[ aquarius records — Metal Black Metal ]

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Ildjarn is a black metal legend. A recently released tribute featured a who's who of the black metal elite paying homage: Leviathan, Xasthur, Forgotten Tomb, Nachtmystium, Urfaust, Azaghal, Grimfaug and more. And rightfully so. Who is more grim, more cult, more legendary than Ildjarn? Having performed as a member of Thou Shalt Suffer and Sort Vokter it wasn't until Ildjarn struck out on his own that he truly discovered his muse, which led him to produce a truly infamous body of work, from super lo-fi black metal buzz to ambient synthesizer suites. This double disc collection compiles the first recorded Ildjarn material from 1992, the mega rare 1993 demo, and the Minnesjord - The Dark Soil demo as well as a bunch of unreleased stuff as well. The sound of Ildjarn is ultra, ultra, ULTRA lo-fi black metal buzz, with blown out guitars, uncertain drumming, howled demon vocals, with that totally raw practice space recording feel. The really cool thing about Ildjarn Is Dead, is the multiple versions / parts of each song, sometimes as many as 7 or 8 versions, each with varying amounts of fidelity, each it's own sort of lo-fi recording, some muddy and murky, some brittle and high end, resulting in a constantly fluctuating recording quality that is much an instrument as the drums or the guitar. This is the blackest of metal, think Darkthrone, Mayhem, but dig even deeper, closer to the pits of hell, deeper into the black of night, grim and raw and cult as fuck. There are some brief glimpses of some of the more avant Ildjarn to come later, with some interludes of gristly Earth-like distorted guitar drones complete with record crackle and a strange almost classical / New Age sounding coda, with sweeping synths, and haunting disembodied vocals. Disc two includes more than 20 minutes of unfinished material 1993-1994, which is completely amazing, some parts are just bass and drums, a skeletal outline of a never realized track, some are fully realized blasts of buzz and hiss, some have strange dropouts and tape warble, giving the whole thing an inadvertently avant sheen, like some strange unearthed decaying tapes a la Basinski (which I guess is sort of what they actually are). Amazingly packaged and gorgeously printed. An oversized fold out sleeve, printed in black, grey and silver, with a huge insert that features a massive sixteen thousand-word last statement written by Ildjarn, also included are lyrics to all the tracks and the cd sleeves within include the original artwork and more text. Absolutely beautiful. It's released by Northern Heritage, the label that put out the brilliant Crushing The Holy Trinity compilation a while back, packaged in a similarly oversized sleeve, although the design on the Ildjarn is a lot more subtle and visually stunning. And if you're still not sure if this is essential, how about a few words of warning from Ildjarn himself? "Before purchasing this product you should take great care in observing the following requirements in relation to it: After long-term use of this product you may experience increased hatred, thus a lust to kill partcipants of your own breed subsequent to and while operating this product may consequently occur. The copyright owner of this audio product and all its accompanying propaganda declares that it is in compliance with the essential requirements of antilife, and hereby assumes all liability for any injury or death caused by the use of this product. If inexperienced with the kind of hateful and suicidal contents distributed through this product, you should seek the advice of experienced misanthropists and death-worshipers before operation, to assure proper use and to prevent the interference of alien thoughts originating from philanthropists, which will most likely harm the process that may be the result of using this specific product. This product is furthermore solely intended for use in a solitary confinement, and should not be subjected to any other use. Following these rules, this recording and the accompanying words will provide a lifetime of pure frustration, caused by the newly acquired knowledge of the insufficiencies and absurdities of earthly life. If failing in the harsh process of submitting to these rules subsequent to your purchase, users are strongly urged to give away this product to a being willing to obey to the unwritten laws conceived by the sources of death's path, and ultimately the annihilation of the self. Again, be sure to consider all the above requirements prior to your purchase."

MPEG stream: Unknown Truths II (2nd Session)
MPEG stream: Unknown Truths III (2nd Session)
MPEG stream: Seven Harmonies Of Unknown Truths XV (Original)

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One of the bigger and better 'underground' metal mags in the US. This issue: cover boys Emperor, plus Iron Maiden, Neurosis, Gehenna, Meshuggah, Enslaved, and many others, including even Helix! Pages and pages of reviews too.

RETURN OF THE BLIZZARD BEASTS! Black Metal legends Immortal emerge after a few years of inactivity, and we are happy to report that the only noticeable difference is that things have gotten bigger and better and FASTER. And while the sound remains relatively unchanged, the strength of Immortal's songwriting and their unbelievable musicianship are enough to ensure All Shall Fall's status as a classic that will sit nicely alongside Pure Holocaust and Blizzard Beasts. No matter how many black metal albums make their way to aQuarius, certain groups stand out, and Immortal will always be one of those bands we never tire of. Why? Because they're pretty much better than anything and everything else, that's why. While other groups have come and gone, or changed their style drastically with the trends of the day, Immortal continue to remain true to themselves, and with the two years it took to write and record All Shall Fall, you can safely bet that the band has delivered an album that is, in it's own way, absolutely perfect. All the elements of classic Immortal are here: supercharged riffing with a nod to classic metal (and hell, classic ROCK too), rumbling and relentless bass playing, and yes, INSANE, incomprehensibly fast drumming. Of course, none of that would mean shit if the songs weren't great, which they most certainly are. They are 100 percent black metal, but also surprisingly catchy, super melodic but brutal, and fucking EPIC. And like all Immortal records, the songs revolve around the band's self created fantasy realm of Blashyrkh, with lyrics handled by out-of-commission guitarist Demonaz. Go ahead and laugh; while every other black metal band sings their stupid bullshit about Satan, Immortal instead created an appropriate metaphor for the REAL darkness and evil that so many other bands could never truly conceive of. We could go on about individual songs, but this is the kind of album you will want to listen to front to back. Everything ties together perfectly as you would expect, the production is spot on, and the band sounds amazing as always. Definitely one of the best metal albums of 2009, you could spend some time checking out the sound samples, but do you really need to? It's fucking Immortal.

MPEG stream: All Shall Fall
MPEG stream: Hordes Of War
MPEG stream: Arctic Swarm

The return of Immortal!!! These frosty warriors may have hung up their spiked gauntlets, but their legacy still looms large. Easily one of our favorite black metal hordes EVER, these records have been frustratingly tough to keep in stock over the years. Thankfully, they've all been reissued, in all their frostbitten black blurred glory! At The Heart Of Winter is from way back in 1999, but is one of the later albums by these blizzard beasts. You might be disappointed by the lack of blurred blast beats and blazing Arctic riffs but you certainly won't be disappointed with the results of these corpsepainted Norwegians' last photo shoot! A newfound obsession with pro wrestling and a new, very large and perpetually shirtless drummer (sporting a black metal belly girdle!) make this cd great to look at, but it's actually a great listen as well. As mentioned, gone is the speed of their previous effort Blizzard Beasts --in it's place is a stripped-down, more midtempo, straight-ahead heavy metal sound. Better, more professional production than in the past, plus catchier riffs combined with stumbling, propulsive drumming make this a record that Andee and Allan both love (while big Immortal fan Josh from The Champs votes this as the *worst* metal album of the year--go figure). Note: in the years since this album came out (1999) ol' Josh has had a change of heart and now admits that it's a pretty good record! And Allan rates it as his favorite Immortal opus ever. Andee places it at number two, right behind the classic Blizzard Beasts!

