SENTIMEN BELTZA: "Bizitza Osoan Zehar Sortu Den Etsipenaren Ondorioak"

Bubonic Productions, perhaps most commonly known for being a true fountain of acts in the field of rawest and most disgusting black metal possible (think of Vetala, Mons Veneris and the likes from the sublabel Discipline), does not dwell merely on the borders of noise and black metal: Sentimen Beltza's take on the genre hails to the shores of Finland, most clearly to the melancholic and organic sound of Sargeist. Come to think of it, I have probably never before witnessed a band this close to the style of the aforementioned band, and while it does gets thumbs up from me, the imitation also becomes Bizitza Osoan Zehar Sortu Den Etsipenaren Ondorioak's main downside.

From the very first seconds into the ”Hosto Eroriak”, the deal becomes quite evident: over the steadily battering mid-paced blast beats are being fired tremolo full sorrowful riffs. The overall atmosphere is really gloomy and hopeless, yet there is always a slight sense of something ominous in the air. The wintery landscape on the album's cover is pretty fitting, although my thoughts wander to somewhat darker, nocturnal territories than what the picture conveys while listening to the record. The songs are deliberately repetitive in the riff department, which also reflects in the song lengths varying from seven to thirteen minutes. While we consider the rather, erm, stagnant style in which Sentimen Beltza deliberately executes its black metal comprised of familiar ideas, eventually the album starts to drag on a bit, and the blossoming sadness sees no end, not even momentary, until the fifth track "Etsipenaren Ondorioak (Itxaropenik Gabe Part III)" that introduces a power chord section that lasts for a few seconds. This is the kind of variation I would have liked to hear a bit more during the course of over 50 minutes.

Musically, the album is very solidly performed. The drumming and guitar work is flawless, making the songs run smoothly. The only problem I see resides in the vocals that, while fittingly raspy, have a distortion effect on them which always evokes a somewhat bedroomish feeling. Sentimen Beltza is certainly no cheap bedroom project anyhow, considering the authenticity in the instrumental departments, but it's the vocals that have something to improve upon. Albeit I've criticized a lot of the album's elements, as a whole the record stands above many, and if one is not tired of bands akin to Sargeist and the fellows, Bizitza Osoan Zehar Sortu Den Etsipenaren Ondorioak is more than an apt object of exploration.

3.5 / 5

FÖRGJORD: "Sielunvihollinen"

You can not blame Förgjord for overproductivity – during the over 10 years of its existence, the project hasn't basically released but a few demos and full-lengths, Sielunvihollinen being the band's second in the latter category. I have fond memories of the debut Ajasta Ikuisuuteen which was a fantastic exemplar of piercingly cold and harsh Finnish black metal, and it is to my great pleasure to see that their newest offering is in the very same spirit: crude, 4-tracker black metal reeking of hate and contempt with an added touch of melancholy.

The album does start a bit differently due to its incorporation of kantele which evokes a rather national, folkish atmosphere on the intro ”Suokaste”. Soon after, ”Ei Kuoleman Arvoinen” brings on the fierce black metal, and fierce it is to every extent of that word. While the focus here is on the overall punishing raucousness, there's a slight sense of otherworldly magic in one of the song's riffs, making it actually one of the band's best tracks. ”Musta Lintu” and ”Niin Lihassa Kuin Veressä” continues the same footsteps, mainly dwelling in ass kicking, rough riffs and ultimately raspy screams, until the songs conclude in rather epic measures, usually meaning a shrilling tremolo lead melody on top of fast blasting. The ominous and crawling ”Tulilahti 1959” is a brief deroute from the paradigm (both musically and lyrically), after which ”Sudeksi Syntynyt” rips all wounds open with its consciously monotonous pace, culminating in a sweet use of latent synths. The eponymous ”Sielunvihollinen” is structurally very close to the songs on the first half of the record, and ”Viimeinen Myrsky” closes the deal with some ethereal kanteles in its end.

