Windswept — Howling in Baptismal Filth as reviewed by Mark. J. "This is hotter, damper, closer to brimstone than permafrost"
Windswept — Howling in Baptismal Filth as reviewed by Mark. J. "This is hotter, damper, closer to brimstone than permafrost"
New Zealand Black Metal/Crustpunk beast of a release!!!!
Windswept — Howling in Baptismal Filth (Northern Void Records)
Wellington's Windswept arrived with almost no run-up and delivered one of the strongest black metal debuts to come out of New Zealand in years. Howling in Baptismal Filth is eight tracks — two of them short instrumental bookends — recorded and mixed at The Surgery Studios with James Goldsmith, and it's a record that understands the difference between homage and imitation.
The band's bio immediately draws you in with bated breath:
Windswept, from Wellington, New Zealand, delivers a sound forged in atmosphere, abrasion, and ritual intensity. Formed in 2024, the band features members of Bulletbelt, Imperial Slave, and Dole Bludger(AND THAT'S SOME INCREDIBLE PEDIGREE THERE FOLKS!!!), blending raw black metal ferocity with haunting melodic undercurrents, sharpened by a dirty punk edge—equal parts fury and transcendence.
The bones are unmistakably second-wave black metal, but the enthralling atmosphere is nothing like the frostbitten Scandinavian source material. This is hotter, damper, closer to brimstone than permafrost, with death metal and crust punk threaded through the mix rather than bolted onto it. And this works flawlessly from first track to last.
EVERY TRACK ON THIS DEBUT IS SONICALLY FIERCE AND ABRASIVE.
Rachel's malicious vocals are the record's clearest weapon — there's a physicality to the performance that translates even without seeing the band live, and tracks like Cenote and Anthropophagous lean into that ferocity without sacrificing the songwriting underneath it. And it certainly helps when you have a band with solid experience, razor-sharp songwriting skill, and a well-crafted understanding of what draws the listener in on every song.
Most of the blistering tracks are more of the amphetamine driven classic black metal tempo (e.g. Prayopavesa, Helictite); some are seemingly more out of control in the barbaric way one expects from both extreme metal and crustpunk, such as Bayou and Putrescere (one of the finest moments on this debut). Underpinning this are always savage as hell riffs backed by an overpowering and apocalyptic rhythm section that is maniacal as fuck.
What's most impressive is how assured this sounds for a debut. There's none of the genre-tourism that sinks a lot of first black metal records; Windswept sounds like a band that already knows exactly what they don't want to sound like, which is often the harder thing to figure out.
Quite simply, this is the best black metal album I have heard in so long, and it is chilling and ruthless, and you need to listen to and buy this gem now!!!
And check out their killer merch also!!!
Pics from band's social media and the glorious work of https://www.instagram.com/jechtography/
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