MPEG stream: Withstand The Fall Of Time
MPEG stream: Tragedies Blows At Horizon

Now available on vinyl for a limited time! Along with almost all the other albums in the Immortal discography -- we're missing only Battles In The North ('cause the shipment to our supplier arrived damaged) and Sons Of Northern Darkness ('cause it wasn't released by Osmose). Like the rest, this At The Heart Of Winter vinyl edition comes packaged in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, with new photos and design. Here's what we had to say about the cd back when it came out: You might be disappointed by the lack of blurred blast beats and blazing Arctic riffs but you certainly won't be disappointed with the results of these corpsepainted Norwegians' last photo shoot! A newfound obsession with pro wrestling and a new, very large and perpetually shirtless drummer (sporting a black metal belly girdle!) make this cd great to look at, but it's actually a great listen as well. As mentioned, gone is the speed of their last effort Blizzard Beasts --in it's place is a stripped-down, more midtempo, straight-ahead heavy metal sound. Better, more professional production than in the past, plus catchier riffs combined with stumbling, propulsive drumming make this a record that Andee and Allan both love (while big Immortal fan Josh from The Champs and Weakling votes this as the *worst* metal album of the year--go figure). Note: in the years since this album came out (1999) ol' Josh has had a change of heart and now admits that it's a pretty good record! And Allan rates it his favorite Immortal opus ever.

The final installment in the recent long overdue campaign of Immortal reissues (the rest of which we reviewed a few lists back). The return of Immortal!!! These frosty warriors may have hung up their spiked gauntlets, but their legacy still looms large. Easily one of our favorite black metal hordes EVER, these records have been frustratingly tough to keep in stock over the years. Thankfully, they've all been reissued, in all their frostbitten black blurred glory! As we've said before, you just can't go wrong with Immortal. It's like a big cold hug. For grim black metalheads that is! Everyone has their favorite Immortal. The raw early records, the slow more melodic later releases... and while we definitely love both, our hearts were originally captured by the brief two album black blizzard of buzz that was Blizzard Beasts (1997) and this here slab of frosty grimness Battles In The North. Originally released in 1995, BITN was the record that found Immortal finally unleashing their inner frost giant, from the album art, images of the band members crouching in the snow in full corpse paint with their instruments, to the much more explicit themes of winter and frost and blizzards and ice and snow, to the much frostier sound, a black metal white out, flurries of impossibly fast drumming, blinding swirls of buzzing riffage, the raspy winterdemon like vocals, Battles In The North is fastfastfast, a buzzy blinding blur, brief moments of folky guitar or droney ambience surface here and there, but for the most part this is a black metal avalanche, a huge white wall of black sound. Blizzard Beasts would up the fast and frosty ante a couple years later, but Battles In The North remains a pure and primal explosion of gloriously ultragrim Northern darkness!

MPEG stream: Battles In The North
MPEG stream: Throned By Blackstorms
MPEG stream: Grim And Frostbitten Kingdoms

Now available on vinyl for a limited time! Packaged in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, with new photos and design. Here's what we had to say about the cd (not a lot, but believe us, it's quite possibly our very favorite Immortal record): Highly-regarded Black Metal band (weirdly enough, Steve Albini's favorite) unleash their latest frigid barrage, an amazingly trance-inducing, complex blur of drums, rasping howls and icicle guitars, stopping and starting but at never less than 100mph. Their best album yet (as of 1997) and certainly their most Morbid Angel.

Now available on vinyl for a limited time! Packaged in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, with new photos and design. Here's what we had to say about the cd: The new Immortal has arrived. True members of the Norwegian black metal elite, Abbath (not as in "please take..."!) on guitars and Popeye vox, big ol' drummer Horgh, and new guy Iscariah on bass, (with the sidelined Demonaz still writing lyrics) come back atcha a year after their groundbreaking At The Heart of Winter, the disc that slowed down (a bit) the previously way FAAASSSTTT tempos characteristic of their speedy-demon classics Battles In The North and Blizzard Beasts and added more melody, more trad metal riffing, and mo' better production courtesy of Peter Tagtgren & his Abyss studio. Damned In Black follows the Winter blueprint, being kind of like a At The Heart of Winter Part II but without the amusing wanna-be WWF wrestler band photos that garnered so much attention/ridicule last time around. And while the title might suggest some sort of Satanic theme, the Immortal boys stick with their personal mythology of a frosty Northern dimension full of ice, wind, and cold. Immortal fans everywhere (even the ones here in San Francisco who got dissed by the band when they didn't show up to play and went to Mexico instead) should put on some mittens and enjoy this evil icecapade.

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SORRY. Remember back on list #90 when we first got "Damned In Black" in, and we said that someday we'd be seeing some sort of 'boxed' import version but didn't know if it would be worth the wait and the bucks. Well here it is. Seeing as it doesn't cost much more, maybe it is worth it if these guys are your favorite frostdemons. You get the jewelcase version of the album (digipaks are all gone now anyway) snugly concealed inside a handsome cardboard box with artwork (a hellish cover painting) not to be found elsewhere. Otherwise, it's the same, no extra tracks or other goodies or anything. In case you missed the description before, here's a condensed version: True members of the Norwegian black metal elite, Immortal come back atcha a year after their groundbreaking "At The Heart of Winter", the disc that slowed down (a bit) the previously way FAAASSSTTT tempos characteristic of their speedy-demon classics "Battles In The North" and "Blizzard Beasts" and added more melody, more trad metal riffing, and mo' better production courtesy of Peter Tagtgren & his Abyss studio. "Damned In Black" follows the "Winter" blueprint. And while the title might suggest some sort of Satanic theme, the Immortal boys stick with their personal mythology of a frosty Northern dimension full of ice, wind, and cold. Immortal fans everywhere should put on some mittens and enjoy this evil icecapade.

Now available on vinyl for a limited time! Packaged in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, with new photos and design. We never listed the cd before (it came out before we did reviews, let alone black metal reviews) but fans should know it, and that's who'll be interested in Immortal vinyl anyway. This was their very first album from '92, so probably their rawest, but still all about the winter wonderland that Immortal devoted their career to mythologizing.

Now available on vinyl for a limited time! Packaged in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, with new photos and design. We never listed the cd before (it came out before we did reviews, let alone black metal reviews) but fans should know it, and that's who'll be interested in Immortal vinyl anyway. This was their second album (from 1993) and is classic old school Norwegian black metal all the way. Grim and frosty!

