Black Metal History Month- Ruin Lust : "City of BabeL"

Their 2014 album was much more black metal. While they are blackened death metal now , the death metal parts  little overbearing so if you do not have a tolerance for death metal I will go ahead and just stop you hear. Not as nasty of an album as their debut. This album is another debut of sorts for 20 Buck Spin. The title track opens the album . The feed back this time around it swirls with effects. They are more polished in the studio, yet still mena spirited in their chaotic attack. The vocals are a low growl which tips the scales towards death metal. They are more aggressive than atmospheric which is another death metal quality. They do not shun blast beats and are still plenty dark.

I think fans of death metal who are looking for a marginal entry point into black metal will like these guys since they are possessed by a one dimensional aggression making them in your face and not engaging in the kind of atmosphere that normally gives black metal it's emotional depth. The second song is pretty mean and filthy death metal, making it good, but not good black metal. As a song, it's goal is to crush you rather than draw you in with something worth listening to time and time again like say the first Morbid Angel album. I have said this before and it bears repeating once more for the people in the back, that I often find myself stunned into being impressed by the sheer heaviness of a band so it's not until the second song that I recover and ask, "But can you write a song?"

 This question is still not answered when they plow into "Worm" The guitar is a little more blackened here. With black metal an evil sounding dissonance always helps to set the mood, where these guys are very dense and jagged. Two minutes into "Worm" and I am looking to see how much longer I have left as this is beginning to bore me. I guess in 2014 I was also more impressed with heaviness alone. Midway into the song their is a tinge of atmosphere as things break into a more spacious gloom, but stick to the caverns they rumble in. There is more noise framing the savage "Bestial Magnetism" which is about as fitting of a title as you could ask to describe what goes in in this song. The last song "Rite of Binding" does have a more sinister black metal feel to it. Due to the one dimensional nature of this , I am rounding it down do a 8, the 2014 album got an  8.5 , so put that in your pipe and smoke it. Comes out March  13th on 20 Buck Spin.


4.1

Black Metal History Month

It's that time again, cus black metal matters. We are going to dig back into the crypts to take another listen to some classics as well as see where black metal is heading so far this year. Before you get you little glue sniffing hopes up this doesn't mean that I am going to settle back for the next 28 days and be alright with blast beats for the sake of blast beats or ease up on the mandate that I passed going into the new year that I would asking more from black metal bands along with every other genre. The days of settling for tremolo picking and the same old same ole, are long gone. I want black metal that stands out from the pack. I want darkness, but I want to to sound beautiful, sonic and hypnotic.

So if a band is typically described as raw black metal then chances are they are no longer going to covered here, even if I have covered them in the past Horna is about as raw as I want to go , if I want to hear something that sounds like old Burzum or Darkthrone, well I own those albums. What I will look for is new depressive suicidal black metal , which is one of the only sub-genres that I am willing to compromise on recording quality for, some times as older Cold World has proven a little rough around the edges works to create the atmosphere.

Since history is a key component here we are going to going to take another listen to some of the albums that influenced the genre even though they might not be what kids growing up in 2017 consider black metal, but kids growing up in 2017 don't know shit any way. So grab you lighters and spark up the lawns out side of the church in you neighborhood, lets hope for snow after all listening to black metal with the crunch of snow under your boots is the perfect setting. The world is going to hell and certainly deserves, so lets celebrate true misanthropy and slap on come corpse paint to praise the coming darkness for Black Metal History month.

Barghest / Teeth - split cassette

This split between Baton Rogue's Barghest  and the California death metal band Teeth is dense from start to finish. While the two band occupy different genres that have both captured animalistic sonic oppression is very convincing manners. First up is Barghest. These guys are  still a feral as ever, but there is more focus within the songs that make this a much more palatable listen than some of their earlier efforts that I really wanted to like, but sounded like someone taking power tools to a trash can full of rabid kittens. This time they going into their punishing take on black metal with a little more ambiance. On "Born of Tooth and Talon" , there is still the sense that these guys grew up listening to Discharge rather than Iron Maiden . The rumble of the manic barrage  seem to have more direction and shows their maturation as a band.

