Lunar Hypnosis

Skid Row - Skid Row (1989)

2012-02-15T11:28:00.003-06:00

Do you remember the good 'ol days of hard rock? I mean seriously, do you? This is a question you can really only answer if you were born in the early 80's (or before), because if your mother squeezed you out in the late 80's or early 90's by the time you were able to make sense of shit hard rock was pretty much a dead genre. Looking back to the late 80's I was quite young having only been birthed in August of '81, but I have some fond memories hearing real hard rock n' roll on MTV or on Casey Kasem's top 40 show when I was just a tyke.

One of those bands that I heard back then and still absolutely love to this day is, Skid Row. Holy fuck, man, '18 and Life' & 'I Remember You' were songs I loved back then even if I probably didn't even know who the hell they were wrote by until a few years later, but this is just more of that stuff that changed me and got me into my own music and prepared me for heavier stuff down the road.

Although similar in style to most other cock rock hair metal bands of the 80's, Skid Row was in fact different visually as they preferred actually looking like men, though Sebastian Bach was pretty goddamn pretty boy-ish looking at times, but will forgive him because he's awesome and cooler than the whole lot o us. Actually, Skid Row was heavier, catchier and far more talented than say, Warrant or Poison, but the same vibe runs through these guys music. It was just all about having a good time, about getting into trouble and chasing chicks around while writing some kick ass tunes.

The opening song, 'Big Guns' has so much life and the fun lyrics about feeling like a prisoner/hostage in love are too cool. 'Sweet Little Sister' has more of that hard rockin' good time feeling going with lyrics about a prostitute that can't be beat. I also once guest DJed on metal nights at a local bar (those were good nights, miss 'em.) years ago and I played this one amongst some black metal songs, much to the chagrin of the attendees I'm sure. 'Can't Stand The Heartache' & 'Piece of Me' are somewhat similar and decent too, though these ones seem more distinctly hair metal-ish and silly in a way, but amusing nonetheless. '18 and Life' is the first ballad on the record and I LOVE THIS SONG! Musically its stunning and the lyrics tell a great story and I don't know about you, but every time I listen to this song I get this cold feeling rush through me. Oh, and that solo, baby! So, damn good!

Other songs like, 'Rattlesnake Shake,' 'Here I Am' and 'Makin' a mess' have more of that typical 80's hair metal thing going for them, but they are always a blast and again although I was tiny it just reminds me of that carefree time of my life. Damn, and, 'Youth Gone Wild' was such a big song for me back then. I remember throwing the cassette in a boom box and blasting that sucka at obnoxious volumes while riding around on my bicycle and feeling unstoppable. That's fuckin' right! Okay, and I got to admit I do like, 'I Remember You,' probably more so now than then, but that's just because I'm an adult now and I know what its like to have my heart broken and what's better than a sappy 80's ballad after all that? And finally I've got much love for the closer, 'Midnight/Tornado!' Who can resist lyrics like, "When the clock strikes midnite, I'm on the prowl of love" and the energetic rockin' spirit behind this one?! That's right, you can't!

Its strange to think that by the mid-90's music like this didn't exist and then just a few years down the road Skid Row didn't even exist. I know nowadays there are plenty of underground bands that are doing the whole 80's hair metal thing, which is cool, but what I long for is this music to be a mainstream thing as it once was. Instead modern music continues to plunge to depths of unforgettable awfulness, with god fucking abominable crap like U2, Radiohead, Coldplay, Foo Fighters and so on being called rock. I realize no one calls these bands, 'hard rock,' because they certainly are not, but I don't see them as even being rock, but rather just shitty fucking pop music that's actually wrote by the people in the band.

As a finale to this one all I can really say is that this is what good ol' fashioned hard rock was all about. Super catchy songs with great riffs and immense solos, diverse and interesting lyrics about love, society, rebellion as well as fantastic vocals from the singer, in this case, Mr. Sebastian Bach who was just nineteen when this one came out. It meant a hell of a lot to me back then and nothing much has changed since then.

Oh, and I'd give up my left testicle to have a shirt with the album artwork on it! And from the looks of things (Check this out) I'd have to do just that, but that's alright my nuts have proven to be completely useless for thirty years now. So, I'd happily give a nut up for Sebastian, Rachel, Dave, Rob and Scotti.

Cathedral - Hopkins (The Witchfinder General) (1996)

2012-02-14T15:35:00.003-06:00

A bit of a random curiosity today, but this old Cathedral EP from '96 was something I came across at a second hand shop a few years ago for like $4 and the collector in me couldn't resist. Fortunately its quite good too and an interesting listen for Cathedral fanatics.

The EP kicks off with the title track, which originally appeared on, 'The Carnival Bizarre,' although this version features a 20 second intro, which I can only assume to be a TV advert for the 1968 film, 'Witchfinder General.' Besides that the track remains exactly the same as its album counterpart; groovy as fuck, absolutely rockin', addictive and quite simply one of the best stoner doom metal songs ever wrote.

The second song and one of the biggest treats of this EP is the cover version of Arthur Brown's late 60's psychedelic rock hit, 'Fire.' Cathedral's jam of this one is fairly close to the original although it seems to have more life to it, additional lyrics, its a bit more metal as well Lee Dorian shows so much heart with his singing, while, 'Copper Sunset' is a short doomy instrumental, which as no surprise really just has this hazy sort of end of the day sunset feeling to it, like smoking joints on the beach as the sunset goes down (or something). 'Purple Wonderland' and 'The Devils Summit' are a bit different with very little doom on display, but rather they sound much more like vintage 60's psychedelic rock with lots of odd synthesizers, Hammond organ and saxophones (Sexaphones in the booklet!) at work. I should probably listen to these songs while drinking some day, because I'm fairly sure I'd enjoy Purple a bit more with a buzz going, whereas on the other hand Devils Summit is just too good to resist and is has just the right amount of groove and weirdness to make it a fantastic song.

As a whole this is an interesting EP since its like a Cathedral time warp, though I suppose its not the sort of item your going to randomly stumble upon so easy as I did. Definitely worth it for the long time Cathedral fans since you get to see the guys doing something a bit different.

Interestingly there is two other versions of this EP; A Japanese press, which has a Curved Air cover as well a promo version exists, which has two Black Sabbath covers tacked at the end (WTF, I want!). Oh, and apparently some DVD's of, 'Witchfinder General' have Cathedral's music video for Hopkins included... but not mine. Life is so unfair.

The Finnish Winter Metal Patch Jacket

2012-02-09T13:03:00.017-06:00

Those that have been hanging around this blog for a while will probably remember that I traveled to Finland last year for the mighty Tuska Open Air Metal Festival as well as various other misadventures, most of which involved a hell of a lot of alcohol. Finland made a huge impression on me, it felt like my home away from home and although I've lived in the same place my whole entire life I've never really felt at home here in Wisconsin. Be it the lack of metal or the fact that the average person is... well, just average and dull could be a big reason for this.

Therefore, when I returned I wanted to do something special to commemorate my journey to Finland. My first thought was to get a tattoo, but my mind continuously drew blanks on this matter. Eventually I figured I'd put that huge Amorphis back patch I had purchased at the, 'Helsinki Rock Shop' to good use. Although my first thought was on a hoodie I ultimately decided to put it on my old biker jacket, which I had resurrected in 2010.

The whole idea was to create a, 'Metal Jacket' that consisted of just patches from Finnish bands or Finnish related subjects. At first this seemed like it would be a fairly easy idea, but soon as I really went looking around I found that not many of my favorite Finnish bands had patches available. From there it became clear to me that I had to do something different to make sure my unique idea was even more unique.

By some stroke of luck I came across a guy on eBay who was creating custom patches. You'd think something like this wouldn't be hard to find, but before coming across this chap (I think he was from the Czech Republic) I contacted several American custom patch shops and they all told me it would infringe on copyrights, even though I told them they were for private use and not being resold for profit. The first two obvious choices were Swallow the Sun, whom I've been a follower of since their debut years ago as well as Barren Earth who absolutely blew me away and continue to amaze me with their debut release, 'Curse of the Red River.'

On the more older Finnish band spectrum I absolutely had to include patches from Sami Tenetz mighty, Thy Serpent. You'd think Thy Serpent might have a patch floating around out there already, but no. The patch below comes from a band named Vordven who had a fantastic release back in '99 titled, 'Towards the Frozen Stream' as well a stunning EP in '01 called, 'Woodland Passage.' These bands are important to me because besides Beherit these were two of the more blacker sounding metal bands from Finland that I heard and purchased CDs from first years and years ago.

The Barathrum and Kalmah patches are not custom, but they seemed fitting since I've known Barathrum for a long time and although I haven't heard much of their work I plan to change that soon enough. Also the seller on eBay said this patch was, 'Supa Rare,' so it seemed hard to pass by. As for Kalmah, I've been a fan since the first album and I generally like what they did on their first couple of albums too. I haven't heard much of their recent work, but I suppose that might change since their patch adorns my jacket now.

... and how would a Finnish Metal Patch Jacket be complete without a little Behexen and Horna hanging around the bottom!? Right, it wouldn't! In a way it feels sort of odd having these patches and that's mostly because of the Amorphis patch, I guess its just a big contrast of styles and all. I remember when I was in the shop rummaging I also saw a, 'Tales from the Thousand Lakes' patch, which seemed appropriate for the old schooler in me, but my undeniable love for, 'Skyforger' got the best of me and I went with it instead.

Finnish doom/death legends also had to be a part of this jacket, no doubt about that! This patch was originally on one of my sleeves, but after sewing it on I found it nearly tearing off when I would wear the jacket and move my arm in a certain way. I also had Impaled Nazarene and Abhorrence on the sleeve, but those were removed and still need to be sewed on elsewhere.

On my left sleeve I have a patch of the Finnish flag, which I found at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport a few hours before I left. Some might find it odd for an American to wear the Finnish flag on his sleeve, but I do it with pride, because as I said Finland felt like my home away from my home. To date no ones questioned it, which is semi disappointing because for the laughs involved I'd just love to have someone call me a traitor to my country or at least have someone mistake me for being Finnish.

The patch below the flag is the final custom one and its of the band, Routasielu, which I can't simply recommend enough. By far one of the coolest bands I've heard in a long time and one I continuously find myself coming back to. It seemed wise to be this patch below the flag since the band writes all their lyrics in their native Suomi language, but I guess I could have easily have put the Horna patch here too.

On the right arm we have, Moonsorrow & Beherit whom are another two bands I've adored for many years now. Moonsorrow defines what epic folky metal is all about while Beherit and both their old and latest creations rank quite high on my list of favorite things. Regrettably the Beherit patch has suffered some damage during the winter, but that's mostly because I always carelessly hang my backpack off my shoulder, usually forgetting there's a patch sewn on there. I had originally thought about going with a Moonsorrow back patch at first too, but I guess those that know me, know that I've got quite a bit of love for all things Amorphis. So, it really wasn't a hard choice in the end.

The front remains mostly untouched other than that spiffy Amorphis pin on the pocket. I'll more than likely add add the aforementioned Impaled Nazarene and Abhorrence patches somewhere on the front, as well I've got ideas for more custom patches. However the custom patch thing was fairly pricey and I don't have much extra money to spend these days, but that's fine as I don't plan on retiring this jacket any time soon.

Finally a shot of yours truly out freezing his ass off while modeling his creation, forlornly too. I had been hoping for a snowy day to do this shot, but as far as I can tell winter has passed Wisconsin by this year, which is highly regrettably on so many levels. Honestly it wasn't even that cold when this was shot, haha.

As a final thought I have to say I've put a lot of thought, time and effort into this thing and I hope it shows. Its still not done, of course, but I wanted to show it off before this so-called winter season passed by entirely. If you like what you see feel free to share your thoughts as well link it up on your facebook pages, forums or whatever as I think it would be cool if fans of Finnish metal, Finns themselves and maybe even some of the bands saw this.

I think from now on I'll also try and do something special on this blog like this at least once a month. I've got lots of cool stuff to show off, which I think might tickle some interest around this place. Metal and beer reviews are certainly fun, but diversity is definitely the spice o life, don't you agree?

Cannibal Corpse - Eaten Back to Life (1990)

2012-02-08T18:37:00.003-06:00

Cannibal Corpse is a name that's synonymous with death metal and as one of the founders and now most well known and successful names in the genre you'd think the band would actually have more than a few great records behind them after nearly twenty five years of existence. You're opinion may differ on this matter, but personally the bands 1990 debut, 'Eaten Back to Life' is the only Cannibal Corpse record that I can honestly say I fuckin' love.

Without question when it comes to death metal I prefer the records from the late 80's and early 90's over everything else that's been released, and the basic reason for this is because most of those old records have that underlining thrash metal characteristic to them mixed with death metal. This then means that the music actually has a soul and substance, or in other words; bad ass riffs, the occasional solo and a fair amount of energy and drive behind the songs, whereas by the mid 90's and onwards death metal became a contest to see who could play the fastest and growl the lowest.

'Eaten Back to Life' has everything I mentioned above plus the guttural bellows of front man, Chris Barnes and his sickening lyrics, which for the time probably raised an eyebrow or two, even if Carcass and Repulsion had gore lyrics years before them. Nevertheless, I like the way many of the songs actually tell a story, such is the case with, 'Shredded Humans;'

"The father of three was impaled on the wheel, as his skull became a part of the dash, His eyeballs ejected his sight uneffected, he saw his own organs collapse, His seatbelt was useless for holding him back, it simply cut him in two, Legs were crushed, out leaked pus as his spinal cord took off and flew, The mother took flight through the glass, and ended up impaled on a sign, Her intestines stretched from the car down the road for a quarter of a mile.

Of course, very little of the lyrics are actually discernible through Chris' roars, but that's fine, this is freakin' death metal after all! In the end its the songs that are important and these are really Cannibal Corpse's finest. The aforementioned, 'Shredded Humans' kicks off the album flawlessly, pummeling the listener into submission within the short instrumental and as soon as those vocals kick in, fuck man, watch out, because things get insane quickly. The short but awesome, 'Put them to Death' has always been a favorite of mine and the part where Chris screams, "Fuck you" is beyond killer! 'Mangled' & 'A Skull Full of Maggots' are actually catchy and feature backing vocals from Glen Benton (Deicide) and Francis Howard (Incubus... umm, the thrash metal one!). A few others that have always stuck out for me are, 'Rotting Head' & 'The Undead Will Feast,' but really what matters is that the whole album is a mauling and brutal affair with tons of killer riffs, relentless endurance and a few clever solos and a strange sort of catchiness you just simply don't see in death metal anymore. Oh, and I enjoy drinking beer and headbanging to this motherfucker too.

This debut is generally overlooked in favor of the bands following creations, 'Butchered at Birth' & 'Tomb of the Mutilated' and while I agree they are good records I just never found myself enjoying Chris' far more guttural vocal approach as well the production is awful on those albums, while here it just sounds like a natural vintage metal record instead of a complete fuck up there. Honestly I'm not much of a fan of Cannibal Corpse past the fourth album and I've heard everything through, 'Gore Obsessed' too. Sure, someone might say I'm missing something with the new records, but then again the new records don't even have shocking twisted blood drenched artwork anymore. Have you seen the cover to, 'Kill?' Yeah, need I say more.

Some would say this isn't a death metal classic, but I'll proudly hold my middle finger in those peoples faces and say quite the opposite. 'Eaten Back to Life' is indeed a classic and undeniably the best product released under the Cannibal Corpse banner.

Moonspell - Wolfheart (1995)

2012-02-07T16:19:00.005-06:00

Throughout their now twenty year old music career, Portuguese metal legends, Moonspell have changed considerably in shape, form and personnel, but at least for me most of their work has been engaging and enjoyable. In their early days as Morbid God playing straight forward black metal (or so I always heard) to the early EP's as Moonspell they played a sort of folky black metal, but by the time they released their debut, 'Wolfheart' in '95 the band had taken their music in a sort of melodic folk-ish black-ish/Gothic metal that can really only be considered their own thing.

Moonspell was also one of those introductory bands of sorts that got me further into the metal underground years ago and as such I've always kept their outputs in mind. 'Wolfheart' however is a colossal release and by far the greatest record they've done. Many consider this to be a black metal record too, but the blackness is rather subtle and only shines through briefly in the vocal area, while the bulk of the record is far more Gothic in style with hints of folk music as well as a good amount of charging energy, catchiness and grandeur rarely seen these days in metal.

Kicking off with a beautiful and haunting intro, 'Wolfshade (A Werewolf Masquerade)' is quite possibly the finest song in the Moonspell library. With an incredibly majestic and yet bleak atmosphere all at once throughout and with both harsh shrieking screams and a low baritone Gothic/Dracula-ish vocal style Fernando "Langsuyar" Ribeiro proves himself quite early on. The song also has a superb flow, progressiveness and drive behind most of it and with on and off moments of great energy, especially towards the the middle when after a short acoustic break a totally hair raising lengthy guitar solo rips fourth from my speakers, usually followed by plenty of head banging on my end.

'Love Crimes' is next, although its a bit different in style and although again with a good amount of vigor and spirit behind it, this song is more purely Gothic metal in style, as well its also female backing vocalist, Birgit Zacher's first appearance, although she has many more on the album and future Moonspell releases as well she would go on to work with Tiamat and Sentenced during the 90's. '...Of Dream and Drama (Midnight Ride)' is fairly similar and quite excellent and who could resist that awesome Glenn Danzig-ish scream after the opening spoken part?! Meanwhile, 'Lua D'Inverno' is a short acoustic guitar number paired with a flute, which is the first real sign of anything folky on this record, whereas the following song, 'Trebraruna' is a full on although slightly weird folk metal song sung entirely in Portuguese.

The album hardly relents with, 'Vampiria' or 'An Erotic Alchemy' as they are again quite similar to the second and third songs, but just fantastically wrote and absolutely brilliant from start to finish. 'Alma Mater' closes out album and its a bit more forceful and aggressive at times, but nonetheless catchy as fuck and absolutely played at every single Moonspell gig. You might say its a classic.

There's very little I could say about this album negatively, maybe save for the fact that some of the synthesizers may sound slightly cheap or aged to some ears, but I hardly doubt Century Media handed a little Portuguese band that much money to record this beast. Aside from that we've got eight solid and stunning songs to choose from, superb vocals both from Fernando and Birgit, as well as a very audible bass guitar, dark, creepy and sometimes gorgeous synth, interesting and intriguing lyrics centered around vampirism, lycanthropy and relationships and enough catchy riffs and killer solos to make this the legendary album it truly is.

Re-released a few times over the years, an optimal version saw light in '07 with new artwork, remastered, liner notes by Fernando Ribeiro and Robert Müller (CM big boss), 28 page booklet and a bonus live CD, although I still rock my original pressing. Tempting to pick up this new version though.

Looking back I have no idea how I discovered this band or album, but I can only assume it was through random web browsing and Napster downloading at the end of 90's and the first months of the new millennium. Regardless, 'Wolfheart' has always been one of my favorites and if you've haven't heard it you really owe it to yourself to check it out, because its one of the most unique, exciting and memorable records I know.

Covenant - Nexus Polaris (1998)

2012-02-06T14:17:00.004-06:00

A year after the release of the mighty, 'In Times Before the Light' Bergen, Norway based band, Covenant expanded their line-up with the addition of some key members of the Norwegian black metal scene as well as taking their music in a largely different direction. Nagash and Blackheart (the bands original two members) returned alongside guitarist, Astennu (Dimmu Borgir, Carpe Tenebrum, Nocturnal Breed), drummer Hellhammer (Mayhem, Arcturus, Thorns, etc.) and keyboardist Sverd (Arcturus), which in a lot of ways made the band out to be super group of sorts with Nagash at that time playing bass in Dimmu Borgir he probably had no troubles selling his side project to the label boss at Nuclear Blast Records.

'Nexus Polaris' saw Covenant taking their music in a more melodic black metal direction with ample synth enrichment, backing female vocals (courtesy of Sarah Jezebel Deva of Cradle of Filth fame) and a squeaky clean production job, which in all seriousness made it sound barely black metal in character. If you've never heard this album perhaps the simplest way to describe it is to say its a perfect merger of Dimmu Borgir's late 90's output (Enthrone Darkness Triumphant & Spiritual Black Dimensions) with Cradle of Filth's, 'Cruelty and the Beast' release. I'm sure true followers of black metal and those that adored the bands debut were disappointed, heck for all I know woman had miscarriages, men's masculinity was brought into question and children cried out in fear after hearing it, but regardless I've never been able to resist this album due to how well each song is wrote.

Each of the eight songs have a fantastic sense of flow to them with superb melodic guitar melodies, which may in sight furious head banging at times as well as some awesome drop dropping solos to boot. Sverd's keyboard and piano melodies have always reminded me of old Emperor, Dimmu and Cradle all rolled into one, while Nagash's vocals were less troll-ish this time around being hardly extreme and are in fact fairly easy to understand, save for some of the odder moments on this record when he screeches chaotically, but I figure that just adds diversity to the whole thing. Sarah's backing vocals are special, because she actually sings, in an operatic style of sorts, whereas at the time in CoF she was mostly just doing background speaking/howling/whatever.

Eight songs deep I find very little fault in this record. The powerful opener, 'The Sulphur Feast' sets the style of the album firmly in place from the get go with roaring fast drums, a killer solo, great piano tinkling and excellent vocals from both Nagash and Sarah. Probably my favorite song of the album is, 'Bringer of the Sixth Sun' sinse the ending is breathtakingly awesome with a lengthy instrumental part that absolutely kills and crushes everything, whereas the same could be said for, 'Planetary Black Elements' since the last couple of minutes are similarly powerful, but perhaps a bit more haunting in its overall delivery. 'Chariots of Thunder' closes out the album quite well too in a slower, but slightly more epic style, but I dig it all the same.

As I mentioned in my previous Covenant review this band was the one that really got me into black metal in the first place, even if this album isn't very black metal at all. Take it for what it is, and what, 'Nexus Polaris' is, is one damn fine album.

Neither/Neither World - Invisible Angel (2005)

2012-02-05T10:23:00.003-06:00

I had known about the oddly named San Francisco band, Neither/Neither World for a few years randomly (usually) via a few random mp3’s or online radios before this CD appeared in my mailbox back in 2005. NNW is the brainchild of one, Wendy Van Dusen (voice, guitar and bass) and she’s been releasing music under this banner since the late 80’s. I’ve seen NNW compared to artists like The Creatures, Mazzy Star, Current 93 and Death in June, which is a pretty mixed bag, and honestly before popping this CD in my stereo I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The sound of, ‘Invisible Angel is that of an apocalyptic folk variety with a little bit of a pop-ish sentiment plus Wendy’s cute lead vocals, acoustic guitars, percussion, atmospheric synths and occasionally instruments like piano or the harmonica make an appearance. Wendy’s vocals remind me of Rose McDowall of Current 93/Strawberry Switchblade fame since they've got that playful adolescent spirit to them with a little bit of a Southern drawl, which is interesting and different to my ears at least.

‘Ghosts Whispers’ is one of the better songs on the album with very infectious light guitar and beautiful piano alongside Wendy’s voice that holds a strong melancholy emotion, whilst, 'Postcards' also has a very similar vibe, but with an oddly sounding echoing harmonica in the background. I also really like the atmospheric instrumental, ‘Shadow of the Wings’ which for some reason kind of reminds of The Cure’s, 'Disintegration,' while the title track, ‘Invisible Angel’ sounds very Death in June influenced all the way. The fourth song, 'Buried and Gone' is one of the oddities on this album and the only song that differs from the acoustic style since it’s more dark rock sounding reminding me somewhat of Gothic artists of the 80’s that have long past.

However I’ll knock off the name dropping and just simply get to the point and say that the whole album is quite outstanding. The musicianship is excellent, the songs have a steady flow, catchiness and atmosphere to them and everything about the album is enthusiastic and pretty much perfectly performed. My only complaint would have been to move, ‘Buried and Gone’ to the end of the album since it’s so different, but that’s just me I guess.

This is the only album I've heard from Neither/Neither World, but I definitely dig it and usually end up asking myself why I haven't hunted down their other releases.

So, if you’ve ever thought about the idea of female fronted apocalyptic folk music than Neither/Neither World’s, 'Invisible Angel' is the one to go with.

Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987)

2012-02-03T10:39:00.002-06:00

Gosh, damn, if there was any album out there that truly changed my life then, Guns N' Roses massive debut, 'Appetite for Destruction' was the one one that did it. This was the one that got me on the right path. This is the one that got me into, 'my own music.' It was the one that allowed me to push away the music that my parents had raised me on (oldies and such) and to most importantly get me into good 'ol hard rock n' roll!

I can still vaguely remember how I acquired this album too. My parents had bought me a Beatles album (or best of, maybe) for Christmas in 1991, but wanting to break away from my parents musical influences (and to be rebellious, perhaps) I had asked them to exchange the cassette for this band named, Guns N' Roses. They probably didn't know what the fuck they'd just done, but this as I already said was the one that got me on the right path, the heavier path, which eventually lead to an interest in heavy metal just a few years down the road. I was about nine years old at the time.

