Like Dawn of Disease below, this quartet don't take any revolutionary measures to renew a familiar genre. Nevertheless, it's almost impossible not to get a few twitches in the neck muscles of the men's warlike frontal assault.

It's been almost two years since I reviewed the comeback album Redeeming Filth. The band has kept the line-up stable since than.
The press sheet makes a point of the perfect mix between Stockholm and Florida, something I was actually thinking about during my first two rounds of Doomsday Rituals. The Swedes do of course incorporating a minimum of melody into their riffs, but basically, they'll leave it at that. The men emphasize an angry war hissing temper that thunders like an old locomotive with coal firing when it hits you right in the kisser at full force. Not to say that the band don't offer any hooks. The riffing is killer, and the sound of the war axe's never-ending destruction is enough to enforce a diabolical grin.

The band's own guitarist, Sverker “Widda” Widgren (Demonical & Diabolical) has brought out the best of the band in his Wing Studio (which he started after he withdrew from the partnership in Necromorbus Studio). The dynamics are otherwise steady on acceptable DR7.

If you're into good old death metal with crushing riffs, but exempt from modern affectations, Doomsday Rituals will come to create a brutal gusto. Although you obviously have heard the equivalent before. On the verge of a plus in the margin for the combative veterans.

Worship The Grave breaks no new ground. The style is familiar and safe, despite the stench of death and decay, but the guys writes good songs and deliver with conviction. When we learn that renowned V. Santura has taken care of the sound, we know also that the riffs sounds fuller than Grandma's potato dumplings.

The songs are good, but not remarkable. The men deliver a fast-paced drive with juicy punch, and they do nothing wrong, except from sticking to the recipe. Dawn Of Disease plays by the book, for better or worse. They do their stuff with panache, and I certainly enjoy their deadly tirade, but the recognition factor prevents a top score.

If well performed megalomanian melodeath rifforama tempts thee, Worship The Grave will surely pave its way through your earwax. If you're looking for something out of the ordinary, however, you might wanna keep searching.

Take a bite of The Saviour's Tomb, Through Nameless Ages and The Sky Is Empty.

In my opinion, the duo has improved over the years, with the exception of the fourth album Nefarious Dismal Orations. I had some hope for the band's seventh album, but I'm not going to hide that Inquisition never was my absolute favoured black metal group. I enjoyed the last two albums well, but I didn't join the fan club.

The duo (who technically speaking never were Colombian because Dagon moved back to the US before Incubus was recruited to the blasphemous expeditions and the debut was released) more than meets my hopes on yet another capable work. Bloodshed... even surpasses my expectations, and climbs up to and beyond the band's best works to date.

The album is among the band's longest, with a duration of almost an hour. If we disregard the rather irrelevant (and partly irritating) intro and double outro, we are left with almost exactly 50 minutes, divided into the usual ten songs. The word “catchy” is as usual quite inappropriate at describing black metal, but the songs are equipped with more hooks n barbs than ever. As a barbed wire, the tunes coil up round the throat and tightens its stranglehold bit by bit for every spin.

Describing the band's style feels futile and pointless. Inquisition hasn't gone through any revolution what expression is concerned. Inquisition still remains Inquisition through and through, but they've taken somewhat drastic action regarding their song-writing. I would almost say with death-defying zeal.
Sharp guitars with fairly strange melody lines riffs tight whilst aggressive drums vary heftily at a rapid pace, and the vocal rasping indoctrinate its satanic message via amphibious croaking manners. Astrophobos should have considered borrowing Dagon's vocal cords for some tyrant diction on their latest EP. It should however be said that the man has lowered his vocals to a deeper part of the frequency spectrum, while the traditional creaky part of the voice ain't equally distinctive.

Where the band previously has delivered a varying number of songs with or without very memorable riffs, this album on the other hand offers noteworthily haunting sequences in each and every song. Be it in killer riffs, rhythms or other guitar licks. Their compositional priorities has simply seen a significant upward adjustment. In addition, euphony with soaring guitars and beefy punch in the backing are applied. The dynamics is on mediocre DR6, but I honestly don't notice a lack of vigorous dynamics.

As Inquisition eke out hooks with penance, Bloodshed... easily becomes the band's most accessible album, but that doesn't mean that puritans will turn their back on them in disgust. Inquisition still doesn't reel off mainstream metal.

If you haven't previously taken the trouble of checking out Americas' answer to Immortal, the time is now ripe.
If you like this, there's no guarantee you'll enjoy everything the band has done before.
(Again, read my hitchhiker's guide to Inquisition.)
However, if you have a taste for at least parts of the men's earlier exploits, I believe beyond doubt you'll approve of Bloodshed Across The Empyrean Altar Beyond The Celestial Zenith.

Please don't ask for any references. From the outside the band can seem anonymous and my first encounter with these 70 minutes would prove to be like an impenetrable grey mass. With patience as an instrument, things however gradually took shape. The songs generated colour and personality.

Without comparing directly with Vehemence, parts of Our Dystopia has some of the same subtle technical rhythms and melodies as God Was Created. The album ain't directly monotonous, but the melodic aspect isn't dominantly prominent or easily catchy. A vague air of resignation and despair rests like a curse over the Germans melancholic works.

When the album finds its place under the skin, it appears as rather well written and fairly interesting, with fittingly intricate content and variety. The atmosphere is softly mournful, but not without a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. The performance is also technically competent.

70 minutes can be a lot to digest, especially when the music basically is of a type that requires time to grow, but the music emerges as quite good, though not directly exceptional. My biggest objection is the vocals. Rather than utilizing a wider melodic range to fit the music, the vox is growled in something that feels like the same key throughout. The metal is otherwise pleasant, evocative and interesting.

If moderately proggy post-melodic death metal tempts thee, check the video for What We Leave Behind.

Twin Suns & Wolves' Tongues was released independently a couple of years ago, before Blood Harvest now re-releases it after having picked it up of the moldy gutter. I wrote a few words about it at the time, and the album still feels fresh and raw.

The sound is ripping, and the band master the genre with panache, sporting excellent and varied tunes, peppered with hostile rage, bestial dark moods and delightful unpredictable transitions, seasoned with delicate ghastly and morbid solos, proggy technicality and furious, rasping vocals. The lads offers authentic uncompromising black metal without boring the listener with generic and uneventful structures. Roughly half a dozen bands per ten could have learned a thing or two from their clever compositions, which makes no compromise and sacrifice nothing at the expense of hostility, aggression, anger and disgust.

