Terminus Episode 130 - Passeisme, Sammath, Reverorum ib Malacht, Kaevum

It's been a little bit and your plaintive cries for content have carried on the wind, so here you go: a gargantuan old-style Terminus episode with 4 big records and nearly 3 hours of dense, autistic discussion thereof. This one is most certainly For The Boys, featuring 4 bands well known to fans of the show, with a selection of styles so expansive you're certain to find a new favorite in the bunch.

Opening volley: the return of PASSEISME PASSEISME ARE BACK GUYS! With their first record a huge hit among Terminators in 2021, it's no surprise that they're back with their sophomore release, which manages to actually top the first but in a wildly unpredictable way. Eschewing much of the catchiest and most immediate material which defined the first record, "Alternance" is an album that seeks deeper and more difficult musical expression, with higher contrast in mood, technique, and presentation. It's Passeisme. You know you want it. Easy call for AOTY.

Next up is Sammath, the primary project of Jan Kruitwagen, whose project Kaeck we covered and thoroughly enjoyed in 2021. Sammath represents one of the few remaining torches carried in the name of the much-benighted Norsecore style, with a veritable river of blast beats and crushing, atonal power chord riffs defining this as a sort of alternate universe take on war metal. It's absurdly heavy and brutal and would most certainly work as a black metal record for death metal fans, but beneath the obvious animosity and extremity lurks a tremendous appreciation for moments in the second wave long forgotten.

Our second half opens with the return of Reverorum ib Malacht with "Vacuum," an album first released in 2022 but only just now given a physical edition. Fans of this band know the score: mind-melting industrial black metal with its own bizarre internal logic w/r/t song construction, but "Vacuum" takes it even further by functioning primarily as a tech death record (!) first and foremost. This is a challenging record within RiM's already challenging discography, and what ensues is a great conversation about the band's goals with this album, which are just about as academic as you're ever going to hear on our show.

Finally we arrive at Kaevum's "Kultur," the long-awaited followup full length to 2011's "Natur." A well appreciated sleeper hit amongst Terminators as well as the broader black metal community, that record was defined by intensity and clarity of form. So what of "Kultur?" Well, there's some pretty big surprises in store- namely, that this is primarily a DSBM record. Join us as we go down the rabbit hole tracing the oddly intertwined lineage of NSBM and DSBM as we attempt to uncover the music's relationship with its theme (and listen to some of the coolest riffs of 2023 too.)

0:00:00 - Intro

0:01:53 - Passeisme - Alternance (Antiq)

0:49:03 - Sammath - Grebbeberg (Hammerheart Records)

01:29:39 - Interlude - Niden Div. 187 - “Funeral Pyres” fr. Impergium (Necropolis Records, 1997)

1:32:29 - Reverorum ib Malacht - Vacuum. The Mystery of Faith. We Proclaim Your Death Oh Lord, and Profess Your Resurrection, Until You Come Again. Förlåtelse och levitation. (Malacht Media/Rubeus Obex vinyl)

2:15:48 - Kaevum - Kultur (Darker Than Black Records)

2:47:06 - Outro - Abyssic Hate - “Betrayed” fr. Suicidal Emotions (No Colours Records, 2000)

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