Wyrd - Huldrafolk (2002)

Formed from the ashes of Hellkult back in the late 90's by the insanely prolific, Tomi "Narqath" Kalliola, Wyrd became his personal project and within the past decade has become one of the most recognizable names in the Finnish metal scene.

2002's, 'Huldrafolk' caught my attention back then as one of most original and gripping records within the folk influenced black metal genre and most people will agree with me when I say its a modern day classic, because that's exactly what it is.

Huldrafolk's six songs carry on between mid-paced melodic black metal compositions with ample backing Burzum-ish style synth, nature samples and acoustic guitars, while occasionally featuring hastier droning speeds of black metal ferocity. The progression in and between songs is remarkable with some moments being melancholy, epic, hateful and just plain indescribable too with each song bleeding into the other, sort of giving the feeling that the album is one long song. Fully the album sounds very Pagan, heroic and folky in tone with also a variety of odd percussion's and even a tuba and accordion (probably synthesized though) making an appearance.

The vocals are typically performed in a snarled raspy tone and with the lyrics in front of you its fairly easy to follow Narqath's words. Some whispered/spoken parts are also used as well as some clean viking-ish singing, which adds to the epic mood.

The guitars have a raw trebly effect to them and the overall production is far from great, but this is black metal after all. The guitars as I already mentioned are melodic, with usually an acoustic guitar being layered over a fuzzed up repetitive riff, generally during the slower moments, but some clever faster riffs do make their appearance in the blasting sections as well. In particular one in the title track, which is totally head banging worthy with a great deal of energy and dexterity behind the whole song. Often times the nature samples and synthesized parts are on their own, which usually just ends up with the music striking back harder than ever, which is definitely the case with the ending of, 'Misanthrope's Masterplan' and the driving blasting of, 'The Harvest Day.' The drum work is quite simple and the bass guitar is absent completely, but again this is black metal all the way.

All six of the songs really stand out as being stunning to me, but, 'Aijeke' and 'Huldrafolk' I wouldn't hesitate to say are among some of the best black metal songs ever wrote. The songwriting, flow, and catchiness of these two are superb beyond words.

Largely Wyrd's, 'Huldrafolk' was a completely original sound at the time with really no one sounding alike, though since then many bands have arose with probably Maine, USA based band, Falls of Rauros being the most elite among them.

Years later, Nargath has eight albums behind himself now, but most of the newer stuff doesn't appeal to me much and this one remains my favorite as well as one of my most cherished black metal albums overall.

Runemagick - Dark Dead Earth (2008)

Runemagick's history dates back to 1990 when the band was formed by Nicklas “Terror” Rudolfsson in Gothenburg, Sweden, originally under the name, Desiderius. Quickly changed to Runemagick, Nick released four demos between '91 - '92, but the band fell apart and he spent the next couple of years playing guitar and drumming for the bands Sacramentum & Deathwitch, when in '97 he resurrected Runemagick and released the bands debut, 'The Supreme Force of Eternity' in '98.

By '07 Runemagick had released no less than eleven full-length albums as well as a few splits and EPs along the way, which is quite prolific, yet these guys have always been underdogs among the heavyweights in the Swedish metal scene. Their most recent release since going on hold in '08 is this, 'Dark Dead Earth,' which gathers together the first three Runemagick albums, 'The Supreme Force of Eternity,' 'Enter the Realm of Death' and 'Resurrection in Blood' on two discs with also all of the lyrics in the booklet too.

The late 90's sort of brought about a resurrection of death metal around the world after its heavy decline in '93 and pretty much its death right afterwards. Going back to that first album in '98 its amazing to me that this band didn't dominate the scene upon its release since this is some absolutely crushing classic sounding death metal right here.

However Runemagick was never typically Swedish sounding, in fact this bands work reminds me more of Morgoth or Bolt Thrower, at times. There are lots of characteristics that make this band different because the music will often shift between blasting hair swirling head banging parts to mid-tempo atmospheric sections and even to slower death/doom territories, which is interesting since eventually this band took on a sound that was full on death/doom with later releases.

Regardless of speed or style, Runemagick is pretty much always heavy as fuck during their songs and catchy to boot. The faster songs have the right amount of liveliness, tightness and skill behind them to always keep things interesting, as well during those slower parts the atmosphere is high and often very melodious too, revealing a Dissection influence, which becomes very obvious by the time you get to their second album even though things are doomier by this point. Its just some of the leads and just the way the songs progress seem to scream Dissection to me and since two Dissection members had put time into this band I suppose their knowledge rubbed off on Niklas at some point.