From the cold frozen north (Norway) comes this, the latest cd from one of our favorite corpse-painted bands ever, Immortal. It's their seventh album but their first for new, big-time label Nuclear Blast, so expectations are high. And "Sons Of Northern Darkness" delivers, in fine Immortal fashion. It's got the unmistakable Popeye-gone-metal vocal stylings of guitarist Abbath, who rasps out the frostbitten fantasy lyrics penned by their former guitarist, the crippled Demonaz, all backed by a blizzard of drums from hefty skinbeater Horgh. Followers of Immortal's career know that they began as your basic, howling at the moon, primitive blasting black metal outfit. They quickly developed a reputation as the fastest band out there, reaching a peak of pure speed with the classic "Battles In The North". Unable to top that, they did an album of Morbid Angel worship, the hectic "Blizzard Beasts"...and then Demonaz left the band, unable to play guitar due to "arm disease". Regrouping, Immortal shifted in a newly melodic, heavy-metal-riff oriented direction, releasing the brilliant "At The Heart of Winter". Some old fans (Josh from The Fucking Champs, you know who you are) were disappointed that the songs wasn't as fast, and the production not as "necro" (i.e. bad) as before, but the drums still blazed and the better production (courtesy of Peter Tagtgren's Abyss Studio) combined with their improved song-craft made for a true masterpiece. They followed that up with "At The Heart of Winter Part II" (actual title: "Damned In Black"), and now here we are with what is essentially part three, "Sons Of Northern Darkness". No, it doesn't top "At The Heart of Winter" but it's indeed more of the same quality Immortal, totally satisfying! While their blasting abilities are still incredible, this disc is perhaps at its best on the slower songs, like "Tyrants". Cold, cold stuff. There's even a song about Antarctica! Immortal. Sometimes, there's nothing better.

RealAudio clip: One By One
RealAudio clip: Tyrants

Now featuring the shred-master fella from Children of Bodom on lead guitar, this Finnish "Nuclear Cybersex Black Metal" band returns, in much better form than on their rather weak, too-punk prior effort "Rapture". Slower and doomier by IN standards (but still fast and furious by most anyone else's), "Nihil" again makes IN a scary proposition.

They call what this Finnish band plays "cybermetal" but there're no technobeats to be found, and the lyrics fixate on S/M more than sci-fi. Perverted super super fast Black Metal thrash. Satanic sex metal, quite extreme, yet somehow good-natured. Some dainty songtitles: "Motorpenis," "Goat War," "66.6 S. Of Foreplay," "I Eat Pussy For Breakfast."

It demonstrates a lot of confidence to name your deathly black metal (or blackened death metal?) band something like Imperial Triumphant, but this NYC outfit really do mean business, business that includes not only brutal, technically twisted death/black metal but also lots of avant-garde, arty elements from free jazz sax squeal & piano improv to dramatic, droned-out 20th century classical passages, at times making the one wonder if you've put on a Cecil Taylor or Krzysztof Penderecki disc instead of this one! Lots of atmosphere, lots of shred, with swarming fuzz, lurching seasick song structures, dissonant breaks, crazed battery, and confusional genre-jumping interludes that would make John Zorn proud. No surprise this was produced/mixed/mastered by eccentric metal guru Colin Marston of Krallice, Behold The Arctopus, Gorguts, Encenathrakh, etc. Will appeal to fans of such recently-raved about avant-death weirdness like Aevangelist and Chthe'ilist, we're pretty sure, along with Portal, later Gorguts, Liturgy, Deathspell Omega, and other extreme metal strangeness.

MPEG stream: The Palaces Of The Hive
MPEG stream: Dead Heaven
MPEG stream: Black Psychedelia

Limited edition. Black metal. Norway. Cult. Custom packaging. Stephen O'Malley from Sunn 0))). That should be enough to have some of you in a froth. And rightfully so, as this is a super limited little slice of black metal history with custom packaging courtesy of Mr. O'Malley. Imperium were a Norwegian black metal band, who only ever recorded a single EP that has been unavailable until now. Featuring members of Emperor, Gehenna, Dismal Euphony and Theater Of Tragedy, Imperium spew a blackened brew of fast and raw, chaotic and buzzing, super grim and frosty black metal. Limited to 500 copies, never to be re-pressed (we only managed to get 20, not sure if we'll be able to get more) this is a one sided 12", music on one side, brown branches and bird silhouettes silkscreened on the other, packaged in a clear sleeve with a huge black bird and some spiky brambles silkscreened around the band's hard to read logo. The overall effect is quite stunning. And again VERY LIMITED.

Swedish blackened death metal. Heavy and speedy.

Featuring members of a whole mess of USBM outfits, most notably, Nightbringer, Demoncy, and Kult Ov Azazel, Incursus are a seriously grim and furious black beast, who after a brief bit of ominous piano, and crumbling ambience to set the mood, explode into a murky morass of Deathspell style gnarled blackness, frenzied riffing, soaring majestic melodies, slipping from woozy midtempo dirges to lightning speed blurred blowouts, and it's at that lightning speed that these guys spend most of Eternal Funeral Trance, but it's not all about speed, although the intense buzz and blast, creates a seriously trancelike vibe, sometimes the sound so fast and buzz drenched that it almost sounds like an undulating black drone, but the band are equally capable of conjuring up hypnotic and weirdly mesmerizing atmospheres, haunting and horrifying, every note infused with a demonic darkness, the sound a sort of Norwegian style blackness, but filtered through a twisted, tangled distinctly American underground sound, infused with the black spirit of Deathspell, Katharsis and Nightbringer, a furiously chaotic, misanthropic, ultraviolent collection of black hymns to the cursed and the fallen. Thus, 'tis WAY recommended.

MPEG stream: A Ravenous Despair
MPEG stream: When Death Enthrones Our Darkness
MPEG stream: Phantasmagoria

It's a funny thing, a lot of times, for us at least, as black metal bands get better, and tighter and more polished, they don't necessarily get better. Or more specifically, we don't actually like them any more than we did when they were struggling to realize some musical vision well beyond their technical grasp. I suppose that's true of any music maybe, but it seems more obvious with black metal in particular. When a band finally records in a studio, and has spent the last year honing their chops, it often sounds -amazing-, but just not as weird or personal or uniquely inspired. A good example is Behemoth, who we do love, still, but who are now a super tight technical, nearly overproduced, slick, fast, sharp and super complex black metal juggernaut. But in the beginning, they were making buzzing Burzumic black metal, with basically just acoustic guitars and drums. So they would be playing these classic sounding riffs, right there alongside stumbling blast beasts, but with some janky acoustic steel string guitar. And the results were totally inspired! It's that sort of inspiration and invention that can only come from absolute necessity. Which is precisely what is so appealing about so much black metal. But there are exceptions, one obvious one being this new record from Inferi. Previous recordings (two tapes) found the band a stumbling, chaotic, mess, a glorious mess, but a mess nonetheless, lots of buzz and blackness, but terrible recording quality and some super stumbling performances, which in that case, kept the band from expressing the sounds they were hearing in their heads. But on Shores Of Sorrow, Inferi, have done everything right. The sound is loud and heavy, thick and clear, but without losing the grim buzz that so defined them. And the playing is better too, but instead of trying to become some super technical BM band, they continued to hone their gorgeously sorrowful, midtempo blackness, and the result is totally captivating. Quite possibly one of the saddest sounding black metal records ever. Each of the four lengthy tracks is a blurry, buzzing, minor key dirge, thick swirls of distortion wrapped around totally emotional and super sad sounding melodies, all draped over loping lurching midtempo rhythms. Occasionally some awesomely unexpected double kick drumming surfaces, but all it does is up the tension factor, and make the song seem even more sad and intense. The opening track sets the tone, 12 minutes of mournful acoustic guitar, a gently lilting minor key melody, drifting beneath sheets of raw blown out black buzz, sort of seasick and dreamlike, harsh vocals howl above the melancholy blackness. The drums don't even kick in until the last few minutes, and then this black near-ballad turns into a heartbreaking dirge. The next two tracks follow a similar pattern, epic and sorrowful, gloriously miserable droning buzz. It's everything we love about Burzum and Xasthur and Nortt and Make A Change... Kill Yourself, stripped to its very essence, the simplest buzzing black representation of utter misery, so completely mesmerizing and totally soul stirring. The final track is blazing fast, at least compared to the first three, a furious not quite blast beat, over dense drifts of swirling black buzz, and like the rest of the disc, still totally minor key, utterly doleful and despondent, austere and disconsolate, and so goddamned good. Fans of any of the above mentioned bands, and any one into buzzing beautiful sad blackness might just have a new favorite disc to drown your sorrows in...

