Dark Metal

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    Cairn – Raise the Cairn (2011)

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    Hailing from the USA, today we have a one-man band named Cairn and their debut album “Raise the Cairn”. With a heavy vibe of Primordial meets Forest of Shadows, this short but sweet EP will be enough to rattle your cage and make you want more. Featuring five tracks and around 23 minutes of music, this solo self-exploratory release is one of the most interesting and less vanilla sounding we have received in 2011.

    Opening with an acoustic section, “Magnapinna Rex, Pt I: Solstiseraph” enshrouds the listener in a mysterious cloud of powerful riffing and nice calm sections. Like we mentioned before, this particular song reminded us of Primordial instantly with this nice folk-ish and aggressive approach to music. The shrieks are very powerful and nicely accompany the guitar work. The bass guitar line is pretty active and melodic, somewhat contrasting with the rest and making it more evident. The song is nicely followed by the acoustic track “Far Passage”.

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    Antipope – House of Harlot (2011)

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    Hailing from Finland, today we have Antipope and their very diverse and well crafted third full-length release “House of Harlot”. Mixing almost every genre available to them, the band delivers a very interesting and diverse release that aims to appeal fans of Gothic, Dark, Doom, Heavy and some Symphonic/Melodic Black Metal fans.

    With the opening track “House of Harlot”, we are treated to powerful melodic guitars and atmospheric keyboard, very similar to bands like Ancient Drive and other early 2000’s Gothic/Melodic Metal bands. This quickly changes into some more old-school Gothic music and then it all blends together very nicely. This is just a little taste on how Antipope combines many elements into their own brand of Metal.

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    Marienbad – Werk 1: Natchfall (2011)

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    Hailing from Germany’s Massacre records, today we have Marienbad and their debut album “Werk 1: Natchfall” released both in English and Germany languages. Being the good journalists we are, we never heard of this band before and gave it a spin before reading the promo notes and we came up to the unanimous decision this band sounded like a mixture of Eisregen and The Vision Bleak with a darker edge. To our surprise this band is formed by M. Roth and Yantit (of Eisregen) and features Allen B. Konstanz (of The Vision Bleak) on drums.

    With a very dark and varied sound, Marienbad is one of the most entertaining and diverse bands we have heard in quite a while. They manage to combine dramatic vocals with shrieks, the way only M. Roth can do, with powerful guitar riffs, tight drumming and very interesting atmospheric elements. All of these ingredients create a very dark and thick atmosphere that will hypnotize you.

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    Bethlehem – Stönkfitzchen (2010)

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    After getting trashed for their ‘re-interpretation’ of their “S.U.i.Z.i.D” album, today we have “Stönkfitzchen” the return of Bartsch and company to the more deranged and totally sublime side of Dark Metal and the Bethlehem sound we all love. Niklas Kvarforth is now somewhat adjusted to the band and their lyrics in mostly German, allowing Bethlehem to sound very deranged and as weird as always.

    The first moment we received this promo CD we immediately started listening to it since we are huge fans of Bethlehem and Kvarforth’s work with Shining, and let me tell you, we were not disappointed at all with this cosmic combination of probably two of the most twisted people in Metal: Bartsch and Kvarforth.

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    October Falls – A Collapse of Faith (2010)

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    October Falls is one of our favorite bands of all time and they have returned with their 3rd full-length album “A Collapse of Faith”. The band plays a mean mixture of Black/Dark Metal with Folk elements unlike anybody else these days, just imagine if early Ulver, Empyrium and Tehni had a genetically engineered of spring.

    As in the same vein of “The Womb of Primordial Nature”, the band crafts epic songs that will transport you to a dark world filled with nature, helplessness and pain. All through a hefty dosage of distorted guitars, surgically precise drumming and majestic acoustic passages that will haunt you till the rest of your life. The atmosphere created for “A Collapse of Faith” is very haunting and unique, and when paired with M. Lehto’s shivering vocal performance you will surrender your soul to this majestic aural experience.

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    Eisregen – Schlangensonne (2010)

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    Eisregen is one of our all-time favorite bands, and they totally continue to be amazing with “Schlangensonne”. Waiting for them to play at 5 AM on With Full Force 2009 was completely justified since we have wanted to see this band live in ages. With their deranged musical style, “Schlangensonne” is yet another brilliant release to add into their already impressive discography.

    The band receives a lot of shit from people that probably don’t understand what the band is all about. And there are always extremely mixed reviews when the band releases an album. Having 3 of their albums censored by the German ‘index’, you can see where this band gets their bad reputation.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Mandagora Scream - Volturna (2009)

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    Founded by Morgan Lacroix, Mandagora Scream is an Italian Gothic Metal/Rock band that has been around since 1997. The band's main characteristic is Morgan's unique voice, that once you hear it once, it's almost impossible to not recognize again.

    If you are thinking that Mandagora Scream only has to offer Morgan's vocals, you are deeeply mistaken. The band creates a very dark atmosphere in all their albums and "Volturna" is no different, the enthralling keyboard arangements mixed with electronic elements set the stage for a layering of different vocal tracks and very basic, but effective, distorted guitars.

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    Darzamat – Solfernus Path (2009)

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    I can always count on Darzamat to produce a high quality album that is very, if not totally, different from their previous one. This is a feature that I like about Darzamat but unfortunately some critics do not, and they trash the band’s releases.

    “Solfernus Path” marks this Polish band fifth full length, while the band started more in the style of Symphonic Black Metal, they have now switched around to Dark/Gothic Metal, but without loosing their aggressiveness and power that the band had in their earlier days.

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    Madder Mortem – Eight Ways (2009)

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    I can always count on Madder Mortem to enthrall me with their amazingly bizarre music and “Eight Ways” is not the exception. After two years since their last release “Desiderata” this Norwegian band is back with another masterpiece that will please all fans of the band.

    Madder Mortem sound is very ‘bizarre’ to say the least, but I don’t mean this in a freak show kind of way, but instead I mean that they manage to fuse and combine so many different elements of so many genres (not necessarily from metal), and create some of the most hauntingly beautiful songs. They are also a band that most people would either love or hate I don’t think there is any middle point in linking them.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Imperial Vengeance - At the Going Down of the Sun (2009)

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    Imperial Vengeance took me by surprise when I first started listening to this album, I honestly did not expect much from it since the only thing I knew about the band was that Charles Hedger, a live member of Cradle Of Filth plays in it.

    The band’s overall bombastic sound is what makes this release so interesting, since the 2nd track you are blown away by interesting orchestrations and deranged sounding vocals, a very original atmosphere that very few bands can pull off (like The Vision Bleak). I must say that this band is one of the weirdest and most original I’ve heard in quite a while, the band’s label for their sound is “Dark Aristocratic Metal" which sounds very accurate to me since they present a very rich Dark Metal sound.

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