Mining Metal: Ænigmatum, Amargor, Anatomy of Habit, Arise from Worms, Cabinet, Coprolith, Hexorcist, Torpor

Mining Metal is a monthly column from Heavy Consequence contributing writers Langdon Hickman and Colin Dempsey. The focus is on noteworthy new music emerging from the non-mainstream metal scene, highlighting releases from small and independent labels — or even releases from unsigned acts. Death metal has always felt like a magical portal to me. So much of this is the chimerical nature of it; it is just as capable of emulating the manic laughter and mad color of psychosis as it is the grime and darkness of overbearing sorrow. It can be mild or feral, extravagant or direct, psychedelic or straightforward. So much of my life has been spent trying to parse why I love it so much and why it moves me so deeply, why I gravitated to it as a child after seeing the music video for “Where the Slime Live” and hearing “Hammer Smashed Face” on cassette. All of those efforts have, in my eyes, failed. I’ve heard from others about them being moving or inspiring them toward stabs at art criticism themselves which sometimes have turned into careers, which is deeply flattering, but I am still unable to see the thing I wish to convey and that which came out on paper. An aspect of the problem is that death metal is a mind-bogglingly wide musical world. It emerged from thrash initially, itself an emergence from speed metal, which came in turn from traditional heavy metal, which came itself from the heavy rock, psychedelia and progressive music of the mid ’60s to early ’70s. Because of this, death metal has always been more an energy or an approach to metal music rather than a specific sound. It’s why you can have bands that do blastbeats and bands that do backbeats, bands that do gnarly trem riffs and bands that do proggy finger twisters and bands that do Neanderthalic chugs derived from hardcore, bands that break any conceived notion you have about songwriting structures and norms and bands that deliver verse-chorus anthems. It begins to raise the question of what even is death metal, one that feels obvious until you immerse yourself in its world and start finding connections and separations that feel unexpected. For instance, most melodic death metal to me does not read as death metal. Why? I can’t precisely say; there is a lack of a certain kind of energy that feels death metal, the thing that unites bands as different as Cynic, Cannibal Corpse, Immolation and Mortuary Drape, while also being riven by the pop metal underpinnings of most European heavy rock. It’s not a knock, to be clear, just that it often feels more like an extreme version of otherwise radio-friendly music rather than something connected deeply to the crusted tape-trading scene of the early ’80s where death metal began to percolate. Meanwhile, an album like Pianic Dismemberment by Effluence, an album which replaces guitars with piano, reads absolutely as death metal to me, as does Onkos, a project that is fully acoustic and features bongos and other percussion alongside growled vocals. The only commonality I can find is with jazz, another genre you feel more than you hear, a sense that can unify smooth jazz combos and the world of the avant-garde but somehow excludes Michael Buble despite his admitted incredible jazz chops. I’ll spend a lifetime chasing this dragon, I believe, and not really get any closer. It’s a boon that art is wider than a single mind’s ability to categorize, describe or define it, though. – Langdon Hickman Ænigmatum – Infinitude’s Passage A comment on Bandcamp calls this record “shape-shifting death metal” and there isn’t a more apt way to describe it. Ænigmatum transition between the avant-garde and the direct, the abstract and the concrete, the progressive and the straight ripping, often within a single song. It’s a progressive album at heart, but more by the combination of elements rather than exclusively being wild Dream Theater instrumental excursions in a death metal context. When I talk about death metal being the greatest musical invention of history, this is the kind of record I am referencing, one that is so wide in its scope it seems like a kaleidoscope unto itself, capable of moving anywhere and having it always feel emotionally gainful and not a distraction. It’s simply brilliant. Buy it on Bandcamp. – Langdon Hickman Amargor – Serem l’urna de l’honor DSBM can be a misnomer when it comes to albums like Serem l’urna de l’honor. The latest record from Barcelona-based Amargor speaks through the miasma of black metal, post-punk, and industrial metal that formed the DSBM framework rather than DSBM as dogma. Lyrically, it’s not depressive, though stylistically it’s a downer, albeit it appears Amargor never dealt with anhedonia. No, “Tomba de plaga i tirania” has too much drive as an eight-minute epic, and “Misteris en clau d’occisió” is too much of a gothic romp for Serem l’urna de l’honor to be joyless. Tracks like “L’Esbarzer” will drain your soul with their manic vocals, yet even it is energetic and bouncy. That’s why the DSBM moniker doesn’t quite fit here, even though it’s by all means the right word. The midtempo stomp and enthralling atmosphere are simply too full of life. Buy it on Bandcamp. – Colin Dempsey Anatomy of Habit – Paired Sentinels Anatomy of Habit is a band that always has my ear when it comes to new material. They built their legacy over the past 15 years with an approach to industrial that mirrored the then-newly resurrected Swans. This new album adds more coherent senses of melody and color to their