![Kampfar – Ofidians Manifest [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Kampfar-Ofidians-Manifest-01-768x768.jpg)
“I can’t remember the last time Kampfar disappointed me. Grier begins to count his fingers, evaluating every album the band has released since 1997. Oh, that’s right: never. ‘Why are you introducing a TYMHM this way?’ ‘Are you trying to freak me out or bury my hope?’ Maybe. But the real reason is that I’m a dick and I like to fuck with you all.” Honesty is a virtue.
“Since 2016’s Bogefod, Sarke has been on a steady incline that includes clean/acoustic guitars, interesting key work, and female vocals. In and around it all, they use aggressive Hellhammer/Celtic Frost moments, cold first-wave tremolo pickings, and plenty of slumbering sinisterness. Bogefod and its follow-up, Viige Urh, were fresh cuts that sounded like siblings born moments apart from one another. But where is Gastwerso’s branch on this family tree? Is it the birth of triplets or is this a xenomorph C-section?” Horrific lineage.
“Obliteration hail from Norway and boast an esteemed pedigree, garnering loads of underground cred and respect. Unfortunately I hadn’t heard of the band until recently and still have much catching up to do. But after listening to 2013’s Black Death Horizon I was impressed with their style. And with a name like Obliteration I expect some goddamn punishing, murky, blood and pus filled death. And in this regard, Obliteration certainly don’t disappoint.” Blood and pus for all.
“Growing up, I’ve been blessed with watching great matches over the years as they happened. Ric Flair vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat for the WCW Heavyweight title. Mankind vs. The Undertaker at the 1998 Hell in a Cell. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Bret “The Hitman” Hart at Wrestlemania 13, where both men did a double-turn. So you may be wondering why it is that I discuss historic matches in regards to Iskald’s fifth full-length, Innhøstinga. This entire album reminded me of another legendary wrestling match…” Grapple with the blackness.
“Blood Tsunami. Now, there’s a name I haven’t heard in some time. It’s not that they fell off the radar or anything. I mean, it’s only been five years since they released For faen!. But, I didn’t like that album. Not the first, second, or last time I heard it. So, I suppose, they kinda fell off my radar.” Radar is tracking a tsunami…of blood.
“I once jumped from the roof of my parents’ double-wide trailer with a cape/kite attached to my back and a four-foot plastic snow sled duct taped to my chest. No, I wasn’t drunk—I was ten. And, man, it hurt. Fast forward twenty-one years and you’ll find Father-of-the-Year Grier scaling a tree, scooting out along a solid cottonwood branch, and falling twenty feet atop a fence—my feet hitting the top strand as my face hit the ground. All because yours truly refused to hop the fence. And, guess what? It didn’t hurt at all. Because, yes, I was drunk. Those truths aside, I’ve never (fallen?) or thrown my soon-to-be corpse from a four-story building. But, I guess that separates Grier from Aura Noir’s Aggressor.” Norwegian black thrash, drunk with power.
“Well, the cold has begun to settle in. Which means dark, frigid, unforgiving black metal will soon permeate the air of the Grier home. You can expect nothing less than the raw, primitive output of old-school Mayhem, Darkthrone, Enslaved, and Celtic Frost. It’s the right metal for the right season. The kind that you can almost feel blow through the pines as you walk over the fallen needles. The kind ‘Where Cold Winds Blow’ ‘Under a Funeral Moon,’ just ‘(Beyond the) Northern Winds.’ It’s the time of the year where I find myself once again—burrowing under cottonwood leaves until the warm suns of spring arrive to dry them out. So, it’s only fitting that one of my favorite black metal vocalists is back with an October release.” Winterize your ears.
“Teloch is one busy dude. When he’s not busy touring with Myrkur or writing and playing guitar for Mayhem, the Norwegian guitarist juggles his seemingly-limitless time between NunFuckRitual, The Konsortium, and a handful of other bands. One of these bands happens to be Nidingr. It has been five long years since Greatest of Deceivers terrorized our eardrums, and the time is right for some fresh-out-of-the-oven blasphemy.” Hot upside-down cross buns for all!
“I’m no wine buff but if I ever feel the urge to get rat-arsed in an upper class, debonair sort of way, I usually plump for a bottle of something French. Why? Well, when it comes to the old grape juice, Pierre just seems to know his stuff. Wine is one of those products that carries with it a particular weight of expectation according to the country or region of the world from which it originates, and in this respect music is not all that different.” Nor-core is a thing?
![Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas – Mariner [Things You Might Have Missed 2016]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/cult-of-luna-julie-christmas-mariner-768x768.jpg)
“For me, the most compelling collaboration of 2016 was the transatlantic partnership of post-metal stalwarts Cult of Luna and post-hardcore siren Julie Christmas. Both acts on their own provoke ample curiosity — Cult of Luna for their orchestral post-metal machinations, and Christmas for her insanely talented and schizophrenic vocal acrobatics — but put them together and you have a recipe for something amazing.” It’s a post-Christmas miracle!