They confront the problem that faces many "raw black metal" bands trying to keep it real, are really trying to keep it in 1991. The only time I want to hear that is when I go back to listen to "Soulside Journey" There is a more of metal storm brewing over "Coil Strike". These guys are not a Darkthrone or Mayhem cover band in wolves clothing. They do capture a similar drone that recalls that classic era in the second wave of black metal, but this is done in a very organic fashion. What I hear is who they are rather than who they want to be. 'They do not relent with the tempestuous fury and speed that is their calling card. 'Sterile Initiates" reins them in with more of a hammering gallop rather than a flood of tremolo picked guitar and blast beats.  Midway into the song a guitar melody rises from the angry blur to catch my ear. The Nameless Tongue" is one of their strongest offerings here. It has a grisly heart beat that pulses with bile, but carries a dark underbelly of melody when their attack slows into a more deliberate undulation.

The second side of this cassette split is Teeth's very interesting take on death metal. I went into this more familiar with Barghest and it's not secret to regular readers that I prefer black metal to death metal and I was over songs tipping the eleven minute mark back in 2014, so this band really achieved something by winning me over. Their side of this split is one twenty three minute song. It takes you into the sewers of hell and chokes you with demon feces. The vocals are a low growl that are more muffled against the mic than gurgled. These guys are not doom, but in contrast to Barghest they provide a much more dynamic contrast and are not afraid to break things down into droney clean tone guitars. This provides introspection rather than the normally monochrome aggression that most death metal bands come at you with.  Thick with atmosphere, but never lost in minimalist shoe gazing the more serene sections that leave you floating out into the horizon, make the battering blasts more of a brutal contrast.

Those blasts come at nine and a half minutes into the song. They are torn between finding that sweet spot of sonic heaviness and lashing out in a more traditional death metal manner. Even though the song does ebb and flow, I think the overall result they achieve, will not find fans of death metal wishing that these guys were any heavier than what they bludgeon you with here. There are some trickier technical punches and the band shows the ability to lock into some very powerful grooves. Fans of more mainstream metal will be able to find more common ground here and fans of bands like Ulcerate will be right at home. This one ships on October 6th and is only limited to 150 copies so get your pre-order in now.

Caїna : "Christ Clad in White Phosphorus"

The album opens with some sample of machine like noise,"Torture Geometry" is more of the harder black metal expected from this project. This song is not too over bearing on the blast beats and is pretty hateful, so very timely as this had been hate filled week in the world so good to have music to set the sound track. There is an industrial clanging to "Fumes of God". The songs are short angry spews. The musical value could be called into question due to the very raw and ragged production quality. More experimental ambiance unfurls on "the Throat of the World" which sounds like metal cables being struck as growls are rasped in the background.Other noises begin to build in a chaotic fashion around it. This never turns into a real song. The next actual song is "Gazing on the Quantum Megalith" which has an almost crude punk attack while being more conventional in terms of the form the song adheres to.

It feels like they are diving down into the darker reaches of the sonic world to capture sounds I more commonly relate to as black metal on "God's Tongue as an Ashtray" , but this mix is so crazy and the cymbals ring out oddly over everything, so it is hard to decipher at times. The band claims that this album is a representation of the dystopian nightmare we are already living in, so it's easy to draw this image from what they are creating. There is a blinding blast fest on "Entartete Kunst", only the chanting that sits back low in the mix really adds anything to make this more than a frenzied outburst before the drums break it down. The album is littered with weird interludes some are almost jazz like in the John Zorn like zaniness. The instrumental "Pillars of Salt" feeling to me more like an interlude than a song. "The Promise of Youth" returns them to this raw unhinged form of black metal, that I would say this project has been perfecting, but it sounds like progress is something this album rejects in favor of abrasion. The vocals on this song shift to a more yelled exclamation sometimes going as far as to be sung.

The weirdness that is "Extraordinary Grace" is a long droning prayer of sorts that sizzles over the other worldly static crackling off the edges of this sprawling 11 minute piece of sound exploration. While it explores it never lands on an actual song. The title track is actually lo-fi darkwave, which works as well as any of the other hipster goth revivalists. In fact the vocals are almost as good as Night Sins, I did say almost. This builds into a more industrial pounding as the guitar rings out in the cavernous distance. Four out of the eleven pieces that are listed as song are actually some kind of experimental excursion, so I'll give this an 8.5, because it's angry and they are pretty convincing in their experimentation.



