It’s been a really good year for black metal, and especially so for American black metal. San Francisco’s Deafheaven have claimed the lion’s share of the attention (and deservedly so), but I feel like I’m hearing new records every week worth getting excited about, and they’re coming from bands at every level, from everywhere in the country: from bands like Woe (Philadelphia) and Vattnet Viskar (New Hampshire) and A Pregnant Light (Michigan) and Surachai (Chicago) … One of my very favorite black metal albums of 2013 is Beyond All Light, from Louisville’s Anagnorisis. The band was formed in 2003, and its initial lineup featured Austin Lunn on vocals and guitar. They released one album, 2007’s excellent (if largely unheard) Overton Trees, after which Lunn left to focus on his one-man project, the now-celebrated Panopticon. Beyond All Light is Anagnorisis’s second full-length, and while losing a musician of Lunn’s ability would probably sink most bands, Anagnorisis have only gotten bigger, heavier, and stronger. Former bassist Zachary Kerr has taken over Lunn’s vocal duties, to the band’s benefit. Kerr’s sludgy, mic-in-mouth scream is violent and immediate — in fact, Beyond All Light features some of the best black metal vocals I’ve heard in a long time. The instrumentation, meanwhile, is thrilling: Anagnorisis play epic, melodic, technically flawless black metal that is somehow also brutal, raw, and kinetic: The whole thing is somehow equal parts Dissection and Nails. Today we’re streaming Beyond All Light’s heaviest track, “This Cursed Blood.” Give it a spin, then check out the LP, and then see the band if you live nearby any of the stops on their upcoming short tour (dates below). I’ll be there next Wednesday at the Acheron (where they’re playing with the similarly excellent Anicon) and my blood is already racing. Listen.

Anagnorisis tour dates:

07/27 – Vernon Club @ Louisville, KY
07/28 – Token Lounge @ Westland, MI
07/29 – The Bug Jar @ Rochester, NY
07/31 – The Acheron @ Brooklyn, NY
08/01 – Obrien’s Pub @ Boston, MA
08/03 – Kopec’s Korner @ Pittsburgh, PA
08/04 – Indy’s Jukebox @ Indianapolis, IN

Beyond All Light is out today, released by the band. Go buy it along with their badass merch.