Epic raw black metal from one of my long-term supporters. The band features members of Giuda, Undead Creep, Post Fata Resurgo, Oracle (r.i.p.), Isolamento, Nonperdono (r.i.p.) among others. The "Notturno 11" CD comes in a quite unusual package - recycled cardboard envelope with printed "Bland Vargar" logo, insert in thick textured cardboard, printed CD and lyrics sheet; contains a small branch of chestnut tree of the Apennines:
P.S. This is going to be my last post in this month, since I'm going to put my blog on hold at least for 2-3 weeks. I've posted everything I wanted to post, so now I can focus on other things, but of course I'll be reuploading the old/deleted albums (as I finally have no problems with uploading large files) and answering to comments/mail too. Hope you won't forget about my blog.
The newest demo from this UK-based anonymous one-man project. So far I feel it's the best release of X. - while his earlier demos were basically just a wall of black noise, "Acedia" is more structured and... atmospheric, I'd say. A first full-length demo album is going to be released this year, but as X. points out, "it will probably be crap though because I work all the time and I still don't have decent equipment or talent, haha". As for this demo - it was originally intended as a cassette release for a few friends (just like all other demos of Printemps Noir). However, if the people want to hear it (and I think there's a lot of my readers who do), then it's theirs.
DOWNLOAD
An unnamed band from Plzeň (Czech Republic), also referred to as "NIC" and "Black Strip". Here's their first demo, consisting of 4 tracks (which are unnamed as well). The music is quite good for a first demo, on the level of early Deafknife and Toluca. According to the info I have, the band is generally associated with the crust/hardcore scene, and would fit well into my blog.
Since I'm receiving a lot of post-rock/metal albums for a review, but my blog isn't exactly for this kind of music (some of these bands are apolitical, some aren't metal at all), I decided to write a single overview post for all of them, like I've done earlier with hardcore.
Let's begin with Бронекот ("Panzercat"), a band from Russia (SPb) which I discovered via gnwp.ru. They've got one of the best band names ever, and the music isn't bad at all too:
- Australasia, an instrumental (blackened) post-rock duo from Italy. Really good stuff, on the level of Alinda.
- Obsidian Kingdom, a band formed in Barcelona in 2005. I won't call their music "post-rock",
all the more so
"black metal" (even though their music was frequently described as such); the band themselves describe their style as "Post-Metal / Progressive Rock / Experimental", which I think is quite accurate. I really liked their latest release, "Mantiis" - it's quite interesting and conceptual stuff (but don't expect it to sound aggressive/brutal, though).
- Anniversary, a blackgaze band from Richmond, VA. There's a lack of such bands in Virginia, so these guys decided to take an initiative to form one of the first in their area. So far they have released only one long track, which is supposed to the the first one off their upcoming EP (which was expected to be released by the end of 2012).
- Yurei, a Norwegian project currently signed to Adversum. It's neither post-rock, nor metal (frankly I think that the only label applicable to Yurei's music is "experimental"), but I think it'd fit well in here. Yurei’s debut album "Working Class Demon" was released via Adversum in 2010, but I haven't listened to it yet. The second album ("Night Vision") is quite interesting, though.
P.S. I also remember an Ukrainian post-rock band called Aitia, which haven't released anything except for a couple of rehearsal tracks, one of which I happened to hear ~5 years ago. It was one of the most interesting pieces of post-rock I've ever heard (even by the standards of Ukrainian post-rock scene, which is world-class), and the band's ideology seemed to be pretty close to my own. Sadly I can't find it on my hard drive, but I definitely will post it if I'll find it.
The second album from this Portland-based radical green/black metal project, released 1/1/2013. Musically it's atmospheric black metal with "doomy" parts and some female vocals, somewhat similar to the latest releases by A Cloud Forest. Some people have disliked the drums on this album, but I personally don't see a problem with them (there's a lot of BM project using drum machine that's programmed far worse).