Nicklas uses a hard driven death growl on these songs, but its not ultra guttural nor impossible to make out what he's saying and in fact it works quite well with the music. He also occasionally uses some spoken and whispered voices, as well going back to the atmospheric side of the music, keyboards do occasionally appear, which naturally enhances the mood all the more with their backing synthetic symphonies, which then sort of bring Pestilence or Nocturnus to mind.

Maybe my only complaint with this release is that, 'Enter the Realm of Death' ends up being split in two, between disc 1 & 2 and I think it would have been better to have just released each on a separate disc, but then I suppose the cost would have gone up too. Besides that all three of these albums are truly mighty and serve as a good introduction to this often overlooked Swedish band.

I haven't yet gone past these first three albums, but I definitely intend to hunt down most of this bands work, eventually. 'til then I'll keep blasting, 'Dark Dead Earth!'

Infernal War / Kriegsmaschine - Transfigurations (2010)

With a decade and some years worth behind me of black metal listenership, I have to admit a country's scene I've generally overlooked is the Polish one. Of course, years ago I heard Graveland and the early Behemoth recordings, but aside from that the only Polish black metal bands (off the top of my head) that have entered my ears are Mgła, Gontyna Kry, Massemord, and the subject of this review, Kriegsmaschine and Infernal War. Here on both Infernal War and Kriegsmaschine's latest release, the split titled, 'Transfigurations' we see both bands metamorphosing into something different.

On Infernal War's sophomore release, 'Redesekration: The Gospel of Hatred and Apotheosis of Genocide' the band played a familiar style of high speed black metal not unlike Marduk, but with more of a driving force and relentless energy whereas Kriegsmaschine on their debut, 'Altered States of Divinity' had a rawer style of blasting black metal with some catchy melodies and some occasional eccentric qualities that seemed to bring Deathspell Omega to mind. However as I've said, already, some changes have come to both bands.

Infernal War kicks off this split with, 'Primal Degradation,' which has a short ambient intro to it while the next couple of minutes are no more than mid-paced and sort of catchy, but as the song continues eventually some blasting parts enter, but the music manages to remain quite memorable and alternates between a faster blackened death metal style to the earlier mid-paced sound. 'Into the Vortex of Naught' once again opens with a short ambient intro before a mid-paced droning riff appears and eventually the song unfolds quite similarly in a speedy blackened death metal style, while, 'Incipit Chaos' concludes this split with another song that is just the same as the previous two, but nonetheless quite impressive. The three songs from these guys show immense potential and due to the catchiness and the impetus nature within them I've found myself coming back to these songs constantly since buying this split a few weeks ago.

Kriegsmaschine's side of this split opens with, 'Onward Destrudo,' which features a brief sample before diving headlong into a pummeling, tight, bulldozing and aggressive piece of music that has both its speedy parts, but also some slower droning and atmospheric mid-paced qualities, which are just astounding! Musically once again blackened death metal is what were dealing with here and in the case of these guys the production is much cleaner and the guitars have not nearly as much reverb or treble as their debut release did. The bands second and last song, 'Fear and Loathing in Gethsemane' is quite simply stunning. The song unfolds fairly similar between both blasting and droning slower parts, but I found this longer eight minute song to be catchier and far more ethereal in its delivery, while still retaining its brutal edge near the end for one last blast of crippling insanity.

'Transfigurations' surely serves as a turning point in both bands career's and while some reviews seem to speak ill of this release I found this material to be just as exciting if not slightly better at times when comparing it to their previous assaults. I know I'll personally be looking forward to hearing future releases as well as going back to those older releases I mentioned and giving them another go too!

Frostmoon Eclipse - The End Stands Silent (2011)

Back in 2007 I properly introduced myself to the music of Frostmoon Eclipse, through their then new album, 'Another Face Of Hell,' which still to this day is a bit of a favorite of mine. Four years later these Italian's return with a new record deal (previously on ISO666) through, Osmose Productions and a new full-length titled, 'The End Stands Silent.'

