Cult Ritual - Cult Ritual (2009)

If bands that push the envelope are your sort of thing, Cult Ritual is for you. Cleverly structured riffs and sneaky noisy interludes weave this 30 minute experience. Ranging from fast and heavy d-beats to lengthy ambient passages, this album has quite an inventive take on the genre.

Enjoy!

mediafire

Tsjuder - Desert Northern Hell

Pretty standard Black Metal, decent but raw production. Nothing new brought to the table, but very well done nonetheless. For orthodox black metal, this is one of the better albums of the last few years. Somewhat reminiscent of Marduk but without the blatant emphasis on all-out speed. Nice chainsaw guitar tone. Cool Bathory cover too (Sacrifice).

Rapidshare

Infernal Stronghold - Godless Noise

This is raw-as-fuck, thrashy BLEEAAYACK METAUUL from America. If you don't like it, fuck off. Or not. It's like the internet, man, I can't really force you to leave. Unless I was like a moderator or something, but I digress. This is some top-fucking-notch blackened thrash right here with a sprinkling of d-beat added in for good measure. It's one of my favourite black metal full-lengths of last year, and I implore each and everyone one of you subhumans to listen to it right-fucking-now. Yeah, that's right, and you should sacrifice a couple of small animals in some Satanic ritual while your at it.

Smashing your car/family's car into a church and slaughtering all the occupants inside with a claymore is also a good idea.

AVE SATAN, AVE LUCIFER

SPK - Leichenschrei (1982)

Seminal Industrial band from the UK. If you're like me and have never delved much into the genre but want to, this is as good a place to start as any. Definitely not casual listening, but not the harshest music I've heard; it's more centered on being subversive than pummeling, so sit back, turn down the lights and get ready to be carried away into a world of madness and death.

Mediafire

Gösta Berlings Saga - Detta Har Hänt (2009)

Genre: Instrumental Progressive Rock
Country of Origin: Sweden

Carrying a tradition on is sometimes not an easy task. And when prog rock fell into a lull sometime in the 1980s, the odds did not appear to be in its favor. Several groups kept the flame burning, and some lights shone brighter than others. Gösta Berlings Saga is one of those beacons. Pushing the envelope on technicality, while staying true to the eerie, almost dirty sound of their predecessors.

Along with the technicality, there is emotion behind the keys, guitars, bass and drums; working together, even if they are in separate time signatures at times. True musicianship throughout.

Watchtower - Instruments of Random Murder [Demo] (1987)

Nothing to see here folks. Just a really fucking hard-to-come-by demo by one of the most seminal bands in all of extreme music, featuring a track never again recorded or reissued.

Nope, nothing at all...

Church Of Misery - Houses Of The Unholy (2009)

Alrighty, so I've had a taste for stoner/doom these past couple of months. I'm not real sure about how I came across this band, so far this album is pretty dope. The vocalist Yoshiaki Negishi was the past vocalist for Coffins (another great doom band), and his vocals are superior to what I've heard from most bands who try to recreate the 70s doom mantra. And although I wouldn't necessarily call this Black Sabbath worship, it definitely has some Sabbath undertones to it. Personally, I like the Sludgy riffage, the groovy melody, the heavy bass licks, and just the whole psychedelic effect of the music's ambience in general. The songs are dedications to some of the sickest known serial killers in history; Albert Fish, Richard Trenton Chase and Richard Speck to name a few. This album pretty much blew me away. I cannot do it's description full justice by trying to explain it to you (as it's hard to describe such the wonderful experience that it gives) so what the hell is there to say? You need to experience this album for yourself, then maybe you'll be more likely to understand exactly what I mean.

Rapid

Mediafuego

Review by Michelle034

Gasp - Drome Triler of the Puzzle Zoo People (1998)

powerviolence/sludge/noise

Gasp are true crucial heroes. They're one of those hyper underground bands that has experienced somewhat of a resurgence of popularity on the internet (think Demilich or something like that). They were signed to Slap a Ham back in the day so they naturally got mad cred for that, but they seem to be one of those bands that never got the appreciation they deserved.

Honestly by the late 90's the Powerviolence scene had started to breakdown in a big way. Everything had kind of reached it's limit. The whole Crossed Out worship sound had kind of worn out it's welcome by this point. Gasp however took the sound to new places. They stretched the blueprint to the breaking point and shattered all expectations.

