Regnvm Animale - "Et sic in infinitum" (2015)

Regnvm Animale - "Et sic in infinitum"

Year: 2015
Genre: Black Metal, Blackened D-Beat/Crust Punk
Country: Sweden

Track List:

1. Maya
2. Ars Moriendi
3. Från bördig jord till salthed
4. Osäkerhetsprincipen
5. Förfallet
6. Och så vidare i evighet
7. Kassandrarop
8. Inåt
9. Grund

bandcamp

Be prepared to wish greetings and solidarity to Regnvm Animale, a black metal d-beat/crust punk band from Sweden. They define themselves as an extreme metal duo. I quote their e-mail in which they write, "The songs on this first release circles around topics like freedom and being trapped and unfree, alienation towards civilization and the state of human society today." Their first track Maya opens and builds suspense in a way that is very thrilling and does deliver. Their second track opens with a unique guitar riff that makes you ponder existence. Although, their second track Ars Moriendi sounds a lot like their fourth track, Osäkerhetsprincipen. Their third track has an equal balance of screaming, singing and instrumental interludes. Then with their fifth track, Förfallet, they build up another calm before the storm that brings you back for more. Their sixth track, Och så vidare i evighet, brings you back slowly again from the second coming of the calm. Their seventh track, Kassandrarop, brings you up to speed with a serious punk rock intro, along with some spoken word with musical interludes that I would regrettably attribute to early AFI (a punk band that isn't anarchist). With their eight track, Inåt, you feel the closing coming, but don't fret just yet as there is still one more track on the album called Grund which has a primitivist sounding banjo with folk-sounding lyrics.

Wildspeaker - "Survey The Wreckage" (2015)

Wildspeaker - "Survey The Wreckage"

Year: 2015

Genre: Blackened Crust / Hardcore

Country: USA

Track List:

1. Ouroboros
2. Survey The Wreckage
3. Apex Predator
4. Invasive Species
5. Overgrown Tomb
6. Abrupt Decay
7. Ultimate Price
8. Path To Exile
9. Power Lines
10. Reclamation

Bandcamp / Facebook

"Feminist, anarchist and ultra-leftist blackened crust from Texas. Be warned, this is not shit to be taken lightly – this is the real shit, music of pure intent, songs of absolutely pillaging emotion and desperation. Dragged into unimaginable pits of despair by the furious vocal delivery of singer Natalie, Wildspeaker create songs that sweep through you like a frozen wind of pure desolation and hit you like a hail of bullets, disintegrating your bones. This is crust punk in which all has gone livid, all hope has evaporated, all has ended up in embitterment, in which all prayers have been exhausted, all patience has ended, and all will to understand and tolerate certain things about society have ended in a massive implosion of rage and disillusion. Wildspeaker’s songs are a perfect blend of punk urgency and black metal bitterness." - Mattia A., Cvlt Nation

Tempest - "Self-Titled" (2015)

TEMPEST "Tempest"

Year: 2015
Genre: Blackened Punk, Hardcore Punk
Country: Canada

Track List:

1. Intro
2. A Grand Design
3. Shroud
4. Sunless Year
5. Atonement
6. Wounding Pattern
7. Deprivation
8. The Night Remains

bandcamp / facebook

A self-titled demo out from Vancouver, B.C.'s own Tempest, welcome another hardcore punk/black metal band who considers themselves akin to the sound of Buried Inside, Converge, His Hero is Gone, One Eyed God Prophecy, and Fell Voices. I listened and they definitely play hardcore punk in a black metal fashion. Honestly, they're what I thought Amebix would sound like before I had ever heard them before, which is black metal but faster and harder than Amebix actually plays. Dark ambience music with a fast rhythum that doesn't sink your heart too deeply, but it doesn't intend to, because it follows up the dark ambience with fast and speedy punk riffs! I love it. Recording quality is good, though the vocals sound distant at times, but that may be intentional. With songs like A Grand Design and Shroud, I can say it was a good listen with a refreshing mix. Some people love bad quality demos, and while the demo isn't a terrible recording, it could have been polished up or done better. I am just not of the opinion that much anything with dark ambience, even with hardcore punk influences, doesn't set up for a good album with average recording quality, in my opinion. If you give it a listen and like it, though, the album will be on React with Protest records and An Out Recordings later this year.

