[ aquarius records — Metal Black Metal ]

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Showing results 1301 through 1350 of 2429.

Latest on vinyl, comes with fancy patch. No review but it's great, if you liked Albino De Congo.

So fucked. Of course it is. It's freakin' LUGUBRUM. Allan and Andee's favorite black metal band ever, pretty much, almost. Well, at least when we're in the mood for REALLY WEIRD black metal from a bunch of Belgians who dress like farmers and eat carrots with their beloved beer. Weirdos these guys are for sure, but unlike some of the more "avant-garde" black metal acts such as Arcturus, Sigh, and Ulver (amazing as those acts are/have been) there's nothing so overtly, obviously calculated to be weird for weirdness sake from these guys. Lugubrum's insanity is more organic, but not inadvertent either like the maybe idiot savant status of Rethaf Ruo or Striborg. No, these geniuses strike a balance, and do utterly their own thing, norms and abnorms be damned. On this latest album (their sixth full-length cd), saxophones and clanking chains and droning loops of organ grinder music aren't merely eccentric elements added to a formula black metal base, but are fully integrated into the band's unique musical vision. Is it even black metal? What does that mean? What does it matter? Their seemingly scatological, "brown metal" lyrics are cryptic, beyond easy comprehension, and that might be just as well. "The Kiss On The Anus"? "At The Base Of Their Tail"? "We Slying Sucked Stolen Bread"? Don't ask. Submit instead to the music, rumbling along, vocals growling howling mad, Funhouse saxophone blowing crazily over and under the scuzzy, sloppy, necro riffery. Somehow they're THIS weird and outside of genre boundaries (employing banjos along with blastbeats) yet are accepted as being among the grimmest of the grim by the true, cult, elite, black metal diehards. They've got 'em scared. Even though they sound like Abruptum playing jazz, or Celtic Frost jamming with Residual Echoes, or Brainbombs covering Venom... They walk the fine, wavering line between intentional absurdity and deeply, confusingly meaningful art and we love 'em for it.

MPEG stream: Holy Fools Embodied
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Oh yeah! Our FAVORITE BLACK METAL BAND EVER (well, favorite black metal band ever who are heavily into carrots and beer and saxophones, that's for sure) has added to their lengthy and puzzling discography this brilliant live album, for all of us who haven't yet hijacked a jet to get to Belgium to drink beer and eat carrots with these maniacs in person. And they're someone else's favorites too -- this disc documents a show they played in Amsterdam last year, as support for a SUNNO))) performance by special request. And we know the SUNNO))) guys have good taste in weird black metal, right? Well they do, they got freaking Lugubrum to open for 'em!! And what do Lugubrum start things off with? A version of their doomiest droniest bit of bombastic Beelzebubic bludgeon, "Haunted Ordure", from their out of print split with Finsternis!! YEEEAAH! (that would be us in the crowd, had we been there). It's laced with "prepared saxophone", unlike the studio version. Different but cool, which is what you want from a live album anyway (along with excellent loud sound and tight playing, which this also possesses). And all through this set, as on their insane masterpiece from last year, Heilige Dwazen, the saxophone is fully, usefully integrated into the grunting, groaning, lurching, churning, HEAVY CHAOTIC ART of their music. It's no novelty record, it's simply fucked up, is-it-black-metal-or-jazz-of-Hell?, live and raw and mind blowing, like an anguished black metal Painkiller. Forget SUNNO))), these guys should be co-headlining a bill with the Brainbombs! All fans of Lugubrum definitely need this, and even if you've never heard 'em before this is surely worth checking out if the above has made you curious! 46 monstrous minutes, eight songs.

MPEG stream: Haunted Ordure
MPEG stream: De Vette Cuecken
MPEG stream: Ratteknaeghen

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

SORRY. Starting with an introductory minute of electronic drone distortion, the half of this split cd by Belgian black metallers Lugubrum, entitled "Al Ghemist" is, simply, awesome. Unlike most black metal bands, Lugubrum aren't concerned with playing fast. But they do care about atmosphere. Slow, doomy, heavy, dirgey, dark, bleak atmosphere. The production is kinda lo-fi, but densely textured. The opening noise piece leads into "Hunted Ordure", one of the best doom songs we've EVER heard. Buy it for this track alone and you'll be happy. Happily doomed. But the other Lugubrum tracks are good too. They do some faster stuff, but it still sounds like music from the bowels of the earth. The croaking vocals, fuzzed-out guitars, the weird non-standard rhythms, it's so nice. As they say, "Your discomfort and damaged speakers nourish Lugubrum eternally!!!" Finsternis (a Lugubrum side-project) aren't quite as odd an outfit. They play good old-fashioned necro black metal, excuse me, "alcoholic bonesaw metal" exclusively. You've heard the likes of them before. But their half of this split does provide some hateful blasting rock n' roll for those that dig this sort of primitive, grimy black metal. Oh, thanks to AQ customer Roberto for pointing out to us that the old man on Lugubrum's "Al Ghemist" cover art appears to be holding a carrot. For some reason that didn't convince Roberto that this was amazing, but it only added to our love for Lugubrum.

RealAudio clip: Hunted Ordure
RealAudio clip: Haunting Hellfury

For those of you who just skim the list or only read the first few sentences of reviews, let us get your attention real quick. Lurker Of Chalice, in case you didn't realize, is the work of one WREST, aka SF black metal overlord LEVIATHAN. Paying attention now? Good. let's proceed. Lurker Of Chalice has existed in one form or another for several years now, but outside a cassette or two this is the only recorded evidence and man will it blow your mind. Originally conceived as a less black metal, more experimental musical outlet (and possibly inspired by Leviathan / AQ faves Benighted Leams) Lurker Of Chalice is constructed from lots of black metal parts as might be expected, but lot of very un-black metal bits as well: arpeggiated post rock guitars, martial percussion, simple propulsive krautrock rhythms, swirling droning ambience, strange haunting vocals, obscure found sounds and samples, doomy slow motion dirges, reverb drenched, almost sun dappled melodies over creepy warbly soundscapes, warm thick keyboards, heavily strummed steel string guitars, rich throaty crooning, super overblown distorted guitars, all smeared into a warm fuzzed out, dreamy and melancholy, mostly midtempo blackened doomscape. Occasionally, Lurker blasts into full on black metal, like on the second track "Piercing Where They Might", but even in a BM context, things are beautifully way off kilter, rumbling bizarrely affected vocals, dizzying riffs that swirl and slither and make it impossible to focus, huge jangly guitars over miltaristic snare drums and warbly Michael Gira like vocals. So weird. But so perfect. Imagine Leviathan and Benighted Leams and the Swans and Ved Buens Ende, all somehow mixed into some darkly evolving, gothic tinged expanse of moody metallic melancholia. This is maybe the best sounding record Wrest has made which is saying a lot. And it's definitely the weirdest, and most certainly the saddest. The whole record is dripping with intense emotion, minor key and slowly stretching toward some bleak future of broken promise and crushed spirit. From slowly evolving, almost cinematic instrumentals to massive and majestic dirges to woozy effect drenched post rockisms to ultra bleak ballads to damaged black metal crush, Lurker Of Chalice evokes total and utter misery, a musical invocation to the lost and alone, wandering in search of hope, under the suffocating black cloak of night, crushed beneath a starless sky and adrift in a soulless universe, exposing every raw nerve and dark corner of Wrest's twisted musical soul. So fucking good!

MPEG stream: Piercing Where They Might
MPEG stream: Spectre As Valkerie Is
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

Not sure how it happened, but we've never listed any records by Ukrainian one man black metal horde Lutomysl. Even though most of the black metal folks, ourselves included, are WAY into Lutomysl's furious black metal buzz. So let's remedy that shall we... Sonically similar to many of his countrymen, Drudkh, Hate Forest, Nokturnal Mortum, Lucifugum (of which he was once a member), Astrofaes, Blood Of Kingu... etc. Lutomysl spews raw blasting grim Ukrainian black metal of the sort we never seem to tire of, buzzing chainsaw guitars, blasting double kick beats, harsh vokills that go from weird and mysterious clean singing to full on suicidal shriek, and a surprising amount of dynamics, lots of twisted convoluted transitions, strange off kilter rhythms, all wound up into the otherwise seemingly straight ahead grim blackness. But like other Ukrainian BM, there is also plenty of melody, even at its harshest and most frenzied, the riffs are catchy, and often unravel into something almost folky before exploding back in a furious onslaught of buzz and howl. The songs are peppered with distinctly un-black metal breaks, giving the songs a seriously avant / progressive vibe here and there, which nicely balances the relentless lightning fast drone drenched buzz that constitutes the core of Lutomysl's sound. There's also plenty of bass, or at least low end, which as we've discussed before is rare in black metal, and probably goes a long way to making this record sound so thick and heavy. Grim and kvlt and necro, and just weird enough to keep it interesting, essential for fans of all things black and Ukrainian, and heck, probably pretty worthwhile if you just need a buzzing black soul crushing blast of sonic fury.

