N.B.B.M.N. is Nothing But Black Metal November, a themed short reviews column which I’ve been doing since 2015 in various venues, initially inspired by friends of mine who’d often spend November only listening to black metal and generally catching up on the releases they’d missed throughout the year. This first entry considers only new/recent releases from late October and November. // I’ve done my best to showcase the most interesting works that I come across while still presenting some decent variety but choices boil down to what sticks, what inspires or what is worth writing about. These reviews are more easygoing than longform reviews, so relax and think for yourself. — If you find something you dig go tell the band on social media and support them with a purchase! If you’d like your music reviewed, read the FAQ and send promos to: grizzlybutts@hotmail.com

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This year we begin with October’s leftovers, a set of five releases I’d wanted to spend a bit more time with at the end of last month which’ve now spilled over into this tributary. Some are mediocre and others are deeply acquired tastes but I’d like to touch upon/represent as much variety as possible this month and within the scope of just five releases (out of twenty total this week) we’ve plenty of unique undertakings and stylized outliers.

Three Eyes of the Void began as one-man studio project by Ukrainian musician Dmytro Kvashnin who’d put out a decent enough EP back in 2017. At some point it seems he’d moved to Poland, encountered former Sacrilegium drummer Arkadiusz Niziołek and from there they’d formed a quartet circa 2021. The result of a solidified line-up was this ambitious post-black/atmospheric black metal record clearly inspired by Nietzsche in terms of its lyrical themes though the long-winded and breathy style which they lead with seems pulled from the modern perceptions of atmoblack metal and its potential for dramatic, indirect narrative. While I’d found the bulk of this album drawn out, void of truly stirring riffcraft and typical melodies its profundity wasn’t lost upon me after giving it some time to develop its slowly built vision. Dry vocal expression can become flatly exaggerated in an unpleasant way next to their somewhat sentimental or, searching compositions and this’d left me either losing the plot or losing interest beyond the first few listens. The graphic design here is minimal without any clear effect, the album art in particular doesn’t communicate much of anything without context. I’d ultimately come away from ‘The Atheist‘ without much more than its lyrics to cling to for interest and as such it didn’t stick in mind for long.

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‘Ikuinen Kirous‘ is the latest mLP from this Oulu, Finland-based black metal band who’d made some waves with their first three LPs for Wolfspell Records and this’d come with an inconsistent or, unpredictable voice depending on the record where the post-90’s Satyricon-esque rocking verve and vikingr weirding of Fenriz seemed to inspire their otherwise often typical melodious Finnish black metal style. Instead of buzzing between their many-limbed oeuvre per release this record takes a wild ride through it all, starting with some rocking black n’ roll pieces before switching to a more melodic edge by the mid-point of this ~38 minute EP, a substantial entry at least. The production values are appropriately gritty but precise and the album art was compelling enough that I’d found enough reasons to give it a solid try four or five times but I’m not sure this one’ll last in my midst.

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This latest full-length release from experimental black metal quartet Yellow Eyes comes in a style they’ve described as industrial folk, and that shouldn’t mean martial neofolk or post-industrial music so much as it means something in between experimental black metal and a minimal dungeon synth adjacent style. Expect some minor use of distorted vocals, deep cuts choices of guitar effects and generally surreal scenes set within most longer form (~4-5 minute) pieces. Most of this record is substantial per the depths of its atmosphere, I don’t know that this is a record that will create much more than surreal, enchanting feeling in the moment of discovery but it does eventually prove itself an interesting pastiche of synth-lead ideas. They band’ve describe ‘Master’s Murmur‘ as a preamble or first partition for their next full length which is coming next year, intended as a complimentary introduction. Substance is relative, and I suppose I was happiest with the experience after about the fifth or so listen, realizing that it was momentarily captivating and less rewarding when rolled through time after time. I’ve found myself coming back to its sound roughly once a week beyond that point. Is it black metal in style or related? Yes, in terms of some rhythms and drum performances in the second half but not in any traditional sense.

