Mutant Breakfast

This year has been replete with longform records from established figures in underground metal. Between Sól án varma ’s collective of Icelandic mystics and Mutant favourite Asthâghul ’s middle finger to fickle curmudgeons , it feels like big and operatic is back in vogue. More exciting, perhaps, this trend isn’t for proven scenesters alone. The Ohioan dreamers in Amun have been flying under the radar for five years, forging their own legend of progressive black metal (BM) behind the scenes. This formidable sophomore effort, Spectra And Obsession , appears unfortunately to be their last, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t layered the glitching resonances of their “electro-organic death music” and left listeners with a genuine epic. Amun’s members each hail from disparate musical backwoods, but they’ve leveraged this diversity to romanticize BM’s vast gothic soundscapes, resulting in a work of art not only coherent but fiercely ambitious. Relying on BM’s ability to swerve into a multitu

Despite using electronics in an analogously complementary fashion, Jute Gyte kill one of my biggest gripes with that overcrowded subgenre atmoblack: it always sounds too pretty. Starry-eyed shoegazers have brightened the grimy earth tones that were once emblematic of the genre, using mawkish post-rock goo, glazed reverb, and acoustic frills like a set of oil pastels. It’s hardly any surprise. It was only a matter of time before the schlocky sentimentality of Explosions in the Sky , This Will Destroy You , and MONO —which sugar-coated a lot of post-rock in the 00s and early 10s—bled into extreme metal. Today, bands like Panopticon , Trhä , and Sadness carry that sequined baton into the future. Every yin has its yang, however, and even post-rock has a hidden dark side. Dissonant black metal (BM), perhaps in reaction to atmoblack's incessant beautification, often draws from the uncompromising atonality and grit of Swans , Slint , and early Mogwai , melding piquant guitar experimenta

Symphonic metal is often maligned as the domain of cheese, a creatively desolate environment wracked with ear-piercing MIDI instruments whose timbral varieties conceal an utter lack of songcraft. Thankfully, some key exceptions like Obtained Enslavement have modelled how to use these elements for more creative ends, in their case taking the Baroque angle and running with it to contrapuntal glory. These more articulate manifestations have paved the way for Vertebra Atlantis to retrofit their emotive and thunderous dissodeath with an intelligent and discerning array of symphonic accoutrements, building on elements that were only present as understated flavours on their debut. Lustral Purge in Cerulean Bliss was always going to be an incredibly difficult release to follow, and its commitment to atmospherically enhanced weight, which drew as much from the magnificent sentimentality of Abyssal as it did the frenetic morbidity of Our Place of Worship is Silence , is more or less preserved

Thrash isn't typically associated with experimental metal, but when it's properly kinked, its swashbuckling pace and bare-chested braggadocio can put a theatrical spin on otherwise deadpan avant garde. Crossing the hazy border into first wave black metal (BM) adds even more melodramatic flavor. Bands like Negative Plane , Malokarpatan , and Jordablod have transformed vintage sounds into something chic and retrofuturist, blazing left-hand paths while paying homage to torchbearers like Venom and Mortuary Drape . But the Global North isn't the only place where artists are rediscovering the old ways, and Chile's rising underground is the prime example. The slender South American country exports budding metal talent as if its economy depended on it—and across a variety of subgenres too. No matter how diverse, though, there's a common theme that unites almost all modern Chilean bands: an almost monastic reverence for classic heavy metal. Add Solipnosis , a one-man proje

I was shamefully late to the bittersweet, crepuscular timbres of Olatom Amespïrïa . Even worse, I couldn’t review this third demo before their bundled releases under the Ruinéfables account disappeared from Bandcamp. Maybe the move owed something to the band’s parting ways with the raw meloblack innovators in the  Cërcle Mortüaire , but either way, I’m thankful I bought it all and got to guzzle down every last drop of Olatom Amespïrïa's playful abrasion—which hits like cold orange soda on a muggy summer day. This most recent Demo 3 proved the most consistent and ornate iteration of what is at once a very esoteric, bare-bones, and of-its-moment black metal (BM) sound. It’s not your typical sampler: it’s a full-length freak-out that flashes exuberant angst, wondrous disappointment, and the unadulterated truth of someone feeling really loud with a drum kit, two guitar tracks, and the rasp of their own voice. Over a bit more than a year's worth of operation, the anonymous France-t

Black metal (BM) has a longstanding appreciation for pagan culture. Since Venom demanded that we “Don’t Burn the Witch” and Quorthon indoctrinated gangly suburbanites into (often ahistorical) Viking-worship, the genre has shown a deep-rooted sympathy toward polytheistic mythologies and broader ways of life ravaged by Christian theocracy, industrial accumulation and imperialism. Altai-Sayan operate in this tradition, but unlike the new wave of authentic indigenous projects like Ushangvagush , Periodeater , or Kūka’ilimoku , they make the bold move of drawing inspiration from a living people, the Eurasian Khanty, of whom this anonymous project are not a part. Not being Khanty myself, I cannot declare with authority that this project successfully avoids the typical pitfalls of unwelcome cultural appropriation, even if Altai-Sayan offer a disclaimer critical of the ‘google translate crap’ that abounds in the scene. Pending more information, I can however confirm that the band capitalize

Nature-obsessed black metal (BM) bands are a dime a dozen—kvltists have been shrieking their praises of the wild forest and the windswept moor almost as long as they’ve been donning corpse paint. Similarly prevalent are those groups that dwell on the futility (and horror) of human existence, whether in the face of Satan, Lovecraft’s Outer Gods, or the empty abyss that sits within us all. These two camps are such natural bedfellows that having one foot in either shouldn’t turn any heads on its own. Thankfully, Kryatjurr of Desert Ahd prove their worth by imposing the exigent terrors of ecocide onto these well-trodden themes, proclaiming our oncoming doom in a trilogy of raw, smothering, and terrifying black metal (BM) releases culminating here in their newest full-length, Underestimate Climate Systems and Suffer Incomprehensible Losses . Never ones to beat around the bush, track titles like “Torrential Downpours of Hurricana” or “Insufficient Shelters Creak and Moan” give listeners amp