There's so many memories in my mind and within my heart when I think about this album. I remember listening closely to the lyrics, and singing along with them, trying to make sense of it all, but often missing something due to my youthfulness. I remember thinking that Slash, Izzy, Steven, Duff and Axl were the coolest dudes in the world. I recall telling my mom around that time that I wanted to be Axl and it was a year or so later that I grew my hair out for the first time (though it didn't go so well since I have quite the curly hair in comparison to Axl's straight hairs).

Oh, and the guitar solos, fuck, man! I remember jumping on my bed playing air guitar to Slash’s solo in, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine' (admit it, you did it too), and I played this album so much that I wore out the original tape and had to re-purchase it a few years later. And that strange artwork in the booklet, you know the original artwork of the robot rapist? Oh yes, I remember looking at that exposed boob of the ravaged girl laying against the fence and getting some funny feeling in my pants. I didn't know what the fuck that meant, but I knew I liked it (Hahah!). And those cuss words, naughty, and a bad influence on me for sure, but, ya know, "I see you standing there, You think you're so cool... Why don't you just, FUCK OFF!!"

'Appetite for Destruction' was all that and some more for a simple nine year old from, Wisconsin. And, ya know, its hard to believe its been over twenty years since I first heard it and its been almost twenty five years since its original release (July 21st!).

Easily the bands best, most pissed off and hard rockin' album, ‘Appetite for Destruction’ had songs about society and the Hollywood streets (Welcome to the Jungle), drugs & alcohol (Nightrain & Mr. Brownstone), girls/prostitutes (It’s so easy), youthful mischief (Out ta get me) and even a more sensitive side with songs like, ‘Think About you' & ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine.’ All of this was characterized by the colossal guitar riffs & solos of Slash and Izzy and the loud powerful vocal screechings of bad boy, Axl Rose. At a time when mainstream music had little to no feeling and really no messages what so ever Guns N’ Roses appeared and became the heroes for millions of young Americans. There really isn’t a bad moment on this entire album. Songs like ‘Welcome to the Jungle, ‘Paradise City,’ and ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ are classics that still kick my ass every time I hear them. Damn, and that acoustic guitar running through the chorus of, 'I Think about you' is just beautiful, what a powerful song, and who isn't touched, at least a little bit, by the tender sorrow in Axl's voice and the final lines of, 'Rocket Queen?' "Don't ever leave me, Say you'll always be there, All I ever wanted, Was for you to know that I care..."

A song like, 'My Michele' seemed odd to me when I was young, but that one has totally grown on me since and I nowadays appreciate the simplicity and understand the words of songs like, 'You're Crazy' or 'Anything Goes.' The other members contributions mustn't be overlooked either. Steven's drumming is nothing overly special, but its good solid hard rock drumming, but maybe the cowbell makes one too many appearances? Also you've gotta love Izzy's bass work, especially on, 'Mr. Brownstone,' freakin' groovy as hell, yaowza!

As many know, GnR had no less than five singles lifted from this record and within a short time they became the biggest band in the world. Unfortunately I'm not a huge fan of what they did after this. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Use your Illusions combo when I was a kid, but those albums just didn't age well. Still, some superb songs, but this early pure hard rockin' stuff will always be the best.

As I said earlier this album turns 25 in July of 2012, which is hard to believe, makes me feel old, but it just lets me know that I've been a rocker for a long fucking time. Personally its been a little over 20 years for this guy writing this, but I'm quite sure if I play my cards right I'll be listening for another 20 to come.

I don't know what else to say. Its one of my all-time favorite albums and its truly one I'll take to my grave. I could probably go on forever, I really could, man. You've no doubt heard it and maybe it means as much to you as it does to me. Or maybe it means nothing to you. Everyone is different, regardless I'll always love this record.

@%$^ You!

2012-02-02T15:35:00.003-06:00

"There's just one thing, dude. Do you have to use so many cuss words?"

So, a few days ago a random person commented on a totally random review of mine. This anonymous person felt the need to point out that I swear to much in my reviews and in general on this blog. They went on to say that its not very professional, people wont take me serious and that I'm not a bad ass.

Okay. I had to think about this for a few days. First and for most you should understand that people have been swearing in front of me since I was a tiny child. My dad used to have insane arguments with my mom and my older brother and quite frequently naughty words/phrases like, 'Fuck' or 'Goddamn it' made an appearance. It was only natural that a small child like me would pick them up and make them regulars in their vocabulary. It didn't help any that I had a childhood friend whose vocab consisted mostly of, "Fuck," "Bitch," "Cunt," "Asshole" and so on. I remember it was quite a regular thing where I would swear in front of my parents, they'd get pissed and asked me where I learned such words. Well, it was you, dad.

Professional? I don't know if you noticed but there's nothing professional or technical about this blog. I mostly write reviews on albums that have been out for ages now if not decades sometimes and usually I tend to avoid newer stuff due to lack of interest in it. Along the way I've probably broke ever rule in review writing and even on those rare occasions when I get technical I feel odd, because its not like everyone knows what the fuck a tremolo riff is or what blasting is.

There's also alcohol reviews here and generally before I finish off a review I finish off a bottle, which may bring out the rowdier side in me, which may include cuss words. I don't swear to try to be a bad ass either. For example having me write something like, "...this goddamn album is fucking awesome!" is by no means an attempt to look cool or tough, in fact its done mostly for the potential humor. It's not necessarily meant to be taken entirely seriously. I may have long hair, a beard on my chin and bulky arms, but I'd never think of myself as some sort of bad ass. No.

This is just the way I am. I go on dates with pretty girls and I cuss, I swear in front of my co-workers, bosses, parents, brothers, friends, strangers, neighbors, cats, kids, etc. If you can't deal with that then go fuck yourself. My blog, my voice, my thoughts, my rules you goddamn, ass.

Furthermore maybe I need to put some sort of warning before entering this blog so those that are easily offended can get an early warning. In any case, Lunar Hypnosis continues onward as ever cuss words a plenty and if you don't like it then too damn bad, boy. Thank you and have a nice fucking evening! :D

Imperial Choklat Stout

2012-01-30T13:42:00.003-06:00

Have you fallen in love recently? Wellllllllll, fuck man... I know I haven't, BUT at least I've got Imperial Choklat Stout in my glass now to make me feel better about my situation. Yes, I know more Chocolate stout's, but what can I say... they are tasty. So, I'll just slightly re-quote myself here and say, "Imperial Choklat Stout effectively blends two of my favorite things - Chocolate and good 'ol dark beer."

Choklat pours out smoothly with almost no head, but if you wait a moment a slightly tan head appears majestically and then disappears quite soon afterwards - much like love in my life. The color is blacker than night though also slightly dark brown at the same time. Damn thing actually looks like watered down chocolate syrup but still similar to a delicious mouth watering foaming stouty brew. The aroma is quite simply outstanding. Holy shit, son, it seriously smells just like chocolate! Its like I died and woke up in the Wonka chocolate factory with a cup of coffee alongside me to keep me attentive and prolong my confectionery intake.

And the taste... Arggggguuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmm.... oh yeah, baby... (plus other drooling, sexual discharge sounds and such). It tastes just like it smells. Even the head is chocolatey, almost like a warm cup of hot cocoa, but with alcohol and much colder, of course. Oh man, this is good... I could probably drink several of these, but since its 1 pt. 6 fl. oz. in size and 10.0% alc. vol. as well as the $8 price tag tells me I should probably just drink one for today. Man, oh man, that taste is something else. I could chug this stout if I wanted, but my senses tell me to take it slowly and enjoy. Still, I look at my glass half empty and the bottle completely empty and I wish I had another ready to go. :(

And the after taste is interesting too. Not bitter or bad in anyway, in fact it leaves a cocoa-ish lip smacking wonderfulness that really, really makes me wish I had another one on hand (guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow). Thick, creamy and sexy like a stout should be, Imperial Choklat Stout really hits the mark with me. Also taking a glance at, southerntierbrewing.com will reveal that this brewery has many interesting drinks to try, especially, 'jah*va Imperial Coffee Stout,' which is making my lips wet just thinking about it.

Aside from that, the bottle is fairly normal pint sized and the artwork is decent, but I wish it could have something that revealed the taste more. I dunno, maybe like a hand dipping a chocolate bar into a dark beer? Hmmm... Southerntier has found a new loyal customer after tasting this first-rate stout and I greatly look forward to sampling more from them. Is it better than love and sex? Well, I get neither, so I say go with the Choklat, drink a few with your friends and wonder why woman are so fucked up as you get fucked up together. Now, excuse me, I've got a plate of brownies, the rest of the this stout to drink and some thrash metal to head bang too. Good night.

Nodding Sky Interview

2012-01-29T10:13:00.012-06:00

J.M: As it stands at the moment, Nodding Sky is unsigned and as such probably isn’t that well known to most people (yet). With that said maybe we could kick this interview off with you telling my readers a little bit about the band’s formation, your sound and what you’ve accomplished thus far.

O-P: Nodding Sky started back in 2008 in a traditional fashion. We were a bunch of guys with passion for music and no active bands. Nodding Sky is the result of spending too much idle time together. The original idea to test our ensemble was to play some covers. However, we tried out our own song ideas first and happened to like them so much that we decided to concentrate on them instead. We started as a trio, but got lucky pretty soon after the hazy start and found two more members to fulfill the sound we craved for. We achieved that pretty quickly. I’d describe it as a blend of melodic death and doom metal, more in vein of the 90′s than 2000′s, with a hint of atmospheric black metal also from that era. I think we also have a progressive flow in our song structures as none of our current songs clock less than 5 minutes, though we have quite straightforward and rock influenced material too, in addition to the moody side of us. Atmosphere is the most important ingredient of a Nodding Sky song, followed closely by natural flow and rocking groove.

J.M: ‘For Those Left Behind’ is your debut recording and I’ve found myself left almost speechless due to the high quality of the four songs present on this EP. I can’t help but wonder what others have been saying too; likewise I’m curious to know if you’ve had any record label interest yet?
O-P: We haven't got an offer that would suit us yet. We’ve been sending our promo packages around, but there's still plenty of labels potentially interested in us, that haven't received it yet.

J.M: Lyrics were not printed in the digipak and one of the songs has words wrote in your native Suomi language. As a result of that I’m left curious about your lyrics and what these songs are about. From what I can make out it seems like a story might be told during the EP or at least the individual songs.
Ville: Every member in this band, except Pasi has wrote lyrics to our songs. Because of that, we don't have any certain line that we follow. Some lines just weren't meant to be crossed. Humour, sex, drugs and politics just to mention a few that don't fit that well with our music. For example "For Those Left Behind" is a story and pretty desperate one. Its about a group that travels in a world that is coming to an end. No hope left, they fall until there is only our hero left. "Murheen Saarnamies (Preacher of Sorrow)" is totally different. It contains lyrics that sheds light on how I struggle with my mind.

J.M: I like vocalist Ville Teräs voice a lot. His deep guttural roars and shrieking screams go well with the music as well the cleanly sung parts are great since they seem to reveal his accent a little bit. Does he have any special vocal training or is it just a damn fine natural ability on display here?
Ville: I have taken some private vocal lessons when I joined this band, but nowadays I just train with the guys a few days a week. When it comes to the growling and screaming I don't know how I do it. I just yell like it's the last day I'm living and if it doesn't hurt (too much) its okay!

J.M: Likewise the guitar work, drumming and the overall song structures, flow and sense of dynamics is exceptional for a debut EP. How long have the members been playing their individual instruments and writing
songs?
O-P: Thank you. I think that the major source of that flow you described is our manner of arranging and finishing songs as a whole band during our rehearsals. Usual pattern is that one of us brings the song idea to rehearsals and we’ll try different ways to approach and play it until we reach the strongest flow in the song. Sometimes it’s rather quick, smooth and easy process, sometimes quite the opposite. Fact that almost every guy in this band has a history of playing in a band for several years has surely made things easier in general. Regarding my personal experience: I’ve played guitar for good number of years, some of them actively and some so passively that I almost never touched the instrument. New active era of playing begun by the birth of this band. However, writing music is a thing I’ve never ceased doing since I was a youngster.
Pasi: I have been playing around 15 years, having some breaks during that time. Longest break I had was around a year, and I sold my drums at that time. Regretted that decision because I used to have late 70's
John Bonham style Ludwig kit.
Matti: I got my first guitar age of ten but I switched it really soon to bass guitar. I’ve been playing with bands since the age of 13, which means I've been into the wonderful world of rock and metal more than 20 years...dude, that’s strange...

J.M: Your bio states that you have many new songs written and ready to go already. Does this newer material follow in a similar path as the EP or can listeners expect something a bit different?
Sami: Main thing in our writing is to make good songs and keep up with the atmosphere. These elements are still in new songs so you could say we are following the same path as before. One of my favorite songs is
one of these new ones so I could say that new songs are even better than the older ones. I'm still standing behind every song that we have and I love them all.
O-P: Yeah, that’s true. The EP is like a checkpoint where we had developed the style that felt best for us and chosen the songs that would be most valid to represent us in the future. In other words, the path we have followed after the EP is still the same, but the difference is that we have come further along and it has grown a bit wider. In our every song the guideline to maintain the atmosphere is natural progression, and that is what has happened to our music in general. You can expect to hear something in vein of the EP, but more versatile and higher quality in every aspect.
Matti: We’re following the Nodding Sky direction, just taking it forward one song at the time, let’s see what it evolves into.

J.M: What is a Nodding Sky live set like? Is there any special mood you wish to achieve when playing or do you have any stage props with you? For some reason lots of incense and fog seems appropriate for your
music on the stage.
Ville: When we step on the stage, we just go with the flow. Let the emotions take control and see what happens. After the gig I don't remember half of the things that just happened on stage and day after the show I usually have a hangover, even if I were sober, it's weird.
Matti: We have at least 2 and a half ADHD cases on the band, so its surprisingly restless sometimes. We had a gig the day before writing this, and I cant move my neck from headbanging.

J.M: I really enjoy the acoustic reprise of, ‘Murheen saarnamies,’ especially the way it gives an already great song a whole new vibe and structure. Do you for see other acoustic songs in your future or perhaps the acoustics just playing a bigger part in your overall output?
Sami: Our music needs acoustic parts in it. That way we can go deeper
with the atmosphere. To have that as bigger part in our music is more
improbable. We are planning to do at least one song that has been
already written as acoustic song but will there be more... will see
about that.
Ville: Not sure if we are ever going to go fully acoustic again. It's not impossible, but not the first thing we are planning to do next. We made this one simply because we had some extra time due the lineup changes.
O-P: There’s been an idea of one song that could be done entirely acoustic, but it’s still just an idea. Perhaps they will play a bigger part, but only if song’s character demands it. If we come up with a song that needs more acoustic, cleaner or mellower parts, then we will use them more.

J.M: All of your songs are fairly long in length. Was it a conscious decision from the start to write long songs or did it just happen naturally during the writing process?
O-P: It’s never been a conscious decision like, “now I will make a song that clocks over 30 or under five minutes”. As I said earlier, I like to think that all our music is a result of natural flow, and by that I mean that a new song always begins from one primal idea, be it a short melody line you whistled or hummed during a walk or a riff you developed during aimless jamming. If it stirs up emotions strong enough, then from that seed grows a song that follows the mood until it feels like it has a beginning, an end and, most importantly, a good story between them. That means also that all of our songs tend to be rather long. I think that if you want to make a song with substance in our “genre”, it’s necessary to grant the song enough duration to grow and to allow it to burst in full bloom.
Sami: Songs are long but they still keep themselves together. Some
other bands could do many songs of our one song riffs. Every part of
our songs are serving the song it self and if you leave something out
the song is missing something.

J.M: I have to also admit that I was greatly impressed with the professionalism of this recording; from the great production values to the superb looking digipak, bio sheet, band photography and even the
band logo envelope you sent the EP in. To me that suggests that you guys are really pumped and have some serious hopes for the band. So, with that said, what does Nodding Sky have planned for 2012?
Ville: It makes my cold heart a bit warmer that someone gives attention to things like; how does the promo envelope look like.
O-P has done great amount of work creating the image how Nodding Sky should look like graphically. 2012 brings with it new Nodding Sky songs and gigs. We already have lots of songs waiting to be recorded.
O-P: Most probably we’re going to record a full-length album - via some label, or do a self-financed that we're going to offer to the labels. I suppose it’ll see the daylight during this year If all goes as planned. All in all, we have plenty of new material that we think deserves to be published in a form or another.
Matti: Finns are serious about the work at hand, a bit of perfectionists if you like, if you're doing something, even if its a mistake, better do it as well at possible. If you're gonna fuck up, better fuck it up good and proper. Plan for 2012 is more, better, deeper, and again some more.

J.M: I visited Finland for Tuska festival as well as other sightseeing in July of 2011 and had the time of my life and after all was said and done I really considered Finland to be the most awesome place on earth. I met some Finns though that thought Finland was really just alright or even boring, but then again a friend of mine simply said, “Familiarity breed’s contempt,” which I can understand. With that said, what are your thoughts on your homeland, Finland?
Pasi: I hate the winter that we have in southern Finland. Otherwise I
don't have complaints living here.
Matti: It was pretty backward place until the European Union, and metal music surely wasn’t the mainstream music the way it is here today. Nature is beautiful, but the strict rules and regulations are backfiring with huge assumption of alcohol, which is the only way to release from the pressure.
O-P: Although some things could be better, so many more could be terribly worse. l think our country today is a fine place to live in. The nature here has always been soothingly beautiful - if not exceptional.

J.M: Sort of going back to the last question, personally speaking being in Finland made me quite happy, but it seems to be a constant theme within Finnish bands even Nodding Sky to have some sort of melancholy
vibes. I wonder is this just a theme or is it actually the way a lot of people feel inside? If so, why do you think it is this way? Sorry, odd question.
Ville: I don't think that we Finns are that melancholy. I guess that we just channel the melancholy in to our art and music. At this time of the year it's easy to drain the melancholy from around you. All you have to do is to look out of the window and see how the darkness has taken over.
Matti: You'll understand if you ever see the polar autumn and winter. Its melancholic, coz of the surrounding nature. Music is a good outlet for it.

J.M: Do you the other members of the band enjoy a good alcoholic beverage now and again? If so, what beer or drink do you find yourself pouring down your throats often?
Pasi: I don't drink much, just occasionally have 1 or 2 beers. Usually enjoy Velkopopovický Kozel Dark.
Matti: You really have to fight the urge for it, this is a band that originally drank A LOT but to be honest, you cant pull a good show when you're drunk, and more than often, when the show is over its too late and you're too tired to get properly blasted.
O-P: As for my part, the usual Finnish way of getting properly drunk is pretty rare these days, but I do enjoy a pint of good beer or a glass of wine every now and then. My latest favorites have been the products of San Francisco based Anchor Brewing Co. Every sort of beer or ale they have brewed are great. Other favorite brewery for last few years has been Norwegian Nøgne Ø.

J.M: I understand the members of Nodding Sky have past band experience with Silentium, Watch Me Fall and Strikin’ Case. Personally I’ve never heard any of them, but Silentium seems to have a fairly decent following with many releases behind them already. If curiosity should overcome me what might one find when listening to these bands?
Matti: Silentium has been said to be a combination of Nightwish and My Dying Bride. Dunno, I'm making music, YOUR job is to review it :D
Pasi: Strikin' Case is pretty much straight forward hard rock.
O-P: Watch Me Fall played blend of melodic death and doom metal. It was pretty close to what we play with Nodding Sky today.

J.M: I noticed you didn’t have a metal archives page set up yet, which seems odd considering bands that formed yesterday have metal archive pages. Is there any special reason for this or are you just not a fan of the site?
Ville: Wow, that has to change! We will create profile there also.
Matti: It might be its not so popular way to promote your band in here, I think people prefer facebook or myspace, but we’ll get this shit soon unfucked.
O-P: As you read this I have discovered that a guy called Thomas from United States has already reported us there. Thanks! (Good job, Thomas - J.M.)

J.M: History has always fascinated me and I’ve always thought about what life would have been like if I’d been born 20, 40, 60, or 80 (and so on) years earlier. Is there any special place in time you’d like to travel back to and explore or are you content with living in Turku, Finland in 2012?
Pasi: I don't really feel I'd like to live some earlier period, it was fascinating enough to be teenager during the 90's discovering bands that later became big names.
Ville: 70's. So many great bands to see live... But Turku in 2012 is OK too!
Matti: Well, in 1820’s Turku had the population of 10,000 and around 120 legal bars and booze shops, which must have been a bit chaotic... But I cant imagine life without Rock’n’roll or Metal.
O-P: Yeah, that has crossed my mind too, but I think the decade I was born in was fine enough. Later would have possibly been even better. To me it’s always interesting to take a look back in history from distance where you have a good and wide view to it, and also nice to think that certain things are past and gone for good.

J.M: Can you think of any other notable up and coming unsigned bands from Turku that you feel deserve the extra attention?
Ville: I don't know that many unsigned bands from Turku, but we have shared the stage with few awesome unsigned bands from Finland. Ruinside to mention one.
Matti: Dismay from Turku.

J.M: It's rather obvious you spend a lot of time on your music, but I'm sure you have other interests and probably have a full time job. So what do you do when you're not creating music?
Sami: I'm doing full time job as a glass worker. I know it's not the best
job for guitarist as being afraid to lose my fingers but I'm always
careful. I like photography and I do tattoos as a hobby for my
friends... maybe someday I will do it as a full job. Other/first
interests are of course in music.
Pasi: I work full day at polymer technology firm. I also play percussion in a acoustic folk trio called, Mitra. Also recently started to go to the gym, so doesn't seem like I have problems thinking how to spend my
spare time.
Ville: I'm a sportsfreak and I study computers.
Matti: Social worker and a educational science and sociology student.
O-P: I work as a designer in b2b marketing business. I’m also father of one year old boy.

J.M: I don't know if you've had a chance to take a look at Lunar Hypnosis in detail, but if you have what are your thoughts on the zine/blog?
Matti: Looks great man, I mean the list of bands reviewed is looking like its soon about to cover most of metal music.
O-P: I think it’s great that you don’t review only contemporary records, but also some classics and stuff from many years back. I’ve read some of your reviews and agree to most of them. Also the beer reviews are interesting.

J.M: Well, my brain is failing to produce any more questions, but perhaps we can do another interview a few years from now once you’ve got a few albums out and kicking everyone’s asses with them. Other than that I hope to someday see you live either there, here or somewhere and I wish the best of luck to you for the future. Feel free to conclude this interview with any words of wisdom or final thoughts.
Matti: “Fuckingchicken!” Esa Tikkanen, Edmonton Oilers
O-P: Thank you Matti.

Website: http://noddingsky.net/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nodding-Sky/116803116246

Horna / Musta Surma - Vihan Vuodet (2005)

2012-01-28T12:00:00.003-06:00

This split release between Finnish black metal bands Horna and Musta Surma is a bit interesting since everything on it was previously released in an alternate form earlier. Originally in 2000 a 7" vinyl (lim. 500) split with two songs each was released while in 2002 a 12" vinyl (lim. 350) containing re-recordings of both bands demos appeared. Essentially this third split between these two bands is a collection of these earlier splits made available by American label Moribund Records.

The first two songs from Horna are from that early 7" and these songs are fairly standard mid-paced raw black metal Horna songs, somewhat catchy but ultimately not anything to get so wild about, while the next four songs are re-recordings from Horna's, 'Varjoissa' demo tape, which originally appeared in '95. I've never heard the original demo, but these re-recordings hardly sound new as the production is still ugly, filthy and about as raw as black metal usually gets without being intolerable to listen too. Again these songs are mostly mid-paced, repetitive, hypnotic, fuzzy, evil and totally black metal all the way, though the vocals are, well, just odd sounding. I guess I think of troll's when I hear them and normally I don't mind things getting a little troll-ish here and and there, but these vocals suck and that's really all that can said.

If truth should be told I actually bought this split for the Musta Surma songs, which back in 2005 a friend had strongly recommended the band to me based off of their appearance on the, 'Crushing the Holy Trinity' compilation, which I didn't pick up, stupidly... these here will have to do for now. Anyway, Musta Surma's first two songs are again taking from that 7" and although their style of mid-paced to speedier, sometimes slow and repetitive raw black metal is similar I'd have to say these guys greatly triumph over Horna this time. MS songs are fairly riff driven black metal compositions with typically raspy vocals as well as audible bass work and a good flow to each of these first two songs. Their last four songs from the 12" then are not really different at all, in fact the production is similar, although the guitar tone has a bit more reverb and harshness on the ear, but the same tempos and malevolent feeling remains.

This split is by no means a must hear, in fact its completely forgettable, but at the time of purchase (a few months ago) I was really feeling it for the rawer side of black metal and Horna in particular, and as always because both bands are Finnish too (and I need to hear more Finnish black metal). It serves as a decent look into Horna's past (which apparently sucks) where as this is the only release of Musta Surma's (which is quite good) that's readily available as I'm sure all the other EP's and compilations have long sold out (they never released any albums).