 

Black Fucking Cancer : s/t

With a need for speed this nasty black metal band might attack their songs, but from the opener they do so with some thrash sensibilities. The Slayer influences is more tangible than any fetish for Darkthrone they might have. I did have to take a second listen to the finer points of "Acid Ocean" which follows the more polished arrangement of the opening track.The chanted vocal behind the blasts add a darker layer to their sound. They hit you with razor sharp riffing . This is not just throw a mic in a dark room and go wild with blast beats, which might be to the dismay of less discerning fans of black metal who go for any old blast beat. The energy they hit some of these chord progressions does have a raw power than reminds me of 1349 in places. The members of this band also hail from the projects Sentenced to Burn and Circle of Eyes. If that means anything to you. Some of the fat could have been trimmed from the 12 minute "Acid Ocean" namely some of the feed back that bridges into the song's final act.

Things slow down and find the black in an actual groove for "Blood Stained". They are unable to restrain themselves and hurl their instruments back into a blast beat. "Sinnritualvoid" lingers in feedback. In threatens several times in the first four and a half to become an actual song , but fights the urge to do so.  When it does it's more double bass driven. The blasts soon follow and thankfully only for sparse spasms, until the six minute mark. "Wall of Corpses" just kind of falls out of the previous song as this album begins to become more of a blur and lose the personality it was appearing to establish for the sake of being a feral mess. "Wall of Corpses" doesn't waste your time with drawn out sections of feedback. "Exit Wounds" finds itself dominated by the drums, which more often than not are locked in a blast beat. The darker more doom infused section midway into the song is a more powerful sonic statement than when everything was racing at the speed of chaos.

They indulge in some more atmospheric noise on the last song. Once they are galloping ahead into the brimstone, the blast become over indulgent and every thing begins to lose its luster as rusty blur of noise. I'll round this down to a 7.5 as it has some powerful moments at the beginning but started to lose me on the final two songs, but even then there were some moments that connected.


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Horna : "Hengen Tulet"

Not our first rodeo with this Finnish black metal band, who at times has lost me due to the overly raw production and simplistic punk rock style of songwriting. Let us see where they have gone since then. The first tone is better, the vocals are a little buried by it , but for this song it works.  The default to the punk side  of blasty mc nasty, shifting gears to  slow into a good metal groove that thrashes midway into the opener. I might not be blown away right out the gate , but sonically notice an improvement, despite press releases saying they are going back to a filthier place. "Nekromantia" stands out as it slows to more of a creepy throb, but the song before it just blended in with the first song and there was nothing to clearly distinguish them from one another. There is a pretty powerful chug to "Nekromantia" . The song that follows is more mid paced with shouted vocals on the chorus to further the punk rock feel. The bass rumbles out from behind the drums and you begin to get the feeling they put a lot more thought into this one. They revert back to more straight forward blasting on "Saatanalle". They do slow give things a darker pulse and a hellish pound before blasting back into a flurry snare smacking.

The organ interlude that opens "Puhdas" allows for some breathing room, before they throw themselves into another rabid blast beat. This time there is a heavier chug sitting out the snare. The bass rumbles up and generally has more of a presence on this album. This adds to some of the more beefed up heaviness this album carries. They follow this up with more dissonant creepiness , that might serve them better to hang onto more then so eagerly revert back to the blast.As it begins to get tedious once you head into the second half of the album. You can rely on them to slow down just a little over each songs midway point. To the extent it begins to feel a little formulaic. This doesn't hinder the passion they play these songs with. The charge into battle with a triumphant syncopation that falls just short of being a Bathory like viking gallop, though this is slathered in punk influence.the change of pace makes this one of the albums best songs.

"Hurmos" starts of with drums and an anguished cry that takes a more ominous tone. The bass player once again shines on this song. It's almost like mid-period Shining in the down trodden pulse it carries. It carries a big sound that might remind some of Watain. The album ends with the pumped up pound of " Profeettasi" that shows the band using enough restraint to not fall back into blast beats in the first minute, after that its full blast ahead. The next minute that follows is a blur. This album is a step in the right direction for the band, but leans to much on blast beats. I'll give it a 7.5, if you are a fan and you just want blast beats then round it up. It comes out September 22nd.

