Sunday Subterrane #1

MARTRÖÐ, MISOTHEIST, and WIDOWED LIGHT

I have been working on consistency lately. I have been trying to dedicate more time each day to sit down and discover or write about music I have been listening to. That has taken the shape of interview questions for artists I want to talk to, drafts for features I will probably never publish, and thoughts or feelings I have when listening to new music. I have had some surprisingly good success since I quit one of my jobs and work from home now.

For years, I managed and edited columns at Metal Injection. I ran Funeral Doom Friday and Black Friday for the site for roughly five years. The former was actually a “joke column” I had started for an old blog of mine when the new Usnea album at that time came out. The editors of Metal Injection had got around to reading my email inquiring about writing for the site and when they checked out my blog, they saw “Funeral Doom Friday” and said, “We would love to have you and bring that column with you.”

I don’t know how many funeral doom bands you can name, but I can assure you there are nowhere near as many of those bands as there are Corey Taylor quotes to write about.

Funeral Doom Friday went on for a looooooong time—almost as long as a Mournful Congregation song.* It went well beyond the limits of what I thought I could consistently write about. Once that wrapped up, I began Black Friday, which simply took the spot of its predecessor. I began to cover black metal and all of its various mutations. However, it did not last that long—life has a way of getting in the way.

Nevertheless, during those years I had consistency and felt like my writing was largely at its best—some of the Retrospectives I have posted were originally from that time period. I am finding consistency once more and that has naturally taken the shape of a column.

I cannot guarantee that Sunday Subterrane^ will be a weekly endeavor, but I can promise that I will write about more than just Funeral Doom or Black Metal (though that is not the case for this inaugural week). I have put Bandcamp or Ampwall links in the album artwork. Let’s get it.

*My favorite memory of Mournful Congregation is when they closed out the first Migration Fest in Olympia. They said, “We have one more song for you.” Then the crowd booed. To which the band said, “But it’s 23 minutes long.” and the crowd warily cheered, “Yaaaaaaaay.”

^Merriam-Webster said I could spell Subterrain this way—and I will because it looks fancier.

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MARTRÖÐ
Draumsýnir eldsins

Released by Debemur Morti Productions on December 12, 2025. The band is also a part of the Mystískaos collective. Click the album artwork for the Bandcamp link.

This international effort—formed by members of WORMLUST, SKAPHÉ, and CHAOS MOON—initially made waves back in 2016 with their EP Transmutation of Wounds. Now, nearly a decade later, released their long-awaited, full-length follow-up—look at all of that hyphenation. Draumsýnir eldsins (Dream Visions of the Fire) is a fierce four-track offering of black metal rife with surreal, psychedelic tinges.

MARTRÖÐ uses the imagery of “dream visions.” A “medieval literary device… where sleep becomes the gateway to veiled knowledge,” according to the band. “Sleep is not rest; it is a passage. Dreams are ritual space, a sacred current connecting the human mind to cosmic forces.”

Draumsýnir eldsins expands on the hallucinatory elements of their debut EP and fits many of the atmospheric themes of other Mystískaos projects.

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MISOTHEIST
De Pinte

Released by Terratur Possessions on February 20, 2026. Available through Amor Fati Productions in Europe and Silent Future Distribution in the United States. Click the album artwork for the Bandcamp link.

MISOTHEIST is a modern mainstay in the Nidrosian Black Metal scene. Back in February, it released its fourth full-length album, De Pinte (The Tormented). This album captures a lot of what I like about the efforts coming from Trondheim, which is a haunting and ritualistic aura within the music. This is also the case for much of what Terratur Possessions releases in general.

The vocal delivery is feral (more yelled than shrieked) and the instrumental intensity stays turned to 11. Plus, there is a 21-minute closing title track. What more could you ask for? This record—especially the title track finale—has been one of my favorite examples of songwriting brilliance in extreme music so far this year.

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WIDOWED LIGHT
Whitted Knoll

Released independently on July 22, 2025. The demo is available through Ampwall (click the image) and Bandcamp.

Coming back to my neck of the woods, sort of. Durham is four hours from Asheville, North Carolina—but we have some big woods. Appalachian black metal comes by way of WIDOWED LIGHT’s debut demo, Whitted Knoll. The three-song offering showcases a penchant for long form DSBM. The blackened compositions billow, building a ghastly tone.

WIDOWED LIGHT uses earthen motifs and spectral shades to craft an anguished, oppressive realm. The torment of “Ageless,” the dejection of “Worthless,” and the sorrow of “Nameless” trace haunted rituals and tortured souls endlessly seeking freedom and only finding pain.