Caixao

Caixao

Herakles / Melqart

Nuclear War Now

***Since 2017, Portuguese multi-instrumentalist JG has been releasing music under the name Caixão. Guided by JG’s laborious research of the peoples that once populated the region in and around the land presently known as Portugal, Caixão’s music is suffused with Mediterranean mysticism. JG’s reverence for his land and its psychogeographical character is one feature that sets Caixão apart, especially as the regional traits that once defined the various styles of black metal emerging from different parts of the world have eroded, leaving the scene—like the world, in general—largely devoid of the distinctive, localized qualities that once made it so compelling. With this new album, JG draws upon the mythological figure Melqart, the patron god of Tyre, one of the most prominent city-states in the Phoenician diaspora, described by Ernest Renan as “a city of ruins, built out of ruins.” As Phoenician culture spread throughout the Mediterranean, so, too, did Melqart’s legacy. While there are few extant artistic representations of Melqart, and many details have been lost to time, he is believed to be the antecedent to the Greek half-deity and hero Herakles (known to the Romans as Hercules), whose cult supplanted Melqart’s as the Greek empire ascended to global prominence. The nexus between these two figures served as the inspiration for Caixão’s sophomore album, Herakles / Melqart. In particular, Herakles’ 12 labors illustrate the manner in which Herakles’s persona subsumed attributes of Melqart as the reach of the Greek empire swept out across the Phoenician world. JG devotes a track...

Caixao

Knaga

Nuclear War Now

***Caixão (“Coffin”) boldly inserted itself into the consciousness of the underground with the release of the otherwise untitled 2020 Demo. Hailing from Portugal, Caixão is entirely the work of one man, referred to as JG, also known for his superb Fall to the Idol zine. Caixão’s debut album, like the demo, exhibits sophisticated composition and musicianship, as well as a staggering breadth of influences deftly woven together to achieve a sound both novel and rapturous. One hears in Caixão the Mediterranean majesty of bands like Varathron, Rotting Christ, Zemial, Kawir, early Moonspell, and Mortuary Drape; the tropical occultism of Mystifier; the hypnotic northern coldness of Beherit and Black Crucifixion; and the outsider unorthodoxy of Master’s Hammer, Root, and Sigh. While this list of prominent names might seem to be too crowded to provide any meaningful sense of Caixão’s sound, it is nevertheless accurate. Caixão’s deepest influences arguably come from outside of music and, for that matter, all the trappings of modernity. One of black metal’s unique traits is how it synthesizes the ancient and the contemporary, harnessing atavistic impulses in the service of a sound that is decidedly modern. “The past is alive” is an axiom upon which the entire genre was conceived. Inspired by the remnants of lost civilizations whose natures remain mysterious, cultural emanations from thousands of years ago form the thematic core of Caixão. The title of the album, Knaga, comes from a language used by Iron Age settlers in the southern part of Iberia. It is...

Caixao

Demo 2020

Nuclear War Now

***Caixão is a one man traditional black metal band from Lisbon, Portugal. It follows the steps of the craft created by others that created the genre before in what could be loosely called occult/black metal. Its style can float around a few axes or regional scenes’ influences. It could be the mystical sound of 90s greek/italian/portuguese bands or south american, the finnish or the eastern european. Inspiration comes directly from many sources, some well known and others not. Master’s Hammer, Barathrum, Beherit, Tormentor, Necromantia, Varathron, Sigh, Mystifier, Sarcofago, Zemial could be the most direct of obvious influences. 80s bands are also a big part of it: Celtic Frost, Bathory, Desexult, Mayhem, Messiah, Obscurity, Treblinka. Caixão assumes itself as a southern band paying tribute to the unwritten or forgotten history of mediterranean and atlantic cultures.