Wishing you all a pleasing and drunken new year's evening! Bottoms up!

Craft - Total Soul Rape (2000)

It’s a fuckin inscrutability to me as to how this fantastic album went completely unnoticed by both me and largely the entire black metal fan base back in 2000. Craft’s, ‘Total Soul Rape’ from 2000 was a criminally overlooked release, which has thankfully been reissued no less than two times (Selbstmord in 2002/Moribund 2004) since its initial release.

Craft’s history roughly dates back to 1994 where the band was formed under the moniker of Nocta, although not much happened until 1999 when they released a demo called, ‘Total Eclipse.’ It really wasn’t until 2002’s, ‘Terror Propaganda’ album that Craft finally attained some attention and rightly so, but this debut release has always been my favorite.

If you haven’t heard Craft then let me say they specialize in a form of grim misanthropic black metal easily compared to Darkthrone's masterwork, 'A Blaze in the Northern Sky' and other sonic purveyors of black metal truness. A number of the riffs are reminiscent of that era of Darkthrone's, which of course was largely Celtic Frost influenced for those guys back then. As you may know those sorts of riffs are just goddamn catchy grooving/rocking riffs, which lead to plenty of headbanging and so on, and even the few solos spread out through this record are fantastic too. Of course plenty of the classic dissonant, mid-paced and grim black metal riffs are present too, but the mix between the two styles works perfectly in my opinion.

Other notable aspects are the merciless vocals and drumming. Session vocalist Björn screams, howls, and rasps just as good as someone like Nocturno Culto or Satyr, and he even occasionally adds this high pitched shriek that sounds gravely painful. The drumming is also quite admirable forsaking the usual sloppiness found in this type of black metal for a much more rigid technical style.

Surely the whole album is first-rate, but the standouts are, ‘World of Plague,’ ‘Death to Planet Earth,’ ‘Past, Present Dead,’ and the somewhat more calm, ‘Total Soul Rape.’ Each song is oozing with evilness, malice, misanthropy, great riffs, harsh vocals, and simply all the elements that make black metal the supreme form of extreme music.

Total Soul Rape from start to finish is a complete mind fuck of black metal wickedness and grim hate filled feelings that you’re utterly required to hear especially if you're a fan of the older black metal from the 80's/early 90's.

Die Saat - Der Schlachten Tribut (2003)

Die Saat is a German band featuring members from some lesser known Germanic groups like Fjoergyn & Antiphrasis, and together they give us their take on the folk/epic/black metal sound. Heroic orchestral keyboard melodies, folky acoustic guitars, occasional female vocals, and ferocious raw black metal coalesce to form the sound of Die Saat.

Upon buying this record a few years back I was surprised to see that the band also has some rather melodic characteristics with lots of intricate guitar riffs and solos that only excel the album further. The keyboards are used almost throughout the entire album, but at no point do they block out the guitar or any other instruments, which I really like. Lead Singer Sturm uses basically just three types of voices; the usual black screams, low death growls and occasional clean singing, giving the album a good amount of diversity in the vocal department. The lyrics are almost completely in German except for track eleven, which is a ridiculously stupid song about the black metal war...

Anyway, the songs generally follow a rather simple formula by opening with the beautiful keyboard melodies then diving into the vicious black metal with some breaks in the songs for more keyboards or folky elements. Simple enough and they do it rather splendidly. Songs like, ‘Der Ahnen Sage’ & ‘Elfentanz’ are fantastic songs showcasing everything I love about epic/folky black metal, and not to forgot the wonderful keyboard instrumental, ‘Und die Hoffnung Ruht,’ which sounds like something you’d find on a Blakagir album. These songs are merely a small sample of how good this album is; as each song has some rather strong characteristics that make them stand out.

Fans of what you've just read above should take note of this band and try to track down this very limited album (only 1000 copies) or their debut, ‘Niedergang.'

Abigor - Time Is the Sulphur in the Veins of the Saint (2010)

The one thing I've always admired about Abigor is that even though their music has always been within the black metal style they've never truly created the same record twice and album nine, 'Time Is the Sulphur in the Veins of the Saint' is surely no different, in fact it's the most diverse and challenging work from this legendary Austrian band yet.

Assuming you've heard the Abigor 7" LP, 'Shockwave 666' from '04 or their '07 full-length, 'Fractal Possession' then understanding this album will surely be a lot easier, because frankly so much is going on during this one that its nearly impossible to describe.

As a starter this time around the album consists of just two songs, which both clock in just a little under twenty minutes each for a grand total of thirty eight minutes of music. The music is highly complex, technical, extraordinary and largely remote, at first, with plenty of industrial and unique avant-garde characteristics right from the onset. These two songs lack almost all melodies and chances of catchiness in the traditional sense, which will either result in the long time fans such as myself constantly listening until it makes sense or others just simply giving up after a few spins. The thing is even after numerous listens you may not understand or notice all of the details of the album, but that's also one of the things that makes it so engaging and inviting for further listens.

One of the things from the last album was lots of random industrial, strange electronics and ambient bits here and there and once again all of that is here but put to better usage. The bass guitar is also a crucial part of this recording and its very audible and heavy presence works perfectly amongst these two lengthy avant-garde tracks. A.R.'s vocals are vastly improved as they range from deep growls, hellish screams, spoken word and even clearly sung passages while the drums are absolute and brutal, but honestly sound like they are programmed, but apparently that's not the case. Then the guitars as I've already said are devoid of catchy melodic riffs or solos, but still there's something about it that pulls you in and really grabs your attention.

Lastly the lyrics are about Satanism once again, not in a blasphemous way however, as they seem more theological like Deathspell Omega's masterwork, 'Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice.' It's hard to fully interpret them, but they revolve around Satan's influence on the cosmos and everything around us. Fascinating and highly sophisticated writings, indeed. Oh, and the album also comes housed in a luxurious clamshell box, which looks great, but probably wont fit on my CD shelf... nope, goddamn it!

Anyway, after numerous listens this album has really grown on me, but that's just the thing - it will take a hell of a lot of listens before you reach that point. Perhaps had the songs been split up into shorter sections or had they actually wrote another 15-18 minute song it may have made the whole thing a bit easier to grasp, but, fuck it, Abigor isn't going to make it easy on you punks.

It should be interesting to see where the band goes from here, because as always Abigor continues on and after a release like this they surely deserve to re-capture the attention and glory that nowadays their early releases only seem to get.

...Monument, o mighty monument of time!
we're marching through the ongoing passage of time
life eating... collapsing... drowning...
pointed but without origin
continuum... sequence... pendulum...

Cathedral - The Guessing Game (2010)

Twenty one years is a long time to be together, but that's exactly how long, Coventry, England, UK doom legends, Cathedral have been at it. With several singles, EPs, compilations and eight studio albums behind them one must wonder how their massive ninth studio album would sound? Five years in the making, 'The Guessing Game' is massive simply because its two CDs in length and it offers up the most diverse musical performance from Cathedral yet.

Largely forgoing their doom metal roots, The Guessing Game offers up a strange mix of jazzy psychedelic passages with somewhat typical acid rock and stoner metal groove with only the slightest touch of the bands classic heavy doomness here and there. Probably the most unexpected part of this release is the large usage of synthesizers, moogs and mellotrons on various songs, which in my opinion contributes to the psychedelic aspects I mentioned earlier and to great success too. However there's lots of other random weirdness' and wonders like acoustic guitar sections, the jazzy parts, some progressive rock parts that remind of King Crimson and of course some other aspects that I honestly have no idea how to describe.