MPEG stream: Thou Shalt Shine!
MPEG stream: The Blade Of Reality
MPEG stream: Peace Is Not Found (Ode To Lucifer)

It's been ages since we reviewed anything from this one man Ukranian black metal horde, in fact we only ever listed his 2008 album De Profundis, but that record was a huge hit with the black metalheads around here, combining raw, blasting blackness, with some insane over the top suicidal shrieking vokills, and 5 years, later, on full length number eight (!) very little has changed, if anything the music has gotten tighter and more polished, still furious and frenzied, blasting, buzzing and epic, but much less harsh, which means folks into raw primitivism and TROO old school blackness might be a little put off, but as far as we're concerned, the sound here is killer, the riffing fierce and fast, the drums pounding, the production making all the sounds clear, without losing any of the sound's heft or heaviness, the arrangements epic and intricate, with some weird mathiness, occasional woozy doominess, even some sweeping midtempo epicry, but for the most part, the sound is frantic and furious. The sound is ALSO super melodic, at times almost surprisingly so, like minus the vocals, it could be a whole different sonic beast (check out "Don't Put Out!"!), and those vocals, still a weird shrieky almost falsetto, definitely a love 'em or hate 'em element, one that we of course totally love, and it's really what gives the songs, even, and maybe especially, at their most melodic, a sort of unhinged maniacal vibe, which helps balance the more polished super melodic sound. Needless to say, fans of past records will definitely dig, but if you're looking for some melodic super fast black buzz, or just love Ukranian BM bands like Drudkh, Hate Forest, Nokturnal Mortum, Astrofaes, Lucifigum (of which Mr. Lutomysl was once a member!) and Blood Of Kingu, this might just hit the spot.

MPEG stream: Behind The Mask
MPEG stream: Don't Put Out!
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This is volume three in God Is Myth's 3" cd-r series paying homage to the late great H.P Lovecraft. The first came courtesy of UK experimental black metal outfit Caina, the second from Appalachian heathen metal horde Harvist. This volume features the strangely monickered LVTHN, pronounced Leviathan, and not to be confused with our own Leviathan. LVTHN just so happens to be the black ambient ritualistic alter ego of one Gaendaal from the band Wraiths, whose Paradigms disc we reviewed recently, and if you dug the Wraiths disc, you'll for sure want to check this out. This is gorgeously bleak and mysteriously abstract, an ambient world of strange sonic events and ominous drones. Inspired by the Dunwich Horror, Sentinel Hill is one long, slow crawl through the blackest of terrors, distant tolling bells, crumbling wastelands of blood drenched hills and drone drenched swells, rhythms are muted pulses, layer after layer of black sonic gauze is wrapped in billowing clouds around every sound no matter how slight, disembodied vocals and clanging metal are smeared into still more layers of blackness. Truly dark and dense and harrowing. Another perfect sonic tribute to the master. Each disc includes a full color booklet as well as an insert with information on Lovecraft as well as a killer creepy portrait. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We only got 15 and it's already out of print from the label so once these are gone we will not be able to get more.

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Not to be confused with the fuzzy shoegazey bliss of AQ faves M83, M87 are a mysterious dark ambient drone outfit on the same label as Benighted Leams, Contra Ignem Fatuum, Drudkh, and Meads Of Asphodel. That alone should have you pretty psyched to see what sort of weirdness these guys conjure up. We'd be tempted to say M87 are an anomaly in Supernal's predominantly black metal roster, but some of our favorite releases on Supernal were on the ambient side of things, the weird medieval drones of Dark Ages and the crumbling pummeling SUNNO)))-like dirge of Fall Of The Grey Winged One. M87 are a much blissier affair. An outer space drift that hovers and floats, wide open expanses of shimmering static hum and glistening effervescence. The liner notes proclaim "There are no keyboards or guitar synthesizers on this disc" so we can only assume this is ALL guitar, which makes it even more impressive. Released way back in 1999, and only now finally making it to the AQ list, M87 definitely explores similar sonic territory as Fennesz, Ambarchi, Tim Hecker, Dean Roberts and the like. The opening track is a thick static blur, like standing in the middle of a busy train station, the sound of the people, and the trains and the spaces cavernous reverb building into a massive swirling whir. This dense proto industrialism surfaces elsewhere on the record, each time, adding more to the mix, buried clangs, or muted melodies, but these caustic sonic clouds are just interludes, long ones granted, drifting darkly and offering an aggressive contrast to the rest of the record's serene and beautiful soundscapes. Warm, rich, dark, dreamlike, ominous, otherworldly, each track, like some exploration of a barren alien planet, or some mysterious abandoned city, a series of abstract isolationist drones, whose textures and melodies, which once existed, have now melted, spreading out into thick pools of shimmering sound, each offering a twisting distorted reflection of the haunting world beyond.

MPEG stream: Mu Cephel
MPEG stream: M8 (Lagoon Nebula)
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Finally, the return of an all time AQ favorite black horde, the Danish master of depressive suicidal black metal, and certainly the most aptly named, Make A Change... Kill Yourself. It's been 2 years, but feels like an eternity since we've heard from the fellow named Ynleborgaz, and his not so merry one man band. The self titled debut was an across the board record of the year around these parts. So dark and miserable, but so gorgeously buzzing and epic, one of the greatest slabs of Burzumic mayhem we had heard, well, since Burzum hung up his axe and extinguished the torches and traded it all in for a cell, white power and some synthesizers. The vinyl only (so far at least, cd supposedly to follow eventually) II is the perfect follow up, two more lengthy stretches of bleak black miserablism, wrapped in dense swaths of thick buzz, and rife with the most gorgeous, anguished melancholy melodies ever. Two tracks, each taking up a whole side of the lp, and each an epic journey, sonically and emotionally. Side one begins with forlorn guitar melodies drifting beneath a black cloud of crumbling sound, minor key pianos, an aching funereal lament, that drifts gently along while a distant black buzz slowly encroaches, eventually becoming a blackened wash of blown out depressive misery, blasting double kick drums and teeth gnashing wails over a relentless, midtempo buzzing blurry lope, Burzumic and EPIC, trancelike and crushingly depressing. Gloriously sad and heartbroken but simultaneously brutal and furious and grim. Part way through, the black curtains are drawn back, revealing a slow swirl of acoustic guitar, crooned clean vocals and monk-like chants, a calm drift through the eye of the storm, only to be sucked back down into a black pit of endless torment shortly thereafter, launching back into a looped trancelike buzzscape, the riffs cyclical and repetitive, so completely mesmerizing and utterly and brutally epic. The flipside bursts immediately and full on into a blast of black buzz, relentless riffing, blown out blast beats, so grim and frosty, before slipping into some near ambient dronescapes of drawn out buzzing drone guitar, and super processed, ominously intoned vocals, a weird almost Wolf Eyes-ian soundscape, brooding and mysterious. Eventually, the music builds back into a monstrous, beautiful, seemingly endless stretch of hypnotic riffs and simple pounding drums, a sort of black buzz drone, that just goes on and on and on, lulling the listener, into some cold dark place, a dark deathlike drift, floating along on a dense swell of buzzing guitars, and some of the most gorgeously melancholic melodies EVER. So goddamn good. Depressive suicidal black metal record of the year? Without a doubt. Black metal record of the year? Quite possibly... Pressed on super heavy vinyl, housed in thick jacket, the lp in a printed inner sleeve.

It's very rare that a band name cuts so succinctly to the heart of what a band is all about. So perfectly encapsulating the hate and misery and blackness of the music. Thus we have Make A Change Kill... Yourself, certainly doesn't trip off the tongue, but it's not supposed to, like the music, and the sentiments behind it, nothing here is supposed to be easy, or happy or joyful. It's meant to be hard, brutal, sad, dismal, hopeless, miserable. And it is, but on such a massively grand and epic scale it's sort of breathtaking. Huge mournful minor key swirls of buzzing guitars, ultra depressive and and strangely melancholy. Mostly midtempo, often trudging into downright doom, occasionally bursting into brief blasts of furious thrashing, but never for long, always settling back into a seething lurching blackened lament. Massive stretched out epics, the shortest track clocking in at 14 minutes, the longest pushing 30. Relentless double kicks beneath a black flow of downtuned Burzumic buzz, thick and rich and dense and dark, so emotional and intense, fuzz atop buzz atop blur atop whir, swaying and loping hypnotically. This takes the very best parts of Burzum and Xasthur and other blackened depressives to the next level, introducing a massive and majestic Godspeed element, as well as some incredibly catchy melodies, albeit still appropriately raw and black and grim, but they manage to float wraithlike, endlessly in your ears, in your brain, in your soul, like the ghost of a memory, a weird feeling of sadness and loss, that sticks in your head just as much as the bleak and somber melodies. Very rare for any music, let alone buzzy blurry black metal. Incredibly poignant, ambient interludes, ghostly female vocals, strange drone-y breakdowns, mysterious chimes and swells, brief glimpses of desolate soundscapes, all serving, along with the almighty BUZZ, to lead us even further down that dark path to nothingness. BLACK METAL RECORD OF THE YEAR for sure!

