Gateway To The Nightside…
ANDRAMELECH / SERPENT NOIR Review

Label: Daemon Worship Prod.

Neither Andramelech or Serpent Noir are new names in the world of metal music. For those familiar with each band, you know the degree of punishment that each delivers on an almost year by year basis in both recorded and live performance. However, if you’ve never listened to either band you’re missing out- these bands fucking destroy and will warp your view of what it means to play black metal. Gateway to the Nightside won’t likely be listeners first experience with either band, but it serves as an immensely entertaining portrait of what each band represents both musically and conceptually.

Andramelech introduce Gateway to the Nightside with “The Trefoil Crown”, a jarring, misanthropic burst of black metal. The riffing on this song is smart– it doesn’t overstay its welcome nor does it confuse technicality with ease, there’s real substance here. “The Trefoil Crown” gives the listener a push-pull of black metal urgency and a sense of death metal cynicism. It’s hard to find anything about the track that isn’t worth complimenting; structurally it is sound and I can’t help but to compliment that. The second Andramelech track “The Voiceless Verb of Vovin” begins much slower than their initial track but quickly raises the stakes when vocalist Antithesis elevates the song into more foreboding heights. The song toys with this relationship between comfort and fear, switching between parts that are slower and orienting then quickly rejecting them for a more destructive, bending sonic blast. Each track is truly wonderful to listen to repeatedly.

Serpent Noir’s side was the second I had listened to and without a doubt it’s the most deliberate attempt at delivering atmosphere and relentless punishment. The first track, “Transcendental Perception” serves as a primer for the beast that is “Shadow as a Portal,” Serpent Noir’s 11 minute vacuum of existentialism and crisis. The percussion really shines on this track; it is urgent and most importantly restless. There’s a strong sense of idealism on the track and I mean this in the most creatively supplemental way; the track serves as a nod to traditional black metal structure while instigating a deeper discussion into what the future sound of black metal may be. Vocally, the track switches between Nordic hums and more traditional black metal growls and screams, both of which are entirely at home within the guitar work of Yiannis. Serpent Noir do an excellent job at forcing the listener’s attention throughout the track until their side calms once again with the epilogue “Ecstasy of Desire.”