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Hell Awaits is a new column that shines a light on extreme and underground metal. In this first installment, Kim Kelly gathers up six impressive new and not-so-new releases for your listening displeasure. Feast your ears, and welcome to Hell.
Sun Worship: Elder Giants
View From the Coffin has just released the first full-length from this prolific German black metal entity (it’s another one of those anonymous, presumably one-person projects, so your guess is as good as mine) and Elder Giants has already risen to the top of 2014’s early releases. Sun Worship takes a dark, aggressive approach to atmospheric black metal, choosing to lambast the listener with droning repetition, doomy tempos, and blistering tremolo that still find room for a few flecks of melody within the gloom. Their first few demos and splits were good, but the powerful and hypnotic Elder Giants takes it to a higher level.
Darkestrah: Manas
Did you know that Darkestrah released a new record on Osmose last year? I certainly didn’t, and it seems as though the majority of the metal community was also caught unawares. It’s a shame, given how impressive the past output (like Sary Oy and The Great Silk Road) from this self-proclaimed “epic shamanic black metal” fivesome has been. 2013’s Manas is their best release to date.
Vocalist Kriegtalith outdoes herself here, and despite their origins (the core of the band moved from their hometown of Bishtek, Kyrgyzstan to Leipzig, Germany in the early 2000s) the lyrics on Manas were written entirely in Russian by new addition Cerritus. He and fellow newbie Ragnar have added some serious muscle to the band’s rumbling basslines and serpentine guitar leads. Aided by lush synths, traditional percussive instruments, and a wide-open atmosphere that envelops the recording, Darkestrah do their best to evoke the wild isolation of the Central Asian steppes.
Caïna: "We Sleep"
Now that UK mostly-black metal project Caïna has been resurrected by creator Andrew Curtis-Brignell, the former drought has turned into a flood of activity. His latest release is a split with Mancunian neighbors Esoteric Youth, whose take on bruising dark hardcore jibes nicely with Caïna’s raw, rough black metal caterwaul. Curtis-Brignell’s forays into more atmospheric, experimental territory with previous releases may as well have been a fever dream, as his post-reanimation output is as grim and filthy as a factory floor in Bolton. “We Sleep” is a throat-tearing ode to misery whose feral intensity throws its melodic underpinnings into sharp relief.
Bog of the Infidel: To Corrupt Your Sons and Lust After Your Daughters
Providence has no shortage of excellent extreme metal bands, but Bog of the Infidel has really raised the bar with their recent Eternal Death release, the EP To Corrupt Your Sons and Lust After Your Daughters. Bog of the Infidel channel Nödtveidt’s ghost within freezing gusts of melodic black/death metal, and pay ample tribute to the atmospheric Ukrainian masters as well. The material is unapologetically inspired by Scandinavia’s Second Wave and colored by shades of Emperor and early Ulver, with icy midtempo blasts, serrated riffs, and rough, pained rasps that find solace in pretty acoustic interludes. Heed the primal call.
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Phantom Feel: Gloam Begetter
This release has been floating around since summer 2013, but I’m having still having trouble extricating myself from its oppressive pull. Colloquial Sound Recordings has a habit of unearthing the strangest and most compelling bands pulsating within black metal’s bloated underbelly, and has ripped this noisy New Orleans outfit straight from that blighted womb. For all its bleary, heat-drugged feel, ‘Gloam Begetter’ is deceptively alert; those cloudy tremolo riffs propel themselves furiously through the waves of distortion and refuse to let up for long, agonizing stretches. It’s a punishing listen with an insidious appeal.
Salem’s Pot: "Nothing Hill"
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it: If you really, really like Electric Wizard, no one’s going to mind if you ape a few of their riffs. That’s the principle that Sweden’s Salem’s Pot operate under, and after a quick listen to their new LP ...lurar ut dig på prärien (out April 29 on EasyRider), it’s hard to begrudge ‘em. Stoner doom seldom sounds lively, but these fuzz demons take pains to keep more than a little boogie in their step. Our narrator’s thin, miserable voice shakes, shudders and wails atop stumbling riffs that reek of putrefying nugs and a lackadaisical drummer who might be more than a little bit sauced and sounds like he’s playing on empty moonshine tubs. They launch into spacey extended jam sequences at the drop of a witch’s hat, their solos skitter and sway like Hendrix on a nasty comedown, their horror-fied doom riffs get real dark real fast. I’ll be damned if I can stop listening.