BLACK HOLE GENERATOR - Black Karma

Aquarius Records: From the same label that brought us the amazing Animus disc a while back, a gorgeously buzzy depressive melancholic chunk of emotional blissed out blackness, comes this, the debut from Black Hole Generator, a blackened supergroup of sorts, featuring members of Taake, Grimfist, Aeternus and others. Unlike the washed out dreamy buzziness of the Animus record, Black Karma is a furious frosty blast of ultra technical riffing, strange atmospheres, loping doomic passages, grand sweeping melodies, gnarled alien vocals and convoluted arrangements with plenty of weird stop/starts and confusional tempo changes.
We have to admit, we were a bit skeptical at first because of the band name. It made us think of some cheesy industrial black metal band, all programmed drums and recycled death metal riffing. But this is anything but. You can almost imagine some strange planet, floating in space, wreathed in ice and debris, blood red in the blackness of space, bizarre lights barely visible through the planet's hazy atmosphere, closer investigation though reveals that this is no planet, instead, it's some sort of aeons old machine, assembled by a mysterious ancient race, designed to create an endless series of black holes, which over time, will swallow up everything in the universe, enabling said race to begin anew, creating new worlds from the black void left by the Black Hole Generator. A black and barren universe designed to mirror their ancient home. Black Karma is the soundtrack, futuristic and furious, but grim and frosty and and subtly bizarre.
Each song a chapter of that epic tale, every chapter a maelstrom of relentless buzzing riffage, so blown out they're nearly transformed into a furious black ambience. The rhythms careening from light speed blur to loping seasick groove, blast beats underpinning thick shards of jagged distorted grind, occasionally slipping into some strangely catchy hook, before being blown apart into another dense cloud of black buzz. The vocals crawl and slither everywhere, like weird eyeless alien beasts, emitting guttural moans and weird strangled crooning that sounds a little like a throat singing Popeye. Here and there, the blackness recedes, revealing stretches of super dreamy melodic black bliss, arpeggiated melancholy melodies hovering over churning metallic swirls, before the Black Hole Generator sputters to life once more, and Black Karma slips right back into staccato bursts of machine gun like rhythms and planet razing streaks of black metal brutality. Awesome.

Heathen Harvest: Black Hole Generator is another oddity in the black metal world. This short EP paints a post-apocalyptic world red with the unfeeling cold of industrialized humans. This is post-black metal at its best since Aborym's brilliant and now classic 2003 offering "With No Human Intervention". Black Hole Generator features two members in the studio: Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen whom you avant-gardists out there should know from the fantastic Vulture Industries, and Dreggen who deals with the now immensely popular acts Aeternus and Taake. He also plays a role in Grimfist I believe, though I remember them being a bit too groovey for me. Live the band utilizes members from the aforementioned Aeternus and Sulphur. You should remember one member in particular, Ares, from his days in Gorgoroth. Needless to say, this is one hell of an album for a label like Ars Magna Recordings to land out of Columbus, OH. Regardless though, Ars Magna has shown a unique professionalism since their beginning as a label and does their best to promote their artists and support the underground in every way possible, especially through live events in that region of the USA.
The music found in the Black Karma EP is pure cold Norwegian talent, pushing out some of the coldest blackened guitar riffs that I have heard from any of the newer inventive bands. The programming is top notch and the atmospheres linger in the mists until the glow of hell's fiery red machines climbs from the earth to distinguish your life in a blast of magma and destruction. The best part about this album though are the scarce, but intricate keyboard parts that seem to appear out of nowhere. They paint the blood-driven picture with on extra layer of insanity that really puts the music over the top for any industrial-driven metalhead. Also unique on this release are Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen's strange clean vocals. They almost remind me of Mortiis' attempts (and I say attempt in as cruel a way as possible) at experimental vocals, only Bjørnar's are actually, well...good!
Black Karma is for you BM'ers who like a twist to your music. This EP is absolutely fucking sick and its good to see more high-profile black metal artists taking on industrial elements into their music. This is another band and label to support in your unending ventures to find lesser known music. You will not be disappointed by this release, and the only complaint that I honestly have is that after 24 minutes of brutal industrial blasting was over, I wanted so much more. Oh well, I guess I await the full-length.