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You might recognize the folks in Broder, a primitive Danish war metal duo, since it comes from the same people who brought you Blot & Bod. This group goes a shade more nuclear with their movement, still barbaric and lo-fi but they’d been more experimental on their earlier tapes. This is a bruiser of a short EP that is satisfyingly aggressive in its attack and appeals in a very simple way as they quickly chunk through its first set of ~3-4 minute sorta grinding black metal songs sure to catch the flaps of anyone interested in war metal noise. The final song (“Byldemor”) ends up droning through its ~15 minutes with style and ended up being my favorite piece on the album after a number of listens. The style of recording was quick to catch my ear but I couldn’t hang with this record all day.

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These debut album from Netherdom comes as a solo undertaking from French musician Artivitra who focuses on a very distant, long-winded and lo-fi atmospheric black metal style for the duration of this three song record. This is what I’d consider bedroom black metal and I don’t at all mean that in a derogative sense but that it was produced and recorded in a vacuum of thought and you can hear the tunnel vision of the artist within the work, a feat which’d obviously become stylized per limited means. The main focus is set upon a choppy style of average guitar work, developing some engaging depth in its starry-eyed vision of darkness and the result is disturbed enough, moderately aggressive yet functional in its trembling n’ tremoloing path to despair. The sense of damnation and reclusion is appreciable on ‘Forsaking, Foreseeing‘ enough that I felt it’d communicated a dark enough emotional path that it held my interest for the first two pieces. The gaunt atmosphere nature of the record did ultimately ring barren, or, plain enough to move on by the time I’d been neck deep in the final ~23 minute song which closes the listen.

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From this point we crack into November’s first three weeks worth of releases, of which I’ve gathered roughly ~fifteen records worth mentioning. I am intentionally curating some strange outliers here alongside some obvious releases which’ve gained some larger notice and this is less for the sake of recommendations as it is (again) to establish variety which shows some different greyed shades of black metal rather than plainly shoves the most popular collectors items in a row. We will cover more of that kind of thing in Part II but for now, the rest of the curious and varietal month of November 3rd-17th releases:

Kaldeket is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based post-black/melodic black metal inspired project from two former members of False which’d after some manner of controversy led to the breakup of that band. These two folks have more-or-less created something of a continuation of their previous band in the sense that they’ve created a tuneful form of melodic post-black metal, less related to Cascadian post-black ideals and now featuring the naive keyboards/synth per the mid-90’s as the Norwegian style spread worldwide during that time. This is a vinyl issue of a compilation which gathers their first two demos, the most notable being ‘Vitiate‘ (2021) where engaging speed and sparse mid-paced sections allow for their unique keyboard choices to generate an interesting enough personality. That first release was aggressive and pushes through its wiles readily. If you’re a fan of melodic black metal in the loosest sense there should be some points of strong interest here. Their second demo (‘Déraciné‘, 2023) is far less interesting for my own taste where the glowing atmosphere of their work is somewhat lost in its need to create burlier tension, to fill the space more readily and this ends up tying their larger threads into knots. From my perspective the ‘simplicity’ of the first demo was all the more effective and less chaotic, so, see how that lines up with your own taste. As a collective introduction to a broader audience this compilation is promising at the very least and comes with quality enough render that it is easy to recommend.

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Stockholm, Sweden-based black metal solo act Cirkeln returns for a third full-length and they’ve strayed a bit back in time for this one, having originally been known for a raw yet melodic black metal style on their first two albums. This third full-length album is a more streamlined, cleaner recording up front yet it aims for a late 80’s/early 90’s style of riff and composition which is variously successful and often inconsistent in its impact. I’m never one to shy away from Celtic Frost influenced works and a bit of late 80’s Bathory menace and this does lend a sort of ‘old school’ black metal feeling to this record’s first impression. There are yet a few occasions where the artist doesn’t seem entirely sure how to patch up the cracks or, dead zones in these overly long pieces and this leads to odd black n’ roll moments, swinging guitar leads, and some punkish dodges which don’t always feel relevant to their surroundings. ‘The Primitive Covenant’ is engaging enough and not necessarily a poor showing but another facet of this band which comes with raw edges, less-than a point of mastery beyond its curation of stunning album art.

