Most of us at Very Friendly are great lovers of black metal. But it’d be too easy to do a blog post about the essentials, and you can read that kind of thing anywhere. So, today, we’re recommending five albums that are not just a little off the beaten path — they’re in a different forest altogether.
Kestrel - Primordial Rememberance
Since the mid-2000s, the circle of bands comprising Oregon’s CW Productions have brought a truly singular style to the world of black metal. Many of the acts share members in different lineup configurations. Their inspirations are off the beaten path, taking influence from Polish literature (Witold Gombrowicz’ 1937 novel Furdydurke is the namesake of the excellent Furdidurke) and psychedelia among other themes. Kestrel, like many CW bands, has a brief recording history. But 2019’s Primordial Remembrance has enough going on to keep you chewing for a long time. The bright, spindly guitar leads are very much in league with their familial artists, but things get strange after three tracks, with bluegrassy plucking and nauseous ambience ultimately giving way to something much darker by the tape’s end. It blows most other black metal from the Pacific Northwest out of the water.
Arizmenda - Stillbirth in the Temple of Venus
California’s Arizmenda, the one-man project of Murdunbad, (former drummer of the excellent Ashdautas) conjured something truly evil with 2014’s Stillbirth in the Temple of Venus. You might call it a concept album, centered around horrific fertility rituals. It is a lurching, sexual record with sonics to match. This is not the campy fun of Cannibal Corpse’s “I Cum Blood”. The riffs evoke the subject matter: cavernous, suffocating and hallucinatory. It really doesn’t have any peers, and is certainly not for the faint of heart.
Havohej - Dethrone the Son of God
The ur-weirdo classic, Profanatica founder Paul Ledney released the first Havohej record in 1993 and it is still putting listeners off to this day. A lot of it has to do with the original cover art, (though if something a little amateurish is going to turn you away then perhaps black metal is not the genre for you.) The album itself is full of jerky transitions and low-on-the-neck riffs typical of the style in the early 90s. Its unbridled creativity leads to some strange songwriting, but its total commitment to religious blasphemy ties everything together. At only 29 minutes, these 15 songs are harbingers of what was to come from USBM in the following years, yet still sits among the best examples of the form.
Rhinocervs - RH-07
Rhinocervs is not a band name, but the label responsible for releasing it. RH-07 is not the album title, but its catalog number. From 2010 to 2013, Rhinocervs released 16 tapes, most of which had no artist names or album titles. Though we know now that many of these works were created by members of Odz Manouk and Tukaaria, the mysterious atmosphere prevails in the actual music. RH-07 is perhaps the defining work from this era, a cosmic assault with terrifying interludes, choral vocals and some unbelievably creative riffs, all clocking in at under 24 minutes. It’s no wonder these tapes have retained their mystique all these years later. Prices on the secondhand market are high, but the care placed not just in the songwriting but in the production of the tapes themselves make these feel like totems of another dimension.
Sovereign - The Wolf
Brazil’s Sovereign is the one-man project of Rudolf the Proud, the self-described Alcoholic Wolfman. You really can’t get much more succinct than that. These riffs are absolutely ravenous, often stumbling over themselves in a drunken stupor, flying at the pace of a starving wolf. More than anything on this list, it is the sound of mental unwellness. It’s best enjoyed while breaking bottles, lighting garbage on fire and eating raw beef; in short, it is pure black metal in spirit.