Dødheimsgard - Black Medium Current (2023) Review

Extraordinary, avantgarde post-modernism undulating between inconceivable boundaries, Norway's Dødheimsgard unveil their latest labyrinthine construction Black Medium Current after the monumental previous work A Umbra Omega from 2015. With terrifically unique musicians and an astonishing trajectory over the last 30 years, the band presents a record that is strongly personal and rightfully so, awfully multi-layered. Expertise and sophistication shines through, it's guaranteed you haven't heard anything like this before except from the band itself and it's one of the cases of a piece that deserves the term "experimental" in a very wholesome manner. 

Black Medium Current clocks at 1 hour and 9 minutes, about the same duration like A Umbra Omega, so it constitutes another hefty chapter in Dødheimsgard’s discography, that needs its time for the dust to settle once a first session is through. Uncommon becomes common with this band’s music, and the listener is trained to not be thrown off balance by anything that comes their way, as it’s a the general order of things that you don’t know what’s around the corner with Black Medium Current. At the same time, the record makes it easier to draw comparisons with other subgenres, something highly unusual for Dødheimsgard. 

Opening with the highlight “Et Smelter”, which has a handful of different sections that are all wonderful and sets an almost post-black metal tone (apart from the wacky ending), the same tempo continues on the second track “Tankespinnerens Smerte”. The first really turbulent moment of the album is at the end of third track “Interstellar Nexus” and especially its connection to the almost 80’s sensuous clean guitar, middle-paced introduction of “It Does Not Follow”. 

A clearer black metal direction is found at “Set Tomme Kalde More” which is to me, another highlight. Less interesting to me were the slower moments, especially in tracks like “Hallow” and “Abyss Perihelion Transit”, and the piano segments “Voyager” and the final track “Requiem Aeternum” are excellent, but in both cases vocals on top were really unnecessary. In a way, Black Medium Current feels a bit less otherworldly than previous material of the band, but that’s only because previous material has been extremely otherworldly. 

I can never say Dødheimsgard surpassed themselves with this record, but it is packed, interesting and full of twists and turns. Since A Umbra Omega’s contained inspiration and particularity is unparalleled, one should rather approach this as a completely new body.

Out on April 14th, 2023 | Peaceville Records

DAMAGE: 3.5/5 [Great]

S​ó​l án varma - S​ó​l án varma (2023) Review

A collective of numerous infamous individuals from Iceland has been formed under the moniker S​ó​l án varma (= sun without radiance), which, even though it has been active since 2023, it's just now that a first full work comes to fruition. It is fully worthy of the label "full" as this self-titled record has a drawn out, stretched duration of 1 hour and 7 minutes, with 12 tracks, making it quite a piece to listen to and automatically placing it at the territory of albums that require longer attention span than your average extreme metal album. 

As always, the aesthetics are overwhelmingly beautiful and the production is not simply ideal, but characterizes the dreary and thrilling epicness of Icelandic black metal, especially coming from these musicians. All the tracks are titled with the same word "Afbrigði" and follow Latin numbering, containing exceptional lyricism in the band's native language. The juiciest part of S​ó​l án varma is the compositions themselves, though, which exert terrific potency once the record builds up its pace and establishes itself. 

It actually starts slowly, with the first 2 pieces being long and featuring tense dark ambient / noise meandering, in between some sparse distorted guitar sections (even though, when the pummeling riffs in the middle of "Afbrigði II" kick in, they stamp an immediate album highlight). Then, S​ó​l án varma spreads its winds and covers the sky by its massive presence, coming in the form of apparently ridiculous inspiration from the band to create this material. 

The clearest sibling is Misþyrming, with D.G. being a founder and main songwriter, as his characteristic top-notch vocals crowning the instrumentation. "Afbrigði V" even closes with growing momentum the same way as the aforementioned band's track "Orgia", with a riff that is almost the same. The opener "Afbrigði I", as well as "Afbrigði IX" & "Afbrigði X", hit more slowly, while the introduction of "Afbrigði XI" almost gives out chills of the same kind as Deathspell Omega's last record The Long Defeat from last year. 

Anyhow, simply put, this record is a packed masterpiece. The sequence from "Afbrigði IV" to "Afbrigði VII" includes the most compelling and most captivating black metal of the year so far. But even apart from that, there's memorable melodies and moments throughout the whole span of this generally lengthy record, which manages not to fall under its towering duration. There's so much in S​ó​l án varma, and all of the best kind of Icelandic black metal, which right now equates to the best kind of black metal as a whole. 

Out on April 7th, 2023 | Ván Records

DAMAGE: 4.5/5 [Brilliant]

Kommand - Death Age (2023) Review

Death Age is the second full length album by primitive, dusty death metal band Kommand from California, after a rather well-received debut in 2020 named Terrorscape. Its band members are involved in various underground metal / hardcore / d-beat bands in the area, but under this moniker a clearer approach is taken, even though such elements sometimes make an appearance as well. 

This follow-up record has the same, stripped down and down tuned character of the first release, but maybe with a less surrounding sound and generally thinner production, which makes Death Age easy to listen to on one side, but not so complicated to be fully engaged on the other side. The album’s duration remains at the lower end of the scale, clocking up to 26 minutes with 6 tracks, and all of them feature very distinct, familiar elements: clogged, hefty riffing, cavernous vocals with an ounce of reverb and a tempo dance between fast paced death metal and middle paced groove fiestas. 

