Category: Album Reviews

Label: Season of Mist
Origin: United Kingdom x Sweden

Born of the dark rockers from Crippled Black Phoenix, a new demon rises from fiery ashes. Johnny the Boy razes the extreme scene with a bulldozer driven by contempt and hatred. Each track on their debut You stomps the ground flat leaving the listener gasping for air through the cracks.

The namesake for this group is made absolutely clear in the opening seconds of “Die Already.” “Johnny the Boy has done it again” – iconic lines muttered in the 1979 cult-classic Mad Max – punctuate the amplified feedback and build anticipation at the start of the record. Slow, melodic riffs float to the earth, before lead vocalist Belinda Kordic‘s shrieking black metal vocals dig through the dirt and rip the soul out of the listener. The pace of the onslaught is surprisingly controlled, and offers a refreshing take on an extreme style – a melodic-blackened-grind. This is the genre you didn’t think you needed.

Songs are lengthy, another revelation in a land dominated by brief, breakneck tracks. “Grime” bleeds effortlessly into its opening verse. Gojira-like stop-start notes blend into melodic riffages, and Belinda’s lubricated vocals thrust the song forward with ease. Lead guitarist Justin Greaves explores the edges of the album’s scorched landscape with a variety of continuous riffs – a true headbanger’s delight. A keen fan of extreme metal will note that his resume, including stops with Norwegian black metallers Borknagar and before that, English sludge-crust group Iron Monkey, has allowed him certain creative freedoms and flexibility with song building that absolutely mushroom-clouds here. Bassist Matt Crawford brews a down-tuned toxin in the beginning of “He Moves” that would make Black Sabbath die young, a doom-triggering potion that preludes the atomic force of the majority of the track.

“Crossings” opens like a Satanic church service with a muffled bell tolling out death and destruction, before an almost western-metal (think Wayfarer) riff opens the sonic passageways to the altar of doom. Cascading drums tumble down the musical score in preparation for the oncoming storm, and Belinda’s shrieks wallow in sludge-infested guitar and bass. “Druh” and “Wired,” both clocking in below three minutes, are the shortest and most aggressive tracks on the entirety of You.

Without You (34:03 - 41:16)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnNHKoPfH7M

Standout track “Without You” is shocking – in the best way possible. This otherwise grimey ballad features the album’s only apparent clean vocals, sounding like a lonely, old witch in her rocking chair telling stories of the departed. Melody creeps in midway through the track, as the vocals become distorted and heavy, and the signature Johnny the Boy sound is back. After another brief pause, a screaming solo rides the wind on the last couple minutes of the record, the entire song a sonic treat – very much Johnny the Boy‘s answer to Watain‘s “They Rode On” or Lamb of God‘s “Overlord.”

Johnny the Boy is a refreshing, thoughtful new band that challenges the current extreme metal environment. Debut album You is a wild ride, provoking terror and introspection in each track, and concluding with one of the most versatile and spellbinding metal tracks of the year.

For a more personal journey with Johnny the Boy, read our interview with them here!

FFO: Full of Hell, Wayfarer, Ante-Inferno, Mad Max and Conan the Barbarian

Label: Unsigned/Independent
Origin: Sicily, Italy

Italian death dealers Dechristianized deliver unyielding heaviness and blistering guitar solos in their latest EP, Litanies of Iconoclasm. The stakes are high for this 90’s-inspired death metal entry, considering the full boat of artists working in this hallowed pit, and i ragazzi from Sicily do not disappoint. Turn after turn reveals one killer track after another, and outside of the brief introductory hand, listeners are left with six of a brutal kind.

