[ aquarius records — Metal Black Metal ]

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Showing results 901 through 950 of 2429.

Killer 15th anniversary reissue of the debut full length from this legendary nineties French black metal horde. These days, we're all about the French black metal: Hell Militia, Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord, Murmuure, Aurvandil, Otargos, The Arrival Of Satan, Merrimack, Peste Noire, Wolok, Glorior Belli, Diamatregon, S.V.E.S.T., we could go on, but needless to say, some of our favorite modern BM outfits hail from France. That said, we must plead a certain amount of ignorance to the bands that came before, the early days of French black metal. In fact, until this reissue, we had never even heard of Gorgon. But thanks to the fine folks at Todestrieb, we can now feast our ears on this epic slab of grim buzzing blackness. Originally released in 1995, The Lady Rides A Black Horse sounds as good now as we imagine it did then. Sonically in keeping with the emerging black metal second wave, it's surprising that this record and this group weren't more well known. The production here is killer, the guitars super distorted, the howling vokills way up in the mix, the drums LOUD, there's also lots of bass, which as most folks know is usually woefully absent on most black metal recordings, but here it offers plenty of heft, not to mention a sort of gloomy gothic vibe. There are also soaring dramatic synths, and the band launch into blasts of classic sounding metal now and again, harmonized lead guitars, surprising hooks, all wound into the other wise grim buzz and black blast. The vibe is definitely a bit punky, the sound furious and frantic, epic and majestic, a sound that definitely foreshadows the French BM that would follow. This reissue also tacks on a bunch of bonus tracks, two from right around the same time, that sound like more warped and weird versions of the record proper, the blastbeats way up in the mix, the vocals super intense and anguished, and the guitars even more buzzy and distorted, and the production strangely tweaked, as well as the group's 1993 debut 7", a much more lo-fi affair, murky and muddy, the production super raw, but it suits their raw feral sound, again, the bass sound is huge (especially by BM standards), a churning low end, that probably just makes the sound muddier, but the end result is some awesomely grim, lo-fi raw and primitive blackness, that should most definitely sate the true grim hordes...

MPEG stream: Among Fogs Of Oblivion
MPEG stream: Tower Of Gargoyles
MPEG stream: The Lady Rides A Black Horse
MPEG stream: Call From Unknown Depths

What do Aidan Baker, Gnaw Their Tongues, Alkerdeel, Persistence In Mourning, Caina and Expo 70 all have in common? Well they've all released records on ultra cool Portuguese micro label Universal Tongue. And to that list you can add these guys, the strangely named Gorgontongue, one part Arizona black metal outfit Ganzmord, one part Oklahoma funeral doom horde Persistence In Mourning. Although the parts don't necessarily predict the whole in this case, as The Lighter Side of a Suicidal Mind is not in fact metal, black, doom or otherwise, instead this duo are exploring some grim, haunting, oppressive black ambient otherworld, blending soft noise, field recordings, mysterious murky effects, layered drones, much of this sounds like a prettier, less harsh Gnaw Their Tongues, sort of epic and cinematic and dramatically doomy, but also a bit like a more grim blackened Expo 70, that same sort of glimmering slow burn kosmische krautdrone, but laced with strange processed vox, crumbling industrial detritus, swaths of wheezing organs, buried barely audible rhythms, the occasional hellish shriek, tangled bits of detuned acoustic guitar, dubbed out electronics, ghostly vocals, woozy arpeggiated melodies, keening feedback, bits of Dead C like free rock drift, sprawling expanses of space-y ambience, various bits of crash and clank twisted and transformed into strange sonic streaks, rumbling low end pulses, crumbling walls of corrosive metallic crunch, tinkling chimes, all drifting through epic black expanses and dense squalls of psychedelic abstract effects-damaged buzz, culminating in the near meditative final track, a haunting, black ambient driftscape, hushed and haunting and weirdly lovely. LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!! Housed in a Blue Ray style dvd case, with a printed two sided front cover, and a printer insert / mini poster.

MPEG stream: Everytime Something Falls
MPEG stream: The Children Of Their Gods Writhe At My Feet

The return of the mighty Gorgoroth!!! With all the non musical drama surrounding these guys it's sometimes hard to remember that Gorgoroth remain one of the only TRUE Norwegian black metal bands still totally capable of utter blackened musical destruction. Vocalist Gaahl has had it tough, arrested, headed for prison, but as we've learned from Lords Of Chaos, if you're gonna commit a heinous crime, do it in Norway. 14 years for first degree murder. Gaahl only got a year or so for taking a man hostage and torturing him. But what this might tell you is that Gorgoroth are indeed still very very EVIL. And they sound like it. There are seemingly two schools of thought on Gorgoroth. There are those who love OLD Gorgoroth, Under The Sign Of Hell being THE ONE, and there are those, like us who lean toward Destroyer, the band's most noisy and fucked up record. We actually love both, but as we're sure you know, we tend to lean toward the damaged and demented. Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam falls mostly on the side of the former, a TRUE buzzing and blasting blackness, that does sound fucking fantastic but is not really weird or noisy or fucked up. We still love it, cuz these guys can still basically do no wrong, ands if you are hankering for some blasting frosty fury, some true grim classic sounding black metal, this will definitely hit the spot. The production is better, the band is tighter, the songs are maybe catchier, but it basically sounds like a modernized version of Under The Sign Of Hell, which is a VERY good thing. Secretly we were hoping for the band to totally drop us in our tracks with the weirdest black metal record ever, cuz if anyone is capable of coming up with such a thing, it's Gorgoroth, but hell, we've been to busy banging our heads to really notice.

MPEG stream: Wound Upon Wound
MPEG stream: Carving A Giant

Maybe our favorite record from this infamous black metal horde, reissued on vinyl!! Which was released in the early days of the aQ New Arrivals list, so sadly, it doesn't have the sprawling, ridiculously verbose and oozing with praise review it so richly deserves, just know that the metalheads around here consider this to be one of THEE essential black metal documents, and here's the brief, but pretty spot on review from when we listed the cd WAY back when: Norwegian black metal of the most hateful, primitive, loud, noisy, evil variety. On this masterpiece of almost-avantgarde extremism, Gorgoroth evoke Burzum and Darkthrone. The Romanticism and Hammer Horror gothic cheese of "pop" black metal bands like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth are nowhere to be found here, this is so much more raw and hellish (tho some melody creeps in now and then)...

The latest from this traditional yet unpredictable Norwegian black metal band. Their previous disc "Destroyer" was a masterpiece of totally noisy, fucked primitive metal and electronics. With that out of their system, "Incipit Satan" is a lot smoother and melodic but bizarre in its own way, going so far as to include bluesy, clean vocals on the love (!?) song "When Love Rages Wild In My Heart".

So, here we have it, one of the more scandalous black metal releases to hit the rounds as of late, at least to those with the time to focus on such pressing matters. Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt is the first Gorgoroth release following the power struggle for, um, ownership of the Gorgoroth franchise and name. The Norwegian courts, certainly in league with Satan, agreed with guitarist/founder Infernus, while his ex-bandmates Gaahl and King Ov Hell were legally forced to peddle their craft in the decidedly less cool sounding God Seed (which, apparently is now kaput following Gaahl's decision to drop out of the black metal scene). Remember when Norwegian black metal bands were actually on trial for cool shit? But whatever, all joking aside, Gorgoroth in 2009 is certainly worthy of the name and reputation they have been building for so long. Yeah, it sounds like Gorgoroth. And why wouldn't it? Infernus is the guy who pretty much established the band's identity with his songwriting and intense riffery, and the man replacing Gaahl is actually the one who was replaced BY Gaahl... wait, what? It marks the return of the mighty Pest on vocals, and we certainly aren't complaining. The album shreds relentlessly, the production is nice and not too over the top, and the band pretty much slays like you would expect them to. Maybe the lack of surprises is just because it's easy to take a band like this for granted after so many face melting releases. But that said, this definitely stands out as a grim black highlight in Gorgoroth's stellar catalog as well as the introduction of yet another evil chapter in Gorgoroth lore. Maybe not quite as evil as Gaahl kidnapping that guy and ripping his balls off with a fork and making him bleed into a cup... but pretty damn evil, nonetheless.

MPEG stream: Aneuthanasia
MPEG stream: Cleansing Fire

Maybe all seems grim and dismal and you're in the mood for some truly wretched, nasty, evil-as-fuck black metal to match your mood? Or maybe you're perfectly well-adjusted, but like to explore extremes of mood and melody in a metal context? Look no further than this new disc from Norwegian black metal stalwarts Gorgoroth. Twilight Of The Idols provides eight delightful tracks featuring throat-ripped screams and distorto-riff-carnage to match. Carefully, artfully, Gorgoroth weave a complex tapestry, an ancient shroud, from these elements. Not as experimental and fucked up as Gorgoroth's Destroyer, nor as quirkily 'pop' as their last one Incipit Satan, this new album delivers the goods without any gimmickry at all (until, perhaps, you get to the final, what-the-fuck-? faux classical synth coda ending the album, that is). It's pretty much just straight-to-hell, do not pass go, do not collect 200 kroner. There's dense, downer epics of slow trudge, and trancey, higher BPM blur, both having about the same effect, a lot like a less overtly (overly?) prog Enslaved. With their sense of sick melody and technical execution, Gorgoroth are definitely one of the greats. Indeed, if these guys weren't hulking, face-painted, spike-draped Norwegians, but a bunch of skinny American metalcore guys, maybe we wouldn't take 'em for granted as much as we do, and we'd realize that all the praise heaped on the likes of Converge and Isis is also the level of worship worthy of this band...