Barathrum - Anno Aspera: 2003 Years After Bastard's Birth (2005)

2012-01-27T10:50:00.002-06:00

Formed in 1990 as Darkfeast, but quickly changed to Barathrum, Janne "Demonos" Sova's long running band is among with Beherit, Archgoat and Impaled Nazarene as some of the first black metal bands to emerge out of Finland. Mainly Demonos own project with several previous members (including folks from Finntroll, Gloomy Grim, Ensiferum and Flame), Barathrum had issued seven albums before this eighth release, 'Anno Aspera: 2003 Years After Bastard's Birth,' which is also the bands most recent full-length.

Barathrum has always been a bit odd by traditional black metal standards and this release is surely no different as the intro, 'Antikristus Neutronstar' sounds like a horde of drunken Satanic Gremlins about to set a church ablaze, complete with loud chatter and howling noises, things are off to a bizarre start. 'Corpse Desecration' on the other hand is fast hard hitting old school Bathory-ish jam with one hell of a drive and damn catchy chorus to boot. 'Into Maze Of Nightmares' is slow and hypnotic in the beginning but kicks up in speed and devilry midway through before alternating back to the slower pace and then fast again. 'Angelraper' is a brawling head banging fist pumping bass heavy track, which absolutely kills and thrills, while, 'G.I.D.' is more mid-paced yet still quite similar overall in its catchiness.

The remaining five tracks don't differ much (other than the title track, which is longer and doomier) from these earlier songs, although the fast to mid-paced old school Bathory-ish vibes remain with plenty of memorability as well as an always very audible bass guitar, which gives the whole damn thing a unique feel. I also pick up some strong Impaled Nazarene vibes when I listen to this record though since both bands formed in the same year and since I'm completely unfamiliar with Barathrum's early efforts its hard to say who might be copying who, if at all.

It should also be pointed out that the lyrics are totally simple tales of necrophilia, terror, rape, blasphemy, goat worship and death all with a morbid sense of humor and a fucking hell of a lot of fun too. I don't think Barathrum is meant to be taking too seriously though and as a result this is just one of those quick (thirty seven minute) drinking and head banging records to enjoy with your metal comrades alongside you. Speaking of drinking, why am I not doing so now?

I've known about Barathrum for many years now and other than, 'Legions of Perkele' I've completely neglected this band, which I think I'm going to change since I absolutely get a kick out of this one. If you're looking for some fun, simple, short and rockin' tunes you can't go wrong with this one or Barathrum in general. Hails and nails, motherfuckers!

Rain Paint - Disillusion of Purity (2006)

2012-01-26T06:37:00.004-06:00

Rain Paint, The Finnish Gothic metal band of Aleksi Ahokas made a big impression on me with their first album, 'Nihil Nisi Mors' and with that in mind you'd think the follow-up recording would have been something I would have purchased instantly upon its release, but it wasn't until about two years ago that I got my hands on the bands seconds album, 'Disillusion of Purity.'

Looking back to that time I recall this recording not making a huge impact on me, but I think a lot of the reason for that has little to do with the music, but actually the lyrics. Lyrically its mostly centered around relationships and the longing and desire to be back with someone who meant the world to them. As it turns out I just found myself in a situation with someone I had come to care a lot about, but as my life usual goes it fell apart just when I thought things were at an ultimate high, but at least I was able to retain friendship with the person. In any case when your feeling low and your in one of those moods (I'm sure you've all been there) lyrics like this hit home like they've never done before and that's how I just recently came to appreciate this record.

Anyway, Rain Paint's music is mid-paced Gothic metal with mostly cleanly sung vocals though a few growled roars make an appearance courtesy of Henri Villberg (Rapture) and the occasional backing keyboards from Tea Dickman (Fragile Hollow). The mood of the music seems to change a bit as the CD progresses as the opening song, 'Year or Two' has the strong doomy/melodic death vibe of Rapture (Aleksi's other band) where as the next two songs, 'Give Back my Heart' & 'Heart Will Stop' have that sort of happy but sad Sentenced Gothic metal thing going for them. 'Thru the Mire' signals a change in the music as it shifts to much doomier and depressing territory and the mood becomes even bleaker with the next song, 'Disintegration.'

Something you should know is that, 'Disintegration' is a cover song of The Cure and the original is by far one of my all-time favorite songs and to hear it metalized is interesting and ultimately quite successful too. I love the way Aleksi manages to capture a similar desperate despondent mood with his vocals and instead of simply copying the song they actually do their own unique version of this timeless song. Likewise the music holds that same discouraged feeling, though it does make me long to hear the original usually after listening to this cover. The remaining four songs more or less shift between the styles mentioned above with, 'Final Peace' and the nine minute instrumental, 'Disillusion (outro)' standing out flawlessly.

Although Aleksi was always involved in many metal bands, 'Disillusion of Purity' ended up being his last metal album as he seemed to disappear from the scene after that, though I just found out he's actively playing in a band named Plans these days, which is a bit mellower and more rock related, but still with the depressive qualities that he's known for from his metal days.

In the end, 'Disillusion of Purity' isn't an everyday sort of album because it gets me thinking about stuff to much, but when life pulls at those heart strings I'm glad there's album out there like this one.

Lunar Hypnosis on Facebook

2012-01-25T15:51:00.004-06:00

I figured now that Lunar Hypnosis has been here on blogger for a few years and the content is large (and hopefully good) that it was now time to make a facebook page for it (the trendy thing to do). I'm mostly just doing it with hopes of getting the name out there and so more people will be able to find it and enjoy what I do. There's not a whole heck of a lot there just yet, but if you'd like you can certainly visit the page and "Like" it. Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lunar-Hypnosis/293970663985730

Wake Up Dead Imperial Stout

2012-01-21T13:54:00.003-06:00

"Wake up dead, you die! Wake up dead, and buried, Wake up dead, you die, Wake up deeeeeeeeead!"

Oh, excuse me, every once in a while beer makes me break out singing and why not when you've got a stout in your glass that's unintentionally named after one of Megadeth's most legendary songs. Therefore, I sip, drink and chug, 'Wake Up Dead Imperial Stout' for you today!

Wake Up Dead pours out a dark brown almost dark burial gravel black color with a minimal amount of head, which is light tan in color and all in all very typically stouty in appearance. The aroma is like the fetid reek of rotting flesh, but, well, no... as its quite hoppy and coffee like on the nose, but I can at least wish for a zombie brew, right? The first swig reveals many different tastes - Burnt coffee, licorice, smoke, woody and a little caramel & toffee-ish zest. As the stout sits I find it becomes a bit more bitter in taste, but still quite good with a strange lingering cherry-ish taste somewhere in there too. All in all, not too bad at all with a semi-creaminess and easy after taste too.

'Wake Up Dead' is 1 Pint and 6 fl. oz in size and 10.2% ABV, which means you'll probably be feeling just fine by the time you finish it off. If truth be told though I did buy this one just because of the name and the artwork, which fucking rules, and in an odd sort of way reminds me of the Inquisition artwork on their latest record, 'Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm.' I haven't heard that one either, it probably sucks, but it still brings that image to mind.

Off hand I don't recall what I paid for this stout, but I don't seem to remember it being anymore than $6-$7, which isn't bad, but perhaps due to it not tasting wildly different from other stouts I might not pick it up again. However as always if your looking for a drink that has random weird metal connections, then here you go. Crank some Megadeth and keep longing for that zombie epidemic!

It's Black Friday, paint the devil on the wall!

Virgin Black - Requiem - Mezzo Forte (2007)

2012-01-19T13:07:00.003-06:00

Originally intended to be a trilogy of albums released entirely in 2007, Virgin Black's, 'Requiem - Mezzo Forte' saw release in early-2007 and was the first of this thus far still incomplete threesome.

With this release the band had completely reinvented their sound and in a lot of ways created something that could only be described as neo classical doom/death metal. Largely consisting of breathtaking and often times bombastic orchestral passages and accompanied by male and female operatic singing, a backing choir and some typical doom/death metal heaviness with the occasional low guttural growl too.

All scores within this album were performed by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, which means everything is organic and synthetic free. Each song contains some very beautiful passages too, which often times take on various sentiments. Sometimes I found the music to be simply gorgeous, but at other times it contained darker sinister feelings while at other times the mood seemed quite somber, tragic or just plain mysterious and much to my delight the music often times becomes very epic. Funding such a project must have been a financial nightmare, but one listen to this album and you'll see that it wasn't funds poorly spent.

Band mastermind, Rowan London and a guest soprano singer handle most of the lead singing, which as I previously mentioned is in an operatic manner, especially Rowan’s singing ability has matured greatly since the last album and here he delivers his best performance to date, both operatic and death metal styles. As for the choir the results are quite stunning and its incredible the feeling their backing voices create around the symphony and the metal heaviness.

The doom metal elements although kind of overshadowed by the grandiloquent orchestral parts are still excellent with some really interesting guitar riffs and occasional solos too, and there is plenty of heaviness on this album to entertain the stubborn metal listeners who insist on only listening to metal. In fact I'd say the song, 'Lacrimosa (I Am Blind With Weeping)' is one of the most dismal pieces of music I've ever heard. Between the symphonic sections, choir and doom heaviness you'll experience some of the most calamitous beauty ever recorded.

At fifty two minutes and eight seconds there isn’t one moment on this album that I found to be dull or without brilliance. Each song offers up so much and even after you listen you’ll probably want to listen again since its so dazzling. Really, every last detail is well thought out and executed perfectly and I suppose this explains why the band had been quiet for four years after their previous album, 'Elegant... and dying.' Masterpieces don’t write themselves, no, masterpieces take time and indeed this album reflects that.

In early 2008 the second album in the trilogy, 'Requiem - Fortissimo' was released and was quite interesting since the orchestral and choir parts were considerably reduced and in the end it was more doom/death than the neo classic sound that was represented on this album. Sometime there after the band went on hiatus with, 'Requiem - Pianissimo' still waiting to be released.

Hopefully Virgin Black isn't gone, but even if they are they have at least created something I've cherished for nearly five years now and will certainly continue to adore for many more to come.

Zoät·Aon - Star Autopsy (2005)

2012-01-15T12:58:00.003-06:00

Zoät•Aon is one of many very fascinating bands to be found on the Finnish label Aural Hypnox, which specializes in extraordinarily ritualistic dark ambient music. 'Star Autopsy' was created and performed by Jaako Vanhala whom hails from Oulu, Finland.

For a debut album I must admit this is way above average and easily outdoes most veterans in this genre. Zoät•Aon’s music is built around ghostly droning ambiance, odd swirling slightly industrial synth sounds in the foreground, ethereal textures, demonic voices, backwards speaking, a variety of percussion instruments (including human thighbone's) built around a very ritualistic feeling, and so much more that its really hard to put into words. Jaako takes us on one very unfriendly expedition through what could very well be hell itself. The music is incredibly dark and frightening and like label mates, Halo Manash, the voices scattered throughout the recording have that potential to really freak me out after sometime.

It’s hard to pick a favorite, but, ‘Dark Grammar’ seems to be one that really stands out. The song has this gruesome ambiance and this weird ringing sort of sound in the background, when suddenly at almost the three minute mark some harsher industrial/noise sounds enter the song and those devilish voices come back again to haunt me. ‘Exo’ is also very good at having an uncomfortable cavernous sentiment to it giving the listener the notion that something is lurking in the dark waiting for them. The two lengthy ending songs (both over eleven minutes) also follow a similar path as the two preceding mentioned songs, and although I probably don’t need to say this, ‘Star Autopsy’ as a whole is bloody amazing!

Star Autopsy also comes in a six panel digipak with silver print, drawings, and is limited to just a thousand copies and is long sold out too. If memory serves me correct this album and Halo Manash’s, 'Syoma' were really one of my first experiences with Finnish dark ambient music.

Much like many bands in heavy metal, the Finns really know how to create something amazing and ultimately quite original and engaging too. If you can find it, this is simply a must hear recording from the Aural Hypnox record label.

Vinterriket - Der letzte Winter - Der Ewigkeit entgegen (2005)

2012-01-13T17:02:00.003-06:00

Vinterriket (Norwegian & Swedish for, 'The Winter Realm') is the first and longest running project of German musician, Christoph Ziegler who since 2000 has been releasing music related to the dark side of nature. During these past years he's released a staggering amount of music, although in many cases releases are very limited and then re-released under new names or together as compilations. He also seems to create a great deal of merchandise with everything ranging from shirts, hoodies, posters, photo books, DVDs and deluxe box sets.

'Der letzte Winter - Der Ewigkeit entgegen' seems to hold a special place in my heart as I remember the winter of 2005/06 not being a very pleasing one for me and I seem to remember frequent trips driving through snowy landscapes and thinking about life on many occasions with this album as my musical accompaniment. Also in particular the song, 'Winternacht - Kalte Schwärze im Bann der silbernen Sonne' is significant for me since this song had appeared on the Lunar Hypnosis mp3 compilation, 'Dreams of Winter Under the Scorched Summer Sun,' which had come out in August of '05, actually before this album did, thus making it exclusive for a short while.

All that aside, this record is in Vinterriket's highly atmospheric black metal style with only three short ambient tracks. This style relies heavily on backing synth passages mixed with buzzing raw distorted electric guitars, programmed drums and throat shredding vocals in German. The black metal tracks are generally very long (the shortest being seven minutes) and they all open with very dark moody intros that then rip into the scything blackened terror that is Vinterriket. Each of them have the dark synths running throughout the entire song and almost all of the songs also have breaks in them for just purely ambient moments and nature sounds as well, which really increases the winter mood.

The guitars don't offer up much in terms of melody as they mostly just sound like a raging winter storm and I think perhaps that's a bit of a shame as some distinguishable riffs would have been immense. The same could be said for the programmed drums too, since you can easily tell they are not performed by a human, which is hit or miss with most folks, but for all I know newer Vinterriket records in this style may have just what I always wanted.

I've always found CZ's metal records to work as one cohesive long song where individual songs really don't stick out as much, yet the whole experience is quite good. As I mentioned above I used this record a lot during the winter time after its release and truly try placing this album in your car's stereo while driving around at night during snowfall or while walking through a snowy field or forest and you'll find yourself being transported to this hypnotic winter realm Christoph is seeking through his creations.

'Der letzte Winter - Der Ewigkeit entgegen' and Vinterriket creations in general are not for everyone, but for those that are looking for absolutely cold atmospheric black metal with original and beautiful sounding synths should definitely give this one a chance.

Battle Dagorath - Ancient Wraith (2011)

2012-01-12T14:43:00.003-06:00

For the first time this winter its actually snowing and rather steadily outside my living room window, therefore this seemed like the appropriate time to analyze the latest Battle Dagorath release, 'Ancient Wraith.'

Although it slipped by most listeners ears, the bands debut, 'Eternal Throne' was a monumental release of enduring, epic, cold and incredibly atmospheric black metal. This follow-up is in a similar style, though some differences are there, yet it seems like the basic framework is still present. Other than the bands mastermind, Black Sorcerer Battle (guitars, bass and vocals) the remainder of the band has changed with Shadowvoid handling drums and additional guitars, Christoph of Vinterriket/Atomtrakt fame providing keyboard work as well as Hexannacht providing vocals on one song.

The album opens with a three minute ambient song titled, 'Spirits of Winter Darkness,' which along the way has the sounds of whipping winds in the background and it perfectly sets the mood for the listener as its three minute duration passes. 'Empire Of Imperial Shadows' then blasts forward and the quickly noticeable characteristic of Battle Dagorath's music is dark but gorgeous and haunting melodies that lurk within this song, although you'll also take notice of the lesser melodic guitars that are generally just a raw buzzing ambiance that goes along with the chaotic music, although some cleaner guitar parts are heard as well as some acoustic portions too. The drums mostly rely on blasting and the music in general seems far more raging, but not always as some calmer moments can be found, but in the end it all helps to create the harsh unforgiving winter sound the band strives for and Battle Dagorath is incredible at it.

I'll admit I don't think the next two songs, 'Where Darkness & Frost Prevails' & 'Spellbound Requiem Of The Winter Night' differ that much in style from the former, but are still highly atmospheric in their raging winter black metal glory, but by the time the listener arrives on, 'Kingdom Of Black Abyss' the album reaches its peak. Considerably the most enormous song the album, it opens with a familiar Vinterriket synth passage while building up gradually over the next two minutes or so until all hell is unleashed upon the listener. Around the five and half minute mark things calm down once again and eventually an utterly spine tingling slow riff enters alongside a magnificent and despondent synth melody that continues on for the remaining minutes of this fourteen minute beast. The sixth and final song, 'Ancient Spectre Of Oblivion' is a nearly twenty minute experimental song, which is a part ambient and noise composition, which is fantastic if you dig that sort of thing, but most don't. Fortunately, I dig.

As a whole I am quite pleased with, 'Ancient Wraith' and the development and changes the band has made between its two releases. I'm sort of undecided which release I enjoy more, but it really doesn't matter since both are quite good. I should also mention that Battle Dagorath is an American band and for those that would say the American black metal scene is dead, awful or just plain nonexistent should probably listen to this and be proved fucking wrong!

Last.fm

2012-01-11T10:23:00.007-06:00

A nice little fact about me is that I quite fancy the website, last.fm. I find the whole scrobbling and building a music library to be quite a fascinating concept and apparently I'm not the only one since as of 2009 the site had 30 million active users.

It's also allowed me to meet some priceless and great friends, which much to my amazement I've actually met in real life and had good times with. I've found friends near me as well as on both the east and west costs of the USA and up north of me in Canada. Stretching even further to the other side of the world I've found friends in England, France, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Estonia, and yes once again actually met all these people. It has also occasionally reunited me with friends or band members I knew else where on the Internet or from the old LH website, but lost contact with for whatever reason.

I also find it interesting the way the scrobbler keeps track of what I play and since February of '06 when I joined its been fun playing my favorite bands and watching my charts grow. In a very odd sort of way I had dreamed of something like this back in the mid 90's where I had envisioned an option on my stereo that would keep track of how many times I played a CD or a single song simply because I've always had some obsession with random pointless statistics, despite that fact that I actually really hate numbers. Back then, perhaps around '95 or '96 I never would have imagined such a creation ever coming into existence. You can only imagine my joy when I came across last.fm in early '06.

Personally I aim to keep my profile and scrobbles as close to what I actually own as I'm a strong advocate of playing only physical music or if you prefer my own personal quote, "Only physical music is real!" Therefore, bands and albums come and go from my charts sometimes as I do occasionally sell stuff, and if you're thinking, "Dude, get a fucking life" then you're more than welcome to think so, but I really don't care. Music means the world to me and its something I take very seriously as its brought me so much joy and allowed me to meet amazing people too.

Therefore, I figured it would be a good idea to bring my last.fm profile to the attention of this blog so my readers could not just read my writings but talk with me on last.fm if they so choose to do so. I know many of you already have me as a friend there, but this is for the others out there that haven't done so just yet.

So, if you'd like to add me, then feel free to visit my profile and do so. Say hey, leave me a shout and will go from there. And if you haven't already joined last.fm then I strongly recommend it as I believe its the one and only music forum/site out there really worth spending any time on. And the amount of great music you'll discover and friends you'll make will really be worth all of it too. Check it out!

Atomtrakt - Nuklearchetyp (2009)

2012-01-10T15:01:00.003-06:00

Christoph Ziegler sure is a busy guy. Nowadays playing in or at least contributing something to eight different bands is surely a hell of a feat. Atomtrakt, which has been active since 2004 is his martial industrial project of cold grandiloquent, atmospheric, industrialized, and militant sounding ambient music and to date he's released four full-length albums as well as a demo and a EP. I was recently sent his sophomore effort, 'Nuklearchetyp,' which sounds fairly similar to his debut, 'Schutt & Asche' though nevertheless interesting.

Thematically Atomtrakt is centered around war and the digipak artwork within has various photos of explosions and post bombed cities as well as some smug looking chap on the front, which is... Christoph himself, I think... yes? Anyway, Atomtrakt's forte is highly melodious epic synth compositions mixed with stomping bombastic percussion (some military beats too) as well as various samples and raspy spoken vocals in German. The atmosphere is about as desolate as music gets and that might sound odd considering the lively nature of the synths at times, but in this case it feels more like an army storming my village and bombing my ass whereas a lot of other martial industrial bands seem to make the listener feel like the high commander. There are also some calmer moments on this disc where the dust starts to settle and that's when I find it really getting to me. I probably shouldn't be drinking Wisconsin brewed beer as a I write this, but perhaps some Russian vodka or some good 'ol Braunschweiging Jägermeister instead.

'Nuklearchetyp' is a fairly solid disc and if you're familiar with his past work you'll be getting more of the same, but it could also be a surprise for those that don't know it. There's also an Mpeg video included for the song, 'Eisenkerker,' which is basically just B&W footage of various abandoned buildings, fields, tanks and other grim shit, but it works.

And as one final thought I hope the two most recent Atomtrakt releases have a little more experimentation to them even though I probably wont make any special effort to obtain them, but if they should happen to come my way it would be pleasing to see something a little bit different.

Young's Double Chocolate Stout

2012-01-09T15:33:00.004-06:00

The top of the can says, 'Pure Luxury' and goddamn it all that pretty much says it all. Young's Double Chocolate Stout effectively blends two of my favorite things - Chocolate and good 'ol dark beer. And it's delicious too. In fact the only thing its missing is some sort of pull tap that reveals a speaker underneath that plays, '22 Acacia Avenue' when you tilt the can in just the certain way. I'm not sure why that song would be appropriate with dark beer and chocolate, but I'm going with it for now. Yes.

Pour it into a cold glass to reveal its dark mystic color, but also take notice of the lighter browns that swirl about at the bottom of the glass. It's seriously interesting to watch, especially if you've already had a few glasses, because it literally looks like some sort of brown beer storm raging battle within your glass. Over time it settles to a purely black body with a thick creamy light tan head. The scent is surprisingly not overly chocolaty, but actually quite faint with some mild burnt and espresso fragrances.

The initial taste to me is literally like a typical dark stout mixed with chocolate milk and if that sounds gross to you that's just fine, but to me its absolutely wonderful. There's also some burnt malty and mild vanilla flavors present too. After a while it seems like the chocolate flavors disappear slightly allowing it to sit reveals a more typically stouty, coffee and bitter like taste, which means its best to guzzle this one down quickly to preserve that chocolate taste. Nevertheless I enjoy this one and I find it almost impossible to just drink one at a time. It's really that good.

Overall this is a strong stout with great flavors and only a little bit of bitterness to it. Definitely recommended for those that desire a little more sweetness in their stouts.

Gorgoroth - Pentagram (1994)

2012-01-07T17:51:00.003-06:00

Of all the old early 90's Norwegian black metal classics, Gorgoroth's debut, 'Pentagram' has always ranked among my favorites. With a simple title, cover artwork and a straightforward true to the bone black metal sound and production, it's an undeniable must hear recording.

Formed as early as '92, in Bergen, Gorgoroth had released the demo, 'A Sorcery Written in Blood' & 'Promo '94' before this recording, and all but one of the songs from these early efforts are present on this debut, although re-recorded, of course.

Largely overshadowing everything the band would release after this, Pentagram is a supreme recording of raw, yet quite melodic and utterly evil sounding black metal. Vocalist, Hat (Norwegian for Hate) writhes loose some of most malevolent raspy shrieks every captured on tape, which still to this day give me the fucking creeps with their sheer larynx ripping terror. Infernus' guitar work and his punishing melodious riffs have that ability to make the hairs on my arm stand on end, which to me is the sign of something truly dark and baneful, while Samoth's rumbling low end bass work is like the bowels of hell about to erupt below me and Goat Pervertor's galloping drum work makes me feel as if I've got the Devil on my heel's. In the end what I'm trying to say is that no matter what way you look at it this recording has an aura of pure calamitous wickedness around it and I love every single second of it.

At just twenty nine minutes and eight songs deep there is plenty to love on, Pentagram too. From the powerfully, speedy and may I say catchy opener, 'Begravelsesnatt' to the slightly slower and more atmospheric, 'Crushing the Scepter (Regaining a Lost Dominion)' and onwards to the direful, 'Ritual,' Pentagram starts off flawlessly. 'Drømmer om Død' has one of sickest and darkest riffs ever wrote, while, 'Katharinas Bortgang' is a pummeling affair with one of the best build ups ever. 'Huldrelokk' is easily the best black metal instrumental I've heard with a lot of those hair raising parts to it, whilst '(Under) The Pagan Megalith' is a fucking shredding head banger of a song and the closer, 'Måneskyggens Slave' is some of the most nefarious black metal ever heard, simple as that.

Two years after this release, 'Antichrist' was unleashed, which is almost identical in style and production quality, while in '97, 'Under the Sign of Hell' proved to be the last decent Gorgoroth album. Much of what the band did from here on was painfully bland blast beat driven black metal or even slightly experimental stuff and when all the crazy hi-jinks involving the bands members began to happen the band had truly reached a state of hopelessness. Although 2009's, 'Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt' was a bit better and definitely a step in the right direction.

Regardless of my personal opinion on their other efforts, you need, 'Pentagram' in your collection. Absolutely one of my all-time favorites.

Inanna - Day Ov Torment (1993)

2012-01-06T11:41:00.004-06:00

Inanna is the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare; the Akkadians called her Ishtar. This Inanna however is or was the project of Mikael Stavöstrand, formerly of Archon Satani, who together with, Tomas Pettersson (nowadays in, Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio) worked together from '90 to '93. This album is described as a pioneer in the death industrial sub-genre, although there is certainly a lot going on in this album that even surpasses newer bands that make music like this.

