Utopia Platafórmica

OLD“Dawn of Darkness” (Unsilent Tombs, 2023) OLD has been around for a few years now. Started off in 2003, decided to stop; came back in 2008… decided to stop again; a 2 nd coming in 2018… let us see how long this 3rd life will last. In practical terms, OLD is a superb fusion of Thrash Metal and Black Metal. Not as easy as it may sound, not all specimens of the sub-genre have given us this smooth and savage combo. Germany is very well known for their craftmanship in Thrash Metal. Bloody me, they practically created good Thrash to start with: Sodom and Destruction being a house favorites, but we need to add Kreator, Nocturnal, and Poison to the equation. OLD is an Old School Thrash Metal band with a thing for melody and quality material, and their first LP, “Down with the Nails” was, for this scribe, a pleasant surprise! I am very picky when it comes to Black Thrash Metal. Too much Thrash, too much Black Metal, but hardly ever musicians hit that perfect dose of each and presents us

L I N G E R Linger is a Portuguese Post Hardcore Screamo band, not that labels matter. They do not... but we  taught ourselves to make it matter, so there you go. It is something like that... with that being said, move forward to a short interview. Enjoy. Hello. Thank you for accepting this little activity. Let us start off… How did the whole “construction” of this EP come about? I had a few tracks and ideas laying around. It was supposed to be a one-man bedroom project at first, so the majority of “Hope you are finding sleep…” was done even before our first rehearsal as a 5-piece group. Bringing Moreira to the writing process was really what sparked the idea of starting the band, and once Belo, Fabiana and Luís joined in, we finished writing and tracking the EP. Is there a specific concept that unites the tracks in “Hope you are finding sleep…”, or each tune has a subject of their own? There’s a cohesiveness when it comes to the whole sound and vibe, I guess. Lyrically too. I’m

Gam “Hvisken fra Skyggernes Vra” (Ottende Kunst, 2022)   Hailing from Denmark, Gam released, last year, their first Demo. 4 songs of superb and extremely well-crafted Black Metal with that Nordic scent to it, very majestic and glorious. Denmark has been building a very consistent Black Metal scene in the last few years, and their sound is not merely a copy of what has been done multiple times, but a contemporary homage to sounds of old, almost like a celebration of the beginnings of Black Metal, with such fire in their hearts. Fury and melody. Melodic licks and pounding drums that set the pace. Did they reinvent the wheel? I truly believe they are far from wanting to reinvent the wheel, and that is ok, I support that. Aligned with former label mates Jernved, both bands deliver this almost esoteric and occult Black Metal, almost like a ritualistic approach to the music, a sort of hypnotic moment. Unable to put it into words I am, but these 4 songs, these 14 minutes and 25 second

Fellwinter “The Dawn of Winter” (Blood & Crescent, 2023) Black Metal has become, in most cases, just another musical genre. Without the element of Fear or Depravity, most replications of the music sound uninspired and, I dare say, false. Where to my standards stand in terms of analyzing Music in such a way? Well, they stand pretty high, I guess. Black Metal is more than just a musical genre, period. Some might disagree, stating that this is just rubbish; nevertheless, I cannot look at it differently. Thankfully many Artists have shown us that the genre has a deeper meaning to them, and their music is a vehicle, much like Hardcore Punk in the 80ies. Today we will dwell into an act that I, personally, feel is honest enough to the genre to provoke such emotions. We cannot assess all that from music alone, but we can feel it from music alone. Odd, I know… Fellwinter was born from the union of 2 musicians that have given us plenty of examples of how Black Metal should sound today -