Skitliv

Vous Autres – Sel de Pierre Review

By Dr. A.N. Grier on September 25, 2020 in Reviews, Black Metal, 28 comments

“Well, it’s been… a year? Seriously…? Wtf? It’s only been a fucking year since Vous Autres’ Champ du Sang landed in the cold, dark corner of my existence? I go back to that debut record like it was a genre-defying piece! A record washed away and only now rescued the forgotten past. Maybe it’s the fact that it feels aged yet relevant. Or because it has an energy and spontaneity of a band not held back by anyone or anything. A band that put it all out there, regardless of the consequences. A band that… OK, so that might be a bit dramatic. But, Champ du Sang is a fantastic record and one that still gets much praise from Madam X and myself to this day. So, when the French duo treaded through a cemetery of thick, black mud—its headstones, broken from the bright, industrial cracks of lightning—to hand-deliver Sel de Pierre into my cold hands, I… wept.” Gods of pain.

Caïna – Christ Clad in White Phosphorus Review

By Madam X on July 18, 2016 in 2016, Ambient Metal, Apocalyptic Witchcraft, Black Metal, English Metal, Reviews, Ambient Metal, Black Metal, 25 comments

“Dante Alighieri once said “The path to paradise begins in Hell.” Andy Curtis-Brignell and Laurence Taylor, the backbone of Caïna, hold these powerful words true and no album makes this more apparent than their new outing – Christ Clad in White Phosphorus.” If you’re going through Hell, keep going.

Omnium Gatherum – Grey Heavens Review

By Madam X on February 10, 2016 in 2016, Finnish Metal, Lifeforce Records, Melodic Death Metal, Reviews, Melodic Death Metal, 57 comments

“When great music flows from a band like water, it cranks up expectation to burning point. Your nerves tingle at the mere mention of a new official video. And your palms sweat a little as the band’s shiny new promo drops like manna into your outstretched, grabby hands. With so many full-bodied offerings under their belt, can Omnium Gatherum make a clean sweep giving themselves a mighty four out of four winning streak?” Grey is the new black.

Dodsferd – Wastes of Life Review

By Madam X on December 7, 2015 in 2015, Black Metal, Greek Metal, Moribund Records, Reviews, Black Metal, 32 comments

“Wastes of Life hit me at my most unprepared. Billed as “unapologetically defiant and shockingly melodic” including a statement from Wrath to the effect of “My new album is one of my most soul-destroying albums. It was written under feelings of frustration and disgust.” my expectations were high.” You know, there just aren’t enough soul-destroying albums out there these days.

Vaee Solis – Adversarial Light Review

By Madam X on August 15, 2015 in 2015, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Mordgrimm, Reviews, Signal Rex, Black Metal, Doom Metal, 20 comments

“Portugal’s Vaee Solis don’t have much experience administering slow tempo lashings steeped in thick doomy riffs, or for that matter, flogging you mercilessly with shrieks and snarls loaded with blackened ideology. It makes sense then that they’d turn to the guidance and creative output of seasoned veterans like Celtic Frost and Venom to light their path.” Whip it good!

Vardan – Winter Woods Review

By Madam X on June 16, 2015 in 2015, Black Metal, Italian Metal, Moribund Records, Reviews, Black Metal, 65 comments

“There’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. Imagine if Agalloch had released Pale Folklore, The Mantle and Ashes Against the Grain over a four-month period. These are all great albums and given time, you can appreciate every glorious nuance that makes them the timeless beauties they are. But over such a condensed period, crammed together, each vying for your attention, you appreciate absolutely nothing and eventually they gather dust. This is the problem that plagues the “busiest man in black metal.”” Enjoy of deep catalog.

Dodsferd – The Parasitic Survival of the Human Race Review

By Madam X on March 4, 2014 in 2014, Black Metal, Crust Punk, Greek Metal, Moribund Records, Reviews, Black Metal, Crust Punk, 6 comments

“”No rules and no respect for none!” These wrath-filled words of wisdom give me the impression this Greek band of misfits like their metal the same way that they take coffee, straight up, black and nasty as hell. I’m new to Dodsferd, but from what I can gleam on the interwebs, it’s the principle project of Wrath, frontman for the likes of Nadiwrath, Kampf, Grab and ex-Drunk Earth (now adopting the moniker NunOnBong!).” Greek black metal is so very…Greek. Madam X can tell you more.

Shining – 8 ½ – Feberdrömmar I Vaket Tillstånd Review

By Madam X on September 23, 2013 in 2013, Black Metal, Dark Essence Records, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, 4 comments

“I came across Shining for the first time while reading Angry Metal Guy’s Best Heavy Metal Songs of All Time back in 2011. Since then Kvarforth and his menagerie of Scandinavian black metal projects and collaborations (Shining, Skitliv, Diabolicum, Den Saakaldte and Bethlehem) have been a constant on my playlist. I’d go so far as to say that, were I to have some kind of guarantee that it would arrive on my sunny shores, I would absolutely order a copy of When Prozac No Longer Helps – hand numbered in Kvarforth’s blood of course!” Madam X and Kvarforth are clearly a match made by the Sid & Nancy Dating Service and/or Hell. Will love blossom once again or will the knives come out?

Teloch Vovin – I Review

By Madam X on June 28, 2013 in 2.5, 2013, American Metal, Black Metal, Reviews, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, 2 comments

“You know that scene in The Midnight Meat Train, just after the butcher’s death, the one where the conductor introduces Leon to those unholy reptilian creatures that live beneath New York City? Or maybe you’ll better remember it as the scene where Leon’s tongue is ripped straight from his mouth and he’s told, you’re it, you’re the next butcher! When I think of Teloch Vovin, that’s the first place my mind travels to. They’re also from the seedy underbelly of New York.” Madam X seems enthralled with New York’s seedy underworld… could it have been the lure of sacrificial blood that drew her, or was Teloch Vovin’s sticky, murky black metal the attraction? Maybe it was the smell of garbage and falafel.

A Transylvanian Funeral – Gorgos Goetia Review

By Madam X on March 16, 2013 in 1.5, 2013, American Metal, Black Metal, Norwegian Metal, Rating, Releases, Reviews, 0 comments

“When I think old-school, ’80s or early ’90s style black metal my mind naturally spirals through the rabbit hole landing squarely in the frozen planes of Norway to bands like Darkthrone and the rawness of Transylvanian Hunger or Mayhem’s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, my mind certainly doesn’t go bounding off like Alice into the dusty, critter infested, heat of Tucson Arizona. Nor, to be more precise, towards Sleepwalker and his one-man homage to Satan – A Transylvanian Funeral.” Madam X sat through 72 minutes of old school black metal and came out on the other side to tell you about it… Poor lady.