Immortal : "War Against All"

 Demonaz, who once quit the band to return in 2015, is not the sole member of the band he quit. He enlisted the drummer from Ghaal's Wyrd and Ice Dale from Enslaved to help out on bass. At least he is keeping it Norwegian. The opening track blasts ahead at the kind of speed that gave him tendonitis in the first place, so he is setting himself up to quit the band he is the sole member of. What is missing is the epic thrash like riffing that made Immortal once great. He slows down a little on the second song to hint at this, but it is not as inspired. "Wargod" is the first song that clicks with me in a way that makes me take notice and invest myself in it's more deliberate riffing. 

The vocals lack the personality of Abbath. That is Abbath who has a distinct black metal croak. He is not King Diamond, he just croaks with an interesting drone to narrate lyrics that Demonaz wrote. The gallop to "No Sun" shows that he is capable of writing some solid songs when he sets his dark heart to it. His vocals however are a raspy bleat, that is not as stark as Abbath's delivery and sound like he might lose his voice at any moment. He has the classic gallop down, which works for me, despite not really doing anything that his band's namesakes have not already done better. The punches in "Return to Cold" work well.

"Nordlandihr" just coasts it's chug down similar snowy peaks that have already been scaled not only in the past but on this album as well. The eponymous song is less like a personal anthem and gallops paths more ventured upon than not. Not the last song he declares that his throat is being lashed by the dark and the cold. I guess this explains the weak vocals, he should have packed a scarf for the occasion. I will give this album an 8.5, it does remember what works for the band and makes them great, but takes little risk outside of that formula which is not what black metal is about. 

Abbath : " Dread Reaver"

 If you are hoping someone is going to carry the torch of Immortal, I think Abbath is proving himself the rightful bearer of that ring. His albums are huge sounding and thunderingly heavy black metal. The first song on this album really goes for the throat but is still a pretty thoughtfully written song even with all the rage it carries. Not if this entire album sounded like this there might be a problem. "Scarred Core" does continue to race with the devil at a rapid rate, though not driven by blast beats so that works for me. The production is very dense. The album hit you as being loud first and foremost. The vocals are largely buried in the barrage of guitars. Solos coming ripping out of the corners of the song. It adds to chaos more than the song. But the chaos is the mood of the song.

The clean guitar that opens "Dream Cull" was a nice touch. If the song had just blasted off the album would have become a blur. When it does kick in there is a more of a mood set. This was the lead single from the album and it's easy to understand why. There is more nuance and breathing room. The vocals almost capture a melody.  "Myrmidon" has a riff that reminds me of "Lay it Down" by Ratt. Though the heavier chug of guitar suppresses the more 80s under current. There are also times where his vocals are less of a croak and sound more like Lemmy. The 80s are over when the buzz of guitars speeds up for " the Deep Unbound". It is the first song that has felt more like filler as the guitars are just kind of going for it with little regard for the song.

Not that I am opposed to heavy. They do heavy with more than enough conviction with the more commanding chug of " Septentrion" the vocals take on more of a death metal growl in places. "Trapped Under Ice" is one of my favorite Metallica songs. His vocals here come closer to singing again, though it veers into the Lemmy  lane which works for Metallica. For some reason the more traditional metal dynamics embedded in the DNA of " the book of Breath" remind me of a pumped up death metal version of solo Ozzy. The title track closes out the album. The main riff reminds of King Diamond. There is nothing dark and theatrical about it so the comparison pretty much ends there it is just how the riff grooves. This album is the best of his solo work so far and I think the fact it is rooted in traditional metal rather than being overtly black metal or extreme plays into it's favor. 

Abbath : "Outsrider"

The main man behind Immortal is back with his second solo album.It is more melodic this time around, there is a more melodic classic metal tone. Clean guitar starts off the song and it gains speed from their. Yes there are blast beats and Abbath croaking, but it feels less black metal and more like epic metal from the late 80s. Not punk influenced like thrash though. I thin some of it is he paid attention to song writing and did not just throw heaviness at you. 'Bridge of Spasms' is more full speed ahead and comes closer to thrash. It races more than it throb so feels less like black metal to me. I am ok with the speed here, but if this was the album's default it would bore me. His raspy vocals do seem more aggressive this time around.