existing sound, moving away from the protoformal industrial of early Throbbing Gristle or Nurse With Wound toward something more akin to the goth rock sound that emerged from early post-punk mixed with a touch of the Scandinavian progressive alt rock that emerged in the 2000s. Previous records were forbidding stone that, upon remit, opened themselves up into emotionally intense transformative sequences. Paired Sentinels is significantly more approachable without abandoning their mission, acting as a perfect entry point for those who want to understand their approach before diving into their denser material. I love you, Anatomy of Habit. Buy it on Bandcamp. – Langdon Hickman Arise from Worms – A Bleeding Tree Hanging Self Destruction The elements here even on paper don’t make sense. The band is comprised of Flo Mournier of Cryptopsy on drums, Steve Tucker of Morbid Angel from Formulas Fatal to the Flesh forward on vocals, Derek Sherinian formerly of Dream Theater and keyboardist of his own ultra-techy fusion-metal projects, bandled by a former Incantation guitarist who was too weird even for them. What comes out can only be described as death metal and Dream Theater; not mixed, but side-by-side, with no overlap musically, as though you are hardcutting between two unrelated albums. For those of us who like bizarre and catching songwriting, it’s addictive. You genuinely have no idea where the next riff or section might go; the only knowable object is that it will be played by some of the best instrumentalists in the world. As a diehard of both its contained elements, this was made for freaks like me. Buy it on Bandcamp. – Langdon Hickman Cabinet – Deracinated Into Soiled Reliquaries (Sarcophagus Odyssey) Deracinated Into Soiled Reliquaries (Sarcophagus Odyssey) is an ambient album dressed in death metal robes. That’s been Cabinet’s MO since they broke off from main group Sxuperion earlier this decade, and they’ve no reason to stray from it given Deracinated…’s quality. The following sentences must be kept in context that this is a death metal record, one with gurgled vocals and deep-fried production. Got that? Deracinated… soothes the ears by maintaining a steady and unflustered pace, varying dynamics and notes only slightly. It’s the same methodology of ambient music, guiding one through an underground surgical lair. The cobwebs and allergens are part of the décor. Evidently, Cabinet could disturb, but they keep a healthy distance from any bloodshed. It’s not as if Cabinet are a funeral doom band, even–the opening solo on “Perpetual Corridors Of Pungent Choledocholithiasic Smudge” is downright chaotic. It’s that they understand that death metal can be anything, even calming. Buy it on Bandcamp. – Colin Dempsey Coprolith – Putrescence If you want rock music for its hardness and might, why stop at Queens of the Stone Age? Why not follow that desire to its endpoint and reach Left Hand Path? You’re listening to rock music for how muscular it is; don’t settle for noobie gains. Much good death metal thrives on this logic–rock music, played heavily and quickly. Toronto’s Coprolith create death metal without rock music. When they flex their chops, it’s to capture the body bleeding life and soul and decaying into a husk. Much of their debut album Putrescence is, therefore, quietly impressive, devoid of overt technicality and speed. Death-doom without shock or shlock, to put it another way, providing a thrill that death metal descended from rock music couldn’t. Coprolith remind that there are forces beyond those we can perceive in the land of the living. Forces not attuned to rocking and rolling. Buy it on Bandcamp. – Colin Dempsey Hexorcist – Crucificial Imprecations It’s important, spiritually, to include some death metal that is more bestial than challenging. Hexorcist truck in thrashing death that feels closer to the Costa Rican or Chilean scenes than anything from America. There is a raggedness here that feels like it comes from those concentrated abysses of extreme metal, where black, death, thrash and the weirder rims of heavy music all brew in one noxious cauldron. There are strings, horns and synths here, bringing a variety of tones to intros of songs that resolve inevitably to straight-forward burly thrashing death in a way that feels cheeky for those in the know of the tropes of the genre. Still, none of this is played in a mocking way, just one self-aware of the long history of a well-practiced form, one which these players reproduce with fierce animal love. Death metal is the best. I love you, death metal. Buy it on Bandcamp. – Langdon Hickman Torpor – Dungeon Descent Dying Victims Productions have an insane batting average this year. They cornered the market on blackened heavy metal, or just traditional heavy metal with more salt in its wounds. It was wise to curate an entire label roster based on their proximity to Bathory’s sound, and Torpor admit to the similarities, even if what they’re doing is more interesting than they present it. Dungeon Descent, the group’s debut album, softens Norwegian black metal and denatures it until it becomes USPM. A strange comparison, but listen to the melodies and riffs on “Armoured Skeleton” and note how, with more tape hiss and a crustier demeanor, they’d fit under a funeral moon. Torpor gesture to worlds more epic and more cursed than theirs as if they’re worldbuilding through contrast. Their flirtations on both ends are the core of Dungeon Descent, with that versatility feeling like an adventure novel translated into music. Buy it on Bandcamp. – Colin Dempsey