Monthly Metal Mixtape: January 2021

Where the hell did January go? Somehow it’s the end of the month already, and what an eventful month it was. Anyways, we don’t have a lot this month, but we do highlight two highly anticipated 2021 releases. Neither is really traditional metal in any genre that we’re used to, but both deliver on high levels of awesomeness. And then Phil saves us by covering some rad death/thrash. You know, the guy who listens to the least metal out of us saves our credibility.

Portrayal of Guilt – We Are Always Alone (2021, Closed Casket Activities)
If you’re a metalhead that only knows screamo as the word normies use to describe any music that has harsh vocals in it, you wouldn’t know that the genre contains a treasure trove of beautiful, throat-shredding, blasting, creative extremity. Portrayal of Guilt are not only easily the best band riding the recent underground wave of black metal influenced screamo (a.k.a. blackened screamo), they are one of the most creative and fresh sounding bands playing extreme music right now. I really love this band.

While their entire, short discography is worth hearing, We Are Always Alone is Portrayal of Guilt’s best, tightest, and most refined album yet. The sound here manages to capture what I feel is the most essential component of black metal, the evil! It may be hard to believe about a screamo band, but they are truly competing with the most cavernous, abyssal albums in black metal. The darkness evoked by Portrayal of Guilt’s sound has to be heard to be understood. They conjure this atmosphere alongside ultra-tight headbanging, blastbeating songcraft just dripping with blackened, masterful riffs and transitions pulled from all corners of the extreme metal universe – blackened hardcore, blackened grindcore, blackened death metal, blackened sludge – it is truly all the burnt-to-a-crisp goodness you could ask for.

The most screamo-sounding elements in play here are the vocals, delivered with a grounded, melancholic angst whether they’re bringing the black metal raspgrowl, hardcore shouting, or the occasionally grief-filled sing-yelling, there’s quite a variety from guitarist-vocalist Matt King. However, each instrument, especially drums, brings a memorable intensity to these songs. It’s all so tight and consistent while feeling so fresh in its blends and influences. It's familiar feeling, yet such a fresh flavor. Whether you’re into punk, screamo, or extreme metal, give this one a go if you have a spare 28 minutes of ear time. You won't regret it! – Mike Tri

Wardruna – Kvitravn (2021, By Norse Music)
Not a great way to start, but I have no idea how to write about this. Not only that, I don’t even know what half of the instruments on this record are. Taglharpa? Langeleik? Kravik lyre and Trossingen lyre? Sure, why not. Wardruna sound totally different from anything we’ve covered in this space before. They’re not even remotely a metal band. It’s straight up old Nordic folk music. Think kinda neofolk, kinda ambient, kinda Ulver’s Kveldssanger. But bandleader Einar Selvik has the metal bona fides, from a collaboration with Enslaved’s Ivar Bjørnson, drumming for bands like Dead to This World and King Ov Hell’s Jotunspur, as well as a short stint with Gorgoroth. Hell, Gaahl was involved with Wardruna for a decade, so it’s got metal cred. Also, goat horn is a listed instrument on here. Metal as fuck.

It’s snowing like crazy outside, again, as I write this. But Kvitravn is all about atmosphere and there’s little better for a record of Norse folk music than a steady stream of snow. Driven by Selvik’s assorted ancient stringed instruments – again, I don’t know what they are, but they sound awesome and create a total hanging-out-in-the-primeval-woods vibe – steady, shamanistic drumbeats, and the chanted vocal pairings of Selvik and Lindy-Fay Hella (who released her own fantastic record of folksongs not too long ago), these eleven tracks here have a mystical, magical feel. The strength here is the composition of these songs, and how they use their length to incorporate so many different elements. And there’s a new sound to discover every time to you revisit each song. The title track is just majestic and that leading string melody (some kind of lyre or harpa?) is just so catchy. The middle section of “Skugge” is driven by some rhythmic chanting, that eventually leads to some emotional chanting. “Grá” has what sounds like clapping, but is instead some clacking bones alongside some tribal drums. “Munin” is driven more by one of those random stringed instruments, before getting into a rather intense, denser middle section with some powerful drums, before drifting back into a minimalist vibe, with just Selvik and his strings of choice. Some ominous horns lead the way in “Kvit Hjort.” There are some rad choral effects in “Ni.” Closer “Andvevarljod” is literally an epic, in the poetic sense of the word.

In a way, nothing here is surprising or at odds with some of the metal we usually talk about. It’s just the natural conclusion to what a lot of bands have kinda dappled in for decades. Ulver and Enslaved were referenced above, and it fits with them, but also pretty much every atmospheric black metal has a foot in the soundscapes that Wardruna create too. Drawing from Norse mythology has been a metal staple for decades, so it was only a matter of time until a band started sounding like they were from that time period too (Heilung has gotten popular doing the same thing). I’ve seen Kvitravn compared to the latest from Myrkur, Folksange, and it is spot on (coincidentally Kvitravn was supposed to be released last year too, before it got COVID delayed). Both of these records reinterpret traditional folk music, drench it in atmosphere, and give it the vibe we enjoy on the best metal records. If you’re looking for music and a world to get lost in, Wardruna definitely provide. And I can’t recommend Kvitravn highly enough for a great opportunity to do so. Especially while it’s snowing outside. – SteveO

Bloodletter - Funeral Hymns (2021, Petrichor Records)
I won't offer any denial or rebuke to Steve O's claim that I listen to the least metal of anyone writing in this column. My previous contributions were on Metallica (basic) and GISM (crossover). So you may not see me here every month but a metal album does catch my ear every now and then. Chicago's Bloodletter put out the thrash-heavy Funeral Hymns online late last year. It looks like it just got a vinyl release on Petrichor Records in January with some very limited color variants that are already gone. It's brutal, unrelenting breakneck thrash. Raging guitars sometimes overtake the aggressive vocals. The glaring reaper on the album cover gives a good idea of the lyrical imagery within. Summonings, disinterments, tolling bells and rotting corpses abound. Members of A Wilhelm Scream, Toxic Ruin, Knight of the Round, Immortal Bird and Exmortus make guest appearances. Funeral Hymns makes a perfect soundtrack for a cathartic release of pent up stress so many of us are dealing with during these turbulent times. - Phil Collins