Episodes

Friday Aug 06, 2021
Friday Aug 06, 2021
After a long period dwelling in the subterranean bowels of extreme metal, Terminus presents an episode of expansive, melodic black metal (and stuff that kind of sounds like it.) If you're tired of cavernous murk, this should be a refreshing bite of pickled ginger for you, with records that explore dense woodlands, airy mountaintops, and all points in between. And urbanized Japan, apparently.
Caverne's new record opens the episode, bludgeoning the listener with a style of melodic French black metal which is less chivalric and more primeval and barbaric. As the stomping strains of Burzum and Bilskirnir provide a martial rhythmic core, subtle and elegant melodies pierce the clouds, reflecting an era of French black metal seemingly forgotten until now. At once triumphant and thuggish, this is a must for all dedicated fans of the show.
Following this is the new split between Moulderyawn and Robes of Snow, each playing a variation on modern, folk-infused, forest-dwelling black metal. Moulderyawn returns from their first appearance on our show in 2020 with improved production, riffier songs, and a more focused vision, while Robes of Snow presents a vast and expansive take on a core of post-black ideas. Undoubtedly of interest to all those who enjoy ent and ent accessories.
गौतम बुद्ध (Gautama Buddha) is loathsome.
Wrapping up is the newest record by Swarrrm, a personal favorite of both hosts but only occasionally mentioned on the show. An evolution of grinding, metal-inflected Japanese screamo, Swarrrm goes so far down their personal rabbit hole that their genre is now nearly indescribable, with elements of powerfully overdriven 70s rock, emo, deathgrind, and God knows what else merging seamlessly into something striking, beautiful, and worthy of repeated listens. Don't be scared away by the description- you're gonna love this one.
0:00 - Intro featuring Bloody Cumshot
0:13:14 - Caverne - La fin de tous les chants (Résilience)
0:55:30 - Moulderyawn/Robes of Snow - When the Last Forest Has Died (Independent/Old Mill? Maybe?)
1:38:28 - Interlude - Gloosh - “Woodland Waltz,” fr. Sylvan Coven (out October 21, 2021 on Drevo Music)
1:46:54 - गौतम बुद्ध - पुनर्जन्म भाग १ (Gautama Buddha - Rebirth Part 1) (Independent) (And here's where all the text is "borrowed" from)
2:16:05 - Swarrrm - ゆめをみたの - I Dreamed… (Long Legs Long Arms Records)
3:15:17 - Outro - Confuse - all of the Spending Loud Night EP (Confuse Records, 1987)
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Thursday Jul 29, 2021
Terminus Episode 60 - Broder, Luminous Veil, Serpentrance, Thaumaturgy
Thursday Jul 29, 2021
Thursday Jul 29, 2021
It's double episode day, boys! In addition to a sprawling interview with Lori Bravo of Nuclear Death is your regularly scheduled session of extreme metal discussion. This episode features four records with numerous crossing threads which will be familiar to regular listeners- the resurgence of cavernous black/death metal, the atavistic urges of primordial extreme metal, and the concept of songwriting sprawl vs. clearer organization. As usual we pride ourselves on our lack of approachability, and today's records will undoubtedly satisfy the tastes of anyone who wants their metal weird and monolithic.
Starting the session is the new EP by Denmark's Broder, a barbaric attack of primitive black/death metal from the Korpsand Circle. Broder resembles many things around the edges- war metal, Celtic Frost, primitive deathrash- but finds its own identity in its abstraction. This is a short record that punches far above its weight in sheer intensity and aggression, and is an absolutely essential listen for those whose favorite parts of extreme metal from when it was first slithering out of the primordial ooze.
On a completely different note is Luminous Veil, who perform a thoroughly eclectic style of... symphonic post-black with breakcore elements? Its constituent parts are as diverse as possible, but they add up to a whole with a distinct vision. Joyous explosions of arcing riffs, chiming synths, and hyperspeed drum machine theatrics make for a record which will undoubtedly be divisive, but likely exactly what a few people have been looking for their whole lives.
