Black Ships

Dude, i love canadian hardcore/crust.. if i read somewhere that it's an canadian hardcore or crust band, i'll immediately press the "download" button without blinking, it's almost the same with bands that have album artwork from Justin Bartlett. Black Ships are a dark hardcore band with some crust influences that come from Montreal, Canada, and "Omens" is their full length released in 2008. Basically "Omens" is loud, explosive, and crushing. The guitars are suitable distorted, while the bass is down tuned to the point of sounding almost out of tune. The vocals roar out, and the drums anchor down the sound keeping simple rhythms that pound like war drums. Black Ships offers an enjoyable first insight into the band’s attempt at mixing hardcore with slower sludge influences. The mention of sludge should not bring thoughts of Noothgrush, Dystopia or Thou, but more of a dirty, looming hardcore aesthetic towards the style.. i sense some love for the almighty defunct Cursed.

myspace | the omen

Never Healed

I love this band, it just makes me wanna grab my (fake) leather jacket, a can of beer and start moshing.

Members of Look Back and Laugh, Mindless Mutant,Yaphet Kotto and Lights Out team up to deliver some serious rocking hardcore. While the tunes can be melodic and catchy at times, the stark contrast of the grizzled and growled vocals (sounding like someone's vocal chords being dragged through a paper shredder), it reminds me a little bit Cobra Noir (that i already posted here on the blog too), and for me that's good. Check it out.

myspace | raise your glass to the sky

The Lion's Daughter

The Lion's Daughter come from St Louis, and play some heavy and noisy hardcore with sludge and other metal influences! This band caught my eye with the "Forgotten Masters" EP (you can get it for free here). This band is cool, in general there's nothing original here, but the songs are really good. Just play the track "The Horror of Existence" really loud and you'll see what i mean.

bandcamp | unleash the hounds of war

Torch Runner

Dark, heavy, fast and pissed as hell. That's Torch Runner, a must-have for fans of Nails, Trap Them, Converge.

myspace | locusts rule

Disnihil

This is another of my favorite. Disnihil are a crust/hardcore band formed by ex-members of Black Army Jacket and this is their debut full-length. This quartet plays gnarled and discordant hardcore, sounding as dark and brooding as ever. It's pummeling down tuned hardcore that nods to the black clad crust with a more modern take on the d-beat phenomena. Expect lots of vocal tradeoffs between straight yells and lower shouts, while the music hits on everything from pounding chord progressions and surging fast paced crust to borderline caustic speeds with intense picking patterns and lots of dissonant metal textures. Resuming, this album simply shreds. This self-titled album was released in 2007 by Chainsaw Safety Records who also holds other great bands really worth checking out.

myspace | disnihil

Rite

Vicious black metal hailing from Sweden. I got pretty stoked with this band with their first, well.. it's only two tracks, so lets call it "Demo", "Hight Of The Day". Here the band showed some great constructed songs with a raw production, the way black metal should be done. But after hearing the new Demo "Lie In The Wait For Blood", i quickly came to the conclusion that this band is serious, and they are into something. "Lie In The Wait For Blood" is a very different beast. It shows us a different sound, the drum sounds more harder,  more industrial, and the guitars are more sharpened and cohesive, sounds more like Blut Aus Nord or Deathspell Omega, meanwhile the voice, well.. is still dripping fresh profane blood. Judging by the quality of this release, i truly believe that the name Rite will soon echo on the blogosphere or in specialized well known cvlt websites. Serious, keep your ears on these vicious swedish. You can download the Demos for free on Rite's bandcamp, or you can download the two Demos in one file below. Enjoy.

bandcamp | Sweden's best kept secret

Virgin Witch

Virgin Witch is a band formed by members of the sharped razor hardcore thrashers Pulling Teeth and Skin Like Iron. This is their first and only Demo that features two songs, the slow, dragged sludgy and overshadowed "Nail Of Dicara" and the fast darkened "Sight Beyond Sight" that vanishes as fast as it arrived. It seems promising indeed, i just hope they came to stay and let's see what these guys will reserve for us in the future.

myspace | witches do exist

The Howling Wind

Another album that featured my Best Of 2010 was "Into The Cryosphere" by The Howling Wind. This band features members from bands that i also love, Unearthly Trance and Aldebaran. Although their sludge/doom background, The Howling Winds consists on a black metal act. Well, not trve black metal as we know it, it is more atmospheric, slow and mid-paced kind of black metal, if you would like a comparison well, the first band that comes to my mind is something in the likes of Altar Of Plagues.

Being its fourth release, it seems that these guys are getting better as time passes by, well just take a look: Unearthly Trance's "V" album is awesome, it earned its place in my Best Of 2010, and Aldebaran's "Buried Beneath Aeons" happens to be as awesome too and will surely be featured in many Best Of 2011, i know in mine it will.

