Mors Insolitus [Weekly Mixtape 235]

Fate Unburied | Messier 16 | URNA
Krallice | Shabti | Ænigmatum
Miscreance | Dissimulator | Entropist
Volubilis | The Zenith Passage

Direct Download

Bandcamp Picks - Rebaelliun, Degial, Krallice, Pile of Priests

It's good to know that DoC friends Rebaelliun are staying busy since their return. Though marketed as a "deluxe re-issue", half of Bringer Of War (The Last Stand) is new material recorded this year. The new songs show how the band has grown in 20 years: Still able to blast with the best of them but unafraid to inject some Bolt Thrower groove into their sound. Released back in 2000 and long out of print, the original Bringer of War EP helped establish a new generation of Brazilian death metal bands (including Krisiun, Abhorrence, and Mental Horror) who were faster and more vicious than any that came before them. This should go without saying, but expect no prisoners to be taken, and no fucks to be given. [€4.90]



Degial were always an oddity, being a Swedish death metal band who rode the old school revival wave with a style more indebted to Morbid Angel than Entombed. Predator Reign, their third album, is their most accomplished to date, and as blistering and frenetic as anything that's come out of Brazil or Poland. Geography is not destiny. [€6.66]



Krallice are nothing if not prolific - scant weeks after releasing their collaboration with Neurosis' Dave Edwards, the NY band has dropped their 8th album (and 11th release overall since 2008). Go Be Forgotten is the band's most straight forward release in years, utilizing the unrelenting speed and eerie atmospherics of second wave black metal and giving them that unique Krallice twist. For all the fluffier and less credible aspects of American black metal, there's no questioning this band when it comes to work ethic and musicianship. Krallice are simply in a class of their own. [$7]



Denver trio Pile of Priests probably don't see "living in the past" as a bad thing. The convoluted riffs and popping bass on their Tenebrous Labyrinth EP put them in closer alignment with the progressive bands on Roadrunner Records circa 1993 than anything in the modern "tech" or "djent" circles. Tacked on at the end are covers of Sadus, Coroner, and Kreator - in case you were wondering how far the fruit has fallen from the tech/thrash tree. [$5]

Bandcamp Picks - Altarage, Vassafor, Krallice with Dave Edwardson, Blattaria

Spain's Altarage haven't been around for very long, but are proving to be masters of the new wave of discordant blast. Endinghent, their second album, is alternately blisteringly fast and creepingly slow, with the band's knack for dissonance keeping the listener on edge. Making death metal grate again. [€9]



Over the course of numerous demos, splits, and EPs since the Nineties, Vassafor have been a fixture of New Zealand's increasingly celebrated metal scene. Their second album Malediction heaps the atmosphere upon their filthy (at times surprisingly catchy) style of black metal without losing its evil core. Black and foul to the utmost. [€7.77]



Dave Edwardson's guttural vocals always brought an extra level of menace to Neurosis, so it's about time they were employed by a much heavier band like NY's Krallice. Frenetic and unpredictable, Loüm lets Edwardson's roar intersperse the dizzying progressive black metal that Krallice are known for. It's a testament to the album's ferocity that the bassist from Neurosis is the least metal thing about it. [$7]



The brainchild of Oklahoma-based Manuel Garcia, Blattaria is no run of the mill one-man black metal band. Their self-titled album (actually their second release) splits its time between skronking blasts and short psychedelic interludes, reaching John Zorn levels of neighbour-bothering cacophony. A wildly creative and unorthodox work; I look forward to hearing more from this project in the future. The album is available as a "name your price" download.

Avant Noir [Black is the new Prog]

Since the beginning of its Norwegian incarnation, black metal has challenged popular notions of what it means to be a metal band. Euronymous and Fenriz spearheaded a renewed interest in genres not in vogue at the time - roots thrash and NWOBHM being the most obvious. But the second wave of black metal, with its fixation on classical music and classic metal, as well as its rejection of what was popular at the time, soon opened itself up to the encroaching influence of progressive rock. By the end of the 90's, no subgenre of heavy music was more boldly experimental than black metal. Ironically, that meant that black metal bands wandered even further from their tenets than any of the "life metal" bands that the second wave chastised.

Bandcamp Picks: INI, Krallice, Outre, Gates of Holocaust

2015 is turning out to be a banner year for the progressive end of Norwegian black metal; joining new albums by Arcturus, Enslaved, and Dødheimsgard is the debut of Trondheim's INI. If Nothing Is is a remarkably accomplished and ambitious album, with razor-sharp guitar playing worthy of Blasphemer or Ihsahn, and the distinct influence of Mayhem's under-rated Grand Declaration of War. Paradoxically, this is an album as indebted to second wave black metal as it is a rejection of its tenets. [90 NOK]



Guitarist Colin Marston does time with Dysrhythmia and Gorguts, so maybe it's not surprising that Krallice would wander down a similar path. Ygg Huur takes a bat to preconceptions about USBM, delivering an album that's as intense and chaotic as it is intelligent and challenging. I can't pretend I understand everything that's happening here, but it's obvious more thought went into each song than most bands put into an entire album. [$7]



Like their countrymen Thaw and Blaze of Perdition, Poland's Outre use black metal as a jumping off point for their own musical digressions. On Ghost Chants, the band employs restrained tempos and layered guitars to eerie effect; though when they turn on the speed, they can blast with the best of them. A band to keep an eye on. [ €7]


Brazilian metal isn't known for being particularly progressive, and Gates of Holocaust aren't out to change that with their sophomore album. Void is as free of pretension as black metal gets, embracing speed like a South American Dark Funeral. It's nothing you haven't heard before, but it is fun, solid, and completely free.