After our break comes two sides of the cavernous black/death coin. First up is Serpentrance, a Russian band who imbue the traditional sounds of Profanatica and Archgoat with a granite slab of minimal, crushing doomdeath. Other bands play; Serpentrance churns with a terrible weight and certainty which brings to mind some of the ugliest parts of modern doom and sludge. You know it's good when even the fast parts sound slow, like the band is struggling to complete a song while being waterboarded.
Concluding the evening's festivities is a listener submission. Thaumaturgy also plays a cavernous style of black/death/doom metal, but coming from a radically different direction, more interested in pointelistically etching out abstract, colorful riffs like a Jackson Pollock interpretation of Onward to Golgotha. It's abstract and vertiginous music more concerned with dizzying the listener than crushing them, but when the final car on the rollercoaster starts its descent, the G-forces equal that of any better known ride.
0:00 - Intro/Terminus News feat. Nuclear Death
0:13:42 - Broder - Det højes smed (Independent by Korpsand brothers)
0:52:56 - Luminous Veil - Vespers for the Loom and Lain (BMC Productions)
1:34:29 - Interlude - Tårne Spirer - “Mit vaesen forstummer,” fr. Varmblod (Instruments of Discipline, 2018)
1:43:15 - Serpentrance - Akra Tapeinosis (Godz ov War Productions)
2:22:02 - Thaumaturgy - Charnel Gnosis (Adirondack Black Mass)
3:02:09 - Outro - Witch Tomb - Crippled Messiah fr. Crippled Messiah (Die Todesrune Records, 2009)
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Thursday Jul 29, 2021
Terminus Interview - Lori Bravo of Nuclear Death
Thursday Jul 29, 2021
Thursday Jul 29, 2021
Terminus is proud to present an interview 17 years in the making. The Death Metal Guy sits down for an extended session with Lori Bravo of the immortal and still criminally underappreciated Nuclear Death, an early Arizona death metal band who demolished all comers in the extremity arms race before transforming into exquisite experimental music. Unlike nearly anything before or since, Nuclear Death represents one of the pinnacles of extreme music for its era: raw, brutal, eccentric, and imaginative, providing an inspiration for TDMG since he was but a young squire in extreme metal.
Tremendous ground is covered with Lori, starting with her current solo work before turning back the clock with an extended history of the band. Lori is open, honest, funny, and in possession of an esoteric knowledge of what it means to not merely make art, but to live it in the fullest sense. It's a weird, wandering conversation which touches on nearly everything imaginable before concluding with something very special.
In conspiracy with Lori Bravo herself, Terminus is proud to announce the release of the entire Nuclear Death catalog in digital form for the first time in history. With much of this material difficult to track down over the years, the band's incredible discography can now be obtained at Nuclear Death's posthumous Bandcamp page, with all records and demos now available for the modern audience. Check out the material and enjoy one of Terminus' wildest trips yet.
0:00 - Intro, Lori Bravo’s solo work
0:42:20 - Lori Bravo - “This Devil I’ll Allow (Southern Ruby Devil)” fr. Bare Bones (Independent, 2021)
0:51:30 - A history of Nuclear Death and beyond
2:57:56 - Outro - Nuclear Death - “Days of the Weak,” fr. ...For Our Dead… (Wild Rags Records, 1992)
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Thursday Jul 22, 2021
Terminus Episode 59 - Lykhaeon, Anthropophagus Depravity, Hell Strike, Sarinvomit
Thursday Jul 22, 2021
Thursday Jul 22, 2021
On a hot summer night in July of 2021, the dread lich Terminus rises from its grave again. Our break was a much needed one, but our addiction to painstaking discussion of extreme metal is one not so easily shaken by a touch of abstinence. Join us once again as we relapse into the worst of our habits with four new records from all corners of the metal scene. Did you miss us? No? That's okay I guess.
