Sonny's Reviews
Summoning are one of the more divisive bands in the metal scene. They are a band it is nearly impossible to be ambivalent about, an outfit people either love or hate. The reason for this is plain to hear, their emphasis on medieval fantasy themes layered on top of atmospheric black metal is certainly not to every black metal fan's taste. Unfortunately (for me, not them, I'm sure they couldn't give a damn what I think) I am one of those who can't take to their particular style.
For me, the duo's black metal is not particularly impressive and the keyboards' fantasy-style themes are plastered on with a trowel in order to obscure the weakness of the black metal. Of course, the band's intention may be that the BM aspects are deliberately unimpressive in order to not detract from their main focus which is the medieval atmospherics. I am not well-informed enough to know which of these is true and, in all honesty, it matters little because the outcome is still the same. I'm sure there are plenty who find their music evocative and even inspiring but, personally, I find the effect to be overtly cheesy and not at all what I'm looking for in metal. This is exacerbated even further by the programmed drums, the echoing effect employed hear doesn't suggest inspiring medieval battle drums to me, but rather sound like somebody has been allowed to have a go on Carl Palmer's electronic drum kit prior to a 1980's Asia stadium gig (this is not a good thing!)
I must concede that, no matter what anyone thinks, the duo have gone all in and certainly seem unwilling to compromise their thematic vision and I have no wish to be too scathing as I appreciate that some people do gain a great deal from Summoning's output so I will end it here by saying it's just not for me.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2006
Not only have I never heard Grip Inc before, despite the presence of legendary ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo, I had never even heard of them prior to this month's feature (probably due to the fact that I was listening to very little metal in the band's heyday in the early to mid-nineties). I am no great aficionado of groove metal, so this omission will surprise absolutely no one. Anyway, moving on from the gaping holes in my metal knowledge, this wasn't at all what I was expecting. With a name like Grip Inc I was expecting an album of second-rate crossover thrash, but this is definitely not that.
There is a surprising amount of variety to the tracks on display here and the pacing is expertly done, allowing the album as a whole to really flow. Sure, there are some Slayer-esque tracks - War Between One and Silent Stranger definitely move in the same circles as South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss-era Slayer. But there are also tracks that create a great atmosphere too, varying anywhere from industrial dystopian to middle eastern desert sands. If I was pushed I'd say they sound like a cross between Kreator, Fear Factory and Countdown to Extinction-era Megadeth.
Vocals are handled by the late Gus Chambers and are suitably hard-edged from the Mille Petrozza school of metal singers. The riffs are great and nicely hook-laden and although the songs tend towards short runtimes, they pack so much in that they seem more substantial. It's impossible to ignore the fact that Grip Inc have such a legend of a drummer in their ranks and he really shows his chops here, being more free to exhibit his talents than he was whilst occupying the drumstool in Slayer - the ritualistic rhythms of Descending Darkness being just one particular example. The band as a whole are an exceedingly tight unit and I've got to admit, they really have won me over with their sheer proficiency and songwriting skill - Dave Lombardo's supporting cast these guys are not and this album is a testament to the superb combined qualities of the whole band.
If I had any substantial complaint, it would be that at times I feel they would benefit from a second guitarist to fill out the sound and add more power to their already impressive arsenal. That minor quibble aside, this is a real underrated gem and I loved it so much I intend to get hold of a physical copy which will definitely get repeated spins.. and man, that Code of Silence is a killer of an album closer.
Genres: Groove Metal Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1997
Being quite a literal-minded person I have historically had a bit of a problem with particularly avant-garde or experimental releases and it is only in the last few years that I have started to come to grips with the more outre black metal exponents, such as Deathspell Omega, and started to appreciate them for their skill and originality.
To my ears Paracletus is a very dense, yet abstract release, the aural equivalent of a fistful of metal shards or splinters of glass. It is musically jagged with the various instruments at times sounding like they are playing in opposition to each other, but then suddenly coalescing into a pummelling, throbbing entity as the various members come together with a unified purpose before darting off again in their own directions. This is one of those albums that if someone asks what your favourite track is, it is impossible to answer because the work really has to be considered as a single whole, the integration of the tracks within it and the album's development throughout it's runtime is key to it's success. This is obviously a more cerebral style of black metal than, say, Immortal or Marduk, but it still taps into some deeply-seated dark instinct within the human psyche and is every bit as primal as any number of lo-fi blast-a-thons or satanistic rituals and is arguably even more seditious than those more obvious attempts at portraying that deeply buried essence of humankind's darkest emotions.
Sure, some of the more avant-garde sounding sections are still a bit of a struggle for me, but the payoff when the band do hit that sweet spot and come together in black metal nirvana are even more effective emerging from the twisted, jagged wreckage of those more abstract passages. I'm sure those of you who do enjoy more challenging and technically adept metal will probably gain even more out of it than I, but it still conveys more than enough emotion and passion to satisfy my demands in this respect. It is obviously an album that appeals to a huge cross-section of BM devotees as at time of writing this it is sitting on RYM with almost a 4/5 average from almost 6000 ratings, testament indeed to DsO's skillful execution and powerful songwriting.
Genres: Avant-Garde Metal Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2010
In my admittedly very limited experience, I find that industrial metal's need to emulate the dehumanising nature of technology often results in quite stilted-sounding music (bands like Static-X for example). It's as if the need to replicate the machine-like rhythms ends up becoming victim to that very dehumanising trait that the music seems to be railing against. For me the success of Demanufacture is that it is still quite an engaging listen, allowing a glimpse of the unquenchable essence of humanity despite the towering banks of computers and machinery threatening to overwhelm it, being led particularly by Burton C. Bell's vocals, the human centre of the album. On the Skynet/Matrix side, Dino Cazares' crisp and hefty guitar riffing is the very epitome of the technological domination of the battle space of each of the album's eleven tracks, the machine-like rhythms seeking to subsume the last core of humanity into the machines' hive mind and the synths just add to the isolation of the atmosphere, like a wind blowing through a landscape of huge automated factories - as far as the eye can see it's all straight lines and right angles with no natural curves or irregularities
So what the fuck am I talking about? Basically there are some killer catchy, almost anthemic, metal tunes on display here - Self Bias Resistor, Dog Day Sunrise and Body Hammer especially come to mind and the final minute and a half of Pisschrist still sets the hairs on the back of my neck on end - "Crown of black thorns, Human skin, ripped and torn, Where is your saviour now?" It has been a very long time since I last played this record, or any even remotely like it I guess, but despite all the water that's passed under that particular bridge, Demanufacture is still a pretty good listen and playing it now it feels a bit like a call from an old friend you've not seen for ages and didn't realise you missed as much as you evidently do.
