RHINOCERVS

I was hanging out with an old friend who is more well versed in the world of metal (black, death, new wave of british heavy....all of it) than I am, a friend who is also much more articulate than I am, so I asked him what he thought about and how to describe RHINOCERVS (it was part of a larger discussion involving the Crepusculo Negro/Black Twilight scene). His response was simple and blunt: "They are the most compelling current North American Black Metal band." Exactly. You don't just put it on and rock out, these songs consume you, and while I do not think that this is the best RHINOCERVS release (that distinction falls on RHINOCERVS 11), these bleak sounds are nothing if not compelling. Total desperation and maximum intensity.

RHINOCERVS 13

Unrelated:

Many of you have sent messages requesting re-ups, I will get to them soon. I do a lot of things and manage my time poorly, this is a deadly combination.

RHINOCERVS

RHINOCERVS is a relatively new metal collective in Southern California. Loosely associated with the Crepusculo Negro and Black Twilight folks, their objective appears to be creating dark and oppressive atmospheric black metal instead of showering themselves with adoration from fans. So focused are they on the music, rather than the mania, that the first two RHINOCERVS releases are without band names, without release names, without song titles - just two cassettes, each bearing a catalog number and four movements. Howling, primitive, soaring....raw and gorgeous. This is the first release, the second will surely appear here eventually.

RHINOCERVS RH-01

DEVOUR ALL THE LIVING THINGS

Most of these tracks have appeared in these annals previously, but the monstrous impact that RHINOCERVS has made cannot be understated, and this collection is an excellent example of their power. Devour All The Living Things was released in 2013, compiling twelve tracks from Rhinocervs releases, and when you put them all together like this, the label/band/collective present an even more imposing presence than any of their releases on their own. Several tracks from the untitled RHINOCERVS cassettes (catalog numbers 02, 03, 07, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15) along with the numbing TUKAARIA, GLOSSOLALIA, and ODZ MANOUK, I have never come across a collective creative power as compelling as this one. Bleak and terrifying black metal from Los Angeles, presented in all its mutated forms over the course of just a few years, RHINOCERVS as an entity will be missed even though their very legacy may have necessitated their dissolution. 

DEVOUR ALL THE LIVING THINGS

RHINOCERVS

More morose black metal from Southern California mystery outfit RHINOCERVS. I've said plenty here, and more than enough accolades have been heaped on the band elsewhere, so I'll spare you. Just know that this is slightly more introspective and slightly less brutal than some of the other RHINOCERVS releases, almost mellow in comparison to the brilliant eleventh release that preceded this one. But "more introspective" should not imply "less intense," and this three song untitled release is devastating in it's intensity...

RHINOCERVS 12

RHINOCERVS

Los Angeles' mysterious black metal collective RHINOCERVS get even darker on their second release. Four more movements, taking a bleak caveman approach to creating morose metal - not exactly the sounds you might expect to come from sunny Southern California, but this collective have mastered not just a sound, but a feeling, and they have managed to capture it onto cassette with their second nameless cassette. Track 03 is the standout for me, haunting gothic guitar leads and a white washed aura that takes over the entire track even before the song totally hits its stride. This crew, like the Black Twilight collective, is making some of the most interesting music in the US right now, regardless of genre. Truly desolate and desperate sounds...

RHINOCERVS 02

RHINOCERVS

The RHINOCERVS group has put forth some of the most interesting underground black metal I've heard and as their eponymous band progresses, those releases become more transfixing. This is the fourth of eight (and counting) untitled releases from the label - more bleak sounds, more addictive than ever. 

RHINOCERVS 11

RHINOCERVS

It's been a while, but fortunately the sounds of Los Angeles black metal mysterians RHINOCERVS appear to be timeless. The collective has faded away, and I honestly doubt we will hear anything more from them in the future....but I cannot think of a corner of the underground black metal universe that has ever been as interesting and as unassailable as this one. Three tracks, recorded and released in 2012. Even, or especially, if the (sub)genre does not interest you, RHINOCERVS releases are very much worth sinking into. 

RH-14

RHINOCERVS

On the ninth (of ten) self/un/titled release, the RHINOCERVS label once again leaves you breathless. Haunting and ethereal black metal, this time tempered with atonal ambient/goth and soundtracks to nonexistent films that most would never be able to watch all the way through without crying or screaming. RHINOCERVS is all encompassing, and each release managed to do something different...this one will likely appeal to listeners from well outside of the metal realm, and though I was not struck as immediately as with other tapes (numbers 02, 07 and 12, specifically), with time it has become one of my favorites. Released in 2013, not long before the collective seems to have put this project to bed. Hopefully it's just a nap. 

RH-15

TUKAARIA // ODZ MANOUK

I will leave black metal accolades and descriptors to the experts, but rest assured that if I offer you a metal cassette on Terminal Escape then it is one that I feel achieves some significant goal. In the case of TUKAARIA, it is relentless and genuinely haunting lo-fo kvlt sounds presented as self absorbed goth music. ODZ MANOUK are even lower fi and more traditional black metal, with everything but a tinny guitar and sporadic crystalline keys buried in a wash of murky distortion. This is another release from the Rhinocervs label, who have yet to disappoint. 

TUKAARIA // ODZ MANOUK

THEY FEAR THE RECLAIM

I rediscovered this one when I was unpacking after ur recent move and I popped it in instantly...still bangs. Uncompromising black thrash from some of the same players (that helped bring you RHINOCERVS and the Silenzio Statico collective. Appropriately, THEY FEAR THE RECLAIM drop raw black metal tinged hardcore on you like a ton of bricks on their early '00s demo...guitars are so fukkd sounding and the vocals seem so painful but the power here is hardcore to my ears, even on that drumbeat that wraps up "Dismantling The Blame." This is the sound of pure and desperate power and struggle - how they crammed it into a little plastic shell is a mystery.

THEY FEAR THE RECLAIM

VOLAHN // TUKAARIA

Black Twilight just keeps making magic...black magic perhaps, but magic nonetheless. Stalwarts VOLAHN return with more bleak high end madness, this time with a spaghetti western guitar lead meandering occasionally through the ten minute main track. TUKAARIA are associated with RHINOCERVS, and it shows in the songs. Melodies are buried under a wash of hiss and guitars, but the melodies are there...

VOLAHN // TUKAARIA

ODOUR OF DUST AND ROT

More sounds from a certain circle of incestuous black metal savants, this 60+ minute comp features many of the regular suspects (GLOSSOLALIA, ODZ MANOUK, ABSUM, TUKAARIA) as well as newcomers KUXAN SUUM and NIHILOBSTAT and a few uncredited tracks (which I suspect might be attributed to RHINOCERVS, the label responsible for this compilation). 

The presentation is as good as the contents, even more so than is typically the case with this crew, harsh and distant black metal sounds are accompanied by a booklet filled with pages of bleak images. Basically, it's exactly what you expect aurally and aesthetically.

ODOUR OF DUST AND ROT