Septic Flesh - Sumerian Daemons

I really dig this, the electronic sounds are subtle but they really enhance the DM bits and the weird orchestral touches just add a whole new level. This is just some really frigging sweet music. Some of the more original extreme metal I've heard lately. The band creates this really cool atmosphere all throughout the record that's like I'm stuck in some hellish, future dystopia ruled by Lovecraftian gods, or something ridiculous like that. The riffs are simple but heavy, and the songwriting is really complex and intricate. Morbid Angel eat your heart out; here's the real electronic/DM combination!

Glad you enjoy SD, Emp! I still have to heavily get into their early material. Farthest I've gone is A Fallen Temple.

I've been hitting a big German power / speed / heavy binge these past few days. Think the big names, and then the middleweights and you pretty much got what I've been listening to. Running Wild and Grave Digger were the biggies that I revolved around for a while, but my interest in Germany and power / heavy metal because of primarily Running Wild (combined with my lack of many german bands on my computer) sparked this move. So many goooood bands in this category, many that I've passed up for a very long time. The worst being Helloween's Keeper duo from the late '80s, which I've put off from hearing for years (sans "A Little Time").

Aside from that, I'm making use of the "similar bands" tab for some bands, mainly along the extreme metal area. Some bands, however, do not belong, like Bolt Thrower having so many ups on the Amorphis page. For the first album, maybe, but that's one Amorphis album compared to the whole of Bolt Thrower's catalog.

i been listening to some of the free albums on the free album download forum
Extinctionist
Abhorrence
Demilich
Diabolical Intent

really excellent death metal that didn't cost me anything.

Also, I've been listening to Karlheintz Stockhausen recording by his son,
called "Reise / Solisten" Its not really music, but audio compositions
for brass and wood wind to examine and alter our perception of time and rhythm
during time intervals. Its pretty out.

Devin townsend - Deconstruction.

Simply Amazing! Devin never stops amazing me. I also listened to the complete The Duskfall Discography I never really understood why this band never got any real attention from the Melodeath scene, in my eyes they where one of the best melodic death metal bands out there. A shame they split up though.

Elixir - The Son of Odin - This was the surprise of the week for me. Yes, one of the many vaguely Maiden-inspired late NWOBHM bands, but this is slowly becoming one of my favourite albums... ever. I think it has a lot to do with those smooth vocals. I wish more vocalists used that approach. The one review on this site compares them to Omen. Omen were a decent band, but for me this is in another league completely. Excellent album for which the often used attribute "atmospheric" actually makes a whole lotta sense. You could even call it relaxing.

Flotsam and Jetsam - Doomsday for the Deceiver - It went from 'it's okay' to 'wow, this is outstanding' to 'holyshittop10thrashalbum!' in about a week and a half. I remember the impact that Metallica's and Slayer's debuts had on me when I was a kid (15, 16). I loved what was essentially a much more aggressive version of older metal on those albums. Music generally no longer has that effect on me, but this album brought some of that old fire to me. And it's nearly an hour long, which I always have a problem with, but they pulled it off without being boring.

Darkness - Death Squad - Could be one of the most underrated German thrash metal albums in that everyone compares it to the 'big three', but I think Darkness had a face of its own. Yes, the influences are there, but it's not that simple. There is variety here which neither of the big three bands quite managed to pull of even in their prime. Oh, and it's one of those just-plain-fun-fuck-historical-importance albums. Remember those?

Last week I bought a new CD, Pentagram ''Last rites''. A lot of different inspirations were emanated on this one, it was something like a tug of war between rock'n'roll and doom vibe, minor themes were challenging major ones and so on. A vast panorama will appear before you: night, light, pain, personal struggles, life and death. Highly energetic music in vein of good old Black Sabbath. Strongly recomended for the 'open-minded' metal listeners for everything here is in perfect balance.

That write-up kind of makes it sound like this was your first tango with Pentagram. Please tell me this isn't the case? If you haven't yet you owe it to yourself to check out their debut, Day of Reckoning, and Be Forewarned. Start with the debut though! God damn that thing smokes.

The both albums - ''Day of Reckoning'' and ''Be Forewarned'' - are some stuff. I' m now really into the both albums, thanks. Just got a bit tired of doom-death hybrid, traditional doom is what I've searched for though I always liked Candlemass.

