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Music

Shimmy Between Black'n'Roll and Black Metal on Hellripper and Batsheva's New Split Cassette

Whether you're obsessed with Midnight or are a Second Wave black metal stan, you're going to love this one.

I get roughly three billion emails a day, many of which concern bands and genres I actively dislike and would never, ever cover, so when someone emails me out of the blue about a record telling me that it sounds like "early Slayer, Venom, Speedwolf, Leviathan," I'm obviously going to perk up and take notice. As I happily discovered a few weeks ago, the UK's Label 2318 is set to release a split cassette featuring Scottish scumdog Hellripper's punk-splattered black'n'roll and stormy, atmospherically-inclined black metal from Philadelphia's Batsheva. It's offerings are short, nasty, and more than a little addictive, as the split finds both parties digging into the depths of two very different side of black metal—and striking black gold.

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While the two don't have much in common on paper (besides sharing the distinction of operating as solo operations), the 16-minute split flows well, covering all the bases whether you're obsessed with Midnight or are a Second Wave black metal stan. The tape is out today, September 1, and is available from Label 2318's webstire for a paltry three quid (about five bucks American).

We're streaming the whole thing—all three songs, including a Rats of Reality cover from Hellripper—below. Get stuck in.

Kim Kelly would love it if you'd stop sending her your fucking mixtapes. She's on Twitter - @grimkim