Probably the first point to get across with this album is that it’s creepy. I mean seriously, absolutely terrifying from beginning to end. The songs all feature eerie unsettling ambiance with various other characteristics like; orchestral synths, bloodcurdling growling, voices, chants, screams, violins being scratched on, harsh noise and industrial vibes, military & tribal drumming, weird random bursts of woodwind instruments, rattling chains and various other percussive instruments and other sounds and music that I couldn’t even possibly label.

Some parts of these songs are laid back and glide along gently in a somewhat typical black ambient vein, but most are rather well paced experimental electronic pieces as I’ve described above or some even sound similar to In Slaughter Natives, which isn’t a surprise since J. Havukainen did mix the album. At times these songs also sound like a radio transmission with heavy feedback and noise while lost souls try to communicate a message to the listener. Try listening to this album very loud late at night, during a downpour, by yourself and in the dark and you let me know how it goes. This album is colossal, ‘nuff said.

If you enjoy artists like In Slaughter Natives, MZ.412, Atrium Carceri, Halo Manash and other twisted composers that create dark haunting experimental electronic music, than be absolutely sure you here this landmark album from Inanna.

Falls of Rauros - The Light that Dwells in Rotten Wood (2011)

2012-01-03T17:47:00.002-06:00

Falls of Rauros' 2008 effort, 'Hail Wind and Hewn Oak' was my favorite release that year and its since grown to become an album I utterly cherish and will surely take to the grave with me. Brimming with some of most extraordinary melodies and an atmosphere like no other, I never thought these lads from Maine could come close to toppling such an immense effort, but then I heard, 'The Light that Dwells in Rotten Wood' and I still don't really know what to say.

In my own opinion though, FoR has taken Agalloch's spot as the band that's best able to blend acoustics with black metal, post and progressive characteristics with themes of reverence for nature coupled with both hope and loss for the future. Thing is that the melodies within this record are some of the most gorgeous as well as some of the most heart breaking I've ever heard, so much so that I really haven't given this album that many spins since it always effects my mood. Yet, much like post rock music there always seems to be that glimmer of hope within all the melancholy and darkness, sort of letting me know somehow its going to be alright.

The acoustics much like on the bands previous two efforts play a huge role. Often times on their own, such as on the songs, 'Earth's Old Timid Grace' & 'Nonesuch River Chant,' but also often times they are incorporated within FoR brand of post/progressive black metal music, either being layered over the chaos or as intros and breaks within the metal parts. In any case much like the metal riffs they carry that sense of beauty and gloom which I adore. 'The Cormorants Shiver on Their Rocks,' the albums final song, is note worthy since its an alluring instrumental that has both the acoustics, electrics guitars and a piano put to great effort, creating a song that just sort of makes me think of both good and bad memories. Quite powerful stuff.

The albums production is still black metal in character, though it sounds far more massive, wide open and airy, like climbing a mountain or hiking through a forest and breathing in the crisp winter air. The emotion is limitless and so real, during some of the vocal parts so much seems to be put behind the screams, but as I said the melodies are ever so gripping, sad, and yet hopeful in their delivery. The bands ability to write long free flowing progressive tunes that are not boring or predictable is also worthy of note.

At forty four minutes and six songs long, 'The Light that Dwells in Rotten Wood' is really without fault and a worthy successor to their previous efforts. If black metal with acoustics, post and progressive elements and an immense atmosphere with superb song writing is your thing then you definitely wont want to miss out on this fabulous release from Falls of Rauros. Just a fantastic release...

Grim Reaper - Fear No Evil (1985)

2012-01-02T14:21:00.003-06:00

For the second year in a row I hosted a new year's gathering, dubbed, 'Joe's Non-Stop to Midnight Metal Massacre,' which basically means a night of copious alcohol consumption, food, video games and random stupidity, chatter and falling over while blasting heavy metal music with my friends. Although larger in size and fun, this year's playlist fell short because I took the 'massacre' part of my title and added too much not so party-ish music to the playlist. Therefore, 363 days until the next party I've already decided to start assembling a playlist that will not disappoint anyone. Grim Reaper will definitely be included! And yes, I am slightly buzzed as I write this. I will continue to drink as we go along here too... :P

Anyway, formed in 1979 in Droitwich, England, by guitarist Nick Bowcott, Grim Reaper is another one of those bands I've known for ages, but never bothered to check out until a few months ago when I quite randomly came across this used LP for $6 and figured I'd give it a go. Musically this is fairly straightforward 80's NWOBHM style with the powerful yet still high pitched lead vocals of Steve Grimmett, the mighty head bobbing riffs and impressive solo work of guitarist Mr. Bowcott and enough fist pumping, silly sing-a-long lyrics and catchiness to keep any partygoer, going!

'Rock & Roll Tonight' is an insanely fun memorable song, which puts a smile on my face with each listen and it just seems to invite a drunken karaoke session even if you don't even know the song that well or at all, while, 'Let the Thunder Roar' invokes similar feelings. 'Matter of Time' is classic 80's metal in my eyes, just killer, while I believe the title track, 'Fear No Evil' was the subject of ridicule from Beavis & Butthead back in the day. Also the talking sequence before, 'Final Scream' is just weird and creepy, but... Fun, fun, fucking fun either way!

It's a shame this band never really took off, but then again I can see exactly why they didn't either. With a lot of similarities to the mid-80's material from Dio, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metal Church and Black Sabbath I guess it just didn't hit home the same with the bigger names at the time. Nevertheless I maintain the fact that, 'Fear No Evil' is fantastic and I refuse to think differently.

Collectively Grim Reaper released three albums in the 80's, but broke up in '88 after legal troubles with their old label, Ebony, as well a lack of interest in the NWOBHM style in the late 80's. Nick as well as bassist, Dave Wanklin and drummer, Mark Simon called it a career after the final Grim Reaper album, unfortunately, although Steve went onto to play with UK thrashers, Onslaught and nowadays fronts a touring version of Grim Reaper with an entirely different line-up from the 80's.

Now I begin my hunt for the other two Grim Reaper records, because metal this amusing must be heard!

Oh, and as a side note. If you're ever assembling a playlist for your own metal shindig, lay off the primitive black & death metal as your guests might not approve of it all. Go with the reaper instead!

Nodding Sky - For Those Left Behind (2011)

2011-12-29T13:15:00.002-06:00

The story of Turku, Finland based band, Nodding Sky is similar to that of many other band tales out there - Friends drinking, discussing music, probably laughing and having a good time, maybe a few too many drinks later and before long five friends are jamming together. It's happened before, it happened here and it will happen again, although few bands will come up with something as brilliant as this bands debut EP, 'For Those Left Behind.'

This four track thirty three minute EP shows a great deal of promise and influences from various sub-genres to form something that's mid-tempo in speed, quite melodic in character with progressive, acoustic and doom tendencies. It's a bit hard to pinpoint exactly, but I think these guys share influences from bands like; Amorphis, Sentenced, Insomnium and, well, needless to say their fellow Finnish brethren.

'For Those Left Behind' kicks off the EP with an instantly catchy folky melodic lead riff that at least for me had me banging my head instantly, eventually it leads into some quite well performed clean vocals. From there the songs intensity seems to pick up as some screamed vocals enter, although the song shifts back to mellower tones and back quite frequently. At almost nine minutes the song features a plethora of meaty head bobbing riffs, occasional acoustic breaks, heavy audible bass, brilliant drumming, well performed vocals and an immense drive and progressive sense of direction, which makes every last second enjoyable.

Opening with the sounds of wind blowing and acoustic guitars strumming, 'Murheen saarnamies' carries a more depressive tone along with it. As made obvious by the title, this one is in Finnish and much like the first song has a fair trade off of clean and growled vocals, likewise some acoustic breaks are found as well as plenty of cool riffs and similarly progressive structure, though slower in speed with some definite doom elements. 'We Are Losing Her (Until All the Light Is Gone)' once again follows a similar structure as the first two songs, though I find that it has some of that energetic vibe from the first song mixed with the doomy parts of the second. At last the EP closes with an acoustic reprise of, 'Murheen saarnamies,' which is interestingly more than just a simple return to this song, but in fact its a whole new take on the song and hearing it done entirely acoustic with some synth enrichment actually sounds oddly even better than the metalized version.

Nodding Sky is off to a grand start with, 'For Those Left Behind' and since they released this EP independently I'm quite sure it wont be long before they are signed. Impressively the EP comes as a digipak, as well the production of the recording is top notch and even the envelope the band sent me the EP in bared the bands logo, which to me just shows that the band is hungry and ready to spread their music world round with this professional approach.

For the curious you can probably still buy this EP by contacting the band (noddingsky[ä]gmail-dot-com) or you can download it for free at their last.fm profile.

Taake - Noregs Vaapen (2011)

2011-12-27T16:00:00.002-06:00

Since his '99 debut full-length, 'Nattestid Ser Porten Vid,' Taake mastermind, Ørjan "Hoest" Stedjeberg has made a habit of releasing a new album every three years. Therefore, sixteen years into his career in 2011 we find Hoest unleashing the fifth Taake album, 'Noregs Vaapen.' With the past four being nothing short of black metal excellence and absolutely mandatory records in my book, let's see how his latest creation sits among these older beasts.

Taake releases have often had the the habit of blending dissonant tremolo styled black metal riffs with more classic and catchy styled heavy metal riffs, often times with varying tempos and even some unexpected characteristics. The seven songs on Noregs Vaapen are surely no exception either, save for maybe the fact that I find this to be his most catchiest record to date and also one of his most headbangable ones too. The first two songs, 'Fra vadested til vaandesmed' & 'Orkan' are in a way vintage Taake all the way with a total barrage of rockin' black metal riffs that would bring any Darkthrone or Celtic Frost fan to their knees, although Hoest's compositions skills are as ever, superb and he just always knows when to slow the music down or speed it up or for example in the case of the first song to insert a brief synth melody over the ensuing chaos. What I'm trying to say is that the influences can be obvious sometimes, but by no means does Taake ever sound like their worshiping another band.

'Nordbundet' & 'Du ville ville Vestland' greatly vary in tempo from the earlier songs and have some supreme leads, impressive riffs, killer solos and once again quite a few catchy parts to boot. 'Myr' is a real standout and is an example of the unexpected characteristics I mentioned earlier as a freakin' banjo makes an appearance towards the end and how he made this sound so fucking awesome is beyond me, but its beyond cool. 'Helvetesmakt' seems to have a more despondent aura around most of it and once again the odd appearance of a mandolin towards the end followed by some odd chanting and then concluded with a solid heavy riff for the remaining duration is brilliant. At a little over ten minutes, 'Dei vil alltid klaga og kyta' closes out the album perfectly with just about everything that makes Taake so great and save for the odd instruments mentioned earlier this one has just what you'd expect to be in it.

This record also invites nine individuals to Hoest's side, most notably; Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone), Attila Csihar (Mayhem) and Demonaz (Immortal) who all contribute guest vocals, as well a few lesser known talents handle vocal and guitar leads too, especially someone named, Gjermund Fredheim who handles the lead guitar on various tracks as well being responsible for the banjo and mandolin work.

In the end, 'Noregs Vaapen' is memorably loaded with rockin' headbanging riffs, some cool solos, intense and insane varied vocals, diverse song structures, various tempos, odd instruments and all the while its an absolute black metal record all the way. Hoest could very well be one of the best song writers to emerge from the Norwegian black metal scene and five albums in I'd say this chap is not about to let anyone down. Therefore, much like those previous four albums, this one lives up to the Taake legacy and as such its once again an absolute must hear recording for black metal fans.

Behexen - My Soul for his Glory (2008)

2011-12-26T09:04:00.002-06:00

As another one of the earliest black metal bands to arise out of Finland, Behexen (originally, Lords of the Left Hand) have to this day released nothing but stunning records. Not nearly as productive as their brethren in Satanic Warmaster or Horna, Behexen seems to concentrate on quality over quantity, and here on their most recent and third full-length, 'My Soul for his Glory' they demonstrate what Satanic black metal personification is all about.

While their early creations, 'Rituale Satanum' & 'By the Blessing of Satan' are superb records I find myself actually enjoying this one more so. If it sounds odd to you then so be it, but I find a lot of this album to actually be catchy with tons of spine tingling riffs, mesmerizing solos, great varied song structures and hellish half rasped/half growled vocals. Most songs seem to feature both blasting parts as well as slower mid-paced highly atmospheric sections too.

'Let The Horror And Chaos Come' is a perfect example as it starts out with haunting ambiance and choirs before long dirty crunchy riffs enter the song followed by ungodly screams and a pounding drum rhythm, which chugs along perfectly when eventually the lead toward the end that's totally energetic and headbangable is delivered. 'Born In The Serpent Of The Abyss' is equally powerful with opening blasting anarchy, which move towards head bobbing groove eventually leading to this creepy chanting/bass guitar section and then a mesmerizing guitar solo. 'Demonic Fleshtemple' is almost entirely fast though with plenty of impressive parts, while, '6.6.6.' is a highly atmospheric ritualistic piece, which sounds like some unholy conjuring committed to tape. Much of the record and its remaining four songs follow in a similar path with plenty of bewitching riffs, killer solos, memorable diverse song structures as well as enough haunting atmosphere to please any black metal listener.

At thirty eight minutes this record seems perfectly timed with each of its eight songs sticking out and possessing me. It would be great to see a new Behexen record soon, but with half the members also playing in Sargeist it looks as if their attention is concentrating more so on that project for the moment...

Thy Serpent - Death (2000)

2011-12-24T15:22:00.002-06:00

It really is a shame that Thy Serpent's, 'Death' EP from 2000 effectively marked the end of the band as nothing has surfaced since, but at least the four songs present here are among some of the finest the band wrote and its a fitting epitaph to one of Finland's mightiest. Although similar to 1998's, 'Christcrusher,' this EP refines the melodic and atmospheric qualities considerably as well the riffing is mostly mid-paced death metal, the vocals switched to a growled voice and there's a looming sense of melancholy throughout this twenty two minute recording.

'Deathbearer' kicks things off with a catchy mesmerizing riff, which leads into a brilliant melodic lead followed quickly by Azhemin's whispery sort of death metal vocals. The song although mostly mid-paced has a driving sense behind it, with some faster parts, which makes it a headbanger for sure, but the riffs are colossal, just immense throughout the whole song and the atmosphere... damn! 'Wounds of Death' opens with an acoustic part coupled with a backing synth melody, before diving into a breath taking solo and scything melodic lead, when around the two minute mark some somber clean vocals enter the song. At a little over seven minutes the song chugs along brilliantly, melodic and atmospheric as ever, though its through this song that a keen sense of gloom is felt. 'Sleep In Oblivion' feels similar to the opening song in that its melodious, aggressive and driven with a reacquiring synth line that's reminiscent of Emperor's debut, while, 'Parasites' just offers up more twisted, dark and gloomy guitar melodies with enchanting atmosphere.

Thy Serpent has been a favorite of mine for a while now and although they only have four releases to relish in all of them are massive and slightly different from each other too. I'm guessing after eleven years a new recording is not on the horizon, but at least I've always got this superb EP and their previous efforts to immerse myself in.

Brasserie Dieu du Ciel! - Solstice d'hiver

2011-12-23T11:50:00.003-06:00

Want me to buy your beer? Just put some cool artwork on it and you've got a bottle sold! Actually, as soon as I spotted this brew, Gris' sophomore release, 'Il Était une Forêt...' came to mind and since both Gris and this beer come from Quebec it seems appropriate enough, although I don't suppose I'll be drinking while listening to their music.

Solstice d'hiver is a dark beer with burning red highlights within and pours out with nearly no head. Its taste is both sweet but also slightly bitter, there's a hint of malty caramel with each swig as well as some sort of fruit-ish taste, cherry perhaps. The aroma is distinctively hoppy and alcoholic in character, likewise the aftertaste is quite hoppy too. At 11.5 fl oz and 10.2% alc/vol its a wonderful lip smacking tasty beer or barleywine if you want to be technical about it, which honestly now that I think about it probably don't have much experience with. I really wish I'd bought more than one, but the $4.99 price tag held me back from doing so. I'd really like to see this available in a 4 or 6 pack someday as I could surely make an evening out of this one.

Not much else to say other than this is one to check out, but perhaps if you've got much experience with barleywine's it wont stick out as much, but for now I'm saying I dig this one!

Craft - Void (2011)

2011-12-22T09:35:00.002-06:00

Upon its release back in August, it had been almost six years since the last Craft release, and while 2005's, 'Fuck the Universe' was met with mixed reviews I personally thought it was their second best effort after their massive debut, 'Total Soul Rape' from 2000. Without really any side projects, other than vocalist, Mikael Nox's recent involvement in, Omnizide, the band members have kept a low profile. So, who really knows why its taken so long, but the arrival of a new and the fourth Craft album is definitely a good thing in my eyes.

Staying true to their core sound, 'Void' sounds much like their previous efforts. As ever guitarists John Doe and Joakim Karlsson come up with tons of heavy and deep riffs which are paired with common dissonant, cold and tremolo styled parts, as well as a few quick shredding solos. New bassist, Alex is audible for the most part and I always admire hearing the bass guitar in black metal since there's always this ominous tone to it. Of course vocalist Mikael Nox, screams and croaks as painfully as ever and tells tales of misanthropy and nihilism as always. The music generally remains mid-paced and sometimes even quite slow, even doom-ish, but there are some moments of faster guitar work and even some blast beats (courtesy of session man, Dirge Rep) with the drumming, but if you know Craft you know what they do and they do it again on this record.

Although the album kicks off with a pointless 20 second intro, the band blasts forward with, 'Serpent Soul,' which is one of the speedier numbers on the record with a number of quality riffs as well with that rockin' head banging sense at the onset that Craft tends to display from time to time, although the song does have its dirgey parts just to let you know that this ain't no fucking party. Things just continue onward fantastically with, 'Come Resonance Of Doom' and the string work within is immense, and when coupled with the snarling vocals it creates one of the catchiest black metal songs I think I've ever heard.

The next two songs, 'The Ground Surrenders' & 'Succumb To Sin' are equally powerful in their delivery, with once again great riff work as well as some of those quick killer solos I mentioned earlier. 'Leaving The Corporal Shade' is the doomiest song on the record, and at just a little over seven minutes its a total funeral dirge. The albums fastest song, 'I Want To Commit Murder' is next and it probably doesn't take much to realize its a complete hate anthem. 'Bring On The Clouds' is another mid-paced/doom-ish song with some speedier parts, but what I really like are the lyrics, which seem to be about a higher being reflecting on humanity and his resentment towards what they've become. The title track closes out the album and at eight and a half minutes its also the longest. Opening with dark haunting ambiance, 'Void' is an epic of abomination and a death march for the senses. In the end Craft turns, they don't look back, they take a swig and they leave.

"It's our final night in this place. There is no tomorrow. This evening we drink to the day the world ended."

Horna - Musta Kaipuu (2009)

2011-12-21T12:58:00.002-06:00

As one of the most prolific and long running black metal bands from Finland, Horna seems to always be releasing something. In the case of, 'Musta Kaipuu,' its essentially a compilation of leftovers from the, 'Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne' 2004 recording session. Oddly enough this release is no mere cash grab for the band or label as these ten songs are just as strong as the material that was officially released on the EESE album and in fact all of these songs are better than the average bedroom black metal nonsense we constantly see today.

The sound is exactly the same as its album counterpart, with of course heavy attention placed on the abrasive raw guitar tone, lo-fi production qualities and Corvus' raucous screaming voice, as always in the Finnish language too. One of the aspects that I enjoy about Horna is that there sound seems to shift between darker monotonous mid-paced compositions to more energetic numbers with total rockin' headbanging riffs.

'Piina' opens the album and its a prime example of Horna doing the rockin' thing, with a superb main riff and a powerful spirit behind it I honestly can say this is one of my favorite Horna songs. 'Aldebaranin Susi' seems to straddle between the two styles and becomes increasingly morose as it develops, while, 'Unohdetut Kasvot, Unohdettu Ääni' brings back that vigorous attitude with plenty of repetition and speed to please any raw black metal fan. 'Vuohenlahko' is another song with a meaty catchy main riff and an admirable drive behind the whole composition. Most of this release revolves around songs like this, but 'Oi Kallis Kotimaa' is something different as the riffs sound more akin to folk metal, while the vocals are performed in a cleaner style. Apparently this is also a traditional Finnish folk song, thus the fact that it sounds like Korpiklaani gone primitive.

As a whole this record might not appeal to the average black metal listener, but as a Horna fan I found it the whole fifty eight minute affair to be quite engaging. Also the artwork is brilliant - grim dude snoozing and getting a visit from some animated skeletons, fucking right! That being said, this is a great companion piece to, 'Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne' as well as just a solid release worth picking up.

Ravencult - Morbid Blood (2011)

2011-12-17T13:43:00.003-06:00

Old school bands with classic albums behind them, such as; Rotting Christ, Necromantia, Varathron and Zemial call Greece home. Newcomers, Ravencult who formed in 2001 call Greece home too, and if their sophomore release, 'Morbid Blood' is any indication then its fairly likely that these guys may join the elite ranks of Greek black metal someday soon.

Foregoing the experimental and cultural style that the aforementioned bands have (at times) come to be known for, Ravencult is a more traditional black metal ensemble with similarities to Bathory, Mayhem, Craft, Darkthrone and early Deathspell Omega. Although quite a bit of drum blasting and dissonant cold guitar riffage can be found within just about every song, there's also a slew of powerful, energetic and ultimately very catchy riffs present too. Most of these parts bring me back to Deathspell Omega's, 'Inquisitors of Satan' or Darkthrone's, 'Plaguewielder' due to the vigorous dynamic rockin' headbanging fist pumping awesomeness that these releases have, and I'm quite sure once you hear songs like, 'Sacrilege of Death,' 'Morbid Blood' or 'Sworn to the Unspoken Oath' you'll see what I'm talking about.

Although the songs are short and the whole ten song album runs for just a little under forty minutes the ceaseless energy and memorability of the record keeps me banging' and coming back for more too! And make no mistake about it, this is black metal all the way... just perhaps unfrozen a little in the warm Greek climate.

The production is also noticeably cleaner than most black metal releases, with the double bass drum blasting away loudly and the guitar work always being crushing and easily audible, while the vocals too are triumphant and commanding. The booklets layout is also fantastic and similar to Deathspell Omega and Watain releases with grim occult imagery within.

'Morbid Blood' might not appeal to those that insist on their black metal to be grim, cold and under produced, but for the rest of us that enjoy a little more energy, prowess, cleanliness and after all loads of fun, than this is surely one of the best in 2011 and utterly required for you to pick up!

Shroud of Despondency - Dark Meditations In Monastic Seclusion (2011)

2011-12-14T14:56:00.002-06:00

It's strange the way sometimes bands from my past that I'd all but completely forgotten about occasionally make an appearance in my life nowadays. Sometimes its randomly through Internet browsing or suggested by a friend, but in the case of Shroud of Despondency the band moved from their previous location in Michigan to my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Originally active from '00 to '05, Shroud mastermind, Rory Heikkila released two demos, one full-length and three split releases by himself before putting the band to rest shortly thereafter. Personally my only experience with the band was one of those splits, the, 'Whispers from an Empty Room' release with Algol, which was sent to me for a review back in '04. Sometime thereafter Rory moved here to Milwaukee and has since established SoD as a full band and has been busy already releasing two full-length albums, a live album, demo and another split release this year alone. One of those two albums was released in digital format whereas this one, 'Dark Meditations In Monastic Seclusion' got the real deal physical treatment and I picked it up after being impressed with the band on their opening slot at a recent Impiety gig here.

That old split release I mentioned was a rough and wild ride through some sort of discordant black-ish doom metal with acoustics that was a bit hard to get into, but I did enjoy parts of it. Jumping ahead to today I expected something a bit purer in black metal sound after their performance, but DMiMS continues SoD's style of being challenging... sometimes. After a lengthy acoustic track that's quite good with so-so lead vocals called, 'Looking Out, Seeing One Last Ray Of Light' the band suddenly blasts away on, 'Homo Homini Lupus' with an onslaught of double bass drums, tremolo picked guitars and harshly screamed vocals as well as the occasional more melodic headbanging riffs, clever solos here and there and some clean choir-ish parts are spread out through the this song/album.

Honestly, musically its all done quite well, black metal to the bone and songs like, 'Parting of the Way' & 'Sullen Murmur, Oppressive Stillness' are just fantastic, yet something seems odd about these and everything else. And then it hit me after a few spins. The production. I have no idea how to describe it other than it doesn't sound like a typical black metal production. It has a very organic and live rehearsal sort of vibe to it, but without much of the usual BM reverb or harsh treble sound it sounds awkward to me. Also the cleanly sung vocals are what they are and it takes a bit to stomach them, fortunately the band took the right path on the third acoustic piece, 'Flicker Of The Ardent Light' where the vocals are limited to just some background chatter. The main vocals are strange in their delivery but they grow on you after a while. I've been told vocalist Mike Jurek was recently replaced so this might not even be an issue on future material.