I've been listening to black metal near exclusively for the past weeks. I used to have an 'extensive' music taste, but I prefer being closed-minded about music. So here is the result:

Darkthrone - Under A Funeral Moon: It may sound weird coming from a black metal fan, but it actually took me like 7 years to really get into Darkthrone. Of course, I started off as a rather typical Dimmu Borgir kid so I at first had no clue what black metal was really about, and I couldn't bear the monotony of Darkthrone for more than 2 songs and only liked their Soulside Journey album. I don't know exactly what happened, but I've been doing a lot of thinking, reading and studying on art in general and the aesthetics of music in particular, and now I find Darkthrone absolutely fascinating, with Under A Funeral Moon probably being the best of the lot. It's even more raw and primitive than A Blaze, and I frankly find the songwriting more consistent and interesting. It led me to finally order the Transilvanian Hunger album as, by the sound of it, it is even more primitive and 'pure' than Under A Funeral Moon.

Peste Noire - L'Ordure à l'état Pur: Peste Noire is one of those rare bands that reinvents itself with every album. Their latest release is no different, with Famine drifting even further away from traditional black metal, taking influences from all kinds of genres. The difference with a lot of other experimental bands, however, is that PN never experiments for the sake of experimentation. In the second song, for example, a dubstep beat is used to fit the theme of (obviously ironic) objectification and degeneration of women. Even the lyrics are intentionally misspelled in the booklet to reflect the slang of the street culture the song's theme is refering to. I can't say too much other things without delving very deeply into the band's concept, but let it just be said that there is no band out there that outclasses Peste Noire when it comes to relating music to lyrics and concept. With the experimental nature of this album, many purists will probably dismiss it as selling out, while this is really quite the opposite. Peste Noire is not bound by any convention and mixes provocation (which takes place on both a lyrical and a musical level) and irony with very unconventional and deeply intelligent ideas about modern society. In a way, it is the true embodiment of the ideas that stood at the very basis of the birth of the second wave of black metal, translated to the 21st century. Add to that some insanely good musicianship and you have a classic. Indria showcases the best bass playing I've heard on a black metal record in ages and Famine is hands down the best black metal vocalist of his generation.

Kawir - Epoptia: I had been looking for this CD for quite a while, and now I finally have it. Released in 1999, Kawir's second full-length really is a mixed bag. The music itself is well-played and, for the most part, well-composed. Although it's definitely not on the same level as Arai (2005) and especially Ophiolatreia (2008), it's solid black metal from a band that obviously possesses musical talent. BUT, the vocals succeed in cloaking most of this musicianship under the veil of questionably obscene screeching. Especially on the song 'Erebus', the vocalist sounds like Donald Duck more than anything, and he resorts to way too much pointless screaming during instrumental breaks. The lyrics aren't much better, with most of them being in broken English, effectively breaking the magic that is present on most other Kawir releases (which are in Ancient Greek). I also feel the keyboard is a bit too dominant in the production, but seeing as Kawir made the prominent keyboard idea work on the subsequent Arai album (before they went for a rawer, more guitar-dominated sound), it may also have a thing or two to do with the sound of the keyboard simply being too cheap, evoking that same "hey, this sounds like my Casio keyboard" sentiment I also have whenever I listen to Daudi Baldrs (which is not often). All in all, Epoptia is not so much bad as it is disappointing, because I know how much this band rocked on subsequent releases. The potential was clearly there on this album, but a few bad elements (vocals and language) succeed in ruining most of that potential, or at least overshadowing the good parts.

Ash Borer - Self titled: Right away I should say that people into Skagos and WITR will like this. Its primal downtroden black metal with lots of atmosphere. They sound straight out of Cascadia, but apparently they are from California. There is this hovering ambiance that is just so majestic. There is of course a few nice acoustic passages. The great thing about this is as atmospheric as it is it is also extremely raw and menacing. Think of, instead of a clam day in the woods as you might have got with Agalloch's The Mantle, being stranded in a huge moss covered forest in a torrential downpour, soaked to the bone.

Clair Cassis - Clair Cassis II & Luxury Absolute: Both of these feature about the same number of songs as the full length but they are much shorter. The average song is in the two minute range. Their sound is not that much different from the debut, but there is lots of branching out and experimentation. The drums on Clair Cassis II are just alright, not as good as the album, but they get a lot better for Luxury Absolute. There is some great ambience and even some clean melodies. I only wish Angela's ethereal bass lines were more prominent. Josh's rasps are still low in the mix and as groggy as ever. These eps don't feel as nautical as the debut, though.

PROSTITUTE DISFIGUREMENT: Descendants of Depravity

I ignored this band for a long time because of their silly name, plus I don't have a lot of patience for gore-porn lyrics. But the folks at another metal site loved it and gave it a good recommendation, saying P.D. had refined their sound and subject matter quite a bit on their latest album. So I gave "Descendants" a chance and wow, am I glad I did. Excellent all around. You can tell what the vocalist is saying without gluing your eyes to the booklet, the production is great, and I love the subtle melodic parts. The songs are still gross enough that I can tell Prostitute Disfigurement haven't lost their identity.