Back to "Into The Cryosphere, there seems to be a more genuine sense of darkness and chaos to this record, the songs have a pretty consistent feel to them, but at the same time the material is more varied than most bands dabbling in black metal would dare to write. There are plenty of parts with the Darkthrone-esque Satan-blast drumming; there's some mid-tempo rocking that evokes old Celtic Frost attitude and almost reminds me of Craft stuff; and there are crushingly slow doom parts with riffs Neurosis wish they wrote. While comparisons can be made with these other bands, this record never sounds like a lame rip-off of those bands. At the same time, while the material is diverse, it doesn't sound like a thrown-together conglomeration of different styles. Everything fits together as a cohesive whole. This is a strong release, and I recommend it to anyone into dark sounding metal. A perfect album to hear in Winter time.  Meanwhile these guys are moving and we'll hope to have new stuff soon.

band blog | cold winds blazing

Valkyrja

I'm posting this for two reasons. First: this is one hell of an album, one of the best to figure in my personal Best Of 2010 and Two: I'm expecting to see these guys soon, a big dark and grim shadow approaches and it brings Vader, Valkyrja and Gorgoroth. But of all those bands i'm more anxious to see Valkyrja live, ripping the heads off from the audience.. at least that's the minimum that i expect from them.

"Contamination" is their second full-length, to be honest i haven't heard the first album "The Invocation of Demise".  But the first time i heard "Contamination" my jaw just dropped to the floor. It just took one listen to see that this was gold. No keyboards, no symphonic crap just straight-forward, crushing, epic, and progressive black metal all tighten up with a polished production that will hurt the feelings of trve kvlt aficionados. Highly recommended.

myspace | get contaminated

Dead Man

Dead Man are a quartet hailing from Oakland. They play a darker version of hardcore with a lot of black metal, sludge influences.. well call it what you want. The result is something really great. The production of this tape is ok, the only negative aspect of it is that it features only few songs. Let's hope to hear more from this band in the future. It seems that tapes are cool again so support this young band and buy their tape here.

bandcamp

Shit Weather

Another one dug out from my bandcamp expeditions. The debut demo from these aussie sludge/punk/grinders quartet,  Shit Weather. This demo is noisy, dirty, raw, filthy, and heavy as fuck. Everything is wrapped in this blanket of distortion, and the songs are chock full of powerviolence riffs and sludgy breakdowns. Download this shit now and play it loud!

bandcamp | Sun isn't shinning

Raw Radar War

Ok, i love these guys, and this EP kicks ass. "On A Field Of White" is the last release by the awesome band Raw Radar War (by the way, since the last post of the band, have you read the name of the band backwards?? Pretty cool ahn?). One thing that draws me to this EP is that it concerns Simo Hayha, Finland’s most aggressive patriot and easily the biggest lone-gunman badass in modern military history. You can read more about him here, but for now, here’s a quick summary: One WWII sniper. 100 days. Limited daylight. One rifle. 505 registered kills. And even when the Russians finally got to him after a slew of counter-sniping and artillery fire, and shot him in the head, dude did not die. The bullet blew off a good part of his cheek and crushed his jaw, but he regained consciousness on the very day peace was declared between Finland and Russia. He hunted moose, trained dogs and lived on his own until his death at the age of 96 in 2002. The EP cover is a sketch made by the man itself.

RRW did a solid job of aurally representing Hayha’s formidable marksmanship and the dark chaos of war with their sludgy, battering crusty hardcore. While the biting guitars do draw some from Entombed, and man.. i love Jonah's voice, although I'm not a fan of his other projects i just think that in RRW his voice fits like a fuckin' bullet in a riffle barrel. At not even 8 minutes, these fast, loud songs get in and get out...just like the man they were inspired by. 

myspace | killing fields

Otesanek

It's time to raise the dead. Otesanek were a sludge/doom band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, they had a hand full of releases (demo, one full length and several splits) and this was their last breath. Entitled just as "Final 12''" or "2009 EP" it contains only two songs. Huge chords and avalanche drumbeats surge and decay beneath growled vocals. As bleak and diseased as Khanate 's ambient crunch, as blackened and crusty and demonically melodic as Unearthly Trance. The sounds of thunderclouds and bad days coming in slow tide over the horizon. Otesanek explore the sublime space and speaker grit trapped between monstrous riffs and feedback decay. They will surely be missed.

myspace | Rest in pieces

Lycus

Another great Demo that arrived this year brought into this wretched World by the doom/sludge band Lycus. Lycus come from Oakland, California, and share a member in common with the hyped black metal outfit, Deafheaven. This though, is an altogether different beast. Lycus have created one of the most exciting Demo’s I’ve heard this year. Huge and laden with sorrow, this is a demo to propel the band into many end of year lists and beyond. Three beautifully creative and sorrowful songs that truly will hook any fan of good old fashioned sludge, funeral doom. Just plain awesome. This is heavy. This is slow. This is doom. 

