“Wearing down, chafing, scraping, being eaten away and flaying; none of these situations sound particularly pleasant truth be told. But when you apply these same conditions across eight blasphemous anthems of pure black rage, you could very well say that suddenly the tables are turned. What wore you down before now pulls you like a magnet and taunts you to dig deeper into a bands discography.” Do you like the feel of chafing? Do you enjoy abrasive things? if so, Nidsang might be just your rub.
“Back in 2012 I reviewed Ragnarok’s Malediction and promptly fell hard for the band’s fifth vocalist – HansFyrste. His blend of Hell and damnation hit all the right spots with this AMG spokeswoman for all things “necro,” and naturally prompted me to go scrummaging around into his side projects.” When Madam X scrummages, black metal reviews get written. Read all about her latest bout of stalking and obsession.
“It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told.” “It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.” “Yes, it will, Precious, won’t it? It will get the hose!” Just like Buffalo Bill strutting his handiwork, Satan’s Wrath have returned full of, thrashy, blackened, Greek bombasity. They’ve recovered their Frankensteined Venom and Possessed skin-suits from the far reaches of their respective musty wardrobes and with the help of their trusty BeDazzler, they’ve given them a brand spanking new lease on life!” BeDazzled by the Devil? What else needs to be said about this homage to old school black/death/thrash and all things Venom and Possessed. Nothing!
“If an outbreak of evil’s what you’re after, raise your iron fist to this slab of sleazy, down and dirty Sodom worship! Not only is Slutvomit’s homage to mid-80’s era metal a throwback to the blackened speed metal served up by early Sodom and a few other bands of the era, but their band name could almost have been poached direct from Obsessed by Cruelty.” It’s easy to love shameless Sodom worship, because Sodom is so damn loveable! But can it charm the fickle Mistress known as Madam X?
“Alright, so unless you live under a rock, by now you MUST have an inkling that Watain have carved another notch to their bullet belts with their fifth studio release — The Wild Hunt. This attractively adorned album (depicting the spoils of a lengthy musical journey) hit the shelves a few days back with all the usual hype and aggrandizement one would expect of a Watain album, released through their own label His Master’s Noise (under the umbrella of Century Media Records). Following on from their well received opus of 2010 (check out how Angry Metal Guy weighed in on Lawless Darkness here), The Wild Hunt sees Watain beefing up their orthodox brand of black metal, showing the middle finger to the dictators of the world and borrowing from a feast of decidedly odd influences. So what of it, have these gents from Sweden’s Uppsala, who cite the influence of Bathory and Dissection among others, delivered the goods.” Madam X breaks down the new Watain record The Wild Hunt. What does she think? The world may never know!
“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.
“Talk about stereotypes. Let me provide you with the keywords: Swedish, death, metal, riffs. You get the picture: forty minutes of carefully packed distortions and growls to dance the night away, while remembering the good old days. Days when the underground was a truly transnational parallel world (trust me: I’ve seen it) connecting the various scenes at a sub-level: one carefully avoided by the majors, the media and almost all of your friends (the cool ones, at least).” Join Alex as he reminisces about the good old days, where death metal was … well… underground and uncool.
“After the tragic, but remarkably metal, death of their vocalist, Windir was laid to rest in 2004. From its ashes came Vreid (“wrath” in Norwegian), which barreled onto the scene, knocking ten tons of shit out of listeners with machine gun riffage, under the command of ex-Windir bassist Hváll. Vreid have a black metal flavor that bears more than a few striking similarities to the misanthropic, war and history flavored style of Windir. Outside of that, Vreid have riff-heavy, black ‘n roll similarities to the likes of Carpathian Forest, some of the attitude and energy of Borknagar’s Universal album and a blend of the rocking grooviness of Sepultura and the more traditional and melodic elements of Taake, Koldbrann, Ragnarok, and middle earth’s own Carach Angren.” With a list of comparisons like that, you’d think it wouldn’t be possible for Madam X to get angry about this…
We’ve really enjoyed having Madam X on board the H.M.S. AMG this year and we hope she keeps her necro, dominatrix self around for a good long time! Here are her thoughtful picks for Top Ten(ish) albums of 2012. Read and rejoice!
This post has been removed because it promoted Nazi or Nazi-adjacent metal bands or musicians. We apologize.
