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Relentless total war on metal journalism.
Episodes
Saturday Feb 05, 2022
Saturday Feb 05, 2022
One of our great dreams here at the Terminus Bunker is that one day people will say we jumped the shark, and only the old demo material is still worthwhile. In eager anticipation of our critical demise, we present an episode that would fit back in 2020, with several obscure, mostly independently released records that play around the edges of disrespected genres and styles. "Once they learned how to mix audio properly, it was all over." We agree.
Opening the festivities is a presentation by The Black Metal Guy with Military Shadow, a Japanese metalpunk band which allows The Death Metal Guy to finally ask what the hell metalpunk is anyway. The answer, at least in the case of Military Shadow, is a high-flying combination of NWOBHM/speed metal and driving, raucous d-beat. It's an intensely good time- imagine Impaled Nazarene without the black metal and you have a pretty good idea.
Following is the second full-length by Isataii, a Los Angeles duo who emerged in 2021 and have released an astounding amount of material over the past year. Don't let this get confused for a lack of quality control, however- Isataii's music reaches back to the ooze of mid-00s black metal, typically decried as a dark age for the genre, but was secretly creatively fertile. Somewhere between Franco-Finnish, DSBM, and stomping Swedish, Isataii strips down modern riff forms and places them into the blocky structures of primitive 2nd wave or USBM, resulting in a record for patricians only.
Wrapping up is the newest LP by Deadlife, a similarly prolific Swedish one man project which plays... DSBM? Maybe? Discussion in this segment centers around what DSBM means anyway, given that Deadlife's music in large part reflects the strains of Peaceville doom and Katatonia rather than anything conventionally "black metal." Regardless of genre, Deadlife has mastered the resurrection of conventional riff forms of old, playing familiar melodies with a physical power and nuance rarely seen in the years since the style's heyday.
0:00:00 - Intro/Military Shadow - Violence Reigns (Black Konflik)
0:29:28 - Interlude - Syphilitic Vaginas - “Black Sorcery” fr. Black Motor Covenant (RFL Records, 2007) (Link is to the "Complete Studio Collection compilation, featuring that EP and much more)
0:33:08 - Isataii - Invoking in Darkness (Independent)
1:23:42 - Interlude - Ghremdrakk - “Chemikinesis” fr. Je m’exalte (Grievantee Productions, 2007) (Out of print, not available digitally, but still available through underground distros)
1:30:04 - Deadlife - The Darkening (Independent)
2:13:00 - Outro - Sangre - “As in Life, So in Death” fr. En Memoria (Restroom Records, 2005)
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Friday Jan 28, 2022
Friday Jan 28, 2022
Lusted for as much as it is feared, Terminus pushes a bony hand up from the frigid soil to return with a storm of blast beats and autism. A chill wind envelopes the soul- how will the masters of extreme metal critique announce their return? With a bunch of nerdy Finnish stuff, of course!
First on the plate is the new split between Serpent Noir and Sargeist. Serpent Noir plays a heavy metal and rock infused take on Greek black metal while Sargeist plays Sargeist as only Sargeist can. Who will be the victor? Can The Black Metal Guy handle noodly guitars inspired by 70s rock? Can Sargeist once again achieve the heights of Let The Devil In? Only a focused and meticulous listen will answer these riddles.
After this we cheat a little bit with a record from the last days of 2020- Ride For Revenge's newest opus of shambling, grotesque, primitive black metal. The new record will sound familiar to fans, but emphasizes the most uptempo and burly parts of their sound, jettisoning some of their experimentation for crushing 45-played-on-33 takes on Hellhammer tracks.
Wrapping things up is the first and apparently last record by Grieve, another side project of the notorious Werwolf of Satanic Warmaster. This time the target sound revolves around the earliest works of the mighty Gorgoroth, laced with the traditional Finnish sound that Werwolf himself helped establish. What ensues is a thrilling record of gnarly, oldschool black metal that is nonetheless laden with melody and intricacy to carry you through the winter nights.
0:00:00 - Intro
0:08:19 - Serpent Noir / Sargeist - Transcendental Black Magic (World Terror Committee)
1:01:17 - Interlude - The Sarcophagus - “Legend Sleeps Behind the Mountains” fr. Towards the Eternal Chaos (Osmose Productions, 2009) (Out of print and not on Bandcamp, but easily available used and on streaming services)
1:08:25 - Ride for Revenge - Feed The Infamy (Bestial Burst)
1:53:03 - Grieve - Funeral (Werewolf Records)
2:55:27 - Outro - Impious Havoc - “Holy City in Flames” fr. Manifestations of Plague and War (Warfront Productions, 2007) (Available at various underground distros only it appears)
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Monday Jan 17, 2022
Monday Jan 17, 2022
Since we're on break for another week, here's another old bonus episode, this one from back in September 2020. We talk about this one a lot on the show, because it helped us figure out some important stuff about BM history - in particular, the crucial question, "Who did what riffs when?" So sit back, young warriors, with your pints of heavily adulterated ale, and let us regale you with elder legends of the Trenchcoat Era.....
