I caught this group while randomly browsing the internet in quite unrelated environments. I think on a platform like TikTok, some woman was introducing groups in styles close to Black Metal in a semi-ironic manner, and I caught them from there. (It's a habit of speech, by the way, I say "group"...)
The criticism I made about Black Metal in my previous article generally conveyed this message: Black Metal has quite interesting material in terms of subject matter and content elements, but traditional Black Metal pieces seem so meaningless that I can't tolerate them. I even find them so boring that I'd call them "pure noise."
There must be many people whose ideas about Black Metal don't align with mine, because something has been released in the music market under the "Post-Black Metal" label. I hadn't been following Metal music for quite a while, to be honest, and for a very long time, I was content with just following the new albums of groups I already knew. Anyway, most of my close friends know that I love Industrial music more than Metal music, and since there's almost as much deep material there as in Metal music, I didn't have much time left to follow "What new groups have emerged?"
Unreqvited is essentially a solo project. A brother from Quebec, Canada, who introduces himself as a ghost. He has blended themes reminiscent of Black Metal like death, nature, and melancholy, and incorporated electronic/symphonic elements into his music here and there. I haven't been able to listen to all his albums yet, but I personally found the album that gives its name to the title quite uplifting musically. While it's eerie on one hand, it also gives a person peace at the same time.
Maybe I'm jumping to the most popular example because my musical culture isn't developed enough, but Unreqvited reminded me very much of Buckethead. Remove the chickens, sprinkle in a few screams, and it quite clearly points to this style.
I was curious about what the word Unreqvited means and saw that it's actually a modified version of "Unrequited." (In Latin, "u" and "v" are expressed with the same letters, and there's also a habit among Metallers to write "v" instead of "u." It's like a more current version of sprinkling dots on vowels: Motörhead) It has meanings like "unrequited, unrewarded, punished."
The positive meaning of the verb "Unrequite" is "Requite"; with meanings like "to give in return, to punish, to reward." It actually comes from the same root as "Quit," and Quit meant "to release" in Middle English. Quit means "to pay the price and be released/go," over time its meaning turns to going and from here it reaches its current meaning in Modern English. Additionally, it should be mentioned that in Medieval Latin, "Quietus" meant "Free."
Before finishing the article, I saw another group called "Thy Pallor" among groups making similar style music to Unreqvited on Encyclopaedia Metallum. They're from Ankara. They were founded in 2021 and released their first recordings in 2022.+++