Genres: Industrial Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1995
I personally believe that the very best atmospheric extreme metal is not so much music that you listen to in the same way that you would tradtional metal like Iron Maiden, Slayer, Morbid Angel or Candlemass I believe, rather, that it is music you need to open yourself up to and allow it to become part of you, the quality of it being determined by how successfully the music meshes with your own psyche. To this end certain artists are supremely capable, Tobias Möckl of Paysage d'Hiver for example is a master, and The Ruins of Beverast's Alexander von Meilenwald is another I would venture to add into that select group.
TRoB is in essence a black metal project, but he also often ventures into the realm of doom metal, in particular funeral doom in the case of Rain Upon the Impure. He likes to slow down the blasting black metal to a crawl and when he does probably illustrates better than anyone the correlation between atmospheric black metal and funeral doom. For me, these two sub-genres have always been two sides of the same coin anyway, both capable of having a very similar effect, albeit arrived at in a very different way. He also seems to have a penchant for choral effects, whether it is the christian orthodox chants made familiar by Batushka, viking-style chanting in the vein of Hammerheart-era Bathory or the Gregorian chant featured in the title track.
Make no mistake, this is a very long album at almost 80 minutes, but it never once becomes tedious and as soon as it ends I am more than ready to take the trip again. The five tracks (excluding the two interludes) by virtue of their length, are allowed to develop and build to a maturity that lesser talent's works lack. They are in no way long for the sake of it, the tracks not reverting to the repetitive, hypnotic effect of a lot of atmo-black, rather they are each as long as they need to be to weave whatever tale and convey whatever atmosphere AvM is striving for and personally I wouldn't want him to trim any of them. The music is incredibly dark and dense, the sheer weight of the material feels like some overwhelming natural force of star-crushing magnitude and AvM's vocals are some of the most evil-sounding in metal which are thrown into sharp relief when set against the choral effects. Whether it's the heaving dirge-like intro to Soliloquy of the Stigmatised Shepherd or the blasting of 50 Forts Along the Rhine, the atmosphere is equally menacing and sinister - almost relentless in it's pulverizing effect.
What I like about The Ruins of Beverast is that, unlike so many other black metal solo projects, Alexander von Meilenwald does not feel the need to spew his every musical thought out into the public domain, but rather takes the time to work on his material until it is of sufficient quality to be unleashed on the unsuspecting black metal hordes. One listen to any of his albums tells you that the tracks are well-crafted and polished (in a compositional sense, not necessarily polished sounding) and are the product of a particularly creative mind who knows exactly how to get the most from his chosen medium. Rain Upon the Impure is yet more proof to me that, despite the many unoriginal and frankly quite dull acts, black metal is one of the most exciting and varied metal genres, still more than capable of issuing surprises aplenty. As a footnote it is also scientifically proven* that a Vincent Price sample makes an album about 12% more awesome.
(*may or may not actually be true)
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2006
Sadly, for me, the UK has had a dearth of kick-ass thrash metal releases over the years, especially during the eighties and nineties. Sabbat, Onslaught and Sacrilege are the only ones I can bring to mind that were worth listening to. However, I can now happily add Hydra Vein and their glorious debut from 1988, Rather Death Than False of Faith, to that exclusive list. It is a riotous celebration of aggressive thrash in the vein of the Teutonic Titans like Kreator, Sodom and Exumer, with some terrific hooks and riffs that are genuinely memorable and liable to induce a frantic head nodding at a moment's notice. The production is sloppy and the band may not hit the perfect note every time, but I personally find this adds to the album's appeal and the energy and enthusiasm are infectious. Songs like Rabid, Crucifier, Harlequin and Guillotine are classic 80's thrash fare and stand up really well compared to a lot of their more celebrated peers. Sadly the band only managed one more album, 1989's After the Dream, before splitting in 1990. The production and the abysmal artwork aside this is a lost thrash metal classic and an album that really deserves a larger audience.
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1988
I always though Portugal was a nice sunny place, but Lisbon's Sepulcros have laid that belief to rest as there must be something very dark lurking there for the band to tap into in order to produce an album this dark-sounding, because what we have here seems to ooze up from unfathomed abyssal depths before exploding to the surface and covering everything with a pall of utter and impenetrably dark bleakness. In other words, ridiculously sublime old-school death doom that often borders on funeral doom, particularly on my favourite track, Magno Caos which should appeal to all Esoteric fans out there.
The album's production is heavily built on the old-school cavernous sound, which may even be a little bit overdone because at times it just sounds a little too distant. Sérgio Batista (ex-Blacksunrise singer) has a great line in deathly, guttural growls and sounds extremely menacing. The drums sound particularly prominent throughout, especially on the faster death metal sections, and the guitar sounds a little subdued as a result, although this does mean that the overall sound is more rumbling and indistinct, adding yet another layer to the menace of the atmosphere. The pacing of the tracks is such that they never become dull monotones, with funereal dirges suddenly exploding into breakneck blasting.
For me this a really solid example of the hybridisation of extreme doom metal with death metal and, despite it being one of the older forms of extreme metal, it still has the ability to produce engaging and interesting albums. On the evidence of Vazio I think Sepulcros may be a band yet capable of producing a modern extreme doom classic release sometime in the not-too-distant future, but for now I'll settle for this.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2021
Although, as I'm sure most of you know by now, my poison of choice tends to be from the more extreme elements of the metal world, I often put on a new album of traditional metal and am more often than not surprised by how much I still love this style of music. War Cloud are another band who hark back to those heady days of the early eighties with their NWOBHM influenced, good-time metal - the album's eponymous track is a classic NWOBHM anthem released forty years late. They even have an instrumental, Tomahawk (my favourite track in the album) that brings back fond memories of songs like Maiden's Transylvania or Death Angel's The Ultraviolence. I give thanks to the Metal Gods that there still exists bands who can put a smile on my face with simple, unadulterated, kick-ass metal. Horns all round!
