US black metal often struggles to get the same kudos as its European counterparts. Sure, USBM is not without its charge-leading anti-heroes but take any top fifty black metal albums and you’d struggle to find more than a couple of US bands in there (Agalloch I’ll give you, and I also accept the result may vary wildly depending on the country of the list’s origin…!). A controversial statement, some would argue. ‘Burn the heretic,’ others might even say. Many would also probably point out that it’s a misguided comparison because metal music shouldn’t be divided by geography but united by a common cause. But it seems to me that, with a musical form so tightly bound by thousands of years of religion, history and so tied to individual places, it’s difficult not to compare one region with another. I mean, Dark Medieval Times simply wouldn’t have been possible in the United States! (Although perhaps a bit of Native American black metal might not be such a bad idea…). But among those bands that have helped cut through that perception in more recent years are the hauntingly good Negative Plane. Beginning in Florida before moving to the much more likely black metal location of New York, they’ve already delivered two excellent albums.
If anyone ever tells you that American black metal is unimaginative and dull, feel free to hand them a copy of NP’s Stained Glass Revelations. The Archer Takes Aim is the creation of Negative Plane drummer Bestial Devotion. His new project Funereal Presence might be a little less uninhibited musically and a lot less dense than his main band. But it is a valiant attempt to create a different, more ordered sound that sets it apart from them. It’s also less funereal than the name would suggest, The Archer Takes Aim is a dark snare and cymbal smashing ride through racing riffs and a liberal dose of added extras that ranges from Samhain hand-bells, doomy incantations and even the odd Sabbath-style riff in the less frenetic moments. More like a soundtrack to elevate those passing to the other side on dark wings than Negative Plane’s inverted vision of human existence. But it keeps the ecclesiastical themes and manages to maintain interest with plenty of changes in chord progression and a good deal of intensity through galloping speed alone. It’s riff-heavy black metal and it’s all wrapped up in the kind of perfect, B-grade production values that any self respecting corpse paint fanatic would no doubt be grimly amused by.
Bestial (as his friends no doubt call him) hasn’t ripped up the rule book here as much as he’s flicked through it to make a note of the key points before getting on with the job it clearly enjoys the most – hitting drums as hard as he can for 12 minutes on end and penning arm-fulls of coldly entertaining chords. I’m not quite sure that Funereal presence is adding to the sum of human knowledge in the same way as it could be argued that Negative Plane has done. But it has its own vibe and I can see this making more than one or two appearances on my stereo in the coming weeks. Gestalt des Endes, the final track, in particular is a rhythmic headbanger with a cool, galloping riff-fest to finish. The Archer Takes Aim is definitely on the decent side of the black metal divide if not up there with Negative Plane, a comparison which will probably help and hinder it in equal measure.
(7/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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