Angry Metal Guy

Wildernessking // The Writing of Gods in the Sand
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — Superb.
Label: Anthithetic Records
Website: wildernessking.bandcamp.com
Release Dates: February?

Time and time again, I have berated black metal as an institution. Partially because it is so institutionalized that it seems to have lost its teeth and inventiveness, and partially ’cause where it does seem to be advancing is into areas that I think are boring. So, I’m not exactly the guy who you should be looking to for your black metal needs (my flash in the pan status among the young and hip is evidence enough of that). I require things to not suck move a little faster, have a little more action and not be generally cliché and irritating. Wildernessking (formerly known as Heathens and hailing from South Africa) is all of these things, while not falling into the clichés of a scene past its prime. While the band has moved on a bit from the black n’ roll origins of their first demo Oh, Mock the Heavens and Let the Heathens Sing, they offer up with their new full length The Writing of Gods in the Sand, a remarkable slab of inventive black metal, whatever way you want to slice it. Continue reading

Okay, I’m just going to come right out and say it. Black metal as a genre has stagnated and become very boring. While that inevitably happens to every musical genre (power metal has had it bad for about six years), with this particular style it seems far more pronounced and chronic. Although I’ve appreciated the scene and sound from its earliest origins (as a Bathory fan in the 80′s) and essentially grown up alongside the genre, the past year has seen things run into the creative wall and slowly slide into a morass of tedium and lethargy. Be it the symphonic or the raw and primitive, very few bands are doing anything new, interesting or compelling (even the new Agalloch felt samey and safe). While some solid albums surfaced in 2011,they feel increasingly rare and even those offered little in the way of innovation or originality. Obviously, of all the subgenres of metal, black metal is the most rigid, inflexible and laden with rules and expectations of scene orthodoxy. Throw a saxophone solo on a power metal album, it may be daring and ballsy. Try that on a black metal album and you’ll be burned in effigy across Norway (and parts of New York). Continue reading

Aurvandil // Yearning
Rating: 4.0/5.0 —May the Norse be with you
Label: Eisenwald Records
Websites: loomofthevoid.net/aurvandil/
Release Dates:  Out now!

Steel Druhm has become increasingly disillusioned with black metal over the past year or two. Apparently I’ve reached the saturation point where all the Dimmu Borgir wannabes started to sound just like all the Emperor wannabes and so on ad nauseum. There’s a clear stagnation in the scene and only the best are able to rise above the fetid swamps of mediocrity. Thankfully, into this dark morass comes a beacon of light by the name of Aurvandil with their debut Yearning. Hailing from France, Aurvandril is the brainchild and creation of founder and sole performer Aurvandil (although he apparently used a session drummer here). Mr. A is deeply entrenched in the traditional sounds and ethos of Norwegian blackness and Yearning freely references the great works of Burzum, Emperor and Enslaved while also offering a refreshing take on what came before. Its clearly a sound and style rooted in the 90′s but for whatever reason, the execution feels fresh, engaging and highly impressive. Equal parts punishing and beautifully melodic, it has a sweeping, epic atmosphere that one can’t help but appreciate. It’s good enough to partially offset my black metal malaise so he/they must be doing something right! Continue reading

Byfrost //Of Death
Rating: 3.0/5.0 —Abbath Jr. stays close to home
Label: AFM Records
Websites: myspace.com/byfrostmetal
Release Dates: Out now!

One of my favorite albums from 2010 was Black Earth by obscure Norwegian black thrashers Byfrost. Hailing from the very same town as the mighty Immortal, it was hardly surprising they borrowed heavily from their better known neighbors for the musical direction of their debut. Although it was shamelessly derivative of Abbath and Co., it was also highly enjoyable blackened thrash loaded with vicious, razor sharp riffing. Since I had such a good time with that debut, I was obviously expecting good things from their second crusade Of Death. I would even say it was one of the most anticipated releases on my list for this year. Now that I’ve had some time with Of Death, my first reaction is that of disappointment. Perhaps my expectations were too high and while the music here is good indeed, its not up to the standards set by Black Earth. There’s a strange sense of musical ambivalence that overcomes me during some of the material and it feels like they lost their magic touch at times during the writing sessions for this album. Now, before you get the idea this is a bad album, it isn’t at all. There’s a lot of solid, heavy, ugly thrash with a pronounced black metal vibe to be found on Of Death. It’s just not quite as good as I hoped it would be after such a rabble-rousing debut opus. That damn sophomore jinx strikes again! Continue reading

After Steel Druhm’s fine addition to this discussion about awesome metal songs, here’s the continuation of my ridiculously superior list. No need for a rant. Just jump right on into the joy contained below. Here’s the first one.

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Moonsorrow // Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa
Rating: 5.0/5.0 — A Masterpiece
Label: Spinefarm
Websites: moonsorrow.com | myspace.com/moonsorrow
Release Dates: UK: 21.02.2011 | EU: 28.02.2011 | USA: Unknown

Moonsorrow is one of the few bands I can think of that no one I know doesn’t like. They seem to unite all fans of underground metal because of their amazing music and authenticity. Let’s face it, a band who writes 15 minute dirges in their native, and arguably alien, tongue doesn’t want for authenticity. Only a few other bands I can think of, like Primordial and Enslaved really have the respect of everyone in what they do. It’s like they’re playing on another plane of existence or something. That, predictably, raises expectations for new Moonsorrow records through the roof (to say the least). But unlike others, Moonsorrow never fails to deliver and Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa (Like Shadows we Walk through the Land of the Dead) is a monument to what atmospheric black metal should be like and to Moonsorrow‘s impeccable legacy. Continue reading