Ante up with the intro track “Diabolical Dimension,” a short but moving atmospheric escape into distance screams, crackling fire, and uncertain static, all setting the table for the lead single, “The Serpent’s Wrath.” This track presents a powerful spread up front, with blast-beating and classic riffs carrying Dorian’s epic tuned-down death growls. A Slayer-like squealing solo elevates the pot, and slowed, crushing sludge reminds the listener that Dechristianized is not a novice in the game. Mid-deck face cards such as “Mother of the Seven Sins” and “Malevolence” rely heavily on this proven strategy, largely overpowering and dominating from beginning to end, with knife’s-edge solos to mix things up and cut the deck. The latter slowplays the first few seconds before folding devastation into the remainder of the track, concluding with Gatecreeper-like down-trodden riffs in spades. “Obliteration By The Beast” maintains a crafty draw, with sneak peak pinch harmonics thrown in just enough to keep the listener interested before blowing them away with Wydle-esque soloing.

Temple of Sickness (14:58 - 18:17)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxenc0jYbc4&t=898s

Standout “Temple of Sickness” is perhaps the most varied of the tracks, and showcases a variety of enflamed hands. Early in the fire, the music cuts for a split second – a common but effective tactic to reinforce the brutality of the aural assault. Where the listener might have expected a second bet of the same pause, Dechristianized choose to check it – only to value bet minutes later with an artfully-timed cymbal-laden silence. The end of this track surprisingly plays like the ending of Blood Incantation‘s “Inner Paths (To Outer Space),” a testament to the full house of death metal greatness (try the 4:27 mark of “Inner Paths” if you don’t believe me, or even if you do, it’s epic). This song, “Temple of Sickness,” captures that all-in feeling and throws some blasting in to sweeten the pot.

Album closer, “Evil Sacrifice” three-bets conventional modern death metal into poverty, before revealing the nuts – a perfectly-played flush of suited notes. The speed of delivery and the transitional power are on full display, and the primary riff is face-melting. Dechristianized easily sweep the death-metal table with power, confidence, and creativity – rendering Litanies of Iconoclasm among the greatest payouts and most consistent decks of songs in 2023.

FFO: Exterminatus, Blood Incantation, Slayer, Gatecreeper, Cannibal Corpse

Hails! Thank you for taking the time to check this out. I’ll be brief, but I wanted to update my readers and any labels or bands out there who like Extreme Underground Metal. If I haven’t responded to a request you’ve sent for a review, I truly apologize. I am just getting back to business after a long pause to get married, travel a bit with my wife, and move my folks across country to Denver.

I began this site within the first month of lock-down pandemic frenzy in 2020, largely as a creative response to the ending of live music and lack of metal tours for what felt like an eternity. Thankfully, as highlighted by my last post, a review of Psycho Las Vegas 2022 (sadly 2023 has been cancelled), that music is mostly back. Music returning to its live form has enabled a lot of other things to happen as well, such as travel, which has kept me occupied for many months. In traveling through Iceland, Switzerland, and Italy, metal has been on my mind.

In Iceland, I picked up a vinyl copy of Sorgir by Reykjavik-based Viking metal band Skálmöld. A small shop in the heart of the city carried a lot of great music, but I was looking specifically for a local band, and the Reykjavik Record Shop shopkeeper delivered. From the opening thundering notes of “Ljósið” (translation: the light), Skálmöld demonstrates their ferocity and intensity. Melodic leads soar above brutal guttural growls, but every song is well balanced with ethereal chants. With changes in pace and style rendering each track unique, there is something here for everyone. “Mara” is fittingly perhaps the most varied, as the Sorgir‘s closing track and its lengthiest. Beginning with the same punctuated visciousness as others, dually-layered screams closing out verses, and pummeling riffage, it abruptly transitions into gentle acoustics, before yielding into a stunning solo as the listener realizes there’s still 6 minutes to go. I definitely reccomend listing to this album, as well as the rest of Skálmöld‘s discography.

The scene: a quiet alleyway in Bern’s old town, rain drenching Switzerland’s northern capital, and a mid-afternoon coffee in hand. In the streets, underground (literally) shops are starting to swing open shutters for the evening just as a rural farmer would emerge from a basement tornado-shelter after the storm. Strolling into Serge and Peppers Records, I had only one band on my mind: Celtic Frost. 1984’s Morbid Tales sounds like if Metallica‘s Kill ‘Em All was produced by Euronymous, tuned and slowed down, and injected with hatred and misanthropy. This decidedly evil, early-blackened thrash EP laid much of the groundwork for the subsequent waves of black and death metal covered on Extreme Underground Metal. Frontman Thomas Gabriel Fischer called upon the Dark Lord himself to conjure brilliant riffs and brutal growls that were far ahead of their time. Recommended track: “Dethroned Emperor.”

