New Spins: 8th February 2021
It's snowing properly here in London today, which means it's very picturesque but also fucking cold! So today's New Spins has some blackened death metal to match the weather, and two pieces of post-metal to warm things up.
Imipolex - Order Of The Epimethean Flame
If you travel around 1500 miles north-east from Florida, the original home of American death metal, you'll reach the city of Portland, Maine. Its here where you'll find Imipolex, a four piece band who specialise not only in the old-school caustic death metal sound, but also combine this with dark melodic passages of black metal on their 2019 album Order Of The Epimethean Flame. The band mix these styles in a way which never feels divisive, with riffs and leads flowing into each other brilliantly. The first three tracks of the album are breakneck speed with a powerful death metal energy and grim black metal timbre. However, the band aren't just great at the fast stuff but they can do the slow stuff brilliantly too. The fourth and fifth tracks take a different turn, with the band creatively combining funeral doom and death-doom with a melancholic dsbm sound. The album is certainly rough and raw in it's production, but that gives it the kind of abrasive atmosphere that many modern death and black metal bands miss. A hugely promising debut, and I hope to hear more from Imipolex soon.
Glacier - No Light Ever
Boston post-metal band Glacier are a very intriguing group, producing a form of instrumental, progressive and non-linear heaviness on their 2019 album No Light Ever that is stylistically up there with the best in this genre. The rather abrupt album title belies the subtlety and beauty of the tracks therein, although one look at the poetic song titles should give a clearer indication. The band's triple guitar set-up allows for an added depth and dynamism to their songs, but it also gives them means to produce some crushing riffs that sound even heavier when there's three guitars hammering away. The key thing about post-metal though is that it can't just be all about the style, sound and dynamics, it also has to be about quality song-writing. There has to be catchy melodies and riffs that hook you in and force you to keep listening, and Glacier have these in spades!
Cult Of Luna - The Raging River
Talking of post-metal, my favourite band in the genre are back with a stunning new EP. It may have only come out on Friday but it was pretty much the only record I listened to over the weekend. There isn't anyone who does this style quite like Cult Of Luna, there is a certain darkness and energy that the Umeå natives have refined into a sound that is verifiably their own. The Raging River is in-line with much of their most recent output, with plenty of electronics weaving their way through these awe-inspiring compositions. The band have also collaborated with the legendary Mark Lanegan on the track Inside Of A Dream, a relatively short number for Cult Of Luna. The band's atmospheric instrumental frames Lanegan's soulful vocals beautifully and it cuts this EP in half perfectly.
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