Genre: black metal
Kriegish black metal with icy cold riffs and..
just kidding I don't think I could keep talking like that. Solid black metal from some country. I don't remember which one. Just pick a country. Estonia. Why not? Magnus needs something to be proud of anyway. Solid riffs and standard vox, what's there to complain about?
Nothing. It was a hypothetical question, jackass.
Get.
Genre: Black Metal
You want black metal? That's cool dude, good choice. Great genre for this time of night. Kick back with those icy cold riffs and chilling vocals and the shitty production that gives the music its fucking edge.
WHAT?
You want good production? You astronomical failure. I can't believe you're able to look such a hopeless piece of muck in the eye every morning when you brush your teeth. Just go. Get the fuck out.
Hey man. Hey.
Hey. I'm sorry. I got worked up. Stop cry-
look
Stop crying. Chill. I overreacted. I'm sorry, ok?
Here maybe this will change your mind about production in black metal. This is edgier than Keira Knightley in a dodecahedron factory.
She's still hot though.
Here are some awesome EPs and demos for y'all to boogie down to. Except, some of this isn't really boogie material. Nonetheless these all rule and you need them. Extra music in this post to make up for my horrible lack of postage over the past week. Titles are the download links.
Agalloch - Of Stone, Wind and Pillor
EP; Genre: Black Metal, Folk, Post Rock
It's Agalloch, need I say more? Basically imagine taking a cold shower but you're dry. This music makes you shiver and squirm, but leaves you wanting more. Catchy buzzy black metal riffs surround beautiful folk interludes, and shades of post rock can be distinguished among the tracks. Texture is the focus of the EP, the band's affinity for such evident in their use of acoustic guitar over walls of distorted riffs and their complementing of strings with horns and resonating bass vocal drones.
Summer isn't coming; Arise, Arise
- Kneel To The Cross
Mayhem - Deathcrush
EP; Genre: Black Metal
Mayhem isn't the best black metal act around, but their releases are all varied and worth a listen in any case. Deathcrush is a short and sweet burst of intense, raw black metal and is probably the band's second best release after the classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Plus it has a song called Chainsaw Gutsfuck. Worth it just for that.
Cruciamentum - Convocation of Crawling Chaos
Demo; Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Cruciamentum means "torture" in latin. Fuck yeah. This is an awesome slab of old school death metal with some black metal aesthetics. The drumming is absolutely mind-blowing and the production is murky and claustrophobic. Three bestial songs. 18 minutes. No bad parts at all.
Immolation - Hope and Horror
EP; Genre: Death Metal
Immolation proved this year that they were still one of the world's greatest death metal bands with the stellar Majesty and Decay, and fans applaud liberally the classic Close to a World Below but there is an oft-forgotten EP from 2007 which is very listenable indeed. Although the record it preceded was, by the band's standards, nothing special, this extended play is unexpectedly good. However it does lack the massive production from Close to a World Below, tending to come off as more tinny sounding.
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Irony Is A Dead Scene
EP; Genre: Mathcore
Best Dillinger release ever. Seriously. Vocals kick ass (Mike Patton), instrumentation kicks ass, music doesn't ever bore. Quirky, insane, jazz-influenced mathcore. Fucking yes.
Genre: Black Metal, Crust
Darkthrone are one of the pioneering bands of the second wave of black metal. With three incredibly good albums (Transilvanian Hunger, A Blaze In The Northern Sky and Under a Funeral Moon) they helped shape the face of black metal to come. Wait why the hell am I telling you this. If you follow this blog of course you know who Darkthrone are.
Their later catalogue is sadly nowhere near as good as those three albums, however there are a few gems buried among the relative crap. A worthy ambassador of these oft-ignored records is The Cult Is Alive. At this time the band was combining black metal with liberal amounts of crust punk, which was always a fun listen. If you're not looking for anything deep or inaccessible, try this out. It's a great, catchy crusty black metal album because fuck you black metal elitists. Seriously this is such a cool combination. Black Metal-flavoured punk music with typical Darkthrone vocals is an imperious blend. If you thought black metal was already tongue-in-cheek in general, just check this out.
Also, lyrics are hilariously shit:
All right!
