Bandcamp Friday Picks [Dec 2023]

It's the last Bandcamp Friday of 2023. Until Chris Grigg's new platform Ampwall is off and running, this is still the best way to support independent artists and labels. Here are some suggestions.

Bandcamp Picks: Nox Formulae, Okkultokrati, Devil With No Name, Árstíðir lífsins

Black metal, as espoused by its "second wave" adherents in Norway, was at its core a reactionary movement which attempted to move metal backwards, nor forwards. But by creating guidelines as to what the genre should and shouldn't be, the bands in question quickly found themselves forced to abandon it in order to grow as musicians (and, one assumes, to stave off boredom). It's a cycle that repeats itself with every subsequent generation that picks up the genre's spiked mantle.

To whit: the sophomore release from Athens-based Nox Formulae. Through stellar songcraft and some catchy riffs, Drakon Darshan Satan succeeds in being more than just another black metal album, whilst adhering to the genre's basic demands for speed and rawness. But by experimenting with techno beats - as Ulver and Dødheimsgard did before them - the band hint at the stifling nature of "staying true", and a break from the genre seems inevitable. [$7]



Oslo's Okkultokrati, ironically, seem uninterested in adhering to the ruleset created by their countrymen. With a production that has as much in common with Eighties punk as Nineties black metal, La Ilden Lyse slips arena rock moments into its mix of post punk, proto-thrash and Scandinavian crust. By the time you get to the Motorhead-inspired single "Kiss of Death", it becomes clear that the band is having too much fun to be grim or kvlt.  [$7.99]



Formed by members of Void Omnia and Lord Mantis, Devil With No Name is the rare side project that finds a sound that's distinct from the contributors' main bands. Switching back and forth between blastbeats and a mid-paced strut, their eponymous four song debut still embodies all the arrogance and menace that characterized black metal in the Nineties, though avoiding outright imitation. [$4]



Icelandic black metal has been characterized in recent years by discordance and avant garde weirdness, but Árstíðir lífsins does very little that's weird or contemporary. At its fastest, the ponderously (if appropriately) titled Saga á tveim tungum II: Eigi fjǫll né firðir replicates the bleak majesty of the dearly missed Dawn. But the album finds its own voice when it slows things down, employing extended folk sections, spoken word passages, and quasi-tribal drumming to create an album that lives up to the Eddic poetry that inspired it. [€1]

Bandcamp Picks - Mystískaos Edition

Good news is rare these days, so you can imagine my excitement when it was announced that Mystískaos has begun operations, continuing where Fallen Empire Records left off last year. As with its predecessor, the label specializes in avant garde black metal, vinyl releases and "name your price" downloads.

Since Mystískaos is a joint effort between H.V. Lyngdal and Alex Poole, it's only appropriate that one of its first releases would be a collaboration between their respective bands Wormlust and Skáphe. With only two songs and running over half an hour, Kosmískur Hryllingur will test your tolerance for psychedelic black metal, running the gamut from uncomfortable to mind numbing without providing the listener anything resembling a traditional riff. A reminder of why Iceland is a fountainhead for some of the strangest and most unique takes on black metal.




Martröð is another collaboration between Lyngdal, Poole, and Skaphe guitarist Dagur Gonzales (also in Nadra, among other Icelandic bands). Their 2-song EP Transmutation of Wounds hews closely to the Icelandic black metal template, with eerie chords floating over both slow and blasting sections. This slipped through the cracks when Fallen Empire released it back in 2016; hopefully its presence on the Mystískaos roster is a sign that there's more to come from this project.




An offshoot of the Icelandic black metal band Mannveira, Andavald slows things to a crawl with their debut album. Undir skyggðarhaldi takes the discordant and atmospheric trappings of Icelandic black metal, but slows the tempo down and gives it a 3/4 lilt, edging the album into gothic doom for much of its 5 song expanse.




Lest you think that Mystískaos promotes Icelandic bands exclusively, the label is also home to Spain's Délirant. This solo project's self-titled debut is very much on brand for the label, combining psychedelia, dissonance, and an aircraft hangar's worth of reverb for an atmospheric black metal album that revels in ugliness and discomfort.

Bandcamp Picks - Sólstafir, Dynfari, Skáphe, Draugsól

One of the most memorable concert experiences of recent years was seeing Sólstafir play a late afternoon set in Maryland a few years back. With their eclectic style and oddball charisma, they seemed like a band on the cusp of bigger things. Their latest album Berdreyminn might be their breakthrough album; simultaneously looking forward and backwards, it draws on a bygone era of psychedelia and space rock as well as modern post rock/dream pop to power their uniquely trippy style of heavy rock. Add in the occasional choir and piano accompaniment, and you've got a kaleidoscopic opus of longing and nostalgia. [$11.99]



Fellow Icelanders Dynfari have their own psychedelic proclivities. Ostensibly grown in a mushroom field, The Mind of The Four Doors strays brazenly from its atmospheric black metal roots into more experimental territories, with Timothy Leary-esque dissertations on the nature of reality and acoustic folk excursions. This is what happens when black metal goes to college and gets existential. [€7]



Skáphe is a project created by Alex Poole of US black metal pillars Krieg (among others) with Dagur Gonzales of Icelandic black metal standouts Naðra and Misþyrming (among others). Their latest release is single 22 minute composition, a nightmare world of dissonant notes, reverberating howls and sudden time changes. A journey to the center of an unwell mind. The track is available as a "name your price download".



Not everything is avant garde and experimental up in Iceland - newcomers Draugsól stick to a more traditional template. Volaða Land grafts black metal malevolence to death metal savagery, resulting in a speedy little rough-hewn debut that never gets monotonous. Quite possibly the first ripples of an emerging behemoth. [€7]