Terminus Episode 26 - Ifernach, Pan-Amerikan, Conjureth, Negative or Nothing, Dearthe

If you've been with us since the beginning, congratulations, you're a half-year older and the world is still ending! It's our 26th regular episode and, quite by accident, one of our heaviest, most ambitious yet. The Death Metal Guy is going through some shit right now, so he's absolutely shitcanned throughout -- but remarkably coherent!

We start off with a close listen to August's Ifernach / Pan-Amerikan Native Front split. This will probably be remembered as a landmark release, consolidating the burgeoning North American Native BM scene, and carving out the beginnings of a northern-Native sound. We find plenty to talk about as far as songwriting, but this opens out onto an epic conversation on the complexity of heritage in the "new world," and the possible convergence -- both musical and spiritual -- between bands with markedly Native and Euro American sounds.

We follow up with some ripping semi-melodic Azagthothian death metal from San Diego's Conjureth, out on the finely curated Fucking Kill! label. The Death Metal Guy thinks it's pretty cool, and The Black Metal Guy loves it. But why does it sound so fresh to him? TDMG drags a couple embarrassing confessions out of him....

Part 2 is a much darker affair. As we listen to the bleak and disorienting DSBM of Negative or Nothing, The Death Metal Guy connects with the music on a profoundly personal level. He ties the music of NoN back to his earliest attraction to depressive black metal, as well as cruelly abstract, blasting brutal death -- metal rooted less in power and aggression than  in suffering and fear. Be warned, this gets extremely raw.*

The depressive atmosphere carries over into our last band, Australia's Dearthe, who play an original and promising sort of post-Slavic BM. They draw freely on ideas from death metal and post-hardcore, but not for a facile "update" to black metal fundamentals. Rather, this allows them to reawaken the storming grimness at the genre's core.

 

00:00 - Introductory bullshitting

05:45 - Plug for Terminus Black Circle / Terminus Prime Content

12:31 - Rundown of bands/labels

16:29 - Ifernach/Pan Amerikan Native Front split LP (GoatowaRex)

01:15:04 - Conjureth - Foul Formations / Levitation Manifest (Fucking Kill Records)

01:47:13 - Interlude - Samhain - “Let The Day Begin,” fr. November Coming Fire (Caroline Records, 1986). Various reissues floating around the internet. There are used original copies out there, too.

01:50:50 - Negative or Nothing - Drowned (Careless Records / Wulfhere Productions / Depressive Illusions Records)

02:28:38 - Dearthe - Dispirited Obscurity (Bloodforge Distribution)

03:05:37 - Outro - Excessum - "The Mournful Held Within," fr. Death Redemption (Deathstrike - CD / Tour De Garde - tape, 2005). You can buy it directly from the band via Bandcamp.

 

ADDITION: We didn't realize until after recording that Dearthe's main songwriter is Desolate: founder of Austere, longtime guitarist of Nazxul, and current frontman of Temple Nightside, among numerous other Australian bands. Vocalist Mordance played alongside him in Temple Nightside, and served as live drummer for Mongrel's Cross, whose new record is due out in November (you can expect a review here).

*And be assured, TDMG is still among the living, fighting onward as he always does.

 

Terminus links:

Terminus on Youtube

Terminus on Patreon

Terminus on Subscribestar

Terminus on Instagram

Terminus on Facebook

thetrueterminus@gmail.com