Why are there so few Profound Lore releases on Decibel’s list? (One production note here: I’d like to point out that I chose to include for streaming A Pregnant Light’s seriously fucking amazing cover of Madonna’s “Live To Tell” below, but that’s not entirely representative of the band’s sound I’d also encourage you to listen to “ Burning Basin” from their split with Obscure Lupine Quietus, and then just find all their music, because they’re unbelievable.)Ģ. As a movement, it makes sense: Black metal is essentially antisocial music, so its adherents are naturally and deliberately withdrawing from the mainstream at a time when mainstream interest has never been greater. Our list includes a handful of releases from those bands - A Pregnant Light (from Grand Rapids, MI), Wylve (from Portland, OR, and featuring members of the equally excellent Blut Der Nacht), Witch In Her Tomb (Chicago, IL), and the Rhinocervs collective (Long Beach, CA) - but that’s a small sampling of the scene as it stands. The bands themselves were frequently anonymous or cloaked in secrecy. Meanwhile, the genre’s young guns - among them Ash Borer, Mutilation Rites, Vattnet Viskar, and Lord Mantis, all included on our list - are probably one album away from a significant breakthrough.īy and large, though, the most exciting black metal being produced in 2012 had no hope or intention of crossing over: The genre’s most vital music was produced on nonexistent budgets with rudimentary recording tools and released on cassette by basement labels like Colloquial Sound Recordings, Rhinocervs, and Fallen Empire. Still, great black metal was released in 2012: Winterfylleth’s The Threnody Of Triumph may not have crossed over as successfully as Marrow Of The Spirit or Celestial Lineage, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t deserve to.
In the latter category, Burzum released the worst album of his career, while new albums from Marduk and Enslaved were strong but comparatively lackluster. Meanwhile, DSO and Agalloch released excellent but slight EPs. This year, the only bands in the former category to release new LPs were Nachtmystium, Alcest, and Krallice, none of which felt as essential as any of those bands’ last three respective albums.
Since 2006 or so, the genre has consistently made enormous strides forward every year on the backs of breakthrough releases from bands like Nachtmystium, Watain, Ludicra, Leviathan, Krallice, Cobalt, Altar Of Plagues, Agalloch, Alcest, Deathspell Omega, Wolves In The Throne Room, and Inquisition, backed up by vital releases from past masters like Burzum, Immortal, Marduk, Darkthrone, and Enslaved. I’ve had a number of friends make the argument to me that 2012 was a bad year for black metal, and I can see where they’re coming from. Why are there so few black metal albums on Decibel’s list? I closed my analysis of the Decibel list with two takeaway points, both of which I’d like to readdress here in relation to our list, as well as 2012 in general:ġ. The year was defined by other oddities, too. 1 and 2 slots might fall into the subgenre as Metalsucks defines it. In fact, though many of the best so-called “vest metal” albums just missed inclusion on our list (namely Christian Mistress, Graveyard, Royal Thunder, and Witch Mountain, all of which are absolutely worthy of your attention), the albums occupying both our Nos. For example, in July, Metalsucks published a parody post about a supposedly emergent subgenre they termed “ vest metal” - basically composed of traditional metal, doom, and retro-occult metal bands allegedly being adopted by scene dilettantes - but while the coinage was silly and the tone condescending (not to mention tongue-in-cheek), the observation was apt: I heard more clean singing and fewer blast beasts on metal records in 2012 than I have in any year since the ’80s. I’m hesitant to call it an “off” year, because so much incredible music was produced, but the conversation was so diffuse that it seemed to lack a center even the most prominent themes were slippery, seeming more like regressions or anti-trends than movements. When I wrote about Decibel’s list of the year’s best albums, I talked more about what was missing than what made it, and in a way, that was inevitable: It was a weird year for metal.
0 kommentar(er)
