Judas Priest came out of the era that melded Black Sabbath with Led Zeppelin and came up with some of the most creative guitar riffology in history, raising the standards by which any new album will be judged, and Invincible Shield tries to balance their past with multiple career peaks.
Perhaps the largest influence on this album is the 1990 release Painkiller which melded Slayer-style proto-death with the melodic heavy metal for which Judas Priest and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) are famous, but it is balanced by contemporary power metal influences as well as classic Judas Priest such as Sin After Sin.
In one angle, the Priest carried forward from their last album but chord progressions and vocal melodies take lots of hints from Painkiller although they tend to end up on a major key upswing or whole scale like the nearly Evangelical-conservative aesthetics of contemporary medievalist power metal, yet songs fit together like their classic works: witty, clever, and yet fit together like an ancient stained glass window.
Expect the usual guitar fireworks on leads which are cleverly designed like little pieces, repeating themes carefully for centering and then contrast in order to molt context and expose a new harmony within the dominant riff. Riffs fit within the verse-chorus pattern that aims for some summary, transition, or inversion in each half of the song.
You can feel the 1970s, 1990s, and 2010s come together in a smooth fusion on this album that by both song titles and the craftsmanlike care that goes into each part clearly seems designed to be a new career peak for Judas Priest. As a listening experience, this easily keeps pace with their post-1970s material and evokes a new interpretation of their classic era.
]]>Los fans del metal con los que suelo interactuar podrían dividirse a grandes rasgos en dos grupos: por un lado, los fatalistas hipercríticos que sostienen que no ha salido nada decente desde 1996 y, por otro, los que reconocen que de diez o quince años para acá estamos viviendo un buen momento, una edad de plata incluso, al menos en el terreno del underground. Estos dos campos muestran posturas a menudo irreconciliables pero comparten dos premisas fundamentales: (i) el metal de antes fue el fundacional, y en general era de mejor calidad y (ii) desde 1996 (o 1999) no se ha hecho nada nuevo, aunque la valoración de esta última afirmación puede ser más positiva o más negativa, según quién la realice. Ambos bandos coinciden también desde hace tiempo en que potencialmente podría surgir un nuevo movimiento o corriente totalmente renovadora dentro del metal, pero lo cierto es que algo de esas características lleva ya casi tres décadas sin manifestarse. Ante este panorama, uno se pregunta: ¿queda todavía vida en el metal como para que pueda sorprendernos con una nueva revolución?
Para contestar a esta pregunta, en primer lugar es preciso reconocer algo en lo que sin duda los dos sectores que esbozamos previamente estarán de acuerdo: el metal es un género viejo. Esto quiere decir que, aunque esté muy vivo (en términos de grupos y publicaciones, no tanto de exposición global), ya está bien asentado, sus características no han variado mucho desde que terminaron de conformarse durante el largo período que engloba aproximadamente de 1970 a 1994. Lo que se ha dado desde entonces podría definirse como una “entropía”, en el buen sentido y en el malo: una multitud de grupos más o menos originales que crean su propia versión de estilos preexistentes, con un montón de subgéneros derivados que objetivamente carecen de la pujanza y la riqueza artística de las principales corrientes establecidas. Esto no es algo positivo o negativo de por sí, simplemente es un hecho, y quien lo considere inequívocamente como algo a lamentar haría bien en recordar que la década de 2010 y por ahora la de 2020 han sido mucho mejores que la de 2000 para el metal underground en su conjunto (el mainstream, por su parte, se echó a perder poco después de los ochenta).
¿Puede un género viejo engendrar nueva vida? Si por vida entendemos subgéneros totalmente nuevos que arrastren a la juventud como lo hicieron el rock o el heavy metal en décadas anteriores, la cosa está complicada. No es solo que los referentes queden muy lejos (los 60, 70 y 80), es que a la juventud actual ni siquiera le gusta el rock, como demuestra el hecho de que desde hace tiempo los bares y eventos guitarreros estén copados principalmente por la generación X y unos pocos milennials, mientras que la generación Z tiende sobre todo a formas musicales más recientes y cercanas a la electrónica y el hip hop (como el trap). Esto es natural, porque con excepción del puñado de melómanos trasnochados de turno al que pertenece quien suscribe, cada generación suele encariñarse con el tipo de música que está en boga durante sus años mozos. Con un público cada vez más envejecido y un plantel de músicos que se va reduciendo, sería muy difícil crear dentro del metal una nueva variante musical, cosa que suele surgir del entusiasmo juvenil y de una exposición masiva.
