Black Metal Wednesday: New Music From Shining (featuring Gaahl), Oranssi Pazuzu and Wolvserpent

It’s a black metal kinda day, whatwith three brand new pieces of music from across the black metal spectrum. So don your spiked armband, paint your face like a Hostess Cupcake and let’s dive in.

First we have a new track from Oranssi Pazuzu, a Finnish band set to release their third album, Valonielu (Oct 15, 20 Buck Spin). In her write-up of “Olen Aukaissut Uuden Silmän” for Pitchfork, Kim Kelly pretty much nails it: “Warped echoes of new wave and even, curiously, a splash of surf rock shimmy through a vortex of prime-time black metal and psychedelic space, answering the immortal question of what a Darkthrone/New Order mashup would sound like.” Does that pique your interest? Jam the track right here. It’s definitely different, I’ll tell you that, and it’s my favorite of the three new tracks written up in this post.

Next up we’ve got new music from Shining (no, not that Shining), which is kind of not really new so much as a re-imagining of the band’s older work. Shining’s forthcoming album 8 1/2 – Feberdrömmar I Vaket Tillstånd will revisit material from the Livets Ändhållplats and Angst albums, but it’ll feature new(ish) keyboardist Lars Fredrik Fröslie and six different vocalists, regular vocalist / band mastermind Niklas Kvarforth included. Oh and hey, some guy named Gaahl on the track streaming below via Invisible Oranges. 8 1/2 comes out on Dark Essence Records on September 24th. To tell the truth I dig Shining’s [actual] newer material more than I dig their old stuff, even re-worked.

Finally we’ve got Wolvserpent, who have a new track “Within the Light of Fire” streaming at Cvlt Nation. Honestly, this just isn’t for me; the song is too rambling for my tastes, the riffs too simplistic, the production/mixing too muted and subdued. One thing I do like: the keyboards, which add an element of atmosphere usually missing from this particular kind of black metal. Stream it here — there’s an interview with the band, too — maybe you’ll feel differently than I do.