The feeling I get when listening to this album is that of being in a smoky bar, drunk and just totally trippin' out while watching some heavy ass band perform in front of me, and you know what it's great. I hate writing reviews where I don't know exactly how to describe the music, but this is one of those albums. Nevertheless even with my inability to fully communicate the music to you I can still easily say this is an incredible release, but it really takes time before it grows on you. Don't expect anything similar to vintage Cathedral here as the band is clearly distancing themselves from the past and sailing upon new musical horizons. A hell of an idea after twenty one years of existence!

The songs to pay attention to are the wonderfully bizarre, 'Funeral of Dreams,' the slow and heavy, 'Edwige's Eyes' and of course the quite varied, 'Cats, Incense, Candles & Wine.' You've gotta love the hard, fast and rocking, 'The Casket Chasers' and 'La Noche Del Buque Maldito (Aka Ghost Ship Of The Blind Dead)' is total groovin' stoner metal bliss while 'Requiem for the Voiceless' is the only pure classic heavy as a really fucking heavy doom metal sounding thing on the album and 'Journey into Jade' is a fun career retrospective type of song similar in lyrical content to the old Megadeth song, 'Victory.'

This might just be one of the best albums in 2010, I dunno, it rocks, but its weird. Keep listening and maybe it will all make sense, eventually. I do know one thing though, I love Cathedral, and this album just makes me dig 'em even more so.

Swedish Death Metal (2009)

Swedish Death Metal is a massive three CD set of classic Swedish Death Metal music from the late 80's through 1993. The author of the Swedish Death Metal book, Daniel Ekeroth had originally toyed with the idea of including a CD with his book, but eventually abandoned it when he realized it would have been one ridiculously huge amount of work. Therefore, a couple years after the books release we see a German label named, Index Verlag who is also responsible for incredibly awesome compilations like, 'Looking For Europe - Neofolk Compendium' & 'Lords Of Chaos: The History Of Occult Music' releasing this compilation.

This release comes as a luxurious fold out digipak, which includes several old photos of the bands that are included as well as a booklet that has comments from Daniel on each and every track included.

The first CD consists of very old songs from the 80's and all of the material here is from various bands demo tapes. It's a rare opportunity to get to hear demo songs from long forgotten and quite incredible bands like Mefisto, Carbonized, Explusion, Tribulation and Sorcery (as well as a few others). You also get to hear Entombed before they were Entombed when they were running under the Nihilist moniker, or there's also Corpse, which eventually transformed into Grave after their 1986 demo tape. It's also quite interesting hearing Therion here since it was pure Swedish Death Metal in these days without a trace of opera or anything symphonic at all. I was also quite amazed with the songs from Desultory, Grotesque and Affliced Convulsion (later known as just Afflicted).

Jumping to the second CD we get to hear some of the most legendary names in the Swedish Death Metal scene and here we get treated to various songs from these bands debut or sophomore albums. Here we get all the heavy weights; Entombed, Nirvana 2002, Dismember, Grave, Unleashed, Tiamat, At the Gates, Edge of Sanity, Marduk and Dissection as well as lesser known bands like General Surgery, Carbonized, Liers in Wait, Cemetery and Afflicted. There's another track from Therion and a song from Tiamat's debut release, and goddamn its just strange hearing stuff like this considering where those two are at twenty years later.

The third CD seems to consist of lesser known bands from the scene, but nevertheless bands that did release full length albums or demos in the early 90's. I don't know what to say other than bands like Evocation, House of Usher, Crypt of Kerberos, Interment and especially Traumatic absolutely fucking rule. Other bands like Seance, Macrodex, Eternal Darkness, Uncanny and Necrony are no less killer either, but I must admit the songs from Furbowl (early band for Johan Liiva of Arch Enemy) and S.G.R. (all female death metal band) leave a bit to be desired. There's also two songs from newer bands named Repugnant and Katalysator, which have thee old Swedish sound down perfectly.

All in all I find very little fault with this compilation and I'm quite sure once you listen to these CDs it will instantly spawn an interest in these old bands. It certainly did for me. The only downside is a lot of these full-lengths and demos have never been re-released (and probably wont be) so for the true fans that demand physical copies you'll more than likely pay a lot for them on eBay. Unfortunately I don't have the money for all that these days so maybe later I'll hunt down some mp3's since I'm quite sure they are out there on some blog, somewhere.

I have however sat in this chair entirely too long. It's time to get up, let the hair down, put back a few beers and headbang like a mother fucker to some classic Swedish Death Metal music!

Svensk DödsMetal för evigt!

Pentagram - Pentagram (2000)

Not to be confused with the Arlington, Virginia, USA doom legends who formed in the early 70's, this Pentagram was formed in 1985 in Santiago, Chile and although they never released any albums these guys attracted a great deal of attention with the two demos they released in the late 80's. This compilation from ten years ago brings those two demos plus two live tracks together for those of us that weren't around to get our hands on the original tapes.

Musically Pentagram were rhythmical relentless thrashy death metal most likely influenced by Possessed's classic, 'Seven Churches' record. With short bursts of brilliant lead work and heavy pulsating downtuned riffs, pummeling drumming, catchy bass lines and harsh proto-death metal vocals show us that these Chileans were up to something ridiculously evil back in the day. The riffs on some these songs are truly demonic, especially on, 'The Malefice,' which honestly sounds wicked to the core and I can't help but think that some Norwegians and Swedes (like Darkthrone or Entombed) back in the early 90's were fans of these guys too. Likewise some of the licks in, 'Profaner' are just heavy crushing like a motherfucker, I seriously love this shit! Also the production is muddy and abysmal, but it works entirely too well with this sort of early death metal music and I truly wouldn't have it any other way. Furthermore the two live tracks are just merciless death metal fury done the classic way and, yes, it rocks!

In the booklet band founder/vocalist/guitarist, Anton Reisenegger explains how Pentagram broke up due to their immaturity and the simple fact of realizing that no label would ever sign a band from Chile, but imagine if these guys had cut a record in '88 and its safe to say death metal's course and rise could have unfolded slightly differently.

Shortly after the release of this comp. Pentagram played one gig together playing all of these songs again, and apparently the band is still together nowadays, but not much info seems to be available on that matter. My guess is this comp. is out or print these days, but it was re-released recently under the name of, 'Under the Spell of the Pentagram' and contains a bonus DVD of shows from the 80's as well as that 2001 performance I mentioned earlier. Seems I'll have to hunt down a copy of the re-issue some day too.

Indungeon - Machinegunnery of Doom (1997)

Indungeon was a short lived ('96-'99) band from Mjölby, Sweden, which featured four members whom came from bands like Mithotyn, Thy Primordial and Niden Div.187, as well as various other lesser known bands.

Musically the band was within the thrash metal realm although this is hardly a Slayer, Dark Angel or Metallica tribute band here since plenty of death metal riffs make an appearance on this album and the vocals are within a screeching black metal style, which makes the band fairly comparable to their fellow countrymen in Merciless.

