Ominous Hymn - "Promo EP" (2015)

Ominous Hymn - "Promo EP"

Year: 2015
Genre: Black Metal
Country: United States

Track List:

1. Parasitic Virtue
2. Banners Raised Against God and Creation
3. As Earth and Heaven Burn

Bandcamp//Facebook

What first stood out to me about Ominous Hymn is how honest the music is. It's black metal. No silly gimmicks or run through sub genres. The members don't have demonic alias' or wear corpse paint to look more sinister. It's just honest music played by hard working musicians because they love the art. Now onto the music! This is a Promo EP of three songs. Through the three tracks you can hear the numerous inspirations (Inquisition, Deathspell Omega, Darkthrone) and is well recorded without losing a certain unpolished grime. My only real complaint being that the drums sound a little too triggered. I was especially fond of the guitar that is very musical but just so perfectly raw. My favorite track is by far "As Earth and Heaven Burn" which is a spectacular piece of music. The ending arpeggio riff has been stuck in my head for several days now. Even after many plays I find myself coming back to hear it over and over. 

Wildspeaker - "Survey The Wreckage" (2015)

Wildspeaker - "Survey The Wreckage"

Year: 2015

Genre: Blackened Crust / Hardcore

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Ouroboros
2. Survey The Wreckage
3. Apex Predator
4. Invasive Species
5. Overgrown Tomb
6. Abrupt Decay
7. Ultimate Price
8. Path To Exile
9. Power Lines
10. Reclamation

Bandcamp / Facebook

"Feminist, anarchist and ultra-leftist blackened crust from Texas. Be warned, this is not shit to be taken lightly – this is the real shit, music of pure intent, songs of absolutely pillaging emotion and desperation. Dragged into unimaginable pits of despair by the furious vocal delivery of singer Natalie, Wildspeaker create songs that sweep through you like a frozen wind of pure desolation and hit you like a hail of bullets, disintegrating your bones. This is crust punk in which all has gone livid, all hope has evaporated, all has ended up in embitterment, in which all prayers have been exhausted, all patience has ended, and all will to understand and tolerate certain things about society have ended in a massive implosion of rage and disillusion. Wildspeaker’s songs are a perfect blend of punk urgency and black metal bitterness." - Mattia A., Cvlt Nation

Anarchists United - "The Repression Chapters" (2015)

ANARCHISTS UNITED "The Repression Chapters"

Year: 2015

Genre: Black/Thrash Metal

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Stand
2. Genetically Modified to Experience Agony
3. Chaos In Fucking Corruption
4. Left for Dead
5. Your Lungs Inherit Ashes
6. Opposition In Our Grasp
7. Reign of the Corpse-Spawn

bandcamp

Another interesting find from our VK group - a NY-based blackened thrash metal band with an intriguing name and "driving lyrics about issues we face in this world today" (a quote from their bandcamp page). Pretty raw and aggressive stuff, comparable to Infernal Stronghold or Nachzehrer. Like in case with other albums I posted recently without the bands' permission, I'll post only the bandcamp link with streamable tracks, not a direct download link.

Permafrost - "Transitory" (2015)

PERMAFROST "Transitory"

Year: 2015

Genre: Atmospheric Black/Doom Metal

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Oak
2. Collapse
3. Nausea

bandcamp

Permafrost (not to be confused with several other BM bands under the same name) are a 3-piece black/doom metal band from Alexandria, Virginia. They have no apprarent connection to RABM but decided to share their debut full-length CD with me anyway, and I must say it's quite good. Actually it was released in January, but I forgot to post it back then :( The album is called "Transitory" and consists of 3 long tracks. The mastering was done by Nikita Kamprad of Der Weg Einer Freiheit, another very good atmospheric BM band which shares at least some of our anti-NSBM sentiment. A bit more detailed review of "Transitory" can be found here.

Belegost - "Life Ephemeral" (2011)

BELEGOST "Life Ephemeral"

Year: 2011

Genre: USBM

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Cataclysm
2. Staring into the Cosmic Abyss
3. Ode
4. Dalliance
5. Tale of Solitude and Longing
6. As the Veil between Night and Day Disperses
7. Entropy
8. Civilizational Downfall
9. Khyldrid's Lair
10. Moonlight Shining on Ashy Remnants
11. Conflagration of Dogma
12. Red Dawn

bandcamp

Belegost, formed in 2005 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, were probably one of the first vegan straight edge BM bands in existence. "Life Ephemeral" is their only release, complied in 2011 out of sporadic recordings they made during 2005-2011. It was sent to me by their member Kyle, who no longer identifies himself with green anarchism, but mentions "flirting" with such stuff (collecting zines, books by Zerzan, Jensen, Green Anarchy periodicals etc.) when they were recorded these tracks. The sound is raw, quite demo-quality,  yet there are some interesting elements and melodies. According to Kyle, the lyrics were focused on issues like man's treatment of animals, existentialism, depression, feeling apart from society, nuclear war, etc.

