Having already released three delicious works of black/death malice in Nihil, Endinghent and The Approaching Roar, Altarage now return with Succumb.Īs has always been the case with Altarage, this record is just a constant pulling of teeth. One of the newer entities to enter this scene is a mysterious entity from the Basque Country named Altarage. From Revenge’s blistering assaults to Mitochondrion’s occultism, and from Abyssal’s doom injections to Antediluvian destructive prowess.
And this sound has come a long way since the early days of the likes of Blasphemy, producing an array of disgusting spawns across the globe. Rather, it is the intersection of the two, the polemic perspective and essential hatred, that black/death can conjure.
In recent times, it’s not the extended brutality of death metal or the eeriness of black metal that pushes metal sound to its limits. – Antonio PoscicĪltarage – Succumb (Season of Mist) Succumb by ALTARAGE Succumb by ALTARAGE Confounding and confusing, incapable of standing still, each new listen of I yields a different, yet equally thrilling experience. This mass ebbs and flows within similar boundaries throughout, dissipating heat into ambient noise and whooshing like echoes from a black metal concert, complete with giggling, demonic voices and wallowing textures. The concoction of sounds moves forward as if Sunn O))) encountered Lightning Bolt, Aluk Todolo, or one of the more vicious Black Spirituals cuts. Within it, Attila Csihar-like growls float, displaced and omnipresent, while a drum roll is locked into a repeating pattern. Then a distorted bass incantation appears and creates concentric circles in the darkness – an illusion of motion through quivering mantras. A portmanteau of funeral doom and drone, it promises emotionally suffocating and aurally extreme music and delivers on both fronts.Īt first, there is nothing but feedback amidst a vast, static ocean of droning noise.
“Funeral drone.” That’s what ZAUM’s Kyle Alexander McDonald and Jealousy Mountain Duo’s Jörg Alexander Schneider call the style of their first collaboration under the Alexander moniker. Montreal legends Godspeed You! Black Emperor return with a melancholic yet hopeful opus, while post-punk/noise rock outfit Arabrot alter their recipe once more, aiming for a more melodic and direct message in Norwegian Gothic.Īlexander – I (Schneider Collaborations / Plastic Head) Alexander by Alexander Alexander by Alexander And yet, another unexpected return sees Evile resuming their thrash onslaught, albeit through a slightly different lens, after eight years with Hell Unleashed.įinally, moving to the outskirts, Amulets plunge the listener into their drone domain with Blooming, BRUIT ≤ push the post-metal genre to its experimental edge while Kauan’s Ice Fleet continues a string of excellent works. Moving into traditional progressive highways, Liquid Tension Experiment make an unexpected return with LTE3, reminding everyone what happens when some of the most talented musicians of the metal scene collaborate. Moving onto the progressive edge, Spectral Lore resume their devastating path through progressive soundscapes with the epic Ετερόφωτος, while Sleepwalker continue down their avant-garde path. At the same time, taking a more traditional approach, Spectral Wound unleash a cataclysmic record of old-school grandeur with A Diabolic Thirst. On the black metal front, there is of course Ungfell enriching the genre’s bitter core with folkish elements and an anthemic approach, while Labored Breath unveil a devastating debut record stepping on the black metal tradition while adding slight death metal enhancements.
Still taking the sonic boundaries to further extremes, Altarage deliver the finishing blow with the black/death onslaught of their fourth full-length Succumb. Pushing the genre to its polemic edge, Wode return with their 20 Buck Spin debut, unveiling their most complete work to date with Burn in Many Mirrors. The logical next stop is death metal, with great representation from Iron Flesh who deliver on the promises made in their debut record, with an excellent sophomore album, Summoning the Putrid. Taking things a step further and into the extreme doom/death edge, Alexander provide an alternative take on the grim perspective of the genre. On the slow, heavy edge, the doomed have risen, first with epic metallers Wheel and then with doom/sludge hybrids in the latest offerings from Oryx and the crushing experimental takes of Body Void. This month crosses the whole spectrum of heavy music.