Kev Rowland We all love sub genres of sub genres don’t we? Well, Botanist are described as a highly creative Experimental Avant-garde Black Metal band, or, in their perspective, Green Metal. Musically it is mostly drums with piano (with the sustain pedal kept down for the most part) plus some vocals, sometimes males and sometimes female, which may be up in the mix or so far back it is difficult to even hear them. The result is something which definitely has a black metal feel to it, but it shows just how broad the genre is as there are no guitars to be heard. Botanist is a new signing to Aural Music, and to celebrate this is a reissue of 2015’s limited edition ‘EP2: Hammer of Botany’ recording, along with a new song, the 13-minute “Oplopanax Horridus,” (a solo recording from mainman Otrebor, which does contain additional instruments), which takes the total length to 34 minutes.

Apparently, Botanist is highly rated in the scene, and his website is certainly interesting, but this is an artist who really deserves to be heard before purchase and fortunately he has released all his music through Bandcamp, so it is easily obtainable. For me, I can’t imagine ever voluntarily listening to this again, even though I have very wide and eclectic tastes, as this doesn’t work for me although others obviously feel differently about it.