Bicephalic – Nihilistic Dreams of an Empty Forest [EP, 2020]
If you feel Black Metal of today no longer terrifying and lack of what it takes like in the early 90s, yes, that’s understandable. Instead of complaining and crapping on new generation of Black Metal bands, I’d suggest you to listen to Bicephalic’s debut EP, Nihilistic Dreams of an Empty Forest to take you back to the golden age of Black Metal. The EP was released in April 2020 with limited edition cassettes version released via Analög Ragnarök.
5 tracks of raw and unforgiving Black Metal from this USBM unit seems to worship none other than early 90s Black Metal. I believe there were minimal mixing done or the whole EP were recorded live judging from the organic and unpolished sound of the drums. While guitars are typical to the 2nd wave era; sharp, buzzing and somehow bordering Black and Thrash Metal. Bass? Almost nonexistent, sadly. To top that off, the vocals seems to be at the back of mix and shrieking, wailing and snarling like injured wild animal, no, I’m not kidding. I think if I were to compare them, Gogoroth, Taake or Tsjuder would come into mind. It’s primitive, it’s ugly but one thing for sure, I don’t doubt their musical ability. It’s pretty tight but they prefer to have necro sounding all over the EP, just like (probably) their idols.
Nihilistic Dreams of an Empty Forest is now available on cassette (limited amount via Analög Ragnarök) and digital download format.
FFO: Gorgoroth, Taake, Tsjuder