New Jersey’s limited edition tape label Wet Cassettes, specializing in “Weird Dirty Music for Weird Dirty People,” just unveiled two new albums coming out on February 12th, 2021.To celebrate one of them, “The First Key“, the debut offering from raw black metal trio BOBAK, we have an exclusive steam of the track “WHOSE HANDS THE SUN” which leads off the B-Side of the tape and is the longest track of the album, by far. While the song clearly straddles lo-fi raw black metal, punk, and noise rock, we wanted to know how BOBAK came to craft this blend of chaos for their album. We reached out to the members of the band to discuss some of the black metal albums that made them first dedicate themselves to the genre that stick with them to this day.
BOBAK, a raw black metal trio whose secretive members are said to be of a few of the other Wet Cassettes family projects, recorded their debut album “The First Key” a few months ago. Utilizing only four microphones, no overdubs, and completely improvised, they conjured some seriously damaged sounds, akin to Bone Awl, Raspberry Bulbs, and other contemporaries.
Comments PRICOLICI (Cutthroat Howls O’ Doom): “For me the first black metal album I heard was “A Blaze in the Northern Sky” and still now that’s one of my favorites. The winter is my favorite and the whole album is like getting hit in the face by winter. The vocals screech like the cold blistering wind, the guitar cut you like sharp ice and the drums plow over you like an avalanche. All of that mixed with the feeling of pure evil make that Darkthrone album a huge inspiration for me.”
LORD ZEPOL (Strings of Slaughter): “Everything VERMAPYRE has done really speaks to me. What’s not to love about LLN inspired black metal with blues influences that is played on homemade instruments? It’s brilliant… and then the noises he puts in most of his songs should be used as a soundtrack to a creepy black and white horror movie that needs to exist. It always leaves me wanting more.”
AGRUVZI (Satanic War Drums): “While I was raised on traditional metal, and ended up stumbling into the darkened worlds of Venom, Viking Crown, and Immortal in middle school – my first black metal album on vinyl, and one that sticks with me, was/is “Thousand Wounds of War” by Arts. Everything Mark McCoy puts out is near flawless, and his black metal endeavors inspire this project and the label Wet Cassettes as a whole.”
BOBAK will be unleashed in full on tape for $6 and FREE digitally starting February 12th, 2021. Each tape features individually hand-stamped and painted labels. You can pre-order the album now via this location and even bundle it with their new “German Sex Dungeon Techno” album by ORAL HEX for $10.
Look for BOBAK member AGRUVZI to release a “black metal inspired free-jazz/noise album” this spring, and PRICOLICI to be venturing into his own solo endeavor soon as well.
