It should feel like I've been waiting since the dawn of time for new Akercocke material, but with the Antichrist Imperium and the incredibly excellent Voices, my fix has been kept somewhat at bay. However, to the die hard Akercocke fanatic, I imagine this is somewhat akin to taking methadone instead of heroin, so it is an enormous sigh of relief that I can now lose myself in the blissful, all-encompassing abyss of the group's satanic, blackened death metal once more.
Akercocke feel fresh and revitalized by their break, which is a massive relief, what with a lot of bands "coming back" as pale shadows of themselves, often motivated by cash. The sound here is a lot more refined, where the frenetic chaos of earlier Scanlan-like tracks can now enjoy the breathing room of the sprawling production work akin to the Deeds... era, or later Voices material (yes, Scanlan was on Choronzon, but despite how hard that record hit, it was a very dense production).
Akercocke have carved their own niche in the intricate world of progressive death metal, and now that I've listened to this record several times over and really let it set in, it genuinely feels like they never really went away. Just like, don't go anywhere soon, yeah guys?
Stand out tracks: "Dissappear", "First To Leave The Funeral", "A Final Glance Back Before Departing" and the epic "A Particularly Cold September".
The incredible symphonic metal sound of Ill-Natured... is like Enthrone Darkness Triumphant-era Dimmu on steroids, boasting a fatter production job, slightly-less-twinkly song structures and a drum sound that is nothing short of an absolute privilege to listen to. I mean, the fact that we as humans can make sounds that are as awesome as this... it brings a tear to my eye! *sobs*. It's almost enough to get me excited about metal again!
Cross Dismember with the already mentioned Dimmu and you get Old Man's Child, on this album's sound, at least. Plus, the art is the stuff of metal album sleeve hall of fame. My only complaint about this album that it is too short. I literally want more. Luckily for me, this is my first experience with the Old Man's Child canon. Galder might be focusing full time on Dimmu at the moment, but I have plenty of time to check out the rest of this project's discography.
World Ov Worms is a lesson in razor sharp, sadistic death metal, taught by purveyors of the "other side" of the school: that being some of black metal's most revered elite. Couple this with a dodgy name, very long trench coats and similar bizarre electronic passages to those on Mayhem's A Grand Declaration Of War, and you have the icing on the cake to what is Zyklon's Wormy World.
I remember World Ov Worms coming out when I was just a nipper getting into the world of alternative music. The track "Deduced to Overkill" appeared on a Kerrang! Compilation CD and I could not process nor understand what I was hearing - it was truly too extreme for me at the time, bless. The overall production here is astoundingly clear; there is crystal transparency, an equilibrium between the extremities of brutality and listenability that is rarely so well traveled and executed. Honestly, the electronic passages would probably put a few purists off but Zyklon is definitely under-rated in the death metal world.
Some of the more chaotic riff patterns remind me heavily of 1349, and Trym's drumming is on point, as per usual. Great stuff.
What I love most about black metal, asides from the ability to create intense cacophonous textures out of lo-fi hiss, is that is can really conjure up a dense and beautiful atmosphere, all the while being abrasive and "heavy", if not in the traditional sense of the word. This approach to black metal is taken further in the wave of 2000s-era one man bands, and one of the best of the whole bunch simply has to be Xasthur.
To Violate The Oblivious is a journey through a dark and twisted world, where misery seeps from every minute, and a soothing melancholy edge compliments the harsh metal perfectly. The riffs, especially in moments where the rest of the instrumentation drops out, are expertly weaved into a tapestry of interesting melody, being stark and somewhat drab whilst at the same time being uplifting and dually poignant.
If you don't like black metal then this is probably not a good place to start, but like many other recordings by Xasthur, this is an under-rated masterpiece.
My recent Sehnsucht review reminded me that I have to touch upon Grand Declaration Of War by Mayhem. Contrary to a lot of Mayhem fans, Grand Declaration is my favourite album from the group. The clinical execution, insane song structures and bizarre techno passages are a hundred thousand million miles away from Deathcrush and the like; the fact that this is even the same band (to a degree) is startling.