Genres: Heavy Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2019
Even at this early stage of the two bands' nascent careers, it is abundantly obvious that both outfits were a cut above the rest of the black metal community, both in terms of musical proficiency and song writing ability. Although this split is subject to the usual inferior recording quality of most early BM releases, it is clear that here were two bands that would have the imagination and skill to break out of the box and evolve the genre, thus giving it a secure future as more than just a niche offshoot of the metal world. However, for all the song writing complexity and technical ability on offer, these tracks still speak to the primal in us, as all the very best black metal does. A seminal release in the annals of black metal, the best split release of all time and one that provides not only some of my favourite black metal tracks, but some of the very best metal ever burnt on to a silver disc.
Genres: Black Metal
Format:
Year: 1993
Wampyric Rites are an Ecuadorian black metal three-piece formed in 2019 who are associated with the Pure Raw Underground Black Metal Plague circle that encompasses a number of black metal outfits from Latin America. Following a bewildering number of EPs, demos and split releases, The Eternal Melancholy of the Wampyre is their debut full-length album. This is raw, chaotic and uncompromising black metal with howls and screams for vocals that I hesitate to call evil-sounding as that is a much overused descriptor in black metal, but it certainly is aggressive and dark and calls on the spirit of the early second wave legends to be sure. At it's best when at it's most breakneck and chaotic, this is a quite impressive debut album.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2021
After originally checking out this, the Polish duo's third release, when it was released in 2015, I gave it a 3.5/5 rating and wrote a short (and admittedly somewhat sniffy) review on RYM along the lines of "Everybody seems to think this is the BM album of the year, but it isn't, it's just OK". I've never returned to it since, nor any of the band's other releases neither, until now. But I've got to admit that listening to it with fresh ears, I enjoyed it a lot more than I did six years ago.
This is not the kind of album to make the hearts of the "trve cvlt warriors" race, it is far more likely to have their fingers clicking away on their keyboards in disgust because it is well-executed, well-produced and, most blasphemously for black metal, it has exceedingly catchy moments. Well, fuck those guys, I am willing to endure their meaningless scorn, as I'm sure M and Darkside are also, because this is great. It neither falls into the camp of atmospheric nor melodic black metal as such, but it is heavily informed by both sub-genres. I love the tone of the riffing, Darkside's drumming is exemplary, the tracks invoke a suitably icy atmosphere and Mikołaj Żentara's vocals have that croakiness to it that I really enjoy hearing and particularly associate with Immortal's Abbath. On the downside it is a little bit samey, but there are some genuinely terrific tracks - I and V for example. The old chestnut of the band's political affiliations also rears it's ugly head, but if that is a deal breaker for you then you're probably not a big black metal fan anyway. Personally I no longer pay any attention to the political ramblings of musicians - if musos are your window on political affairs then you're probably fucked anyway.
This is the kind of black metal album I would put on when I don't feel the need to be challenged too much and just want to hear some damn fine black metal tunes (kind of how I do with the aforementioned Immortal). Sometimes it's great to just kick back and enjoy an album without thinking too much about it. This may sound like damning with faint praise, but it really isn't. There absolutely is a place in black metal for album's like this - not every album needs to set your nerves on edge and freeze your soul.
Is it metal enough? Absolutely.
Is it dark enough? Not for everyone, but it certainly has it's moments.
Should you check it out? Definitely.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2015
Another band with which I have been unacquainted until now and yet another decent French black metal outfit. Our gallic cousins really do produce a lot of the better and more interesting modern black metal bands, I have to admit. Peste Noire, certainly on the evidence of this release, favour the lo-fi approach, albeit not as lo-fi as the commentary around this album would have you believe - the album does have some production values and I've certainly heard worse (or is that better?). The vocals are of the desperately shrieking type, reminiscent of those employed by some of the more demented depressive black metal outfits, that tap into something primal and horrifying in the human psyche, although this certainly is no DSBM album. Bizarrely and somewhat atypically for most black metal, there are a significant number of guitar solos on the album that may have come straight from the Gary Moore songbook which, in addition to the deranged vocals, contribute to the strangeness of the record and the sensation that things are not really what they are expected to be.
From all that I've read about the band there are members who seem to have some quite reprehensible views, a common pitfall for followers of black metal unfortunately and I guess that may colour how some people may receive the music. Putting all that aside, this is certainly a bit of a curveball as far as orthodox black metal goes and, for me personally, not a completely successful one - those solos for example just stick out like a sore thumb. Decent but no classic and I'm not sure if I would return to it that often, although the odd track like Spleen holds a lot of appeal for me.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2006
One of the main reasons I love modern black metal is that despite all the cookie-cutter copyists and plagiarists there are still bands that manage to surprise me. I was familiar with Ireland's Altar of Plagues via their 2011 album Mammal, which was a good record but didn't leave any especially lingering memory for me and hadn't really forced it's way into my list of top BM albums. So anyway, now we come to 2013's Teethed Glory and Injury which has most definitely registered itself into my black metal consciousness. I'm not sure I can do the album justice with a review, but I'l have a crack at it. Teethed Glory and Injury is most assuredly a black metal album, in fact more specifically an atmospheric black metal album, but it is also much more than that. Into it's blackened body the band weave various other influences such as industrial metal, atmospheric sludge and post-metal that results in a most progressive sounding record. I have also seen it labelled as avant-garde metal and while I can definitely understand why, I think it is too accessible and coherent to be so tagged.
The cover art seems to perfectly sum up the mood and atmosphere, a desperate and frustrated aura pervades the whole album. This is not the beautifully flowing atmo-black of Saor or Panopticon, this is a jagged, broken affair that doesn't extol the glory of the natural world, but seethes and rages against the world of man, the industrial interjections disturbing the flow of the more natural sounds of the black metal musings to a seemingly intended effect. This isn't the album's only trick though, there are tracks that draw on atmospheric sludge and post-metal to add another layer of despair and isolation. Whereas a lot of atmospheric black metal is airy and expansive, the muddier, sludgy production of this makes for a more claustrophobic and debilitating experience than your average WiiTR clone.
The musicianship is great and I think I must make mention of the depth of the bass tone and the ubiquitousness of Johnny King's drumming that sounds so natural, despite the variety of the tracks. The guitar work and vocals are both suitably intense and the electronics are deployed to devastating effect.
The band split-up after the release of this album and I can understand why. Following this album up would be a thankless task indeed and, after seemingly pouring their hearts and souls into this, meant that as a band they had nowhere else to go. Talk about going on the top of your game!