The End Stands Silent continues in the familiar Frostmoon Eclipse style, which is basically mid-paced to fast melodic black-ish metal interlaced with lots of acoustic guitar passages. Some times the guitars are layered directly over the metal chaos and sometimes the black metal fades away and the acoustics are purely heard on their own. The acoustics tend to be the highlight within their work and it goes without saying that Claudio Alcara is a brilliant guitarist, but the mid-paced/speedier metal moments shouldn't be disregarded since his work during these sections are almost always melodic and full of character and even when they are not there is a sense of rage and good energy present too. I always like it when bands segue between brutal moments and slower passages and Frostmoon Eclipse has always excelled at this.

As for favorites, 'Corridors' really sticks out with completely infectious guitar melodies throughout it and with just a perfect flow to the song, which not many bands always know how to do, especially when it comes to longer songs like the ones Frostmoon write on this album. 'Under Pale City Lights' is also impressive with again great guitar work, but it also feels like this is the most energetic and catchy song on the album, but my overall favorite is definitely, 'Unnatural Isolation.' The first couple minutes of this song are just acoustic guitar, drums and spoken word, but as the song continues onwards it builds up in an almost epic manner and a hauntingly heavy memorable riff kicks in and the vocals crossover to Lorenzo’s hard driven fierce screams when it reaches its peak, but then returns to its calmer manner and eventually back to its harder edge once more.

I was however sort of disappointed that there wasn't a shorter full on acoustic piece like most of the bands previous work, but perhaps Claudio's saving those for his Stroszek project now. At seven songs total and a little over an hours these are the longest songs Frostmoon has ever wrote too with each one being over seven minutes, except, 'A Clandestine Freedom Between Shadows,' which is a little under six minutes, but its also the albums fastest song.

All in all though between great musicianship, interesting lyrics, diverse vocals and good flowing song writing Frostmoon Eclipse triumphs again, yet I get the feeling this album hasn't been properly promoted, which is unfortunate. Still, if melodic black metal with acoustics is your thing you'll definitely want to pick this great new album up.

I Hope for Nothing.I Fear Nothing. I Am Free.

Opeth - Heritage (2011)

I don't usually do reviews like this because frankly what's the point of doing reviews for albums like this? In fact I've pretty much made it a point from the start of this blog to completely avoid albums like this one. But, this is unavoidable. I must, I just simply must! The sort of albums I speak of are the shitty ones and boy howdy is this ever one of them.

As a starting point to this review you should understand a few things. I love Opeth. I really do. I think Mr. Åkerfeldt is one groovy guy and people seem to think I even look like the gentleman. Neat. I also have an Opeth tattoo on my arm. Typical, I know, but for Blackwater Park a decade ago I just couldn't resist after a while. People will also say the band has been dead since said album and while I wouldn't say anything has come close to touching it since, it would really be an ass of a statement to say that the past four albums were bad. To each their own, anyway.

Before this album even came out Mr. Åkerfeldt started saying that he was fed up with death metal and had in fact been fed up with it for years. Odd, really, when you consider his involvement in Bloodbath as well as the continued death metal elements in Opeth. Well, as you probably know this is another Opeth experiment where they do something completely different to their usual style, sort of like 2003's, 'Damnation.' Problem here is that Damnation was in my honest opinion a beautiful album whereas, 'Heritage' is a fucking piece of shit.

'Heritage' is apparently Mikael's attempt at a purely progressive rock album, thus stripping all metal and especially death metal from Opeth's sound. So, therefore he figured, "Oh, that's right, fuck my longtime fans I'll just do something completely different this time around. They wont care! Why? Because I'm Mikael Åkerfeldt, motherfuckers, and they'll buy whatever I release!" Mikael, you son of a bitch! Y'see, Mikael, he be one clever lad and that's what a whole lot of us did... we bought the new album regardless and goddamn the day I decided to do that!

The album opens with the title track, which is one of albums decent moments and it comes in the form of a simple piano ballad thingy. Then comes, 'The Devil's Orchard,' which... is... just... strange. I'm not sure which 70's progressive rock Mikael was influenced for this song and the following eight songs, but this really doesn't sound like the prog rock I heard years ago. Ya know, bands like; Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Rush and Yes, bands like those. To top it off the song is painfully boring with the lame as fuck lyrics, 'God is Dead.' Yes, Opeth is apparently an anti Christian band now... great! I really don't need Mikael to tell me that God is Dead, but whatever as dull as this song is, it is actually one of the better ones. The same could be said about, 'I Feel The Dark' or 'Slither,' which is the albums fastest (still not metal though) song and apparently a tribute to Ronnie James Dio.

