Drag yourself down into the lightless Vale of Pnath, into the eerie shadow of the fabled peaks of Throk and listen – what do you hear? Deranged howls of the denizens from the Plateau of Leng fill the air and you realise, it is the music of Innsmouth. From the looming fog appears three misshapen heads, likely held together by the turbans perched upon them, and you see it is the cursed ones; those whose rotted and mangled limbs made the sounds that haunted you so. Thick walls of noise, a complete disregard for compression and guitars so dense it makes the ears drip red. Says vocalist and guitarist Nightgaunt; “With tentacles clutching at our very throats and a quagmire in our hearts, how could we sound any other way?” Dwelling in the beautiful but dangerous Blue Mountains of Australia, theirs is a style of blackened death metal that honours not only the Great Old Ones but also those of this world such as Bolt Thrower, Armoured Angel and Grand Belial’s Key. Expect neither technical prowess nor showmanship from this music, rather a steady and hypnotic translation of the horrors found deep within the desolate recesses of consciousness; that ugly place … Read More

Necroblood’s story reads as a kind of war metal fairytale. Small band from Paris comes together, records a demo’s worth of filthy, VON and Archgoat-worshippin’ tunes, then gets swept off its feet by French black metal royalty MkM and signed to his newly-resurrected label in order to release their debut EP, ‘The Rite of Evil’, in 2011. “MkM offered this deal after stumbling upon our demo and seeing us play in Paris,” an unnamed ghoul intones. “He really liked the music and atmosphere of Necroblood and he honoured us with the resurrection of Spikekult to release an EP. I have to admit that being on a label that released material such as Demoncy or Grand Belial’s Key, and that was obviously only resurrected for us and an Aosoth release, is very flattering. It’s an incredible promotion, which isn’t offered to everybody in this particular black metal scene, and especially for a small local band!” Humility is a virtue, but that’s about the only virtuous thing about this blasphemous horde. Alongside Ritualization, Necrowretch, Affliction Gate, Perversifier and Cadaveric Fumes, Necroblood are leading the charge for a new wave of French extremity. With Deathspell Omega out searching for the philosopher’s stone and Alcest … Read More

US black metal has always suffered from a ‘Born Too Late’ mentality. Although Possessed undeniably had an influence on the second wave rage and bands like Judas Iscariot and Grand Belial’s Key flew the flag for Uncle Sam, the country has always been slow on the blackened uptake. Recently though Illinois has unleashed a darkened fury in the forms of bands like Nachtmystium, Avichi, Alehammer and now Black September. So, is Chicago the new Bergen?

“No,” is the sullen reply from guitarist Chris Morrow. “I don’t consider Black September a black metal band.” That angry answer is the most black metal response we’ve heard this issue, so we’ll beg to differ, but listeners can decide what genre, if any, BS have to be tethered to after spinning new album ‘Into Darkness’, which summons a dissonance of black metal, Stockholm death metal and English crust.

“We had so many ideas going into this record,” Chris admits. “We started writing soon after the last LP was released, we wanted to start this album exactly where we left off with the last one. ‘The Forbidden Gates Beyond’ had nothing to hide. It was unrefined and to the point. We wanted to add another level of depth … Read More