MPEG stream: Chapter One
MPEG stream: Chapter Two

Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what to say about a record. Especially a black metal record. Sure it buzzes and it's grim and frosty, there are fuzzy guitars, blasting drums. But it's in the way each of those elements are employed that make the music special. French one man black metal outfit Malcuidant takes those most obvious of black metal sounds and whip them into a truly mesmerizing swirl of Burzumic black metal. One of the coolest things about Malcuidant is the drummer, who can unleash a wicked blazing fast blast beat, as well as a dizzying double kick, but the double kick only comes in here and there, so a keening riff will buzz in the upper register for ages, almost like the band is being broadcast through a transistor radio, when all of a sudden a flurry of double kick will bring in a fucking wall of low end that is like a demonic black bulldozer grinding your bones to dust. And just as quick as they swooped in, they fade out, leaving more keening tinny black metal high end. But don't get the wrong idea, this is not a tinny lo-fi black metal, no not at all, L'Hymne de la Ghilde is a total blur of warm thick buzz, it just gets even heavier and thicker when the wall of double kicks drops in. But it's not just the drums, the guitars are insane and lightning fast as well, with the band occasionally dropping out to let a little riff or lick twist and squirm in space before the band drops back in with a pummelling wave of blasting blackness. And finally the vocals, a inhuman tortured shrieking VERY reminiscent of Weakling, sprawled above the spiked bed of prickly fuzz, the anguished wailing another thick sonic layer in the Malcuidant's bubbling black brew. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. ALREADY OUT OF PRINT AT THE LABEL. WE HAVE ABOUT 20 COPIES...

MPEG stream: Tristesse
MPEG stream: Invasions Impies

Metal Archives, the go to site for metal info, a sort of metal Wikipedia, lists 348 metal bands from Turkey, none of which we'd heard, or even really heard of, until now. Malefic Order, who besides being from Turkey, have one of the coolest metal logos ever, their name rendered in the shape of a helmeted horned demon, with a pentagram on its forehead and an impaled skull atop its helmet. Recorded to praise Euronymous and Dead of Mayhem, Raging Evil Desekration could not be more appropriately titled, everything about these songs is raging and evil, raw and buzzy, obviously heavily indebted to the Nordic elite, these songs merge epic and majestic with raw and primitive, the result a relentless buzz drenched thrash flecked slab of frosty black mayhem, nothing overtly weird or fucked up, although there are some cool arrangements and weird creepy melodies here and there, this is more about the sound and the vibe and the spirit, every single note and drum beat, every blasting buzz oozes evil, the vokills some of the rawest and most intense we've heard, the riffing frenetic often slipping into dangerously catchy territory before exploding again into a blazing blur, the drums super heavy and powerful, the whole sound just ultra raw, super intense, pitch black and very very evil.

MPEG stream: Sinful Fleshspear
MPEG stream: Divine Facing

As if those guys in No Neck Blues Band weren't prolific enough, we've now got the mighty Malkuth to contend with, a killer grim black metal combo featuring a couple of No Necks in their ranks. And this is not a case of NY hipsters slumming, this is the real deal, grim and buzzing, classic sounding old school blackness. Think Moonblood, Beherit, that sort of thing... Dense slabs of primitive buzz, simple and mostly midtempo, guitars murky and muddy, the drums buried in the mix, but peppered with soaring epic classic metal melodies. Occasionally the band will burst into full on blackness, but even at their fastest, it's still more of a lurching punk rock sort of blast, thrashy and on the verge of collapse. The vocals are super distorted and buried way down in the mix. Everything super lo-fi, a definite demo-tape style production that just adds to the grim / kvlt vibe, this really sounds like it could be some Norwegian or Finnish basement recording from the nineties. From pounding punky blasts, to loping midtempo buzz to epic minor key doom, everything dripping in blackness, distorted and buzzing and fucking awesome. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES! Packaged in super thick black on grey heavy cardstock sleeves, with cool cryptic artwork.

It might be a bit misleading to begin this review with "Featuring members of the No Neck Blues Band..." Or maybe not, if anyone is aware of that band's connections to the metal world. Either way, there is no denying that Malkuth is pure metal - evil, overwhelmingly negative sounding black metal at that. Hailing from New York, Malkuth whip up a frenzied hurricane of hateful unrelenting rage that continues without pause for the whole trip. Considering the band's pedigree, we were surprised at how NOT weird this turned out to be, and quite honestly, it's awesome to have a band that bypasses all the trappings of "experimental" black metal and just fucking goes for the throat, old school style. This is not to say that there aren't any surprises, and Malkuth display a winding melodic (but still super evil) sense that has the metalheads here losing their shit. Maybe it's just that these guys take some of the outside influences that supposedly differentiate many of today's black metal bands - moments of plodding post-rock spaciousness, lumbering doomscapes, etc. - and make them unapologetically black metal. The grating vocals are right out of the book of Darkthrone, while the furious, punkish riffs and straightforward but powerful drumming are surprisingly "true". Keeping with traditions, Malkuth expertly emphasize awesome, pukey sounding guitars, each one contributing perfectly complementary parts to the potent riffage, making it so you don't even give a shit that there is no bass - this IS black metal, remember? It's always great to have a band seemingly appear out of thin air and pummel you with their world ending fury, especially when they conjure those fundamental elements which made you become obsessed with a certain type of music in the first place. Keeping an eye on the past but no doubt in a world of their own creation, Malkuth take a tried and true approach and make it completely worthwhile and refreshing... if "refreshing" is the word you want to use to describe Sefirah Gevurah. We are just going to go ahead and assume you are like us. In that respect, you may have just stumbled upon one of your new favorite albums.

MPEG stream: Shevirat Ha-Zinnorot
MPEG stream: Ayin Le-Ani

We love us our twisted, serpentine, ultra complex black metal, the weirder and more demented the better, truly wacked stuff. We love it epic and majestic, sludgy and creepy, but sometimes you just want it simple. Stripped down and furious. A single riff played over and over. A blasting drum beat that just bores full speed ahead. Thus we have France's Malveillance, who manage to take what could be boring and generic and turns it into something fierce and fucked up and kind of frightening. We're beginning to think France is to black metal, what Japan is to pretty much all other music. Whatever it is, twee pop, space rock, take a Japanese band and they can do it better and weirder. Same with France and black metal. Grim buzzing blackness? Find some weird French guy and he can make it sound like a black metal My Bloody Valentine or a blast of barbed white noise. Give them some simple punky black metal and they can turn it into a black spiked juggernaut foaming at the mouth, furiously trampling everything in its path. Malveillance are just that, simple, punky, D-beat black metal, but infused with such fury that it becomes a droning black beast. It helps that every song is in the same key and played at the same tempo. It's like one hour long song split into 22 parts, or the exact same song played 22 times in a row. Totally repetitive and hypnotic and so mesmerizing. Ultimate black bliss achieved through pummel and repetition!! Plus how can you resist a record called Just Fuck Off, with a record cover of some guy in the shadows giving us the bird, with a note inside to the listener that says: "Just Fuck Off... yeah yeah of course but keep one thing in mind; this "fuck off" is for all misanthropic losers holding this cd."

MPEG stream: L'Odeur Naus�abonde Du Pass�
MPEG stream: Sans Voix
MPEG stream: Accueillir La Mort

What's more evil and metal and "I don't give a fuck about humanity" that slapping on some corpse paint and lurking in the forest for a perfectly grimm band photo? What's more cult than strapping on a bunch of spikes and spitting fire, while a photographer expertly captures the 'ritual' on film? What's more anti-social and BROOTAL than dousing yourself in blood, leering evilly at the camera, and holding as still as possible until the timer clicks and the camera catches your pure evil for eternity? Well how about just waking up, stepping in front of the mirror on your closet door, and snapping a picture of yourself in all your first thing in the morning, PINK tightie whiteies (pinkies?), socks, baseball jersey and bedhead, frowning grumpily and holding the digital camera in front of you in the mirror? ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING. Fuck posing and preening and make up and all that, nothing is more grim than the antisocial miscreant captured in his home, where he makes his sick sounds, and where he hides from all the filthy scum outside his front door. The colorful bedspread, the wood paneling, the vinyl tile flooring, the framed pictures above the bed, that stuff is all more intimate and personal and ultimately EVIL than any amount of forests and spiked armbands and bullet belts. Sorry for the rant, we're just a bit obsessed with the band photo on this Malveillance collection, which does in fact feature Mr. Malveillance in a t-shirt and pink undies, scowling at the mirror in his bedroom. Fucking awesome. And somehow, that sort of symbolizes the music of Malveillance pretty perfectly as well. Simple, stripped down, raw. Think Akitsa, Ildjarn, Bone Awl, that sort of super primitive blasting crusty brutality. But with Malveillance that sound is even more punk, more pummelingly straight ahead. ONE riff over and over and over, repeated to death, the vocals a raspy howl, the drums a D-beat pound, the production raw and lo-fi but still heavy and filthy and grimy and totally BAD ASS. In some ways, it reminds us a bit of a more punk, more blackened Brainbombs. This is actually a collection gathering up two previous releases from 2005 and 2006, as well as a handful of bonus tracks from a little earlier. The crazy thing is, there are 7 or 8 RAMONES COVERS! And what's even weirder is they sound perfect, like they could be actual Malveillance jams, all filthied up, sped up, doused in buzz and grit, they sound pretty evil and grim, even the "hey ho" parts manage to sound a bit menacing. What more to say. We love this shit, and Malveillance does it as good, if not better than the rest, plus any metalhead with the balls to pose in pink undies and short hair on their record, deserves to have the grim corpse painted hordes bowing at their feet for sure!