Maniac is not my favourite Mayhem vocalist. In fact, it is quite hard to pick a favourite, as all of them have brought their own dark magic to the proceedings in various different ways. On Grand Declaration Of War, Maniac acts as the perverted ring leader; his surreal, jarring commentary leading the dexterous and intense onslaught with a psychopathic confidence. Meanwhile, Hellhammer Featuring 9000 Triggers lays total and absolute waste to the drum kit. Love him or loathe him, the drumming performance here is nothing short of mind boggling. The guitar work too, is a lot sharper than the barbed wire on the cover art, no doubt, with pure wandering, barbed, terrifying black metal riffage!
Stand out tracks for me include the erratic "A Time To Die", the bizarre "A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun" (parts one and two!) and "Crystalized Pain in Deconstruction". Whatever your opinion on this experimental album, there can be no doubt that it has pushed the definitions of what can be considered black metal.
Didn't really know what to feel about posting this, what with the "accusations" against Satanic Warmaster (who denies flat out being racist, despite some extremely questionable lyrics). It is also a weird situation where a non-NSBM band has done a split with a band that is considered to be a NSBM act. Regardless, I've covered some pretty extreme shit here before, and have also written about Death In June and even Burzum, so the show will go on, objectively at least.
I'll start with the offending article of Satanic Warmaster. It is almost a relief to me that they are the weaker of the two bands on the split, so the temptation to check out any more of their stuff has literally died on its arse. It isn't entirely bad, but it isn't particularly stunning or original either; a lot of the nuance gets lost in the cluttered distortion, rather than being granted life by it instead. And the second track...fuck I don't even know what to say here. It kinda goes off into a dreary, acoustic nod to the type of melody that Lifelover would have executed in the Pulver days, but it just sounds like complete shit.
Behexen, on the other hand, are fucking class. These two tracks are beautiful, and encompass everything I love from black metal; the way that the duality floats between complete sonic nihilism and intense, bombastic, almost symphonic-in-scale moments of grandiose velocity. I can't remember why this was even on my Spotify to-do-list (it has been there a very long time) but I'm mega glad I bit the bullet and checked it out. A ton of Behexen shit has just replaced it. Amazing.
Ah man, this is just, like, so lush. That was probably the Welshest sentence I've ever written to describe music, but I feel like it is somewhat entirely justified in this instance; you tend to hear the term "nice" black metal bandied about to describe acts such as Alcest, but I don't usually rate those types of acts. However, Deafheaven for some reason seem to be an exception for me. This band have managed to follow up the ethereal Sunbather with something even more profound, expansive and all-encompassing than before; heaps of washing atmospheres and glittering passages of light mash head on with elements of blasting brutality, throat shredding vocals and soaring leads. Or, you could just write it off as hipster black metal, if you like.
Can't wait to catch these guys live in a few weeks; if this material is anything to go by then the live show is bound to be intense as fuck. Favourite track: "Baby Blue".
This is one of those albums that I ended up checking out purely because of the cover art. I've been avoiding Abigail Williams for the best part of a decade, purely because I thought they were some sort of shitty scene metalcore band or something, and whilst they do bring that kinda "edge" to the table, In The Shadow Of A Thousand Suns is a complex piece of a work and a decent contribution to modern black metal. Imagine Dimmu Borgir meets Suicide Silence, or something along those lines.
Speaking of Dimmu, I could swear this band picked up Mustis after the Norwegian titans shuffled their staff; the keyboard playing is fucking on point. The metal is solid, especially the guitar work, but I keep waiting for the onslaught to end so I can get a earful of that sweet, sweet piano. Anyway, an incredibly solid record, although not something that I would usually pick.
Polish Darkthrone if they were from Manchester. It's good; there’s a nice mix of heavy and tremolo riffs with a production that you can hear, both without sounding polished or like it was recorded in your Nan’s shed. I like it. It’s not afraid to go slow and the vocals are just crossing the line of black from death. There's a fine line. The UK black metal club scene sports a lot of bands who want to be Behemoth, but there is a lot of Darkthrone channeled here, as well as the death metal influence. Track five, "Nothing Awaits", sums it up for me. There be a little bit of Carpathian Forest as well as the influences I aforementioned.
All in all, a great album. Great band. I have seen them live (and under very difficult circumstances) deep in the valleys of South Wales and they nailed their set. CD is a nice cardboard gatefold; cool grey and black (fuck you Xerox), with cryptic artwork. I would have liked a lyric sheet, but that is always my bugbear. Go listen to the music, buy the t-shirt, fuck the girlfriends. Cool band.
