“It’s no big revelation to state that music doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so in the spirit of spicing things up and non-sequitur literary devices, let’s talk hamburgers.” Hope you like yours dead, blackened and from the 80s or you’re going to leave hungry.
Immortal
Xul – Extinction Necromance Review
“What a quizzical title. Are we black-magicking people to extinction? Are we performing witchcraft with those species already extinct? Are we fondling the Raphus cucullatus in our quasi-orgasmic reverence and spell utterance? Only Xul knows.” More blackened death. Is that too much blackened death?
Frosthelm – The Endless Winter Review
“I fucking love black-thrash, and if you don’t then I’m sorry about your inferior taste. My latest sample of the genre comes from Frosthelm, hailing from Minot, North Dakota of all places (coincidentally the same town as Ghost Bath – in case anyone still thought they were Chinese). Frosthelm are a quartet of self-confessed Dungeons & Dragons nerds who claim influences as broad as Metallica, Naglfar, and Dissection.” Put some Dakota in your dungeon and see how that suits ya!
Kjeld – Skym Review
“When further listening to Skym and reading everything the good folks at Hammerheart sent our way about Kjeld, I was surprised. Not in the “huh, neat” way, but in Keanu Reeves’ infamous “whoa” way.” We didn’t see this one coming.
Darkest Era – Severance Review
“Sometimes an album hits you just right and the only words that really seem to fit are “convincing, authentic and WOW.” That’s exactly what happened to me upon spinning Darkest Era’s latest opus Severance. Though this Irish epic metal act was hitherto unknown to me, their cunning mixture of Primordial, doom and black metal instantly knocked me for a loop and now I’m a loyal convert to the cause (read as fanboy). ” Looks like the normally cranky Steel Druhm is over the Gaelic moon for this one.
Graveborne – Through the Window of the Night Review
“To kick off 2014 there really is no more fitting genre to review than black metal. Why? Because it’s proof that absolutely nothing ever changes. In fact it’s almost a sign that the apocalypse most certainly is not nigh; the wind still blows, the trees still grow and black metal bands still wear bullet belts and corpse paint. But at some point as a community of metalheads we simply have to pull the wool from our eyes and admit to ourselves that there is absolutely no purpose to bands like Graveborne any more….” Noctus returns with a whole lot of angry and some lessons for our black metal brethren! Don the asbestos suit, Noctus!
Inquisition – Obscure Verses for the Multiverse Review
This post was removed due to Dagon’s involvement in a number of explicitly Nazi projects and events. If you were unaware of this, now you know. Armed with that information, I encourage you to not support Inquisition or any Nazi band. The reason this is important is because financial support for Neo-Nazi groups often comes via the white power punk and metal music scenes and, therefore, cutting off financial support to these bands may be a meaningful way to counteract the ability to organize.
Weapon – Embers and Revelations Review
Steel Druhm has a sordid history of black metal bashing. Now he turns his bitter attention to the new opus by Weapon. Will Embers and Revelations avoid his typical blackened butt spankery? They better hope so; the man has an iron hand.
Rumpelstiltskin Grinder – Ghostmaker review
F.A.G. is as sick and tired of retro thrash as he is of typing out “Rumpelstiltskin.” Luckily, he likes the album or the extra F-bombs would get us tossed of the interwebs.
Asphyx – Deathhammer Review
In the opening stanza of the title track, legendary death gurgler Martin Van Drunen proudly proclaims “This is true death metal, you bastards!” Well, Mr. Drunen, you had me at “this.”