Spite and Hate

As an average black metal fan, I'm obsessed with new and fresh projects, especially if they "deviate" from the standards. I was really surprised and pleased when I first heard the beginning of this album, and I bought the CD only after finishing the first track on bandcamp. I was shocked in a very positive way, and this is a rare thing for me - I usually prefer complaining about how similar sound lots of modern bands, of much Dungeon Synth became a fashion and almost all project sound the same (oops) and things like these. Ossaert was different from the beginning, as I put their second album Pelgrimsoord in my top 20 black metal albums of 2021. They are a one-man band (although there is a session drummer in this album) founded by P playing a stile of black metal inspired by the Second Wave classics (Satyricon over all), with some melodic twisting here and there, like clean vocals, organs and choirs. Pelgrimsoord (place of pilgrimage in Dutch) consists of four ten minute...

  Mortal Relic started as a dungeon synth project in 2021, coming from Portland OR. They later included black metal elements, starting with Blood For The Maste r - their third album. Blood For The Master last only twenty minutes and it's composed of six tracks which, starting from their titles, takes us in a dark dungeon setting coming straight from some old videogame such as Castlevania. "Black Puking Skull" and "The Avenging Blade" are the perfect example. Although this is not properly a Dungeon Synth release but something closer to black metal, keyboards plays a main role, permeating every track with gloomy atmosphere and leading the melodies, while distorted guitars, pounding programmed drums and vocals do the rest. The Black Metal core itself is something straight to the point and effective: riffs are repetitive and simple and there are no tempo changes, but they kinda follow the keyboards, adding that evil touch that bring us directly to an imaginary world...

Peridexion Tree is a one man band from Italy, delivering a singular form of raw black metal inspired by historical major events and recorded with a synthesizer instead of guitars. Their only member is known as "Warrior", and is also the vocalist of Gelkhammar and the mastermind of Ancestral Vision. Demo I was released in 2018 along with Demo II and Demo III , which later merged in a compilation called The Demos . The lyrical concept behind this album is the Black Death, as someone who understands a little Latin could easily guess (Mors Nigra means Black Death), the disease that striked Europe in Middle Age making millions of death and entering popular culture, creating superstiticious believing as it was some sort of divine punishment for all the sins that humanity committed in every moment of its existance. Musically, Peridexion Tree is a standard raw black metal band, except for the fact that guitars are not real guitars but synthesizer processed through distortion and ot...

After the stunning debut Sangenwelt , I was waiting for the next move from Bilwis , a German one-man melodic black metal band inspired by European folklore. I was not disappointed when I discovered on Bandcamp that they released a second full length named Pan , after almost two years from the debut album. The cover art illustrates a sort of satyr that could be Pan (the Greek god of woods and wilderness), and is beautifully hand-painted in a way that reminds some old tale book from my childhood (and that's a compliment). The illustration is very different from the one on Sagenwelt , this last being far more elaborated and detailed, but both are really captivating and beautiful. Pan comes in A5 limited edition and in digipack (limited to 999 copies) through Northern Silence Productions, a notorious German label. As for the music, Bilwis changed a little bit their formula: instead of just pounding some really violent yet melodic black metal, in Pan they enriched it with tons of melo...

Royaume Onirique (Dreamlike Realm in English) is the debut EP from Terreur Nocturne , a newborn French black metal band. This band proposes a sort of melodic, sometimes post-like DSBM, in the style of Leviathan and Xasthur but heavily influenced by new acts such as Afsky. Guitars are looped in endless melodies and leads, that are the very intimate essence of every track, and are not heavily distorted, being surpsingly clear and intelligible. Drums do their job as the standard for this genre demands, and vocals are something more similar to a growl than usual high-pitched screams. Aorlhac's guitarist Wÿntër Ärvn is the guest vocalist on track 3. Lyrics are in French and are very deep and personal: themes range from depression to suicide and dispair. A particular mention to the artwork, made by Macchabée Artworks, that is really in line with Terreur Nocturne 's music and perfectly represents the sensation that this EP wants to give to anyone who listens to it. In conclu...

Active since 2016 in the Los Angeles underground scene, Draghkar cite among their influences a myriad of groups, ranging from Fates Warning to Varathron and Morbid Angel: needless to say, my reaction in reading a list of bands so different from each other was that of distrust and fear of being faced with a "melting pot" of different styles mixed without criterion and less digestible than mashed potatoes at nine in the morning. I must admit that I was wrong: from the first listen At the Crossroads of Infinity was able to entertain and surprise me from start to finish. Although Draghkar have a wide range of influences - ranging from Manilla Road's epic heavy metal to old-school death metal to Greek black metal - ours have been able to melt them all into six incredibly concise and consistent compositions. All this leads the listener to identify, right from the start, a sort of " Draghkar sound" that consists of some old school death metal enriched by ‘8...