MPEG stream: Exit - Through Carved Stones
MPEG stream: Teeth Grinding

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

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Grave Temple is another kick ass Southern Lord allstar matchup. Personnel-wise, it's basically a 3 parts of the of the ever expanding and sprawling SUNNO)))) whole, and it sounds like it. A power trio made up of Attila Csihar (Mayhem, Aborym, Tormentor, occasional SUNNO)))) contributor), Stephen O'Malley (SUNNO))), Khanate, Burning Witch, Ginnungagap, KTL, Lotus Eaters) and experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi, who also has been spending much of his free time lately in SUNNO)))). The Holy Down is a single hour long track woven together by Ambarchi from various live performances recorded live in Israel in 2006, and spends its first 10 minutes wandering aimlessly through a haunted junkyard of clangs, and clatter, creaks and chimes, the occasional chest rattling sonic boom, but for the most part, super abstract and spacious. But c'mon, it doesn't take long before things get heavy and creepy, with the guitars billowing into black waves, and Csihar's strange chanted vocals drifting like smoke in a temple. About halfway through, they veer into serious SUNNO)))) territory, with the guitars becoming thick walls of crumbling distortion and squealing peals of feedback. The band drones on before the drums kick in (that's Ambarchi on the drums!) and suddenly the track is transformed into a chaotic metallic tribal space jam that gets more and more frenzied, some almost blast beats surface but splinter into free jazz freakouts, the vocals become a death rattle, everything still wrapped in thick clouds of black buzz, until the song fades out in a blackened swirl of ultra creepy processed ghostlike voices... LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES! Each one numbered, the ones we got are getting close to 3000 so like most SUNNO))) and SUNNO))) related projects, these probably won't be around for long...

MPEG stream: The Holy Down (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: The Holy Down (excerpt 2)

We definitely love all stripes of black metal, often the weirder the better, but there's something about pure, raw, classic black metal, the buzz and the blast, the frenzied riffing the, howled vocalizing, the majestic melodies, the murky atmosphere, even the corpsepaint and the over the top theatricality, that we just can't get enough of. Even after all these years, a band can come along, who are not necessarily reinventing the wheel, or pushing boundaries, but whose sound is just so perfect, so classically black, that we just can't resist. Helps too if they're Finnish. Thus we have Graveborne, a grim horde from Finland who sound like they were transported directly from the nineties, with a sound that slips easily from lightning fast frantic blasting, to midtempo melancholy crush, the riffs kill, the arrangements appropriately complex, the sound often slipping into an almost classic metal melodic gallop, channeling a little NWOBHM into their black fury. And these guys actually are pretty heavy on the melody too, with much of this being surprisingly catchy. But fear not, there's plenty of gnarled black weirdness, and chugging churn that definitely hint at some exposure to Deathspell and other forward thinking hordes. And we have to say, while we were immediately smitten by the sound. The more we listen to this, the more we're loving it. The cliched adage that "they don't make 'em like they used to" can still be applied to black metal. Lots of bands ape that classic era, but few can do it convincingly, with not just the sound, but the songs too, but Graveborne most definitely do. And while we didn't necessarily have super high expectations for this, it's quickly becoming our most listened to new black metal record. Which definitely says a lot...

MPEG stream: Metamorphoses
MPEG stream: Nocturnal
MPEG stream: The Covenant

Blood Of Heroes is just the sort of title you'd expect from Poland's mighty black metal horde Graveland, a frosty call to arms, hailing their mighty (imaginary?) Viking ancestors. It becomes a bit more problematic to say the least hen you read the liner notes and realise the specific hero referred to in the title is in fact Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Yup. But since the original vinyl version came out on a NY based label and the climate after September 11 was a bit sensitive to say the least, they left the dedication off the original vinyl pressing. But now on the cd version, released far away from the fray, on German label No Colours, and with a bit more post 9/11 time, Darken and his Graveland are again free to hail McVeigh as "a true hero of America." Weird. But weirdness and problematic politics have always been part and parcel of black metal, and you obviously just have to decide to either protest and not listen, or ignore and enjoy the amazing music. And amazing it is as always. A buzzy blurry blast of loping midtempo riffing, plodding relentless drumming, demonic howled vocals, and a dreary murky ambience. While this ep is a scant 15 minutes, it's hard not to be mesmerised the entire time. From a gorgeous opening, a very creepy Arvo Part-ish choral bit, on to epic fuzzy metalscapes, reptitive hypnotic droning riffery, soaring majestic keyboards and strangely haunting folky melodies buried under suffocating black ambience this is definitely a prime, albeit brief, slice of breathtaking blackness.

MPEG stream: Blood Of Heroes

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

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Hate to always do this but once again, we only managed to get a handful of these. These being the special oversized 8" x 6" book version. We'll be able to get more but they'll be the normal jewel case version. This is the newest release from Polish black metal legends Graveland. Dawn Of Iron Blades is yet another majestic blast of fuzzy, droney, Viking-tinged black metal brutality. Mostly midtempo, often waltzy in that droning seasick style we just can't get enough of. Buzzing and blurry, totally hypnotic and mesmerizing. Single riffs repeated mantra-like until you find yourself in a trance, sitting atop Valhalla, while the angels serenade from above in raspy black metal growls and the Vikings below pay homage with riff after Burzumic riff. Best to try and ignore the problematic politics (Nordic Pride bordering on white power) and just luxuriate in the thick fuzz of grim black metal glory!

MPEG stream: Iron In The Fog
MPEG stream: Semper Fidelix

We gotta go way back for this one. A serious slab of black metal history. The first time on cd for Graveland's infamous third demo, originally released on cassette in 1992, Drunemeton, and while it is way more grim and lo-fi that we've come to expect, it's also way weirder, and you know how we love that. From the very Graveland like intro, tape hiss and church bells, whirling wind, huge buzzing swaths of primitive synth and harsh whispered vocals, you know this is gonna be good, but you definitely can't possibly be prepared for how weird and fucked it's going to be as well. This is so awesomely lo-fi, machine like drums (drum machine we presume) are the focus, WAY up in the mix, louder than everything else except maybe the vocals. The guitars are a churning throbbing pulse more than actual riffing, the vocals a harsh growl laid over everything. The only time you can actually hear the notes and riffs are when things slow down to a dirge and the blast beat becomes a mechanical plod. But the second the blast beat begins again, the guitars become a muted blur and suddenly it's some strange alien industrial jam. In fact, in a lot of ways, it's hard not to hear Godflesh or Pitchshifter in these songs. The drums are so industrial and relentless, a pounding that defines the sound here. Imagine if Godflesh had been into black metal, this is almost what it would have had to sound like. The slow parts are equally strange, with huge sweeps of ultra cinematic keyboards nearly swallowing up everything else, making the guitar buzz seem tiny, and the drums sound like throwing rocks against an aluminum garage door, everything during those slow parts is about the epic synths, moody and melodramatic, before the drums kick back in and we're back in black metal Godflesh territory. Some of the best moments are when those two sounds mix, the sweeping synths, and the industrial pound, and during those stretches the drum machine seems to stumble, struggling amidst a black sea of synth swells and crunchy guitar buzz. Elsewhere, there are weird backwards gongs (at least that's what it sounds like) strange circusy piano melodies, haunting chantlike vocals, the sounds of birds, mechanical clanging and clatter, all wrapped up in the record's machine-like black pound. As if it wasn't obvious by now, this is most definitely the weirdest Graveland record, managing to push both our old school industrial buttons and our grim damaged black metal buttons, AT THE SAME TIME!! The more we listen to this, and we can't seem to stop, the more it seems inevitable that Drunemeton is quite possibly our new favorite Graveland record.

MPEG stream: The Eyes Of Balor
MPEG stream: Shadows Of Doom
MPEG stream: The Days Of Black Sun
MPEG stream: Drunemeton

Another crushing blast of grim blackness from this Polish black metal institution. Darken and his Graveland weave epic tales of Viking glory, wolves and swords, victory and bloodshed, fire and vengeance. As with many BM outifts, all of this Nordic (umm... Polish?) pride is really only one step removed from super problematic racial politics, seemingly always a part of black metal discussions, but as with Burzum and other groups of that ilk, you just have to decide if you can ignore the subtext and disregard the politics and enjoy the mesmerizingly buzzy blast of hypnotic black-drone-metal. It's hard not to, when presented with a disc as fucking amazing as this, all of stuff we loved about Graveland in the past, all honed to utter perfection, that thick layered droning black metal, is now somehow even more dense and majestic, huge slabs of guitars piled atop one another, all over thrashing relentless drumming, haunting minor key melodies buried deep beneath thick fuzzy swirls of droning riffery, but this time, there's a much bigger focus on vocals, lush swells of chant-like moans, Arvo Part like choral interludes, all add a certain gravitas, a creepy epic heaviness, that truly turns this into more than just another black metal record. It's like a black metal Godspeed You Black Emperor composing the soundtrack to Kurasawa's Ran, so epic and haunting and fucking MASSIVE, it's hard to listen to this without imagining all of the images the music is meant to project: huge black clouds of smoke drifting above burning funeral pyres, rivers running black with blood, the air dense with arrows, bloodied blades and mud caked armor, the stench of death and decay, the mysterious final trip to stand beside all of the fallen warriors from eons past. A massively epic, ultra intense, hauntingly majestic, crushing, droning black metal masterpiece. While they last we have the super deluxe oversized hardcover book version (limited to 1000 copies), once we run out of those you'll get the regular jewel case version (which also happens to be cheaper!).

MPEG stream: War Wolf
MPEG stream: River Of Tears

Ahhh Graveland, Viking black metal from Poland! One of the most infamous groups in the BM scene, reviled by many, hated by many more, dismissed as a poseur by still more, politically abhorrent, but musically, it's tough to argue with the last nearly twenty years of iconic and legendary black metal classics: Carpathian Wolves, Thousand Swords, Immortal Pride, Creed Of Iron, Memory And Destiny, The Fire Of Awakening, Dawn Of Iron Blades, Will Stronger Than Death, Spears Of Heaven, we've raved about most of these on the aQ site, from the twisted almost industrial blackness of the first few releases, to the epic folk flecked pagan blackness that defined most of the rest, we love this stuff, and yet two of our favorites we never got to list, as they were reissued and went out of print before the aQ list, so now, thanks to Forever Plagued, these two slabs of grim black hate are available again. For more on Graveland, the music, the politics and all that stuff, check out any of the many other reviews on the aQ site, otherwise, prepare to enter the hellish buzzing black soundworld of the legendary Graveland... In The Glare Of Burning Churches, is Graveland's legendary 1993 demo, and begins as you would hope, with what sounds like the recording of a burning church, the smoldering crackle of fire consuming wood, all set to hysterical female shrieks and some sort of folk music, a truly strange into, but then Graveland was always a fairly strange proposition, it doesn't take long before the song proper explodes in a harsh blast of hellish hateful blackness, the guitars buzzy and buried underneath the wild shrieking croaked vokills, and the stumbling blasts, the soaring synths, this is total old school epic blackness, which barring some darksynth interludes, and some stretches of droned out ambience, is how the rest of the record plays out, and this version, is apparently an alternate version of the original, which features way harsher vocals, and more intense and harrowing sonics. Lo-fi and raw, but seriously fierce and feral and fucked up and about as scary and intense as black metal gets. This reissue also includes the bonus ep that was tacked on to the now out of print No Colours version, featuring way more keyboards and a weirdly lush sound, as well as a handful of bonus tracks. For the black of heart, and the black of soul...

MPEG stream: In The Glare Of Burning Churches (Alt Version)
MPEG stream: The Night Of Fullmoon (Alt Version)
MPEG stream: The Gates To The Kingdom Of Darkness

Not sure what to say about this other than BUY IT NOW... it's one of those black metal records that we'd recommend even to normally-non-black-metal music purchasers, if you're into checking out something weird, a metal record with layers of droning guitar texture and shifting tempos, speeding up then slowing down, creating an almost avant-garde metal psychedelia. For the metal fans, we'll provide some further elucidation... There's a definite black metal elite that everyone is familiar with: Burzum, Satyricon, Burzum, Emperor, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Ulver and all those folks. But there is also a more underground elite, even more grim and frosty and brutal and buzzing. Think Judas Iscariot, Nargaroth, Veles, Moonblood, Carpathian Forest and of course the mighty Graveland. This is not really all that new, but since we were finally able to get enough to list (and because there is a new Graveland on the horizon) we figured we should get this one listed cause it's so completely amazing. So, now that most of the underground is dead, and Burzum has become a Nazi Peter And The Wolf, and Darkthone is getting thrashier and sillier, and Satyricon is pretty much techno, it's basically left to the dynamic duo of Poland's Graveland and Germany's Nargaroth to keep the real blackened flame burning. While Nargaroth blaze and buzz, and spit blurry buzzsaw black metal in furious spurts, Graveland sort of stumble and careen chaotically, never really moving much faster than a midtempo gallop, with drumming that struggles and flails under sheets of corrosive fuzz. That's exactly where Graveland shines, they're not fast but rather thick and layered, they're not technical, rather droning and simple, very reminiscent of prime Burzum. Soaring majestic melodies drone beneath ambling blackened waltzes, buried beneath layers and layers of blackened grimness, or grim blackness, or whatever it is that gives Memory And Destiny such a suffocatingly dense sound. Anyone who digs the divine darkness of all the above mentioned bands should bow down before Graveland and let the droning dirge of Memory And Destiny envelop your soul and crush your body into dust.

RealAudio clip: Fate Of Warrior
RealAudio clip: Jewel Of Atlanteans

More archival weirdness from legendary one man black metal horde Graveland. Necromanteion gathers up the first two demos from way back in 1992, and for those of you who remember the Drunemeton release, another collection of Graveland oldies, the sounds on Necromanteion might not be surprising, but for the rest of you, who haven't yet sampled the damaged weirdness that is early Graveland, you're in for a bit of a shock. The sound while still plenty grim and black and buzzy, is also very industrial, mechanical, looped sounding, in fact if anything, old Graveland sound more like Godflesh or Pitchshifter than any other black metal band. The drums are programmed, and super simple, pounding and repetitive, the guitars super blown out, crumbling with distortion, and the drums and guitar are locked into lurching lumbering looped sounding dirge, the sound of some ancient black machine churning out a filthy industrial blackness, and then there are the vocals, a growling gurgle so low it's almost inaudible, the sort of monstrous grunt that would be more at home on a gore grind record than a black metal record, but that just adds to the weirdness, and makes this some of our favorite Graveland EVER. There's some awesome primitive and demented sounding keyboard interludes, the notes clipped and dropping out, off kilter and so twisted. There's some creepy black ambience as well, and at least one song sort of blasts, more like a gallop, but the strange hollow sounding programmed drums and sea shanty grunts turn it into something completely twisted. The second demo is even cooler, the roughest recording, totally in the red, blown out, so distorted it's almost impossible to tell what's going on, but the tolling bells, and growling vocals, the clean guitars, and long droned out ambience, are all transformed into some sort of inadvertent avant outsider black dronemusic, laced with plenty of motorik beats, fractured melodies, and some seriously fucked up noise drenched atmosphere. Incredible! As much as we love more recent Graveland, we find ourselves always returning to these earlier recordings, they're just so fucked up and demented, and so unlike any other (sort of) black metal you've ever heard...

MPEG stream: Immortalem
MPEG stream: The Quest
MPEG stream: Cathedral Of Shadows

Ahhh Graveland, Viking black metal from Poland! One of the most infamous groups in the BM scene, reviled by many, hated by many more, dismissed as a poseur by still more, politically abhorrent, but musically, it's tough to argue with the last nearly twenty years of iconic and legendary black metal classics: Carpathian Wolves, Thousand Swords, Immortal Pride, Creed Of Iron, Memory And Destiny, The Fire Of Awakening, Dawn Of Iron Blades, Will Stronger Than Death, Spears Of Heaven, we've raved about most of these on the aQ site, from the twisted almost industrial blackness of the first few releases, to the epic folk flecked pagan blackness that defined most of the rest, we love this stuff, and yet two of our favorites we never got to list, as they were reissued and went out of print before the aQ list, so now, thanks to Forever Plagued, these two slabs of grim black hate are available again. For more on Graveland, the music, the politics and all that stuff, check out any of the many other reviews on the aQ site, otherwise, prepare to enter the hellish buzzing black soundworld of the legendary Graveland... The Celtic Winter was originally released in 1994, and is another blast of Early Graveland, when they were still raw and primitive, like In The Glare Of Burning Churches, this one also starts out with an intro to set the mood, thick swaths of ominous synthesizer, buzz and rumble beneath the sounds of a village in the midst of some sort of battle, horses and footsteps, the clank of armor and chainmail, shouts and shrieks, all underpinned by haunting minor key melodies, very dramatic and intense, which leads directly into "Call Of The Black Forest" which immediately reveals a subtly changed sound since In The Glare..., the shrieks are dialed way back, the guitars are less jagged and harsh, the whole sound is more 'metal'. less frenzied raw blackness, more churning chugging classic old school metal, still rife with epic soaring synth swells, majestic melodies, the sound surprisingly thick and full, and unlike the records that came before (In The Glare Of Burning Churches, Drunemeton, Necromanteion), this is the first one to hint at the Graveland sound to come, more epic, more Viking, the sound here still raw and buzzy, but definitely reaching toward something much more sweeping and lush. Not to say this isn't grim, or hateful, it most certainly is, but it also just so happens to wrap that hateful grimnity in lots of keyboard, and way more melody, which is not a bad thing at all...

MPEG stream: Call Of The Black Forest
MPEG stream: Hordes Of Empire
MPEG stream: The Night Of Fullmoon

We recently listed the utterly amazing Memory And Destiny album by Polish black metal legends Graveland, a frosty and cult masterpiece of blazing buzzing black metal fury, droning and hypnotic, with unpredictable rhythms and stumbling blast beats. Not exactly new at the time, but we were finally able to get enough to list, and we also wanted to whet everyone's appetites for a new Graveland album, which is finally here! The Fire Of Awakening continues in a similar direction as Memory And Destiny although with a few surprises. The opening track for instance, is remarkably catchy, that's right catchy, with a riff that will stick in your head like a pop song. Granted it's swathed in distorted fuzz and battling thrashing midtempo drums and an angelic chorus, but it's a pretty amazing hook! Fear not though, the riff is subsumed soon enough into utter blackness, with epic Nordic riffery and tribal bleakness butted up against each other, while the drumming gallops unsteadily along, and sing songy folk melodies buzz wildly atop the melee. The best part of Graveland is how they switch from part to part, even though the parts don't seem to fit together at all. It gives everything this struggling, chaotic, almost messy feel, which totally adds energy and immediacy to what could otherwise be straight ahead black metal. Not a lot of blast beats either. Like Nargaroth, Graveland putter along at a hypnotic, trance inducing midtempo lope, with attempts at anything faster resulting in even more stumbling chaos! So epic and furious and heavy and intense and mesmeric and absolutely brilliant. Still problematic politically, however...

MPEG stream: We Shall Prevail
MPEG stream: Battle Of Wotan's Wolves

The return of our favorite Polish black metal Viking (huh?). Yep, it's Graveland, the master of epic and majestic Viking flecked black buzz. Graveland IS Rob Darken, perpetually clad in his helmet and tunic, armed with sword and shield, unfurling mighty tales of bloody battles and mighty journeys, of life and death, of blood oaths and sworn vengeance. All told through incredibly expansive blackened soundscapes, rife with killer drumming, awesome riffs, sweeping keyboard swells, Arvo Part like background vocals and tons of moody black ambience. As�with lots of records like this, and and as we've mentioned before, the whole Viking angle, and the Nordic pride thing is basically only one step removed (if that) from some very abhorrent racial politics, which unfortunately seem to often be a part of black metal. So as with lots of those bands, Burzum, Nokturnal Mortum, and others, you just have to figure out if you can enjoy the sounds and ignore the politics. It's a bit of a bummer, that a record this amazing has to be marred by that sort of thinking (no matter how subtle) but if you can make it past that, and enjoy Will Stronger Than Death for what it is, an emotionally and personally charged piece of musical art, you're in for what might possibly be the best Graveland record yet.� Gone are the days of inept drumming and stumbling rhythms, Darken has perfected his sound. Epic and expansive, open and majestic, and so so tight. Usually the one man band suffers in some department, maybe the one man is not such a hot drummer, or not the best singer, but this is prime Graveland, heavy and hooky, with tons of varied parts, an incredibly rich sonic palette, at it's core still a blast of grim buzzing blackness, but Graveland has turned into something so much more.� On first listen, very little has changed since the last disc, in fact, in lots of ways it sounds like�The Fire Of Awakening Part 2, which as far as we're concerned is just fine. The drums sound better than ever, instead of loping midtempos or furious blasts, there are plenty of cool, un-black metal beats, weird double snare hit, some of it surprisingly mathy, they perfectly compliment Darken's knack for the droning repetitive riffing, adding a whole 'nother layer of sound.� The guitars are massive, downtuned and buzzing, but weaving elaborate tapestries of black sound, some of it bordering on rock and roll, but not in a cheesy way, just an out of the ordinary way, which is maybe why some of these riffs are so damn catchy. But it's the strange vocals that take Graveland's sound to a whole other level, the aforementioned Arvo Part reference should tell you all you need to know. Gorgeous harmonies, choral backdrops to what would otherwise be simple buzzing black metal. It's like a black metal Godspeed sometimes, super dramatic and cinematic. So good.� At first we were a bit bummed by how similar this disc was to The Fire Of Awakening, but the more we listen to it, the more we realize ho different it really is and how much more is going on and how much has changed musically. Even if you think you've got all the Graveland you need, think again.� While they last we have the super deluxe oversized hardcover A5 book version (limited to 2000 copies), once we run out of those you'll get the regular jewel case version which will also be cheaper! BTW: We used to mock Darken's constant battle gear, posing in every photo in his armor and chainmail, always with some sort of weapon, but a close look at the thanks list reveals it may be a little bit more than just playing dress up, since he thanks the Great Warriors from Slavic and Viking Reenactment Groups!

Killer doom from Spain. Candlemass meets Celtic Frost. Ultra true doom, heavy and sorrowful, huge guitars, great riffs and soaring emotional vocals. Good stuff.

Here's a new example of an up and coming (albeit questionable) subgenre in the metal realm: the onesonghourpluslong disc. Sleep, Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Sabbat, Boris, Corrupted, now Green Carnation. Their experimental bent goes beyond the song length,

RealAudio clip: Light of Day... (excerpt)

Took some close listening, with some serious headphones, to actually discern the black metal happening on this double vinyl epic from the mysterious Grief No Absolution, who traffic in their own brand of 'bleak metal', which to these ears, at least at first sounded less like metal and more like noise, but cool noise for sure, but after a few listens, the blackened underbelly began to reveal itself, this one is definitely gonna hit the spot for folks into black metal noise hybridists like WOLD or Nekrasov, people who like their blast and buzz obscured by hiss and crunch and rumble and skree. The 7" is the noisier component of this twofer. Psychedelic squall, a buzzing organic fog of sheer white noise shot through with shards of melody, and jagged sheets of processed feedback, layers of grinding fuzz collapsing in a swirling black hole of sound, but every once in a while, a streak of Merzbowian crunch will become a howling vokill, or a smear of caustic hiss will morph into an icy bit of riffage, but never for long, always quickly swallowed up by the roiling blacknoise nipping at its heels. The 10" component is the darker dronier of the two, and is all about the slooow and looow, deep rumbling tones, SUNNO)))-y swells of slow motion riffage, so slow it's rendered ambient, a gorgeous drifting doomdrone, soft edged buzz, swirling and blurring into lush expanses of blackened shimmer. Abstract, skeletal, deep and minimal, ambient and atmospheric, but still plenty grim and blackened. From the Flingco label who last list brought us The Black Box. Cool packaging as always, black on black printed sleeve, with a printed Japanese style obi, inside, a white on white printed insert, and it comes with a download card as well!

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. We've been looking forward to listing this, holding off on getting the import 'cause we knew that the label it's on, Van, was working on a US distribution deal. Finally it's here, and with appropriately dismal delight we can share this digipack'd slab of supreme doom metal with you. The debut full-length from Swedish band Griftegard (meaning, "burial ground") is an impressive one. Massive, morose, melodic, epic doom, a bit like the early work of ultimate Swedish doomlords Candlemass, also reminding us of Trouble circa Run To The Light, Warning's Watching From A Distance, The Wounded Kings, Fall Of The Idols, and other class acts. Maybe even a little Nick Cave! One of the guys in Griftegard used to help run the I Hate Records label, so it's no surprise that his band knows how doom should sound from the get-go. Slow and plodding, of course, and with much depth of feeling. The ragged edge to the singer's voice gives these dirges extra emotion, as if the crushing riffage needed any help, so very lumbering and slumbersome it is. Quiet parts, piano and organ interludes, add to the atmosphere. Solemn, Sacred, Severe IS the perfect title, and review tagline. Griftegard, like many doom bands, have a religious vibe to them. We don't think they ARE Christian, but these songs are often ABOUT Christianity (and its discontents), in particular, the apocalyptic Jehovah's Witnesses sect. Lead off track "Charles Taze Russell" is in fact named after an important historical figure in that church. We first heard it in demo form, on a cd-r comp that came with an underground doom metal 'zine, and by itself that track put us on the lookout for an album from these gloomy guys, and again here it is, one of the most accomplished doom debuts in recent memory. Well, the Garden Of Worm we listed last time was pretty good too, and if you liked that you're probably gonna need to hear Griftegard's moans of misery as well...

MPEG stream: Charles Taze RusselL
MPEG stream: The Mire
MPEG stream: Drunk With Wormwood

Tears streaked many a black metal fan's corpsepaint when they heard the news earlier this year that those stalwarts of the Norwegian black metal scene, the one and only Immortal, *weren't* actually (i.e. the band broke up). At least Immortal went out in glory, with their final album being the magnificent Sons Of Northern Darkness, one of their best. Now drummer Horgh From Immortal (that's his name, right?) has got a new band together, Grimfist, a trio with guitarist/bassist Ole Walaunet and vocalist Frediablo (Gorelord, Svartpest, Necrophagia, et. al.). Time to wipe away the tears, kiddies, 'cause while Grimfist is no Immortal, they're pretty good. As you might expect with Horgh From Immortal behind the kit, the velocities are excessive, and Grimfist's brutal music is like a grim fist in your face (where'd we get that simile?). At one point early on in the album, some power-metally clean vocals take over from the rough rasping growls, but as it turns out that was only a one-time occurence, which is kind of neat 'cause it keeps you guessing throughout, though it would take more than that to distract you from the full-on headbangin' this disc will precipitate. Death, black, and thrashin' eighties metal are fed into the Grimfist grinder, and the results are hard not to like, if nothing super original. But while we mourn Immortal, why not have a little fun with Grimfist?

MPEG stream: A World Of Wrath

Killer three way split of grim depressive blackness from the same label that brought us the new Pyha (reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), and while we were familiar with French outfit Grimlair, we had never heard of the other two. And while Grimlair have not made it onto the aQ list until now, the black metalheads around here have dug them for a while, their, woozy, mournful, melancholic buzz drenched miserablism, the guitars crunchy and softly corrosive, the vocals and anguished wail, the drums simple and buried in the mix, but the melodies, so dreamy and haunting and emotional, think Xasthur and Alcest and Amesoeurs, but way more raw and stripped down, a single riff spread out into a whole song, the melody winding through the churning murky riffage, not so much heavy as atmospheric, a gauzy, blackened sonic dreamworld, the last track a cool, reverby, almost classical clean guitar piece, love this guy. If you're at all into the sad and sorrowful side of the grim black spectrum, this will totally hit the spot. The guy from Grimlair apparently also plays in Klar, who not surprisingly traffic in a similar sound, but Klar's sound is a bit more lush and full, the same sort of melancholic melodic grimnesss, but with a dour almost post punk undercurrent, the guitars reverby and echoey, with some cool, almost psychedelic sounding leads, the vocals more up front, and a bit more tortured sounding, with occasional bursts of almost blasting blackness, but for the most part, Klar creeps and crawls, crafting ominous and haunting slo motion metallic atmospheres, peppered with stretches of almost post rock sounding clean guitar jangle, and one long stretch of solo guitar that's super meditative and hypnotic. Finally, there's Unending Hatred, a depressive duo from Mexico, who have their own take on miserable blackness, a full, heavy sound that definitely reminds us a little of Lifelover, but much more raw and grim, the guitars woozy and washed out, everything wreathed in thick buzz, the melodies sad and sorrowful, minor key and mournful, and the vocals, twisted mewls and wild falsetto shrieks, very alien and animalistic, adding a seriously demented vibe to the droned out depressive blackness, definitely want to hear more from these guys. Three variations on grim black miserablism, all of them pretty great...

MPEG stream: Memories From An Unreal Past
MPEG stream: Beginning Of Sadness
MPEG stream: My Illness

We loved the debut release from the band Niflheim, as much as you can love something that dark and dour and depressing and miserable, but love it we did. A crushing chunk of soul shearing Burzumic buzz, laced with strange drones, and bits of haunting ambience. For some reason the band changed their name to Gris, and this, Il Etait Une Foret, is the first under the new monicker, but, it's actually the 2nd chapter in Gris/Niflheim's musical quest which is apparently meant to span seven volumes. But we're off to a pretty good start� But with the name change, the sound has changed as well, pretty dramatically actually, but before we get into it, we feel that we have to preface the following with this disclaimer: we definitely get pretty hyperbolic about the music we love, proclaiming things the best ever, the most fucked of all time, the heaviest, but you know, there's nothing wrong with that really, cuz often, for that moment, whatever we're listening to really is. You're not playing things side by side, not comparing two records, you're letting a single record and the music within overwhelm you and engulf you and carry you away, so it's no wonder, that in the throes of that sort of listening, whatever that record is, it IS in fact for that moment the MOST. The great records are the ones that continue to be the most even on repeated listens. Okay with that out of the way, this Gris record has some strange ineffable quality, some wondrous confluence of heaviness and prettiness, that in short order has quickly made it our most listened to and probably favorite black metal record of the year so far. It's not the heaviest, or the fastest, or the grimmest, but it is truly strange, beautifully unique, mournful yet majestic, depressive yet dreamy. The sound is definitely Burzumic, a loping lurching almost midtempo buzz, the guitar super brittle and crunchy, the arpeggiated notes dripping with crumbling distortion, the vocals some of the most anguished we've heard, recalling Weakling for sure, as well as groups like Hekel and Malcuidant. A raspy near hysterical wail, always on the verge of cracking completely. The riffs are moody and melancholy, intense and emotional, often a second, acoustic, guitar, offers up a melodic counterpoint, giving the depressive dirge a strangely stately and classical vibe. The songs often burst into epic crescendos, the screams growing even more tortured, strings soaring, it's like a black metal opera, over the top and super intense, cinematic and totally heart wrenching. Rare is the band of any stripe, especially black metal, that is able to illicit that sort of response in the listener. Some of the tracks are just acoustic guitar and drums, a loose skeletal framework, the vocals a howling banshee wail scrawled across the rhythms below, bursts of machinegun like double kick drum, soaring guitar leads, flurries of piano notes, those tracks occasionally erupting into walls of blasting buzzing neo classical blackness, but still rife with mournful melodies and strange sonic flourishes, choral vocals, drifting drones, but the core is this super intense, ultra moving heaviness that loses none of it's emotional impact even when it's furiously pounding away. Other tracks find the piano picking out a sad melody beneath a crushing doomic plod, wrapped in yet more strings, and the vocals, continuing their harsh howling lament. Then there's the closing track, a full on classical piece, none of that fake synth ambient classical bullshit, this is a dense chunk of modern classical, strings and piano, wound into tense melodies, weaving back and forth, creating an epic and moving coda, dark and evocative haunting and mysterious, gloriously emotional and so stirring and lovely. Not sure what else to say, at the risk of slipping into hyperbole again (but you -were- warned!), this record is absolutely amazing, a definite contender for BM record of the year, and not only does it have already anxiously awaiting chapter three, it's got us all fired up to go back and revisit the first one as well. SO recommended.

MPEG stream: Il Etait Une Foret...
MPEG stream: Le Gala Des Gens Heureux
MPEG stream: Cicatrices

Latest from this French one man depressive black metal band, whose name means 'greyish', which is actually not a bad description of Grisatre's washed out minor key buzz and blast, definitely a sort of 'grey metal', very melodic and melancholic, reminding us of Happy Days and Hypothermia, being yet another group whose shrieked vokills are mostly what keeps the sound firmly entrenched in the black metal world. And yeah, the guitars buzz, the drums blast, the recording is murky and lo-fi, but even at full blast, the guitars chime and ring out mournfully, and the songs evolve continuously (the three tracks here are all between 13-16 minutes long), so the sound slips into woozy midtempo melancholia as often, if not MORE often, than it explodes into blasting black buzz. Three long stretches of loping buzz soaked mesmer, peppered with bursts of more overt blackness, but also creepy shimmery drones, there even seems to be some warm swirls of softly psychedelic synthesizer in the mix, and amidst everything, there are some truly divine moments of melodic bliss, gorgeous bits of pop songsmithery buried in the murk, as well as twisted bits of production, that turn what could have been something more more generic, into something a little bit more far out and weirdly warped. It's also one of the rare BM records where you can actually hear the bass, and not JUST hear it, as it's a sinewy melodic driving force in the sound, giving much of this a gloomy post punk vibe as well. We're digging this big time, and we're guessing if you like buzzy melancholia and hauntingly melodic 'grey' metal (and really why wouldn't you?), then you will too.

MPEG stream: L'Abstrait
MPEG stream: L'Impression

Don't be filed by the opening track on Paroxystique, full length number three from this French one man black metal band. It's appropriately titled Meditation, and is indeed a dolorously dour and depressive slab of almost shoegazey post black metal, thick, shimmery guitars, chiming melodies, echo drenched drumming, it's druggy and hypnotic and darkly lovely, with even the more metal moments washed out and woozy. But Grisatre get down to blacker business on the second track, a sprawling 17+ minute epic that while still technically post black metal, is more furious and frenzied, plenty of buzz and blast, a galloping chugging churn with harsh vokills, and frantic riffing, but even here, the song is laced with minor key melodies, and the production is a bit soft focus, and three quarters of the way through, things slow down to a doomy dirge, all anguished wailing and downtuned thrum. The rest of the record plays out like a sonic palindrome, a short bit of moody, sinister ambience, gives way to another massive buzzing black epic, and then the whole thing is bookended by another almost dream poppy black metal closer, swirling and almost post rocky in places, fans of Ameseours and Alcest and Deafheaven and the rest, probably already dig these guys (this guy?) but if not, now's definitely the time to right that wrong.

