Trench Warfare finally grace the world with their first full length. Building from the potential of their demo and split, the band finally manage to fuse their War metal with elements of Black and Death metal into creating a highly enjoyable listen that carries a few more subtleties than its aesthetic quality would allow one to assume.
Controversial war/black metal hybrid Sammath homebrewed a video for the first track from Across the Rhine is only death, “Ferocious Mortar Fire,” demonstrating the visual aesthetics of a form of ruthlessly inhuman music that sees the evil in humanity as a product of our stupidity, not religious symbolism.
In the past, metal journalism used to function mainly as a filtering device; weeding out the bad so that the good stuff would rise to the top. Nowadays, it’s more likely the other way around. We’re now searching for potential in a seemingly endless flow of “interesting” or pleasant-sounding junk. This task often requires time and patience, because those rare and far between releases will often sound similar to their lesser peers on a surface level. One illuminating example would be the Pennsylvanian epic death/black metal act Polemicist and their debut album Zarathustrian Impressions. Their music may not appear spectacular on casual listen, but repeated and concentrated exposure reveal unexpected qualities.
Sammath returns to the days of its second and third album with a shredding assault that emphasizes tight, technical riffing that keeps to a simple theme and develops it with precision strumming integrated with exacting percussion. This takes the war metal idea into the technical death metal realm while preserving the black metal sense of melody and epic architectures to unite these alienated and reductive riffs.
The Swedish orthodox black metal brand rose because people needed a label for music adorned in the style of Dissection, yet composed in shorter riffs and cyclic songs like war metal, with a strong cover story of Satanism to help obscure its anti-social and Darwinist positions.
War machine Sammath continues its attempt to synthesize the past five albums into one. This shows it combining death metal roots, traditional black metal, war metal, and its own homebrew balance of technicality and basic riffs in complex rhythms that carry on from the Asphyx and Pestilence days of Dutch death metal.
The faster news cycle of the post-internet metal era places pressure on bands to release frequently in order to cultivate an audience which can pick them out of the seemingly endless flow of new and similar material. Having taken a pause, Infamous returns with more of an influence from traditional black metal in its aesthetic.
Occult Metal renegades from Down Under Spear of Longinus have announced that a live recording of their infamous 2017 Italian performance is due for release later this year.
The LP will be released by Darker Than Black Records, the CD by Totenkopf Propaganda Production, and the Cassette by Final Agony Records.
The cover artwork is by Antichrist Kramer, and the track listing is as follows:
1. Atomika/Egipto
2. Saga
3. Better of Dead
4. Cruel Buddha
5. Cosmic Devastater (Watching the Watcher)
6. Fall of the Rebel Angels
7. YHVH Penis Abominator
8. Rite of Ragnarok
9. The Ibis of My Lost Soul (From Whence I Came)
10. Riders of a Cold and Violent Wind
11. Jarls Quest: Eternal
12. Nebularsia
13. Nazi Occult Metal
Of which, “Fall of the Rebel Angels” has been released as a preview track:
Monstrous Blackened Warlords of Metal of Death Sammath have announced the completion of their latest channeling of desolation and onslaught Across the Rhine is Only Death.
After releasing an impressive debut back in 2012, then proceeding to vanish amidst the shadows, briefly emerging out of the mist and fog with a cryptic 2-track offering in late Summer 2018… Serpent ov Old, perhaps the most interesting Metal project of the past 15 years (if only to the the present author’s particular personal perspective and tastes musical and otherwise), have finally released their long-awaited sophomore full-length.