Sworn
“A Journey Through Fire” (2023)

Sworn come from Norway, a more than famous nation, known for the best, and the worse, of Black Metal. Some believe that Norwegian Black Metal died years ago, under the rubbles of musicians’ ego and such, but some persist in carrying the dark flame of Black Metal and reinventing the genre without breaking the links that make it what it is to this day.

“A Journey Through Fire” might not be the Black Metal I love the most, but there is something about this release that led to it being played almost on a daily basis. I usually run away from well-produced Black Metal records, but again, something caught my eye, and I stayed. Truth is, this is a high-quality melodic Black Metal release, from a country known for its immense quality, still today - Djevel & Tsjuer, for example - and with plenty of valid bands and records coming out regularly. Sworn takes risks. “Grand Eclipse” and its acoustic moment? It takes the track to a status that was custom to see in the early 00s, yes, but those old Black Metal musicians, many of them, gave up on Black Metal or prefer to take a safer route. Of course, DHG rushes in to debunk my last statement… but not today, not today.

Sworn has been around for a while now - 2005 to be more precise - but only a few weeks ago I bumped into them, and glad I did. I needed a different approach to Black Metal, a less Trve Kvlt - and those who know, know - and Sworn came along to remind me how much I used to love the melodic side of Black Metal, and that I was raised on 90ies Black Metal, not todays’ extra Kvlt scene bands. Anyway, we can always love both sides of the same coin, right?

In conclusion: Sworn crafted a record that holds the power of Black Metal, whilst infusing it with a big dose of melody and risk-taking, which leads to a marvellous example of musical craftsmanship. More than recommended.

Morta
“La España Negra” (Signal Rex, 2023)

Majestic. This is an almos perfect adjective for a track like “Mi Invierno Eterno”, from the Catalonian’s first full length, “La España Negra”, to be released by Signal Rex on the 8th of September. Hoping for them to fly to Porto in November/December. Flávio… think about it. The band has been on a steady path: Demo in 2017, EP in 2020 (need to mention that this was one of those releases that had great impact on this scribe), and LP in 2023. It is growth, maturation, solidifying features, and qualities. “Requiem por una España Fragmentada” starts the ritual - and I need to clarify this title with the band - and it immediately grabs you by the throat, forcing your chest and extracting the air from inside you. 

I felt the same with “Fúnebre”, I felt this pain and odd melancholy, of solitude and anger. It was a turmoil of emotions, and the band went back to that same passionate place, leaving us shattered and desolated. Nevertheless, not an ounce of aggressiveness and raw visceral Black Metal was lost since 2020. These Catalonians are brilliant! The perfect merge of melodic atmospheres with ferocious vocals and harsh guitars is not new, and we are all aware of such; to do it with these emotions is something else. I do recall - as stated before - being totally overwhelmed by “Fúnebre”, and I believe this one will leave me the same way… “La Caída de los Infieles” is an example of that visceral side of the band, that ferocious side of the musician, the artist, the occultist. Morta’s sound also carries small details of the most hatred Death Metal, which only add more power to their music. The Catalonian scene is growing day by day, with an immense variety of sounds and directions; Morta is one of those sounds and one of those directions, and the melodies they craft, wrapped in Hate and Death, are intensely recomforting in an odd way. One feels at home… wherever that is.

Geist of Ouachita
“Imprisoned in the Graven Wood” (Signal Rex, 2023)

At this time, a name like Roanoke should be known by everyone into underground Black Metal, especially if you are a fan of the more contemporary USBM scene. Man of a thousand projects (Northern Solitude, Thy Heart, Thine Kingdom, and Till being my favorite ones) Roanoke has been joining forces with names like Palisades, Sanguinous Moth, Peregrinus, and Croatoan, among other US and European musicians. All in all, the man is sort of a workaholic when it comes to creating Black Metal.

Geist of Ouachita can translate - roughly - into Spirit of the Ouachita Mountains, a mountain range in western Arkansas and southeast Oklahoma. Louis R. Harlan once said that Ouachita is composed of Ouac (buffalo) and Chito (large), which would mean “country of large buffalos”. And how does all this sum up and relate to a Black Metal project? Well, it does in a way. Roanake’s music has always felt, to me, to be connected to a spiritual plain, a world of the beyond. His music irradiates melodies that are otherworldly and hypnotizing, invoking old spirits and old emotions. There is a whole “musical cult” behind the mountains and its connection to the spirits, a bit like Portugal and Serra de Sintra or Serra da Estrela. A gateway to the stars.

Geist of Ouachita´s music has a melody that I relate, immediately with the USBM sound, and with the mastermind behind it, of course. It is a melodic, yet rough, Black Metal sound. Atmospheres drawn from pounding and rhythmic drums, almost shamanic vocals, melodic and intense guitar riffs. I would not say that there is some sort of connection between of connection between the artist and the native nation, but I understand the weight of traditional historic heritage.

Geist of Ouachita plays Melodic Black Metal with plenty of class. Going from the mid-pace to a faster version of their sound, Roanoke is a master that these transitions, and the man crafts them to look no less than magick. Last track, “Imprisoned in the Graven Wood” closed the album perfectly. A visceral and ferocious blow to the face, production is raw but hearable, which makes it a very enjoyable experience. And there is where resides many of the issues I have with the Modern Raw Black Metal Scene (brand that shit if you may): the need to sound raw leads the musicians, sometimes, to a point where the music is not music anymore… it is noise. Geist of Ouachita - along with all of Roanoke’s projects - never falls into that bottomless pit of raw and unbearable noise where many - too many - Black Metal bands fall into. This makes me conclude that some people do not know the actual meaning of Raw Black Metal.

The last track ends with a short, yet soothing, keyboard piece, which links, in my modest opinion, the music to the world of spiritual energies. This all might sound rubbish, out of place, and completely wrong, but the energies that flow around the music are real…