In this past year of travels, I have learned a lot about the world as well as about myself. Most of the bands I have spent time listening to and writing about on this site are small, international groups outside of the United States, who have a unique storytelling style and an immense amount of talent. These are groups who (largely) are not making their music for the money, and many don’t make much money at all, rather they do it because they have a passion and a love for metal. The same is true for many labels and record shops. We’re all in this together, and need the community now more than ever before.

I urge you to continue to support these artists.

Andrew Keene
Founder, Extreme Underground Metal

Stay tuned for a review of Sicilian slaughterers, Dechristianized and their newest EP Litanies of Iconoclasm!

Label: Geistraum Records
Origin: Los Angeles, California, USA

The sun is shining on a warm afternoon in downtown LA, but in the nuclear green underground, in the Temple of Gorgon, one man charmer Geist is ushering in a grim new age of frost-bitten evil. Throats of Lie flash-freezes the listener’s aural gaze, allowing the temple’s venomous inhabitants to blast-beat strike their way in for the kill.

Opening track “Rebirth of the Moon” establishes a distorted, down-tuned den at a flow synonymous with the mid-90’s wave of Norwegian Black Metal. Sizzling chords slither down the soundboard of throaty growls delivered in the vein of Satyr of Satyricon in both tone and tempo. Despite the blistering rattle of the leading licks, the snare is kept at a moderate speed, and the percussion is well mixed, throttling neither the guitar’s melodic scales nor Geist’s deadly bite.

The riffs throughout are insidiously catchy, and eerie background synths introduced on the title track and continued on subsequent ripper “Worshipers of the Serpent” enhance the ophidian charm of the whole first side of the tape. Fourth track “Pale White Hand” hits this point home: a hypnotic guitar solo midway through curls into an extended bridge, vicious vocals, and a fade-out that leads into the cassette player’s *snap* which indicates the time to flip.

Side two opens with unorthodox “Of Fog and Dust,” featuring a coiled pair of melody changes as well as double-kicked bass drum playing a high stakes table at full tilt. Compared to the previous tracks on Throats of Lie, this side is decidedly more aggressive and fast-paced; the coldly calculating serpent has decided to lash out from the nest. Sixth track “Temple of Gorgon” continues along this instrumental blood vessel, with Erik Danielsson (Watain) – esque grunts injecting the first major arteries with hatred.

Blood Horizon (Track 7)
https://templeofgorgon.bandcamp.com/album/throats-of-lie

Standout track “Blood Horizon” intertwines a shimmering snake-pit of riffs with menacing shrieks and lethal intonations. An intricately calibrated lead surprises the listener, enrapturing their attention all while the duplicitous viper devours the main body of the track. Start-stop instrumentals false charge into the unknown, adding an extra skin of complexity to an already murderous song. Record closer “Enter the Kingdom of the Dead” merges all of the elements of previous tracks into one, amalgamating the backdrop of synth, brutal growls, and serpentine guitar melodies.

Temple of Gorgon strikes at the modern black metal field with venom and vigor, unfurling an already-classic-sounding debut full-length. Throats of Lie casually entrances the listener with diabolical vocals, record pace, and punishing riffs – before puncturing the listener’s staid musical bloodlines and filling them with diabolical blackened poison.

FFO: Satyricon, Watain, Thorns, 1349

BLACK METAL EXTRACT

Label: Propaganda
Origin: Mykolaiv, Ukraine

“Art is the only reason to live,” the mantra of Eastern European-based label Propaganda, seems tame in comparison to the core message of mysterious black metal entity Lucifugum. On recent full-length Anaphora Lithu Actinism, dual-dealing demonic entities Khlyst and Stabaath deliver bleak incantation and even bleaker intonation – stirring The Dark Lord from His slumber.

