Terminus Episode 81 - Isataii, Deadlife, Military Shadow

TERMINUS: extreme metal podcast

One of our great dreams here at the Terminus Bunker is that one day people will say we jumped the shark, and only the old demo material is still worthwhile. In eager anticipation of our critical demise, we present an episode that would fit back in 2020, with several obscure, mostly independently released records that play around the edges of disrespected genres and styles. "Once they learned how to mix audio properly, it was all over." We agree.
Opening the festivities is a presentation by The Black Metal Guy with Military Shadow, a Japanese metalpunk band which allows The Death Metal Guy to finally ask what the hell metalpunk is anyway. The answer, at least in the case of Military Shadow, is a high-flying combination of NWOBHM/speed metal and driving, raucous d-beat. It's an intensely good time- imagine Impaled Nazarene without the black metal and you have a pretty good idea.
Following is the second full-length by Isataii, a Los Angeles duo who emerged in 2021 and have released an astounding amount of material over the past year. Don't let this get confused for a lack of quality control, however- Isataii's music reaches back to the ooze of mid-00s black metal, typically decried as a dark age for the genre, but was secretly creatively fertile. Somewhere between Franco-Finnish, DSBM, and stomping Swedish, Isataii strips down modern riff forms and places them into the blocky structures of primitive 2nd wave or USBM, resulting in a record for patricians only.
Wrapping up is the newest LP by Deadlife, a similarly prolific Swedish one man project which plays... DSBM? Maybe? Discussion in this segment centers around what DSBM means anyway, given that Deadlife's music in large part reflects the strains of Peaceville doom and Katatonia rather than anything conventionally "black metal." Regardless of genre, Deadlife has mastered the resurrection of conventional riff forms of old, playing familiar melodies with a physical power and nuance rarely seen in the years since the style's heyday.

0:00:00 - Intro/Military Shadow - Violence Reigns (Black Konflik)

0:29:28 - Interlude - Syphilitic Vaginas - “Black Sorcery” fr. Black Motor Covenant (RFL Records, 2007) (Link is to the "Complete Studio Collection compilation, featuring that EP and much more)

0:33:08 - Isataii - Invoking in Darkness (Independent)

1:23:42 - Interlude - Ghremdrakk - “Chemikinesis” fr. Je m’exalte (Grievantee Productions, 2007) (Out of print, not available digitally, but still available through underground distros)

1:30:04 - Deadlife - The Darkening (Independent)

2:13:00 - Outro - Sangre - “As in Life, So in Death” fr. En Memoria (Restroom Records, 2005)

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