I saw these guys live and thought they were shit. I mean, fucking plank solo much? This album, unfortunately, does not do much to change my mind on them. Even by black metal standards, the production on this is terrible. It sounds like a seriously crappy mp3 compression, if crappy mp3 compression could somehow have been attained in the early 90s on some shitty recording equipment. The guitars failover into nothing but pure fuzz, offering no nuance, riffage, tune or even overall atmosphere. Its like a 96kps rip of a fucking beehive, but run through a flanger.
Everything else follows suite similarly. The vocals are weak and almost non-existent in the mix, and the drum kit sounds like a £50 shitheap from Argos or something. The only redeeming feature of this record is the synth work, which is surprisingly advanced, although possibly only in comparison to the rest of this shitshow. I know a lot of black metal (and noise, and punk, and goregrind) that sounds like complete shit but still rocks really hard. This...this is just terrible.
This is a super-kvlt-as-fvvk bootleg release of two sound desk recordings from the Day Of Darkness Festifall in Finland, all the way back in 1991, although it wasn't released until 1994. It was originally released on 1000 copies of red wax, but has since been re-released and repackaged on several formats under different titles - such is the world of bootleggers! To be honest, I stumbled across this without even realizing that it was a bootleg. The only thing sucky about bootlegs is that it can hurt underground bands sometimes.
This is really, really cool, though. I mean, just the cover art for a start, but the music itself is fantastic; it's grainy, wobbly and a little bit awful, but that lends itself to the content immensely. I had almost forgotten Impaled Nazarene's dirgy beginnings (their full lengths always surprise me as being so well produced for such a savage band), and Beherit slay it here too.
One to spin if you're feeling in an underground mood.
Demonoir is a ferocious, blasting beast with enough venom to put most of the black metal scene to shame. Mixing volatile, confusing, almost mathematic song structures with endless battery attacks and monolithic, pensive vocal contributions, Demonoir is surely the calling call for the black metal pure bloods. Marrying brutality with subtly, dissonance with solidarity, grimm with the khold (sorry haha), 1349 are on top form as ever. There is simply no way I can ever fault a 1349 record. It just isn't possible, unless Pink Floyd is involved.
There is a puzzling array of cover sleeves for this record. None of them are particularly amazing, but I find the one I chose above to be the most profound and intriguing. The text and brilliant red seem blazing in comparison to the muddy nature of the actual art itself. Perhaps it is meant to highlight the cold clashes of 1349's lightening fast blurs and searing precision? Who truly knows...
Eastern Front play an interesting, modern brand of grim and cold blackened metal. As claustrophobic yet desolate as a Siberian no-man's land, perpetuated entirely by a contradictory boxy and compressed drum sound as a foundation for expansive, frosty riffery. It is, quite honestly, a bit of a clusterfuck, sonically. It's like the album can't decide if it wants to be dissonant and mysterious, or tight and precise. Therefore it sits somewhere in the middle, not really falling fully into either camp, presenting the listener with an unique listening experience.
If you're into leather, corpsepaint and beards that resemble ancient door bells, then I would strongly recommened Eastern Front. The military thematics add an extra, almost cinematic edge to the already twisted grimness of the blackened metal on display. Fight or die!
Esoteric Warfare is (at the time of writing) the most recent offering by the current incarnation of legendary black metal icons, Mayhem. For a band that has always been knee-deep in, well, mayhem, it is perhaps of no surprise that their back-catalogue has been somewhat inconsistent; often strikingly different music styles counteract each other as the band continues to unfurl it's unholy magic on the unsuspecting metal world. Contrary to this, Esoteric Warfare, despite it's kinda "meh" (I'm sorry) production job, is one of the more consistent records the band has put out.
"Watchers" was the lead single here, representing the mushy, clumsily-brutal atmospherics of modern day Mayhem nicely for the festering masses. With the second most popular track here being "Psy War", it is with unfortunately ease that one can compartmentalise this album to these first two tracks, and lose sight of the rest of this beast, which is exactly what it seems Mayhem do when it comes to playing anything off of this live, but there we go.
The chaos that Mayhem exists in continues to produce unpredictable and unusual results.
