely enjoyed if they hadn't paraphrased so many of their riffs, especially with songs like ''The Vulturine'' or ''The Walls of Eryx'' which not only surpass the boundaries of regular thrash-time, but exercise excessive quantities of futuristic mosh that doesn't feel on par with the crunchy ear candy I received on some of the better tracks. Still, refined, tight, professional, and definitely ahead of a good number of their peers, Impalers delivers the thrash animus nicely with ''God From the Machine'', and you can bet kids in tight jeans and Slayer shirts will be recounting this as one of the best thrash to have come out in 2015.

Highlights:
God From the Machine
Prepare for War
Destroy the Meek

Rating: 72,5%

White Medal/Slaegt - Split [2012]

In recent months, I had the opportunity to be familiarized with Denmark's very own one-man northern howl, Slaegt, whom delivered a personal mini-favorite of mine with their demo. The demo was a concise emblem of the rustling beauty and grandeur of the frigid northern winds in all its atmospheric triumvirate, and depicting the gelid ambiance and spectral gloom of winter in a near-perfect convocation with raw black metal splendor, thus, I was left hungry and desirous by my brief stay in the northern asylum that Asrok conjured, and I was also promised a split offering more primal pulchritude. Now, the prophecy has been fulfilled. Teaming up with yet another fresh face from the somewhat emergent pack black metal devotees, White Medal, winter itself is evocatively released.

Unfortunately, the brevity of the split forms a blockade that prevents me from adorning the two tracks with utter praise and accolades from the start. However, ignoring that, the split is quite enlightening. Slaegt somehow refined their sound by tidying up the hazy, dissonant splashes of messiness into a more precise whole, and there's admittedly more vivacity encompassing their style. Woven complexities are, for the most part, put aside and are replaced more vivid progressions and there's a great, pacy consistency to the riffs that I can't deny, in spite of their simplicity. Though, while certain structural differences appear to be prominent, the entire formula hasn't really deviated from Asrok's previous motifs: there's a piercing surge of consistent, straightforward black metal excursions, and imagery emboldened upon the listener's consciousness maintains a somnolent balance between the horrendous glacial appeal of mountainous entanglement and a surrealistic approach that which provokes a frosty glory in the listener's fiery heart.

I won't be able to judge White Medal's styling as I judged Slaegt as I had no previous acquaintance with the group, though peering into the anatomy of the music, George Proctor's aesthetic considerations are pretty similar to their countrymen in releasing storming, uproarious maelstroms of winter cold, but there's a sense of multiple possibilities here. For one, White Medal has a lot more surprises crammed into their seven minutes than Slaegt has in roughly the same measure. There's quite a bit of raw black metal coiling going on as subtext of the more massive, explosive rancor of the vocals and the much messier ooze of the production, so the instruments all work as entirely different components; the vocals are completely nasty and haunting in their crazed howling succession, the riffs flip from formation to formation during the incursion, and the drums are absolutely thunderous in anchoring the deep onset of discordance. The two have their differences as well as their stylistic similarities; both are going to to tow different masses of audience onto their chilling anger, so if you're an old school black metal enthusiast, you're more than welcome into this chilling abyss. Choose you path; shall it be a languorous blade of icy affection, or a frenzied assault from the deepest, coldest, most cavernous corners of the Moria mines?

Highlights:
Lysets Dod
Them That Fear t'Wolf 

Rating: 81%  

Altar Of Oblivion - Grand Gesture Of Defiance

Brooding over the latest Ep of the Danish doom bringers, ‘’Salvation’’, I never actually saw this, an album coming. Me and Altar Of Oblivion don’t really go back long, but I was quite well acquainted with their Ep which was out earlier this year, and as I was entirely pleased by the results, I rushed to obtain their latest material. I was baffled when I saw the lengthy bulk of thirty four minutes four minutes filled with completely fresh material, proving that the band is much more productive than they seem. Personal emotions aside, Altar Of Oblivion present a true magnum opus with ‘’Grand Gesture Of Defiance’’.  While the album doesn’t deviate even marginally from its predecessor, it culminates the band’s soulful, mournful aura of epic doom metal, and delivers it in a nearly flawless manner, not exceedingly sophisticated but not entirely dull or repetitive either.