Genres: Black Metal Post-Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2013
The album that fulfills all the hysterical paranoia of parent's fears of drugs influencing their offspring's minds and causing them to turn to more drugs, sex, satanism, even more drugs and insanity - Reefer Madness brought to life. I'm sure it gives Jus Osborne a warm feeling inside to think what a record like this must do to the sensibilities of the so-called moral arbiters of the world and their hypocritical outrage must be like nectar to him.
Musically Dopethrone takes the template for stoner doom laid down by Sleep, slows it down then makes it exponentially heavier and lyrically more outrageous to produce the gold standard against which other stoner doom albums are measured. The tracks are all thick and miasmic like a smoke-saturated trip through a narcotically altered dreamscape, super-heavy jams that derive from some kind of psychedelic black hole where time is slowed, perceptions are altered and the music's thundering, hypnotic riffs take control, forcing the listener's head to nod, body to sway and mind to roam.
Electric Wizard are a band who revel in and glorify the partaking of narcotic substances, so are probably not for you if you subscribe to the straight edge, just say no philosophy of the morally superior. Personally it's been a long time since I was involved in any kind of drug scene, but a blast of Dopethrone is all it takes to relive those heady days of bongs, booze and b-movies. This album is a true counterculture classic and an album any stoner (or ex-stoner) metalhead should return to regularly for a required fix.
Genres: Doom Metal Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2000
Beauty is in the eye (or ears) of the beholder, or so they say and Agalloch are another of an ever-growing list of bands that I struggle to hear what makes them so revered in the metal community. I accept that the failing is wholly mine and I would never try to convince you that you are wrong and I am right. Now, don't misunderstand, I can plainly hear that they are a talented bunch, but in the main their music fails to move me as it evidently does others. That said, there are times, paticularly on this album, when I can perceive their brilliance, but for me that is when they are at their "least metal". The intro They Escaped the Weight of Darkness for example, is a lovely piece of music in it's simplicity, the lone cello providing a melancholy counterpoint to the peaceful field recording of birdsong and a babbling brook. I am less impressed by their brand of atmospheric black metal when in full flow, it somehow lacks the aggressive edge I prefer leaning more heavily towards a post-metal sound. The reedy guitar on Into the Painted Grey, the album's most black metal track, I had a particular issue with as it just sounded too thin and weak and The Watcher's Monolith was a track particularly guilty of diplaying gothic tendencies which seldom sits well with me. On the positive side, I think John Haughm is an excellent black metal vocalist, sounding just the right shade of ragged and savage.
The album's standout track is also it's longest, the seventeen minute epic Black Lake Niðstång, it's ominous tympanic opening giving way to a melodic section with whispered vocals that is derived of doom metal's atmospherics as Haughm's vocals become increasingly desperate until the track comes to a climax at around the ten-minute mark. From this point on the track then becomes even better as the synths take over and allow a real atmosphere of ominous anticipation to build until the track explodes into it's cathartic final minutes. Unfortunately, after the triumph of Black Lake Niðstång I found the rest of the album to be an anti-climax, it's post-black metal leanings taking over to such an extent that I couldn't really engage it at all from that point - and I did try, believe me.
I truly can understand why many people dig on Agalloch, at times they sound great to me too, but too often I just don't feel their music is aggressive or vital enough for black metal, but if you love your atmo-black tempered by post-metal trappings then Agalloch are one of the prime movers, but you know that alreasdy don't you?
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2010
In the world of black and blackened metal there are some fantastic innovators, but there are countless more tedious copycats. It is a world of a few genuinely original artists and legions of less talented wannabes endlessly churning out the same old shit. Needless to say, Finland's Oranssi Pazuzu are most decidedly one of the former.
According to counterculture lore, the hippies' psychedelic dream died at Altamont on 6th December 1969. If that's the case, then sometime during the early 2010s Oranssi Pazuzu disinterred it's partly-rotted corpse, breathed new life into it and bent it to their own nefarious purposes. The result is Värähtelijä.
The Finns take the sound of psychedelic and space rock and, by utilising some infernal alchemy, fuse it with the aesthetics of black metal to produce a hypnotic, disorienting aural landscape that is so suited to early 21st century life and the disconcerting (and possibly paranoid) feeling a lot of us get that "something is going on". OP's version of pysychedelia isn't love, peace and beautiful trips with rainbows and unicorns. No, theirs are the baddest of bad trips, threatening and disorientating. Anyone who has been a devotee of classic 60s UK TV series The Prisoner (yes, the one sampled on Maiden's Number of the Beast album) will never forget the fucked-up final episode that left everyone scratching their heads. Värähtelijä is to black metal what that episode was to British TV - disturbing, scary and absolutely mind-blowing (man!).
The album could be described as cosmic black metal, where that cosmos is not only awe-inspiring but also threatening in an indeterminable, Lovecraftian kind of way. The music is repetitive, but never boring. Instead it uses repetition to hypnotize the listener in a kind of ritualistic manner, while the electronics and black metal stylings, especially the vocals, induce an atmosphere of discomfort and unease to achieve the album's intention of unsettling it's listener, a goal to which any Black Metal artist worth their salt should surely aspire. Black Metal isn't meant to be comfortable and predictable, yet too often it is, so bands like Oranssi Pazuzu who can get under your skin and upset your expectations should be valued most highly by any real BM devotee.
Värähtelijä was my personal introduction to Oranssi Pazuzu, who are now one of my all-time favourite black metal acts, and ended up being my AOTY for 2016 as well as a cast-iron five star classic and one of the great black metal releases of the new century.
Genres: Black Metal Post-Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2016
My only previous contact with Kvelertak was their 2020 album Splid, which I found to be quite a fun record, despite it not really being the type of release I would normally listen to. This, their debut released in 2010, doesn't quite float my boat as well as the later album. This is supposedly an early example of so-called Black 'n' Roll. Now I don't know about that so much, but if I was attempting to pigeonhole Kvelertak's sound then I would have to tag it as blackened punk metal, but that sounds more like late 2000's / early 2010's Darkthrone which this patently isn't. This is a much catchier type of metal altogether, sounding almost like melodic metalcore at times (blackened metalcore anyone?). So, most definitely not my usual type of thing at all. I do love both punk and metal, but only rarely when combined together do they really chime with me - Darkthrone being one such band who have managed it to my satisfaction - but I did enjoy this in the main. The caveat being that I think all the best tracks are front loaded, so that the album's power wanes after the halfway mark - Sultans of Satan being a track I really didn't enjoy and marking the point at which the quality tapers off, losing a little of the earlier tracks immediacy. I think I would have liked to hear a bit more by way of clean vocals as well, personally I find Erlen Hjelvik's vocals gets a little wearying after a while (as I do with most hardcore-derived vocals to be honest).
