All shades of silence

I was listening to Katharsis again recently and passed by their short split release with Antaeus, released in 2009 and right before the end of the band’s glorious journey in black metal. It was out in February that year, a few months prior to the amazing final EP, Fourth Reich, when the curtains dropped for one of the genre’s most hard-hitting entities at the time. 

A lot has already been written about the main albums of their discography, as well as more generally when writing related articles, which are all focused on full-length releases of bands or movements at certain time periods. I’ve done so myself as well, intimidated by the sheer amount of material out there if you consider every EP, demo or split that gets pressed today. 

Nevertheless, a few split releases always stand out over the years. I tried to limit myself to cases of just two featured bands, not more, and also looked at duration lengths similar with those of a full-length, at least 25 - 30 minutes or more. This is a crude listing of the quickest examples of this category that came to mind, and I’m sure there’s so many that could be added. Let’s get into it.

Arckanum & Svartsyn - Kaos svarta mar / Skinning the Lambs

Summer 2004, Carnal Records

I’ve talked about both these artists in the past, as I always feel the don’t get nearly the recognition and they deserve. Look at how many gems remain hidden in their back catalogs! 

At the time of release, Arckanum were going through a decade-long gap between full-length albums from Kampen (1998) in what would prove to be a later series of masterpieces in the late ‘00s, in the form of Antikosmos in 2008, and of course, ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ in 2009. 

Ornias of Svartsyn was already blackened by the gunpowder of Destruction of Man (2003), and was fueling his next assault that would follow a year later, Bloodline. A really great moment for a masterful, groundbreaking split, right?

How well these two bands fit in the same release, as well as how striking the memorability of the tracks they included in it, is a black metal wonder. The split feels archaic, authentically dark, and full of top-notch frostbitten melodies that make impossible to not be amazed by if you’re into black metal.

I appreciate the direct first track by Arckanum, as well as his shamanistic side in moments of “Ætergap”, “Frana” and “Spitælsker”. Start the whole split from the track “Skinning the Lambs” by Svartsyn, if you want a sample of peak riff work, structure and echoed devilish vocals. 

The middle-paced tempo on "Blåkullaförbannelsen" is haunting, and both "A Night Created by the Shadows" and "Furnace in Purgatory" are awesome, explosive tracks. You know what they say: if you like this, you like this genre, if not, then you don’t.

 

Drudkh & Paysage d'Hiver - Somewhere Sadness Wanders / Schnee (IV)

Summer 2017, Season of Mist Underground Activists 

 

In my article about Paysage d'Hiver's compilation Schnee (which I own original, a marvelous piece of art), I referred to their split with Drudkh as "a breathtaking mini-album also for a different post". 

 

Firstly, it only took six years for that post to arrive, and secondly, I'm not sure why I called it a "mini-album", since this split is a good 40 minutes in duration. Long for full-length / split standards, but maybe a common day at the office for the specific artists included.

 

Drudkh's side includes two tracks of evocative atmospheric black metal with pristine sound, inspired by and borrowing their lyrics from Ukrainian poems, as the band has done at different occasions in the past. Their classic guitar charge is here, especially shining through the great riffs of the second piece, "The Night Walks Towards Her Throne". 

 

The introductory "All Shades of Silence" includes stripped down ambient that cuts the track in half, separating the composition into distinct sections. For the likes of Drudkh, there's considerable outward-driven energy into these tunes, which is a stark difference compared to the 20-minute track of icy black metal that follows.

 

Paysage d'Hiver does what it always does, laying down long-form ambient black metal textures of the eternal winter in this piece. Repetitive even for the project's standards, it slowly grows into something more grandiose as the composition progresses, but it never turns its back on the outmost austere identity of Wintherr. If you let this play and close your eyes, it somehow absorbs its surroundings and you become one with it.

Unlike Arckanum and Svartsyn, this collaboration would have been harder to see coming, yet I imagine it happened after internal communication and respect of the two sides towards each other. I'm drawn to these sounds as much as the average man - isn't this artistic acumen recognized everywhere?

 

Co-released with Kunsthall Produktionen. While you're here, check out a recent, relevant post about Nordlicht.

 

Pan-Amerikan Native Front & Kommodus - Immortal Ceremonies

Spring 2021, Goatowarex

 

There are many options I could choose from this group of bands, but I'm going with the one I'm most familiar with. This is specifically due to the involvement of Pan-Amerikan Native Front, a project whose full length albums are held in quite a high regard on Arson Cafe.

