As a chronicler of the vast metal underworld, it is my charge – my burden – to delve deep into sonic realms which are shunned by most mortal ears. Over years of study, I have built up the fortitude, the facility – and, more and more, a growing fascination – with which to endure these [...]

France’s Hypno5e recently stunned experimental metal fans with Des Deux l’une Est l’Autre, a shimmering, pulverizing, kaleidoscopic odyssey of BTBAM-styled insanity. Even with all the dynamics and sprawl packed into the album though, it seems they still have more to say – or at least, they wanted to say it in a different, softer voice.
And [...]

With only 100 copies pressed, I never would have heard about Midnight Odyssey had it not been for TOTD-forum member timshel, who has a bloodhound’s knack for sniffing out obscure, arty avant-garde black metal gems. In this case, it’s a one-man ambient black metal project from Brisbane, Australia that blends the [...]

These days, if you want to find out about a band – or a whole label’s roster – there are plenty of options. Websites, Myspace, streaming e-cards, YouTube, you name it. The days of picking up a compilation are pretty much over. So it was a pleasant surprise to receive Better Undead than Alive 2, [...]

This is why I love this gig. Every month or so, I get a package of random CD promos. Sometimes I know of the bands or the label, but more often than not, it’s yet more mystery discs from the vast reaches of the metal underground. And once in awhile, you wind up with a [...]

Sweden’s In Mourning made a grand entrance into the melodic death/doom arena with their 2008 debut Shrouded Divine. Their even blend of earthy, rumbling doom and agile progressive death drew a lot of comparisons to Finnish heavyweights like Rapture, Swallow the Sun and Insomnium, but they most resembled a more straightforward, less adventurous version of [...]

Italy’s Absentia Lunae bills itself as warlike, hateful avant-garde black metal – yeah, that’s a mouthful, but it’s also pretty accurate. Warlike, definitely – especially with Belphegor’s Blastphemer turning in a blistering and surprisingly technical drum performance. Hateful? Absolutely. Vocalist Ildanach rants, sneers and screams as if he’s gripping and slamming the sides of a [...]

Talk about black sheep. While the rest of their countrymates are content to make a clattery, blastbeating black metal racket, this Bergen, Norway-based act crunch out a mix of groovy doom and gravelly 90s Swedish death. Call it Entombed in ice.
Although A Dark Burial is only Syrach’s third full-length in thirteen years (there was a [...]

When I checked out Urna’s 2006 release Sepulcrum, I was struck at how similar it sounded to Arcana Coelestia’s Ubi Secreta Colunt. Both featured a fusion of funeral doom and black ambient, of cosmic light bleeding through waves of crushing darkness. A quick trip to the Metal Archives cleared up my hunch – they’re both [...]

Arcana Coelestia’s last release, Ubi Secreta Colunt, was one of my favorite discoveries of 2007 – the kind of gem that makes a few hours of web-surfing and shot-in-the-dark downloads worth all the effort. Essentially one long composition, its four tracks delivered an all-consuming experience that blended crushing funeral doom with astral post-rock grace. I [...]

This new Finnish supergroup boasts members of Swallow the Sun, Amorphis, Moonsorrow, Kreator and October Falls. Given that line-up, you know Barren Earth is going to be awash in the lush, soaring melodies and crushing doom-death tones that make Finnish metal so recognizable. That’s convincing enough for me, but the addition of progressive-death structures and [...]

With a name like Semen Datura, you’d expect something filthy, depraved and unpleasantly psychedelic. So I was surprised when opener “Fons et Origo” kicked off with the shimmering, punchy tones of Isis or Burst (and no, it had nothing to do with the mention of Origo – I didn’t have the songtitles in front of [...]