From here on we land on, 'Nepenthe,' which is not just awful, but completely sleep inducing rubbish. The following song, 'Häxprocess' bleeds together with Nepenthe so much that you don't even notice a new song has started, which is odd since the old Opeth probably would have just made it one long ass song. Anyway, 'Famine' ... Oh, this song can suck the devil's red hot fucking dick in hell! I think one of the things I always liked about Opeth is that they were capable of writing long songs that were interesting and devoid of filler material. Okay, most of the time at least. This song much like the previous two are slow and sleepy and if you're not in some sort of overly caffeined state it's fairly likely that by this point you'll be drifting away. Oh, but don't worry midway through this song there's some completely random flute wankery played by some random Swedish asshole that's likely to wake you up. And when I say wankery, I do mean wankery! It's not catchy, its not interesting its just random filler bullshit. Likewise the riff and the keyboards that go along with it suck hard too.

'The Lines In My Hand' is a short (under 4 minutes) song that honestly isn't bad. It's sort of catchy and the keyboards are not cool, hell even the vocals are not bad. 'Folklore,' the first five minutes at least, is probably the albums finest moment, but it just seems to eventually trail off there completely and then into another phase of utter boredom and sleepiness with one final instrumental called, 'Marrow Of The Earth' when the album finally concludes. In most cases I've already passed out at some point earlier and wasn't even aware that the album had ended.

What I don't get is why couldn't this album have sounded more like the old Opeth song, Epilogue' from, 'My Arms, Your Hearse?' Have you ever heard this song? Have you! Its probably the best song from the early years of Opeth and in all actuality the closest Opeth has ever come to creating genuine classic 70's prog. However I don't know if that was the exact intentions here. Nobody really knows other than Mikael who quite proudly says that he wrote all of the album. Maybe that's the problem though. Opeth isn't a band anymore, its a single man. What the fuck?! Do Martin, Martin #2, Fredik and Per suck so much that he wouldn't even use any of their input or is he just a arrogant jerk ass that needs all the attention. The world may never know.

It will be interesting to see where the band goes from here, but I do know that if they attend to keep this sound than I won't even bother when that album comes out. Oh, but it could get worse, it could! I heard something about a Mikael & Steven Wilson collaborative project in the works and that, my friends, is truly terrifying, especially if you heard the dreadfully miserable excuse of music that the last Porcupine Tree album was. I nearly void my bowels just thinking about it.

At any rate, I hate doing negative reviews and I see no reason to review them since that defeats the purpose of this blog entirely. If you enjoyed old Opeth you probably wont like this album but if you're looking for something different, prog-ish and sleep inducing than hot damn do I have the album for you, kids!

Now, everyone let us sing together, a one, a two, a three and on my lead, "Opeth is Dead, Opeth is Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeead!"

Dragonhead

I'm not a huge fan of the Finnish metal band, Ensiferum, but how could I resist a beer that just so happened to share the same name as one of their old releases? ...that's right, I couldn't resist! So here's a new alcohol review for, 'Dragonhead!'

The Orkney brewery beers are brewed in the beautiful Northern isles of Scotland and this dark, intense and fully-flavoured beer is their tribute to the Vikings and their cultural legacy in Orkney. At 1 pt and 0.9 oz in size and with 4.0% alcohol by volume its probably going to please that wannabe Viking within us all as well as the household pet (as you can see in my photo). Dragonhead is a creamy dark brew similar in appearance to Guinness with a bitter chocolate and dark coffee scent to it as well a taste that again reminds of chocolate, coffee and nut with a spicy sort of finish to it. It goes down fast, smoothly and satisfies without a lingering odd taste in my mouth either. Also if your an admirer of stupid Viking stuff the bottle is large and worth displaying on your mantle or whatever.

Although meant to be a tribute to the Vikings I expected the beer to have been a bit more intense on the tongue with a stronger after taste and I think the 4.0% alcohol is slightly low. I mean after all weren't the Vikings a bunch of rowdy drunken motherfuckers?! Right, therefore more alcohol more rape, pillaging rowdiness!

Would I buy it again? Possibly but since it does remind of a less intense Guinness and since I paid $5.00 for a single bottle I'm sure I could find something more worth while. Either way this is a decent brew that would go well with dinner and as far as I'm concerned a fitting tribute to those Scottish Vikings of many moons and beers ago.

