Last year, in our never ending quest for the weirdest black metal ever, we discovered the mysterious and perplexing Emit. And while technically they may in fact be black metal, realistically, they are more of some sort of ambient, ethereal, damaged drone outfit, spewing a deconstructed, abstract whatthefuck crash, clang and creep. Definitely black, but more in mood than sound. Either way, we were totally taken and were super psyched to discover a new record from these freaks, a split with Vrolok, more on them later. On their half of this split, Emit start off the proceedings with all vocals, the first track a soft shimmery swirl of ghostly reverbed vocals, floating and drifting, the second track is more vocals, this time some sort of monkish chant, low and liturgical, over a whirring distant drone. It's only by track three, that any sort of 'metal' becomes evident, but even then, it's metal of the most abstract fucked up kind. A buzzing blasting burst of lo-fi blackness, that starts of blazing but as it forges forward it falls apart more and more, each separate element becoming more distorted and more twisted and tweaked, until it's like listening to Darkthrone on a transistor radio through an endless series of funhouse mirrors. Woah! The rest of the tracks delve deeply into a dark realm of medieval ambient drones, a sort of more damaged Abruptum, with haunting atonal detuned guitars, and creepy tiny monster vocals, occasional bursts of super distorted black buzz and sonic shrapnel, but for the most part, a dizzying onslaught of chaotic creepiness and bizarre blackness.
Vrolok while not nearly as weird as Emit, are definitely a bit more overtly black metal, but are the perfect match for Emit with their furious and fucked up black buzz. From the tumultuous blast of blazing lo-fi blackness of the first track "Hellchoir (Pestilence 1440)", a snarling, squirming riff, tangled up with lightspeed blast beats and buried under all sorts of suffocating sonic sludge, to the weird martial soundscape of "Black Chemical Waltz", a super blown out simple drum beat, amidst swirls of subsonic drones and buzzing weirdness peppered with creepy distorted snatches of found sound and bits of conversation, to the epic blackness of "Inverse Devotion" sounding like a glorious collision between Xasthur and Immortal, albeit recorded on a busted 4-track, to the epic closer "Between The Astral Shades", which starts off as a shimmering creeped out ambient soundscape, turns into what sounds like Bathory recorded in a high school gymnasium, and finally morphs into an ultra distorted seasick black dirge, replete with anguished howls and washed out black drone guitars, the whole thing blurring into a glorious blackened dronedrenched waltz.
More absolutely essential bizarre blackness for sure!
The most highly-anticipated black metal album of the summer. You already know that, and you want it, right? Otherwise, what can we say... Emperor is pretty much THE black metal band of the 90's, unsurpassed at what they do, despite their legions of imitators, and this disc not only meets our expections but exceeds them. Formerly on Century Black, now a Candlelight reissue with bonus tracks.
While the Century Black domestic edition included as a bonus the songs & cd-rom video from their import "Reverence" ep, this newer reissue includes the same three ep tracks plus live footage from 1997-98 and an interview on a Finnish television program.
The live intensity of Norwegian black metal standard-bearers Emperor captured on disc, from a show at London's Astoria theatre (the same show featured in the video of the same name, of course). This is probably a better investment than the video version, however, 'cause let's face it, it's the music that rules, not Emperor's rather static and grimfaced stage "act." Good sound, and a great selection of songs from all three proper Emperor albums. With Charmand Grimloch (Tartaros) on keyboards and Tyr on bass, plus the Emperor core of guitarist/vocalist Ihsahn and guitarist Samoth, and drummer Trym. Includes a cd-rom track with the video to "I Am The Black Wizards" as well as Emperor screensavers! Hmm. Screensavers aren't very evil. Maybe t-shirts are a little evil, but a screensaver!? Better yet, why not an Emperor computer virus? If you get any email with the subject line "Curse You All Men!" DON'T OPEN IT!
Kneel and worship. No, seriously, they're not called Emperor for nothing. These Norwegians strike yet again with an amazing, state-of-the-art black metal masterpiece. Fans of the genre won't have read this far, they're already down here at Aquarius buying it. But the obligatory description is thus: Emperor remain just as progressive and epic as they were on their prior album, adding some amazing King Diamondesque screams (go, Ihsahn!) and a bushel of death metal brutality...making for an album that pretty much defines the word "killer".
A landmark Scandinavian Black Metal album essential to any good Satanist's collection. The forward impetus of this album is incredible, as the majestic keyboards, rasping cries, and pummelling drums all sweep together like a freezing, evil wave carrying pagan Viking longboats across the North seas to attack and pillage Christian lands. Like opera music for howling wolves. A Nordic church-burning classic. Formerly on Century Black, now a Candlelight reissue with bonus tracks.
Norwegian black metal emperors Ihsahn, Samoth and Trym are back with what's billed as their latest and greatest achievement in a career of evil that's second to none. And by latest we also mean last: supposedly this is their final album, ever, sob. And so
This is the inevitable 'greatest hits' collection from the undisputed masters of hyper-technical, super proggy, grim and frosty Norwegian black metal EMPEROR!! Disc one is heavy on the covers as almost half is culled from tributes to Darkthrone, Mercyful Fate, Mayhem, etc... and is filled out with EP tracks and a few tracks from the amazing Thorns Vs. Emperor album. Disc two is all album tracks spanning their whole career. There's nothing here unreleased. About as "rare" as it gets is an Ulver remix that was a bonus track from the limited version of IX Equilibrium. So consequently, there's not much essential here for those of you who have been loyal subjects from day one, but definitely a great introduction for the uninitiated.
Random note: The disc comes with the official Emperor merchandise catalog and holy shit! No less than 8 cds, 1 DVD, 7 posters, 20 shirts, 12 badges, 2 knit caps, 2 baseball hats, 1 jacket, 1 patch, 1 mouse pad and 1 silver pendant!! Phew.
MPEG Download: "Curse You All Men!" [/audio/emperorcurse.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Curse You All Men!" [/audio/emperorcurse.m3u]
Another killer tape of weird black metal buzz. This time it's Australia's Empire Of Hate and US black metal horde Morthond (not to be confused with the Cold Meat Industry Morthond).
Empire Of Hate whip up a black storm of relentlessly buzzing guitars, stumbling blasting drums, and some truly tortured vocals. Harsh glass gargling howls that dip into death metal gargles as well as the occasional hysterical shriek. The production is perfectly murky, a depressive suffocating crush, perfectly suited to the hellish buzz and inhuman howls.
Morthond counter with their own brutal black burst, channelling the raw trancelike sound of early Burzum and classic Darkthrone. Some mournful keyboards and whispering winter winds lead us into their wintry world. Mournful melodies give way to murky black buzz, galloping drums, everything drenched in reverb, a furious classic blast of vintage Norwegian style blackness. So good.
Awesome high school binder cover art, with a scary tree and a rabid dog or wolf and a dead body that kind of looks looks like a magic marker version of Munch's The Scream...
All-acoustic, gloomy folk music from this German "black metal" band, who have abandoned the raspy vocals and distorted electric buzzsaw guitars of their previous releases (we're guessing, haven't heard 'em) for mournful string strum and doleful chant. Allan thinks this is beautiful, Andee considers it 'renaissance faire metal' without the metal. For fans of "Kveldsjanger", the acoustic masterpiece by Norwegian black metal eccentrics Ulver (I'm guessing that Empyrium are). And, c'mon, how can you resist a song (and album) title like "Where At Night The Wood Grouse Plays"??
The guys in Enbilulugugal have been sending us cd-r's for a while now. Each one a perfectly putrid blackened slab of black metal drenched in full on NOIZE. Buzzing and snarling and speaker-melting white noise brutality that ended up falling way more on the noise side of things, with riffs subsumed by huge washes of scalding electronic fuzz, and any semblance of songcraft, dropped kicking and screaming into the fiery pit. On this latest cd-r, their first 'official' release, Enbilulugugal have finally harnassed their two sides, the confrontational head smashing noise side, and their troo, grim, cult BM side, and have somehow managed to put it all together into a crushing face-melting blast of ultragrim blacknoize, equal parts brutal lo-fi black metal, Whitehouse style pummel, and Faxed Head fuckedupness. Killer riffs collide with bizarre tape drop outs, howling demonic vox come screaming from dense clouds of Merzbow worthy analog skree, blastbeats become so distorted they sound like your speakers are malfunctioning. On top of all that they heap plenty of forest sounds (wind, owls, etc... ), demonic laughter, blooping bleeping damaged electronics, fucked up effects, and about a hundred extra layers of grime and girt and fuzz. Imagine Darkthrone circa Transylvanian Hunger, with Merzbow on lead guitar, Masonna on drums, and a steam locomotive on bass, remixed by Alec Empire, and you wouldn't even be close!
Oh man, have we been waiting for this. Been ages since we heard from the mighty Enbilulugugal, and who better to share a split with those blacknoize freaks, than redneck black metallers Blood Cult?
So yeah, Blood Cult first, who we've raved about in the past, from Illinois, with a singer who moonlights as a country singer, who are seriously twisted and whose sound is like classic Scandinavian black metal, run through the raw primitive scum of Von, and then peppered with all sorts of weirdness, samples, clean guitars, catchy melodies, strange falsetto vocals, and whatever weird shit they can cram into a song.
Their half of the split starts off with some strange movie samples, than then explodes into what sounds like some furious grindcore before the band inject some strange spidery post rocky guitars, some haunting childlike vocals, and then more samples. But then the next track drops and it's as serious as all get out, dark and buzzy, with an incredible main hook, the riff churning, the drums blasting, but it's Blood Cult, so there's some weird twangy breakdown in the middle, that sounds a bit like the Butthole Surfers! The track after that is all strange keyboards and tribal drumming, mysterious vocals, the sound almost new wave, and a bit surfy. Later on they totally steal a Fleetwood Mac riff and blacken it all up. What the fuck? These guys are so amazing. Anyone who slept on We Who Walk Behind The Rows, the last BC full length needs to get into these guys. So fucked up and bizarre and heavy and genius. In fact, what the heck, we'll relist that record so check elsewhere on this list and if you don't own it already, do the right thing! You won't regret it.
But Blood Cult are only fucked up and demented sounding when they're NOT up against Enbilulugugal, who are indeed, one of the most freaky and damaged sounding black metal bands EVER. Think Faxed Head if they were black metal, and you might be getting close. Most of what they do is only barely black metal, instead it's like noise, and Butthole Surfers, and fucked up punk rock, and blacknoize, and D-beat and grindcore all tangled up into one seriously confusional chunk of blackened noise drenched whatthefuck.
Guitars buzz maniacally, shrieking hysterical vocals draped over everything, tons of sample and film clips, wild chaotic drumming, their sound slipping from punkish ultra raw pound to, chunky eighties style metal, to freaked out grind, to total damaged noise. Lo-fi, and accidentally experimental, the vocals totally remind us of Dr. Rockzo, the rock and roll clown from Metalocalypse, which is a VERY good thing. We always talk about how we're constantly on the search for the most retarded, fucked up, demented and bizarre black metal, but bands like Enbilulugugal (are there bands like Enbilulugugal) pretty much ruin the curve.
As always awesome high school rock binder, seventies van black metal cover art, and as always, we say YOU NEED THIS.
Yeah, there's a lot of black metal bands out there, guys running around in corpse paint, drawing indecipherable logos, and posing for photos with burning things. Why should you pay attention? 'Cause if you didn't, you might never know about some really really great bands, like this one, End, from Greece. Their black metal is, in a word, supreme. It's a fuzzed out frenzy of buzzing, blasting riffs and atmosphere, perfectly complimented by the disc's beautiful black and white and grey watercolor artwork. For fans of Weakling, Eikenskaden, Khold, Satyricon, and Burzum -- which means basically, if you like black metal, you want this! Actually, forget black metal for a second. If the idea of speaker-threatening fuzz-dirge loping from your stereo appeals to you, then you still want this. This second End record is as good as their first. Get it.
It's been more than 6 years since we last heard from Greece's End, whose last record, entitled of course II, we described thusly: "For fans of Weakling, Eikenskaden, Khold, Satyricon, and Burzum - which means basically, if you like black metal, you want this! Actually, forget black metal for a second. If the idea of speaker-threatening fuzz-dirge loping from your stereo appeals to you, then you still want this."
Which heck, still holds true with this most recent disc, the only difference being that the sound is a bit more polished, a bit tighter. Whereas the first two End records were pretty raw, III finds End taking their raw buzz and furious blast and adding some heft, and a bit of groove. For every explosive face-melting soul-shearing burst of frenetic grinding black fury, there's some lurching, loping doomic dirge, often slipping into gorgeous spidery drifts, or drifting toward something much more post rocky than black metal, there's still plenty of acoustic guitar, but instead of peeling back all the other instruments, the buzzing steel strings are woven into the buzzing blackness, adding another woozy almost folky dimension.
And the mention of Khold in the old review is even more applicable now, and heck Code too, as this new End, spends much of its time droning dramatically, or in cool mathy gnarled bits of Deathspell-ed crunch, with lots of stop starts, dizzying arpeggiated guitars, warped almost gothic sounding breakdowns, soaring melodies all over the place, weirdly technical, and dramatic, and emotional, there seems to be a new wave of avant post black metal, and End seemed to have tapped into it, and perfectly fused it with their classic Greek blackness. III seems to be another one of those records that benefits from repeated listens, the poppiness and sonic mystery that pervades pretty much every song, seem to no longer lurk in the background, instead, driving these songs and defining End's awesome new sound.
Packaged in a super deluxe 6 panel digipak, with a big booklet, and some seriously gorgeous (and scary) black and white artwork.
These Greek guys just aren't happy about being a part of the human race. The grim, blasting, uber-distorto black metal musick they make is evidence of that, without one even needing to read the lyrics to such songs as "Pitiless Paranormal Reek" and "Humanitarianism". Pure nihilistic poetry. And even if you, like me, like being human, we all sometimes feel a little bit of what these guys feel, right? Anyway, we're happy they feel the way they do if only 'cause of the great music that they make as a result. If you like the droning distortion of such great acts as Burzum, Weakling, and Eikenskaden you'll want to experience End for sure. But, their metal has moments of quiet, too, with good use of synth and acoustic guitar and even what must be field recordings or at least pseudo field recordings (from the forest, of the sky?). RecommENDed. Oh, and we also must applaud End's record label for the following statement: "NOTICE ISO666 Releases support CD-R copying. We encourage anyone that cant afford to buy our releases to burn a copy from a friend. Let the music be spread. We are against to all labels that lock their releases to prevent copying."
