Photo by Julie CottrellCODE has spent the last few years slowly drawing back the curtain on its collective appreciation for black metal's most progressive leanings (and unorthodox capitalization choices), but has finally thrown caution to the wind. The UK quintet has gone full-bore progressive post-rock on its latest release, mut, and it just may be its smartest move yet. "Experimental" black metal bands are a dime a dozen (especially in the UK, which hosts a weird glut of them) but not many bands have the chops—or the cojones—to put out a record like this.Really, mut has much more in common with Sólstafir latest, Ótta, than with anything else; the two bands even share a similar trajectory, following the black metal-to-prog model laid out by Ulver and Enslaved before them.Listen to "undertone," and see for yourself.
mut is out via Agonia Records on 2/27 in Europe, and 3/10 in North America.