Lunar Hypnosis: Hailing from Bergen Norway and featuring members from such acts as Taake, Aeternus, Grimfist, Deathcon, and Vulture Industries; this black metal band delivers big with their debut EP ‘Black Karma.’
Black Hole Generator’s brand of blasting black metal is primarily on the brutal side of things with speedy melodic guitars with furiously fast programmed drums and some keyboards which create a semi industrialized sound. You could probably find parallels to The Axis of Perdition or Aborym here, though I think Black Hole Generator stands there ground as a unique unit.
I like the way the music shifts from the ferocious parts to the calmer more melodic sections and even the ambient parts on the EP are admirable. Although Black Hole Generator is primarily the project of Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen as he has wrote all music and lyrics, he is also joined by Dreggen, Morden, Øyvind Madsen, and Ares who adds guest backing vocals on three songs and acoustic guitars on the final song.
This EP clocks in at twenty four minutes and to me it feels like the perfect length. It’s not to short and it’s not to long either. Somehow I think if this band produced something around fifty minutes it would become slightly boring after awhile. However I guess will just have to wait for the full length album because you never know this band may improved upon their already enjoyable sound. July 14, 2007 By JJM 8 of 10

Invisible Oranges: Black Hole Generator is a two-man band from Bergen, Norway, consisting of Bjørnar Nilsen and Dreggen, whose collective resumes include Grimfist, Aeternus, Deathcon, and Vulture Industries. Black Karma is the band's debut EP, with five tracks of menacing industrial black metal.
Of course, the first reference point for this kind of stuff is Anaal Nathrakh. But while there is some resemblance with the programmed drums and apocalyptic vibe, BHG is slightly more atmospheric and less about bludgeoning. To be sure, there are tons of blastbeats, and the vocals range from scathing shrieks down to lower, almost grand singing. But the EP has little production touches throughout, like piano notes here and there and even some cello, that place the blasting in sharp relief.
The riffs here absolutely rule. The first time I heard "The Age of Anxiety," I practically broke my neck head banging to the riff at :38. It's kind of like Ministry on black metal steroids. The production is more hi-fi than the usual black metal murk, but it's perfect for the material, retaining bite in the guitars, while leaving space for the drums to have impact.
This is one of the most well-developed debuts I've heard in a while. While brief, the EP reflects a singular vision, down to the sharp artwork and the vivid lyrics ("Scarlet skies open wide / Rain! / Cleansing pain wash flesh from bone / Cold dark matter shed no tears"). Evidently a full-length is on the way, so be a cool kid and get on this before everyone else does. To pick this up, email Ars Magna.

Harm Webzine: Black Hole Generator is a power metal BANG ! What the hell? What's all that blood on my paper??? Damn it, my head was just blown out! Seriously now, being from Norway, these guys are all but cheesy and far from another Bee Gees impersonator so black metal arts is their trade. New band perhaps but Bjornar E.Nilsen (vocals, bass& programming) is also part of Vulture Industries besides producing bands like Helheim, Sulphur while Dreggen (guitars) is also involved with Grimfist, Deathcon and Aeternus. Hailing from Bergen, home of Immortal, Enslaved and Gorgoroth, this dynamic infernal duo has prepared for us a five piece meal of seriously solid industrial black metal. Now contrary to some other bands doing this sort of metal, the industrial parts are minimalist while the black metal is quite present. The sound is top quality, so this is no old school stuff and the drums sound natural even if they are programmed. Tearing and crushing guitar riffs meet melodic tremolo picking leads while robotic raspy vocals add to the industrial edge especially noticeable in the dark electronics found here and there. Same goes with the discrete keyboard parts adding some more melodic tones but my pagan / folk soul was really pleased when the nice acoustic guitars started playing in the closing track, The Screaming Skull. Nothing but good music on this mini album by the name of Black Karma and I strongly recommend you to get a copy or your head will get blown apart, I mean get a copy and get your head blown away! 8.8 / 10

The Metal Crypt Webzine: Now this is some cool shit. Obvious jokes aside, Black Hole Generator are a newly-minted Black Metal band from Norway (surprise!) who have mixed a bit of Industrial flair with their music to create a solid slab of blasting goodness.
Like several other bands I can think of off the top of my head (Gardens Of Gehenna, Tristwood) BHG have managed to successfully splice some industrial coldness into the speedy, ugly Black Metal they were already making. The overtones are not as strong as, say, Tristwoods, but they are there. Mostly this is just a kickass but short disc of balls-out blasting Black Metal. BHG cook up some really good riffs, and overall this is more melodic than I expected, with some very memorable tunes. "Inheritor Of Long-Dead Lands" sticks out as a extra-strong tune, with a slower groove and more inventive riffing. And closer "The Screaming Skull" shows real promise with some moodier passages and nice acoustic bits to offset the heaviness and create a more dynamic sound.
I am certainly interested in future efforts from Black Hole Generator (and yes, the impulse to type 'Butt Hole Generator' there is quite strong). This is some really good stuff, and a little seasoning will likely only improve them further. Black Karma is definitely worth tracking down.

