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    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Petrychor / Frozen Ocean – Autumn Bridges (2013)

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    Having released over 10 releases in the last two and a half years, the creativity keeps flowing for Russian’s one-man band Frozen Ocean. In this split with Petrychor, another excellent one-man project from the States, we get three powerful tracks of highly Atmospheric Black Metal that will surely make you want to find more material from each band and start enjoying their excellently crafted music.

    Opening with Petrychor’s “Tomorrow It Will Rain Over Bouville”, Tad Piecka treats us to a 133-minute piece of brilliant crafting that is both highly emotional and very powerful. Starting with a lush and slow intro section, the song quickly builds up to very melodic and straightforward Black Metal with a very dreamy atmospheric backdrop. The sharp vocals are excellent and provide an excellent contrast to the very mellow and melancholic feeling of the music. This track is anything but predictable and some of the acoustic/post-rockish passages are perfectly blended into the harsher and more brutal sections.

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    Sacrilegious Impalement – III: Lux Infera (2013)

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    Featuring members of Evil Angel and other Finnish BM outfits, today we have Sacrilegious Impalement and their crushing release “III: Lux Infera”. Pounding away at nine soul crushing tracks, this band’s Black Metal is pretty intense and expertly crafted. With an old-school vibe and a sense for savage riffs, this release is quite powerful and devastating, perfect for any fan of the genre looking for extreme war.

    The album opens with little room for fluff and cliché’s, “Angel Graves” immediately delivers waves of crushing riffs and pummeling vocals courtesy of Wrathprayer. The musical explosion continues with commanding tracks like “Down for Grim Lord” and “Scars for Scarred ones”, both punishing and relentless pieces of brutality. The band also does a great job in channeling their sheer aggression in melodic ways, with “For Sins of the Pigs” and “Through Punishing Gates” being great examples of this, filled with excellent drums, awesome guitar layering, and killer furious speed-ups.

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    Arceye – At First Light (2013)

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    Any album that has more than one wolf in the cover has the potential of being amazingly great or total shit. Luckily for us, “At First Light” is one hell of an interesting release spawning from the UK. Arceye delivers in their sophomore full-length album ten tracks of very intriguing Thrash infused Death Metal with hearty melodic elements. If you like dynamic music that keeps you guessing from start to finish, this is one release you don’t want to miss.

    The band starts pounding away with a very catchy melodic passage at the opening of the album title track. As the guitar solos appear we immediately see a 180 degree switch into old-school Thrash Metal in the vein of Kreator and similar bands. Tracks like “The Storm” have that cool modern Death Metal vibe with a retro flair to them, making the band quite versatile while retaining their own signature style.

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    Kingbathmat – Overcoming the Monster (2013)

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    Having already delivered one of the best Progressive Rock releases of 2013, UK’s Kingbathmat was not satisfied and decided to unleash “Overcoming the Monster” six months later. Featuring six intoxicating tracks of a very enjoyable mixture of Psychedelic and Progressive sounds, the band nicely improves over their earlier release (in 2013) with a more emotive and touching release. Any fan of Yes, King Crimson, and even Porcupine Tree should worship this release immediately.

    Determined distorted guitars lead the way on “Sentinel”, the opening track in this release. The band’s sound here is more Hard Rock and powerful than your average Prog outfit, however, this changes quite dramatically to a more typical Progressive style. The band’s ability to craft very simple, yet catchy sections is clearly highlighted in this very engaging track. After a few weird percussions, “Parasomnia” nicely warms up to a very Yes-like track that is filled with warm guitars and very playful keyboards. This song is one of the definite stand-outs of this release.

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    Goatess – Goatess (2013)

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    With a hard-hitting heaviness filled debut release, today we have Goatess and their self-titled offering. Delivering waves of fuzzy guitars painting traditional Doom Metal landscapes, this band grooviness is enough to make them immediately standout from the rest. Svart Records surprises us again with a very energetic and refreshing release that will rattle your speakers for weeks to come.

    In a similar vein to bands like Sleep and other Sludgy Doom Metal outfits, Goatess opens this release with the warm and fuzzy “Know Your Animal”. Focusing on incisive riffing and strange psychedelic elements, tracks like “Alpha Omega” sound weirdly familiar but catchy enough to enjoy more than a few times, hundreds of times to be precise. With Chritus Linderson (Saint Vitus, Count Raven) on vocals, this band has all the right ingredients to satisfy the legions of demanding fans of the genre.