"Wild’s Reprisal is the solo project of Gedden Cascadia. The music is reflective of deeply held ecocentric beliefs and a commitment to deep ecology. The focus of this music project is to inject a level of intellectualism into a genre rife with bands professing a love and connection with the natural world. Yet, how many of these individuals in these bands take this alleged love for the natural world and turn it into action to protect the biotic communities of this planet? As Humanities crushing footstep increases, those of us that love the wild places have a duty to defend those spaces by any means necessary. Actions in defense of the Earth should be rooted in a deeper philosophical understanding of the morality of the intrinsic value of all life. Each song has as its focus a different ecological philosopher. Each song lyrically is just a reading from a specific essay by the author. Each essay has a link to it on this website. Hopefully the songs will help spread the work of such important authors as Aldo Leopold and Arne Naess"
This is Gedden's debut solo work, released 1/1/2012, and a new album called "Defiance Enthroned" was finished just a few days ago. Will listen to it and write a review within the next few days.
Ambient black metal from Olympia, WA. Tracks 1 and 2 were recorded around the Winter Solstice 2012. Track 3
was recorded Spring 2012 by Liam Hindahl and features Alex Mody on
drums. Album artwork by James Hauptman. Of course this EP was sent to be by the band themselves.
P.S. Anybody knows if Moss of Moonlight are on our side or not? Their album "Seed" was among the most interesting Cascadian metal releases of 2012, and judging from their lyrics, they sympathize with the Cascadian Independence Project and the general eco-regionalist ideology of the Cascadian BM scene...
"Woods of Somnolence is a brief EP dealing with themes of nature and
emotionalism while focusing on a dark folk style of music. The album art
is Narcissus by Conda de Satriano, 1893. The first album is apolitical, but there is a slight emphasis on nature
themes. The Woods of Somnolence EP however, was more inspired by
environmental politics/nature in general, even a bit of Paganism. I draw
inspiration from green anarchism, primitivism, transcendentalism, and
other ecologically inclined politics. Nature is very influential in my
life, so I plan for future releases to hopefully have a more obvious
theme of nature admiration..."
While this project isn't from Cascadia, the influence of Cascadian BM and neofolk (i.e. projects like Nuwisha) is definitely noticeable on this EP. The author is fan of the Cascadian scene, and extremely supportive of all related ideologies (green anarchism, etc.)
A NY-based progressive death metal / post-metal band who recently released their second EP and was interested in being posted on my blog. Among their influences they cite such bands as Atheist, Cynic, Meshuggah, Opeth, Death, Converge, Animals As Leaders, Isis, and Between The Buried And Me.
bandcamp The only thing that's public about this project is that the lyrics are based on the works of Dutch writer Simon Vestdijk, whose beliefs were said to be close to the ideology of RABM. Well, according to his biography, it indeed looks so (he definitely was an anti-fascist, and he viewed the "bourgeous Mentalität" as the greatest danger to human individuality). "Gethsemane" is going to be released on tape 1st of March.
The newest podcast from Music Against Humanity, featuring 35 bands of various styles. By the way, do you know anything about a band called Astaroth, which released a demo "Antichrist" not long ago? I discovered them because of M.A.H., they're playing very good raw BM, but I couldn't find much info about them. Even their location is uncertain: according to some sources, they're from Australia; according to others - from the US, and I don't exclude the possibility that there are actually two different bands under the same name. However, their logo certainly looks interesting(upd.: this graphic indeed belongs to another band, see the comments):
The newest release of this Moscow-based one-man project. Honestly I have mixed feeling about it. First of all, it definitely would be better if his music remained instrumental: the vocal work on this album is apparently weak (which is probably the biggest downside of the whole release), as well as the quality of the lyrics. Don't get me wrong, I love when a black/pagan metal project is so politically/environmentally aware, but: 1) these lyrics look just like they were written in a hurry; 2) what's good for crust isn't always that good for pagan metal. Other than that, it's a pretty solid release. Despite the amateur quality of production, it shows that Ancient Oak is no less talented than a lot of well-known metal bands. "Den Siste Bastion" is obviously influenced by Scandinavian folk/viking metal, but there are also elements of blackened crust and dark hardcore. According to the release notes, the man behind Ancient Oak don't want his music to be distributed by anyone who promotes any kind of discrimination, but any kind of support and feedback is welcome (unfortunately there wasn't any contact info).
