Disembodied

In the late '90s every hardcore band started their set the same way. The band prepped up gear and stretched for the exercise ahead of them while the singer jumped around like a motivational speaker with its head cut off, squawking about the scene and their major crush for each band that played before them. But not Disembodied, they were the odd band out in the era of zines and distros. Their sets began with a swelling, a growling of the bass, and when the whole band came in there was nothing positive screamed-Disembodied were the dark side of hardcore.

"If God Only Knew The Rest Were Dead", released in 1998 by Ferret Records, began with the same building and dissidence of anger as Disembodied did live. Each of the five songs lyrically painted a different type of failure of hope over a world-ending scenario. The darkness of the EP left Disembodied in a very small club of hardcore. There were no basketball jerseys worn in this club.

For many these days chuggy thumpy hardcore seems like a punch line to a joke, but some bands, and some records stand to be revisited-and you know what, some should be celebrated. "If God Only Knew The Rest Were Dead" is one of those records. I can only imagine that, if this was released today, people would call it "sludge" or something like that... sorry to disappoint you kids. This band introduced me to a whole new world of metallic hardcore. This is a personal rip of mine so i hope you enjoy it.

myspace | the darkside of hardcore

Rebirth Of Nefast

Rebirth Of Nefast captures the glare of death staring into your soul. It is the black smoke that fills your lungs, the glowing eye of the Void. Seemingly appearing from nowhere, "Only Death" is the debut release from this enigmatic lone soul and its the most creeping Demo i've heard. Tormented vocals, twisted chord structures and unique composition - combined with a powerful, organic production - results in a truly unique offering. A surreal atmosphere permeates the three generous acclamations, snuffing out the last flickers of life and inviting death's cold embrace. This is a one man project by the nefast Wann who also is the mind behind Haud Mundus and was involved in the awesome Wormlust. Buy it here. This is truly haunting. Recommended!

behold the rebirth of the malefic one

Leucosis

Leucosis is a three-piece Black Metal band hailing from Santa Cruz, California. Their album "Pulling Down The Sky" is one of my favorite BM that came out this year , these guys really put a lot of their passion on the music they make. One of the things that also caught my attention was that photo on the artwork, so i did some research and found out that it really has a morbid story behind it. It tells the story of russian cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, whose immensely disfigured remains are observed in horror and disgut by his comrades. It's a story of betrayal, fear, and...space. Komarov was one of the first Cosmonauts in space, in the time of famed Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, and in a freak (was it?) calculation accident his space capsule. You can gear Komarov final screams on the title song "Pulling Down The Sky". You can read more about it here. In general Leucosis "Pulling Down The Sky" is a very solid release, the blend of Black Metal with some Doom tones results in a very knife-cutting atmospheric album. If interested you can get this album by contacting the band here or email them. Recommended.

myspace | the sky is falling

Barghest

If you know Thou and follow their work, then you probably are familiar to this band, Barghest. It features some members of those mighty Baton Rouge doomsters. This is their debut full-length of scathing black metal from the swamps of Louisiana available here at Thou's Bryan Funck label. Barghest are a black metal band from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This great southern state is known for having a rich culture. And in terms of music culture it's most often known for the southern riffage or sludging doom, but Barghest are a wake up call to that way of thinking, and to the state of American black metal in general. Their songs are abrasive and dark. There's nothing intended to be arty or moody about their songs. Just 100% misanthropic Black Metal.

myspace | swamp black filthy metal

Mania

Mania is a black/doom metal project from Oregon. Since the project's formation back in 2004, main brain Nate Myers has released one previous full-length and several splits and demos. This is Mania's third full-length, after a split up of its members, now is Nate Myers only. This self titled album essentially takes straightforward black metal, doom metal, and ambient music, and blends them together. Within each of those three genres is an abundance of sub-genres, which actually manage to get pulled into here as well. While I'd never call this album progressive, it is certainly adventurous and exploratory. There are moments on here that are blazing blast-beats while other parts focus more on clean guitar lines with more atmosphere.

About half of this album is essentially a black metal record, the kind that has a lot of pounding double-bass and blast-beats kind, while the other half features a slower melancholic sort of tone, the doom stuff. If you haven't guessed by now, it's the cleaner, more soft moments that I find more intriguing about this project, as with a lot of other groups as well. Overall, I'd call this a nice, solid record, it has some really cool tracks that really stick out, but there are others that just sort of fall into the gray. I would consider checking this out if you like black metal that isn't too left-field, but a little adventurous.

nevermind the shitty cover

Northward

While others are extremely busy trying to reinvent Black Metal, some guys just look back and exhume the good old grim and frostbitten spirit of Black Metal. That's exactly what Northward did with this Demo entitled "In Sturmes Wind". Although not influenced by them at all, this demo sounds like a faster and more aggressive version of (old) Drudkh their best material, also taking influences from bands like Lunar Aurora and the Blazebirth Hall groups. Mostly instrumental, but the thundering full sound, a-typical bassmelodies, overall guitarriffs and writing (alternating between midtempo mesmerizing parts, and fast and aggressive parts) makes this far above average demo quality. Really great stuff. Buy the tape here.

myspace | ice blizzards from the north

Battlefields

After the release of their 2009 full-length, "Thresholds Of Imbalance", Battlefields lost founding guitarist Andrew Wallin, and went on a brief hiatus from playing shows. "Agassiz" is the band's return to the trenches with two new members and a more sonically assaulting blackened blend of metal and hardcore. Agassiz blasts through six songs in under a half-hour, presenting a concept EP of the glacial lake Agassiz, whose dried up geographic location is where the band's base of operations lies. Fans of the band's previous work my be taken aback by the sheer force of this new material, with pummeling blast beats, but there is still the familiar sound throughout the EP that Battlefields has perfected since it's conception in 2006. "Agassiz" lyrical content deals with when Lake Agassiz's ice dams broke and rose sea levels, destroying the old world, and setting up the new world for corrupt religious control. Featuring artwork and layout by Seldon Hunt. "Agassiz" is different from the older Battlefields releases, the songs are much shorter (no more sonic landscapes for you) and they have fall into the Black Metal trend and have put some pinches of it in some of the songs like "Entangled Mess" and "An Entire Epoch", but in general all the songs still have that emotional character that Battlefields are used to bring. I don't know... as a huge Battlefields fan i'm still digesting this album. Maybe listening to it while looking to some iceberg pics will help to get in the mood. Buy it here.

myspace | walking on thin ice

Leviathan

One of the albums of the year, or do i dare say.. the Album Of The Year?

With “True Traitor True Whore”, sole proprietor and mastermind Wrest strikes back with a vengeance with one of the most confrontational, frightening, and thought-provoking musical statements of the year.

Nonetheless, “True Traitor True Whore” is a different output than anything that Wrest has previously released under the Leviathan moniker. Recorded under harsh, contemplative, sporadic and stressful circumstances through bouts of madness and decadence (all under the watchful eye of Sanford Parker within the confines of Engine Studios), the fucked up bizarre nature of “True Traitor True Whore” sees Wrest bring in a more rock element into Leviathan, one influenced by ‘80s dark rock and post punk along with having a surreal prog element inherent as well. All marred with the dark ambience and the claustrophobic introverted progressive/forward-thinking black metal psychosis that only Leviathan can manifest. Buy it here or be forever cursed..

endorse yourself in hate

Fleshpress

One of the most expected albums this year for me.. Fleshpress "Acid Mouth Strangulation". These Finnish are back with more of their home-brewed hypnotic suffocating sludge madness from the northern swamps. On their fifth full length album Fleshpress evolve from their days as a rough, gritty metal machine towards the unknown. These three long tracks ebb and flow with an organic pulse, from slowly meditative passages to black swamp-sludge metal. An unsettling but oddly beautiful experience starting with that amazing cover artwork. Buy it here.

myspace | suffocated by the riff

Young Hunter

Another gem dug out from Bandcamp Swamp, Tucson's psychedelic doom act Young Hunter. This Demo, "Children of a Hungry World", features only two tracks, but what is small in quantity is really awesome in quality. It opens with "Cities of Black Mesa" that starts with some heavy riffs that grab my attention for what comes next, the whole environment of the song, the male/female duet that give that occult aura to the song.. really nice. What really caught my eye on this band was indeed the whole construction of the songs, they aren't boring, amazing how they mixed in a very intelligent way all the doom, stoner, sludge influences, resulting in a psychedelic music spell. Be sure to check them out.

bandcamp | hungry for doom