Opening track “Парад пепла (The Parade of Ashes)” is an overdriven chant of unmistakable evil; accessible black metal this is not. Throat-ripping vocals maintain funeral dirge cadence, refusing to be interrupted by loamy riffs that keep time with shovelfuls of top soil hitting the coffin. Delirious blackened leads spirit second track “Эклиптика отделения (Ecliptic Separation)” out of the shadows, and nudge the pace of the record into mid-tempo ecstasy. Axe-slinger Stabaath sutures sludge-soaked strings and ungodly licks through this body of work with the precision and patience of a master seamstress. Harsh and powerful vocals blend seamlessly with each track’s reanimation, coercing forces of evil into the musical domain.

Standout track “Акростихия (Acrostic)” weaves minor chords in and out of percussive breaks and tempo variations with the complexity and speed of a bacterial army overtaking a decaying corpse. Thunderous, bone-shattering snare and fluid, coagulating growls eclipse the light of life throughout the five minute track, and effortlessly guide the listener to the artfully macabre second half of Anaphora Lithu Actinism.

Penultimate track “Иконотопье (Iconotopia)” is a discordant sonic wall of rot. While other tracks have audible breaks near their nascence, this one is an unambiguous salute to uncongenial listening. Black metal at its foundation was designed (read: not designed) to be abrasive, unpolished, shocking, and brutal. Over the years, various groups have taken creative liberties with the musical qualities of the genre, especially within the realm of symphonic black metal and melodic black/death metal, but have gone to great lengths to preserve the culture of the art of black metal. Throughout this record, and most exhibited on this song and the album opener, Lucifugum show that they are true to their roots: these tracks are callously inaccessible and mercilessly raw.

Final track “Кенотаф разума (Cenotaph of Reason)” melds elaborate shrieks and corroded licks on a palette of molding blackened chaos. Clean, Behemoth-style chants briefly slice through, clarifying the consistency of the primarily guttural delivery. Brilliant guitar-work siphons red-hot blood through choked arteries, while drawn-out growls breathe wicked life into the spiritless cadaver: Satan is born again.

Lucifugum makes no bones about their diabolical commitment to the authenticity, the mystery, and the culture of the black arts. Whereas contemporary releases occasionally rise to this level in terms of musical content, or albums feebly attempt to demonstrate their bands’ blackened lifestyles and dedication to the roots of black metal, Anaphora Lithu Actinism is a rare example of a piece of art that successfully does both.

FFO: Watain, Thorns, Archgoat, Sargeist

BLACK METAL EXTRACT

Label: Flowing Downward
Origin: Brisbane, Australia

Tropical storm Vixenta runs aground on an extreme metal soundscape with the ferocity of old-school black metal but the controversial charm of modern blackgaze ambience. Polarity follows beacons from genre-spanning landmark Sunbather with deft chord progressions and gentle interludes, but ultimately wreaks havoc on the breakwaters with relentless blackened sirens and lyrics saturated with inevitable death.

The soothing initial moments of opening track “A Dream in Darkness” belie the impending cyclone of intensity spurred by the kick-snare into a torrential downpour of blasting bass and riptide chords. This oceanic contrast is central to Polarity, as, not two minutes in, the tidal wave of sound dissipates and yields to a softer trickle of notes until an ungodly shriek from lead vocalist Moosh releases a dire strait of doom. Exquisite songwriting from B. allows jam-band-esque oxbows (such as the close of “A Dream in Darkness”) to flow coherently in and around heavier point bars of guitar.

Title track “Polarity” blends these disparities without missing a beat – lead licks douse the song’s vast wasteland, and nimble transitions in percussive tempo vault the entire hurricane of emotions from category one to category five. Lyrically, this track drowns in horror and despair: “There’s no hope left for me, I’m all alone now – smell of blood follows them, as they hunt me down…” Similar sentiments wash ashore further down the album’s coastline, such as on sixth track, “When the Brightest Sun, Casts the Darkest Shadow.” Polarity’s only occurrence of clean vocals juxtaposes against angry growls: “Since your light was dimmed from the curse – that poison from within, how could you let it win?” A beautiful cascade of warm overdriven chords soaks the latter half of the song, merging into an elegant orchestral closing. These instrumental sections revive the initial pensiveness of “Time is Pestilent,” which features more than two minutes of ethereal acoustics before it plummets down an obsidian waterfall of distortion.