(Words by Griefmonger, archivist of blackened aural misanthropies)
A brutal black metal record? "What?" I hear you exclaim! "Warm bass and deep vocals?" Shock horror! What would seem at first as your average death metal chunk-and-stop evolves into a black death slugger quicker than water into good red wine. We have the drill of the tremolo layering the typical bellow and breakdown-friendly nod that what would normally be a staple of a death metal band. Sathamel build a song, but very quickly the meat of the mainstay is brought to bear. If you're into frostbitten kingdoms, you're not going to get it here; instead of hyperthermia, you're going to get a baton of freshly smithed nails smashed into your head.
Its more on the melodic side of British black metal, but its heavy as fuck. If these guys were born in Poland then they would be held aloft. (Early) Decapitated and Behemoth seem to be the influence. It would probably be a crime not to mention that there is a bit of Belphegor here too but without a lyric sheet I might be wrong……
Tracks that stand out are "Wingless", "Abbadon" ( c’mon, a song about a deity that brings three versions of the bible into question can’t be bad) and "Eternal Hunters". It is not to put into question the other three tracks, but like the songs themselves, these tracks are the ones that build the album into a crescendo. Just listen to it, okay!
Witnessing them live also I can attribute the blood drenched image they use suites better than the crisp corpse paint. these guys will make you bang your head and none of that is lost on the recorded version. Also, the release is in a nice double cardboard sleeve (wish there was a lyric sheet though), and it has a chained up fat bird with her intestines and serpents bursting out of her so its fucking cool, alright?
Look, listen and learn - there is a brutal black metal band (dare I say blackened death metal?) scene in the UK.
(Words by Griefmonger, K.I.N.G. ov thy trvest sounds)
Grim, inappropriate, catchy and scathing - these are the first things that come to mind for describing Wolfbastard’s debut. Self-proclaimed as d-beat black metal, don’t expect later Darkthrone worship as this little 21:41 minutes of fuck you has more in common with Discharge-meets-Carpathian Forest than F.O.A.D.
It’s a bastard (forgive the pun) of two thirds of blackened death Mancs Burial (more blackened nowadays).
The first four tracks have a very grim feel and you can hear the black metal run true with a loose right hand, a fast d-beat and a scream that gives a little bit of a goat blood flavour.
As for the rest of the album, you can hear where the cult live-gig-crowd are gonna chime in and fucking love it. From then on, you know: "Sick In The Bath". "F.R.P.B" ( Fat Romanian Punch Bag anyone!?), "Fuck The Pope" and "Die Bastard Die" are going to be chanted live by those who have learned the chorus. There's no lyric sheet, but there's no need though, as you can hear the expletives and that’s all we need, right?
It's nasty, filthy and it shall appeal to crusties, black metal heads and some of the more extreme punk crowd alike. The artwork is pretty cool, too; buxom scarred beauties engaging in foreplay with wolves - what’s not to love?
"Sick in the Bath"! You are all gonna be singing it sooner or later.
Sardonic Wrath is one of those mid-career Darkthrone records I always seem to look past, so I made the decision to add it to my Spotify in order to get a bit more circulation out of it. I seem to fall into the terrible habit of writing off everything released in between the flurry of early 90s black metal masterpieces and the massive return to form with the crust punk style in the mid 2000s. And yes, whilst it is true that some of the Darkthrone material from this middle-period can leave a lot to be desired, I don't believe that the same can be said for Sardonic Wrath, which is a surprisingly punishing affair of cold lo-fi black metal.
The extra commentary tracks packaged onto the end of this particular version of the release actually helped me get a better perspective on the Darkthrone recording process. Sardonic Wrath marks the point where Fenriz's guitar parts are starting to be written into the music, and the man himself proudly admits this was the point where the band stopped looking at just riffs, and instead started looking at songs as a whole. The intensity of early Darkthrone focussed entirely on the riff, so I believe this tidbit of information greatly explains the drastic change of direction the band would take not so long after Sardonic Wrath was released.
In that respect, Sardonic Wrath is the last "truly" black metal record that Darkthrone would release. It's not a bad record in any shape or form, and is in fact, pretty good, but I feel if this was put out by a new band at the time then it would have been considered a lot more groundbreaking, which is quite sad in it's own little way, as people become used to the status quo.