MPEG stream: To The Once So Sad World
MPEG stream: Dance Of Shadows

"Satanic Holocaust Metal" featuring current and ex- "warriors" from several excellent Scandinavian metal outfits: Dark Funeral, In Aeternum, and the amazing Defleshed.

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MPEG stream: In The Black Clouds Of War
MPEG stream: The Ancient Order

Final release from Polish horde Infernum, which is essentially as far as we can tell just a different version of Graveland. Although there seems to be some complicated backstory and two different Infernums from the same town. One made up entirely of session members (Rob Darken and Capricornus of Graveland) the other fronted by the protege of the original founder who killed himself. Weird. The liner notes are funny / disturbing, explaining that Darken and Capricornus were grateful that the other guy killed himself and that their only regret was that he died at his own hands instead of theirs. Woah. But whatever, this is some awesome, buzzing black metal done Polish style. The Graveland sound is all over Infernum. The original version of this was released as a bootleg back in 1996 without keyboards or vocals, and after the death of Anextiomarus, Darken and Capricornus finished it and released it as you hear it now. Keyboards all over the place. Thick washes of epic grandiose synths, howled vocals, over furious midtempo black thrash, buzzing insectoid riffs, blasting drums, weird choral vocals, but the coolest part of this disc is the weird sort of post rocky breakdowns, with clean guitars and tribal rhythms, minor key and moody, they sort of jangle and lope along lazily until the blackness drops and the band explode again into freaked out grim black furor. Fans of Graveland will obviously NEED this, but folks into weird black metal will probably find this much to their liking...

MPEG stream: Black March
MPEG stream: Inverted Prayer

It's a whole new world now, discovering music. MySpace, Youtube, people emailing MP3's and JPEG's. Easier maybe, but not nearly as romantic or as exciting as receiving some mysterious package in the mail, or stumbling upon some strange looking record in a dusty old bin and some tiny record store. And to be totally honest, almost all of the amazing discoveries that have ended up being big AQ faves, began life as a weird little package that just showed up in the mail one day. None maybe weirder than the package we got from a band called, wait for it, Inh Halentropy. Yep. They had us at Inh Halentropy. It's a weird enough name, but it's two words?!? So inside the package was a cd with that classic image of Bigfoot, walking through the clearing, staring at the camera, and over the top, the band logo, very eighties metal looking, in the middle of a hand drawn spiderweb. Still we had no idea what to expect inside. But we did discover a note. Which read in part: "Dark Greetings. For your grimnatious becryptlement�" signed appropriately enough: "In ancient solemnity, none so grimm�" OK. We were sold, now all that was left was to actually listen to the cd-r. And as with most things, certainly the most exciting and satisfying things, the music was nothing at all like what we expected� Inh Halentropy seem to be a metal band, black metal more specifically, yet most of the disc is distinctly not metal. Or at least not typically metal. Beginning with the sound of surf on the shore, the calls of sea birds, the band crawls into action, a huge rumbling bass tone, clouds of electronic FX, a simple drawn out melody, clean guitars unwinding in an expanse of dark shimmer, when suddenly, a massive speaker destroying low end growl surfaces, and as far as we can tell, maybe those are the vocals. Church bells toll, the ambience gets thicker and more grim, the closest comparison might be funereal doom, but it's sort of ethereal. And sort of pretty. But definitely ominous and creepy. Like Low crossed with Goblin crossed with Esoteric. Elsewhere, the black clouded skies are filled with the clatter of chimes, strange harmonics ringing out, all over thick lustrous black ambience, the sound of rain, at times it almost sounds like a blackened new age, which sounds weird but is most definitely a very good thing. "Golden Beast Altered Axe" might be the most trippy, a simple drum plod, spread out over a slowly squirming synthscape, everything wreathed in ephemeral clouds of twinkling electronic effects, a mournful melody drifts over the top, while running through the entire a track, a creepy ominous low end melody of buzz and whir, all beneath a constant sheet of rain. Very cinematic and evocative. Our favorite track might be "A Door Is A Tomb", thee most propulsive of the bunch, but we're still talking a glacial crawl, more ambient forest sounds, water and wind, insects in the background, but here, flutes flutter over a backdrop of downtuned riffage, but smeared into a warm moaning blur, over the top, bells chime, mysterious vocals croak and growl, the drums a simple machinelike rhythm, everything eventually breaking down into a plodding bass-ic doom, wrapped in a midnight storm, and suffused with thick ropy drones and grinding minimal low end whir. Really pretty fantastic, and totally baffling. New age doom? Black ambient nature music? Not sure what to call it, but it's completely killing us. Add to that, the fact that the date on the back of the disc says 1980, and other than the song titles and an email address (oh and a few more pictures of giant hairy beasts) there's really not much else to go on. But the music is plenty. A perfectly freaky, haunting cinematic slowcore new age black doom sprawl that should for sure hit the spot for those of you who could barely make it through that descriptor without thinking that this might already be your new favorite record. We are suitably grimnatiously becryptled. As shall you be, wethinks�

The long anticipated return of Inh Halentropy, a band we know very little about, other than they make a sound like almost nothing we've EVER heard before. A band who introduced themselves to us with a random package in the mail, containing a cd-r, and these simple words: "Dark Greetings. For your grimnatious becryptlement�" as well as the similarly mysterious sign off: "In ancient solemnity, none so grimm�". We expected black metal, and that's what we got. sort of. Their sound was most definitely black, but not metal in any way we were familiar with, instead they unfurled a cinematic new age-y black ambient doom, equal parts Esoteric, Goblin, and Low, a sort of mysterious blissed out yet grim slowcore. Or something. Their cd-r release disappeared in no time, and no word from the band until recently, a new cd-r just showed up one day, that familiar two part band name, an owl and all sorts of strange symbols, we were soooo excited. We originally thought it was a record called Dull Knife, but soon discovered Inh Halentropy were sharing the cds with another like minded horde CALLED Dull Knife. So what has changed in the last two years, if anything? Well, the sound is still grim, and haunting, a swirling slo-mo mix of atmospheric doom and creepy crawly slowcore, an eighties horror movie soundtrack vibe infused with a shimmery drifty bit of new age ambience, two tracks, the first a plodding cinematic sprawl, with abstract programmed drums, dark swells of distant rumble, smears of almost cheesy sounding synths, what sounds like faux horns (also probably synths), deeeeeeep bass that throbs underneath, all wrapped up with super lyrical, haunting minor key melodies, definitely like the soundtrack to some lost 30 year old European horror film. The second Inh Halentropy jam is even trippier and more spaced out, beginning with heavily effected falsetto vocals, that almost sound like wild animal calls or that little 'cooo' sound from Serge Gainsbourg's "Bonnie & Clyde" albeit way more evil, some woozy detuned guitars, and some shimmery squalls of warped warble, eventually spreading out into a slow burning sprawl of spidery guitars, hushed whir and glistening tinkles, and some seriously disturbing slowed down samples. So creepy and kick ass. Hate to think we might have to wait 2 more years for another full length. Inh Halentropy set the bar pretty high, but Dull Knife are undeterred, and offer up their own sort of creepy ambience, deep warped low end tones, unfurling grimly in an expanse of muted buzz and crumbling distortion, reminding us quite a bit of Trollmann, in its minimal low end heaviness, over the course of the track, the low end grows more abrasive, and more active, fluctuating more wildly, like some weirdly distorted symphony for foghorn and black buzz. The second DK track's another bleak bit of minimal grimness, this time even more harrowingly dense, the sounds thick and corrosive, the swells coming faster and faster, eventually blurring into a single oozing slab of blackdrone, shot through with shards of crunch and strange bits of glitch. Wow. Guess we need to hear more from these guys as well. Needless to say, anyone into sounds slow, low, grim and black, spaced out and atmospheric, haunting and heavy, should grab one of these right quick. SUPER LIMITED of course. Each one hand screened, different colored ink, on different colored textured paper, every one different.

MPEG stream: Hobgoblin's Oracle
MPEG stream: A Plan For Reverse Reaping

This was a warehouse find, managed to dig up 4 or 5 copies, been hiding away for 5 or 6 years now, which is a shame cuz this is some pretty bad ass black metal. Split records are always funny when both bands share members, but even more funny when both bands are one man bands, and that one man is the same guy. Thus we have this split from way back in 2004, featuring Inimical and Sect, both the work of J. Del Russi, who hails from New Jersey, and MIGHT be more recognizable under his other name, Xathagorra Mlandroth, which is what he used in another one man band, long time aQ faves, ultra funereal doomlord(s) Catacombs. But before the blackened slo-mo tarpit crawl of Catacombs, Russi/Mlandroth was trafficking in some serious old school raw and grim black metal, all frantic riffing, furious drumming, and some sick raspy vokills, the sound murky and lo-fi, the arrangements repetitive and trancelike, very hypnotic and mesmerizing, in fact almost weirdly looped sounding, which only adds to the mesmerizing vibe. Where Inimical was more murky and washed out, the sound of Sect was more brittle and buzzy, the sound blown out and buzz drenched and thickly atmospheric, but similar to Inimical, the sound is cyclical and repetitive and trancelike and again weirdly looped, few parts repeated over and over, almost mantra like, although Sect did mix it up, with some weirdly industrial rhythms, abstract droned out ambience, and some weird spacey song structures, often ditching the blackness entirely for something way more abstract and tripped out. Cool stuff for sure. And in Sect maybe hints of what was to come in Catacombs. Got very few of these, not sure if it's even still available, but we're guessing not, so grab one of these quick before they're gone.

MPEG stream: From The Black Dust Of The Underworld
MPEG stream: Wrath Of The Lost

We have no idea where this band is from, who is in the band, we could find nothing at all about them on the internet, but whoever they are, we like them. A lot. Ultra lo-fi midtempo black metal buzz, a la Burzum and about a million followers, but like many acolytes of the mighty Burzumic one, a handful of killer riffs, some strange sonic ideas, and some serious emotion and passion, and it's easy to transform that worship into something that stands up on its own. Inmitten Des Waldes starts things off with wild streaks of feedback, and maybe the most lo-fi drum recording EVER, with the guitars not far behind. This is definitely some serious boombox, garage / rehearsal space recording, but even with cymbals and hi-hats sizzling all over the place, and the guitars sort of washed out by the drums, it's still easy to feel the power of these riffs and what could be if these guys made it to a proper studio. That said, the sound is almost as much a part of what makes this so great as the music. The fuzz and hiss, the super intimate raw vibe. Plus it seems to be instrumental, or if there are vocals, the guy was shouting them NOT into a mic, so they are lost and buried, but that's kinda cool too, making Inmitten Des Waldes sort of like a black metal Gore!

MPEG stream: Anxious Death
MPEG stream: End Process

This is for everyone who flipped out about Inquisition's latest album Magnificent Glorification Of Lucifer, the one we highlighted on our last list (and which, unfortunately, we're all out of already, though more are on the way from Germany, never fear). We've just managed to get in a few copies of the band's earlier output, of which this is their debut disc, originally from 1998 (repressed in 2003). Compared to MGoL, it's equally super Satanic and weird, but a bit rawer in production (something that a certain sort of black metal fan would perhaps prefer). Their uniquely monotonous, croaking, creepy style is fully evident already, and the music surely suits their lyrics about black blood, chalices, red eyed beasts and horned moons. Ah yes, it's creaky crushing droning doomed demon moon moan metal at its best, or soon to be. And now I want to see all the terrible old black magic movies they sampled their song intros from...

MPEG stream: Unholy Magic Attack
MPEG stream: Empire Of Luciferian Race

True black metal fanatics know this band, whose album on No Colours, The Magnificent Glorification Of Lucifer, was Allan's number one black metal pick of 2005, for sure, Satan help me. Well here's the hard to find second Inquisition, the 2001 record that preceded that slab of infernal genius that Allan likes so much, and which cultish aficionados of plodding, aching black metal should delight in as well. It took us forever to get (just a handful) more of these to list, and they probably won't be around for long. As we've said, this one is Wrest from Leviathan's favorite Inquisition opus, and not only just because it features guitarist/vocalist Dagon croaking the immortal line: "Touch me with your magic hoof"!!