Lykhaeon cuts the ribbon on the podcast's grand re-opening ceremony with a style of murky, textural black/death metal that seems to be developing before our very eyes. Equal parts caverncore, orthodox, and oldschool Norse, Lykhaeon's style attempts to drag its ambient oddities and gauzy yet weighty production back towards the center via a judicious injection of traditional, incisive black metal riffing. We need a name for this: Post-Orthodox? Cavernblack? Either way, Lykhaeon establishes themselves as a standard bearer for this style, whatever its name might be.
It wouldn't be Terminus without a barrage of brutal death, and Anthropophagus Depravity provides exactly that. An Indonesian band surprisingly themed after Mayan religious atrocities, these guys work to create a new foundation for brutal death to build on. Blast beats and palm-muted 16th note runs? Check, of course, but there's also snatches of Ulcerate's watery dissonance and older Behemoth's vast and epic riffing. At once varied and utterly uncompromising, these upstarts present themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the new wave of brutal death.
After our break we tackle Hell Strike's debut EP, which presents a swirling combination of death, black, and thrash metal that may be familiar to those who have heard other bands attempting to reinvigorate the primordial ooze of proto extreme metal. Unlike many of those, though, Hell Strike approaches the challenge with an attack of razor-sharp tremolo riffing, propulsive thrash rhythms, and structural ideas lent from the most sophisticated ends of Swedish death metal. There's no thunking murk to be found here (not that there's anything wrong with that)- just a precise and rigorous attempt to recreate the style's roots in a new fashion.
Concluding our evening is the second full-length by Sarinvomit who wholeheartedly embrace a style of black metal now forgotten: that of Norsecore, most benighted of black metal's many spawn. There's blasting, angular riffing, and poisonous vocals, but also a wonderful sense of rhythmic play and a real passion for the days where black metal was still heavy and uncompromising. Are you tired of Finnblack, postblack, and any other "pretty" black metal? Here is your antidote. Not to be taken orally.
0:00 - Intro/Terminus News ft. Perceptions of Torment
0:10:28 - Lykhaeon - Opprobrium (Repose Records)*
0:52:37 - Anthropophagus Depravity - Apocalypto (Comatose Music)
1:31:36 - Interlude - Tiamat - “Whatever That Hurts” fr. Wildhoney (Century Media Records, 1994) (Available on all streaming services or in a batch of 20 at your local record store)
1:37:24 - Hell Strike - Hellstrike (Chaos Records)
2:16:16 - Sarinvomit - Awaken Ye Impious Hordes of Shaitan (Blasphemous Art Productions)
2:56:07 - Outro - Godslaying Hellblast - “Domination Hellfuck” fr. Bestial Laceration of Angelcunts (Hate & Murder Productions, 2011)
*CLARIFICATION: Death. Void. Terror. is a Helvetic Underground Committee project.
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Wednesday Jul 21, 2021
Terminus Prime 11 - Enter The Tomb of Torture Doom
Wednesday Jul 21, 2021
Wednesday Jul 21, 2021
For as long as I've known him, The Death Metal Guy has been threatening to compile the definitive history of an almost-totally-forgotten subgenre -- torture doom. A few months ago, he finally made good on those threats. In this special bonus episode, previously available only to Terminus Prime subscribers, I stand by as sounding-board and student, while TDMG talks me through the rapid rise and equally rapid fall of an insular scene he followed from within. What you'll get here isn't just a labyrinthine narrative about torture doom, but a spoken ikon of torture doom, the spirit of the music made present in words of sprawling scope and singular intent.
This is some of TDMG's finest work thus far, and certainly one of our most ambitious episodes. It's also our first foray into a new project: giving you the Terminus Alternate History of Extreme Metal in full, and building monuments for things that deserve to be remembered. TDMG is spearheading the effort, and we'll have more exciting news on that front in the coming week.