In a way my reaction to this is similar to the reaction I had to my brush with Trivium's In Waves recently - I enjoyed it far more than I expected to, probably wouldn't respin it too often, but when I fancied something a bit outside my usual then I could quite happily spend an hour or so with it.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2010
Manchester's Wode are one of modern black metal's underrated and consitent bands and are one of the finest exponents of the genre to come out of England, in my opinion. They play frigid and blasphemous black metal, alloyed with death metal's brutality and violence, also throwing in some thrash metal sensibility for a sound that is at once modern whilst also harking back to the metal gods of previous decades.
The six tracks on offer here have a decent variety to them, from dissonant, Icelandic-influenced black metal to blackened thrashing harking back to the early days of Sodom and Hellhammer and powerful blackened death metal riffing, for an unholy and triumphant sound that may shake the very walls of heaven.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2021
Fossilization is a death metal band formed by a couple of members of excellent sludge metal outfit Jupiterian and this 25 minute EP is their debut release so, considering my love of both old-school death metal and Jupiterian's sludge, consequently I went into it with very high expectations. Unfortunately maybe these expectations were unrealistic and, in truth, I found this a little disappointing. It has a great cavernous sound as any decent old-school doom-ridden death metal should, but somehow the songs just don't grab me like I'd hoped. V's vocals that suit Jupiterian's sludge so well don't quite pull of the OSDM growl successfully and it all sometimes gets a little too frantic. Maybe it'll grow on me more as time passes, but for now it feels like a missed opportunity.
Genres: Death Metal Doom Metal
Format: EP
Year: 2021
Despite them having been around since 2007, this is the first time Les Chants de Nihil have crossed my path - and damn glad am I that they did so. In common with several other French outfits, it appears that they like to kick back against the confines of black metal and break out of the conventions that others follow doggedly. Le tyran et l'esthète (The Tyrant and the Aesthete) features a quite muscular sound that borrows heavily from death metal and as such is really aggressive sounding, with some powerful riffing. Despite that, it is still fairly melodic, but the band also incorporate dissonant elements which makes for a satisfying and interesting dichotomy.
This is obviously a concept album, the tracks feel like part of a greater whole, as well as being damn fine in their own right. Unfortunately the overarching concept escapes me as I'm not, in common with many native English speakers, very good at other languages. There is a deal of variety in the tracks as the band employ such elements as chanted sections à la Batushka, epic-sounding viking / folk metal parts and even a song based around the melodies from an Igor Stravinsky ballet (L'adoration de la Terre). These elements aren't, however, thrown together like some random hotchpotch just for the sake of it, the individual tracks are well-written and are tastefully woven together in a way that allows the album to flow seemingly effortlessly through it's fifty minutes or so runtime.
It would also be remiss of me if I didn't mention the crystal-clear production that allows each of the individual band members' contributions to be heard even during the most savage passges. So if you want some interesting and thought-provoking that also doesn't skimp on aggression or atmosphere, black metal that tries to do something "more" with the genre then give these Frenchmen a chance.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2021
Belgians Wolvennest's third album is not one for the impatient metal fan. It's eight tracks span 77 minutes, most in the nine to twelve minute range and the majority of the album is pretty slowly paced. This isn't an example of monolithic funeral doom however, but more of a ritualistic, cosmic incantation, drawing on elements of doom, drone, psychedelia and gothic rock for an hypnotic occult experience.
The vibe that the six-piece's music exudes is that of a cult or coven with vaguely sinister overtones in their conviction and devotion to whatever cosmic entity they revere and implore in their songs and to such end the album feels kind of threatening at times. Although most of the tracks are fairly repetitive in keeping with that ritualistic atmosphere, the separate songs are pretty diverse - Swear to Fire is heavily space rock infused and feels like a doom interpretation of a track from Oranssi Pazuzu's Mestarin kynsi album, Disappear could be from Sister of Mercy's Vision Thing, the menacing All That Black sounds like The Velvet Underground had released a long lost metal track and album closer Souffle De Mort ups the psychedelic ritualistic exhortations to finish the album on a disturbing, Manson-esque note (Charles not Marilyn!)
So despite the fact that a significant proportion of the tracks have that drone aesthetic, the album as a whole is exceedingly interesting and none of the individual songs are so long that they ever become boring. It is ultimately the kind of album to lose yourself in, but it never allows the listener to feel completely comfortable within it's embrace. A great example of how to make modern doom metal fresh and interesting with it's left-field take on the genre and it's embracing of diverse elements within it's grooves.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2021
I have very little patience for wholly instrumental metal and I don't hear anything here that will change my mind on that score. Saying that, I imagine that if it did have vocals then they would almost certainly be of a kind that I would hate (I'm thinking Steve Perry, John Wetton awful) so it's probably better off without any. Although there is plenty going on, I can't help but wonder what the point is other than for the musicians involved to feel they have showcased their technical proficiency for all us inferior humans to listen to in awe. I know sometimes it may sound like I detest technical proficiency, but this isn't true if said proficiency is used to serve the song (classic era Opeth for an example in metal, King Crimson or Yes outside of it). If the songwriting takes a backseat to ego stroking then yes, I will take against it. Add to this that Djenty chugging and that's it, I'm cashing out.
Look, if this is your bag, then good luck to you, being a non-musician maybe I don't "get it" and as such I only have my gut feelings to judge it by. That said, this really left me feeling very little at all, I can't even hate it as such because that would take more emotion than I can conjure up for it. But I think it's safe to say that I would never seek it out again for further listens. For me an empty and soulless experience, a mere placebo of a record and the antithesis of why I listen to metal.
Genres: Progressive Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2009
The adventurer's hands trembled as they reached to open the Black Tomb, final resting place of some ancient, unnamed king, buried with untold treasures, so the stories said. Yet as he prised open the lid, his anguished shrieks filled the air, for he was deceived and his Doom was sealed, for the tomb was the resting place of the Electric Wizard, who had lain there since it had been his Time To Die. And rushing from their tomb, with immense force, freed once more upon the earth, pulverizing the ears of all who heard them, were the mighty riffs of the Electric Wizard.
