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This guest review comes courtesy of Brihadeesh, who writes and publishes over at Peregrinator Reviews. Check out their excellent and ever-expanding back-catalog of reviews, and give them a follow over on Bluesky!
Written by: Brihadeesh
An oil painting of two knights clad in dark steel armour, one with a mallet and dagger and the other with a broadsword, effortlessly fighting off a horde of cross bearing crusaders is a hell of a powerful image when it comes to a black metal album cover. And this album really reprises this image through the music. Antifascist as fuck, and releasing via explicitly the left-leaning Realm & Ritual, no less, this is easily one of the best albums I've played this year. I recently came across a new band I thought I would enjoy but then a quick glance at their Wikipedia page showed me some pretty nasty things about their frontman—Jon Nödtveidt—and it was about how he was involved in a misanthropic cult of sorts and was arrested in and convicted of the murder of a homosexual man. The band was one of the "pioneers" of the Swedish melodic black metal scene. Like I discussed in my last piece on the new Wild Beyond EP, black metal in recent years has gone through several changes and the most notable of them being that it has been reclaimed and reinvented as Red and Anarchist Black Metal (RABM). People like Jon here are not revered and instead, a left-leaning or otherwise anarchist philosophy is embraced in the music that is made. Lyrics are often anthemic and call for rebellion against capitalist oppressors, often embellished with samples of powerful speeches and news reports of violence against the marginalised. What's even more powerful is that queer and otherwise oppressed people are in the forefront of these bands, and nothing makes me happier as a neuroqueer person than to see fellow queer people ripping out blastbeats and shredding some of the sickest riffs in town.
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Written by: Blackie Skulless
Perhaps one of my more anticipated albums of the year, Graveripper’s sophomore record took the very approach they hinted at the first time around the block and ran with it. Not only has the blackened aspect taken a deeper root in the construction, but the cleaner surface that presented the first record’s straightforward approach has been roughened up. From Welkin To Tundra even depicts this in its album art, always curating a sound that matches how it looks. Thus, I can confidently say their bare-bones foundation has evolved into something with more identity. For starters, Graveripper have always crafted a “warmer” sound, one I’ve in the past compared to Toxic Holocaust, but the emphasis on black metal tropes have cooled this entirely. Perhaps Cory’s vocals aren’t any harsher than they were, but there’s a filthier snarl to them to coincide with the less-than comforting surface, all playing into the cold atmosphere. Thrash riffs have now become an accessory, not a template, as the record is dominated by explosive drum pummels and rhythmic gradients that care less about melody and more about density. The hookier moments do add a little flare, but nasty motion holds everything together perfectly. 
Written by: Blackie Skulless
Indianapolis’s Cloud Of Souls is a fun project due to how much it changed forms during its short run. Mostly, it acted as a side solo gig for Chris Latta, frontman of other Indianapolis acts including the now disbanded Spirit Division and Lavaborne, among others. Running in the background of several different projects likely contributed to the strange evolution, with the first two records falling under the name Christopher Steve prior to the arriving at Cloud Of Souls in 2022. Only two albums surfaced in this era, A Fate Decided in 2023 and A Constant State Of Flux just last year. This style was always a bit tough for me to get behind, however the former release really piqued my interest, so this is what we’re going to cover. Looking at the project's dark acoustic roots will show why it seems bizarre to see where the project went. Maintaining that grey and somber attitude that the acoustic era saw, the murky feeling simply morphed into something far heavier, even touching blackened territory. At its roots, this is doom metal with a quality degraded to add an almost static effect, feeling like a demo due to the noisy haze. Yet, I would struggle to call this stonery or droney despite the mastermind’s background. Latta’s signature baritone howls cover the cleaner vocal sections, but again, there’s an almost haunting aura that gives things a far more dead feeling than the lively nature of his other projects.
In a continuing attempt to cover more music that would all-too-oft slip through the very large cracks, we slumbering scribes are making an effort to publish short reviews at a greater frequency, thereby shining our very small spotlight on more cool shit. Without further ado: even more Negative Bliss.
Written by: The Administrator
The best cover I've heard of Chris Isaak's oft-covered "Wicked Game" was performed by a country-tinged singer-songwriter at my local park's summer concert series. I was utterly engrossed by her aching tone. The atmosphere was chaotic as only a park at a family-friendly event can be. The rendition was imperfectly perfect, imbued with a feel-it-in-your-bones permeation that exists solely in a live environment. It was a once in a lifetime experience, really. The recorded version isn't nearly as potent. With that said: the second best cover I've heard of Chris Isaak's oft-covered "Wicked Game" is performed by perennial Sleeping Village favorites Negative Bliss. As made immediately evident, this is a particularly gloomy and doomed-out take on the original. It embraces sizable breadth and a somber harshness that affords the track an unexpected emotional core. |
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