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    Sombres Forêts - La Mort du Soleil (2013)

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    Beautifully adorned by Fursy Teyssier’s dramatic cover art, today we have Sombres Forêts and their third full-length ”La Mort du Soleil”. Being a one-man band, Annatar handles all instruments in this enigmatic Black Metal release. Heavily focusing on creating lush dissonant atmospheres, for over 50 minutes this release will transport you to dark and cavernous places.

    “Des Épaves” opens this release with a bleak atmosphere nicely complemented by acoustic guitars and a little taste of the madness to come as the first track bleeds into “Étrangleurs de Soleils”. This second track slowly builds up with hellish vocals and powerful guitars. All the elements in this track (and release) are very direct and emotive; the band focuses more on the raw power behind them rather overproducing them to polish them to perfection.

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    Gris – À l'Âme Enflammée, l'Äme Constellée... (2013)

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    As one of the most surprising releases of 2013, today we have Canada’s two-man project Gris and their sophomore release “À l'Âme Enflammée, l'Äme Constellée...”. This double CD album is filled with lush Neoclassical elements perfectly incorporated into moody Black Metal. Charged with emotive sections and a very dark atmosphere, this release will sneak up on you and catch you completely off-guard.

    The opening track “L’Aube”, greatly reminded us of Elend and their very dramatic instrumentation and chilling screams of desperation. “Les Forges” provides the first taste of the band’s excellent combination of classical string instruments with harsh Black Metal elements. In this 15-minute track the band goes back and forth between aggressive sections and lush instrumentation that makes the song very magical and totally unexpected.

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    Teratism – La Bas (2013)

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    Arriving in 12” LP format to Infernal Masquerade’s office, a rare thing these days, today we have USBM’s finest offering: Teratism, and their latest diabolical opus “La Bas”. In this four song EP we have Teratism at its finest delivering uncompromising diabolical Black Metal filled with sheer power and determination. Unlike many poser USBM releases, Teratism stays true to their calling and has managed to produce one fine piece of collectible vinyl with this one.

    Opening side A with a very dramatic and chaotically hellish intro to the track “Gospel of the Heliophobe” the band goes full blast in under a minute. Always characterized by the hellish riffing of Murder, and now ex-member Domitian, the band’s massive wall of devilish sound is instantly crafted. While never abusing of their raw power, they deliver solid and creepy atmospheric passages that will make you get goose bumps. Another stand-out element of this track is the piercing bass guitar line, courtesy of Giles de Rais, the band’s lyricist.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Spectral Lore / Mare Cognitum – Sol (2013)

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    Featuring two very interesting and intense one-man Atmospheric Black Metal bands, today we have the split release between Spectral Lore (Greece) and Mare Cognitum (USA) titled “Sol”. Out on I, Voidhanger Records, this powerful release features one very long track from each band, and a rather peculiar dual-composition song that mixes both of their atmospheric strengths in a very hypnotic song.

    Mare Cognitum does the honor of opening with a 29-minute epic titled “Sol Ouroboros”. This track nicely flows from the atmospheric intro into some very fast-paced and intense Black Metal sections. With all instruments, vocals, etc., handled by Jacob Buczarski, this band delivers quite an intricate dosage of moody BM that weaves back and forth between blistering speeds and atmospheric magic. There are some odd drone/noise-like sections here and there, only adding to the overall listening experience of this fine piece.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Astarium – Wyrm of Melancholy (2012)

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    Rounding up Astarium’s promo package, today we have “Wyrm of Melancholy”, the band’s 2012 full-length release originally self-released and then released by Metallic Media, which is the version we are reviewing. In this 55-minute epic, we get to hear SiN fully develop a full-length release that is quite cohesive and very effective. Having only reviewed short EP’s from the band, it is quite clear now that Astarium has more than enough depth to keep somebody engaged for almost an hour with this release.

    Instead of taking the traditional instrumental intro, “Unrelieved Solitude” opens up with some very creepy whispers and screams accompanied by distorted guitars. The atmospheric synths are again overpowering and very nicely set a creepy vibe. Having more ‘time limit’ freedom, the songs in this release are slower to develop, but always having very interesting and melancholic passages, like on “Kingdom of White Madness” and the minimalistic instrumental “Voices from the Night Sky”.

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