Although there are many doom masters who inflict hefty exercises of crushing ponds and stomps upon the listener in a melancholic edge, there aren’t quite many bands which excel at the same extent as Altar Of Oblivion. ‘’Grand Gesture Of Defiance’’ is definitely a mournful monolith of epic pulchritude, and the majority of the record does indeed flow in a ponderous way (although still very fluent whilst doing so), but part of the melancholy comes from the subtle passages that adorn and augment its epic touch, and never is it drudgy or drowning. Lots of people compare Altar Of Oblivion to King Diamond, which is a very relevant comparison in any way. The band espouses such a melodious embellishment and disperses it throughout the album, and a heavy/doom sound is also more considerable compared to the dry doom metal tag, as the band channels into swifter, catchy excursions more often than many doom metal obelisks, leaving a sweet, forlorn and almost lamenting traditional heavy metal taste in your mouth.

Eventually, the sombre attitude of the album pervades, and another surprising aspect leaves it mark. Despite being relatively more intricate in compositions and structure than most traditional heavy metal bands, Altar Of Oblivion’s music is memorable, and you’ll find yourself murmuring the melody driven chorus more often than you’d think. The guitar tone was a disappointment at first, I must admit. While expected something just as bulky and rich as the tone on the ‘’Salvation’’ Ep, I got something that’s only half as muscular, or dense, and although the guitar flickers with lower notes just as often as it foes with higher, shriller notes, certain moments where the only thing that ruled the music was a groovy beat and choppy chug felt empty. I eventually got used to it, though, but I still think Altar Of Oblivion could have done better in the tone department, especially when it came to releasing some tasty chops.

All in all, though, ‘’Grand Gesture Of Defiance’’ proves to be a marginally better performance the fantastic Ep released before it. A beautiful churning of soulful vocals, culminating choruses and memorable patters linked together soothingly is what it is. The Danish will probably expose their poignant climax, but even they can’t reach higher heights, this stands as a beautiful monolith of sombre and epic doom metal – one that’s a guaranteed win for fans of traditional heavy, doom, and all sorts of epic metal for that matter. It’s rather a grand gesture of megalithic beauty, really, but it could also be defiant, we can never know. 

Highlights:

Where Darkness Is Light

Sentenced In Absentia

The Graveyard Of Broken Dreams

Rating: 88,5%

Metal Minis #3 - Horrid - Slaegt

Horrid - Kingdom Of Decay [Demo]

Horrid’s demo ‘’Kingdom Of Decay’’ actually got me by surprise. I hadn’t anticipated it, because I didn’t even know the band was carving out new material. Horrid impressed me beyond belief with their malicious self titled album last year, a reeking slab of desolate, carnal blackened death/thrash, and the thing that I love even more about Horrid is that they don’t stick to the cheesy retro thrash antics, and instead display some top notch blackened death/thrash, reeling away from all modern senses the thrash genre has fabricated along the way. ‘’Horrid’’ was notably well-bestirred, ill-natured and fatal, embracing certain queer tactics that the death and black metal genres forged alongside their union, and the demo follows the same path that the album left, but there still seems to be a few changes in the sound. I was glad to hear the bizarrely dissonant solos that really left their mark from the previous record, but besides that, ‘’Kingdom Of Decay’’ supports a rawer production and an even dispersed, chubby tone. Horrid don’t redefine their sound with this two track demo, but they set the basics of an upcoming full-length which can be relatively capricious due to certain changes that will grow in time.

Slaegt - Demo [Demo]

Coming from the frigid lands of Denmark come Slaegt, a completely fresh new act out of Copenhagen present a concise demo of four tracks of bleak and mournful raw black metal of high quality. The one man army establishes a turbulent atmosphere and launches and assault of thinny, piercing black metal tremolos, fluent and dynamic melodies writhing and slicing the listener as they ascend and descend, channelling vigorously through the freezing cold atmosphere he creates. Slaegt’s direction is quite unequivocal, as the piercing riffs are always heading towards a certain direction, but the demo also shows some defiance in the raw and savaged sound, and a hope of the riffs to sprint away from their current position is always there, even though the event never actually occurs. The demo has its hooks, and it likes to pull the listener slowly with an interesting array of groovy patterns, seasoned with the extreme shrillness of the ear-piercing cries of the tortured rasps. Though it is short, Slaegt’s demo eventually proves to be efficient as the cold and entrancing fibrous waves that it spews fourth eventually suffuses over the listener, engulfing him/her in a ghastly aura of spectral and frozen splendour. One of the finer raw black metal demos I heard this year, I must say, and I’m anticipating a second release impatiently.