Believe it or not, there was a time before Darkthrone's "The Cult Is Alive." A time before a million "blackened crust" bands were born. If, in 2005, you told someone you liked punkish black metal, they'd probably assume you meant something like Impaled Nazarene or Carpathian Forest. Albums like Suomi Finland Perkele and Black Shining Leather were once canonical, or close to it. But do they stand the test of time? And, more important, can they Withstand The Fall of Time? Let's find out....
Impaled Nazarene - Suomi Finland Perkele (Osmose, 1994)
Carpathian Forest - Black Shining Leather (Avantgarde Music, 1998)
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Friday Jan 07, 2022
Friday Jan 07, 2022
Here, to tide you over through Terminus Winter Break, is a bonus episode from just over a year ago, with a moody midwinter vibe and an emphasis on subgenre history. We've paired two bands that were basically canonical in the 00s, the first as a key influence on DSBM, the second as an important DSBM band. Revisiting these, though, there's a lot more going on. Forgotten Woods draw most of their riff-forms *directly* from goth and punk, to such an extent that, while this is obviously true Black Metal, it's not really Metal at all. Nyktalgia, likewise, is difficult to pigeonhole, proving that the Germans can't even kill themselves without being militant about it. Nobody really sounds like either of these bands, but why not? There's plenty to learn.
00:00 - Introduction
05:21 - Forgotten Woods - Sjel Av Natten (Pagan Records, 1995)
52:52 - Interlude - Trist - "Snění," fr. the Korium / Trist split (Ruin Productions, 2007). Luckily, there's a digital reissue (2017) fr. the excellent Slovak label Hexencave.
01:03:19 - Nyktalgia - Nyktalgia (No Colours, 2004)
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Tuesday Dec 28, 2021
Tuesday Dec 28, 2021
"Let's change the structure this time" The Black Metal Guy said. "Last year we ended up doing this sprawling 4 hour thing- this time, let's keep it a little tighter and not just sperg out the whole time."
Whoops.
Welcome to our final episode of the year- another 4+ hour session of obsessing over the vagaries of our favorite albums of the year. This time we not only talk about our personal top 20s but also make an effort to create a curated Terminus Aggregate List of the best and most representative records of this year. Have a bottle of your favorite whiskey at hand and dive down the rabbit hole as your hosts drink themselves into oblivion, hum half-remembered riffs, and try to articulate what exactly was the best music released in 2021.
As usual, we'll be taking some time off to take care of all the things we've been ignoring in real life for the past few months, but we'll return in mid-January to plow headfirst into yet another year of extreme metal. Thanks to all those who are listening, old friends and new. Merry Christmas, happy Yule, and a happy 2022 to all those who made it this far. We'll see you soon.
0:00:00 - Intro
0:11:42 - Personal lists - 20-16
0:43:05 - 15-11
1:27:51 - 10-6
2:16:17 - 5-1
3:12:58 - The Terminus Aggregate Debate
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Friday Dec 17, 2021
Friday Dec 17, 2021
It was a grueling and arduous journey, but we've made it, boys: the final regular Terminus episode of the year. We're a year and a half into our Sisyphean task of destroying metal jounalism, but before we provide The Only Year End List That Matters, we've got a few more records to cover. Our opening segment this time is dedicated to Serpent Rider, a new epic doom (or maybe reverb-drenched NWOBHM) project submitted by Brandon Corsair. We discuss the distinct fusion of Pagan Altar and speed metal on a handful of tracks taken from their split with Ezra Brooks- not the sort of thing we usually cover, but a great source of discussion with some solid riffs to boot.
Our first record of the night comes in the form of a surprise new release by Funeral Mist, a stalwart orthodox black metal project that has in some ways become more obscure over time. This one is an immediate hit with us- it's unique and individual while still being well rounded and polished, with rigorous structure and off-the-cuff ferocity working in perfect tandem. This leads to a fruitful discussion centering on the concept of orthodox black metal itself: is Funeral Mist really part of it? Is it a term with meaning anymore? Does anyone except old people like us even remember it!?
Wrapping up our year of new releases is the newest record by Pantheist, a long running funeral doom project well known within the genre but rarely discussed outside of it. Pantheist is an oddity even within funeral doom's oddity-centered world: a band with a prog rock heart lurking underneath all its low'n'slow rumblings. Have you ever wanted to hear Genesis at 50 BPM? As absurd a description as it may be, it's actually not too far off from the reality. Within this review, a question: what will be remembered as this era's greatest Covid Album?