I suppose what I really like about this album is that it's just got a great energetic flow to it with plenty of catchy riffs from Mikael "Asmodeus" Andersson and Jonas "Cethulhv" Albrektsson, which pretty much results in many great headbanging and fist pumping moments while listening. Stefan "L.V. Managarmr" Weinerhall's bass is also a crucial and extra cool part of this record since its just as audible and driving as the guitars and although Karl "Mournlord" Beckmann's drumming is mid-paced and somewhat simplistic it seems to really work with the fun hobby like nature of this project.

Songs like, 'Battletank No. 1' or 'Cyborgnetic Supermind' totally get me charged up every time I listen to this album, while I also really dig the little epic-ish moment during the song, 'Charging Against You' and of course you've got to love the Bathory cover of, 'Die in Fire' as the albums closer. To make the album all the more enjoyable its produced quite adequately with all instruments and vocals being easily heard, except actually for the Bathory cover, which is taken from the bands unreleased demo tape, but it seems appropriate to allow this one to carry a more abysmal tone, anyway.

Unfortunately the bands second album, 'The Misanthropocalypse' is considerably less entertaining since the production is a bit lo-fi and the idea for Jonas and Stefan to switch instruments just wasn't a good choice either. Nevertheless, 'Machinegunnery of Doom' is a damn fine record well worth checking out.

Mortiis - Keiser Av En Dimensjon Ukjent (1995)

Out of the three early (1993-1995) two long song albums that Mortiis released, ‘Keiser Av En Dimensjon Ukjent’ is undoubtedly my favorite one. Not to take anything away from the excellent debut, ‘Født til å herske’ or his sophomore release, ‘Ånden som gjorde opprør,’ which are both excellent mind you, but I feel it was at this point in Mortiis’ early career that he achieved absolute perfection.

Probably the first thing you’ll notice as you work your way through these two long songs (24 + minutes each) is that Mortiis began to craft some truly beautiful melodies during ever last second of these songs. This was indeed his most melodic and well accomplished release to date, as well his most darkly medieval sounding piece of work. Words are brief on this journey to the past, but Mortiis’ speaks to the listener while the music takes you to places long forgotten. Surely it is a medieval place where dragons ruled the forest, trolls hid under bridges, and men died gloriously with sword in hand while defending their mighty kingdom on the battlefield. Both songs take you to this place, but the title track is indeed the true highlight of this recording. The gorgeous medieval melodies, light chanting, and bombastic percussion are indeed immense. This song has both these dynamic moments, but also several other moments of serene ethereal clarity where one can sense something unexplainable on the horizon. This regal symphonic sound suggests triumph but perhaps these emperors of a dimension unknown have lost their grandiose battle.

For me this was actually the first Mortiis release I heard, just a month or so before picking up the stunning, ‘The Stargate’ album in the autumn of 2000. Much like The Stargate this release has become one of my all-time favorites and definitely one of my most played albums. It was also re-released a few years ago by Projekt Records in a digipak format, thus making this ambient classic widely available again for all kings and conquerors to hear.

Moonsorrow - Suden Uni (Re-release) (2003)

After releasing four demos between 1996-1999, Moonsorrow’s debut album, ‘Suden Uni’ finally saw the light of day in 2001 after being delayed at least a year. In 2003 the album was re-released with new cover artwork, layout, a bonus track, and an additional DVD containing promo and live videos, giving the fans the finest version of this masterpiece possible.

While I have greatly enjoyed everything this Finnish band has released the biggest difference between the Moonsorrow of now and then is that the band is generally more folky melodic black metal sounding and baring a large resemblance to their fellow brethren in Finntroll here, which was only natural since Henri Sorvali plays in both bands. The songs although normally longer than Finntroll songs are the same type of ‘ultra enjoyable, drink a whole lotta beer and then get your sword out and defend your medieval realm, type a folky epic-ish melodic black metal songs’ that I utterly love. The only real exception to this is the slower Bathory-ish, ‘1065: Aika,’ which is marvelous and it clearly shows where Moonsorrow would be taken their music in the near future. The band also displays some occasional dissonant black metal characteristics on this album, which would pretty much disappear with the next two albums, but make a bit of a comeback with the, ‘Verisäkeet’ album and onwards.

So, the favorites you ask? Every last song! There isn’t one bad song on this album. I could listen to this album on repeat for hours and be thoroughly entertained every single time. Songs like, ‘Ukkosenjumalan Poika,' ‘kuin Ikuinen’ & 'Tuulen Koti, Aaltojen Koti' are simply superb and if there is any luck in this world I'd like to be in Finland getting drunk to the bonus track, ‘Tulkaapa Äijät’ someday. This stuff just rules!

The forty minute bonus DVD isn’t any less stunning either showcasing two fantastic promo videos for two of the best Moonsorrow songs and the live gig at Tuska fest is remarkable as well. The video & sound quality is top notch as well and the band delivers a perfect performance. So get that broadsword out, take a swig of mead, and start lopping heads off of some Christian scum while headbanging to the masterful, 'Suden Uni!' Hails!

Nirvana 2002 - Recordings 89-91 (2009)

Luktar Svensk DödsMetall!

Swedish death metal pioneers, Nirvana 2002, were formed back in 1988 originally under the name of Prophet 2002, but quickly changed their moniker to Nirvana. Sometime soon after Nicke Andersson from Nihilist/Entombed informed guitarist/vocalist Orvar Säfström of the existence of a new band from Seattle who had just released their first 7" EP, which resulted in Nirvana adding the 2002 suffix from the earlier name.

Although they only created four demos/rehearsals between '88-'91 and never released a full-length album, Nirvana 2002 is remembered as one of the stunning bands on the '91 CBR compilation, which is a much sought after item since it features Mayhem's only studio tracks with Dead on vocals. It's been also said that after Robert Sennebäck from Dismember heard Nirvana 2002's song, 'Mourning' he told Sunlight Studio producer Tomas Skogsberg that he wanted his guitar to sound exactly the same on the bands debut album, 'Like an ever flowing Stream.'

In 1992 the band was offered a deal with Deaf and Necrosis Records, but did not take either deal and instead of becoming legends like their fellow countrymen in Entombed, Dismember and Unleashed they became relics of the past. Eighteen years later, Relapse records released this compilation, which consists of the song, 'Mourning' from the CBR compilation, both a remastered and original version of the 1990 demo, 'Disembodied Spirits' as well as various other rehearsals and one live track from the bands reunion a few years ago.

It goes without saying that if you have any love for early Swedish Death metal you simply must hear this material. This is classic Sunlight studio death metal material here with that unbelievable downtuned buzzsaw guitar tone that unfortunately is a thing of the past in the death metal scene. They truly don't make it like this anymore, but I'm quite glad these old recordings were unearthed as songs like, 'Mourning,' 'Slumber,' 'Zombiefication,' and 'The Awakening of...' are simply death metal masterpieces in all their grimy gory glory. Some of the rehearsal songs like, 'Further Beyond' & 'Snake' show considerable promise too, though there are also some very lo-fi garage-ish jams on this comp., which leave a bit to be desired, but you can certainly see the heart was present. There's also a live version of Mourning from the 2007 reunion, but it too is a tad on the lo-fi scale, though the crowd seems utterly ecstatic for the band.

