Absence makes the heart grow fonder…
As you may have noticed, we played hookie but we shall return next week with Jake in tow and we will announce a new contributor!
Playlist… been spinning excessive amounts of Arhoslent and Drowning the Light for offsetting moods and atmospheres.
Please do keep the playlists coming! See ya next week. -Marty
Worm Gear 
Morbus Chron – Sweven
Cynic – Kindly Bent To Free Us
Death – Scream Bloody Gore
Bolt Thrower – Realm of Chaos
Primordial – Spirit The Earth Aflame
Burzum – Filosofem
Mercyful Fate – Melissa
Candlemass – Ancient Dreams
Grave Miasma – Odori Sepulcrorum
That’s some classy stuff you’re spinning Shawn! How’s that new Morbus Chron? Although it was nothing shocking I thought their previous album was very tasty.
Just posted my playlist in the recent post’s commments so, yeah…
Paradox – Tales of the Weird
Absu – The Sun of Tiphareth
Teitanblood – Death
Cara Neir – Portals to a Better, Dead World
Darkest Era – the Last Caress of Light
Primordial – To the Nameless Dead
Altar of Plagues – White Tomb
Sargeist – Feeding the Crawling Shadows
Fluisteraars – Dromers (NEW)
Månegarm – Havets Vargar
Dodsferd – The Parasitic Survival of the Human Race
Demons & Wizards – Demons & Wizards
Barbarian – Faith Extinguisher
Gravecode Nebula – Sempiternal Void
Tribulation – The Formulas of Death
Cara Neir – The Overwatch EP
Krigsgrav – Lux Capta Est
Chuck Ragan – Till Midnight
Woods of Ypres – Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light
Thrawsunblat – Wanderer on the Continent of Saplings
I – Between Two Worlds
Freek, I really like the new Morbus Chron. I’ve had it for over a couple weeks now and have been listening to it almost daily since. I have not heard their first album, but from what I understand this is quite the departure from it. I have heard the first album is mostly just old school death metal worship. Sweven is a very progressive forward thinking album IMO. One of my favorites of the year so far.
That indeed sounds like a big departure from the debut album style, will check it out! Thanks!
Zahler Playlist
DoomSword Resound the Horn
Ritual Widow
Ritual Valley of the Kings
Altars of Oblivion Grand Gesture of Defiance
Iron Maiden Iron Maiden
Manowar Lord of Steel (the new, far better 11 song version with 50% more screams and solos)
Manowar Thunder in the Sky
Ikben—thanks for posting Nuclearhammer— I’ll order that one and check it out in full. Rarely does something this simple work for me, but this sounds like it might. I’ve never gotten into Teitenblood, but this sounds like a better realization of the same premise. Also, I saw you mention ZZTop— the 70s were good for them, back when they had a lot more high pitched Dusty Hill vocals in the mix instead of like 90% Gibbons, though i like both. Good live act too. Tejas is my favorite album by them by far.
Re: NuclearHammer’s new release on NWN – yes, I can hear the attraction here. Even in its peak speeds and chaos, the music is discernible, which grabs me. This record sounds like a nice one to get lost in for an hour or so. I’ll be picking this up. Good call Freek.
Yes, it’s that good. Too bad we’ll have to wait till june 1st…
Re: ZZ Top – Great live act! My favorite release is this live CD/DVD I have called Live in Germany 1980, all the 70’s favorites in raw but good sound, just before they went downhill with El Loco. My favorite studio recording is by far Deguello. Production might be a bit slick but KILLER songs. Come to think of it, Tejas is the only one from this period I don’t have… Will fix that asap!
Playlist of last couple of days:
Aerosmith – Get Your Wings
Sabbat – Dreamweaver
Sabbat – History of a Time to Come
Skyclad – The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth (Martin Walkyer, metal’s first pagan man! I think those Sabbat albums deserve far more attention for the influence they must have been on black/pagan metal.)
Sepultura – Arise
Anthrax – Persistence of Time
Morbus Chron – Sleepers in the Rift
Morbid Flesh – Reborn in Death
Nuclearhammer – Obliteration Ritual (lives up to its title!)
