Black Metal

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    Drünken Bastards – Horns of the Wasted (2010)

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    It’s been a while since we have heard a band be as effective in 20 minutes as the Drünken Bastards manage to be with “Horns of the Wasted”. With a brutal mixture of Thrash Metal with Punk elements and a few Black Metal hints here and there, the band does a great job in crafting small, concise, and effective songs that will rock you sideways.

    Release in the USA on Hell’s Headbandgers, “Horns of the Wasted” is a great blast in the past, when bands where still having fun and freely rocking out tunes that mashed up several genres and they did not give a shit if people liked them or not. The overall Punk influences are very high in this release, and in songs like “Alcoholic Big Tits” the band goes all-out Punk on us. But they quickly regain their Metal-form with their cover of Barbatos “Prophecy of the Evening Star”, a song that sounds extremely Heavy Metal for this album.

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    The Royal Arch Blaspheme – The Royal Arch Blaspheme (2010)

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    With J. Gelso composing the music and N. Imperial on vocals, The Royal Arch Blaspheme is ready to torture our soul and ears with their Blackened Death Metal sound. With such a promising line-up, the band knows what old school Black Metal fans like: raw and unceasing attacks of brutality and dissonance.

    With such a foul sound, The Royal Arch Blaspheme delivers 10 tracks of total blasphemy and destruction. While this self-titled album is nothing close to a revelation or re-invention of the genre, it is very direct and effective in creating thick guitar-woven atmospheres that are greatly adorned by Imperial’s hellish screams.

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    Profanatica – Disgusting Blasphemies Against God (2010)

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    As one of the most ‘anticipated’ records of 2010, “Disgusting Blasphemies Against God”  is all that the band and the label promises it to be. The album is raw, barbaric, filthy, dissonant, blasphemous, etc., however, we fail to see the point in how the lyrics and song names are crafted. We have nothing against the crushing and extremely raw and harsh music, the problem we have is with the idiotic lyrics and song titles. One thing is to be ‘kvult’ and another is to sound like a retarded 5 year-old, with songs like “Angel with Cock”, “Covered in Black Shit”, and “Smashing Religious Fucking Statues” the band sounds like a bad joke written by the kids from South Park.

    We completely understand the anti-religion ideology behind the band, but when things are taken down this low, the whole point is missed and it ends up being laughable. With such idiotic ramblings we think that this takes credibility away from other bands of the genre that are actually EDUCATING themselves and being anti-religion/Satanic in a smart way.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Inquisition – Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult (2010)

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    Thanks to Hell’s Headbangers now many people can rejoice with Inquisition’s ultra Satanic masterpiece of Black Metal. “Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult” should be in every self-respecting Black Metal-head top 10 list of all times. Hailing from Colombia, this is one of the bands that took a different approach to raw low-fi Black Metal and made it sound fresh and interesting (back in 1998).

    With their characteristically mournful and almost spoken vocals, the band managed to infuse the genre with that extra level of creepiness unlike anybody else was doing at the time. In this re-mastered re-release of the album we can hear everything 10 times more clearly than before, and this re-mastering is done in such a way that you still get the low-fi production values with added clarity creating a very effective mix.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Chaossworn – Chalice of Black Flames (2010)

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    Formed under the moniker of Creeping Death, the band changed names to Chaossworn in 2009. As a promising but underachieving band they released 3 demos and 1 EP before changing names, now with “Chalice of Black Flames” the band is unleashing three powerful songs of pure chaotic Swedish Death/Black Metal.

    If you love bands like Dissection, Einherjer and Naglfar, then you will love what Chaossworn brings to the table in this short but sweet EP. While some people might argue that ‘there is nothing new’ presented in “Chalice of Black Flames”, but there is nothing wrong about ‘similar but good’. Because of the lack of releases that feature this Swedish Death/Black sound, we think that Chaossworn deserves a chance in the spotlight since their music is spot on in every single level.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Armagedda – I Am (2010)

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    For fans of the now defunct cult Black Metal band Armagedda, Eisenwald/Nordvis is releasing a lost recording of 2001-2002. The band dissolved after their epic “Ond Spiritism: Djæfvulens Skalder” and with this EP we get another little glimpse into the band’s hate fueled Black Metal rawness.

    During the 24 minutes of music in “I Am”, the listener is transported to Armagedda’s cold and grim parallel world that sparks hatred and destruction. Fueled with grim ‘traditional’ riffing, and mournful rasps of pain, you will be brought to your knees by these powerful songs. And after the CD is over, you will find yourself playing it over and over again, just to relive the whole experience once more.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Blood of Kingu – Sun in the House of the Scorpio (2010)

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    Being a side project from members of Ukrainian underground legends Hate Forest and Drudkh, we expected a very atmospheric and epically raw Black Metal album that would be worthy of Roman Saenko. However, in “Sun in the House of the Scorpio” we get a mixed bag of raw and aggressive Black Metal that is much unlike Hate Forest and Drudkh.

    Yes, Blood of Kingu is brutal and aggressive but the atmospheric elements are highly inconsistent. We sometimes get some interesting atmospheric elements in the way of chants on songs like “Incantation of He Who Sleeps” but they are usually drowned by the dullness of the riffing. The rest of the songs also feature nice highlights but they all get killed by the overall dullness behind the music.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Thy Disease – Anshur-Za (2009)

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    With a very unconventional sound today we have Thy Disease, a Polish band that will surely turn heads when you are blasting this release through your car stereo or out in your back yard. Starting off a second place finish in Poland’s “Metal Millennium Party” back in 1999, Thy Disease has released 5 full-length albums in over 10 years and it’s finally making its way to America through Armoury Records.

    With a very rich mixture of elements in their music, Thy Disease will surely make an impact as one of the bands with one of the most interesting styles in the Metal scene these days. In “Anshur-Za”, the band combines Death/Black Metal elements with some Industrial/Electronic sounds and some interesting chorus sections (featuring clean vocals) that will surely make you scratch your head more than one.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Yaotl Mictlan – Dentro del Manto Gris de Chaac (2010)

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    Yaotl Mictlan has always been one of the most interesting bands that we have ever heard to come out of Mexico. With a mixture of indigenous Aztec and Mayan elements, the band crafts their Death/Black Metal with a ‘folk-ish’ aspect, but the end result is something that you wouldn’t expect. The band’s sound is indeed very heavy and just uses these elements to highlight parts of their songs, not to revolve around them.

    In these days, every band out there has to have a gimmick in order to be successful (or have ridiculously good musicians), and Yaotl Mictlan’s indigenous gimmick is what actually makes them stand out from countless average Death/Black Metal bands in the world. However, this gimmick is not just for show purposes since the band spends quite a good deal of effort to make their lyrics historically relevant and incorporate part of their heritage into their music.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Lustre – A Glimpse of Glory (2010)

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    Hailing from Sweden, Lustre (one man band) brings us his second full-length release with “A Glimpse of Glory”. Mixing Ambient elements with the raw beauty of Atmospheric Black Metal, we get a very solid release that instantly became one of our top 10 releases of 2010 so far. During the 40 minutes of “A Glimpse of Glory”, Lustre reminded us of bands such as Enid, Blut aus Nord, Velvet Cacoon, etc. combined with the ethereal nature of artists like raison d'être and Robert Rich.

    Each of the three tracks found in “A Glimpse of Glory” focuses more in creating a very enthralling atmosphere than on the ‘Black Metal’ aspect of things. There are distorted guitars through most of the album (two thirds maybe), but there is only a little section (on track one) that has harsh BM screams. We didn’t even care if anybody was singing since each song crafts a mysterious atmosphere that gave us chills while listening to them at night.

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