The Asteroid Bullet Belt

Digging your own grave XVIII: Do not go gentle into that good night.  There often comes a point in an artist’s career where they release something that could very well be considered a pinnacle of theirs, be it on an artistic or personal level. With it, comes the question of “What now?”. Artist and audience are forced to reckon with the fact that a work of art has been so profoundly affecting for either or both parties, the former also having to ask themselves the daunting question of what is to follow. Does one try to outdo their masterwork, and risk turning into an Icarus, falling victim to their own ambition? Are they to look backwards and attempt to go back to basics, at the potential cost of sounding redundant to the outside world? Or should altogether ignore it, and move past it in an effort to explore different territory, in turn subverting whatever expectations might’ve been foisted upon them? In Μνήμα’s case, they’ve always opted for the third option, regardless of what one...

Digging your own grave III: Dripping ichor.  (Disclaimer: I will be skipping the individual releases of the Gathering Sorcery to the Eternal Portals of the Past EPs and will be treating the 2022 compilation as a full-length.)  “Once is an accident; twice is a coincidence; three times is a pattern.” This paraphrasing of an Ian Fleming quote has been one that I’ve seen appear in my life time and time again. Actions originally deemed to be singular instances see themselves gradually turn into behaviours that define an entity. One such case is Μνήμα, the pattern in question being one of constant tweaking and experimentation with the basic raw black metal formula, which, while not always providing the most awe-inspiring results, has been a consistent source of interest for me. Every time I move on to another of the band’s releases it’s done with a mixture of apprehension and excitement as to what they’ll be doing, and 2019’s Forbidden Creatures of Time is no different in that respe...

Digging your own grave II: Striking something solid. For how prolific Μνήμα has been during its existence, the vast majority of their output came to be after 2018. Whereas the 2019-2022 period saw them put out a minimum of three releases a year, the first two years of the band’s existence are home to 3 releases combined. Even then, the more leisurely schedule the band went by at the time was put to great use, as the difference in quality between the topic of this review, The Remains of Human Bones EP and the 2017 self-titled demo is immediately noticeable. For one, it actually addresses one of my chief complaints about the previous release, that being its length. While the succinct approach endemic to EPs persists here, the fact that we have 3 tracks spread out over 17,5 minutes instead of 4 in 13 means that we get to see the band try their hand at more elaborate and engaging songwriting that actually sees its ideas through. The riffs get some breathing room and actually get to lodge ...

.kcuf eht tahW (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on November 14th, 2022)  Every once in a while, you end up encountering music that leaves you bewildered and scratching your head, making you think “What was the thought process here?”. It’s not something you encounter in metal music often these days, since most subgenres, even on the avant-garde ends of the spectrum have been established to the point where there’s cliches in being experimental. rehtaF ruO, with their goofy name and their album, Boiled in Goat Blood have managed to stump me in a way I haven’t felt since my high-school, pimple-ridden self listened to Death Grips for the first time. I’m gonna get one thing straight right off the bat. This album is incoherent, full stop. If you go into this expecting to hear anything resembling a well-structured song you’re going to walk off disappointed. Boiled in Goat Blood leaps around from hyper blasted tremolo segments to droning ambience at the drop o...

Ignorance reigns when reason ends.  (Originally submitted to the Metal Archives on January 24th 2022)  Earlier this month, I covered Mizmor’s This Unabating Wakefulness , in my review of which I mentioned how excited I was to see what A.L.N. had in store for us in his upcoming release, Wit’s End . A week later, the EP released, and making heads or tails of how I feel about it has proven to be quite the challenge. So let’s take a look at what makes this such an intriguing release in Mizmor’s catalogue, shall we? Wit’s End is split in two different tracks, the title track, and “Pareidolia”. Both of these tracks are quite interesting, each for different reasons. The former sees A.L.N. strip back almost all of the black metal from Mizmor’s sound, resulting in a crawling 15 minute long funeral doom song. While it’s an admittedly interesting direction for the band to take, the absence of the black metal elements hurts the music more than it helps it. Barring a few t...