Moonkight : " Valinor"

I was drawn to this one man project out of California, due to the fact it was called depressive suicidal black metal, which is true to a certain extent. Its a dense grinding drone that is carried on an under current of double bass. The vocals have the distant dryness to their rasp putting them in a similar vein as An Autumn For Crippled Children, along with some of the guitar melodies though the are more rooted in dirty unrepentant  Celtic Frost like metal which which the vocals dip down into a more death metal sound. The blown out production of "Bright Knives made things too fuzzy to really look through the ringing of cymbals mixed with distortion becomes a blur.

"Acotinum" is a reverse of the previous as the vocals become fuzzy with distortion, while the music gains clarity and develops the kind of  beautifully bleak melodies that dsbm is supposed to have. The first lyric I can understand are the words " disgust you" that pour of the rabid screaming that comes curdling out of " Helplessness", they go for bigger epic thrash riffs on this one like a more chaotic version of Bathory if the viking bombast was replaced with grind core agony.

It sounds like tape feedback that is squealing all over " Pleasure Funereal' and distracting from the throb of what might be an otherwise decent song. It almost makes the song unlistenable, but I push through as I like the ideas just not the presentation on a production level.Things clear up for "Broken Blade" which focuses on the ringing guitar that eventually finds itself in a Burzumy drone with roaring vocals in the distant caverns. There is a cool melodic guitar part that crawls out from where it is buried in the drone. Horus messes around with some atmospheric droning before going into the title track.There is a slower paced majestic soaring to "Valinor". The vocals find a more fitting space to occupy. The main guitar melody hangs around popping in and out of the song. Clean guitar finally adds another color to the sonic dynamics.

The rawness of this album might make every one happy who wants this to be art and too cool for school, which I am not sure is the intention of this project, but rather made by some one who has learned from the Vargs of the world to get the worst mic possible. It works better when its a happy accident. Some times its hard to tell which is which here. The production in a couple of place makes the album almost unlistenable and you really have to force yourself through it.  Overall there are good ideas buried in the often messy compost heap. I'll give this a 7.5 as it works more often than it doesn't but when it stinks its foul.

Peste Noire : " La- Chaise-dyable"

Keeping it weird they open us with a strange acoustic intro, but then this begins to turn into their most conventional album . They have changed the overall vibe they deliver with more constraints place on what use to be an addiction to experimentation.  The noted change was on previous albums their was almost a gangsta rap aggression to them. Not that they were rapping, but there was more of a street level violence to what they did that seems more credible than dressing up like vikings and singing about dragons. It took the pound of the what could be the chorus to win me over on this one as it is much more along the lines of traditional black metal without the blast beats.

It's the two songs in the middle of this album that I find myself having difficulty digesting. The first culprit is " Payes Sur le bete". This does have a mean riff in the middle , but could be one in a million raw black metal bands. There is nothing to suggest the creativity these guys are capable and find them creating way below their potential. Sure there is a thrashy turnaround , but any local band playing at the par thursday night could do that, the female vocals are the only  touch that bears their thumb print. The song that follows does manage to summon more of their eerie weirdness as there is a  disco feel to "Le Diable"

The whined/sung vocals have personality to them that makes up for what their pipes lack. This is the first song that really grabs me.  The title track fakes you out by making you think they are going to  take on a darker more dissonant tone despite the whistling over it. The guitar than chimes in reminds me of the Get up Kids. Normally I like harsh vocals over clean guitar, but the guitar's melody has too much of a pop punk happiness to it. Then it goes into more of an emo build up. I am split as I can not fault some one for wanting to try new things and I like old Get up Kids, but when they head into Amesoeurs territory I am beginning to think they are pushing this too far , it's almost like the change Shining went through when they became more black n roll than depressive black metal. This is blackened post- hardcore.

There is a damned if they do, damned if they don't element when it comes to  both their experimentations and lack of. I would say it boils down to they don't veer off in the directions that I think sounds the best for them, but I think it's even the direction that utilizes what makes them most effective at what they do. I'll give this one a 6, it's well played and better than most senseless bursts of blast beats some bands put out, but it's still a little bit of a disappointment.