MPEG stream: Meditation
MPEG stream: Contemplation
MPEG stream: L'Astre Gris

Everyone went nuts for the last Gromm full length around here. And it wasn't just because it was called Happiness - It's When You Are Dead, although that was a big part of what we wanted to hear these guys in the first place. That record was a gorgeous blast of Ukrainian black frost, rife with buzz and howl, blast and roar. Hailing from the same area as other AQ black metal faves such as Nokturnal Mortum, Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Drudkh, Hate Forest and others, Gromm share some similar sonic traits, if there was a 'Ukrainian sound' (which we do believe there is) then Gromm do fit right in, but as with most black metal we dig, especially the aforementioned Ukrainian ones, Gromm definitely had their own take on things, strange production, unique vocals, and of course their own brilliantly twisted and blackened riffs. Cold Old Thorns (another great title) collects all the old demos, as well as a new song and an unlikely cover. The first half of the disc is the Ferro Ignique demo from 2001-2002, originally a tape limited to 300 copies, which finds the band way stripped down and primitive, but no less ambitious, the sound is murky and lo-fi, the blasts seems to be played by a machine (or a very machinelike human), but the songs are still completely epic and fucked up, super dense convoluted arrangements, plenty of atypical not very black metal song structures, super dynamic, lots of start and stop, the vocals are even more tweaked than they are now, raspy and demonic, gnarled and super creepy, the guitars rip, incredible riffing, emotional and minor key, majestic but furious and fierce, all wrapped in a muffled muted production that makes the whole thing sound just that much more grim and gorgeous. The second half of the disc is made up of the Nails For Gods demo from 2003, also originally a limited-to-300-copies cassette, this time, the sound is a bit more high fidelity, but the mix is insane, the opener "Black Madness" is totally unhinged, the guitars and drums blasting blackly along, pretty low in the mix, while the vocals shriek and soar WAY UP FRONT, it almost doesn't sound like a voice, it's like a strangely musical scraping, steel on steel, and here and there, another guitar part, more melodic and moody joins the fray, also way louder than everything else, making the sound so strange and creepy, but so cool. And those vocals, holy shit! The whole demo is like that, a blanket of buzz over which those crazy inhuman vocals rasp and scrape and various melodies surface and drift. Fucking awesome. As if that weren't enough, there's a new song from last year, dense and fuzz drenched, midtempo and Burzumic, the vocals buried in the mix, just another layer of raspy buzz, four and a half minutes of loping droney black buzz, and a killer cover of Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls", the classic thrash prog epic transformed into a totally necro blast of grimness, the vocals harsh and super distorted, the whole thing blurred into a relentless black blur, except for the chorus, which ends up sounding like the catchiest Darkthrone part Darkthrone never wrote. Liner notes, lyrics, photos, and an awesome black and silver, shiny reflective sticker included...

MPEG stream: Cold Thorns
MPEG stream: Black Fire Legions
MPEG stream: Black Madness
MPEG stream: Provocation / For Whom The Bell Tolls

As far as black metal album titles, it's pretty impossible to beat Happiness - It's When You Are Dead. Sure Blizzard Beasts is awesome, so is A Blaze In The Northern Sky, even Rebel Extravaganza has its perverse charm. But no album titles we can think of are so simple and succinct. Happiness - It's When You Are Dead. Perfectly capturing the miserablism and death obsessed nihilism of black metal without the usual overwrought hand wringing wordiness. Simple. We like it. And we like Gromm too. Much like how the Russian BM bands share a sonic sensibility, so too do the Ukrainian bands, Nokturnal Mortum, Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Drudkh, Hate Forest, and of course Gromm. If you like that stuff, odds are you'll like these guys too. And considering how insular and inbred those scenes are, we wouldn't be all that surprised if Gromm shared members with one, some or all of those bands. For those new to Gromm, on the surface it's everything we love about black metal, furious and frosty, blasting and black and brutal, with guitars that are super distorted, so much so that sometimes they seem to crumble and overload the speakers, recorded so hot they shoot into the red adding another layer of (unintentional?) distortion, the vocals are raw and garbled, not growling or grunted so much as twisted and strangled, the drums are kick ass, furious and blasting, but there is tons of melody in the music of Gromm, and not just in the slowed down melancholy parts, but in the buzzing frosty blasts, melodies and strange catchy bits lurk everywhere. There's some super weird production too, like when an ultra loud effects-heavy acoustic guitar is laid over the black buzz, so loud and thick that it spreads out and almost completely obscures the music beneath it, making it sound really damaged and creepy. And that kind of stuff is all over Happiness, but even without all the subtle weirdness, the record kills, the songs are amazing, the sound is epic and catchy, fast and fuzzed out, brutal and black. Extremely recommended.

MPEG stream: Seeds And Bones
MPEG stream: On The Way Of Chains
MPEG stream: Without A Pack, Without A Herd

MPEG stream: Oblomki Mertvogo / Fragments Of The Dead
MPEG stream: Rotten Forest

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

For a band who existed so briefly, with only handful of live performances, and a single record to their name, San Francisco's late great black metal masterminds Weakling cast a mighty long shadow. Many consider their Dead As Dreams debut/swansong to be one of the best US black metal records EVER, and hell, who are we to argue. Andee's tUMULt label put it out, after all. It's also inspired at least three tributes/homages that we can think of, Jabladav's weirdo worshipful Dead As Duck album, then there's the band Dead As Dreams, and now there's this two song tape from Texas/Oregon black metal outfit Grst, entitled Fire Therein, on which the trio tackle two Weakling tracks, "Cut Their Grain And Place Fire Therein" and "Dead As Dreams". And on first listen, these guys do a pretty good Weakling, especially the anguished wailed shrieking vokills, the music itself is a lot more polished and less raw than the original, the organ/synth way higher in the mix, the drums too, it sounds like they've added some subtle twisted of their own, but it's obviously a pretty reverential homage, and for anyone who loves the original, which should be all of you, it's pretty cool to hear someone else's interpretation, and the fact that it still sounds so good, most definitely speaks to the power, the energy, and the uniqueness of the original. Same with "Dead As Dreams", a song we've loved so much for so long, that even hearing an entirely different version, the minute we hear that riff, that instantly recognizable melody, it gives us chills, and again, hearing a different version/interpretation, gives us new perspective, and makes us want to dig into the original all over again. Which is pretty much everything you want from a tribute/cover/homage... LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. With cool pitch perfect Dead As Dreams styled cover art.

MPEG stream: Cut Their Grain And Place Fire Therein

After two kick ass releases. The buzzing black metal of Dwellers Of The Twilight, and the epic doom of The Wounded Kings, comes two new records on the newly launched Eichenwald label, an offshoot of longtime faves Paradigms. We originally assumed that Eichenwald was meant to be more metal, but they seem to be displaying the same sort of sonic breadth as the mothership. This is the debut (we think) from these German slowcore doom atmospherists, who weave a dreamlike minimal murk somewhere between Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore and Low or Seam. Three long tracks. Beginning with a muted bass heavy crawl, with spidery guitar lines and a distant shimmery drone, not unlike some mix of Codeine and Low, woozy and ethereal and dreamily fuzzy, until the song kicks into gear, and suddenly the sound is more glistening, with German vocals, crooned over skittery minimal drumming, and soft almost jazzy chords, the bass slippery and underwater sounding. Chiming harmonics drift in a hazy patina of warm reverb, the song sprawling and spreading out in slow motion, there's definitely a Necks vibe too, soporific and wearily lovely. The second track, begins with another distant drone, and more skeletal guitar figures, and once again shifts into something moodier and jazzier, lush minor key chords, sizzling clouds of cymbal shimmer, ending with a long stretch of rainy day strings, and moaning low end swells, wrapped around a haunting guitar progression, still jazzy, but strangely cinematic. The final track clock in at nearly 20 minutes, and begins with a creepy intro of layered drones and processed vocals, very atonal and a bit liturgical sounding, before woozy moody guitars roll in, rumbling bass, and then the drums explode and the sound becomes a super dramatic math rock a la Explosions In The Sky, but only briefly, while the rest of the song unfurls lethargically, the bass thick and muddy, the vocals spoken, the guitars offering up glistening shimmers of feedback, until the drums kick in again, and ups the drama and urgency. There's one more long-ish Bohren like crawl, before the song finishes off with a lovely and subtly epic Godspeed like flourish. Definitely required listening for the moody dramatic post rock set: Bohren, Godspeed, Explosions, even older stuff like the aforementioned Seam, Codeine, Low, and to our ears, sometimes a bit like a softer lighter take on some of the more blissed out Jesu moments.

