It's time, once again, for Only Death Is Real to make an appearance. This is the twenty second edition of the column and I'll be honest with you, writing is becoming harder each time. Sitting down to purposefully do something is difficult, opening the laptop seems to get scarier and just hitting the keys and trying to say something cohesive is terrifying. What's going on? you may ask, if you've even read this far. Well, lemme tell you, the brain is a f-cking stupid piece of kit that we are stuck with for our entire lives. It does a lot of good, sure, but mostly it's an annoying organ that changes our perception of our selves and of our reality. Luckily, mine allows me to enjoy music still, even though it doesn't often let me tell you lovely readers about it. Thanks for listening.
Alghol – Night Eternal (Self Released/Black Occult)
Night Eternal comes as Alghol second full-length effort after the quite marvellous The Osseous Key of 2021. Following in its predecessors’ steps as kind of off-kilter black metal, Night Eternal is a little bit of a concept album, in my eyes, as it lays out a journey into the unknown wilds and the experiences had within the darkness of the night. Night Eternal is full of references to consuming mind-altering substances and Alghol themselves (himself, if we’re being technical) is well known as someone who likes to imbibe the nectar of the gods – or beer, if you will.
This second album tracks through the overgrown jungle, the heat bearing down on the body of its narrator as they wander paths long forgotten. The curious synth sounds that permeate opening song “The Witch Doctor” do a lot to set an eerie an claustrophobic mood as Pete Rodway’s — Alghol’s sole member — voice takes us down into the heart of darkness. The images that are conjured by this album are ones of tribal elders dancing around the fire, their followers hanging on to every word and doing their bidding, no matter the human cost. It’s a fascinating feeling as there is a sense of very real danger around each corner of Night Eternal and as the curious bombastic stomp of “Into Untold Evil” slyly slinks into your mind, the hypnotic effect starts to take a iron grip on your reality.
The opening sound of “This Infernal River” is that of a cap being popped off a glass bottle and crashing to the floorboards, which goes a long to explaining exactly what Alghol are about without having to do very much at all, and a deep dive on their social media pages will tell you even more about what to consume alongside this album. Unfortunately, to have this piece make any semblance of sense, I am drinking water, but you get the point, right?
“What Lies Within” takes us further into the wilderness with Alghol ramping up the pace and the sense of danger tenfold. Those curious synth lines make an appearance again, almost as though the sound itself signals the beginning of something much more disturbing than originally thought and as the sound pops up often throughout the album, the idea that there is something following you in the darkness becomes all the more terrifying and real.
Our narrator makes contact with an unknown people as the album heads into “Out From The Jungle” and the threat is made real at last. Alghol push the tension further with guitars that teeter on the edge of the abyss while “The Heart of Darkness” rampages with blood and guts while also bringing memories of The Osseous Key with it. Smart, Alghol, very smart indeed. Night Eternal ends on its title track which signals the return of our protagonist to his home and the different, but delicious horrors that await there. Alghol truly take us on a journey with Night Eternal and Pete Rodway has created an entire world in which terror rules supreme, and it is wonderful.
Moonlight Sword – Imperial Dragoon Kommando (Self Released)
Moonlight Sword is a side-project of Winter Lantern’s Carmilla II Dracul, an artist who takes inspiration from the night and creates atmospheric and synthesised black metal. Video game lore certainly plays a part in the musical inspiration behind Moonlight Sword and Dark Souls in particular is a great influence, with the band taking their name from a weapon in the game while motives come from a book series.
Where Moonlight Sword succeed in bringing these stories to life in another way, is the clear reverence they hold for its original form and Imperial Dragoon Kommando is a monumental soundtrack to a war that may finally be coming to an end. Sounds are rendered through synths and creepy structures that twist through volatile screams and melancholy guitar progressions, each layered so that the emotive core is constantly cycling. “The Bastard Princess's Tale” is one such sorrowful entry and as the song moves through despondent vocals and mournful guitars it takes on a beauty that reflects in the night.
“Wherever Stars Go When They Die” closes what is listed as a demo with soaring guitars and a tangible feeling of triumph as the song continues to climb, the riff repeating and staying in constant motion to counter the furious vocal style that Carmilla II Dracul brings to the fore. The demo/EP is truly excels at its mission and Moonlight Sword can only move upwards from here.
Trhä - enΩëcunna edëno£sa qud'lhëlh (Self Released)
Another column, another Trhä release. It’s almost predictable at this point and the artist behind the project shows no signs of slowing down. Why would they, when the creativity seems to be flowing almost non-stop? This time Thét Älëf goes it alone with a round of full lengths and EPs that show all facets of the Trhä sound. enΩëcunna edëno£sa qud'lhëlh and its companions also marks a shift in the language of Trhä, with new symbols being integrated into the titles. This evolution is interesting as the band has established itself as a creator of a unique dialect and so it stands to reason that as the project evolves, so does its vocabulary, much like any other spoken language it will go through changes and refinements over time. It’s smart and shows Thét Älëf is an adaptable artist and allows their music to flow through them in multiple ways.
The two tracks on this EP run for almost seventeen minutes each and much like previous releases, the lyrics are beginning to be included with new music. “mi zu◊á£sdëg oΩa d'la gone” is the first song on the EP and each moment brings about new joys and threads to follow. Synths play a large part of this first song as the vocals slip through the ether as screams and howls There is something deeply emotive about this particular track, another reason it became the choice of the batch for this session of releases and when Trhä include haunting spoken moments, it transcends black metal and becomes an emotional release for the listener, almost as much as the sections that remove as much of the instrumentation as possible and pushes the howls of Thét Älëf to the forefront, alone in its misery. It is really quite beautiful, how Trhä puts together songs and allows them a life of their own, picking up trails of melodies and motion in order to create new sequences that reference the past and move themselves into the future. It is magick in its truest form and Trhä hold the key to unlocking its majesty.