Black metal History Month: Sovereign's "Nailing Shut the Sacrosanct Orifice"

Not to be confused with the doomy band that did a split with Graves at Sea, this west coast black metal outfit has blasted out an impressive first outing, that catches you ear more as the album moves along. The first few songs are blast heavy takes on raw Marduk styled black metal. There is a rawness to the album , but it sounds very dense and polished . All of the instruments stand where they need to be and no one gets buried in the distorted blur of some necro sound. They band even in these more straight forward full frontal assaults still display skill with their instruments. In some of the stomp you can hear a bit of grinding Carcass influence mixed in.

The snarling vocals have a wide ranged of anguish to them , from a demonic squeal to a more death metal grunt. At times they become even as emotive as the vocals in Depressive Black Metal. The pace slows a little on the somewhat Dissection influenced "Heaping Praise Upon a Cataract Sun". The vocals have a harsher rasp to them and the song possesses a powerful pound. This pound continues with an even greater menace though more single minded in it's dynamics on "Knives Coated In Pitch of Terror" that follows. It's not until the following "Sulfurs Cross" that the band really embarks upon more entrancing sonic blasphemies. As dark sense of melody comes in beneath the vocals that are screamed with more conviction.

After a swelling interlude of feedback they soar into "Bared Teeth of the Fog" which sees the band continuing down a more melodic path. Though the song eventually descends into a tempest of blast beats, but manages to stay afloat. There is more of a punk kick to the drive of "Part thy Flesh, Call his Name". That includes backing vocals that features members of Woe, a band Sovereign holds as an influence in some of the more punk like sections.

The darkest moments come as the album closes with the title track that shares much of the same torment as depressive black metal and where that type of emoting is most felt. Overall this is a very dense and heavy piece of American made black metal that latches onto what makes European black metal work so well, leaving most of their punk rock records and Godspeedyoublackemperor albums on the shelf so they can focus on the misanthriopy and spiritual chaos it represents. They do default to blast beats a little too often, so giving it an 8.5, but other than that this is pretty powerful stuff and worth a listen.

Black Metal History Month-Satanic Warmaster:"Fimbulwinter"

Not sure why but this my first time really giving these guys much of a shot. Some of their past material that I heard in passing on Last Fm, was too raw and straight forward me, which is also one of the staples of Finnish black metal.  This album seems to a little more mature and have more texture to it.They give the blast beats a slight breather at the on set of "Funereal Wolves". The vocals has a very distinct Nazgul like rasp to them. It does begin to get a tad repetitive by the three minute mark, until they go for an school galloping thrash breakdown.

They find their way into some melody on "Korppi" , though it is short lived as they always return to the blast beats. The drive is fast and straightforward here , yet their is a slight thrash like groove until the blast beats are poured on again. By the time we get to "Where Thunder's Hail" it is beginning to blur together and the songs are less distinguishable. It took four and a half minutes into "Dragon's egg" to hear anything that made it different from the previous song. The kind of Bathory vibe to "Winter's Hunger is probably the album's best moment,as it's not being blasted at you at a million miles an hour. There is also some ambiance to "Silent Call of Moon's Temples."However this never goes anywhere and just drones on.

So I guess it's clearer to me why I didn't give this guys much of a shot to begin. But now that I have, I can say I respect the intensity they possess, but don't consider them to be any where close to being the greatest song writers in the genre as they rely to heavily on the feral element to drive the songs past you before you can hear there is not much going on as far as dynamics or layers. There are some impressive moments and this album is not terrible so I am giving it a 6, as these guys know what they are doing I just find it a bit one sided.
Th

Marduk: "Frostschwein"

Of all the second wave black metal bands, Marduk feels like the Ac/Dc or Motorhead of black metal. Like those bands they are finely tuned juggernauts that have mastered the straight up in your face approach to rocking. With both Ac/Dc and Motorhead, their are certain era's of their work I prefer over the other say the Bon Scott years or with Motorhead my cut off point is "Orgasmatron". With Marduk I'm open to most of their discography. Their newest album "Frostschwein" finds them to continue polishing their raw and to the point style of black metal.

