The ambient black metal of American quartet Chaos Moon is unleashed upon the world with their fourth full-length, Eschaton Mémoire. Their usually quite expansive compositions are shrouded in thick fogs of ambient guitars, which sound just like keyboard pads. The album’s forty minutes follow an interesting pattern of tension and release that really drive this album home. Be sure to not miss this unique and intense release.
Tag Archives: Atmospheric Black Metal
Botanist – Collective: The Shape of He to Come
I was a proponent of Californian experimental black metal project Botanist, when their debut double album, I: The Suicide Tree/II: A Rose from the Dead was released, back in 2011. At the time, it was new and pretty much unheard of, at least not widely so. The following albums, however, felt like mere reiterations on the same themes and a simple reorganization of the same core sounds and ideas; no matter how long you shuffle your salad, it’s still going to be the same salad. That’s why I was [cautiously] optimistic for Botanist’s new project: there was no roman … Read more
Progenie terrestre pura – oltreLuna
The Italian science-fiction atmospheric black metal trio Progenie terrestre pura will soon release their second full-length album, oltreLuna. With this opus, we see them at their most diversified and confident. Between the blast beats and the atmospheric keyboard pads, you’ll find elements of folk music like the flute on ‘[.Pianeta.Zero.]’, electronic dance music like the dubstep part of ‘[.oltreLuna.]’, and industrial metal. All these make for a really interesting and varied experience, something that is cruelly lacking in the atmospheric black metal landscape. The instruments on there sound very angular, almost mechanical, synthetic, but embedded in all that futuristic, … Read more
Crystal Larva – Sacrificial Blade
Only available on a very limited edition cassette tape, Crystal Larva‘s Sacrificial Blade is an intriguing phenomenon. The ten-minute, self-titled track is the only thing there is on tape, and the format makes it less than ideal for an accurate playback of the original material – the excerpt available on bandcamp is of much better quality than what you will be able to get on any tape player -, but it’s an interesting experience and composition. For the unboxing experience, I have written a post on Heavy Blog Is Heavy that should come out during the next week describing … Read more
Ghost Bath – Starmourner
Ecstasy. Joy. Paradise. Cosmos. “A surrealistic journey through the heavens drenched in sorrow.” That’s how American blackgaze band Ghost Bath describes Starmourner, a direct sequel to a trilogy which started with their 2015 release Moonlover, a forty-two minute exploration on humanity’s melancholy and depression; it managed to be one of my favorite releases of that year due to the beauty encased within its dark sound. Two years later and signed to Nuclear Blast, one of metal’s biggest labels, Ghost Bath returns with the aforementioned Starmourner, their longest and most ambitious album to date, changing their topics to deliver … Read more