Wraithlord - The Ballad of John Joel Glanton (full album, 2023)

I’ve said similar before, but now I’ll just come out and declare it – Wraithlord is the best US black metal band around at the moment, and maybe the best from anywhere. Main man Max, often accompanied by the deliriously recalcitrant Nlorgpipe, mixes the history of the genre’s developmental orthodoxy with seamlessly complementary inspiration and invention, and with every single album produces something viscerally compelling. This latest album is inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, delving into the harrowing narrative of the infamous Glanton Gang, through themes of nihilism, brutality, and the relentless pursuit of power – resolutely black metal themes, channelled into great Western, hallucinatory heat haze Americana……and just wait for that piano section to hit. Track 1 consists of one song in five parts: I. Overture II. Mexico, 1849 III. The Killing Fields IV. The Massacre at Yuma V. All These Years Later (1849 Reprise) Track 2 serves as a postlude to track