As this pandemic continues with a pinprick light at the end of the tunnel, the dream of me visiting Nevis for any significant amount of time, or even at all, seems less and less possible. Having a codependent and mildly evil black cat who probably can’t join me in the islands is one barrier, but the fact that my impending university graduation is about to jettison me into poverty and COVID-19 still exists also keeps me from living my dreams.
Instead, I am stuck in a dark, cold winter, and it makes me kind of sad.
I am especially stuck and sad because of a bunch of selfish idiots who do everything in their power to not stay home or be safe during coronavirus have made everything worse for everyone by going out to crowded restaurants all the time, not wearing masks where they’re supposed to be, having illegal holiday get-togethers, and spreading disease.
Safe to say that I’m quite angry, too.
On the bright side of stress-pessimism, depressive rage is probably the most appropriate mood for listening to black and death metal, which is, once again, what we are doing here.
(Image Source: Encyclopedia Metallum)
First off is Morto Kacho, a death metal band from Curaçao. They snagged a place in this article because their album cover makes me laugh, and I needed that. However, there's much more to them than singing about drugs and gore and corny album art featuring heaps of fake cocaine.
I’m always excited and intrigued when metal music departs from its own mainstream and does something different, be it a one-woman black metal band like Myrkur (who has made both good music and some very questionable comments and potential far-right dog whistles for NSBM fans, unfortunately, see appendix), or the previously mentioned Wrust’s use of Tswana singing and drums in some songs.
(Image Source: Myspace)
What makes Morto Kacho stand out is that their lyrics are in their native creole language, Papiamentu. Just like Papiamentu is a language made up of the tongues of colonizers, transformed into something uniquely Caribbean, Morto Kacho adds a uniquely Caribbean touch to a largely white genre through their lyrics.
Their second song, “Wega Di Droga,” starts the album on a fairly basic note, and some of the guitars feel out of place, but it still manages to deliver some good riffs. While I am not a fan of the sexist metalhead attitude implied by the title “Bitch Materialista,” it's a good song, with an ominous sound that is kind of a switch up from Wega.
“Tula” brings some unexpected fun and obvious Caribbean influence with its closing interlude of island-style music (though I cannot immediately place the genre, oops), and “Almanan Perry” begins with a cool drum intro, though it is detached from the rest of the song. The vocals here, however, feel forced, unlike the growls.
I really like the more sinister stuff, and the titualar song, “Morto Kacho” is one of my favorites from the album. This is where their sound varies but stays cohesive and engaging, minus the long-ass guitar solo, but I'm pretty prejudiced against those in all fairness. It was, like, really, really long though.
Overall, Morto Kacho offers some pretty solid death metal, with its ups and downs. It’s good music, but nothing particularly unique as it pertains to sound. There are definitely some references to older metal in their clean guitars, which is a bit different, I suppose. I’d recommend listening to the song “Morto Kacho” in particular.
(Image Source: Aprokrpha1 on Bandcamp)
With few released songs and even fewer tidbits of information about them, Apokrypha consists of two members, Kull on vocals and ZM on guitars and drum programming. With what seems like fairly minimal production, Apokrypha manages to deliver pummeling and sinister blackened death (what a subgenre name) that is extremely enjoyable throughout the two songs they have available. This is really solid metal that sounds far too cold and dark and brutal to have come from a place as warm and sunny as Trinidad and Tobago, but it does.
I bought their short album off of Bandcamp before the first song, “Condemn and Obey,” was even finished. Like the song before it, “Deceiver's Reign” has an aggressive air, paired with solid production. The vocals are good, the drums are good, the guitars are good, and while not quite as raw as classic black metal, these are 2018 remasters. The music they play is the exact kind of hammering, dark sort of metal you want to hear when looking for death/black metal.
Apokrypha is the kind of band you listen to and regret not knowing beforehand, and a band you absolutely wish had a much larger catalogue of music. Two songs just don't feel like enough. I want more. They may be my favorite of the three, but Tboptpias def gets pretty close.
(Image Source: Tboptpiason Bandcamp)
I knew Tboptpias would be on the list regardless of how good their music was simply because of their titling, with an EP called “Caucasian Flagellation”, featuring the song “16 Stripes (White Boys Ordered Whipped).” They’d pair well with Neckbeard Deathcamp on a race end, with a whiff of Autopsy. While it may seem gimmicky, however, there is something appreciable about it. In a genre rife with nazis unfortunately, the titling of Tboptpias points towards an anticolonial aggression instead, theoretically subverting colonial power and wounds.
That all said, their music is also just straight up good. I really enjoyed listening to them and bought their album on Bandcamp, and you should too. There’s some punk vibes from the attitude, not the music, and they seem like they know how to not take themselves too seriously, in the best way.