KRABATHOR: Orthodox

After seeing Krabathor mentioned in the Old-School DM Gems thread, I decided to try out one of their albums. Orthodox was the cheapest one available, so I started with that. Well, it was......interesting. Not really good, not really bad. There's plenty of brutality to go around, it's just that their sound is kind of undistinguished. Orthodox would still make for a good listen if not for one thing--the lyrics. They are probably the worst I've seen in death metal. Consider this epic passage from the second song, Liquid:
"You are walking down the streets
You are feeling so much blind
Are you stranger in your mind?
Are you thinking how to die?
Die...by this way of dying..."

I'm not sure what language this stuff was translated from, but it's like this in every song (and wait till you hear Shit Comes Brown). None of this stops Orthodox from being an okay album, but it does make it a little hard to take the band seriously.

I've been on a power metal kick recently, and out of the many power metal albums I've listened to in the past week, two really stand out--one for how awesome it is, the other for how awesome it should have been.

Gamma Ray - Insanity and Genius
What a waste. Few albums have made so little out of so much potential as Insanity and Genius. Kai Hansen's songwriting is excellent when he sticks to his forte of rip-roaring power metal, but only three songs on this album qualify as such and they're all bunched together at the beginning--there's no redeeming epic at the end to make it all worthwhile like on Heading for Tomorrow, and not even a catchy fun song like "Free Time" (yes, I know there are probably no more than six people in the universe besides myself who like "Free Time", but bear with me). Ralf Scheepers has a great voice, better than Kai's--but he seems unwilling to just sing like he did on the debut, and instead spends much of the time fooling around with weird theatrics, shouting, screeching, and sometimes sounding like he downed a few pints before entering the recording studio. Everything after the first three tracks seems to have been written and recorded with a "let's throw random shit against the wall and hope it sticks" mentality, jumping between styles, moods, and themes with no sense of coherence or flow. It's kind of sad that the two covers tacked onto the end of the remaster are better than most of the album, especially "Save Us". Ralf stops fucking around and totally smokes Kiske's performance of this song, giving it a steely metal edge that really takes it over the top. This album could have been so much more--there's a Land of the Free struggling somewhere inside this mess of bad ideas and goofy non sequiturs, trying to escape. An album of that quality and single-minded focus with Scheepers at the mic would have been the crowning glory of Kai Hansen's career, but this is not that album. C-

Hibria - Defying the Rules
Putting an image of a teenage metalhead with flowing hair fighting ninjas on motorcycles with a katana on the cover is a pretty audacious statement of intent, but the actual music here doesn't disappoint. This album is one of the few homages to Painkiller that really hit the mark--there's a really electric energy here, and unlike Painkiller it manages to carry the momentum started by the opener all the way through to the end, although "Steel Lord on Wheels" does surpass all of the songs that follow it. Iuri Sanson's vocals are totally insane, soaring and tuneful but also furious as hell; they might be the single most relentlessly METAL vocal performance in power metal's history. There are some niggles here and there; the best songs are placed towards either end of the album, so it sags a bit in the middle, and the production is extremely loud, saturated, and compressed, sapping a bit of the band's earthshaking momentum and making a noisy mess of some of the layered vocal arrangements. But if you want an album that puts the metal in power metal, this will give you that steel-toed boot to the ass you've been looking for. A

I think I'm going to have to listen to Uncanny's compilation, MCMXCI - MCMXCIV for a few weeks in a row. It's everything I love about Swede Death with some 'extra' flair, if you will. I'll write more about it next week. I think these musicians (I refrain from calling them guys) truly attempted to capture something unique in their interpretation of Death Metal... there's even a touch of unmistakable hardcore (Sprang Skiten). Fuck yeah, I'd tell my best friend to go fuck themselves if they didn't like it. Their work was ahead of it's time.

Shining - Within Deep Dark Chambers (depressive black metal)

I had my doubts about this band when i heard about them, but honestly i loved the whole atmosphere. the album provokes the feeling of sitting alone under a tree or a rock during a furious, earthshattering hurricane while under a self-centered fit of rage and depression. if you listen to this album, you will forget about love, you will forget about people, you will forget everything except hatred, anger, and isolation. the musicianship throughout is just phenomenal, and i believe the production is that of what would be the bast black metal sound there is without the reverb drenched vocals. on the other hand though, the album never really shifts direction at all. usually thats a good thing, but in this case it makes for slight repetition and blandness. A-

Been listening to Manticora - Safe non-stop for about a month.