00:00 - Introduction
13:06 - Cruel progenitors - Abruptum / Black Mass of Absu / Woods of Belial
39:27 - Shadow of The Torturer - Wormphlegm / Stabat Mater / Khanate
01:12:27 - "A big year for torture doom" - Bunkur / Moss
01:42:18 - Return of The Torturer - Wormphlegm's full-length
01:53:26 - Latecomers, small projects, and other curiosities
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Friday Jul 02, 2021
Terminus Episode 58 - Sxuperion, Blinding Sun, HellLight, Eisenhand
Friday Jul 02, 2021
Friday Jul 02, 2021
In this feverish, borderline hallucinatory episode of Terminus, your two hosts unleash an enormous and bizarre late night recording session which goes off the rails rapidly through a combination of overwork, sleep deprivation, and alcohol consumption. We started at 10 PM and ended somewhere in the wee hours, reduced to gibbering wrecks in an episode where TDMG yells at his cats, The Offspring are sampled in conjunction with Maquahuitl, and the adoption of crack cocaine as podcast performance-enhancing drug is seriously considered.
We open with Sxuperion, a project The Black Metal Guy has long and winding history with. War metal from beyond time and space, this band combines the rigor of Rites of Thy Degringolade with the analog synth-driven sounds of marginal electronic music, altogether making music unnerving, precise, and manic in its whiplike motions. Highly recommended for dedicated Terminators- this is what we dig through all those goat albums to find.
Following is the debut full-length by a supporter's project, Blinding Sun, whose raw digital production belies a truly holistic understanding of black metal from origin to modernity. Blinding Sun sounds like everything at once, from a stripped-down Taake to modern post- and emo-infused projects, but it's all wrapped together with a strikingly versatile sense of guitar technique. These are challenging, winding songs that reveal more and more on repeated listens, granting deeper understanding to the considerate listener.
After the break, we dive into TDMG's side, starting with Brazil's HellLight, a long-running funeral doom band which plays romantic and yearning music that nevertheless hews closely to the origins of the genre. Structurally bold, refreshingly minimal, and (of course) crushingly despairing, this is a record which goes a long way to rehabilitating the romantic funeral doom style in the eyes of your hosts. We'll need to dig further into this band's history and its scene- who knows how many more gems can be unearthed down south?
Finally, bloodied and broken, we stumble across the finish line with the brilliant debut record by Eisenhand, a definite contender for one of our records of the year. TDMG shyly presents it to his co-host: "Is this what you mean when you talk about metalpunk, dad?" TBMG replies, smiling: "It sure is, son. Go grab your glove; we'll listen to it while we throw the ol' ball around."
Thanks for listening, Terminators. We'll be taking a two week break for R&R and will return on the week of the 19th. Throw some posers on the barbecue and enjoy Sword Boy Summer on your own... until darkness and evil, as always, returns.
0:00 - Intro/News ft. Anal Stabwound
0:14:04 - Sxuperion - Auscultating Astral Monuments (Bloody Mountain Records)
0:51:46 - Blinding Sun - The Magic Mountain (Pallid Vesture - tape / Death Shadow - LP and digital)
1:38:35 - Interlude - Owl’s Blood - “Spiritual Substantial Wisdom” fr. Cold Night of Meditation (Altare Productions, 2014)
1:45:51 - HellLight - Until The Silence Embraces (Solitude Productions)
2:31:56 - Eisenhand - Fires Within (Dying Victims Productions)
3:26:54 - Outro - Morsüre - Neither Pity Nor Remorse fr. Acceleration Process (Devil’s Records, 1985) (All versions long out of print, but used copies are easy to find from private sellers.)
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Thursday Jul 01, 2021
Thursday Jul 01, 2021
Long ago on Terminus episode 24 we reviewed a record called "Swaraj: or, "Self Rule"," by Dressed in Streams. Little did we know this would start a long-running relationship with the mastermind behind Colloquial Sound Recordings, Damian Master, whose enthusiastic response to that review culminates in this unusual episode of Terminus. In a first for the podcast, The Black Metal Guy presents a deeply personal and probing review of A Pregnant Light's "Broken Play" on the second anniversary of that record's release. Digging down into the musical, emotional, and philosophical qualities of the record, The Black Metal Guy analyzes the structural content of the music while also tracing the connections between black metal, the self, and the characters that exist between both.