(I) first saw you at the graveyard
nice rack n' all
Creepy & lost in a fucked up head
aftershock dark woods and blurry lights
-"Graveyard Slut"
THRONE OF DARK
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
This is a strange release compared to Purity; instead of straight up oppressive, crushing black metal, there is a more atmospheric tinge to Battlefields. While Purity is more focused on crushing you with speedy black metal insanity, Battlefields is almost all slower-paced, doomy black metal. Of special note are tracks 3-6 that that cause the black metal tracks to bookend the album. All four are folk pieces, all sung, and as they progress, they get more urgent and depressing. By the third and fourth folk song, it sounds like a crying child singing. It probably is. It's really unnerving.
Get.
All symphonic black metal sucks a lot.
Except Goat Horns.
Get it.
20 minutes; that's all it takes for this little band to show that they are some of the best around and some of the best that will be.
20 minutes of incredibly well done black metal, of refreshingly bearable vocals, grim leads and stunning pauses.
20 minutes is the time it takes this little band to segue between blazing intensity and quiet insistence more skillfully than most black metal bands can segue between albums.
20 minutes is how long it takes to listen to this album; 20 minutes is not very long at all.
20 minutes later, you will want more.
20 minutes later, you still won't have it.
20 minutes of awesome.
Did you know every time a black metal band plays a bad song, god kills a kitten (or a puppy, if you're partial to them)? Well, that's not exactly true; if it was, there would be no cats, puppies, or tragic inter-breeds left all throughout the world. Black metal is so famous for being consistently bad it's actually SURPRISING when someone does it right. Of course, doing it "right" is, in every sense of the term, purely subjective, which is a long, nonsensical and inevitably pointless debate that I won't get into here. Suffice to say, it is much easier to define what should NOT be done rather than what SHOULD.
For instance, if your vocalist sounds like someone is choking a frog and then recording it...
Please, please, find a new vocalist.
If your vocalist sounds like Jerry the mouse being shin-cracked, you're Cradle of Filth and you know what you did you filthy (get it?), dirty whore (credit goes to my alter-ego-self on Sputnik for that comparison).
Then there's keyboards, which I touched on earlier. Symphonics and metal aren't inherently bad chemistry, but it would not be exaggerating to say almost no one gets that business correct. Guys, you've got to understand, if you're trying to sound evil, juxtaposing your tremolo picked riffs with a purple-ass keyboard is pretty much the first thing on a list of crap you could do to make your record sound less evil.
Other black metal problems include redundancy and repetitiveness, which is to say, every goddamn song sounding exactly the same. Curiously enough, I discovered a band the other day by looking at some side projects of the most repetitive black metal band I've ever heard, Asmodeus. That band sounds like someone recorded one song and then changed the verse length 9 times (the drummer is incredibly talented, however, and deserves a better band). Sometimes black metal bands have the tendency to "rely", you could say, on atmosphere; that is, they play slow, plodding, fuzzy black metal that is, quite boring. Now, you might wonder why it ook a 700 word segue to get here, but as it is, Schattenheer has an extremely excellent atmosphere, complete without retarded keyboards. Once that first riff hits, you know you're in for a ride. 41 minutes of non-stop evil black metal. So, what's the catch?
Well.. the vocalist is only okay. I mean, he does not sound terrible, per se. There's this strange interlude on song one where he alters his voice with an electronic effect and it's kind of out of place (you'll know what I'm talking about). After track 1, though, his voice goes back to normal and you're ready to enjoy some toe-tappingly (irony points) good black metal. If you can look past that, you're in for a grand old time. Get it here, folks: right here click me plz.
...
Seriously, LOOK AT THIS FUCKING CLOWN. STOP IT.
This is a split release by American one man project Panopticon and relative unknowns Lake of Blood. Seriously this is worth it just for the Panopticon side of the split. I mean Lake of Blood is a pretty good band; they're not atmospheric like Panopticon and play a pretty melodic brand of black metal, but their side pales in comparison to their split-mate's. You know what's awesome about Panopticon? He DOESN'T SUCK. Happy Joey? You better fucking be.
I prefer the other split Panopticon is involved with (the It's Later Than You Think split with Wheels Within Wheels), but if you're hankering for some quality black metal then this is, my friend, is your answer.