Right from the title track that opens the album they blast at you, the only change is they have a slightly creepier dissonance to the chords. They don't slow down to find a groove until "Wartheland". This album features the new drummer, youngster Fredrik Widigs. Widigs fills the throne nicely. In fact I almost did not notice the change. It is hard to tell if he plays with more precision than past drummers or if this is the benefit of crisper production. The production might be a point of contention for those who only want the "Cvlt" sound. It's 2015 get over it.

They seem to have a matured their appreciation of letting some of the chord throb awhile and soak in melody rather than just tremolo pick a hundred percent of the time. On a song like "Between the Wolf packs " this gives it a thrashier feel. They always seem to find their way back to the blast beat, but wedge them in-between some rather hooky riffs. The vocals are more enunciated, making the lyrics almost discernible in the storm that roars around them.

The more militant stiffness they sometimes employ is put to good use on  "Nebelwerfer". There is actually a smidgen of atmosphere in the guitar melody that floats around the march at times in the song. It comes and goes as the song takes on a drone of it's own. This is not to say Marduk has become Watain. What they do best is very much intact. The blast beat ridden song that follows is all the proof you will need. They do allow for the occasional gallop to accent what might be seen as a chorus.On the other hand the moments they do dabble with the tried and true formula, like the doomy trudge of "503" really pays off for them.

The icy cold that comes with the territory freezes to the bone . The tension to "Doomsday Elite" is especially chilling. They prove Marduk can hit the sonic sweet spot black metal captures so well, with just as much ice in their veins as any of country men. They close out the album with even more crazed fury than they began it with. The frantic blast of "Thousand Fold Death" rushes past you, before you can attempt to figure out what just happened. The vocals are squawked out in a spit fire manner that stays on top of the snare. I'll round this one up to a 9.5,  and see how it grows on me.

Unsacred:"False Light"

This Virginia band explodes with an impressive burst of feral black metal. The vocals are a hateful of a rasp as anything you could ask for from the states. They are really forward in the mix rather than the more typical buried placement. The have a very constrained chaos to their attack makes their triumphant gallops stand out. It common place to be impressive by the sheer violence of this sort of music, so it's up to the band from this point on to prove they can not only maintain , but continue to write actual engaging songs.

There is almost a punk rock beat to "Idle" that is not as impressive as the beast they opened with. They lean heavily on blast beats and tremolo picking. Sticking to cookie cutter black metal approach that they defied on the first song. "Plague" finds the band allowing themselves to build even if it is just for the intro, then launch into the full throttle assault that is more metal than the previous song. They do pull out some impressive bounding, bookended by more straight forward sonic blasting. The half time section helps break things up even if ever so slightly, which is what they need more of,as this sort of up to 11 all the time numbs your ears to the heaviness.

They don't seem to plan to let up. Going from one version of in your face at warp speed to a more punk version of the same thing. The backing vocal overdubs, help keep this song sounding like the one s before it. They pay a little more attention to detail with this one, before throwing that out the window and going back fro second on your jugular. The rock n roll feel to "Void 11" is what this album needs to keep it from just racing by you in a foaming at the mouth craze. They can only restrain themselves for so long before launching into the punk rock like thrashing. I think Mutilation Rites does this sort of thing better, Unsacred just has more of a punk take on that style of american black metal.

The drums at the beginning of "Sun" are there to remind you this drummer is badass if you haven't noticed by this point. "Sun" does find a crushing sludge like groove. More of this would have been well place earlier in the album. This is angry and makes you believe, rather than throwing all emotion out the window with everything else the tornado of speed sweeps up around it. They close out the album with "Cage" that is another blur of rapid fire blasting in case you haven't gotten enough of that sort of thing by now. A minute in they give you a brief breathing to play something with melody and then go rabid again. They manage to find a better sense of sonics when they slow it down a hair, but getting them to do that is well maybe two songs out of this album. Though they are a tad one dimensional they work well in the dimension they dwell in. They album captures what they set out to do and has a raw and jagged sound without sound like they were recorded in their Grandmother's basement, with blow speakers. So despite the monochrome sonic setting, this album is accomplishes blending the punk anger with black metal's venom so I'll round it up to an 8.