Fortunately the record is still atmospheric in its delivery and with the inclusion of instruments, such as; the flute, piano, cello, ebow, lapsteel and various other percussive additions during both the metal and acoustic parts the album is heightened greatly. Likewise both Rory and Jon Leidtke come up with some absolutely sinister riffs and I really enjoy the way the music seems to shift between acoustic to raging fast to depressive black metal territories and back again. Sort of like Wolves in the Throne Room meets Shining and Agalloch.

In the end this is a decent record, it really is, its just the production and vocals tend to make it an uneven ride. However I'd say either clean up or blacken up that production and work on the vocals and these guys are certainly on the way to creating one stunning record.

Avenger - Shadows of the Damned (1998)

2011-12-11T10:50:00.002-06:00

Not to be confused with the German band that would change their name to Rage in '86 or the NWOBHM group from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England that had two full-lengths in '84 & '85. Spawned fourth in '92, this Avenger hails from Volynì, Czech Republic and was originally the duo of drummer, bassist and vocalist, Honza Kapák and lead guitarist, Petr Rámus Mecák. 'Shadows of the Damned' was originally released in '97 as the bands third demo, but a year later it was re-released by Akhenatan's, Breath of Night Records in CD format.

Avenger plays a sort of slow-paced death metal with black metal undertones, which is quite a bit different from most records out there. Brooding with atmosphere, slow doomy death metal styled riffs that have a catchy sort of groove to them, raspy black metal screams and ghostly solos come together to form this fantastic record.

Speed is hardly a concern on this record as things are almost always mid-paced and even when the drums do blast away the guitars still just chug along at a good pace. The guitar work is clearly the high point of this record as its quite melodic at all times and some of those solos are absolutely spine tingling. Also do to the slow pace it creates a unique mood, that is both dark as well as sort of psychedelic in its overall delivery. The lyrics are wrote entirely in the Czech language, perhaps adding something extra worth of mystery, although English translations are provided in the booklet for the curious. The production is surprisingly clear, warm and organic with even the bass being audible, which sort of makes me curious to know if the original tape sounded like this.

At just a little over thirty three minutes this seven track release is quite pleasing and odd that I randomly found it a few months ago since about a decade ago I owned the bands debut album, 'Fall of Devotion, Wrath and Blasphemy,' which as ever I'm kicking myself for selling.

In the end this is uniquely played, technically impressive and quite the memorable recording, which really has me thinking about hunting down the rest of the bands albums now...

Sirius - Spectral Transition - Dimension Sirius (2001)

2011-12-08T08:13:00.002-06:00

Although they only released two albums during their short run ('98-'02), Lisbon, Portugal based band, Sirius managed to release two absolutely stellar records, which have remained favorites of mine years after their release.

While the first record, 'Aeons of Magick' was heavily keyboard based symphonic black metal in a style comparable to Limbonic Art meeting early Emperor, their follow-up and final release, 'Spectral Transition - Dimension Sirius' added a harder edged death metal quality to it that frankly sounded a lot like Zyklon's debut, 'World ov Worms,' which was released just a little over a month before this album.

Essentially what this record sounds like is a more symphonic black metal version of said Zyklon album; complete with swirling haunting symphonic keyboard choirs, various industrial sound effects, voice samples, brutal pummeling drumming, killer headbanging Morbid Angel-ish death metal riffs and low growled, raspy screamed black metal and spoken narrative vocals. The Zyklon similarities are further cemented into place by the fact that Thorbjørn Akkerhaugen produced the album and the results are a crisp and loud dynamic production, while then still Zyklon vocalist, Daemon adds his insane berserking voice to four of the songs as well both Samoth and Bård Faust make contributions to the cover version of Emperor's, 'The Majesty of the Nightsky,' which might I add is fucking incredible! Despite all that, if you consider it a negative thing at all, this record is pretty goddamn awesome!

'Spectral Transition - Dimension Sirius' really is an interesting record since it manages to straddle the borders between bloodthirsty walloping death metal and highly atmospheric symphonic black metal brilliantly, and more or less if you fancy the first records from Emperor and Zyklon than you're definitely going to enjoy this beast. Favorites are many, but I find that the album just flows through the first ten songs perfectly with tons of energy and memorability and by the time you reach that eleventh song and the band rips through the Emperor cover you know you've just experienced one great record.

As earlier mentioned the band broke up after this album and members went onto various bands, such as; Storm Legion, VS777, and Re:aktor but it was mostly drummer, bassist and keyboardist, Daniel "Vukodlack" Cardoso who was active the most with bands like, Oblique Rain, Scar for Life, The Firstborn, Head Control System and most recently as Anathema's live keyboardist.

'Spectral Transition - Dimension Sirius' is an album that deserves more attention and even if some might see it as a copy cat album I see it as nothing more than a fantastic death/black metal release that truly should be re-released someday so more people can discover it's supreme grandeur.

1349 - Hellfire (2005)

2011-12-06T19:29:00.003-06:00

Considering how tried and true, kid tested and mother approved black metal has become in the past twenty years it goes without saying that the genre has exploded to become one of most popular within the metal underground. Popularity however usually breeds failure and the classics and truly memorable albums are not as many in this new millennium as they were in the early to mid 90's. However back in 2005, Oslo, Norway based band, 1349 released a modern classic, rightly titled, 'Hellfire.'

War is declared with the words, "Hellfire" at the onset of, 'I Am Abomination' and from there 1349 rips through eight songs in fifty two minutes. While firmly rooted in the blast beat driven black metal genre, Hellfire is by no means just another Panzer Division Marduk clone since songs tend to stick out and hold their own against the others more so than any other record I've heard in this sub-genre.

The riffing although almost always fast is diverse with a good mixture of dissonant tremolo riffs, catchy rhythmic parts as well as some death and thrash metal sections and of course some slower atmospheric spine tingling areas. Music like this generally doesn't have such a gripping lively vibe to it, but this is one of those rare styled albums that I can throw on and headbang like a maniac with and as I said earlier each song really sticks out and stays with you with their own personal strengths whereas most material within this genre is forgettable after the first spin.

Similar to the guitar work, Frost's stickwork is utterly breathtaking and completely barbarous throughout the albums duration. Surely most of it is relentless blast beats, but the drum rolls, fills and occasional tempo changes are a plenty and good musicians know how to feed off of each others energy and this is an example where the brutal nature of the music is elevated even further by the diverse pummeling work this man brings to this beast. Ravn's vocal work is also of note, even if it is a somewhat standard black metal rasp its just that he puts so much heart into it that it feels as if each and every scream is directed at me personally. I also like the fact that the production of the album is clear, but not crystal clear thus making it sound as black metal should sound.

Apparently 1349 said and did what they needed to do on this album though since the follow-up, 'Revelations of the Black Flame' was a more experimental affair before somewhat coming back to speed with, 'Demonoir' last year.

I guess its no secret and most people that have heard this album have recognized it as the modern classic it surely is. Definitely a must own/listen album and really one of the overall best black metal records to come out of Norway.

Old Danish Braggot

2011-12-02T13:35:00.004-06:00

My interest in Viking related alcoholic beverages (and my need to have random neat bottles around my apartment) prevails with, Old Danish Braggot.

This being my first experience with a braggot, I didn't know quite what to expect, but this is an exceptional brew. Brewed according to an old Danish recipe from 1700 by Dansk Mjod A/S in collaboration with Orbaek Bryggeri, this corked and caged, 1 pint/0.9 oz brew would be ideal in a snifter, which I regrettably do not own for some reason. The bottle is large, and the Mjölnir artwork makes it the ideal beverage for all of us wannabe Vikings. Brown/dark orange in color with a fizzy tan head and with a sweet malty/honey and just slightly alcoholic aroma to it... my expectations were high before even taking my first swig!

Old Danish Braggot is a mixture of beer, honey wine and ginger and that's more of less exactly what it tastes like. A good mouthful reveals a very sweet and smooth taste with just a slight implication of spice to it... basically it tastes like it smells. A superb desert beer or a good one to pull out when listening to some epic Viking metal or whatever heathen music you choose to indulge yourself with. Also at 10.1% alc/vol its more than likely you'll have a good buzz going by the time you finish off the bottle.

Negatively speaking this braggot is expensive. I paid $15 for it at a local liquor store, but I've read reviews and checked online stores and seen it go for over $20. Would I by again? Its tempting, as its quite good, but its quite fucking expensive too!

All in all though I like this one a lot and I definitely recommend it to those that prefer a little bit of sweetness and spice to their alcoholic beverages.

Wyrd - Huldrafolk (2002)

2011-11-30T09:11:00.002-06:00

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)

2011-11-27T14:42:00.003-06:00

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)

2011-11-25T11:51:00.002-06:00

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)

2011-11-22T18:11:00.002-06:00

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)

2011-11-20T10:35:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-17T13:41:00.003-06:00

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)

2011-11-16T03:32:00.004-06:00

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)

2011-11-11T15:55:00.002-06:00

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)

2011-11-09T20:18:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-08T19:43:00.005-06:00

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

2011-11-08T19:07:00.006-06:00

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)

2011-11-07T15:10:00.003-06:00

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.

Sotajumala - Teloitus (2007)

2011-10-28T19:35:00.002-05:00

Usually strange, random and crazy occurrences happen to absolutely every single person out there, except me. Blame it on where I live, being to sheltered, working the graveyard shift at work... who the fuck knows, man?

However by some strange course of events about a year and some months ago I came into contact with the drummer of Sotajumala's wife who curiously wasn't Finnish, but in fact from Wisconsin, my humble abode. From there some sort of friendship was established, which lead me to meeting both drummer Timo and his wife (I'll keep her name secret) at Tuska back in July and once again having them over at my place when they were visiting friends and family in the USA. Of course, I made sure to pick up a Sotajumala album while over in Finland, and I'm quite glad I choose this one too, because, 'Teloitus' fucking rules!

For those that don't know Sotajumala is a death metal band that was formed in the late 90's in Jyväskylä, Finland who nowadays have three albums plus a few singles and splits behind them. Musically its probably safe to say that Sotajumala plays fairly standard modern day death metal, though all lyrics from the start have been wrote and then growled in Finnish to make their origin easily known.

The riffing style of Kosti Orbinski and Pete Lapio seems to mostly draw from the Morbid Angel pool with an onslaught of pummeling and brutalizing riffs that have character, depth and technicality plus absolutely killer solos that will peel your skin off. Vocalist Mynni Luukkainen's guttural roar leads this death metal assault, but like any good front man his voice shifts in pitch from ultra low growls, to fairly standard growls and to even some high pitched shrieks. Meanwhile, Tomi Otsala's bass work is actually audible and drummer, Timo Häkkinen does an absolutely excellent job behind the drum kit, always sounding tight with plenty creative patterns, fills and just sounding plain and simply brutal.

As I said earlier, Sotajumala is modern death metal, but that's hardly a bad thing because this music has such energy and drive behind it that its hard to resist. It reminds me of bands like Ulcerate, Behemoth and Zyklon and if you know those bands then you know they barely break any new ground, but they know how to make catchy, energetic, tight and hard driven awesome death metal. And Sotajumala does the same. Maybe even better (Will see when I get my hands on the other releases).

In the end this is definitely and obviously by this point a superb modern death metal release. Not mandatory if your a casual death metal listener, but if you fancy all things death metal or are just looking for another great Finnish band, then you surely can't go wrong with these guys.

Helrunar - Frostnacht (2005)

2011-10-27T15:45:00.003-05:00

Since its release back in 2005, Helrunar's debut album, 'Frostnacht' has remained a constant favorite of mine and in my own opinion a bit of modern day black metal classic.

While admittedly not the most original in overall sound, this German based band draws a great deal of influence from Norwegian black metal, specifically Ulver's monumental, 'Bergtatt' and Taake's, 'Nattestid Ser Porten Vid.' Throughout the album the riffing is absolutely stunning with a phenomenal sense of melody and atmosphere which is just not found on that many releases. The ferocity and true spirit of black metal is very much present in this bands work too, although it seems to have a greater degree of energy and drive behind it all. Plus the production is quite good for a black metal release.

The Ulver connection is made by the fact that there are several quick acoustic parts within these black metal songs, as well as two purely instrumental acoustic songs, 'Neun Nächte' especially is quite possibly one of the best neo folk songs I've ever heard. However besides these two acoustic songs and the intro there are seven full on black metal songs, which absolutely destroy everything in their path. I love the way these songs shift between blasting energetic parts to more calmer melodic and atmospheric sections, which at least for me makes the whole thing incredibly catchy and easily accessible regardless of my mood.

I can honestly say its a bit hard to pick favorites from this album since all of it is so good and just flows perfectly, but the catchiness of a song like, '...bis die Seele gefriert' is superb or the hard driven and awesome riffing and harmonies within, 'Der Trank des Gehängten' are breathtaking. Likewise I often go to, 'Dreifach Dorn' when I have some frustrations to work out, 'Mimis Brunnr (Grátr Önnor)' when I'm really, really in the mood for something Ulver influenced and definitely the aforementioned, 'Neun Nächte' when I feel melancholy.

With that said I absolutely recommend this album to anyway and everyone that enjoys acoustic infused melodic Pagan black metal with brilliant guitar work, gorgeous melodies and a nearly unmatchable atmosphere.

Helrunar created a classic with this one, and although the follow-up, 'Baldr ok Íss' is quite good too, it seemed to just lack that extra bit of specialness. Earlier this year the band released their third album, 'Sól,' which I haven't gotten my hands on yet, but I surely should soon enough. 'till then.

Pantheïst - O Solitude (2003)

2011-10-19T15:33:00.005-05:00

Antwerp, Belgium based, Pantheïst formed back in the beginning of 2000 by keyboardist/vocalist Kostas Panagiotou and quickly the demo, '1000 Years' was released. In 2003 alongside band members, Nicolas Tambuyser (guitars), Frederic Caure (bass) and Oscar Strik (drums) the bands debut, 'O Solitude' appeared.

Pantheïst writes long funeral doom metal songs played in a typical very slow tempo with more than enough misery and emptiness to go around. Heavily distorted downtuned sluggish guitars characterize the album and while they are mostly played at slow speeds there are some speedier moments, drum blasting and even some solos present. Acoustic guitars also make their appearance on the song, 'Don't Mourn,' which to me is one of the albums finest songs (all 14 minutes of it). 'O Solitude' is also largely synth based with beautiful orchestral cathedral-ish atmospheric synths, organs and piano enrichment, which creates a very dreamy and melancholy mood. In fact the atmosphere of this record is perfect. Its just one of those albums that works entirely too well on cold, gray rainy Autumn days.

Kostas' vocal work is superb since it switches between low growled howls to spoken passages, whispers and even some semi-operatic-ish sounding parts that just work perfectly with this sort of music. On the song, 'Envy Us' guest singer, Stijn van Cauter (mastermind behind, 'Until Death Overtakes Me') makes an appearance using a much slower and guttural roar and towards the end of the song has a sort of growled duet with Kostas, which is just bad ass sounding.

Although just five songs long, the entire record runs for fifty seven minutes and as it sometimes goes with this sort of music it tends to feel like one super long song. However I find that, 'Don't Mourn,' 'Time' and 'Curse the Morning Light' are truly stunning pieces of funeral doom.

For whatever reason I never followed Pantheïst past this album, which is weird, especially since I played this one a lot back when it first came out. Since then the bands relocated to England, changed members, and released three additional albums, which may very well be just as stunning as this debut.

SIG:AR:TYR - Beyond the North Winds (2008)

2011-10-13T11:55:00.004-05:00

It goes without saying that Bathory's viking era of albums are among some of the most influential records ever conceived. I think its safe to say that if albums like, 'Hammerheart' or 'Twilight of the Gods' had never been created then its fairly likely to say that some of my favorite bands, such as; Moonsorrow, Enslaved or Falkenbach would have never existed.

SIG:AR:TYR, which is lead by its sole member, Daemonskald from Ontario, Canada is another example of a band drawing a great deal of influence from those old Bathory records and even Quorthon's final two Nordland releases.

'Beyond the North Winds,' the bands second album is a journey through expansive heathen lands that exudes an incredible atmosphere that's both somber, dark, heroic and optimistic pretty much all at once. The keyboards remain as a backing instrument throughout the entire record, but it works fine as it keeps the atmosphere rich and constantly interesting, while tons of acoustic passages merge with epic rhythmic electric guitar parts as well as some stunning solos which just soar and take your soul to a whole new level of being. As well, Daemonskald sings with a powerful and majestic clean voice, that's similar to Quorthon's, but surely more refined. Additionally some whispers are used, which adds a sort of mysterious quality to the music and some raspy black-ish metal vocals make an appearance too.

The lyrics center around Heathenism and Norse Mythology, which to me is always interesting to hear regardless of how many bands are doing it these days. Other notable things to mention is that the songs may at times seem to drag a little or become a little repetitive, but the feeling of something grand is always there. The production is always crisp and allows everything that Daemonskald has to offer come through cleanly.

In the end the Bathory influence is clear, but I think SIG:AR:TYR also draws influence from acts like Primordial, Enslaved and Falkenbach to form something that is definitely his own. As such, 'Beyond the North Winds' is definitely recommend to all you Heathen metal warriors our there or at least those that just appreciate rich atmospheric metal music.

A bit slow

2011-10-10T14:55:00.003-05:00

You've no doubt noticed that things have been a bit slow around here. Well, I just haven't really had the motivation for writing lately (an unpleasant residual of doing this for over a decade) as well my good 'ol hearing condition (tinnitus) has been running amuck for some time now and honestly the type of music I usually review here doesn't sound very pleasant when that's happening. Besides that I've also been working on some artwork for a band, which will hopefully be finished soon and approved by them for future use. And finally because its Autumn now and this is my one of my favorite months of the year and I've been out enjoying the weather when I can. I'm sure there will be some updates later this month or shortly there after once it starts getting cold and grim outside. That's it.

Obsequiae - Suspended in the Brume of Eos (2011)

2011-09-29T14:59:00.003-05:00

Conceived originally as Autumnal Winds back in '98, AW released six demos before going on hiatus in '05 and then reforming under the Obsequiae moniker in '07. In '09 a limited demo cassette was released followed by this their debut album, 'Suspended in the Brume of Eos' just a few months ago.

With warm, rich and reflective guitar melodies, harsh raspy blackened vocals, mid-tempo playing and lyrics based around nature, 'Suspended in the Brume of Eos' is a unique and impressive album. Upon hearing the first song, 'Altars of Moss' you'd probably have thought this band to be from Finland or at least somewhere in northern Europe, but they hail from Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, and in a way it warms my heart to hear something different in the mid-west and in my case something fairly close to home too.

The duo of Blondel de Nesle (AKA Tanner Anderson of Celestiial) and Neidhart von Reuental create something along the lines of melodic folk influenced dark metal, and oddly not reminding me of anything dark or grim but as I touched upon earlier the highly melodic guitar melodies have a very reflective sort of vibe to them. In fact they actually sort of sound upbeat to my ears and remind me of warmth and good times with friends. I have no idea if that's what these folky melodic riffs were intended to sound like but that's what comes to mind every time I listen.

The songs generally move at a mid-tempo pace, but some parts and songs do move at a hastier pace, which may induce flying hair, but either way the songs are all very, very catchy with the melodious riffs and the overall atmosphere is immense too. After each metal song there's an acoustic interlude, which seems to carry that similar warm vibe to them, but with maybe just a slight bit of melancholy on these numbers as well. The raspy vocals are the only connection to anything really dark on this record and while they are fairly standard sounding I think they work quite well with the music they play. Maybe my only complaint would be that the production is a bit lacking, but its underground metal so not everything is going to be perfect.

In the end Obsequiae has created a memorable and exciting debut, which will certainly please anyone that's into exceptionally melodic and folky sounding metal and I can say without a doubt that this one will make my top ten list at the end of the year.

Watain - Lawless Darkness (2010)

2011-09-21T17:42:00.003-05:00

If you caught my Watain review from a few months ago you may recall that I was a bit of a late bloomer to this Swedish black metal band. Well, its been a few months, I've purchased all of the bands albums, I proudly wear their t-shirt on my skin and I can officially say this, 'I FUCKING LOVE THIS BAND!'

'Lawless Darkness' continues the Watain legacy adequately in a very similar music direction and it serves as the perfect follow-up to the massive, 'Sworn to the Dark' from '07. What I find to be generally a bit different or even better about this record is that its a lot catchier and the musicianship seems even further improved.

As far as catchiness is concerned there are many parts on this album that just simply require you to scream out, headbang and pump your fists along with the songs. This is especially true in cuts like, 'Reaping Death' or 'Four Thrones' where I find it almost impossible to resist shouting out, "Hail Lucifer!" along with vocalist Erik Danielsson. However they are surely not the only ones as I feel that every single song on this record has at least some small part or chorus where I've found myself doing this. Can you tell that I want to see this band live or what?!

Also once again there are some insanely memorable riffs, leads and absolutely killer solos throughout this record. 'Malfeitor' stands out as one of the albums best melodically guitar driven songs, likewise, 'Wolves Curse' has an absolutely beautiful solo mid-way through it. The instrumental, 'Lawless Darkness' is also stunning and although its mostly slower than most Watain songs they still manage to achieve the same outstanding level of unrivaled excellence. 'Waters of Ain' is the albums epic (fourteen minutes long) number and bleeding fucking Christ is it ever impressive, though I'm still debating if its better than, 'Stellavore.'

Case and point though, if you like hard driven, energetic and melodic black metal with clear inspiration from classic Bathory, Mayhem and Dissection then you'll be blown away by this album just as I continue to be with each subsequent listen.

Additionally I have to say the booklet is absolutely marvelous with some of the best artwork I've ever seen in a metal album. Each song has a morbid drawing next to the songs lyrics and I have to say a lot of these grim illustrations are very tempting for future tattoos. Also as usual the band photos are superb and creative and I honestly hope I can hunt down the collector's edition of the album in the leather book without having to sell one of my kidney's to come up with the fundage for it.

In the end there's probably a bit more I could say, but honestly I'd sooner get back to the headbanging and all that other stuff I mentioned above instead. Anyway, hail, 'Lawless Darkness' and hail WATAIN!

Thyrane - Black Harmony (1997)

2011-09-14T18:42:00.004-05:00

Formed in the early 90's in Kemi, Finland as Thornmoon (but quickly changed to Thyrane), the foursome of Blasmor, Daemon, Avather and R. Grönholm originally released their debut demo, 'Black Harmony' in '97 and due to its overwhelmingly awesome sound it was subsequently re-released by Woodcut Records shortly thereafter.

Clocking in at a little over thirty five minutes and four songs total, 'Black Harmony' is in my opinion one of the best black metal demos ever created. Quite different to every single other BM demo out there, Black Harmony is produced adequately and the musicians abilities and song writing is beyond exceptional. Thyrane's music falls into the symphonic black metal sub-genre, though the synths are used more so as a backing instrument to generate more atmosphere while the main focus is on the highly melodic guitar work.

Since all of the songs are over seven minutes (one over eleven) you'd expect some of the usual BM monotony to take place during this demo, but largely the songs are quite progressive and rarely repeat structure or riffs and just continue onward. For the most part the demo is on fire and full of energy from start to finish and as a result of that this is one of those recordings where I could headbang my head to for its entire length, but some calmer ambient and purely acoustic moments due pop up here and there for a quick breather. Seriously though the drive behind these four songs, especially, 'Enthroned by Antichrist' is just fantastic! Interestingly there's also an underlining thrash characteristic to aid this drive and with the melodic guitars of Daemon and Avather being full of interesting riffs, leads and solos the ability for various parts of these songs to get caught in your brain is always there too.

The drum work is also quite well performed with plenty of rolls, fills and blast beats, but Blastmor's speeds definitely vary throughout each of these four songs. He also handles the vocals, which frankly sound great since they are full of raspy blackened emotion and his cleanly spoken parts sound ominous and commanding.

'Black Harmony' as a whole is stunning and if you can find the original tape, the Woodcut release or even the split with The Dead Beginners you'll definitely be on the right path to hearing some superior sounding symphonic black metal music.

After this demo Thyrane released their debut, 'Symphonies of Infernality,' which was quite similar and as such was quite a good recording too. 'The Spirit of Rebellion' however showed a band losing its blackness in favor of something else and by the time they released, 'Hypnotic' in 2003 they'd turn to complete shit with industrial and techno crap in the music. Apparently their last album in 2005, 'Travesty of Heavenly Essence' was a return to form, but I haven't heard that one yet...

Abigor - Verwüstung / Invoke the Dark Age (1994)

2011-09-12T12:11:00.002-05:00

I don't remember how or why but Abigor was one of the first black metal bands I heard years and years ago and by the blessing of Satan I'm glad it was made so since Abigor remains one of my absolute favorite bands still to this day.

After releasing no less than four demos and one promo between late '93 and during '94, 'Verwüstung / Invoke the Dark Age' struck in November and as far as I know it stood as the first real black metal release from Austria, though of course many would follow them soon enough. Abigor’s music has always been rooted in the more brutal side of the genre however this release as well as its follow-up, 'Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom)' are likely the bands most accessible recordings since things just got more brutal, malevolent, abrasive and eventually just plain weird later on.