"Here comes the new dimension of Black Metal, this great Split called
"VINTER" and it´s a battlecry against all preacher of oppression,
against the modern life and the killing industry! On this Split you
find 3 awesome bands, at first 2 instrumental sonx from BALDARAZ. They
are full of natural power, you feel the winds, the water, the grass and
all the elements of Mother Earth. HAGALAZ the second band comes from germany/bavaria and played
3 sonx here. The HAGALAZ songs are recorded in a small "studio" near
the woods of bavaria with a small dictaphone and primitive
instruments/equipment, but i like this kind of softly and quiet music. The
last band on this great Split called "DRUKNE" and they come from West
Lafayette/US and the sound its very raw more as the other bands on this
split"
As for my opinion - two instrumental tracks of Baldaraz on this split are the best their material so far. While we all already know what to expect from Baldaraz and Drukne, I should warn you that Hagalaz have used quite primitive instruments/equipment to record their side of of the split (which is consistent with their ideology, though - all the bands on this split are primitivists/pagans/anarchists).
"Gamogenesis" is the latest demo by Varituuk (released 09 January 2013), consisting of one long track. The sound is considerably different from "F" - is rather a mix of funeral doom and noise/drone than black metal (or even black noise). Despite that, I found this demo interesting.
Instrumental "blackened metal" from Canada. So far, Varituuk have released 6 demos (from "A" to "F"),
stylistically
ranging from black metal to noise/drone. All the demos were released on the same day (30 November 2012), and are freely available off Varituuk's bandcamp page.
SickManGettingSick Records is a DIY underground label from Leipzig (Germany). They recently asked me to post some info their new releases on my blog, which I gladly do. Let's begin with Encircling Sea, a black/doom metal band from Melbourne (Australia), which I first noticed because of the post on our old RABM forum ~an year and a half ago:
Line-up:
Rob Allen - Guitars/Vocals
Dase Beard - Bass/Guitars
David Coen - Keyboards/Effects
Matt Radford - Drums
There's a short review of their new album "A Forgotten Land" @ The Dark Skies Above Us. And here's another interesting release by SMGS Records: RORCAL - "Világvége" (February 2013)
"Világvége, Armageddon, Fin du monde, Weltuntergang, Apocalypse, Ragnarök... No matter the language or origin, the 'End of the World' has always been a huge theme of discord since men were born. After illustrating the decadence of a Roman Emperor with HELIOGABALUS in 2010, RORCAL is back with a third album whose guideline just appeared to be obvious. Like its source of inspiration, RORCAL music has no boundaries and VILAGVEGE is here to prove it. When Doom turns into Black, you can't expect anything but chaos: 8 tracks straight to the point, nervous and furious like never before" - official site
P.S. SMGS also released Alda's "Tahoma" DLP.
After many years of activity, this blog is now put on hold since the majority of contributors have a lot of other important stuff going on in their lives. New music submissions should go to /r/RABM/ (note that the mods of /r/RABM/ don't have anything to do with this blog).
Most of the uploads here are band sanctioned. Anyway, if you for some reason don't want to see your music here, contact us using rabm (AT) gmx (DOT) com, and we'll consider taking it down.
Bottom note: there's probably a lot of broken English on this blog, since English isn't the first language for many of the contributors.
FAQ
Q.: Which kinds of music are featured on this blog?
A.: - (primarily) RABM or Red & Anarchist Black Metal: all kinds of black metal-related music charged with radical leftist (anarchist, libertarian socialist, eco-anarchist, etc.) political views. Some of the bands featured here may be not openly political, but all of them are RABM-friendly;
- blackened crust/hardcore/punk (only if it's openly RABM-friendly, or if it's just very good music; we have no intention to collect here all the blackened punk in existence);
- other kinds of political (anarchist, socialist, etc.) metal - death, thrash, post-metal, etc.;
- dark ambient, neofolk, industrial, dark electro, etc. - but only if it has some RABM-friendly ideology;
- regular punk/hardcore/crust, post-rock, conscious hip-hop, etc. - but only as a rare exception (so if you want to send us a demo in one of these genres, you're probably in the wrong place).
Q.: What are some RABM/blackened crust bands to start listening from?
A.: Here's an old compilation which I (B.K.) made in late 2009. Doesn't include a lot of good RABM bands that I didn't know of back then, but still recommended if you're new to RABM:
Q.: How can I support a particular RABM band with my money?
A.: Most bands nowadays have a bandcamp page, where you can but their stuff online (usually for an arbitrary price). It's the most convinient way to support the band. If your favourite band don't have a bandcamp or bigcartel page, try to find out in which distro you can find their albums/merch. Of course, go to concerts if you have such opportunity.
Q.: How can I offer my financial support to this blog, or the RABM movement in general?
