Art in its Blackest form
This album from Ukrainian one man band Käkht Aräkh was already released in 2021, but has been playing since in the Black Forest Magazine camp.
This is one of the most unique black metal albums for years. It definitely has an old school vibe, but this concept album is something to be described as romantic black metal (like black metal could use more sub genres) as it leans on heavy use of melodies and piano. Anyway, it’s interesting and we like it!
Wandering in the night, Pale Swordsman! Ugh!
A week ago the trailer for the Lords of Chaos film was released, and it has been heavily discussed online. The book with the same name by Didrik Søderlind and Michael Moynihan which the film is based upon also had its controversies after its release in 1997.
I’m not going to discuss the reliability of the story in the plot, but the byline of the movies says it’s “based on truth and lies”. Something which I find fitting since a lot of the narrative back then was just that; based on truth and lies. What struck me though was the authenticity of some of the scenes in the trailer. I quickly recognized some well-known motives throughout the trailer.
Let’s start with this famous promo shot of Euronymous and Necrobutcher. First the original, then from Lords of Chaos.
And this picture of Dead, Hellhammer, Euronymous, and Necrobutcher from backstage at one of their early shows. First the original, then from Lords of Chaos.
The next picture of the early Mayhem lineup clearly inspired a scene in the trailer.
The next picture is a screenshot from an old low quality rehearsal video of Mayhem which clearly was used as a reference for the rehearsal room that is shown in the trailer.
These are just some of the references I found in the trailer. Just from watching the trailer I think they did a good job in reproducing the visuals from the time some of these events happened.
As several scenes from the movie was recorded in Norway, they even used a real Norwegian Stave Church. As a bonus fact from the trailer, this screenshot shows Gol Stave Church on Bygdøy in Oslo. It is most likely being used for depicting Fantoft Stave Church.
The movie will be released February 8, 2019. Let us know what you think about the trailer in the comment section.
Beautifully intense desperation.
That’s the words that comes to mind while listening to this record. With the End in Mind combines soothing instrumental parts with intense atmospheric post-black. And they do it really well.
With the End in Mind were originally formed back in 2010 as a solo project, but “…though initially a solitary, introverted endeavor, musical allies were recruited in 2013”, according to the band’s press letter. Since 2010 they’ve released two EPs and performed several gigs. Now they are ready to release their first album consisting of 5 songs (songs up to 14 minutes long). ‘Unraveling; Arising’ was actually already self-released back in 2016, but will now have an international vinyl release.
If you’re a fan of post-metal and black metal you should check out With the End in Mind. This album surely combines the best from both worlds, accompanied by desperate vocals. Album is out July 6th, 2018 through Sweden’s Temple of Torturous.
Tracklist:
1. Sings The Sky
2. Anguish Symmetry
3. Unraveling; Arising
4. From The True Source
5. Wheeling, Endlessly Wheeling
The tweet doesn’t say anything about which black metal song was being sung
The Norwegian police tweeted that they got a report about horrible shouts and screams from an apartment in Oslo. They headed out to the scene and got in contact with a guy that had been singing black metal. He was given order to stop the singing until 8 am. The tweet doesn’t say anything about which songs was being sung.
Melding til politiet om forferdelig rop og skrik i en leilighet. Politiet i kontakt med en person som hadde sunget Black Metal på stedet.
— Politiet i Oslo OPS (@oslopolitiops) 9. oktober 2016
Harakiri for the Sky has been around since 2011, and for those into post-black and depressive black metal, this Austrian duo is probably not unknown.
Already from their first album, I’ve admired their visual and lyrical expression. Their artworks are simply beautiful, and their depressive lyrics has a really poetic touch to them. And for each album they have crafted their style more and more, and their upcoming album ‘III: Trauma’ stands out as a unique performance of grandiose hoplessness. Listen to their full album below.
The Australian black metal scene has been on a rise the last ten years or so with high ranked bands such as Austere, Woods of Desolation, and Nazxul amongst others. Mesarthim is a worthy addition with their debut album ‘Isolate’.
Mesarthim sounds somewhat like a sci-fi version of Summoning, with slow hypnotic atmosphere that creates an impression of being completely alone in the desolate space. If you have seen the movie Gravity, you know what I’m talking about. That hopeless claustrophobic feeling of being lost in an endless void. So as you already may have thought, this release delivers an atmosphere that is pretty close to the depressive black metal sound that you may know from the mentioned Australian acts. The sound is so close to Nazxul, that you may even suspect they share some members, as the two members of Mesarthim go by the cryptic names . and ..
If you’re a fan of sci-fi and black metal, this is definitely a band to look out for. Start with checking their debut album in the Bandcamp link below, and get lost in space.
‘Isolate’ tracklisting:
1. Osteopenia
2. Declaration
3. Interstellar
4. Abyss
5. Floating
6. Isolate
The Norwegian hardware chain store Jernia probably has the most remarkable promotional campaign for their Black Friday sale. What do you get if you mix a Norwegian hardware store and Black Friday? Norwegian Black Metal of course!