The intricate assortment of hectic trebly melodious guitars and impressive solos, brutal diverse drumming, hellish vocals and fascinating lyrics, with a slight usage of calm acoustic guitars and haunting keyboards largely characterize this album and gives it a feeling that was quite unique at the time and different from the Scandinavian scene. Interestingly also is the fact that no bass guitar was used at all, but rather the band used some sort of layered guitar technique.

This is also Abigor at their most atmospheric since songs like, 'Universe of Black Divine' or 'Kingdom of Darkness' are mostly fast and angry whereas, 'My Soft Vision in Blood' is slower and has a haunting presence, when finally, 'Weeping Midwintertears' truly has a dark and dismal vibe to a good portion of it. The band also made use of some samples here and there to enhance the mood too. The riffs, leads and solos which are highly melodic are also something to take notice of since some of them are absolutely beautiful in their deliver, whereas others are absolutely pummeling and show more of an influence from Dissection than say Mayhem or Immortal, but things would change a few years down the road.

Throughout this entire nine song forty two minute release I find very little fault save for maybe the two instrumental keyboard tracks, which sound a little wanky, but are certainly not awful. Otherwise though all of the black metal tracks are on fire from start to finish and are absolutely impressive the whole way through.

I've enjoyed this album for over a decade now and its one of those rare gems where I felt inclined to buy it on vinyl as well when it was re-pressed a few years ago. Unfortunately though it seems still to this day this album and Abigor in general don't get the respect they rightly deserve, therefore I'd have to suggest checking out one of the finer black metal albums to be released in the early 90's.

Incubus / Necrovore - God Died on His Knees / Divus De Mortuus (1994)

2011-09-07T14:35:00.007-05:00

It seems I've spent the past month and some days reviewing just new stuff, therefore I think its about time I turn the clock back to thee most ancient of times and start reviewing some older stuff, again!

A very common bootleg, this one, it pairs up two ultra cult demos from 1987 from Incubus and Necrovore (sometimes with Morbid Angel's, 'Thy Kingdom Come' demo too).

The first three songs come from Incubus' one and only 1987 demo, 'God Died on His Knees.' This Incubus (not to be confused with a few others) had its origins in Georgia, but sometime in '86, Sterling Von Scarborough moved to Florida to join Morbid Angel as their bassist when shortly thereafter things finally took off for Incubus. Musically this is absolutely primal filthy death metal in the frantic blasphemic direction of early Possessed, Morbid Angel and Death. Mike Browning's drumming is a barrage of pummeling chaos, Steve "Skully" Shoemaker's rabid guitar work is highly similar to that of Trey Azagthoth's, so much so that it gives the impression that he was the one who had previously played with them, while Sterling's bass is actually audible underneath the harsh production. Sterling's vocal work is also notable since he was surely one of the first true growlers out there and his mix between low guttural roars and agonized screams is just fucking killer!

Necrovore on the other hand was from New Braunfels, Texas, but similarly they only released one demo in '87 titled, 'Divus De Mortuus.' Although somewhat similar in sound Necrovore was considerably more extreme and frenzied than Incubus, and, well pretty much everything else out there at the time. Although comparable to Morbid Angel, Possessed, Sepultura, Sarcofago and even Von, Necrovore was absolutely ahead of their time. Were talking about utter Satanic chaos committed to tape here and I'm quite sure nothing was even close to this in '87. The sound is very lo-fi with the guitars and drums usually being buried under a layer of distortion and Jon DePlachett's malevolent screams. Jon sounds absolutely sinister throughout this entire demo as he screams and growls fourth the minions of Hell and frankly I'm not sure if anyone has ever sounded as demented since.

'Mutilated Death' opens with an eerie keyboard passage and spoken part, which then leads into a berserking Possessed like riff and insane scream that's followed up death metal disarray like you've never heard before. 'Slaughtered Remains' is the most known track on the demo because it appeared on a compilation called, 'Satan's Revenge Part 2,' while, 'Divus De Mortuus' and 'Toxic Decay' are similar it just is amazing how extreme this stuff truly is. Sure, its simple, and there's lots of typical 80's thrash characteristics present too, but by fucking Satan is it ever maniacal. The comp. version of, ''Slaughtered Remains' and a live version of the title track are also included though they are not quite as infectious as the four demo tracks.

Unfortunately neither of these bands made it past one demo as Incubus broke-up shortly after, 'God Died on His Knees,' although Mike Browning went onto the most awesome band, Nocturnus, while Sterling reformed Incubus in '92 under the name Usurper, but it never went anywhere and years later Sterling took his own life. Likewise Necrovore quit sometime after this demo, although its been said that the band is back together again today and they plan to finally do a real album, which would definitely be interesting to hear.

As you know from some of my other reviews of early pioneering extreme music that I've got a thing for this youthful aggression and frankly these two bands are among some of the most elite in the 80's. It's not for everyone but for those that are into fiery spearheaded music straight from the abyss then these two demos are for you! Who cares if the production is shit or if perhaps the musicians were not even that good?! Fuck it, I don't care, I goddamn love this kind of shit, mother fucker! RAAAARRRRRAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Ghost - Opus Eponymous (2010)

2011-09-06T14:03:00.002-05:00

I guess by now everyone has either heard or at least knows a little bit of the Swedish band known as Ghost, which features six unknown individuals. Cloaked in mystery five of them play the instruments while the dark unholy priest himself, known as, 'A Ghoul Writer' sings and writes all of the lyrics. While the anonymous line-up and their stage and promo attire may have instantly drawn attention to them it goes without saying that, 'Opus Eponymous' is a special album that has made Ghost one of the most talked about bands out there currently.

Musically Ghost is a throwback band all the way, which combines the hard rock/heavy metal sounds of Blue Oyster Cult and Black Sabbath with the vocal and lyrical styling of Mercyful Fate plus a keyboard sound that's quite similar to Goblin. There's hardly anything original about Ghost, but I don't think they were trying to be original. Its all about bringing back a style of music that was lost long ago and through this debut album they pull is off wonderfully.

Although all nine songs pass by in thirty five minutes I find that just about every last second is worthwhile. Filled with great guitar riffs, classic feel good solos, vibrant bass guitar, horror-ish proggy keyboards, cleanly sung soaring semi-operatic vocals and Satanic themed lyrics have made Ghost a force to be reckoned with. Not to mention that every song (even the two instrumentals) are ridiculously infectious and its pretty likely that songs, such as, 'Con Clavi Con Dio,' 'Ritual' or 'Death Knell' will be doing overtime in your head after you put the CD back in the jewel case.

While I'm sure other throwback bands like, Graveyard, The Devil's Blood, In Solitude or Blood Ceremony (note to self: check these bands out!) are fantastic too it seems Ghost and its enigmatic members have stolen the lead for now. Having also seen the band perform live a few months ago I can also say these guys are not a band to miss since the onstage atmosphere is quite high and they put on a fantastic performance.

But, yeah, like I said in the beginning I suppose you know Ghost already, so, get back to enjoying, 'Opus Eponymous' as I surely will too.

Ulver - War of the Roses (2011)

2011-09-03T10:55:00.003-05:00

I've been following Ulver since early 2001 when I introduced myself to the band through their 1995 debut, 'Bergtatt - Et Eeventyr i 5 Capitler,' which I absolutely still consider their finest accomplishment and truly one of the best black metal records ever.

Sometime after that I took notice of the fact that they had released a new album the previous year, which lead me to, 'Perdition City.' Expecting more folk tinged black metal I got something quite different, but something I still immensely enjoyed. The same could be said for everything Ulver has done since then and even before. Its been immensely enjoyable for me regardless of the fact that the band has constantly switched genres or made up their own while pressing onward.

Their 10th studio album, 'War of the Roses' is once again something quite different to their previous releases although after giving it numerous spins I'm really not sure how I feel about the whole thing. Its an interesting release since Kristoffer's singing is used largely throughout the record and as usual he sounds fantastic, although its often mixed with ambient, electronic and neo classical styled music with a pop/rock underlining to it all. As a result I think some possibility of catchiness exists within some of these songs, but since its Ulver it does still have a very unique flow to it.

The record does also seem to carry on in a similar dark and melancholic mood as their previous album, 'Shadows of the Sun,' although, 'February MMX' is an exception since it's light, active and to my ears sounds like a potential song to hit the charts (not here, there). 'Providence' is another interesting song since the female vocals of Siri Stranger sound very diva-ish (or something) and in any case are not really the sort of thing I'm used to hearing, but I can't say I dislike the way they sound either.

I think the album truly hits its peak with the last three songs, 'England,' 'Island' and 'Stone Angels' since this is where the album truly hits a point of melancholy. Stone Angels especially brings to mind some of the old Coil songs, such as, 'Batwings' from their album, 'Musick To Play In The Dark Volume 2.' Musically this one has an airy ambient backdrop (with random other instruments here and there) to it while someone calmly speaks over the music for nearly fifteen minutes and while that may seem boring its actually quite enjoyable.

Ulver records are never easy to get into and it could just be that I need to save this one for the autumn or winter season since its hardly summer music. Perhaps under the right conditions or mood this one will click into my system better, but for now I'm only slightly awed.

Sahg - III (2010)

2011-08-31T13:35:00.003-05:00

Back sometime in mid-2008 I was introduced to Norwegian stoner/doom metal group, Sahg, though their second album, 'II.' By the albums conclusion I can recall just sitting here with a huge grin on my face and thinking, "Damn... this is massive! This kicks ass!" Not long after I got my hands on their first album, 'I' and by that albums conclusion I'd already considered Sahg a new personal favorite of mine. 'III' came out about a year ago but as usual the album was not released in America and I didn't get my hands on the album until my recent over seas voyage.

III carries on in Sahg's distinctive style, which in my eyes shows influences from some of the best, such as; Ozzy-era Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Trouble, St. Vitus, Spiritual Beggars and Cathedral. Although Sahg does fall into the doom genre they generally avoid ultra slow heaviness in favor of catchy verses, superb song writing, stunning guitar solos and just plain simply rocking out as hard as possible. Olav Iversen and Thomas Tofthagen have a heavy crunchy tone to their guitars that I absolutely love, while Tom Cato Visnes' bass is vibrant and alive throughout the whole recording, the drum work of new member Thomas Lønnheim is spot on and Olav's lead vocal work is quite simply immaculate. Also not forget that there are also a few points where prog styled keyboards makes their appearance and although they are brief they are well placed and a perfect addition to Sahg's music.

'In through the fire' kicks the recording off as a simple and short acoustic piece, which then dives headlong into the thumping head banging rockin' anthem known as, 'Baptism of Fire.' It just gets better though as, 'Mortify' starts out with something of a sinister vibe, but then just explodes with beefy energetic stoner bliss. Other super songs are, 'Hollow Mountain' or 'Downward Spiral' with one of the coolest solos I've heard in ages and, 'Denier' has already become a modern favorite of mine, just simply incredible! The guys are also capable of throwing in some slower doomy atmospheric songs like, 'Mother's Revenge,' 'Shadow Mountain' and the albums bleak closer, 'Spiritual Void,' though I still prefer the heavy energetic rockin' numbers over these three. I also have to mention that the lyrics are another quality of perfection within this album, especially, 'Denier,' but damn it all Olav writes some good words to these songs.

Ten songs strong and I find very little fault within this recording. At 42 minutes strong all guitars, leads, musical shifts and vocals are a point of dynamic excellence not easily out bested. Years from now fans of the genre will include Sahg among their all-time favorites, they'll tour the world and become giants, kids will want to grow up to be them and within the sky the bands name will luminously shine infinitely while they rock harder than hell and bring heaven to its knees!

Yes, what I'm trying to say is, "SAHG III is just fucking colossal!"

Moonsorrow - Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa (2011)

2011-08-29T14:51:00.003-05:00

I guess there really isn’t much you can count on in life - things can just get fucked up and ruined so easily. On the plus side at least you can always count on Moonsorrow delivering an extraordinary album and with their latest, 'Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa' they've done just that and then some.

Continuing along the same aesthetic road as their recent musical monuments, 'Verisäkeet' & 'V: Hävitetty' the new Moonsorrow is an absolute strike of brilliance within the epic heathen metal sub-genre and quite possibly the bands best album yet.

With a title that translates to, 'As Shadows We Walk in the Land of the Dead' this is one of Moonsorrow's darkest and most melancholy records to date and for the first time I think they really live up to their name, Moonsorrow - This album is like walking in utter darkness with only the moon as your guide and a heavy burden of sorrow upon your conscience.

The opening song, 'Tähdetön' bares a strong resemblance to, 'Jäästä syntynyt / Varjojen virta' with its epic structure and occasional flashes of folk music, while the following song, 'Muinaiset' is a majestic anthem that's so strong that it brought my senses to place they've never been to while watching it live at Tuska festival last month and it continues to do the same sitting here in my apartment. The monumental sorrow of, 'Huuto' is almost overwhelming and every time I hear it I just instantly think of the good times of being in Finland - the things said and done, the moments spent gazing off into the watery landscapes and just the thoughts of wishing that I could call this place home. 'Kuolleiden maa' clocks in at over sixteen minutes and although it takes time to reveal itself it becomes obvious soon enough that its another perfect heroic hymn from these guys... it's just... I can't even put this one into words... Additionally three other short interludes appear on the album and while they don't add much musically they seem to continue the story that's being told.

Sure to please all fans of epic music with folk and and black metal tinges, 'Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa' is quite simply massive. As a whole they've created a perfect balance between epicness, melancholy and blackend heavy metal that is by far one of the best Moonsorrow records to date.

Impaled Nazarene - Road to the Octagon (2010)

2011-08-27T13:16:00.003-05:00

For twenty years now the Oulu, Finland Sadogoatcult known as Impaled Nazarene has been releasing albums of unparalleled anger, aggression and unmatched musical bloodshed. Some people seem to be still expecting them to one day do something different (who the fucks knows what or why) though they've pretty much stuck to their guns for quite a while now and as such I sort of think of them as the Motorhead of Finland since their relentless and always deliver a decent album. 'Road to the Octagon' is a different story entirely though as its not just decent, but fantastic and at least in my opinion some of the best material the bands released since the, 'Rapture' & 'Nihil' days.

Full-length number eleven blasts through thirteen songs in just thirty three minutes in a ferocious enraged manner that never really relents to any catchy parts or even really slows down at all until the last song, 'Rhetoric Infernal.' This one goes a bit like this; unrelenting bludgeoning guitar rhythms conveying black, death, thrash and punk influences alongside rapid blastbeat drumming and the hellacious screams of front man, Mika Luttinen. Fuck, they've done it before and they are doing it again, but this time it feels like there is more conviction, better song writing and even more anger, which just proves that age brings bitterness. Plus the band also got one of the best production jobs of their careers with this one, which allows all levels of chaos within Imp Naz's music to be heard.

In the end its classic Impaled Nazarene tearing down the road on this one and really either you get it or you don't because I'm quite sure Imp Naz isn't about to compromise their sound for anyone anytime soon. I wouldn't hesitate to say that this is the bands best record in at least a decade now and its simply a must for old fans and new alike. So, put back a few beers, strap on the gas mask and follow the Sadogoatcult down the, 'Road to the Octagon!'

Lunar Hypnosis Interview Archive

2011-08-26T13:47:00.007-05:00

I'd been thinking of doing some sort of interview archive for a long time now and after recently finishing the, 'Metalion: Slayer Mag Diaries' book, which has tons upon tons of old interviews as well as a request for an old interview from a friend I decided it was finally time.

As you may know Lunar Hypnosis originally existed from May of 2001 until mid 2008 and then in late 2009 I hopped on over here to blogspot. During that earlier period quite a few interviews were conducted and while not all of them are great I think we definitely did do some really good ones during the later years. Collectively I believe it was just a few shy of a 100, which I suppose other 'zine had no problem competing with, but just like now interviews were never a major priority for me or my comrades.

Its interesting going back and reading these interviews though. In some cases these were conducted when a band was brand new and just releasing their early recordings and while some went onto bigger and better things some of these artists have disappeared into utter oblivion today. Its also just interesting hearing what some bands had to say, for example in my interview with Abigor Peter discussed the then upcoming album, but just a few months after this interview he dissolved the band.

So, there you have it. The file I have here has all the interviews in there original format although the images will have broken links when you open the files, but at least you still get all the Q&A.

The file is tiny (about 600 KB) and can be downloaded, HERE

Bands included: Aardia, Abigor, Acheron, Adhur, Adventcraft, Amestigon, Ancient Rites, Antimatter, Apoptose, Arsis, Astarte, Astriaal, Atomtrakt, Azure, Babyflesh, Behemoth, Black Funeral, Blood Stained Dusk, Cadaveria, Caina, Casket Casey, Changes, Compos Mentis, Convalescent, Cremation, Crom, Craft, Attila Csihar, Damnation Army, Dark Fortress, Dark Tranquillity, Demon Realm, Detonation, E-Force, Emancer, Endless Dismal Moan, Folkearth, Frozen Shadows, Ganzmord, Gehenna, Goddakk, :Golgatha:, Hagen, Hirax, Impaled, Impaled Nazarene, Impiety, Ingurgitating Oblivion, It Will Come, Kobi, Kult Ov Azazel, Lord, Lycia, Magog, MarAmon, MindGrinder, Morbid Upheaval, Mourning Beloveth, Mourning the Ancient, Nest, Non Immemor Mei, Nostalgia, Obtest, Of the Wand & the Moon, Omnia, Ordo Tyrannis, Peccatum, Promisqes, Rain Fell Within, Rain Paint, Rotting Christ, Sear Bliss, Sentinel Records, The Shadowsphere, Sigh, Sin Origin, Temple of Azoth, To Scale the Throne, Twilight Ophera, Usurper, V:28, Valkyrja, Vehemencem Velonnic Sin, Vendlus Records, Vinterriket, Virgin Black, VLE, Jason William Walton, Weeping Birth, Weh, Werkraum, Winds, Woods of Ypres, Yggdrasil and Zavorash.

If anything is a miss or if you just have some comments then feel free to share. Thanks for your interest in LH's past. Let's get back to the future now.

Pentagram - Last Rites (2011)

2011-08-23T10:55:00.003-05:00

By all accounts, Pentagram lead singer, original member and all around mastermind, Bobby Liebling probably should have been permanently in jail or even dead years if not decades ago. Having spent nearly forty years smoking and shooting a variety of narcotics, he finally got sober a few years ago, got married to a girl young enough to be his own daughter, had a son and in the past year reunited with long time Pentagram guitarist, Victor Griffin and released, 'Last Rites' the first Pentagram album since 2004's, 'Show 'em How.'

Musically this one is vintage Pentagram all the way and since nine of these twelves songs were apparently wrote in the early to mid 70's you can bet its got quite the classic feel to the material even if they were only just recently refined and completed. Apparently many Pentagram rehearsals began with Bobby pulling out a box of old tapes and they just go from there. It would seem those boxes had a bit of magic in them since Last Rites is just fantastic.

I can say with much ease that Bobby Liebling has one of the most distinctive voices out there and to sound unique today is really something. Also considering he's a 57 year old recovered drug addict its a bit strange how actually youthful yet powerful sounding his vocal delivery is. Frankly though Bobby has never sounded better, I mean seriously just check out songs like, 'Everything's Turning to Night' or 'Call the man' for proof of that.

His right hand man, guitarist Victor Griffin also sounds remarkable and although I've regrettably not heard his primary band for the past decade, Place of Skulls, I'll still say that his guitars glowing heavy fuzzy tone is one of the mightiest ones out there and just works perfectly with this sort of vintage metal music. His comrades from PoS, Tim Tomaselli & Greg Turley also do a fine job, Tim sounding great behind the kit while Greg's heavy thick bass guitar adds even more life to these powerful songs.

In the end the bulk of the album is quite stunning and I have to say I also much enjoy songs like, 'Walk in Blue Light' and 'Nothing Left,' but really this one is a must for Pentagram fans as well as stoner/doom fans in general. Now lets just hope Bobby can remain sober, tour the world and release another great album in a few years time from 2011.

Forbidden - Omega Wave (2010)

2011-08-20T13:02:00.003-05:00

My relationship with Forbidden is a bit weird and I can't honestly say I cared much about them until about ten months ago when I saw them with Bonded by Blood, Gama Bomb and Evile. Fact is however that I knew the bands name when I was a kid, friends probably played me their songs at some point and I may very well have had one of their albums in my hands while music hunting, but the fact is I never bought any Forbidden albums until recently. Now ten months since that first gig I've seen Forbidden three friggin' times and think I'm starting to get sick of them. So, let's take a look at their comeback album, 'Omega Wave' before that happens.

In case you didn't know Forbidden's roots date back to the mid 80's and in '88 and '90 they released semi-thrash classics, 'Forbidden Evil' & 'Twisted into Form,' but with thrash metal disappearing after '91 the band was forced to continue onwards in a different path. As such, 'Distortion' & 'Green' were a bit different, more modern or something in style and after Green the band was finished. Ten years later the guys decided to give it a go once more and in late 2010 Omega Wave finally hit.

Omega Wave features a good mixture of the speedy thrash metal Forbidden was known for in their early days with also plenty of mid-paced or even slower metal songs, which may be similar to the bands last two albums. The bands melodic touches also remain intact and I'd have to say that's a good a thing since it keeps things interesting between the speedier and mid-paced/slow songs.

Original member Craig Locicero as well as his new rhythm guitarist partner Steve Smyth sound fantastic throughout this record with tons of catchy and hard driven riffs as well as some fine solos here and there. New drummer Mark Hernandez also does a fine job behind the kit and vocalist Russ Anderson sounds superb throughout most of this record, especially the songs, 'Dragging my Casket' & Hopenosis.'

There is however one unforgivable aspect of this record, which just tends to kill it for me and that happens to be the length. Being twelve songs deep and just a little bit over an hour it seems like too much of the same thing for too long of time. I really think a lot of the songs could have been shorter or perhaps two of these songs should have been cut entirely, as well, pointless instrumentals like, 'Chatter' were hardly needed either.

Despite some issues, 'Omega Wave' is a decent come back album and old fans will most likely appreciate it and I'm sure for the members its a fun little thrill for the guys now that they are all in their early to mid 40's.

Havok - Time is up (2011)

2011-08-16T08:43:00.004-05:00

My introduction to Denver, Colorado based band, Havok, came in early July when they were on the opening slot for Forbidden. While the guys in the re-formed Forbidden and even the other two bands that played were fairly good that evening, it was Havok that absolutely smoked all of us.

Formed back in 2004, Havok spent their first couple of years releasing demos, EPs and singles before unleashing, 'Burn' on the world in 2009 and earlier this year their sophomore effort, 'Time is up' arrived via Candlelight Records.

Musically Havok delivers full throttle hair whipping 80's influenced thrash metal in a style comparable to Destruction and Exodus as well quite a bit of similarities exist between other new school thrash bands, such as; Bonded by Blood, Mantic Ritual and Warbringer.

It's obvious right from the first notes that, David, Jesse, Reece and Pete mean business, because I can say without much hesitation that this is surely one the best new school thrash albums released so far. Each song is filled with tons of energy and excitement from start to finish, killer infectious riffs and an absolute bad assery assault of superb solos. The vocals I'll again make a comparison to Destruction since David shares a angry snarly style similar to Schmier while plenty of backing gang vocals also make appearances on each song (the only way to thrash).

Sure, as always there's nothing new here, but I grew up with thrash in the early 90's and I guess no matter what I'll never get sick of those old records and I always welcome new ones too. Music like this is meant to charge you up, get that long hair flying and just make you have fun and feel good and that's absolutely what Havok does on this one. Songs like, 'Prepare for Attack' or 'D.O.A.' could have been wrote twenty five years ago and if it wasn't for the modern production they probably could be confused for something that old.

What I'm trying to say is that thrash then and now is timeless and music like this has been a blast for the first thirty years of my life and assuming I don't drink myself stupid one day I'll hopefully be jammin' to this stuff for another thirty years to come.

As Destruction says, 'Thrash 'till Death!'

RoutaSielu - Pimeys (2011)

2011-08-14T11:40:00.002-05:00

RoutaSielu is the most recent project from Tuomas Saukkonen who is actively also playing in Before the Dawn, Black Sun Aeon, Dawn of Solace and The Final Harvest.

If you remember my review of Tuska and my time in Finland you'll know that I saw these guys at one of the Tuska after parties and was totally blown away by their set even though I'd never heard a single song or even the bands name before. 'Pimeys' (Darkness in English) is the debut album from RoutaSielu (FrostSoul in English) and musically its some sort of atmospheric melodic metal with both clean and harsh vocals that are performed entirely in the Finnish language. I have to say its always interesting hearing music with non-English lyrics and especially since I'm finding myself missing Finland more and more each day I find comfort in hearing a band that sings in this strange language I've come to love.

Language aside, I think the thing that most folks will notice first is the overly melodic nature of this album. Lead guitarist Eero Silvonen and his rhythm partner Mikko Heikkilä are absolutely stunning throughout this record with tons of catchy folky influenced sounding riffs and impressive solos as well some hard hitting head banging parts too. There's also some softer acoustic parts, which are put to good use, especially the intro to, 'Soturi,' which is just beautiful.

