FAST REVIEW Firtan - Wogen der Trauer

A fast one for the night in lack of anything else. This is an extremely melodic record from some youngsters in Germany. The synthesizer always present and very close in the soundscape of this album, and there are some pagan melodies here and there in this easy digested compote, even though I would have liked more of those and less of the dimmu-bullshit. But, hey! its an alright record in its entirety and well worth a listening if you're into this stuff, pagan scented melodic BM. 

6/11

Best track: Für immer Schweigen

Check them out here:

REVIEW Valkyrja - The Antagonist's Fire

Finally a new album (after almost four fuckin years of slumber and waiting) from one of the lords of swedish black metal together with Ofermod and Watain (if you ask me). The comparison with Watain isn't that far fetch to begin with, the music is vastly in the same vain of the above mentioned band together with the lyrical and imagery themes are close to each others. And to top it all are both bands complete full-length catalogue recorded at the excellent Necromorbus studio by Tore Stjerna which obvious sets a quality mark on the releases. So it isn't that hard to see why these bands often get paired together. But were they differ them self  from each other is in the evolution of the bands, were Watain always seems to be a step ahead and Valkyrja following after (nothing bad about it!!!). But enough said about Watain, this is a Valkyrja review for fuck sake!!! This is a horrifically awesome recording from the first opening riffs of "Betrayal Incarnate" to the last infernal tones of the closing track "Treading the Path of the Predator". I enjoy the whole terrible and interesting journey through the bottomless chasms to the endless darkness of abyss. This album grows on you for every time you hear it, getting higher and higher like the black flame. It has every element that you ask for from a great BM band and all the things you crave!!! Its an extremely rewarding journey to take for all your senses, you don't fucking want to miss this release!!! 

9,5/11

Best track: Madness Redeemer

Check them out here:

https://myspace.com/valkyrjaswe

REVIEW AlNamrood - Jaish AlNamrood

This is something new for this temple (blog) of the devils voice, a band from Saudi Arabia!?! Bands from the middle east isn't something that the scene overflows with directly, especially good ones. I fucking like the music I hear, even though its kind of a guilty pleasure, Maybe its massive amounts of keyboards and the apparent drum machine that makes me feel a little bit ashamed about enjoying it. But fuck, this rerecording of the bands first songs is good as hell!!! The middle eastern influences in the music is done beautifully and still keeping it on some kind of primitive level, and that what's make this band standing out. And don't forget the monotonic shitty drum machine (I always had weakness for drum machines, don't fucking ask why), it works perfectly here, and brings to the whole experience too. Think old Falkenbach butt scrap the viking influences and replace them with middle eaten and you are there. 

8/11

Best track: Atba'a Al-Namrood

Check them out here:

REVIEW Devoted Iota Elusion - Reverence for Cruelty

I have some mixed feelings for this album, i really want to like this shit a lot. It has every potential to be an awesome album with good musical skills and a great atmosphere that you almost can take on. The album starts slowly with a quite long ambient intro that builds up to some classical BM riffs. But it quickly differs from any run of the mill black metal with the moodsetting keyboard in the background. It gets pretty diverse but still clings on the kind of riffs you are used too, and its easy to hear a lot of influences from bands like Burzum and Ulver here. The record brings me pictures of cobwebs covered in dewdrops with a thick fog that embraces the empty fields in the autumn dusk. And thats the best thing with this album, it generates vivid images in your brain filled with sombre solitude. But on the other hand aren't the clean vocals anything to cheer over, they are pretty lame and doesn't add that much to the album, but okey, the work. And the biggest thing, the record makes me quite sleepy if should be honest, some of the atmospheric passages are too long and almost makes me fall into dormancy, but that don't have to be a bad thing, not at all!!! Its a good fucking album to put on late at night to bring you to the right feeling and place to meet the darkness as your eyes closes. 