¿Qué le queda entonces al metal? Seguramente seguir desarrollándose de forma lineal y a pequeña escala, como lo lleva haciendo en los últimos lustros, aportando nuevas perspectivas pero sin llegar a sacudir ni cuestionar lo establecido. Los géneros longevos tienen una larga tradición en la que reflejarse, lo que supone un gran acervo de enseñanzas y recursos pero también un código que debe ser conocido y en gran medida respetado, lo cual por lógica induce a un conservadurismo más o menos explícito en las formas. Lo previsible sería que el metal siga el camino de otros géneros más antiguos y lejanamente emparentados, como el jazz o el blues, que siguen vivos pero como música de nicho, con algunas novedades periódicas buenas y personales pero nada que se asemeje a una revolución. De hecho, la mayoría de grupos de metal más recientes que se presentaron como algo absolutamente rompedor se han pasado más pronto que tarde a otros géneros, o bien han terminado siendo una anomalía exótica sin excesiva trascendencia.
¿Es esto algo negativo? Cualquiera podría pensar que sí, vista la importancia que tantos fans y críticos conceden a la “evolución” como factor determinante, aunque cabría también defender lo contrario, porque afirmar que el metal es un género viejo que seguramente no pueda dar lugar a una nueva revolución no es tanto un juicio de valor como una mera constatación biológica. Los géneros musicales son un poco como seres vivos que nacen, se desarrollan y mueren, y aunque desde hace décadas permanezcan los discos grabados como testimonio del buen hacer de determinadas formaciones que ya no existen, la diferencia entre los géneros que están vivos y los que no lo están queda bastante clara. Los fans del metal tienen la suerte de que su música predilecta goce actualmente de una madurez bastante lozana y activa, en términos de publicaciones, conciertos y seguimiento, de la que no pueden quejarse demasiado, vistos los estragos sufridos a finales de los 90 y principios del siglo XXI. De nuevo esto se aplica principalmente al underground, ya que el mainstream se debate entre una veneración estática a los clásicos y una fusión con el rock y el pop electrónicos que lo convierten en otra cosa.
¿Es esta madurez relativamente digna un consuelo gratuito? ¿Dónde quedaron todas aquellas esperanzas depositadas año tras año en una renovación del metal que lo hiciera evolucionar hasta un nivel superior a todo lo hecho anteriormente? Aunque se pueda admitir que las “limitaciones” en términos de intensidad y velocidad sean subjetivas y teóricamente aún podrían superarse, lo cierto es que eso no ha ocurrido desde finales de los noventa. Es difícil decir si ello se ha debido principalmente a que los grupos posteriores no han sido capaces o a que no les ha interesado hacerlo, y en este ámbito la elucubración tampoco arroja demasiada luz. Lo que sí sabemos es que todas las formaciones realmente buenas que han surgido desde aquellas fechas han aportado algo propio sin renegar del legado previo, a diferencia de lo que hizo en buena medida el thrash con el heavy metal y, sobre todo, el black con el death metal. La obsesión con una evolución “necesaria” impide ver en ocasiones que, aunque muchos de los grupos posteriores más destacados no hayan sido tan fundacionales como los de la etapa anterior, no se les puede acusar de ser blandos ni genéricos, o de no tener ideas.
La historia del metal es la que ha sido y eso no se puede cambiar, por mucho que uno lo desee (y menos aún si no se es músico, como le ocurre a quien suscribe). Aunque la tiranía de la evolución como criterio pueda inducirnos a pensar que el metal está creativamente en su lecho de muerte, lo cierto es que el underground vibrante que sigue floreciendo en casi todas las latitudes no da señales de que vaya a quedarse sin cuerda pronto. Además, conviene recordar que también es “evolución” lo que se ha producido en el mainstream a medida que ha ido rompiendo parcialmente con el pasado para mezclar el metal con géneros más populares y acabar desvirtuándolo, en especial con el “pop metal” de los sellos más grandes. Por todo lo dicho, una eventual revolución en el ámbito del underground sería algo altamente improbable, pero a la vista de las evoluciones menos positivas que se han producido y siguen produciéndose en la actualidad, tal vez no sea tan malo seguir empleando las formas antiguas, que visiblemente aún sirven para expresarse con riqueza y contundencia a la vez.
