Once again we get the total package. The cover art and inlay are magnificent, and they convey the theme of the music contained within perfectly. The production is stellar, and every note rings out with equal parts sorrow and anger.

“Gakidô” gets things started and right away I can tell this is going to be something special. A different experience than 悪罪 (Akuzaï); certainly a different approach than that album. The band plays with tempos like a cat with a dead mouse; one second they’re wrapped up in a whirlwind of blasting and the next they’re doing emotion-laden Atmospheric Black Metal.

“Ningendô” is a slow, menacing track; it wraps itself around you in a bloody embrace. It’s got a nice Dimmu Borgir vibe to it, circa Spiritual Black Dimensions and Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. It’s an unbelievably heavy song (as they all are) and I can’t stop loving the fuck out of Kurogoku.

There’s a little bit of Cradle of Filth in “Tendô” especially in the keyboard-heavy beginning, where Enterré Vivant goes full-on epic Atmospheric Black Metal. The second half of the song is a full assault, not in the sense that there is a crushing wall of blast beats… more of a wall of brutal malice.

“Chikushôdô” starts out subtly; about thirty seconds into the song, it bursts out of the speakers to devastating effect. This song is over nine minutes long and doesn’t feel like it at all. That’s the magic of how Enterré Vivant compose their songs. “Jidokugô” is next, and it’s got one of those classic Black Metal riffs that make you nod along with the beat until the blast kicks your head in at the two-forty-seven point. Only to switch to a gorgeous, yet brutal as fuck track that literally takes your breath away.

This part of Kurogoku is a bit more European than the first half; there are Japanese flourishes and moments where it sounds like Sigh and Dimmu Borgir had a bastard offspring. I can pick out some Ukrainian Black Metal influences, definitely Norwegian but firmly rooted in the French Black Metal spirit. “Shuradô” is my favorite song from Kurogoku. It’s so goddamn heavy and emotional, the riffs that weave through the song and the flute(?) I think it is a flute… anyway, it adds this whole other level of gravitas to the album, that’s what I’m trying to say.

Is Kurogoku better than 悪罪 (Akuzaï)? Fuuuuck, that’s a toughie. 悪罪 (Akuzaï) used radio transmissions to great effect, adding a huge amount of emotional impact through the story of Hiroshima. Enterré Vivant don’t do that on Kurogoku, but it doesn’t need to be done. On their fourth full-length, they’re firmly rooted in the realm of Atmospheric Black Metal with nothing to prove.

The bottom line is quality, and that’s exactly what you will get with this release. If you like Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth and all things Atmospheric Black Metal, you’re in the right place. Go get this one now!

Featuring members of Finnish Black Metal royalty (True Black Dawn, and …And Oceans, to name two). Accelerated Death Impulse is a striking debut, and it’ll be interesting to see if AntiHuman Industries continues to album number two; for now, though, this album isn’t fucking around.

I used to think that Industrial Black Metal started and stopped with Aborym. Give me shit, I don’t care. I now know that there are numerous bands under the banner of that sub-genre, so yeah, I’ve been educated. AntiHuman Industries is as cold as the name sounds. I love their take on Industrial Black Metal and hopefully will hear more from them in the future.

That being said, they’re painting the walls with blood on “Loop of Cosmic Horror”, a merciless display of violence overpowered with battering drums and a guitar tone that sizzles like acid on bare skin. “Error: Human” is nihilistic as they come; the clinical level of extremity is palpable as AntiHuman Industries carve out furrows in your eardrums.

“Brain Noise” sounds kind of familiar… like the chord progression sounds like, and forgive me if I’m wrong, it sounds like “Towards the Pantheon” from In the Nightside Eclipse, but if it was played the way that Crionics covered “The Loss and Curse of Reverence”… at least that’s what I’m hearing. I don’t know about you. This is my experience, haha!

OK, so next track “Eerie Curiosity” is full-on guts-fucking Black Industrial Metal. That’s it. Put your head in a cement mixer, and you’ll get the physical feeling of this nightmarish song. The production on Accelerated Death Impulse is pretty fat; it hits hard when the moment calls for it, which is the whole goddamn album, honestly.

The title track is suitably raw, mirroring the sound that 1349 had on Liberation, the godly blasting reaches levels of unbridled ecstasy, and it’s followed by “Renounce-Resist-Revolt”, which has a mix of the True Black Dawn from the Blood for Satan album and Disciplin on Anti-Life. It shakes furiously, shrieking in reckless abandon.

“A.H.I. (Syndicate Dolls)”, is a magnificent My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult/Electric Hellfire Club Industrial, ichor-pumping dance track (yeah you read that right). “Lucid Dream” is like “Lucid Fairytale” if Napalm Death were Black Metal, it’s short and white hot fast.

Final track “Grief” is accurate to the stages one goes through. Some lovely female vocals start it off and it burns for a few seconds as it gathers intensity and then there’s the discharge and it’s full speed ahead, take no fucking prisoners.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Accelerated Death Impulse and if you love True Black Dawn, 1349, Crionics or E.H.C. you need to get this bastard of humanity now!

Suicide Circle is the suicide side project of Meyhna’ch from Mütiilation, and stop the presses, it’s a grand  fucking opus of the DSBM sub-genre and as I listen to Bukkake of Souls for the fifth time this week and as I read the press blurb I decided I’m going back to their first album Shotgun Prayers to see what was different about that as opposed to Bukkake of Souls. Besides the obvious vocal delivery the music didn’t change in the wrong direction, although I guess it’s hard to fuck up music this brutal and desolate.

So the music part, that’s why we’re here correct? Things start off in furious Black Metal style with “the Star Spawn”, rising from a lava field of feedback and raw screaming for 6 minutes and 27 seconds, slow and methodical with riffs so sharp they’ll cut your flesh off, the beating here is so lulling that it makes your skinless head bob like one of those ridiculous kitchen chickens.

“The Highest Spheres” has a more traditional Black Metal heart, starting with an lone, agonizing riff that permeates the track and propels it forward to punishing effect, taking a bit mid-song to let you breathe. I cannot love this album enough, after being sick for the past week, coming back to finish my review; it’s like a pitch-black blanket for healing. “the Advent” soars on the wings of a skeletal dove, while the title track “Bukkake of Souls” is an eight minute skull fuck… have you seen a Serbian Film? The revenge skull fucking that the protagonist gives his tormentor is invigorating and Suicide Circle capture that feeling perfectly. Suffering, isolation and the depth of despair are the fuel for this album.

“For Nothing”, “the Prince of Darkness” and “Any of You” provide the razors for you, the latter being a slow-burning effigy, militant drums, combined with Meyhna’ch and Kham’s crushing delivery have gone into this cauldron and created a fantastic DSBM album that oozes bile and general hatred for humanity overall.

2023 is just about done with. You still have time to pre-order Bukkake of Souls since it comes out the 29^th. So you should do that, constant reader, 2024 probably won’t be any better than this year, but it’s always a great year for Metal and throughout the world, the healing power of music is what we need more than ever.