8,5/11

Best track: The Empyrean Heroine of Despondency and Tribulation

Check them out here:

http://devotediotaelusion.bandcamp.com/

REVIEW Urna - Mors Principium Est

I have to confess before I go any further into this review that I haven't had as much time to listen to this album as it deserves and needs. For this is a extremely complex and hard digested album, but at the same time with its dreadful beauty and atmosphere with the funeral doom elements. This is a album that sends you to hypnosis, to a void between the living and the dead, and its a marvelous journey.  Listening to this ritualistic recording transcends you throughout time and space, to an inimangnal place. Its an impossible task to describe this album and give it any justice in any reasonable way. Just turn down the lights, set fire to some candles and incense and put this near masterpiece on!!!

9,5/11

Best track: Ego sum templum et principium omniae rei

Check them out here:

REVIEW Nekrokrist SS - Der Todesking

Here is something for you dwellers out there who have been longing for some good fucking primitive stuff. Here is a record without no fucking bullshit and frills, its just plain simplistic BM at its essence. The record starts of with a childrens choir singing the classic swedish/finish psalm "Hosianna, Davids son", what a better start can you ask for from this abyssal manifestation?!? This is BM in its pure foundation, with the buzzing razorsharp guitar riffs, the midtempo drums and punk influences, and of course is the influences of Darkthrone more than noticeable, but hey, what the fuck do you expect?!? This is good shit that speaks to you reptile brain without any fancy fucking shit!!!

8/11

Best track: Vala

Check them out here:

http://www.mikseri.net/artists/?id=106548

REVIEW With the End in Mind - EP

This EP is kind of  a interesting release that you probably never heard. This is the kind of arty stuff that the cover sort of show of by it self. I'm usually head over heels for this kind of shit, but here I am little bit split. He really has a lot of interesting elements and idés here, but there are something that don't connect to me all the time, it kind of lacks IT. The terrible gloominess that that drowns your soul in a endless dark abyss, the mood is just not fully here. But don't get me fuckin wrong here, it absolutely ain't a bad release. The demented atmosphere finds its way to you, its getting closer and closer for every minute of listening to this EP. And by the endtrack its damn fucking good!?!

7/11

Best track: Of Myths and Turmoil

Check them out here:

http://withtheendinmind.bandcamp.com/album/ep

REVIEW Carpe Noctem - In Terra Profugus

First thing first, don't get deceived by the banal name of this Icelandic band, the band is far fucking better than the unimaginative name. As a matter of fact they are fucking awesome, this album is like a gift from the chasm below (with maybe a little exaggeration). This is a real fucking marvel of technical BM that are an interesting wormride throughout the whole faulstinking album. They deliver unto us a ably and well played album that almost has a life on its own, with a lot of jazz influences to name a few. I might be a little too positive here now, but i fuckin love every tone that rings out from the sulphurous speakers. And it have the ability to stay interesting no matter how many times I hear it, its so complex, so nightmarish dreamy and terrible beautiful!!!

9,5/11

Best track: Ars Moriendi

Check them out here:

REVIEW Nutrition - Terminus Occultus

At the first glance this release may not stand out as something special, even though the great statue of Moloch on the cover, but the cover give a good clue what this album all are about. The picture is actually from one of the holy grails of conspiracy theorists, Bohemian Grove in California, so its damn easy to understand that this is not your ordinary BM album. Terminus Occultus is all about conspiracies of groups like New World Order, and I must say, I fucking like stuff like this!!! To begin with am I kind of a believer in these things and it even makes the lyrics an interesting listening experience. And I haven't even started talking about the music on this great release. This duo from the states delivers an interesting type of industrial black metal that manage to not get in the common techno trap like many others of this subgenre.  They still keep a lot of the bm essence, mix it with samples a bit of death and industrial without getting it to electronical or clinical. Feed your ears and brains with this shit!!!

