Triumphant, Consuming, Relentless... THE BLACK SEA
There’s few things more refreshing to me than to stumble upon a band with something interesting to say, especially when it comes out of nowhere. Whether it’s being in my own band or going to see bands my friends are in, music is my world, so it might surprise you to hear that frequently complain to myself, “There’s nothing new to listen to.” Let’s just say, surrounded by all this excess, things can sometimes get stale. I never thought this would be a problem in South Dakota when you had to dig deep to get your riff fix, but it is now that I’m in Portland, the Doomed & Stoned Mecca of the Northwest.
Enter: THE BLACK SEA. This new atmospheric black metal band really did grab my attention from out of the blue – all the way from Ukraine, in fact. I heard their debut album a couple days ago while searching for something fresh to help me hammer out some work and it’s made its way back to my earholes a couple of times since.
Неминучість by The Black Sea
If you ever wanted to know how an Ivan Aivaovsky painting would sound like as a black metal band…
The other morning, I randomly stumbled upon ‘Неминучість’ (2017), which who knows what that means (I’m not from Ukraine). I popped on the headphones and was very pleased. Black metal is a long ways away from the days of spikey-haired, corpse-painted, Norwegian 20 year-olds prancing through the snow, looking for a good church to burn (those rascals). Bands have updated the genre with progressive song-writing, expansive instrumentation and, well, better production.
Welcome to The Black Sea office space.
Blackgaze is a genre I think lots of metalheads are becoming more and more aware of. Bands like Alcest, Woman is the Earth, and even the new Wolves In The Throne Room have got the blackgaze vibe. Lots of metalheads hate this genre and that’s fine, as long as they are aware that “hipster black metal” is a stupid reason to hate a band/style. Hipsters don’t exist, only people, and (rant warning!) I’m sorry the metal you listen to somehow has missed the point for you and you still care so much about your monument to egotism to go with the notions you have about hipsters and “hipster black metal” (rant over, safe to come out now). The bands in this style I wind up enjoying tend to be on my end of the year lists or get thrown in heavy rotation, at any rate.
Battle of Çesme at Night (1856) by Ivan Aivazovsky
This is not an “evil” sounding album, rather this is black metal of a different stripe. What do I mean? Well, if you ever wanted to know how an Ivan Aivaovsky painting would sound if it were a black metal band, The Black Sea paints that picture perfectly throughout Неминучість, with some very nice guitar leads, pummeling drums, and overall technical prowess. The results are triumphant, consuming, relentless.
If you are a black metal fan and enjoy the likes of Krallice, Wolves In The Throne Room, and Burzum, do yourself a favor and give these new kids on the block a listen. I have been lapping it up the last couple days and I highly recommend it. Favorite track: “Пам'ятаєш.”
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