MPEG stream: Embraced By The Unholy Powers Of Death And Destruction

Can the No Colours label do no wrong? Inquisition's Magnificent Glorification Of Lucifer is definitely Allan's favorite black metal release of the YEAR. So grim, so eerie, so very metal, and weird in a weird way. That is, there's nothing else out there quite like this band. They do that thing that the best black metal bands do: they're both totally of their genre (a formulaic genre, to be extra-redundant) yet manage to be utterly their own thing too. Fans of the elite likes of Burzum, Graveland, Mutillation, Xasthur, and Immortal ought to immediately bow to Inquisition whilst also recognizing just how different a band they are. And it's also the sort of black metal I might spring on an extremity-friendly music fan even if they were unaware of the above mentioned artists. Although this was the first I'd heard of Inquistion, it's actually the third album from this American (Seattle-based, but with Columbian connections?) Satanic black metal band. Redundant again? Sure, all black metal by definition is supposed to be Satanic. But these guys are so SERIOUS about it (well, I don't know for sure... the Inquistion duo of Dagon and Incubus do look kinda silly in the cd booklet photos...but I don't think that's intentional). That they go so over-the-top in their Satan worship is part of what moves them beyond mere stylistic formula and into a realm of obsessive uniqueness. This record works so well 'cause it's simultaneously weird as fuck (hypnotically croaking vocals, the aforementioned Satanically overloaded lyrix, and strange, keening high-end guitar parts that make this the EERIEST black metal I've heard in aeons) while being fully metal with a rock n' roll backbone: slow-to-mid tempos, memorable riffs, and killer old-school fuzz guitar tone. Indeed, were it not for the love of Lucifer they express with every breath, Inquisition could just has easily have opted to call this album The Glorious Magnificence of Fuzz (though a strain of fuzz quite different from the '60s garage fuzz as heralded elsewhere on this week's list in our review of the Plastic Cloud reissue)! Sonically, that's a big part of what satisfies here, a crucial factor in of Inquisition's equation of extremity. It's truly a heavy, buzzing, trance-like blurr. It's got to mean something when I (Allan) play something over and over and over again, considering how much (too much) music I'm getting every week. But this was -- is -- in heavy rotation in my home and even though I put it on my iPod I still took the cd itself along with me on vacation as a talisman/token/icon/fetish object just to look at... good thing I don't actually believe in Satan! I even had to go and track down their harder-to-find first two albums, also both excellent, though I do think this is their best... and if you want someone to back me up, note that Leviathan's Wrest himself is a big Inquistion fan, partial to their second album but also of the opinion that this one is brilliant too. So, an AQ black metal rave, make no mistake! Mesmerizing, crushing, gloomy, fucked up, beautiful, genius.

MPEG stream: Under The Black Inverted Pentagram
MPEG stream: Of Blood And Darkness We Are Born

Ready to be touched by the magic hoof?! Two years ago, we just about sold our souls to Satan in tribute to the glorious magnificence of this band's Magnificent Glorification Of Lucifer album. Allan's favorite black metal record of 2005 by far. Now this two-man cult is back with a new album for No Colours and we're sacrificing babies over here in celebration. Well not really but guitarist Dagon and drummer Incubus would probably like to hear that. And if anyone was gonna convince us through the power of stabbing riffage, flashing battery, and croaking vox that Satanism is the way to go, these are the dudes to do it!! What makes the storming black metal of this Seattle duo so special? Certainly not just their love of Satan, though they do seem more sincerely devoted than most. No, they're just -different- from the hordes of hordes out there. For one thing, Dagon's vocals aren't the usual high-pitched anguished rasps, nor are they deathly grunts. They're more like droning crypt-creakings, layered and insidious, truly "nefarious dismal orations", an integral part of Inquisition's trance-inducing doomic atmospheres -- along with the varispeed velocity of their attack, seemingly simultaneously plodding yet blurred with speed. Then there's the RIFFS. You can't argue there. Inquisition understand old school heavy metal hookiness without being overtly retro, y'know? And this stuff oozes METAL as much as it gives off a sinister shine of actual originality and serious Satanic faith. Pure metalness plus weirdness (in the arcane, occult sense of "the weird"), yeah! We're spellbound. And what the heck is going on with the buried, backwards masked munchkinisms we think we're hearing at the end of the amazing title track? Clearly Germany's No Colours, a label with lots of staggeringly excellent, evil bands, is well aware that Inquisition is indeed a cut above and deserving of special treatment. They've produced a limited edition initial run of this cd, a thousand copies packaged inside a black cardboard slipcase with a die-cut pentagram!! If that wasn't enough, there's also a full-colour poster folded up and inserted inside the slipcase too. We got a bunch of 'em but don't know how long these will last. It would be wrong and misleading to say that this sounds like Om meets Watain, but somehow it we think it has the EFFECT of what such a indescribable hybrid would sound like. But if we did have to compare Inquisition on this album to anybody, we're reminded the most of good ol' Immortal. Recommended as if you couldn't tell already.

MPEG stream: Ancient Monumental War Hymn
MPEG stream: Where Darkness Is Lord And Death The Beginnning

Is this, like, the fourth straight album in a row now from Inquisition that we are compelled to proclaim a top contender for Black Metal Album Of The Year? Hell yes it is. Guess that's no surprise. The duo of Dagon and Incubus, originating in Columbia, South America, now based in Washington State, North America, are on top of their game; Obscure Verses For The Multiverse is yet another jewel in their crown. We hope even the non-black-metal fanatics among you are paying attention, 'cause this is one of those records that we'd suggest to try to get you INTO black metal, it's that good. Part of Inquisition's genius is that while they deliver evil, grim vibes galore, and cosmic concepts too, they also don't forget that black metal is METAL, which means it's also rock n' roll, and so their grim musick seriously rocks, impressively so for a two-piece (even live - when we've seen 'em they've been amazing, couldn't believe two guys could pull it off like that). They are also just original enough to be undeniably their own thing, while proudly upholding tradition at the same time. On Obscure Verses, Inquisition once again deploy the chop-chop-chop of blizzard force drum battery, suddenly easing the pace to unleash perfectly lurching mid-to-slow tempo riffage, played with seasick "bent" guitar tones, fuzzed and frozen, all adorned by the distinctive rasping croak of the vocals and majestic leads of Satan-glorifiying, vertigo-inducing virtuosity. As the album oozes forth, or hurtles onward, as the case may be, from moment to moment, each and every one of those moments - whether the crush of a catchy riff, a springy, spiraling guitar lick, a miasmatic atmospheric interlude of subterranean ceremony - EVERY molecule of Inquisition's music here contains and conveys their utter original metal mastery and evil intent in full, there's nary a wasted moment, nothing that doesn't usefully contribute to the totality of effect and stand on its own as well, either to cause a headbanging frenzy or thrust you into melancholic, nauseated trance. Despite their origin in this hemisphere, definitely up there with the most celebrated Norwegian elite, this album (and several preceding it) belonging alongside our favorites by the likes of Enslaved and Immortal in particular. If you're into black metal, we expect you're already an Inquisition fan and know you NEED this; if you're not (yet) into black metal, well you couldn't find too many better albums to point you down the left hand path of no return. Available as a jewel case cd, or double vinyl with bonus track. (There's also a deluxe, specially packaged import cd box edition that also includes that bonus track, and also comes with a goat-leather key ring, but we've sold out of those, not sure if they'll ever be back...)