Belisario, marzo de 2024
Escuchando: Hinsides – 2023 – Hinsides Hörs Djävulsklockans Urklang
]]>Order of Nosferat typify what many modern critics of black metal mean when they refer to a homogenous, over saturated blob of demos, dog whistles, and very little imagination. If you ever read an interview with some wizened veteran lamenting the scene’s anonymously driven entropy, look no further than artists like Order of Nosferat to put a face on this process. But credit where it’s due, they have shifted gear with their latest album. Maybe waiting at least a year between releases for once did them good. ‘The Absence of Grace’ is every bit as flat, predictable, and derivative as previous works. They are still pretty much what would happen if the concept of generic lo-fi vampiric black metal just willed itself into existence. But the melodic licks (and they are licks) are imbued with a clear thematic intent. Guitars and the accompanying keyboard harmonies conspire to create a bittersweet melancholia. But they never veer too far into gauche self-indulgence. A pleasing restraint is maintained throughout, which is impressive, because tonally this album is surprisingly single minded, keeping things cold, thoughtful, and understated. Order of Nosferat remain utterly superfluous, but with ‘The Absence of Grace’ they at least accept this mantle with a degree of….grace.
Critical Defiance: The Search Won’t Fall…
Out 22nd March on Unspeakable Axe Records/Dying Victims Productions
Dynamic Chilean thrash featuring former members of the neoclassically inclined Demoniac, this album exhibits many of the key strengths currently emanating from this region. It combines studied imagination at the granular level with an increasingly rare spontaneity and energy. Yes, Critical Defiance represent a clear continuity with the past. All thrash tends to carry the nostalgia baggage more so than its sister genres. But Critical Defiance treat these features as a starting point, a foundation upon which to place all manner of modules and intriguing divergences. And this is precisely what distinguishes it from base nostalgia. This is thrash that is conscious of the passage of time, working in the euphoric, rage fuelled riffing and lead guitar material of the past with more sophisticated melodic topographies borrowed from extreme metal. These are integrated seamlessly into a unified vision. The fluidity of the genre hopping could just as easily go unnoticed for the sake of enjoying the compositions at the macro level for their sheer imaginative novelty. This appears to be a common feature of much thrash and death metal coming out of Chile at present. Not a clear break with the past, but a rehabilitation of it, updating it into an entity fit for a confrontation with the contemporary moment.
Moon Incarnate: Hymns to the Moon
Out 22nd March on Iron Bonehead Productions
Takes the meandering twists of early My Dying Bride and manipulates them toward a more aggressive, nihilistic place. The bleak melancholia of the Peaceville three is clearly placed front and centre on Moon Incarnate, but there is an underlying hostility at the core of these pieces that updates the format with a wearied modern sheen. The despondent romanticism is pulled in one direction by a blunt realism, and in another by moments of surrealism via arrested momentum, eccentric vocal choices, and subtle but clever use of keyboards. Repetition is utilised more than is usual for melodic death/doom. Individual hooks are deployed as a means of hanging ancillary material on. Working upwards from the basic droning guitars, to the slow build of synth chords or artificial choir patches, to vocals that veer from guttural death growls to hints of tragedian clean tones, as if to emphasise the underlying emotivism beneath the violence. But it’s repetition with a purpose, every simple refrain is serviced with a development, or else builds into the next transitory passage. The sense of journey and progression is never dropped in favour of mere texture play. The latter of which is present, but always as a way to elevate the forward motion of the music. The pieces are always driving forward despite the depressed tempos and drab delivery. Eccentric, imaginative, weird, yet pleasingly sparse and understated when taken against comparable works within the gothic death/doom sphere.
Brodequin: Harbinger of Woe
Out 22nd of March on Season of Mist
Brodequin attempt to distinguish themselves from the usual brutal death metal crop via a preoccupation with medievalism (comparable to Sarpanitum). This manifests through little more than the packaging material and the occasional nod to traditional melodic contours. For the most part however, Brodequin use brutal or technical death metal as a kind of filter through which to funnel other styles through. The riffs most recognisably “brutal” are when Brodequin are at their most uninspiring. This album shines when a melodic doom segment is injected with odd rhythmic content, or a proto black riff is reconfigured into constricted form via tight, palm muted spaces. The percussive death metal benefits from non-chromatic forms breaking up the monotony of near constant disruptive riffing that seems to define the modern form, whilst the styles they are lifted from are presented under different lighting, allowing us to study new angles and gradients within their content. It’s also worth noting the latent atmosphere that stretches itself across the entire album, serving the arcane aesthetic Brodequin are trying to get across without being so pronounced as to distract from the dense riff exercises beneath.
