Koldovstvo - Ни царя, ни бога (Ni Tsarya, Ni Boga)

There are few genres of music that contain so many anonymous bands. But in black metal, it is an accepted and normal thing that you may not know who is in a band you like, or where they are from, or if "they" are actually a "they" or a single person.

Removing these tangible people from the music allows the listener unprecedented latitude to experience the music and engage with it in any way they see fit. Freed of the preconceptions of spurious comparison (to previous albums, to different personnel, etc.) the music as presented can be experienced more directly.

While it would be silly to say the band were from Russia, there is definitely a serious Slavic and Russian history and folklore vibe going on here.

The name of the band, Koldovsto, is the Russian word for "witchcraft" and the album title is the Russian for No King, No God, a sublte play on the phrase every good Russian anarchist knows - Нет богов, нет мастеров (Net bogov, net masterov) No Gods, No Masters.

Couple that with the cover of the album - An 1864 painting by Konstantin Flavitsky depicting the legend that Princess Tarakanova, a pretender to the throne, was killed by a 1777 flood, and you have some fertile fields in which to grow any number of theories about the band, their origin, and their motives/politics.

It also helps that this is grade A Prime atmospheric black metal of the enigmatic Slavic nostalgia type - a thing that I am really in to.

Comments

Portal - Avow / Hagbulbia

P O R T A L R E L E A S E D T W O R E C O R D S T O D A Y That's how my day began. Several versions of that message. And friends, the hype is real. Unhinged ambient black metal sludge gloomcloud is back on the menu boys. Avow by itself is a massive adventure into murky disquiet, but played (As intended) sync'd up with companion piece Hagbulbia, it becomes infintely more sinister. Press play below and enjoy the madness Avow by PORTAL Hagbulbia by PORTAL

2022 Year In Review

Yeah, I have been MIA for 18 months. So what? You don't pay for this blog, I do. And I've been really busy starting my permaculture farm / goat cult in the abandoned mountains of northern Spain. Now that things are appropriately sustainable and grim, I am back to vomit my opinions on music all over the internet some more. Let's dive back into things with a wrap up of 2022. Here are my favorite-ish albums of the year, along with why they are superlative. Best Aural Approximation of a Mental Health Crisis Chat Pile - God's Country Would you like to know what it sounds like to be stuck in a trailer in the middle of nowhere USA with none of the drugs you need to forget exactly how terribly and awfully fucked your life is? Are you interested in turning the collective despair of a small town poisoned by unregulated mining and refining into a howl of impotent protest? Would you like to peel back the facade of "faith, family, farm" to gaze at the raw and bloody dis...

Coffin Lurker - Foul and Defiled

Industrial sludge death doom funeral noise from Oakland. Maurice De Jong is the most prolific dude in music, I am certain. Gnaw Their Tongues , Cloak of Altering , De Magia Veterum , Dodenbezweerder are just a few of his projects. Apparently Rene Aquarius from Imperial Cult decided that he would challenge Maurice to a doom-off, and the loser would have to sweep up after the planet was destroyed. This is the sonic record of that planetary destruction. It is also one of the best doom records I've ever heard. Thankfully free of Sabbath worship and lazy rehashing of every boring stoner riff imaginable, this is actually a brand new thing. Suffocatingly vile and planetarily heavy, this is the answer to the unasked question "what would happen if Sunn 0))) were from New Orleans. Foul and Defiled by Coffin Lurker

Trumpet of Amdusias

Search This Blog