Lucifugum-Od Omut Serpenti

Country: Ukraine (Mykolayiv)
Label: Propaganda
Released: 3/29/2012

This record could be called “When Drum Machine Black Metal Goes Horribly Wrong”, which, now that I think of it, could be the name of the first Deildegast demo as well. However, the drum machine, no matter how shoddy of a device it is, is not this record’s downfall. That distinct honor falls on just about all of the other elements on the record. There is very little continuity in the riffing. That is to say, at the end of every riff, there is a brief pause before the next riff stops. A little bit of post-production could have erased that problem, but I guess the producer went on a kvass run when he was supposed to be erasing the sad byproduct of putting 800 different riffs into each song but not recording them sequentially. The male vocals on this record sound too silly to have been delivered seriously and the female vocals are almost all just spoken. The culmination of these two factors results in a traffic jam of black metal mediocrity that I probably could have done without. Disappointing, since I distinctly remember enjoying Stigma Egoism. It seems odd that a black metal band would release an album of this caliber this far into their career.
2/5
Dødsengel-Imperator

Country: Norway (Ålesund)
Label: Terratur Possessions
Released: 4/10/2012

Fuck this record is long. I’m sure Dødsengel had a perfectly good reason for releasing a 2 disc full length this year, even though if you deleted all the nonsense spoken word cum-new Burzum tracks this would probably only be an EP. That being said, I actually enjoy this record. Automatic 5 point addition for being a full band and not some douche in a bedroom. When this record isn’t skipping merrily down memory lane with “old Europa” chanting and fucking Greek song titles, it’s actually doing a damn good job at being a punishing black metal record, albeit a punishing black metal record with some pretty fucking odd vocals. When compared to the current state of many of Dødsengel’s fellow Norwegians in the field that they pretty much sowed, this record is fucking exceptional. I come away from this effort feeling generally pleased. If only it wasn’t so fucking long.
3/5
Mutilation Rites-I Am Legion

Country: USA (NYC, NY)
Label: Gilead Media
Released: 3/27/2012

I’ve been hearing a lot about Mutilation Rites, presumably in anticipation of their full-length that comes out in May. I figured it was high time I give these guys a good solid crack. And once again, like Salo, I was pleasantly surprised. I walk into listening to this EP with the same assumption I have of all black metal from my soon-to-be home: hype+black metal band from NYC+beards=big fucking letdown. You see a lot of bands that are just art school dummies who watched that Vice documentary on Gaahl or old hardcore bands that decided to change format because this is 2012 and no one goes to fucking hardcore shows anymore (although I hear they’re coming back). But, it would seem that Mutilation Rites falls into my coveted “Third Category” which at the moment, as far as New York City is concerned, only consists of Mutilation Rites, Salo, and Negative Plane. But with this three song EP, I am totally sold. The music is complex, yet stripped down. Equally melodic and blood-curdling. I am now entirely excited for the full-length, this EP left me desiring so much more. Why couldn’t this have been the 2-disc release instead of Dødsengel?
5/5
Tulus-Olm og Bitter

Country: Norway (Oslo)
Label: Tabu Recordings
Released: 3/30/2012

I like that Tulus became Khold, then became Tulus again, and are now both. Way to avoid all possibility of a Gorgoroth-style name fight. Tulus suffers from Taake Syndrome which is what I’m going to call it from now on when Norwegian black metal bands just keep rereleasing the same album over and over again. Like Taake, the album Tulus wrote is a good one and they made a pretty good choice ditching the candelabra Cradle of Filth aesthetics. I also have to give Tulus a lot of credit for not buying into trends in black metal and turning into a pale carbon copy of a band that is trying to sound like them (that was directed squarely at Varg). Tulus is very heavy. This album refuses to relent, partially at the hands of an audible bass. Now, that may damage their “trve” credentials, along with decent production, non-photocopied album art and not 45 minutes of unbroken blastbeat, but this record sits just fine with me anyway, even if it is just a little bit unadventurous. Better than the new Immortal record. Better than basically all of Emperor’s records apart from In the Nightside Eclipse. It’s always these bands that weren’t hugely controversial and on the fringes of the Black Metal Evil Guys Club that actually managed to make records that are not only listenable but enjoyable.
4/5
Asenheim-Sehnsucht

Country: Germany (Mosbach, Baden Württemberg)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 4/8/2012

As someone with a one man black metal band forced to use a drum machine and with way too much time on my hands, I have a number of tips I would like to share with Tiwaz of Asenheim. Tip 1: always make sure your guitar is in tune, especially if you’re going to dump a ton of piano interludes on your record. People WILL notice. And not in a good way. Tip 2: bury the shitty computer drums as low in the production as possible. They sound shitty. You might want to put a ton of distortion and reverb on them too, it’s the only way they are going to sound remotely real. But still bury them under everything. Tip 3: you are the only one who wants to hear any forays into neo-classical/folk music. No one else does. Do not use them ad nauseum. Tip 4: If you have a friend who sounds like Nico, do not let her do female vocals. Nico sounded like a man. Tip 5: Do NOT under ANY circumstances use “claps”. Tip 6: google the name you want to give the album and make sure no one famous has used it already. Not so important but I’ve now listened to this demo all the way through and I still can’t help but think of Rammstein. Follow these steps. Anyone thinking about paying real tangible currency for this record should probably just not do that.
1/5

