Noctule - Wretched Abyss (Church Road Records)
For anyone who has played a lot of the video game Skyrim, you will almost certainly associate it with frozen winter peaks, epic fantasy battles, witchcraft and the heavy use of Norse mythology throughout. All of which makes for perfect black metal fodder. Svalbard co-guitarist/vocalist Serena Cherry has said that Skyrim for her embodies all of these things and that she associates it with black metal more than any other style of music. As such she has used her love of the game to inspire this, debut album of her black metal solo project Noctule. Lyrically drawing from the world of Skyrim and musically having the dense, foreboding, harshness of Scandinavian black metal. Written and recorded throughout the 2020 lockdown Wretched Abyss is the sort of one-person black metal record that many would aspire to make but few manage.
It's densely woven music, that at times is as cinematic as the game itself, the large instrumental sections holding it together like a soundtrack of blast beats and tremolo riffing bolstered by the orchestral swathes as the revereb-filled but clear screams pierce the musical wall. Serena clearly understands what can make black metal so fulfilling to listen too, avoiding too many of the rinse and repeat, songwriting tropes and more importantly forgoing the need to make things sound 'raw', there is a sense of D.I.Y grit to the recording, to make it authentic, but it doesn't feel like it was recorded in a bathroom. A track such as Labyrinthian is a epic, piece with lots of brilliant lead guitar breaks, even as it breaks down into folksy acoustics, the sheer musical power is obvious.
The way Wretched Abyss is structured and composed, it works as companion piece to the game itself almost, displaying the dual nature of black metal from the harsh, desolate noise of the originators to the more multifaceted sounds of the bands that came later (or indeed just the career of Darkthrone). The title track for instance has echoed vocals and blistering blastbeats, but some classic metal lead guitars to make for an absorbing listen, that deviates into something a little different on Evenaar forging a path out of just being 'standard' black metal, creating atmospheres that linger long after the end of the record, especially when final track Become Ethereal is a plaintive piano piece ending the record with an emotional note. Wretched Abyss is a brilliant black metal offering from Serena Cherry, a measuring stick for one-person BM projects to come! 9/10
Silver Talon - Decadence & Decay (M-Theory Audio) [Matt Bladen]
Nephila - Nephila (The Sign Records)
With members from sunshine psych rockers Children Of The Sün, Nephila play a similar kind of Hippie-era psychedelic/progressive rock from the Woodstock generation. A seven member band featuring two female vocalists in harmonic unison while the masked instrumental members ooze out a theatrical style of space rock that's a little bit of Uriah Heep Jefferson Airplane, some Hawkwind and even a bit of Hendrix too on Guidance To Agony. This self titled record is their debut full length and starts us off on the cosmic journey with first single White Bones, introducing you to the bands experimental blues style, fuzzy clean guitar melodies and lots of Hammond organs get the track rumbling, driven by the the pulsating bass.
Cross Vault - As Strangers We Depart (Iron Bonehead Records)
If ever there was a band who epitomise these often desolate, uncertain times then it's German doom crew Cross Vault. Their third record, As Strangers We Depart, is dressed in a beautiful but upsetting cover painting by WÆIK and the music on it is equally stirring yet harrowing. Moments of acoustic beauty such as on Ravines, which I believe features a zither or as the Greeks call it a cithara, are washed away with the colossal, all-consuming doom riffs and mournful vocals, that keep the flame of British doom legends Warning, the 8 minute Golden Mending really coming across. Cross Vault having that same emotional touch that makes grown men weep at the hopelessness of it all. Even on shorter songs like As Strangers We Depart there;'s that lingering sense of complete desolation of as they put it "A home that never was".