The Great Old Ones - Tekeli​-​li

By Zamaan Raza. H. P. Lovecraft carved out a niche in horror fiction with his short stories on ancient cosmic terrors. The Great Old Ones, a black metal band from Bordeaux, tap into his Cthulhu mythos with supreme assurance. Their expansive, textured sound evokes a sense of astral majesty, in a stark contrast with the “other” Lovecraft-inspired band, Portal

By Zamaan Raza.

Artwork by Jeff Grimal

H. P. Lovecraft carved out a niche in horror fiction with his short stories on ancient cosmic terrors. The Great Old Ones, a black metal band from Bordeaux, tap into his Cthulhu mythos with supreme assurance. Their expansive, textured sound evokes a sense of astral majesty, in a stark contrast with the “other” Lovecraft-inspired band, Portal, whose claustrophobic pummelling elicits unease, a creeping dread.

Their second album, Tekeli-li is based on the short story “At the Mountains of Madness,” in which an antarctic expedition discovers an ancient derelict city, apparently once occupied by monstrous visitors from beyond the stars, only to awaken something that had lain dormant for aeons. The Great Old Ones capture a recurring theme in Lovecraft’s short stories, forbidden knowledge - men of science who learn things that are inconceivable to the human mind in form and scale, resulting in remorse and insanity respectively.

Photo by Jo T.

Their excellent debut Al-Azif was relatively lo-fi, and owed almost as much to shoegaze as it did to black metal. Tekeli-li is harsher and much more varied; the third track, “The Elder Things,” for example, is busy in a progressive kind of way, without ever feeling contrived or distracting; the best comparison I can think of is Cormorant’s debut album. “Antarctica” starts with a sludgy, bottom-heavy riff that recalls Celestial-era Isis, seguing into an atonal bees-in-a-bucket type affair that could be Blut Aus Nord. It’s only in the third minute that they begine to sound like themselves, but this time they pack more of a punch, with the drums and bass much higher in the mix. The final two tracks, “The Ascend” and “Behind the Mountains” are closest to being straightforward black metal, but at no point does it feel like the band is running out of ideas.

It is difficult for high-concept bands to maintain their central conceit over more than one album without stagnating (although consistency of style is not necessarily a bad thing --- see Fall of Efrafa). In Tekeli-li, The Great Old Ones have crafted a worthy successor to Al-Azif with a much richer palette.

Nightbringer / Dødsengel - Circumambulations of the Solar Inferno

Written by Zamaan Raza.

Artwork & Layout by Antithesis

This high concept occult black metal split from the ever excellent Daemon Worship Productions features the USA’s Nightbringer and Norway’s Dødsengel. The four tracks follow the sun on four parts of its journey from death, through the underworld, to ascension and finally rebirth. The mystical tone is immediately set by the gloriously unsettling artwork, a pentacle-like sigil surrounded by images of the Egyptian sun god Ra.

Nightbringer’s side is undoubtedly the more challenging: a roiling chaos anchored by an atonal, serpentine, tremolo-picked riff. If you are familiar with their superb 2011 album Hierophany of the Open Grave, you will have some idea of what to expect --- although, thanks to new drummer Menthor (Necrosadist, Lvcifyre, Corpus Christii, Enthroned), this one somehow feels more dense and claustrophobic.

The tracks by Dødsengel are a shade closer to second wave orthodoxy, which is not to say they are short of ideas, by any means. These two songs slowly build momentum, with doom metal mutating into black. The standout track of the split, “Watchtower of the South: Drunk on Innermost Fire” starts as with a crushing riff before morphing into a weightless cosmic pilgrimage in the mould of Darkspace.

Whilst Nightbringer’s contribution is a frenzied, blood-soaked ritual, Dødsengel’s is almost meditative. In keeping with the theme, Nightbringer’s side is a destructive descent; Dødsengel’s is creative, a summoning; The former’s production is diamond-sharp and caustic, the latter’s is murky and subdued. These two starkly contrasting styles are proof that that there is still room for creativity in black metal. A must-buy.

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Rorcal - Világvége

Review by Zamaan Raza.


Rorcal are a doom/drone band from Geneva formed in 2006. Világvége is Hungarian and translates to “the end of the world;” perhaps not a terribly original sentiment for metal band, but its expression is almost flawless. Instead of the desolation of the aftermath, the sheer volume and density of this music evokes the chaos of annihilation.

Their last album, the superb Heliogabalus, was a single intimidating track of sparse, supine doom metal in excess of 70 minutes, strongly reminiscent of Khanate or France’s Monarch. Világvége is a different beast. Whilst Heliogabalus gradually builds momentum like a freight train, Világvége lurches from the languid pace of its predecessor during the first two tracks to an apocalyptically urgency in the third, somehow maintaining its coherence throughout the album. Frenetic, bees-in-a-bucket tremolo riffs are punctuated by gloriously dense blastbeats. All the hallmarks of black metal are here, but the production is doomy with copious low-end, and the drums are front and centre, while the vocalist’s monotone shrieks hint at the band’s hardcore origins.

Rorcal have perhaps been dismissed as one of the glut of Neurosis/Isis-aping post-whatever bands, but with this effort, they deserve your attention

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Imperial Triumphant - Abominamentvm

Review by Zamaan Raza.

Album art by Andrew Tremblay

When the word “technical” is used to describe a band, it is usually a byword for self-indulgence and overproduction. Although Imperial Triumphant must be described as such (check out the preposterous bass shredding on “Manifesto”), their virtuosity never feels needless or contrived.

Imperial Triumphant are a USBM band from New York, and Abomninamentvm is their first full length despite the fact that they have been knocking around since 2005. Their sound is strongly reminiscent of a concise Deathspell Omega --- indeed, the intro to “Crushing the Idol” sounds remarkably similar to DsO’s “Obombration.” Which is not to take anything away from Imperial Triumphant; they manage to fit a lot of riffs and grooves (see, for example, the jazzy break midway through “Devs est Machina”) into a frenetic 25 minutes without descending into an inchoate grind.

The highlight of the album has to be “S.P.Q.R,” with its uneasy, lurching beat provided by the ridiculously tight rhythm section, morphing into a grindcore-esque breakdown, and ending with one of the most memorable riffs you will hear all year. This is forward-thinking black metal of the highest calibre.

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Petrychor - Effigies and Epitaphs

Review by Zamaan Raza.

Effigies and Epitaphs is the debut album of Tad Piecka, aka Petrychor. It is progressive black metal that evokes images of the encroachment of human civilization on to the unspoiled primitive beauty of nature --- or perhaps the other way round, with mankind succumbing to the pressure of time and entropy. The tone is alternately earthy and ethereal, with virtuosic accoustic passages reminiscent of James Blackshaw or Six Organs of Admittance giving way to a relentless, almost euphoric vortex of noise.

When the blastbeats kick in, it’s overpowering stuff; simultaneously oppressive and trance-inducing. Machinegun percussion, Piecka’s impressive shredding and the vocal rasp can often barely be discerned over the chaos, which will suddenly segue into passages of astonishing delicacy (listen to the piano interlude in Beneath Highway and Street). There are few comparisons; the closest I can think of are The Angelic Process, or perhaps a black metal My Bloody Valentine. These songs are a force of nature: they do not bludgeon, they erode.

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