Metal Riot

Being a closet Nazi does not make you a cool force of evil lurking in the shadows or whatever nonsense people tell themselves while listening to Skrewdriver alone and hating “weaker groups” but secretly wanting to be dominated by Terry Crews these days. Want a competing arena or marketplace of ideas and freedom? Fine. But many are simply too afraid to own their racist shit in public for fear of being ostracized by reasonable human beings. And yet you mock people closeted in the gay community or other  minorities who’ve feared for lives through history?

Some people praise Halford for being brave enough to come out in metal yet still help nurture conditions that make it hard to do so. Black metal has a massive problem with the cult of ambiguity. Black metal, for example, historically covets a sense of murky ambiguity often that can create occult or moral mystery or in actuality simply enable room for a lot of bs to go down.

Yes, it is easy on paper to agree with Trevor Noah when he says that Ann Coulter’s free speech must be protected, but when GOP groups, people with serious self-hate denial issues like Milo or goofy Proud Boy dorks are willingly going where they are overwhelmingly not wanted and the President is dog whistling Andrew Jackson enthusiasts because he is too much of a little slug to actually admit he is a racist piece of shit, there is a problem. The enabling of a larger platform at private institutions or elsewhere for controversy seeking scum who want to incite violence and then blame the oppressed groups for protesting is the epitome of gaslighting. It is generations of racism, white supremacist prison industrial complex prison for profit free labor crushing the spirits of black communities and then blaming them for their own unrest while simultaneously profiling and shooting them disproportionately. Go fuck yourself.

More BELOW.

Photo by Johnny Edward Photography

American black metal band Nightbringer have released their latest opus Terra Damnata, one of the highest hopes of the year for the genre. It does not let the listener down, a lengthy meditation on the dying world in the age of Kali with many passages that blaze by faster than you can say Austin Osman Spare while choking yourself. It has some of the most unrepentant passages of sheer assailment I have heard on any black metal since perhaps 1349’s recent primarily ferocious Massive Cauldron Of Chaos but the guitar playing here is way more experimental for the most part.

The record releases today, in case you weren’t already spending most of your day with the new Kendrick album and want to be actually damned, not just say DAMN. Blasting this is also a great way to piss off Jesus freaks on Good Friday. Stream Terra Damnata HERE or at Bandcamp HERE. I’m really enjoying the end sections of “Midnight’s Crown” past the 4:11 mark where things get downright Emperor level grandiose. Bad ass.

Regarding the album, vocalist Naas Alcameth comments: “With Terra Damnata we have tread even deeper into the labyrinth of certain esoteric traditions and sacred mythos, closer to the heart of the living darkness that destroys all and liberates but few. The spirit of the album is one of an ever backwards turning and embracing of both terror and ecstasis, love and death, before the gods and daemons of the Age of Misrule.”

Dimmu Borgir‘s resurgence is clearly firmly at hand with the level of excitement very high surrounding the new double DVD Forces Of The Northern Night (4/28). Check out “Gateways” below. Man, that stage production is friggin’ awesome.

Glorior Belli are streaming “Lies-Strangled Skies” from excellent new Agonia Release Sundown (The Flock That Welcomes). The record is out May 6th but you can stream the newest dark single at Bandcamp HERE.

The album is killer, more black metal and speed leaning than the last record but with one real epic avant garde stomper as well, the highly recommended bass heavy “Rebels In Disguise”. “Upheaval In Chaos Waters” is another highlight, guitars positively gleaming with malice over roared, pained vocals and precision drumming. “World So Spurious” even has a bad ass Celtic Frost-esque death grunt that any metalhead will get pumped hearing.

“Lies-Strangled” skies is the opening track from this anticipated release, the perfect soundtrack to a reading of Paradise Lost or for burning down the house. The stage is set with a military beat building up faster and faster under a commanding guitar line before the album pulls you into a grand majesty of no return.

“The production is by far one of the best that Glorior Belli ever had” – comments the band. “Drums & Bass are absolutely devilish and placed under the spotlight. Everything was recorded, mixed and mastered in our own studios, having an absolute control as usual over the sound. The guitar work overall will bring you back to the origins of Glorior Belli. Conceptually wise, Sundown (The Flock That Welcomes) will smother you with darkness and light, both stuffed down your throat with the same rage that could be heard on Glorior Belli’s ealier records. When the Night is coming down on you, will you find a way through the dark? A record for the very few of us who truly embrace the desire to break from the cosmic prison”.

Glorior Belli‘s last album, the devilishly swampy Gators Rumble, Chaos Unfurl, was damn near perfect. Thus it is with psychotic anticipation that we can let you know the French black metal project have a new beast on the way. Out May 6th on Agonia Records, you can bet Sundown (The Flock That Welcomes) is going to punish. Check out the lyric video for the title track below, a blasting ode to darkness which sounds very professional yet rippingly emphasizes the band’s black metal side more prominently once again. Ahhh, so stoked!

Pre order HERE.

Read more about the record including a band quote and tracklisting BELOW.

Greek black metal freedom fighters Rotting Christ continue their exhalted career of twisting expectations into fragments with the first, gloriously smoking track “In Nomine Dei Nostri” from new album Rituals. Hear the dark gem at Decibel HERE.

Whereas other less skilled bands would turn the heavily intoned chanting in this track to doggerel, Rotting Christ evoke a Satanic and brazen confidence that translates across this serious ear scorcher for a song that underscores the corruption in this world. The heart bleeding sense of melody that shoots through the song as well is truly something to behold, for the brave nd rebellious out there.

Preorder Rituals on CD or LP here.