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 second entry covers more November new releases, a number of black/death records, as well as a random array of releases from this year. // 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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The first six releases included in this entry are new releases which’ll be out between November 17th-24th and the rest of the selections I’ve made beyond that point are either to showcase variety or because they’d bumped above at least a 75/100 score. Overall this entry will have more black/death metal up front than the others and… not for any particular reason beyond sniffing out riffs that cut hard enough to keep myself entertained. Will try and dig back deeper into 2023 for the next entry, probably.

Crust, powerviolence, death metal, and extreme sludge all factor into the rich musical backgrounds of the folks attacking the blackened death metal martial arts here on this second full-length from Vancouver, Canada-based quartet Ceremonial Bloodbath. The only reason I ever cover stuff in the war metal-adjacent realm any more is if it has riffs worth a shit and without question ‘Genesis of Malignant Entropy‘ has enough body-horror worthy slash n’ grinding riffcraft to carry the album single-handedly. Their sound once again leans toward the punishing roll of death metal so if you’re hot for Ruin Lust, Pseudogod, and can hang with both Katharsis and Incantation in the same evening this’ll be your gig. I’d enjoyed this one quite a bit, loved the explosive sound and brutal heft of their work with plenty of hard-jogging movement and such.

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‘Fury and Death‘ is the second full-length album in this “epic” melodic black/death metal style to arise from Australian musician Dave Hill who is best known for his over the top grindcore group Fuck…. I’m Dead joined by vocalist Tony Forde (Blood Duster) and brilliant drummer David Haley (Psycroptic) for this project which is comparable to peak Immortal, Thy Primordial as well as the obvious greats from the Australian black/thrashing death scenery of a certain era. These will be easy comparisons to make when certain pieces, such as “Volcano” which could’ve easily been on ‘Sons of Northern Darkness‘, crop up with familiar movement or technique but the sort of sing-along modern melodic death metal feeling which develops in the mid-point of the album (“Once and For All”) was a bit surprising at first. Though I’m not sure I found the album substantive the very loud and confident introduction it made was impressive.

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Délétère remain one of the more notable acts from the Quebecois black metal scenery, a gathering of fellowes from all manner of bands in that universe who’ve brought something incredible to each of their full-lengths. For this third LP we could safely expect a lot from these plague-angelic folks since their whole realm is defined by pestilential theme yet ‘Songes d’une nuit souillée‘ aims bigger, toward enormous chorales and grandiose pieces which not only distinguish their melodic black metal focused work from the past but set this record as quite easily one of the best releases of November this year. Instead of writing a long and in-depth review of the album which’d been pure adoration I figured it’d be just as effective to set this as the main “jewel” to find in this list of fifteen albums this week. Consider this record one of few essential black metal records to chip into my best of November list. I was maybe two songs into this record and already feeling raptured by it and the more time I spent with it I had to admit this is their biggest, best and most approachable feat to date. Top shelf grime.

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Herzog is a surreal atmospheric black metal project from Belgium-based musician Asgeir Amort with direction from the thousand-armed fellowe Déhà and drummer Hochofen. Deeper growled vocals, lumbering layers of plugged and buzzing guitars, and a very flat clean bass guitar tone make for what I’d consider the elder style of atmospheric black metal from the late 90’s/early 2000’s to start with the opening piece but things soon begin to break and fizzle, burst and estrange into unpredictable directions as we move toward the middle of the album. Heavily stylized in all aspects and far removed from the blandness of the status quo there is a lot to like about ‘Furnace‘ to start but I didn’t find any deep connection with their material beyond a the surreal chinks of “Oath of Weakness” and some of the sentimental oddity of “All Rites” later on. Very promising but always just on the verge of excellence.

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New England/New York-based black metal quartet One Master return for their fifth full-length album and overall I’d say this one feels like it’d had plenty of time to cook, producing a transfixing yet raw-edged brew which cannot help but overflow at nearly an ~hour long. ‘The Names of Power‘ does a fine job of showcasing their raw USBM core while delivering the clearest distinction between song types and general personae they’ve managed to date, avoiding the jarring between-two-worlds feeling their previous LP (‘Lycanthropic Burrowing‘, 2017) carried. The droning rock beat of “The Forbidden Names” should catch ears first but the kinda shoegazing distance and ear-scouring harass of “The Celestial Names” would end up one my favorites among these long but not-so dauntingly elaborate songs. Cut into the harsher, heavier side of their gig (“The First Names”, “The Solitary Names”) and results vary in terms of chaos or notable riffs but it all comes together as something thoughtfully developed yet conceivably off the cuff with closer “The Final Names”. Give it more than one spin at the very least, they’ve provided plenty enough nuance to keep the black metal stained mind engaged for hours a time.