Drome Triler of the Puzzle People has the basic fast/slow/fast structure that is the building block of the whole Powerviolence ethos, but they basically threw out the whole standard playbook. Here you've got noise and drone sections. There you've got shoegazing. And over here you've got borderline screamo sections. However at the end of the day they never forget the bottom line, which is power violence brutality. Despite the albums variety it all eventually reels itself into one coherent entity.

Hipsters will especially like the psychedelic middle section.

Recalcitrance - Fragmented Reality [Demo]

Given the good reception the first Recalcitrance demo got hereabouts, I thought I may as well post their second as well.

"Fragmented Realities" was recorded and released in 1990.
By this time, the band was a three piece, with Mike Smith having left to play in Deceased, bassist Billy Allen having been replaced by Chris Howard, and Mike Klein going off to do whatever it is ex-thrash vocalists do.

With them went the death metal flirtations and typical thrash metal structuring their previous demo, to be replaced with rapid-fire instrumental technicality, fluid, attention-neccessary songwriting, and a flair for experimentation with non-metal sounds.

You can get it here.

If you at all enjoy their material, and would like copy of one of their tapes, or you just would like to send the your regards to the members of the band, you can do so here.
I'm sure they would appreciate it.
- FeatherofHuginn

Kralizec - Origin

Quirky key-heavy melodically-inclined sometimes-technical death metal with the odd nod to folk metal ala Ensiferum, Brutal Death, and oldschool Gothenburg bands. They also have some of the most blatantly programmed drums I think I've ever heard.

If some of the clean vocal sections sound oddly familiar to you, it's likely because they were contributed by Patrick Loisel (now the frontman of Augury) who also played lead guitar and keys on this album.

This album is ridiculously hard to come by on the interwebs, so I hope you like it.
Get it here.

Sixx - Sister Devil

Satanic Post-Punk by members of Von.
Needless to say, it rules.

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Winterwolf

Winterwolf was formed in 1997 by a bunch of Bolt Thrower and Celtic Frost obssessed Finns who... just happened to be awesome musicians.

A few years of intensive practicing and a few studio sessions produced two demos of riff-centric somewhat thrashy death metal with underlying Finnish OSDM grooves, deep gutterals, and incredible soloing, all complimented by an awesome oldschool production and Stockholm OSDM chainsaw guitartone.

The second of those demos, titled "Blood For Death" you can (and should) get here (Mediafire, I know, I'm working on it).

Their Guitarist/Vocalist Corpse moved away in 2001, going on to play Bass for the reformed Demilich when they began touring in 2005. The others went on with the band, recruiting new members to fill Corpses position, and decided to change their name to Deathchain.

But, in 2006 Corpse returned, and the band decided to bring back the old Winterwolf name and lineup, recruiting a new vocalist and later Corpse's newfound associate Antti Boman (Demilich, c'mon guys) to play guitar and add the sweet gurgly demon-frog-from-hell vocal style you all know an love to the band.

In 2009 they released a limited vinyl full length last year to be wildly released sometime this year on CD.

The samples they have on their myspace page are beyond fucking awesome- leagues ahead of the already remarkably good material on their early demos, so you all best keep an eye out for it.

Until then, I hope this post tides you over.
- FeatherofHuginn

Welp Folks...

My hard drive has only 1 gig of free space left. I don't have the cash to buy an external one, so I'm going to fix this problem the cheap way- by uploading a bunch of my music onto a free file hosting site, and, given that I admin for this blog anyway, posting it here.

Expect a ton of rarities and a wide variety of other stuff to be posted by me within the next few weeks, probably with less wordiness than you've come to expect from my posts.

Oh, and I'm going to try to shy away from mediafire this time. That shit has gotten almost as irritating as Rapidshare.

- FeatherofHuginn

Equus - Eutheria (2008)

Genre - post-rock/prog/doom

Genre blending happens everyday, but how often do you hear it done perfectly? Judging by the outrageous number of artists that attempt it, probably fairly seldom. However, 'Eutheria' by Equus is an honest to goodness masterpiece. The listener will notice a full minute of silence, with some nearly inaudible culminations brewing just before the first note. The evil tension that builds in this 30+ minute epic is deceptive, because it is also oddly beautiful.