Wrapped In Pale - demo (2015)

WRAPPED IN PALE "demo"

Year: 2015

Genre: Black Metal

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Amber Gold
2. Sepulcher Overshadowed
3. Seven

bandcamp

Wrapped In Pale are a black metal trio from Orlando, FL. They're playing more or less standard BM with apolitical lyrics, but they definitely aren't happy with the NS context which the black metal scene is often associated with. That's the reason why I'm posting their first demo (released on 25th of February this year), and if you're going to give it a listen, it definitely will be appreciated by the band.

Batsheva - s/t (2014)

BATSHEVA "Batsheva"

Year: 2014

Genre: Black Metal

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Of Night
2. Batsheva the Unholy, the Destroyer, & the Highest
3. Moon Eyes
4. The Final Coming of the Witch-Queen, with Sorcery and War Emanations
5. God in Heaven
6. The Conquest of the Witch-Queen

DOWNLOAD

Batsheva is an one-man project from Philadelphia, which released the first full-length album not so long ago. It's decidedly black metal, but it has a variety of influences, in particular funeral doom and symphonic black metal. Of course, Batsheva supports RABM (given that NSBM has for too long dominated the scene), and appreciate a lot of bands that were posted on my blog. Their lyrics are described as "dealing with socially progressive views through the lens of dark, mythological epics":

"Our ideology is usually filtered through the lens of dark, mythological, and epic lyrics that portray a strong opposition to the powers that be, but most especially those who poison our Earth and reiterate and enforce beliefs that place others as lesser. Regardless of its portrayal through fictional contexts (such as the apocalyptic return of a Witch-Queen), it is our ideology nonetheless...


Over the last month, I recorded this album on a pretty limited setup: in my living room with an acoustic guitar and a bass I borrowed from a friend, using software to round it out and fill in everything else. I think the end result, considering, isn't too shabby"

facebook / bandcamp / youtube

Deafest/Uaithne - "Of Moss and Stone" (2014)

DEAFEST/UAITHNE - "Of Moss and Stone"

Year: 2014
Genre: Instrumental Black Metal/Folk
Country: USA

Track List

1. Shattered Visions
2. A Bed of Needles and Cones
3. Frozen Dreams, Pierced by Time
4. Scree Fields
5. Blood Soaked Stone

DOWNLOAD

Hey everyone, it's Preston again. Haven't had time to update as much myself because of school but I'm excited to post a fantastic release that just came out the other day. Many of you are probably already aware of the instrumental black metal band Deafest and the co-contributing band Uaithne (Formerly known as "In the Sea of Trees") who are also instrumental but non-electric in nature. This release plays each artist's songs back to back, offering both project's equal representation of the natural world. It is fantastic in application, powerful, and really nothing short of what you would expect from these musicians.

Hoping to post some more albums in the meantime while I'm on break. If you got anything, send it my way. "p - system @ hotmail 'dot' com"

Deafest bandcamp/Uaithne bandcamp

Ambergris - s/t (2014)

AMBERGRIS "Ambergris"

Year: 2014

Genre: Experimental Black Metal

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Led to a Stone Chamber
2. In the Royal Cemetery

DOWNLOAD

Ambergris are a duo (guitar/drums) from San Diego, which released their first EP in late September this year. If I understood it correctly, right now the project is on hiatus, and it isn't certain if they'll release any new material in the future. Even though Ambergris isn't an explicitly political band, at least one of its members is highly sympathetic to the RABM movement, and entirely unsympathetic to the right-wing/elitist tendencies that are so pervasive in the metal culture. If there's an ideology that motivates his interest in black metal in particular, then it's what's been called "pessimistic materialism":

"...It's certainly not an eco-anarchist or "pro-nature/anti-humanity" ideology - in fact it's almost an apparent inversion (anti-nature/pro-humanity) of such an ideology. But the inversion really is only apparent, since it shares with such an ideology (at least as far as I understand it) an anti-anthropocentrism (it seems to me that eco-anarchism, with its emphasis on human beings as the source of all natural ills, is actually rather closer to anthropocentrism), and the opposition of "a good nature to a corrupt civilization."

