Brabiz: Released a Black Metal Track (Black Usurper)

Brabiz 03.25.26	The only song on the album that shares resemblance to the previous album, as the rest of the tracklist is very aggressive, experimental, and avant garde. There are some new elements here, such as electronic drums and a straight-up dance music outro, but the core is very much the same melodic, grandiose black metal of the first album. Quite an exciting album, and I think it’s going to surprise a lot of people.
Beardog 03.25.26	The song didn't do that much for me on first listen. But the drums are indeed a lot less frantic : )
Brabiz 03.26.26	I tried to balance it a bit, because I certainly understand the critique. I use some polyrhythm stuff for certain transitions on the album, but it’s no longer a constant factor
SAPoodle 03.26.26	This was good stuff! Will try to check out the album when it drops
AlkemestRedux 03.26.26	Hell yeah man gotta give this a listen too!
Brabiz 03.26.26	Hell yea thanks for checking it out. I’ll say, the album is only 32 minutes long, so it’s a lot leaner. Especially with this being the only mid-paced / melodic entry. There’s a full-on post-punk / trip-hop song which may or may not make the cut, but I’m unsure of it, as I don’t want to go overboard on the weird shit lmao
AlkemestRedux 03.26.26	Honestly trip hop can weirdly work with black metal? I've only heard one other band do it and it gets crazy if you can pull it off.
Brabiz 03.26.26	It feels like the non-metal moments on Mayhem’s Grand Declaration of war, which is either a good thing, or a terrible idea depending on who you ask lmao
DarkHorizontal 03.27.26	I listened through with the lyrics. Pretty cool! Will definitely check it out once the full album is released.
frozencarl 03.27.26	this is dope, love the last minute especially
cloakanddagger 03.27.26	Really cool track Brabiz! Will be sure to give the album a listen when it drops. @alkemest I've always thought the same. Portishead's first album I always thought has a bit of a black metal vibe to it.
Brabiz 03.27.26	Y’all have convinced me, it’s going in. It’s a good breather after the onslaught of the first 75% of the album
brickhed 03.28.26	for a break in the album, it's pretty good for that. pretty interesting influences, from dungeon synth to dance music (i think? i don't listen to that stuff often). the slight harsh vocals give off that Grand Declaration of War vibe but done better to me. the clean vocals are all right but i'm a bit biased in wanting something a bit more harsh as a contrast to the smooth melodies. TLDR pretty good, will check album. i should also give your previous album a listen, now that black metal has grown a lot more on me.
Brabiz 03.28.26	Oh 100% on the dance music. I played thru the game Atomic Heart and was listening to a lot of 2000’s Russian europop for a few weeks. Total last minute addition and I can’t imagine the song without it now lol. I also made the decision to only have clean vocals on this song, and the trip-hop song, so the general pacing and sound of the album isn’t as straight forward as I felt a lot of the previous album was. I feel like this song would fit into that album’s tracklist, so it felt like a good first single to ease people into what’s going on with this one. The next single should be coming within the next few weeks, very different vibe
Brabiz 04.06.26	New single is out! Had to finish mixing the guitar solo. https://blackusurper.bandcamp.com/track/cull-thy-moldering-branches-3
brickhed 04.07.26	love that i can immediately tell that it's you. your guitar tone is weirdly dissonant, especially during chug sections. drums sound great and powerful, and the synths add a ritualistic vibe. keep on going man, you're refining your sound since your first album.
Brabiz 04.07.26	Thanks a lot man, I’m getting much more comfortable with writing for this project, and since these aren’t nearly decade old demos like the last album, I’m able to develop things more naturally. Really pumped to release this one. Also preparing a vinyl release for this, so excited
AlkemestRedux 04.07.26	Alright finally listening to the first single and it's sick. I love the weird synth just bopping around for most of the track. Not sure if you're doing this already or not, but one of the tricks I remember from when I dabbled in dance music production was after you track your drums, go through and do little adjustments to each of the drum hit volume levels to make it sound more natural, some a little softer, some a little harder. Gonna give the second song a listen now!
Brabiz 04.07.26	I’ll take note for the album mix! Good to know, thanks. Was also thinking of extending that outro and adding a piano solo. We shall see though.
AlkemestRedux 04.07.26	That could be cool, much excited to hear the full album!
Brabiz 04.07.26	Have been listening to a lot of Robert Miles lately, so expect to see that bleed into everything at the last minute lmao
Beardog 04.07.26	This new track sounds really cool. Still think the drums could be a bit less crazy timing wise, but overall I very much like how the song sounds.
Gameofmetal 04.07.26	Just now listening to Echoes From Beneath, I like it! Can see where some people are talking about weird drumming but there's times where I felt like this could be authentic weird black metal from the late 90s/00s production wise.
Brabiz 04.07.26	@gameofmetal that’s great to hear, because that’s 100% the vibe I was going for lol. Even moreso on the new album. These two singles are the most accessible of the batch. Will have to drop one of the deep cuts as the final single.
Brabiz 04.09.26	Went through and brutalized myself yesterday, recording vocals for 7 songs and mixing / mastering them. Just waiting on a session musician to finish something, and the album will be done! So I may forgo the month delay and release it in the coming days. With the May 16th release being for the vinyl, cassette, and CD release. Just listened to the whole thing front to back, and it’s the most confident I’ve ever felt about something I’ve released. Beyond excited for this one
AlkemestRedux 04.09.26	Oh hell yeah my dude, and a vinyl release? That's killer. Are you self-publishing the records or working with a distro company or whatever?