5

Sargeist: "Feeding the Crawling Shadows"

The raw black metal band out of Finland is comprised of members from Horna and Behexen. The production is lo-fi and cvlt enough for anyone, if it was many more under produced the guitars would sound like static. There are elements to this I like like as the dark vibes coming off of this. It adheres to the metal rule of the intensity of the first track smacking you makes it hard not to like the first track then the challenge is to keep my interest once that wears off. The approach here is what you would expect from raw black metal, blasting and a few gallops here and there.

"In Charnel Darkness" doesn't veer too much of course from where the first song went, though there is a slightly rowdier element to their charge forward. They are not re-inventing the wheel, just making it spin faster. No new tricks are being introduced to this style of black metal, though it does sounds to be a little more feral and triumphant than what I have heard of their previous work. The singer does go into a lower death metal type rasp at times that has some power to it and seems to vary the tone of the song.

Some of the tremolo picking is cool on "Unto the Undead" , but the guitar tone is so tinny, it doesn't bring out the qualities.The vocals are mixed back into the cacophony on this one. Its not until the pace slows in the breakdown of the songs final act that it is able to establish an identity.There is more of the same from "Snares of Impurity" though the approach to the vocals here reminds me more of Mayhem. By this point its all starting to sound the same to me so I find myself forcing my ears through the album.

I love black metal so I want to like this. The blistering fuzz of what is passing for guitar here makes that difficult and " Return of the Rats" is running down the same hill these guys tend to stumble down.Things are more blurred due to the rapid blasties of this one. The half time march these guys gallop into is the only real dynamic element in this one, otherwise it's one dimensional.

There is a little more of a sonic drone to the white noise of " the Unspoken Ones' the speed becomes a mute point , as when every thing is a blast it doesn't seem like it's as intense as it numbs you. The vocal accents are the only thing that lets you know you are where the chorus should be and then the stompy march begins. "Shunned Angel' picks up where the previous song left off , though the vocals are  little more frantic here. The death metal vocals appear sooner here than they do in previous songs, the alternation between the two is back in effect.The lyrics are almost decipherable on this one as well.

Its about time all the songs didn't star the same so "Inside the Demon's" maze does it's job.This is my favorite song on the album even when it accelerates back into the blast they have been at all along. The riff somewhat modulates around the gallop. At four minutes long all of these songs tend to drag despite being so fast.The vocals take a little more of as variance in their phrasing on " Kingdom Below" , but once the momentum blisters this one away you are lost in its storm. Midway into this one there is a somewhat Watain like riff , thats is pretty cool.

When I think "Funerary Descent" it's not as fast as this song. But I don't hear them slipping into doom anytime soon. This one is another blur of guitar, that over powers the drums here. The accents on the end of this one are pretty cool and the riff they chug out on works better than most of this album. I'll give this a 5.5 as most of it sounds the same if you are a fan feel free to round it up a point and take some time to contemplate why you like it when all the songs sound the same and is it a reflection on your lack of depth and layers as a person.  




  

Caina : Earth Inferno

From across the pond  Andrew Curtis Brignell returns with this e.p. that is a collection of 3 unreleased songs and one new one. This focuses more of a return to the project's rawer black metal sound. There is a darker shadowy place where the song is allowed to breathe at the midway point of the opener. The blasties work for this song at least, most under-produced cvlt black metal bands can get away with it for the shock value of the tempest hitting for at least the first song, but it's allowed to slow into more of a half time feel.

The vocals retain the croaked rasp on "Conqueror Worm". The song itself has a slower looser feel than the opener. There is an element of "Deathcrush" era  Mayhem to this song. The melodic section at abut the same time here, though it is darker and creepier. The riff are powerful here even in the murk.There is a good sonic balance achieved until they revert back to the blasting.

There is a more deliberate pacing to the chaos of "Death Posture". If the guitar was layered with more attention to detail in the final mix it would have created a really eerie melody, but it is heard only as undertone of the idea in this dirtier mix. It does create its own ambiance ,and I have been listening to black metal for some time and understand why this is done. This has long been my point of contention with the genre , as feel plenty of bands have proven you do not have to sacrifice sound quality for this sonic effect.

