Terminus Episode 55 - Passéisme, Polemicist, Fluids, Cloak of Altering

As Terminus regenerates for another year of hot-blooded, sword-oriented soliloquies on all things extreme and metallic, we find ourselves once again grinding inexorably towards the heat and fervor of summer. This episode, though, provides an interpretive crossroad for the season: what will 2021's heat produce? Joy, leisure, and extravagance? Or cruelty, barbarism, and fear? The answer is both in an episode which splits neatly down the middle between the emotive and sublime versus the hideous and profane. Sword Boy Summer marches on, but with the threat of Mace Man Winter looming in the distance.

Passéisme's raucous, ecstatic interpretation of chivalric French black metal opens the episode, a case where The Black Metal Guy's submission provides no shortage of glee to his co-host. Passéisme specializes in a joyous clatter, where hyperspeed technical black metal riffing joins a densely textured melodic framework in what becomes an instant favorite of The Death Metal Guy. The Black Metal Guy is enthusiastic, but with some reservations in terms of scope and continuity within its parent scene. The Death Metal Guy merely babbles "I like the riff" until reduced to a gibbering mess. Professional? Probably not. Earnest? We like to think so.

Following this explosion of floral decadence is a record subtler but no less dynamic and fascinating: the new record by Polemicist, soon to be released by stalwart Terminus allies Hessian Firm. One of the flagship bands of the label, Polemicist reaches delicately into various points in extreme metal history to create something unique- atmospheric without being soporific, and challenging without pretense. A flurry of notetaking ensues, with references to Hellenic black metal, late 90s electronic music, and early Swedish black/death being but a few- regardless of the origin, the band firmly plants another flag whose semaphore conveys the obvious: Hessian Firm is one of the premier labels in extreme metal today.

After the interlude, summer's dark underbelly is revealed through the traditional cycle of seasonal violent crime spikes via Fluids. Returning to the show a year after they were first featured, Fluids comes back with a new vocalist, a new label, and, perhaps surprisingly, a renewed focus to their work, mainlining the coldest and ugliest details of modern trap music into their vein of bulldozing Mortician worship. Shucking whatever pieces of accessibility remained from their earlier career, Fluids makes indelibly modern and grotesque music for our current climate: an aerial drone recording a cartel beheading forever.

Finally (and barely) pulling back from the brink of disaster, the gang investigates the newest work by Cloak of Altering, side project of Mories, better known for longtime noiseblack experiment Gnaw Their Tongues. Like Fluids, Cloak of Altering is infatuated with the juxtaposition of abrasive electronic music with extreme metal, but in a more off the cuff and wry manner. Coil, Dimmu Borgir, Marduk, and 70s prog rock collide into an acquired taste which ends up surprisingly hard to shake once it hits the palate.

 

0:00 - Intro feat. Oppressive Descent

0:12:43 - Passéisme - Eminence (Antiq)

0:57:31 - Polemicist - Return of the Sophist (Hessian Firm)

1:39:50 - Interlude - Skullflower - “Annihilating Angel,” fr. Orange Canyon Mind (Crucial Blast, 2005). You can also get this track on the Return To Forever comp, available direct fr. Skullflower on Bandcamp.

1:46:46 - Fluids - Not Dark Yet (Hells Headbangers/Desert Wastelands Productions)

2:30:19 - Cloak of Altering - Sheathed Swords Drip With Poisonous Honey (Brucia Records)

3:10:19 - Outro - Pneuma Hagion - "Tyranny," fr. Demiurge (to be released late 2021 on Nuclear War Now!)

 

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