Fuck Wolves in the Throne Room, this guy is the best ABM around right now. You don't believe me? Listen to this or I'll take a dump on your chest, Cleveland Steamer style.
I hate to make another general post about music, but I'm afraid there's a problem with the black metal of today, too: it sucks. It sounds like a bunch of pussies wanking on their guitars, making themselves feel special inside because, LOOK MOMMA, I can play a tremolo picked riff REALLY FAST.
Good for you.
For the rest of us, it takes more than hyperspeed riffs and "epic" keyboard "compositions" to satiate our man-sized balls (take that any way you want to). To be honest, most of the times I hear a keyboard in music, it makes me want to punch a piano. Fortunately for my hand and for pianos everywhere, I don't own a piano, so I usually just punch a pianist. Either way, every once in awhile, I hear music where the keyboards aren't the most aggrivating thing I've ever heard; those rare records where the keyboards aren't an "element", they're a factor. They play a part in the greater whole and don't COMPLETELY, ANNOYINGLY DETRACT from it. If you've ever heard Nokturnal Mortum, and since we're talking about real men, I'm assuming you have, they are pretty much the best symphonic black metal band ever. Some of you might be screaming at your keyboards, going NO NO NO EMPEROR IS THE BEST.
Nah.
Nokturnal Mortum, aside from kicking ass and taking names and taking kick-ass names, looked at keyboards, and went "you know what, we need TWO of those". Then, as no one else has ever done successfully before or after them, they made it work.
Now, not every band can do two keyboards; Germany's Dies Ater is such a band, with just one keyboardist. But you know why Dies Ater kick ass? Because they rock. Odium's Spring is their latest release, and with the soon-to-be-official crumbling of the band, it will also be their last. On it, however, they are a metal band to the bone; they're not trying to be epic (okay, they are a little bit, but forgive them; they're german, like me; we don't take shit lightly), they are just playing balls-to-the-wall black metal, heavy as hell and absolutely uncomprising. And those keyboards? They're in the background, where they belong, adding to the atmosphere but never detracting from or overpowering it. Not to mention the band are incredibly talented at their instruments and, thank everything holy or unholy or whatever shit you believe in, that the singer is NOT fucking terrible, another problem with black metal today (every little dickwad thinks he can do a black metal scream; I'm looking at you Xasthur). He screams in the native tongue of angry, crazy people, a people I'm proud to be part of: the germans. There isn't an angrier language, and it translates perfectly to the music.
So go on, hit this shit up. If you inherently hate keyboards in music, even more so than me, then you probably won't like this. If you do, however, like heavy, brutal black metal, then go on and try some of what Germany has to offer; you won't be disappointed.
Pretty sweet Atmospheric Black Metal from Tacoma, Washington along the lines of Drudkh, Ash Borer and Hate Forest. Short quarter hour of music. Definitely something to watch.
Watch it here. and by watch I mean listen.
Drudkh are, without question, some of the best black metal being made today. With albums like Autumn Aurora and their latest Microcosmos, their nature inspired take on atmospheric black metal is both alluring and consistently satisfying. Saying they're some of the best isn't hyperbole; it's just fact. If you take that band apart, however, what do you get?
Well, as it turns out, you get some of the grimmest, heaviest, evilest black metal you can find. With a hilariously ridiculous name and a sound to match, Hate Forest give bands like Anaal Nathrakh a run for their money in intensity. There's just one catch: this band isn't some grindy bullshit, just straight-up, balls to the wall black metal. The vocals might not be for everybody, but the people they're not for are pussies. Get your blacker than black metal right here and enjoy another classy treat from the boys in Ukraine.
Ok so I've decided these guys rule. Atmospheric/depressive black metal and shoegaze and post rock all in one tasty package. vocals are great. exactly the right volume in the mix and really affect you. This is their full length.
Sehnsucht
the EP i posted earlier
Felt like adding a random good band. Band is fucking incredible. Kinda Black Metal but not really but fuck you just get it
it
starting this shit up. dunno how long its gonna go before i get bored with it but hey.
first post. relatively unknown Dutch band called Hypomanie. plays a mixture of black metal, shoegaze and post rock. check it out
link