As usual with Manticora, the album takes a long time to settle in but once it does it destroys you with its awesomeness. There's a slight deviation in sound but they pull it off without compromising their style. These are such skilled musicians I'm baffled every time. They own most of their competition. They are also possibly more heavy then ever - just listen 'Carrion Eaters', very bottom heavy. This is clearly their best album since their masterpiece '8 Deadly Sins' and top 3 metal albums from that year for me.

Been listening a bit to one of my favorite death metal bands too: Amon Amarth. Very consistent band, can listen to any of their at any time and enjoy. Fabulous live band too.

Also I'm still into the best songs from Warlock/Doro Pesch. Very uneven band but some songs like 'Touch of Evil' and 'Für Immer' are just sooo good. Doro is absolutely fantastic live too, better than in the studio.

Wheels Within Wheels & Panopticon "Split II"

Got my copy about a week ago (came out a few weeks before), I'm really enjoying it thus far. Sounds quite different from the first split these guys did, and on Panopticon's side, quite different from anything else he's done. This is the farthest Lundr has gone in the Post-Rock/Shoegaze direction yet; all 3 songs feature clean singing (2 of 3 have harsh vox), everything's very melodic (and I'd say quite beautiful), there are lots of ambient, shoegazer-esque guitar effects, etc. And apparently his next release (a new full length) is gonna be more straight up, brutal, raw Black Metal- just goes to show that Lundr does whatever the hell he wants, haha. As for WWW's side (which comes first), I find it to be a bit more "Black Metal" then on the first split, if only due to the guitar tone- there's still much more of a droning, melodic Ambient thing going on to my ears. Both bands did wonderfully on this, as I'd come to expect from being a Panopticon fanboy and loving WWW's material on the first split these guys did.

Weakling "Dead As Dreams"

If you've ever wondered what a cross between WITTR's "Diadem Of 12 Stars" and Emperor's "Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk" would sound like, well, this comes pretty damn close (also, you and I would probably get along very well). Atmospheric and technical, mournful and majestic, enraged and just plain EPIC, this is a fantastic album. Anyone who tends to dislike USBM should give this a listen (and I'd hope it would help change their mind, but to each one's own and such). Just a sprawling, monolithic album.

Lurker Of Chalice's S/T

Possibly better then any of Wrest's Leviathan material. Certainly more diverse, and even more depressive (I've always gotten a bit more of an "angry" vibe from Leviathan). This is some twisted, bizarre music; significant influence from Industrial, Dark Ambient, Sludge/Doom Metal, and Neo-Folk pops up in here, creating a disturbing and brilliant collage of sounds. To put it simply, this is not for the "kvlt" purists. Great stuff.

Political Terror "Bastard Beings" demo

This is just some nasty, filthy, hateful Raw Black Metal. Some of the best I've heard in the style. Not too much I can say as this is only 12 minutes long, but anyone who likes Raw BM should at least check out the opening song "Born Into This", if not the whole demo.

Well, there are some of the releases I've been listening to a lot this week (along with some Orchid and Pg99, but that isn't Metal).

Dråpsnatt - Hymner till undergången

This is my first contribution to this thread, I aim to satisfy. Dråpsnatt is probably unknown to anyone outside of scandinavia, with some exeptions I guess. We are talking a chilling mix of folk and black metal with a vocalist reminicent of Varg from Burzum. Or so I am told, since I havent payed my respects to Varg, I really cant say if this is true. This came from a friend of mine that listens to a LOT of Burzum. On another side the music is very "clean". Well produced and I have to say the clean vocals on the album is one for the good times.
Some soundsampling put to good use in the first two or three songs helps a lot in the "adjusting to the album"-phase.
Lyrics in swedish. A really cool art-layout on the cover. A much more polished version of Burzum.

Key tracks: "en ensam sol går ned" og "mannen i min spegel"
translates: "a solemn sun sets" and "the man in my mirror"

Mouth of the Architect - Quietly
A great mix of post rock and sludge. I find a lot of these so-called post-metal bands often sound the same and don't tread to far from the template that Isis, Cult of Luna and Neurosis laid out. Mouth of the Architect, however, have their own sound. They can be heavy as fuck when they want to be, but they can also churn out some pretty beautiful atmospheres. For example, "Medicine" reminds me more of Mogwai than anything metal related. One thing that sometimes annoy me about bands that play this style is lack of variety in the vocal department. Its what stopped Cult of Luna's latest record from being amazing. This band does not have any problems with this. they have harsh barked vocals, clean vocals and even female vocals on one song. This album has a good balance of heaviness and beautiful atmosphere.

