NECROLUST: “B” IS FOR “BESTIAL”
Everyone likes themed posts, right? Right? No? Fuck it, I’ve been in a van for the past ten hours and creativity is at an all-time low. I’m on tour again (currently dragging my battered sunbleached carcass through the American Southwest) but am going to use my last remaining shreds of energy to write about these next four bands, because they fucking deserve it. And also, a nice dude named Ryan (thanks for the beer, dude!) asked me when I was going to do another one of these, so I figured now’s as good a time as ever. What’s the theme? All four of the following bands play various forms of extreme metal, and their band names all start with the letter “B.” I know, someone give me a friggin’ Pulitzer.
BESTIAL HOLOCAUST
Three years after Crush Until Madness released this Bolivian horde’s last LP, Temple of Damnation, Bestial Holocaust have returned! Into the Goat Vulva offers up eight tracks of filthy, lo-fi, black thrashing blasphemy from the bowels of Bolivia, and is available from Iron Bonehead/Metalhit. Sonia Sepulcral’s vocals are as vicious and unhinged as ever, and the murderous groove slithering underneath the chaos is as addictive as they are menacing. The whole record screams by. Think fast, loud, and ugly. Sex, drinks, and metal. Imagine an unholy alliance between Sarcofago and Nocturnal (Germany). Bestial Holocaust’s 2008 split with Nuclear Desecration, Marching Towards the Nuclear Holocaust, is well worth seeking out as well.
BLUT DER NACHT
Blut Der Nacht’s 2011 demo snaked its way onto a handful of year-end lists and captured a well-deserved fifteen minutes of blogger buzz as a result. Now, Fallen Empire are gearing up to release the band’s next transgression, an as-yet-untitled ten-minute EP. It’s an intimidating listen, heavily buried in distortion and piss-poor production (for that culty sheen) but if you’re willing to open up your earholes, the rewards are great. This is raging, martial black metal, at times almost Finnish in execution, with sly nods to the Second Wave crowning sneers at their Northwestern fellows. Though based in Portland, this trio are as far from the shimmery, gentle “Cascadian” sound as anyone would want. Highly recommended. Keep an eye out for this one.
This cassette was handed to me in a dingy bar in New Orleans by a guy in a Revenge shirt. That was two strikes in their favor, and as soon as I pressed “play,” that sealed the deal in their favor. Hollow, echoing, recorded-in-a-crypt death metal of the occult breed, slowed down to a tormented crawl. This is the same chaotic, murky, roars-in-a-void sort of thing that have left all the kids (and labels, apparently) with their panties in a bunch, but these guys do it really fucking well, so give ‘em a shot. Their song “Oppressive Darkness” sums things up rather handily, and Burial Curse apparently shares members with the sadly defunct High Priest, which explains a lot. NOLA has always had a knack for digging up the good stuff, no matter how bad it may be for your sanity.
Feral grinding noise meets syrupy black sludge – what’s not to like here? Black Goat of the Woods are affiliated with fellow Indianapolis wretches Coffinworm, and share more than a little common ground. Both bands dredge the depths of misery and wallow in drugged doom, but BGOTW inject more than a little cogent melody between the waves of feedback and frozen wastes, verging upon anthemic at times. Their first release is a perfect blend of sleazy black metal, gutter sludge, hardcore punk, with sporadic shadows of melodic black metal and a few thunderous moments of pure fucking grind. This shit is too good.
-KK
“Grim Kim” Kelly is an NYC-based writer and merch-slinger whose writing has appeared inTerrorizer, Metal Maniacs, Decibel, NPR, Invisible Oranges, Brooklyn Vegan, Pitchfork, andThe Atlantic. Thanks to tour and the lure of overseas metal fests, she’s never actually in New York, but is stoked to live in the same city that Negative Plane and Carmine’s pizza call home. Keep up with her on-the-road exploits & numerous band recommendations on Twitter.