I won't say more here and now, but rather present my erstwhile words from April 2014:

This is album number two from Australian Vahrzaw, who released their debut in 2009. The band plays black/death of the evocative kind, and has an expression more typical of Scandinavia than Australia. Death metal of the dirty type and solos in the vein of Morbid Angel, provides a solid underground feel, while onyx black moods and vocals paints the devil on the wall. Whether or not Vahrzaw's honourable attempt to conjure him out of drywalls and (analogue) wallpaper succeed, unfortunately remains unknown, but the band has at least created a good half n hour of unholy extremities. Not all the songs have as much drift, diversity and moods, and so, everything doesn't fascinate an old dog just as much, but there's still a lot of killer shit going on here, thus, this is obviously approved.

The South American's black-scorched uproar is of the generic type that I can quickly lose interest in, although I basically have a taste for the genre. The expression, with standard riffs, ordinary rhythms and vocals that sizzles as an aggressive badger, is largely without the necessary distinctiveness. Some atmosphere and riffs out of the over-ordinary mediocrity does exist, but not enough to make them interesting enough to excel.

The sound from the self-proclaimed unpolished South American extreme metal band, is as expected under-produced. The most surprising about it all is that they resort to synth as complementary tool for atmosphere. If one aims to be orthodox Satanist-musicians, one must be so through and through, and everyone knows that synthesizer ain't trve, and definitely not necro.

The music isn't directly bad. It's in fact not far from being charming, but it balances on the knife's edge, and falls down on the wrong side. The instrumentation measures up, the sound is adequate, and the songs are basically quite alright, albeit recycled to infinity. It's quite possible that Nox can impress me upon a future occasion, but Ancestral Arte Negro unfortunately gives me nothing. Or at least preciously little.
I feel that the grade above reflect my indifference better than a thumb down, but you can safely say that this is a fairly weak release.

The difference between gold and granite can still be minimal, and the band definitely has potential. They have the right evil moods and fiery sparkle in place, and this could quickly have been significantly better with a few small corrections. The first two songs are awfully simple, and set me in a permanently negative state that won't let go, even though the last two songs have a whiff of hypnotic evil that I after all could enjoy. Parts of The EP is plagued with some drawn-out repetition and staccato rhythms, and it's not mainstream or untrue to have some punch and rawness in the sound. It doesn't have to sound as a moist basement.

I was initially disappointed because this sounded downright generic, but as the music did grow a little, I am equally disappointed because I'd like to appreciative it more than I'm able to.
I'm hereby ordering you to try for yourself: Ancestral Arte Negro.

It certainly can seem like a large mistake to release a highly different solo album under the same moniker. But than again, that's not the whole truth. Kuolemanlaakso was formed as just that, a solo project, but accomplice Finns and international success was not long in coming. Thus M. Laakso actually fulfils his original intentions with M. Laakso – Vol. 1: The Gothic Tapes.
The occasion was that vocalist Kotamäki was busy touring with Swallow the Sun.
It takes a lot of time to tour to promote a complete triple album, you know.

The album stands as a watered-down offspring of newer mediocre Norwegian Gothic metal in promiscuous association with frivolous Britpop, which at best barely touches on Type O Negative, newer Moonspell and Amorphis. With female vocals here and there, conducted by Helena Haaparanta (Crimfall), this becomes softer than what is good for it, even if it might be bearable.
Laakso otherwise sings on this album himself, with a little help from some Jaani Peuhu, while V. Santura (Dark Fortress, Triptykon) contributes backing vocals and guitar. The latter was also responsible for recording, mixing and mastering in Woodshed Studio. Needless to point out, at least there's no cassette sound to trace, but rather bright and clean strings and deep, organic bass.

How long these poppy, Gothic cassette recordings have remained in the drawer, is of little interest to me. They could have been left there till the end of time for all I care. If everything from Nightwish to Type O Negative, from Life of Agony to Sisters of Mercy, and from Tiamat to Serenia appeals to you, it may very well be that this hits bulls eye with you.

Even if Kuolemanlaakso did evolve from a solo project, it has in bloody fact become a band with an expression of its own and a name for themselves. Why drag it down into the dirt rather than creating a new branch to release his solo album?
With its more gloomy and dark grey moods, No Absolution is the only song that leaves a relatively positive impression. An occasional sequence may also sound fine, such as the end of Roll the Dice with the Devil. Although much of the album probably could bear the description “pretty, peaceful and serene”, this is just massively disappointing for yours truly.

Watch the video for The World's Intolerable Pain, and listen to Roll the Dice with the Devil.
Or you can enjoy Kuolemanlaakso as we already know the band.

With Dis Manibvs they again showcase development, only partly surprisingly. The duo has taken a natural step... in the wrong direction. This is of course highly subjective, but to go from highly evocative, creeping and minor keyed black metal to light-soaring, blissful and atmospheric post-black is far from what I had hoped for, even though I respect that the band doesn't want to repeat themselves with some kind of “Meadows of Nostalgia part II”.

The Germans still succeed in creating moods, albeit alternating more between melancholy and spirited hope. Without the same sharp and rasping hallmark, the music still loses much of its friction. Dis Manibvs glides almost as easily out the other ear, as in the first, although it will of course find its footing sooner or later. The album offers its moments, but an album is an elaborately artistic universe where that listens don't wish to waste time waiting around for good shit to emerge. The Germans continue to dwell around an hour in duration. This time a bit over. That's a bit in excess when the content after all ain't more exciting that this.
I'm not going to claim that post-black is more generic than black metal (although it may be tempting), but when feelings such as impatience and restlessness comes a crawling, it nevertheless feels that way.

Finishing Seikilos must be mentioned, as it stands out considerably by ways of almost medieval folk-feel and a partly wonderful melody. They could indeed have built on the best parts, making the most of it, but the song is still a breath of fresh air. If Imperium Dekadenz once decide to explore the vast regions of those direction of atmospheric black landscapes, I'll be packing my bindle and tying my shoes, getting ready for an adventure.

