Demos like these always bring me immense joy. Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Mycorrhizae brings the world another raw black metal demo. This one, thankfully stands out among the sea of releases thanks to the creative riffs, unique imagery, and just all around stellar instrumentation. Its rather straight forward and par for the course with black metal. You have your blast beats, harsh vocals, lofi style production. But the attitude behind it is somewhere in between crazed pagan mushroom ritualism to punkish and nihilistic. Its a great mix and a very catchy release I feel.
This release is full of vibrant energy. There’s something almost colorful about the riffs, having a very vibrant and melodic sound that is swept away thanks to the furiously fast blast beats. There’s like a hypnotic spell with these tracks. Each of the guitar passages repeat on themselves but thanks to the shorter running time on the tracks you’re not bored for too long after. There’s also an over all theme to this release, besides the fungi, each of the track almost sound like different variations of the same riff. That’s most likely due to the demo being recorded over the span of four days. Still, there’s enough variation that you almost don’t notice unless you’re paying close attention to it. Its fresh and doesn’t over stay its welcome what so ever.
My favorite track is the third track Biota. Its the shortest out of the five, running at a little under two minutes, they’re able to pack so much sound into such little time while all the time still being very distinct and melodic. The transitions between the guitar riffs and the drums subtly changing different styles is done so well that you almost don’t realize its the same track at times and it feels like it runs for much longer than it actually is. Another great moment on this release is towards the end of the last track Propagule. A track that starts fast, with the rather iconic blast beats that are heard all through out, but it comes to a climax, with a short pause and a fantastic break down with the guitar riff. Its triumphant and incredibly catchy. A clear display of Travis’ musical talent.
I’ve really found my self enjoying this release as well as the other releases through Big Bovine Industrial Wastes. Its a collective of weird and rather interesting releases all involving (for the most part) one man, Travis, and main brain behind Mycorrhizae. Much of the releases there are also worth a listen, as they’re all rather unique and hold quite a lot of charm. Very interested to see what else is released into the Wastes, but for now, the fungi Mycorrhizae is going to stay on repeat for me.