Following this is a sprawling interview with Damian Master, the individual behind both A Pregnant Light and Colloquial Sound Recordings. Equal parts hilarious and nakedly honest, Damian discusses at length his own musical sojourns, musical culture and industry at large, and his ever-evolving relationship with his own craft. Damian is a man possessed by both intense personal will and a wry sense of realism, making for what is undoubtedly one of the finest interviews on Terminus so far.
0:00 - Review: A Pregnant Light's "Broken Play"
01:09:59 - Interlude - Aksumite - “Bestial Lust (Bitch),” fr. The Dark Saint of Stockholm (a salacious three-way split by Colloquial Sound Recordings, 2021)
1:12:39 - Intro, church camp black metal, early history
1:32:00 - Playing live, full band challenges, metal and hardcore fashion, freezer jeans
1:43:46 - Purple metal, the second wave, record store woes
1:58:03 - Colloquial Sound Recordings, youth culture, modern music listening habits, Bandcamp and music industry
2:42:24 - APL’s future, music outside the artist, Yeats, conclusion
3:06:05 - Outro - “Heart-Shaped Apple,” fr. I Licked It, Now It’s Mine (Colloquial Sound Recordings, 2021)
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Friday Jun 25, 2021
Terminus Episode 57 - Blind Hate, Gallows, Thy Light, Hanging Garden
Friday Jun 25, 2021
Friday Jun 25, 2021
It was a dark and stormy night at Terminus HQ- in a literal sense, since this episode was recorded over the course of a couple days when TDMG's power was knocked out mid-recording. Dark forces conspire against us, but we drive ever forward in the name of Sword Boy Summer, now fully upon us. Today's theme? The return of "uncool" styles of metal from the mid-90s and 00s, just barely old enough to inspire feelings of nostalgia in your hosts, finally vindicated in their love of all the music they were bullied about in high school.
The episode opens with a Terminus landmark: The Black Metal Guy's first ever brutal death metal submission. Predictably, it's an odd one: Blind Hate operates in the deepest reaches of the Japanese death metal scene but takes their influences from the most thuggish and ruggish elements of NYDM circa '97. TDMG predictably spergs out, rushing to recommend all the OTHER bands his cohost now needs to listen to. Beyond the immediate love of creeping, crawling, crushing hardcore breakdowns, however, is a work of considerable depth which reveals more and more on subsequent listens.
In a twist of hideous irony, it's TDMG that brings spartan black metal to the table in the form of Gallows. This Salem, Massachusetts duo plays black metal that was nowadays when your hosts grew up but is now almost oldschool- the clattering, discordant strains of Under a Funeral Moon and the oldest work by Mutiilation could be straight out of the late 90s were it not for subtle gestures at modern songwriting standards. It's a fun record with both Unholy Black Metal style rippers as well as slow-burn stuff for the more refined.
We return from our interlude with a blast from TDMG's past with the new EP by Thy Light, a project from the last gasps of DSBM before that scene collapsed. Have you heard DSBM before? You've kind of heard this, then, but it's the little things that count- subtle harmonic color, wonderful rhythmic arrangements and- face-melting guitar solos? Two sprawling tracks announce the return of one of DSBM's unsung heroes, much to the pleasure of your hosts. Back in the day it was just Suicidal Black Metal! I can't handle you whippersnappers!
Concluding the episode is the newest release by Hanging Garden, a melodic, goth-inflected doom/death band drawn from the old Peaceville style who liven things up with remarkable poise and pacing. This is far outside of the usual Terminus wheelhouse but undeniably excellent, making new converts to the kvlt of clean female vocals and tambourine accompaniment. Terminus listeners are exactly the sort of weirdos who would love the transitional records by bands like Paradise Lost and Amorphis, so here's a band for you, who attempt to convert those awkward, fawn-like steps into a limestone-solid foundation to build upon.