 

Immortal Ceremonies is a partnership between the aforementioned and the infamous project Kommodus, which I discovered with the demo An Imperial Sun Rises in 2019, and have loved ever since. Both names have excellent recording threads so far, and have managed to maintain a sort of contained audience in the underground. 

 

A middle-paced, epic riff starts on the first track, "Sacrifices To Jupiter", that immediately recalls of Rotting Christ (yes), but quickly gets dragged in the American indigenous mud, with the guaranteed personal touch of Lepidus Plague himself. Variation of tempos, ancient black metal guitar riffs alongside a hostile vocal reverberation, including several compositional twitches to make this material even more clearly above average.

 

My favorite track here is "To Wrestle With Angels", because it combines Kommodus' vision all the more evidently. Usage of acoustics, distorted unique melodies from the characteristic middle section halt towards the glorious end of the track, as well as the main, harsher but always melodic guitar lines, it somehow manages to sound aggressive and pained at the same time.

Pan-Amerikan Native Front start off with ringing bells and a military-paced track "Kiva Flames of Rebellion", then unfold further on "Hasan'owane Breathe of Remonstration". It's an anti-Christian track with lyrics taken from the speech of Sagoyewatha, a.k.a. The Red Jacket, in 1805 - remonstration meaning a forceful expression of opposition.

Amazing acoustic guitars end the split at its final track, "Washani Stones of Resurrection", another anti-colonial piece with great references to learn, especially for one unaware of this history. Doesn't it blend marvelously with such high quality of black metal?

 

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A few more for your ears only: 

 

These are five more splits that I considered, and would perfectly fit, for this article. I don't want to say much about neither of these, in case we discuss them later on, somewhere in the next six years again. 

• Antediluvian & Adversarial - Initiated in Impiety as Mysteries (2012) | Would this count as a death metal release, for a change?
• Ash Borer & Fell Voices (2010) | Quintessential recording right at the time of bloom of Cascadian black metal, by two of its most proficient projects.
• Moonblood & Deathspell Omega - Sob a Lua do Bode / Demoniac Vengeance (2000) | The first that came to mind, but I've already talked about it.
• Necromantia & Varathron - The Black Arts / The Everlasting Sins (1992) | The best among the classics, and that comes from someone who's more into the Scandinavian than the Greek sound.
• Revenant Marquis & Lamp of Murmuur (2020) | Raw black metal, another solid take by fresh blood infidels.

The scythe and the harvest

Discovering old obscure releases with little or no recognition is a great past time of mine. As much as I like to boast about how much of this genre I've listened to, records always skip through the cracks, not to mention all the demos and EPs that I'm still, after all these years, clueless of. 

Furthermore, older releases also usually have that sound, you know what I'm talking about. As of today, we're looking at the first and only record by Athenian black metal band Mournblade, self-titled and originally released through Kyrck Productions & Armour in 2001. Actually, I'd like to write about that label separately one day (Wild Rags is another case of a brooding article) because of its approach and quality. 

This short-lived project featured a person named Arioch on vocals, not the Swedish frontman of Marduk but still someone that I found no information on, then Merkaal (Order of the Ebon Hand, and at the time, active on Nocternity too) on bass / guitars and vocals too. 

The drumming, plus keyboards, was done by Lethe, a.k.a. Akis Kapranos, a known name in Greece for his involvement as a writer at Metal Hammer, his general film criticism and also at the time of Mournblade, member of Order of the Ebon Hand and Septicflesh, among others. 

Lastly, additional guitars were handled by Pavlos Houliaras, later active with death metal / grindcore band Slavebreed. A charming line-up for sure, mainly driven by Order of the Ebon Hand / Nocternity members, essentially people heavily involved in the Greek black metal scene at the time. 

"All the enslaved nations of the East
are coming down upon, against few men"

A Tolkien influence is evident from Mournblade's album cover, depicting a figure that I would guess is Melkor, and when looking at the track named "Of Melkor and Ungolianthe", it could be that the rest of the blackened figure might be the giant spider. 

A magnificent artwork if you ask me, perfect for the time of its release and the nostalgic warmth it conveys, which by the way, has just been re-pressed on vinyl through His Wounds. Get one while you can. 

One would think that Mournblade is a purely Lord of the Rings-inspired record, but there are several different topics the band touched upon with the record, other than our favorite fantasy writer. A few epic, warlike tunes are included, like the glorious opener "The scythe and the Harvest", the clear reference to the battle of Thermopylae on "300", and"Aries", in what I believe is a reference to the battering ram, not the God of War Ares or the constellation (?).

