Ireland’s cultural heritage is a mesmerizing tapestry made up of stunning landscapes, thousands of years of history, and a lively black metal scene, that outside of a internationally established bands isn’t that well known in the rest of the world. This digging deeper section takes aim at uncovering those rough diamonds and gold nuggets hiding amongst the potatoes in the irish soil.
Ireland is well known for its long history of adversary and defiance, which these bands cleary use as inspiration for their lyrical themes and music. those are widely used by the bands to tell their story. So let’s dive in with the first five bands.
Gaoth — The Obsidian Dialogue
Gaoth is a one-man black metal band from Wexford, south of Dublin. The band makes Atmospheric black metal with a sprinkle of DSBM. Their album The Obsidian Dialogue was my first encounter with them and this album did leave me with a good impression of the project. It has such a great atmosphere, I recommend listening to this with headphones.
Support Gaoth here: https://gaoth.bandcamp.com/album/the-obsidian-dialogue
SODB — Don Seantalamh a Chuid Féin
Sodb is a black metal band from Dublin, I would describe their style as raw black metal with some atmospheric hints here and there. They’ve only put out one demo so far, but it does sound very good and it deserves a bit more attention.
Support SODB here: https://fiadh.bandcamp.com/album/don-seantalamh-a-chuid-f-in
Geasa — Angels Cry
Geasa, a black metal band from Dublin, released their first album back in 1999 titled Angel’s Cry. It’s a mix of Celtic folk and black metal. The follow-up albums are okay at best, but this debut deserves a bit more praise. The only thing I don’t really like are some of the vocals, mostly the clean parts, they sound terrible (in my opinion).
Support Geasa here: https://seasonofmistcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/angels-cry
Kingdom — Bloodtide
One of the first black metal bands out of Ireland was Kingdom, and again, they are from Dublin. They only produced a demo and an EP (Bloodtide), but the EP is great. It is fast-paced, with menacing vocals, and it has a bit of a Norwegian black metal sound to it. Their vocalist, Brian O’Connor was also the vocalist in Geasa for a while, seemed to quit that band right before the recording of Angels Cry. It’s a shame Kingdom split up so quick as it would have been very interesting knowing what could have been.
Support Kingdom here: https://irish-metal.bandcamp.com/album/kingdom-bloodtide-ep-2000
Verminous Serpent — The Malign Covenant
And last but not least, Verminous Serpt a black metal once again from Dublin (You would think that all black metal bands emerge from Dublin, but that’s not the case, we will travel more around the island in Part 2 of this series). This band has a hint of death metal influences in it, but at its core I find it a more black metal band than death metal. Their sound is raw with a hint of death, but also a bit of doom influences. The album is great and definitely worth a listen.
Support Verminous Serpent here: https://verminousserpent.bandcamp.com/album/the-malign-covenant
Your thoughts on Irish black metal?
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