The album comes as a digipak with a very nice booklet that contains tons of old/new photos as well Orvar provides various comments on the bands existence and each of the songs present on the compilation. Tomas from At the Gates also has a few words to say about Nirvana 2002/Orvar and Swedish Death Metal in general.

Nirvana 2002 is back together these days and whether or not they'll finally record their full-length album is yet to be seen, but for now they are occasionally playing live, but if they don't come to your town we've at least got this great collection to bang our heads with.

Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse (1994)

I can still remember my emotions several years ago playing this album for the first time and actually being so scared of it that as the final seconds of, 'Inno a Satana' left my speakers I literally laid on my bed in petrified fear of what I had just heard. I can still remember the way the hairs stood up on the back of my neck and the cold sweat that covered my body. I knew I had discovered something genuine, novel, challenging and something I'd admire the rest of my life.

It's true that Emperor's masterpiece, 'In the Nightside Eclipse' truly captured my interest in a way no other album had done previously, but I don't think it was until a few months later when under the right circumstances (I seem to recall being in a fit of murderous rage) I was finally able to take in all it had to offer and I felt absolute reverence towards these four Norwegian musicians creation.

Emperor was the initial black metal band to place a large emphasis on the keyboards and through Vegard "Ihsahn" Tveitan's keyboard performance the band formed quite possibly the gloomiest evil freezing moods conceivable. Brooding with unadulterated malevolence his synthesizer wizardry had a certain elegant majesty to them that kept me and many others hooked for life and took our souls to the blackest realms of hell while we listened. Still to this day the intros to, 'Into the Infinity of Thoughts' & 'Towards the Pantheon' fill my soul with a felling of utter evil and frankly it sounds like a brooding apocalyptic scene ready to unfold.

Naturally there’s no forgetting the incredible guitar work of Ihsahn and his childhood friend Tomas "Samoth" Haugen either. Although somewhat hidden due to the lo-fi production these buzzing guitars walk hand and hand with distorted yet complex melodic riffs, which seem to intertwine with the keyboards perfectly. Bård "Faust" Eithun's drumming is also most impressive though again the production leaves his drumming somewhat buried under the vocals, synth and guitars. Bassist Terje "Tchort" Schei's work is unfortunately almost completely inaudible, but it sure would have been interesting had it been more well pronounced. On the other hand I want to point out that I have absolutely no complaints with the production as its shrouded noisy characteristics work well with the the feelings of mystery and obscurity.

Also one of the things that originally scared me (but later on I ended up enjoying) were Ihsahn’s vocals, which still to this day are among some of the best ever recorded. Although he mostly sticks to a hellish howl he occasionally switches to an outstanding clearly sung voice, which of course nowadays we can all see he's become quite proficient at. Lastly the lyrics wrote by Ihsahn, Samoth and Mortiis telling dark tales of nature and its connection to Satanic mysticism is fascinating, poetic and ultimately something I've taken to heart every sense.

Unlike a lot of bands Emperor wasn’t influenced by any other bands they were the influencers and forever shall, ‘In the Nightside Eclipse’ be hailed as not only one of the grandest black metal albums for all infinity but simply one of the greatest metal albums ever created.

Marduk - Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered (1996)

There was a point in my life where I had more or less considered Marduk to be one of my absolute favorite bands. I remember back in early 2003 after the release of, 'World Funeral' I personally owned absolutely everything Marduk had released at that point of their career, save for an original pressing of the, 'Fuck me Jesus' demo tape. Nowadays the only album I own is this one, 'Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered.' You might ask yourself why, and I'd be happy to explain, but it would result in a whiny rant that I'd rather not post here. Long story short though, tinnitus is a bitch, and yes, I very, very much regret selling my Marduk collection!

Anyway, Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered was a turning point in this legendary Swedish black metal band's career as it was at this moment that they fully embraced their relentless blast beat driving Christ rapping black metal style that culminated into utter Satanic madness of apocalyptic levels a few years later when they released, 'Panzer Division Marduk' (Goddamn, why did I sell my fucking Marduk records!!?) This was also the first release to feature vocalist Erik "Legion" Hagstedt who previously played with Ophthalamia and after his time with Marduk went on to perform with Devian and Witchery. Additionally this was Marduk's first album recorded in Abyss Studios with Peter Tägtgren, which resulted in a much fuller properly produced affair over the somewhat low-fi production of their previous outputs with Dan Swanö as producer at Unisound.

Even with Marduk's barbarous black metal style firmly in place on this release things remain quite tight the whole way through with precise and perfect drumming from Fredik Andersson and a good assortment of riffs from Morgan "Evil" Steinmeyer Håkansson. Generally completely dissonant, cruel and hellish in their delivery, but at other times his guitar work slows down for for some interesting melodic riffs, which are best displayed on, 'Glorification Of The Black God,' which are based on classical composer, Mussorgsky's, 'A Night on a Bare Mountain.' Bogge "War" Svensson's bass guitar is also clearly heard on this album though he doesn't have any random points of brilliance, but in the end it's all about Legion's vocals. I mean seriously, both then and now there really wasn't anyone that could match this guys inhuman devilish shrieks of raging Satanic turbulence. They are simply the most ideal vocals a black metal band could have hoped to find and I'm going to leave it at that.

Anyway, this album goes a little bit like this. After a short intro titled, 'Summon the Darkness,' merciless fury is unleashed in the form of, 'Beyond the Grace of God' and for the next twenty five minutes things continue in this style until reaching the much slower and melodic, 'Dracul Va Domni Din Nou In Transilvania' before returning to the albums previous format for one final blast of ferocity called, 'Legion.' Altogether its just thirty five minutes, but frankly I love every second of it. Although Marduk isn't a band for everyday this is the perfect album for me at the moment as December has a tradition of pissing me off beyond reasonable comprehension. Needless to say, I haven't caught the Christmas jingle this year.

In the end, 'Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered' along with, 'Those of the Unlight' and 'Panzer Division Marduk' is Marduk at the top of their genre and are worth hearing for all fans of brutal Swedish black metal.

Jesu - Christmas EP (2010)

So it's December, and with December comes the onset of the madness that is the holiday season, complete with a commercial soundtrack as ear-splitting as nails on a chalkboard. To combat this, Jesu (Justin Broadrick's shoegaze project, for those that have been living underground recently) have released the 'Christmas' EP, a download-only EP "inspired by the onset of the Christmas period and the onset of emotions and feelings of nostalgia, joy and sadness that the period often evokes". The three-track EP consists of the title track and two remixes from Broadrick's other projects: Pale Sketcher and FINAL.

'Christmas' fits right in with the usual Jesu sound. Heavy droning guitars and methodical drumming pummel the listener, while ambient sounds give the track that comforting shoegaze feel. The clean, barely discernible vocals sweep in and out like a lullaby. About 2/3s of the way through, acoustic guitars and bells overtake the fuzz, before the drums take back over near the end. This interlude is strange; it gives the album a slight Agalloch feel, but seems out of place. While the track doesn't fully live up to his earlier works, it's a good output.