MPEG stream: Force Of The Floating Tomb
MPEG stream: Obscure Verses For The Multiverse
MPEG stream: Spiritual Plasma Evocation

Time once more to touch the magic hoof! As we mentioned in our write up of Negative Plane's long awaited new one last list, we're also basking in the evil radiation of a new release from another cult back metal fave of ours as well, and finally have enough copies of 'em in to not only review, but make Record Of The Week, as our Lord Satan commands, and this incredible musick deserves, laced as it is with killer riffs and curious weirdness. That'd be the latest from the duo known as Inquisition, who, although they sound like they hail from some alien Hell, actually currently dwell in the grim fog of the Pacific Northwest, originating however from the jungles of Columbia. Ominous Doctrines Of The Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm (a great title, and one that makes this review itself perhaps not seem so verbose and purplish of prose) is again full of what we expect from Inquisition: blazing battery, buzzing guitars, and most crucially the bizarre croaking of the "robot frog" as the Invisible Oranges blog so pithily describes the vocal stylings of guitarist Dagon. His unique voice, unlike any else in black metal (though most closely akin to Abbath of Norwegian blizzard beasts Immortal, whom they remind us of in other respects as well) is one of the main things we like about the idiosyncratic Inquisition. In a way, his rasping ribbetting and our reaction to it is representative of the whole of what makes Inquisition so great. It's absurd, it's eccentric, it's evil, it's impossible to forget once you've heard it. Likewise with their eerie guitar tones and occult atmospherics, no one else sounds quite like them even within the highly formalized realm of black metal. Furthermore, the eccentric and otherworldly elements of their music are like 1000X more brilliant because Inquisition are simultaneously rooted in pure old school metal, meaning memorable riffs, indeed actual, quite catchy SONGS. Which has a lot to do with why we were so blown away when we finally got to seem them play live on tour last year. If you saw 'em too, you know it was one of the best 2 piece performances by a metal act ever. Very very metal, a churning maelstrom of axes and spikes and swords given musical form. Listening to this album, it's all here, the keening guitar soli that burrow into your brain, the riffs like the lashings of a whip, and the vokills such stern Satanic admonitions. And moments of majestic melody amidst the buzz and blurr, including one cheery passage we might have to play 'round Xmas time, hahaha. So, another one to worship from Dagon and Incubus! And once again, adorned with excellent Antichrist Kramer artwork, more third eye skull psychedelia of morbid metalhead fantasies, something which we could also say of the music itself. Oh man, that just made us think of something insane, what if Daniel Higgs teamed up with Inquisition someday, a la one of our other Records Of The Week this list, by The Skull Defekts?! That would be awesome.

MPEG stream: Astral Path to Supreme Majesties
MPEG stream: Command of the Dark Crown
MPEG stream: Desolate Funeral Chant

This former Record Of The Week, now issued for the 2nd time on vinyl via Hell's Headbangers, this edition being all super deluxe and stuff, more expensive too but you're getting laser etched artwork on side D, a poster insert, and custom trifold 'tome' style packaging, which features the original Antichrist Kramer artwork on an inner fold out, while the outside now is black, with a big metallic blue die-cut "I" affixed to the front cover. Neat-o. Here's our original review of the music portion of this release: Time once more to touch the magic hoof! As we mentioned in our write up of Negative Plane's long awaited new one last list, we're also basking in the evil radiation of a new release from another cult back metal fave of ours as well, and finally have enough copies of 'em in to not only review, but make Record Of The Week, as our Lord Satan commands, and this incredible musick deserves, laced as it is with killer riffs and curious weirdness. That'd be the latest from the duo known as Inquisition, who, although they sound like they hail from some alien Hell, actually currently dwell in the grim fog of the Pacific Northwest, originating however from the jungles of Columbia. Ominous Doctrines Of The Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm (a great title, and one that makes this review itself perhaps not seem so verbose and purplish of prose) is again full of what we expect from Inquisition: blazing battery, buzzing guitars, and most crucially the bizarre croaking of the "robot frog" as the Invisible Oranges blog so pithily describes the vocal stylings of guitarist Dagon. His unique voice, unlike any else in black metal (though most closely akin to Abbath of Norwegian blizzard beasts Immortal, whom they remind us of in other respects as well) is one of the main things we like about the idiosyncratic Inquisition. In a way, his rasping ribbetting and our reaction to it is representative of the whole of what makes Inquisition so great. It's absurd, it's eccentric, it's evil, it's impossible to forget once you've heard it. Likewise with their eerie guitar tones and occult atmospherics, no one else sounds quite like them even within the highly formalized realm of black metal. Furthermore, the eccentric and otherworldly elements of their music are like 1000X more brilliant because Inquisition are simultaneously rooted in pure old school metal, meaning memorable riffs, indeed actual, quite catchy SONGS. Which has a lot to do with why we were so blown away when we finally got to seem them play live on tour last year. If you saw 'em too, you know it was one of the best 2 piece performances by a metal act ever. Very very metal, a churning maelstrom of axes and spikes and swords given musical form. Listening to this album, it's all here, the keening guitar soli that burrow into your brain, the riffs like the lashings of a whip, and the vokills such stern Satanic admonitions. And moments of majestic melody amidst the buzz and blurr, including one cheery passage we might have to play 'round Xmas time, hahaha. So, another one to worship from Dagon and Incubus! And once again, adorned with excellent Antichrist Kramer artwork, more third eye skull psychedelia of morbid metalhead fantasies, something which we could also say of the music itself.

MPEG stream: Astral Path to Supreme Majesties
MPEG stream: Command of the Dark Crown
MPEG stream: Desolate Funeral Chant

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

SORRY.

We must admit, we don't know too much about these mysterious local post-metallers. Here's what we do know: They're from San Francisco (we think?), this is their debut full length (maybe??), and they're called Ion (we're actually pretty sure about that one). Oh, and they play totally killer, frenzied, chaotic, hyperblasting post black metal. Ion are all about contrasts: Beautifully melancholic melodic riffs suddenly dissipate into a whirling disarray of dissonance. Frantic blast beats give way to wide open minimal spaciousness before becoming enveloped again in an avalanche of buzzing guitars and pummeling drums. The vocals alternate between anguished rasps and bellowed death metal growls. During their downtime, the songs may descend into disembodied shortwave ambience. Hushed acoustic guitars haunt the landscape. A full five minutes may go by spent on reverb soaked drifting sonic post-rock bliss, before the music erupts again into a wall-of-noise onslaught of rolling double bass and grinding guitars. The affect is certainly suffocating, overwhelming and emotionally draining, but also somehow sleek, postmodern and bleak, kind of bringing to mind Altar Of Plagues' last record that we loved so much around these parts. And although Ion are definitely melodic (even downright pretty) and certainly fit comfortably into the post-black metal spectrum, their music feels too technical and scatterbrained to stand right alongside bands like Alcest or Deafheaven (although there's no reason they won't appeal to fans of those bands). Instead their relentless approach, while still maintaining a constant ear for lush melody, recalls someone like Panopticon. Meanwhile the hints of Isis-style doom and prog-metal flirtation bring to mind bands like Vatnett Viskar or even a much less earthy Agalloch. It's one of our favorite things here at aQ when a local band we've never even heard of comes out of the blue with a release this good. We're thinking they won't be going unnoticed much longer!