Pessimistic materialism recognizes class society as the other principal source of human unhappiness, but stresses that, were the elimination of class society to be achieved, men would still suffer from their biological limits and the knowledge of their insignificance in the universe. Through this fusion of class politics and pessimistic materialist philosophy, such an ideology aims to bring about the creation of a pessimistic culture for all. This music, I hope, is a contribution to the creation of such a culture.

Sorry if I ragged on eco-anarchism too much, but I want to stress my support for all the forces (bands, blogs, communities) associated with RABM, whatever their politico-ideological stripe, in their opposition to the rightist forces dominating metal culture!"

bandcamp

Dunnock - split w/ Intergalactic Holocaust (2014)

DUNNOCK "split w/ Intergalactic Holocaust"

Year: 2013

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal, Dark Ambient/Drone

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Flower of Flesh and Blood
2. Jan 28th (my harp is turned to mourning)
3. Kudryavka
4. Facedown in the Ohio

DOWNLOAD

Dunnock is a black metal project from SF Bay Area which released the debut full-length album a couple of years ago, but I decided not to post it back then, since it seemed to be not particularly in my taste. This is a new release with a more interesting concept which some of my readers might be interested in.

These 4 songs comprise Dunnock's part of a split with a project from Australia called Intergalactic Holocaust. IH mostly specialize in apolitical space-themed horror lyrics and atmospheric BM, while Dunnock's side is more political and therefore more suitable for my blog. The material is divided between two black metal tracks and two dark ambient pieces. The quality of production is still quite "lo-fi" but better than their early works. Here are the release notes:

"The black metal tracks explore the nature of sacrifice in light of the Cold War Space Race with a song being dedicated each to the US and Soviet Union.  

The US track ("Jan 28th") is about the Challenger Disaster, specifically the death of teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe, who's presence on the shuttle was primarily a propaganda stunt.  It is told from the point of view of her students who watched the shuttle explode on live television.

The Soviet track ("Kudryavka") is about the Space Dog Laika, who was rushed into space on an unsafe rocket, again as a publicity stunt, and died a horrible death as a result of poor planning. The song is told from the point of view of her trainer. (All things above considered, the track name still sounds quite funny for a BM song. - B.K.)

The ambient pieces are also about sacrifice of one sort or another, and have a political bent to them.  "Facedown in the Ohio" is about a classmate of mine who supposedly drowned in the Ohio River after abusing inhalants.  It's later come to my attention that he may have been murdered and the drowning staged.  In either case it is a reflection on the sorry condition of my home state of West Virginia, which has been robbed and raped by the coal and oil companies, the people left jobless and destitute, prone to violence and substance abuse, with perhaps the lowest life expectancy rate in the developed world.

The other piece "Flower of Flesh and Blood" is named after the film, itself an exploitative story about the sexualizing of violence and literal bloody sacrifice in the name of personal pleasure"

bandcamp 

Hexer - "Hexer" (2013)

HEXER "Hexer"

Year:  2013
Genre:  Black Metal
Country:  USA

Track List:

1. I:I
2. I:II
3. I:III
4. II:I
5. II:II
6. II:III

The self-titled debut of the shadowy Philadelphia black metal project Hexer features a misanthropic, anti-Christian tale of the son of God joining forces with Satan to annihilate the human world.  I had the opportunity to interview Phlegethon and Ansgar this summer while at the Gilead Fest and feal this project is a good fit here.  The interview will run later on my radio show.  Musically, this is stripped down black metal with a lot of thrash influence and a lo-fi aesthetic.  Originally it was recorded individually onto cassette, but is now available on vinyl through Gilead Media.  I'll post the Bandcamp link for digital download as well.

Bandcamp / Facebook

Protestant - "In Thy Name" (2014)

PROTESTANT "In Thy Name"

Year: 2014

Genre: Blackened Hardcore

Country:  USA

Track List:

1. Vengeance
2. Carrion
3. Never Forget
4. Vultures
5. Blood
6. In Thy Name / Hell's Insanity
7. Forfeit
8. Delusion

Protestant is another band I had the opportunity to experience live this summer at the Gilead Media Fest.  They are a hardcore band at their core, but this time ended up making basically a black metal album.  The exception to this is that the vocals are still pretty much hardcore style vocals, but it doesn't really take anything away from the record to me.  I won't go into too much detail here, but I plan to write a more complete review for my Rage and Frustration site.  Also, stay tuned to the Rage and Frustration radio show as I'll be running an interview I did with vocalist/guitarist Cory Von Bohlen in a couple of weeks.  