8,5/11

Best track: III

Check them out here:

http://nutrition.bandcamp.com/album/terminus-occultus

REVIEW Black Autumn - The Advent October

Autumn maybe a very common name in the genre, but it fits few bands as well as Black Autumn. The music really reminds me of the dark fog covered mornings that the autumn brings with it. With the beautiful landscapes of the dewy moss that embraces every sense. This is your soundtrack to those days when you are out and are wandering spruces, it brings you right there, when you close your eyes. The only bad thing about this EP is the voice, I don't like the style on the vocals at all. They are so uninspiring and in my opinion could they as well just fucked them, for the music on its own is so moodful and mournfully beautiful.

7,5/11

Best track: Dead as Martyrs March

Check them out here:

REVIEW Nahemoth - Novum Testamentum: Evangelium Morti

My first impression of the album were that it kind of sounded like Watain, but that were merely an hasty illusion from my ears and mind. They are not in any way close to the excellent music Watain produces. But don't get me wrong, this is in no way a bad album, rather the opposite. I like what I am hearing here with its kind of melodic and  Dissection odorus BM. From the beginning church bells that sets the mood with some obligated acoustic guitars. There are nothing wrong with the musical actions either, they kind of bring everything you want from this kind of album, with both atmosphere, lyrically and the mixture with both the more calm parts with the echoing melody from the guitar to the more fastpaced parts. Its a good fucking album to sum it all up. Look it up!!!

8,5/11 

Best track: Там, где не помнят Солнца

Check them out here:

https://soundcloud.com/nahemoth218

REVIEW The Ruins of Beverast - Blood Vaults - The Blazing Gospel of Heinrich Kramer

This were a kind of a hard album to review, even though I have listen to it multiple times and dedicated a lot of thoughts on it. This a concept album if you already haven't thought that out?! Its about the old german inquisitor Heinrich Kramer as the album title suggests. So you could call it kind of a epic album, it haves a lot off different parts of music and are astonishingly varied on its gigantic 78 minutes of story telling. Its like a high fiber diet this album, you now its fucking good, but it really takes a long fuckin time to digest, but its bloody worth it!!! There are a lot of appropriate church organs and really good mood setting guitars here that brings you right in front of the bloodstain alter. This is a release you really don't want to miss!!! Give it the fucking time it deserves, for this is a infernal fucking good album!!!

9/11

Best track: A Failed Exorcism

Check them out here:

REVIEW Sangus Legio - Vengeful Brutality

This came out of nowhere like a big fucking punch to the face. With its kickass speed and primitiveness that takes you back to early days of BM with bands like Mayhem (think "Deathcrush"), Sarcofago and Hellhammer in mind. This is a hellrockin demo from the american group Sangus, with a lot of attitude and punk influences that makes it hard to stand still. Its almost like the whole fucking floor is melted magma and you just want to thrash everything in your soundings. This shit is really what its all about, hellraising old school BM that makes the blood pump in every vain.

9/11

Best track: Bone Collector

Check them out here:

http://sangus.bandcamp.com/album/vengeful-brutality

REVIEW Temple of Baal - Verses of Fire

What a fucking colossus of a album, this is a really meaty experience, both with its length and the brutality of the recording. This is not a pure black metal album by any means, (if there even are any of those now a days?!?) there are equal amounts of death metal as there are BM in this darkened chalice. This is usually a mix I do not tend to be crazy about, but this excellent French band there is a different story. They mix them together in almost perfection and still retains the most important from both genres. This is a great album all throughout the whole record with interesting texts, fantastic riffs and that dirty rotten guitar distortion from old school death metal that we all cherish!!!