Oak & Bone - s/t
These guys play a mix of psychedelic stoner metal and hardcore. And by hardcore I mean as in actual hardcore punk. Not the gimmicky stuff. While I think they will record a record better than this in the future, this is a damn good start. "Oakener" might just become my favourite stoner metal song of all time. The exotic melody on that song is just breathtaking. There is a good variety of slow and fast songs on this album. There is heavy emphasis on bass and there is no shortage of trippy leads. All in all, a great debut LP.

I checked out Prostitute Disfigurement - Descendants Of Depravity and so far: thumbs up. Surprisingly good for what was also for me an ignored band name.

These have been in constant rotation for some time.

Ketzer - Satan's Boundaries Unchained
What a ripper of on album! The whole affair opens with a stately, measured introduction which peels off a ridiculously magnificent solo, one that immediately commands your attention, hovering over the solid backbone of the guitar. From that point on, you're already hooked, wanting to see what lurks beyond this edifice that has been created. A small dose of feedback lets the introduction gracefully die, before charging full-tilt into the title track with complete disregard for the metallic majesty that preceded it. Once into the guts of the album, you are treated to a near constant barrage of Blackthrashing savagery, scything and slashing it's way onward. However it's not all frenetic, wildly flailing aggression, at times moments of semi-epic passages are skillfully worked into the structures, in a way that reminds me of the glorious Zarathustra, full of heroic, proud themes (of a Satanic nature of course). It is almost impossible to sit still while playing this, as the song-writing wants you to bang that head! Which it succeeds at by pulling no punches, delivering the correct riff, or time change at exactly the right time, I can only imagine how brilliant this would be live. Fucking awesome.

Terrorama - Omnipotence
This nasty little beast has a distinctly noisy, grimy attitude to it indeed. Omnipotence is a stripped-back, blackened, Thrash tainted fist in the face, spitting fire and venom at all and sundry. The style and sound is rather primitive, with what appears to be standard tuning (and a rather grainy, fiery tone) that burns a red hole into your eardrums. Pounding drums add further aggression into an already quite aggressive flavour, and the throat-tearing vocals are the searing icing on the cake, pouring out litanies of anger and rage. The very raw and spartan nature of the production is something which I rather like, as nothing is stifled, and the occasional nods to early Bathory give it some roots to cling to. I feel this album will not be for everyone, due to it's blatantly blunt mood and colour, but is something I find earthy and convincing.

GBK - early albums
I Waxed nostalgic with some Grand Belial's Key. Mostly the first two LP releases. When I first got into this band me and my good friend always loved Judeobeast Assassination so much, The overlapping and tandem vocals were always a really cool touch, and we loved how mocking the lyrics were of Jesus and the apostles, calling them faggots and pimps ( Pimps of Genesserat) And the mix of dirty punk traditional heavy metal licks is a brand all their own. The other thing we always loved was the fact that Cass Grant sung too. I'm a sucker for a singing drummer (Dystopia, Autopsy, Absu)
"Lamb of God slain will be" is another well done tune. Off the album Mocking the Philanthropist I replayed Holocaust Trumpeter several times. I always thought it was lyrically interesting how the band (And Arghoslent occasionally) Mislead you with a title that seems blatantly linked to something Racial or Skinhead , when it actually isn't. Like this song for instance has nothing to do with The Holocaust. They use the term the way it was used pre WW2, to signify great tragedies and devastations, and the trumpeter being a horse-riding omen, and the crier of coming terrors. I could go on forever about GBK. Fuck i hate how music makes you miss hanging out with your friends. When i called him he said he had been listening to "Kosherat" and watching "until the light takes us" alot. Funny how a good friend is always on the same page no matter how far the distance.

Anathema - Alternative 4
I remember the first time I listened to this record and how it moved me. The violin in the beginning of "Fragile Dreams" and Vincent Cavanagh, his voice is perfect. I really liked this record 4 years ago and I still very much enjoy it. The whole atmosphere and musicianship is excellent and the lyrics are really good. Too bad the album cover is pretty bad though.

Cruel Force - Under the Sign of the Moon

I've been a small amount of noise about this album for a couple days now. I've sat down with it for a couple end to end listens. What a treat this album is. While the artist page lists them as black/thrash, outside of the vocals I don't really hear much black metal running around in this mix. In fact, the vein of thrash they're working in reminds me quite a bit of another favorite, Heavy Breathing from Black Breath. It has that same "this is how we do things and it's awesome", and they simply just make it so with solid songs, a great sound, and a no-preconceived-notions attitude towards their material, which in my book, is exactly how the most entertaining metal is made: not batting an eye but maybe a tiny knowing wink about they do.