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MPEG stream: Coup Final
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MPEG stream: Eat That Rat (Ramones Cover)
MPEG stream: The KKK Took My Baby Away (Ramones Cover)

We went a little crazy for the first Mamaleek record, a way too limited cd-r, packed with blown out blissed out shoegazey black metal, head spinning ultra technical metallic grind, and gorgeous blurred black ambience. That record was so intense, so gloriously fucked up, so complex and confusional, it really seemed like an impossible record to top, but this latest record, the first Mamaleek vinyl release, definitely does its best, and in some cases succeeds big time. Like the record opener, "I Can't Stay Behind", which begins with some creepy sample, a mysterious voices, the sound of horses, then suddenly, speaker shredding blasts of start stop black grind, a haunting lull between each, before finally launching into full on hyper speed black buzz, but with weird interludes, moaning clean vocals, stuttering drum machines, a strangely almost indie rock arrangement, but shredded and shattered, cool loping arpeggiated breakdowns, the guitars impossibly distorted, the sound WAY in-the-red, the creepy intro sample resurfacing throughout. That indie rock sensibility runs through the whole record, but is deftly twisted into much blacker shapes. The second track, is an almost looped single part song, very hypnotic, partway through keyboards surface, all sunbaked and swoonsome, and while the track remains buzzy and abrasive, those keyboards help transform the sound into something more akin to a black metal M83. And that side of the band seems to be the most prevalent this time around, trading in much of the brutal grind and twisted blast of the first record for something a bit more melodic and sort of pretty. Gnarled fragmented and fractured angular crunch is butted up against almost loungey piano, and random Japanese vocal snippets, murky industrial rhythms underpin groovy acoustic guitars, grim buzz gets warped and twisted and draped over swinging jazz, and it almost works, but is all the better for not quite working, the result a seriously twisted mash up. And the jazz element runs through to varying degrees, so much so that there's even a Charlie Parker cover, done pretty straight, only the guitars are a bit distorted and a little off, and there are some harsh black vokills that were most likely not in the original, seriously twisted and tweaked. Elsewhere, Mamaleek unfurls drone drenched near static black metalscapes, weaves loping drum machine grooves beneath coruscating super distorted guitar melodies, incorporates what sounds like seventies FM radio rock into otherwise grim blasting blackness, The closer is more M83 style washed out woozy drift, skittering drum machines, wheezing accordions, shimmering strings, warm and sun dappled, wreathed in crackle and hiss, until the song shatters into a full bore freakout, a squealing fractured nearly white noise free jazz blurred metal outro, that is as kick ass as it is utterly confounding. If anything this record is WAY more varied, more experimental, less cohesive, but not in a bad way, the sounds all manage to fit together in one epic, seriously demented whole, but this time it's a much wilder ride, not for the faint of heart, or the unadventurous. But much like the first record, fucking amazing and WAY recommended. Pressed on super thick vinyl, and housed in ultra deluxe sleeves, with striking and subtle, spot varnish inking.

MPEG stream: I Can't Stay Behind
MPEG stream: Go Into The Wilderness
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We sorta spilled the Mamaleek beans, mistakenly reviewing their forthcoming full length last time, when in fact, we were meant to be reviewing THIS, a four song 12", just out on local label The Flenser, the latest (not counting the NOT OUT YET full length) from this local black metal brotherly duo whose sound has mutated over the course of their previous records, touching on blessed out metal gaze, avant black jazz, and pretty much every warped stop in between, and nothing gets less twisted, or less difficult to describe this time around, but they do seem to continue to move ever further from the black metal that birthed them, although to be fair, they were pretty well removed already with record number one, but on He Never Said A Mumblin' Word, the sound once again exists in some nether region, fusing, lurching distort beats, crumbling atonal riffage, bizarre vocals, damaged production, twisted on-the-verge-of-collapse arrangements, the vocals this time around even STRANGER, sounding like a chorus of croaking frogs, but here fused to one of the prettiest things we've heard from these guys, a lilting noise-doom dirge, that constantly devolves into a sort of industrial lumber, a sort-of-chorus perhaps, with the sounds even more distorted and blown out and in-the-red, but somehow remaining weirdly lovely, which seems to be these guys' specialty, making beautiful ugliness or vice versa. Here's where we usually say, oh the rest of the record follows suit, but with these guys of course it doesn't, track two is all whispering winds, and acoustic guitars, a slow building swell of crumbling buzz, sampled operatic vocals, before exploding into some sort of blackened electro, with a programmed beat, more crumbling riffage, and some seriously harsh processed vocals, but again, some impossible poppiness swirled in, and eventually some almost black metal, but really, the sound is more like some sort of malfunctioning, avant, noise drenched electronica, with some madman growling and bellowingly demonically along, maybe black electro karaoke? Whatever it is, it's fucked up and fantastic. The third song manages to be even MORE distorted, which once having heard the other two songs seems impossible, but the weirdly processed, crumbling, peaking riffage, becomes something weirdly textural and droned out, hear drifting atop swells of synth swirl and more hellish vokills, another delicate balancing act between twisted beauty, and harsh ugly heaviness. Finally, the duo wrap things up with a loping crumble-pop black-gloom dirge, that plants drum machine skitter beneath cascades of ultra distortion, soaring female vox, bellowed demonic vokills, the whole thing managing to sound sun dappled and dreamy, even though it also sounds like the insides of your speakers must be melting...

MPEG stream: He Never Said A Mumblin' Word
MPEG stream: Poor Mounrer's Got A Home

Full length number five from these two brothers who traffic in twisted, noisy, psychedelic WTF black metal weirdness, and who create what is essentially a new sound with every record, having started life making a sort of spaced out shoegazey psychedelic black metal, gradually growing weirder and weirder, finally arriving at Via Dolorosa - which is somehow even weirder, even just one song in, a super raw, extremely blown out post black metal that sounds more like some sort of noisy post punk, what sounds like slide guitars, the vocals howled and gruff, the drums super lo-fi, and practice space sounding, in fact, like much of The Flenser's output, there's really nothing here that would make you think this band was even remotely black metal, instead, it's a killer slab of noisy, punky, poppiness, and yeah, it's pretty poppy, but we're only two minutes into the first song at this point, cuz soon, all the noisiness is peeled back, leaving just a low slung bass line, a kick drum pulse, some clean guitar strum, then some creepy sampled voices, a sprawling tranced out minimal mesmer that's as unlikely as the first half of the song, just on the other end of the sonic spectrum. And really, by now, if you're buying a record on The Flenser, and expecting buzzing black metal, there's at least a 50 percent chance you'll be extremely disappointed. But then Flenser seems to have been distancing themselves from straight up BM, and they couldn't have gotten further away from it than with this. The second track is all jazzy, minus the distorted vokills, and noisy lo-fi drums, it's smooth and shimmery and skittery, a twisted juxtaposition, that will for sure have metalheads scratching their chins. And it doesn't get any easier from there on out, but it continues to get cooler and weirder, gorgeous blasts of hazy, melodic drone-noise, slow building shimmers, tripped out down tempo trip hop, rife with woozy backwards swells and lush layers chordal thrum, wedded to more of those howled vox, weird blackened dubbiness, lots of jazziness popping up throughout, hazy detuned guitar shimmers, murky pitch shifted crooning, doomy, melty, warped sounding slo-mo creeps, piano laced, jangly dream pop, accordions and spidery guitars, over loping post rock rhythms and bookended by some psychedelic hard panned groovy skitter, and finally a haunting, bombastic death march, with huge rhythmic pounds, over distant vocal murmurs, and delicate crystalline guitar filigree. Such a weird record, but like their other albums, this is not really even metal, and most metalheads will likely be bummed/pissed, but if you dig warped experimental heaviness, avant blackened doom-jazz and outsider WTF post-black metal weirdness, this is most definitely for you.