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Underrated Hungarian black metal band Sear Bliss began their career as an instantly compelling outlier, touching upon the avant-garde per their prominent use of baryton, euphonium and trumpet for a folkish yet surreal form of melodic atmospheric black metal. ‘Grand Destiny‘ was arguably their point of true sophistication where the rhythms were complex, playful in their movement but still wrathful in their attack. While some would begin calling them “dark metal” around this point even when the outlandish qualities spike up this was very song/riff oriented band, a real black metal band in my mind, and something which fans of “good kind of weird” classic black metal artists like Master’s Hammer, Primordial, Rotting Christ and even Enslaved will enjoy. The version I was sent is a CD for the remaster/reissue but a vinyl LP version is also available, since you should probably collect all the brilliant cover art Kris Verwimp did for this band in the late 90’s/early 2000’s at their prime.

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The following nine records are mostly band submissions, random purchases, or records I’d wanted to cover that were submitted well past their release date. This is barely the tip of the iceberg in this sense and I’ve at least a hundred more untouched black metal releases from earlier this year to choose from but I figure these albums should be enough to whet the average crate-digging interest to go on looking for now.

When I first came across Anti-God Hand‘s demo, as the promo was sent in to me, I liked it enough to offer to sell copies of the tape in my label’s shop which had just opened. Whatever that tape was, some manner of post-black metal trip, it was a very distant ancestor to what the musician behind it Will Ballantyne is doing today on this second full-length album in two years. There are a lot of strange choices made here, such as the bad shredding which carries “Warped and Opalescent Swords” or the screechy black metal duck vocals of the awfully verbose “Endless Brightness”, yet this marriage of blackgaze’d chuggy modern progressive metal and soft synthesizer plunges kinda works in a homebrewed and scuffed rock guitar-driven way. My rating is probably a bit too high here considering the late 2000’s Bandcamp black metal feeling of it all and the terrible vocals but it isn’t the sort of sentimental, overwrought thing you’ll find every day, at least not these days.

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German symphonic black metal band Aphelium Aeternum is the resurrection of the stillborn Aphelium Eternal, a band conceived and left to die in 1995. Main songwriter/guitarist Tairach (Pestnebel, ex-Ungod) has conjured reasonably authentic early-to-mid 90’s black metal style here in the Norwegian style a la mid-period Obtained Enslavement minus the brutality, the mid-paced side of Troll, and such but his guitar work is the leadership here and the keyboards are not at all bombastic or varied as they provide general chorales in between thrashing movements. Their results here are more exacting, tightly performed compared to old stumbles from the mid-to-late 90’s like Aeba‘s ‘Im Scattenreich‘ et al. yet I found nothing at compelling about this work beyond its well-tempered sound and general authenticity.

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Blasphemous Fire is the second life of Summon a Lisbon, Portugal-based atmospheric black/death metal band whom I’d reviewed and rated highly over the last several years. Their sound now errs towards the realm of atmospheric yet aggressive death metal and anyone who was familiar with their prior band will understand this is not a very drastic shift, but certainly one which means more riffs and a filth-ridden murky sound. ‘Beneath the Darkness‘ is an album for the death metal ear attuned to morbid nuance, to slowly shifting riffs (“Allowed Wishes”) and harder struck brutality which resonates with death and mayhemic intent as it lurches in the smokey haze its atmospheric render creates. While I was such a huge fan of ‘Helios‘ back in 2020 that I was hoping this album would be similar to it the result here is no less strong, more patient and varied overall in the type of riffcraft explored. Even though I’ve been listening to it for six months I still feel like I need more time with it ’til I’ve pierced through its production values and gotten ahold of its most memorable ideas. It is a great sign that it has stuck in mind so long but not great that I’m still indecisive about it.