Atrexial: The Serpent Abomination
Out 22nd March on Non Serviam Records
Combines the dissonance of Icelandic black metal with boredom. Atrexial cook up nearly an hour’s worth of tired, oppressive drabness for their latest offering, typifying much of what’s wrong with the so called black metal renaissance. Namely, a very clear idea of what black metal should look and feel like, but very little thought given to what’s actually occurring at a musical level. This is demonstrated by the fact that Atrexial seem incapable of stitching individual components together without deploying a crescendo into a complete breakdown as preparatory material for the next passage. This is an important and much used compositional tool, but as it’s the only tool Atrexial use to transition between ideas, it shapes the album into a series of shortform pieces with no overarching motivation. . And all the ability, guitar layers, dissonance resolving to consonance, and cinematic production can’t hide just how unfinished this music appears. If anything, it makes the experience worse as the dramatic stakes are hammed up to the point of monotony but continue to impose upon the listener, who in turn can’t switch off to the lack of intellect behind the cacophony beyond a collage of familiar tropes, leaving us wondering what the motivation is behind all this activity. Where Carpe Noctem and Svautidaudi (and indeed Mayhem on ‘Ordo ad Chao’) were able to leverage a similar aesthetic package into a place distinct from pre-millennial black metal, Atrexial and so many comparable acts seem to have only grasped the outline of what made this stylistic shift novel, whilst failing to furnish us with any further detail on what they are actually adding to the collective pool.
Endless Loss: Traversing the Mephitic Artery
Out 25th March on Nuclear Winter Records
Shores up ultra primitive blackened grind with a throughline of melody. Whilst this may therefore look like standard war metal tedium from a presentational perspective, it actually consolidates the style with a degree of intent. Endless Loss sacrifice none of the intensity in attempting to facility a conversation between riffs, as distinctive peaks and troughs engage in a dialogue with the off-beat vocals, allowing both to serve as monstrous narrators through the many corridors of noise. Tempo changes and dirge ridden accents are deployed to great effect, not only contrasting with the style’s blasting raison d’etre, but serving as framing diverse, enhancing the communicative power of individual riffs despite their rudimentary form. The production aides in this endeavour through a degree of what we’ll call chasmic restraint. ‘Traversing the Mephitic Artery’ very much aligns with the aesthetic of blackened deathgrind, but where many fall into the trap of drowning everything in a cacophony of reverb, Endless Loss are surprisingly conservative in this regard, allowing the guitar tone and vocals to carry the weight of atmosphere. As a result the riff geography is made visible, and serves as the chief talking point over and above the surface level muscularity and intense gloom.
]]>If we measured albums purely in terms of communicating artistic intent, ‘Epic’ would be considered a triumph. It simultaneously showcases the abilities – such as they are in their present state – of its renowned clientele whilst satisfying the expectations of metal’s increasingly casualised fandom, who understand artistry as a checklist of tropes. Because Vltimas have met these needs, and only these needs, it will be regarded as a success. Anyone looking for hints of a world beyond this playpen of sanitised superficiality will be sorely disappointed (and were grossly mistaken in looking for it in an act such as Vltimas).
Context matters when discussing Vltimas because supergroups are nothing but context. As well as cashing in on the remaining goodwill of their fanbases, they stand or fall based on whether they position themselves in confrontation or continuity with their legacy. This posturing is an important way of drumming up publicity in any new project, and will determine fan responses before anyone has hit a note. It may therefore be beneficial to dispense with my usual instinct to confront the music head on, and instead base any critique of ‘Epic’ explicitly on who Vltimas are.
History is baked into an album like this. We are too familiar and invested in the works of David Vincent, Blasphemer, and Flo Mounier as artists and people to even bother pretending that we should treat this as “new” music in a total sense (arising from fresh perspectives, places etc.).
It is from a purely contextual place therefore, that I state that ‘Epic’ is almost a perfect album. It offers no surprises, no creative stretches, performances adequate only to the needs of the music, it does nothing but totally and completely fulfil the expectations we previously had of these musicians. I therefore won’t even bother pretending that I can assess this “in a universe emptied of context” and list its shortcomings or successes as a work of modern extreme metal.
