N.B.B.M.N. is Nothing But Black Metal November, an annual series of short review columns which I’ve been administering since 2015 in various venues. It was initially inspired by online acquaintances who’d often spend November “only listening to black metal” or at least generally catching up on the releases they’d missed throughout the year until the well ran dry. This year I’ll curate a (mostly) alphabetical list beyond scouring old e-mails and Bandcamp. In an attempt to be more conversational these are more easygoing and casual 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

---

Ähtäri, Finland-based solo act ANGEL GRAVEYARD comes from the mind of musician Maani who’d been the guitarist for Ancient Hatred for about a decade before moving onto his own gig. Here he once again conspires with some of those former compatriots via session drums and whatnot for a third and exceedingly estranged LP, ‘Eerie Prayers‘. The actual structure of this album and most of its fairly brief songs speaks to the warbling esotericism of Finnish traditional heavy/doom metal as well as a more demonstrative form of black metal which is not so practiced or pure, carrying elements of melodic black/death into simpler off-kilter rhythmic movements. What I’d appreciated most about my time with this record was this sense that they’d created their own world, a place which is all the more bizarre and character rich for how grossly hand-crafted and frankly kinda bungling it is at times. If you can sit through the first intro track and the clean vocals in general there is some manner of entertainment to be gleaned here.

Nashville, Tennessee-based trio BURNING DEATH spread the unholy blasphemies of evil thrash metal on this inspired debut album presenting a ~half hourlong scrape, grind and roll through black, death, and speed metal modes all under the hammer of anti-Christian volatility. This isn’t revisionist or gimmick’d shit as we find the band chipping through fairly simple but pumped speed/thrash metal burners, admirable enough work here in the best tradition of pure underground thrash metal. One could draw comparisons to everything from At War and Nasty Savage to Sabbat (Japan) in divining their core inspiration but expected fast-kicked and growling speed metal at the heart of their attack. For my own taste I’d almost be more interested to hear them focus on some death-thrashing spasticity to avoid the snarling speed metal thing hitting its redundancies, the main riff for “Severed” is great for example but it kinda hits like two other riffs that’d flown by on other songs. Otherwise I’d appreciated the primal energetic attack they brought here, ugly and crazed stuff in the best way.

Newfield, New Jersey-based crew CAPITALIST return with a second EP centered around their own admixture of crust/hardcore punk and black metal, cutting through eight songs in about ~19 minutes and kinda flying past in the process. There are a few pieces here which slow their roll, such as “Portable Morgue” and its drawn out introduction or drowsy closer “Pale Apparition”, but for the most part they shove their way through these ~1-2 minute pieces one after another without much fanfare. About ten years ago I’d have expected something kinda Martyrdöd inspired from a blackened crust act but elements of post-black metal and a general air of melodrama and lowered mood hang over anything outright energetic. That juxtaposition of quick shove-ready songs which kinda bide their time was interesting, both unsettling and belligerent beyond the dramatic shapes being cut. Not really my kind of thing but an interesting idea nonetheless.

For their thirteenth toll Lahti, Finland-based solo act CLANDESTINE BLAZE continue a pretty amazing streak of albums beyond 2018 or so where his grasp of the riff in repetition finds some clarity, not in the sense of production values so much as he voice available to ‘Consecration of the Blood‘ is crisply rendered and wide-eyed in its threat to the listener. Granted this album isn’t all about speed ripping attacks, the first few songs take their time developing the riff and by “The New Wailing Wall” he cuts into some harder-rolled movement. As is typically the case the longer you sit with one of Aspa‘s albums the better it gets, both in the sense that it plays well on repeat and the later-album songs here, “Grin of the Skull” and nearby, only seem to hook in deeper as the album carries on. Not their fastest ripped record, kinda has a rocking tap to some of it, but overall a choice black metal record.

Veneto, Italy-based quartet FERUCH arrive upon their self-titled debut full-length statement (‘Feruch‘) via an album which attempts to speak directly to their place in the Dolomitic Alps as well as the spirituality and heritage abounding. In terms of style this manifests as a sort of raw black metal/pagan black crossing where a sense of both soil-bound grime, a folken step and ‘epic’-shot movements make good company. The main appeal of the full listen for my own taste is just following the guitar work through, as was the case with their compatriots Tenebrae in Perpetuum album on the last entry. The longer the song the better for my own taste as that’d been where the most immersive warbling happened (re: “Celebrazione Funerea”, “Ferùch”) though I’d appreciated the shrieking estrangement of “Rituale Aureo” in general too. While they could probably do a lot more with this sound I’d appreciated how straight forward and unhindered their work was on the pass through.