/temporary post/

Sadly, Hayduke decided to leave our collective too. It wasn't unexpected, since he wasn't very active on here during the last few months, plus he decided to shut down his own online radio show Rage and Frustration 4 months ago. This leaves us in even more difficult situation regarding the future of the blog, as there's only one more or less active contributor left by now (Preston). If you want to help the cause and feel like if you're able to write review for this blog on a regular basis, write to rabmblog (@) gmail (.) com.

Ancient Oak - "Huldufólk" (2013)

ANCIENT OAK "Huldufólk"

Year: 2013

Genre: Instrumental Black/Pagan Metal, Blackened Crust

Country: Russia

Track List:

1. Intro
2. The First Step
3. Your Fear & Troubles
4. Dreams
5. Cognition
6. Enlightenment

bandcamp

And finally, one more thing I wanted to review on here - a cassette from the Moscow-based one-man anarcho-black/pagan metal project Ancient Oak, which was released almost two years ago, but made available for straming on bandcamp only recently. "Huldufólk" is entirely instrumental, just like the rest of Ancient Oak's discography (except for "Den Siste Bastion", which featured some really weak vocal work, without which it'd be much better). Instrumental black metal isn't the easiest thing to make insteresting for a listener, but "Huldufólk" manages to be interesting, even if the quality of production is a little bit flaved. The follow-up release for "Huldufólk", titled "Fight The Beast", isn't available online yet, but it can be purchased on CD from the label (Eerie Torture).

2009-2015

So, today is the 6th anniversary of this blog. I started it on 29 September 2009, initially as an offshoot of the "Anarchist Black Metal" last.fm group which I created several months earlier that year. Back then I couldn't have hoped for it to gain the levels of popularity it enjoys by now, but it happened, thanks for all of those who were with me during these years.

The idea of starting something like this blog came to me even earlier, circa 2007, when I was looking for a thing that's nowadays called the "RABM scene" and realized that there wasn't anything like that back then. After a lot of research, the only thing I could find was the "Black Metal Anarchists" group on Myspace, which had surprisingly many members but not a lot of content. This made me believe there was at least some demand for anarcho-BM, while there was almost no supply at all back then (yes, I knew about Iskra and a handful of early blackened crust bands, but that was all).

After I started this blog, it was amazing for me to find out how many people interested in RABM there actually are. I was receiving band/album suggestions on almost daily basis, and pretty quickly it came to the point when I barely could find some free time to review all of them. While only a minority of these bands were "RABM" in strict sense, it was great to see how many black metal fans and artists are trying to challenge the genre's "fascist" reputation. Nowadays, I think "RABM" is already a pretty widely accepted genre definition which is used in a lot of places other than this blog (only 5 years ago, it was used almost exclusively on here), and it even has Wikipedia articles in 4 languages. Probably not the most reliable indication of success, but it still makes me proud of what I've done over these 6 years.

And now here comes the sad part. As you probably have noticed, there isn't as much activity on thing blog as it was before. There are many reasons for that, but it's mostly because I have less and less faith in the "red" and "anarchist" side of things as days pass by. Those who followed my blog during the last couple of years probably remember my observations on how the positions of many self-proclaimed "red"/"anarchist" organizations have changed to something I don't support at all, including stuff which made me feel like like this poster on Revleft who has quit his organization after they took a position of support for Taliban. I also have noticed that even the "radical" leftist positions nowadays seem to be limited to the support for identity politics and some weak form of social democracy, and that many self-proclaimed "anarchists" or "socialists" are essentially indistinguishable from the mainstream US-style liberals. Sorry, but that's something I didn't sign up for at all. Additionally, there's increasingly toxic atmosphere in the Western anarchist scene, more or less accurately described in an anonymous article titled "Things That Anarchists Say to Me in Private But Never Repeat Publicly". If that's really what anarchism is nowadays, then I don't think I want to be a part of it anymore, nor I feel welcome in such a movement anymore.

