Black Metal

A band literally out of time, ORGREL hail from Italy and, more importantly, hail the ancient days of black metal – the days too often forgotten, in the late ’90s, when labels like Solistitium, Sombre, and Drakkar began releasing obsidian gems during the genre’s post-sensationalism fallout. Rich with righteous fury and triumph alike, the power-trio deliver their first public recording, the full-length Red Dragon’s Invocation. Immediately, mystical splendor and dizzying delirium are felt as ORGREL kick in with an impassioned surge, each and every riff, rhythm, and holler stirring bloodlust and wonder/wander simultaneously. The soundfield is studiously raw yet robust, flat but somehow full, allowing aggression and atmosphere equal reign, and engrossing the listener to the very last: indeed, Red Dragon’s Invocation is summarily titled. Its mysteries are starkly simple but exceedingly sublime, being purely and totally BLACK METAL in word and deed; black metal doesn’t need to “become” anything when it already IS. ORGREL know this intrinsic truth and pursue it to the hilt across their debut album.

Graced with absolutely stunning cover artwork by Luciana Nedelea, ORGREL raise their sword of truth and prepare to strike unbelievers with Red Dragon’s Invocation.

Black Metal

In little more than two years, this Belarusian enigma has built a sizable (and starkly terrifying) catalog, culminating in last year’s critically acclaimed Church of Bones debut album and, earlier this year, the Cryptic Rites of Necromancy EP, all under the aegis of IRON BONEHEAD. Thus far, PA VESH EN has exhibited a stark ‘n’ unsettling style of black metal: from stifled-violence miserablism to seemingly formless drift, from bent-askew melodicism to echo-chamber murk, always with a tortured soul guiding everything, he’s almost effortlessly created a soundworld beyond compare – and has done so with the restlessness of a lost specter.