We've long been fans of LA's retro black thrashers Lightning Swords Of Death, we'll get their record reviewed one of these days. But recently we've become even more obsessed with LSOD guitarist Roskva's other outfit, the much blacker and buzzier Endless Blizzard, who channel classic Norwegian style BM (we assume the Blizzard in their name is an homage to the original Blizzard Beasts, Immortal) through more traditional classic metal, with lots of prog going on as well, which you know we love. Heck, they even begin the record with their own interpretation of a classic Popol Vuh Track!
But at their heart (of winter), they are a blasting grim war metal beast, offering up epic majestic riffage, furious blasting beats, intricate melodies, killer hooks, and awesome shrieking vokills.
Most of the tracks are blackened juggernauts, roiling and relentless, but the record is peppered with unexpected sounds, the haunting liturgical organs of "Luciferian Crown" complete with soaring strings and mysterious chanted vocals, the looped medieval folk of "Under The Tranhelm", a totally mesmerizing stretch of mysterious buzz and moody melody, and the epic two part final track, "Buried Still Breathing / Remember Your Death", which begins with a whirring warbly organ, playing out a minor key melody, lots of wheeze and buzz, almost like some sort of bagpipe style raga, before shifting into a plodding doom drift, heavy on the buzzing synths, which shift into some deep minimal dronemusic, before acoustic guitars join in and allow the track to unwind dreamily.
But it's not just the weird bits that make this so good. The tracks, beyond being buzzy and heavy and complex, are also catchy as hell, blending classic eighties style metal with more modern black buzz, the riffs and melodies sticking in your head like crazy.
One of our new favorites BM records for sure!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The second of two "Endless" black metal bands on this week's list. While the other Endless (Blizzard) channels the spirit of classic Norwegian blackness, this Endless (Dismal Moan), finds his inspiration somewhere much darker and way more fucked up. This is record number three from Japan's Endless Dismal Moan (aka EDM) and is another glorious blast of gnarled dissonance and off kilter metallic blackness. The work of a single entity, curiously named CHAOS9, EDM traffic in super repetitive trance like black metal, grinding buzzed out riffs, convoluted and obtuse, locked into mesmerizing loops, the tracks repetitive and hypnotic. The vocals are a maniacal shriek way down in the mix, the drums not always blasting, sometimes pounding out strange stuttery rhythms alongside the riffs, and it's all about the riffs, thick and massive and jagged, sometimes everything locks into super precise stop start dynamics, before exploding again into buzzing black chaos.
It's sort of hard to explain the sound of EDM, it's like the intro or a bridge of a traditional black metal track, all twisted up and stretched out into a whole song, super droney and woozy and tripped out and dizzyingly dense. There are a few brief respites, some Goblin-y horror movie keyboards, some creepy doomy almost industrial blackened crunch, bits of cinematic black ambience, a long loopscape of still more Italian horror movie style synths and weird machinelike rhythms, and the final track, a blissy almost shoegaze-y abstract drift, drums dense with reverb, the barely there melodies drifting in a sea of soft hiss and blurred muted buzz, which just barely balances the furious fractured blackness that makes up the rest of the record.
Yet another disc of essential fucked up blackened genius! TOTALLY recommended.
Finally managed to get our hands on a few copies of the 2014 debut from this Japanese
'Catastrophic Noise Metal' band, newly reissued on domestic vinyl by our pals at Hydra Head, and holy shit, this is some crazy, noisy, confusional, brilliant stuff. And as always, a Japanese band takes a sound and transforms it into something completely next level and bafflingly over the top. Although in this case, it's like Endon took the music of ten different bands, and mashed it all together into one swirling chaotic metal mess. And it's glorious. It's like Boris crossed with Melt Banana crossed with Unholy Grave then run through a battery of damaged stomp boxes, adding all manner of industrial crunch and crumble, tripped out backwards FX, echo drenched vocals, the sound seems to be anchored by some unholy grindcore/black metal hybrid, furious blasting beats and frenzied riffing, but depending on the song, it can sound grim and black, or totally nutzoid and super psychedelic. The sound also can collapse into a sprawl of end-of-song noise, but sculpted into dense swirls of drones, freaked out blasts of feral hardcore can suddenly splinter into abstract electronics, demented ambience drifts through fields of chaotic noise-jazz-splatter, death metal vokills, doomy decay riffage, again all blended up into a dizzyingly WTF? sonic concoction. It's exhausting, but utterly exhilarating, and for anyone who grew up listening to the Boredoms, and Hanatarash, and the Ruins, and Space Streakings, and Boris obviously (Atsuo from Boris produced this record btw), this seems like a (il)logical metallic, sonic extension of all that wild and wooly weirdness.
We got VERY few copies of this, and while we should be able to get more, probably best to grab one quick, or be prepared to wait patiently as we try to restock.
This is the first we've heard from these Italian ambient black metallers, but like many of the bands on Dusktone, they definitely traffic in a strain of post black metal that we dig big time. Fusing clean guitar strum, shoegazey shimmer, and minor key melancholy, with blasting beats, harsh vokills, and buzzing riffage. And again like so many of those bands, even when they're at their heaviest, the sound is still a little washed out, tracks like "Samoht Nara" only black metal by merit of the vocals, otherwise, they almost sound like Swervedriver, and they don't shy away from acoustic guitars, or wistful melodies, thankfully, the bulk of the record finds them taking that wistfulness and melancholy, and wrapping it all up in spiky shards of blackened buzzing bombast, conjuring up a sound that's at once both black and brutal, bleak and beautiful.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Five songs of hellish blasphemy from this Scandinavian black metal brigade, including one with lyrics by the Great Beast himself, Aleister Crowley... Amid the continuing influx of run of the mill, second rate black metal, this actually stands out as having both musical hooks and a convincingly evil atmosphere.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
The third and final installment in this Finnish black metal band's "Telocvovim" series (whatever that means). Enochian Crescent aren't yet a big name in the scene, but they should be. This album destroys. For fans of Satyricon, Keep of Kalessin, and the like.
We've been trying to get ANYTHING by this band, this GUY actually. A seriously sick drummer (he's been featured on SickDrummer.Com multiple times), the awesomely monickered Bornyhake, not only drums up a fucking storm, he also handles all the other instruments as well. Enoid is his one man band, but so is Borgne, and beyond that, he plays in 5 or 6 other bands, from doom to grind, but it's extreme blackness where he really excels. We'll keep trying to get some Borgne for the store, but for now at least we can extol the radness that is Enoid.
Right out of the gate, Ataraxiis explodes in a frenzy of blizzardy beastliness, furious and frenzied and frantic, soaring melodies, drumming so fast, we're thinking it might even have to be a drum machine, or he really IS a sick drummer, and while he may be Swiss, the sound is definitely Nordic, or Swedish, think 1349, or Marduk, Immortal or Satyricon even, this is super intense frostbitten blackness, relentless, sometimes the tracks breakdown into lurching grooves or pounding doom, but those moments are fleeting, it's never long before Enoid launches back into more seriously blasting black grimness. Brutal and kult, soul flaying heaviness that is definitely not for the meek. If you like it frosty and fast, grim and black, you probably can't do much better (or blacker) than this!
Another blast of furious blasting blackened sickness from Swiss one man horde Enoid, masterminded by Bornyhake, who also does time in the equally awesome Borgne. We reviewed the Enoid full length Ataraxiis a few lists back, and Suicide Genocide takes up right where that one left off, furious and frantically blasting black metal, Norwegian style, and yeah, he's Swiss, but the sound is classic Scandinavian black metal, the riffs epic and soaring, the drumming brutal and lightning speed, the vocals demonic and bile spewing, the buzz cranked WAY up, the tracks dense and complex lurching from maniacal frenzied blasting, to sludge-y doomic pounding to weirdly melodic, often all those elements colliding midsong. And he's not just a killer player, he's capable of crafting some pretty excellent songs too, hidden amidst all that gnarled blackness and buzz drenched blast, lurk plenty of hooks, subtle perhaps, but there nonetheless infusing this filth with a vibe that keeps it from being just another slab of grim black whatever.
What is it about the Swiss, it's hard to pinpoint, but we're becoming mildly obsessed with bands from Switzerland, Paysage D'Hiver, Darkspace, Wacht, Ordo Infandorum Rituum Occultus (both reviewed elsewhere on this list), Sun Of The Blind, Borgne, and yeah, like the Ukraine, it's probably all the same 4 or 5 guys, but who cares, they've tapped into something, that's positioning Switzerland to give France and Norway And heck, the Ukraine a run for their black metal money.
There aren't a whole lot of grim black metal hordes who call Indiana home as far as we know. In fact we can't think of any, other than this here trio, Ensepulchred. But these guys don't really sound like they're from Indiana at all. In fact they don't really even sound like they're from Norway. Or Sweden, Or Finland, Or any other nation of renowned musical blackness. They sound a whole lot more like they're from Italy, and from the mid seventies. Where they spend all their time wandering in fog shrouded graveyards, lurking in crumbling old cathedrals, terrorizing nightgown clad boarding school girls, digging up dead bodies, AND SCORING IMAGINARY SEVENTIES BLACK METAL ITALIAN HORROR MOVIES!!
Ensepulchred weave their buzzing blackness from thick walls of horror-movie synth, so much so in fact that most of the time, we're hard pressed to hear any guitar at all. Little bits of buzz here and there, but the riffs are mostly handled by keyboards. A creepy midnight world of gauzy, dramatic and cinematic Goblin like sweeps and swells, over simple programmed beats, howled harsh vocals, the melodies haunting and minor key, evoking all sorts of chilling atmospheres and blood curdling ambience. Suicide In Winter's Moonlight indeed. Dark depressive, doomy, but eyes closed, this is the sound of some misty moor, some darkened castle, a haunted bog, the world painted red with blood, the air alive with the terrified screams of dying virgins, the rattle of bones and the whispering wind, the sound of death, and dying, of misery and hopelessness, the sound of panic and mayhem and terror and horror. Ever wonder what a black metal Goblin might sound like... Or if Argento had Nortt or Xasthur score Suspiria...
Hail! Our favorite Viking black metal band is back again, with another tour-de-force, their 11th full-length album. A long way from where they started with their first teenaged demo back in 1991, and amazingly still totally kicking ass, artistically and otherwise (unlike a lot of their contemporaries from the '90s Norwegian black metal scene who have definitely fallen off). Nowadays, Enslaved play "Viking Metal" as if Vikings grew up listening to tons of '70s prog rock like King Crimson, Yes, and Pink Floyd. They've been sailing their longboats in that direction for quite a while, on such great releases as Monumension, Isa, and Below The Lights. And their previous album, Vertebrae, was probably their spaciest, most Floydian excursion yet. If you were on board for that one, you should like new one this too, which while of course quite proggy, seems heavier and more fearsome sounding than the relatively mellow Vertebrae. "Clean" melodic vocals are still present, confidently so, along with plenty of nasty blackened raspy vokills of course. The clean singing towards the end of opener "Ethica Odini" might throw the unexpectant listener for a Radiohead/Muse styled loop, but as majestically "poppy" as it gets there, Enslaved maintain an equally extreme allegiance to the metal side of the equation elsewhere in the same song. So it goes throughout the record, with memorable melodies languidly adjacent to uptempo aggressive outbursts, the ardently experimental Enslaved juggling jagged orchestration, jazzy chords, complex rhythms, lush symphonics, atmospheric ambience (the lulling droney soundscape of "Axioma"), and straight-up metal mayhem. Somehow the sudden sonic shifts are accomplished oh so smoothly, so this disc is simultaneously speedy and haunting. While fire and steel are part of their arsenal, these Vikings also know how to conquer with catchiness!
Norway's Enslaved are by now established as being at the top of the black metal heap, a band from which you can expect nothing less than sheer brilliance. As such, it's hard to write a review that doesn't simply revisit all the superlatives we've already applied to their previous releases. So we won't even try with this, their seventh full-length album, other than to say it's great and you should buy one! ...well okay, here's a little bit about what it sounds like:
A lot like previous album "Monumension" and the one before that, AQ-Record-of-the-Week "Mardraum"! Though, the lineup is a little different -- this marks the first appearance of new lead guitarist Arve Isdal (replacing Roy Kronheim). Longtime drummer Dirge Rep does play on this, but has since left the band. But anyway, more of the same in Enslaved terms is not a bad thing. Basically, they're in a similar situation career-wise as fellow metal masterminds Opeth. Can they get any better? You know what, they just don't need to! And also just like Opeth, Enslaved are brilliant at making juxtapostions of melody and heaviness (spacey psychedelic Pink Floyd interludes vs. raging thrash, clean singing/chant vs. death growls and screams).
For instance, in the very first track, you get the pairing of a slow, melancholy, even sappily beautiful guitar solo by Ivar with lower-than-low death metal belches and furious drums. The next song concentrates on utter metal ripping but also incorporates electronic embellishments that could have wandered in from a Radiohead album, and is followed by the disarming acoustic intro to the pummelling and majestic track three, a song which demonstrates Enslaved's command of heavy 'post rock' a la Isis. Total Kinski/Godspeed might mixed with andrenalized, angular riffing. The Fucking Champs doing spacerock maybe? Yet another track begins with some fruity leftfield chamber jazz/prog (w/ flutes!) to make you doublecheck your stereo, before the metal soars into view again, tumultous and epic. After that, martial progressive rock drumming is backed by a heathen choir.
Yet to me, the key to Enslaved's appeal is that, however weird they get, they always keep it kind of simple too, never losing sight of the rock n' roll imperative. So unlike, say, the last Emperor album, with all its jazz fusion parts and circusy convolutions, you can still definitely rock out to Enslaved. Avant art rock with Viking majesty and headbanging energy -- no wonder they're Allan's favorite black metal band!
MPEG Download: "As Fire Swept Clean The Earth" [/audio/enslavedasfire.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "As Fire Swept Clean The Earth" [/audio/enslavedasfire.m3u]
Another dose of Viking metal mayhem from these artistically aggressive Norwegians, who rank up there with countrymen Emperor in the pantheon of modern day black metal. A brilliant band, combining the epic and avant-garde with violent thrash fervor. The best band ever that has made a practice of wearing tights and tunics. This one is dense and violent, less spaciously psychedelic than some of their other recent records.
Allan and Andee's personal favorite album from these Viking metallers!! Epic, violent genius.
An early masterpiece from Enslaved, one of the top Viking black metal outfits ever.
Gosh, we're rarely as, um, anticipant (is that a word?) of a new album release by a metal band as we are of anything new by Norway's Enslaved! Pant, pant, pant. And this new album from them, Isa, really got us worked up waiting for it, as an European version was released towards the end of last year but we never were able to buy, beg or steal import copies of it -- although we did get a handful of the vinyl pressing, now gone. But, those extra few months of waiting was worth it, as this domestic cd version boasts some bonus cd-rom footage: the video for the title track, and a twenty minute band interview. Patience pays off. So why were we so excitedly anticipant about this you may ask? Well Enslaved have always been a band who've been adept at pushing all of AQ's buttons (in a good way, that is). There's the old-school Nordic black metal button (which Enslaved, who's first release was a split with Emperor, has no trouble pushing, and here they get guest throats Abbath from Immortal and Nocturno Culto from Darkthrone to apply extra force). There's the epic Floydian psych button. The mood-shattering dynamics button. The Viking tunic and tights button. The avant-garde '70s keyboard-laden prog button. The leather and spikes rock n' roll button. Even the vaguely jazz-fusiony guitar soloing button. The so many buttons button. Now, to be sure, their various records (this is number eight, or so) push these buttons and others in various combinations. At first listen to any of their albums, we often think, hmm, is this working for us? And always it does. Isa is no exception. It continues in what we might call the Opethian progression of recent Enslaved efforts like Monumension and Below The Lights, away from the pure speed and violence of such earlier albums as Frost and Blodheim, but all the polished parts and techy time-changes and such are always offset by a stab at that blackened Norwegian nastiness button, y'know? Jarring yet repetitive riffage coexists here with some clean, Michael Gira style crooning, and droning metal blur, Geiger-counter drumming, and majestic minor-key melody: an art-rock cruise ship rammed and boarded by a Viking longboat. Even with new members (Dirge Rep's replacement on the drum stool is the guy from Red Harvest, we think) and hence new directions, Enslaved have crafted an album that's definitely a progressive part of their now hallowed legacy, replete with menace and grandeur. Too soon yet to tell if this is pushing ALL the same buttons as the godly Mardraum (an AQ Record of the Week once upon a time), or Eld, or Below The Lights but that's what those records are for, anyway. Time for them later, here at last is the NEW Enslaved, so let's let it let us enjoy it!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Whoa! I thought that Weakling's "Dead As Dreams" was gonna be the uncontested "Black Metal Record of the Year" until I heard this, the new album from Norwegian Viking-metallers Enslaved. Now Weakling has some competition! "Mardraum" ("Nightmare") is probably Enslaved's best record to date, no mean feat considering that their "Frost" and "Eld" albums are two of the best Nordic black metal discs ever, in AQ's humble opinion. This new album somehow combines the violent and epic qualities of Enslaved's past works with what can only be considered (despite our dislike, and over-use, of the term) a 'post-rock' sensibility. And, on top of that, there's a full on ROCK element at work here too. During the very first track ("Larger Than Time -- Heavier Than Night") you'll swear that (despite the very metal attack) you can hear in the droning guitar harmonies and mathy drumming the post-rock of a Codeine or A Minor Forest! Enslaved have created a new, multi-layered complexified psych-metal, mixing dangerous speed with slow doom epic majesty (the waves pounding on shore during the Viking longboat raid)...then, amid all this beauty and brutality, they'll go and whip out some leather-clad, almost-punk rock n' roll riffing that's just as foreign to the black metal template as the 'post-rock' aspect just discussed. Not that any of this seems purposefully jarring or ill-fitting (or Mr. Bungle-like) -- it seems quite natural, more artful than artsy. Another example: track seven, "The Ending Empire", starts off with a catchy riff-cycle that strongly reminds me of something like "Insidious Detraction" off the first album by Greg Ginn's Gone, but then the song takes a turn into an almost honkytonk country-western flavored breakdown with a melodic rock guitar solo, before the Viking battle re-commences! Brilliant. Is this the most intense, heaviest, most psychedelic, rockin'est, 'post-black-metal' album ever recorded? We think so. Norwegian genius that puts almost all heavy-duty avant-rock acts to shame, metal or not.
Ivar Bjornson, Grutle Kjellson, Dirge Rep and R. Kronheim are Enslaved. We mention them individually because they and their band deserve to be household names, at least among Aquarius customers. Enslaved are definitely one of our absolute favorite Norwegian
Ok, enough hyperbole (for the moment). What's "Monumension" really like, and how *does* it compare exactly to "Mardraum"? Well, somebody had told us to expect that the new Enslaved would sound like Genesis, but that's definitely not the case. True, '70s prog rock a la Genesis (or, maybe more accurately, King Crimson and Van Der Graaf Generator) certainly flows in the blood of Grutle, Ivar and Co., along with the more ancient blood of their Norse ancestors. Opeth fans will hear the parallels. But are they truly warriors of modern prog? Not quite, as they are so much more. The first thing an Enslaved fan will notice is the surprising prevalence of death metal style vocals alongside the black metal rasps and Viking chants. Vocally, lyrically and musically, this is some seriously heavy stuff, and violent. But it all flows, sometimes into realms so tripped-out and Floyd-ishly psychedelic that you'll forget you're listening to "metal" at all. But then, the next song will start with a blood-quickening, bone-jarring riff to remind you. Like on "Mardraum", the band brilliantly weaves various metal/rock styles into pure Enslaved music, perhaps upping the "folk" aspect a bit (which balances those death metal elements nicely). There's even a bonus track by a related band called HOV (Trygve Mathiesen and a "tribal choir" which includes all the members of Enslaved) that's meant to evoke traditional Viking music -- although the band stresses that "Enslaved has never been about reproduction or literal interpretations. It is more of a quest for creating our own musical traditions and dimensions. The band is built upon the philosophy, magick and myths of the Vikings, not a desire to dress like they did during a historical period or to talk exactly like them. It is something deeper than a mere roleplay to please the outer eyes and ears." These efforts by Enslaved certainly have resulted in surreal, epic, timeless metal for the mind, body and soul.
So yes, these rune-obsessed geniuses, mere youngsters wise beyond their years, have created another utter masterpiece. And it's not just me -- everyone I've discussed this record with agrees that it's amazing. Arrrgh -- my fanboy ramblings can't even begin to do it justice. Emperor, Satyricon, Ulver are all great Norwegian black metal bands that in various ways and to various degress have also branched out into the beyond, but Enslaved are something else again.
For a while there, Enslaved were one of our favorite black metal bands, maybe our favorite in fact, Frost, Eld, Mardraum, all firmly ensconced in our BM pantheon for sure. And we always appreciated the band's progression, and sonic shift toward something more proggy, more 'proggressive', cuz obviously we love when bands get weirder and push their sound into new, weird directions, but even so, eventually we still sort of began to lost interest, so much so that some of the old school Enslaved fans around here (one of which is writing this review) didn't even bother listening much to their last couple records. But word was this new one was a return to form, or as close to it as could be expected, the band returning to heavier more classic black metal sound, without ditching any of their newfound/longtime progginess.
And while we definitely do dig this new record, rumors of the group's return to something blacker and heavier were definitely a bit exaggerated. There are still some heavy bits for sure, but the non heavy parts are WAY more abundant, and the while the progression over the last few records may have been subtle, returning to the band several albums down the line is pretty shocking, with the band sounding more like letter era Opeth, and often like Muse or Queens Of The Stoneage, both bands we love, but those sounds coming out of Enslaved still seem a bit weird, and the group seem to have shed their Viking metal sound almost entirely. That said, they do this new metallic prog pop thing really well, and if it wasn't Enslaved, we probably wouldn't have as many reservations, we'd just be thinking, wow, this is a seriously kick ass metallic prog combo. Which is probably the best way to approach it, as if they're essentially not the same band that made Frost and Eld. But really, even Monumension, which is probably our favorite record from the new era of Enslaved, seems pretty far removed from the sound on RIITIIR. But there are still heavy moments throughout that knock our socks off, like, there's a brief bit in "Death In The Eyes Of Dawn" where the sound coalesces into a killer stop/start break, before exploding into a wild tangle of furious snare drum and swirling psychedelic shred, all beneath shrieked and bellowed vox, serious prog metal bliss for sure, and then just as suddenly the band slip into some seriously poppy fuzzy crooning that sounds like Katatonia, and yet, as disparate as those parts are, they still sound pretty cool together. And on the other side of the coin, there are some seriously sublime poppy moments, hooky riffs, crazy catchy melodies, fuzzed out bass grooves, that would most definitely put most pop bands to shame.
We know this review is starting to sound wishy washy, but we're torn, still getting our heads around the new Enslaved, and trying to get over our undying love for those old records, but digging most of this record like crazy, and the more we listen to this, and the more we stop wishing it would start sounding like Frost, the more we realize just how good this record really is.
While they last, we've got the deluxe version with the bonus DVD, featuring a making of RIITIIR documentary. The vinyl is pressed on bone colored, charcoal splattered vinyl, and comes in a super swank full color gatefold sleeve.
For a while there, Enslaved were one of our favorite black metal bands, maybe our favorite in fact, Frost, Eld, Mardraum, all firmly ensconced in our BM pantheon for sure. And we always appreciated the band's progression, and sonic shift toward something more proggy, more 'proggressive', cuz obviously we love when bands get weirder and push their sound into new, weird directions, but even so, eventually we still sort of began to lost interest, so much so that some of the old school Enslaved fans around here (one of which is writing this review) didn't even bother listening much to their last couple records. But word was this new one was a return to form, or as close to it as could be expected, the band returning to heavier more classic black metal sound, without ditching any of their newfound/longtime progginess.
And while we definitely do dig this new record, rumors of the group's return to something blacker and heavier were definitely a bit exaggerated. There are still some heavy bits for sure, but the non heavy parts are WAY more abundant, and the while the progression over the last few records may have been subtle, returning to the band several albums down the line is pretty shocking, with the band sounding more like letter era Opeth, and often like Muse or Queens Of The Stoneage, both bands we love, but those sounds coming out of Enslaved still seem a bit weird, and the group seem to have shed their Viking metal sound almost entirely. That said, they do this new metallic prog pop thing really well, and if it wasn't Enslaved, we probably wouldn't have as many reservations, we'd just be thinking, wow, this is a seriously kick ass metallic prog combo. Which is probably the best way to approach it, as if they're essentially not the same band that made Frost and Eld. But really, even Monumension, which is probably our favorite record from the new era of Enslaved, seems pretty far removed from the sound on RIITIIR. But there are still heavy moments throughout that knock our socks off, like, there's a brief bit in "Death In The Eyes Of Dawn" where the sound coalesces into a killer stop/start break, before exploding into a wild tangle of furious snare drum and swirling psychedelic shred, all beneath shrieked and bellowed vox, serious prog metal bliss for sure, and then just as suddenly the band slip into some seriously poppy fuzzy crooning that sounds like Katatonia, and yet, as disparate as those parts are, they still sound pretty cool together. And on the other side of the coin, there are some seriously sublime poppy moments, hooky riffs, crazy catchy melodies, fuzzed out bass grooves, that would most definitely put most pop bands to shame.
We know this review is starting to sound wishy washy, but we're torn, still getting our heads around the new Enslaved, and trying to get over our undying love for those old records, but digging most of this record like crazy, and the more we listen to this, and the more we stop wishing it would start sounding like Frost, the more we realize just how good this record really is.
While they last, we've got the deluxe version with the bonus DVD, featuring a making of RIITIIR documentary. The vinyl is pressed on bone colored, charcoal splattered vinyl, and comes in a super swank full color gatefold sleeve.
Our favorite proggy Viking black metallers, Enslaved, turn in a fierce performance on this live DVD release, documenting a show recorded May 2005 in their hometown of Bergen, Norway. It features mostly tracks from their most recent disc, Isa (a typically brilliant album which we have called a "progressive part of their now hallowed legacy, replete with menace and grandeur"). Like their previous DVD effort, Live Retaliation, this is a professional, polished production with multiple cameras and great sound -- though with the cutting and zooming and the video projection they have behind 'em on stage, the results are perhaps a lot more MTV-like than you'd expect from what to us has always seemed like an "underground" band. But if proggy Viking black metal can rise to MTV-levels anywhere, I guess Norway would be the place. More power to 'em. As bonus material you get about 25 minutes of documentary tour footage, a band interview, and the music video for the track "Isa" (previously seen as a cd-rom extra on the domestic version of the Isa cd).
Some years back, a new album from Norway's Enslaved was an occasion for pagan celebration only among those few who honestly appreciated "Viking" black metal of EPIC quality... people like AQ's Allan for whom a band in tunics and tights was indeed "cool". But more and more folks came around to this band's undeniable if eccentric brilliance (and their stage clothes have become less archaic). Now they're one of the biggest acts in the world of "extreme metal" and the release of a new album like this one (Ruun being their ninth full-length in a 13 year career) is a big deal. As it should be. We've always made a big deal about Enslaved's albums here at AQ, as you may know, going so far as to make 2000's Mardraum a Record Of The Week. So as always, excitement ran high here for this new disc. And our reaction to it is similar to how we felt about their last one, Isa -- it's obvious immediately that Ruun is another proud entry in the Enslaved discography, and one that promises to be a grower too. The carefully crafted, complex collision of aggro black metal and '70s inspired prog rock (a la Rush, Genesis, King Crimson) that Enslaved have been perfecting (or, at this point, could be said to have perfected!) is in full effect, each composition holding hidden secrets to be revealed only on repeat listens, while not for a second stinting on the venemous METAL that you want right of the gate. Already there's certain tracks that we just want to keep hitting "repeat" on.
Grutle's vocals still alternate between vicious rasping growls and "clean" Viking vox, the music similarly incorporating both jagged metallic riffing (stormwracked seas, longboats tossing) and spacier, more melodic symphonic passages (astral travels to ancestral lands beyond the stars)... the classic Enslaved dynamic at work! Though maybe there's something smoother about such transistions nowadays as Enslaved have matured (if not mellowed). Or maybe we're just used to it now. What we do know for sure is that Ruun's technical, emotional, majestic music for the discerning headbanger will earn Enslaved even more plaudits, not to mention the usual well warranted comparisons to Sweden's Opeth, who have been travelling a similarly progressive path from black metal roots. But we also hear traces of such Nordic BM bands as Emperor and Satyricon -- and of course Voivod, and psychedelic grandaddies Pink Floyd, on the album's dreamier moments.
Talk about "Black Meddle"! That recent album from Chicago black metallers Nachtmystium got a lot of attention, in part for its (quite honestly) self-proclaimed Pink Floyd influence. But if there's one black metal band in the world who REALLY remind us of the psychedelic hypnosis of late '60s, early '70s Pink Floyd, it has to be Norway's mighty Enslaved.
