1. Human Fate - Part 1 Reissue

LABEL
Dooweet Records
AVDIO
Myspace
GRADE
89%

Lets widen our views a bit with the first review of the month. The release in question is the french experimental metal group Human Fate and their update first opus. Its an album that stuck to me like world spreading diseases. I got really hooked on the middle eastern and balkan folk music you could find on this intellectual album.

Every song are like a rare delicacy to my ears with a smooth aftertaste of brilliance. Both in the song construction and execution. Maybe not for everybody, but are you a little bit adventurous with your music, give it a shoot. 

28. Barrowlands - Thane

LABEL
Self-released
AVDIO
Bandcamp
GRADE
89%

Todays band is yet another black metal band, but this ain't your common out-in-the-forest BM, no its far more complex than so. It may sound like just any band on the surface, but if you dig under the rotten roots you'll find some great musicality and deafening progressive music that flows like a rippling stream.

It speaks to both parts of the mind that want atmosphere and a higher consciousness to the music. And the use of cello in the music, its like a mood setting gift from down below to the music. 

23. Tellusian - Collision

LABEL
Pillowscars
AVDIO
Bandcamp
GRADE
90%

Are you in the mood from something complex and mind bending? If so, the debut album from the swedish progressive what-the-fuck-you-call-it quartet will feed your desire. Its technical and so fucking mind boggling that my brain almost comes to a total meltdown.

Its a short journey lasting only 25 minutes, but its such an extremely intense, brilljant and motley way that the ears and mind are as pleased as they can get when the last track takes its final complicated basslines.

Hail Spirit Noir - Oi Magoi

Tonights review is about yet another band from Greece, one can almost think that I'm sponsored by the country, but to be honest, they really have delivered some great fucking releases lately. The album itself is one of the weirdest schizophrenic pieces of art that ever have been digested by my ears. It sounds like if Pink Floyd would have decided to play BM on an LSD psychosis. Its so fucking sick and a bloody delight for the most twisted of minds. You can obvious here a lot of psychedelic rock influences in the music (or is it vice versa, BM influences in the psy rock?!?) with the excellent and sparingly distorted guitars that my as well have been retrieved from an cannabis clouded seventies. Ad that together with the sickly groovy bass and an organ played like it where from another astral plane. It also contains some clean singing, but I don't have any problem with it here, I actually like it a fucking lot!!! It fits the progressive music of the album perfectly, it don't feel like its just have been thrown in for the sake of it, no, it just enhances the experience a lot. It feels like every little mad detail on the album is well thought through, its all done in such beautiful mental way. Every second of the album begs your senses to be awake and expect the unexpectable. Its an shockingly groovy and experimental acid trip that are fertile for the mind. Must not be missed!!!

10/11

Listen here

Buy it here

Aenaon - Extance

Oh what a schizophrenic creation, I fucking love it, and it almost gives me an mental overload!!! This little disc of madness is packed to the max with different genres and influences, it all goes together like the sugar cube melting on top of a shot absinth. They are both Avant-Garde, black'n'rolling and jazzy combined in the chaos ridden head of a madman. And best of all, they have some saxophone on the recording, I must confess, I'm a fucking sucker for saxophone (no I'm not ironic)!!! And top that with a organ, piano and harmonica played in a psychiatric ward, its fucking beautiful madness. Its both genius and absurd, I can't name all the influences you could find in this bottomless fusion soup with the tentacles pointing in all directions. The recording have so many elements so your never know what's coming up next, they give the term progressive a new meaning with this opus. But its not all praises, there are a little bit too much clean vocals for my taste, its not much, but it would have been better to just skip that and had some manic chanting instead, but thats just a minor complaint, overall its a solid experience. Its an album thats hard to explain in simple words, its as complex as the neurone system and you really have to listen to it yourself to completely understand it.

9/11

Listen to them here:

Buy it here:
http://aenaonstore.bigcartel.com/

You may also appreciate:

Nevaloth - The Antagonist

3 FAST REVIEWS Incandescence, Slutvomit, Bornholm

Incandescence - Abstractionnisme

This is an interesting and fairly artistic release from this Canadian duo. Its kind of arty in its approach, and as usual takes some time to get in to when you're dealing with this kind of style. But on the positive side are there a lot to explore here in the misty shades of the unknown path. There are some good musical qualities here too, with influences from far and wild, you can even find some jazz inspired parts. What's bad then?!? I don't get any real enjoyment out of this, but hey! maybe its just me?!? Check out this dreamlike release.

Incandescence – Abstractionnisme

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Slutvomit - Swarming Darkness

Did anyone ask for some old school thrash and a Venom homage?!? For here you have exactly that!!! The ripping mad fast as cerberus jaws riffs are here, the classic thrashy vocals with the aggressivity are all here too. Everything is fast, rabid and insane to the maximum!!! This is a really pleasant hellride back to the time when Sodom were new on the scene and the thrash scene were just starting up. Don't miss this vomit of hellish great blackened thrash!!!

Slutvomit – Swarming Darkness

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Bornholm - Inexorable Defiance

I have seen this band popping up a lot lately on festivals and gigs alike. But then when I finally heard them for the first time I got surprised as hell! I thought they would sound old school in the vein of bands like Angantyr, I didn't expect it to be this melodic viking inspired stuff. I don't really know what to think about this stuff, sure it's played good and there are some good parts here and there, but it becomes too much as well. There are a big chunks of keyboard laying on everything like a decaying icing on a cake, underneath it, there aren't much of music to talk about, they rely too much on the keyboards to speak plainly. Maybe not for me, but some of you out there possible appreciate this kind of stuff?!?