MPEG stream: Abolished
MPEG stream: Waters Of Dusk
MPEG stream: Transcendence

It seems like a funny way to discover a band, but somehow we knew we had to hear this Dutch depressive black metal trio based entirely on their logo alone. It's incredible, a miniature forest of textured trees, almost cartoonish, like Christmas trees, with a complex tangle of roots and branches that somehow spells out Irrwisch. In a world full of black metal bands that all have the same basic logo, ooooh some upsidedown crosses, ooooh an iron cross, oooooh we're so kult no one can read our band name. So yeah, a gorgeous stylized foresty logo goes a long way. Thankfully, these guys make some pretty decent noise as well, a washed out murky grim buzz, that slips from primitive pound to woozy Burzumic lumber, plenty of haunting atmospherics as well, swoonsome synths, the sound of crashing waves, of wind through the branches, some dreamy folky drift, all clean guitar and the sound of rainfall, crickets, birdsong, as if the band were recording in the forest that spawned their logo. But for all that loveliness, these guys can definitely get raw and filthy and frenzied, exploding into furious blasts of relentless black buzz, pounding squalls of gnarled riffage, and the vocals, typically black metal for the most part, but they too come unhinged here and there, slipping into a harrowing howl, the band buried beneath a murky haze, which gives the proceedings a gorgeously blissed out vibe, even when they're spitting black gouts of buzz drenched heaviness.

MPEG stream: Vom Felsen
MPEG stream: Leer

The return of a new favorite, Russian black metal outfit Ithdabquth Qliphoth, deliver a 20 minute black okkult ritual, following up their Fyre Walk With Me full length which has been pretty much impossible to keep in stock. It seems this duo has shed a member and is now solely the work of the oddly named AL-LA-ShT-ORR, who is also responsible for the Cadaver Yelleth At Amber Tower cd reviewed elsewhere on this list (does this guy have a way with names or what!). So how to follow up a confusional collection of far out fractured black metal weirdness and buzzing blown out black ambience? why with the even more oddly titled "Funeral Spirit Of Holy, Holy And Holy Tranceformation", a single twenty minute epic, which begins as a thick churning chunk of grinding low end, what could be super distorted martial drumming, or maybe just thick blackened static, whatever it is, it's intense and dense and in its fluctuations creates a sort of incidental rhythm. Eventually sampled vocals join the fray, as do little bursts of static, the track transformed into some industrial black creep. Soon soaring guitars drift in from the distance, offering washed out chordal buzz and keening feedback, the sound referencing groups like Wolf Eyes and Prurient especially, the pounding and buzzing soon gives way to a mysterious blown out dronescape, of stretched out high end tones, and downtuned rumble, before lurching into something more metallic about the halfway mark, a Burzumy doomic trudge, just crashing drums and WAY up in the mix voKILLS, all held together by a gloomy bass line, and some swirling background ambience, finally the guitars come crashing down, the drums explode into double kick, but instead of black and buzzy, it's moody and mournful like classic old school doom, majestic and epic before everything drops out, and suddenly it's a super minimal shimmer, all muted bass tones, deep reverberating low end, soft barely there chords, spare and abstract and hushed, the sampled voices return again, harmonics pluck out an atonal bell like melody, the rumbles seem to growl and grind, but still muffled and murky, the bells tolling ominously, the melancholy melody leading the song to its eventual end. So creepy and haunting, black and mysterious, otherworldly and magickal. All hail AL-LA-ShT-ORR and his unholy vessel Ithdabquth Qliphoth!!

MPEG stream: Funeral Spirit Of Holy, Holy And Holy Tranceformation (excerpt)

Black metal logos by their very nature are cryptic, for most impossible to read, a jumble of squiggles and spidery lines and upside down crosses, pentagrams, sharp angles and jagged edges. But once translated into actual letters, the magic is lost, it's usually BLOOD something, or DEMON something, or perhaps a very common word with wintery connotations, or some variation of the word forest. But what of the band with no 'logo', as their very name is an impossibly tangled web, whose letters have no right to be side by side, an unpronounceable jumble that somehow still manages to evoke mystery, to conjure up images of darkness and despair, even though we've never met anyone who knows how to actually pronounce it? Such is the case with Russian duo Ithdabquth Qliphoth, who are another one of those bands who have long been aQ black metal favorites, but whose records we were never able to attain in enough abundance to review on the list. Until now. But it's not just the name that makes these guys a mystery. Three long multi part songs, each an epic suite, with titles like "3 142 742 836 021 Times Hotter Than Earthly Fire", and "Your Fucking Creation Is Bleeding Away" or "Thy Omnislaying Revelation". And instead of names, the two band members are represented by strange Anthony Braxton like diagrams, many of the lyrics appear to be in Hebrew, and include shapes as well as words, and then the sound, at once raw and buzzing, furious and hateful, at the same time strangely melodic, the record begins with a jumble of samples, church organ, yodeling, the sound of terrified screams and the sound of fire, until the band lurch into action, a woozy midtempo black buzz, underpinned by a relentless double kick, strange processed inhuman vocals buried in the mix, all wreathed in a gauzy haze, even when the band switches gears and channels some classic Norwegian buzz, they still sound weirdly off kilter, a bit like Katatonia crossed with Immortal crossed with Burzum, but way more twisted. The melodies haunting and mournful, the guitars buzzy, but still dripping with effects, as if the whole record was being broadcast from within a fog filled cave. The three song suites are just that, not single epic tracks, but each, three shorter tracks somehow linked, lyrically, thematically, hardly matters, they seem quite varied but do manage to flow into each other, from moody melancholia to blown out super distorted blackness, from weirdly melodic to harsh and raw, IQ take these opposing forces and tangle them up into something gloriously confusional. The opening track of the second suite, "Introduction To Burning Death" is a dramatic shift from the almost relentless onslaught of the opening salvo, a loping melodic metallic groove, that gives way to a half time, even more melodic breakdown, all epic and doomy, and almost dreamy, before shifting gears into a weirdly groovy, almost punky jam, that reminds us a bit of Khold, but super charged , with the relentless double kick drumming, and a harsh distorted ambience wrapped around the whole thing, By the third part of the second act (each act is numbered 0., 00. and 000. by the way) the band have returned to something much more gnarled and truly black, but still shot through with streaks of melody and melancholy. Which segues smoothly into the final 3 part suite, from furious epic black buzz, to grinding downtuned crunch, to soaring melodic blur, to crunchy chugging chaotic mathy pummel, to brief folky drift to warped doomy dirge, sounding almost like a black metal Paradise Lost for a moment, before ending everything with several minutes of crumbling distorted blackened drones, deep resonant tones, gurgled voices, strange percussive crunch, blurred rumbles and what almost sounds like some super distorted ping pong, all buried beneath layer after layer of smeared bleary black buzz. Packaged in 6 panel black and white digipacks adorned with all manner of symbols and lyrics and mysterious liner notes. LIMITED TO 777 COPIES. Every one hand numbered in silver ink.

MPEG stream: Qliphothick Lesser Pentagram
MPEG stream: Introduction To Burning Death / 3 142 742 836 021 Times Hotter Than Earthly Fire