MPEG stream: Wahnenhardt
MPEG stream: Hustert

We really weren't sure what to expect from the oddly monikered Guardian Alien, knowing that two of the members also played in black metal outfit Liturgy, but that this was drummer Greg Fox's project, Fox also apparently recording as GDFX, whose tripped out experimental electronic tape on Ormolycka we reviewed a while back. We were even further confused when we got a look at the record cover, a weird painting of a Rasta alien in a tracksuit, in a field full of animals and campfires, and a sky full of deer with books in their mouths and exploding suns, and of course the tracksuited alien is holding a copy of the record, whose cover depicts the same alien holding a copy of the record and so on and on and on ad infinitum. The title too, "See The World Give To A One Love Entity" has a definite Rastafari bent, so we were definitely feeling some serious trepidation as we pushed play, which at first unfurled what sounded like field recordings, birds and insects, and then footsteps, maybe the footsteps of that alien on the record cover, then a brief bit of Eastern style drone, before BLAM, the song explodes in what we can only describe as Liturgy by way of Sunroof!, which you have to hear to believe. It's a furious raga-blast, the drums relentless a splattery chaos of wild octopoidal drumming, the guitars following suit, sounding like a transcendental Mick Barr, it's frenzied and tangled but infused with a serious does of droned out tranciness, and then as the song lets up briefly, we were expecting that whole bit to just be the intro, but then the furious raga-blast starts up again, this time even more intense and explosive, and this time with vocals, a strange chanting buried in the mix, very ritualistic and meditative, and even though the band is pounding away frantically, the whole thing manages to be totally mesmerizing and utterly hypnotic, and after three minutes, although it feels like much more, the sound settles down into something much more stripped down and meditative, the drums no less busy, but instead, weaving a dense percussive backdrop over which woozy guitars waver and buzz, the vocals become more distinct, the melodies stretched out into gorgeously buzzy ragas, we're reminded of Astral Social Club at time the same sort of noise-raga thing, but here blissed out, the sound like some wild ritualistic drum circle wedded to some serious free jazz raga exploration, the vocals doused in effects, sounding truly alien, in keeping with the cover and the concept, the sound swirly and tripped out and super psychedelic, until eventually the drums drift off, leaving just a sky full of layered undulating guitars, a blur of shifting overtones and wild sonic squalls, before the drums come back in, a dense mathy, driving percussive groove, wreathed in swirling effects, the song shifting constantly, arranged like an epic black metal song in some ways, it's dynamicism in no way taking away from the tracks overall mesmer, and it is a single track, nearly 40 minutes of blast beat driven raga ur-drone psychedelia, dipping into ultra minimal drones and chant like vocalization here and there, chiming Tibetan bowls elsewhere, the field recordings that opened the record returning occasionally, a gorgeous droned out slow build to a final movement, a gloriously cosmic free jazz psychedelic drum heavy raga drone blowout, that builds to a sort of Boadrum like rhythmic frenzy before finally fading out in a cloud of deep bell like tones and slow fading shimmer. Wow.

MPEG stream: See the World Given to a One Love Entity (Excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: See the World Given to a One Love Entity (Excerpt 2)

Most of you weird music obsessives should probably remember Dutch black ambient freaks Stalaggh, whose MO was creating harsh atonal drones and buzzes, hellish noise drenched soundscapes as backdrops for various vocalists, those vocalists all inmates at a local psychiatric hospital. Yup. The results were chilling, and creepy, and pretty fucking demented and incredible. Those Stalaggh recordings made even the evilest black metal sound totally tame in comparison. Some seriously emotional, demented and damaged, psychological sonic terror. Since then, the band has regrouped, now called Gulaggh, with a similar plan of attack, with one little twist, according to the band, Gulaggh will be about "the perversion and inversion of Classical music combined with the vocals of the mentally insane". Definitely sounds good. Or maybe good is not the right word. But like Stalaggh, it seemed like Gulaggh would be equally disturbing. So here it is. One track, 45 minutes, of totally haunting, mysterious... music? Sound? Soundart? Hard to know how to classify this. The sound of a voice, reverbed, over a deep distant thrum, all wrapped in little bits of hiss and creak, long tones rumble and drone, and then the voices begin to surface, mewling and moaning, groaning and mumbling, all over an insidious low end thrum, horns bleat, various bits of percussion pound scrape, and still the various voices get louder, more and more frenzied, the overall vibe ever more terrifying. The sound does seem to get classical, but more like an orchestra tuning up, abstract tones and atonal bleats and blurps, and then things go fucking apeshit, with all the vocalists, shrieking and screaming and howling, pounding on walls, stomping on floors, the cries growing more and more anguished, then out of nowhere some random drumming comes in, just in the middle of this cacophony of howls and shrieks, building to a frantic climax, before the voices begin to fade, swirling screams, sounding more like kids on a playground, but still intense knowing these aren't kids and they aren't on the playground. The horns step it up, honking and skronking and bleating and moaning, the drums skittering to a halt, then it's a weird fade out, quite voices, humming and murmuring and squeaking beneath the slowly fading horns, streaks of feedback, and that commanding, authoritarian voice from the beginning returns, the track ending how it started. Holy shit, definitely super intense, and squirm inducing, somewhere between abject black ambience, a horror movie soundtrack, an educational film, a field recording, and a smattering of stumbling musical experimentation. Freaky as all get out, but in it's harrowing miserablism, does lurk moments of beauty, bits of melody, but for the most part those are definitely overshadowed by the evil and misery and terror, that the maniacs in Gulaggh have somehow rendered into music. Or at least sound. Reservedly recommended. Difficult listening of the highest order, but would definitely be right at home on your cd shelf next to the Conet Project, the Ghost Orchid EVP recordings, and other mysterious and challenging collections of sounds found and otherwise.

MPEG stream: Vorkuta (excerpt)

A while back we reviewed a record by Scottish depressive doom laden black metal outfit Vostok, which ended up being a favorite among the aQ black metalheads, so we were psyched to discover that there was a Vostok offshoot called Haar, who take a similar approach to black metal, imbuing it with plenty of gloomy creep and midtempo lumber, even opening up the proceeding with a almost Sabbathy sounding stoner metal dirge, before launching into some proper black buzz. But even over the course of that first track the band constantly slip into a sound much more lurching and dynamic, mathy and a bit proggy, with some dirgey guitar chug, cool double kick drumming, and soaring guitars, all wedded to the weirdly lumbering tempos that only occasionally erupt into full on blast. "To Forgive An Enemy" offers up some darkly melancholy riffage, gnarled and blackened, wreathed in strange spidery melodies, the drums pounding away underneath, which gives way to closer "Without Form Or Void", which is the weirdest of the bunch, all woozy, warped start/stop chug and churn, super mathy and complex, the song's arrangement dizzying, flitting from grinding blast, to classic metal majesty, to murky dirgery and back again, weirdly dissonant, with bellowed clean vocals and hints of classic true doom infused into the band's otherwise twisted black doom crush.

MPEG stream: Whisper Serenities Eve
MPEG stream: Without Form Or Void

One of two new tapes this week from the Brotherhood Of Light label, who over the last few months have brought us a bunch of killer releases from Sunchariot, Surt, Uruk Hai as well as a bad ass label sampler. This latest comes from a one band band called Haar, who as far as we can tell, is the work of the man behind the label, as well as both Sunchariot and Surt (or at least someone also involved in the Brotherhood Of Light horde), and like those two groups, Haar traffics in a mournful blasting black metal, super lo-fi, with frenzied insectoid riffing, bellowed vokills, and drums blasting away, but those drums mostly buried WAY down in the mix, the overall result definitely benefits from the raw production, turning minimal black buzz into something droney and almost psychedelic, the sounds blurring into one another, washed out and super hypnotic, doused in what sound like weird FX, but could just be fucked up tape and recording process, the tape hiss almost as loud as the guitars, which give the whole thing a sort of BM by way of Jeck or Tim Hecker vibe, at least a little bit. And yet, as primitive and low fidelity as the sound is, the guitars here are fucking fierce, some seriously bad ass riffing, that sometimes seem to soar into dense tangles of blackshred, the whole thing a dizzying blackened slab frantic blast and buzz, all underpinned by a haunting moody shimmer. And be warned, even with our Walkman as loud as it would go, it was still not very loud, so be prepared to CRANK IT, and be rewarded with ears full of glorious lo-fi hypno-trance, black buzz.

We first heard about these guys via the awesome Hammer Smashed Sound blog, described as "black rituals for the vastness-appreciative", the band listing their influences as "Movement of woods, rocks, plants & nature as such - plus the vastness of it all. Abyssal fear, fire, wholeness, monolithic things, megaliths, human insignificance, occult systems of cosmology & meaning, open systems of cosmology & meaning, clean violence, swift violence, enlightenment..." PLUS there's the fact that this, their debut record, came housed in a hand crafted leaf encrusted wooden sleeve, so we were pretty much already sold. Thankfully, their blackened sonic rituals more than live up to those obtuse and abstract descriptors, and the stunning packaging. Black ambience might be too reductive when trying to describe Hadewych's mysterious soundworld, but it's a start. Occultic, ritualistic, grim, mysterious, haunting, all of the tracks here exist in some sort of moonlit nether region, the whole record some sort of fantastic journey, rendered in abstract sound, huge heaving swells of dense drone, muted pits of abstract percussion, softly crumbling bits of ambient whir, the sounds clipped and layered and assembled into lumbering skeletal rhythms, deep processed vocals, intoning some strange prayer, while a bleak black melody plays out in the background, and some super freaky demonic vocals surface, belch out some wordless filth, before splintering and collapsing back into the swirling blackness below. Dense walls of SUNNO)))-ish rumble dissolve into some skittery almost-electronica, wrapped around more of those freaky belchy vocals, and some shimmery choral vocals overhead, before the record switches gears, and sprawls into some softly glitched pop ambience, all shimmer and drift and hover, laced with haunting strings and whispered vox buried in the mix, chimes ring out, voices are stretched out into warm whirling sun dappled streaks of sound, layered acoustic guitars explode into squalls of blown out psychedelia, infused with intercepted radio broadcasts, a woozy washed out cloud of lumbering crunch and majestic soft noise, only to dissipate into another sprawling bit of rhythmic ambience, with warm soft focus guitars drifting over skittery electronics, and more hushed vox, giving way to a blown out, muffled in-the-red black folk drone, the notes and chords so saturated they sound almost percussive, and the more you listen, the more the various sounds ooze and blend and bleed into one. Lilting echo drenched folk leads us toward the end of our journey, atonal and buzzy, the steel strings soon fade out, leaving a gorgeous low end stretch of looped and layered tones, a sort of murky minimal pulse, haunting and ominous, and totally hypnotic, a quick burst of clatter and crunch leads us into a field of dense harmonium drone, hissing and wheezing, a gloriously textured expanse of warm whirs, peppered with strange field recordings, the crunch of footsteps, the panting of panicked breathing, which finally leads us to the black path, leading to an emptiness in the center of the black forest, the sound emanating from that void a deep rib cage rattling rumble, shot through with bits of glitch and hiss, and long streaks of some mysterious reverbed rasp, tendrils of feedback, fragments of melody, the shimmer of vibrating steel strings, tolling bells, all gradually blurred into blackness. So intense. Epic and cinematic, like the score to a life lived beneath the looming shadows of the great black oaks, or the soundtrack to a doomed expedition to the underworld, mysterious and evocative, and so so hauntingly beautiful. LIMITED TO ONLY 165 COPIES, housed in a red felt lined handmade wooden case, with four double-sided cards, the whole thing packed in incense-dried Norway maple leaves. Wow.