8,5/11

Best track: Bloodangel

Check them out here:
https://myspace.com/templeofbaal/

REVIEW For Ruin - Ater Angelus

I were a little bit sceptical if I should review this record or not, it kind of falls in the category of melodic easy listening BM (If this even is black metal, butt thats a totally different discussion, that I have no interest in debating right now!) pile. But there were something with this album that stuck with me, like the caress from a leprosy sickened man. The melodies were caught in my head, and I fucking liked the stuff I heard, even though I were a bit ashamed of it. There are really fucking good music here, the songwriting is everything you want from a melodic BM band. The weakest link on the album though is the vocals, I just don't fucking care for them, they are so bland that it could come from any swedish melodic death metal band from the nineties. But other then that, I don't really have anything to complain about, its a good album. Give it a chance if you are in the right mood for some melodic shit, and it happens to be so that I am in that mood right now!!!

7,5/11

Best track: Ad Astra 

Check them out here:

REVIEW Mord'A'Stigmata - Ansia

This I must say is one of the more interesting releases in a long time, delivered to us from one of my favorite BM countries, Poland!!! It absolutely brings something new to the genre without wander to far off into some artistic bullshit, that are just being weird for the weirdness sake. They mix different genres in a almost perfect way, you can even smell some jazz tones here and there, without fucking it all up in a bloody mess. This is indeed an interesting and rewarding listening experience throughout the whole record, crammed with madness, misanthropy, enthralling thoughts and idés that you don't want to fuckin miss. 

9/11

Best track: Praefatio Pro Defunctis

Check them out here:

http://mordastigmata.bandcamp.com/

REVIEW Winterus - Dark Womb

I don't really know why I should recommend you to listen to this album, to begin on a negative note. But on the other left hand, this isn't a bad album in anyway at all. It have a lot of potential to be a good album with a lot of autumn inspired melancholy splashes in the music, and they are potent musicians the whole bunch, thats not the question!?! The problem is that the correct feeling is missing, there are almost nothing here. Its like the skulle of you common politician. The record is a short history that leaves you just as fast as it took to press play. And you are wondering, was that all? what a bloody hell was I listening too? It was not bad in any sense, but was it really any good? It's fucking hard to tell, its just  falls behind the chairs. Anyways, give it a chance and see which side you fall on, if you fall on any namely.

6/11

Best track: Reign Supreme

Check them out here:

REVIEW Bloodmoon - Voidbound

This  album is a fuckin behemoth from the far beyond!!! Its heavy as shit, and hard digested like concrete. I had a real hard time to get a grip on this album, its a quite interesting listening experience I must say. From the chanting choir in the beginning on the album that starts of the beast title track Voidbound thats really the meat of this album.There are a lot of exciting ideas here but it ebbs easy out to plain boredom after a while. And there are a little too much of the doom metal spice here for my opinion, but if thats your shit, you probably like it. To conclude it, It is a rewarding journey for the musical part of your brain if you are in the right mood for some doomsday sounding stuff.

7/11

Best track: Voidbound

Check them out here:

http://bloodmoonslo.bandcamp.com/

REVIEW Shitfucker - Suck Cocks in Hell

I really want to fucking love this record, it have every element that I appreciate in the music I consume. For fucks sake its heavy inspired by early black metal bands like Venom , its rockin'shit'hell metal with a lot of punk influences that makes you wanna grab a whiskey bottle and drink it faster than the speed of hangover diarrhea, and then smash it up your fucking sphincter. This record really have all ingredients to be awesome, but there something missing, and I can't really put my finger on what the hell it is, maybe its just the music writing that don't live up to the other bands in this genre, or I'm just too fucking sober?!? One thing is certain though, I like this shit anyway, and its perfect for you weekend drunks!!! Add to extra points to the score if you are shitfaced!!!

7/11

Best track: Sex Dungeon

Check them out here:

REVIEW Wintercult - The Last Winter

It begins with a sombre cold wind that blows through the frostbitten speakers together with some clean melancholic guitars that sets the mood for this record. You can hear a lot of Burzum influences on this recording, both in the music with its nature inspired grinding hypnotic riffs, and the midtempo drums. And of course in the vocal department with painful screams from the frozen abyss. It feels like you have been locked out from the warmth and safety of your social lodge and left alone in the dark windswept spruce. There are a lot of atmosphere here, even though it has been done thousand times before.  