The main lyrical concept here, I believe, is the reverence of old Finnish paganism over the inferior Christianity which gets it deserved mockery on various tracks on Sielunvihollinen. This theme combined with the fittingly swampy forest black metal creates an authentic spirit that is always enjoyable to experience. The only proper glitch is that, although being convincing throughout, there's no such goose bumps inducing moments that Ajasta Ikuisuuteen offered on tracks like ”Surman Säkeet” and ”Itseensä Kahlittu”, but then again, this might be just because I haven't given Sielunvihollinen enough time yet. Keeping this in mind, I'm already happy to give as generous score as you can see. The beauty of Förgjord lies and has always lied in that it is so authentically raw and natural yet it doesn't actually sound like any other Finnish band, and Sielunvihollinen is no exception from the band's individual route.

4 / 5

NATTFOG: "Mustan Auringon Riitti"

After an abounding exposure to profound and philosophic Finnish black metal of late, such as the Saturnian Mist debut Gnostikoi Ha-Shaitan and Rahu's The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows, it is nice to return to a rather earthly and national take on black metal in the form of Nattfog's first full-length Mustan Auringon Riitti (”Rite of the Black Sun”). The very first seconds into the introductory ”Blindig Fog” reveal a folkish atmosphere akin to Drudkh, as a melodic yet distorted pattern is vividly played on top of a tom drum and a tambourine. When it all fades out, the sounds of rain appear along with distant howling, foreshadowing the actual black metal content of the album that shows its face soon after.

The music does not play with tricks and twists: mostly mid-tempo beats back up the riffs fluctuating, or balancing, between nostalgic sorrow and hate. This is very well described in the promo letter accompanying the album, as it reads: 'Mustan Auringon Riitti is full of melancholic soundscapes but with a strong sense of proud warspirit, much like is the nature of a typical Finnish man'. Considering this statement, it comes as no surprise that Nattfog's sound here can be linked to their native counterparts Sargeist, Satanic Warmaster, Horna and Goatmoon, among many others that share the similarities both in their musical and lyrical content: the occult aspect becomes very clear on a track like the eponymous ”Mustan Auringon Riitti” that very elaborately depicts the process of a ritual, or on ”Mieleni Mustissa Merissä” (”In the Black Seas of My Mind”) that has a very cosmic, metaphysical approach to it. The national side, then, is apparent on tracks like ”Path of the White Wolves” of which title gives a hint already.

Back to the audial content, one should not indeed expect any moments of utter amazement: the album contains equally strong material throughout its six black metal tracks, concluding in the 8-minute Burzumish synth ambient piece ”Kaksitoista Askelta Luvattuun Valtakuntaan”. Similar inclusions of ambient appear on the black metal as well: the soothing, ethereal keys on top of the metal instrumention on ”Kosmisen Usvan Ympäröimänä” work to great extents. It is to be remembered that when I say there's no proper moments of astonishment on the album, it doesn't mean I wouldn't regard Mustan Auringon Riitti a truly successful and durable experience. I've had the album in regular rotation for many weeks and I don't seem to get enough of it even by now: it is a consistent record to which is always safe to return. Hence it is easy to give recommendations for the album, especially if you are as fond as I am of the similar Finnish groups mentioned earlier.

4 / 5

MOLOCH: "Illusionen eines verlorenen Lebens"

While I most commonly tend to associate Ukrainian black metal with a rough sound and a folky edge, that is certainly not everything the country has to offer. One of the many examples is the consistent one-man Moloch that has been churning out new material for a few years, but in that time a really fucking lot of releases, and I mean really. Last year when the subject of this review, Illusionen eines verlorenen Lebens, came out, there were eight releases in addition to this. This always raises some suspicion in me and especially considering the tag 'DSBM' often attached to the project: a subgenre that is easy to play correlates quite often with a huge discography lacking actual quality.

In the case of Moloch and the album in hand, I don't think the assumption above is entirely incorrect here. What instantly catches my attention is the drum machine, a common symptom of bedroom projects, but this time I'm not going to devote all the space for nagging about it. Onto the content, an eight minute wintery ambient introduction ”Illusion des Winters” sets the atmosphere fittingly, which is then followed by two metal tracks. The drums whack rather slow beats on both, under the ringing distortion of the guitars that play rather incoherent rhythms but, admittedly, there is something charming in this hard-to-decipher obscurity of the riffs. The melancholic chords are there standing fixed, but plucked in a seemingly random pattern, and it creates a nice aura of desperation. Synths are in quite prominent role as well, somewhat softer sounding than the black metal, so I wouldn't have minded if they were a bit crispier like the record is otherwise. The vocals remind me a lot of Kim's (Hypothermia) despondent screams, a breeze of nostalgia from a few years back when I listened to a lot of the aforementioned band.

