Israthoum / Chalice of Blood / Monte Penumbra / Half Visible Presence

| Ascetic Temples / Sacrament of Death / Downwards Deathmarch / One Is the Alignment of Shrines |
| LABEL | S.A.R.S. Productions | AVDIO | Bandcamp |

| Black Metal | A split that contains four  fascinating songs that takes you to cold caverns, blood dripping alters and the flaming pits of hell.

The fist track is the eminent band Israthoum contribution Ascetic Temple, which is a powerful song straight through. It has a huge coldness and strong will to it, but at the same time as barren as a mountain. The entire song exudes pure darkness.

Then we come to the second track, and the high point of the album, Chalice of Blood's Sacrament of Death. It's like the song has a life of its own. Chaos reigns with amazing blazing riffs, sharp as thousand knifes, a majestic underground production, and a maddening possessed voice . A primordial force that can not be stopped by any means!!!

Then we come to Half Visible Presence's song Downwards Deathmarch which is also the faintest song on the disc, but it is not bad in any way. It is a slow song with raspy vocals and guitars that sound like a dull knife against a stone. Pain and suffering for a higher cause. 

Monte Penumbra ends the disc with divinely dark and epic song One Is the Alignment of Shrines. It is an grand bombastic piece with suggestive tones. It wanders farther and farther down into the uncharted abyss. A perfect end to the split that takes you from cold caverns, blood dripping alters and the flaming pits of hell.

| EXECVTION   | 81 | COMPOSITION | 77 | 

| INNOVATION | 79  | PRODVCTION  | 80 |

| GRADE | 79

Evil spell, Ingurgitating Oblivion, Abstracter

| Evilspell - Necrology |
| LABEL | Black Side Records
| AVDIO | Youtube |

| Thrash/Black Metal | Old school Thrash Metal in the style of Slayers first album "Show No Mercy".

Simple fuck-you-up-the-ass thrash metal with the right attitude, faster than a biffed up chainsaw guitar riffs, infantile lyrics, high pitched screams and pure madness. 

| EXECVTION   | 73 | COMPOSITION | 65 | 

| INNOVATION | --  | PRODVCTION  | 76 |

| GRADE | 71

---

| Ingurgitating Oblivion - Continuum of Absence |
| LABEL | Willowtip Records 
| AVDIO | Bandcamp |

| Death Metal | A impressive piece of art which shows how technical death metal shall be played. 

An elegant creation with both subtlety and intelligence that creates masterpieces. The only thing holding it back is the substandard production.

| EXECVTION   | 90 | COMPOSITION | 87 | 

| INNOVATION | 86  | PRODVCTION  | 72 |

| GRADE | 84

---

| Abstracter - Wound Empire |
| LABEL | Vendetta Records
| AVDIO | Bandcamp |

| Crust/Sludge/Doom Metal | Dystopian views on a cold, cold, cold disc.

The album radiates hopelessness with gloomy melodies that slowly grinds forward and builds up a empty urban environment. It is a beautiful as it is dark och depressing. 

| EXECVTION   | 82 | COMPOSITION | 75 | 

| INNOVATION | 77  | PRODVCTION  | 89 |

| GRADE | 81

Vargsang - In the Mist of Night

| LABEL |

Obscure Abhorrence Productions

| AVDIO |

Bandcamp

| Black Metal | Vargsang is like an old institution, they deliver above average BM as a reliable as a clock. You always know what you get, and you will never be disappointed. 

The album delivers classical BM with all the bells and whistles that we have come to enjoy. The gritty guitar distortion, little bass and the more treble. Slow- to mid-tempo drum. That ugly and terrible, but so fitting voice. And to top it all of with some simple eerie keyboards in the background for atmosphere (Totally unnecessary if you ask me). 

The song structure is nothing new here, it is almost the same formula since the second wave BM. There are a number of songs that delivers pure BM as it should sound, without complicating it to much. It is just music that you know from the deep within that you appreciate.

It is all presented in a primitive lo-fi production as it should be. And that's what makes up most of the atmosphere and feeling of the album, the rawness, the simplicity and the primitive. You don't always have to invent the wheel over and over. Just listen to this album instead!!!

| EXECVTION	| 75	| COMPOSITION	| 73 |
| INNOVATION	| --	| PRODVCTION	| 82 |

| GRADE | 77 |

Thaw - Earth Ground

| LABEL |

Witching Hour Productions

| AVDIO |

Bandcamp

| Black Metal/Noise/Ambient | Thaw paints a murky landscape with a bizarre experimentation lust, and leaves you with a intoxicating poisonous aftertaste. 

