New Spins: 12th October 2020

This may be the first New Spins so far not to feature any doom metal, but if you like things a bit on the faster side then there's three great releases below to check out.

Liturgy & Leya - Antigone

I'm slightly annoyed that I slept on this one, but after picking up on it last week I've been spinning this track pretty consistently. A collaborative track with fellow NYC based avant-garde group Leya, it's a track which bubbles with intensity and in true Liturgy style can be deceptively melodic. The haunting atmospheric passages which strike through the track courtesy of Leya's harp-based compositional style bring a completely new dimension to the acidic energy of Liturgy's post-black metal style, overflowing with passion and fury.

For all the shit that Liturgy took in their early days, being the archetypal 'hipster black metal' band that people would take digs at when they realised they actually quite liked Deafheaven, they have been one of the most progressive and forward thinking heavy bands of the last decade. The Ark Work's fusion of glitch and bells into black metal is unlike anything I've ever heard, and last year's H.A.Q.Q. is an absolute work of elevated genius. For all the slightly pretentious and overly earnest philosophy that goes behind Liturgy's sound, the music they create is stunning. Antigone continues in a similar vein as H.A.Q.Q. but with some moments that hint back to the style of their breakthrough album Aesthetica. It's quite obvious at this point that Liturgy give zero fucks about how they are seen by other black metal artists, and I absolutely applaud any artist which can piss so many people off just by creating their music. If they're pissing that many traditionalists off, then in my eyes they must be doing something right.

Listen and buy on Bandcamp

Napalm Death - Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism

Another band who have been pissing a few traditionalists off recently, although for quite different reasons. When Napalm Death debuted Amoral, one of the preceding singles to the group's 16th studio album, the reaction was quite hilarious. People accused the band of tarnishing the Napalm Death name, saying that they sounded more like Killing Joke, and even that they were selling out! Only the middle of those accusations is true, but when the tune is as ace as Amoral then maybe we can just chill out and enjoy the music. Napalm Death have always had influences from post-punk going back to their earliest days before any of the current line-up were involved, and while Amoral is probably the furthest from grindcore they've ever sounded it's not that indicative of the rest of the album which is, in my opinion, one of their best ever. There's tracks that fit within the Napalm Death style as expected, but tracks such as the aforementioned Amoral, Joie De Ne Pas Vivre and A Bellyful Of Salt And Spleen see the band push their style further than ever into heavy post-punk infused territory. 

My favourite Napalm Death period was in the mid-late 2000s when they produced a stunning trio of albums: The Code is Red... Long Live The Code, Smear Campaign and Time Waits For No Slave. They sounded so intense and brutal, it was taking grindcore to a new level of sophistication that few bands have really done, and the song-writing on all these albums was exceptional. I've enjoyed the albums they've released since then, but this for me is their best since Time Waits For No Slave. Despite the elements of experimentation, this record has that same feeling of cohesion and harmony both in Shane Embury's writing and the performances.

Listen on Spotify

Raat - Penance/Welkin

Atmospheric Black Metal can be a tricky genre to delve deep into, in that diversity of sound is not especially high on the agenda. Occasionally you'll find an artist that strays into the avant-garde or folk territory and brings some interesting instrumentation or melodies. Often though the difference in artists is found in the minute details of their music, things which can take a lot of overbearing analysis to really pinpoint. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing though, because I do love the sound of atmospheric black metal (hell, this blog is named for one of the legends of the genre!) and whilst discovery of artists can often be a crapshoot picking things merely based on things like titles or artwork that just standout, if you like the sound then it's rare to find a bad release if you look in the right places.

Raat is a band I discovered this way, first of all from their name, and second when reading they are from India, which intrigued me being that it isn't a traditional hub of heavy music (although there are some pretty great bands such as Scribe and Demonic Resurrection who hail from India). They've got a whole host of releases on Bandcamp which are all brilliant, but the two I've been checking out most recently are what I think are their latest releases, the EPs Penance and Welkin. Raat are very much on the Alcest side of the genre, but both EPs have some strange off-kilter instrumentation swirling subtly through their more typical blackgaze sounds. There's something both comforting and disquieting about the music, but it's very addictive to listen to. I'm steadily working my way through Raat's discography, and it's been extremely enjoyable so far.

Listen and buy on Bandcamp