Tomarum / Saidan [Small Room-Downstairs]

Black metal’s relationship with technical proficiency is not a very deep one. Sure, there are bands whose guitarists certainly know what they’re doing as their fingers dance across the fretboard, but for the most part black metal’s tenets don’t really leave room for showing off just how good one might be at their instrument of choice (other than drums. Blast away!).

That isn’t to say there isn’t any room for this idea of “being good at one’s instrument,” though, and Georgia progressive black metal duo Tómarúm certainly have a strong grasp of musicianship atop black metal’s songwriting and riff-based core. Featuring multiple guitar solos (even a huge fretless bass solo!) and dazzling, technical riffs as well as more traditional black metal blasting affairs, “In This Empty Space” from upcoming Tómarúm album Ash in Realms of Stone Icons shows that black metal can be a musician’s genre.