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Hell Awaits is a column by Kim Kelly and Andy O'Connor that shines a light on extreme and underground metal. This week, Andy recommends new releases from Chinese black metal band Ghost Bath, Damian Master's solo project A Pregnant Light, Boston hardcore-influenced metal outfit Stone Dagger, and more. Welcome to Hell.
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Ghost Bath: Funeral
China has a booming metal culture, but it's often overlooked by labels, media, and fans. (Sure, the country doesn't have the greatest relationship with its creative population... but it's not like America is an artists' haven either.) Ghost Bath are a black metal quartet from Chongqing City whose use beautiful melodies to make even the lowest throes of depression seem uplifting. Funeral is their first full-length, and it's got crossover potential. Agalloch is an obvious touchstone, but there's a heavy Silencer influence here too. Vocals are reminiscent of Nattram's painfully high pitches, and Ghost Bath's occasional use of clean sections bring out a dynamic tension in their music. When the guitars go soaring, it's like Dissection never left. Given that black metal with a “pretty” or “melodic” bent can make waves—I mean, ask Deafheaven how their 2013 was—Ghost Bath stand the best chance at crossing over to a dedicated audience in the States. Now all they need is a decent publicist.
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A Pregnant Light: Before I Came
A Pregnant Light is the solo black metal project of Grand Rapids, Mich.'s Damian Master. He's got an ear for hooks that many of his contemporaries lack—a funny contradiction given the fact that most of his music comes out on tapes in far too limited quantities. Before I Came, which will be out soon on Master's Colloquial Sound Recordings, complies his tapes Stars Will Fall, Domination Harmony, Deathmyhangingdoorway and his split with Deeper Wells, as well as two new tracks, “Ringfinger” and “Lilajugend”. This is A Pregnant Light's most accessible material yet, but to suggest it's lighter would be erroneous. Both are songs of devotion most pretend occultists can't step to, especially with the sensual touch praised in “Ringfinger.” Also, how many black metal songs start with “get in my pickup truck”? From there, you get a backwards look at how A Pregnant Light came to be. Songs get longer and denser, and the final track, “DMHD,” is a twenty-one minute smattering that sees A Pregnant Light at its most black metal. Of the older cuts presented, “Lives in Hole, No Friends,” is the stand-out.
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Stone Dagger: The Siege of Jerusalem
If you're a fan of Magic Circle, the band of Boston hardcore dudes doing NWOBHM-and-doom influenced metal, you'll definitely want to hear Stone Dagger. The trio is comprised of all Magic Circle members, with Justin DeTore on drums, Chris Corry on guitars, and Brendan Radigan handling vocals, guitar and bass. Their tape The Siege of Jerusalem was quickly gobbled up after its release last year, but Electric Assault recently released it as a 7" and digital download, so you have no excuse not to hear it. Stone Dagger sound quite a bit like Magic Circle, with more of a Manilla Road influence. The title track rips plenty, but the B-side, “Black Clad Rider,” is where they pick up the slack and use “Hail and Kill” not just as an order but a mission statement. No word if Magic Circle is done for, but this more than makes up for their recent absence.
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Weightlessness: Of Lachrymose Grief
Weightlessness' name is ironic: This is music that uses cinder blocks for anchors, strapped to your feet nice and tight. Naturally, they're on Graceless, the label run by Mike Meacham of Loss. Of Lachrymose Grief was originally released as a CD-R demo for the Stella Natura festival, but Graceless re-released it on tape in February. Weightlessness play slower than slow, damn near sounding like an electric guitar flatline at times. Nothing cuts through the tension—even the clean sections are grueling. Funeral doom can sound majestic at times, but Weightlessness will have none of that, stripping everything of grandeur. Grief concludes with a cover of Black Sabbath's “Solitude”, which takes the spacey melancholy of the original and removes any semblance of relaxation. There's still some beauty intact, until you witness it slowly ripped apart.
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Evilnight: Stormhymns of Filth
Evilnight are a blackened speed metal quintet who share members with Armour, the 80s sleaze metal side project of Werwolf of Satanic Warmaster. While Evilnight don't ape WASP and Ratt quite as much, leaning more on Armored Saint and classic Helloween as influences, they do make a nasty black'n'roll racket. Blackie Lawless (if he decided to dump Christ and the Tea Party) could definitely get behind a song called “Dykes on Bikes”. Their tape Stormhymns of Filth, just released through Hells Headbangers, has the entire The Redrum Tapes demo re-recorded, plus a batch of new rippers. They've got a griminess similar to their labelmates Midnight, but Evilnight's vocals are even more black metal and their tempos faster and tighter. “Turbofuck” goes into a break that sounds exactly the intro to Slayer's “Raining Blood”, but with a touch of Show No Mercy. Evilnight could claim “Napalm Rock” as a genre for their sound—reckless guitar solos and shrieks and all. Actually, “Turbofuck” works too.
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Thou and The Body: Released From Love
Yes, we posted about Thou last week, but yesterday Invisible Oranges began streaming Released From Love, their long-awaited collaboration with Portland subsonic nightmare the Body. They've been teasing Love since last year, but now it's finally available for pre-order through Vinyl Rites. The record sounds like you might imagine: both bands jamming in a room, Thou vocalist Bryan Funck leading the way while the Body's Chip King screeches from a distance. (This is the second collaboration record from the Body this year; the other, I Shall Die Here, features the Haxan Cloak on electronics.) There's a subtle layer of feedback in the second half of “The Wheel Weaves as the Wheel Wills” that effectively punctuates King's wailings, “In Meeting Hearts Beats Closer” lets them take in black metal, and the unsettling cover of Vic Chesnutt's “Coward” further both groups' reputations for doing great covers. Working with the Body really lets Thou embrace the uglier aspects of their sound. There's none of the poignancy found on Heathen—only oppressive riffs remain. Listen to "The Wheel Weaves as the Wheel Wills" below.