There are of course plenty of melancholic bright spots, even if they are packed into monotony and wadding. The band's got good melodic flair, and adds becomingly spices. The sacral moods towards the end of Still I Rise, which fades out with fairy female backing choir and the equally solemn organ notes in interlude Pantheon Spells, or the acoustic strumming in the interlude Somnia, for example. But I had rather seen such things woven into actual songs than appearing as small independent snippets. Some blacker tones are on occasions also offered, including in Vae Victis og Volcano, but the sound is too soft and rounded, and the result becomes more dim grey than pitch black.

The album contains a lot of beautiful and melancholic music, and is a nice product under the condition that blissful, placid and heaving dark atmosphere is what one is looking for. Considering the band's past, I had other expectations. Ergo the album remains what I consider as fairly ordinary and frictionless, although this duo master the genre better than many. The album, as such, is honestly a bit disappointing. You have every right to disagree, and if you thrive veiled in soft, blackish coloured cotton metal, you should asap hunt down Imperium Dekadenz' fifth chronicle Dis Manibvs.
For the rest of us: Let's hope that Dis Manibvs doesn't live up to its Latin name, “In Memoriam/Remembrance”, a tomb inscription forming a last salute to a departed soul, but that they'll rather prosper and develop onward. This is far from awful, but as said, still somewhat disappointing. When I've gradually gotten used to their new expression, the grading has grown from “Middling Minus” to “Medium Plus”. The music is probably worth “Approved Minus” at least, but I'm prejudiced, and I admit it. I'm actually on the verge of raising the grade, but I'm not willing to rewrite the text, so to hell with it.

On YouTube and SoundCloud you can find Only Fragments of Light, Still I Rise and Dis Manibvs.
The entire album has also become available on BandCamp, during the past hours.

Enthroned in Flesh is an EP with four songs and 20 minutes. The band still has a melodic touch, while the expression nevertheless scratches deep furrows in the listener's flesh and mind to the best of ability. And there is no shortage of ability here. The vocals are still rasping and snarling, as it foams and spit out lyrical hymns to idolatry and destruction. Their amphibious astral idol is ready to depose and reject all earthly custom, subjugate humanity, and introduce their own horrifying and grotesque cultural abominations.

In the title track, lyrics about the cult's tribute to this blasphemous monstrosity are spat out to machine-gun rhythms, as if Marduk's gallop and Dissections melodies were fused, while Tabula Rasa calls for annihilation and pulverization of everything and everyone that stands in the way of the coming of the alien beast.
Blood Libation blends raw pace with atmospheric stench as one offers oneself in full carnal submission to the hideous creature. Finally, over eight minutes long The Cadaver Monarch rounds off. This is characterized by gloomy raven black moods where a feeling of patient seeking prevails. Lured and drawn by a yearning sense, one searches for the mighty Leviathan, Cthulhu, or whatever the name of that gargantuan stellar critter may be.

Enthroned in Flesh still see the band make use of a hired musician to take care of the rhythms. Fredrik Widigs from the very Marduk controls the sticks with steady and precise speed, while vital guitars and fiery, snarling vocals sets the sky ablaze. Meanwhile, the sound is improved since Remnants of Forgotten Horrors.
Style and song material can admittedly not be said to be very original, but this is an infernal EP with a vividly fresh galloping frenzy. Approved without a doubt, and also equipped with a small plus in the margin (under some doubt).

Check out Enthroned in Flesh. All hail the space toad!

At first listen, I was too restless, and quickly got problems with my patience. I decided to try again when I was a little less energetic, more relaxed and receptive. That did the trick, and after this, it has been played quite a few times.

The band supposedly started with dark metal more than 20 years ago, but has evolved quite radically in this respect. Our Voices Shall Remain is their sixth album, consisting of comfortable hovering moods where transitions drifts off seamlessly like changing nuances in snails tempo. The vocal is set in an adequate mid-range, and is clean and mild as watercolours, while the music is soft and feathery, without sudden movements or sharp edges. I thrive best when guitars get free rein and real off flaming licks, leaving little doubt they immerse themselves totally in the music. Something which typically occurs near the end of most songs.
The guitars comes like lightning-bolts of pastel coloured cotton candy floss and shoot out rainbows in all directions, while we balance with arms outstretched, as if in hypnosis to sweet music on these sky-bridges of caramelised colourants.

66 minutes may seem a lot, but when the album gets to grown some more, the beautiful melodies and gorgeous guitars comes to their right. If you're into Pink Floyd and similar prog-rock, you can safely check out Our Voices Shall Remain.

The music does however fill the bill well in small doses, and thus it fits yours truly superbly that this is an EP with four tracks and a running time at just over 21 minutes.

The music is lively and full of drive and variation, as it gallops effortlessly off in rugged terrain. Admittedly, the music explore different topographies. The Apothic Gloom opens acoustic and slightly melancholic, but gradually increase the pace. With Well of Despair we reach maximum speed. The drums are hasty and the guitars lively in this one, located somewhere between thrashing aggression and melodic death metal's jovial violence with a sadistic tankard-swinging touch to it.
With Black Waters, a gloomy feel is brought anew, although riffs and rhythms definitely isn't low-spirited alone, and when this short track ebbs out, 7:25 long Red Death, White Light returns to a melodic speedy assault that certainly can create a headbanger-friendly atmosphere. A lynching mode, possibly, for this also offers bottled up anger. But don't misunderstand, there is a lot of joyous energetic violence, and many a jovially smile to trace behind the instrumentation.

Former vocalist Chance Garnette is replaced by Adam Clemans (Wolvhammer), who debuted for Skeletonwitch with the single Well of Despair, released back in March. The vocals are still black and hysterically angry, in the same barking and rasping neighbourhood. Since the music has a more rollicking touch, I still feel that something is somewhat off, but I can very well manage to ignore this through 20 minutes.

The sound is thick and rich, the melodies are abundant and the whole thing is of course well played. The Apothic Gloom is just an EP, but nevertheless, or perhaps precisely therefore, stand as a pleasant surprise.
The Americans have five albums behind them, and have built up a solid fan base with their technically competent appearance and flamboyant offspring of extreme metal. If you're among them, you'll surely devour The Apothic Gloom lock, stock, and barrel. Even this demanding ass-hole have a liking for this EP.

The band has been better received by others but have still had a lot of potential in my eyes. With Skuggflock, I feel that the band has evolved quite a deal. Unless it's me who has developed, for the style has not undergone any radical changes.

