Monthly Metal Mixtape: February 2021

For once I’d love to write one of these where nothing happened during the month. No dramatic news-cycle altering event that shakes us all while we kinda pretend to do something about it without addressing any root causes. I won’t go on that soapbox about how climate change is making extreme weather events like we saw in Texas more commonplace, instead I’ll just drop a list of mutual aid resources here.

Darkthrone – A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992, Peaceville Records)

OK, I'm sure this is a total copout to talk about such a prominent album from such a prominent band but I don't care. Darkthrone had a profound effect on me growing up. And to make matters worse, I'm going to talk about the rest of Darkthrone's 'Unholy Trinity' over the next few months. So, I'm sorry and... you're welcome? I first saw this album when I was a teenager. It was in the extreme metal section of a small record store in Chicago surrounded by intensely colorful, gory albums. Stark black and minimal, it stood out like a beacon. You couldn't not see it. And behind it were Under a Funeral Moon and Transilvanian Hunger. A trio of similar album covers, unity of image and style. I didn't know what it was but I had to have them. I only bought Blaze because I was cheap as hell but after listening to it all night, I knew I had to go back the next day to get the rest. I was afraid they'd sell out and I'd never be able to find it (I was young, gimme a break).

When I first put Blaze on, I didn't know what the hell to expect with that intro. It was so outside of my frame of reference. I was mostly listening to thrash, death, and groove metal; polished, technical music. But when the song kicked in, I was floored. The hair stood up on the back of my neck. I was hooked. It was raw as hell, ugly, and stripped down. It sounded like the kind of shit me and my buddy would record on my dad's old tape recorder; but ya know, good. It showed me what was possible. I couldn't drum like Pete Sandoval, but I could play like Fenriz. That was my first foray into black metal. But I understand now that it's not strictly a 'black metal' album. Fenriz mentioned in some old interview that the riffs were effectively death metal but played in a black metal style (I'm paraphrasing terribly). Maybe that's why it was such a strong entry album. A lot of Nocturno Culto and Zephyrous' riffs had an underlying familiarity to it. That little riff that they tease you with 2 minutes into “Kathaarian Life Code” reminded me of “The Exorcist” by Possessed. There's a lot of weird, almost hypnotic guitar phrases like that; especially the riffs in “Paragon Belial”. And a lot of those other riffs would make perfect sense being played by an OSDM or Death-Doom band. But the truly distinct thing for me is the drumming. Fenriz's playing showed me just how much drums can shape the feel of a song. And of course there's Fenriz's cheat beat; I started to refer to it as 'railing'. It's imperfect but so much more powerful to my ears than a traditional blast beat. Less of a wall of sound, it's more dynamic; a pulsing rhythm. It offsets the thinned-out 'buzzsaw' sound of the guitars perfectly. The whole album is just this perfect marriage of melancholic passages, weird guitar phrases, reverb drenched vocals, and killer OSDM riffs played in a wholly new style. It changed the face of music for me and showed just how much more was possible. – Cry Baby Hank

Harakiri for the Sky – Mære (2021, AOP Records)

Harakiri for the Sky’s fifth full length, Mære, was one of my most anticipated releases for 2021. Every single they put out in advance was phenomenal and Mære in full does not disappoint. The Austrians have been on the upswing throughout their impressive discography of post-black metal. Bands like Deafheaven, early Lantlôs, or Alcest at their heaviest are comparables (Alcest’s Niege even guests here), but Harakiri for the Sky never seem to fully embrace the mellowness of those bands. Sure there’s songs like “Sing for the Damage We've Done” which has a post-metal break right in the middle, but coming out of that, shit gets intense. There’s some absolutely pounding drums and blast beats, with this melodic lead that just sounds so ominous and harrowing to close out the song. Matthias “M.S.” Sollak is the musical mastermind here, while Michael “J.J.” Wahntraum delivers any incredible emotional vocal performance. Special mention needs to go to drummer Kerim "Krimh" Lechner, onetime of Decapitated and currently blasting away in Septicflesh. His performance and versatility here is exquisite. The pace with which he can hammer away the blast beats is stunning (“Sing for the Damage We've Done” or “Us Against December Skies” for example), but within each he can pull back as well.