bandcamp | MMXI

Hate Ensemble

I got this email the other day by Austin from the band Hate Ensemble, these bunch of rockers began writing songs around late winter-early spring of 2011, as of now the band consists as a 4-piece. Initially, they were all going for a sound with heavy influence of bands such as: Obituary, Cro-Mags, Demolition Hammer, Integrity along the lines of those bands. Recently they've been working on some new material not recorded yet. Its more mid-tempo all around in the songs with distorted blues rifts. As for this past spring and summer, Hate Ensemble played several shows within the Philly, Jersey, and New York area. The sound of Hate Ensemble reminds me a bit of Lords, maybe a little Akimbo, Ghostlimb, all mixed together with some sludgy riffs.. They are rolling, feeling confident and there's no reason for them to slow down in the future.. i sure hope they never slow down. Show some love and at least buy them guys a beer on their bandcamp.

bandcamp

Okkultokrati

Hardcore is changing. We get bands around a cauldron full of hardcore, punk, crust, sludge and black metal..  Some of they just fuckin' annoy me, others are like "meeehhh.." and in the end there's only a full hand with the really good stuff. This band definitely stands out of that hand. It is safe to assume that after listening to Okkultokrati’s debut album "No Lights For Mass", this band really knows what they are doing, and they're doing it pretty well.

Released last year, "No Lights For Mass" is a ridiculously evil album when compared to the surge of blackened hardcore acts out on the market. The album titled track "No Lights For Mass" is the standout track found on the album, featuring black metal laced hardcore/punk that crescendos at the half way mark, with the listener being left with just tortured screams, before going back into a sludge metal influenced riff. Okkultokrati wear their influences on their sleeve and every track is a showcase of black metal, hardcore, doom and sludge metal forming into one. Okkultokrati is a name that few will ever hear about, as their style of music is much less accessible than pretty much any other group riding the blackened hardcore wave out there. "No Lights For Mass" is proof that hardcore has made a pact with Satan himself, while some kvlt purists might vehemently detest bands such as this, it cannot be said that Okkultokrati takes hardcore to a new level that other bands didn't even scratched at.

myspace | corpse paint punks

Acephalix

Here is one of my favorite releases this year, Acephalix's "Interminable Night". These guys must have been listening to a lot, i mean, a LOT of death metal before they released this album. It's darker than their previous release "Aporia", more death-metalish but still they didn't abandoned that crust parcell and i fuckin' love the conjugation of both. The vocals are more deeper, as coming from the guts of hell reminding me almost Claws or even Hooded Menace and the guitars tuned low sounding like good old retro acts of Entombed or Asphyx. Dude, the weight of death metal on "Interminable Night" scale is heavier than the crust one, it just takes one listening to "Christhole" to realize that. It's dark and filthy.. Great release.

band site | night of the living crust

Raw Radar War

Yesterday, while i was doing my daily night ritual, that is "arranging/cleaning" my iTunes library i came across this band/album.. and almost forgot how good it is. Raw Radar War deliver the true gritty, nihilistic punk thrash on their debut "Double Equals". Raw Radar War take the gnarled street vibe of crusty hardcore and thrash and mix it with some elements of sludge to reinforce the tar-black urban feel of this album. Unrestrained shouting, bulldozing riffs, and pummeling drums drive "Double Equals" through its psychopathic journey, leaving no hope in sight even at the end. I've always loved really primal, aggressive music without frills, and that's the epitome of what this about is about.

The first three tracks on the album, all less than a minute long, pummel without abandon in pure heavy fashion, before Jerry's Kid's "Crucify Me" version kicks in with shit-storming riffs that utilize classic punk chord progressions and an awesome shouting chorus. Before exploding into another raging thrasher, "Lack of Fire Discipline" briefly introduces some of the doom influences of the album, expanded upon later with songs like "Rupture", "Process", and the 8-minute closer "Truckloads of Ammunition". Other highlights include the memorable "Your Prime Directive" and the beastly metal romp of "Vampire Command." This album is a fuckin' armored truck full of bombs heading your way. About time for these guys to launch something new.

myspace | read it backwards

Melodica Deathship

Shiver me timbers!

I'm not a big sucker when it comes to hip-hop, but this awesome release by this ghost pirate duo, formed by Exile Eye and Deep Burial, really caught my ears when i stumbled on it in one of my excavations thru bandcamp. “We have truly embraced the darkness and the chaos of the seas,” exhales Exile Eye halfway through Melodica Deathship’s voyage into deepest, darkest waters. It’s fair to say the Dublin-based crew are in uncharted territories – this has to be the only nautical-themed hip-hop record out there, sailing along like a phantom ship in a thick fog of murky, dubby beats, ghostly electronics and rhymes “as sharp as the blade of a cutlass”.. arrrrggghhhhh.