In terms of being a good fit for this site, lyrics like the following lead me to believe that they share many of the general sentiments found here:

Rapacious pigs come to control / All that has worth / The savage and the stupid / The inappropriate and unnecessary / Humorless bloodsuckers committing crimes / Flippant rotten beasts / Flattened cheap / Unfettered and rank / Fetid vile cheats / Tactless bigots swing / Reckless their necks / And if no rope / Then by hand - from Vultures

Cory is also the guy who runs Halo of Flies (a label in Wisconsin, USA well worth checking out) and says the following on his website for the label:

I maintain that diy punk/hc/etc is the best thing going right now.  Support the network of friends that keeps it going.  I will keep going until I can't anymore.  Halo of Flies website

Bandcamp

Anagnorisis - "Beyond All Light" (2013)

ANAGNORISIS "Beyond All Light"

Year: 2013

Genre: Black Metal

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Eulerian Path
2. This Cursed Blood
3. Death Mimics Life
4. Abyss
5. Bountiful Godless Life
6. Forever Night

With this masterpiece, USBM band Anagnorisis has reset the bar for what black metal should sound like in America.  The music is features aggressive, thundering riffing, driving percussion, and the vocals of Zachary Kerr (which feel like they are shredding your soul) who became almost instantly one of my favorite black metal vocalists.  I was first introduced to this band this summer at the Gilead Media Fest where they filled a last minute opening left by another band dropping out.  Their live set was intense.  It felt uncomfortable in the best kind of way.  Though I haven't been able to confirm their political leanings (they may not identify specifically as leftist), I feel that their two key themes of anti-civilization and anti-theism make them a good fit here.  As an interesting side note, on their first release Austin Lunn (of Panopticon) was a part of this project.  Check them out at their Bandcamp page below.

Bandcamp

Grst - Fire Therein (2014)

GRST - FIRE THEREIN

Year:  2014
Genre:  Black Metal
Country: USA

Track List

1. Cut Their Grain and Place Fire Therein
2. Dead As Dreams

Download

This is the second post I've made about Grst, and American Black Metal band on the Glossolalia label.  In this case, the band covers two songs from seminal USBM band Weakling, and does so in fine style.  Though only two tracks long, the EP still hits nearly 30 minutes of intense Black Metal.  As you'll see in the write up from the band themselves, members of Grst cross-pollinate with other Glossolalia bands, including the band Banewreaker, the first band I personally posted on this blog.  To hear an interview with Banewreaker recorded for my internet radio program, click here.  The interview starts roughly an hour into the episode.

Here is what the band has to say about the album:  "The April-May crossover has long been decorated with fire and ritual. Historically, it has been a time to celebrate fecundity and reproduction, and so it is in that tradition that this offering is made.

Grst and Glossolalia Records present Fire Therein, a half-hour homage to Weakling's seminal USBM record, Dead as Dreams. With their single legendary document, Weakling cut a tremendous swath across American black metal, fertilizing the genre by inspiring countless other bands and artists. This second entry from Grst represents a large portion of Weakling's original album, namely their titular track, Dead as Dreams, as well as Cut Their Grain and Place Fire Therein, from which the tribute similarly derives a moniker. 

This Grst recording is the product of several Glossolalia alumni. Guitar, keyboard, and drum tracks were engineered by Josh Vincent (Banewreaker, LORD) with additional guitar work from Nathanael Kelley (Aesthetic of Failure, Arkhum, Banewreaker). The vocal performance was delivered by Kenneth Parker (Arkhum, Willowbrook). Vocal recording, mixing, and mastering were engineered by Stephen Parker at The Wilderness Studios."

 

 bandcamp / Glossolalia / facebook / website

Act of Impalement - "Echoes of Wrath" (2014)

ACT OF IMPALEMENT "Echoes of Wrath"

Year: 2014

Genre: Blackened Death/Doom Metal

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Echoes of War
2. Heathen Omens
3. Atrocities & the Spiritual Rape

bandcamp

A new EP from the Nashville-based band whose releases already were feature on my blog a couple of times. They call their sound "war doom", and in fact it's something in between of old school death metal, BM, doom, and crust punk. Definitely recommended if you like their previous release ("Hyperborean Altar").