None of these songs are short, so there’s a lot of space to show off amidst these building compositions. The shortest, “Song to Say Goodbye,” at five and a half minutes, is actually a cover. In their originals, Harakiri for the Sky throw a lot of melodic riffs at the listener and use some of that space to let the mellower passages extenuate the harshness when they decide to pound away (like in “I’m All About the Dusk” or the quiet opening to “Time is a Ghost”). “Once Upon a Winter” is a masterful slow build over its ten minutes, extoling home, nature, and the seasons, while not quite being its intended purpose. And when they get dark, they get intense, and when they get heavy, they absolutely hammer (like in “Three Empty Words” when they let the pace build). J.J.’s vocals never really sound like a traditional black metal rasp, instead more of a tortured bark, which makes some of those heart-wrenching lyrics more decipherable. "I, Pallbearer" is a perfect encapsulation of DSBM combined with post-black metal. Keys are mixed in early before featuring prominently in a gorgeous outro. Featuring heartrendingly honest lyrics, like, “I'm pretty sure growing old will kill me / Slowly, but steadily, in two different ways / As I'm still the one with the saddest smile / I hate being bipolar, it's fucking awesome,” it’s just a sample of the wry bleakness found within. But with so much room to grow here, they don’t stay moribund forever, and there are hopeful lights shining through. Mære is long, there’s no getting around that fact. But it’s worth taking the deep dive to immerse yourself in this monumental record. – SteveO

Ice Nine – Forty-Five Times a Night (1996, Ebullition Records/State Fanzine)

RIYL: In/Humanity, His Hero is Gone

It’s going to be pretty difficult for any album to rule harder than Portrayal of Guilt’s We Are Always Alone this year. As much as I want to, since it was in last month’s Metal Mixtape, I won’t include any tracks from that album here, but you should definitely expect to see it on many lists of top albums for 2021. It’s a damn fine release. With that said, while listening to Portrayal of Guilt, I’m often reminded of the extreme heaviness of the most important powerviolence band to ever come from my hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana. That band is Ice Nine. If you aren’t already familiar, prepare to have your mind blown. I offer the track “Forty-Five Times a Night” that was originally released on a split with Gadje by Ebullition Records and then re-recorded for a split with Endive as a release by State Fanzine the following year. For those not in the know, it’s the perfect introduction to this pulverizing and massive extreme hardcore group that I miss so much. Buy the discography from Happy Couples Never Last Recordings. You won’t be sorry you did. – James Bauman

Tribulation – When the Gloom Becomes Sound (2021, Century Media Records)

For a few albums now, Sweden’s Tribulation have carved out a comfortable place for themselves amongst the big, fairly well-known metal bands of the world. It’s easy to understand the popularity of their warm and nostalgic blend of heavy metal, gothic metal, and death metal played mostly at a groovy mid-paced rock tempo. I’ve been following the band for a while. With this newest album, it really feels like their fresh yet familiar sound and style is now locked in perfectly. This album feels effortless. The songwriting is concise and catchy. The gothic melodies and guitar leads are instantly memorable. Unlike their contemporaries Ghost (who are great in their own right), everything feels like it sits firmly in the Swedish metal tradition. No overly poppy Abba detours here.

Melodic death metal cheese is there, but it is quite muted. This allows one to be swept up in the beautiful, theatrical atmosphere of the album. The grounded quality is driven home by the quite intelligibly mastered growl-along vocals of Johannes Andersson. The album is masterfully paced and never seems to run out of ideas in its sonic palette of dark, gothic heavy metal. Standout moments include the driving hard rock throwback groove meets menacingly dark church organ guitar leads in the opener, the epic chugging melodic death doom “Dirge of a Dying Soul”, and the slightly proggy yet traditional heavy metal riff, lead, and solo packed masterpiece that is “Daughter of the Djinn”. Every song is great though. If you like heavy metal, you should listen to this album. – Mike Tri