The keyboard work of Saku Moilanen is mostly used as just backing ambiance and although, 'Kehtolaulu' and 'Alkusoitto' are opening and ending solo keyboard pieces to the album his presence only rarely takes the lead role on other songs.

I'd say the vocals are split about 50/50 on this album with Mikko's vocals appearing in the form of both whispers and cleanly sung lines while Tuomas' growled voice is used on all of the heavy parts of the album. Of course there's nothing negative I can say about them since Mikko's voice sounds great and Tuomas' growls are certainly not very harsh and seem perfectly suited to this sort of music.

As for favorites I can honestly say I enjoy the album as a whole greatly, but songs like, 'Enkeli,' 'M.E.V,' 'Kaipaus' and 'Soturi' make my day a little bit better after hearing them.

In the end, 'Pimeys' is quite an exciting debut album and I do hope the band has plans for more since they are definitely on the right path with this one.

Deprived of Light - Colored Death (2011)

2011-08-10T10:33:00.010-05:00

'Colored Death' is the debut EP from Deprived of Light, a two piece band from the south of France which features Lord Trowe (The Foetal Mind) and Psychotic (Psychocalypse). Musically these two create what to me sounds not entirely too distant from The Foetal Mind's recent venture into the post metal/rock world with his, 'The Grand Contraction' album, although the major difference being that four of the seven songs here have melodic death-ish styled vocals as well as some obvious metal influences in general.

I think what I really enjoy about this EP is just the whole atmosphere around it. At times it sounds a little melancholic at others its totally epic, here and there its a bit aggressive and quite often I sense this sort of inner longing from the music, almost like a lost soul trying to find his place in this world. There's also a bit of genre hopping since the intro & interlude are acoustic pieces, while the outro shows some electronic influences. Psychotic handles the vocals and they come in the form of a raspy squeal but on a few of the songs there are some cleanly sung parts which sound just fantastic, especially during, 'Cast into the Shade,' which I'd say is the EP's highlight.

All in all quite good, technical and melodic and generally just excellent material from these two guys. The only negative thing I could say is that I wish the production could have been stronger and I'm inclined to think that the extreme vocals might bother some people, but I guess it just depends on the listeners personal tastes. In any case I'm curious to hear more from this partnership soon.

As bonus tracks this release also contains three songs from Lord Trowe's own The Foetal Mind as well as two songs from Psychocalypse. The Foetal Mind tracks were originally downloadable only tracks which were only available to those that bought the last album, but I guess they were to good to use in that manner alone. This is definitely the case since these three songs are right in line with the, 'The Grand Contraction' and just for the sake of saying it, 'My Metal Ways I' is absolutely breathtaking!

Psychocalypse on the other hand is fairly standard melodic death metal. You know the drill; hard growled vocals, catchy riffs and melodic solos and as you might have guessed its pretty good too.

The album itself has not been released in any physical form and as far as I know there's probably no plans to do so, but for the curious you can download this entire release from Hypnotic Dirge Records FOR ABSOLUTELY FREE.

Before the Dawn - Soundscape of Silence (2008)

2011-08-06T13:46:00.003-05:00

Although I had watched a video of Before the Dawn on youtube before, my first real experience with the band was during my recent visit to Helsinki, Finland where they were playing in front of me at a club named Dom Helsinki. I have to say they made such a strong impression on me that evening that I made it my life's work to hunt down one of their albums before leaving Finland and fortunately on the following day I did come across this album at a place called, 'Music Hunter' and I'm quite glad because, 'Soundscape of Silence' is fantastic.

Before the Dawn is essentially the solo project of Finnish multi musician Tuomas Saukkonen (w/ session members) who brought the band into existence back in 2000. Since the bands formation he's released five albums with his most recent being this years, 'Deathstar Rising,' but let's hop back to the fourth album first.

On Soundscape of Silence, Saukkonen essentially blends highly melodic death metal in the typical Gothenburg Sweden style (think older In Flames & Soilwork) with Gothic metal leanings quite a bit similar to Sentenced. So, in a way not necessarily the most original thing but what really sets this band apart from others and makes it excellent is Tuomas' guitar work which is quite melodic and full of character. His riffs and solos are filled with emotion which I honestly found to be interesting since at one moment I was full of energy and headbanging and then later on he was hitting my ears with these melancholic atmospheric riffs that were just immense. Also to be fair I'd say he's far more skilled and diverse with his playing than most Swedish melo death guitarists, but I needed to make a comparison to something earlier.

Besides the great riff work there's also some airy sounding keyboards and acoustic guitars present on this record, which obviously just make it all the better and also Norwegian session member, Lars Eikind's (Winds, Age of Silence, Khold) cleanly sung vocals work perfectly alongside Tuomas' growled voice.

In the end if tremendously melodic and catchy atmospheric death/Gothic metal is your thing then I absolutely implore you to investigate this fantastic Finnish band. As for myself, I'll keep rockin' this one for weeks to come and before long I assure you I'll be purchasing the rest of their discography.

Cholera - Prophecies of Annihilation (2011)

2011-08-05T14:56:00.002-05:00

The Ottawa, Canada duo of Raphael Weinroth-Brown and Matthew Buller impressed me greatly last year with their debut EP, 'Enslaved Humanity' and here in 2011 they return with their full-length album, 'Prophecies of Annihilation.'

Although consisting of the two songs from Enslaved Humanity, Prophecies also adds three additional songs, which brings the total time to about an hours worth of music. In case you didn't read my previous review what you can expect from these guys is progressive death metal with heavily technical riff and solo guitar work, a crushing drum performance, progressive-ish and (somewhat sounding) black metal style symphonic synths, both middle eastern and classical music leanings and both massively growled and cleanly sung vocals. Oh, and did I mention that they are still teenagers? Yep, both Raphael and Matthew were between the ages of 18-19 when this beast was recorded in 2009/10 and considering the technical ability and the diversity I'd say these guys have quite a bright future ahead of them.

The album opens with the two songs from Enslaved Humanity and although they are killer will move onto the third song, 'The Lost Traveler,' which clocks in for eighteen and a half minutes worth of awesomeness. Its really something how the mood of this song progresses throughout its duration since at various moments the listener is treated to pummeling head banging progressive death metal while a few other times there's lone piano solos and at other times some catchy middle eastern flourishes or cleanly sung progressive rock-ish parts pop up. It's all very interesting and it works, whereas so many other bands try to be progressive and different and generally just come up with a bunch of nonsense that makes no sense and doesn't work at all.

'Reminiscence' opens with a classically inspired cello solo when before long piano enters the song and soon enough some cleanly sung vocals over both the cello and piano appear. This continues until almost the nine minute mark when the band begins blasting away once again. The final song and title track is largely the same as the previous compositions without anything new being added, but goddamn what a great song to close out this colossal album!

In addition to this album being excellent it also has a superb production job, which allows all the instruments plenty of room to breath and come through in the mix. Also I'd have to say the artwork for the album is quite good too!

As you may have guessed though Cholera is unsigned and I'd have to say that's quite a mistake considering the talent on display here, but perhaps if the guys put together a live band and start touring around their home town and the rest of Canada word might start spreading.

In the mean time I'd highly suggest checking out this album if you're into bands like Opeth, Dream Theater, Behemoth or Nile you'll definitely find yourself enjoying this stunning release from Cholera.

Amorphis - The Beginning of Times (2011)

2011-08-03T18:45:00.005-05:00

As odd as it sounds sometimes when a band releases a truly monumental album it can effect ones judgement of their future work. In the case of Amorphis, their 2009 effort, 'Skyforger' was indeed that monumental album, which now two years later still remains catchy, relevant and absolutely phenomenal to my ears. Therefore topping such an album would no doubt be a challenge and although I had my expectations set high and even as I do enjoy, 'The Beginning of Times' I'm still finding it hard to accept as an adequate follow-up to such a tremendous release.

The album opens with, 'Battle for Light,' which I'd have to say is the albums finest moment as its incredibly catchy and majestic in its musical delivery as well Tomi's vocals are amazingly powerful and well performed throughout the song. 'Mermaid' much like its predecessor has all the same qualities with something of a melancholic underlining vibe as well as the addition of some brief backing female vocals. I'd have to say the album continues onwards quite nicely with the thunderous, 'My Enemy' and into the catchy singly, 'You I Need,' which has probably one of the most memorable keyboard melodies ever as well a great video to go with it. 'Song of the Sage' is decent but the way the song flows as well as the usage of the flute just seem odd to me while, 'Three Words' & 'Reformation' are entirely cleanly sung and quite catchy little numbers that probably could have been used as singles too.

'Soothsayer' I find to be generally kind of boring overall, but Netta Dahlberg's backing vocals are paired up well with Tomi's and the duet sort of thing in the middle of the song is neat. 'On a Stranded Shore' I feel kind of the same about and although I recognize the fact that its suppose to sound romantic and melancholic a lot of it just comes off as sounding corny to me. 'Escape' on the other hand I enjoy quite a bit and honestly think its one of the best songs on the album with plenty of fetching parts, where as, 'Crack in a Stone' has a good chorus but the keyboards just sound wacky during the rest of it. The last two songs, 'Beginning of Time' & 'Heart's Song' are also decent, especially Heart's Song since it sounds like something that could have been wrote during the Tuonela days.

Interestingly, 'The Beginning of Times' is a very heavily keyboard driven album and I'd have to say most of the time Santeri Kallio's performance is spot on and sounds great, but its entirely possible that because of the thick keyboard sound not as much attention was put on the guitars and therefore those trademark epic Amorphis guitar solos are just simply not there. Of course some great riffs and solos do turn up, but surely Esa and Tomi K. have done better in the past.

Otherwise though I'm somewhat at a loss as to why I've found this album to be a hard one to get into. Perhaps it is just because of my appreciation for the last album or maybe this new one is just a grower. I don't know. What I can say for now is that there are definitely some fantastic songs on this release but as a whole something is missing and I'm not entirely sure what it is since everything that makes Amorphis great is there and in pretty good condition. If you only dig the old Amorphis you'll have no reason to pick this record up but if you've appreciated all the newer records with Tomi Joutsen singing I think you'll definitely find something appealing about it, but don't expect something as grand as the mighty Skyforger.

The Liquidation

2011-08-01T09:32:00.003-05:00

In an effort to pay my current bills as well as start saving for another Finnish vacation (no kidding) I've decided to sell various used items on eBay, which may (not) interest the readers of this blog. Although I don't expect any of you to actually buy anything I thought I'd still shamelessly give my sales a plug, anyway. So, check out my eBay Sales!! since I might have a used book, album or video game you've just been dying to get your hands on! :D

My Journey to Finland and Tuska Open Air Metal Festival

2011-07-31T19:22:00.023-05:00

In case my regular readers have been wondering about my whereabouts first I must say that I wasn't abducted nor did I get lazy with this 'zine, no. Actually from July 20th through the 26th I was in Helsinki, Finland for the adventure of a lifetime. In the following several paragraphs I'll try my best to tell you my tale of my time in Finland.

Wednesday: We arrived (my friend Mike & I) in the Helsinki-Vantaa airport at roughly 7:30 AM after a grueling eight hour flight from Chicago. We really didn't know what the hell were doing or where we were going immediately but we were definitely happy to be off that airplane. Eventually we realized we had to find the bus area of the airport, which would take us to the Helsinki city center, which I believe was about 20 miles away. I think one of the things that first really surprised me was that almost everyone spoke and understood English and just because I wanted to be polite the first Finn I spoke to was a girl at the bus area whom I greeted by saying, "Umm, do you speak English?" I don't think I'll forget her facial expression because she just sort of chuckled and said, "Of course."

So, eventually the bus came and we quickly found out that every bus driver in Finland is a fucking asshole and as far as I could tell these are the only people in the whole country who can't speak English. It didn't matter though as we quickly figured out it was the last stop on the bus that took us to the city center. After filing out my friend and I just began trying to figure out where our hotel was, and although we wandered around for quite some time and I stopped on a few occasions to take photos and things like that we eventually found it. After getting settled in we took to the streets to find a cellphone so I could contact my friends as well we took in more sights along the way. Eventually we came to a bar named, 'On The Rocks,' and when we checked their upcoming events we discovered that Barren Earth was going to be playing the following evening and if you recall my review for their album you'll know that I absolutely love this band.

After a few drinks at On the Rocks and having a nice conversation with the bar tender girl named, Erika, we decided to head back to the hotel since we had been up for about 20 hours at that point. After a couple hours of sleep it was time for dinner and eventually we decided to check out one of Helsinki's many cool bars, Perkele. Perkele is a metal/hard rock bar/club of sorts and I remember eventually the place got quite busy that evening and although we didn't befriend anyone we would the following night. I don't recall much of what else happened that evening other than one of the bartenders being a dick cheese for no reason whatsoever and I think eventually we bumbled home rather drunk.

Thursday: Our second day in Finland was probably one of the best we had there because we went to Suomenlinna, we got to see Barren Earth in the evening as well we met up with some friends and also made some new ones in the process.

Suomenlinna is an inhabited sea fortress built on six islands and is a UNESCO World Heritage site and popular with both tourists and locals. Although built in 1748, it was renamed Suomenlinna (Castle of Finland) in 1918 for patriotic and nationalistic reasons. To get to Suomenlinna one must take a short ferry ride out and I have to say just the ferry ride out was enough to get me excited. If you're a fan of nature and beautiful landscapes then Finland is definitely the place for you as I found myself in some sort of paradise by the time I set foot on the island. Quite a bit of time was spent here and at least for me it was really interesting seeing some so old, but it was really just all the great landscapes that I found to be so beautiful and I guess I had one of those moments where I wish I could have had a girl with me, because it just seems like that would be the ideal way to experience this lovely place. Maybe next time though. In any case, I took a lot of photos here and enjoyed absolutely every second of my time there.

Later on that evening we were back at On the Rocks for Barren Earth, however before the gig even started I ran into a French friend that I'd got in contact with through last.fm. Although I almost completely forgot about our discussions back on the site, both this guy and his friend turned out to be two of my best friends during my stay in Finland. So, eventually we were lead downstairs for the gig, and, all I can say is, WOW! On the Rocks basement gig area was by far one of the finest I'd ever seen and frankly I'd be surprised if I'll ever see a club much better than this one.

When Barren Earth eventually hit the stage quite a few people had entered and once the band began playing things really got rockin'. It was interesting to see so many people shooting photos as well since almost all clubs back home don't allow photographers to shoot without a pass. The band played a good portion of their debut album, 'Curse of the Red River' as well as a few from the EP, 'Our Twilight,' but they didn't play, 'The Ritual of Dawn,' which I think is their finest song. There's quite a bit I could say but what I'll simply say is that these guys rocked really hard and it was great to see them since I arrived at their Chicago gig back in February too late to see them.

After the gig we remained at the club and my comrade and I plus our new French friends; head banging to good tunes, talking about whatever and we really began to drink like fish. Eventually we were joined by two Finns who throughout the rest of our time in Finland also became really great friends for us. I also got some time after the gig to speak with Sami and Mikko from Barren Earth and although I don't remember what the hell I said to them I guess I didn't embarrass myself too much since we took a photo together. Eventually we got ourselves back to the Perkele club where more drunken heavy metal chaos ensued and I also met a Norwegian guy who again proved to be a really good friend during my stay in Finland.

In Finland or at least Helsinki bars close at 4 AM and during the summer this is the same time the sun rises. Therefore, it was quite strange to enter a bar while it was light outside and to leave several hours later when the sun was already rising. Interestingly Tuska was starting in about six hours and how we managed to get home, sober up, not wake up with a hang over and survive and entire day of Tuska is beyond me, but we definitely did do it.

Friday - Tuska Day 1: After a short nap we were up for breakfast and shortly there after I got to meet a very special friend of mine from Estonia that I've been in contact with for about two years now. I have to say its really interesting to talk with someone on the internet for so long and then to finally meet her was both surreal and also absolutely wonderful and I truly cherished the time I was able to spend with her.

After meeting up with her the three of us began to walk to the Tuska venue, which was about a mile and a half from our hotel. This year's Tuska was held at a brand new venue and actually the area in question wasn't the typical venue since it was some sort of old abandoned factory yard and although that sounds bizarre it actually worked out quite well. Collectively four stages were available at Tuska; one giantic stage where all the big name bands were playing, one slightly smaller stage to the left, one fairly large tent stage and another indoor stage that was the smallest of the four.

Although I had wanted to see Black Breath at the start of the fest my friends wanted to check out Omnium Gatherum. This was my first time hearing these guys and from what I could tell this Finnish band played a fairly common straight forward style of melodic death metal. It wasn't great but it certainly wasn't bad either. The next band I witnessed was the legendary English band, Hell, which after being broken up for nearly thirty years is now back together and also finally releasing their debut album. A bit odd, no? Well, whatever the case may be these old guys really knew how to play and their NWOBHM style was quite impressive. I have to say their singer was so animated and crazy that you'd think he put back a few pots of coffee before he took to the stage. After Hell I watched Forbidden for a little while, but it didn't seem much different from when I saw them last month back in my own home town. I checked out Arch Enemy for a little while, but frankly that band never did much for me, but at least Angela seems like a really good front woman. After that I met up with some more online friends and I have to say one again that it was quite cool to finally meet these people.

Next up was Goresoerd from Estonia, which my friend wanted to see since they were from her country and she was already familiar with their sound, anyway. These guys played some sort of death metal/grindcore, which wasn't bad at all, and I thought the bands onstage look was fairly cool as well. Sometime after that I met up with yet another online friend as well as another friend I knew from back home who happened to be attending this years Tuska fest. Then it was time for one of Sweden's most mightiest bands, yes, it was time for Grave! Considering my passionate interest in classic old school Swedish death these days it was quite cool to see these guys and as expected they destroyed. I have no idea if its a gig regular, but the fact that they played, 'Into the Grave' made my day right there and then and also it was during Grave's set that I noticed that Tomi from Amorphis was watching. I guess those that know me know that I'm quite the Amorphis fan and my plan was to find him after Grave's set for a photo and quick chat, but he disappeared to early, however I'd catch up with him later on.

After Grave it was time for At the Gates and holy hell is that ever an awesome thing! I've been a fan of AtG for well over a decade, but of course the band was already broken up way back then so I never got the chance to see them play. I guess everyone knows they've been doing this reunion summer festival thing for a few years now and I guess I got lucky because it was finally my time to see them. The band played a lot of the expected material, which is mostly songs from, 'Slaughter of the Soul,' but they surprised me a bit by playing, 'Souls of the Evil Departed,' which is awesome since that one kills and of course they closed their set with the obvious, 'Blinded By Fear' & 'Kingdom Gone.' Musically I think the band sounded quite good, but vocally Tomas sounded like he really couldn't hack it anymore. In fact I'd say after about the second or third song his voice completely gave out and he just sounded like a wheezing old man, but it didn't ruin the set for me.

Just as At the Gates was finishing up Spiritual Beggars were hitting the stage and although I'm not that familiar with them I figured I'd watch them over Killing Joke or Cavus. At that particular moment it seemed like SB's hard rocking stoner metal was just what I needed since it put me in just a totally perfect relaxed mood. It was good to see Per Wiberg again of course too and although I loved his work in Opeth it seems like with SB his presence is much more known. I really can't tell you what songs they played, but hey all rocked quite hard and I probably should have picked up their new album, but maybe later on.

Finally Friday night's headliner was legendary Floridian death metalers, Morbid Angel. Having just released a new album, which seems to have been bashed by most due to some incredibly wanky songs it didn't stop the band from pretty good, at times. They actually opened with, 'Immortal Rites,' which is no doubt a favorite of mine, but I thought it was odd that rather than just using the synthesizers as they originally appeared in the song they instead allowed David Vincent to do some sort of choral vocal thing, which, umm... sounded strange. I haven't heard the new album and I don't intend do based off of hearing the songs, 'I Am Morbid' & 'Too Extreme,' but fortunately the band did play a good amount of old songs, such as, 'God of Emptiness,' 'Where the Slime Live' and my personal fav, 'Lord of All Fevers & Plagues.' Naturally the crowd was quite into what was going on and I'll admit I had my moment where I was enjoying myself.

After Morbid Angel it was time to go, but as I was waiting outside the beer garden for a friend to finish his drink I happened to come across Tomi Joutsen again and in an act of ultimate fanboyishness I ran up and talked to him for a while and got a photo together. Apparently I sound very Swedish too. He seemed impressed to hear that I was actually from America and came a long fucking way for this thing. Good day.

I don't recall why now, but I didn't go to any of the after parties on Friday. I think I was just tired and overly fried from the ridiculous heat. However it was fun hanging around outside the hotel and having a drink and enjoyable chat with a good friend.

Saturday - Tuska Day 2: The first band I saw on Saturday was Sweden's, Witchery. I honestly hadn't thought much about this band in years, though there was a time, long ago, when I actually did own a few of their albums. I think the first surprise for me was that Legion (former Marduk) was no longer singing for the band, but instead it was Emperor Magus Caligula who apparently left Dark Funeral at some point in time. Mr. Caligula took the stage in armor and some variant of corpsepaint, which actually made him look like something straight out of the He-Man Masters of the Universe series and how he didn't die being in all that gear is beyond me. Anyway, the band actually caught my attention because they played a few of those old songs I knew, such as, 'The Reaper' & 'The Storm,' which made for a fun trip down nostalgia boulevard. For some reason I watched Epica next, simply because nothing else was happening. I was once sent an Epica album years ago for review on the old Lunar site and I remember not liking it at all. Epica to me sounds like a Disney movie gone horribly wrong. It's symphonic and overly bombastic and the mixture of power metal, growled male vocals and operatic female vocals didn't necessarily bad, but it definitely sounded stupid.

Things finally got real a bit later when Moonsorrow hit the stage. The band obviously didn't play many songs since the average Moonsorrow song is about eight minutes long, but it did seem like at least one song from each album was represented. Although I had not heard the new album at the time of this gig I did enjoy hearing new song, 'Muinaiset,' which now owning the album I can say it is indeed the best song on the album. Besides that my most favorite, 'Pimeä' & 'Kylän Päässä' did not make an appearance, but the songs that were played were still quite good. BTW pardon my inability to remember the name of some of their songs. Katatonia came next and, well, Katatonia is Katatonia, but I'll always love 'em. The set list honestly didn't seem much different from the two gigs I attended in September of last year with the exception of, 'Right into the Bliss' being added. Nevertheless its always a pleasure seeing these guys and as always I had a blast watching them.

Following Katatonia was Wintersun and although a friend was quite adamant about me filming their gig for him the fact remains that I really don't know Wintersun's music that well. So, I checked out Church of Misery instead. CoM is a heavy stoner/doom metal band from Japan and honestly they ended up being one of the true highlights for me during Tuska. I'm not sure what happened, especially since I didn't recognize a single song they played, but these guys groovy stoner doom really hit me in the right place and got me going like few bands had done yet. At the end of their set one of the guitarists came back onstage and smashed his guitar and threw it into the crowd where pieces of it were taken away by numerous fans. Then a few seconds after that he came back onstage again and thew the entire guitar case in the crowd. :D

Blind Guardian was next, but its Blind Guardian and that's not really the sort of the thing I listen to that often nor did I care about seeing them play live, but I saw them from afar, anyway. So, I found a friend and we had a few drinks, including a very special happy birthday Jaeger shot. After this it was either Enslaved or Ghost, which was really hard to choose, but since both of these bands are touring my city in a few months I decided to watch Ghost with a friend. Ghost in case you don't know is a sort of retro band that mixes 70's style hard rock with occult lyrics and a most interesting image. The singer looks like some sort of unholy pope and although his onstage movements were quite limited he was able to sing the songs fairly well. The band played most of their debut album, including a cover of The Beatles, 'Here comes the Sun.'

After this it was time for the Devin Towsend Project, but being completely unfamiliar with this project and not really being a Devin fan in the first place I barely watched any of his set. Instead I found myself in the beer garden once again drinking with my friends, which was just fine and dandy by me.

I had intended on going to one of the Tuska after parties on this evening, but by the time my friend and I arrived at the venue they had already sold out, which sucked, and since my friend had a ticket it meant we had to part ways at this point, but at least I got to spend some quality time with this special friend and have a great conversation with her.

Sunday - Tuska Day 3: The final day of Tuska was sort of odd because fewer bands were actually playing and more time in-between bands I actually wanted to see was available. Day 3 most definitely kicked off in a positive way since long running Finnish metalers Impaled Nazarene were up first. As a starting point I can honestly say I've been waiting a long, long time to see these guys and since they've never toured the USA this was obviously the only way I was ever going to see them. Soon as I walked into the area they were playing they were blasting through, 'Let's Fucking Die,' which is one of my favorite Imp Naz songs and as you can imagine my head was a bangin' rather quickly. They played a few from the new album, which I had sitting in my backpack at that moment as well as a few from the last album, 'Manifest,' which I didn't dig that much, but at least they played the song that I did enjoy from that one. I definitely had a raging metal moment when they played, 'Armageddon Deathsquad,' and my poor voice definitely suffered the effects the following day. The band closed their set with, 'Sadhu Satana,' which also had a guest backing vocalist though I couldn't tell you who he was. All in all a pretty damn good performance from these guys, though I somehow expected Mika to be far more crazy onstage rather than just standing in one place the whole time.