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We complain a lot about the glut of cd-r releases. The whole, "even my Mom has a cd-r out" (and yes, her new limited 3" cd-r will be out soon, ahem)� The ease of recording and pressing up 50 copies, means that lots of stuff that maybe shouldn't get released does. Not everything recorded deserves to be released, and not everything played even deserves to be recorded. A serious lack of quality control for sure. But with the bad comes the good, and in this case, the good is often VERY good, and thus it's well worth slogging through all the shit, to get glimpses into some of the twisted creative musical minds, that otherwise might have toiled away in obscurity with no one but their housemate or mother (depending on the circumstances) hearing the amazing fucked up and far out sounds they've been creating. It sometimes boggles our minds to think about the various songs and recordings, that due to lack of resource or technology, or even initiative, were lost forever, or were just never even recorded at all. We don't have that problem so much anymore (see above), but what it does mean is that folks who might be too timid to start a band, or too isolated to find likeminded folks, still have ways to create, to attempt to realize the sounds they hear in their heads. And some of our favorite records of the last few years have been just that, random home recorded cd-r's produced not for cool points, or scene cred, but because the artists were driven to do so. The cd-r micro label is now a cottage industry, my Mom doesn't just have a new cd-r out, she also has her own label� but that is still where we find the most vibrant and ultra personal music being made. Mamaleek is a one man band from right here in SF, this is his long in the works debut and it's a killer, equal parts blissed out metalgaze, furious hyper grind, and buzzing ambient murk. In some ways, it's almost the perfect aQ record, bits and pieces of all the stuff we can't get enough of. But deftly assembled into something cohesive and pretty original. Nods to Jesu, Nadja, Xasthur, the Angelic Process, the usual suspects, but Mamaleek are definitely their own queer beast. The lo-fi recording adding to the murk and mystery, and of course the fuzzy blissy vibe. The record opens with reverb drenched piano, lazy and laid back, all sepia toned and warm summer porch-ed, which makes the second track sound even more epic and massive. A crushing roiling slow motion riff, superdistorted and almost crumbling, the melodies in the distance soaring, the track shifts briefly into a blast of processed grind, before returning to its majestic trudge, sounding like Jesu, if Jesu still sounded like Godflesh. The track flips back and forth, slipping into a tinny, black ambient interlude halfway through, only to transform into a spacious almost math rock drift. The rest of the record sort of slips easily between those two sounds, harsh washed out blackened bliss, often peppered with jagged sonic shards, and haunting drones, and murky ambience. The disc's centerpiece is the nearly 20 minute long "Shout On, Children", beginning with some straight up bluegrass guitar pickin', still muddy and lo-fi, some slippery slide and some fret buzz, but then, the programmed drums kick in, some gurgling demonic vocals, and then thick sheets of coruscating sunburnt guitar buzz, but that acoustic twang continues on right below the surface. But it never gets HEAVY, it just shifts between gradations of buzziness, murkiness and blur, some parts are wide open, a skeletal rhythm over smears of horn like synth and throbbing bass, other parts are gauzy, the guitar chopped into haunting pulses and layered over washed out whirs, and others incorporate operatic vocals and barely there shimmer, finally finishing off with a brief blast of ultra-lo-fi blackened metal. The last four tracks lean toward metallic bliss, and pounding buzzing heaviness, the guitars thick and buzzy, the vocals a fierce growl, the drums simple and mechanical, everything whipped into pulsing waves of sound, occasionally coalescing into blasting blackness, but just as often, becoming unmoored, and drifting skyward the various riffs and beats spreading out like a sky full of black wraiths shot through with sunbeams. Handmade packaging. Fold over cardstock sleeves, with paste on full color front and back images, and a printed insert on nice thick textured paper. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!

MPEG stream: I Wish I Was Dead
MPEG stream: Winter'll Soon Be Over

MPEG stream: Deeprooted
MPEG stream: Come To Pass
MPEG stream: I Watch You Fall
MPEG stream: A Cancer In The Midst (Plague One)

Questions, questions, questions. Boy does this new release from Germany's Manes raise some questions. Like, how did this exemplar of raw, primitive, droney black metal end up making melodic trip hop? And how did they get Ozzy Osbourne (or, in truth, his close sonic approximation) to handle the vocals?? And, with all these changes, didn't this genre-fucking, once-but-no-longer black metal act release this disc on Garm of Ulver's Jester label, alongside recent works by Ulver themselves, another band, along with Arcturus and to a lesser exent Mayhem, who delight in upsetting their (former) fans who obsess about "true" black metal? Certainly if it's old-school black metal purity you're looking for, forget about the new Manes, stick with their 1999 "Under Ein Blodraud Maane". The open-minded, however, might actually dig this. It's only about 10 percent metal, with lots of samples and beats and layers of noise, and tons of Survivor-esque melodic pathos. It all kinda sounds like one epic song, the Ozzy meets The Cure style vocals soaring over junglist / tech step Amen breaks, with what heavy metal riffing there is being gloom-pop catchy a la Katatonia. There's even a track that drops in what sounds like Spandau Ballet's saxophonist. Other parts have a Pink Floyd-gone-industrial vibe. In The Woods meets Aphex Twin, perhaps? Solefald meets Cyclefly at a rave? Quite a shocking transformation from the howling-at-the-moon, spikes n' corpsepaint black metalness of their earlier material!! Now, it might have been a more interesting progression if Manes had gone the other way, done this in 1999 and then come out with the black metal of "Blodraud"...especially since most metallers who get into the realm of electronica tend to produce albums that are at least 3 years behind the times. And Manes haven't avoided that problem. Yet, somehow, we can't help but enjoy this, it's got a certain sincerity and quality and spark, and sheer chutzpah to it that works for us. MPEG Download: "Death Of The Genuine" [/audio/manesdeath.mp3]

MPEG stream: Death Of The Genuine

For some reason, when we first threw this on, we had completely forgotten about the last Manes record we reviewed a while back, about which we wrote: "How did this exemplar of raw, primitive, droney black metal end up making melodic trip hop? And how did they get Ozzy Osbourne (or, in truth, his close sonic approximation) to handle the vocals??" I guess we had maybe blocked that record out, and were still expecting, apparently against all odds, a batch of raw buzzy grim primitive black metal. But now upon reflection, this new Manes doesn't seem quite as ridiculous. At least within the realms of Manes' strange sonic world. Following a similar metalhead-alienating career path as Ulver and Solefald, this Norwegain outfit has basically shrugged off any and all vestiges of their metal past (minus the occasional 'heavy' guitar). At first, having forgotten completely about Manes' stylistic shift, we were annoyed, and a bit bummed, but approaching this without any metallic expectations yields some strange pleasures, and we of all people certainly can't begrudge a band who wants to try some crazy fucked up shit, even if it's not exactly what we were hoping for. The first track, is oddly enough a 16 Horsepower cover! Manes converts the swampy revivalist blues of 16HP into some sort of dark cabaret, with wailing crooning, clean vocals, almost MTV style, over chiming U2 like guitars, it does get a little bit heavier, but not THAT heavy, very glossy like later Solefald. The rest of the record veers from glossy metallic sort-of-pop to techno remixes, the songs are loaded with lots of synths, a little like a lighter version of Marilyn Manson or Orgy with processed distorted guitars and industrial drum machine rhythms and those very Ozzy-like vocals. A few tracks sound like Blur (!) and one sounds distinctly like Erasure, or maybe Duran Duran with its cheesy eighties hard pop sound, affected vocals and drum machines, which makes sense when you check the liner notes, which mention the fact that the song in question is somewhat inspired by Duran Duran" which explains why it features little bits of DD songs sort of morphed into slightly more metallic industrial shapes. The three remixes range from blissy, glitchy trip hop groove, to a sort of blown out techno soundscape, like an instrumental Front 242, to the final track which is a slow shifting blast of white noise weirdness. A big ol' crazy mess of very un-metal weirdness, but it's got some strange appeal for sure. Fans of recent Ulver should definitely check this out...

MPEG stream: Cinder Alley
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After a dozen obscure tapes and cds, this is the "final onslaught" of raw, hellish black metal from this Czech (or Slovak? Yikes, I don't want to piss them off! ...ok, they're Czech. Whew!) trio. Fast, frosty, corpse-painted, old-school style ("No keyboards!!

RealAudio clip: Ve Stinu Hor Krusnych...