I just love the dense soundscapes on "Doom Your Cities, Doom Your Towns" that are pierced by clashing pirate blades, cannon fire, crashing waves and squawking seagulls overhead all drenched in a knife cutting fog. From what i've read about the track "1803", which takes the lyrics of Bobby Sands’ convict ship ballad "Back Home In Derry" and forges an epic spoken word lament, caught in a storm of woodwind clamour and a squalling guitar line by Steve Von Till from Neurosis (now what about that?) it seems that Steve and Exile Eye are buddies since high school so it's no surprise he was invited to drop some chords.

Received a message from Tim of Melodica, since the vinyl are all sold out, MxD decided to put the album on Free Download mode on their Bandcamp, so what you're waiting for??? Get aboard the ghost galleon!!

bandcamp

False is, as they said, "Black Metal for post-apocalyptic desolation". I found False when i read somewhere on the web that they were on tour with the doom monsters Thou, and the reviews said that this band was a killer live. This untitled 12” delivers two songs, each running nearly 13 minutes, of relentless and melodic keyboard-laced black metal that borrows more from punk & the European style of metal than it does from a lot of the atmospheric black metal that’s sweeping the US at the moment. It will please fans of Deathspell Omega and Ludicra. You should order this awesome album here. And you can hear it & download it thru the bandcamp link or if you're a lazy bastard and you fully trust in my awesome music taste, get it in the mediafire link below.

bandcamp | trve or false

Low Places

After the death of the almighty Cursed, i started to look for some new bands to fill that hole that the band of Chris Colohan left in me. This was one of them. New album from one of my new favorite darkened hardcore bands, entitled "Spiritual Treatment" This is some heavy, mean and aggressive shit. Feel the love.

bandcamp | the exorcism of Colohan

Surroundings

While everyone else was listening to Nails and getting a boner out of it, i was listening to this. Surroundings play their own interpretation of hardcore: lightning fast, heavy and slow, down-tuned riffage, distortion and ear-piercing feedback and heartfelt screams/yells. Calling them powerviolence won't do them justice, neither are they a Mind Eraser rip-off. They have this southern sludge introspective nihilistic element. The lyrics are harsh and tell us that this world and what man made out of it is just a huge pile of shit, the songs are short and grinding. When you expect it the least Surroundings will turn around the song structure and let the song fall apart in a gritty way. Then you have deal with an unpredictable feedback-infested muddy slowpaced swamp and the notes keep dragging and dragging. While most (let's call them evil, depressived, dark) bands stick to a well-ridden dark and depressed formula: Let's just play real slooooow and let nothing else happen and bore the shit out of everyone, Surroundings present a different approach with the sheer rage, compressed negativity and the brick to your face.

The guy has a voice that I envy and I jealously wish was my own. He has a great feeling when it comes down to place the words and how to fit them in. Most vocalists don't understand that their voice is an immanent element of a band, another instrument to be taken care of, another piece to keep it all together and they give the sound their own gritty character. Surroundings know how to do it and how to do it right. One of the best underrated albums of 2010 in my opinion.

myspace | surrounded by hate

Soul Swallower

Soul Swallower offers on this new release entitled "Devoured" 11 songs of the most fast and mean as fuck power violenced hardcore. Features 3/4 of Mind Eraser (who i love) with vocals courtesy of the vocalist of The Rival Mob. Like a fuckin' kick on the teeth.

myspace | eaten alive

Hexis

A Danish butchery: hardcore, black metal, sludge and blast beats thrown in the most epic and brutal way. It reminds so much Celeste that Hexis could be that evil twin sister who was separated at birth. Cold, raw and ugly. And don't forget to check out the songs of their 3 way split with As We Draw and Euglena on Swarm Of Nails for free here.

bandcamp | axis of hell

Aphrenous

"Ravaged By The Incessant Scourge Of Deception" is a lesson in old-school black metal worship done right. Truthfully, if I had not known this album was released this year, I would have truly believed it was some obscure gem unearthed from the mid 90's. Hateful black metal with an incredibly cold production. This album is raw, but not in an un-listenable way, every instrument is clearly heard (the bass gets buried a bit, big surprise) but for a sound like this, no other production could suit. It features only 3 long songs (total of 50 minutes long) of razor sharp riffing, minimalistic drumming, hateful vocals, icy eruptions of black hate emerge from every note, every drum hit and vocal line and the instrumental aura around the songs even make you feel the cold frost on your lips.

