Monthly Metal Mixtape: December 2020

We made it. We fucking made it. It was the year that felt like it would never end and now at last we close the curtain on 2020. But “2020” is metaphorical for a lot of the shit we dealt with this year. Whether that is a pandemic that wreaks havoc while we have to deal with the denial of science and the lack of universal healthcare, a policing structure that is racist and eager to react violently, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx folks still face a system stacked against them, workers still get exploited while companies like Amazon make billions as we all struggle to make ends meet, and on and on and on. That stuff doesn’t end just because the year does. Here’s some of the records we turned to while trying to pave a way forward.

Cryptae – Nightmare Traversal (2020, Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

Extreme metal bands are always trying to find new and creative ways to make their logo completely unreadable. Uhhh, I’ve already digressed. What I meant to say was: Cryptae are a fresh, hot, two-piece experimental death metal outfit from the Netherlands. On Nightmare Traversal, the band has created an album of tremendous old-school death metal and death doom. Punchy sets of deceptively simple, yet instantly infectious masterclass riffs inhabit these songs. Spacious, groovy, head-banging mid-tempo caveman chugs, long sustains of ringing low end, and onslaughts of equally caveman blast-beat-backed distorted guitar noise are provided by guitarist/vocalist Kees Peerdeman. Said blast-beats are blasted by drummer/vocalist René Aquarius with veteran quality precision along with a myriad of organic, creative, and varied playing that dances into, out of, and around the variety brought by his guitar counterpart in a way that feels like only a two-piece could execute. Wonderfully guttural death growls, fully indistinguishable from each other and fully un-interoperable as any actual words without a lyric sheet, are presumably delivered by each member.

So, I know what you’re thinking at this point, why do I call the band “experimental”? If you only heard one or two of the songs on Nightmare Traversal, you might fight with me on that label, but it’s the traversal of the full nightmare that brings the experimental label. There are times when this album really feels like it’s two psychedelic, noise rock heroes (like say Hella or Lightning Bolt) playing OSDM. That comes out not just in songwriting style but in the riffs and guitar tones as well. As the album progresses, the strangeness stacks on itself little by little, gets weirder and weirder, until it culminates in stretches of sound that threaten to genre-hop in the last couple tracks (Especially the clean guitar moment in “Cronos”, phew!). But for all the blink-and-you-miss-them experiments happening, the real wonder here is it never becomes anything other than incredible, groovy, cavernous OSDM. Like a good horror movie, the monster is never shown outright to you. It’s incredibly consistent in its startling, playful darkness, making the novel moments all the more “What the hell did I just listen to?” and “Hell yeah I gotta listen to that again.” And then of course, you do listen again and again because the album is a tight thirty minute wild ride of an experience that is worth hearing at least a few dozen times. – Mike Tri

Havukruunu – Uinuos Syömein Sota (2020, Naturmacht Productions)

Havukruunu came onto my radar thanks to mainman Stefan’s guest list on Decibel where he features five records that influenced him – and they’re all Bathory records. Then he fucking namedrops pretty much the rest of Quorthon’s almighty discography. From the chants that open the record though, it’s clear that there’s just as much influence from the Viking era as those early 80s entries into the black metal bedrock. Those bird calls though, in “Kunnes Varjot Saa,” or the horses charging into battle in “Ja Viimein on Yö” are clearly influenced from the era where Quorthon felt free enough to incorporate Viking soundscapes into his records (looking at you Hammerheart or Nordland). But it’s not just Bathory. The depth of bombast here echoes the high water marks of so-called pagan black metal bands like Kampfar, countrymen Moonsorrow, or the late, great Windir, while also bringing to mind Enslaved before they got proggy or Ulver before they went all electronica.

Blast beats abound and line up with some grim and frostbitten riffs, but melodic flourishes and the clean choirs interject a different element to the music. Just look at the completeness of “Pohjolan Tytär” and how wonderfully all of these influences craft an epic anthem. “Kuin Öinen Meri” uses acoustics perfectly and sounds straight out of the Hammerheart school of songwriting. Before folk metal got all campy the vibes here are what would’ve passed for folk metal. The riffs gallop and pummel – try to keep your head from caving in after witnessing the second half of “Vähiin Päivät Käy.” The excellent solos, rearing their heads on most of these songs, or the brilliant compositions when they start stretching the song lengths with the eight-minute “Tähti-Yö ja Hevoiset” or the aforementioned album highlight, the glorious nine-minute “Vähiin Päivät Käy,” illustrate that there’s more than just atmospheric folk-influenced black metal at work here. Havukruunu construct epics. They have chops and the composition know-how to use them in these songs to help build an atmosphere, while simultaneously crafting fucking fantastic black metal. If you’ve been missing Bathory, Havukruunu will help scratch that itch. And Uinuos Syömein Sota is easily one of the best black metal records of the year. – Steve O

Oranssi Pazuzu – Värähtelijä (2016, Svart Records)

I really struggled to pick just one album to review by this mindfuck of a band. I don't know how you can even begin to accurately parse their music out. The skeleton of this band is experimental black metal; but that label cheats them severely. They're a chimera of the surreal and the psychedelic. The sinew of their flesh hypnotizes with elements of jazz, doom, drone, stoner rock, prog, electronics and clean(ish) vaguely surfy guitars. This should be a crime against black metal. My younger self would hate me for loving this band. By all rights, this shouldn't work as well as it does. Värähtelijä is the perfect album for getting into a strange headspace; the perfect background for pursuing your own creativity. It's sinister and hypnotic. An ideal companion on the artist's journey. It feels like an exploration of the depths of the human experience. And as such it serves as a far more realistic depiction of hell than anything produced by the mighty 2nd wave of black metal. This review is all so scattered but suffice to say, if you like that weird shit (that ‘am I high and also in hell’ shit) then I can't recommend this album enough. – Cry Baby Hank

Savatage – Hall of the Mountain King (1987, Atlantic Records)

RIYL: Epic Power Metal

Considered by many to be one of the greatest heavy metal songs of all time, “Hall of the Mountain King” is one epic masterpiece. The guitar work is exceptionally badass and the vocals are heroic and monumental. Taken from the band’s fourth album of the same name, this was a turn towards the prog-metal genre for the band as well as their most successful release, largely in part to the airing of the cheesy but killer video being shown on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. Do yourself a favor and play this one when you need to feel “Herculean” and awesome. I promise it won’t disappoint. – James Bauman

Skin Chamber – Wound (1991, R/C Records)

Skin Chamber’s 1991 release Wound conveys a singular theme through its cover art and noisy industrial metal: A mental breakdown. The distorted afterimage of two faces conveys the internal battle of a fractured mind, while the opening track “Carved in Skin (Apt. 213)” only adds to this twisted amalgamation of a broken psyche. With screeching noise and screams, which abruptly ends with the arrival of thudding instrumentation. At around one minute in, a rough voice shouts out a vague threat of, “You will pay the price,” while the instruments start to build up momentum. Halfway through the track, the guitar begins to oscillate like a theremin, until the 1:46 mark, when a punishing drum machine and growling hisses kick in. Much of the record moodily sludges its way, while the standout track “Skin Me” clocks in at a mere 1:20. This is feel-bad music for the criminally insane. – Richard