8/11

Best track: Taedium Vitae

Check them out here:

https://myspace.com/wintercultofficial

REVIEW Thrall - Aokigahara Jukai

This is a hellish awesome recording from the australian band Thrall, and it really took me by fucking surprise like a disease infested corpse rising from the swamp. The band mixes traditional BM with a lot of influences from both punk, rock and post-hardcore in incredibly way which gives the music a grand dimension. You get the feeling that you are rotting away in some godforsaken marsh with parasites and fungus taking over what's left of your mouldering bones. This is a bloody excellent album from the opening track "Longing for Death" that slowly build up the decomposing process to the concluding "Slaves" that ends the album in a high note with its black'n'roll scented riffs.

10/11

Best track: Slaves

Check them out here:

REVIEW Hatul - Widergeist

My first thoughts when I heard this record was; oh great another mediocre BM that brings nothing new and are more like some fucking elevator music, but this recording has more to offer. The problem is however that I can't really put my finger on why I like this shit. Maybe its the grinding frost ridden riffs that guides you through the album in a captivating way with a gritty distortion sound on them. And top that with solid songwriting that don't wander off to far from the classical BM recipe. They definitely have something great going on here.

7/11

Best track: Vom Sturm getrieben

Check them out here:

https://myspace.com/hatulband

REVIEW Throne of Katarsis - The Three Transcendental Keys

This band probably don't need any introduction, or else you have been living under million cubics of volcanic ash. This is the norwegian bands fourth opus, and its really differentiates itself from their previous releases with epic long tracks filled with atmosphere and eerie gloom. With no track under ten minutes and the longest and concluding track clocking in at just over 20 minutes, you get the ide.The agonizing haunting screams commingled with chantings summons this almost excellent release of ritualistic music. 

8/11

Best track: The Second Transcendental Key: Beyond the Specters

Check them out here:

REVIEW Castevet - Obsian

I must confess that I really didn't care much for this record the first times I heard it. I thought it was muddled, confusing and boring, but I can tell ya all, that its anything but fucking dull. Maybe it was the mood I were in, or a complete overload of the complexity of this album that I didn't get then. But this album bloody fuckin grows on you, big time!!! Anyhow am I delighted as hell that I finally understood this great craftsmanship of art. Its crammed with interesting ideas, guitar riffs and tempo changes that are pleasant both for the ear and mind throughout the whole record. From the beginning track "The Tower" to the last tune "The Seat of Severance" that incorporates clean vocals in a very good and moodful way and are a worthy end of this enthralling journey.

9/11

Best track: Fathomed by Beggars and Victims

Check them out here:

http://castevet.bandcamp.com/

REVIEW Cold Cell - Generation Abomination

This is a quite unique case, I can't really put my finger on why I like this release. Yes I'm a little bit fuckin drunk right now, but that doesn't matter. I have heard it many times before and i fuckin appreciate the stuff on this record, but I don't really know why?!!. There is something here that occasionally is really awesome though there are synthesizers and other shit from the third wave of BM. Maybe its the concept that we are just meaningless shells, filled with nothingness, that we are as hollow as a rotten old oak. I like it despite a lot of bullshit here and there. Overall it isn't that bad. 

7/11

Best track: EndZeitGeist

Check them out here:

REVIEW Oranssi Pazuzu - Valonielu

This is a very interesting release that needs many listings to really get a grip on it. If you are in to the scene you probably already know that Oranssi Pazuzu plays a psychedelic variant of bm that really grows on you like a cancer infested tumor, in a good way!? There is so much to explore here in the musical landscape, so you have to listen to the record many times to get equitable judging. So give it time, embrace it, you don't won't to miss a piece like this. This is fucking art, its madness crossed with brillans.