Stilla's metal could be called progressive black'n'roll with atmospheric moods and ambient touches. The band's two first releases were a clue to quirky for my taste buds, but they've dampened these quirks a clue, or maybe it's my expectation that has prepared and adapted my centre for susceptibility. Whatever the reason, I find Skuggflock to be a really neat feat.

the Swedes still pride themselves in sounding a little bit different, and their distinct hybrid of bitter melancholic black tonality and vintage prog rock can of course leave a gap between two stools. However, there are plenty of potential listeners that wishes musical thinking outside the generic box welcome.
Parts of the music can appear weird enough to raise an eyebrow or two, but not without catchy hooks catching the listener like a whopper on the hook, and dragging him (or her) further into their mildly crazed carousel.

On Skuggflock, I pick up vibes of Darkthrone's more laid-back black-tinted tones from the time after the millennium shift, along with oddity à la Tulus, drops of proggy touch in line with Emperor's last work, as well as some Arcturus in closing Ett inre helvete - ett yttre helvete. All paired with an atmospheric feel in the same alley as Skogen.
Said goody-song has a somewhat heavier, more melancholic touch than the rest of the material, and the narrative sequence just after the four minutes mark needs to be mentioned. Rarely has Swedish sounded so Norwegian.

I know nothing about the recording, but the mastering has been handled by Tore Stjerna in Necromorbus Studio and the dynamic range of DR8 must be said to be respectable.
Whether Stilla has gained more sanity, or my mind has gradually degenerated, will remain a mystery, but I have a liking for their third opus. Lend your ear to a Skuggflock, and give it some time to sink in.

Zorn (ex-Dark Funeral, ex-Devian) is the musical mastermind behind this project, whose first teaser rush past as an elongated ghost-train in less than five minutes. The song is part of a larger concept, something we'll return to when time is ripe. The music can be described as melodic and symphonic extreme metal, with powerful moods and aggressive attitude. With real string orchestra and epic chorus that's fully integrated with fiery rhythms and riffs, a short but succinct solo and wonderful sound, grandiose ominous melodic moods are created. The instrumentation, similar to the sound, is excellent, and the music sticks to the eardrums as clammy bedclothes after a night of ongoing terrifying nightmares.

I shall say no more at this stage, but promises to return to Zornheym on the release of Where Hatred Dwells and Darkness Reigns. Something I'm really looking forward to.
Watch the trailer for the music video for The Opposed, and hear the track in its entirety over at No Clean Singing, where you will also find a more detailed description.

I also addressed some minor concerns that an entire album could possibly become an overdose for an impatient soul. Spire has however taken their grips and made their adjustments, and put my concerns to shame.

With Entropy, the ethereal vibes are enhanced and the sound rounded off to amplify the music's inherent hypnotic powers. In addition, they've added hallucinogenic, ambient segments that really puts the listener in an induced coma.
After two songs of relatively quiet and dreamy nature, or rather uneasy dreams with running sweat, where the music offers a fairly harmonious blend of melody and dissonant instrumentation while hovering over dystopic landscapes, comes the soporific song (Remake). An ambient and extremely ethereal song that easily lulls a tired writer to sleep.

The abrupt transition when the track Void makes its entrance, ends this power-nap, and immediately sends the heart rate sky-rocketing. This devil worshipping hymn of sorrow brews jet black eerie that pours liquid nitrogen in the bloodstream.
When the nearly 14 minute long title track have rounded off, the Australian quartet(?) has demanded our undivided attention for a total of three quarters of an hour, but the mass suggestion is effective and when the album is played in loop, hours can go by before I notice that the sonic lobotomy slowly sets in. Lovely.

Entropy is not on IronCamp yet, but on IronCloud we find the song Void.

Surprisingly neither band nor label makes a point out of this similarity, although both parties emphasize the similarity with thrash from the golden era, 83-86.

Besides from general stylistic similarities in aggressive high-speed drive, howling high voltage guitars and animalistic barking aggression in the throat spectrum of the music, this is no copycat. Thus it may, as a positive surprise, be that the band's genes has moved in that directions on autopilot. On the other hand, the track Realm Of The Heretic do have a lot of Altar of Sacrifice to it. Especially in the vocal's rhythmic patterns through every sequences in a somewhat suspicious manner. Moreover, it has happened that bands have resembled each other without being aware of it, but everyone knows Slayer, so how random can it really be?

Awakened From The Abyss is, as the title almost insinuates, a revival after the “sleeping pills” the mother band has provided us with after Seasons in the Abyss.
Drive and instrumentation is on good old Slayer level, although the material in these seven songs and 33 minutes ain't on the same level. The music does however thrash most of what the Americans have done for the last 25 years. Killer!

It should be said that as more and more details are revealed, I hear several similarities that may explain why it might not be the best idea to promote the band as Slayer's successor, all the time they might have been digging into the vault and borrowed a bit more than they can explain away. With that said, they have written a lot themselves, and performs it all in blistering manners, with severe instrumentation and authentic sound with as much as DR10 in dynamic range. That's good enough for me!

Check out Awakened From The Abyss, and form your own opinion.

In addition to feverish sonic attacks, the band calms down in evocative sequences touching on death/doom. Nothing revolutionary about that of course, but the method the band uses ain't the most commonplace. Via several bands, we've visited various constellations in ethereal ways in recent years, but these Americans almost gives the word otherworldly a new meaning. Without sounding typically atmospheric, dreamy hallucinations are still conjured when the band with Starspawn takes the listener to other abstract dimensions.

The band's technical capabilities doesn't sound calculated, and doesn't dominate enough to put the band in the tech.death cubical. Their ambient elements never becomes artificially synthetic, but gives a mild psychedelic, psychosomatic or psychoactive effect. It all sounds elaborate and different, without being either pretentious or hard to digest. The basis is dirty and old school, yet performed in a manner not reminiscent of dozens of others in the same alley.

It's logically enough being pointed out that the recording is done analogously. It sounds hot as Lucifer's breath, and the instruments have been awarded an organic glow. The instrumental parts has a charming authentic feel and nerve, and the music can be turned to the max without speakers or ears screaming in pain. The dynamic range of DR8 surely deserve a bit of credit for that.

The press release uses the imaginative phrase “cerebral whirlwind” and what he band with the otherwise conventional name Blood Incantation provide, is indeed an intellectual kaleidoscopic dust devil. Spend an ounce of your allotted time on Starspawn. I doubt you will regret it!

When the fair Danish nymph Amalie Bruun takes her Myrkur into the stone hall that constitutes Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum in Oslo, and adapt to the surroundings, a new dimension is indeed brought to the music. Something which will of course appeal to many fans without necessarily appealing to everyone, and that might just as easily also serve as a gateway for new audiences.

A year has come and gone since the debut split a black hearted audience in two, and I pointed out that Myrkur is about as black metal as the emperor from the tale is clothed. Mausoleum emphasize my point. Here, the music, mostly taken from the debut album, is stripped to the acoustic, with serene elf song, grand piano, acoustic guitar and a girls' choir.

In addition to six album songs, we find the song Den Lille Piges Død, which was released as a single in November, a new song called Frosne Vind, and a cover of Bathory's Song to Hall up High. It all sounds spellbindingly breathtaking, with massive reverberating sound when the granite walls of the tombs casts echoes. The acoustics in the mausoleum holds the tones for half an eternity. The beautiful, dark atmosphere is successfully caught on tape, although the atmosphere of this particular scenario lit by torch or candle light, with grotesque and erotic frescoes along the walls, must have been a unique and spectacular experience that isn't possible to preserve in its entirety.

Mausoleum ticks in on less than half an hour, and is strongly recommended to bigger fans of Myrkur and tranquil, epic and atmospheric female-fronted folk-tinged music in general.
“Successful” is an objective keyword that prevents me from attaching a minus to the score, though I, as a hardcore metalhead, most likely won't visit Myrkur's Mausoleum very often myself.

Visit YouTube to see and hear Byssan Lull, and head over to Bandcamp for more music from Mausoleum.

The intention is to let the listener “drift away in their own dreams” into idyllic surroundings in the elven kingdom. This listener, however, doesn't possess the right amount of patience for repetitive synthesizer-based semi-monotonic pling-plong or ding-dong music that seem to last forever, and the fair elf-choir don't relieve my frayed nerves like soothing ointment as intended. Surely, though, the music, like the cover art, is pleasant, serene and even fairly seductive. At least at times. Winter Night has beautiful melodies and violin strings that could have been taken from Falkenbach, and Travel in Woods offers harp, which gives the right mood of a medieval castle high up on the mountainside, overlooking the majestic river that meanders over fertile plains. Welcome to Narnia. In From Life to Spirit, the storm sets in and we get rougher tones.

The variation from song to song is good, besides from reappearing segments, while the diversity within each song don't necessarily appear as quite as strong. Overall, Eldamar's debut becomes a slightly drawn-out trial that is sure to suit fans of Burzum's ambient works better than me. Anyone who swear by soaring atmosphere without ground contact should urgently check out The Force of the Ancient Land. Other, who swear by more traditional metal, should take precautions and approach with adequate caution.

Temple Nightside offers diabolical, but atmospheric moods, with sluggish, yet rabid deadly disgust, like reverberations from the abyss. Literally. The sound differs quite markedly from the heap, with deep low-frequency rumbling that resonates across the board. If you are testing your speakers' lower frequency register with extreme metal, The Hecatomb is an option to consider, as the sub-woofer rumbles constantly like a volcano before eruption.

Temple Nightside sticks out a great deal, with resounding echoes as taken from a soundtrack to lost wanderers in thin cloudy air on the plateau, in foggy valleys, in misty swamp and marsh landscapes as well as claustrophobic mines and ravines, not to mention the stories by Lovecraft, but this approach is still not one hundred percent unique. Similar paths have been trodden before, and it's lacking a bit in the song material.

Between six metallic tracks from four to nine minutes, we find three short ambient snippets. All provide thick atmosphere, and one can easily become spellbound if being in a receptive mood. Unfortunately, they presents relatively little musical content, I'm afraid, and as such; it won't work as well in any given setting.
I advise you to check out The Hecatomb for yourself. The album will probably appeal far more to bigger fans of Sunn O))) et al., for this is droning black/death/doom. I suddenly felt an urge to pick up a Faustcoven album now.

The half an hour Bulletsize has set off to drive a tank through your conciousness, has in addition to the aforementioned mixing ratio also got a dash of contemporary groove, without it feeling contrived. What has a stronger sonic effect, is just how melodic the music is. Without compromising on lethal punch, melodies of relatively catchy art are incorporated. Making the tunes easy to enjoy pretty quick.

Pansar offers thunderous drums, contagious killer riffs, bestial vocals, melodic guitar lines and solos, not entirely unlike for example Amon Amarth in style. That the guys becomes a bit anaemic in both materials and sound compared to big brother is of course forgiveable. The vocals could admittedly have been deeper, for my taste, and the good melodies could have been a bit more consistently throughout. Unfortunately, there are also passages that goes along in conventional manners without leaving much deeper feelings than mediocrity.
With a little teutonic thrash in the expression, Legion Of The Damned is a much better reference, though, and the band can also be compared with the Norwegians in Deathfare.

Nitpicking aside. The Swedes have released a highly listenable album with several memorable sequences. Although I personally would have liked to see those moments pose an even bigger aspect of Pansar, I don't intend to let such go unheeded and unrewarded. If you think the amalgamation sounds interesting, check Pansar asap. The album after all don't miss much on standing as a small stroke of genius. It should be said that I originally had glued a minor minus to the rating, but I eventually found it to be rather strict.

Check the following songs: Abomination, Legion of Chaos, Genocide & In the Front We Die.

After a quick warm-up with said EP, I must say that Wormreich disappoints a clue. The sound is far from as killer as on Wormcult Revelations. The sound also varies too much from song to song. The music itself ain't bad, though. Their black metal has elements of atmosphere and dissonance, and ingredients of dystopia and rituals. Besides, it's possibly a bit unreasonable to expect that the band will manage to maintain the same high standards on every release, and the EP was also exceptionally good. The band takes up about 19 minutes, and presents quite good black metal, which still would have come more into its own with a stronger production. Maybe its difficult to find a good sound-studio for blasphemous extreme metal in Alabama, in the heart of the despised Bible Belt.

Diabolus Amator was a one-man band, started in Virginia in 2012. Abyss has released two albums, moved to Texas, and employed two assistants. The band delivers nearly ten minutes of ice cold and knife-piercing black disgust. The production is cold, bleak and sharp in a way that suits the musical well. With moods and variety, the song material also works very well. Raw, heretical and tough as nails.

