Monthly Metal Mixtape: Summer 2023

Ὁπλίτης – Τρωθησομένη (2023, Self-Released)

I feel like avant-garde black metal has bloomed into a full-blown renaissance in the past several years. The underground has been producing an endless onslaught of one-of-a-kind masterpieces of genre fusion, bewildering technicality, and abyssal extremity. Ὁπλίτης, or Hoplites, is one of the latest projects to join this trend. Hoplites is a Chinese one-person project writing music in Greek language, an odd enough thing for sure, but you see, this music is avant-garde black metal, we’re getting weird. What does that even mean? There are definitely a few avant-garde black metal genres out there. It would be a vast oversimplification to try to box any great band in this space into a narrow category, but let’s do it anyway, y’know, as a bit. So– two categories: For one, you have your sprawling, strange, sometimes droning, post-everything sound that verges upon leaving the world of metal behind entirely. In contrast, the other version of avant-black revels in metal, jamming sounds from across the extreme metal sonicscape together in ways that just haven’t quite happened.

Hoplites lands squarely in category two with a sound that is blisteringly technical mathcore-tempered dissonant blackened death metal (*huff puff*) that effortlessly blends into roaring headbangable technical thrash. So what does that cluster of nonsense actually sound like? Why is it so good? Why is it a contender for my metal album of the year? It’s in the songwriting. For every swirling dissodeath maelstrom, we get the breathing room of an abyssal thrash groove or a blastbeat-backed blackened death wave. Granted, all of this absolutely never slows down. Once we start, we’re not stopping except for a few breaks between songs. I’ve been throwing around the word “technical” a lot here which may evoke mechanicality, but there is not a lot machine-like about this music. There’s a swirling, incredibly organic, orthodox black metal atmosphere to the whole ordeal, carried by perfect black metal cave goblin growls and whispers. Though played with precision, that classically evil black metal quality gives everything a kind of unmistakable humanity that will be nostalgic for long-time listeners of the genre.

Though everything is immaculately paced for this style, around the midpoint of Τρωθησομένη is where it really starts to all come together. Track 5, “ Ὁ τῶν τραυμάτων ἄγγελος” is a turning point on the album. Not that we weren’t having fun before, but now we’re finally allowed to have fun. Moving into track 6, “Τετρωμένη,” we’re being encouraged to headbang with groove after groovy riff and precisely played classic black metal sounds. Which brings us to track 7, “ Ἔκτρωμα” or “Ektoma”. “Ektoma” is the crown jewel of this album and an easy metal song of the year contender. Beginning with an incredibly bouncy technical black metal groove with more melody than you’ll find on any other song, transitioning into what I consider the climax of the album: a stretch of soaring technical thrash riffs that feel like being thrown through a storm cloud with no ground below. We wrap up with one of the most mathcore-y chugga chugga weedley dissonant grooves on the album before we move onto the next wild track. Ok, I’ve talked enough. Long story short, do not miss Hoplites. Oh, did I mention they released an entire other album this year and uh, it’s also really good? – Mike Tri

Cattle Decapitation – Terrasite (2023, Metal Blade)

Cattle Decapitation has had an interesting history. Started as an overtly goregrind band, with the gore basically about animal supremacy/human interiority, they’ve been through a couple eras. Sometime in the mid-2000s they started branching out a bit, adding more death metal vibes, dynamic songwriting, and Travis Ryan’s increasingly diverse vocal performances. It was fun to follow, but it never seemed like world-beating stuff, just another solid band turning out another consistent record. Well, I must not have been paying close enough attention, because all of those elements got turned up to 11 on 2015’s The Anthropocene Extinction, an absolutely mind-boggling record (as I’ve written on here before) and without question one of my favorites of the past decade. And somehow Cattle Decapitation – the band who’d put out good records with aesthetic themes I definitely dug, but never fawned over musically – have become one of my favorite metal bands around.

Which brings us to Terrasite, which they essentially describe as a rebirthing of the band in a new era following 2019’s Death Atlas, with the aptly titled “Bring Back the Plague” and all. Terrasite continues their trajectory (I’ve seen Carcass used as a comparison and that totally makes sense). There’s your obliterating death metal, your deathgrind ferocity, a nice touch of melodeath catchiness, some ominous element enhancing keyboards from Midnight Odyssey’s Dis Pater, impeccable riffs, leads, and solos from longtime guitarist Josh Elmore, and drummer David McGraw absolutely annihilates with barrages of blastbeats. And my god, Ryan is phenomenal, continuing to cement himself in the uppermost echelon of metal vocalists, delivering some of the most intelligent and vicious lyrics in a genre known for not always being so high-brow. See lead single “We Eat Our Young,” where Ryan scolds humanity “Ah! The fleshy architect! / Bold in design but fucking out of its mind / With self-indulgence and a self-worship / Birthing in stifling numbers as the planet worsens.” His range, from a classic death growl to all sorts of squeals and screeches and squeaks and snarls to a wholly unique darkened, near choral singing is impressive (see the momentous chorus of “Scourge of the Offspring”). One of his skills, regardless of the delivery, is his enunciation. You can understand what he’s saying, and with a band where the message is as central and important as it is for Cattle Decapitation, that’s an important thing. Where Death Atlas had some breaks with ambience and narration, Terrasite is full throttle. There’s some mid-paced songs, but there’s also unyielding intensity in songs like “...and the World Will Go on Without You” or “A Photic Doom.” This is definitely a record to listen to with the lyric sheet and one in which to fully immerse yourself. – SteveO