Posts Tagged ‘Black Metal’

Thantifaxath – Hive Mind Narcosis     

Okay, so I know I’m late. When I received the promo before the release date, I expected I would have this done in short order. Life happens and so does this album. To review this properly, one must spend copious amounts of time, so if you’re not into being patient, then don’t bother with Hive […]

Heimland – Forfedrenes Taarer

Once upon a time in Norway, these guys who loved old school Black Metal got together and formed a band; they called that band Heimland and set out to play the rawest, most feral Black Metal that captures the frozen forests of their native country. Forfedrenes Taarer is the band’s first full-length album after releasing […]

Immortal – War Against All

I do not purport to be an expert on all things Immortal, the long-standing Norwegian Black Metal band, but I do have some interesting things to share, probably more opinions than anything else, before delving into the band’s 10th album, War Against All. Until now I only followed the band from 1992-1996, so that is […]

Kouta  – Kaarnaköydet

Do you ever listen to music from another country and after a bit, you try to sing along? Like, it’s obvious that you don’t know let’s say Finnish; but you hear this song from a Finnish band, and you love the shit out of it and suddenly you think you know Finnish and are fluent […]

Daysidied – The Day the World Died EP

This new wave of Black Metal is a nasty fucker. In some ways it seems like they want to outdo what their predecessors did years ago, to push the envelope as far as they can before the paper rips. I’m here today to talk about Daysidied and their pretty fucking rad EP The Day the […]

Aara – Triade III: Nyx

Switzerland is known for many things.. Celtic Frost, Coroner, Swiss Cheese, Algebra, beautiful Alps and add Aara to the list as they are one of the best atmospheric black metal bands around today. Triade III: Nyx is their fifth album and in their short existence since 2018 they have also released 2 ep’s along with […]

Happy Days – En enfer, j’ai régné

I used to watch Happy Days religiously. Every week my parents and I would be glued to the TV to see what antics those crazy fucks would get into. I mean, they had a fucking band, the Fonz jumped the shark, and every show was wholesome and taught life lessons along the way. Happy Days […]

Lamp of Murmuur – Saturnian Bloodstorm

If you were familiar with Lamp of Murmuur’s previous output, it fell squarely into that lo-fi black metal category we’ve all come to know and love. I’ve listened to a lot of it over the years. Some bands do it to mask that they can’t write good songs. Other bands have the aesthetic and do […]

Sermon – Of Golden Verse

When listening to the latest full-length from Sermon, I am reminded of a few bands. Namely Tool, Enslaved, and Soen. I used to be a huge Tool fan, but now just feel like they believe their shit doesn’t stink. I am still an Enslaved fan, but Soen doesn’t do it for me. Sermon does. This […]

Dawn Ray’d – To Know the Light

If you like the Panopticon sound, but don’t like Austin’s Progressive politics, you’re a dumb shit, but you should also stay clear of Dawn Ray’d and all of their material, including their new one, To Know the Light. Like Fletcher’s genitals in “Liar Liar,” I lean always to the left, so this is no problem […]

Tombstone – To the Existence of Light

My first introduction to Symphonic Black Metal was Cradle of Filth’s Total Fucking Darkness, sent to me by a friend in England who happened to be Dani Filth’s roommate at the time. Small fucking world, right? Anyhoo, when the intro for “The Black Goddess Rises” started I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, mind you, […]

Fryktelig Stoy – Disappointment

I cannot even begin to tell you how many false starts I’ve had with this review due to my ongoing writer’s block. However, when there’s something released that I believe in and know would have an impact if the right ears took a listen, I must push through it. If you didn’t know by now, […]

Sarcoptes – Prayers to Oblivion

War is hell. It has the power to change borders and boundaries, tear nations apart and displace millions at a time. What India’s  Sarcoptes has done with Prayers to Oblivion, is break down five aspects of war to create fifty minutes of thrashing, blackened military insanity. It’s an album that seems daunting at first, the […]