Although I've now depicted only three of the album's tracks, the same descriptions apply to the rest of the album pretty sufficiently: mid-paced, comfortless black metal that concludes in two ambient pieces, the short and distant self-titled ”Illusionen eines verlorenen Lebens”, and the Burzum esque, 22-minute ”Abgrund Meines Wesens”. In a way I'm happy that the purely ambient material takes a lot of the album's running time because I think that's when Moloch is at its best: creating authentic atmospheres of desolation in absence of metal instrumentation. Whenever I return to listen to Illusionen eines verlorenen Lebens, it's mostly because of the successful ambient rather than the 'DSBM' you see a lot of others doing already – and often even better. A fine record though nothing mindblowing, and a welcome trip to some very depressed landscapes amidst all the other black metal I've been listening to lately.

3 / 5

RAHU: "The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows"

The end of February this year stands for some important releases in my books: not only it is the release date of Venus Star's second LP Setyphorus, but also of Rahu's The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows. Rahu is another project of prolific Atvar's who I tend to regard quite a damn successful crafter of the black arts, and there's no way of denying the brilliance of the demos Caput Draconis and Ride of the Eight Black Steeds released five and four years ago, respectively. Due to the demos' personal importance on yours truly, expectations were really high as soon as it was announced that a new album was coming out. After finally hearing the whole thing I can happily say that the full-length is as far as possible from being a disappointment.

Rahu's music still revolves around rough black metal with the addition of some clever lead melodies more commonly heard in Circle of Ouroborus' recent material. The sound is fierce and it buzzes like a demo tape but there's just about enough clarity so that every instrument is discernible and the tight as hell drumming is sufficiently airy. Airy is indeed a fitting word to describe the whole album in general because the ethereal, trance-inducing atmosphere is probably from another plane of existence: this effect is achieved by the magnificent riffs and melodies that are fired one after another from the very first seconds to the last. The songs themselves don't really have more than three to five riffs so there's a lot of repetition in the songs that tend to run for around eight minutes, but it only creates a trance-inducing feeling – and chord progressions of this high quality tackle any signs of boredom, anyway. The interplay between the main riffs and the lively lead melodies works like magic throughout the record so that I'm really having a hard time choosing some particular moments to mention here. I guess I can conclude the general overview of the music by saying that what you can expect is some really ethereal, enthralling and evocative underground black metal.

Someone may wonder about the lyrical content of Rahu as the band is thematically based on Hindu mythology, but anyone familiar with some main theosophic principles will realize the profound, occult side of it. For example, ”Ordeal of X” begins the journey 'alone in search of Vajra', 'to reach the sum of All and bathe in light of creation', which refers to the individual path of finding inner God, Vajra symbolically meaning spiritual power here, and the follow-up ”Samudra Mantha” describes the events of the churning of the Ocean of Milk. Studying the lyrics has turned out very rewarding, so my biggest recommendations to exploring The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows further than just the audio. Also, check out the artwork which seems to be tauntamount to the brilliance of the newest Venus Star.

When rememberable and goosebumps inducing compositions, competent musicianship (including the well delivered spewings of Kobalt), thoughtful lyrics and sweet artwork all collide in the form of a neat 12” LP package, I don't, in all honesty, find any faults here. It is against my usual principles to give full points to a fresh album as it can't be known yet how it will stand the test of time, but I'm going to divert from that route this time and state that The Quest for the Vajra of Shadows is pretty much a perfect black metal record and worth the praising score.

5 / 5

VENUS STAR: "Setyphorus"

As an avid follower of anything that Atvar puts out, and there's a lot of it, my expectations towards his releases are always high and, hands down, I believe he is one of the best musicians slash composers at the moment, his work ranging from the experimental and melodic black fuzz of Circle of Ouroborus to various more straightforward acts such as the always violent Verivala and Vordr. While his spectrum of black metal projects seems quite abundant by now, Venus Star appeared out of nowhere in 2010, delivering downtuned, doom and death metal influenced black metal on a lengthy tape demo compilation. This was shortly followed by the first full-length LP The Dark Victor which was a step further into rumbling death metal and now, the second album Setyphorus is about to be unleashed, and I can assure you that it is yet again on its own level of fat, bass full death/doom menace.

In comparison to the earlier efforts, the listener might be surprised by the amount of melody that the introductory ”Blessed Abomination” offers as there has never before been this evident melancholy in Venus Star's work – this piece could almost be on an epic funeral doom record. While the first track only vaguely hints how massive this album is in its soundscape, on the follow-up ”On the Headless Cross” you can not avoid it anymore: the roaring, enormous guitars truly kick in in their low tune, and hell gets properly loose in this rhythm of an unusual time signature. Don't let me lead you astray by that last comment, as Setyphorus is otherwise quite 'traditional' in the compositions, meaning that they are very much based on simple, killing riffs and pounding, primitive and rather slow beats. Atvar's vocal spectrum of unhinged screams and growls is, however, wider than to what one is accustomed to hear in similar settings. Interestingly, I'm this time able to hear a lot of Ride for Revenge influenced groove in the drums, and by 'that RfR beat' some of you may already know what I'm talking about if you are aware of any of their material – and not that the low end guitar sound wouldn't nod towards the particular band either.

While everything seems to work splendidly here, the only glitch of Setyphorus lies in the fact that there's some, though quite minor, compositional redundancy around the middle of the album. When one is so enthralled by the massivity of the album during the first tracks, it is easy to think that the plot will get gradually even more exciting, but I can not say that happens here as some songs like ”Speech of the Desert God” and ”On the Path of Return”, although still being savage and important pieces of the whole, pale in comparison to the other tracks. However, ”Nuclear Witch” and the another melodic bookend ”Bloodbird” set things right again and assure that the album leaves a very positive aftertaste.

The lyrical side of Setyphorus is also noteworthy: the laconic, short verses are rich in occultism and symbolism that seems to deal mostly (but not only) with Hellenic imagery. A careful follower of the band's past lyrics will notice the ever-recurring line of cyclicity ”only to return” occur in many corners of this album as well. Also, do not skip taking a look at the cover art – how often do we come across this splendid cover paintings, in fact? This will surely look amazing on the final 12” LP, and it is supposedly only a third of the entire painting. And with all these elements – the music that works to great extents, the interesting lyrics and the great artwork – one is bound to say that Setyphorus is a successful album. I'm not yet sure how to compare it to the project's back catalogue, but what is certain is that it's a truly worthy addition to the relatively new band's discography, a discography that will soon expand in the form of a trilogy of seven inch vinyls. I'm hoping these will take things even further and fix the only little glitch of Setyphorus.

4 / 5

INFERION: "The Desolate"

[ 2 / 5 ] In the current flood of a myriad of black metal bands that differ little from each other, you are bound to come up with some specialities that make people turn their heads toward you and give a chance to the music. In Inferion's case, it was the fact the second full-length The Desolate this was partially recorded in Iraq while the band's frontman served in the army – otherwise, I doubt I would have been enough interested by another US black metal project that utilizes this clean and blatant drum programming. I tend to think that drum machines might fit into slower styles of music, but when it comes to rapidly fired black metal, it is easy go astray. Although the term 'bedroom' might not apply literally to The Desolate, considering the surroundings in which this was conceived in part, this sure does sound like it. There's plenty of power in the constant stream of tremolo through which these twirling melodies – usually hateful but bordering on melancholy every now and then – are delivered, but the cheapness in production kind of ruins it. While a band like Hate Forest sounds only charming in these productional conditions, the music itself on The Desolate yearns for a more full sound, and a full line-up. Bring on the remedies for this and the somewhat unrememberable riffage and you've got a lot better album already, because otherwise the ingredients do work nicely: masculine growling and screaming of a wide range, and lots of general energy and ferocity.