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Impalement is a solo black/death metal project from German musician Beliath who is best known for his work in the live line-up of Nargaroth and a stint in Mor Dagor. Now on their second full-length album in just a few years the first LP from this fellow was seemingly tied closer to a Belphegor inspired style of black/death with some melodic black metal interest and this one generally follows suit while leaning into some of their more obvious Swedish black metal interest. When I was a teenager records like ‘Pandemonic Incantations‘ from Behemoth in the late 90’s set this standard well enough, the melodic side of the band is well developed and the production values are set to a high modern standard but I don’t find there is enough of a personality or standout songcraft to stand out in such a crowded space.

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Venezuelan/Mexican atmospheric black metal band Irillion began as a solo project from Rayner V. back in 2015, putting out an instrumental EP before he’d moved to Mexico and joined up with drummer/vocalist Coatl for a second EP in 2019. Their style is intentionally dark, atmospheric per obscurant sound quality which is built atop bestial and cryptic mid-paced guitar progressions which happily linger in the dread of doom and Hellhammer-esque rides. Their gig is somewhat buried in obscurant sheets of reverberation but ultimately slings guitar progressions and style one could feasibly compare to Doombringer, even going as far as to cover a Beherit piece (“Pagan Moon”) for the finale of the full listen. If you can follow what they’re up to within the murk there is more than brainless chugging and clashing ruckus to pull from the experience though you might have to love the raw, hazy drift of it since the depth is well-buried and the riffs hard to latch onto.

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‘Sudakaos‘ is the latest mLP from São Paulo, Brazil-based warfare noise quartet Necrogosto who you might remember I’d written about when their first demo and EP got picked up for wider release in 2019/2020. Warfare noise? Thrashing bestial black metal with hellish over the top noise as part of their gig which is commonly compared to Sarcófago, Beherit and even early Mystifier. Punkish guitar progressions, blown out mic’d vocals, and recklessly brutal attacks of speed and harsh noise help to color in the wrack of their sound. The best songs on this particularly record are the slower ones, “Cemetery of the Living” and “Necrogosto” are absolute pain in the way this type of noxious black metal music should be.

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Firing up this latest album from Connecticut-based black/death metal trio Profanatica you’d think the nigh romanticist wheeling of that main riff alongside the chainsaw guitar tone meant to briefly swing into the realm of Swedish death but they’d never intended to go further with that moment beyond a compelling riff, the first of many brash and grinding rhythms they cut through here on this distinctly primordial United States type of black metal record. “The First Fall” sells their buzz, “Compelled by Romans” nearly kills the momentum and the buckshot shorter pieces on the second half of the album bring that droning, determined stabbing pace back into full swing. This band has always brought their own style while rarely ever needing to stray from it. For my own taste the slow-arcing burn of a few pieces (“The Third Fall”, “Compelled by Romans”) were among the most entertaining pieces this time around and this is pretty par for the course from my point of view where the simpler their gig is the more effective it is in a live setting.

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Cerulean is a dissonant/avant-garde black metal quartet and one which is dead-set on perfecting its own die-hard brand of interwoven, skronking yet atmospherically rich and technical black/death music inspired by the ‘Synarchy of Molten Bones‘-era of Deathspell Omega. This sound should appeal to fans of Geryon for its pronounced bass guitar tone and challenging rhythms but the only real feeling applied here is virtuosic, performative and the real dread of the EP never really struck me in any sort of profound way. The artwork is fitting enough, the sound is crisp yet chaotic, yet I’d found no real connection to the ambitions of their sound.

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Flemish black metal band Oerheks have managed to make a slow-waltzing, droning and thousand-layer deep wall of curiosities on this “epic” atmospheric black metal sophomore LP as it appears set twenty feet deep in cold black water to start. Cut into two outsized songs for a ~27 minute record ‘Valkengebed‘ is practically hallucinatory at its outset where the watery wobble of its title track maintains a syrupy effects-soaked tension to start and a certain dramatism in stages for the second half (“Blauwe Vleugels”). Of course the depth of movement in this piece is buried beneath the constantly swaying distance of its sound, leaving the whole of the album feeling dissociated and cold enough to hold my attention for several listens. Wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one much after their comparable mLP (‘Landschapsanachronismen‘) hadn’t done much for me but the end result is meditative, transfixed, and satisfyingly aglow with its entrancement toward a dramatic endpoint. I’d just as well wonder how well the music itself would hold up without such stylized and contorted sound design.

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