The next band I saw was Kvelertak, which was some sort of punky rockin' black metal band from Norway with Norwegian lyrics to boot. This was my first time hearing these guys though one of my LH comrades reviewed their debut a while ago so I was at least familiar with what they do onstage. There was definitely some good vibes coming from these guys and plenty of groove, which had me head banging for sure. I'll definitely have to get my hands on their releases some day. Next I watched a little bit of Totalselfhatred, which was some sort of depressive black metal from Finland and although I only caught a little bit of their last song it definitely sounded good. While waiting for Jex Thoth to start with a friend I went and checked out a little bit of Shining. I've only heard a few Shining albums and I really wouldn't say I'm a bit fan or anything, but they definitely do have some good songs. The song I watched was, 'Ytterligare Ett Steg Närmare Total Jävla Utfrysning' and I'd have to say its also my favorite from the group and the way they performed it live sounded brilliantly creepy.

So, up next was Jex Thoth and although I was completely unfamiliar with the band my friend wanted to check them out and I'm glad I did so with her because Jex Thoth was quite excellent. Hailing from San Francisco, California, this group is a female lead psychedlic rock/doom metal band with strong vocal work. The band created an incredible atmosphere during their set and Jex Thoth herself was highly impressive onstage with both her singing and the way she gracefully moved around. Unfortunately we only got to watch about half the set because I had to say goodbye to a friend that had to leave Tuska early as well we wanted to get a good place to see Amorphis whom were starting before Jex Thoth would have finished playing. Looking back to this moment this is sort of a hard one because I had to say goodbye to one friend and it was also the last time I saw another friend, unfortunately I didn't get to say goodbye to that second friend, but at least there's sites like facebook to keep contact with each other...

Anyway, Amorphis was up next. The bands set opened with an extended variation of the intro from, 'Battle for Light,' before long the band took the stage and dived right into, 'My Enemy,' which I thought was an odd opener. Other songs from the new album included, 'You I Need' & 'Crack in a Stone,' which are decent songs, but not really my favorites from, 'The Beginning of Times.' I recall the band also playing, 'The Smoke,' 'Towards and Against,' 'Song of the Troubled One,' 'Sky is Mine,' 'Silverbride' and 'House of Sleep.' As expected the band sounded great and the pyrotechnics were definitely a fine touch to their massive onstage presence. In the end though I was somewhat disappointed with the chosen songs, but I guess I can't expect to always see the songs I love the best played live.

After Amorphis is was time for my Tuska tour video, which was basically me walking around the Tuska area filming as much as possible while given my own commentary. I'll have this online at youtube if you feel inclined to check it out. During that filming I watched about a minute of Turisas, but honestly that band never really blew me away that much. Also during my touring I listened to a few minutes of Misery Index and although years ago I remembered the band being very standard and boring what I heard pouring out the tent sounded quite good. After this I think I was a little depressed because two of my very close friends were gone, and I ended up going to the beer garden and drinking a few tall boys as well as having an interesting conversation with a few folks whom had no problem buying me additional alcoholic beverages.

The final band, Amon Amarth I watched from afar, because I was still drinking and because I was hoping the friend that I came to Finland with would walk by (I had not seen him since leaving the hotel in morning). Fortunately after I began walking around I found him, or rather tackled him and we watched a little bit of Amon Amarth before deciding to head out for the day since we wanted to get to the club Dom Helsinki for the after party.

Most of my new friends arrived for this after party, which meant it was all the more special. The first band up was one I'd never heard of called, 'RoutaSielu,' which is another band from Tuomas Saukkonen. Musically these guys are a bit hard to describe but its some sort of melodic death metal with both growled and cleanly sung vocals as well the lyrics are all wrote in Finnish. The musicianship was superb to say the least filled with tons of incredible solos and the tradeoff between the clean and growled vocals worked out greatly. I can't say if it was the alcohol or what but I was absolutely loving these guys and fortunately I found their album the following day. Next up was a cover band named, Aimonster, and they played lots of classics like, 'Arise,' 'Madhouse,' and 'Battery,' which as you can imagine got this crazed metalhead going! In fact when I heard the opening to Arise I got so excited I ran to the stage, slipped on something and nearly killed myself, but got right back on my feet and started head banging like a motherfucker! Why you ask? Well, because I've got some serious love for old Sepultura and since real Sepultura probably doesn't play this one live anymore it seemed best to get excited for it. I know a bunch of other awesome songs were played, but I'll be damned if I can remember them, but you can blame that on the booze.

Finally the last band of the night went onstage around 1AM on Monday morning and it was yet another Saukkonen band, his main band in fact, Before the Dawn. I had heard just a little bit of this band before this gig while watching a few songs on youtube. To me Before the Dawn sounds like melodic death metal mixed with the Finnish Gothic metal sound of Sentenced, which formed together to create a rather catchy and highly skillful sound. I thought it was funny that Tuomas chose to speak to the crowd in English and I guess I'm glad he did since I actually knew what was being said in-between songs for a change. I can't tell you what songs were played but what I can tell you is that it was an absolute stunning gig from these guys and fortunately once again later on in the day I found one of the bands CDs at a few of the record stores we visited.

The rest of this evening was spent drinking and talking with friends, but it was sort of sad as the evening/morning came to a close I had to say goodbye to all my new friends, but I'm quite sure will meet again either in Finland next year or maybe even some where else.

Monday: After a short nap and surprisingly no hangover my comrade and I got up for breakfast and then took to the streets for some heavy metal music hunting. The first place we came to was Music Hunter, which as far as I could tell was the place to go for finding rarer releases and used stuff rather than brand new releases. The store had a fantastic selection of LPs, CDs, DVDs, VHSs, books and much more throughout the store and although the prices varied greatly the temptation to buy lots of was certainly there. I can't however say much about the guy that was running the register because not only did he not seem to know where to find the CDs we had chosen it seemed he was almost completely clueless on how to run the register, but this was oddly something I noticed at various other stores around Finland.

Next up was one of the LevyKauppa music stores, which again was just a total treasure trove of music. I bought six CDs altogether and it was various CDs that I've never been able to find in the USA or even in any USA based online shops... so, I was quite happy you see. I think next year I'll have to make sure I put away a few hundred euros away just for albums.

The rest of Monday was spent walking around and eventually my comrade and I went on a little boat tour, which was fantastic and allowed us to see more of the beautiful Helsinki landscapes. We eventually ended up at the Perkele bar that evening, but it seemed like a lot of crowd had died down. Still, we had a few drinks and had a good time, but it seemed odd when we took notice of the fact that to one side of us was a group of French folks and to the other some Germans. Where'd the Finns go?

Tuesday: Not much happened on our final day in Finland other than packing all our stuff up and getting ready for the inevitable return home. I guess I was pretty quiet most of that day, because I was already missing my friends and I knew before long I'd really be missing Finland too.

Although there were some minor problems and apparently some sort of security issues at the airport we eventually made it on and prepared for a horrible nine hour flight back home. upon arrival in Chicago I realized I had received some sort of insane jetlag from the long trip and between that, being tired and a wave of depressing setting in I wasn't pleased to be home. I recall looking out the window of the bus on the ride back up to Wisconsin and thinking how boring and absolutely dull this place was compared to Finland, but I'll get over it eventually and all I can really do is just save and get ready for another Finnish journey.

In the end I sit hear listening to the new Moonsorrow album at the moment slightly depressed, with a fat cat in my lap and with an incredible longing to be back in Finland. I think sometimes in life we find places or find people where we just feel comfortable with. Back home here in Wisconsin I'm viewed as an outcast and bad personhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif and I've never felt like I belonged and I know I never will feel at home here either. I found my true home, a place where I belong and a place where I feel happy. I know now Finland is the place for me and all I can say is that my time in Finland and Tuska was absolutely the highlight of my life. From all the great friends I met and made along the way, the things we did and discussed, to the incredible sights of Helsinki and of course the awesome time watching music I can easily say this was my heaven... and I'll be back for Tuska next year... maybe even sooner! I'll see you there!

Although I'm still in the process of uploading them you can see a number of videos from Tuska Festival as well as some of my own personal adventures around Helsinki over at my Youtube Channel. Check it out!

Black Breath - Heavy Breathing (2010)

2011-07-14T11:02:00.003-05:00

As it stands I don't own nor have I heard many bands that fall into the whole crossover/thrash metal genre, but a very positive review a friend wrote and a quick trip over to youtube.com convinced me I had to get my hands on Black Breath's debut album, 'Heavy Breathing.'

Formed in Seattle, Washington back in 2006, this five piece quickly released a demo, followed by the debut EP, 'Razor to Oblivion' in 2008 before arriving at this most recent release last year. Consisting of aggressive classic sounding crusty hardcore styled vocals and screams, insane amounts of energy and anger, a heavily vicious sense of melodicism and a Swedish Sunlight Studio style riff tone similar to early Entombed and Dismember plus enough d-beats to please any hardcore punkers - Fuck yes, this debut absolutely kills!

The production of Heavy Breathing is exceptional with the ferocious chainsaws coming through as clear as day, the bass is heavy and vibrant, the drums are loud, raging and have some serious rumble to them, while the vocals are in your face and completely pissed off during the entire record. Needless to say it sounds great!

I really enjoy just about every song, but the speedy, hostile and quite catchy, 'Virus' & 'Fallen' have stuck with me as true favorites, while the instrumental title track or even the slower, 'Unholy Virgin' are first rate material. Most of the record though is fast and angry and at least for me it gets me completely charged up and, well, it isn't long before I'm head banging like a motherfucker to this beast and wishing I too was onstage screaming into faces off everyone looking up at me.

In the end I've found Heavy Breathing to be just excellent! Its received constant play rotation from me and will continue to do so when I need a boost and since I'll be seeing them live next Friday all I can say is, bring it on!

Watain - Sworn to the Dark (2007)

2011-07-09T20:40:00.002-05:00

Somehow during the past decade Watain has completely eluded me. I mean, I knew the name, totally, I saw the magazine covers, I just never went and bought any of their albums until a month ago when I happened to find this album during a day trip down to Chicago where a friend and I visited three different record stores. To think that I've been missing out on these guys so long is quite a shame because, 'Sworn to the Dark' is absolutely brilliant.

Watain's roots date back to the late 90's when the band was formed in Uppsala, Sweden by Erik Danielsson, Pelle Forsberg, Håkan Jonsson and C. Blom (now an ex-member) as most likely a more traditional sounding black metal act. Since those early days four albums and several other releases have been unleashed and it seems Watain has nowadays reached a mainstream status by grabbing a Swedish Grammy for Best Hard Rock in 2011 with their most recent, 'Lawless Darkness.' Watain is however not quite a hard rock band.

It seems the big criticism around this album is that its a carbon copy of Dissection's classic, 'Storm of the Light's Bane,' which while a lot of that is true I just have to say, "What the fuck is wrong with that!" Dissection's influence on metal is monumental, so much so that your favorite band was almost certainly influenced by them and pretty much as far as I'm concerned you've got Dissection to thank (hate?) for melodic characteristics in black and death metal music. However I wont bore you on Dissection's unrivaled greatness, because if its not obvious it just proves how truly dense you are.

I think what I enjoy the most about Watain is that they have that big Dissection influence and basically just everything that makes metal great; varied and interesting riffs, various tempo changes and speeds, superb solos, sinister vocals, excellent drumming, incredible atmosphere and catchy memorable lyrics and music that infects your soul and keeps you coming back for more and more. Watain are truly a skilled bunch and unlike most bands they sound like a cohesive unit of hard working dedicated and dynamic musicians that have sworn their souls to the dark.

Even the production is crisp and clean and although some may feel that black metal requires the production qualities of a meat locker with banjos played with toothpicks and ice cream pails with hammers as percussion, Watain lifts a middle finger and laughs in the face of such idiocy. Curiously even as things are clean it by no means sounds like a Dimmu record, it amazingly still sounds black metal the entire way through. This could just be because, again, Watain comes up with some damn clever riffs and they simply know what making great black metal is all about from start to finish.

In the end I guess you either know or you don't. As I already stated I was a late bloomer on the Watain trend wagon or whatever, but as far as I'm concerned this is absolutely supreme music here and you'd have to be, HOLY FUCK is, 'Stellavore' an amazing piece of music! ...Opps, pardon me, having a moment there and really wishing I'd discovered these guys a year earlier so I could have gone to that gig they had around here back in the autumn.

Anyway, I've definitely found a potentially new favorite here and assuming I ever get sick of this record I'll definitely have to try and get my hands on absolutely everything else they've released. Just fantastic, 'Sworn to the Dark' is colossal!

Morbid - Year of the Goat (2011)

2011-07-07T17:21:00.002-05:00

Since the bands formation and demise in the late 80's, Morbid has been recognized as one of the most influential and cult bands to emerge from Sweden's early black/death metal scene. Lead by Per "Dead" Yngve Ohlin, Morbid cut the, 'December Moon' demo in 1987, which helped spark the initial flame within the Swedish underground scene, although Dead quickly departed in '88 and moved to Norway to join Mayhem and ultimately he killed himself in early '91, which more or less increased his cult status to legendary levels. Since those early days tons of bootlegs have been released, which contain the demo as well as various live and rehearsal tracks, however, 'Year of the Goat' is the first official re-release of this material.

Year of the Goat comes housed in a DVD sized slip case box that contains a digibook filled with tons of photos of Dead and Morbid as well as a thorough write up on the bands history, an interview with Slayer Magazine, lyrics and gig information plus, of course, two discs worth of Morbid treasures.

The first disc kicks off with the December Moon demo, which for its time was a highly influential release both in sound, lyrics and visual appeal. Along with other early cult bands of the time, such as, Mayhem, Sarcofago and Bathory, Morbid pretty much set the standard for what black metal would ultimately sound and look like. However since it is just a demo its sloppy, raw and amateurish in its overall execution, yet its just that youthful aggression and early extreme metal sound that makes the whole thing so appealing. Completely remastered here the December Moon demo has never sounded better and for a lot of us this will be our first time to actually own a Morbid release, especially since yours truly was never very keen on paying top dollar for bullshit bootlegs, but I can say when I first heard the demo through Napster years ago the temptation was surely there.

It's a bit hard to describe the demo, but I think a fair way to put it into perspective is if you took equal parts of the first three Bathory albums and mixed them with Teutonic thrashers like Kreator and Sodom as well as Morbid's own pioneering black/death metal characteristics you'll essentially have December Moon. Dead is also well noted for being one of the first individuals to take the stage in corpsepaint and his lyrics (aside from Disgusting Semla) are right on par with what the Norwegians would be cranking out a few years later. Six rehearsal tracks also grace the first disc and while they are a bit more under produced they as well have been remastered and somehow sound dynamic in their delivery. Some of these, 'Deathexecution' & 'Ciththrasher' were never professionally recorded, which is a shame, but they were regularly played live.

During Morbid's brief existence less than ten gigs were played and almost all of them were at youth centers in front of less than 100 people who may or may not have even been metal heads. Disc two contains songs from three separate gigs and as you'd probably guess the songs vary greatly in sound quality and musician performance, but again the whole youthful aggression factor really just takes over here and for a little over and hour I'm once again wishing I could have been a teen living in Stockholm back in the 80's. Its also fun hearing Dead speak to the crowd in-between songs as well as hearing the audiences reception to his words and the bands music. Also I'm quite sure Dead took the evil ideas behind Morbid very seriously, but when I listen to these songs it just sounds like a bunch of kids having a good time, which is great, but its just unfortunate to think how grim things would soon get for this youngster.

Going back to the layout its quite interesting reading the booklet since it reveals a lot of facts about the band that I never knew about, such as the planed reunion in '89 as well as the 7" LP that was to be recorded and Dead's desire to move back to Sweden and attend art school, but ultimately all of that fell through due to his growing depressing in Norway.

In the end its unfortunate that the reunion never happened, because it really would have been interesting to see the band record that 7" or a full-length album. Of course the remaining members went onto bands like Nihilist/Entombed, Murder Squad and The Sun so the talent was obviously there, and had these guys not split up the Swedish scene may very well have turned out completely different. Morbid played before genre terms like Death Metal or Black Metal even existed and as such the band never got much recognition during their short time together, but at least now we finally have these old treasures to enjoy and to remember a time now long gone.

Neige et Noirceur - La Seigneurie Des Loups (2010)

2011-06-28T17:44:00.002-05:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Something seriously freakin' amazing is happening up in Quebec... well, at least as far as Black Metal is concerned. In recent years bands, such as; Forteresse, Gris and Sombres Forêts have released exceptional and original sounding black metal records, which have forced folks worldwide to take notice. Now enter, Neige et Noirceur.

Neige et Noirceur's origins date back to 2005 when the band was formed as the solo project of Zifond in Montreal, Quebec and by the time he released this one, 'La Seigneurie Des Loups' last year he also had a couple demos, singles, splits and of course one other album titled, 'Crépuscule Hivernal sans Fin sur les Terres de la Guerre.'

The bands music could probably best be described as ambient black metal as there's almost always some sort of backing synth arrangement riding alongside all of the blackened chaos. Also much like other bands in this genre the majority of the five songs are over the ten minute mark totaling for forty seven minutes altogether. However Zifond also occasionally includes some folk influences within his raging Norse-ish sounding black metal attack and its here where I think the album only escalates further.

'Croix de feu croix de fer' opens with the sounds of a mouth harp before storming through thirteen minutes of thunderous black metal. I think one of the things you'll quickly notice about this band is that there is a lot going on and you'll have to pay attention because some of its lost in the production. For starters the synths by no means sound typical and just as a point of reference they seem to remind me of the odder synth arrangements found on Enslaved's debut, 'Vikingligr Veldi.' The tremolo styled riffs are exceptional on this song and record in general and when the acoustic guitars occasionally pop up it all blends quite well together. The bass guitar is also noticeably present and it adds an ominous vibe amongst all the bedlam. However what I really enjoy about this record is that the music seems to be rather energetic at times and has a very powerful drive behind it, which at least for me keeps me going and longing to here where things will go from each section to the next.

'Ancien Folklore Québécois' is another stunning piece on this record that blends acoustic music and frantic black metal perfectly, although the folk parts are actually sampled from a traditional Quebecois folk ensemble named, La Bottine Souriante, but its all quite catchy and memorable in the end. '1839' however is a short acoustic piece actually performed by Zifond and I just adore it since it has this timeless quality to it that brings you back to the 19th century during its duration.

Things triumphantly continue onwards with the title track and also longest at sixteen minutes, 'La Seigneurie Des Loups.' Opening with samples of wolves munching and horses whining alongside backing ambiance some heavy doom-ish dominating riffs eventually take hold as the momentum of the ambiance increases and quite soon after the music returns to pure black metal again. This particular one has a lot of what made the opening song so great as well it also features a minor psychedelic-ish vibe to it later on in the song. The samples also continue popping up here and there and it would seem Zifond is fond of using them since they are all over this album. 'Les Plaines De Krolok' is also quite good, although its an almost entirely ambient piece, but it still ends the album on a high note.

The album is not perfection though as I think some parts could have been shortened and made room for an additional song, but what you going to do? Otherwise though I think, 'La Seigneurie Des Loup' is a success and its enough motivation to track down Zifond's other releases as well to continue to follow the stunning Quebecois Black Metal scene.

Carnage - Dark Recollections (1990)

2011-06-26T14:42:00.003-05:00

Carnage, the creation of guitarist Michael Amott was initially formed in Stockholm, Sweden in 1989 as a Carcass styled grindcore band called Global Carnage, but after Dismember's temporary split-up, Fred Estby, Matti Karki and David Blomkuist joined up, the name was shortened to simply Carnage and it was full on Swedish Death Metal from there on.

Recorded in February of 1990, 'Dark Recollections' was the second true Swedish Death Metal album after Entombed's, 'Left Hand Path' and it was originally released as a split CD with, "Hallucinating Anxiety" by Cadaver from Norway and shortly thereafter Earache released it as a stand alone album.

Musically Dark Recollections was a fairly straight forward recording that pretty much emulated the style that Entombed introduced a few months earlier. Recorded as well with Tomas Skogsberg at Sunlight Studios the guitar tone is quite similar although actually a bit heavier overall, the bass is more audible, Matti uses a more guttural vocal delivery and the bands drive is nearly as stomping as Entombed yet something seems slightly off.

Overlooking the obvious similarities to Entombed, I think one of the albums weaknesses is that the riffs are just not nearly as dynamic and catchy and the relentless energy that Left Hand Path displayed is not nearly as present here. Four old Dismember demo songs were also re-recorded for this album and although they are quite good I've heard folks say that the original demos actually topple Carnage's re-recordings. Also there are some grindy parts to this record where the band just completely blasts away without any real point.

Of course if you throw all comparisons out the door or have never heard Left Hand Path then this record could easily be viewed as absolutely one of the best death metal records ever, but really in the end its probably safe to say that Carnage recorded this album prematurely. Perhaps had the band took another year to mature, tighten up and write some truly remarkable songs it could be a lot more than it truly is. Nevertheless it is quite good for what it is and although I haven't owned it very long its been an album I've grabbed and thrown on quite a bit during the past twelve months.

After this album Michael Amott received an offer to join Carcass and this quickly lead to Carnage's demise. It did on the other hand bring about the reunion of Dismember and I suppose we all know well that Dismember went on to record several massively classic Swedish Death Metal albums during the course of the 90's.

Chances are the original pressings of this are hard to come by and expensive too, but Earache re-released it in 2000 with a slightly different cover, remastered sound as well as the, 'Infestation of Evil' & 'The Day Man Lost' demos as bonuses, which was actually during the bands grindcore period, but its interesting to hear these earlier rarities, anyway.

Omnia - Crone of War (2004)

2011-06-22T10:10:00.003-05:00

Every once in awhile, I occasionally drift off and start wondering what life must have been like centuries ago for my long lost ancestors. I can easily admit for years I’ve often wished I could have been born a long time ago. Maybe this seems kind of weird but I’ve always had this strange attachment to ancient times and always had this obsession with medieval times, ancient cultures, their beliefs and their way of life. Maybe this is just due to my excessive viewing of movies set in that time (Braveheart and such), my interest in history or perhaps reading fantasy books and stuff has had some influence on me as well. Whatever the case may be I’ve always felt that I somehow didn’t belong to this current world. As if there’s some ancient person inside of me that is screaming to be awoken, but for some reason just wont fully awake.

Omnia began in 1996 and at one point in time was described as a 'fourteen-person Iron-age Celtic music and combat spectacle group,' which performed at Pagan festivals around Europe. However in time the band was reduced to just two members and in 2002 Steve’s wife Jenny joined the group adding her harp skills. The music of Omnia is a bit hard to fully describe but one thing for sure is that it has this feeling of ancient timelessness to it or just refer to the bands own description, which they call, Neo-Celtic Pagan Folk. Almost like something you’d expect some ancient people to perform around a roaring fire late at night, with lots of dancing, close friends and family singing together and probably a good amount of alcohol as well. I still remember back in 2004 when the kind folks in this band gave me their album I felt that ancient spirit within me awakening a bit more and although I haven't listened to this album much in recent years it is always nice to re-visit it now and again for that good ol' feelin'.

One of the really interesting characteristics of this band is that all of the music is performed on acoustic instruments. So that means no samples, drum machines, or synth was used at all on this album. The album uses dozens of instruments most of which were customized by the band themselves. On, ‘Crone of War’ you can expect to hear instruments like the 33-stringed harp, various drums, various whistles & flutes, bouzouki, guitars, horns, grand piano and amongst those much more. The vocals are generally kept to a minimum, but when they are used they are quite exciting. Usually they are performed in a chant type of way, but there are also some normal vocals and some weirder sounding voices & noises to be heard on this album too.

Probably my two favorite songs on this release are, ‘Morrigan’ & ‘The Bold Fenian Men.’ Morrigan has both its calm relaxing moments with just the flute present, but slowly builds up with some great vocals, fast pounding drums and enfolds into one really epic masterpiece. ‘The Bold Fenian Men’ is a traditional Irish song and it’s basically a rather straightforward folk song. On the other hand it’s quite a beautiful little song with some lovely music and great vocals from Steve present in it. Even though I’ve only talked briefly about two songs here I must admit the album, as a whole is just fantastic from start to finish.

Finally all I can say is I absolutely recommend this album to any and everyone that has any interest in Celtic/Folky type of music. Each song seems to have this ability to completely transport both your mind and body to time of long, long ago. Whence again a time I wish I could see with my own eyes (If Hollywood and books even comes close to portraying it correctly). Plus the album comes in a really beautiful digipak, with great photos and complete with lyrics and descriptions for each of the songs. And not to forget the band also throws in a little humor here and there, which is totally cool in my opinion.

Looking back to 2004 I don't think Omnia was an especially popular band but through their flashy live performances plus several albums since this one it seems they've become quite the well known little band in Europe. I've quite regrettably only heard a few random songs from these other releases, which I might just have to remedy soon since I'm sure they are just as stunning as this early release.

So if you lust for the old times to return or just want to hear some extremely talented and extremely unique music, than I would suggest hearing, ‘Crone of War’ or any of the bands other albums, which I'll just assume are great too.