"Teeth Eating Teeth" closes out the album and it's another nod to Mayhem. After the first minute and fifteen second the experimental side of the band that I hoped would see itself more fully realized here, peeks out in a rather creepy passage.The savage gnashing of teeth reemerges from this and stirs up quite a din. While I understand the need for this side to be indulged again after weirdness delved into on "Litanies of Abjection" I want this project to strike a perfect balance between these two polarities. I'll give this one a 7.5 and keep hoping for their perfect album.  

Arckanum : " Fenris Kindir"

This is the 8th album by this black metal project whom for some reason I just caught onto the fact this is a one-man show master minded by Shaamatae, who handles every instrument in a manner that makes this project seem like a cohesive unit playing off of one another. He has been at it since 92, so he certainly has had time to perfect his craft.

His subject matter has been Gnostic chaos, a subject he had even written a book on, so this isn't a Slayer gimmick. The lyrical content of this album which is penned in old tongue Norse , focuses more on wolves , particularly were-wolves as a metaphor for his metaphysical exploration.But unless you are fluent in this tongue then it's pretty much a mute point.

The wall of noise the album opens with is the title track that is an intro for "Tungls Tjugari" That starts very drum driven with a tightly palm muted riff coiled around it. Their is more restraint on this album and focus on song which will lend it self to Watain comparisons would I would argue this is far from being a sell out. The bass can actually be heard, the vocal layers are also a strong point as far as production goes. He has a dry rasp more than a black metal shriek so think Bathory. The arrangements are particularly thoughtful rather than the formulaic drone most bands of this ilk seem to take on. The grit on the guitar also makes this album stand out as it gives the records a very characteristic sound.

The grunted chant leads off "Dolgrin" it,s a brisk mid pace for black metal I suppose where its upbeat but not blasty ,though there are moments for that and I think those are where this project is really excelling, but the thrashier leanings closer to what Darkthrone is doing these days. If you want boring color by numbers , heard it all before black metal then you are looking in the wrong place and might not even feel this is legit for church burning.

The thrash influence even feels more apparent on "Hatarnir". This song remains raw , but has some gallop and groove to it. The lower growl layered on this on is pretty nasty and mean as are the punches that come at the midway point. The weird vocals which fade in from the t.v Carol Ann got sucked into during Poltergeist are a cool parlor trick, and I think it is this song where the album takes a turn into some really cool new shit. Things get creepy on 'Hamrami" some elements which might make you want to say pagan metal begin to surface but for the love of all that is chaos don't call this project that, though this is more of an interlude to the album as a whole than an individual song with metal riffs and such.

Another wolf song "Fenris gangr" follows, its pretty raw and dense piece of work, the blasties lay back under everything. They way the drums tie it all together is pretty thundering. The guitar sound will pretty much lacerate you like handling rusty razor blades. Sounds from a ritual of some kinds were wolf majick is going down at the start of "Vargold" and it's a formula fatal to the flesh here for him to throw in a spooky interlude thing for every song they have. This leads into "Angrboa" a very ripping Watain like ditty, with its fair share of the roots based in punk. the witch vocals chime in after the first minute. They do kinda bang the main riff into the ground in the firs two minutes of this song, so the tempo change here is very welcomed as the song lecherously creeps off into the shadows.

"Uskepna" begins with more monster factory noises. but the verse riff really slams into things. The ughs... punch in the right spots and the drums fill in the gaps. This one slows into almost a dirty sludge tempo. The guitars get a little muddy in the rawness but this clears up by the time we go into the b -section like riff. It does carry over into a pretty epic galloping riff. "Spell" turns back the clock a little in terms of raw thrash like stuff being cranked out, in the slower moments the Celtic Frost influence can be felt though things are generally more abrasive. 'Sobols Sigr" is another interlude more string oriented and medieval in tone before going into a cover of Necromantia's "Lycanthropia" which fits in well with the rest of the album.

Overall the album is a little heavy on the interlude bits which could have been worked into the songs more though the do provide some melodic balance to the over all rawness of the album. I will go ahead and give this one an 8.5 as I have enjoyed the repeated listens I have given this one and can see this album continuing to grow on me, as far as the one man metal show goes this project has set the standard for being able to achieve a raw organic better than other such studio projects .



6.7