Honestly, I cannot stop listening to this album. It creates a weird kind of nostalgia for me, bringing me back to the great black devotion in the 90's. This newest release from Aphrenous is neither true nor cult (although it certainly sounds so) but has an unnerving sense of purity that has not been heard by these ears in quite sometime. I really hope they continue to make music in the future, because I will be a follower for many moons to come. Show your appreciation to their work by buying this great record at a great price here. Hail Aphrenous!

bandcamp | trve grim frostbitten

Necrowretch

Just one more post before bedtime...

New EP from these vile death metal heads Necrowretch, entitled "Putrefactive Infestation". Not much to say here, you know the deal... putrid old school death metal. Sweet dreams.

myspace | falling rotten members

Incursus

One of my latest discoveries, although the album is from 2009... but you know how it is, better late than never. This album is a hellish maelstrom of evil. The riffing and the production remind me of Deathspell Omega's "Manifestations" album. No bullshit, just fast paced tremolo picked chords, the drumming is fairly competent, which is what this sort of thing calls for: high hat blasting until the heavens collapse. I found the vocals rather unique here. They are somewhat of a rasp and half whisper. At times there are extra vocal overdubs that drive the powerful atmosphere further. When it comes to raw black metal, Incursus is most definitely a band worth looking into. Containing every element needed to craft a superbly misanthropic, disgustingly violent yet supremely enjoyable record, "Eternal Funeral Trance" is a mandatory album for anyone who is a fan of black metal. Really powerful stuff here.

myspace | your fucking funeral

Nadja & Black Boned Angel

This is one of my personal favorites. Here is a two-track collaboration between drone outfits Nadja and Black Boned Angel released in 2009 by the hand of 20 Buck Spin. Nadja, for those of you not familiar, are a highly prolific duo from Canada specializing in dreamy, psychedelic drone and Black Boned Angel are a trio from New Zealand that sound like a clone from Sunn O))).

Given the two projects’ respective backgrounds, you pretty much know that you’re in for: a droning doom with plenty of atmosphere. That’s exactly what you get with each track, evenly spaced out over the fifty minutes. Each track pretty much follows the same pattern of a slow build with plenty of deep bass lines and a glacially paced percussion, to a slow fade of drowning fuzz and atmospherics. Overlaying the bass and percussion are plenty of higher pitched harmonics with considerable distortion and low-fi fuzz. Fading in and out periodically are higher frequency, razor thin sounds that border on the subliminal.

The collaboration’s result works pretty well, and is certainly going to appeal to fans of Sunn O))) and so on. If you’re not familiar with either Nadja or Black Boned Angel, this is probably as good a place to start as any, but this excursion is probably closer to the individual work of Black Boned Angel than that of Nadja. Recommended for the barbiturate fueled drone crowd.

BBA / NDJ | Church of Drone

Grinning Death’s Head

This is raw, blackened...

Invoking comparisons to their blackened punk rivals, Bone Awl, Grinning Death’s Head were considered by many to be the carriers of the flame for American black punk metal. "Black Sun Rising" is their third release and it opens us a door to brutal minimalism; guitars shrieking like buzzsaws, buried vocals muffled under the gritty production. Grinning Death’s Head have produced something utterly brutal, a true representation of the death obsessed lyricism and artwork that accompanies this cassette (currently sold out on Youth Attack). Just the way i like my coffee... black... raw!!

Oh baby i like it raw...

Wormlust

"Iceland's Wormlust was Hafsteins Lyngdal's latest outburst within the realm of extreme music, he now plays in Pestuus, another cold Anti-Christianity Black Metal act. But Wormlust was a project he seemed to be most involved in. Wormlust effortlessly knits together a soundscape, a journey if you will, that has an engaging beginning, and a natural and fulfilling conclusion. In this "Seven Paths" Demo, its haunting and atmospheric qualities, jump at you at first and hook in you but repeated listens will reveal successful layering that makes this such a powerful and cohesive piece.

"Seven Paths" is quite good as all material released by Wormlust. The guitars are churning vortices of disturbing chords, and whenever the sound breaks for some sort of interlude we are treated with introspective guitar work and ringing explorations and Lyngdal's vocals are hoarse and troubling, like the cold icelandic wind whispering thru the desolated fields. I've been exposed to a great many underground black metal acts touting atmosphere or ambience, but Wormlust, thru its originality,  has really caught my attention. Something enigmatically wicked is burrowing to the surface here."

Seven Paths of Desolation

Lord Time

Lord Time is one of the demented minds behind Los Angeles primitive/raw Black Metal monsters Harassor. And coming from a band like Harassor, what could you expect here?