The production is almost too perfect. Polished, crystalline, deep, with more than mere lip service paid to that earthy organism now part of the furniture of mixes following the clinically triggered naughties. This shores ‘Epic’ up from any accusations of sterility or soullessness, making them seem totally disingenuous. It is also dynamic, able to switch from spacious soundscaping deployed to elevate moments of dramatic import to a tight, precise articulation of the music’s jagged, technical edges.
Blasphemer works between the patented blackened thrash of Aura Noir, working in that stilted, ponderous dissonance that defined his tenure with Mayhem. But he integrates these contours into a stadium rock predictability – think Blasphemer rewriting ‘Domination’ era Morbid Angel riffs – to suit David Vincent’s increasingly operatic vocal style. On that, Vincent is undeniably one of the most talented vocalists of the original death metal generation. For all the indignities of his career since his initial departure from Morbid Angel, Vltimas is clearly an outlet to exercise his vocal breadth (both clean and distorted) in a space metalheads will still be comfortable in, allowing them to regain respect for his abilities. Mounier’s performance provides the required framing, but exercises a degree of creative restraint, allowing the slower, anthemic extreme metal room to breathe whilst still delivering memorable patterns.
The variant of populist extreme metal on display here is common currency for many legacy acts, and invariably leaves me utterly cold. But the naked efficiency and effortless fluidity exercised by Vltimas is relentlessly disarming. This style is tough to pin down, recognisable by a certain polished, high budget presentation, and a temporal and genre agnosticism. Some call it the funderground, I call it casualised. The fun, metal-by-focus-group aura of ‘Epic’ has an audience precisely because of the expectation feedback loop between fan and artist.
Vltimas are hardly unique in this regard, but they expose the superficiality of this endeavour with remarkable efficiency. Familiar dog whistles are voiced, a plethora of riff styles, techniques, intervals, even down to the pacing and use of tempo, all are placed exactly where they should be.
All are traits developed by Vltimas’s generation in their halcyon youth, once daring and avant-garde, now domesticated, familiar, part of the furniture for casualised metal. Vltimas are well versed in this dialect, expertly manipulating them into the perfect entertainment product.
I sense no cynicism however. This is not trying to present itself as anything other than what it is. Every element, from the production, the performance, the writing, pacing, and arrangements, all are placed exactly where they should be to please casualised fans of stateless extreme metal. The result is an entertaining, harmless, and totally unenlightening experience.
But the casualised metal articulated by Vltimas is harmful by virtue of its proximity to what remains of a genuine underground. It uses up oxygen reserved for spaces where genuine risk taking is still a possibility. Where a listening experience still has the potential to be “harmful” in some way. Frontiers of discovery are being slowly abandoned for the sake of familiar pastimes. A process accelerated by the self-affirming, algorithmic favouritism lavished upon casualised fandom that demands nothing more than the same thing they enjoyed yesterday, and the critical negligence of what remains of a music “press”. As a result, this pop metal will likely be mistaken for something of genuine value, even if Vltimas themselves seem very comfortable with their role as light entertainers.
]]>The post Death Metal from Hellas – Part II: Funeral Revolt – Burial (1992) first appeared on Hessian Firm.
]]>The post Death Metal from Hellas – Part I: Horrified – Eternal God (1991) first appeared on Hessian Firm.
]]>The news filtered down through the grapevine the other day that Yosuke Konishi of Nuclear War Now! Productions had entered into a new venture named Helios Press which will manufacture vinyl records in Brady, Texas. This hopes to serve the rising vinyl market which has not only not fizzled but continues to gain strength:
Following a 51.4% year-over-year increase in vinyl album sales in 2021 and a 46.2% year-over-year increase in 2020, sales in 2022 rose just 4.2% over the year. Whether that’s due to slowing demand or supply issues that more pressing plants could help alleviate — it marks a significant deceleration following a pandemic-fueled period of rapid expansion.
43.46 million vinyl albums were sold in 2022 (up 4.2% from 41.72 million in 2021). 2022 was the 17th consecutive year vinyl album sales grew in the U.S., and the largest year for vinyl album sales since Luminate began tracking data in 1991.
This seems to be a growth market that is just going to get better, especially as more people flee digital after having parts of their collection disappear for licensing or business reasons. We were lucky to grab a few minutes with Mr Konishi for some questions about the business and his expanding empire.