Manii might have to be one of the more confusing black metal bands going. These Norwegians began life as Manes, releasing some seriously black buzz, before transforming into something altogether NOT black metal, keeping the name, but delivering a sound that mixed electronica, goth, trip hop, even some rapping, into something that at the time we described as sounding a little bit like Duran Duran. Manes are still a going concern, having released a similarly non black metal record in the from of 2014's Be All End All, another dizzyingly abstract collection of crooned electro pop, wild bombastic experimental sort-of-metal, churning modern rock, and other un-metal sounds, but for several years now, there apparently exists an alter ego, in the form of the similarly monikered Manii, which it seems, is where much of the old Manes' metal ended up. Kollaps is indeed a suffocatingly grim proposition. But gone here too for the most part is the buzz and blast, and in its place some slow-mo dirginess, a synth swaddled creepy crawl, that slithers and churns, a lumbering blackened doominess that is harrowingly atmospheric, while remaining extremely heavy, a hauntingly melodic slab of melancholy black miserablism, with brief bursts of more metallic fury, but with just as much moody ambiance, long stretches of mysterious shimmer give way to keening minor key murk, before mutating into heaving swells of epic metallic majesty, the usual drums and guitars bolstered by all manner of synths and keyboards, minimal electronics, making Kollaps sound almost proggy in places, a swirling and psychedelically transcendent songsuite that would be a contender for metal record of the year, if it hadn't come out in 2013!!!

MPEG stream: Liv-Oydar
MPEG stream: Ei Sjael Som Sloknar
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What's in a name? Well, when the name of your band is Marblebog, and the name of your record is Csendhajnal, pretty much everything is in the name. We were sold before we'd even laid ears on it. But we're happy to report, the dark sorrowful sounds within more than live up to the bizarre monicker. Marblebog specialize in that super fuzzy mournful black metal, midtempos and blurry hypnotic guitars, every track a slowly swinging seasick waltz, so completely droning and mesmerizing. The metal buried within churning clouds of thick murky ambience. The guitars not always sharp and jagged and buzzing, but sometimes just distant grumbles and whirs, buried beneath dense swirls of swooshing Tangerine Dream synths, while the drums sort of plod along waaaaaaaay back in the murk. And the vocals, woah, some of the most anguished, tortured, howling, damned-soul sort of howls we've ever heard, think Weakling, Silencer, Bethlehem, Sterbend, a near hysterical shrieking. But in Marblebog the vocals sound almost out of place, making them that much more harrowing and depressive. Imagine a lonely overgrown graveyard, weeds, flowers, ivy tangled in the bars of the wrought iron gates, the sky a dim grey, overcast, pregnant with the possibility of storm, the sound is not wind or birds or passing cars, instead it's a depressive dirge, not harsh or super aggressive, not even really buzzing, more a thick blanket of grey fuzz smothering everything in gorgeously miserable murkiness, then right in the middle of the graveyard, a mysterious figure is pushing his way through the dirt, a rotting creature of the night, crawling up from the grave, emitting a fowl hellish shriek of utter and absolute terror, while thick tendrils of graveyard mist swirl up around him, the vocals a glaring and harrowing blight on the otherwise peaceful (yet still dark and depressing) world of the dead. The vocal-less tracks on Csendhajnal are downright lovely, slow, meandering synthscapes, of low end melodic miserablism, and slow drifting dark shimmer, like a more ambient Skepticism or Burzum, some haunting, otherworldly new age dooooom. But even the more properly metal tracks here are imbued with the same sort of new age dreaminess and slow motion, end of the world doominess. So awesome. This disc collects the debut cd (from back in 2003) from this Hungarian horde and tacks on a whole bunch of killer extra tracks including the Nostalgic Moods In Grimwoods demo from 2002, the Arhat promo from 2002, and the rehearsal track "Hatefullmoon" from 2003, most of which were released as super limited tapes and/or splits. Killer cover art too!!! SUPER LIMITED! 555 copies, each disc hand numbered!

MPEG stream: The Breath Of Emptiness
MPEG stream: A Broken Circle
MPEG stream: Eternal Silence Within

Since we first heard the name Marblebog, we somehow just knew this obscure Hungarian horde would be a fast favorite, before we had even heard a note of music, and man were we right. The last record, 2004's Csendhajnal, now unfortunately out of print, was a huge hit at AQ, the perfect balance of swirling synthy ambience, and mournful melancholy Burzumic buzz, so we had been anxiously awaiting the reissue of 2005's Forestheart ever since, and now it's finally here. This duo from Hungary mix traditional Hungarian folk, modern grim black buzz, and blissed out ambience into epic swaths of blurry blackness, woven from loping minor key guitars, simple mostly midtempo drumming, strangled croaked vocals, and while the parts might sound similar to black metal obsessives, it's not just the parts, it's how they're played, and recorded and arranged, the mood and the timbre, the sound and the feeling as much as the actual riffs. And while the riffs are of course amazing, it's the feel more than anything that make Marblebog so special. Everything is dripping with such sadness and sorrow, not just minor key, but whole arrangements and progressions perfectly assembled to evoke strange feelings, heartbreak and woe, death and destruction, so mournful and melancholy, sweeping swells of buzzing sound, with incredible dynamics, and bits of melody that swoop in out of nowhere and are immediately swallowed up again. The appropriately titled "Opening" is a brief stretch of swirling krautrocky synth, peppered with haunting animal like FX and creepy scrapes and groans, all drenched in reverb and delay, hovering beneath a pale moonlit sky. This intro opens up into the sort of title track "I Am The Forestheart", a glorious blast of melancholy blackness, with a main riff as catchy as it is dark and depressive. Part way through the band shift gear, and slow down into a strummed folky interlude, a jig like melody, Jew's harp, the sound of wind and rain, a haunting spare drift. There are three more longish tracks, all channeling the same forest spirit, looped cyclical black buzz, suffused with hypnotic drones and unlikely little melodic flourishes, everything muted and murky and dreamlike, often breaking down into simple acoustic guitar drifts, before picking back up again. The harrowing over the top vocals of the first records are now much more settled into the background, more a part of the music, almost like another layer of buzzing drone, but still just as harrowing and anguished. The final track is a 13+ minute ambient soundscape of shimmering synths, and mad scientist lab FX, burbling and gurgling beneath, dreamy washes of high end drift, strange muted percussion, some seriously Goblin like keyboard creep, and eventually some awesome lurching downtuned guitar, not so much crushing and heavy as creepy and thick, cyclical and hypnotic, a gorgeous lurching dream doom.

MPEG stream: I Am The Forestheart
MPEG stream: A Tempest Never Calming Down
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Finally available again, the gorgeous all ambient second album from Hungary's Marblebog, who on other records (which we gushed about on past aQ lists) combined bits of ambient drone with their mournful black buzz, but for Wind Of Moors, they jettisoned all traces of metal completely, and in their place, crafted a gorgeous slow moving world of drifting melancholy ambience. Very krautrocky, and quite reminiscent of Klaus Schulze, Popol Vuh and the like, the opening track is soft and sun dappled, gentle muted bongos, beneath a constant low level raga like buzz, soft synth swells, shimmering streaks of ethereal whir, a gorgeous laid back sprawl of nearly new age mesmer. The next track is even lighter and dreamier, chords smeared into shadows as they drift by, chords suspended in soft swirls of sound, the notes, floating weightless, a breathless whisper of a song. The third track has a bit of muted propulsion, a gentle heartbeat like pulse, beneath some thick, but still soft, buzz, a gorgeous minor key melody played out in high end tones, draped over the droning blurred raga below, so completely entrancing and hypnotic. Slightly ominous, dark clouds drifting across a steel blue sky, but still, the vibe is more like a forest just before the storm, hauntingly calm but still slightly uneasy. The final track is the darkest of the bunch, a creeping sonic fog, layered melodies, gauzy and shimmering, slowly drifting, casting dark shadows, filling the speakers with dead leaves and cold rain. A chilling, but mysteriously lovely bit of dreamlike sound.

MPEG stream: Waves Of Inner Seas
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Originally released in 2005 as a cd-r limited to a mere 55 copies, and then later as a tape, limited to 144 copies, this killer split FINALLY gets a proper reissue, with new art, and an extra track, thanks to the always kick ass Tour De Garde label. Ben a while since we've heard from Hungarian horde Marblebog, although they've been doing tons of split releases over the last few years, this one though is with Brazilian black metallers Draugurz, who long time aQ metalheads will probably remember from their raved about A Yell From The Past record. Marblebog open the proceedings with some swirling drones and creepy black ambience, before introducing some spidery melancholic guitar, a tangled web of crystalline melody, which gives way to a burst of murky lo-fi buzz, a pounding midtempo depressive dirge, all weepy minor key chords and booming basement drums, with some seriously raspy and hellish vox, reminiscent of Hypothermia for sure, that sort of blackened post rock lope, but the band definitely get grim, exploding into blurred blasts of old school blackness, interspersed with strangely melodic stretches of meandery drift and shades of gloom pop. The other Marblebog track is all solo guitar, a distorted woozy blackened riffscape, creepy and solitary and haunting, a strange tension, as if at any point the drums might kick in, or the song might begin proper, but instead, the riff, twists and transforms, a dense sprawl of mournful buzz and trancelike drone. So cool. Draugurz counter with some ultra raw, primitive black crunch, punkish guitars, stumbling drums, howled distorted vox, the songs sometimes slowing down into woozy warped doomy plods, with tangled minor key leads, sometimes locking into mesmerizing chunks of hypnodrone black metal, like a grim frosty Circle, building to dense blown out crescendos before slipping into more primitive pound. This cd version tacks on an extra Draugurz track, a creepy ambient synthscape, all majestic percussion shimmering layered mournful buzz, with a super strange tripped out synth flute interlude, all clipped bleats and alien flutters, before returning to the stately march that started the track. Killer stuff, from both bands, and probably still limited...

