Mat “Kvohst” McNerney provides the acrobatic lead vocals for the excellent avant/experimental industrial-leaning Norwegian black metal crew Dødheimsgard as well as the very differently forward-thinking (and also amazing) UK black metal band Code. He takes another turn with his stripped down “psychedelic occult folk” solo project Hexvessel. The 15-song Dawnbearer‘s shocking at first, compelling after repeat listens. Think Woven Hand, haunted ’60s/’70s pastoral folk, or a darker riff on that last Midlake album (note above promo photo). McNerney covers Clive Palmer’s post-Incredible String Band crew C.O.B. and successfully transforms and darkens Paul Simon’s “Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes.” He quotes Crowley, Truman Capote, Isaac Babel, etc. Unlike Boduf Songs‘ black metal-ready folk, this is folk by a talented, ambitious black metal musician. But the energy’s there. As is the atmosphere. He puts sawblade — along withharmonium, zither, gongs, harp, mellotron, mandolin and bandoneon — to good use. You’ll get a sense of Dawnbearer via this Kalle Sipilä-directed video for opener “Invocation Summoning.”
Another album track, “The Death Knell Tolls”:
Another:
Dawnbearer is out via Svart. McNerney’s joined by Krugers Medbragte, Jaime Gomez Arellano, and Virus’ Carl-Michael Eide (aka Czral), etc., on it. The drawing on the cover (and in the booklet) is by previous HTC visitor Albert Witchfinder. That cover:
Find more info on Hexvessel at Tumblr.
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It’s a given that with every new Haunting the Chapel article, somewhere in the brief description found on the home page it will read “Black Metal.” Review something else already you trend whores.
Ya. I’m pretty sure the banner says something about crust punk and grind, but nothing seems to come up about those genres. Nerveskade, Vaaska or Kriegshog. These crusty mother fuckers are blowing up.
I might make the argument that its just that the most interesting, off the beaten path stuff is being made within the general parameters of black metal right now. However, in the past non BM bands like Coliseum, Electric Wizard, Ghost, and others have had columns. And since when is black metal a “trend”? Granted, I like to think of myself as someone who doesn’t listen to particularly trendy music, but part of me wishes black metal was identified as a “trend” of sorts, so I can stop having to justify my listening to it repeatedly to the vast majority of my friends, most of whom are indie rock folk and can’t even regard black metal as music, much less as part of a musical trend…
Haunting The Chapel is whatever I happen to be listening to at the moment. If you’ve followed my stuff here for the past year and a half and my old column Show No Mercy at Pitchfork (which started in 2006), you’ll know I just happen to listen to a lot of black metal. That said, as Matt points out, there’s plenty of non-black metal in the archives. And look for upcoming stuff on Trap Them, Indian, Batillus, KEN mode, etc., alongside Pale Chalice, Altar Of Plagues, et al.
The “trend whores” thing is funny, though.
oh, p.s. Did you actually listen to Hexvessel? It’s definitely not black metal, despite the photo.
Ha! You beat me to it. Keep up the good work my man…
there’s a new black metal band every week – obviously it’s the most popular genre of metal right now
again, i might rephrase that a bit to say there’s more creativity going on in black metal than in other subgenres right now as opposed to simply being “popular”, just my opinion. But Haunting the Chapel doesn’t seem to be the type of column to give updates on Metallica, et al. I read it because it keeps me up with more boundary-pushing forms of metal, which is the type I personally prefer…
Brandon I love what you’re doing.I hope you get the first relevant Code news.Kvohst rules!
Kvohst left Code
great!
can you recommend any particular “haunted ’60s/’70s pastoral folk” bands? I know about Comus, but that’s about it. This album is excellent by the way, I’m very glad to have found it.