…and a playlist of 70’s Alice Cooper on shuffle (Go to Hell!!!).
For our John Carpenter & Klaus Schulze lovers, you will LOVE this: http://unitblackflight.bandcamp.com/
Lovers of Kraftwerk and vintage Detroit electro/techno/all things Drexciyan (like me!) will love this too! Nice one Patrick!
Well, I suppose I’ll have to go listen to Kraftwerk and Drexciyan, cause I don’t know those and if you relate it to Unit Blackflight, it might just be up my alley as well.
Drexciya was a detroit duo making a very influential brand of electro, so the term “Drexciyan” was born to refer to any music that was influenced by them (and their various side projects; Dopplereffekt, Shifted Phases and some more I don’t know). Kraftwerk is a (pretty legendary) german group that started making all-electronic music in the early 70’s. Both can be seen as influential/related to UBF, but I’m not sure if you approach UBF from the metal/soundtrack perspective you’ll also like Kraftwerk or Drexciya; Drexciya was very much a product of the 80’s dance music scene in Detroit and Kraftwerk is essentially pop music. But you seem to have a very broad taste, so…
Check it out…
Ok, let’s see what we have here. I have been amassing tons of new stuff lately. In all honestly, it has been more than I can keep up with. As a result, I have not truly absorbed enough of it to accurately comment and/or ‘share’ yet. I shall leave these releases for discussion in the near future. (Oh, how I wish I could do music ‘full-time’).
For now, what I do know …
Spinning lately:
Bagatur – Skazanie Za Drevnobulgarskoto Velichie
Bulgarian heathenism, conveyed by means of lo-fi primitivism and swirling, ethereal keys. Light in tone, ephemeral, and enchanting … vocals rasp and settle like vaporous utterances of ancient wind spirits. Sound like a silly description? Sorry. Ha! That is just what I ‘hear’.
Speaking of ‘swirling’ … this leads me to another favorite I’ve pulled back out lately.
Parnassus – all
Much like the previously mentioned Bagatur, Mr. Soderlund excels (at least in my opinion) at the creation of ‘simple’ and powerfully atmospheric, ‘thin’ and ‘airy’ vehemence.
Vspolokh – all
They slay. Ancient wisdom, brought forth with heartfelt pride and enough genuine ‘depth’ to drown any opposition.
Nice build-up, then at 2:10 the flags unfurl.
If you dig these guys, you may also be interested to check out Smaga and feel “Perun’s Arrows”.
Excuse me for including such a non-metal selection, but prior mention of the primitive electronic workings by Kraftwerk inspired me to pull out an ‘electronic’ favorite of mine. Simple, layered, and arguably ‘danceable’; but in my opinion far from the mindless thump thumping of pure aggrotech. The vocals always get me. Hell, yes.
Otherwise, currently being spellbound and/or destroyed by:
Miasma – Changes
Riddle of Meander – End of All Life and Creation
Caducity – Whirler of Fate
The Hand of Doom – Poisonoise
Looking forward to checking out everyone else’s playlist.
Hails to you all!
Patrick…I really like the Unit Black Flight, thanks for posting. I don’t listen to electronic music like this very often, but I really enjoy it when I do. I need to spend more time exploring stuff like this.
Unearth…That Vspolokh tune was excellent. I have not heard of these guys but need to check them out.
Unearth— I ordered that Vspolokh. Sounds good, though I hope there isn’t too much mouth harp on the album. Never heard of this band before. Thanks. And Hand of Doom I probably listened to about 50 times. Here’s n review I have up for it—
http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/The_Hand_of_Doom/Poisonoise/73013/
and let me throw triarii this into the electronic pot, whose music is the only stuff i find as grand as summoning, though the production and samples are far more lush.
all of their albums are highly recommended, here’s why:
Wow, that Vspolokh track is beautiful!
Zahler, that is a great review of The Hand of Doom, thanks for sharing. Nice to see Triarii mentioned too! Cool stuff.
