Terminus 36 - Mefitis, Novae Militiae, Vampirska / Glemt, Lycopolis

Greetings, Terminators. On this glorious and exalted episode of Terminus, we dedicate the first half to the black/death avant-garde, and the second half to skillful work in established black metal traditions.

To lead off, we wander the tangled waterways of Mefitis' second LP Offscourings, a gray and misty realm where sophisticated 90s DM and sinister Swedish black/death bleed into something the band calls "dark metal." Riffs flow by in the blink of an eye, and sinuous proggy melodies loom up out of the fog. We try to chart this bleak domain -- have Mefitis led us beyond the boundaries of metal?

Next up, we check out another sophomore effort, this time from  the heart of the French Orthodox scene. We're both skeptical of Orthodox stuff - The Death Metal Guy especially - but Novae Militiae subordinate well-worn genre tropes to the higher purpose of m o n o l i t h i c p u m m e l i n g, so there's plenty of interest here.

It's been a while since we reviewed a vampyric rawtapeblack split (last was Grundhyrde / Klagesturm, over the summer), so The Death Metal Guy harvests a new one that features both wings of the subgenre -- the chivalric and the depraved. The Black Metal Guy gripes a bit, but ultimately there's a side for each of us.

Finally, The Black Metal Guy brings on The Procession, the new one from an ostensibly-Egyptian project called Lycopolis. This gives us an occasion to discuss the general phenomenon of Middle Eastern black metal -- the embarrassing public response to it, and the challenges of writing BM that really "sounds" Middle Eastern. Lycopolis meets those challenges and then some.

 

00:00 - Introductory bullshitting

03:16 - Terminus News ft. Alphaeus and Quell

00:21:41 - Mefitis - Offscourings (Hessian Firm)

01:08:24 - Novae Militiae - Topheth (Goathorned Productions / Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

01:43:24 - Interlude - Celeste - “Dans ta salive, sur sa peau” fr. Animale(s) (Denovali, 2013)

01:52:40 - Vampirska / Glemt - By Sanguinarian Will... (Inferna Profundus / Azure Graal)

02:36:14 - Lycopolis - The Procession (Snow Wolf Records / Azure Graal)

03:16:18 - Outro - Halla - "666 Sanctus" - Altars & Halla split 7" (King of the Monsters Records, 2010)

 

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