9/11

Best track: Olen aukaissut uuden silmän

Check them out here:

http://www.oranssipazuzu.com/

REVIEW Slegest - Løyndom

This was a real fucking surprise I must say, what a bloody fucking rockin masterful album!!! I have never heard anything about this one man project from Vreids old guitarist Ese before, but I'm almost ecstatic that I  have found them, and now have this marvelous second release pouring through my eardrums. This is really my cup of ceremonial potion, its  filled to its black masses with classical seventies hard rock mixed with the kind of midtempo norwegian black metal you are accustomed too. I have nothing more to say about this fucking awesome Black'n'roll release then turn your speakers to the maximum and put this shit on!!! NOW!!!

10/11

Best track: Løgna sin fiende

Check them out here:

REVIEW Omfalos - Cotton Candy Rendezvous

To begin this is a quite varied album from this brazilian group, and therefore the grade will be accordingly, if I even can grade it in any sense of fairness. There are nothing wrong with the musical talents from this avant-grade duo. There are many highs and lows, with some really fucking boring slow acoustic paths. But on the other hand can they lean to the more moodful parts of the music, so its a fucking hard balance. And some tracks are more like a adrenaline needle in your brain's cortex. But in the end fortunately the highs wins over the fucking untermensch lows most of the times!!! 

8/11

Best track: A Leap Of Faith

Check them out here: 

http://omfalos.bandcamp.com/

REVIEW Blackdeath - Phobos

Here is something as weird as a russian black metal band that sings in the german tongue, and thats absolutly nothing bad about it. The band claims that they play "Apocalyptic Black Metal", and thats probably not so fucking far out. Imagine yourself on a desolated wasteland with nothing than some plague ridden dead plants and a couple of dying chanting mad monks that stroll the razor sharp sand, and you are almost there. 

6/11

Best track: Der letzte Untergang

Check them out here:

http://trueblackdeath.bandcamp.com/album/phobos

FAST REVIEW Sarkom - Doomsday Elite

A fast one for the evening!!! Well produced music from the norwegian band Sarkom, that you probably already heard. Nothing new under the black sun here, but a pretty fucking good record.

Check it out...or fuck it!

7/11

Best track: I utakt med Gud

Check them out here:

REVIEW Stellar Master Elite - II: Destructive Interference Generator

I know what you are thinking, another fucking space inspired black metal record?!? But its merely a coincidence. And don't get fooled by the space theme, there is more on the surface than the magnetic rays. Though there is a presens of the empty space throughout the whole album that mixes classical black metal riffs with newer influences and electronic sounds that most of the time makes a bloody perfect match. The lyrics are much more than your typical space blah blah, They are for instance about intelligence, brainwashing and the "New World Order". This is a record really worth your time both for the music and the texts.

Best track: Pattern of Perception

9/11

Check them out here:

REVIEW Astral Silence - Open Cold Dark Matter

It all starts with an intro that sounds like you are transcending to space. The emptiness and solitude of space is present for out the whole record. You feel the loneliness och harsh grimnes of space from the grinding guitars and the electronic effects. The mixture of space ambiance (even thou in reality it is quiet as mute paralytic in a sealed bag in space) and black metal is almost a perfect combination and brings a suitable mood.

Best Track: Galactika

7/11

Check them out here:
https://myspace.com/astralsilence

REVIEW Noire - Dark Reverence

A melodic black metal album without any unnecessary synthesizers and shit like that from the canadian band Noire. The album is heavily influenced by Dissection with the melodic and cold guitar riffs that feels like the reapers scythe are wielded at you. Ad that together with some acoustic guitars and there you have it. The lyrics are the "standard" black metal texts, nothing that really stands out. But in this case, how the fuck cares?! The music is so bloody fucking good it doesn't matter, and the production is perfect for purpose. Maybe nothing new here, but anyways a surprisingly good release.

Best track: Shadows Rise

8/11

Check them out here: