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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.
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.
