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Unholy Fuck Another Intense Label Feature: Fallen Empire Records Part II

Label Feature: Fallen Empire Records Part II

We’re back with part II of our Label Feature for Fallen Empire Records, and we have four more releases that will help you celebrate the new year with a bang!  If you didn’t read part I of this feature, you can access it via this link.

Let’s get started with part II.

December 2017  LVTHN – The Spider Goddess

LVTHN has been steadily releasing material for the past few years now, and all of those records are consistent with their style and authentic sound.  By that, I mean that their records generally sound similar in studio production, while the music itself is crafted with songwriting that is a notch above the rest of the black metal scene.  Part of the second wave revivalist fourth wave movement, LVTHN generally incorporate second wave black metal stylistics with a modern songwriting approach, staying away from the formulaic songwriting that has been made well-known by second wave progenitors like Darkthrone.  The Spider Goddess, their latest venture as black metal practitioners, captures the ritual worship associated with Lilith’s lesser-known persona as the Dark Mother, a personification of the arachnid genus.  The music is icy like an abandoned asylum in the Northern reaches, and the occasional blast sections feature intensity fitting for a man spiraling downward into madness. For those who buy the MLP, a wooden box with Arachnidian incense is part of the generous offering made by Fallen Empire Records. So stream now and pay homage to the Spider Goddess. Just don’t hose her down in your flower garden:


 

October 2017 Blattaria – Blattaria

Cold, frantic, frenetic and discordant, Blattaria is a new band to debut in the modern black metal sub-genre.  Sometimes blasting, roaring like a psychopathic killer with a newfound methamphetamine habit, the one man band is as intense as they come.  The occasionally eerie rung notes are haunting, and the very distinct rhythm guitar play sees Blattaria moving up and down the fretboard in chaotic fashion. One man band Manuel Garcia must burn his hands sliding across the fretboard like he seems to do all the time here. The vocals consist of screams and yet, the lack of lyrical content is not a deterrent to liking the music.  Bugs appear to have a common thread in all his song titles. What else would you find in the dumpster and sewer, besides rodents. As further proof, the album cover features a collage of cockroaches of all things. And while the music may not strike fans as structured, catchy, accessible black metal, fans who can tell good black metal when they hear it will not pass this up in favor of another proliferate mediocre modern black metal effort. Get it on Cassette or LP from Fallen Empire Records if the stream below suits your own disdain for typical black metal. Please take note that cockroaches can be found in your pantry and are not sold separately in stores (although you’ll find them in any place that serves food):


 

July 2017 Tchornobog – Tchornobog

It’s difficult just as to what content Tchornobog alludes to on their  self-titled record, co-released by Fallen Empire Records and I, Voidhanger Records.  One thing for sure is that the music here is some of the most chaotic, occasionally groovy, heavy, yet beautiful, meditative black/death/experimental metal I’ve heard in a while.  Engrossed in metaphorical events and interpretations of those events through the mind’s eye, Tchornobog present their own metaphorical journey into this ideology through the means of crafting dark, harrowing music.  Tchornobog is an experience more so than a music release.  If you don’t believe me, put this record on and hit the lights close to midnight to feel your mind’s eye’s awakening, if only for the chance to induce your most fertile dreams into lucid nightmare. The guitars hurtle by in blinding euphony, and the drums are percussive more than socialist or sedentary.  The occasional slow tempo and ambient music is also a nice touch. Tchornobog provide credence to metal as supreme art, even as most conservative charlatans will only shudder in contempt of truly expressive, virulent music.  Then again, Tchornobog might just appeal to the few of us who hold contempt for mainstream musical tastes altogether, so celebrate your liberation from a society with record stores featuring the likes of Justin Bieber. Your end of year list decisions can’t be made without a listen to this record. Stream this now:


 

 November 2017 Entheogen – Without Veil, Nor Self

Entheogen is a project featuring Alex Poole, the duo S. Blackburn and J. Blackburn  of Chaos Moon on guitars and drums respectively and B. Tiffin of little-known band Haunter on bass. Entheogen’s music utilizes frenzied arrangements, dizzying tremolo-washes, haunting rung notes, echoing screams, blunted percussive sounds, all recorded in cavernous-necro production quite unlike that of second wave black metal in its heyday. In fact, all instruments seem to reverberate a lot here, as though recorded in good acoustics, such as that of a cave.  The music goes by in a blur of atmospheric, dissonant but extremely enjoyable set of “songs” perfect for seance. The project is headed By Steven Blackburn, who wrote the album, in contrast to other articles covering the group’s effort.  Without Veil, Nor Self, seems to draw content from the dissolution of being, the great absence of self or public perception that is a result of illusion and not a direct confabulation of stereotype and the misunderstanding that coincides with reality versus something illusory, that both are subject to misinterpretation and both are widely believed to embody truth, when all truth is subject to dissimilar comparison. If you don’t know what I mean, you’ll have to make up your mind whether you like this music or not by listening to it.  Go on, take off your halloween mask and that tacky Scream trilogy theme you keep thinking will scare your co-workers every halloween and opt for true horror in that suit you wore to your daughter’s wedding to a drug addict. Then, stream at your own peril:

 

I hope you like our label feature. Write us in the comments if you as fans want more label features in the future.

-Al Necro

 

 

Written By

Provocateur/Connoiseur of all things dark and grisly. Published author and freelance editor addicted to underground metal of the highest order! Al Necro lives and writes in Manila, Philippines. Abandon hope, all ye who read Al Necro!

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