There’s not a lot of moments in Death Age that would make it stand out, but most parts are properly written just enough to not discard the record, and it contains a certain level of rawness and heaviness that would appeal to fans that dislike works that are too polished. The one-dimensional production doesn’t give justice to the already average instrumentation, making a lot of the riff-driven parts of the record feel quite empty and  the whole outcome slightly unstable and not efficient enough, in general terms but as well as compared to Kommand’s generally more detectable first release. 

“Fleeing Western Territories” is one highlight that stands out as it maintains some compositional coherence, as well as the closing piece “Collapse Metropolis” and some moments in “Final Virus”. Yet, in other sections like the slow-moving “Global Death” or “Polar Holdout”, things are pretty standard, or to put it better, substandard. 

Death Age somehow barely floats after its conclusion, however it doesn’t have something that would keep the listener hooked or to remember to come back to Death Age later, without just thinking that Terrorscape was simply better. For death metal, it at least has the ugliness and some partial brutality, yet it lacks the merit. I would not discourage someone to listen to it, but there’s better fruits on the market for you. Pick a couple of tracks that you like from here, and move on to the next chapter of your playlist.

Out on March 31st, 2023 | 20 Buck Spin

DAMAGE: 2.5/5 [Average]

Unpure - Prophecies Ablaze (2023) Review

Having already started its activities in the early 90’s with a couple of albums in 1995 and 1996,  Unpure eventually didn’t get far especially when comparing to other, bigger names of the Swedish black metal scene. However, hailing from Uppsala, they have been a brother band to a now well established and household name in the scene from the same city, and that is of course Watain. Apart from sharing members for the release of the latest record Prophecies Ablaze, musicians involved in  death metal neighbours Degial, are also involved in the release. 

Unpure are the oldest of all these bands though, even though they haven’t reached similar levels of popularity. Previous albums were more driven by passion than musical efficiency, and when listening to their early material, one could conclude a skilled toolset was lacking, but that is not the case in 2023, when by now seasoned individuals get down to the juice of the meat when it comes to song construction. The artwork of Prophecies Ablaze is finally at the level of elegance it should be, as well as the record’s production which provides a pleasingly audible sound for an album that was clearly made more professionally than before. 

Music-wise, Unpure’s dedication to the traditional, old school black metal traditions remain (e.g. in “Beyond the Nightmares”, “Northern Sea Madness”), yet the band also includes black / thrash metal elements (in “Small Crooked Bones”),  as well as faster paced, more uplifting tempos through a bit of black’n’roll here and there (more clearly in “His Wrath and the Red Soil”). Highlights of the record are the long, dismal, middle paced section in “The Witch of Upsala” and the wonderful closing track “Endtime Dictator”, while on the other side of the scale actually lies the opener “Megalithic Gateways”, which I found to be the least interesting. 

However, in general, Prophecies Ablaze proves to be highly repeatable and easily listenable. Unpure doesn’t contain the compositional ambition and grandeur of Watain, or the scourging ferocity of Degial, but instead holds its own flame with similar kind of material in a slightly watered down (but not in a negative way) version with a multitude of fine melodies throughout the tracks and enough inspiration to keep the album afloat. Looking at their back catalog, this is the band’s most well-rounded and catered work to date.

Out on March 31st, 2023 | Invictus Productions

DAMAGE: 3.5/5 [Great]

Devangelic - Xul (2023) Review

There is overpopulation in every extreme metal subgenre today, which makes it an even bigger relief to find a solid band among the tons of new music one can go through during each year. Such quality band is Devangelic from Rome, Italy, who have started their activities in 2012 and have offered a handful of highly enjoyable records in the brutal death metal territory, as it was executed by its founders 25 years ago. The band’s debut Resurrection Denied in 2014 had a strong blasphemous character, but since then they have switched to a more occult lyrical theme around Sumerian legends and mythology, which continues on the latest album, Xul. 

Devangelic draw arrows from the same quiver like they have done so far and they aim well, as this new work thrives upon compact heaviness and intimidating brutality. It is fairly technical in terms of musicianship, throwing multiple either perplexed, or straightforward groovy riffs, the solos are frequent and the tempos change often, making Xul complicated enough to show the merit of the band, but pleasing to follow without your head exploding. 

The production is less crystal clear than what it was on the previous record Ersetu in 2020 and this time, the band aims to feel a bit less modern than before, giving out a strong Disgorge worship here, adding enough samples and extra elements that would bring Nile in mind, or at least a brutal death metal version of them. I like this sound transition a lot, because it grants Xul a very potent presence, which is supported by the furious material it contains and presents an album almost of a different time, solid through and through, and amazingly barbarous. 

Vocals are almost solely limited to deep growling, with a few high pitched screams here and there, and sometimes it’s possible to follow the lyrics, but they perfectly fit the music on Xul altogether. Another excellent aspect is the drum work, which keeps up to whatever the guitars throw wonderfully, it maintains a healthy amount of blast beats and is varied enough throughout the record without showing off, but more like serving the composition itself. 

There is an abundance of parts at frenetic speed and some slower, almost breakdown-like intersections, while Devangelic often employ unusual time signatures as is characteristic in brutal death metal, all executed accurately. Xul reaches the higher steps of the ladder for this year’s competition in the genre, and is to me, their most complete work to date.

Out on April 7th, 2023 | Willowtip Records

DAMAGE: 4/5 [Excellent]