Methad / Skyggen

Though it may have had its moments back in the days of yore, the current Korean metal scene appears to be about as healthy as an 80-year old MERS patient with pre-existing lung disease (too soon?). There are a tiny number of bands scattered around the country's interior cities, but otherwise the action is limited to Busan and, especially, Seoul's hip Hongdae district, where music of various "indie" genres competes for stage space in what appears to be the country's only really vibrant underground music scene. From what I gather talking to metalheads in the country, even small shows are something of a microcosm of big metal tours in North America from, say, four or five years ago. Underground metal bands are obliged to share stages with dad rock, all manner of disparate and unrelated metal subgenres and a glut of bad metalcore/groove metal bands. There's treasure to be found, but one must go hunting.

Unless you're me, that is. After learning about Skyggen and Methad sometime last year and having a brief exchange with a Skyggen member on the internet, I wrote the band off as yet another Seoul band who would likely play weekday shows I could never see since I live and work in a city about an hour south of the capital and work late. Then, the band randomly showed up at one of the local foreigner bars to play a set, their first outside of the capital. I was pretty damn excited to see them live and I've gotta say that even more so than on their recordings the band is a force to be reckoned with live, ripping through blast-backed Gorgorothian tremolo melodies with a real sense of passion and dedication to the musical ideals of the second wave.

Anyway, you're reading this likely because you want to want to know what the hell Korean black metal actually sounds like these days, since not much of it at all has made waves outside the country since Sad Legend blipped on people's radars fifteen years ago, and not because you want to know how I saw one of these bands in a bar on accident one time. Things kick off with the Methad tracks, which are a quirky sort of symphonic black metal that shows potential but is a bit lacking in coherency. This is the work of a single guy, doing the standard mix of guitar, bass, keys, vocals and naturally programmed drums. The compositions show a lot of skill and professionalism, clearly the work of a trained musician, but don't always work very well as compelling metal pieces. I really do like the synth work as he's got some really good melodies and chords going (the instrumental track might actually be my favorite of the Methad originals) and all of the playing is competent, but the production makes the guitars sound really claustrophobic and murky, which does them no favors since the riffs themselves mostly shift back and forth between kind of standard uneventful stuff and somewhat awkward intervals or note patterns meant to sound exceptionally evil. Perhaps the riffs would've sounded fine with a more appropriate production but as it is they just don't often keep me captivated in such close proximity to the prettier synth work. The vocals are also not the world's best, alternating between a froggy, croaking rasp and a deep sort of speak-growl that reminds me somewhat of Craig Pillard's work on that Disciples of Mockery album. The "I Am the Black Wizards" cover is good stuff, though, and showcases the fairly wide gulf in songwriting quality. In short: competent, but not quite there.

Which brings us to the second half of the disc for the Skyggen material. From a pure presentation standpoint, the band appears more mature in their musical vision than their splitmates, opting for a nature samples and evil vocals intro before "Saepe Peccamus" charges out of the gates. There are two really unfortunate things about the Skyggen side of the split. First, this was recorded before they added human drummer Jade Kim to the mix, so instead time is kept by Pentagram's programmed drums. He does a fine enough job of it, but black metal this energetic really benefits from having a real drummer on board. More importantly though, this material suffers perhaps even more than the Methad side in terms of production. The guitars are both audible but sound like they're being played through amps that are wrapped in layer after layer of blankets. It's a really suffocating sound, which doesn't gel at all with the band's muscular tremolo workouts, which definitely need more room to breathe than this. Tremolo is the name of the game here, with the left channel guitar focusing nearly exclusively on trem picked chords while the right channel rides tremolo lead lines throughout nearly their whole side of the split. There are some seriously sinister riffs to be found, like the whole middle section of "Bone Knapper" (great title, there) or especially in the somewhat folky, grandiose closer "Dødenøya." The vocals are serviceable but likewise would've benefited from better mixing and a heavier hand with the reverb/delay as they're just sort of dry croaks rather than scathing like they ought to be. Unlike Methad, whose Emperor cover served to highlight the need for improvement in songwriting, the Burzum cover on the Skyggen half is sandwiched between their two best original songs, the Hammer-of-Satan assault of "Whispering Death" and the monumental "Dødenøya."

To be perfectly honest, Skyggen simply play in a style of black metal I much prefer to Methad's chosen avenue of symphonic noodling. Even so, Methad have since changed their name, perhaps alongside a change in direction or a refining of the songwriting process. In Skyggen's case, I'm looking forward to hearing their upcoming debut full-length, human drummer in tow, hopefully with some more suitable production this time around. I hope they also opt to take the trek down to Cheonan more often, even if I'm the only one who shows up!