Blut Aus Nord at Myspace

In 2003 Blut Aus Nord released “The Work Which Transforms God” one of the most important black metal releases of this decade. With its icy and mechanical yet deeply occult and malevolent brand of industrial black metal they created a record that was perhaps as relevant to the 00’s as “A Blaze in the Northern sky” or “In the Nightside Eclipse” were to the 90’s. Their immediate follow up 2006’s “Mort” was an even more avant-garde step into the unknown and while it was more unique than “The Work Which Transforms God” it lacked that inhuman air of menace that made its predecessor the classic that it was.

2007’s “Odinist” is a move back towards Black Metal and ironically suffers from the exact opposite problem as “Mort”. Although the Black Metal on display is evil and foreboding to the vilest extremes it lacks the Industrial otherworldliness that made “The Work Which Transforms God” so unsettling and alien. It is a good album as even a flawed Blut Aus Nord record is better than 95% of the black metal records that have been realised in the past 12 months and indeed this decade but if you have had heard The Work Which Transforms God” then it frankly pales. It is still an extremely inventive and nonconformist Black Metal album that absolutely drips with a sinister and misanthropic ambience and is worth checking out. If you haven’t heard any Blut Aus Nord records to date however you would be advised to make The Work Which Transforms God” you’re starting point.

Nachtmystium at Myspace

Nachtmystium are the top American Black Metal band that is active today in the sense that they both apart from the pack and leading it. They were born with the depressive and hate filled persona that is now typical of American Black Metal but they went several steps further than most of their contemporaries with every subsequent release with “Assassins” their fourth and most recent album being the standout so far.

“Assassins” crackles with a vibrant sense of energy rarely seen in the top tier of American Black Metal yet retains the ambience of misanthropic loathing that is the hallmark of this regional scene. It also contains a dramatic sense of dynamism a quality often overlooked by their peers in favour of hypnotic repetitiveness. The influence of Psychedelica and Prog Rock also looms favourably with spacey Robert Fripp style solos and fizzling and bubbling Moogs being examples of this. The influence of Pink Floyd and Hawkwind is seen in spirit if not in body with the mind-bending free flowing but always recurring direction of the melodies on display here.

The lyrics are refreshingly direct and unpretentious yet like most USBM bands still evoke a general distaste for humanity and existence as concepts and yet there are also musical interludes with a deep emotional resonance such as the instrumental “Seasick Part I: Drowned at Dusk” and continuing with a saxophone solo on “Seasick Part II: Oceanborne” that’s sounds like its straight out of the seventies. This is a contender for record of the year, and I would certainly be surprised if any American black metal albums are released that are better in the next 6 months.

Skeletonwitch at Myspace

At my second look at a thrash revival trend I have decided to choose a blackened thrash band in the shape of Ohio’s Skeletonwitch and I have to say this is a band that makes me believe! On “Beyond the Permafrost” Skeletonwitch create 13 thrash tunes that would have been legendary if they had been let slip circa 1986. The riffs, leads and solos on here are all exemplary and the construction of the songs allows one ravaging torrent of guitar mastery to flow into another and create a headbanging fiesta where you won’t stop snapping your neck until the album is over.

Stylistically, Skeletonwitch take the most melodic elements from “In the Sign of Evil” era Sodom and early Bathory and mix them in with the bay area thrash sound and some vintage Immortal. The production by GWAR member Cory Smoot is a crucial part of this records success, with the crystal clear yet balls to the wall approach that he took amplifying this albums power tenfold. Vocalist Chance Garnett’s flexible but defiant Black Metal vocal style also helps to make this album a memorable and regular listen.

Skeletonwitch have a sound that is unmistakably their own rather than belonging to one of the 80’s greats. This is definitely one thrash revival band that can definitely hold their own with the big boys. Listen to the 2 and half minutes of “fire from the sky” and tell me you don’t have just the smallest urge to throw yourself around the room with abandon and with no sense of care. This is what thrash metal is all about my friends!

Goretorture at Myspace

I wanted to like this album, I really did. I hoped that it would have the same sense of goofy fun that Arnocorps had and that Austrian Death Machine lacked. I mean, I love brutal death metal, so what could be better than a brutal death metal album where every song has an Arnold Schwarzenegger sample? Plenty, that’s what.

The production is absolutely abysmal, as if I was hearing a performance that went through YouTube levels of compression. Normally, I don’t put much emphasis on production, but this album is just insanely muddy. I could have looked past that if the material was good, but all aspects are mediocre at best. The vocals don’t really stand out much and aren’t especially good, the guitars are fairly generic, and the drum machine is so badly programmed that I had to double-check to make sure that Lars Ulrich hadn’t guested on some tracks. And the humorous samples don’t really add as much as I had hoped; one song has an excruciatingly long three-minute sample that takes up half of the track.

If you’re curious about what Mortician would sound sound like if they were obsessed with Arnold Schwarzenegger films instead of horror movies, you might want to check this out. Everyone else should stay far away.

Primordial at myspace

Primordial cut their own path through the overgrown wasteland that is pagan metal that much is certain. Coming from the Dublin Black Metal scene in the late 90’s they have created their own unique take on a genre that is sadly succumbing to being a travelling freakshow for the Trivium generation. Where certain unnamed “pagan” acts like to frolic with comedy costumes and harebrained peons to “oh so metal” clichés older than the gods themselves, Primordial set out a deadly serious yet earnest and passionate direction for the genre to migrate towards.

There are no clichés on “to the nameless dead” and there is nothing (apart from the other Primordial albums) like this in metal but yet is also seems so straightforward and seemingly obvious now that someone has actually written an album in this style. Yes, it is true that Primordial’s roots can be found in Bathory’s Viking period, the best heavy metal albums of the 80’s and even the dreaded O word, but this is something that evolved beyond those past moment yet keeps in touch with the timeless spirit of the glory days of metal from the 70’s to the 90’s.

All the songs on this album run along at an atmospheric and foreboding mid-pace that allows for a sense of tension that like all good catharsis is in a definition a chore, but a glorious one that you will undertake time and time again. Each song is underpinned by a powerful melody that is melancholy, wistful, melodramatic and brimming with pride all at the same time without being pompous, hackneyed or dreary. Each riff and lead builds upon the central melody of the song and constructs a musical journey that both haunts you remorsefully, and stirs up dormant longings for a lawless yet passionate Europe that we will never fully understand.

Alan Nemtheanga’s unique vocal style also impacts positively upon the overall quality of this album. His clean vocals that are somehow reminiscent of Quorthon and Ian Astbury at the same time are immensely impressive in both their range, and Nemtheanga’s rendering of the passionate feelings that are found in his lyrics. Never has there been a vocalist in metal who could so persuade you to his point of view with a simple inflection or even just a few soaring notes. His Black Metal style rasp occasionally comes into play, and the interplay between his two styles is a joy to behold.

There’s only one word you can use to sum up Primordial; Passionate. This is metal that truly believes in the message behind the music, and has such conviction it can easily convince most learned metal connoisseur’s of that message too.