Anaal Nathrakh have been at the forefront of British black metal for years and years. I however, was fairly late to the party. The first album of theirs I heard properly was Passion, and Vanitas, their eighth, is what I consider to be their best record. From start to finish it's a relentless, punishing affair, which is nothing out of the ordinary for this band, but Vanitas seems to squeeze more amazing songs in than all the other records. "Forging Towards The Sunset" might be the closest thing the band will ever have to a hit single, but every other track here is solid too.
I raise you "You Can't Save Me, So Stop Fucking Trying" and "Of Fire And Fucking Pigs" as two amazing examples. The latter hearkens back to the Nathrakh of old; eschewing all forms of melodic chorus nonsense and taking you on a trip through a blasting hell narrated by the most harrowing vocals ever. The guitars on this record cut necrotic riffs through an extremely professional production job, which is no mean feat - most of the time if you try and bring grime to a big sound it loses a lot of it's dirt and charm. And the drums....shit, where do I start? The downside is maybe they are triggered into oblivion (Ok, maybe not as bad as Grand Declaration-era Mayhem, but still) but the stamina and dexterity is astounding.
Metal, but with everything pushed to the maximum limit. That includes brutality, speed, and even melody. I'd raise one of those stupid fucking drinking horns to that.
Well, first things first, this is something that I never, ever thought I would end up hearing. This was one of the painful parts of the early Cradle Of Filth lore; a massive causality of the ever-shifting line ups and legal battles. Personally, in my mind, probably due to always being disillusioned by the production styles on both Dusk... and it's follow up, Cruelty And The Beast, I concocted the thought that this original shelved version of Dusk... would be like some extended session of the Vempire recordings. I figured, as they offered Vempire up only to fulfill contractual obligations, that those songs offered so hastily were from these sessions (crazy how that last-minute, half-arsed release is one of the bands best). So, the rest of it was sitting out there on a shelf somewhere, just waiting...
I wasn't entirely right in my assumption. The production here is a lot rawer, and is easily the most notable difference. This original recording of Dusk... lends a lot more to the sound of Principles Of Evil Made Flesh (only much faster) than anything that it would become on the re-recorded version that came out in 1996. The second thing that's mostly different is the vocals. They are a lot less "effected" and again sit more towards the original black metal style rather than the super high-pitch squawks that would become Dani's trademark.
I'm not sure what kind of devilish pact the band have entered into to twist Cacophonous' arm into releasing this finally, but 2016 being the 20th anniversary of the original Dusk... cannot be a coincidence. I'm super stoked to have finally heard this, and although this release will offer nothing new to more recent fans of the band, it is the most interesting and valuable of the "cash in" releases the band have done as of late (the extortionate Total Fucking Darkness repress, that awful orchestral record, etc. etc.).
This is a piece of metal history and it's release into the world, for monetary gain or no, can only be a good thing in the long run, although it does destroy some of the mystery of the early Cradle lore in the process.
Here's a YouTube link to the whole album, although I doubt that this will be online for long.
Avoid dodgy-quality uploads by getting Spotify and streaming in HQ (no, I'm not getting paid to say that, Spotify is a fucking life saver).
A while ago I was on some mad quest for black metal mixed with harsh noise. I was given a whole bunch of recommendations, one of which included Abruptum, who are apparently the most evil band in the world ever. Like, ever ever. I'm serious (well, they are, or were, at least). They even had a member called Evil, and if that doesn't prove anything then I don't know what will. Earlier material was even released by Deathlike Silence before Euronymous got carved to bits by Varg Vikernes. Those records sounded like Anal Cunt or 7MON having a stab at black metal, and to me seem to lay some sort of blueprint for projects such as Stalaggh to follow on with.
This however is a much more ambient affair. The first track is an irritatingly-lengthy piece of martial drums repeating over and over. The rest of the record is thankfully much better. I guess there is a black metal vibe, but for the most part the whole thing is just lo-fi soundscapes of sinister noise, which is absolutely perfect for 4am RPG sessions, I'll say that much. I ended up chaining the Abruptum discography after hearing this, and I much prefer their ambient "noise" stuff to the earlier "noisecore" style to black metal, which even for someone who absolutely loves noisecore, just sounds a bit crap, if I'm honest.
I promise you after 15 minutes you'll be hearing these drums in your sleep.