Or maybe I'm just enjoying their Holocaust cover too much. Maybe that's the awesome. Who knows.

Wolves In The Throne Room "Celestial Lineage"

Can't get enough of it. WITTR up the atmosphere to even higher levels then before, and play some of their best music ever. Too bad it's gonna be their last, though at least they never crapped out now...

Death "Symbolic"

One of my all time favorite albums. Certainly my favorite Death album. All the melodies and Prog influence just worked out beautifully.

Peregrine "The Agrarian Curse"

Blackened Death Metal riffs with Crusty Hardcore vox; yeah, this works pretty damn well for me.

Ahab "Call Of The Wretched Sea"

One of the best Funeral Doom albums I've heard. Sounds like I imagine drowning would feel. Just crushing.

Agrimonia- Host Of The Winged

Amazing Death/Doom with Crust (and to a lesser extent Black Metal) overtones. Amazing atmosphere on this; very melodic and epic, while riffy (lots of Bolt Thrower influence at times) as hell at the same time. Possibly the best thing coming out of Sweden right now.

Martyrdod- Sekt

Another contender for best thing coming out of Sweden right now (and sharing at least a guitarist), Martyrdod are one of the best Blackened Crust bands around. And this is their best album; a PERFECT fusion of the dark, epic atmosphere of classic Black Metal and the primal, raging intensity of D-Beat/Crust.

Wolvhammer- Black Marketeers Of World War III

Crusty Blackened Sludge madness. And endless barage of killer riffs, ranging from blasting/tremolo picked BM to rockin' Hellhammer/Celtic Frost worship (well, they would be worship in another context) to droning, decaying, DOOM-as-fuck pounding. Kinda hard to describe the album as a whole- but it's awesome.

Alpinist / Masakari split

42 minutes of raging Neo-Crust/Dark Hardcore bands. I like Alpinist a bit more, but both are great to get pumped up to, with heavy enough doses of epic/melodic elements on the side. Love this kinda stuff.

I think there's quite a death metal scene there in Italy with bands playing Death-influenced death metal. One of my favorite ones is "Illogicist".

Regarding Sound of Perseverance sounding vocals, there's another Italian band called "Exence". He tries to sing like Chuck, but the result is like Ratatouille singing death metal

Oh, I love Illogicist! Took a few spins to warm to The Insight Eye but I now find that one to be even better than Subjected. The second half of the album is where it's at, really. "Soundless Pain" and "Core" is where they shine the most.

I'm also looking forward to The Unconsciousness Of Living. It's been far too long since they've had any action and I thought they had fallen off the face of the planet. That's going to be another lesson in technical death metal goodness, I believe.

I also like the fact that they don't use blast beats in their music, too. I like them, but it's refreshing to hear technical death without them. They might change that up on their next one, but that'll be a big factor as to why I love the first two albums.

Ive been listening to alot of OSDM lately. I went out to a concert to go see Immolation and jungle rot play live. I also have been listeing to a couple of albums from Deteriorot lately. Im starting to get more into the mid paced groove based OSDM lately.

I too saw them live. I'm not sure how other people do it, but I usually have a band or two that I get stuck on for quite some time. For the last 2 weeks, it's been Immolation..Immolation.....Immolation. This last week, most prominently Shadows in the Light. I just bought this album, and it really has its own sound. I know that's silly, but to my ears, each Immolation album is very distinct and recognizable. When I'm at home I like to just put a certain artist on shuffle and hear the contrast and changes album to album. This album I loved so much I have been listening to it exclusively, track by track. World Agony was the 1st song I heard from it a few years back when I saw the video and its still one of my favorite Immolation songs. My music time this week was dominated by Immolation on shuffle though, to be more simple. I love skipping from DoP to Majesty and Decay, or even some of their middle albums

I am listening to Caducity- Old school death metal band.
This band really needs to be heard. Everything is so raw and one of the good old school band out there.
Fucking loving it.

finally got around to listening to Irrbloss by Yggdrasil today. I'm usually kinda picky about folk metal stuff (sometimes the folk singing can get kinda goofy in parts) but this band knows how to pull off the clean vocals, not too mention they have some pretty awesome black metal riffs throughout. But the icing on this masterpiece is definitely the vocals, really epic and powerful and don't come off too cheesy like alotta folk bands do. It's essentially Folkearth if they weren't so... bad.

bathory - under the sign of the black mark 1987
god, this album has so many headbanging parts on it, which is something that I think lacks from newer black metal. the vocal structures and phrasing are magnificent, the pace and vibe of every riff is perfect, and the tapey drum sound is glorious. choice tracks are: 13 Candles, Woman of dark desires, and call from the grave. the bells, gong, and guitar layers on enter the eternal fire are awesome too.

