Album Reviews

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Bahimiron - Southern Nihilizm (2008)

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    Bahimiron is a black metal band from the USA, and let me tell you that if I wouldn’t read this on the promo sleeve I would have never imagined it. Their musical style is pretty much and old school black metal, and while this band is not going to win any originality awards, their music is pretty good.

    The band hails from Texas, and they have some southern influence in their song names: “Pillz and 90 proof”, “Southern Nihilizm” and the pretty weird “War, Whiskey, Sodomy” which I still need to figure out the relationship between War, Whiskey and Sodomy.

    Like I previously mentioned, this band is not original by any means and it sounds like Gorgoroth, Horna, etc. But they are good at sounding like these bands, and that’s what makes them stand out from a bunch of shitty black metal bands that try too hard to sound like the previously mentioned bands but they fail miserably at it.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Arckanum – Antikosmos (2008)

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    This Swedish band unleashes upon us their 4th full length under the name of “Antikosmos”. This release presents almost no change since their great debut album “Fran Marder”. And this is not good in my opinion.

    Antikosmos as all the other Arckanum’s releases, is mainly based on the atmosphere created by the band, and not the quality of the music. The album kicks off with a bang that is quickly dissipated by uninspired songs like: Røkulfargnýr. In this song the same simple guitar riff is played for over 4 minutes making it sound very dull.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    October Falls - The Womb Of Primordial Nature (2008)

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    This 3 man band from Finland too me by surprise with this release. Having heard Marras and Sarastus before, I was expecting some relaxing folk music. These 2 albums can be compared to Empyrium’s last albums, but The Womb Of Primordial Nature clearly takes a different path. It’s more of a folk / ambient black metal album, and it’s great.

    The album consists of 4 songs and they probably took a few weeks to come up with the title names (look it up and you’ll laugh about this).

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Nåstrond - Muspellz Synir (2008)

    Nåstrond gives us a pretty weird release in general. I have not heard this band before and after reading that their lyrics are Egyptian and Occultism related I was looking forward to listening to this release. But to my surprise it’s not up to par with other releases from Moribund records, while it’s ‘different’ it’s not the good type of different.

    The 2 man band plays a weird mixture of black metal, ambient and even some hints of doom metal. Don’t get me wrong I’m all about listening to new interesting mixtures of genres. But Nåstrond fails to deliver, since the album is not cohesive enough. All the tracks feel like they where put together in installments of 2-3 tracks intended for an EP.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Behexen - My Soul For His Glory (2008)

    I was waiting for a while since Behexen last’s release. And let me tell you my wait was in vain. While My Soul For His Glory is a pretty solid release for a band of the caliber of Behexen, it’s still missing one very important feature: the shiver inducing vocals of the previous 2 releases.

    The music sounds more mature than their previous 2 releases, marking a clear progression of the quality of musicianship that the members of Behexen have. After 13 years since the band’s conception, you can hear that each instrument complements each other in a perfect diabolical ‘harmony’.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Celestial Bloodshed – Cursed, Scarred And Forever Possessed (2008)

    This album is the first ‘full length’ by these Celestial Bloodshed hailing from Norway. I put full length in quotes because the album lasts only 35 minutes or so. And in my opinion this is one of the problems with the release and not because it sucks and it’s too long (like many other releases). But because it left me wanting more!!

    The band plays a traditional old school black metal that sounds very raw and brutal. No fancy things here, just the basic vocals, guitars, bass and drums combination.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Mutum - Redemption (2007)

    After several vocalists and two demos Mutum released their first full length Redemption, under Asenath Records in 2007. Of all the bands from Mexico that I’ve listened over the years I must say that Mutum is currently one of the best ones in the country.

    The bands musical style could be defined as gothic metal with some power metal and doom metal influences, yeah I know this sounds weird, but let me elaborate.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Samael - Illumination (2009)

    After listening to this single, I have to say that Samael is preparing for a strong comeback with something more brutal than their most recent albums. The two tracks included in this single blew me away they showcase the intensity Samael was known for in the past. The music is more guitar driven and the vocals are as good as ever, while they don’t rely much on keyboards they are still present. The intensity of the guitars and the drumming are the focal points of these 2 songs.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Sublagrimal - Mental Execution (2009)

    Well I have to say that I haven’t listened to many different Electro / Industrial bands, or stuff related, it’s just not my thing. This Colombian band provides us, from what I can say a very decent Electro/ Industrial album. All the tracks have the same feel and you can probably play the album with no skips and dance the night away.

    This is pretty much all I can say about this release, since I don’t know how to judge good electro music and stuff like that.
    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
    • Comments: 0

    Cantata Sangui - On Rituals And Correspondence in Constructed Realities (2009)

    This is one of the most interesting bands I’ve found recently, apparently they have been around for a while releasing several demos in a span of several years, and just now released their debut album through Seasons Of Mist.

    This band hails from Finland and features members from Enochian Crescent, and their musical style is very unique I must say, they mix death/black and gothic metal in a very weird way.

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