Here they are with their 10th full length album, and once more, we bow down to them. Man, they make it look easy, triumphing again and again, always delivering the deathly blackened Viking post rock prog metal with such power and utter perfection. Over the years, they've gotten more and more proggy and Floydian, and Vertebrae is the ultimate in that direction - so far. If you liked their previous record Ruun or before that, Isa, you should be well pleased with Vertebrae. It's a progression, no major stylistic shift, just another solid Enslaved album, complete with clean vocal harmonies, black metal rasps, lulling atmospheres, wicked riffing, mathy structures... all coexisting intelligently and emotively in these compositions. The guitars and keys are often bright and shimmering, yet despite the melodiousness, a Nordic grimnity pervades. Indeed, the 2008 edition of Enslaved seems -serious- in a way that some of their quirkier, earlier forays into Viking-prog territory maybe weren't (well, a band wearing tunics and tights, as they used to do, really shouldn't take themselves too seriously). Rockin' and rollin' is still in their blood (take it from Allan, who saw 'em live earlier this year at SXSW, not once but twice, the second time right after Harvey Milk and Torche!), for sure you'll bang your head to much of this, but Vertebrae is also "head" music in the headphones and deep thoughts sense too. Simple, sorta New Agey song titles like "Clouds", "New Dawn", "Reflections", "Center" should be some clue to this. Though "New Dawn", for instance, is actually an example of the storming black metal violence that strikes a balance with Vertebrae's more pensive, post rockish moments.
Not to harp on the Pink Floyd thing too much, but you'd swear that they somehow got ol' David Gilmour to do some guest guitar soloing on album's third track, "Ground". And 'cause they make us think of Pink Floyd so much, that means they also remind us of another amazing Floyd-infused, proggily original metal band, the late (?) great Voivod... But regardless of those comparisons (and also ones we could make to some fellow Scandinavian acts with '70s prog influences, like Opeth and Amorphis), Vertebrae is obviously, and awesomely, an album only Enslaved would, or could, make.
NB. By the way, did you know that Enslaved's vocalist/bassist/most-Viking-looking-dude Grutle, is or was involved in something called Tangerine Funk??
First record in almost ten years from this Italian depressive black metal horde, and it's apparently been in the works for most of that decade! Throned Upon Ashes Of Dusk is a desolate, mournful sonic sprawl, that sounds like it was crafted by candlelight, or in a fire lit cave. Clean spidery guitars unwind over squalls of black buzz, the drums are a simple plod, the opening a doomy death march, but soon, the drums explode into a furious double kick barrage, the vocals into an anguished wail, but the guitars remain blurry and blown out, it's not until a couple minutes in that the sound shifts, and darkens, the riffage becoming more churning and malevolent, a minor key melancholia wrapped in swirls of crumbling caustic distortion, the band perfectly pulling off the rare feat of balancing fierce blackened heaviness, and truly emotional sounding depressive sonic miserablism. The songs are long too, so it's easy to become entranced and enraptured, droned out and hypnotic, all the while the guitars subtly shifting, bleeding into a single black mass for much of the proceedings, but then unfurling a gorgeous achingly lovely lead, transforming the song briefly into something closer to the dour doom pop of Katatonia, or slipping into some super mathy post rockiness, again transforming the sound into a Slinty post-black metal, but always returning to that, bleak, black buzz that is the rotting, broken music hear of Enthroning Silence's sound.
Some of the tracks are more overtly classic black metal, but even then, the riffs, and the melodies, the mood and the vibe, just ooze dark energy, furious blasting blackness recast as droned out sonic sorrow, and more often than not, those tracks are still dotted with doomy stretches, and laced with haunting depressive, slo-mo passages, while other tracks get downright gothic, gorgeously bleak, downer-doom slowcore, that sans distortion, would have fans of Codeine and Mazzy Star and Galaxie 500 freaking out, but here, bathed in black buzz, they become a glorious sort of blackened, buzzing, doom-ed grimnity that will definitely hit the spot for fans of Make A Change, Kill Yourself, Happy Days, Loss, Nortt, Hypothermia, Silencer and all the rest of those depressive black hordes...
Woah. The "what the fuck?!" meter is going off the scale here. Ephel Duath -- no, we don't know what that name means exactly -- are from Italy and this is their second album. They're a black metal band. So far, so good, so what. Then take a listen. THIS is black metal?? More like metalcore (the screaming vocals), prog (the schitzo song structures), and/or jazz (the horns, the drumming). Let's talk about the drummer -- the dude's a jazz drummer pushing 50, who never played a metal "date" before. Well, he shows up quite a few metal drummers with this performance. And, to backtrack, yes we said horns. Total Miles Davis In A Silent Way trumpet, y'know... Then there's also everything from prettily melodic sensitive male vocals to skittering electronic beats to funk bass to ambient synth drone to, oh yeah, epic symphonic black metal thrown in. Could be a mess, yet somehow, somehow, it works, for us anyway. They just have a knack for mixing all these ingredients just right so that the results stick in your ear. Call 'em songs, even though they don't sound much like most songs out there. So, if your listening diet contains some or better yet all of the following, you're pretty much meant to buy this Ephel Duath disc: Arcturus, Naked City, Maudlin Of The Well, Mr. Bungle, Melt Banana, Yakuza, Neurosis, Sigh, Dillinger Escape Plan, Radiohead, Opeth, Emperor... Yeah, Opeth with jazzy trumpet and more of an ADD, John Zorn styled songwriting approach, that might be a good shorthand description of this Ephel Duath thingie.
First proper release from this French blackmetal horde, released on a new black metal label run by the guy who runs Turgid Animal, home to Skullflower and various other noiseniks. But this is not some noise / black metal hybrid, no Epidemia Mortaliis are grim and true and raw, and as with most black buzzers, owe much to their mighty Scandinavian forbears, but the cool thing about EM is they have their own distinct and slightly skewed take on black metal, which results in a sound both buzzing and brutal, but also stumbling and weirdly lo-fi.
The newest demo, has the band slipping from frenzied blast, to loping dirge, and back again, the vocals hysterical and over the top, the drums super loud in the mix, the arrangements convoluted and complex, the guitars mournful and thick, but sort of low in the mix, which gives the songs a sort of off kilter, damaged vibe, the drum fills and the cymbals drowning out the rest of the musicians when ever they kick in, but the riffing is awesome, weirdly woozy, also adding their own seasick vibe to the proceedings, and there is some really fucked up stop start parts, that sound almost like black math rock. It's not full on fucked up enough to appeal to the folks only into damaged freaked out blackness, but it is plenty weird enough to keep it from sounding like every other BM band.
The second half, which is the older demo, has weirdly enough a much better production, the guitars way higher in the mix, the songs too are much faster and more furious, the guitars wild and dense and layered, but the band still does all kinds of cool weird shit, slipping some Ved Buens Ende sort of mathiness into their black buzz, and the guitars again, all over the place, buzzing, sliding slippery and tangled, crunchy and crumbling, the vocals too, even more freaked out than on the newer demo, thick with distortion and reverb, a howling hellish falsetto, another layer of creepiness over an already creepy buzzscape. Definitely wild and weird enough to appeal to the black metal crowd into insane tortured vox. Much more melody on the older demo too, but woven subtly into the band's grim black assault. Nice droning haunting intros and outros on both demos, some backwards weirdness and some dense dark ambience. Definitely kicked our ass right away, but every listen has us digging this more and more...
Tight, technical black metal from this American band. I think they hail from the not-so-frosty forests of Alabama or some such unlikely place. This is the second album for The End and it successfully earns them a place at the head of the US of A's black metal battalions, being as it's so dark, fast, chunky, chaotic, majestic, brutal and very very metal.
