This is a bold statement, but Violet Cold should be the next big black metal act. With the post-black metal craze still going somewhat and bands like Ghost Bath and Deafheaven pushing the gendre’s ironic boundaries, it’s only logical for bands of this style to come forward with something different. Yet that rarely ever happens. Violet Cold’s Anomie seems to be the peak of that, though. While albums like Sunbather and Moonlover are definitely influential on modern black metal bands, Violent Cold goes the extra mile are even draws from the likes of Panopticon and Saor to compose post-black metal that’s refreshing and might be telling everyone to get their act together.

Let’s just make something clear, though: Violet Cold is not just a black metal band. In fact, one look at the project’s Encyclopedia Metallum page and you’ll see it’s, essentially, a music project. To be fair, I have not given the rest of the discography aside from Anomie a listen just yet, but the album in question is a diverse, expressive look at the creative mind that is Emin Guliyev. Coming from Baku, Azerbaijan, which is situated on the Caspian Sea and east of Armenia and north of Iran, we don’t necessarily hear much coming from this region of the world in terms of metal. If one thing’s for certain, it’s that even with language barriers and borders and oceans dividing us, great music and composition can sometimes say more than an exchange of words.

Anomie should have more recognition than it’s currently getting, as Violet Cold are more than capable of being the next big powerhouse in the genre. Combining traditional post-black metal elements, and a wide array of influences, Anomie is a consistently engaging and highly artistic take on the genre, with hopefully much more where this came from. Anomie is available for purchase on Violet Cold’s Bandcamp right here, but you can stream the title track right below.