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Spanning numerous EP releases beyond 2018 London, England-based experimental atmospheric black metal duo Sea Mosquito have long infused noise and industrial music elements into their sound but on this debut full-length they’ve leaned heavily into what I’d consider electro-industrial metal elements as bigger points of flourish for this nigh ‘progressive’ avant-black concept album. While I found the narrative of this album engaging throughout and their crossover of styles intense I’m not sure I ever found solid ground enough with this record to connect with it beyond the spectacle of presentation. The most impressive parts of ‘Igitur‘ are either surprising for their unique interruptions or very much digging into their own groove, such as “Filth. Disorder. Inequity” per its immersive arrangement. I’d wanted more of the album to follow this mode rather than dance within the ~2 minute vignette arena so often and as such it’d dragged on well before the density of the endpoint hit. An adventure at the very least.

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‘Prophet of Eternal Damnation‘ is the second full-length album from Bergen, Norway-based war metal/bestial black metal trio Goatkraft and the sort of record you’ll understand within roughly thirty seconds of its first strike as they generate an very classic style of Black Witchery and Archgoat inspired warfare noise. There is some extra chaos on their work, a violent swerve which should liken their sound Revenge but not quite the death-lurching edge of groups like Proclamation. Their attack is basically everything, thriving within their obnoxious violence and the mania of reverberating onus. That is about as thoughtful as I can be regarding this type of record, I mean they’re bashing at every note the way you’d want ’em to and there is a meaner, more violent chaos to this LP compared to their first. The only real criticism I have is that the riffs aren’t anything too unholy beyond expectations, none of it really stuck but I’ll remember their name for sure.

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‘Serpens Abyssi‘ is the debut full-length album from Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Luciferian black metal duo Nahasheol who’ve managed a strong occult black metal influenced sound which is grand, thunderous and effectively ‘modern’ in some sense in that it reaches for some light avant-garde elements and clear fidelity while the guitar work which leads the experience reminded me of Nightbringer to some degree. The duo includes Brazilian musician D. (Outlaw) as the main actor but also features a lyricist, N. Shyamasundara. Since I am a big fan of D.‘s work I was pretty hyped up to settle into this record though I didn’t find it reached the highs which some of his other project did right off the bat, taking several listens to stick in mind more readily. Overall this work is reasonably ambitious and the result is above-average for a ~35 minute black metal record which reaches at least some point of profundity within its arrangements when given due attention.

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This debut full-length from United States/Spain split duo Nightgaunt originally released back in 2022 and now finally gets its vinyl version. Often compared to the current stable of popular raw black metal bands out of the United States, I wouldn’t say this group has such a plain likeness to earlier works from Lamp of Murmuur and such but it does have an imprecise sort of shambling, intentionally obscured vampyric sound, which I’d consider ‘zoomer rawness’ per its crushed-can production and wobbly guitar playing, are both intentionally rugged but also strangely sentimental without any real force applied to their work. The four pieces here are relatively long and meandering, often composed without any particular direction or looping thought in mind for the duration of their ~10-12 minute outings. There is yet something interesting enough, poetic about this raw and sweetly performed black metal which rings of adorably feigned naivete, the only issue is how plainly it all drones along as a banal and dryly fudged-out dual guitar thread. While I understand the appeal of the mental corridor created here, and its uneasy wander is not the worst I’ve heard in terms of carrying an idea for such a length of time, this record didn’t appreciate in terms of pain or pleasure upon repeated listens.