Magic with a K, audial indulgence describes Equimanthorn's Second Sephira Cella. It's sonick Sumerian mystery from several necromantically exalted members of the Texas occult metal act Absu, including Emperor Proscriptor Magikus, whose absurd genius has been trumpeted here before. Is Equimanthorn also an "act"? Or it in fact something more serious? Whatever it is, it's certainly NOT a black metal album. No metal on here at all, actually. It's all quite atmospheric (but musical), creepy, ritualistic material... The resemblance to, say, Absu is all in the lyrickal text, the ancient sorceries evoked and invoked. Ridiculous it (probably) is, but at least these adepts have done their homework. You can argue with them about the significance of the Sixth Throne Of Asaru or the Rule Of Utukagaba but I'll stay out of it. Professing a belief in supernatural arts or not, the sheer sonics should seduce many a listener. Divided among the three members of Equimanthorn (Proscriptor, Equitant, and Ekimmu Abstractum), the tracks here are all deep and dark ritual soundtracks, resplendent with droning synths, 'unseen voices', mellotron, 'six-fold bows', and varieties of exotic Eastern instrumentation. We're reminded of such diverse artists as Goblin, Laszlo Hortobagyi, and a host of World Serpents... The music and its meaning are well matched. Equimanthorn is at ease with obscure, occult Esoterica in a way that, say, The Secret Chiefs 3 would like us to think they are but never will be. Advanced, impressive, and -- regardless of any reality-altering aspects -- excellent, candlelit entertainment.
We had never heard these guys before, but we've been digging this a LOT, another black metal band from Australia (released on the same label as the new Pestilential Shadows, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), their sound definitely beholden to the classic Scandinavian sound, certainly hints of Emperor and Mayhem abound, as well as Marduk and Dark Funeral, that sort of classic black metal, that few bands can pull off, and even fewer with this sort of power and grim black energy, the band spending much of their time chugging and churning instead of blasting, those more midtempo stretches super intense and moody, the riffs gnarled and twisted and a little bit Deathspell-y for sure, but when the band do explode into a blast, it's dense and furious and heavy as fuck, the guitars an insectoid buzz, the drums furious and impossibly fast, the band careening wildly, the sound dissonant and sinister, the balance between blasting raging fury and moody melodic crush near perfect, with hints of classic metal, lots of cool droned out heaviness, but all woven into what is essentially a modern slab of classic black metal. And most definitely a new favorite with the metalheads around here...
Rad! Eternal Tapestry, Portland's badass psych super-group, take a step back in time and offer up this heavy duty reissue of a 2007 classic, Altar of Grass. And wow, what a stony trip it is! On this cd-r we find the band jamming with their old bass player, Bob Jones, and without their newly added sax player, but needless to say, the boys still knew how to kick out a lysergic dose of head-trippy, fuzzed out amplifier destruction. Ooooozing walls of blasting fuzz guitar, head-nodding grooves covered in tar and filth, not too be missed by any fan of the group's whirlwind brand of in-the-red punk psych. These pacific North Westerners don't fool around, the riffs are heavy with a dash of Hawkwind flavor, the drums are relentless and thrashing, and its all woven together into a hypnotic wash that sounds more like three proto-metal bands jamming in the same room, very sweet. A nice document of the early E-Tap sound, a bit more free and loose then the newer stuff, but much more raw and spaced-the-heck out!�Really killer stuff, not sure how limited these are, but they ARE limited, and chances are we won't get more, so be quick!�On the same Greek label that brought us the killer black metal of Bohemian Grove also reviewed this list, by the way!
We're slowly working our way through the blackened back catalog of the mighty Supernal label. They've been responsible for some of our all time favorite black metal weirdness (Benighted Leams, Fleurety, Meads Of Asphodel) as well as some seriously intense grim blackness (Drudkh, Hate Forest) and all sorts of gorgeous ambient dronemusick as well (M87, Dark Ages, Fall Of The Grey Winged One).
Ethereal Woods falls somewhere between the first two. They are definitely bizarre, strange arrangements, weird production, seriously unique sound, but at the same time they definitely have a traditional black thrash going on in there as well.
Ethereal Woods are some sort of Eco-black metal band from the UK, their unique brand of buzzing loping blackened thrash is rife with "dreamy mysticism and sylvan sensibilities", which is also represented in their song titles, band name, lyrics and the legend across the back of the cd stating: "Ethereal Woods support the campaign to protect rural England!"
And what better way to do that than by unleashing a strange black musical concoction equal parts fuzzed out guitars, simple spacey riffing, mournful arpeggiated melodies, bizarre growled vocals way up in the mix and lots and lots of dizzying circus-y keyboards swirling and warbling and whirring. While they do occasionally bust out some series black blasts, they tend to sort of hover between doomy dirge and sort-of-groovy midtempos, sounding sometimes like a more blackened, more moody and miserable Khold. The rhythms have a sort of seasick waltz feel to them, very hypnotic, and while the guitars buzz blackly, more often they just sort of drone beneath dreamy sad sounding melodies, with the keyboards drifting like black clouds, giving the proceedings a strangely epic slant. Quite cool, and as you might expect from Supernal, pretty weird too...
We've always been pretty into Ethereal Woods and their twisted strain of eco-black metal. But regardless of their political agenda or lyrical themes, their root sound was something much more raw and immediate, a sort of blackened thrash, not super furious and fast, and not really super fucked up, more sort of pounding and loping and midtempo, but EW most definitely do have their specific peculiarities (are there any bands on Supernal who don't?), and that stuff is fully evident here.
"Approaching The Castle By Night" begins all moody and minor key, a sort of brooding intro before the band launch into some seriously heavy thrashing black metal. A bit chaotic, and fiercely furious, the drums wild and off kilter, the vocals weirdly sung / grunted, complete with a cool crunchy chugging breakdown, until the band whip out the synths and head heavenward with a stretch of swirling waltzy epic pomp, the drums suddenly a shuffle the guitars strumming beneath the soaring synths, and then back again, as if that was just some Mr. Hyde shit, it won't happen again. But oh it will. Again and again, and that's precisely what makes this record, and Ethereal Woods more than just some British black thrash outfit.
"Le Plesannz En Mary" begins with another surprisingly melodic intro, some post rocky blissy guitars over tangled tribal drumming, and then some super dramatic Goblin-y synths, before slipping back into something a bit more black metal. But even then the arrangements are fractured and not at all typical, a bit mathy, and a bit fucked up. Then there's "An Elizabethan Fantasy", that begins like some warped power pop jam, before settling into a more blackly dour groove, but never quite shedding that strange hooky intro. The drums here are especially strange, stuttery and hiccuppy and skittery. And once the song really gets rolling, there are all sorts of strange dynamic stops and starts, a really damaged sort of lurching post doom or something.
And so it goes for the rest of the record, plenty of weirdly poppy blackness, lots of warped keyboards, those gruff growly vocals draped over soaring epic guitars, and tangled up with strange stumbling drums, culminating in what might just be our favorite track, "Woodnymph", a sprawling 10 minute epic, whose main refrain is a ridiculously catchy ascending reach-for-the-heavens sort of majestic riff, paired with really abstract drumming, and a killer Sabbathy groove in-between, but that's only the beginning, over the next 10 minutes the track shifts from blissed out shoegazy doom, to lumbering crunchy chug, the total furious black thrash, and finally back to that awesome opening riff.
Way recommended, but only for those who like their black metal warped and twisted and poppy and pretty much not that black at all...