Predation (Track 2)
https://vixentamusic.bandcamp.com/album/polarity-album

Standout track “Predation” bursts open with a ripping down-tuned riff of deafening glory on the zenith of whitecapped percussion. Insidious hi-hat prestidigitation interplays with a surging lead melody, both nudging for position behind the deadly swell of crushing shrieks. “Wicked Flame” and “Fall of the Divine” float on the choppier surf at times, with chugging power chords treading water in a groove-metal harbor, but both remain firmly within the murk of the Blackgaze Sea. The latter specifically features album-closing vocals and a delirious typhoon of musical intensity before slamming into a seawall of silence. Polarity wanes with acoustic track “A Delusion in Dusk,” musically nodding to the instrumental tracks of The Somberlain and lighting the genre-melting paraffin achieved across the span of the record.

Polarity is a masterclass in thunderous execution and dexterous precision. Vixenta floods the listener with blackened waves of sound, sucking them into the undertow of an inescapable current and drowning them in devastating sorrow.

FFO: Deafheaven (old), Alcest, Ulver (old), Wolves in the Throne Room

BLACK METAL EXTRACT

Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Origin: Turku, Finland

Legendary Finnish blasphemers Archgoat return to flicker the white light of Christ with their fifth full-length effort, Worship the Eternal Darkness. Evil, majestic riffs grab the demonic torch from the closing seconds of 2018 effort, The Luciferian Crown, which hide with the spellbound listener under the covers, who risks all to find out how each spinetingler will end.

Archgoat have always excelled in fertilizing primitive fields of devil-worship with brutally loamy yet catchy licks. Opening track “Heavens Ablaze” rips through sonic waves like a Rocky Mountain wildfire, before a down-tuned lead screams across frequencies, calling all cars for the world-smashing sludge-fest dangling precariously from Archgoat‘s hook and ladder.

The atmosphere created with the backing moans and melodic solo in “Black Womb Gnosis” invokes Guns ‘N’ Roses’s “Rocket Queen” . . . only if the Queen of Ecstasy were bathing in Lucifer’s boudoir within the darkest recesses of Hell.

All Christianity Ends (9:00 - 14:37)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEsY4spZQzA

Standout track “All Christianity Ends” grinds everything to an excruciating anticlimax. Power chords dripping with the curdled blood of slain worshippers pulsate across the song like a wave pool filled with viscous bodily fluids. This track enraptures the intrepid listener with groaned sermons fit for the most vile of ceremonies under the dim light of the crescent moon, and peaks with a resounding chorus: Hail Satan!

Middle tracks “Rats Pray God” and “Empyrean Armageddon” soothe with enhanced sound effects at the beginning that thrust the listener into the demonic atmosphere unique to each song – a squeaking Rat King writhes through the initial moments of the former, while a roaring bonfire blisters skin across the latter.

Mid-tempo eighth track “Blessed in the Light of Lucifer” drunkenly skids and swerves across the road until supernatural chanting straightens the wheel, payin’ the dues on the highway to hell. If “Blessed…” is a two-seater convertible, title track “Worship the Eternal Darkness” is an two-ton out-of-control diesel wrecking machine. Clawing growls upend the track’s temporal asphalt, coughing up sludgy tar and churning out asynchronous leads in the place of predictable guitarwork.

Final ceremony “Burial of Creation” loosens the low E slipknot throughout the early moments of the dirge, until the pace tightens and the track snaps crisply into place. Audible axe-neck slides and taut percussion are choked off suddenly, giving way to a fleeting, eye-fluttering atmospheric outro that snuffs out the record.

Archgoat once again lures the ardent follower into their violent clandestine fantasies, the innocent listener the willing star of their diabolical plot. Worship the Eternal Darkness maintains the expected heretical sonic assault at tempos synonymous with Archgoat, but still twists the plot enough to shake the listener’s flashlight.