Watch the commercial below:
Earlier this year Tribulation released their third album ‘The Children of the Night‘, and the official video for their masterpiece track ‘Strange Gateways Beckon’. Now their back with a completely new video for ‘Melancholia’. Watch it below:
As many of you may already know, we’re also running Black Forest Records, which is a record label, a management and a webshop dealing with extreme metal. In December, we unleashed Vyrju’s long awaited debut EP named ‘Black’. Behind Vyrju is no other than Jan, my partner in crime and life. Ever since we started Black Forest Magazine, our policy has always been to only write about music we really like, and I think Vyrju has qualities that deserves to be shared with our readers.
Lets start with the basics: Vyrju is an international band project with base in Norway, and can best be described as dark, melancholic and melodic black metal. It was started as a one man band by Jan F. Lindsø (Gjenferdsel) back in 2006. All instruments are performed by him, except drums and clean vocals which are performed by Tim Yatras (Germ, Austere, ex-Nazxul, ex-Woods of Desolation etc.) which appears as a session musician.
The feedback so far has been nothing but amazing! Zero Tolerance rated the EP 5/6, and wrote that ‘Black’ was an “immensely promising EP with its depressive, yet alluring, bittersweet black metal soul…”. Others said “Vyrju play grandiose and gorgeously melodic black metal that isn’t short on frostbitten sorrow and grief, straddling a similar line that bands like Austere”.
No Clean Singing ment that “Black is captivating”, and Kim Kelly (Kerrang, Pitchfork, Terrorizer, Metalsucks etc.) wrote that “Vyrju offer windswept melodic black metal buried under new-fallen snow. Oddly catchy and prettily plaintive”.
Meat, Mead and Metal sums it up in a great way: “Those who can reconcile having a record collection heavy on early Darhthrone and the newer stuff from Alcest (such as me) are sure to spend plenty of time with “Black.”
Vyrju – Black
The EP is available through most channels and streaming services:
Black Forest Records (physical/digital)
Bandcamp (physical/digital)
You’ll find Vyrju through the usual channels, like Facebook, Instagram, Spotity, Soundcloud, Amazon plus many more. Below you can watch Vyrju’s playlist on Youtube:
A month ago, we featured Autumn’s Dawn first full length album here on Black Forest Magazine. It’s really an unique piece of depressive rock which mainly is a product of two creative minds getting together to create music. I hooked up with Tim Yatras aka Sorrow, to have a chat with him about his side project Autumn’s Dawn, and his main solo project Germ.
If I have understood you correctly, Autumn’s Dawn is a cooperation where you and Anguish get together and work on material that doesn’t fit your individual projects. Am I right? Did you already have material that fitted together, or did you compose a lot of the material together?
Yes, that’s pretty much it [laughs]. We both are constantly writing music, and thus have a lot of material which may not fit our main bands. We both had material written in regards to the debut EP – in fact, that EP was basically made up of riffs that we had laying around. When we decided to do AD we compiled our ideas together and came up with the EP, but when we did “Gone”, almost all material for that was written specifically for the album. We pretty much started from scratch with that one.
I think you have released quite a diverse album, and at times I found it hard to put a label on the whole album. Even though the basis is depressive rock, you even touch everything from softer music to black metal. Was this intended, or just a consequence of your way of working together?
This is absolutely just us working together. When we set out to write the album, we just said we would do what comes naturally, and not worry about any genre limitations, or worry about what people may think or anything. Originally the album actually started out even less BM than what it ended up being, but along the way, and especially once we began the recording, more and more BM elements crept in. At the end of the day, I think it’s fair to say that we just made an honest album without thinking too much about it. It is what it is, I’m not proclaiming it to be a masterpiece or anything, but I think it’s a pretty cool depressive rock album with some BM elements here and there.
Anguish and Sorrow
When we set out to write the album, we just said we would do what comes naturally, and not worry about any genre limitations, or worry about what people may think or anything.
In Germ you played some selected gigs, but I haven’t seen much live activity lately. Do you still plan to do more shows, even with Autumn’s Dawn, or do you prefer to be more of a studio artist?
Regarding Germ live shows, I think I’m just about done with shows within Australia. I did a few shows at the end of last year and the start of this year, I think that’s enough for now, for Australia at least. I’ll focus attention elsewhere in the world for 2015. As for AD live shows, we have no plans at the moment to play live, however we have not ruled anything out. If we get a good offer, we may take it up! Lets just see what the future holds…
Do you have any plans for Autumn’s Dawn in the future, or will it still work as a side project?
AD will always be a side project. Anguish and I will always have our main bands which will take priority. Having said that, I honestly believe AD will continue on for the forseeable future. We work really well together, and I’m sure at some point next year we’ll get together and start working on a new album. Maybe we’ll even do a few live shows, who knows!?
More:
Facebook