RH-11

Affiliated with the Black Twilight Circle group of black metal bands based in California, the people who run the Rhinocervs label have been issuing untitled albums of black metal psychedelia in cassette format under the label's name since 2010. The only way you'd know which album was which is by checking out the serial number on the tape (usually on the side of the cassette sleeve) in case you've never seen any of the albums before and have no idea what they look like. As far as I know, the cassette sleeves carry no titles on their front covers, just the artwork. It's worthwhile listening to some of these tapes if you like noisy, buzzy and immersive black metal with elements of dark ambient, psychedelia and horror film soundtrack, and the album under review, known simply as RH-11, is as good a place to start as any. Let's face it, you have dive in at the deep end with this music no matter which album you start with.

Coming in at just under 35 minutes, the entire recording can be heard in one sitting as one work of several movements: the songs aren't very distinct from one another - the riffing usually distinguishes them but that's about all - and the pauses between songs are very brief. There's so much energy and aggression in each song that the emotion usually flows into the next song. Once out of its starting blocks, the music races away with a life of its own and it seems enough for the musicians to try to harness the energy and direct it through their playing and instruments. The raw, almost slavering vocals are terrifying as they growl or screech their way through the lyrics. The guitar sound is at once raw with a rough noisy edge, sharp and often clear in places, and surprisingly melodic given the speed of the song, and manic synthesiser tones, dream-like and trancey in the way they flood through the rapid tremolo guitar vibrations. The whole thing just bleeds furiously through the speakers.

The whole album is dense and deeply immersive. Thanks to its extreme approach that combines black metal, psychedelia and a liking for horror-movie soundtrack ambience, the set is wild and deranged, and most songs end up sounding fantastic in spite (or maybe because) of their chaotic nature. Outstanding songs include "A Language through Mirrors and Echoes" for a repeating riff, "Devour all the Living Things" for moments of doomy foghorn ambience and near-epic instrumental guitar-dominated passages of intense emotional drama, the melancholy and shrill bluesy piece that is "Maw of Death" and an unnamed instrumental track featuring balalaika-like melodies bouncing off a gritty droning bass guitar line.That the guys at the Rhinocervs would include a short all-instrumental piece with a waltzing folk-dance rhythm shows you how far swept away by the spirit of the music they must have been. Less kind souls than I would call for the paramedics to take them away.

People keen on black metal with psychedelic and horror-movie soundtrack elements owe it to themselves to give this recording the once-over and discover how absorbing and full of deep feeling the cassette can be. There are moments where the music is terrifying and confrontational as well as delirious and sometimes overwrought with drama. The recording's sound is rich and evokes melancholy, discontent and many other dark emotions. I wonder why the guys behind the Rhinocervs label are so modest that they prefer not to name their project/s if they have any, it seems strange that the label issues this and various other recordings as if they were compilations done by anonymous people pulled off the street.