Minenwerfer – Feuerwalze

World War One was, without a doubt, the most brutal war in Military History. In terms of lives lost and concerning the horror of trench warfare, was the battle of the Somme. It’s in those blood-soaked forests and fields that form the setting for Feuerwalze and those trenches where thousands lost their lives. What better […]

Funeral Winds – Stigmata Mali

Funeral Winds has been around for a long fucking time. This makes it a bit daunting to cover a band with a massive discography as theirs (his), whatever. Funeral Winds has been the work of Hellchrist Xul, since 1992. An incredibly talented psychopath, whose heart beats with the elemental rage of 90s Black Metal; his […]

Hate Forest – Innermost

The first time I heard The Ukraine’s Hate Forest was back in the early 2000s. I had found a Russian MP3 site that had Arkona, Nokturnal Mortum, Lucifugum, Astrofaes, and hundreds of other European bands I had never heard of; Hate Forest is one of those bands that I latched onto because with a name […]

Varmia – Prolog EP

The forests of Eastern Europe hold secrets, the landscape wears the scars of battle like badges of honor; trenches and bunkers dot the countryside where years of war have done their worst. This region has contributed numerous bands to the Pagan Black Metal scene over the years, they stand out for their use of traditional […]

Bizarrekult – Den Tapte Krigen

Bizarrekult hail from Norway, but originally was from Russia-go figure?  Starting out in the mid ‘00’s the band went on hiatus a few times and really got their basic start in 2019 with the first EP, but it was in 2021 they released their debut album – Vi overlevde.  I became an instant fan, especially […]

Shroud of Despondency – Air of Abrasion

Okay, first and foremost, hats off to Mr. Teeth of the Divine himself, Erik Thomas, for sending me Shroud of Despondency‘s latest album, Air of Abrasion for review. Having no experience with the band I wasn’t sure what to expect. I damn sure wasn’t expecting from Air of Abrasion to turn out to be one […]

Folkrim – On Foaming Waves

A few years ago I discovered the folk metal genre.  A variety of bands ranging from death to black to cultural and traditional metal were using these influences.  I got hooked, whether bands were using the influence sparingly or full-fledged the variety of sounds became addictive to me and most of all these bands put […]

Aldaaron – Arcane Mountain Cult

Formed in 2004 Aldaaron are legends of the French Black Metal scene. In fact, it’s hard for me to talk about the likes of Deathspell Omega, Anorexia Nervosa or Ad Hominem without mentioning these Grenoble, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes based titans. With their initial full-length Nous Reviendrons Immortels (2010) and follow up Suprême Silence (2012) then nothing for […]

Gevurah – Gehinnom

Canadian record label – Profound Lore Records really likes to have Canadian bands on their label.  I think it’s pretty cool and the label roster is pretty staggering, in terms of the quality of their bands-truly excellent.  Canada’s black metal act Gevurah have been slinging their brutal take on the genre for a little over […]

Hilning – Råtijinn

Hilning is the solo project of former Afgrund vocalist/guitarist, Aldriendir (aka Andreas Baier), and as if you could not tell from the cover art, it’s a radical departure from Afgrund’s savage, Nasum-styled grindcore. Unfortunately, where Afgrund kicked out some pretty goddamn solid material in their 3 album existence from 2007-2012, I’m not sure Aldriendir’s foray […]

Kryptamok – Kataklysmi

The 2020 solo debut, Verisaarna, from Hex Inferi ( ex Horna), was a blistering, icy cold blast of classic black metal in the Marduk-ian realm of relentlessness, with some innate Finnish nastiness thrown in. And while Kataklysmi is not quite as palpably frosty, it delivers much of the same frozen swathes of black metal, maybe […]

Blackbraid – Blackbraid I

Heading into 2022, I had no idea that this was going to wind up being my most heavily anticipated album of the year. Granted, I’d have to have been some kind of all-seeing mage or wizard or whatever, because, until the first day of this year, nobody knew Blackbraid even existed (ok, before someone writes […]