Reaper's Digest

REAPER'S DIGEST: Into the Cold Unknown

"But Kim!" you might be thinking, "Haven't you only been doing this Salvo since April? You're really going to do a clip show this early? Uh, well... yes!

Kim Kelly

14 Aug 2024 • 5 min read

Photo by Annie Spratt / Unsplash; edited by KK

By the time this missive reaches you, I will be far, far away from my home base in Philly, and closer to the North Pole than to anywhere else. For the next several weeks, I'll be traveling in and around the Svalbard archipelago, one of the northernmost inhabited areas in the world. It is a harsh place of ice and snow, guarded by fjords and glaciers, menaced by polar bears, and home to less than 3,000 people (including, until September 6th, me!).

I only just landed here today in its minuscule airport, but have already felt the wind's bite and drank in the midnight sun (it's currently 2:30am, and bright as any cloudy summer day back home). Svalbard is also one of the few countries without any active metal bands (pour one out for Nuktrukt) so me writing this newsletter is quite literally the only metal-related activity happening on the entire archipelago right now. It's perhaps fitting that I'm looking out over the bare mountainous earth of Spitbergen while listening to a chilly new track from Paysage d'Hiver, whose entire œuvre of mesmerizing atmospheric black metal compositions revolve around winter; it ain't Immortal, but it fits the vibe—especially since it's taken from the French outfit's upcoming album, Die Berge ("The Mountains").

I'd intended on turning this into a regular edition of Reaper's Digest, but the thought occurred to me: I'm short on time and internet access right now, and a lot of newer readers have missed out on the first few months of stories here, so why not just run a little round-up of some older Salvo gems?

"But Kim!" you might be thinking, "Haven't you only been doing this newsletter blog thing since April? You're really going to do a clip show this early in your very first season?" Uh, well......... yes!

Our very first piece took on Terminal Nation, the Arkansas heavyweights whose punishing 20 Buck Spin debut, Echoes of the Devil's Den, was perfectly calibrated to send home the haters in a bodybag.

I also got to interview the surprisingly easygoing Bungo Uchino, founding member and perennial driving force behind Japan's finest death/doom export, Coffins, about their murderous new record and the importance of staying in your lane.

Speaking of Norway, one of my earliest Salvo interview requests winged its way all the way over to a suburb of Oslo, and into the groaning inbox of one of metal's most beloved oldheads: Fenriz, the Darkthrone mainstay and general metal-man-about-town whose inability to sit still has yielded bushels upon bushels of black metal (and thrash, and trad heavy metal) fruit. He really is the gift that keeps on giving, and our chat was a true delight.

I didn't end up in the Arctic by accident; in a way, I've been building up to this trip for the past year. When the new jawn from Unearthly Rites hit my (somewhat less slammed but still aggressively full) inbox, I was immediately drawn to both their feral metalpunk bite and their antifascist, ecological bent—members of the band are actively involved in environmental campaigns against heavy metals mining in areas like the one I'm in right now. Read more about what's going on (and spin their killer Prosthetic debut while you're at it).

And finally, I'd be remiss to keep sprinkling references to ice, snow, and so on without bringing up our chat with Montana's own windswept black metal princess, Lust Hag, who opened up about the role metal extreme plays in her life and the eldritch fantasy world she's created to deal with the horrors of existence.

Obviously there's a lot more here, too, and I'd encourage you to take a scroll back through the archives while I work on the next few features for you - my internet access is going to be super limited until the end of the month, so there might be another clip show in the coming weeks, but don't worry: I'll be back to the good shit soon.

For now, let me leave you with this one request - please buy, share, boost, and spread the word about this excellent benefit compilation from Salvo pal-vos Fiadh Productions and Beaver Mosh. All proceeds will be donated to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (palestinercs.org) to aid victims and survivors of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the comp features a slew of phenomenal extreme metal artists, including Lust Hag.

Until next time... be good, and stay frosty.

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