Blight Year is a cosmic black metal bulldozer, On Anti-God Hand’s second album, frontman Will Ballantyne enlists engineer Colin Marston (Krallice, Indricothere, Gorguts, etc.) and powerhouse drummer Greg Fox (Liturgy, Ben Frost, Colin Stetson). Together, they veer from pummelling odd time signatures and downtuned riffs into ascendant, widescreen climaxes that subvert tired black metal tropes. Ballantyne is an in-demand performer, playing guitar for DEBBY FRIDAY’s breakout album GOOD LUCK (Sub Pop), writing and performing electronic music as City, and performing endurance performance art with Chinese collective TRANCE. The result is an ideological and sonic crystallization that pushes Anti-God Hand’s cosmic black metal into something still more emphatic, distinctive, dynamic.