Autopsy - Mental Funeral
I was going through some Entombed and decided to revisit some other early Death Metal, so I got out this. And boy is it good. I love the purity of the OSDM sound combined with its own unique sludgy doom side. It also has a particularly primal sound to it that others like Entombed didn't quite capture. And the production is grimy, but very fitting.

Hypocrisy - Penetralia and Osculum Obscenum
More early Death Metal goodness. Penetralia is a great album in its own right, full of good riffs and some surprising diversity, Peter Tägtgren hadn't quite mastered his grunting as he would in the next album though. Osculum Obscenum is my favorite of the two I think. It's a very special DM album to me anyway because it has a very distinctly evil atmosphere that was very well done on the album, and you don't hear everywhere. I do like Abducted, and I need to listen to The Fourth Dimension more, but their first two albums are where Hypocrisy was one of the all time greats of the genre.

Peste Noire- La Sanie Des Siecles

Amazing album. One of so many examples of a totally fucked up person making excellent Black Metal, haha. This album has almost everything I love about French Black Metal in it; it's melodic, it's raw, and it's highly melancholy. Excellent!

Horna- Aaina Yossa

Horna at their most Burzum-esque. Probably my favorite Horna album, though I don't know everything by them so I can't really say that. I love the generally mid-paced nature of this, and, damn, are the riffs killer.

Nortt- Ligfaerd

Amazing mixture of Funeral Doom and DSBM. Listening to this practically gets me stoned, gotta love those funereal paces. The keyboard work on here is especially noteworthy; the atmosphere it provides is beautiful, and incredibly dark. Makes me think of massive mountains, at the dead of night, in the middle of winter.

Xasthur- The Funeral Of Being

This is what DSBM is all about; takes me into a world of misery, despair, and loneliness...and I can't get enough of it. Almost as good as "Subliminal Genocide", which I consider to be Malefic's best work.

Mutiilation- Vampires Of Black Imperial Blood

One of my favorite releases to come out of Les Legiones Noires (granted, I don't know too many of them). Melodic, raw, melancholic, and primitive, this is some great old school Black Metal here. Also has a lot of D-Beats used, which is always great in Black Metal.

Vlad Tepes / Belketre- March To The Black Holocaust

Holy shit, this is incredible. Both bands do a fantastic job of melding dark, twisted melodies into primitive, ugly, raw Black Metal. Vlad Tepes' side kind of makes me think of a French version of Immortal's "Pure Holocaust", both have similar ways of using melody. And Belketre's side is just eerie and morbid as fuck.

Bone Awl- Meaningless Leaning Mess

Raw, simplistic Black Metal-Punk. This is my kinda "party-music"! Listening to these guys just gets me so pumped up, love it!

As the 2011 winter season barrels towards us I have been priming myself for months of concentrated and uncompromising black metal, but even with the fitting season to aid in atmosphere, occasionally I have to take a break from the constant blizzard of blast beats and high pitched screams beckoning the coming of satan. Trying not to stray too far from the black metal genre as a whole I've been listening to a lot post-black metal and various subgenres of black metal.

Lantlos- Agape
This album has been out for about a month now and not a day has went by that I haven't spun it AT LEAST once. Extending beyond the more blackened predecesor ".neon", their newest release shifts into a style more driven by post rock and sludge. That's not to say it isn't filled with Neige's (Alcest) trademark black metal shriek. This album is awesome and heartfelt with incredibly well written (sometimes bizarre) lyrics, and true matured musicianship that is shown through knowing when to let lose and when to pace yourself.

Nortt- Galgenfrist (vinyl)
I have listened to this album to death, but last night for the first time had the pleasure of echoing it through my house on vinyl format, and let me tell you it makes a difference. Every single solitary eerie reverberation needs to be heard to fully take in this mammoth of blackened funeral doom. Nortt is a man who truly hates being alive, because I can without hesitation that this album, when coupled with the perfect atmosphere, is one of the most depressing auditory experiences black metal has to offer. It's worth noting the album is a massive build up of ambience and crushing heaviness to a beautiful minimilist keyboard riff in the 6th track.

I would encourage any metalhead to pick either of these releases up and really devote some time to not only listening to them but EXPERIENCING them. It's worth your time, this is true art.

The new Midnight album kicks fucking ass. It's great old school metal with a black metal overtone. The best comparison I could make would be if early Venom met eighties heavy metal melody. Great find.

I did not enjoy the new Anthrax at all. The music seemed uninspired the vocals were an awkward pairing of 90's power metal and nu-metal vocals.