There are some Greek lyrics to be found in these tracks, but there's also a track title, in Greek, "Ο αιώνιος πρόμαχος" = the eternal outpost, of the same content. Another clear reference is "On the Stone of Erech", which you already know, right? I am not sure if the second track, "White Wolf", combined with its lyrics, is linked to Elric of Melniboné (by Michael Moorcock) before you freak out about the choice of color. 

In total, there is a bunch of interesting themes in the album, despite looking like a stricter conceptual bundle at first, and it could have perfectly worked as one. But hey, all this text and I almost forgot to talk about the music!

"The ground tremors
And hands stripped from their flesh"

Mournblade's an excellent mixture indie pop and alternative electronica rooted in the late '90s... Aha, no! You'll get a superb production of old-school black metal that builds melody and atmosphere through  potent guitar riffs, generous fast-paced blast beat drumming in the vein of the Scandinavian winter whistling winds, echoed distant vocals and a great flow and variety of well-thought ideas put on paper / recorder.

Hard-hitting and inspired by the faster, more intense Norse contemporaries of the genre, indulging in the frosty riff work of bands from the other side of the continent, with a raw but powerful sound and all the expected aggression to back up its thematics.

In that way, Mournblade is not the typical Greek black metal album and most likely, it was not intended to be one, as it's more possible that it was composed as a homage to the northern sound, executed by people fascinated by it under a side project, rather than the main musical activities they had then. 

Other bands have also engaged in this practice throughout the years, but the reason this record managed to stay with me when I first discovered it was the sense of wonder I felt around the project itself. 

Also, there's not a bad moment here: amazing middle-paced melodies on "Aries!", Norsecore hack-and-slash on the opener, "White Wolf" and "Ο αιώνιος πρόμαχος" (including a neat clean vocal part), well-rounded and compositional visions on both "On the Stone of Erech" and the grandiose "300", dungeon synth on the last track... Textbook perfection.

It does not transcend the parent records that it praises, but that's beside the point. Who managed to do that anyway? The vocal performance deserves a mention, at times reaching the higher, more painful levels of screaming as you could almost hear the voice break.

This is the back cover of the LP re-press, wonderful:

 

Bonus mention: Order of the Ebon Hand & Macabre Omen - Two Years Standing Proud in Valhalla... 

In 2006, Order of the Ebon Hand connected with Macabre Omen, one of the best black metal bands from Greece in history, for a short split release as a tribute to the passing of Quorthon. 

 

The split had two tracks, one from each band, both Bathory cover songs: " Through Blood by Thunder", and "A Fine Day to Die". As much as I would have preferred just another pick than the latter, just because of how popular it is (and deserving, an absolute peak of a metal track), these recordings sound amazing.

 

The mini-release was put on 7" vinyl through the Cypriot label Necroterror Records, active around that time yet I haven't heard from them in a long time. 

 

Macabre Omen would continue with another split release of the same kind next year, "Three Years...", that time with a Canadian band named Thesyre. Unfortunately, I know nothing about it. 

 

But, what I know is that Macabre Omen's obsession with Bathory, has made it the project that it became. Gods of War - At War!

 

Lo-fi lowlife - D. 7

Continuing a series of short playlists started about seven years ago. 

Back then a solo venture, now as a sequence of tracks discussed within a close circle, actively brainstorming the next selection while the music plays. Void of strict genre direction.

No links, imagine this given to you in secret in an old, folded piece of paper. Does it even mean anything, or is it just words?

 

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Assault on the inner life 

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Omegavortex - Mutilation Paradise
Temple Nightside - Adrift in Sepulchral Entropy
Azarath - Sign of Apophis
Witchburner - Apocalyptic Visions
Cadaveric Incubator - Through the Flesh
Dismember - Under a Blood Red Sky
Heresiarch - Swarming Blight
Ascended Dead - Nexus of the Black Flame
Ebony Pendant - Conjuration of Sophistry Exalted (Being of Oblivion's Maw)
Saidan - Kanashimi
Ripped to Shreds - Righteous Fist to the Teeth of the Wicked

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Previous lowlists found here.

Proclamation - Nether Tombs of Abaddon (2012) Review

The final album by the Spanish war metal horde didn't diverge even to the slightest from delivering exactly what was expected, and exactly at the same manner: bestial chaos in reverb and echo. As daring this style inherently is, Proclamation had decide to fully compromise to its definition parameters with a record that sounded like their previous works, sounded like well-known war metal, focused on efficient simplicity and primitive aggression you already know of. 

