The art pop and avant-garde Dean Blunt of Hackney, London is one of the most important and influential contemporary musicians in the indie scene. Throughout his extensive discography under the Dean Blunt moniker — as well as the experimental hip-hop Babyfather, avant-garde Hype Williams and several more of his pseudonyms under his World Music label — he has proven himself to be a prolific musical genius. His breakthrough album was “BLACK METAL,” an experimental genre-blending album with a ton of ideas, which showed his talent and sometimes sardonic ethos as an artist. However, “BLACK METAL 2” offers not only a consistent sound, but also a mature and moving storyline that makes it deserve more attention than its predecessor.
Dean Blunt is a baffling figure in the indie music scene. He is certainly a private man of many mysteries, not only with his other obscure musical projects but also his cryptic and surreal online presence. He’s even gone to such lengths to stay out of the public eye like sending a proxy to receive an award for him. He understandably keeps his fans at arms length, but still gives them an artistic rabbit hole to dive into, leaving behind crumbs to let them piece all the material together.
That’s why “BLACK METAL 2” is so incredible: It’s such a heartfelt and cohesive story about the inner-city struggle to survive. It follows a storyline that covers themes such as gang life, losing a loved one, the inability to be saved, poverty, drug addiction and gun violence. These lyrical themes are treated with a ton of care and candidness, never outstaying their welcome. Instead of overexplaining, Dean Blunt instead lets the short lyrics and the instrument playing do all the talking.
To make up for the short and sweet verses with not too much lyrical complexity, the sonic qualities of “BLACK METAL 2” describe what words cannot. The first track, “VIGIL,” sets the scene for the album up really well with how dismal it sounds. “SEMTEX,” like some other songs on the album such as “ZaZa” has a second instrumental half that aims to create this bleak, dreary atmosphere that feels like the sonic equivalent of a foggy morning.
“DASH SNOW” is a prime example of doing more with less lyrically. The lyric “It’s gonna be alright” being repeated, especially by someone as depressed as Dean Blunt, could be comforting to a lot of people especially when paired with the heartwarming guitars. The original “BLACK METAL” lacks this sort of positive sincerity and is only something a more mature Dean Blunt could realistically pull off as well as he did.
Unlike other projects, “BLACK METAL 2” is a sonically refined album. Something you’d notice if you take a deep dive of his discography is that Dean Blunt sometimes produces sloppily as an artistic move. In this album, such sloppiness is either extremely subdued or nonexistent. Dean Blunt took this album incredibly seriously and it shows.
Contrast this to the mixed bags of mixed bags that is “BLACK METAL.” It starts off really high quality with the beautiful art pop songs “LUSH” and “100” but generally gets more experimental and genre-bending as the album continues with influences such as dub and rap, resulting in an endearing but glaring inconsistency in terms of the full album. This creates a surreal and disorienting feeling in the audience, but blocks the album from being a masterpiece in its sonic sloppiness as many true experimental albums that try out so many ideas tend to face.
The crux of this phenomenon is the hilarious track that could only be described as a joke, “COUNTRY.” This chaotic avant-noise song uses a really generic fake live bass tone and even keeps in the Mac audio slider sound effect. If you wanted a reason to claim that “BLACK METAL” isn’t a perfect album, this is it.
If anything, “BLACK METAL” is a testament for who Dean Blunt is as an artist and some of the many sounds he could produce. If you want a definitive introduction to what his music sounds like and what he’s capable of, this album would be closest to that.
However, “BLACK METAL 2” is the more significant and higher quality standalone album. This album symbolizes the end of one era and the beginning of another for Dean Blunt and deserves attention on par with the first installment.
Although “BLACK METAL” has some of the highest highs in Dean Blunt’s discography and exemplifies the breadth of his music, it doesn’t hold a candle to the consistent refined maturity of “BLACK METAL 2” and the story it tells through both lyrics and sound.