How well is the vinyl market in music doing against the popularity of streaming services, and is metal different from other forms of music in this area?
I’ve been discussing this vinyl bubble with my friends for many years now and it just hasn’t popped. I think the vinyl format is here to stay at least for the underground genres like metal, Punk, noise and experimental music.
The trend of pressing Taylor Swift on vinyl will probably go away at some point as normie people move away entirely from any physical media. In fact this phenomenon of normal people buying records at Target for $40 each doesn’t seem very sustainable to me. I don’t think that many of the people buying these records even listen to them but rather use them like props on their shelves or pose with them for social media. It’s more of a performative prop rather than something they actively listen to as intended. I don’t know too many people like this so I might be 100% off the mark and normal people are actually listening to the records.
Who the hell knows, but I know that at least in the metal and punk scenes, there are enough people interested in supporting the physical media right now. Who knows what will happen in the future but I will do my best to keep physical media in circulation and Helios Press. I have nothing against digital streaming, in fact I do it daily, but there is something more rewarding to me about listening to physical media, especially 12-in vinyl because it’s more of an immersive experience and requires active/linear listening. What I mean by that is it’s much harder to skip over songs when listening to a record, and a good musician will be mindful of the complete packaging from the audio quality, visual art and texts.
What made you decide to launch Helios Press instead of keeping this venture as part of Nuclear War Now?
A few reasons; firstly, I am not the sole proprietor of Helios Press, and with NWN! essentially being an extension of myself and my philosophical outlook, I don’t feel that it would be appropriate for another to come on as a co-owner of that operation. Moreover, with the intention of operating as a separate entity of NWN! (although intertwined to a degree), a difference in name and branding was needed. While we intend to service the underground heavily, we will make strides to do business with different genres and scenes.
Did you pick Texas for any reason other than our stunning climate?
There were many reasons for picking Texas and specifically Austin Texas. Weather was definitely not one of them! The main reasons were lack of income tax, better schools, less emphasis on politics (left or right), and better quality of life in general. The Bay Area was falling apart at the seams during the pandemic and it continues to get worse. I honestly don’t know why some of my friends are still living there.
How much time and money will you save by printing your own releases?
I am not sure about the monetary aspect of it yet, but I’ll definitely shave off a month or two from each release schedule by having Helios Press. Right now it can take anywhere from two to four months to press a record at a factory in Europe. Shipping adds about two to four weeks depending on the method of shipping.
Are you concerned about the alleged collapse of the American record store, with many of them going out of business?
The ones that are not doing so well are usually mismanaged or not focusing on records that actually sell. Perhaps physical record stores will go away as Amazon and other online retailers chip away at their market. The good thing about vinyl records is that most collectors and even regular passive consumers like the experience of flipping through records in person and inspecting used records before purchasing. Hopefully physical record stores will stay for the long run but I can’t predict what the future holds because the stores rely heavily on normal people.
With this Kickstarter campaign, do you think you can raise enough money to keep the business in operation long enough to be profitable?
Absolutely. Our goal is to use this fundraising campaign to skirt around taking a commercial loan from a bank, avoiding the fucked interest rates. We see it as mutually beneficial to us and our supporters, the records offered will be killer special editions featuring never before heard material from BLASPHEMY, SABBAT, and GOATLORD. A huge majority of this project is self funded, so with the success of this campaign, we will go into operation without any sharks looming overhead to collect debts. By the way the fundraiser campaign is no longer going to be done on Kickstarter, but rather we will run the entire fundraiser through the nwn online shop to avoid paying Kickstarter their 10% fee. Kickstarter and similar companies are better suited for people without a pre-existing customer base. Nwn has a customer base that’s been built over the past 24 years so I opted to not use them. Of course Kickstarter has a built-in community of its own that may not discover nwn’s fundraiser campaign otherwise, however the chances of that group contributing more than 10% is very unlikely considering the fact that almost all fundraiser items will be nwn pre-orders.
If all goes well, will we see more releases from Nuclear War Now, and if so, what?
I am not sure if there will be more coming out or just speed up the process of producing records. I definitely want to focus on more DIY types of releases where covers are handmade, perhaps silk screen printed and records are pressed with my own two hands. I like the idea of being more involved on the manufacturing side and touching every record that gets sent out. This used to be the case in the early days of NWN when I would make handcrafted covers or obi strips that were glued on by hand.