Ghoul's new album is great too. I actually enjoy how they've slown down some of the riffing. The new songs are overall much catchier and groove oriented than the older material.

I am hooked on Dahmer by Macabre.

I have been listening to it all week. I like how the band accurately tells the story of Jeffrey Dahmer. The heavy deathgrind sound of the verses with the nursery rhyme sounding catchy choruses is great. Some of the songs can get stuck in your head quite easily. Especially the portion about Jeffrey working at a chocolate factory, they do it to the oompa loompa theme. Its a crazy album with a sick sense of humor.

DOG GUTS DOG GUTS !!!

I recently also came into macabre ,lately been listening to murder metal which has a great sound for the mixture of thrash, death and grind,
If you are interested in serial killers and cant understand the vocalists growls or histerically high pitched screams, i recommend you to read the lovingly written lyrics.
The music fits perfectly to the themes, the bass playing is superb ,every riff of the guitarist is overaverage and the drummer is an actually an insane freak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS-qP13qPKo ( lyrics below)

9/10

Murmuüre released a highly atmospheric and disturbing piece of music .Their/His self titled debut is a mix of atmospheric black metal ,ambient and some industrial.
The vocals are recorded in the woods and the whole album is tinkered together of a rehearsal and some more or less weird noises.
Experimental fans check this out ,also open minded black metalists.

8/10

Furia is an underrated Black metal act from poland. With their album martwa polska jesien they recorded
the perfect black metal album.
It's depressive, atmospheric, innovative and angry (furia means fury in polish).
Every instrument is audible ,every song amazing till the end (thanks to the songwriting ).
I m not sure but something like this doesnt happen often.
And if you want to be a black metalist, stop trying to
like some unhearable "satanic" underground rehearsal tape from 1994 by some untalented black metal band and listen to Furia (and celtic frost of course).

10/10

Some stuff is easy to hear others not so much but I have read through most of the lyrics. Some of them are pretty funny, and i've read up on a lot of the serial killers they sing about in the past. I was really into true crime reading for a while. Some of those choruses get stuck in my head and I find myself singing them out loud when i'm not paying attention. Great stuff!

I know they're not a metal band, but they definitely have a lot of ties to the metal scene and their fanbase is primarily made up of metalheads. Anyway this album has been highly anticipated by many people (myself included) and I feel that I've listened to it enough to give it a short view.

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
The first time I heard this album I honestly was a bit underwhelmed. It was good, but didn't really match up to how great I thought it would be. However, after more listens it became more enjoyable each time. The first thing that most people will notice is that TDB have taken on a more psychedelic sound and have structured their songs in a more prog rock fashion. This is most apparent in songs like "On the Wings of Gloria" "Madness of Serpents" "Feverdance" and the title track. It is also apparent in between songs since many of them are connected by way of the song slowly fading away into a fog of effects and solos. Fans of their first album and EPs don’t have to worry, there is still a good amount of straight forward hard rock that the band built their reputation on. Songs like "Die the Death" "Cruel Lover" "She" and "Fire Burning" would fit into the band’s back catalogue quite nicely. One song that seems to stand out among all of these is "Everlasting Saturnalia" a calm, almost ballad like song with vocals and a piano and some guitar effects/solos in the background for good measure. Its something very different for TDB. Given the description it might sound out of place on the album but it actually fits into the big picture quite nicely. Overall this album has some interesting experimentation and song structures, but there’s enough energy and general rocking out to keep the listener’s attention.
However this isn’t the perfect album. The faults that this album has are minor but still worth mentioning. There are a few elements here and there that just seem a bit frivolous and generally unnecessary. The way that some songs are strung together just doesn’t really seem like it adds anything to the song. For example the transition between "She" and "The Thousandfold Epicentre" is a string section accompanied by an acoustic guitar playing in a classical style. It doesn’t sound bad, but the question I keep asking is "are the cellos/violins really necessary?" we’re talking about a band with 3 guitar players here, couldn’t one or two of them handled the part the strings have? It seems like the only reason the strings are there is to make the song seem more "epic". It’s a similar thing with the song "Within the Charnel House of Love" in this song there seems to be a horn and string section playing with the band in some parts. There are other various instruments that the band doesn’t have scattered throughout the album but their contribution seems only minimal. Also the closing song "Feverdance" seems a little bit anticlimactic, especially since it clocks in at over 15 minutes; it’s not a bad song but I think a stronger ending would’ve helped the album.
Despite a few frivolous tendencies I still think it’s a very strong album and I would still recommend it to fans of 70’s hard rock, Psychedelic, and Progressive rock. You may not be blown away at first listen but its still much worth putting time into.

8.5/10