This is the recording of that terrifying event, left as a warning to all seekers, that one man's treasure is another man's Doom.
Genres: Doom Metal Sludge Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2016
A five-track, 38 minute EP (why not just call it an album and have done with it?) that truly lives up to the atmo-sludge tag and starts off strong, but gets better and better as it proceeds, building up to the climax of the twelve-minute closer, the awesome Wave After Wave. A crushingly heavy atmosphere perpetuates throughout, but this is no stilted sludge-bomb, maintaining velocity as it is driven forward thanks to the thrusters provided by Thomas Hedlund's kinetic drumming. The only real niggle is the loss of impetus that results from the still air surrounding the Mark Lanegan-featured track Inside of a Dream, but it's not a bad track and does provide a counterpoint to the furious, raging behemoth that surrounds it.
Overall an organic-sounding album that feels forged by the laws of Einsteinian physics and possesses a planet-killing potential energy. Me, I just had to jump onto Bandcamp and get myself a vinyl copy - it deserves that at least.
Genres: Sludge Metal Post-Metal
Format: EP
Year: 2021
In 1980 Judas Priest unleashed their first "live" album. Now, I put live in inverted commas because, as every savvy metal fan knows, the album features such extensive overdubs that it has become sneeringly referred to as Unleashed in the Studio. This is, however, somewhat irrelevant as the album, no matter what, kicks all kinds of fucking ass, OK?
I first saw Priest on the Stained Class tour and they appeared much like any other Seventies band of the time, all flowery shirts and denims. Fast forward a short time to the Killing Machine tour, from which this album is garnered, and the band had undergone a huge aesthetic overhaul as they adopted and pioneered what was to become the new (thats NEW not nu-) metal uniform of studs and leather (and, coincidentally, doubling the price on all their merchandise in a somewhat cynical cash-grab off the back of their new-found popularity as the NWOBHM gained traction and TV appearances playing Take on the World which is mercifully absent from this LP).
Anyway, I digress. The album marks a full stop of what was, in my opinion, Priest's finest years, covering their first five albums and prior to their 1980's downward spiral. The album features supercharged versions of most of their most popular tracks up to that point, being generally faster and more hard-edged than most of those tracks' album versions, pretty much dispensing with any remaining rock influences and totally metallizing their sound. I remember, as a first listen, that by the time the band had ripped through Exciter, Running Wild and Sinner I was reeling and pumped with adrenaline - and then they launch into The Ripper - holy hell!
A couple of covers follow that are fine, but Fleetwood Mac's best song, Green Manalishi, is a menacing-sounding affair and here JP's metal version is inferior to the original. I would have liked to hear Starbreaker and Dissident Aggressor replace these two tracks, then we would have had us an album for the ages. The original single LP closes with a trio of classics from Sad Wings of Destiny - a soaring Victim of Changes, a rampaging Genocide and then an almighty headlong charge through Tyrant for a chaotic finale.
My original UK vinyl copy also came with a 7" EP featuring another three tracks, a couple of "newies" in Rock Forever and Hell Bent for Leather and a great version of Beyond the Realms of Death that really should have been on the album proper.
So to summarise, although it has a couple of minor issues, this is one of the best metal live albums your money can buy and is an interesting testament to a band that was in a period of transition to a more confident self at the time of recording and in the process becoming a metal icon.
Genres: Heavy Metal
Format: Live
Year: 1979
After tempting us with a couple of terrific EPs Hulder finally unleashes her debut full-length - and it doesn't disappoint. Godslastering sounds fantastic - no longer the lo-fi, raw black metal of the early releases, this really packs a wallop. Straight out the gate with the riffs of the first couple of tracks, Upon Frigid Winds and Creature of Demonic Majesty, you realise that Hulder is gonna kick your ass - and leave you begging for more! The addition of keyboards has filled out the sound without distracting from the brutal black metal assault, in a similar way to early Emperor (in fact Lowland Famine has a section that sounds very much like I Am the Black Wizards). Hulder's vocals are impressively ragged and savage-sounding, yet also allow for the lyrics to be clearly heard. There's a little bit of a respite from the battering with the acoustic/dungeon synth of De Dijle and the gentle intro to the album's best track, A Forlorn Peasant's Hymn, but mainly this is full-on second-wave worship of particular quality.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2021
Midnight Spell are a five-piece Floridian traditional heavy metal band and Sky Destroyer is their debut full-length, released on CD by new Polish label Iron Oxide Records. I actually enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. It takes most of it's cues from the best bands from the NWOBHM - Maiden, Saxon, Angel Witch, Diamond Head etc and incorporates further influence from speed metal for an exuberant and exhilharating ride. I find too many trad metal albums are ruined by the vocal histrionics of power metal wannabe singers, but Paolo Velazquez has got a great tone to his vocals that constantly brought to mind Geddy Lee on Rush's heavier material like Beneath, Between & Behind and Bastille Day. The songs are anthemic with decent riffs and the solos aren't overblown or too frequent. There is an instrumental at the mid-point that is a little bit clunky, but this is the only real reservation I have. Obviously Midnight Spell aren't in the business of revolutionising heavy metal, not really bringing anything new to the table, but it is difficult to resist the infectious enthusiasm that leaks from the speakers during this fun forty minutes or so. Energetic and unpretentious metal that is made purely for enjoyment's sake - and there's nothing wrong with that, amigos.
Genres: Heavy Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2021
Gatecreeper's third album weighs in at eight tracks with a measly 18 minutes runtime - and eleven of those are taken up by the final track, so as you can imagine, this really is an album of two halves. The first seven tracks are ever-so brief bursts of aggression (the longest being a mere 73 seconds) their mix of Discharge and Bolt Thrower feeling like death metal machine gun bullets rapid-fired to your brainstem that will leave you reeling so that when the death doom sledgehammer that is Emptiness hits you won't know what fucking day it is! My only real criticism is the disappointing ending of Emptiness - it just kind of.. stops!