Gravespawn are located in Los Angeles and have ten years and one album behind them. The band is preparing a new album during the year, as well as a re-recording of an old demo with bonus material. The band's 15-minute contribution will unfortunately remain as the least interesting of this split in my ears. The band's fairly melodic approach to black tonality is far from polished. It is on the contrary rather woolly. Especially in the live recording, but also in the two studio songs. The music would have been quite alright, albeit still rather run of the mill, if the sound had been better.

Vesterian concludes with the longest sequence, at just over 20 minutes. The band also has the longest past, with over 20 years of experience, first under the moniker Centurion. Despite this, as well as a lengthy list of replaced members, the band has just one album to show for, and it wasn't released until 2013. They admittedly have almost a dozen miscellaneous releases, where demos constitute the majority. On this split they serve fuming and fiery black metal with frenzied instrumentation and jagged, mocking vocals. The vocals surpasses the other contributors, something even the rich and glowing sound does, unless you prefer the more necrotic and cutting variety.

By logically enough finishing with dessert, the listener is left with the best possible last impression of a split consisting of a lot of diabolic black metal that allows the listener to become acquainted with several bands at once. Although everything ain't on the same level, I'm generally very satisfied with Infirmos Vocat Deus Fidei.

Guitarist Bernt Sørensen has the greatest number of other bands on the record, without me having heard of any of them. Drummer David “Berserk” Olsen has a past from Faanefjell, while bassist and vocalist Bengt Orstad and Jan Åge Lindeland both dwells in Blot, of which I've heard positive things. Said bands operates in black/folk landscapes, and I would therefore have anticipated music with more Norse roots from such a constellation, but not so this time.

The men's hybrid of heavy death riffs and fast crushing thrash riffs with a technical whiff is agreeable, but not without a few nitpicks on my part. The vocals are twofold, with both grunting and wheezing. The death rattling could have been further upfront in the mix at times, but that's just pettifogging. It's got a relatively pronounced articulation, despite high howler monkey factor with deep resonance. It could have been more raw at times, but I still have a taste for it. The reptile whispers on the other hand, struggles more to win my favour.

Even musically, it's a bit mixed. The music can sometimes be fairly run-of-the-mill and straight forward without enough idea richness and content to maneuver safely around mundane waters at all times. With that said, Mental Disaster occasionally really gets the ripping swing of it, with more than enough rhythmic and melodic content to steer far away from boredom and monotony.

The album opens rather staccato in the title song, but more variety in rhythm and riffs manifests itself already from the second song, while the third track, Victims of Fornication kicks in with fairly thrilling riffs. From thereon, the song material wobble slightly between killer and mediocrity, albeit it never becomes bad. It may linger somewhat between those form peaks, though.
Postapocalyptic Bumfight and the ending snippet Fall of Moral shows an inclination toward eerie moods, which helps create variety and a thicker ominous atmosphere.

Mental Disaster debuted near the end of 2013 with the album Let the Demon Speak, and are now ready to dump the sequel on the market. The album is absolutely all right, but struggles a bit to stick out in the jungle of similarities. Slightly more compositional variation, spices and hook, like nimble solos, more eeriness and riffs that adheres permanently to the cerebral cortex, can help to ensure that the third attempt fits like a glove, because these guys definitely have a potential.
A more than alright portion of death/thrash, which is probably better for casual listening than over-analytical attention.

Check the songs Raping The Symbol Of Humanity, Crush The Opposition & Postapocalyptic Bumfight.
With some luck, the album might also ends up on Bandcamp. EDIT 15.08.16: And there we go.

First, lets get the nitpicking out of the way. Although there's some hefty sequences, much of the guy's compositions appears as generic in the big picture. The songs are generally missing some of those memorable killer riffs and irresistible hooks.

That, and the fact that everything within death metal has been done before, is still the only flaws Evoked got. With juicy sound, solid punch, moods, variety, alternating speed, enjoyment, tight execution, and so on, it seems the duo is both hungry and honest. The Germans exudes genuine spirit and will.

Said Americans footsteps is still a bit too deep for the Germans, but it's a good attempt. I'll give 'em that. With slightly stronger song material, this can quickly become truly ass-kicking, for all other aspects have full coverage. There's a thin distinction between mediocre material and slaying songs, and the Germans balances on a razor blade here. They almost succeeded, but not quite. Artilleratör and Bonesaw, as they call themselves, have nevertheless not been at it for long, and so I have good faith that the duo's furious death metal may grow to unknown heights during the time to come.
Check out the song Disintegrated Mind.

The band's music is not easy to put in a single box, but the various components that together make Innenwelt, melt and merge into a unified alloy. The style the band serves on this EP can be called a melodic kind of pagan metal with strong inspirations and influences from black metal, as well as adequate elements of folk and Viking, and a layer of orchestral ingredients that blends nicely in and provides some extra fullness to a rich and powerful sound.

Guitars giving vibes of Immortal's Fimbulwinter meets the listener at the beginning of almost seven minutes long Innenschatten. Admittedly, the most significant similarities stops there. Especially the vocals lays in a completely different landscape, and can be an acquired taste, even if it doesn't bother me personally.
The music is magnificent as the raven's flight over wild and unspoiled nature and high peaks, albeit more in a soaring, atmospheric way than in a directly mighty and majestic fashion. While moderate fiddling are often located slightly in the back, the brass section has taken its seat on the pedestal, providing a more dominant position when they're first making a noise.

Acoustic guitar, gentle violin strings, rattle percussion and the chanting voice of a shaman or medicine man leads us into the scarcely ten minutes long Im Licht meiner Sonne. Pitched melancholic guitars and riffs in gale then sets the mood, before whirlwinds of guitar anew lifts the listener up and gives a bird of prey perspective on existence. Solo and melodic guitar works towards the end gives chills and frost mist along the spine.

The EP definitely appeal to me, and you are advised to check out Innenwelt if you find pagan metal and related genres desirable.

First up is Slaughtbbath, with the tracks Nefast Fireground / Tyranny from Sodomy welded together. There's more momentum in the Chileans charcoal burned black metal this time, although they also dip their toes in viscous tar a few times along the almost 7 minutes long ride on side A. As last time, the band sounds rabid, subject to a demonic curse, whether the pace is in a frantic turmoil or in Zombie mode. It's substantially quite rapid. Strings and drums swiftly fly by, as if having a money collector on it's heels, while the vocalist barks and spits his odious bile.

Grave Desecrator opens side B with just under two minutes of haunted intro titled The Fallen, before also they speed up. SxSxSx (Sex, Sin & Satanism) is diabolical death/black with volcanic ferocity, being best when the guitar spurts of lava here and there along the barely four minutes long route, right into the flames.

Both bands deliver tough, vile metal, but neither of them offers the kind of incomparably unique material that in my opinion would make a purchase of this brief 7" obligatory for other than zealot fans.
Listen and make up your own putrid mind here: Musica De Nuestra Muerte.

Those Who Beheld The End is a record that requires some time to seat. Especially when many sequences ain't raw and catchy in a direct manner, but rather contains both quieter and heavier melodic antics of somewhat monotonous nature. More often with fairly clever structuring. However, there are parts that aren't able to penetrate too deep, even after a good number of spins, but these are quickly forgotten when the band offers the best share of their material.

The material alternates slightly between old school, proggy and hypnotic death metal, which may not be completely seamless but thereby also creating variation. Composing and instrumentation are well done, and the sound is adequate, despite some cotton. Dan Swanö have mastered the work in his Unisound, but that doesn't mean he alone can be blamed for the low dynamic range score of DR5.
Denominate is not quite on height with the elite, but will most likely please fans of said alloy. Although the guys also have growing potential to develop off, they already offer good metal. The grading as such almost feels a little more strict than strictly necessary.

See the lyric video for Degradation, and hear Those Who Beheld The End.

When this wirepuller, now abusing bass, guitar and keyboard came into contact with two Norwegians, life was again blown into the corpse. Presumably by means of mouth-to-mouth.
Computer keyboard warrior VempireChrist from Vestfold near Oslo, who has defiled his own and others' existence with sarcastic quasi-literary disputations and other aptly verbal outbursts for Norskmetal.net, still use his foul-mouthed razor-sharp tongue properties to spread profanities, albeit with more diffuse and guttural diction, as lead singer of Cryptic Scream.
The masochist who torture the drums, calls himself T.Kharof this time, albeit I know him better as Dáublódir, from Bergen and bands like Gandreid, Blodstaur and Doedsstraff.
The latter has in recent months spammed me with samples from this unfortunate misfortune, and in this respect prepared me for the worst. I've known this scourge of a man for fifteen years, but my feeble attempts to pull out from the perverted project of penetrating these vile vices due to biasedness, was abruptly and aggressively turned down.

After the unholy organ notes of the intro having faded out, dirty, necrotic and primitive black/death is on the agenda. The pace admittedly ain't killingly breathless, but the frantic lack of a healthy mind is unmistakable. All competent sense is arrogantly rejected already on the doorstep of Death & Damnation's morbid rich.
Satanism, sadism, death and deviant destruction, apparently constitutes the basis for Cryptic Scream's existence. To report a ghastly work like this, feels like going undercover in a sect whose actions are too grotesque to even mention.

My first encounter with the enigmatic cries were a track by the far beyond outrageous name One Last Dance, which sounds more like a Garth Brooks song, and the situation doesn't really get any better based on the background information stating that this “basically was a danceable song, until someone suggested we should try out more distortion on the guitar, "vomit" the vocals forth and beat the living hell out of the pots, blasting the pedal to the metal”. Danceable song for fucks sake? Argh... the mental images stings and burns. This starts with the lock, load and firing of a pump-action shotgun, a really cool percussion effect which I would like to have heard tag along inward song. The vocals sound like it's barked whilst inhaling. It's heavy and raw, eclectic, brutal and far from sane.
This is not the only place where samples are used. Several film clips has been included to set the sick mood.

Imagine a viscous slush mixture with elements of Slagmaur, portions of Portal, general French folly and South American savagery, and the unstable mental health of Teitanblood or Norwegian Amok. After the mixture fermenting and growing mildew in an old basement with soil for floor in a year or two, the brewed tastes of unhealthy bestial underground, exempt from all social norms.

The sound is a story in itself. I actually had to ask if this was a demo just to be on the safe side. The various members have themselves recorded their infamous activities to tape, probably with the one functioning half of a worn out Koss UR5 headset or an equivalent as microphone, or perhaps with the recording function on a Nokia 3210 or similar. T.Kharof has taken care of mixing, probably done by putting three cassette recorders, each with its own recording, in a triangle around a microphone, pressing play, and then setting bass, treble and volume level for each of them. Finally, the guys left the mastering to a professional. To leave a work of angered art in the hands of Loïc.F, a maddened psychopath from Autokrator, is like soaking a cassette in acetone, fun but corrosively acrid. The sound is caustic and odious, providing aural associations to badgers raped with a chainsaw in a container.

I choose not to grade this masterful abomination, this cruel accomplishment. Gradings are humane, Cryptic Scream fucking ain't. Besides, as mentioned, I'm a bit incompetent. Also, it matters fuck all what I mean. What's substantial is to present the grim and gruesome blemished sins for the kind of rascal listeners and other imps that might be in the target audience. Still, when I've spun this service of Satan more than half a dozen times, it's not because I like to torture myself.
After this merciless seance, forced to suffer through this travesty of purgatory, this cacophonous regurgitation, I have to wash my ears with turpentine, consult a psychologist and spend hours with spiritual meditative CDs with the sound of waves and waterfalls, to fully recover.

The first press of the CD comes in an abundance of 20 copies and is distributed by Cryptic Scream, while cassettes in 100 x will be obtainable soon via Snake Oil.
Recommended exclusively to degenerate fans of grotesque fatalities.
Do you have what it takes to meet the Devil in the door and dubiously laugh out shrill and heartlessly, and are you willing to let your soul languish for a moment, or are you a wimp who prefers Kamelot? Your choice, motherfucker.
PS: If I haven't made myself clear in this satanic tongue-in-cheek review, I like it, but it's not for everyone, and so I demand you check it out for yourself!

Hear these declarations of mental deterioration:
Darkness, Through Superior Firepower
Blood Of The Antichrist
E(xc)lusive Me(n)tal (Dis)Order
Mørkets Makt, Dødens Prakt

On Terraforming we find three songs, two of them with 15 minutes duration, separated by a 5-minute track. The music is located in a kind of depressed post-black/doom landscape that differs quite a bit from generic post-metal. The sound is more dirty and primitive, and the atmosphere hostile, full of aversion, depression, sadness, bitterness and loathing.

I have some prejudice against one-man bands who release discs at (ir)regular intervals. Such are prone to become mass-produced assembly line products, but I heard through Terraforming several times without a trace of prior knowledge, and I liked what I heard. It's a little late to get cold feet and grow some kind of scepticism in hindsight when one has already made up ones mind, hence the word prejudice. How Morphinist's remaining releases appear, I don't intend to find out right now, but taken out of that context, at least Terraforming sounds good, although the sound doesn't sounds all good. With a dynamic range of only DR3, this is in fact so compressed that the clipping causes some jarring. The (most likely) home crafted production still has an okay gritty hypnotic depth.

Argwohn clearly has a flair for melody and atmosphere, put together via alright structures and good diversity. The two longest songs never gets boring, as one or two playful guitars often has a few antics and jinks to offer, despite grieving moods of despondency. Parts of the material could fit into dsbm, while other segments could've slipped into death/doom, some sequences could've worked well in atmospheric folk metal settings, like Falkenbach, while still others could have been plucked from gloomy, hateful black metal. The composition of this multifaceted portrait never feels schizophrenic, though.

The amount of inventiveness is admittedly not remarkable, and the album is not tremendously exciting. When taking fierce competition and said brick-wall into the equation, I finally decide to apply a tiny minus the score. It should however be said that I thrive very well in Terraforming's dark universe, despite a few flaws. If you give the album some time to seep in and settle, I think you might find Morphinist's tenth symphony quite charming if likeable and chilling black/doom with tasteful post-elements tempts. Among over-productive one-man bands, this must be one of the better.

Hear Terraforming, and explore the rest of the discography if it pleases you.

Feast on the title one again; Black Sun Unbound.
The new work of the Austrians feels like a glitch in cosmos routines, as if the laws of nature abruptly undergoes an unexpected transformation in which the earth stops rotating along its axis, while at the same time being hit by a ceaseless eclipse, sending half the planet into permanent night, and setting the remaining half in a perpetual limbo of darkened light of dusk or dawn. When these three vital celestial bodies are aligned, the temperature quite rapidly starts falling. This unexpected cosmic offspring of nuclear winter quickly breeds mass hysteria, fear and panic, which in turn leads to looting and violence. Hatred is smouldering and even pacifists arm themselves, revealing their primitive survival instinct.
And that's just one of many possible dystopic nightmare scenarios the album may provide mental associations of.

Denouncement Pyre invites the listener to almost 50 minutes of sturdy perilous atmospheres, presented through ten stunning tracks with good variety and skilled workmanship. That they succeeded so well is perhaps not all that surprising, given that the trio consists of experienced rascals from constellations such as Order of Orias and Nocturnal Graves.
I hereby recommend a journey into this harsh ethos of inhuman heartlessness.
Enjoy the trip: Denouncement Pyre - Black Sun Unbound.

An unsustainable development that threatens to destroy our shared planet and the future of our successors in particular.

The band plays a melodic form of extreme metal, where riffs and rhythms borrows from every extreme genre.
Black metal can be said to be dominant, but thrash and death is never far away.

With two guitars, the riffing and melodies receives a lot of vitality, while the structuring offers non-stop variation. Hope Misery Death is a carousel that attempts to keep up with the vigorous mass-consumption of the western world. It spins till nausea comes crawling, and than the Asian economic growth hasn't even been taken into account.

The music's got negatively charged undertones, but is no more aggressive than for example Dissection. The song structures are good and the performance likewise, but still I'm not swept entirely off my feet of what is presented.
The music rolls a little too quickly out the other ear. Is it the music or my inflated expectations?

The music is good, certainly, but I probably had a bit too high expectations initially. I no longer remember exactly what expectations those were, and neither what were lost along the way. It's been more than a month since I first heard the album in its entirety, and even longer since I first discovered and felt a gravitational pull toward it after hearing the song Peregrine's Timbre on-line.
The songs are more than all right, but still not as spectacular as I had hoped for.
The band does a great effort, but presents no notable original antics. Are there too many similarities out there, am I saturated, perhaps picky, or is the approach of these Americans' just a little too toothless to sink their teeth and bite to the bone? I can't quite put my finger on it, because I like what I hear, while my most thrilling enthusiasm is only notable by its absence. I can “hear the hooks, but I can't feel them scratching me”.

At the same time, Hope Misery Death is a work that is more than alright to listen to, and that with its somewhat progressive arrangements, melodic approach, technically proficient appearance and adequate sound, should be able to appeal to a wide variety of metal fans.
If a melodic hybrid of death, thrash and black, without any specific flaws sounds tempting, I recommend you to dive deeper into the material for yourself. Pestifere has what it takes to strike someone in the middle of the sweet-spot.
The album might not have hit me bulls-eye, but I was still wounded by a fierce stray shot.

Hear for yourself: Pestifere - Hope Misery Death.

The press letter begins surprisingly modest, with the proclamation that the band again delivers an album rooted deeply in Orthodox Finnish black metal. It sounds almost understating, but a more nuanced descriptions and some obligatory bragging naturally occurs down the road.

The music also contains a bit more nuance than what I associate with typical Orthodox Finnish 90's black metal. Not to say that The Devil's Fire offers the deepest substance. Compared to what I mainly associate with Finnish Orthodox old school black metal, Baptism offers a lot of melody this time, as the band also did on the previous record, 2012's As the Darkness Enters. It is admittedly chilly, distanced and hostile melodies that Sargofagian swear to.

The album is well done, with plenty of eeriness and lots of sound spewing fort from hasty drumsticks, scorched plectrum and audible but not deafening bass. Although many an icy black metal piece of more necro art lay close to my frozen heart, I like bass in amounts like this, as it seasons and paints the atmosphere black without overdoing it. The aforementioned melodies is at the freezing point and drives the songs forward as liquid nitrogen. The frosty smoke creates a beautiful sight, and I thrive in this comfortless landscape.

On a semi-Orthodox northern European manner, these arrangements still sounds a little too familiar for my enthusiasm to go berserk, but the music is pleasing anyway, and I definitely don't mind quenching my thirst for misanthropic misery with these devilish flames. Whether the band's fifth album hits your spot, you can determine by spending some time with V: The Devil's Fire.
Elder material can be checked out on Bandcamp.