Impiety - Skullfucking Armageddon (1999)

Formed in 1990 under the name, Anno Sathanas, but quickly changed to Impiety in '91, this Singapore based band is the most cult and revered band from this south east Asian land and as far as I know the only worthwhile group from this area. Although nowadays more of an international band since besides founder, Shyaithan, the rest of the band features musicians from Italy and Australia and over the years many have passed through the bands ranks. Nevertheless during the past twenty years the bands released numerous demos, EPs, splits, live recordings, compilations and seven full-length albums.

1999's, 'Skullfucking Armageddon' is often viewed as their masterpiece as it blends black, death and thrash metal masterfully with a sound that recalls the grim, violent and sinister vibe of destroyers like Bathory, Sarcofago, Sodom, Blashemy, Nunslaughter, Possessed and Morbid Angel all rolled into one.

Probably the first thing one will notice about the recording is that it features an almost rehearsal like resonance to it, which works surprisingly well and just makes the music sound all the more aggressive and old school. Fyraun's guitars have a roaring buzzsaw vibe to them, yet its completely different sounding to the Norwegian Black Metal or the Swedish Death Metal sound... it really just sounds old school in more of a style that reminds me of Sarcofago's, 'I.N.R.I.' or Sepultura's, 'Morbid Visions.'

Fyraun being the only guitarist on the album hits the listener with immense just completely devastating headbanging massive riffs, likewise his commanding leads and those solos just blow me away with their crisp and sharp pummeling vibes. Dajjal's drum work mostly blasts away fiercely on the double bass pedal with occasional rolls and cymbal crashes, but not a whole lot of technicality behind his performance, but not such things are needed for this sort of music. Shyaithan's 4-string demon bass guitar is pretty much completely lost in the production, but on the plus side his vocals are performed flawlessly. Again old school all the way sounding like some of the most violent 80's thrasher vocalists mixed with a proto-black rasp. I also love the way he taunts the listener, for example in, 'Skullfucked - The Speed Metal Hell' he yells out, "Bang your fucking heads, come on!!"

Most of the album could be considered a highlight, because frankly the whole forty two minutes is stunning, but, 'Lords Of Apokalypse' initiates this chaotic hellstorm perfectly after a short synth intro. 'Ironflames of Hate' has some of the coolest headbanging riffs you'll ever hear in this sort of music and both of the solos in this one just completely make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. 'Torment In Fire' the albums final offering really stands out as well since its more of a full on thrasher and the chorus and really just ever thing about it is memorable.

Impiety is still touring America at the moment with a few dates left before heading down to Mexico. Personally I saw them a few weeks ago in a small rehearsal room that was formerly a funeral home amongst about thirty people here in Wisconsin. They were selling the re-issue of this album as well, which you'd do well to pick up since this is surely one of the better examples of old school black, death and thrash metal mixed perfectly together.

Deströyer 666 - Cold Steel... For An Iron Age (2002)

Back in 2002 when this album was originally released I was obsessed with this album, and I mean fucking obsessed, man! I pretty much played it non-stop for months on end and every opportunity I got to tell someone about it or play it for them I made sure it happened.

Oddly (for reasons I don't understand) some years after its release I totally forgot about and it basically just sat on my CD shelf untouched for a long time. That is until a while back when a friend mentioned to me how it was his favorite album to listen to while working out, which naturally lead me to pulling the album out again, ripping it to the iPod and taking it to the gym for some lifting. Not only is it great for such places but it also made me remember just how freakin' awesome these Australian Antichrist's truly are.

Although originally formed in Melbourne, Australia in 1994 as K.K. Warslut's solo project it quickly became a full band, but by 2001 the members had relocated to various spots in Europe where they'd have a better opportunity to gain recognition. And I tell ya all four D666 full-lengths fucking rock, but this one right here, 'Cold Steel... For An Iron Age' dominates and fucking destroys everything in its path with a relentless onslaught of black, death and thrash metal!

Everything about Cold Steel rules; the colossal hair swirling head banging riffs, the shredding solos, the merciless aggressive power and drive behind it and the fist pumping scream-a-long catchiness. On this one D666 left out their past epic tendencies in favor of full on thrashy attack with razor edged thrash/death riffs with the occasional black-ish metal tremolo riffs, which hit the listener in a mangling ruthless manner. The music is very loud and manly sounding, which again brings me back to the weight lifting thing, but besides that its just great partying, energetic full on brutal bad ass fucking music!

