Forward-thinking black metal has been gathering pace in the last few years, with bands eschewing the usual tropes, moving away from the cold, harsh landscapes of the early scene and instead looking to the future and creating sounds that are vastly more intriguing.
That old Norwegian sound is still popular, of course, but bands like Terzij de Horde are moving the elements further away from the origins and out into the further reaches of the mind. Self is a record that cuts with dissonance and distortion with frontman Joost Vervoort using his voice as a weapon of desperation.
Self is an act of self-immolating reflection and its path of destruction proves ultimately a route to catharsis. Absence starts this journey on a deluge of sound and races towards its goal with hardly a pause for breath, the blackened touches slowly pushing any semblance of hope from the mind before A Marriage Of Flesh And Air snatches it completely from your grasp and Averoas takes a doomed turn towards the abyss.