0:00:00 - Intro ft. Serpent Rider
0:29:40 - Funeral Mist - Deiform (NoEvDia)
1:25:08 - Interlude - Ondskapt - “Revelations of Another Time” fr. Dödens evangelium (Next Horizon Records/Ajna Offensive/NoEvDia, 2005)
1:31:38 - Pantheist - Closer to God (Melancholic Realm Productions)
2:16:09 - Outro - Darkflight - “Distant Pain” fr. Perfectly Calm (Ars Magna Recordings, 2008) (Out of print and not on Bandcamp, but available on streaming services and readily available used and from some underground distros. The link is to an instance of the latter.)
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Friday Dec 10, 2021
Friday Dec 10, 2021
Weird episode today, boys- we've got weirdo death metal, we've got funeral doom, and we've got a lot of weird little tangents between everything. Opening the evening is a quick live reaction session to 1914, everyone's favorite EMOTIONALLY GRIPPING AND POWERFUL WW1 themed every-band-ripoff, but we quickly pivot to a look back at Amenra, a TBMG favorite that allows us to discuss the dubious concepts of "post-metal" and "atmospheric sludge" and what those terms actually refer to musically.
The first half of our episode is dedicated to the return of Danish death metallers Phrenelith, who return this year with their second full length record after making some pretty big waves with their debut in 2017. Phrenelith play death metal in the Dark Descent style- that is, Incantation, Swedeath, and Finndeath blended into a single mash. We have qualms, though- why is it so quiet and weirdly unaggressive? When is a riff a riff and not a half-riff? And how important is playing death metal when your musical goals seem entirely outside of it?
The back half is an entirely different beast with the return of Stabat Mater, a full 12 years after the project's debut full-length. We've touched on Mikko's funeral doom work before in our Torture Doom bonus episode, but over the years it's transformed into a wholly unique beast, exploring the uncomfortable spaces where sorrowful beauty and extreme ugliness brush against one another. This is difficult but rewarding music that encourages multiple listens... just maybe not if you're trying to have a positive attitude for the day.
0:00:00 - Intro ft. 1914 and Amenra
0:20:35 - Phrenelith - Chimaera (Nuclear Winter)
1:00:52 - Interlude - Iniquity - “The Bullet’s Breath” fr. Grime (Mighty Music, 2001) (Seemingly out of print and not available on Bandcamp, but used copies are easy to find.)
1:04:42 - Stabat Mater - Treason by the Son of Man (Northern Heritage)
1:56:23 - Outro - Godflesh - “Black Boned Angel” fr. Selfless (Earache Records, 1994) (Your local record store almost undoubtedly has 5 copies of this gathering dust right now.)
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Friday Dec 03, 2021
Friday Dec 03, 2021
Winter is setting in, holiday decorations are going up (if they didn't go up in September,) and the winds are full of good cheer and total economic and social collapse. What better way to celebrate the reason for the season than with a one-two punch of hideously ugly tunes from Finland? Before we get into that, though, we touch on the new split between Quebec's Délétère and Terminus alumni Sarkrista and have a quick discussion about modern black metal's relationship to Gothenburg melodeath and the future of "extreme pop metal."
First up is a TBMG favorite with Concrete Winds, returning for their sophomore full-length. For those unfamiliar, CW plays a hideously warped and savage style of death metal which owes as much to Deathstrike as it does modern brutal death. The new record is more of the same, but with some crucial modifications- the adoption of modern tech-black skronk riffing and faster, more intricate song structures which drive the comparison to brutal death metal even further. Does it stand up to the debut? Listen and see.
On the other side we have the return of the legendary Archgoat, a band whose critical status has always been contested in the greater metal scene. Typically, Archgoat sticks with their tried and true stomp 'n' blast technique, but the new record throws in some new tricks, particularly in deepening the music's connection to traditional metal and elaborating on its understated but clever structuring. I'd leave this on a provocative rhetorical question, but nah- it's Archgoat and it rules.
0:00:00 - Intro ft. Délétère
0:16:23 - Concrete Winds - Nerve Butcherer (Sepulchral Voice Records)
1:01:54 - Interlude - 3TEETH - “Pearls 2 Swine,” fr. 3TEETH (Artoffact / OMF, 2014) (TBMG forgot to say that the riff on “Dissolvent Baptism” sounds like a direct quote of the surprisingly abrasive mosh riff on this track - unless they’re both cribbing something from old Ministry.)
1:06:57 - Archgoat - Worship the Eternal Darkness (Debemur Morti)
1:52:14 - Outro - Jaguar - The Dutch Connection fr. Power Games (Neat Records, 1983) (Various presses available over the years- you can track down a copy on the used market fairly easily.)