0:00 - Intro
0:05:55 - Blind Hate - Shinbe - Expulsion of Foreigners (Rock Stakk Records)
0:46:35 - Gallows - 66 Black Wings (Katafalque)
1:21:59 - Interlude - Avsky - Fuck Your Values, Fuck Your Beliefs fr. Malignant (Moribund Records, 2008)
1:29:55 - Thy Light - Thy Light (Independent)
2:16:53 - Hanging Garden - Skeleton Lake (Lifeforce Records)
2:57:29 - Outro - Novembers Doom - Collapse of the Fallen Throe fr. The Pale Haunt Departure (The End Records/Candlelight Records, 2005, or you can find a hard copy of this one just about anywhere)
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Thursday Jun 17, 2021
Terminus Episode 56 - Oppress., Rain of Terror, Lotus of Darkness, Narbeleth
Thursday Jun 17, 2021
Thursday Jun 17, 2021
On this sultry Summer edition of Terminus, your hosts spend some time clearing out the email inbox with (mostly) a series of submissions as daring as they are different. A veritable charcuterie board of (mostly) black metal awaits the seasoned listener, from the absurdly dissonant to the majestically folk-inspired, emerging from climes tropical and otherwise. Much to our pleasant surprise, each record stakes a claim on different niche interests of the podcast, from the roiling stenchcore of the late 80s to the full-spectrum black metal of 2021 and beyond. This is a deep cut episode, folks- tell all your friends you were here when we get (mostly) famous.
Returning from its chrome crypt, Oppress. returns to the show with a new EP of hideous, brain-boiling black metal that displays a serious advancement and refinement of the project's sound. Drawing from pools of forgotten edge-case black metal as well as industrial, Oppress. augments its hypodermic guitar attack with a much appreciated bit of low-end bludgeoning. Need a record to clear your apartment after a house party? This is your stop.
The next record, however, is the one to get that same party started- Finland's Rain of Terror presents a short, bulldozing record of crusty, thrashy, moshy... something that inspires all sorts of comparisons from The Black Metal Guy. Like a forgotten '85 thrash EP accidentally played on 33, "Witch Hunt" decimates villages at a deliberate, crushing midpace, leaving no survivors but those who place the sign of Deviated Instinct on their doorframes. Play this for your friends with the trvest of denim jackets, claim it's from the 80s, and submit your reactions to our email.
After our interlude, Lotus of Darkness emerges from the sweltering heat of summertime Thailand to present their second full-length. A folk-black metal record in the truest sense of the word, the band plays music which pays tribute to their homeland and Scandinavia in equal form on both melodic and structural levels, devastating all imitators with dhas of intricate twin guitar riffs, languid Thai fiddles, and romantic, lingering songs which bloom in the same manner as their eponymous flower.
Wrapping things up is Narbeleth, a black metal band of Cuban origin The Death Metal Guy distantly remembers from a festival set far, far away. While the other records on today's episode reflect single-minded rigor, Narbeleth instead chooses the difficult and demanding path of Full Spectrum Black Metal, with arrays of moonlit, magical riffs which reveal more and more on repeated listens. Listen in real time as your hosts check the samples, evolving from "this is a really good black metal record" to "this might be one of the best things this year."
0:00 - Intro feat. Hollowed Body (Noxious Ruin)
0:16:19 - Oppress. - Regina Mundi (Independent)
0:51:36 - Rain of Terror - Witch Hunt (Independent / LP on Hellation Records)
1:28:43 - Interlude - Sacrilege - “Winds of Vengeance,” fr. Within The Prophecy (Under One Flag/Metal Blade Records, 1987)
1:36:09 - Lotus of Darkness - Sompas-Naga (Namtaru Records)
2:23:18 - Narbeleth - Svmma Cvm Nox Arcana (Folter Records)
3:03:55 - Outro - Aboriorth - “Bullets of Hate” fr. Far Away From Hateful Mankind Plague (Antichristian Front Records, 2007, but seemingly long out of print)
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Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
Terminus Episode 55 - Passéisme, Polemicist, Fluids, Cloak of Altering
Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
Wednesday Jun 09, 2021
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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