Bornholm – Inexorable Defiance

REVIEW Desiderium - Sunless Meridian

The album starts of slowly with some laydback smooth guitars which brings forth a lot of Opeth wibes with the clean vocals and all. But then the curtains fall to reveal distorted guitars, screaming vocals and some great melancholic guitar harmony melodies. They really show of how to do progressive BM in a great way, without making it into a weird arty farty experience!!! They create this feeling of loneliness in an urban area, with rain pouring down on the dirty sidewalks, and the bright lights from the shops shining on you as your only friend on this bleak night. This record feels very realistic in a way and easy to take in, but in the same time diffuse around the edges and hard to grab. And thats the thing with this album, its the contrasts that make this so great, from the melodic clean vocals filled with emotions to the harsh screams of despair. There are both solitude and anger, serenity and rage! Its almost like drowning in the endless blue, first comes the panic, then the hopelessness, the realisation and finally the tranquillity. This magnificent creation brings some excellent guitar solos and melodies, a keyboard that are used in the right way, just to enhance the experience and set the right mood! They borrow a lot of influences throughout the genre and even explores the fields beyond the border to create this magical piece filled with emotions and wonderful melodies!!!

9/11

Best track: Thousand Year Winter

Check them out here:

http://domesticgenocide.bandcamp.com/album/desiderium-sunless-meridian

REVIEW Clad in Darkness - Decathect

I haven't heard anything from this band for a long time, not sense they were new to the scene, and I must say  that they have evolved in the right way. This is a concept album based on the novel "Ethan Frome", a book I definitely did not expect a BM band to write a whole album about!?! For you see the book (haven't read it however) do not contain anything particularly that you usually connect to BM, nothing more than that its winter in the story. But enough about the bloody book now!!! The winter theme fits perfectly now for the season with the snow covered hills outside, and it brings the feeling of bare tree branches and snowflakes falling down around you. Its a kind of cozy experience and you can hear that they have borrowed some stuff from early Ulver. As you probably understand, this is not a usual BM recording, its far more melodic and artistic with a lot of acoustic guitars, clean vocals and great musicality (another band that comes to mind is Opeth) from this Progressive black metal quintet. You hear a lot of somberness and thoughts has gone into this, and it has surely not been done in a haste, this is a real craftsmanship done from a winter afflicted oak!!!

8,5/11

Best track: Undulations

Check them out here: 

http://cladindarkness.bandcamp.com/album/decathect

REVIEW Devoted Iota Elusion - Reverence for Cruelty

I have some mixed feelings for this album, i really want to like this shit a lot. It has every potential to be an awesome album with good musical skills and a great atmosphere that you almost can take on. The album starts slowly with a quite long ambient intro that builds up to some classical BM riffs. But it quickly differs from any run of the mill black metal with the moodsetting keyboard in the background. It gets pretty diverse but still clings on the kind of riffs you are used too, and its easy to hear a lot of influences from bands like Burzum and Ulver here. The record brings me pictures of cobwebs covered in dewdrops with a thick fog that embraces the empty fields in the autumn dusk. And thats the best thing with this album, it generates vivid images in your brain filled with sombre solitude. But on the other hand aren't the clean vocals anything to cheer over, they are pretty lame and doesn't add that much to the album, but okey, the work. And the biggest thing, the record makes me quite sleepy if should be honest, some of the atmospheric passages are too long and almost makes me fall into dormancy, but that don't have to be a bad thing, not at all!!! Its a good fucking album to put on late at night to bring you to the right feeling and place to meet the darkness as your eyes closes. 

8,5/11

Best track: The Empyrean Heroine of Despondency and Tribulation

Check them out here:

http://devotediotaelusion.bandcamp.com/

REVIEW Carpe Noctem - In Terra Profugus

First thing first, don't get deceived by the banal name of this Icelandic band, the band is far fucking better than the unimaginative name. As a matter of fact they are fucking awesome, this album is like a gift from the chasm below (with maybe a little exaggeration). This is a real fucking marvel of technical BM that are an interesting wormride throughout the whole faulstinking album. They deliver unto us a ably and well played album that almost has a life on its own, with a lot of jazz influences to name a few. I might be a little too positive here now, but i fuckin love every tone that rings out from the sulphurous speakers. And it have the ability to stay interesting no matter how many times I hear it, its so complex, so nightmarish dreamy and terrible beautiful!!!

9,5/11

Best track: Ars Moriendi

Check them out here:

REVIEW Bloodmoon - Voidbound

This  album is a fuckin behemoth from the far beyond!!! Its heavy as shit, and hard digested like concrete. I had a real hard time to get a grip on this album, its a quite interesting listening experience I must say. From the chanting choir in the beginning on the album that starts of the beast title track Voidbound thats really the meat of this album.There are a lot of exciting ideas here but it ebbs easy out to plain boredom after a while. And there are a little too much of the doom metal spice here for my opinion, but if thats your shit, you probably like it. To conclude it, It is a rewarding journey for the musical part of your brain if you are in the right mood for some doomsday sounding stuff.

7/11

Best track: Voidbound

Check them out here:

http://bloodmoonslo.bandcamp.com/

REVIEW Castevet - Obsian

I must confess that I really didn't care much for this record the first times I heard it. I thought it was muddled, confusing and boring, but I can tell ya all, that its anything but fucking dull. Maybe it was the mood I were in, or a complete overload of the complexity of this album that I didn't get then. But this album bloody fuckin grows on you, big time!!! Anyhow am I delighted as hell that I finally understood this great craftsmanship of art. Its crammed with interesting ideas, guitar riffs and tempo changes that are pleasant both for the ear and mind throughout the whole record. From the beginning track "The Tower" to the last tune "The Seat of Severance" that incorporates clean vocals in a very good and moodful way and are a worthy end of this enthralling journey.

9/11

Best track: Fathomed by Beggars and Victims

Check them out here:

http://castevet.bandcamp.com/