What metal albums that are out of print would you most like to see back on record store shelves?
That’s a good question because pretty much everything gets repressed at some point these days. It would be nice if bands like Sarcofago, Sextrash, Vulcano, Mystifier, Impurity and many other Brazilian bands from the 80s and early 90’s would have their back catalog kept in print and available in physical stores. Most of these releases are in fact kept in print but are notoriously neglected by most physical stores including those around here, with the exception of Eastern Front (NWN’s own store)!
Do you have plans to reprint demos, like Relapse and Xtreem music did, or other metal rarities?
I do a lot of that already and will continue to do so in the future. Demo recordings are some of my favorite recordings by some bands like Carpathian Forest, Blasphemy, Samael, Master’s Hammer, Root, etc. There is something special about those primordial raw recordings made by bands in their very early stages of life. Maybe because they weren’t jaded yet and only fueled by passion for their craft?
How do people keep track of what you are doing with Helios Press and where they can find your future releases?
Thanks a lot for the questions. Progress of Helios Press and NWN! news can be found here:
nwnprod.com
heliospressing.comhttps://www.instagram.com/nwnproductions/
https://www.instagram.com/heliospress/NWN Productions LLC
3607 San Antonio Street
Austin, Texas 78734
United States of America
Thanks Yosuke and good luck with your latest venture!
]]>Seid seem chiefly preoccupied with marrying the ponderous trance pacing of Ukrainian black metal with elements of Viking opera. Through this unity, they reveal the melancholia of Swedish melodicism hidden beneath the death metal topography of bands like Vinterland or Dawn. Tension arises once removed from the music only insofar as experienced listeners will feel like they have been here before. Seid indulge in a rockist pacing that remains the chief legacy of a band like Drudkh. But they supplement this with a plethora of developments, dynamics, stakes, welcome features that are rarely seen in music that operates within a similar aesthetic legacy. We remain poised to switch off in utter boredom. But for all its presentation, Seid take the time to draw out their material, comment on it, contextualize it. Tempo changes are sporadic but effective. Lead guitar material engages with the contours of the rhythm section as opposed to just filling space. And – perhaps most importantly – despite the cuddly sentiment behind the cadential orientation of these pieces, it never devolves into the sappy privatised emotivism of post rock that infects a lot of black metal occupying a similar space.
Onslaught Kommand: Visions of Blood and Gore
Out 26th January on Godz ov War Productions
Essentially Discharge forced through a goregrind filter. Riffs look no further than early thrash for inspiration. Switching between near relentless threads of atonal tremolo passages to staccato shifts in pitch, broken only by the occasional drone of a held chord at moments of release. If anything this music seeks to regress blackened thrash to a pre-Beherit state. Where ‘Oath of Black Blood’ deployed guitar “solos” at key junctures of chaotic climax, Onslaught Kommand refuse to dilute the constant stream of riffing with anything so dramatic as a jump in octave. The effect – whilst derivative – is oddly mesmerising. Vocals complete the picture with a low end, near whispered narration of distorted grunts. There are glimmers of a more sophisticated death metal lineage within some of this material, shadows of Autopsy can be heard particularly on the track ‘Headless’. But for the most part this is a highly regressive blackened thrash offering wearing a goregrind hat. It would be laughable were it not for how convincingly Onslaught Kommand pull off a near psychotic fixation with regressive minimalism in the context of music that still purports to be “active” in some degree.
LHAÄD: Beneath
Out 20th March on Amor Fati Productions
Falls into the same trap as many contemporary acts attempting to colour black metal in with a diverse plethora of extra musical conceptual material, in this case the depths of the ocean. Namely, that so much effort is expended on othering themselves from what they consider to be garden variety iterations of genre, that the base level substance is neglected, offering very little of value as a result. LHAÄD adopt a similar posture to Darkspace in this regard, and indeed, many of the chord progressions mirror their Swiss counterparts by leveraging simple ascending binary patterns from minor to major to conjure a feeling of drifting away or sinking down. Whilst this technique can be effective when deployed with care, LHAÄD seem unable to build directly upon it, instead veering into rather flat passages of modernist black metal fair that go nowhere but insist on utilising the genre’s calling cards for cultural capital. A comparable example is the use of sparse arpeggios atop a blast-beat. Again, an effective tool when deployed intelligently. But here used as a stand in for dramatic stakes when nothing is forthcoming in the melodic character of these pieces. The result is a paradox. A sensory overload of textural information, concealing a near total lack of substance beneath. As for the rest, ‘Beneath’ has little to offer beyond contrived crescendos of ringing chords that follow the same pattern as the – usually overworked – passage preceding it, used as a shortcut to grandiose finales. Attempting to transpose black metal into program music for the ocean’s depths is all very well – and as a source of inspiration has garnered surprisingly little attention – but if one is unable to articulate just how their music conveys this beyond a few disposable tricks they had better offer a substantive musical package as compensation, something sadly lacking here.