MPEG stream: Ava
MPEG stream: A Forest For Riss
MPEG stream: Prone
MPEG stream: Bordun
MPEG stream: Gentle Art Of Incineration Pt. 1

We've said it before. A bunch of times. In lots of reviews, but we'll say it again. There's just something about FRENCH black metal. Not sure what it is exactly, some of it sounds similar, but plenty of it definitely does not, but somehow, there's some ineffable -thing- that makes French black metal, special, hell, maybe BETTER than most black metal. Just off the top of our heads here's a list of French black metal bands (one that we've probably enumerated in other reviews before, but again, it bears repeating): Deathspell Omega, Katharsis, Mutiilation, Antaeus, Blut Aus Nord, Diamatregon, Peste Noire, Vlad Tepes, Aosoth, Hell Militia, Alcest, Otargos, Arrival Of Satan, S.V.E.S.T., Wolok So yeah, we love French black metal, and one band we've dug for ages, but never reviewed on the list is this one, Haemoth, who released a couple full lengths back in 2003-2004, but this is a collection of all the band's demos, from 2001-2004, and they KILL. The sound appropriately raw and black, the guitars super distorted and blown out, the vocals sick and processed, and the songs oozing all sorts of crazy atmospheres, the opening track, with headphones on, there's all this weird low end thrum, and strange buried melodies, all swirling and pulsing beneath the buzz and pound, even without headphones it makes the song sound creepy and dense and really really cool. It might be some sort of bass or synth or processed guitar, cuz it's on the next track too, which has some seriously thick crumbling distortion, all laced with lots of drone and weird murk, the sound SO in-the-red, and so crazy heavy, check out the first couple sound samples, you'll be sold. The older demos are more brittle and lo-fi, but still ooze menacing alien atmosphere, and are bizarrely arranged, and slip from crusty creepy plod to blurred and buzzy blast, the drums murky pulses in the thick swirls of guitarbuzz and howled vokills. There are plenty of drones and ambient breakdowns and lots of weird experimentalism scattered throughout, enough to satisfy folks into the more twisted shit, but raw and grim and black enough for the true / old school black hordes.

MPEG stream: Dependance
MPEG stream: Aversion
MPEG stream: Defects & Perversion

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

We first discovered this local black metal horde via a visit to radio station KFJC, who always invite aQ to be part of their annual 'Christless Eve', where the night of December 24th, they play the darkest, heaviest, sickest, weirdest black metal / noise / experimental music, with the aim of casting a black shadow over the cloying holiday cheer. This most recent year, heading home around 3am Christmas morning, after having been listening to crazy heaviness and warped black buzz for hours, we left with just one thing on our minds (well, two, if you count getting home and going to sleep), which was a newfound obsession with some band called Hagor. Whose single track that was played that night, lodged itself in our brain, and infected us with its whathefuck genius. It took some doing, but we finally got in touch with the band, and they brought some copies by of their cd-r, and holy shit, this stuff is so twisted and fractured and fucked, obviously influenced by classic blackness, but somehow on the way from listening to the classics, to making their own, the DNA got all tangled up, and the resulting sounds are some of the coolest weirdest black metal we've heard in ages, with much of this being so twisted up it's barely black metal at all. In fact, the opening track, "Accursed", is at the outset, a galloping rhythm, and a clean guitar riff, we were prepared for it to explode into some buzzing blackness, but then those elements just seem to lock into a dizzying loop, the guitar getting occasionally more distorted, but for the most part, it's a strange sort of hypnotic rhythmic psychedelic jam that reminds us a bit of 'wooden metal' weirdos Varghkoghargasmal. The second track is most definitely black metal, but it's SOOOOO lo-fi, it doesn't just sound like a rehearsal tape, it sounds like it was recorded on a lapel mic, super tinny, mostly just drums and vocals, but in its twisted minimalism, it becomes something else entirely, especially the burst of cymbal skree that sounds more like blasts of white noise. "Blitz-Krieg" is about as close as these guys get to traditional blackness, a loping midtempo blackbuzz blowout, that's blurred and smeared into a sort of greyed out drone, again those weirdly recorded drums give it a super twisted experimental vibe, even here when it's essentially super primitive raw blackness. And it doesn't get any less twisted as the record progresses, the strange soaring rhythmic synth prog of "Life In Death", or the crazy ULTRA lo-fi black pound of "Window Of Transparency", the warm, buzz drenched, woozy dirge of "Vigorous Forests"(great title!) or the -second- "Window Of Transparency", which manages to take the first one, and make it even more bizarre, the cosmic synthiness of "The Shift Of The Galaxy", or the droned out brittle buzz of "Spectrum", with some of the sickest vokills ever, the blown out, lush crumbling dirge of "Argus", replete with a sort of Burzum-y synth melody, over a dense black churn, to the record closer, which takes grim blackness and weds it to sort of primitive cold wave, minimal, tripped out, distorted and fucking bafflingly brilliant. Absolutely essential listening for folks into twisted lo-fi blackness and warped outsider whathefuck buzz... LIMITED TO ONLY THIRTY COPIES!!! We have almost half of the pressing, but needless to say, if you want one, best grab one quick...

MPEG stream: Accursed
MPEG stream: Disinagrating Into The Universal Storm
MPEG stream: Blitz-Krieg
MPEG stream: Life In Death
MPEG stream: Red Giants

LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!

Hallow is a group of blackened noisemakers loosely related to blacknoise merchants Ancestors (whose new ep is reviewed elsewhere on this list) and their debut double lp is in fact the soundtrack to an art show by Hallow mainman (only man?) Mark McCoy, who is also the mainman of Ancestors, which means the two are probably more than loosely related. Fuck. Who are we kidding, Hallow sound like a meaner, less black metal, more fucked up hardcore Ancestors, and anyone, and we mean ANYone who loves those Ancestors records, absolutely needs this too. In addition to fronting these to monstrous metallic behemoths, McCoy also creates some super intense artwork, strange assemblages of ruined buildings, of crumbling riggings, collapsing structures suspended in space, intricate to the point of being the work of a madman, these drawings are captivating, incredible, precise and ultra detailed, and in their own way, they are imbued with some sort of fucked up energy, they seem, sad, they seem violent, abandoned, lonely, possessed, EVIL even. And thus, McCoy created Hallow, who recorded a series of songs, of soundtracks, each to accompany one of his pieces. Included is a booklet, oversized, featuring the various drawings, it's up to the listener to determine which song, accompanies which drawing. But again, it hardly matters, on their own, the images are breathtaking, and the music, even minus the art, Hallow create a serious racket. The A side plays out like an Ancestors records, a bunch of short sharp tracks, furious frenetic post hardcore black metal buzz and pound and blast, super harsh, hellish, hateful, awesomely buzzy riffs, wildly blasting beats, walls of feedback wrapped around lurching anti-grooves, the songs stuttering and lumbering and exploding into jagged freakouts before locking back into some churning rhythm or white hot blast. The B side is split into two longer tracks, sonically similar to the A side in some ways, but a whole different beast in others, the first a noisy depressive dirge, epic and spacious, definitely doomy, the guitars heavily distorted and processed, effects all over the place, the vocals insane and harsh and noisy draped over the sheets of buzz and blur and the spaced out plod below. While the second track is similarly plodding and depressive, the sound is even more blown out, the guitars blindingly effulgent, all of the sounds on the verge of total collapse, but at the same time strangely melodic and epic. The second record is split into two sidelong tracks, and for some reason we can only think they accompany the images on the front and back cover. The first is a thick corrosive noisescape equal parts Wolf Eyes and Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, caustic and abject, tangled strands of feedback wound around thick heaving slabs of distorted low end, all melted down into something thick and black and viscous. The flipside is super abstract, all high end, chittering, chirping, stuttering, squeaking shards of upper register squelch and glitch, Morse code beeps, chirping crickets, wheezing creaks, a hauntingly melodic field of fragmented skree, chaotic and abrasive, but also textural and abstract and actually sort of beautiful. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! Gorgeous packaging, striking McCoy drawings on the front and back, pressed on thick vinyl, inside a thick oversized booklet featuring all of McCoy's drawings and some practically unreadable liner notes.