I have always liked L’Effete C’est Moi as well, with a slightly more medieval flavor.
Shawn and ikbenfreek, glad you liked the Vspolokh. I definitely enjoy what these guys are doing. They just released a new split recently too. Check the semi-related Smaga as well. It is a bit different, but embodies a lot of the same spirit.
Would love to chat some more, but work beckons for now.
Hails!
Vspolokh blows my mind… Just ordered Sorrow of the Past and the split with Vikhr. Plus on their label Purity through Fire’s webshop I found a bundle of almost all of Kroda’s excellent releases on offer…and I couldn’t refuse. Those damn Russkis… And I haven’t even checked out Smaga, Parnassusa and Bagatur yet! Damn you Unaerth… Thanks for bringing up the obscure pagan stuff!
Now playing:
Summoning – Dol Guldur
Earlier:
Negura Bunget – Om (pure magic!)
Vspolokh is great. I just purchased a digital download of Sorrow of the Past and the split with Vikhr today. I listened to Sorrow and was very impressed. I can reassure you Zahler that there is not too much mouth harp on the album haha. They use some other traditional instruments but the use is subtle and doesn’t bother me at all. I look forward to listening to this one more. Haven’t listened to the split yet. I also previewed a couple Smaga tracks and was impressed with them as well. I ordered their 2008 My Lands cd today. I checked metal archives and this was the only thing listed under their discography. Do you know if that is true Unearth? I hope there is more out there by them.
Mouth harp kicks ass! 😉
Shawn, where did you order that Smaga album?
Re: the New Morbid Chron; checked it out and I’m impressed but just not feeling it. I admire the huge step they’ve made but it somehow feels like they’re not there yet, as if the production, the riffs and the vocals don’t gel yet. Maybe it’s a slow grower for me.
Indeed, Zahler, I understand your concern about abundant mouth harp. Ha! Shawn is correct, they do not overdo it, thankfully. Very tastefully incorporated.
The last I heard, Smaga filled out its ranks to incorporate live drums etc, but has yet to release any newer material.
Both Div and Velemudr seem to be prioritizing Vspolokh at the moment; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I agree with you Shawn, and was hoping Smaga would have turned out to be more than just a building block for them. Hopefully they will return to the project at some point. I’ll see if I can get in touch with them to glean any info. I’ll report back if I find anything out.
The Vspolokh demo “The Dusk” is also worth snagging, even if it is slightly less developed. They also have another split coming up with Myrd etc, so keep an eye out.
Thanks for mentioning DoomSword too, Zahler. It reminded me to pick up some releases I had not snagged yet.
Hails to you all!
Ikbenfreek, I ended up finding a copy of it on ebay at a reasonable price. I looked around elsewhere first and had a hard time finding anything. It was the only copy of the ep listed on ebay at the time and it said “rare” in the descriptor so I thought I better snag that copy.
As far as Morbus Chron, I would give it a few listens first to see if you get into it more. It took me a few listens to fully appreciate it. I agree with you though, I think they have the potential to make a better album yet. I’m curious to see what direction in sound they decide to go after this album.
http://www.darkmoonzine.net/dmp/
This is the `zine that released the Smaga EP, check it out. Shawn, cancel that ebay buy, Dark Moon sells it for 5 euros including worldwide shipping!
…and for 1 euro more you also get Dark Moon ‘zine # 10! I just ordered, been a while since I had a paper ‘zine in my hands…
Nice…I wish I would have seen that before I placed my order. I will probably let my ebay purchase proceed since I already sent payment and I paid a little more than that but not so much where I feel I over paid.
Unaerth, yeah the Smaga stuff I heard was pretty impressive, so I was just surprised they only had a 4 song ep. Figured they would have pursued that project further, but it is understandable if they are focusing their efforts on Vspolokh.
For all those interested the Smaga ‘My Lands’ CD is also at Hells Headbangers for $7.00. Not sure how many are in stock…
http://www.themetaldetektor.com
Don’t leave home without it.