The vocals mostly appear in a rasped black metal style, although some higher pitched rasps also exist as well as some lower growled parts. The gang shouts are present throughout most of the album and they add that classic thrashy fun to this record as well as plenty of catchiness. The drums roar away loudly, keeping the beat with plenty of drum rolls and the occasionally fills during the black metal parts, even sometimes serving as the energy behind the songs with their sheer power. The bass guitar on the other hand mostly just follows the guitars, but who cares since I'm usually doing something physical or drinking when I listen to this record, anyway (Fuck! Just emptied another bottle!).

At thirty five minutes and nine songs strong this whole beast is massive, but songs like, 'Black City - Black Fire,' 'Clenched Fist,' 'Sons of Perdition' and 'The Calling' just rip everything in their path apart.

Truly a classic in the new millennium and Destroyer 666's crowning achievement, 'Cold Steel... For An Iron Age' is better than whatever gay shit you call music. Fuck you and and listen to Destoryer 666 or die!

Abigail - Eastern Force of Evil (2005)

A few hours ago I was eating Chinese food and drinking some shitty Japanese beer. With that behind me I figured it was time to add more Asian metal makers to Lunar Hypnosis, therefore an Abigail review tonight!

I'd assume most people know the Japanese band Abigail, surely one of the most prolific bands out there as they have several demos, singles, EPs, splits, live albums, studio albums and I even know a fella that has most of their releases, which is fucking amazing because there really is a lot of them! Largely the creative work of vocalist, bassist and guitarist, Yasuyuki Suzuki, Mr. Suzuki dubs their style, 'Street Metal,' which is some sort of strange mix of thrash & black metal with a Motorhead-ish like energetic-ish party-ish vibe to most of their work, typically with really bad English lyrics and half naked gals on the covers, which just adds to the fun of course.

'Eastern Force of Evil' from 2005 is a somewhat random 7" vinyl I bought back then because its two cover songs of their fellow countrymen, Sigh. 'Desolation' originally appeared on Sigh's first demo and as such I've never heard it before. Musically this cover is raw and ugly and doesn't sound entirely different from the material found on Sigh's debut. Mid-way through some odd spacy keyboards pop in, which oddly enough are played by Sigh's own Mirai Kawashima. Although technically a cover its interesting seeing an old song being finished or completed through a different band. 'Taste Defeat' on the other side of this 7" originally appears on Sigh's debut full-length, 'Scorn Defeat' and its fairly similar to the original although the production is a bit grittier, the drumming & guitars slightly faster and some prog-ish sounding keyboards make their appearance, which were in the original, but sounded a bit different. Yasuyuki's voice seems a little blacker on this track as well in comparison to his usual style.

As a whole this 7" is only for Sigh and Abigail fans, of which I am somewhat of both bands, but for whatever reason even knowing both bands for over a decade has yielded me only a few releases from each in my collection. Weird. Might have to change that. Back to the Japanese beer then.

Woodchuck Hard Cider - Pumpkin

I don't remember when I first started drinking Woodchuck Cider and there many signature styles, because frankly I drink too much to remember much of anything. No, but truthfully I seem to recall first tasting Woodchuck 5 or 6 years ago quite randomly at a local bar that had a huge selection of both domestic and import beers. However the Woodchuck story goes back more than 6 years ago, in fact it all started back in 1990 by a tiny winery in Vermont. Years later these guys now have a variety of Hard Ciders, in various flavors too, such as; Amber, Granny Smith, Dark & Dry, Pear and Raspberry as well as seasonal ones for each of the four seasons. Woodchuck also has harder ciders, which consist of more alcohol, most notably Barrel Select with its rich taste of apple cider and Kentucky bourbon or their most recent unveiling, Pumpkin.

The Woodchuck website states the following on this drink, "Every once in a while you know you stumble upon something glorious. That something just so happens to be our Private Reserve Pumpkin. We have combined our signature taste with a refreshing pumpkin finish. Limited to just two and half hours on the production line this is a true connoisseur's cider."

