Pictured above is Azgorh, a gentleman known in the metal underground for his black metal projects, namely Drowning the Light. One-man bands have become somewhat fashionable, but this one piqued my interest for a couple of reasons. For starters, all of the DTL material adopts a nautical theme. I've always fancied myself as a pedestrian oceanographer. The fact that I'm about as knowledgeable on the subject as George Costanza is irrelevant. I could totally be a marine biologist (shut up), so Azghor's littoral riffs appeal to me. Secondly, he has got to be one of the most prolific artists recording today. Since debuting in 2004 with Drowned, he has parceled out seventeen full-length albums and a rich abundance of demos/EP's.
I will concede that I only recently got into Drowning the Light. For what it's worth, I'm currently obsessed with Haunter of the Deep, which was released earlier this month. Azghor offers a refreshing take on black metal. Where prior collections fall into the "raw" category, Deep spouts a polished production job. Many of his peers lean on the subgenre's stale kernels (i.e. tremolos, blastbeats...you know the rest) to the point that they become rhetorical devices. This splendid record avoids those pratfalls. And yet it's unmistakably black metal to the core.
While I'm on the topic of busy one-man projects, I would urge you to check out Esoctrilihum. Constituted by French multi-instrumentalist Asthaghul, this little venture has accrued nine long players in six years (!). Dude's building up quite the fanbase, though my tastebuds estimate Esoctrilihum to be a hit/miss proposition. For example, I dig the expansive accessibility of 2020's Eternity of Shoag. His latest efforts such as 2022's Saopth's and this year's Funeral rub my ears the wrong way. I'm still going to keep him on my radar, since he's likely to put out something rad, like, this weekend. Seriously, how do these guys manage to be so productive???
I'm including the cover of Drowning the Light's On Astral Wings of Wamphyric Shadows because...well, because it's awesome.
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