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One of the things unique to black metal amongst all of the sub-genres is the prevalence of the solo act. While death metal, thrash and doom all seem to hold the idea of the band with its duelling guitars and “last gang in town” ethos as sacrosanct, black metal has provided an environment where the lone musician can craft deeply personal works without fans questioning their authenticity. Indeed from Bathory to Xasthur, the auteur style of black metal has produced some of the subgenre’s most critically acclaimed works. Fryktelig Støy (aka Australian multi-instrumentalist Em Støy) looks set to join those ranks of acclaimed loners with the release of her blistering debut, Disappointment. A bleak and evocative work that combines the iciness of atmospheric black metal with the melodic scope of post-metal, Disappointment is a bleak confrontation of violence and betrayal, told through famous female muses to tell a tale of defiance and survivorship. Opening track, ‘Philomela’ goes back to the start of this idea by taking its name from the figure from Greek mythology. A slow-building chant and repetitive riff creates a sense of menace that sets the album up for the first track proper ‘Hope’, which drops straight into second-wave black metal territory before segueing into some eerie doom riffage. Støy’s vocals are a thing of dark beauty here, mixing traditional blackened screeching with something similar to SWANS’ Jarboe at her most extreme. The palpable sense of scorn and anger at the