MPEG stream: A Silent Hermit
MPEG stream: Hatestorm

Hungarian black metal lords Marblebog have been a longstanding favorite here at aQuarius, and this split with fellow countrymen Vorkuta marks a triumphant return indeed. Both bands specialize in abject black metal with smatterings of goth and punk. Oddly enough, at various moments throughout the record, each band brought to mind Dance With Me era T.S.O.L. - but maybe that's just us. Either way, we're digging it. The record begins with Marblebog's "Uttalan Utakon", a seven minute blast of furious black metal that also sounds surprisingly like early American hardcore, at least before the harsh goblin vocals croak their way into the mix. The momentum is kept going with super fast drums and buzzy guitars before a weird, gothy outro plays out over siren like feedback. Vorkuta's "Prophecies" is a three part display of classic, Darkthrone-esque black metal outlining the joys of killing. While the band doesn't have to work too hard to prove their metal credentials, they also work in an interesting instrumental middle part with backwards tape effects and slow, distorted drums suggesting a somewhat psychedelic approach to their music. Definitely looking forward to checking out more from these dudes, who seem to specialize in splits. A glorious slab of concentrated blackness, limited to 500 copies and pressed on bonechilling pink vinyl.

Originally released in 2008 (hence the title) as a tape and a 7", this killer two way split is now available on cd, featuring two Hungarian hordes: long time aQ faves Marblebog, and Vorkuta, who have just one split to their name, but about a million splits. Marblebog should need no introduction, a weird group of nature obsessed black metal warriors whose sound shifts easily from blackened atmospheric drift to blazing buzzing blackness. Their contribution here falls into the latter category, with some of the heaviest Marblebog we've heard, churning Burzumic riffage, over pounding drums, and some of the creepiest sickest vocals EVER, an impossibly distorted raspy gargle, demonic and alien, and so cool. The track is a long one, and slips from frenzied blast to almost doomy pound to woozy melodic midtempo lope, complete with reverbed guitar solos, to epic almost Viking sounding metallic majesty, to skeletal clean guitar post metal meander. So good. Vorkuta, counter with an epic 3 part single track, that explodes out of the gate, super raw and primitive, buzzing insectoid riffing, pounding blast beats, and weird croaked sing songy demonic growls that follow the guitar melody exactly, making the whole song seem seasick and twisted, until it breaks down into a tribal drummed churning breakdown, only to lurch right back into the frantic blasting blackness. Vorkuta too dabble in some abstract ambience, clean spidery guitars over crystalline shimmer, cool effected backwards loops, distant chimes, before finishing off with a buzz drenched tangle of grinding black crunch. Definitely need to hear more from these guys. Who knew that Hungary had such a serious BM scene, beyond just these two outfits too? Judging from the list of related bands, and the pedigree of both Marblebog and Vorkuta, we definitely have some more digging to do...

MPEG stream: Uttalan Utakon
MPEG stream: Prophecies (Part 1: War / Part 2: Cleansing / Part 3: Triumph)

Newest and best album from these chaotic black metallers, the second half being nothing less than a concept piece about Dracula.

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: The Hangman Of Prague
MPEG stream: Throne Of Rats
MPEG stream: Perish In Flames

For a band much loved by the metalheads around these parts, there's a serious dearth of Marduk albums on the AQ site. Only four out of maybe a dozen full lengths. WTF? No excuse, other than just too much amazing metal to cover... So let's try to right that wrong!�We meant to get going on Marduk reviews again when Mortuus from Funeral Mist joined on vocals. We couldn't think of a better combo, the blazing buzz of Panzer Division Marduk, and the grim frosty howl from Funeral Mist, but it seemed most long time fans were super bummed on the change, we however were not. Even though we never got around to reviewing 2004's Plague Angel, it ranks as one of our favorite Marduk records.� So for those new to Marduk, the thing with them, is they are fast. Really fast. Furious, relentless, the embodiment of pure black buzz. Lots of folks found the band to be boring because of the lightspeed blur the band seemed to constantly inhabit, but we reveled in their blazing blackness. So we were pretty surprised by this latest disc, sure the band had dabbled in midtempos in the past, even a bit of dirge here and there, but Rom 5:12 is pretty heavy on the midtempo Burzumic buzz, and even the doomy downtuned plod, but fear not those chunks of blackness are surrounded on all sides by that classic ultrafast Marduk buzz.� The opening track is all spacious and mathy, even post rocky, sounding not unlike recent Deathspell Omega, lots of gnarled squalls of blackness amidst almost groovy black riffing. The second track though returns Marduk to more familiar ground, but not for long. Check out track three. "Imago Mortis", it's downright pretty, sort of major key, with huge sweeping melodies, a dirgey dramatic breakdown in the middle, and a pounding groove laden back half, all complex and mathy, but not at all blazing fast. The weird thing is it really suits them. It makes the perfect balance for the blinding lightning strike of the other more typically furious and fast numbers.� Probably the coolest song on Rom 5:12 is "Accuser/Opposer", which features�Alan Averill aka Naihmass Nemtheanga from Primordial and Void Of Silence, who adds a whole 'nother dimension with his throaty wailing clean vocals, sounding quite a bit like Mike Scalzi from Slough Feg at moments, wrap your head around that, Slough Feg vocals over dirgey Marduk, hell yeah.� What else to say? This totally rules, much more varied than past releases, but still with plenty of ultra fast fury and black buzzing blast, but with a whole lot more going on. Definitely one of our favorite Marduk discs...

MPEG stream: Accuser / Opposer
MPEG stream: The Levelling Dust
MPEG stream: Cold Mouth Prayer

For years, Swedish black metal panzer division Marduk defined themselves by creating a sound that was unwavering, blurry and buzzy and blasting, their sound a furious blackened onslaught that few could touch, and it seemed the group was perfectly happy making the same record every time, as were we. Then, a few years back, the oddly named Rom 5:12 happened, which found the band pushing way beyond their lightspeed blast, and dipping into sounds and songs that were murky and gnarled, tempering their blackbuzz prowess with a bit of experimentalism, looking no doubt to Deathspell Omega for inspiration, as well as new Marduk blood in the form of Mortuus, vocalist for Funeral Mist. And on Marduk's next album after that, Wormwood, the band continued to expand their sound. And while Serpent Sermon is not necessarily another sonic reinvention, and actually doesn't even move much beyond Wormwood, we're not even sure that matters, instead, Serpent Sermon seems like Marduk honing the sound they seemingly perfected on Wormwood, the sound better than ever, dense and furious, weirdly melodic too, the title track definitely has that all on display, a churning almost doomy intro that gives way to blurred lightning fast blasts, and a super catchy, super melodic refrain, the group deftly flitting from part to part, the result a super progged out mathy blackness that position them alongside DSO in terms of modern black metal mastery. And while there are plenty of moments on Serpent Sermon where the ban shift gears into a punkish pound, or a doomic lumber, even some woozy spaced out psychedelia at times, the band do spend the majority of their time blasting and buzzing frantically, effortlessly spewing furious gouts of grinding black buzz that KILLS. But peppered throughout is plenty of weirdness, whether it's creeping droned out buzz over insanely frenetic double kicks, or shredding leads, or dark strummed apocalyptic folk, all of those elements deftly woven into Serpent Sermon's dense, buzzing sonic black fabric. Fans of Deathspell Omega, Funeral Mist, Katharsis and the like, who have yet to discover the mighty Marduk, now's the time to right that wrong, and fans of Marduk can add this grim sonic gem to an already impressive body of black works.