Noktorn: AMR004 is pretty par for the course as far as Ars Magna Recordings goes these days; that is, releasing really, really good music that doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves from the metal scene at large. In this case, the debut EP of Black Hole Generator is a really enjoyable, professional, and highly multifaceted piece of slightly industrial black metal that fits in snugly with the other material that the label releases. That’s about all there is to it, but apparently some people demand this thing called ‘musical description’, so I guess I’ll continue.
So a lot of noise is made in reviews over Black Hole Generator being an ‘industrial black metal’ band, but aside from having a fast drum machine (which really doesn’t sound like a drum machine at all) I don’t see what’s really so industrial about this. In fact, the most ‘industrial’ parts of this sound a lot more like, well, the usual thing when black metal bands try to be industrial, with big, slow, epic sections that I suppose are supposed to sound like paeans to some dystopic future. It’s worth noting, though, that Black Hole Generator can actually pull these off (like on the beginning of ‘Inheritor Of Long Dead Lands’), as opposed to, I don’t know, Aborym, who really only get an ‘A’ for effort, not so much execution. These are sparingly used (which is good since they overstay their welcome so quickly normally), and so, like most ‘industrial black metal’ bands, the real emphasis is instead placed on high speed blasting sections (apart from the almost exclusively midpaced previously mentioned track) with buzzing, semimelodic tremolo riffing.
As far as that riffing goes, it’s another place where I differ from other writers’ opinions of this EP in that I don’t find those riffs to be really wild and different and unique, although they are really good. In all honesty, a lot of the riffs seem like a laundry list of the other bands that guitarist Dreggen is or was in: Taake, Grimfist, Aeternus, etc. The more melodic parts get the former while the majority of the more ‘brutal’ music gets the latter two as its central influence. I guess it’s fortunate, then, that all those bands listed are notable for, well, having really good riffs, and there are some truly fantastic ones on ‘Black Karma’, ranging from Furzeesque moments like on ‘When Hell Is Full The Dead Shall Walk The Earth’ (which is probably the most unconventional thing on this disc), solid Dark Funeral-style straightforward black metal riffing like on the title track, and the melodic ones that pop up at regular intervals throughout the EP’s running time. The sparing use of keys works pretty well with them and never really distracts from the real meat of the music on the record, while the vocals (with a sort of theatrical flair in tonality that reminds me more than a bit of Count Nosferatu Kommando) form a good and never dominating counterpoint to the instruments.
A lot of people compare Black Hole Generator to Anaal Nathrakh, and I guess it’s a somewhat fair analogy, though these guys aren’t as noisy as the Brits were and aren’t as desperately bidding for mainstream recognition as AN are now. The melodic parts on this CD are actually woven in pretty well as opposed to just sort of being dropped into the middle of everything and expected to sort themselves out, and everything just generally feels more carefully thought out and constructed than usual. I guess the remarkably pristine production probably has something to do with it, equal to numerous top-tier heavy metal bands in clarity and sonic reproduction, with not even a hint of noise or incorrect distortion anywhere. I’m a fan of atmospheric production, and although the quality of the sound found here is often antithetical to such an appreciation, I feel that it really adds to the vast, apocalyptic feeling that the band cultivates on this CD.
While this isn’t as highly original as some other Ars Magna releases, it does stand up to that label’s consistently solid output. This is a really great CD from a good, professional band who has qualities above and beyond mere professionalism. I like it a lot, even though my liking doesn’t come in quite an Aquarius Records sort of way; the music is more straightforward and no-nonsense than that. Perhaps the best recommendation I can give for it is that ‘Black Karma’ requires no adjectives to be sold; the music truly speaks for itself.

Grave Concerns Ezine: Released by Columbus, Ohio's Ars Magna Recordings, Black Karma is a five song debut EP by Black Hole Generator. Black Hole Generator is the work of Bjørnar Nilsen and Dreggen from Bergen, Norway and neither one of the two are newcomers to the black metal world. Bjørnar, who handles the vocals, bass and programming is also in Vulture Industries and Dreggen, who plays guitar on the album, performs with Aeternus, Taake and Deathcon so they definitely have experience. Described by others as industrial black metal, I really expected something I wasn't going to like. This genre is usually ruined with way too many keyboard effects which make it sound cheesy at times and takes away from the feeling that this music is supposed to evoke. Black Hole Generator definitely have a handle on things though as they use just the right amount of synths mixed in with Dreggen's furious riffing and Bjørnar's drum machine to give off an apocalyptic atmosphere sure to send chills down your back. Bjørnar's drum machine actually sounds great compared to some of the terrible examples I've heard from other bands and his vocals almost sound robotic at times, contributing to the cold, almost mechanical feeling that radiates throughout Black Karma. Dreggen's guitar playing is excellent and he even plays some acoustic parts that fit in perfectly. I've heard some references to Anaal Nathrakh but truthfully I think this surpasses anything they've done. This is a damn good release.