Acathexis: Immerse
Out 20th March on Amor Fati/Extraconscious
Essentially a post rock album with tremolo guitars. Ambiguity via chromaticism or atonality is eschewed in favour of the warm comfort of familiar tonal centres. Acathexis hope to gain currency with a black metal fandom through the use of blast-beats, harsh vocals, and a rich guitar tone. It’s true that they sometimes lean into melodic contours that could be considered “epic” in the traditional sense of the word, mirroring progressions that would be at home on a Viking themed black metal album, but these moments are supplementary to the underlying narrative threads that appear fixated on providing a warm blanket of catharsis. Harmonic material jumps out as almost lyrical in the absence of clean vocals that would be suited to the sugary sweet packaging, mirroring late power metal in their willingness to please. If one approached this in complete disregard for the black metal presentation, and looked simply at the underlying substance, it would make for a rather active iteration of elevator ambience. But beyond Acathexis’s ability to elevate [sic] decidedly stale material through significant studio time and effort, this album has little to say or offer.
Duindwaler: In het Heemskerks duin
Out 21st March on Void Wanderer Productions/War Productions/Zwaertgevegt
Achieves a similar effect to drone in the relentless repetition of individual riffs, set to mid-paced blast beats and presented with sparse but not unpolished production. Developments are only forthcoming once a single idea has been dwelt on beyond reason. The modest distortion of the guitars leaves plenty of room within the mix, a vacuum filled not by washes of synth accompaniments as one might expect, but instead with distinctive basslines, contrapuntally picking their way through the gaps a-la the extended opening motif on Gorgoroth’s ‘Antichrist’. Vocal tracks are overlayered on top of one another, one functioning as a mid-ranged bark, the other a more demonic guttural howl reminiscent of Glen Benton circa ‘Legion’. As far as meat ‘n’ two veg black metal is concerned, Duindwaler are decidedly bland. But there seems to be not only self-awareness but intentionality behind this. They lean into the much debated limitations of the genre with gusto, teasing out meta interpretations from material both sparse and cyclical. They succeed in this regard where others fail thanks to an ambiguity of melodic focus. They will tease at a lyrical character within the riffs, but they are forever pulled back to a baseline of basic power chords, knitted together with minor key and tritone play. None of this is particularly ground breaking, but ‘In het Heemskerks duin’ pleases in its ability to playfully engage within such a tight creative space, and continue to raise questions within this arena.
Heraldic Blaze: Blazoned Heraldry
Out 21st March on Purity Through Fire
The colour scheme may be black metal, the ornamentation swerving between Northern European folk touches and medievalism, but artists like this just can’t disguise the fact that they’re playing pop punk. The crossover appeal of folk punk and black metal is as obvious as it is ridden with fascists, but for all the fantasy based nostalgia (they may take issue with the use of this word, preferring instead traditionalism or “heraldry”, but as the past these bands hearken back to never really existed lets call it what it is) it does seem odd to me that they choose to express this via musical forms developed by horny gen-Xers in the late 90s. Major keys have an important role to play within black metal, as does the occasional bounce of rhythmic pomp. But when these things are foregrounded to such an extent, adorned with little in the way of substantive artistic intent, the music ceases to speak on any other level than as pop music. At this point, the lo-fi packaging, the harsh vocal, tinny guitar tone, and sporadic blast-beats become nothing more than dog whistles. If you wanna play pop punk, just play pop punk, some of it was pretty good. You can even add a flute or two if you’re that way inclined. But there’s no need to hide behind a legitimising cape of more high minded music. In dispensing with the language of black metal whilst retaining its garments, and at the same time refusing to embrace a polish of full fat pop rock that would have aided these songs, Heraldic Blaze succumb to a middle way that fails on both terms.
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