When - Death in the Blue Lake (1988)

When - Death in the Blue Lake(1988)
experimental/post industrial/psychedelic

When is a solo project of Norwegian musician Lars Penderson. He began the musical project under the curious name "Hospital Blimp" in 1983 before settling on the bands current enigmatic moniker in 1987.

Death in the Blue Lake is Penderson's sonic answer to André Bjerke's pschological thriller novel of the same title. Although I haven't read the novel (it appears to be difficult if not impossible to find in english) Penderson's work definitely caries a foreboding and schizophrenic atmosphere that wouldn't be out of place in a tale of murder and madness. The album being Norwegian and from the late 80's also has the significance of enjoying quite a bit of popularity among the country's second wave black metalers. Perhaps the album inspired Varg to flirt with dark ambient? That's just conjecture on my part though. What I do know is that Satyricon sampled the title track of Death in the Blue Lake to use as the intro on their debut full length Dark Medieval times.

So forget all of that, what does the album sound like? Well the album ultimately carries many pop sensibilities. They are however obscured by the dark atmosphere and dissonance that create a patina of decay above everything else. The album begins with a grueling journey through a 20+ minute sound scape. All hope seems to be lost, but when the next track begins the album reveals it's true colors as catchy hooks and melodies begin to surface. The album works best as a cohesive whole so I recommend listening to it all the way through. Otherwise you will miss the contrasting elements.

peace

Høst - På Sterke Vinger (1974)

Year: 1974
Country: Norway
Genre: Progressive Rock/Heavy Metal

If you like prog and Iron Maiden, get this.

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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

Cadaver - Necrosis (2004)

Many of you have heard this band's 1992 album ...In Pains, but I hadn't noticed much attention being directed to this, their rather great swansong. Excellent death/thrash, with a slight technical streak.

Mediafire (sorry, Raj)

Abhorrent [Nor] - Occultus Brujeria (1990)

What we have here is a nice pocket sized demo, released by a Norwegian band, so you know it's good. They later became Thyabhorrent, but I don't know if they released anymore material.
Anyway, this is their only demo. It's pretty epic, and I know I throw that word around a lot, but I mean it this time. It's got a nice buzz to it, and the production actually does wonders.
It's got chants, operatic singing, piano, what sounds like a synth and it just chugs along, in a good way. My only complaints are that the vocals are barely heard at some points.
If you like Timeghoul, you'll probably like this.

-funeralmass

Mediafire

Faustcoven - Rising From Below The Earth (2008)

Genre - Death/Doom with Black and Traditional Doom influences
Review - By the time I had discovered this band, they were already pretty famous among renowned metal listeners. I was introduced to this band in the latter part of the last year by one of the most trusted metalhead from my country. His recs hardly fail and I just grabbed this chance with both hands. Downloaded it, Listened to it, Liked it and completely forgt about it.

One fine morning I decided to buy this from the legendary record Barbarian Wrath (Yes the same label that is synonymous with the word kvlt and they do sign some of the greatest BM acts). Remeber Countess' Heilig Vuur, Hail's the Inheritence of Evilness, Megiddo's Devil and the Whore and the czech awesomeness Amon Goeth?? They are some of the greatest BM bands making music today and Faustcoven joined the league of those Extraordinary Motherfuckers a few years back. Their debut The Halo of Burning Wings was widely acclaimed as a landmark album by critics. On this album they have picked right from where they had left but just became more mature and if you didnt notice it in their debut already, they also got a session drummer(Yes The drumming does sound a lil mechanical on the debut). They also manage to shed a lot of down tuned low muffling guitar sound and decided to opt for thick, heavy tones instead. Arguably the primary genre here is death/doom. Obviously you still have a lot of Black metal influences just like their fellow partners in crime Hail. But what makes it an even more interesting album is its influences from Heavy metal and Traditional doom legends. Thats precisely the reason why I like this better than Hail and the band's debut. There is one mind blowing cover of Angel Witch's song from their 1981 demo Give It Some Tickle. Now who would cover a song as obscure as that (Look, Its not even on AW's more famous albums "Angel Witch " and "Screamin' and Bleedin' "). These guys must have heard a shitloads of obscure heavy/NWOBHM back in the day.

Underlying those layered ultra-slow-heavy-as-fuck guitar riffs lies solos reminiscent of heavy metal. The album begins with an epic 11 minute long magnum opus self titled track and everything else from there is like a journey. Its as if you are experiencing some some evil rites being performed in satan's abode. The echo laden deep and throaty growls are sinister enough to give you nightmarish sleeps.

All in all, a gem of an album which will be considered a cult classic in 10 years from now on. Certainly the second best of 2008. Basically any band with influences ranging from Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Black Sabbath, Angel Witch, Mercyful Fate, Winter cant really fail, or can IT??

-EyeHateDoG
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