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Sunday Nov 28, 2021
Sunday Nov 28, 2021
Sorry for the delay, guys, but we've arisen from our tryptophan-induced comas with, as always, yet another thrilling installment of your favorite Lithuanian falconry podcast. This is kind of a special one- beyond all expectations (and, frankly, all sense,) a listener has become Literally Dani Filth in order to forcibly submit a record to the show. Will you be the next to embody our favorite sexy gothic bad boy?
Speaking of which, Dani Filth's submission this week is the recent EP by Girtablullû, a raw black/ambient project that draws from modern tapeblack aesthetically, but musically hews closer to the weirder edges of the LLN. Gorked, untuned clean guitars, jangling interpretations of Demoncy riffs, and cryptic grumblings abound, making for something quite familiar to fans of the 00s CDr demo scene. It's highly varied and intriguing music, but our primary question follows: what, exactly, do we do with all these textures and ideas, and how do we develop this sound into something more established?
Next is the newest record from Antiq (of course,) the debut album of Diablation, which observes the traditions of 00s Euro symph-black with light brushings of goth and industrial. This sort of thing will be immediately familiar to those that remember that era's Spikefarm and Napalm Records releases, with bombastic, synth-forward delivery and all the Francophone arrogance one would demand from this style. But does this style stand the test of time after so much has changed within the realm of black metal? You be the judge.
Wrapping up the night is the surprise return of Germany's Anti, a DSBM project whose first full length 15 years ago has maintained a cult following. We listen with interest- what's happened in the intervening decade and a half? Well, nothing that we expected- this record is a truly strange mixture of ideas from Nocturnal Depression to Craft, with moment of brilliance and blockheadedness present even within individual songs. The clincher, though, is a welcome surprise: further confirmation, this time quite directly, that Satan has the fastest motorcycle.
0:00 - Intro ft. Planes Mistaken For Stars
0:14:50 - Girtablullû - Ancient Necromantic Rituals
0:54:10 - Interlude - Black Murder - “Fresh Flesh” fr. Feasts (Independent, 1995)
0:58:09 - Diablation - Allégeance (Antiq)
1:32:02 - Interlude - Planes Mistaken for Stars, “Never Felt Prettier,” fr. Mercy (Abacus Recordings, 2006 / Reissue by Deathwish in 2015)
1:34:46 - Anti - Anti (Independent)
2:15:32 - Outro - Planes Mistaken for Stars, “Copper and Stars” fr. S/T debut album (Deep Elm Records, 1998) and “Thunder in The Night Forever,” fr. the Spearheading The Sin Movement EP (No Idea Records, 2002).
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Friday Nov 19, 2021
Friday Nov 19, 2021
While other, less honorable metal publications are busy compiling end of year lists well before their time, Terminus plows ever onward with reviews, waiting until the 11th hour when the freshest, hottest albums emerge from the oven. On today's show we cover two records unusually prominent for our usual selection of underground sundries, but first we open up with a mini-review of the new Journey Into Darkness record. Like a distant comet only returning to Earth's orbit many years later, JIT brings back the sound of 00's symphonic black metal ala Limbonic Art with a record both majestic and menacing. This is a case of a style that means something very different nowadays- listen to our thoughts on the record and travel back to 2003.
First on the docket is the new record by Plebeian Grandstand, well regarded French black metal/hardcore/electronic/grinding... something who return with their fourth full length record. Rien ne suffit is already exploding across the internet, making its way onto many year end lists with its reputation for extremity, dissonance, and creativity. But now it's time for Terminus to weigh in on the topic: Is this a new era of extremity? Does this propel metal forward to locations previously unknown? And is this the best metal record of the year? You'll have to listen to find out. J/K it's no to all of those things.
On the flipside of the metal meets hardcore equation is 200 Stab Wounds, longtime Maggot Stomp stalwarts who have finally delivered their first full-length. And you know what? It's killer. Perhaps the first "full spectrum death metal" record we've covered on the show, 200 Stab Wounds synthesizes OSDM, brutal/slam death, and death metal influenced hardcore into a complete idea which harnesses all those energies into sharp, focused songs. Our hot take? This is what 2020s death metal is gonna sound like. Strap in.
0:00:00 - Intro ft. Journey Into Darkness - Infinite Universe Infinite Death (Independent)
0:18:14 - Plebeian Grandstand - Rien ne suffit (Debemur Morti Productions)
1:03:02 - Interlude - Hexis - “Fatum,” fr. XI (Swarm of Nails / Iron Plague, 2011)
1:05:36 - 200 Stab Wounds - Slave to the Scalpel (Maggot Stomp)
1:52:09 - Outro - Jungle Rot - “Gasping For Air” fr. Fueled By Hate (Olympic Recordings, 2004) (Somehow seemingly out of print and not available on Bandcamp, but copies are widely available on the used market)
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