Now I could go on about this album indefinitely, so lend an ear, and enjoy!

Megaupload

Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody to The Victims of Hiroshima and Other Classical Works

Genre - Modern Classical
Requested By - Demoncashew

Here You Are!

Argentum - Mega Post!

Argentum are a black/death/doom metal band from Mexico. Any avid metal fan who searches his metal vigorously on metal archives must be familiar with "drowned" guy on that site. While, I do agree that I dont go by metal archives reviews, but there are certain users that happen to rate music judiciously and give appropriate scores to the albums on that site. So, dont be surprsed if you see "The 3rd and the Mortal" getting a high average ratings on that site and Asphyx's "The Rack" lagging behind with 75 percent of average scores. Enough of metal-archives talk, lets get down to the real deal. The "Drowned" fella seems to be engrossed in old school death metal and death/doom. Half of the obscurities of the early 90s and late 80s have been added by him. So it was pretty genuine for me to check some of his reviews out. It happened that there was only one album rated with a 100 per cent. What did you expect? diSEMBOWELMENT or Convulse or Winter? Nah, It was Argentum's debut "Ad Interitum Funebrarum". Frankly speaking, that was the only motive behind getting that album because the RYM ratings are rather disappointing for that album. I gave the albums a few listens, and forgot about it and it baffled me why this album was rated so high by that guy? Yesterday, I went to jog and decided to give this album a spin on my ipod. Canalophones do come in handy if you want to fully appreciate the beauty of a rather underproduced album. Bull's eye! It was a chilly and a foggy winter morning and the album worked like a wonder. I couldnt believe that this was the same band I had decided to snub a couple of months earlier.

This album has everything I love to hear in a doom metal record. Sinister use of growls and high pitched howlings, extremely downtuned riffs constantly buzzing in the background, and a thick bass supporting the scary instrumentation. Some of you guys know my love for bands like Faustcoven and Dark Prophecies, But this is beyond everything. The keyboards create a dark atmosphere and are masterfully used here. The second album is equally good with better production but little weaker in songwriting and is way too short and leaves you gasping for more. The two demos are raw and contain faster sections more in the vein of Bathory and early Celtic Frost.

Ad Interitum Funebrarum @ 320 Kbps
Mediafire Guys

Stigma Mortuorum @ Mediafire
The two demos

Mater Misericordiae 1993

Exothaernium 1994

Rabih Abou-Khalil - Roots & Sprouts (1990)

Country: Lebanon
Genre: Jazz / World Music

Rabih Abou-Khalil is a Lebanese oud player and composer, and "Roots & Sprouts" is one of the most interesting fusions of western jazz and middle eastern music I've ever came across. The album essentially consists of jazz numbers played without traditional western jazz instruments apart from a double bass. The result is impressive, since all the musicians are tight as fuck and pretty versatile, so you can bet that everything is very well composed and improvised. The songs can range from really fun jams (like the excellent opener "Remembering Machghara" and the cover of Duke Ellington's "Caravan") to sparse and hypnotically atmospheric tunes. (like "Walking on Air" and the awe-inspiring closer "Dreams of a Dying City") I also reckon this is really accessible stuff as well, so it should also be suitable for the non-jazz types as well.

Rabih Abou-Khalil - oud
Selim Kasur - nay
Yassin El-Achek - violin
Glen Moore - bass
Glen Velez - frame drums
Mohammad Al-Sous - darabukka

DL LINK

Recommended further listening: Shakti - s/t; Yusef Lateef- Eastern Sounds; John Handy & Ali Akbar Khan - Karuna Surprise; Jonas Hellborg & Shawn Lane - Good People in Times of Evil; Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda

A large classical dump from the necro coming soon.

Bonesaw - Sawtopsy

Band : Bonesaw
Album : Sawtopsy
Genre : Death Metal

Artwork done by Riefert. The name of the album Sawtopsy. Backing vocals done by Riefert (in some tracks). There's no prizes for guessing what this band's main influence is. Bonesaw from Aberdeen in Scotland has one major influence: Autopsy. On this full-length debut they didn’t try hiding their adoration for this Californian band and fans of this style of death metal will know enough to get an urge to check out Bonesaw.