Helrunar // Sól
Rating: 4.5/5.0 — A double dose of ballsy blackness!
Label: Prophecy Productions
Websites: myspace.com/helrunarhorde
Release Dates: EU: 03.01.2011 | US: 02.08.2011

Well, we’re certainly off to a great start for black metal in this shiny new year. First we get a righteously good release from Belphegor and now the  unheralded German unit  Helrunar erupts from relative obscurity with a double album of masterfully grim, bleak blackness. Yep, you read that right, a DOUBLE ALBUM of massive black metal clocking in at ninety minutes! So, you might be asking, who do they think they are? How dare they release a double album? Well, the short answer is, they’re Helrunar and a whole lot more people are going to know them REAL soon because Sól is going to stamp them firmly on the black metal map. Continue reading

It’s hard to make this kind of broad list, I just want to say that from the get-go. How do you do this? Do you choose your favorites, or do you choose the genre defining records? Because saying, for example, that some of the following records are really genre defining wouldn’t be true. On the other hand, these are the records that when I go back and look at the 2000s I think of pretty immediately as some of the best stuff and the things that I keep coming back to.

But the 2000s have been an interesting time for metal in a lot of ways. One of the things that happened was that death metal and death metal-influenced music really hit the mainstream in a lot of ways. For the first time since the 1980s there were larger groups of young people who really started getting into metal and there is an entire generation of musicians who have been influenced by the heavy metal of the 80s and the underground of the 1990s (particularly black and death metal). While I believe that metal is on the ebb again (in a popular music sense) and will once again retreat underground to lick its wounds and come up with something fascinating, interesting and new, the 2000s have been a great time to be a fan of the genre.

This list is going to take a lot of hits. I can already hear some of them, and some of them will come out of left field. But, as usual, I refuse to apologize for my taste. The focus on “magazine metal” bands will probably irritate some, and others will argue that my choices from one genre or another aren’t representative of the best of that genre during the period (specifically death metal in this case). But when I look back on the last 9 years, these are the ones that stand out. And trust me, there’s some stuff that I wish I could get on there, but I didn’t include an honorable mentions section since I expanded the list to 15. But there are some amazing records (Moonsorrow‘s Hävitetty, Anata‘s Under a Stone with No Inscription and The Conductor’s Departure, Agalloch‘s The Mantle, Turisas‘ The Varangian Way, Necrophagist‘s Epitaph, Ásmegin‘s Hin Vordende Sod & Sø, Absu‘s Tara, Rhapsody‘s Power of the Dragonflame, Anathema‘s A Fine Day to Exit, Nile‘s Black Seeds of Vengeance, Otyg‘s Sagovindars Boning, Obscura‘s Cosmogenesis, Watain‘s Sworn to the Dark, Akercocke‘s Antichrist, Enslaved‘s Below the Lights are just a few of my major oversights) that came out during this period that haven’t ended up on this list and I’m aware of that.

Anyway, I hope you find this list enjoyable, shocking, provocative and maybe even dead on. Backwards this time…

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Ahhh, my Immortal. Yeah, I love Immortal and I’m not afraid to admit it. Be it old Immortal, new Immortal, I love it all! I’m plenty keen on Abbath’s solo project I as well. Since Immortal and I can only record so much material and I always want more, I was happily surprised by the debut full length Black Earth from Norway’s own Byfrost (available on Painkiller Records). Hailing from the very same town as the mighty Immortal, Byfrost plays a style of blackened thrash so remarkably similar, that fans of the frigid ones can’t help but smile and thrash along.  The vocal style of Heavy Harms (winning name) is nearly identical to that of Abbath and the overall song structures and riffing styles will remind you of Immortal and I equally.

Tracks like “Black Earth” and “Night of Damnation” are top-notch blackened thrash tunes and so Immortal-esque in style and sound that it’s almost like a tribute band.  Massive copycatism aside, all the tracks on Black Earth are intense, well performed, heavy and energetic.  This is an extremely solid black/thrash album any way you slice it and even the great Ice Dale of Enslaved shows up to lend his guitar to “Desire.” Also of note is a stellar production that really helps the material hit home like a blockbuster bomb.

Is it original? Fuck no, but it’s so extremely well done and such pure headbanging fun from start to finish that you just won’t care.  This is definitely one of the top thrash albums of the year and should be heard.  If you simply can’t get enough Immortal in your life, you must listen to Byfrost. Did I mention it sounds a lot like Immortal?!

Highlight: “Horns to the Sky,” “Black Earth” and “Night of Damnation”

Enslaved // Axioma Ethica Odini
Rating: 4.0/5.0 — Great, but a bit forced…
Label: Indie Recordings (EU) | Nuclear Blast (US)
Websites: enslaved.no
Release Dates: EU: 27.09.2010 | US: 09.28.2010

It is not hard to accept one fundamental axiom of the post-black metal Norway that I have referred to recently: Enslaved is easily Norway’s finest band. From the beginning the band has always been strong; grown-ups in a room filled with angry teenagers. This sense has not lessened with the passage of time. While certain members of the scene will forever be singing their equivalent of Alice Cooper ridiculous teen hits as 45 year olds (or older, like the man himself), Enslaved will continue to push the boundaries of black metal with a mature and progressive sound. Starting with the release of Below the Lights in 2003, Enslaved has produced four modern classics of “progressive, psychedelic black metal.” The fourth of this string of amazing albums was Vertebrae, which was released in 2008 and landed the band a tour with Opeth as well as more recognition than they had ever received worldwide. And with good reason: it was the best record the band had written to date. Continue reading