"Artifex" also works off a great deal of speed. So the album begins to take on a Motorhead feel int hat regard. The vocals run along side the flash of razor sharp guitars.This is the third song so speed alone has not worn me down yet. It slows into a gallop for the guitar solo.  "Harvest Pyre" is the first song with a riff that hooks me in. It is still driving , just more deliberate than the first three songs. Brief melodic guitar before blasting back into " Land of Khem " though to his credit there is more groove until the guitar solos . For the title track they are able to show more restraint and the clean guitar is allowed to linger longer.They stay at a steady gallop, even slowing into a more half time riff. They speed things back up with a steady diet of double bass on "Scythewinder". This one is too straight forward for me. Things do converge to a big chugged riff, but cool riffs alone do not a good song make.

"Hecate" pours on more blast beats as the song storms on more like Swedish black metal. They close the album with a cover of Bathory's "Pace till Death". They speed it up and the guitar tone is not as dense as Bathory's. Personally I find Bathory over rated, but clearly having an influence on modern day black metal. This album is well recorded, as it should be. It is a little too straight forward and I think I prefer the previous album. I will round this down to an 8 as it relies on speed far to much. I get a few songs of what I want, but it gives you whiplash as an entire album. I am more likely to just dig up my Immortal albums when I am in the mood for this sort of thing. When it comes to true Norwegian black metal I am not sure if this holds fast enough to what black metal is about.




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Immortal : "Northern Gods Of Chaos"

So this is an Immortal album without Abbath. So the problem that hits me from the first song is not that it doesn't charge at you with a lightning fast blitzkrieg of power or that it is not epic enough in scope and sound , but it lacks the trademark croak I think of as Immortal. Instead Demonaz has a higher more screamed rasp. There is a faint hint of a croak. Enough that if you suspend your disbelief and really want this to sound like Immortal it will. It has been 9 years since they have released an album, in that time there is a whole generation of listeners who were still listening to Slipknot in 09 and just got into black metal. They will be impressed. It's kinda like when I first got into Black Sabbath, and "Born Again" had just come out. I bought the album with Ozzy on my mind, I knew this was not Ozzy, but I  wanted to be into Black Sabbath so badly I had to trust Toni Iommi to lead through decades of questionable albums.

This is not bad , just as "Born Again" was not really a bad album. It has all the elements in place musically of what Immortal should sound like. It might be more blasty until the 3rd song than normal, so perhaps that is what is making them sound like everyone. While the more melodic touches do help, I am not sure it's a total cure from what ails them here. That might be more of a chemistry thing. "Grim and Dark" feels a little darker, and Immortal has been more epic than dark in terms of black metal. The undercurrent of blasting on this song, feels like it has more in common with pretenders to their throne like Inquisition. Inquisition is darker than this version of Immortal for sure, but these guys have the edge in the energy of their galloping.

The positive side of this album is the guitars sound massive and fucking mean. This doesn't stop me from beginning to feel bored on "Call to Ice". The snarl of the chorus works, but the magic is not grabbing me like it once did. There is another melodic touch to "Where Mountains Rise" that lends a little more dynamics to the sound in order to make me think this could be played out in the snow. The way the vocals punch in around the guitar reminds me more of death metal phrasing. "Blacker of Worlds" doesn't set them apart from today's younger crop of black metal bands to uphold the legendary status they once deserved . "Mighty Ravedark" finds the band winking at themselves in the best way possible.

I'll give this album an 8.5 based on the merits of the production and how well it's executed. I am not sure this always captures the true spirit of the band and leans more on what is expected of black metal. I think they meet those expectations , but with some compromise.Would I go see them on tour as this line-up? I am not sure, would depend on who they were touring with as support.

Black Metal History Month -the Top 50 Black Metal Albums of All Time : 20 to 11

Now we are cracking the top 20 of our Top 50 Black Metal Albums of All Time list. It's interesting to notice the trends in release dates and regions these albums are coming out of as we work our way down the list. Most are ranked according to how much I have listened to these albums, with a few exceptions when it comes to certain albums that many of these releases owe their existence to. If you are a regular reader of this blog then you know blast beats alone do not fly with me. These are not just musicians who made great black metal albums , these are musicians ho made great music that happened to be called black metal. Some of these albums even came before black metal as we know it today. So here you go ...

20-Liturgy -"Aesthethica" 


This band has gotten a lot of shit due to Hunter's ramblings, but the bottom line is with their 2011 album these Brooklyn hipsters took black metal somewhere very different. It's bright rather than dark. Normally this is something I would not be down for , but somehow they made it work due to the jarring sonic dissonance and how they took things like blast beats and almost gave them a jazz like spin.

 


19- An Autumn For Crippled Children- "Lost"

This band from the Netherlands not only does post-black metal, but they do it with a more convincing nastiness and gaze out into sprawling beauty. The eventually began to rein it in, with the vocals sometimes being the heaviest component .  This 2010 album finds them at the peak of their powers and making beautiful music with feral abandon.

18-Bathory-"Hammerheart"


 I don't like this project's earlier work because of the lo-fi punk like quality. Once the production improved and a bigger viking like sound came then he caught my ear. The earlier stuff if more popular with a more hipster crowd for the very reason I do not like it.This 1990 album has more actual singing on it and it came down to me trying to decide between this one and "Twilight of the Gods". What it came down to was this album is black metal , while "Twilight of the Gods" is more epic pagan metal. "Hammerheart" might not be as refined, but it is darker and meaner.


 

17-Enslaved -"Isa"

While their earlier work might be more traditionally black  metal, this album came ten years into their career and finds them at the cross roads of who they were and what they became. The sung vocals are not as dominant here. The pagan sensibility it blended with a more post-rock or even rock n roll sense in the song writing and they had not yet gone out into total Opeth territory.



16- Tombs- "the Path of Totality"
This 2011 album finds Mike Hill and friends getting darker and more sonic. While I like all of their albums this was the first one I got into and I think it still holds up even against the more goth tinged stuff, which having grown up a poor goth child I would normally be more inclined to favor. This album is equal parts aggression and atmosphere thanks to the incredibly smart song writing and the band working as a machine.


15-Totalselfhatred- "Apocalypse in Your Heart"

I keep returning to this album time and time again. They prove black metal can have stellar guitar and doesn't have to stick to static tremolo picking. This 2011 album is a classic when it comes to depressive black metal. It doesn't wallow in it's emotion but is like depression turned inwards and becomes aggression. I keep forgetting these guys are from Finland as that is not what comes to mind when I heard them, but it does invoke alcohol fueled depression.
 



14-Nachtmystium - "Addicts : Black Meddle Part 2

It was hard to pick between this one and "Assassins" what made my mind up was listening to it again and here how gritty and real the anguish is as Blake Judd was obviously having a hard time with his addiction and this album is a raw honest look at that. You don't get that personal in most black metal which is why it almost feels like depressive black metal.

13- Immortal- "All Shall Fall"

This 2009 album would be the band from Norway's last. It is big and if the word epic was ever going to be used to describe something this would be the time. The guitars are just massive on this album which is why I chose this over "Sons of Northern Darkness" Blizzard Beasts"

 12- Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion"

When this album came out in 1985, black metal had yet to come to fruition. Black metal as just an album by a punk fueled metal band in the growing thrash scene. This scene found Tom Warrior and friends clawing at it with a more dynamic and darkly romantic offering that is "To Mega Therion".

11-Shining- "the Eerie Cold" This band from Sweden has something in common with Celtic Frost as they both went through a cock rock phase. Here is the sound of the band in the thick of what they did best and a another example of depressive black metal going beyond crying in another failed suicide attempt set to music. The atmosphere of this album is very dark to the point of creating a beautiful oppression. It has the cold chilling feel you expect from black metal.

Abbath : s/t

Immortal has been slugging it out longer than Queensryche over who owns the rights to their name leading guitarist and front man Abbath Doom Occulta decided to just release this album under his own name enlisting Creature aka Kevin Foley who is Benighted's drummer to pound along with Gorgoroth bassist King ov Hell. So a Immortal / Gorgoroth super group is what we are looking at here. It is though the material on this album are the songs that were written as the follow up to the 2009 full-length "All Shall Fall". From the intensity of the first song, I'm ok with the shift away from what I normally think of as the Immortal sound. The first song hits you so hard until you are not fully able to really take in the nuances of what is going on here. The second song "Winterbane" has more hints of the epic scale of black metal Immortal once made, but pounds ahead a little harder than they did on their 2009 album. I think King's input factors in on this. Midway into the song it becomes hard not to head bang along to the snare.

There is a rougher rasp to Abbath's vocals , they are less croaked, but you can still tell it's him. Much like his work with Immortal he is not afraid to use catchy riffs. At one point, he goes into a more sing song spoken vocal that comes close to singing on "Winterbane".  Not sure where Demonaz is falling in the wake of Immortal, is sister is married to Abbath, but I am unsure if he is continuing to write lyrics. They trash ahead with the double bass thunder that carries "Ashes of the Damned" . The first clean guitar tone creates a quick bridge, but there is less of the overt melodic leanings that Immortal had. It is clear to hear that Abbath was the thrash fan of the band. As the riffage has a similar jagged attack, but these guys are still for all practical purposes black metal. If Immortal is black metal then even with the big epic metal grooves this is black metal. Blast beats do not dominate this album and in fact are far and few between. The drummer proves a very creative to keep the intensity high, with out sorting to blinding blasts.

I haven't really keyed in on the lyrics , but have heard mention of warriors , so it's not far from the battle worlds of the Blizzard Beasts. "Count the Dead" has a rabid stomp to it, but has a steady pace that allows the vocals to make sense over it. You can always tell there is a purpose to the vocals rather than just screaming for the sake of having a human voice in the mix. The songs are really well written, which makes me a little afraid for the day when Immortal puts out an album without him. It will be much like Venom Inc vs Cronos. The blast beats do show up in "Count the Dead". So if you have to have them in your black metal don't worry. Abbath can actually shred I'm not sure if I didn't pay attention to the solos on Immortal albums , but he has some pretty tasty chops when he wants to flex them. Things start of at a Slayer pace and speed up from there on "Fenrir Hunts" .  This is my least favorite song on the album as it's just all about the speed. I prefer something more along the lines of "Root of the Mountain" where the chords ring out with majestic melody.  His croak lurks over the riff in a way that makes me think of what it might sound like if Watain covered "Captain Howdy". This one has a pretty solid throb to it's groove and even when it breaks down into the more thrashing gallop it only gets better.

The album ends with the blasting mania of "Eternal" which should silence any unbelievers to to if these guys are black metal. It's one of the fastest songs I have heard in some time, and pulled off better than most attempts at this sort of thing. It catches a thrash groove coming out of what might be the chorus, everything is going by at such a speed its hard to ascertain details like arrangements.I would not normally like something that was throw at you with such reckless abandon, but these guys do it well. Will this track get much rotation from me is another question. I think the album itself will. I'll round this one up to a 9.5 , just on the basis it captures this kind of aggression well and is the excellently executed, at the end of the day I'll have to see how these faster songs sit with me, but right now color my black heart impressed.

Black Metal History Month : Black Metal's Top 10 Influences

Some of these get mentioned all the time , so much until the point you begin to wonder if the bands are just citing them because that is what is expected of them. One of these "typical" answers to the "Who are your influences question rank lower than expected. One of the interesting side notes of this is how big of an influence death metal was on black metal, despite often hearing in interview that the second wave of black metal, you know the church burning kind, made the music they did in retaliation of death metal.  So I scoured the inner webs for the influences of ten second wave bands, so any band influenced by one of these bands I researched would be too new to count , after these second wave bands have gone on to influence black metal as we know it today .

The bands these influences are compiled from are Mayhem, Burzum, Marduk, Dark Throne, Emperor, Taake, Immortal, Ulver, Enslaved, Dissection

 and the results are...

10-Death-

Varg always said he hated the bands that wore cammo shorts, but these guys surprisingly got mentioned more than Sodom and Possessed.

9-Von-

Well Watain took their name from them, but they aren't the only one that cited this lo-fi blasting beat death metal band that is now almost black metal by association.
8 -Kreator

This is not surprising as you can here their influence vocally on the black metal rasp taken on by Taake and Enslaved.
7-Destruction

Liked them when I heard them but this german band is the one band this list whose albums I have never owned.
6-Morbid Angel

"Altars of Madness" got cited a lot. It's dark and awesome, so this makes sense.

5-Slayer

I got the idea to make this list this am , because I woke up thinking about the "Hell Awaits" album. Yes, I wake up thinking about "Hell Awaits " that's how metal I am. Enslaved also wakes up thinking abut Slayer.
4-Venom

This is the band I though more would cite, of course the obvious ones like Darkthrone did.
3-Mercyful Fate

Of Emperor can not hide this fact. Darkthrone also have them a few shout outs over the years.
2- Bathory

The first of the viking metal.  I think  it is interesting  Bathory also cites Mercyful Fate as an influence, but since more bands said Bathory than Fate, this is where it falls.
1- Celtic Frost-

This is interesting as they are one of the slower bands on this list, maybe second to Mercyful Fate. I suppose it might not be their most black metal moment below, though they are wearing make-up

The Weekly Shuffle

Yep... here we go again, I hit shuffle on.. well iTunes as my iPod has bitten the dust, if anyone know a spell to resurrect an iPod classic please hit me up and let me know or how to get the volume to work after the Apple store cleans lint out of the head phone jack then hit me up.  So with that said reviewing the first ten songs that crop up.  

"Back Door Man" - the Doors

They take a simple blues jam and turn into something drunkenly great, most of this lies on Morrison, but the drumming and guitar playing on the song is pretty classic as well.

"Her" - Swans

Gira's voice sounds great when he lays back and croons.Sounds like it was at its peak on the "Love of Life" album which had the band at the perfect balance of punishing and melodic.

"Diamonds and Rust"  - Judas Priest

They now own this Joan Baez cover. Halford is more restrained her and really serves the song in more of a mid range croon. It has more of a Heart like gallop in this incarnation.

"Unearthly Kingdom" - Immortal

This band really find powers when they slow down and find a groove like this. The croak of the vocals form a creepier narrative at this tempo. When it does pick up the pace its more double bass driven than blasty.  The guitar playing on this part sounds mean as hell

"What She Said" - the Smiths

This is an underrated song by the band , because it's not played at 80's night or Brit Pop night or where ever kids are dancing to "Girlfriend in a Coma" and "How Soon is Now". It kicks pretty hard so it's not for the pop minded.

"How Does the Grass Grow?" - David Bowie

It holds the quirky sensibility of  Scary Monsters mixed with the almost doo-wop of Aladdin Sane. The bass is killing it on this song thanks to Gail Anne Dorsey. This songs holds up to the rest of Bowie's work which says a lot.

"Curse of the Pharaohs" - Mercyful Fate

 Why Metallica ever attempted to cover this with James singing I don't know, as King owns it even thought the majority of the song is in his more crooning voice, which I have grown over the years to appreciate almost as much as his shattering upper register.

"Flying High Again" - Ozzy

As far as the songs on Diary of a Madman, this is one of the cheesier platters on the album, steeped in the sounds of the 80's from which it came. Most of this is on Randy Rhodes, whose playing is the most dated element to the song. I think Diary is a much better and darker album than Blizzard, though Blizzard has it's moments, It's Ozzy we are taking about so even at his worst he is endearing, if you are a total metal guitar geek then this song can do no wrong.

"Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed" - Thin Lizzy

It took me a long time to get into this band as the singers sounds like a cab driver from Jersey. It came down to me hearing some of their deeper album cuts to really appreciate them. These guys are clearly a guitar players' band, they have incredible tone and are pretty versatile songwriters, even if you don't like their more beer commercial efforts like the "Boys are back in Town".

"Black Dragon" -Dissection

I'm not sure why Reinkaos gets so much flack, sure compared to Storm of the Nights Bane its a little on the cock rock side, but these songs are all awesome, this one might have its black wings raised above the rest. Awesome riffs and groove with a great sense of dynamics.      

the Weekly Shuffle

You know the drill, I click shuffle on the  old  ipod classic and review the first ten songs.

"Atrocity Exhibition" By -Joy Division, ...Off to a good start not one of the most popular songs put it certainly is one of my favorites , I like the tribal feel and how the guitar is just real noisy in the background. I love the lyrics to this one as well some of Ian's better work. "This is the way ... this is the way step inside..."

"Blood and Honey" by -Swans,...Generally I like their mid period stuff the best though the very hypnotic nature of this one is pretty chilling. Jarboe does what she does, and this is an overlooked goth classic. It has all theelements of darkness you would need. Where is my black Swans shirt I bgin to wonder midway through this one. Its a clear cut case of you don't haveto be metal to be heavy here.

"Eyes of the Insane" by Slayer,...Speaking of metal, this isn't one of their better albums but this song works. The drums are pretty insane and they are creating a different vibe from the normal way things have been after "Divine Intervention" though this one has more of a "Seasons in the Abyss" feel to it especially in the riff that comes in before the solos start.

"Watain" by Von,...Yes, the very song they got the name from, I don't think its the bands best work, I think will I appreciate what they do sometimes the application of it gets muddy in the cvlt production, before it was cvlt and just shitty. The dog is angry and it barks , coughing up demons is what it sounds like, the guitar is chaos.

"Departure" by Ihsahn,...This album continues to grow on me so that says something about it, I like the faint sax in the back ground and the work he does here is way more impressive than what he does in Shining. The main riff is pretty mean. If sounds like his growl is making him sick to his stomach, but it is such a good one drenched in King Diamond's influence. The  lounge jazz interlude is very Devin Townsend of him but it works for this song.

"Artic Swarm" by Immortal,...A mean album the riffs have alot of teeth and make you feel like you should be fighting frost giants from the back on a snow eagle. The drums pretty much rule the country side, the riff on this one is a little more straightforward for them but its still a powerful song. The break in the last two mintues is where the gold is hidden.

"Gather For the Attack on the Pearly Gates" by Darkthrone,...Really I think due to the muddy production on this one and the very straight forward blasty manner on this one it's more than likely my least favorite song on the "Total Death" album, it doesn't suck but it's not their better moments , the ambiance of the drone they acheived on earlier stuff is kinda lost here, this is a precursor to the transistion they are about to make.

"I Took a Trip on  a Gemini Spaceship" by David Bowie, ... the Heathen album took sometime to grow on me, it didn't as a whole really grab me when it came out , I think I wanted something with the same impact of  " Earthling" but Bowie of course goes where he wants to go . The drums on this just aren't as interesting and its somewhat middle of the road nineties rock.

"Heaven in her Arms" by Converge,...This one is equal parts angular and powerful in a way most bands only reach for. The guitar tone on the "Jane Doe" album is crushing. The riff that surfaces in the last minute and fifteen seconds is not just one of the most crushing riffs to appear on one of this bands album but to appear on any metal album period .

"Anthem" by Rush...Without a doubt a classic, influenced many metal bands and no one is every going to deny the musical genius of these guys, sure there are hipster scumbags who won't want to fess up to it but there is no doubt about it and this way during the time period where they came the closest to being an actual metal band.


 

Weekly Shuffle

Yeah I Know I'm waaay off schedule for this it's been a weird week so oh well... so here I go clicking shuffle on the the ole ipod and letting my thoughts on the first ten songs rip.


"The Gateway" by Cult of Youth, .. I gotta think this is the biggest band on Avant records, any way this one rolls along nicely, its dark punk folk with an attitude, great album I have reviewed it on here and its no secret how I feel about this band. Sure it might be seen as rather down trodden to your average hipster but its my fun time music...but I think the Smiths are uplifting.

"Lethean" by Katatonia...Reviewed this one as well, this album has really grown on me to by the time I do the mid-term for 2013 it will get it's score rounded up, this one sounds good live, its still pretty middle of the road hard rock but well done and better than any of the lame perfect circle wanna bes on the radio these days, not that I have any clue what is getting played on rock radio which is going the way of the post office and newspaper I'm sure. The solo on this one is pretty tasty and the vocal hooks are all there particularly on the line "We had plans but you couldn't make it" Look for the review of Jonas solo collab the Pineapple Thief this weekend.

"Charlote the Harlot" By Iron Maiden,...There are some who view themselves as metal purists and will foolishly declare that the Paul DiAnno albums are better than the ones with Bruce and while the first two albums are great its just not so, Dianno has a raw rock vocal and would have been incapable of pulling off something like Hallowed be thy Name, I do like the melodic middle section in the middle of this on it reminds me of Thin Lizzy more than any thing actually metal. Even here it sounds like Paul is really straining to reach the notes.

"Trees Come Down" By Fields of the Nephilim... One of their more laid back moments , closest the really get to sharing common ground with the Cure, sure they are both goth but really what does that mean aside from dark, they come from two totally different places even here their is the tribal occult vibe brewing beneath the creep of the bass line. Carl McCoy has a really unique voice going down into a growl before there was anything called Black Metal, I'm sure these guys influenced Celtic Frost as well. The guitar solos sound very David Gilmore on this one. I can imagine listening to this in desert tripping on mushroom would be the perfect fit.

"Subway" by Peter Murphy...Wow, loaded down on the Goth this week here's Some solo Pete, his voice sounds awesome on this track, more electronic elements than Bauhaus ever used, majestic in it's darkness more romantic in feel then even his former bands more laid back work, this is marked by its early nineties production but still a great song. Kinda like goth chill out for dungeon after care.

"Modern Love" by David Bowie...Im going through the book on Karaoke and doing every Bowie song so I guess this one is waiting in the wings. This an under rated album, sure it got him back on the map in the eighties and has some big radio hits for him, but the attention to detail on these songs its unbelievable, I have owned this album for thirty years and it sounds just as good as the day I got it, even when it comes to doing pop Bowie does it well, the fifties flair is a nice touch to , lots of class.

"Mount North" by Immortal... Ok about time for some metal, I love the riffs on this album its really creative guitar playing and still manages to be black metal with out just relying on tremolo picking. It does border on thrash in the way the attack hits. Very viking in feel, though I know their songs are about their own mythology they had made up. kinda like a cooler version of what Coheed does, the double bass by it's self is more epic than any thing those guys could muster. I know some people don't take these guys seriously and lump them in with Dimmu and Behemoth, though Im down with some Dimmu they are more legit than say Cradle of Filth, but Immortal sure wears corpse paints and sings from the tops of mountain tops in the snow but they also rock.

"Conspiracy" By Circle of Ouroborus...I like this album even though the production on it is so god awful, but it doesn't demand a lot of repeat listens but I'm glad when it pops up on shuffle, my thoughts on it havent really changed since i reviewing it, the vocals might be the best part as every thing else was recorded underwater.

"Tyster Pa Gud" by Darkthrone ... I still like these more punk albums better than the retro metal sound they are pumping out even though its a pretty decent album, it hasn't gotten as many spins from me as Cult is Alive though, even with its bad solos and sloppier playing.

"Thorns on My Grave" by Emperor...Well meta; made a comeback this week, Emperor was one of the first black metal bands to stand u and say we want our shit to sound good and don't give a shit about the "necro" sound or being cvlt and because of that you don't hear their name spoke by hipster metal heads who only listen to Mayhem and Darkthrone... o.k they throw some Horna and Inquisition in as well, Emperor can play the fuck out of their instruments end of story and will shred a burning church to the ground. They might have held out on taking the corpse paint off for longer than Darkthrone, need to check a corpse paint timeline on that one. I LOVE THE GURGLED King Diamond influence vocals.