Black Metal

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    Rotten Liver – Purification by Debauchery (2013)

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    With a heavy knack for killer riffs and powerful melodies, France’s Rotten Liver delivers “Purification by Debauchery”. Avoiding sounding like anybody else, this band takes the best elements of bands like Vreid, Midnight, and old-school Darkthrone and creates their own brand of filthy Black’n’Roll that will have you headbanging since the first song.

    Opening with “Infamous Nil”, the band immediately delivers waves of killer riffs and a very cool melodic vibe. The snarls are quite fitting for the music, but it is the creativity and catchiness behind the song that makes it quite enjoyable and devastating. “Become the Arcanthropos” keeps the flow of the album going with another onslaught of sickening riffs and a very dark-yet-melodic atmosphere that Rotten Liver perfectly creates.

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    Fallen Tyrant – No World to Win, a Life to Lose (2013)

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    Delivering pummeling waves of punishing Black Metal, today we have Germany’s Fallen Tyrant and their debut full-length “No World to Win, a Life to Lose”. With eight tracks and over 35-minutes of crushing music, this release is one of the most devastating BM albums of the year, paired with Watain’s latest opus.

    The album opens with a very traditional and at moments Black’n’roll-ish “Fallen Tyrant Rising”. This track immediately unleashes the powers of the band and showcases their killer riffing and powerful vocals. Reminding us of newer Gorgoroth and other bands like Lord Belial, the punishment continues with the killer “Exaltation” and “Bortrykkelsen”. The band also has a melodic aspect to their BM and you can how crafty they can get with tracks like “To Finnmarken”.

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    Winterblood – Herbstsehnsucht (2013)

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    Making its way from Germany, today we have Winterblood and their debut full-length “Herbstsehnsucht”. Mixing Black Metal with some Doom elements, this Post-BM release is one tough cookie to crack. At first some things seem a bit rough, but once you get the whole picture of the album it comes together nicely in a very unconventional way.

    The album starts with the mysterious opener “Nur der Tod hat mir Erlösung gebracht”. In this track the band nicely builds up to some brutal sections with harsh screams. While the music is well-crafted, the drums are programmed and sound a bit fake in some points. We are usually very picky about this, but most of the time you can’t tell them apart. Taking the opposite approach, “Mit jedem Abschied wird Erinnerung geboren” starts very heavy and slowly mellows out as it concludes. The atmospheric sections have some Drone-like elements and really help setting up a dark and cavernous mood.

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    Acacia – Tills döden skiljer oss åt (2013)

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    Just when you think you have almost heard everything under the sun, it comes a truly moving release like Acacia’s debut full-length “Tills döden skiljer oss åt”. Melancholic and depressive are adjectives that barely start to describe the mood and atmosphere of this soul (and spirit) crushing album. Formed originally under the name of Livsnekad, this Swedish outfit manages to deliver 61 minutes of truly moving music that we will do our best to try to do justice while describing.

    The solemn piano opening of “Död mans mask” really builds anticipation and once the clean vocals come on, the mood suddenly gets even darker. As “Förnimmelsens lund af längtan” opens, the riffs remind us a bit of bands like Draconian and Desire with a certain atmospheric touch of My Dying Bride. Being huge fans of Death/Doom Metal, the growls are up to par to any of the heavy hitters of the scene, a very important element to contrast the atmosphere of the music. The Black Metal influences kick in and elevate the music to a whole new level, featuring extremely contrasting brutality with a highly atmospheric content. As the song winds down, we get some nice Post-Rock/Depressive Rock final minutes that serve as a relaxing culmination to this excellent track.

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    Yass Waddah – Cities of the Red Night (2012)

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    Hailing from Italy, today we have Yass Waddah and their furious Black Metal EP titled “Cities of the Red Night”. In this five song offering we hear the band’s ruthless and rather traditional Black Metal, worthy musical effort available on their bandcamp page. For those of us that like uncompromising Black Metal that is fast and heavy, this is the perfect release since it has a very direct and live-sounding feeling to it.

    The release blasts wide open with the crushing opener “Invocation”. Immediately the band reminded us of Singapore’s Impiety and their raw and direct sound. Filled with crushing riffs and pushing drums, this is quite an exciting opener. After another crushing song with “B-23”, things get more interesting with the playful “Transmigrants and Receptacles”. This track features a funky opener, but then it develops into full-blown chaos with imposing vocals and very cool rhythm sections.

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    Thränenkind – The Elk (2013)

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    From the highly creative mind of Nathanael, of Bonjour Tristesse and Agrypnie fame, today we have Thränenkind’s debut full-length “The Elk”. Being released through LifeForce Records, this powerful exercise in desolate and depressive music combines Post-Black Metal elements with Depressive Rock and a huge knack for bleak musical passages. With influences from bands like Heretoir and Austere (among others) to more Post-Rock outfits like God Is an Astronaut and Godspeed Your Black Emperor, this is one emotional rollercoaster ride that you do not want to miss.

    Brilliantly setting the mood with the desolate “Monument”, we don’t have to wait much to get fully immerse in the band’s melancholic music. The first heavy hitting song is the ethereal “Just Another Way of Expressing Defeat”. Featuring dreamy guitars and a very mellow pace, this is one song that is very well constructed, transporting the listener back and forth from ethereal dream states.

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    Saligia - Lvx Aeternae (2013)

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    Keeping their cavernous and compact Black Metal sound from their debut full-length “Sic Transit Gloria Mundi”, today we have Norway’s Saligia and their sickening EP “Lvx Aeternae”. Delivering four track and 25 minutes of truly haunting Black Metal, this band is a combination of the rawness and directness of Watain with sickening atmospheric elements of bands like Bethlehem. If you like your Black Metal to be harsh, but obscure and focused more on cavernous atmospheres over extreme over-the-top tremolo-picking, you are in luck with this release.

    The band blasts this release wide open with the crushing “Per Aspera Ad Astra”. In this track Ahzari’s powerful vocals make up for 60% of the overall raw power of their sound, while his pulsating bass guitar line adds to the destruction. The cavernous atmosphere continue with the album title track, but make no mistake and think the production is weak, since you can listen clearly to every single cymbal of V’s drums.

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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.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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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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    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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