Sometime after 1994, black metal lost its spark. Hvis Lyset Tar Oss had elevated black metal to its highest possible form and observers were left with nowhere to go. Thus began the ongoing deconstruction of the genre and the blurring of its boundaries.
Like many other contemporaneous black metal bands, Cosmic Church reaches into areas beyond black metal, however in its favor it does it without destroying the texture of the music. A fusion of Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (vocals are directly copied from this era) and what the cool kids these days are calling “post-metal”, the band presents a version of black metal somewhat comparable to a murky glass obscuring a beautiful painting, with poignant moments lost amid a lack of focus and coherency. Melodies briefly break free of rather pedestrian riffing and grant hope that a realization is being reached; before aimless motion dissolves whatever forward progress had been made.
For its genre, it’s a solid release. It’s listenable and has a few nice moments, but this album has nothing that will leave a lasting impression. If the band could isolate their best melodies and craft an album from them, rather than allowing the focus to be on irrelevancy; the end result would be far superior.
Tags: Black Metal, cosmic church, post-metal
I’d rather listen to speed metal band Exumer. Anyone remembers that band? Some people will argue that their second album was a Reign in Blood ripoff but I like it. They released a new album a few years ago after a 25 year hiatus. It is actually pretty decent. Exumer seems to be one of those bands like Hallows Eve that are destined to fall under the radar of the Anus staff. Exumer, Razor, Sacrifice, Hexenhaus, Acusser, Powermad, Intruder all great bands to listen to on a rainy afternoon.
This is cool, interesting, probably not boring. I have always thought of black metal as a mockery of death metal but there are a handful of groups that write music that can really suck me in. Burzum, Darkthrone are obviously at the top. I like the idea of “post-black” or whatever it is/was called (like Weakling), but none of the music I’ve heard is substantial enough to listen to again.
Maybe it’s the overblown abrasiveness without much aggression (compared to grindcore, say) that I hear in black metal that shuts it down for me. This Cosmic Church has less of that intensity, sounds more like a story to me. Any recommendations along these lines would be appreciated; I’m woefully ill-informed about anything but the canonized classics.