We continue our exploration of industrial black metal started on this article
Blacklodge – Login:SataN (2003)
With the growing encroachment of digital technology on the totality of humanity’s environments, some attention would inevitably be drawn to its sinister aspects, echoing old and instinctive fears about what Ernst Jünger called the “cultic power” inherent in technology. The mysterious cyberspace quickly became accepted as a viable means to channel the forces of the abyss. Blacklodge rejoice in this discovery through darkly celebratory music that transposes the spiritual subversion always associated with black metal to this new context. The music’s foundation is the vigorous guitar riffs, drawing from a variety of established metal techniques but maintaining an adventurous approach, and (programmed) drumming made to engage with electronics of a sort that some might find outdated for today’s standards. While the synthesis isn’t always successful, the band manages to avoid the all too common temptation of eagerly but indiscriminately ceding to these new tools in what ends up being a gimmick; in fact, their songwriting prowess is evident in the album’s best moments, many of which are courtesy of the creative melodies played by the guitars when they deviate from more familiar territory. The electronic elements are mostly deployed to enhance the singular ambiance that the band has summoned, highlighting both the fear naturally induced by these horizons and delighting in the possibilities laid open.
Spektr – Near Death Experience (2006)
We have in this release what we could consider the opposite approach to the previous band. Spektr cling to black metal aesthetics and techniques only insofar as they are useful to further a vision very distinct from their usual contexts. Rather than conventional rhythms, the band instead seems intent on capturing a pulse, one that is being intercepted through (glitchy) electronic interfaces, the music presenting itself as transmissions from a techno-etheric realm. The electricity sounds we hear on the second track might remind us of the films of David Lynch – this feeling will persist throughout the album. The guitars alternate between riffs lacing an hypnotic percussive pattern and joining the synths in providing a thick cloud of atmospheric effects. Although relatively conventional riffs are used they are made to gradually cede to the band’s experimental approach prioritizing the textural interplay of sounds in a manner similar to dark ambient. The resulting experience could be likened to that of watching brief glimpses of some forbidden footage (like transmissions from purgatory or the realm of Clive Barker’s cenobites) through a faulty TV, consistently interrupted by static that seems to protect us from what is being shown.