After two excellent splits, UK-based pagan black metal outfit Wodensthrone has delivered one of the most impressive debut albums I’ve heard in years. Grand, savage, epic and beautiful, Loss has not only found itself high on my year-end list, but it’s also quickly become one of my favorite albums in the genre. Much of this has to do with the sweeping songcraft, but it’s the evocative, atmospheric nature of the music that really transports the listener. No surprise, given that these guys take their history, their heritage and their philosophy quite seriously. Read on and you might even learn a few things…

Just as you’re recovering from last year’s Teitanblood assault, here comes The Beast of the Apocalypse to scratch the scabs from your ears and let the blood trickle out anew. A Voice from the Four Horns of the Golden Altar proves once again that you don’t need to use reedy, tremolo guitars and thin production [...]

An interesting fact about trolls: besides lurking under bridges, in forests and on message boards, they’re also able to change their form at will – usually to trick the humans they like to torment. I mention this only because Troll, the Norwegian black metal band started by Nagash (Covenant/The Kovenant, ex-Dimmu Borgir) in 1992, has [...]

Ihsahn’s work has always been forward-thinking and progressive, but its roots have also been easily traceable to that of earlier masters. From the Wagnerian fury of Anthems-era Emperor to the baroque intricacies of Prometheus, The Adversary and angL, it’s obvious that Ihsahn has studied and absorbed classical music and theory in a way that few [...]

Sometimes an evocative band name and a striking piece of cover art is all you need to guess at the music within. No, I’m not talking about your average goregrind album either – anyone can figure that sort of thing out. I’m talking about the more esoteric treasures out there, such as this peculiar release [...]

This is the debut album from these Luxembourg-based thrashers, and at first, Democadencia seems like another rehash of chunky, down-tuned mid ‘00s groove-metal. Devildriver immediately comes to mind. Vocals also stir up some déjà vu – first with the clipped phrasing and bark of Wayne Static (of Static X), and then, in the more melodic [...]

It’s not too surprising that Luxembourg act Le Grand Guignol shares a label with Carach Angren – both play a melodramatic, heavily ornamented style of symphonic black metal that’s sure to send the troo and kvlt into paroxysms of bile-spewing rage. However, where Carach Angren is steeped in horror-movie theatrics – all furious strings and [...]

I caught Rammstein’s first US tour about twelve years ago (before the Family Values tour really introduced them to America), and it was one of the funniest, most entertaining shows I’ve ever seen. Explosions during every song. Dummies lit on fire and flung about on wires above the crowd. Vocalist Till Lindemann stalking around the [...]

For the three of you out there that haven’t yet heard about Brutal Legend, here’s a quick summary. You play as Eddie Riggs (perfectly voiced by Jack Black), a heroic roadie who’s transported into a legendary World of Metal that’s like every Frank Frazetta painting, every Judas Priest album cover and every hot rod magazine [...]

I don’t often put on Meshuggah albums, but I certainly understand the appeal. It’s a sound that’s precise and punishing, at once layered and dense, yet colorless and spare. And its haphazard, violent lurch and bellow demands, focuses, even galvanizes your attention – until suddenly, it doesn’t. Time and time again, my attention always wanders [...]

And the award for ‘Biggest 180 of the Year’ goes to Finland’s Amoral, who I hadn’t heard of until receiving this in my review stack this month. I like to do my research though, and so I found that they used to be a pretty sick melodic/technical death act. Used to be.
With the release of [...]

Just in time for Halloween comes this concept album by Dutch symphonic black metal act Carach Angren. The name is taken from The Silmarillion, although there’s no Tolkien reference in the music. And unlike many symphonic bm acts, there’s none of the usual Satanic nonsense either. Instead, Carach Angren have refreshingly built the album around [...]

Fans of depressive, atmospheric black metal have a lot to be happy about in 2009. So far we’ve seen fantastic releases from all the greats – Blut Aus Nord, Drudkh, Wolves in the Throne Room, as well as shoegaze/black metal newcomers like Fen, Altar of Plagues and Svarti Loghin. And now here comes this stunning [...]