Black Metal Mayhem in The Creeping Below

 The Creeping Below 

by Brian Azzarello, art by Vanesa Del Rey, color by Hilary Jenkins

The Creeping Below cover

Author Brian Azzarello

Artist Vanesa Del Rey

Colorist Hilary Jenkins

Big thanks to Boom! Studios and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of The Creeping Below, a Norwegian black metal, folk-horror revenge tale that was eerie, gory, and imaginative. I learned about this after reading a review for another recent Norwegian black metal comic, the humorous and entertaining Dark Regards by Dave Hill. In contrast, The Creeping Below is much darker and ominous, telling the story of Val, an American photographer visiting Norway for a metal festival. Throughout these issues, there are instances of metal lyrics, and I have to say that they seemed realistic. As I was reading along, I could imagine the blast beats pumping while guttural growls groaned out these bleak lyrics. Val visits a bar and quickly befriends a band who take her out to the forests of Norway to show her some of the darkest, bleakest spots that Norway has to offer. However, unknown to Val, she is the sacrificial offering to the band’s dark gods that will propel them to success. She’s drugged, beaten, and tied up as an offering to the old gods, left to wither and rot in the forest.

However, something dark awakens her seven years later, and she arises, craggy and mossy, seeking revenge for her abandonment. Vanesa Del Rey’s artwork, especially in the forest as Val is left for dead and then as she awakens is incredible. The dark colors and blending of human and plant life creates a dark, foreboding, almost ancient and folk-horror like scene that pervades over the rest of the story. I won’t get into the story as Val seeks revenge from the band members, but it’s a really cool revenge story with horror elements. The artwork is impressive- both scary and haunting. I only wish there was more to the story, especially more explanation about how and why Val was awakened, and what her connection to the old gods of the forest was. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this collection of 4 issues. It was a quick read, but it was also entertaining for a more serious horror comic. Sometimes these horror stories can be a little lighter or feature more comedy, but this one was filled with terror and shock- a great combination of several dark genres. Highly recommended!

Lay Down Your Soul to the Gods Rock 'n' Roll: Dark Regards by Dave Hill and Artyom Topilin

 Dark Regards 

by Dave Hill and Artyom Topilin

Dark Regards book cover

Comedian and author Dave Hill

Cover art by Artyom Topilin

Many thanks to Oni Press and NetGalley for keeping it metal with Dave Hill’s hilarious and absurd Black Metal odyssey Dark Regards. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting into with these 4 issues that are now combined into one volume, but when I read the description about how a stand-up comedian’s attempts to promote his fictious black metal band Witch Taint by disparaging Norwegian black metal bands, I knew I had to check this out. I was glad to see that Lords of Chaos also serves as a reference point for this book, and that author Hill was able to find the humor in the book. When I first read Lords of Chaos, I couldn’t finish it. It was so bleak and dark, but I’m glad that I returned to it a few years later and was able to read through the cannibalism and Thanatos to find the humor in how extreme these Norwegians wanted to be. Ultimately, their pursuit of Mayhem (pun intended) led to violence, murder, and church burnings as a way to prove their metal/mettle. Hill focuses more on some of the absurdities of these Scandinavian scallywags like the desire to use torches for lighting in a record store. However, Hill also maintains the threats and extremes that these bands are willing to go to in order to be the bleakest, darkest, harshest sounding band around. Plus, he creates some killer band names like Rectal Heresy, Devil’s Snot, and Odin’s Pile.

The story is a little slow to start, but once Dave is turned on to Nachthammer, Viking Colon, and Misery Buffet (more realistic sounding bands) by uber-cool record store worker Tierny, he’s visited y Lord Abscess, one of the singers who died from self-cannibalism. Again, this sounds almost like something you’d read in Lords of Chaos. Just like Dave, I sometimes can go to extremes when I hear a new genre of music, especially music that’s hard and heavy. However, Dave goes even more extreme, developing a fake band and trolling real Norwegian black metal bands, which eventually brings them to the US to hunt him down. Dave eventually gathers a group of metal maniacs to form the band Witch Taint. However, with the arrival of the Nordic Warriors, Dave and Witch Taint will have to battle these true black metalheads to prove whether they are extremely extreme. This was a really fun story to read, with lots of great references to metal, not just Norwegian black metal. Also, the artwork by Artyom Topilin was great. It’s extremely colorful, and yet the artistry really captures some of the darker elements of metal. I loved the way the Norwegians are portrayed as big and hulking. Dave’s corpse paint is also well done. Sometimes with these kinds of absurd stories the art might be overdone or too comedic, but I found a nice balance between humor and horror that helps to capture these complementary tones of the story. I especially loved the alternate covers in the back of the volume that reference classic metal albums from the likes of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Dio. This was just a fun read, although I wish there was more of Lord Abscess. Hopefully there are more stories in the works about this character. Dark Regards is a fun and wild ride. Highly Recommended!

Judas Priest cover by Brian Level

Killer Eddie Cover by Brian Level

Dio Cover by Brian Level