FFO: Inquisition, Dark Funeral, Bolt Thrower, Frozen Soul, Gatecreeper

Label: Listenable Records
Origin: Cairo, Egypt

Egyptian blackened death metallers Crescent unfurl a riff-infested carpet of ancient flesh and tattered bones with their latest full length effort. Flawlessly forging blood-curdling black metal shrieks with smoldering death metal guitar tones, Carving the Fires of Akhet is a cursed club of wicked divinity, eternally notched for every eradicated enemy.

Enshrouding their musical intentions in a gritty sinister swirl, Crescent constructs their sonic pyramid with deliberate layers of symphonics and chants before revealing the apex of their mastery. Abysmally deep grunts ride the sirocco of the desiccated backdrop’s distorted rhythm, before vocalist/guitarists Ismaeel and Youssef shake the dust off of piercing shrieks to match their own axe’s lead licks. Tightly woven percussion fills the landscape, power-shifting to each gear in stride and mixed to audible perfection.

Second track “Moot Set Waas” moves to introduce the more melodic elements of Carving the Fires of Akhet, with a minor-chord progression of traditional oud-wafting tunes preceding diabolical verses. Closing this song are sludge-filled, chunky riffs that overlay background blasting and lead to a brief hand-pounded drum fill that nods to the musicians’ origins, before blackened chaos cinches the linen-wrap tight.

Serpent of Avaris (14:08 - 21:24)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRfD98KKRoA&t=220s

Standout track “Serpent of Avaris” blows in on an ancient wind from the seat of power of the bygone rulers of Egypt’s Fifteenth Dynasty, currently submerged by millennia of sand and dust. The track opens with a thunderous inflection of bass-heavy riffs, in the vein of Behemoth, until the Satanic serenade slows to a crawl, entombing modern filler with fossilized power chords. The last minute pits a buried sermon against a mellifluous lead guitar, before fading into blackness and uncertainty, and ultimately, track four.

“Neb-Pehti-Ra” and fifth track, “Imprecations Upon Thy Flame” capitalize on mid-tempo heaviness, ala Bolt Thrower, to inflict punishing whiplash on listeners, mercilessly commanding pace just as their subject matters would control their subjects. In particular, the closing half of “Imprecations…” features slowed riffs backing barbarous barks, and a guitar neck-slide more violent than the snapping spine of the poor soul on the cover art.

“Drowned in Theban Blood” deftly coagulates many of Crescent‘s traditional melodies into one decisive chord vein, leading to the digital album’s final track: “As Nu Enshrines Death.” This song bares its teeth with addictive hits of blast-beating and blackened leads, before chomping and thrashing with guttural growls and ravenous riffs. A dramatic pause in the music calls off the attack dogs, and the introductory tempo resumes until infernal vocals and symphonic instrumentals bring Carving the Fires of Akhet to a close (and make the listener wish they had a physical version of the album – which features both Dissection and Bolt Thrower covers!)

Carving the Fires of Akhet dominates the Valley of the Kings with a concrete blend of melodic death/black metal, rivaling the legendary construction of the Great Pyramids themselves. Crescent has unchained a deliberate, evil concert of death, challenging the sanctity of the very waters of the Nile, and clandestinely dyeing them a crimson hue.

FFO: Behemoth, Watain, Nile, Bolt Thrower

Extreme Underground Metal rarely addresses well-known groups, but exceptions have been made to honor the fallen and to welcome the return of black metal deity. Two dynamic, and very different, new releases from Scandinavian legends ride the tailwinds to a new dawn.

Eternal Hails… by Darkthrone

Thirty years after igniting death metal crude with their debut album Soulside Journey, and subsequently becoming synonymous with the Norwegian Black Metal Scene through their “Unholy Trinity” of records, drummer (and seminal metal historian, see below) Fenriz and lead vocalist/guitarist Nocturno Culto of Darkthrone show no signs of repenting for their perpetual ravenous arsonic spree. Eternal Hails… is an unapologetic deviation into the world of doom for the black metal legends, black-hole-heavy and mid/slow-tempoed throughout its more than forty minute run time. Cryptic musical passages, smoldering lyrics, and some of the most desolate cover art since 1995’s Panzerfaust make this a worthwhile listen for any fan of extreme metal.

