Just when you thought you were safe, Oshie strikes again with another blog post! This time I’m recommending a cool black metal album to you all! Keys to the Astral Gates and Mystic Door’s second demo simply self-titled with the number 2 after it! I’ve provided a link; don’t worry, you can just click the picture instead of going on the strange quest of trying to look that up!

So what’s so cool about it? At its core, it’s just a small label lo-fi black metal album; so many of those exist, right? This one is really unique, though. You’ll notice very early on that this has some absolutely killer riffs throughout. The best part of this album, I think, is the guitar playing. The riffs are very unique in that they aren’t the kind of thing you typically hear on a black metal album. To start with, most of these songs are written in major key; obviously, this is extremely odd for a black metal album, and it makes the tone quite strange. It’s fun! It kind of invokes this exciting day out snowboarding or something; it’s a new vibe for a record like this. I’ve never heard anything quite like it. The cool stuff doesn’t stop there, however. Some of these riffs are very abnormal for a black metal record or even a metal record in general. Indeed, there are riffs on here that have a Midwest emo kind of vibe. Some people online are throwing around the term “post-metal”; I don’t know if I’d go that far, but it’s certainly a departure from the second wave black metal style that was so popular in the 90s.

I urge you guys to check this little demo tape out; it’s a really interesting listen.

Also holy fuck look at that logo