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Essen, Germany-based black/death metal band Ch’ahom are a strange blender of ‘war metal’ on the bestial black/death spectrum themed after ancient Mesoamerican indigenous culture but also oddly enough infused with what they consider 70’s British progressive rock inspired diversions which, I guess leads to something kind of like war metallic Gorguts at its most weirding. After a roughly a decade of working on their own style of black/death metal I suppose this is the planet on which they’ve decided to land and really, it isn’t as strange as it might sound since most of these pieces simply bash away at primitive, twisted riffs without any remarkable interruptions for most of this album’s duration. The first three or four pieces on the album are throttled but atmospheric, reverberating from a hellish chasm and didn’t stand out all that much beyond their use of certain indigenous instruments from Mexica culture, once they begin to dig into the two-part “Knots of Abhorrence” pieces they do seem to incorporate some progressive death metal ideas and the shape of the album begins to match up with their description in some vague sense, a unique presentation inspired by 2010’s USBM at the very least. The first couple of listens didn’t sink in but I’d soon found slapping this record on repeat and letting it do its thing in the background began to reveals its merits more readily, allowing their own interruptions of the usual black/death metal ideas to froth up and pull me back in for a couple more listens. Not sure it’d hold up in regular rotation but a curio for my taste.

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Italian/Polish occult black metal Amalekim return with another impressive melodic black metal album in an aggressive yet surreal tract. The main boon here comes in terms of sharper fidelity, some slightly more abstracted songcraft, and an interesting enough theme. As was the case with their first LP (‘HVHI‘, 2021) the basis of their melodic, lead-driven songs impresses in the way that chaos-spiritual acts of today do alongside a hint of Necrophobic‘s nowadays intensity and some avant-black shading on certain riffs (“Psalm V: Litrof Rekanut”) to keep things ever scaling upward. “Psalm III: Olam Teshuva” is probably the most dramatic reveal on the running order to start and the album only leans into this dramatism from that point, sticking to ~4-5 minute songs with steady melodic impact throughout. The full listen does begin to feel uniform in tone for the sake of creating their song book, feeding a theme which refers to the Talmud and its classification of forbidden blasphemies, ulterior forms of faith, “worshippers of the stars” and pagan cults. The song titles take us on a trip from there for the most part. The connection between the dramatism of the late 90’s and early 2000’s as it translates into today’s post-metal (and kinda jaunty power metal, too) infused modern melodic black metal ideals doesn’t always inspire me but in this case I enjoyed the crossing of old-and-new dynamics herein because it’d felt substantive, captivating and even memorable in a few cases. For a 45 minute record ‘Avodah Zarah‘ is appreciably dense with ideas and energy and after a handful of listens I think they do end up overstating themselves on this record in terms of ideas which feel complete but still evolving slowly by the halfway point. // If there is an “Editor’s Choice” among this first entry into this feature, this’d be it.

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The third full length album from Swedish post-metal/blackgaze infused atmospheric black metal project Jord offers a more professional elaboration of what the fellow behind it, Jörgen Ström, had done for his first two records both of which released on Northern Silence albums. Unfamiliar with their sound, I’d initially found the onboarding for this album strong in its affected and introspective tone but as elements of gothic metal soon seeped in alongside chiming and sweetly floaty blackgaze movements I realized this wasn’t for me, or, isn’t outright heavy guitar music. In checking out his prior releases I’d found this was a more ambitious record in terms of incorporating more memorable songcraft and a variety of influences but none of their releases break free of the terminal lull of post-rock energy. Since I don’t particularly connect with this type of music, it just doesn’t sell any believable feeling to me, I’ll duck out. Entertaining to start but ultimately not for me.