Katahajime - s/t (2013)

KATAHAJIME "Katahajime"

Year: 2013

Genre: Post-Black Metal, Blackened Crust

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Planetary Entombment
2. Struggle
3. A Bouquet Of Rotting Flowers Lining The Mass Graves Of Humanity
4. Destroyed By Ourselves
5. Buried Under The Waves Of Discontent
6. Night Terrors On The Eve Of The Winter Solstice

bandcamp

Like in case with Ash Eaters, I got to hear this album shortly after it was released (and found it to be very good), but until now I didn't know that the members of Katahajime read and support my blog:

 "...We're from Allentown,PA in the states, and we are about a year and a half old, we originally started as a 3 piece and we recorded a s/t release as that chapter, not to long after we decided that we would benefit from a 2nd guitarist and added a friend of ours to the mix, with him we recorded two tour demo tapes, a summer and fall one. The bands name is Katahajime, pronounced (kata-ha-ja-may) it is a Japanese judo hold similar to a chokehold.  We did two small tours with those tapes. Since we have been back from our tour we are working hard at getting the songs for our upcoming full length finished, we will be going into the studio very soon and hope to have the LP out by spring/summer. At the current moment it will most likely be a self release by us. When people ask myself of my band mates to describe our sound it gets tough, we mix a bunch of things together as you will hear in the songs. I tend to say we are a "atmospheric blackend crust" band with hints of black metal, crust, d-beat, and post rock..."

Stillborn Fawn - "Heathen" (2013)

STILLBORN FAWN "Heathen"

Year: 2013

Genre: USBM

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Satan in the Mirror
2. Exclusion Ritual
3. The Weary Fugitive
4. Black Forest Fire
5. Haunted by Waters

bandcamp

This Denver-based black metal band is apolitical, with more an existential variety of lyrics (which reminds me of Kalendae, even though they aren't very similar to SF in terms of sound). Yet I think a lot of my readers would be interested in this release. It isn't available for free download, but you can stream it off the band's bandcamp page. You can also find their earlier demos there, although they're much more raw than this release.

The Ash Eaters - "Nothing is Real" (2014)

THE ASH EATERS "Nothing Is Real"

Year: 2014

Genre: USBM

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Nethescurial
2. Nothing Is Real
3. Still Haunted

I knew about this project well before receiving a message from them (all hail /blackwall!), but it's good to know that they read my blog too. Here's their latest 3-track EP, which sounds raw and abrasive, but definitely different from most other raw USBM releases. Like all their earlier albums, this EP is available for free download from bandcamp (or their blog).

GRST/The Will of a Million - "Split Cassette Tape" (2014)

GRST/THE WILL OF A MILLION "Split Cassette Tape"

Year:  2014
Genre:  Cascadian Black Metal
Country:  USA

Track List:

1. GRST - Wrathfully Trodden
2. The Will of a Million - Smoke

The two bands on this split have some member in common, as well as having members in common with the Blackened Hardcore band Banewreaker.  These two bands are more typical Cascadian Black Metal with more overtly ecological, anti-civilization, and anti-capitalist lyrics.   I don't have a direct download link at this point, but will work on getting one.  In the meantime, the split can be downloaded in a "pay-what-you-want" format from the Bandcamp page.

bandcamp (GRST) / bandcamp (Glossalalia) / facebook (The Will of a Million) / facebook (Glossalalia) / GRST Web Page

Almanac - split w/ SNB (2013)

ALMANAC / SxNxB

Year: 2013

Genre: USBM, Blackened Punk

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Sacrifice
2. Seance
3. Emersion
4. Harvest

bandcamp

4 new tracks from Almanac (whose debut release was posted on my blog this spring), soon to be released on a split tape w/ Malaysian noisecore band Shitnoise Bastards.

"Almanac return with four blistering, yet refined tracks of their scathing black metal-punk attack. A slightly cleaner and more atmospheric sound for this recording demonstrates the matured and evolving sound of the one man project. The four incantations that follow conjure forth the power of the seasons only truly attainable on the date of its manifestation- Halloween.  
Tape SOON available on Total Shit Productions, Malaysia.
shitnoisebastards.blogspot.com"