The Pale Sketcher remix is only five minutes long; plodding acoustic guitar melodies over noise and choir voices are the vessels of the track this time. While it's an interesting take on the title track, it honestly does nothing for the overall value of the EP, and I feel the quality would have been better if it just skipped right to the FINAL remix. The FINAL remix is sure to have its share of critics. Its fourteen minutes make up almost half of the total EP. But for the noise and dark ambient fans, it is the best part of the EP. Broadrick puts on his drone glove and stretches his fingers as far as seams will hold. When the acoustic guitar comes in, it feels more at home here droning over a bed of distortion than it did as an interlude. The final four minutes bear an interesting brightness/melancholy that fits the themes of a cold December winter. This feeling is what I believe Broadrick was going for throughout the EP, but is really only found here.

While this isn't the best Jesu's been, the EP is worth the download to hear the title track, and especially to revel in the FINAL remix. For those that would prefer a hard copy, a CD and vinyl version are planned, although they have not been confirmed yet. Here's hoping everyone has a beautiful winter, and enjoys whatever holidays/festivals/solstices they celebrate.

Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle Part II (2010)

Sometimes I stop and think how strange it is that nowadays Nachtmystium is one of my favorite bands, and I say this simply because eight years ago when I heard their debut, 'Reign of the Malicious' I thought they were quite simply awful. Of course in those days Blake Judd and his comrades were a corpsepainted clan of Transilvanian Hunger era Darkthrone worshippers with zero innovation and honestly not much talent for songwriting either. Fortunately it became clear to the band shortly thereafter that they were never going to make copying other bands and they quickly began to change, pick up new influences and define their own unique sound.

Eight years later we see Nachtmystium releasing their sixth album as well as the second part of their 'Black Meddle' series. 'Addicts: Black Meddle Part II' tends to carry on in a similar fashion as Part I, though this time around the songs are far catchier and melodic, the solos are just brilliant ('Nightfall,' 'Then Fire' and 'Addicts' are the best examples) and they've also added greater synthesizer depth as well as a very unique sounding song called, 'No Funeral,' which honestly sounds as if they drew influences from 70's disco and new wave music... I'm not kidding. The band has also further refined the psychedelic sound they first started toying around with a few years ago to the point now where they truly do sound like a psychedelic metal band.

The thing about Addicts though is that it takes A LOT of spins before it really clicks. I mean seriously, the first time I listened to the record six months ago I completely dismissed it after the first spin, but not one to give up on an album I bought, I kept listening to it until things really started to click into place. After each spin I noticed different things that really stuck out further, like the aforementioned solos, or some of the funkier synth/moog parts, the melodic nature of songs like, 'Nightfall' or 'Then Fires, the drawn out trippy/epic mood of, 'Every Last Drop' and even the little thrash bit in, 'Blood Trance Fusion' is cute too.

In the end Addicts is some strange blend of minor black metal characteristics, Pink Floyd-ish psychedelia with bizarro synth arrangements, melodic riffs and clever memorable solos and lyrics, which will surely alienate some old fans further, but will surely draw in many new fans that long for unique and interesting music in their ears.

In early 2011 Nachtmystium will be touring with Cradle of Filth, but hopefully a new album will surface by the end of the year as I'm very curious to see where their music goes from here.

Amorphis - Forging the Land of Thousand Lakes (2010)

2010 marked the 20th anniversary of one of Finland's most popular, enduring, unique and honestly one of my top favorite bands, ever. To celebrate the band has released, 'Forging the Land of Thousand Lakes' a 2CD/2DVD, which is utterly mandatory for everyone that calls themselves an Amorphis fan.

The first DVD contains a full concert from November 20th of 2009, which was filmed at Club Teatria in Oulu, Finland. From Tomi Joutsen's lead vocal work to both Esa Holopainen & Tomi Koivusaari's guitar work, Jan Rechberger's drumming, Niclas Etelävuori bass playing and Santeri Kallio's keyboards everything is absolutely perfect during this wonderful evening and I can admit I feel quite envious of those that got to witness it. The band rips through a number of the newer songs from the past three albums as well as a few classics with much conviction and finesse. Songs like, 'Sampo, 'The Castaway,' and 'House of Sleep' leave the crowd absolutely ecstatic, but things reach a truly magical height when they play the lengthy Elegy melody and even their bludgeoning earlier death metal number, 'The Sign from the North Side' really stir things up. The video quality and amount of perspectives shown during this show are quite beguiling as well making me feel like I'm sitting amongst the Oulu crowd. Needless to say, I've watched this first DVD a lot since purchasing it a few months ago. Collectively sixteen songs are played and these are also the same sixteen songs, which appear on the CD portion of this illustrious package, which I'm quite thankful for since I just can't get enough of this show.


The second DVD kicks off with a gig from a few months earlier at Germany's Summer Breeze Open Air. The set list for this one is a bit shorter at just twelve songs and a few from the previous show are present here as well, though it was pleasing see songs like, 'Leaves Scars' and 'Against Widows' & 'Magic and Mayhem' in their full length during this performance. The sound and video quality for this gig is slightly lower, but the bands passion, energy and dedication to their music remains. It also seems the crowd is not nearly as enthusiastic, but then again Summer Breeze is a huge fest and I don't suppose everyone was present to see Amorphis. Nonetheless this is another enjoyable gig, which I've of course watched a few times since picking this package up.

The DVD continues with a documentary titled, 'Tales from the 20 Years,' which is basically the current and some of the previous members looking back at the past twenty years and telling how things got started with Amorphis and how things have progressed throughout the years. As expected tons of old photo and video footage of the band onstage, recording the albums and quite a bit of them just fucking around and getting drunk is present. The whole thing is quite engaging and keeps your attention throughout the entire duration, though I wish all past members had made an appearance. I can understand old members like Ville or Kimmi not making an appearance, but the lack of Pasi in this documentary is truly a shame. All in all though its definitely one of the better documentaries for an underground metal band I've seen with perhaps only the At The Gates documentary overshadowing it.

All of the bands music videos are also present with everything from the quite odd, 'Black Winter Day' video to newer vids like 'House of Sleep' and the quite cool, 'Silver Bride.' Perhaps the most interesting portion of the videos section is an old live acoustic version, 'My Kantele' on a Finnish music show from '96, which reminds me of the old MTV show, '120 Minutes.' Of course its quite interesting seeing the band when they were basically just 'kids' in their early twenties. There's also a short interview during this show with Pasi and Tomi where they are asked about the new album (Elegy), fans, touring as well as their plans for the future. All very interesting stuff I must say. Lastly a photo gallery is included on this DVD and its pretty much what you'd expect a band to include on their DVD.

Well, I've already said it, but in case you don't get it, proceed upwards to the last several words of the first paragraph.

Death - Scream Bloody Gore (1987)

Back in 1983 when the bulk of us were toddlers, infants or semen in our dad's nut sacs, a high school kid by the name of Chuck "Evil" Schuldiner formed a band named Mantas with his friends Rick Rozz and Kam Lee. A year later we would re-name his band, Death. Death was only a simple and to the point name to reflect the horror film-based lyrical content of the music he intended to create. Little did he know that this name and album would become a catalyst for an entirely new genre of metal in itself... Death Metal.

'Scream Bloody Gore,' the bands debut album was released in the summer of 1987 through Combat Records and featured the line-up of Chuck on vocals, bass and guitar as well as Chris Reifert on drums (John Hand was credited in the booklet for rhythm guitar, although he did not actually play on the album).