And indeed it is, glorious. This Woodchuck Pumpkin tastes utterly delicious, especially straight out of the fridge after its chilled for hours. With a full aromatic scent that reminds of both apples and pumpkins in the autumn and a taste that recalls dark apple cider with a sweet pumpkin finish to it, Woodchuck Pumpkin is just dainty. Now, you might think to yourself, "A sweet delicious tasty beer, I bet there's no alcohol in that at all! Fucking pussy ass Lunar Hypnosis, duder!" Ah ha, but think again, matey, as Woodchuck Pumpkin Cider has 6.9% alcohol in each 12 oz bottle and either I am a pussy or this shit really is strong, because usually after just finishing one I start to catch a little buzz. Here now on my third bottle this evening and Black Sabbath's Volume 4 in my stereo I can honestly say I'm feeling good.

However the sad news around this one is that it is just a specialty seasonal beer, which will probably be gone by the end of the month when the Holidays pass us by. Also due to its limited availability its a bit more expensive than the average Woodchuck product, but I can assure you alcohol aficionado's that the $9.99 price tag for six bottles is well worth it. It also goes well with dinner, I've found myself drinking this one a lot when eating something chicken related and it will definitely be making its way over to my parents house for Turkey Day at the end of the month.

There's not much else to say other than this is a delicious alcoholic cider that I strongly encourage you to check out while you can!

Beer Reviews arrive at Lunar Hypnosis

For a while now I've been thinking of adding something different to this 'zine, something that goes well with metal, something that comes in a tall slender glass bottle, something that consists of water, yeast, malted barley & wheat and flavored with hobs, herbs and fruit and best of all something that's crisp, refreshing, tasty and gets you fucking drunk! Yes, that's right, Beer & Alcohol Reviews have arrived at Lunar Hypnosis!!

I'd thought of other ideas as well, such as instructions/tips for making a metal vest/jacket, and they may still show up later, as well we might see more interviews around here too. However interviews require me to think, and who needs to think when they can just drink?!

This being my first stab at writing about alcohol there may be errors and since I'll be drinking while writing these reviews might get out of control, but I'm sure it will be fun. So, without further ado, Lunar Hypnosis' first beer review will be posted shortly!

Ninkasi, ancient Sumerian goddess of intoxicating beverages, this ones for you, baby!

Survivors Zero - CMXCIX (2009)

The Helsinki, Finland death metal band known as Survivors Zero first came to my attention back in mid-2010 when they were set to open on the, 'Finnish Metal Tour' across America with Swallow the Sun, Moonsorrow and Finntroll, but either they didn't play at the gig I attended or they never were actually on the bill. Who knows, but what I do know is a few months ago I came across this album at a used shop for a mere $4 and thought, "Fuck it, why not," and I picked it up.

Survivors Zero was founded by ex-Aeon guitarist (now producer at Studio Perkele) Sami Jämsén who quickly secured a line-up with various other semi known Finnish musicians, such as bassist Tapio Wilska (Finntroll, Nightwish) vocalist Tommi Virranta (Winterwolf, Deathchain) as well as lead axman, Jani Luttinen and drummer, Seppo Tarvainen.

Musically, 'CMXCIX' straddles the border between modern straight forward death metal with a good amount of melody, catchiness, energy and a fantastic drive behind their tunes. I know I've been using words like that a lot lately, but I guess I've just been fortunate to be purchasing death metal records that have that sort of feeling within them. Although some songs do have some slower Morbid Angel-ish parts that are also killer and I really enjoy the way they sometimes shift between the slower sections into faster territories. Each song clocks in at a little under or a little over four minutes, which means the album only runs for a little under forty minutes too, but its quite impressive the amount of cool riffs found in these songs and the fact that each one has a superb but quick solo present only makes them stronger.

The vocals range from typical death metal growls to even more typical melodic death metal vocals, but they are by no means poorly performed, in fact Tommi does a a great job, always sounding pissed off and totally brutal on his vocal warpath. There are also a few chorus parts, which were popping up in my brain later that kept me coming back to this album for another serving. Seppo's drumming is also notable since there are plenty of fills and roaring fast double bass work, and although the bassist isn't always heard that well the production is actually quite crisp and audible, but I wouldn't expect anything less from a metal producer. The booklet artwork is pretty solid too, although I think the bands logo looks metalcore, and that's a bit lame if you ask me, but oh well.

That being said, I'd say, 'CMXCIX' is a solid death metal offering, which probably wont appeal to strict death metal fanatics, but if you can imagine a normal death metal act mixed with bands like Hypocrisy and Kalmah you'll be on your way to understanding what these guys do. Therefore for those that enjoy melody in their death metal you'd be advised to definitely check this bands output.