Brabiz 04.09.26	I’m doing a to-order thing through Elastic Stage. It’s a bit more expensive because it ships from the UK, but I did CDs for the last album through them, and they turned out quite nicely. I’m not handling any of them though, it’s all through the site’s storefront, and if someone orders one thru Bandcamp, I’d have to order it myself and send it out to them. The track listing for the first album didn’t allow for a vinyl release because it was too long, and the song lengths wouldn’t fit on two sides. This one however, fits perfectly, and the art / sleeve looks fantastic, so I’m excited to get my test pressing.
Brabiz 04.09.26	I saw an ad of theirs on Instagram, and was a bit skeptical, but it’s legit and saves me a lot of money and headache.
Beardog 04.10.26	I love that you are putting so much effort into your music and getting so excited about it. Excited for the release for sure. Also, you have a ridiculous pace in releasing music. I am still working on a record I started more than 5 years ago (I think, I stopped counting...)
AlkemestRedux 04.10.26	Oh that's an interesting model, but also super rad that it allows up and coming artists a way to break into vinyl.
Brabiz 04.10.26	@beardog Yeah, this was a bit easier because 90% of the last album was 8 year old demos which I only marginally altered. This new album I was writing alongside it, and three of the songs are Eye of Mensis demos. It also helps that I’ve made myself a template for mixing, so most of it is just plugging the tracks into their preset EQs and settings, then changing things around slightly to clean them up. The first Eye of Mensis album took me over 5 years to finish, and I still have around 2 hours of material that didn’t make the cut. I’m assuming the next BU album will take much longer, as I don’t have much left over to work with.
Brabiz 04.10.26	@AlkemestRedux Yeah, I’ve wanted to do vinyl pressings and CDs in the past, but the financial incentive was never worth it. Now I can remaster the Eye of Mensis debut and do a run of physical media without having to spend money up front. I did a run of shirts for Black Usurper back in 2019, and then I ended up with 10 leftover shirts sitting in a box and eventually being donated a year or so ago.
Beardog 04.10.26	Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out a mix I am really happy with. I think I am now finally there, but now I'm bothered with updating my vocal tracks since I keep getting better at them. Aiming to release a single soon though. Thanks for the insight, and should be cool for you to really write a 'new' record after this one : )
Brabiz 04.10.26	What’s the genre / project? Have you released anything yet? Honestly i don’t even have an idea for approaching another album yet, this one is so out there and undefinable that I’m not sure where to even begin from here. I have the Eye of Mensis sophomore album dropping next month, but it’s stuck in a creative crisis at the moment because it’s so detached from the first album’s sound. I’m either releasing it as-is (a single, 32 minute death-doom track) or I’m going to write a handful of new, fast paced songs and have the current album be the closing song. I fear getting too ambitious with the long track, and that having an entire album be that won’t go over well with people, after the reception of the first album, since it’s such a drastic departure
Beardog 04.10.26	Ah, interesting. I'm releasing under Kars Landman, mostly prog metal with all kinds of influences. Last record was a tricky one since I wanted to do a clean, more poppy record at the time, without really knowing how to sing. Let's say I like the instrumental version a lot more now haha... So now I took up singing lessons, and I'm finishing the demo's I wrote at that time for a record that is more of a mash-up of all the records I've released thus far. Record one being some kind of instrumental ambient/post-rock prog metal, record two being heavy prog metal with death/black metal influences, and record three being the weird prog pop/rock one.
Beardog 04.10.26	I'd say that for Eye of Mensis, just do whatever you think sounds good. I think most artists get way too stuck in their own mind over what they think people want it to be. If you think a 32-minute Eye of Mensis track is awesome, just go ahead and release it as a record! Of course, if you have your doubts about it, spend some more time to find out what you should change, or try to get inside your mind and find out if you might be doubting the record because of your own mental state.
Brabiz 04.11.26	Oh man, awesome. I’m quite big on Progressive music as a whole, so this sounds up my alley. I see you have a handful of releases too. I’ll have to dive into this later today. Anything in particular you’d recommend?
Brabiz 04.11.26	“ I think most artists get way too stuck in their own mind over what they think people want it to be” I would agree, yeah. I think, for me, I focus a lot on making an album digestible. Especially in terms of length and pacing / structure. So to have one big 32 minute song, which has a lot of repetitious post-rock elements and ambient sections which develop over 3-4 minute segments, it feels very unapproachable. My intention was to make my own version of Dusk - Majestic Thou In Ruin, so I think it’s much more niche and specific compared to what I did on the first album. I also look back at the first album, and it makes me want to continue that sound. I just put up the final single for the BU album, and it was initially a cut track from the Eye of Mensis debut, and recording that made me look at the doom album a bit differently, and killed my motivation for it. Which sucks, because I do think it’s good material and has taken a lot of work to record and put together. I just don’t want to force myself through it and release a lesser project.
Beardog 04.11.26	I think my second record is the best, ignore the badly song slow first song, the rest you might like!
Beardog 04.11.26	Yeah, if you don't have the motivation at this moment just let it go. You might return to it someday with a fresh eye.