Monthly Metal Mixtape: April 2022

Saidan – Onryō II: Her Spirit Eternal (2022, Jems Label)

I was extremely annoyed to find all physical releases for Saidan’s 2nd full-length album, the second the two person Nashville melodic black metal project would release in just under thirteen months, had sold out an hour after their release. I found this out a week after the album had dropped when I learned that, in fact, one of my absolute favorite metal albums of 2021 had a sequel. That 2021 album, Jigoku: Spiraling Chasms of the Blackest Hell, was raw melodic black metal heavily influenced by, of all things, J-rock with absolutely soaring melodies couched in-between explorations of highly dark and undead, ghostly J-horror atmospheres.

The riffs, the drums, the rip-roaring vocals – they were all baseline great, but it was the songwriting centered around emotional melodic climaxes that took the listener soaring from deep under a dark, stormy night sky and straight into the brightness of the sun that truly gripped me. And then, it always went even further. The songs this band produced were about just building up and building up, leads and riffs evolving and climbing into explosions that only the best post-rock and cheesiest power metal might parallel.

Onryō II: Her Spirit Eternal is at its heart more of that, but in many ways it’s even more unashamedly bright and shining melodic black metal. The dark and claustrophobic moodiness of the previous release has been mostly set aside to fully embrace the overwhelming sonic firestorm of hyper melodic angst-filled riffage and leads that Mr. Saidan and his drummer have already demonstrated they are extremely capable of. The production is a couple notches cleaner, allowing all nuances and even lyrics of Saidan’s varied growling and soaring high black metal shrieks to come through. Drummer Shadosai, while definitely not being center-stage, provides a very competent driving blast for the duration. The cleaner production allows the flirting and experimentation with other genres to be ever more apparent.

When the music slows down and the lead kicks in on opener “Kissed By Lunar’s Silvery Gleam,” I get genuinely emotional – then it just keeps building and building and building up into a massive melodic wave that genuinely gives me chills. The punky, melodic hardcore meets black metal shoutalong chorus on “Queen of the Haunted Dell” is a welcome burst of ferocity that brings a fun bouncy edge to the sound. Black metal is the comfy bed in which all this experimentation lies, and the Panopticon-esque roaring atmo black is still everywhere to be found. “Yuki Onna” reclines into it.

This album has not a riff out of place, not a transition, or a turn in the songs that ever feels wrong. It feels masterful, familiar, yet so fresh. “I Am The Witch” rounds out the album with a synth backed soaring melody that feels straight out of a poppy 80s anime ending theme, the Japanese pop rock element just fusing so well into the mix that the nostalgic quality will sit with you long after it fades out. This is an absolute blast of an album and may easily be one of the most outright fun releases you can find in all of black metal. Saidan just took the big knob on their music marked fun and cranked it all the way right. These melodies will get stuck in your head. You will remember these riffs. Saidan’s work is not to be missed, and I can only hope they remain only as prolific as they have been in their very short existence as a band. I only want more. – Mike Tri

Véhémence – Ordalies (2022, Antiq)

One of the downsides of really only having time to listen to music while at work or while driving around is that it is much more difficult to pick out individual moments or songs, since you cannot constantly reference what each one is (which also makes writing about it a touch more difficult). The flipside though, is that it is much easier to take it in as a complete work of art, the way records are supposed to be heard and a means that is not as common anymore in the era of streaming. A band like Paris’ Véhémence and their LP Ordalies are absolutely built for the full record experience. Playing an epic, melodic, atmospheric medieval brand of black metal there’s all the hallmarks that each of those adjectives signify. Grandiose, majestic, soaring melodies abound. Songs construct upon themselves across multiple movements stretching to double-digit lengths and work both as mid-paced, slow builds or a quick, driven march. Rapid-riffing and blast beats drive the show – the drumming is especially impressive across the hour-long runtime – but traditional folk instruments shine through, especially in two short interludes, accentuating the music instead of reaching some folk metal levels of cheesiness. The blackened shrieks and rasps are what you would expect, but the Summoning-style choral chants are excellent. The fact that all the lyrics are in French really adds to the atmospheric, medieval quality. In the ever-sprawling world of black metal subgenres, medieval black metal has been having its moment in the last few years and Véhémence’s Ordalies is a fantastic representation of what the genre can offer. – SteveO