The opus is so heavy that it feels like your ears is left with lead poisoning after a first listening.  Its real heaviness to every guitar riff, bass stroke and drum beat. The instruments feels so loud and massive in scale, like an old Soviet nuclear reactor or a large chemical factory.  

The guitars have a dirty distortion, with absolutely sick riffs  that are both sinister and mechanical, logical and illogical. The bass is extremely heavy and hums in the background like an old chugging engine. The choice to have a drum machine is absolutely perfect for this kind of music. That way you get out the cold, inhuman and mechanic feeling of the album. In order to have an additional dimension of the old, dirty and abandoned are they using various noises to obtain that right misanthropic feeling.

No song are the same, you never know what the next tone will contribute for follies. There are plenty of experimentation and exploration of the genre on the disc. There are riffs that is both static, and those that wander of in total madness and obscurity. The music has a tendency to sometimes go over to sludge metal, and I do not oppose that!

The Production on the album is perfect, it lets every little detail and noise shine and soil on their own, without making it a bloody mess of only white noise. It is an album that feels extremely toxic, like an contaminant. Let it contaminate your brain!!!

| EXECVTION	| 91	| COMPOSITION	| 89 |
| INNOVATION	| 93	| PRODVCTION	| 94 |

| GRADE | 92 |

31. Spectral Haze - I.E.V.: Transmutated Nebula Remains

| LABEL |

Soulseller Records

| AVDIO |

iTunes

| Psychedelic Doom Metal | Transport your mind far beyond the galaxies known to humans, through cosmic voids and the chaos that is the universe with the latest release from the maniacs of Spectral Haze.

You are in for a grand psychedelic ride that bends reality with its mindboggling riffs, its bombastic astral atmosphere and pure madness. The whole album has a strong seventies vibe to it, and all that it implies (weed?!?). The guitars has that cozy retro distortion (shitloads of it) with fuzzy riffs that flies wild like an comet tail. The bass are rumbles pleasant in the background and contributes a lot to the spacey atmosphere. And the we have the drums that beats down like heavy asteroids as they countdown the days of our existence.  The band also uses a theremin to enhance the feeling of space yet another notch.

The album rides on its occult astral atmosphere. It is both enthralling and a trip for the unconscious part of your mind.  I see a spectrum of colors, endless darkness and bight shining lights when I close my eyes and listen to the album.  It is an opus that must be experienced!!!

| EXECVTION	| 90	| COMPOSITION	| 86 |
| INNOVATION	| 92	| PRODVCTION	| 84 |

| GRADE | 88 |

30. Sivyj Yar - From the Dead Villages Darkness

LABEL
Avantgarde Music
AVDIO
Bandcamp
GRADE
90%

Pagan Black Metal. Do you want an album with a thick authentic atmosphere that you almost can smell and inhale? Then Sivyj Yars latest album is definitely something for you. The album has beautiful melodies from the olden days Russia that mediates both struggle and hope.

It has an extremely dark undertone to it that brings my mind to weathered old cabins, dilapidated and rotten from the inside. Pestilence and victory in the same opus. The album is all about the guitars building up this great atmosphere with simple means and still keeping it down to earth without making it pompous in any way. Together with an perfect agonizing voice from a far distance and quite clean production that lets every excellent element shine on this dirty masterpiece. 

29. Temple Of Void, The Furor, Black Autumn, The Howling Void

Temple Of Void  - Of Terror and the Supernatural	The Furor - Impending Revelation
Black Autumn - Losing the Sun	The Howling Void - Runa

Temple Of Void - Of Terror and the Supernatural Death/Doom Metal. An album that feels like an old abandon clock tower, watching you, counting the time you have left on this earth. Dark, heavy and mysterious with interesting guitar passages and a atmospheric voice. (Rain Without End Records) 82%

The Furor - Impending Revelation Black/Death Metal. The first comparison that comes to mind is maybe Emperor in a light format. It has a lot of good riffs, technicality and ideas, and is most highly enjoyable to listen to but something is missing. A lack of substance? 70%