Comprised of heavily distorted downtuned creepy, bludgeoning, heavy as fuck riffs, frantic technical solos, hard pounding drums and throat lacerating growls and screams of insane measure; Scream Bloody Gore (as well as the bands 2nd and 3rd outputs) has always been my most favored era of Death, despite the fact that music theory fuck-o's might tell you differently. The lyrics are lifted directly from classic gore/slasher films and sickened even further. Some big shots might bitch and say these lyrics are of complete immaturity and ridiculous value, but then they are completely overlooking the fact that they were wrote by a twenty year old musician who was passionate about horror movies.

"Decapitated head licking your cunt, Sucking all the blood from your stump, Intestinal guts taking their hold, Leaving you dead, stiff and cold..."

The production is ugly and underground and it fits the music perfectly as it shows the true spirit of the 80's (and early 90's) before recording equipment made everything sound crystal clear and perfect. Forget the fact that you can barely hear the bass or that the drums are overshadowed by the guitars, this recording is brutal beyond reason, even if its not the fastest played or most guttural vocal performance ever. I absolutely love this album!

The album in my opinion features some of most classic death metal songs ever with the ultra catchy 'Zombie Ritual' or the hard hitting 'Mutilation' & 'Sacrificial' as well the title track, which is quite simply the most brutal thing conceived in music at the time. Although as a whole I find very little fault with this recording and at just thirty seven minutes its a quick and engaging lesson in what true death metal is all about.

Chuck Schuldiner was often considered the 'Godfather of Death Metal,' although he modestly told people, "I don’t think I should take the credits for this death metal stuff. I’m just a guy from a band, and I think Death is a metal band."

In case you didn't know, nine years ago today Chuck passed away as he lost his battle with cancer after a two and half year struggle. Today is the day to play your Death records LOUD, hold the horns high, drink a beer and salute one of the most important humans to ever pick up an instrument and get his frustrations out playing fast, heavy, deafening angry music, which we all know and love. Thank you, Chuck, hope you're resting well.

One Year Anniversary / Old LH compilations unearthed

December 12th marks the one year anniversary of Lunar Hypnosis' birth... or rather it's re-birth and continuation in blog form. Not everyone that visits this blog is probably aware of this, but at one point in time Lunar Hypnosis was a normal web based Webzine, which existed from mid-2001 to December of 2008, under various web address', but the longest lasting one was, www.lunar-hypnosis.com.

The original reasons for ending Lunar Hypnosis were many; I was sick of shitty promos, sick of reviewing in general, needed time away from the computer, I wasn't dealing very well with a recent hearing issue, updating the website was annoying and time consuming, and, I guess, I just felt burnt out after all those years of insanely hard work. During those years my comrades and I wrote over 2500 reviews, we conducted over 100 interviews, wrote various music related articles and the 'zine was also responsible for releasing three mp3 compilations.

At the time (2005) I really didn't know any other 'zine that was offering a free compilation/sampler of bands that the editor admired and I therefore took it upon myself to do just that. I set out and contacted every new and upcoming band I admired at the time with hopes of getting their permission to use a song on the first Lunar Hypnosis compilation, which ended up being titled, 'Dreams of Winter Under the Scorched Summer Sun.' I even made front and back cover artworks, which are included with the downloads. So, I guess, I took this whole project very seriously.

To celebrate the one year anniversary of Lunar Hypnosis as a blog (party hats, blow whistles and beer, everyone!) I've decided to unearth those three compilations and make them available once again. Below find the links to download the comps. as well as some brief commentary from me on each one.

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Dreams of Winter Under the Scorched Summer Sun

For a debut compilation this one turned out quite nicely and I was very pleased with it's quality and diversity of musical talent. The music on this one ranges from dark ambient to black metal, neo folk, neo classical and neo medieval styled music. One of the songs on this comp. was never released in any other form as well two of the songs are older 90's projects of Jason William Walton of Agalloch fame who kindly donated two songs to this comp.

Tracklist:
1. A Crown of Amaranth - A Swift Combination of Words
2. Emancer - Explicit Repugnance
3. Massemord - Solen Skinner Ikkje
4. Susurrus Inanis - Such as this Water
5. Elffor - Grimmest Winternights
6. Vinterriket - Winternacht - Kalte Schwärze im Bann der silbernen Sonne
7. Novalis - Wild Horses
8. Velonnic Sin - Ritual
9. Adhur - Iluno
10. Sykdom - Forgotten Tale
11. Aardia - The Summoner
12. V:28 - DeConstructor
13. VLE - ...Of Wood & Water
14. Ganzmord - Demoness of Whores
15. Uvall - Comfortless, Affliction and Loss
16. V.B.G. - The Bleeding Place
17. Jääportit - Pisaroi puusta pitkälle

DOWNLOAD HERE

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The Unscathed Pulsation of Decay

The second compilation is my least favorite of the three and that's simply because for this comp. I made an open invitation for folks to submit their bands and in the end pretty much choose everything that got submitted. I remember one guy in particular offered his reviewing services in exchange for having his shitty band Admatha on the comp. I also remember how he said he'll write lots of reviews and would be happy to review promos too. Curiously I never heard from him after sending those promo CDs. Fucker. Nevertheless, some great bands do grace this comp., namely; Nostalgia, Endless Blizzard, Caina, Verhoren, Sombrous, Inquinox and a few others. Also several songs on this one were exclusive to the comp and even to this day remain so. Again, a good mix, but maybe it's too diverse this time around, I dunno, but check it out, anyway.

Tracklist:
1. Nostalgia - Prologue: Decomposition
2. Endless Dismal Moan - Griefs
3. Putre et Solve - Ignotum per Ignotius
4. Inquinox - Lost in Dreams
5. Conversations About the Light - You Need me (Swans cover)
6. Endless Blizzard - Beyond the Frozen Gate
7. Mountain Mirrors - Praying Mantis
8. Verhoren - The Ossuary
9. MarAmon - Why?
10. Sombrous - Reluctant Descent
11. A. Lixiva/Verhoren - Sans Fin
12. Admatha - And they Wept
13. Arc Fatalis - Decay
14. Caina - Fields of Rape (Death in June cover)
15. The Aria Sea - Closing in
16. Taliesin - Tree Spirit Calls
17. Spectral Lore - The Quiet Fall

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Autumn Calls - Winter Awaits

The third Lunar Hypnosis compilation was by far the best of the three as I had finally achieved what I thought was a fantastic mix of talented, dark, melancholic, evil, brutal and atmospheric artists all in place. Musically it was a mix of black metal, ambient, neo folk, dark rock, acoustic, noise and neo classical music. The compilation was also released on Halloween that year and although not all bands may fit, I wanted to have a theme of Autumn, Winter and Halloween, but honestly after playing it again recently I do think many bands on here are perfect for these late months of the year. Anyway, if you download any of these this is definitely the one as the best artists are present here, there's a few exclusive songs and I'm sure you'll find these songs perfect for listening too while gazing at the snow falling outside your window.