It sound like the Cramps having a hellspawn with Darkthrone, but this blackened offspring will also be high on mushrooms. All the tracks are merged in a 14 minute track. Every tune in this project has the get up and go factor –  they are rife with chaotic grooves laced with mayhem! Lord Time’s vocals are crunchy, sharp, mean and just plain fucking psycho sounds like a fuckin' cyborg troll wizard from space, and all the instruments are played attached to that description too. It’s pretty epic the way he formatted this album, because in between all of his black vomit rawkus, he puts these black hole sucking atmospheric tunes that add to the drama nicely. The riffs that come in contact with you on this album will cause brain damage and get you high at the same time! This dude creates black metal the way i want to hear it, totally raw and fucked up with a punk rock outer shell that can’t be cracked. Check this out, you can download "Forgotten Future" here for free!

Lord Time

Antichrist

Behold the rise of the Antichrist!

After an unholy birth in 1990, 5 hooded demons created Antichrist. Several years of intense jamming and satanic rituals led to a fateful day of recording. No one knew this would be the first and only time. Many years later the old analog tapes were removed from hiding and brought forth to be revealed to the world. Old school underground Canadian black metal. No special effects, no triggers, nothing fancy just pure satanic repulsion. This was now mixed and mastered almost 16 years later... and still kicks ass. Bestial Black Death Metal à la Diocletian. Hail!

NWN | Diabolical Minotaur slays!

Wormlust & Haud Mundus

Now this has become my latest drug. The split release "Oblivio Appositus" of irish Haud Mundus and Icelandic Wormlust is difficult to put into words. 

"Haud Mundus presents insight into the failed spirit of man, while Wormlust offers an indescribable passage into otherworldly desolation. This collaboration between both sees its share of atmospheric metal riffing and long, beautiful passages of ambiance.

Haud Mundus's two tracks are quite magnificent examples of the balance possible between the black and ambient genres. "Veins of Stone" is over 13 minutes, opening with a cavernous cacophony of morbid gloom and ringing hammer-like strikes, from which a slicing, huge guitar tone soon erupts, and becomes even huger as the duo lumbers through a number of devious, crashing poles. "Forever Desiccate the Seed" is briefer, at around 8 minutes, but its also denser and faster, more of a traditional black metal at first, then branching out into a number of ambient segues. The production used by Haud Mundus is massive and accessible, a sure sign that the band could be taken very seriously in the future. 

Wormlust, too, has adopted a more bold if calamitous sense for production. Truly, this is a frightening experience, Lyngdal's full, bloodied throat casting a ghastly pallor over the surging threads of "Surge - About the Death of a God" and the dusky, swelling phantasm that is "The Larvean Inauguration (Or: A Feast for the Animal of Reflection)"."

Also the artwork for "Oblivio Appositus" is beautiful. Be the privileged one to own not only this beautiful Digipack but a splendid piece of sonic art here. One of the best BM releases i heard so far, although it's release is from 2009(!). Highly Recommended!

W / HM | Crown of dead kings

Generation Of Vipers

Another great band that i love. Basically i've loved everything they've put out: "Grace", "Dead Circle" the songs in the "Peacecreature" 4 way split... fuckin' geniuses. And this new album "Howl and Filth" is no exception. I must say this has been an absolutely stellar year for new music and with the release of this album, it just got better.

If you're not familiar to this band imagine if Neurosis and Tombs had a bastard child locked away in an institution for the criminally insane, it would be Generation of Vipers. However, make no mistake. While their influences are laced throughout "Howl and Filth",  Generation of Vipers are not some boring clone band, they have been around some quite some years. What they now bring to the table is pure agony, and disgust. Just how I like it.

The album kicks off with the track: "Ritual". Heavy, straight to the point, like a fuckin' avalanche. "Silent Shroud" continues that seismic waves and some peace arrives with the interlude "All Of This Is Mine" but not for very long.. next track "Eternal" grabs us immediately by the throat, near the end, this album is only 6 track, here is a track who's song structure is familiar to us, "Slow Burn" sounds like the older Generation of Vipers material. And finally the end arrives at the sound of "The Misery Coil" this songs stinks Neurosis in its every pore. As heavy, like a wounded mammoth marching waiting to die.
I think this album is heavier than their previous efforts, fans of the band will not be disappointed at all.

Now, at least, head on over to the Generation of Vipers bandcamp page, and purchase "Howl and Filth" for a measly $8. Thank you, Generation of Viper, for absolutely blowing my mind with this release. I can’t wait to see, and hear what the future holds for this incredible band.

bandcamp | filthy howls

Burial Offerings

I was quite surprised just the other day when i received an email by Justin Oakey from Burial Offerings telling me about his awesome work. It features some of the bands that i enjoy a lot and been featured here on the blog like Slaughter Strike and Column Of Heaven. But also, besides music videos, you can find some cool short films. I advise you all to go there and see.. you must! Meanwhile here are some music videos he made. Sick!

Column of Heaven, Altars (Music, 2011) from Justin Oakey on Vimeo.

Into The Slaughter (Music, 2010) from Justin Oakey on Vimeo.

Ilsa

This might not be new to most of you guys, due to the sound that the band makes the word got spread like a fuckin' virus, maybe thanks to Fenriz for naming them on the Band Of The Week a while ago.

Ilsa is a band that brings the cosmic death doom to the party and sets it off til the break gloom. Ilsa’s 2010 album, "Tutti il Colori Del Buio" (name inspired by a Sergio Martino film), released via Contagion Releasing comes from a place of superdelic radness, where the basslines break bones & putrefied screams shatter steel. Ilsa has riffs that are apocalyptic & stink of all sweaty basements they have wreaked havoc in. They pull off something really special with this album: a caustic mixture of doom, sludge death metal and crust. It's like Celtic Frost, Bolt Thrower, Winter, Discharge and Disfear were put in a mixer resulting in a massive piece of concrete. All of Ilsa's artwork is done by the drummer Joshy (by the way, a fuckin' metal name don't you agree?) and it sounds as it looks: rotten, rotten, rotten... 

myspace | the vulture is waiting

Disguster

There is a bad taste in my mouth, but the sickness tastes good. I know what this disgusting stuff is…. Disguster. This band creates ultra-raw cycodelic crushing black metal. This Demo, "Flesh and Fear", is totally off the chain. The songs on this demo are filled with black chaos that also has this insane punk energy. The production is the way I like my black metal – lo-fi as hell with a “we don’t give a fuck” attitude.  This band knows how to compose dark, spacey & sinister music that amazes me. I was listening to this just the other night and i got almost uncomfortable, afraid that some demon or Satan itself would appear to haunt me. Some of the intros/songs are really disturbing. Like!

blog | shadows of horns

Sperm of Antichrist

Now this is some evil shit. As said on thatshowkidsdie.com:

"Down-tuned, filthy and ritualistic sounding, mysterious US-based duo Sperm of Antichrist are not fucking around on their debut demo, "Blight and Darkness". The sound wallows in the gnarliest viscera-strewn gutters of the death metal underground, subsisting on a steady diet of murky distortion and eerie ambience(...)The atmosphere is so thick and suffocating on Blight and Darkness that you could cut through it with a chainsaw. The songs themselves are heavy, lugubrious worm dirges clawing their way up from the black bowels of ancient graves, darkening the skies and threatening to cover the planet in a thick miasma of utter malevolence."

Could not say it better.

The resurgence of "real" death metal we are witnessing nowadays is giving us some great new bands, and Sperm of Antichrist is definitely one of them to keep eyes and ears on. I can only imagine what horrors await if these guys ever decide to release a full length (let's hope so!). If you're looking for some truly dark and arcane death death metal than this is the poison for your soul.

preview | get possessed here 

Ectovoid

Ectovoid was formed in 2010 from the ashes of another project, Bloated Carcass. Ectovoid plays a dark, atmospheric form of black/death metal, with lyrics themed around space, spirits, hallucinations, and darkness. Influences include death metal bands such as Autopsy and Demilich and raw black metal such as Leviathan and early Darkthrone, as well as black/doom projects like The Ruins of Beverast. Although it sounds like a bastard son of Diocletian to me.

Ectovoid’s first demo, “Breathing Blackness,” was recorded in January 2011 and self-released by the band in March of the same year. Currently the band is preparing material for their first full-length release. Judging by the quality of this Demo, can't wait for it. Keep an eye on these guys.

Ectovoid | Breathing Blackness

Negative Plane

And yet another great release to be featured on my personal Best Of 2011.. So Far: Negative Plane's "Stained Glass Revelations". How can i begin? While hearing this album, do this: close your eyes and picture yourself in a vast cathedral, enshrouded in an ancient horrific mist, gradually dragging you down into a fear induced delirium, a swirling myriad of primeval voices strangle the remains of any rational thought you may have left like the rat in its dying throes to the python. Extravagant, yes, but an album such as this deserves nothing less.  It's ominous, foreboding and terrifying, yet at the same time it has this almost ridiculous macabre carnival-esque atmosphere. This album which is so unique it's a challenge in itself to try and compare it to anything. At times the album doesn't even sound metal, it morphs into something almost like dark, twisted circus music, and the vocals are the voices of cast; twisted and unhinged and spitting corruption.

The atmosphere pours out of this record in waves, it's an extremely dense atmosphere, ambiguous and warped, an atmosphere that completely makes the album what it is. They also are one of the few bands who actually manage to use interludes to their full effect, using them to build the suspense in between each song, and avoid using shitty samples and actually composing the interludes themselves.