Of course, I don't regret anything I've done for the RABM scene, and I still think it's important to help its further development, but I no longer want to be someone that does it, for the reasons I've partially described above. Fortunately I've found people who agreed to continue my job with the "Anarchist Black Metal" VK group, and while I have some problems with doing the same for this blog, I think it's safe to assume that my personal mission with RABM is close to being complete. I probably still would post on here in the future, but only on special occasions, leaving most of the job of reviewing new RABM releases to someone else. As for the broken download links in my posts, most of them have been fixed by now (except maybe in the entries about some obscure releases that aren't that essential to the RABM scene). And finally, thanks again for everyone who supported what I was doing over these years, and stay tuned!

Australasia - "Notturno" (2015)

AUSTRALASIA "Notturno"

Year: 2015

Genre: Instrumental Post-Metal

Country: Italy

Track List:

1. Nebula
2. Eden
3. Kern
4. Creature
5. Invisible
6. Haxo
7. Amnesia
8. Lumen
9. Notturno

DOWNLOAD

A bit off-topic on here, but this is good music, and its creator apparently reads this blog. I don't think it counts as black metal, but the definitely is significant influence of atmospheric BM, and I'd recommend it mostly to those of my readers who are into post-black metal / blackgaze. The album is almost completely instrumental, although there are some voice samples. The general mood of the album is pretty accurately reflected by the cover artwork, I think.

bandcamp

Haglaz Fest III @ AZ Mülheim, Germany

Until not so long ago, I didn't know there are any RABM festivals in Germany. Turned out there's one, which is going to be held for the 3rd time already: Haglaz Fest III, 16/17 October 2015, AZ Mülheim/Ruhr. Line-up:

Unru [black metal, Bielefeld]
http://unru.bandcamp.com/

Schattenlicht [black metal, Wien]
http://schattenlicht.bandcamp.com/

Paramnesia [black metal, Strasbourg]
http://paramnesiaxpa.bandcamp.com/

Shever [doom, Switzerland]
http://shever.bandcamp.com/

Beltez [black metal]
https://www.facebook.com/Beltez

Urmorth [black metal, Schloss Holte]
https://www.facebook.com/Urmorth

Groll [doom]
http://groll.bandcamp.com/

Elurra [black metal, Mülheim]
http://elurrabeltza.bandcamp.com/

Farson [post black metal, Göttingen]
https://farsonofficial.bandcamp.com/

Victims Of Classwar [dark crust, Leipzig]
https://victimsofclasswar.bandcamp.com/


facebook

Insane Attitude - "Swarming in Decadence" (2015)

INSANE ATTITUDE "Swarming in Decadence"

Year: 2015

Genre: Old School Death Metal

Country: Italy

Track List:

1. Violent convulsion
2. A.P.A.B. (All Posers Are Bastards)
3. Psychotic hangover

DOWNLOAD

Another old school death metal band whose members read and appreciate my blog, this time it's from Italy. They describe their style as "raw old school death metal with some thrash and hardcore influences", which I think is pretty accurate. This particular demo doesn't have political lyrics, but their debut 2008 demo did. They're also are good friends with Ü and Deiezione HC (local far-left wing hardcore band), and take part in anarcho/benefit gigs in social centers.

facebook / youtube

Tombroad - "The Rebel Witches" (2015)

TOMBROAD "The Rebel Witches"

Year: 2015

Genre: Black/Death Metal, Crust

Country: Chile

Track List:

1. Rebel witches
2. Términus
3. Crush the elite!
4. Orbis

bandcamp

A short demo tape from one of my readers in Chile. A mix of old school death and black metal with a healthy dose of punk, influenced by Venom, Hellhammer and Discharge, with lyrics containing social criticism. All the physical copies of the tape are sold out (traded / sent to zines & labels).