“Heart Man” opens the EP with near-eldritch guitar, eerie bells/synth, and kind of sick drums. In the best way possible, it reminds me of the time I went to a black metal gig in Montréal and the opener was a one-person dungeon synth project. While the vocals feel closer to metalcore than the type of music they’re playing, it doesn’t actually take too much away from the song.
“Cholera” manages to seemingly fuse together multiple subgenres of metal, which reminds me a bit of Rings of Saturn, and at other times math metal. I always said if I ever put out an album it would have 50 genres in one, and these guys are kind of serving the delicious metal version of that. Part way through the song, after a few whiffs of black metal, I catch a familiar riff. After racking my head and listening to a lot of Cannibal Corpse, I finally tentatively identified the sample as being from Obituary’s “Visions in My Head.” Could the diversity of the song be not just a mashup of genres but songs as well?
Starting with dark organs overlaid atop of power chords, “16 Stripes (White Boys Ordered Whipped)” moves between death metal, more gothic interludes, and military-style drumming before launching into a groove that sounds complex and metal with the rhythm itself remaining somewhat uncommon for the genre. There are some parts where strangely, I want to clap along. Once again, this song is varied, but always listenable and interesting.
Opening cinematically, it is in “L’Overture” where the introduction blends the closest to the rest of the song. Some bits are cold and bleak, with hints of classic music and a slower, fingerpicked guitar solo that feels like it wouldn’t belong in metal but somehow fits perfectly, weaving in between the harsher sounds.
My head has been banging the whole album, but not one can be perfect. The intros sometimes feel disjointed, and the vocals are good but not always great, though they did grow on me. I don't necessarily think they are bad, because much of these differences in vocal style are up to personal taste, but they dont always feel fitting to the music. The vocals stay the same while the genres change. In the last minute or so of “Cholera,” they feel especially fitting.
Their sound is sonically varied, but generally a mix of death and black metal, showing off their multigenre metal prowess whilst still delivering a product that is really enjoyable and a definite addition to your frequently listened to playlists.
There's not much about them out there, their bandcamp bio reads “a very dark and mysterious group of friends from Barbados,” but their stuff is really interesting and ought to be heard at least once. Makes me wish I wasn’t too socially anxious to ask for interviews.
Part of me wonders if Lord Ifrit’s fingers are near any of these...
And speaking of Lord Ifrit, I’m really excited for the next instalment of this series, which will be all about this prolific musician in the Caribbean metal scene and his projects.
Appendix - Avoid NSBM
As a side note because I can't fix this elsewhere. It can be pretty hard sometimes to tell if a black metal band is racist, and it sucks to realize the soft paganism of one band is rooted in far-right, national socialist beliefs (dammit Murkyr, we can’t have anything good, can we?). National Socialist Black Metal, or NSBM, is one of the stupidest genres out there. I pride (?) myself on having a decent eye for spotting right-wing symbology and dog whistles because I am a fairly political person, but the fact that one of my favorite subgenres has a racism problem is also a large part of the reason. While I’m not always perfect (once again, damnit M****r), I prefer to know when a band wanks to photos of Hitler before I give them a listen.
There’s a few tips I’ve gleaned over time on spotting their dog whistles, but I’m not linking racist imagery to a beautiful Black website, so you will have to google things I mention if you are unsure of what it is. While some stuff is obvious, like bands naming themselves after nazi slogans or or using black suns and swastikas, some is more subtle.
While paganism and these runes are not inherently racist, a whole lotta pagan imagery in black metal can be a red flag, especially with heavy use of the Othala/Odin’s rune, the Algiz/Elhaz rune, the celtic cross and Thor's Hammer. It is unfortunate for the Odinists and Pagans who have had their symbols so tainted by evil and bigotry. Also anything about purity is iffy. A younger version of myself once listened to a band with a song called “Pagan Purity” before it eventually clicked for me in college that folk metal ain’t super safe either.
There are also somewhat lesser known symbols directly associated with nazism, such as the Valknut, Wolf’s Hook, Totenkopf/Death’s Head, and the Triskele (specifically the form of it that looks like a three armed swastika). There is one band also named Apokrypha that has questionable use of a Triskele, if you look it up.
While I highly doubt they are nazis, the black bars over the eyes of Morto Kacho’s members in their band photo is also something frequently done by bands with neo-nazi ties, because they have racist, and possibly violent, shit to hide.
Talking about blood a lot, despite metal being a gory genre, especially in connection with stuff about honor or purity or brotherhood can also be an orange-red flag. Blut is somewhat more concerning.
Here are one, two, three, four, and five articles about spotting nazis in black metal.