The Plague of “Depressive Suicidal Black Metal” (DSBM)

Depressive Suicidal Black Metal (DSBM) is complete shit.

Black metal has suffered a great deal from “flavour of the week” trends, ranging from 1) ludicrous orthodox black metal(core) worthlessness, 2) three-note punk bands turned insipid “war metal” goat lovers overnight, 3) Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir ambisexual mallgoth screamo, 4) riffless nu-progressive “atmospheric” flowing metal, 5) Marduk-imitating blasting norsecore, 6) Phantaclones, 7) Canadian metal, 8) bedroom black metal, 9) black speed/thrash revivalism, 10) post-black/sludge Cascadian malaise, 11) “Aboriginal black metal”, 12) Antekhrist, 13) shemale fronted Nargaroth, 14) cock rock/black ‘n’ roll, and finally, 15) psychedelic noisecore lo-fi static air conditioner metal.

If you ask me, that’s a LOT of garbage for a once promising genre… you know, when black metal was supposed to be about beauty in darkness, violence and brazen Euro/Norse/Pagan tribalism. Back in the days of Burzum, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Neraines, Bathory, Phantom and Graveland.

You know, this type of music.

Still, even among the Z-list dregs that compose the modern “black metal” scene, there is one genre that only the most desperate and lamentable trend-hopping sub-human vagrants dare indulge in…

If you hadn’t guessed already, I’m talking about the risible Depressive Suicidal Black Metal genre.

What the Media wants Black Metal to be.

In Depressive Suicidal Black Metal – usually shortened DSBM – we see riffs and arrangements being declared null and void in favour of a “sorrowful experience” that is as stylistically tame as it is vapid and bankrupt.

Bands like Xasthur, Silencer, Shining, I’m in a Coffin, Alcest, Strid, Liturgy, Leviathan, Striborg, Abyssic Hate, Winds of Desolation, Nocturnal Depression, etc., all made it big selling self-pity, rejection of life, negativity, self-harm and even suicide – all values inherently antithetical to the black metal ethos of beauty, tradition, vir, and above all an affirmation of life over individualism, ego, social mores and human emotions.

Depressive Suicidal Black Metal’s worst offence and defining mental retardation lies in its bastardisation of the black metal spirit, thereby allowing the feeble-minded, the effete, the cowardly, the vulgar, the obese, the emo and the stupid to overrun the once distinguished black metal scene and turn it into a carousel of self-obsessed poserdom in which self-destructive cretins could indulge in their two favourite recreations, listening to reverb-drenched whine rock and feeling sorry for themselves.

It is unclear whether, like infamous queercore championette Inferanus of Gorgoroth, these “Depressive Suicidal” posers are known to insert XXL horse-sized dildos in their assholes up until the point where they reach fecal incontinence and explosive diarrhea. But after hearing the quality of their “musical” output, I would say the DSBM crowd has learned all the ropes from Gorgoroth and Watain, both aesthetically and, huh… flamboyantly.

Wash your ears with Vermin.

Depressive Suicidal Black Metal produced nothing but a non-stop torrent of self-pity, tears and urine that never came close to the quality of the original Nordic black metal wave.

The most despicable form of cowardice is self-pity.

– Marcus Aurelius

This is the absolute end of the Depressive Suicidal Black Metal genre before it circles the shit-stained toilet and is drained into the bowels of disregard and irrelevancy.

As a finally eulogy to a genre that never should have happened, here is another quote from black metal’s favoured source literature.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

– Gandalf (Mithrandir)

Support only quality music. The true underground black metal classics will remain eternal, not so with the already forgotten “flavour of the week” garbage.

No Mosh, No Core, No Fun, No Trends. No DSBM.

Neraines’ “Fenrir Prowling” is a Prodigious Black Metal Triumph !

Fenrir Prowling by Neraines is Melodic Black Metal Perfection.

So there’s this band called Neraines. And on this album, the triumphant Fenrir Prowling, they play a brand of music that could well be described as grandiose and prodigious black metal and, as many sharp minds have guessed it, this is no coincidence.

Owing influences to bands as varied as Phantom, Helgrind, Graveland and Burzum, the music on Fenrir Prowling is organised in the form of classical compositions, constantly evolving with thematic motifs trading off in rapid succession, rather than the inferior pop/rock verse-chorus crap that has sadly become the new standard of almost all “modern metal” songcraft.

The album Fenrir Prowling fosters a strong progressive edge with a wealth of contrasting moods, varied atmospheres, converging instrumental proficiency, and an unending well of pure black metal darkness that subtly and subliminally infects the listener’s mind, driving him to divine insanity.

Listen to Neraines’ majestic black metal yourselves.

Brutal, corrosive black metal strumming and tremolo picking with fanatical blast-beats backed by a prominent atmospheric presence instilling a grandeur to the whole is what you can expect from Fenrir Prowling, the natural successor to the genre-defining masterpiece Yggdrasil.

Faint glimmers of melody amidst ravaging black metal chromatic chaos will make occasional appearances, while the purely melodic moments help depict an utter purity juxtaposed with the ugliness and despair that haunts this record, only making the album more emotionally poignant and vividly intense.

Simply put, this album Fenrir Prowling is a black metal tempest. Utterly uncompromising and restless, it expresses the unholy plight proper to the (in)human condition through chaotic violence and a profound will to find beauty within the darkness – as all good black metal should.

Neraines’ prodigious music keeps the listener connected from beginning to end, prolonging the aural hallucinations further and further with a laudable sustained consistency. Like a great novel, Fenrir Prowling covers a plethora of emotions and atmospheres; here ranging from epic to mournful, euphoric or tragic, heavy, mysterious and revelatory.

This album bears the most unmistakable mark of artistic masterpieces, and calling Fenrir Prowling an outright black metal triumph is at least a very tenable position to hold. Hvis Lyset Tar Oss and The Epilogue to Sanity excluded, does black metal ever get much better than this over a full album ?