Paint the Sky with Blood by Bodom After Midnight

Finnish frontman and guitar virtuoso Alexi Laiho passed away in December of 2020, mere months after the dissolution of renowned melodic death metal band Children of Bodom. Before reaching Valhalla, Laiho blessed us mortals with two new crushing tracks as Bodom After Midnight (both brimming with Laiho’s signature exquisite riffing and untenable aggression) as well as a remarkable cover of Dissection‘s “Where Dead Angels Lie.” Children of Bodom previously stuck to covers of pop rock songs with moderate success, but to hear Laiho lead Bodom After Midnight in an immaculate rendition of a black metal masterpiece is to experience an emotional swansong befitting a master at his peak. RIP Alexi Laiho (1979 – 2020).

Label: Vendetta Records
Origin: Liverpool, England

Ninkharsag crusades majestically past shallow graves of frozen warriors and basks in the incendiary power of the mid-90’s Swedish black metal scene which the deceased fought to defend. Forlorn growls and mesmerizing percussion earn The Dread March of Solemn Gods a well-elbowed spot on the melodic black metal shelf; relentless riffs and monumental leads ensure that the listener thinks twice before discounting it to pull The Somberlain.

The record opens with an wildly diverse instrumental track, “Night Wrath,” that floats soft acoustics and ominous chorals across horses’ whinnies ala Bathory’s 1988 epic “A Fine Day to Die.” Neoclassical riffs soon jockey for position, galloping forth with both full-blooded heaviness and purebred beauty. The title track follows as a ripping homage to early Dissection, with minor chords surging ahead of each other in tidal bouts for dominance. Raspy growls are the spitting sonic image of the deceased Jon Nödtveidt himself, but they are unbroken and run pell-mell within the well-worn instrumental track. “Under the Dead of Night” is an icy jaunt through a distorted stampede of riffs. Lead singer Kyle Nesbitt injects drops of vocal Satanic serum into the veins of the frothing beast, which blow out arteries as the instrumental cocktail picks up speed.

The Tower of Perpetual Twilight (28:13 - 32:08)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cijd4ty0ocM

Standout track, “The Tower of Perpetual Twilight” earns its knighthood within the first 60 seconds: an introductory ethereal solo dives into epic power chords recalling the middle ages of “The Somberlain,” and ancient cursed growls follow suit into the glory. Closing digipack bonus track “The Lord of Death and Midnight” was released digitally as an earlier single, and paces impatiently between overdriven down-tuned chugging riffs. Lyrically, this track paints the cover art for the entire record (“Behold the scorched carrion which illuminates graves . . .”) while also invoking a damning message for humanity: “. . . horrors contained in this abyss of black souls is naught compared to the sins of mankind.”

Unlike that of many recent releases from contemporary black metal acts, the tempo is relatively consistent throughout the entirety of The Dread March of Solemn Gods. While certainly not slow, Ninkharsag keep it a few gears below breakneck throughout, avoiding the stereotypical path of breakdowns and doomed passages in favor of ingenious riff building and passionate storytelling. Paul Armitstead, the lead guitarist, is a alchemic player: he blends the prowess of Randy Rhoads, playful prancing of Eddie Van Halen, and speed and tone of Ihsahn to brew a triple-hopped elixir of evil. Middle tracks “Lunar Hex; The Art of Mighty Lycanthropy” and “The Necromanteion” slay this guitar-forward approach.

The Dread March of Solemn Gods tramples the modern metal battlefield with the thundering hooves of old-school melodic blackened horsepower. Ninkharsag harnesses the evil energy of a scene long forgotten by wielding endless ingenious guitar leads, ripcord percussive passages, and the heralding vocals of a tormented horseman of the apocalypse.

FFO: Dissection (early), Sacramentum, Unanimated, Emperor, Watain