Tracklist:
1. Valerio Orlandini - The Crawling Leaf
2. Falls of Rauros - The Fire we Fathered
3. Weh - And the Bells are Ringing Doom
4. Dialis - Theatres
5. Inlaid Rust - Stumble over sheeted Dead
6. Bones of the Elephant - Cement Staircase
7. Art of Empathy - Winter's Dancing
8. Velonnic Sin - Constricting the Dead
9. Dormant - Black Ashes
10. SoundZcapa - The First Snow (part 2)
11. Valkyrja - Everything Rupture
12. Gurtholfinn - Dying Alone
13. Verhoren - Where snow ends and Ashes begin
14. Orphonic Orchestra - Reasons
15. Electric Bird Noise - Nights like last night make me wanna believe in Ghosts
16. Kratornas - Dead Messiah
17. Plutonium - The New Consciousness
18. Dahlia's Tear - Close yours Eyes and cease to Exist

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Lastly my greatest of thanks to those who have been reading this 'zine during the past year and of course to those that have been hanging around and reading for years. If you like what you hear on these comps. then spread the word on them and Lunar Hypnosis in general. Hopefully Lunar Hypnosis will continue on strongly for another year, and, who knows, maybe another compilation some day too. Thanks.

Vond - Selvmord (1995)

Absolutely one of my all-time favorite creations from Haavard "Mortiis" Ellefsen is his 1995 debut release for his side project, Vond, which carried the title, 'Selvmord' (Norwegian word for Suicide).

Apparently at the time of recording this album Haavard was going through some dark times due a lack of money and because of his crazed living arrangements with his girlfriend & her family and had contemplated suicide over all of this. Regardless of Haavard’s poor mental condition at the time he managed to record this album in a mere two days.

In a lot of ways this first Vond album shows parallels to the first three Mortiis albums, yet the difference was that Vond wasn’t medieval driven ambient music. ‘Selvmord’ was basically very dark and bleak ambient styled music with gorgeous melodies and occasional spoken vocals here and there. On the other hand there were some characteristics present in this album that would foreshadow the future of this particular project and all of Haavard’s projects in general. For example at times the album does hold a slight darkwave feeling to it, which is more of what the second Vond album, 'The Dark River' was like. Also at times you can find some brief upbeat melodies that remind me more of the songs on his Fata Morgana project.

However, Selvmord lives up to its name as the bulk of this album is quite ominous, depressive and desperate sounding throughout its forty plus minute duration. On a side note I also thought the cover artwork portraying Haavard about to slice his girlfriends neck to be really brilliant. Even though I guess it contradicts the albums title.

Allegedly Haavard once stated Vond would one day take a turn towards hard driven industrial rock music, though of course we all know his Mortiis project eventually took on this sound, much to my disappointment of course, but not all musicians are destined to remain brilliant forever.

As a fan of just about everything Haavard created during the 90's I can easily say this is one of his most well crafted and expressive releases ever. Selvmord was re-released by Karmageddon Media in 2004, so it shouldn't be too hard to hunt down a copy nowadays.

Windir - Valfar, ein Windir (2004)

As many of you black/viking metal fans know, back on the 17th of January in 2004, Terje ‘Valfar’ Bakken the leader, founder, guitarist, vocalist and main song writer of Windir died of Hypothermia all alone somewhere in the Norwegian mountains. I still remember reading the news that day and being extremely grieved and practically coming to tears (well, no, but you know how it is) when I listened to my Windir records that evening.

Windir was in my opinion one of the best Norwegian black/viking metal bands at the time, and really one of the few remaining truly amazing bands from this country; on top of that it seemed as if their future was limitless. For those of you that don’t know, Windir was formed in 1994 by the then only sixteen year old Valfar, and at first the band was completely a solo project. He recorded demos in 1994 & 1995, and unleashed two full length albums in 1997 and 1999. Later in 2001 he recruited a full band to play with him and released what many consider to be the best Windir album, ‘1184.’ Two years later came, ‘Likferd,’ and this would unfortunately be the last studio album from this mighty band.

To commemorate the life of Terje and his band Windir, a two CD set of newly recorded songs, cover songs from various bands, live material and greatest hits collection was released by Tabu Recordings. The first four songs to be found on this collection are newly recorded songs as well as two covers from the old Norwegian band Ulcus (the surviving members of Windir's previous band). These four songs certainly carry on in the same vein as previous material, and yet still seem slightly different, but maybe that’s just because they don’t feature Valfar’s vocals. In any case though it seems like Windir was really up to something interesting with what would have been their next album, but of course will never see anymore than these four songs.

The next five songs are covers performed by Enslaved, Finntroll, E-Head, Notodden All Stars and Weh. Enslaved’s cover, well sounds more like an Enslaved song than the original Windir song, but it certainly is decent. Finntroll’s cover of, ‘Ending’ is again very Finntroll-ish sounding, but heck is there anything wrong with that? E-Head whom I’m not at all familiar with perform a cover of, ‘Mørkets Fyrste.’ It should however be mentioned that E-Head is not a metal band at all rather their more of an electronic/techno-ish band. Although this technoized version of the song is ok sounding it just seems really out of place on this compilation. Next up are the Notodden All Stars a super band featuring Cosmocrator (Mindgrinder & Zyklon), Samoth (Zyklon & Emperor), Trym (Zyklon & Emperor) and someone named Invictus. Musically this song is a brutal death metal version of, ‘Destroy’ that is quite well done, but then again its death metal so it doesn’t do as much for me as the original version does. Finally Weh perform a cover of one of my all time favorite Windir songs namely, ‘Likbør.’ Interesting enough though Weh (the solo project of Erik E.) perform the song in a neo folk style and the results are just fantastic. Likbør already was a rather emotional song and to have it performed acoustically in a neo folk style makes the song all the better.

Finally closing out the first CD are two live tracks recorded in Trondheim on 27-09-2003. I was fortunate enough to see Windir live in 2003 and listening to these two live songs really brings back some great memories of banging my head like mad, screaming as loud as possible and fighting some asshole over a Windir shirt, even though Valfar looked me in the eyes and through the shirt directly at me (no lie there). In any case these two songs are produced quite well and definitely give the listener a good idea of the Windir live battle.

Disc two opens with two songs taken from, ‘Sognariket’ demo from 1994. I found these two songs to be particularly interesting since they show a much rawer, grim, and dare I saw true black metal sound. The production is obviously a little weak here, but the sinister riffs and Valfar’s vocals sound excellent. I've always wished the two demos would see a re-release someday, but I suppose that's not going to happen. The remaining ten songs are among some of the best Windir songs taken from the four studio albums. I should mention though that this really is a fantastic collection of Windir songs and it certainly gives a new fan a nice idea of the music Windir once made.

In the wake of Valfar's death attention towards Windir rose dramatically and Valfar became something of an iconic Pagan warrior too many young listeners who were not even aware of Windir's music while the band was active.

All things considered, ‘Valfar, Ein Windir’ truly is an impressive two CD set that will greatly please long time fans and has definitely made new fans in the process. Terje really was an incredible musician, vocalist and song writer and he will be greatly missed by many.

Mirrorthrone - Of Wind And Weeping (2003)

Extreme metal musicians could learn a lot from Swiss multi musician, Vladimir Cochet, who besides being the sole member and mastermind behind Mirrorthrone is also the sole driving force behind fairly well known underground projects Unholy Matrimony and Weeping Birth.

His debut, 'Of Wind and Weeping' is an interesting and unique release that although belonging to the symphonic black metal sub-genre it also draws influences from baroque, Victorian and gothic styled music, which is quite a novel idea and not one I've heard among other bands. The influences I mentioned are all created using synthesizers and pianos, but its done with great effect, atmosphere and emotion and at least in my opinion with much triumph too. It's a strange comparison but imagine the Japanese band, Moi Dix Mois, or the Castlevania Symphony of the Night video game soundtrack gone black metal and you'll start to understand what this record sounds like.

