Honorable Mentions from the Abyss #38: Neolith/Lined/Adragard

Hey brutal fuckin' trve metalbangers,

today there is a new episode of "Honorable Mentions from the Abyss" to read, always with 3 bands but this time you have to know that I received in physical format all the albums I talk about here.

Let's go to discover the bands!

NEOLITH - "I AM THE WAY"

And finally, after I have "I Am the Way" since January 2020, today I am talking about it. Mythrone Promotion, that released it in 2019, sent me this 6th album by these Polish veterans called Neolith (FB page), that are out there even since the now very far 1991. Consisting of 8 tracks, "I Am the Way" is a good slab of black/death metal (more death-oriented than black, to say the truth) in the vein of Behemoth and Hate, with the addition of lyrics totally focused on the Sumerian mythology, that can be perceptible already through strange and sometimes tongue-twisting songtitles like "Irarazakku" or "In the Name of Umāmu". The violence is, at times, very high and there is also, in certain points, a vocal alternation between the singer Levi and the bassplayer Kriss that creates more intensity in the music. All in all, "I Am the Way" isn't a masterpiece but if you like extreme metal with an arcane mood, I think that it's for you, without ifs and buts.

LINED - "SOULCRIFICE"

Another album that I received in 2020, this time by the Spanish label Art Gates Records. A bit tormented is the story of this quintet coming from the Basque Country and named Lined (FB page) since they were founded in 2007 with the moniker of Blasfemia, changing it in the current one during the following year. In 2009 they released their debut album, simply self-entitled, but only in 2020 they managed to create a follow-up. So, here you are their second album "Soulcrifice", anticipated by various singles. It is an 11-track in which there is a melodic death/thrash metal à la At the Gates where very melancholic numbers like "Buried Alive" are alternated with more wicked episodes like "Rotten Society" (a lot thrash-oriented). I think that the guitarwork, very creative, represents the real point of force of Lined. And now, if you would like to listen something to "Soulcrifice", I suggest you to watch the promotional videos made for "Devil" and "Buried Alive".

ADRAGARD - "THROUGH FUNERAL SHADOWS"

After their second album "From the Burning Mist", the Italian black metal band Adragard comes back on these pages with their "Through the Funeral Shadows", also this released by the Polish label Perkun Records. Adragard is a band whose singer bought some months ago my book about the first wave of black metal called "Benvenuti all'Inferno" ("Welcome to Hell") and, if this wasn't enough, he supported it through his radio program Metal Revolution, so I must thank him again. And now, I am here to talk about the aforementioned "Through the Funeral Shadows", that he sent me time ago. Released in 2019, it is another journey into an old-school, dissonant, cold, raw and sometimes doomy black metal in the Norwegian way. I believe that it's better than "From the Burning Mist" because it is more homogeneous and compact but there is need to say that the band has lost none of its disturbing mood, that is exemplified at its best by the last song "L'eterno crepuscolo della morte", a totally sick episode with hateful and terrifying lyrics in Italian against God and the entire life. In practice, this is a perfect way to end this album, and it reminds a lot "Eremo", the same last song, also it in Italian, of "From the Burning Mist".  Is all this good for you, black metal maniacs?

P.S.: to say the entire truth, there is also a version in which the album is ended with a cover of "Freezing Moon" by Mayhem, that, instead, is not present in the version in my possession.