With "Stained Glass Revelations", Negative Plane move up to the top of the ladder and it would be a horrendous injustice if they don't get more recognition on the back of an absolute gem such as this. Obscure, mysterious and at times downright petrifying.
Summarizing: Get this!

Trve altar of madness

Ash Borer

Well, about time i put some Ash Borer here. This band have proved themselves quite simply the most impressive up-and-coming atmospheric black metal band out there today. They steer clear of all the ridiculous bullshit that turns other promising acts into sub-par gimmicks and meld influences from a slew of other genres with an uncanny sense of when to stop and when to go to craft an effort that is almost guaranteed to annihilate all contenders for the throne of 2011 atmospheric black metal album of the year. Most importantly, Ash Borer have attained the musical nirvana so desperately sought by their peers and have risen above and beyond all.

And the best part?

The band is barely three years old, and judging by the excellence that was hinted at on their previous releases and has finally been fully realized on Ash Borer, the future of the Cascadian scene will be very bright indeed as long as Ash Borer are around. I, for one, hope that this will be for a very long time.

"MMIX - MMXI" consists on a compilation kind of a best of, over an hour long, of the best material released by this most promising black metal act. I strongly recommend this. Enjoy.

myspace | pt.I | pt.II

Mutilation Rites

Awesome Demo from an awesome band. Mutilation Rites, basically shreds.. and after your done in pieces, they will pick up the last of your remains, chew it up, spit it out and set it on fire. It's impossible not to bang your head while listening to this brutal black metal assault that this band delivers. Definitely one of the best demos i've heard so far this year. Enough said.. Press "play" and bang your head until it falls off! Highly Recommended!

myspace | break your fuckin' neck

De Novissimis

Found this band through a split with Wreck of the Hesperus. Hailing from Ireland, De Novissimis’s bubbling cauldron is full of ingredients. From crust, to punk, to anarcho-grind and of course to sludge, they’re an interesting proposition made even more compelling by the fact that they clearly dont give much of a fuck about pleasing anyone - not least the gentle listener. You can testify it by listening to their Demo:

One track, 30 minutes. Slow rhythmic sludge that speeds up and slows down again, but never loses that groove. It's Doom metal alright. Eyehategod are an obvious reference especially with the feedback and wretched screamed vocals. The dual growl is a nice balance. Guitars are heavy and down-tuned as you'd expect. Unlike a lot of sludge bands, the atmosphere they create is dark and brooding rather than out and out angry. It's excellently played, has great riffs and it carries you away. 

band site | fine irish sludge

Nhor

Nhor is a multitalented artist coming from the UK. Except for his same named band, he has also written a couple of books, filmed a short-video and is involved in photography and artwork. Everything so far is self released in hand made packages with very beautiful artwork (both cds and tapes). I don't know when Nhor begun, but his first work with this name (both music or book) was released in 2009. It was an ambient / acoustic untitled album with classical piano parts. His second EP “Upon Which Was Written Within the Stars” is again an ambient work inspired by the moon and the stars and was released in 2010. The same year he contributed a song to a great compilation "Whom the Moon a Nightsong Sings" by Prophecy Records, something that I see as a recognition to his music. His third work “Whisperers to This Archaic Growth” is just released, even if it contains material composed in 2009.

This new album is completely different from its predecessors, since it's actually in another genre. His music has a much darker approach, offering us a very good black metal album with a few doom and ambient touches. I expected to listen to a more raw and underground sound and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by the production! There are totally 4 songs in the album and they last for a little more than 31 minutes. The music is mainly in mid-tempo rhythm, with both heavy down-tempo riffing and faster more aggressive parts, all under a melancholic, pagan mood. A few synths here and there enrich the sound, adding some more melodic touch in the album. There are also ambient passages and intros / outros in the songs similar to the style of the debut album, helping the music to sound more diverse, while the contradiction with the black metal outbursts makes it even more emotional. The vocals are entirely black metal growls; at least when he sings the lyrics, since there are also a few clean ones in the background, more like a choir. I can't pick any song; they are all of equal quality and similar style, but the overall result of “Whisperers to This Archaic Growth” is quite satisfying. Like in all of his works, Nhor uses a lot of symbolism in his art. This album is dealing in general with the animal instinct in man, but unfortunately the lyrics are not in the CD.

If you are interested in finding more about this band and Nhor's art in general, you better visit his official site or his myspace. If you are interested in buying a physical copy of this album, you should do it directly through here, since all releases are very limited. The previous ones are already sold out. The album comes in a four panel digipak, with beautiful artwork illustrated by the mighty Sin Eater and it also contains a riddle inside to solve. I'm really enjoying this release, you should too.

myspace | of wolf and man