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Watain offer an intense and aggressive live show more often than not, nowadays more theatrical as they’ve become more seasoned in their performances and this comes across well enough on this soundboard recording from an October 22nd live performance in Stockholm, Sweden which spans about 73 minutes covers 12 songs from their now extensive discography. These folks seem to have become a staple in Swedish black metal almost by force and persistence and surely their life as a touring band has been an important part of this. I’d always found them convincing in person but lean towards their 2000’s releases on disc most. The setlist here covers the bulk of their discography with some slight focus on their latest release and includes a cover of Bathory‘s “The Return Of Darkness And Evil‘ nearby the end. When I was a kid live albums from groups like Maiden, Priest and Saint Vitus (not to mention countless hardcore punk groups) convinced me to start attending shows and in that pre-high speed internet era it was a great way to get a sort of ‘greatest hits’ from a group you hardly knew. Point is that this could feasibly offer a decent enough introduction to Watain even if I’d insist you watch some videos to get a sense of the atmosphere of their show, even if black metal is notoriously hit-or-miss in a live setting depending how much personality and atmospheric value the recording session gave to the bare bones of the work. For this type of black metal, Swedish stuff with riffs and some reasonable melodic value to their aggression, the energy is up enough that it works as a live recording. The energy drops for me around “Saramosa” and I’d been ready to move on from that point but as a longtime fan I’d found this a worthwhile reminder that these folks can put on a show.

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The Mosaic Window is a modern, somewhat accessibly stated solo melodic black metal project from Los Angeles, California-based musician Andrew Stephen Brown who’d self released this debut album digitally mid-June of this year before it was picked up by Willowtip Records, who now release it on CD and vinyl LP. From the energetic precipice of its launch ‘Plight of Acceptance‘ appears to be an experted melodic black metal record but quickly begins to drone on that same tip. While the energy remains heated throughout, the machine behind the album drives through variations on that main theme for most of its duration making for a tunneled-through and occasionally overly sentimental melodic black/death metal experience. Heroic in its use of melodic leads but stumbling through some of the vocal harmonies and melodic death metal riffs there are a few moments on this album which feel spiritual in their resolve, and this is what drives the full listen in an interesting direction overall. While I am a big fan of the opening salvo of songs on this record, I think that it does start to simultaneously wane in energy and peak in its impact somewhere nearby “Spiritual Intoxication” and that’d been enough to sate my interest. If nothing else I am curious to see how they end up expanding or refining this sound in the future.

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Ritual Clearing is a Connecticut-based black metal quartet featuring members of Scythewarden and Death Vanish and they play a fairly traditional style of black metal influenced by Swedish style of the early-to-mid 90’s. This is the sort of record you shouldn’t fully judge by its opener, an eight minute epic which fumes in its introduction. Grand as it is, this elaborate first impression doesn’t have the exact same impact as their more directly shot ~5-6 minute modus elsewhere. As soon as we get over that first hump they begin to shine within mid-paced and more deliberately stated pieces which ring to my ear as as a study of earlier Lord Belial type aggression and melodicism with the band citing Sorhin among others in their intent. ‘Penitence‘ pushes right through its tracklist with a consistent argument made for their riffcraft first and foremost, a proper black metal record overall and an experience full of brazen energy and aggression in its steadfast work. USBM sorely needs more black metal bands like Ritual Clearing, those who choose actual riffs over artificial atmosphere in every case.

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The Last Eon comes from musician Ødemark (3rd Attempt, Ovate, Necrocave) who aims for an idealized vision of Luciferian industrial black metal inspired by the early successes of Thorns and Mysticum. The intent here is to push the limits of that old late 90’s/early 2000’s sound into the present, attempting to find a sound which is not entirely beholden to the tenets of 90s industrial metal and pushing those ideas as far as he can. I think he does an alright job of it on this debut LP by way of an over the top presentation, clear enough fidelity, and a few moments of blazing aggression which help make a strong first impression. There are however limits to folding electro-industrial tropes into aggressive pacing and he ultimately doesn’t escape the downfall of electro-black metal back in the day per a general lack of distinctive songcraft beyond stylistic combination with no real expansion upon textural guitar/drum interplay. Unfortunately uprooting this style from the 90’s doesn’t cleanse the bones of the experience, which are still branded by alternative/industrial metal and rock tendencies. That isn’t to say that this isn’t an entertaining record, if you are a fan of groups like Aborym and such this’ll feel like a return to a not-so common era of black metal experimentation.

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