Taking the filth of Severed Survival and mixing it with the heaviness and atmosphere of Mental Funeral, this band has got to be the best old school death metal revivalist band o one heard or cared about.

DEAD !!!!!!!!

Arvo Pärt - Tabula Rasa

I was thinking of posting this to the Classical thread, but decided to save it for this occasion (considering more of you would check it out this way ;) ). This is some of the most stirring, beautiful music I've ever laid ears on, and despite the minimalist sections not doing too much for me, the thematic parts outshine any flaws this record may possess.
Click.

Electrozombies & Hellborn Messiah [Split]

If you don't know Electrozombies yet, this split it's the best way to start. They play a style of primitive death/doom or doom/death (not sure :P) on this split. They used to be more sludgy on their previous album, which also kicked ass, but I think this may be their best work so far! Hellborn Messiah is good, metallic crust from Germany (?), but I've been too hooked on the 'zombies side of the split to get into more detail.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mjjuwzyakey

Necromantia - Scarlet Evil Witching Black (1995)

Good lord, I fucking love this album. Necromantia is a black metal band, often put in the forefront of the talks of Hellenic Black Metal, and I can understand why. "Scarlet Evil Witching Black" is one of those monumental albums that people should know more about, but simply don't. Ever since I discovered this album, It has been played non-stop!

Necromantia is essentially two guys, "The Magus" (as he's simply called now) handling the 4 stringed bass and vocals, and "Baron Blood" on the 8 string bass. Together, they along with session musicians crank out some of the warmest black metal that'd melt Dissection and Immortal and drown the world. The "whole, yet jagged sound" of the basses shouldn't work, but it does. The melodies and riffs that come out of the instruments have a rough twang and an otherworldly hypnotic feel to them. Songs like "Devilskin", "Pretender To The Throne (Opus 1)", and "Scarlet Witching Dreams" highlight this quality extremely well.

But this album isn't just a one-trick pony with its' rugged 12 string sonic fury. An actual guitar appears here and there, contributing only solos. While you could say the solos "dot the i's", the synths which are prominent throughout, "cross the t's." Both are qualities that enhance the music, giving each song a unique identity. Oh yeah, there is also a saxophone appearance in the fourth track, "The Arcane Light of Hecate." Don't worry though, it doesn't turn into a pretentious jazzy wankfest. The band keeps to their sound and resumes through the album.

The album as a whole is nothing less than stellar. From the furious opener "Devilskin" to the somber closer, and my personal favorite, "Spiritdance", Necromantia dug themselves a hole that they could never equal. If you're looking to explore the Greek Black Metal scene, or any Black Metal in general, you'd be in the wrong not tocheck this album out! It is a true masterpiece, and testament to the mysticism of Hellenic Black Metal!

Observe and Worship!

Abysmal Grief - Abysmal Grief / Mors Eleison (2007)

Supreme occult doom metal from Italy!

Enjoy.

Part 1
Part 2

Deranged (Can)

Artist - Deranged (Can)
Year of Release - 1988, 1989
Genre - Thrash Metal






Little known about this band, These guys played a style of Thrash Metal which only a few bands did, Yes, there are traces reminiscent to one of my favourite Metal bands of all time, Morbid Saint, Do i need to say anything else ? Get this.

Place of Torment

Premonitory Nightmare

Zenocide - Zenocide (2009)

Genre - Sludge Metal
Annihilatingly Awesome!

Hmmmm

Atrocity - Todessehnsucht (1992)

Though most noticed for their later albums consisting entirely of 80's cover songs, Germany's Atrocity was at one time a pioneer of technical death metal. Predating Gorguts' tech-death career and much of the work from Monstrosity, Todessehnsucht still managed to create one of the most blasphemously intricate albums of the genre, and still go mostly unnoticed. Even though their previous album, Hallucinations, from 1990 lacked the quality of this release, much of the experimentaion was still there, yet the widespread acclaim garnered by the likes of the aforemention Monstrosity and Gorguts, along with Suffocation, Death, and others eluded them. I'm guessing this was the basis for their unfortunate shift in style towards radio-friendly goth-metal, further cementing this band's story as one of tragedy. But I'm sure you're not here to listen to me whine all day, so listen to the album and have your mind blown.

Megaupload