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For something to be “ecstatic,” the feelings and emotions it evokes must transcend what one tends to experience most regularly in their lives. Ecstatic joy isn’t just happiness; it’s a feeling of jubilation which impacts one emotionally and in a metaphysical, arguably spiritual sense too. Although it has long been associated with connotations of the dark and macabre, extreme music has the ability to be a powerful mode of expression for these feelings of absolute bliss, overwhelming love, and awe-inspiring sublimity. Extreme emotions no less and those which black metal quartet Agriculture evokes with its ecstatic subversion of the subgenre’s tropes.
What was initially a meeting and subsequent series of jam sessions between Kern Haug and Daniel Meyer, two musicians in the Los Angeles underground noise scene, would eventually manifest as a shared vision to portray the sublimity of the human experience through the vehicle of heavy music. Following the additions of veteran guitarist Richard Chowenhill and bassist / vocalist Leah Levinson to the band’s lineup, this idea would crystalize into the “ecstatic black metal” backbone of Agriculture’s music, first heard on the band’s 2022 debut EP, The Circle Chant.
With Agriculture’s self-titled record and first full-length LP, it’s abundantly clear that the band’s use of heavy music to showcase the most resplendent emotions and moments of the human experience has a far deeper meaning. Woven between the flurries of soaring tremolo picking, crescendoing guitar harmonies, celebratory screamed vocals, thoughtful improvisation, and meditative atmospheric passages is the record’s mission statement to experience the wonders and joys of both the esoteric and physical world.
PARFAXITAS - Weaver of the Black Moon
Venturing into the world of Nightbringer, Abigor and Sinmara, with hints of Emperor-esque grandeur, Parfaxitas is a new project by familiar faces;. K.R of Whoredom Rife, B.Einarsson of Sinmara/Slidhr, Azlum of Merihem/Oculus/Manetheren, and YhA from Suffering Hour. It’s a grand declaration of war, a monumental feat of organized chaos, an album filled to the brim of intricate Black Metal. This is an album in full, where every song works as a fundament to make it stand tall amongst giants, an album that demands your attention for nearly 50 minutes.
Submerge yourself in Parfaxitas’ debut album and let the power of Satan compel you.
PARFAXITAS - Weaver of the Black Moon
Venturing into the world of Nightbringer, Abigor and Sinmara, with hints of Emperor-esque grandeur, Parfaxitas is a new project by familiar faces;. K.R of Whoredom Rife, B.Einarsson of Sinmara/Slidhr, Azlum of Merihem/Oculus/Manetheren, and YhA from Suffering Hour. It’s a grand declaration of war, a monumental feat of organized chaos, an album filled to the brim of intricate Black Metal. This is an album in full, where every song works as a fundament to make it stand tall amongst giants, an album that demands your attention for nearly 50 minutes.
Submerge yourself in Parfaxitas’ debut album and let the power of Satan compel you.
On the ninth full-length with the tell-tale title of "Subject to Change", XASTHUR took a musical leap of faith: Mastermind, multi-instrumentalist, and singer Scott Conner abandoned black metal as a form of musical expression for the time being, and turned to something stylistically rather comparable to acid folk and neofolk instead. Keeping the minimalistic approach of his previous albums, but embarking on a long journey through the dark underbelly of the American dream, Conner created his own brand of dark Americana. XASTHUR were originally conceived by Scott Conner in California, USA in the year 1995. The project started out in the vein of bleak black metal in the tradition of the Nordic second wave. Over the course of nine albums and a host of split-singles, EPs, and occasional demos, XASTHUR's individual, particularly depressive style became highly regarded within the extreme genre. In 2010, Scott announced the end of XASTHUR and returned with an acoustic dark folk project under the banner of NOCTURNAL POISONING. In 2015, the American artist returned to the name XASTHUR, but insisted that his black metal days were over. On his so far latest album, "Inevitably Dark", XASTHUR have partly lifted the self-imposed ban on black metal, simply because Conner simply did like he felt.
Gold double vinyl limited to 500 copies
Draconian Times" is Paradise Lost's most recognized and successful album and for good reason, they managed to take a genre of Metal that didn't much recognition until the mid-90's and take it to the next level.
Doom metal and more specifically goth metal itself didn't exist that much in the 80's....outside of say Candlemass and Celtic Frost just barely touching upon the basics of the genre, and they did so with style, but nobody had done it like Paradise Lost.
Paradise Lost sound is pure grimly doom/death metal. "Draconian Times" starts out with a somber-sounding piano, excellent way to start off an album.
"Hallowed Land" is one of favorite song: the lead guitar work of Gregor Mackintosh makes this an epic fist-banger.
"The Last Time" is probably their most blatant attempt at making light of the Goth sound with guitars for a huge hit.
After that depressing-induced song comes the way more upbeat and angrier "Once Solemn".
"Elusive Cure" is one song that should have been the leading single off this album: Gregor just lets his fingers hit those wailing, somber melodies.
This is one of the better cuts off the album. "Yearn For Change" continues the song and picks the mood up a notch.
So this album is their creative peak between their older material and the new style of the band.
Even though recently their last two albums have gone back to their original style of their older material, it's all just more of a nostalgia trip.
There's enough doom and gloom here to almost combat with the previous 2 albums and enough progression that surpasses the rest of their discography.
White Vinyl Ltd 500 copies, deluxe gatefold edition
Naglfar have an high quality of their recordings, this is the fifth album by those Swedes, and are here again be able to keep up to their high recording standards of the previous albums and if their music would still reek of hatred, evil and suffering.
Naglfar is one of those bands that can effortlessly mix raw energy of black metal that we know from their first al- bums with the elements of melodic death metal introduced in their later releases.
This mix makes their songs memorable to a point that you can recognize them from the first riffs.
Traditionally of course, intensity mixes with atmospheric slower parts, melodic touches intertwine with ultra fast brutality, and in all that, solos, parts of keyboards or piano are thrown into as if into a twister of sickening sound.
Musically, the whole band shows us solid compositional skills, supported by technical in- strumentality and respectable experience.
Christopher Olivius spits out wicked lyrics, he sang with such passion and malice, that vocals added an extra level of brutality, vocals are very strong and solid.
Harvest is an inspired, interesting and originally diverse piece of work.
Limited Edition, Reissue, GOLD vinyl, TripleGatefold
Black 12" vinyl (33rpm) in jacket sleeve, printed on unfinished card stock with double sided deluxe insert.
First pressing 350 copies.
Though they came together from far corners of the Nordic underground, Night Shall Drape Us are united by blood and an unwavering spirit for fast, melodic, uncompromising black metal.
Their debut album features eight perfectly executed hymns sung by a relentless choir of lunatics. ‘Lunatic Choir’ offers fast blast beats together with raw yet melodic traditional black metal riffs.
“One with the beasts of the black flame”, the band chant in dedication during "Under the Dead Sky", giving themselves into the arms of Holy Death.
For fans of CRAFT, MGLA, DØDHEIMSGARD, SATYRICON, DISSECTION.
