Nekrokraft – Witches Funeral
Prudent use of death and thrash elements serve to heighten the sense of impending doom.
DSKNT – PhSPHR Entropy
The depths of nightmares are plumbed to find the visual template upon which this sonic blasphemy is drawn.
Mammon – Luna de Sangre
Luna de Sangre, released at the tail end of 2017, shows Mammon developing their own sound, staking their own ground.
Beastcraft/Black Altar – Occult Ceremonial Rites/Winds Ov Decay Split
Something wicked this way comes!
Batushka – Litourgiya
Litourgiya, in fact, may be my album of the decade.
Ofdrykkja – Irrfärd
We might get crazy for a minute, wanna burn your church. The next minute, we are singing you a love song in your native tongue.
Circle of Salt – Suffer the Cold
Adhering fairly tightly to the supposed rules of black metal, Circle Of Salt manage to also convincingly pull elements from other parts of the heavy metal universe and assemble them expertly.
Arallu Interview
Hayduke interviews Butchered, founding member of Jerusalem based Arallu.
Top Black Metal EPs by I.Gos
My top album of the year and top EP of 2017 is Schammasch – The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite.
Malokarpatan – Nordkarpatenland
The result, for this listener, is a dark journey of madness where you are occasionally allowed to see some moments of brightness.