Black Autumn - Losing the Sun Ambient Black/Doom Metal. Here we have some weird piece of art. It takes some unexpected twist and turns and delivers an journey of a lost madman, for good and bad. It is an interesting journey however to take through its strange ambient soundscapes to the harsh deafening riffs. (Rain Without End Records) 75%

The Howling Void - Runa Symphonic Funeral Doom. A record to listen to when till full moon is rising. It has a dark moody atmosphere, haunting doomy riffs that pierce through you ears, and makes the hair on you back stand in pleasure, or maybe in pain? It is for you to decide. An album filled with great atmosphere. (Avantgarde Music) 74%

(Click on the album covers to hear samples of the music)

28. Sedna - Sedna

LABEL
Drown Within Records
AVDIO
Bandcamp
GRADE
91%

Black/Sludge Metal. The band plays an excellent mix of BM and sludge that is mind-blowing. They create divine acoustic passages that slowly builds up to an impressive scene filled with chaos and suggestive narrative melodic undertones. The album has darkness with its granite heavy riffs. And light with the burning melodies that lights up the way throuh the album like torches. And in this beautiful weird void we find the immersive chantings from another plane, that together brings it all to another dimension. 

Sedna will transport you to another world, far beyond the stars and this reality. To a terrible, but yet so beautiful place, where chaos roams free and wild. Follow Sedna on their mysterious journey through dark passages, epic ancient wonders and barren wastelands. 

27. Pyre - Human Hecatomb

LABEL
Chaos Records
AVDIO
Bandcamp
GRADE
89%

Death Metal. Do you want something so rotten and vile that it will make your ears drip out puss and maggots? Than you should listen to Pyres first full-length release. It is gritty as a old cemetery gravel and heavy as  a fucking walrus corpse rotting away on an abandon oil platform, yeah you probably get the picture.

It is old school death metal right to the fucking bone marrow. Guitars that twist and turns like an dull knife against rancid flesh. Drums that smashes on like the meat hammer of an psychopathic maniac. Bass that rumbles like a boiling pot of intestines on an open flame. All that together with an massively meaty guitar distortion and a production from the depths of the of an unmarked grave. On of the best DM records I have heard in years. Strongly fucking recommend it!!!

26. Lebensnacht - Uudelleensyntynyt ikuiseen pimeyteen

LABEL
Naturmacht Productions
AVDIO
Bandcamp
GRADE
70%

Black Metal. Today we are offering the third album from the German one man band Lebensnacht, and with quite mixed emotions. He (Robert Brockmann) plays a kind of primitive BM with some ambient elements. It has an rough distortion and a minimalistic production to it. The album are played in classic mid-tempo with grinding guitars and some small simple keyboard arrangements to enhance the atmosphere.

The album starts of with the extremely Burzum odorous track Blutmeer that gets the highest point in my book, and my hope is set real high. But they don't deliver any more songs on the album that even get close to the feeling of that particular track, it is almost down hill with some highlights here and there. But just for that bloody song is this record wort a listening or two. Maybe you will appreciate the album more than me. 

25. Dying Out Flame, Northern Oak, Singularity, Toxoid

Dying Out Flame - Shiva Rudrastakam	Northern Oak - Of Roots and Flesh
Singularity - Singularity	Toxoid - Aurora Satanae

Dying Out Flame - Shiva Rudrastakam Hindu Death Metal. Technical DM from Nepal with loads of hindu influences in both the music and lyrics. Which results in an album that is both interesting melodies and has an occult atmosphere around it. (Xtreem Music) 78%

Northern Oak - Of Roots and Flesh Medieval Folk Metal. We rarely write about folk metal albums, but here we have one that is an great example how great a album in the genre can be. The album uses a lot of medieval instruments (made artificially), like flute for example to bring forth the feeling of the dark ages in i great way, without letting it turn to any jolly arm-dancing bullshit.   82%

Singularity - Singularity Technical Black Metal. Melodic BM done the right way without making it too big or bombastic. It is an cozy album with its nightfall melodies together with an quite desolate mood through out the whole album.  75%

Toxoid - Aurora Satanae Black Metal. Gritty pure fucking BM with a distortion that will make your ears bleed. Awesome sinister riffs combined with an production that screams simplicity and old school. Too bad the vocals are so shitty, but the rest is solid silver.  (Transcending Obscurity) 72%

(Click on the album covers to hear samples of the music)