The speed of the music is quite varied as well with it moving at blistering fast paces with roaring fast programmed drums to slower mid-paced semi-melodic directions to even purely synth or piano sections where we see the baroque, Victorian and gothic influences in full swing. The vocals are also a fair mix between cleanly sung male operatic-ish vocals and grim raspy screams, while three of the songs have French lyrics while the others are in English. Personally I much like Vladimir's clean vocal approach and it adds an extra bit of eeriness to these songs, though he opted out on future release for much more of the black metal flavor in his voice instead of expanding on this style. There's also female vocals on two songs and personally the addition of the female voice on, 'Beyond the Mirrorthrone' makes it one of the finest songs on this album.

Maybe the albums only flaw is the lack of any solos and the (at times) insanely fast drum computer, which adds an interesting industrial-ish character to the music though I'm not entirely sure if this was his intention. That aside though the album carries an ominous, gorgeous and evil vibe, which works quite well when mixed with black metal characteristics.

Since this early release Vladimir has recorded a few albums with all of his other solos projects as well as two other albums for Mirrorthrone, namely, 'Carriers of Dust' in '06 and most recently, 'Gangrene' in '08. Hopefully another album is on the horizon as this guy simply doesn't make bad music.

Ilbeltz - Auskan Gabiltz Olatun Gainian (1598 Potrobizargorri I) (2010)

I speak no lie nor tell any tale when I say that I've been waiting nine years for this album. Ilbeltz, the Basque country folk metal band, first came to my attention back in 2001 through their split release with fellow countrymen, Adhur and Aiumeen Basoa, and during these past nine years I've constantly played that split release, never once getting sick of it, but deep down inside longing for more than those three songs that Ilbeltz had on that split. About six months ago, 'Auskan Gabiltz Olatun Gainian (1598 Potrobizargorri I)' was self-released and when I found out about it I stopped everything I was doing and instantly ordered it. A week or so later it arrived, and finally, nine long years of waiting had been fulfilled. I was absolutely enthralled with what I heard coming out of my speakers.

For those that don't know, The Basque Country is a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. Euskara, their language is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories, of these, 614,000 live in the Spanish part of the Basque country and the remaining 51,800 live in the French part. This is key to point out, because Ilbeltz's music very clearly shows influence from their native culture and music, in fact they even write all of their lyrics and song titles in Euskara. The lyrics themselves are based on, 'Xenda bi ez duk lizentzi' a novel wrote by Ilbeltz mastermind, Ibai Mendinueta. The novel centers around the adventures of a Basque pirate named, Potrobizargorri, and although the English translation for each song is provided in the booklet, I haven't read through them yet as I feared it might slightly ruin some part of this album for me.

Musically Ilbeltz could be described as simply folk metal, but I'd seriously be short changing them if I left it at that. Essentially they are about 15% black metal, 10% heavy metal, 25% progressive and 50% traditional Basque folk music. Although just five songs appear on this album the shortest is eleven minutes, while the longest is sixteen, clocking in for a grand total of nearly seventy minutes of music between the five songs. This may sound like an insane stretch, but Ibai is quite talented at writing interesting instrumental parts during these songs and most of these instrumental sections are within a folk/acoustic style, which usually segue back and fourth from the metal and progressive parts. The singing is performed in mainly a cleanly sung manner, but additionally usage of a backing choir is present, as well as several guest vocalists who sing in a variety of other ways, even a few black metal styled screams.

Naturally for a folk band several instruments are used on this recording. From the usual heavy metal set up we also see the presence of various flutes, accordion, oboe, acoustic guitars, violins and several traditional Basque instruments, all of which make their appearance during both the metal, prog and folk moments of this record.

While I do love this album in its full form, I must admit the lead off song, 'Subak Ixeinttu Itxasotako Udek' is absolutely mesmerizing. It has in my opinion the perfect mix of black metal blasting dissonance mixed with melodious heavy metal riffs and absolutely gorgeous folk melodies. In fact the last four minutes of this song are quite honestly four of the most outstanding minutes in music I've ever heard. Interestingly each of these five songs have moments like this which for me are just absolutely breathtaking in their execution and magnificence.

It's a rarity to hear music this good, but when you do hear stuff like this you know you'll take it inside and not let it go. I've been following Ilbeltz for nine years now and although they only have two releases during all these years I can easily say I'll never let this band go. They mean that much to me. Auskan Gabiltz Olatun Gainian (1598 Potrobizargorri I) is absolutely exquisite folk influenced metal art!

In the end I find no fault in this recording whatsoever, except for the fact that the band is unsigned, which I realize isn't from any wrongdoing on the band, but it's just unthinkable that such a great band is going unnoticed by the masses. If any justice truly existed in this world, Ilbeltz would be huge, they would tour with bands like Moonsorrow and Finntroll and they would completely destroy them too, but instead Ilbeltz is almost completely unknown in the folk metal genre...

As a final word, all I can really say is this is one of the finest folk metal recordings I've personally heard, as it does exactly what you'd expect folk metal to do: It blends folk music and heavy metal perfectly. Watch the video below and see what you've been missing out on.

At the Gates - Terminal Spirit Disease (1994)

As you probably know, At the Gates was one of the most highly influential bands to emerge from Sweden's glistening metal underground in the early 90's, although during their original tenure ('90-'96) the band failed to garner the attention they deserved and they went by mostly unrecognized. I guess it was about eight or nine years ago that their final full-length, 1995's, 'Slaughter of the Soul' rapidly gained attention and suddenly At the Gates was a household name, despite the fact that the band had been finished for years and the members had all moved onto new bands.

Anyway, 'Terminal Spirit Disease' was their third full-length album, although its a bit of a weird one since it contains six studio tracks and three live cuts, which in my opinion makes it look more like two EPs paired together, but that's just me. This was also the first At the Gates release where the Björler twins assumed full creative control after Alf Svensson had departed from the band a year earlier. The Björler twins, Anders and Jonas, have stated a few times that this is their strongest release, and it's really not surprising since the six studio tracks are among the most elite in the melodic death metal genre.

What makes these songs so great is that each of them have a strong emotional touch to them, in fact, I wouldn't hesitate to say the opening riff to, 'The Swarm' has something of a sad tone to it, which is very inviting and grabs your interest instantly as it plays alongside the violin in the beginning. This goes double for the acoustic instrumental piece, 'And the World Returned,' which is an absolutely heartbreakingly beautiful song, which features fast acoustic guitars near side of a violin and cello. The remaining four songs again have that emotional twist present as well they are fast, catchy hard hitting songs which should hit home with any melodeath fan.

Of course, in the end most people still clamor for Slaughter of the Soul, and I do love that album as well, but personally I've always thought TSD and their debut, 'The Red in the Sky is Ours' were their finest statements. A couple of years ago this album was re-released with an additional three live tracks and may have been re-mastered too, though the original version, which I have, sounds quite fine to my ears.

Nowadays, thankfully, these guys are recognized for what they brought to melodic death metal and it even spawned a comeback of summer touring a few years ago, but will save that for another time, when I get to their massive DVD...