It's hard to tell tracks apart, as they all move at the same fast-tempos and feature a thick, noisy production that turns the guitars into a layered sound rather than a more noticeable aspect. The few riffs and solos that one can notice are great, yet the overall frantic attitude of the record is executed well, but repeated to exhaustion not just by Proclamation, but by the whole of this genre. A ten-track runtime feels a bit tedious, it relies too heavily on washed-out reverb and sits well as a product of a stale, yet clear-cut formula. Fans of black / death metal are right to worship this band, especially as one of the voices of its more recent status and rebirth 15 years after the classics of the '90s, but that's about it. Combined with the never-failing, red-and-white blasphemous cover art, the purposeful murk and raw noise in visuals and music, Proclamation made just another standard war metal album, before breaking up a year later. Being active for a decade (2003 to 2013), the band was infamous in the '00s inside that niche's circles, and the record proves why. 

It works like a charm, given that you already are a fan and have the appetite for this specific sound. I wouldn't be able to say which Proclamation album I prefer even if my life depended on it, and despite their shortcomings whenever I listen to them again, I somehow always suggest them around for a listen. A mediocre yet acceptable blast of underground chaos.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 

All Shall Perish - The Price of Existence (2006) Review

As the band celebrates the 20th anniversary of this album with a 30-day tour and the release of a remastered version, coupled with the roll we have going on here with related posts, it is high time we discussed one of the foundational deathcore releases, and undoubtedly one of the best. I don't think I'm mistaken, but All Shall Perish's live shows around 2005–2006 were among the first instances in which the genre term itself was even being uttered, alongside Despised Icon's "Montreal deathcore" tag. On The Price of Existence, however, the band's aerobatics reached high enough to gaze over into the neighboring territory of death metal. 

Not many people picked up on these guys when they released their first album, Hate, Malice, Revenge (2003), on Amputated Vein Records, but someone at Nuclear Blast recognised the potential, re-released the record two years later, and set the stage for a follow-up that would eventually leap several bounds ahead of the already entertaining early material. Not to say I don't enjoy the debut too; I think that, for a long time, I would think of this band instead of Lamb of God whenever I heard the track title "Laid to Rest". 

As a matter of fact, though, The Price of Existence was a significant step forward in every respect, both for All Shall Perish and for the scene they helped kick-start. The production had improved considerably, while interesting themes of social criticism, the deconstruction of modern pseudo-values and ecological concerns were backed by freshly forged, heavy beats beneath the raw mixture of hardcore breakdowns and death metal-inspired riffing. Meanwhile, Eddie Hermida's voice is at its absolute peak on this album, a peak that has never been topped since. I don't think his performances with Suicide Silence match the monstrosity he achieved on The Price of Existence, and I sometimes secretly wish he had stayed with All Shall Perish all along.

The record begins with two of deathcore's greatest tracks ever, "Eradication" and "Wage Slaves", both of which belong on any list of the genre's most influential or groundbreaking songs from its formative era. The songwriting embraces a duality of brutal force and tremolo-picked melodic passages, reminiscent of At the Gates and occasionally bordering on Cryptopsy, rather than relying on the standard deathcore formula of groove and breakdown-heavy momentum. This instantly clicked with me back then and still hasn't worn out to this day. 

Hefty guitar lines parade through "The Day of Justice" and the yet another classic "There Is No Business to Be Done on a Dead Planet", both excellent pieces through which to explore the album's thematic concerns as well. All Shall Perish reveal a more reflective compositional palette on "Better Living Through Catastrophe", whose introduction vaguely reminded me of As I Lay Dying's "I Never Wanted", before moving into the breakdown-driven "Prisoner of War" and the clean-guitar instrumental "Greyson". The band returns to demolition mode on "We Hold These Truths", followed by the pure brute force of the magnitude-10 "The True Beast"—that opening pig squeal alone is menacing.

The Price of Existence contains countless signs that it was ahead of its time, with so many structural patterns, sonic choices and tempo alterations that would later be overused throughout modern deathcore. This goes a long way toward explaining why All Shall Perish will forever remain one of the style's undeniable overlords. The album slows down on "Promises" before broadening the scope of its sound on the final and longest piece, "The Last Relapse", which incorporates acoustic guitar and symphonic passages and brings this epic listen to its conclusion.

Twenty years later, the album's impact is arguably easier to recognize than ever. What once sounded like an unusually ambitious strain of deathcore has become a subconscious standard for many newer artists, even if they don't realize it. Yet The Price of Existence still possesses something I'm struggling to find in its descendants, the idea of authentic personality. It remains one of those rare records that can simultaneously represent a scene's formative years and transcend the limitations of its era. For me, that is precisely why returning to it after all these years still feels worthwhile.

The blood of tortured souls stains me
i can't bear it
we must see where this lies leading
then we'll listen, then we'll listen to
a cry from earth for changes 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5