Genres: Death Metal Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2021
Funeral Winds are basically black metal fundamentalists heading for thirty years of existence in one form or another, the current of which is as a solo project of founder Hellchrist Xul. This is real old-school, early second wave, snarling, savage black metal, driven by pummelling blastbeats that fans of early Mayhem, Immortal, Darkthrone etc will recognise only too readily. Hellchrist Xul's croaking vocals are similar to Abbath on the early Immortal albums and is a style I particularly enjoy hearing I must admit. I guess the title refers to the album's attempt to distill black metal down to it's purest essence and it would be hard to argue than it hasn't been successful in doing so, now whether that has any relevance depends on your point of view. Personally I don't rate it as highly as previous album, Sinister Creed, but I feel it still has a place here in 2021 if only to remind us that there are still artists who don't give two f*cks about trends or fads and only want to create a blasphemous, hellish racket and I'm right behind that.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2021
The thought of a two-hour avant-jazz album had me positively sweating with dread. But this isn't that album at all I'm absolutely thrilled to report. Yes, sure there are avant-jazz elements present, obviously, but I consider them merely icing, the heart and soul of this album is the percussion and it's ritualistic and tribal rhythms that call to something buried deep in the human psyche. I'm a big fan of ritual ambient artists like Draugurinn and Forndom, but this is on a different level completely. I must admit though that I did wonder how it got tagged as metal until the third section at least where it's drone metal credentials kick in. I still have some issue with the solely jazz sections and it is a long album, but these are minor gripes as this is something truly outside my comfort zone that I absolutely love.
Genres: Drone Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Borgne's take on atmospheric black metal as expressed on Y, the Swiss' latest album, is not a paeon to the sweeping majesty of the mountain peaks of his homeland, or to the natural world in any way, but rather it paints a picture of an industrialised dystopia straight out of the nightmares of William Gibson or Phillip K Dick. Borgne's black metal is tranformed by industrial-sounding drum machine and electronics into a menacing and bleak vision, made even more sinister by an overarchingly ominous atmosphere born of doom metal. Coupled with his desparate snarling vocals, this is not a hopeful record, rather one that seeks to come to terms with an industrial and martial future that lacks the human touch and, aptly for current events, feeds on isolation.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
ItCoS' fourth full-length is an album of groovy, doomy sludge metal that dabbles in a number of other genres to add a bit of variation, such as the Raining Blood-style thrash riff at the end of ten-minute opener The Fool's Journey, the southern-rock / country influence on The Chasm at the Mouth of the All and the acoustic rock of closing track Prima Materia. The heavy sludge base is suitably dense with thick, cloying riffs and the other influences are integrated well. My chief reservation is with the vocals. There's nothing really wrong with them really, they just don't appeal to me all that much, except on the aforementioned Prima Materia where they are less earnest and more relaxed.
Genres: Sludge Metal Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
I love Cardinal Wyrm - they are one of the great underappreciated doom metal bands operating currently and I have been a massive supporter of theirs since their early days This, their fourth album, however, is a bit of a letdown and may well be the first of their albums I don't purchase a physical copy of. In an attenpt to expand their sound and stretch out, they have released an album that is certainly more ambitious compositionally, but has ended up sounding a bit confused and less focussed. It's not terrible by any means and tracks like Canticle and Abbess kick all kinds of ass and retain plenty of their bombastic doom sound, but it just doesn't maintain momentum and wanders a bit, especially early on. Not a disaster by any means, but a step down from previous releases. Pity, I was really looking forward to this one.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Atavist are a Mancunian death doom band, formed by Winterfylleth's Chris Naughton, who reformed in 2016 after being on hiatus since 2007. Their latest full-length and first since reforming, contains four lengthy tracks totalling a runtime of 58 minutes of funeral doom-inflected death metal. Opener, Loss, begins in a wistfully melancholic way with a guitar strumming away gently before being joined by a violin, possibly the most mournful-sounding and much-underused weapon in any potential doom metal arsenal. Of course, the weight is increased when the band kick in with some crushing chords and Matt Bartley howls of his unfathomable loss, only to return to gentle melancholy as the violin refrain takes over once more. This contrast between the wistful introspection of the gentler sections, whether expressed via lone strummed guitar, violin or piano and the heavier, angrier doom-laden sections is what lies at the heart of the track and is handled superbly as the emotional resonance rises and falls over the whole sixteen and a half minutes.
Second track, Struggle, is unremittingly grim with suitably weighty riffs, the contrasts in mood here expressed via the tracks' tempos which vary from slow to spine-crawlingly ultra-slow. Self-realisation opens with a riff that anyone who is familiar with Chris Naughton's work in Winterfylleth should recognise, the black metal style of the riff is offset by the plodding drumwork for a menacingly effective atmosphere as Matt Bartley unleashes a black metal-inspired howl. The track then grinds to a funereal crawl after a few minutes as the doom-laden depression reasserts it control over the proceedings.
Final track, Absolution, is the albums longest and is the album's catharsis, sounding less desperate and almost as if there is some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. Even though the tempo is still slow, the guitar melody overlaying the track sounds almost hopeful and despite a certain deep-grained melancholy, the track gives the album a somewhat upbeat finale.
Genres: Doom Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Yatra's second album of the year is basically a classic stoner doom/heavy metal hybrid that sounds more extreme than it is due to guitarist/vocalist Dana Helmuth's blackened shrieking vocal delivery. Don't be fooled, this isn't blackened doom that sounds like the doors to hell have opened, it is more old-school metal than that, One for the Mountain even has a bluesy groove going on! It's still mighty heavy though and a damn good listen.
Genres: Doom Metal Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Carrying on the stellar work from 2015's The Dreaming I, Naas Alcameth (aka Kyle Spanswick) has produced another album of challenging, yet still immensely listenable, atmospheric black metal. Compositionally exceptional and atmospherically menacing, this is exactly the kind of modern black metal I enjoy the most. Ambient passages in BM albums usually provide some respite from the blasting, but here they just serve to ramp up the menace to even higher levels - for proof hear how Succubare builds the demonic haunting vibe up until all hell is let loose on Ephialtes. The blasting, such as on standout Pnigalion, takes the (demonic) form of huge, great walls of sound that you don't merely listen to - they invade your ears and swarm your brain like the infestation of flies in The Amityville Horror that so put the shits up Rod Steiger! For me the only album that has created a comparable, albeit very different, black metal atmosphere this year is Paysage d'Hiver's Im Wald and that is pretty good company to be in I can assure you. In common with The Dreaming I this also has one scary-looking cover that perfectly illustrates what you are about to hear within the enclosed grooves and the overall package is a superb exercise in creating a great horror movie experience in music form.