A.: Unfortunately right we don't have an opportunity to accept donations, but we hope we'll be able to set it up soon.
Q.: What is the connection between black metal and hardcore/punk/crust?
A.: It's a well-established fact that the connection between black metal and punk scenes existed since the early days of BM (think Venom, early Bathory, early Mayhem and early Sodom on one side, and Amebix, Discharge and Axegrinder on another). Recently this mix of BM and hardcore punk got a new life in the form of blackened crust (thanks to Black Kronstadt / Iskra in first place). And don't forget about Cascadian black metal bands with their radical environmentalist ideology, often to the extent of radical eco-anarchism or "pro-nature/anti-humanity" ideas.
Q.: What's your main ideology?
A.: This blog is generally written from a position of anarchism without adjectives; however, the RABM scene is very diverse ideologically. Let us end on this, as this blog isn't quite a right place for purely political debates; if you want to learn or argue about anarchism/other ideologies, there's a lot of specialized FAQs/blogs/forums for you.
Q.: Isn't black metal supposed to be apolitical?
A.: Supposed by whom? I personally don't think so, but if you think that political awareness should have no place in "true" black metal, you can feel free to call the bands featured on here "blackened punk" or whatever you want. It should be noted, though, that a lot of these bands doesn't openly talk about politics in their lyrics, exactly because they think it wouldn't be suitable for black metal. - B.K.
Q.: Isn't RABM just an "answer" to NSBM?
A.: While RABM is definitely against NSBM and any other kind of far-right crap in metal scene, it's most emphatically a self-sufficient movement and not any kind of "answer to NSBM". Similarly, while RABM is 100% pro liberation from any kinds of religious tyranny, it isn't a movement against any particular religion (Christianity, Islam, or any other).
Q.: What's your opinion on Satanism?
A.: The so-called "Hollywood Satanism", which is often found in black metal, is, in our opinion, nothing more than inverted Christianity, so we aren't big on it. Many of us are simply atheists, pagans of all kinds, gnostics, etc. We also don't share the notion that only genuine theistic Satanists / Devil-worshippers can play "real" black metal (this would exclude such bands as Venom, Bathory, Immortal, Summoning, and many many others). Additionally, the very term "Satanism" is quite vague, and can't be narrowed down to LaVeyan Satanism (which is heavily disliked by many black metallers), or whatever else. LaVey had some good points, but in general his philosophy can be described just as "Ayn Rand with some occult tinge".
Q.: What about misanthropy and nihilism?
A.: To put it in short: we don't hate everyone and everything (and we don't think there's anyone who truly does). We just hate these traits of humanity which make true anarchist society most likely infeasible in the foreseeable future.
Q.: Collectivism or individualism?
A.: There actually is no "hard" contradiction between these two terms. Individualism is simply an outlook emphasizes the moral worth of the individual and its right not to be oppressed by the state or some social group. It doesn't contradict at all with standing up for your rights along with a group of like-minded individuals. It also worth noting that the early black metal scene didn't promote individualism that much (see "black metal circles").
Q.: Who coined the term "RABM"?
A.: Hard to say, but there's an apparent similarity to RASH ("Red & Anarchist Skinheads"). Here's the very first mention of "RABM" we could find (August 2005). The term was popularized by our last.fm group (and later - by this blog) since 2009.
Q.: Do you know the ideology of the band X? It isn't obvious if they're NSBM or not...
A.: Sorry, we don't know, do your own research. It's often hard to say anything certain about a band's views, if the members themselves aren't open about it. We also don't advice using various "lists of nazi bands" etc. as a reference, as most of them are full of bullshit. Similarly, forum posts or blog comments (especially anonymous ones) generally aren't a reliable source for anything. In one particular case, we had an anonymous comment claiming that the members of Timebomb are now playing in a fascist band called SPQR. Later it turned out that it were members of a completely other Italian band with a similar name (Timebombs). Hopefully that'd be a good example of how important fact-checking is.
Q.: I've seen some of the albums posted here in the same distro with some albums by right-leaning bands...
A.: Unfortunately it's often the case with distros and labels that distribute stuff regardless of its political affiliation. Even Austin Lunn of Panopticon complained about Pagan Flames (the label which released his "Collapse" and "Social Disservices" LPs) having NSBM in their distro, so things like these are just unavoidable.
Q.: Some bands on this blog have Burzum on their list on influences. Isn't Varg Vikernes a nazi?