Horrid: 8/10

Slaegt: 8.25/10

Vein - Crux Calvaria

Not dissimilar to the desolate King Diamond worshipping done is Sweden, Danish epic doom project Vein bring grievance and heft to the year with their debut EP, ‘’Crux Calvaria’’ a mournful  combination of melodic heavy metal, traditional doom, and a dash of epic power metal, a most compelling formula that fans of melancholic music should grasp quite quickly. The Danish trio consists of veterans, with some members being from newly blossoming power houses In Solitude and Procession.  With a heavy traditional heavy and doom metal scent lingering by in every riff, and musical complexity vaguely appearing amongst the massive monoliths of chunky riffs, ‘’Crux Calvaria’’ is a most promising release, although it lacks length.

With members of Procession and In Solitude, you can hear the beautiful density of the doom spectre take a mournful, and melody stirred edge, and for the most part of the songs, Vein will tend to keep music at a more dynamic pace, keeping the spikes sharp and the melodies crisp and tangibly soothing. When the music takes such a relaxing, though still heavy edge, many usually forgets the tiny bits and pieces that make up the strata of the EP, and if you listen carefully, you can hear subtle melodies slithering amongst the crushing chords – proof that the band has a lot of prowess. Riffs vary, as they take on different shapes throughout, so the guitar work is genuinely well done and robust, but Crux Calvaria also disserves an applause for the excellent drum adjustments. The beats keep the doom laden stomps constant, and the constant cymbal abusing sheds spectral rays of light upon the atmosphere, enhancing it.

The vocalist also sang in Procession, and there’s no surprise there because their soulful, despair laden approach makes the EP a whole lot richer, and just like the riffs, they sound like a mixture of classic Euro power metal vocalists and King Diamond, with a tinge of Candlesmass (or any other traditional/epic doom metal vocal style). ‘’Crux Calvaria’’ is exceedingly pleasing for such a young band, and I do hope that a debut full-length is not distant. The EP had no flaws for me, except for the fact that it was rather concise, but that’s not a problem to sob for.

Highlights:

Crux Calvaria

Out In Twilight

Rating: 85,5%

Altar Of Oblivion - Salvation

Doom metal is not something I often encounter, but when there's some good doom around, you can bet I'll be up for chunks of it. The last doom record that I found absolutely pummeling and earth shaking was Anguish's ''Through The Archdemon's Head'', a tantalizing brutalizer of a stomping monolith of an album, and it was dark, intense, intricate and massive, bestirred masterfully, and although these Danish doomers make their doom quite hefty and powerful, it still tends to differ with the huge traditional heavy metal influence lingering about. I'm mentioning Anguish because I found them incredibly effective but these two releases aren't necessarily parallel to each other. Anguish is dark and cryptic while Altar is much more epic and melancholic for that sense, and Altar manages to perfect the ponderous chugs while keeping the speed at a moving mid paced level, but Anguish inserts tons of cuts into their music, sounding sludgy rather than moving.

With five songs (in which one of them is a two minute somber interlude) ranging at thirty minutes, the ''Salvation'' Ep is more of an album than an Ep. I suppose they didn't bother searching for a more original album cover though I'm quite content with the huge cross amid the dark grey sky, seething bitter despair and sorrow as it stands there. As stated, Altar Of Oblivion explores the epic portion of doom metal, roots deeply  planted in the heart of the likes of Candlemass, Saint Vitus, etc. I just loved the combination of traditional heavy metal and epic doom metal, but I'm bot certain if it was the boxy, oppressing production quality that rendered the music so gravitating, or Altar's stellar execution, but either way, I can't seem to find anything in this to scoff at as subdued, mournful doom metal has always been something that I adored. Like most bands to enhance their music with that whole ''epic'' touch, the atmosphere becomes boundlessly cloudy and epic during the chorus sections, adorned with sparse and rich melodies coming from under. ''Salvation'' also has a crucial implement to support the music; a thick guitar tone much like the production quality, only even more crushing.

The great thing is, the moods and tempos are linked together so there's no sudden change of speed like other  [metal genre]-doom hybrids. This allows the album to move cautiously and sequentially, and the pace of the music is always kept low, channeling between mid paced chugs or completely drowning doom metal riffs. Well, at least for the majority songs. The title track gets a little bit more spunk at the back and keeps things fresher and faster than before even though it's still bound to the classic formula of the Ep with iron shackes and chains. The main idea here is obvious; Altar Of Oblivion implant tons of traditional heavy metal aesthetics into their enjoyable brand of epic doom metal, and while at basis their music is simply crafted and plainly garnished, it shows that both punishing crushers and melodies of sorrowful pulchritude can coexist at the same time. This doom, is true beauty and true traditional doom, a hefty slab of epic metal you won't forget so easily. It's impact is still palpable on me.

Highlights:
The Believers In The Mist
The Narrow Gates Of Emptiness


Rating: 86,5%

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