As a proviso, I know and understand that their are ideological questions surrounding the beliefs of Akhlys and I get it that people are turned off their music as a result, but this is often the case in black metal and I have learned to separate artist from art so this is purely a judgement based on the music alone.
Genres: Black Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2020
Firstly, I was drawn to this after seeing the cover on the homepage and decided to give it a spin, so thanks to you Ben for adding it when you did.
This 2018 album was CHRCH's second full-length album and, for me, a step up from their still impressive debut. One of the most striking strengths of CHRCH's music is the simplicity of the melodies and I don't mean that in a negative way. Despite the lack of complexity they are delivered in such a way that the effect is shattering. The opener, the twenty minute Infinite Return for example, begins with a really simple melody picked out by guitar with very little distortion to produce a beautifully clear sound, accompanied by Eva Rose's clean-sung vocals for a gorgeous, calm opening that we all know just can't last. As guitar and vocals are joined by the drums, beating out a distant-sounding militaristic tattoo, the ominousnous builds like gathering thunderheads. The guitar becomes increasingly insistent as the vocals get more desperate-sounding until the storm hits around the seven-minute mark and the riff crushes all before it as Eva shrieks and snarls and the drums hit the fore like a seven-pound sledgehammer. Around the midway point the maelstrom passes and a similar, but more hesitant-sounding, melody to the one at the beginning of the track is picked out and the calm returns, albeit now with a lost innocence as notes of dissonance insert themselves into this gentle refrain. This too cannot last and another, albeit more triumphal and anthemic, crescendo is reached, as if the victims of the first have now become the perpetrators of this second atrocity. What an opening twenty minutes - possibly one of my favourite slabs of doom metal ever - and a real high mark for the rest of the album to follow.
Second track Portals weighs in around the fifteen minute mark and kicks off with a weighty riff from the outset, but despite this it manages to become increasingly heavy as the track buids, filling all available space and threatening to collapse under it's own weight. Again this main riff is quite simple, but is deployed in such a way that it seems to be more complex than it actually is as the listener's mind grapples with the crushing weight of it. The vocals once more run the whole gamut from ethereal and angelic to savage and demonic. The soaring, distorted guitar solo towards the end of the track feels like the Comfortably Numb solo being torn apart and destroyed by the mass of an errant supermassive black hole.
Final track Aether is the shortest at nine and a half minutes and has a riff and tone that sounds remarkably like Warning's Watching From A Distance album, at least until the last couple of minutes anyway, which are just utter madness as everything must go!
Before concluding I must make mention of Adam Jennings drums, they sound phenomenal and as good as any doom drum performance I can recall. In fact, the production as a whole is superb and is a major factor in the success of the album.
This has jumped right in as one of my absolute favourite doom albums. To use a sporting analogy, it sounds like an album where the band have "left everything on the field" and absolutely given it everything. If I had any criticism at all it would be very minor - with the epic Infinite Return up front, the rest of the album is overshadowed slightly. I would have liked to hear the running order of Portals; Aether and closing with Infinite Return ending the album with a real triumph. FFO Sub Rosa, Warning, Pallbearer and any "no fucks to give" doomhead. If you have any love at all for real doom metal then you need this album.
Genres: Doom Metal Sludge Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2018
L.A. three-piece Merciless Death were part of the 2000's thrash revival and this was their debut album. Originally self-released it was reissued with much-improved cover art when the band was signed by Heavy Artillery. It features enthusiastic thrashing with some infectious riffs but, in truth, it is heavily front-loaded with the first three songs sounding much better than the rest of the album. By track four, Burn in Hell, the cracks start to show and, for me, this is the worst song on the album. The remaining tracks are kind of OK, but being brutally honest, they sound shoddy. The riffs get laboured, the solos are weak and Andy Torres' vocals become even more ragged - and they weren't great to begin with. The band just sound so enthusiastic that I feel bad knocking them, but ultimately they come across as just another Exodus, Exumer wannabe without the chops. the brilliant Ed Repka cover doesn't help either as it raises expectations for the music which it fails to fulfil.
Genres: Thrash Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2006
I am far from any great authority on death metal, there are huge swathes of releases I am not that keen on, it's obsession with brutality, coupled with some of the more distasteful imagery and at the other end of the spectrum, the constipation of technically obsessed DM leaves me mostly unimpressed. I do love a good old-school release however, in the vein of Autopsy, Morbid Angel and the like. I've paid scant attention to Incantation previously, only having heard their debut and their latest albums before (both of which I did enjoy). So I went into this expecting something pretty decent, but man, this is earth-shatteringly brilliant death metal of a kind I hear too infrequently. It takes the OSDM sound and couples it with more ambitious songwriting that involves multiple changes in tempo during each track from battering brutality, through medium-paced riff-fests to death doom crawls. The vocals are archetypal abyssal growls that have, presumably, helped to define what a death metal singer should sound like, the guitars have a perfect filthy solidity to their tone that buzz and batter like a chainsaw crossed with a sledgehammer. The one thing that really stood out for me though, was the supergnarly bass sound. That growling bass guitar during Ethereal Misery is absolutely insane and has got to be one of my favourite pieces of basswork ever. All this is before we even get to the sixteen minute closing epic, Unto Infinite Twilight / Majesty of Infernal Damnation, a proggy (in a good way), sixteen minute death metal saga that doesn't try to impress with technical flashiness, but rather the quality of the songwriting and the searing intensity of the bands performance. I'm also guessing here that this track was a big influence on Blood Incantation and their similar epic on their Hidden History of the Human Race album (another DM fave of mine coincidentally).
I love it when an album comes out of nowhere and grabs me by the throat like Diabolical Conquest has done. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and, even after only a couple of listens, I reckon this is a five star classic and one of my all-time favourite death metal albums.
Genres: Death Metal
Format: Album
Year: 1998
Green Druid play a brand of doom metal that concentrates more on building atmosphere than hammering out full-on riff-fests. Borrowing heavily from the stoner doom of early Electric Wizard, adding in psychedelic elements, especially the extended lead jams (at times even edging close to heavy space rock, particularly on Rebirth), with varied vocals that add to, rather than detract from, the overall atmospheric nature of the sound. Green Druid are obviously a band that like to let the atmosphere build slowly, consequently Ashen Blood's seven tracks clock in at just under an hour and a quarter, so is probably not for the uncommited doomster. But if you have the patience, you will be rewarded.
Genres: Doom Metal Stoner Metal
Format: Album
Year: 2018