MPEG stream: Sepent Sermon
MPEG stream: Hail Mary (Piss-Soaked Genuflexion)
MPEG stream: M.A.M.M.O.N.
MPEG stream: World Of Blades

The return of black metal legends, Panzer Division Marduk and their one speed. VERY VERY FAST. Seems most metalheads who don't like Marduk, just get bored because with the exception of a record/song here and there, Marduk pick a tempo and stick to it. And that tempo is almost always faster than a speeding bullet. But if you're in the mood for some hyper fast, hyper produced, christ hating, poser smashing black metal, then this may just hit the spot. I personally LOVE Marduk and have been listening to this record a bunch. MPEG Download: "With Satan And Victorious Weapons" [/audio/mardukvictorious.mp3] MPEG Stream: "With Satan And Victorious Weapons" [/audio/mardukvictorious.m3u]

MPEG stream: With Satan And Victorious Weapons
MPEG stream: Bleached Bones

In the beginning, Swedish black metal horde Marduk were a special breed, a sonic panzer division onslaught, that mostly consisted of locking into a riff, dropping in an insanely fast blast beat, and then letting rip, rarely veering from their course. Fast and furious and heavy. Lots of folks thought they were boring, but for us, the sound of Marduk was transcendent, mesmerizing, hypnotic, cyclical, it was trancelike, and we loved it. The something changed, and Marduk began to morph into something new, something much less one dimensional (even though it was a great dimension), their sound began to drift more toward the avant garde side of BM, becoming more gnarled and convoluted and fucked up, where was once old school classic Swedish blackness, aligned with the Scandinavian pantheon, was now some strange modern avant black weirdness, now more in line with groups like Deathspell Omega, Funeral Mist and the like, which make sense considering Funeral Mist vocalist Mortuus joined the group right around this shift. And while we still hold the old Marduk records near and dear to our hearts, it's hard to deny the twisted beast Marduk has become, especially considering how much the BM envelope has been pushed lately, Marduk may be old guard, but they've stepped up and put most of the new guard to shame. 2007's Rom 5:12 was a totally twisted game changer, bumming out lots of old time fans, but reinvigorating the group, and turning on a whole new legion of fans enmeshed in the more progressive side of BM, which has all lead to this, easily the best Marduk record yet. Certainly the weirdest, and catchiest, the same folks who hated Rom 5:12 will probably hate this one too, unless they've finally come to their senses, for the rest of us, it's a chance to dig in to an incredibly dense and bizarre record by a band at the top of their game. There's plenty of furious blasting blackness on Wormwood, it's just that there's so much more, and even when the band is blasting blackly, they're still twisting it all up. After a creepy intro the band explode into a frenzy of super complex convoluted thrashing, the riffs are strange, atonal, warped, the arrangement is incredible, with the band stopping and starting, lurching wildly, slipping into a doomy creep, only to launch right back into it, the sound is MASSIVE, there's bass all over the place (in a notoriously bass-less genre), Mortuus' vocals are SICK, an inhuman gurgling rasp, and the riffs amazing, wild and tangled and melodic, it's 3 minutes for Marduk, but for other bands it would be a whole record. Which leads right into the seasick lumber of "Funeral Dawn", with an almost industrial martial vibe, soaring epic and melodic, the main melody impossibly catchy, while streaks of noise swirl around the riffs, there's even a breakdown where Mortuus's sick vox are laid over a thick undulating bassline, the resulting sound is like a blackened Laibach. "The Fleshy Void" is a 3 minute hyperblast of black intensity, still tangled and warped, but impossibly heavy and fast, giving way to the super creepy "Unclosing The Curse", all tolling bells and pulsing bass, abstract guitar chords, and hateful vokills, spare and spaced out and super ominous. Wormwood is not inherently a 'weird record', it's not fucked up and freaky the way Furze or Necrofrost are - the weirdness here, the strange song structures, the freaked out non black parts, the fucked up samples, the drones, the doomy breakdowns, they're all seamlessly integrated into Marduk's sound, for every blast of Swedish blackness, there's some soaring melodic almost NWOBHM sounding melody, for every stretch of doomy pound, there's some gurgly bass heavy creep, the whole record is twisted, but subtly so, it's not about being weird or fucked up, it's about making a truly original piece of black art, which by its very nature IS both fucked up and weird. But the fact that's not the be all end all, keeps Wormwood from being gimmicky, instead it's a fierce and furious ultra heavy black metal record, with lots of twists and turns, which in a nutshell, means quite possible black metal record of the year for sure.

MPEG stream: Nowhere, No-One, Nothing
MPEG stream: Funeral Dawn
MPEG stream: To Redirect Perdition

Latest from Minneapolis one man raw black metal horde Marsh, who we last heard from on a split with black metal weirdos Lonesummer. Here, Marsh is teamed up with a group called Thorazine Gaze, who we had never heard before but who are pretty amazing, starting things out with a plodding bit of freaked out, depressive, super creepy plodding black metal, the guitars raw and echoe-y, the recording super lo-fi, the vocals super distorted and insanely inhuman sounding, also wrapped in delay and reverb, the result is a dark droning, blackened trudge, with a gloriously melancholy main riff. The next track picks up the pace a little, but the sound remains, grim and miserable, yet still strangely minor key and melodic, the music almost pretty, but the vocals, so intense and tortured and so processed and distorted they end up sounding like dense squalls of white noise, drifting over the pounding D-beat flecked grimnity underneath. The record tends toward the midtempo, but those fucked up vocals push this more toward the realms of groups like Bone Awl or Akitsa, which is absolutely a good thing. Marsh starts of his side with a stretch of creepy, soundtracky black ambience, laced with strange industrial creaks and whirs, looped melody, a haunting tense slow build, swirling FX, downtuned distorted crumble, echo drenched melodies, before finally exploding into song, but instead of the frenzied black blast we were expecting, it's some creepy depressive gothy doom pop, deep dramatic vocals, clean guitars, low slung Joy Division basslines, all wrapped in a gauzy lo-fi swirl, the rhythms programmed and machinelike, the track laced with occasional shrieked vokills, but for the most part it's weirdly dark and melodic, before finally stumbling into something way more black and harsh, stumbling drums, strange atonal guitars, harsh vox, twisted melodies, everything woozy and off kilter, abstract and gnarled. Finally finishing off with a bit of pounding post rock / black metal, that manages to buzz and brood, the sound blown out, but definitely still warm and melodic. Good stuff for sure. Wondering when some label's gonna finally step up and release a Marsh full length. Until then, better act fast. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!! We have about 10, not sure we can get more...

Second release from Video Horror Show, a new label releasing, as the name implies, VHS tapes, featuring original music, accompanied by tripped out visuals. The logical extension of the renewed interest in audio cassette tapes we presume, yet somehow even more retro, we can hardly wait for someone to start releasing tapes on betamax! Or microcassette! Even better, how about a laserdisc label?! Anyway, like the first installment (now out of print), a buzzing black metal sprawl from the awesomely monickered Suffer The Shards Of The Lost Culture Of Silence, The Five Wounds is another twisted sonic excursion, still plenty 'black', but instead of metal, this comes via witch house weirdos Mascara (spelled of course with the A's replaced by triangles, and the word separated by a little black pyramid, a spelling that for whatever reason comes out all gobbedlygook on our website), an epic 15 minute electro-goth synthdrone creepscape, all fuzzy distorted keyboards, moaning chanted vocals, lurching lumbering skeletal rhythms, everything hazy and blurry and gauzy and washed out, the sort of music you can imagine hearing in some dark smoke filled club in a David Lynch movie, so much smoke and dry ice, that it's nothing but shadows and strange amorphous shapes, and the sounds are muffled and mutated and refracted by the thick atmosphere, the voices slowed down to a crawl, the beat hypnotic and unrelenting, the synths buzzing and brittle, the vibe tranced out and deliriously druggy. The accompanying video most definitely suits the sound, super trippy and lysergic with loads of lo-fi effects, grainy film stock, double exposures, burnt out images, swirling landscapes, slow motion sort-of-3D, strange shapes and figures, warped clips from horror movies, eye popping colors, ever shifting kaleidoscopic tableaus of murder and mayhem and terror, forests, and altars, and basements, and dark hallways and lonely roads. They don't call it Video Horror Show for nothing. Needless to say, both sonically and visually, totally far out and mesmerizing, and pretty fucking awesome. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each one hand numbered, in a white clamshell old school video tape case, with two color hand screened inserts, recorded onto a blue videotape, and comes with a download code (just for the music) as well!!

MPEG stream: The Five Wounds

Another awesome warehouse find that definitely deserves to see the light of day. We've had Massemord's Skogen Kaller since 2003... but sometimes stuff gets lost in the shuffle. Anyway, we're glad we found these - all 4 of them, so act fast - because for those like ourselves who dig their metal black, Norwegian, and totally evil, this is sure to hit the spot. Nothing super "out there" or "fucked up" about this one, just grim, buzzing hate with some surprisingly majestic guitar leads thrown in every once in a while. The vokillz are classic black metal rasps delivered in both Norwegian and English (not that you could necessarily tell), and with song titles like "Eternal War", "I Have Sipped The Blood...", and "Flowers For Your Funeral", you should know whether or not this is your cup of freshly harvested human blood or not... Apparently after a name change, Massemord is back to their old moniker under the helm of mainman (and, it would seem, only man these days) Barren. We definitely look forward to checking that stuff out and hopefully won't wait another 7 years to review it...

MPEG stream: Solen Skinner Ikkje
MPEG stream: Flowers For Your Funeral
MPEG stream: My Last Breath