One of the principal aims of DMU is to not only serve as curator of metal music, but also to keep developing an informed, cultured and realist interpretation and formulation of the past, present and future of the genre in the interest of transcendent goals. To this end DMU is launching two contribution-based efforts in parallel to the website content: an e-zine and a music compilation.
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Tags: chymia niger, compilation, litigium, zine
Altar of Perversion return with Intra Naos, a post-black metal album taking this limited and confused style to its best, though still inefficient, results. We start by stating that this is not a black metal album because it is not a metal album in the first place, although its instrumentation, general use of imagery and screetched vocals may give us cause to think it is. Rather than being based on actual riffs to form phrases which themselves give rise to a sequence of flows [1], Intra Naos displays the shortcomings of what we have in the past characterized wallpaper black metal [2]. The overall experience of the album is one of somnolescence brought about by the lack of musical content in an extremely long recording full of ‘sounds’.
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Tags: altar of perversion, drama music, intra naos, post-black metal, wallpaper music
A salute goes out to Misters Imladris and Kaelrok for sharing recommendations and insights related to the subject at hand.
After having recounted and commented on the birth and evolution of the first wave of European power metal in part II, the time has come for this author to travel across the Atlantic and take a closer look at the contemporaneous development of power metal in North America, commonly referred to as United States Power Metal (USPM).
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Tags: fates warning, Introduction to Power Metal, manowar, USPM
The term ‘traditional’ black metal used here denotes not the ‘orthodox’ movement of imitation or gimmick bands lacking any musical ideas of value, but rather points to the living and evolving movement now referred to as the death-black styles coming forth organically from punkish speed metal voices. The definition does not exclude the developments of the nineties which led to the musical distinction between a purified black metal and the older speed metal. However, this distinction represented only, or mainly, the Scandinavian expression of the genre separating itself from the more common tropes. More raw and unclassifiable bands within this distinction were forgotten in the wake of relative popularity of the Scandinavian stylings quickly became tired trope. The network of original underground minds seeking unique expressions of an undefined darkness became an incestuous cesspool. Unfortunately, this is today misleadingly known as ‘orthodox’ black metal.
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The first riff off “Golgotha” is a fitting introduction to the madness of the early composition of Incantation. It is abrasively confrontational yet more detailed than what its immediacy initially hints at- although the listener is confronted with the familiarity of power chord accents and tremolo picked notes, the arrangement presents an inversion of death metal tropes that echoes the blasphemous lyrical content of the band. (more…)
2 CommentsTags: analysis, golgotha, incantation, onward to golgotha
Article by Belisario
Almost four years after their previous full-length, Varathron is back with a new effort that meets expectations and offers a fantastic black metal listening experience in the distinctive Greek variety. The veterans from Ioannina have been able to maintain a difficult balance between respecting their classic sound and developing new forms, something they had already achieved on Untrodden Corridors of Hades. These new forms are slightly different and more modern, yet clearly related to their older albums.
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Tags: 2018, agonia records, patriarchs of evil, varathron
Funeral Mist are a Swedish band that came after the heyday of the second wave Norwegian bands. They were desperate to find a gimmick to stand toe to toe with their idols, but actual acts of hatred and violence proved too much for them. The band resorted instead to samples and pseudo-biblical lyrics, only to see themselves remain as irrelevant as they were before they even started. (more…)
8 CommentsTags: 2018, funeral mist, hekatomb, noevdia
Rising from the pit of late nineties underground speed metal, Chileans Apostasy revived during the last decade to bring back to life a pure demonstration of metal as it is. There is no need to claim to be progressive, harsh, technical or the milliard other epithets that bands and marketing agents have come up to single out bands which present only narrow facets of what the genre can be. We can hear traces of what came to be known as the ‘riff salad,’, but like later death metal outgrowths of the style, there is a sense of organic flow and revolving around a main riff-idea. (more…)
3 CommentsTags: apostasy, chile, Speed Metal, the blade of hell
Active Imagination is one of the pillars of Jungian therapy[1] , and simply consists in engaging with the symbols of the mind in a way that allows us to contemplate them or even engage with them. Outside the stale therapeutic environment of clinical psychologists, we can discover emotions, situations and characters inside of our minds (and presumably in the collective mind) by using the same technique in a slightly more unhinged and less sanitizing direction. We can use the musical, lyrical and visual contents of metal albums which are more often than not intended to be mythical, and are thus a great source for archetypal projections.
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Tags: active imagination, carl jung
Chilean speed metal trio Apostasy has released their new album The Sign of Darkness via Fallen Temple. After releasing two demos in the late eighties and early nineties, followed by a compilation in 2013, Apostasy started releasing demos in 2014. The new demos contain old and new material, with the album presenting the band’s fully developed voice.
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Tags: apostasy, chile, Speed Metal, the sign of darkness