Though they’re often described as symphonic black metal Swartadauþuz‘ GREVE more typically feature guitar driven work which is both atmospherically rich in its snowbound glow and complex in its melodic development, particularly when it comes to dual rhythm guitar focused arrangements delivered with sublime tact. Void of anything remotely “symphonic” beyond a few floor toms struck ‘Bleknat bortom evig tid‘ is a particularly sharp showcase of that compositional intensity where two voices scroll in dizzying parallax and may or may not capitulate into phrase within a six or even eight minute song. The carve of these songs and their guitar work might be my focus most of these pieces do bear glowing yet ominous atmospheric reign where we find the artist creating more space between the drilling of their riffcraft to shape both melodic threads (“En Sista Färd”) and take a few deeper breaths in between rushes. While there is the danger of these songs all blending together into one extended thread there is also the boon of all of these songs blending together into one immersive thread… that is to say that if one song gels with your taste the rest of the album should devour you with its intense focus.

Vienna, Austria-based quartet KONFESSION have built their house upon black metal idealism, aiming for an authentic sound which reflects their own interest in raw and vintage hard rock/heavy metal sounds that’d driven the sub-genre into infamy. That isn’t to say that their stuff sounds revisionist or rawed-up to death but that there is an oaken, realistic capture of their work here which speaks to the auld underground. ‘Im Baumdunkel des Äthers‘ is their second full-length album beyond a string of activity captured beyond 2018 where the trundling hiss of early Darkthrone might make sense once you’ve heard a few of their riffs but you’ll just as quickly encounter the punkish roll of “The Bonecastle Shatters” and your thoughts should align closer to certain records from Furze by the time you link up with the bopping “Das Portal”. I don’t know if every song here hits but the way the full listen drones through its zombified and sometimes rocking movement feels like their own deal.

Though the members of MORTE FRANCE are apparently split between France and Canada founder Kval presents his work as celebratory of European heritage, history and explores both Pagan and Christian symbolism and heroism alike in theme. To back such austere focus beyond the more naturalistic pagandom found on their debut LP here a broader range of vocal expression, from shouts and screams to growls and trills, to express the dramatism of various subjects while generally leaning into both “epic” melodic black metal and more harried, aggressive pulses. The first two pieces on the album indicate this well enough as opener “Waldganger” sprawls into various tirades and a broader vocal range whereas “Europa Aeterna” hits like an old Hate Forest or Belenos song to start. Though the flow of this album is not all that polished (the title track is kinda fucking weird) and some attention to transitional narrative might help it all feel more cohesive the ambitious work here speaks loudly for itself whether you’re a sucker for an impassioned vocal or a sun-shot lead (“Lux Meae”.) You can feel the inspiration for this album when sitting with it though I suppose they could be even more effective focusing in on one subject, or, creating around a less broad theme as to root the full listen into one point of impact. Great album cover too, well chosen.

Unfortunately I’d not heard this fifth full-length album from Baden-Württemberg, Germany-based quintet THRON, or even known that it existed, ’til about a week after it’d released and as such I’d not had enough time to work it into my schedule. As I’d celebrated on their 2018 and 2021 released records these folks excel at their own continuation of classic melodic black metal forms, bringing their own precision to a typically Swedish ideal. Starting with their ‘Dust‘ (2023) album they’ve brought in the drummer from Aara and the lead guitarist from Malphas and this pulls their sound even further away from the grime of ‘old school’ black metal and into an exacting stadium level of thrust and bombast which suits the style and its own evolution well enough whether you are a fan of Watain or Dark Funeral this’d be the sort of band you’d want on the same bill/fest. I’ve definitely been a fan of this band in the past, especially ‘Abysmal‘ (2018), but I have to say this might be their most accessible and engaging record to date. This is maybe a rare case where I would buy this record for the album art alone but of course the lifelong Necrophobic fan in me can hang with these folks’ work any given day.

Didn’t know what to expect when I hit play on this latest EP from Melbourne, Australia-based duo VOIDCHRIST beyond knowing both are ex-members of the underrated Ignivomous and that the project had been experimental in the past, utilizing dark ambient and drone to achieve its mania. ‘Only Worms Rule Here‘ comes about a decade beyond their last demo and features a freshly nuked skin stretched across its mast, a layer of radioactive fire crisping its flesh ’til death as decayed vocal effects, distorted bass tones and hammered through movement create nauseated grooves (“A Snare in the Barren Lands”, “Unrelenting Zeal”) and maximal carnage (“Only Worms Rule Here”) as they grind through blackened and bestial obliteration. This is probably on the more extreme spectrum of black/death metal horrors and I think all the more interesting for how they’ve pushed the nox of bestial black/death into unconscionable delirium without relying on the usual blasted-out war metal forms. With that said tempering the vocal effects down to a fried edge and cranking the bass would sign me up for a full-length.

---