Flagellant-Apotheosis

Country: Germany (Munich, Bavaria)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 4/2/2012

Wimpy guitars can go fucking die. The guitars on this rip about as much flesh as a Buddhist monk in a pillow store. This record is troubling to me because it’s yet another release that sounds more like post-hardcore than black metal, a trend popping up a lot these days. Thing is, if this were actually a good post-hardcore record, I’d probably still listen to it (though it would be struck from this review immediately for lack of relevance). But it’s not. It’s repetitive, the guitars are weak (see above), the drums are slow and boring, and the vocals are basically non-existent. Why even have a vocalist? It’s not like I can hear it beneath the gigantic pile of weak guitars and shitty drums. I thought I would at least sort of like this record based on nothing of concrete merit. I was wrong. I hate this record. This band also broke up after this came out. Good. They were not a good band.
1/5

Revenge-Scum.Collapse.Eradication

Country: Canada (Edmonton, AB)
Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions
Released: 2/20/2012

This record is really punishing. I’m not super fond of the vocals, but the music definitely sounds like an army of demons raping the shit out of some angels. What impresses me is that this record sounds like what normal well adjusted people who don’t listen to metal hear when they hear any metal of any kind. It’s all Satan and violence and pure totally unfiltered sonic aggression. Where those people are wrong is in their assumption that that is somehow a bad thing. More Satan, more murder, all the shit that makes metal fucking awesome. This record kind of makes me want to take drugs and hate my parents too. This is the record Tipper Gore heard when she listened to WASP. I love it. Incidentally, I recently discovered that the sanctimonious British dickheads over at Zero Tolerance did not, despite their review not being all that different from mine. Maybe they were just upset that this was not an album by Primordial.
4/5

Secrets of the Moon-Seven Bells

Country: Germany (Osnabrück, Lower Saxony)
Label: Lupus Lounge
Released: 3/16/2012

I have huge reservations about pretty much any black metal band that someone actually produced. There is a purist side of me that thinks any attempt to make the music sound better run contrary to the genre completely. Then there’s the side of me that is a musician and a fan of things that weren’t made by gloomy Europeans in basements that thinks that the sea of unproduced bullshit is unlistenably bad. It is this internal strife that makes reviewing this record really hard. For this one, I have to put all of my black metal “trve” bullshit aside. This record is very melodic and very sharply produced, which means none of the melody is lost under a wall of unintentional static. Now, I’ve in the past gone out of my way to fault bands for their egregious use of keyboard. This band is the model from which all other bands should take note. Perfectly understated keyboard, present yet not pushed to the front of everything. This is what produced black metal should sound like, not Dimmu Borgir. They went pretty nuts with the church bell sound effects on this one, but I can overlook that.
4/5

Bloodmoon-Orenda

Country: USA (San Luis Obispo, CA)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 3/11/2012

What the fuck am I listening to? Metal Archives tells me that this band makes “progressive black/doom metal”, which I can only imagine means that drummer cannot stop playing fill. The songs are still generally in x/4 signatures, but with a ton of bells and whistles, which apparently denote Bloodmoon’s “progressive” influences. The vocals sound somewhere between deathcore-style pig squeals and someone burping a lot. I’m glad this was only a demo, clocking in at just under 25 minutes. I probably couldn’t take much more of what I’ve already forced myself to endure.
1/5

Hail Spirit Noir-Pneuma

Country: Greece (Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia)
Label: Code666
Released: 3/5/2012

This record is very strange. HSN throws caution to the wind on Pneuma. They are about 6 different bands at the same time. Similar to the Sigh record I reviewed a few weeks ago, but somehow far more jarring and less rooted in familiarity. Hail Spirit Noir have managed to craft a record that leaves you scratching your head and wondering what the hell you just listened to. The parts of this album that are unmistakably black metal, in my opinion, are relatively weak. That being said, the rest of the record is rather well done, with the black metal seeming to act primarily to throw the listener off entirely. I come away from this record completely shell shocked and unsure of what I should be feeling. In that respect, this record wields more power than most of the records I’ve reviewed on here. Think Peste Noire but with many more influences and far more unsettling.
3/5

Waste-In Death Reborn

Country: Sweden (?)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 2/20/2012

The cover of this demo is making it really hard for me to take it seriously. This record is a generous slab of cold, old-style black metal, rife with mind-numbing repetition and guitars that sound like they could bore a hole straight through you. Gone are synthesizers and samples and beautiful acoustic guitar interludes and all the other shit that black metal bands (including my own) cannot get enough of as of late. The songs aren’t epic musical conquests, twirling blithely in what ever direction they feel like. There’s no 13 minute unproduced orchestral masterpieces. This record is terse and in-your-face. But, speaking of faces, that face aKa of Waste is making on the cover is really so immensely silly. However, we are talking about a genre of music who’s modern wave was primarily influenced by Norwegian dwarf-people wearing halloween face paint and getting into pissing contests to see who was the most evil. I guess silly imagery comes with the territory.
5/5

Happy Days-Cause of Death: Life

Country: USA (Miami, FL)
Label: Funeral Industries
Released: 3/6/2012

Suicidal depressive metal bands just reek of emo to me. If you give frowny-faced white people guitars, it would seem there isn’t a wide variety of paths they’re going to go down. But in the case of “Cause of Death: Life” from these sad Floridian bastards, there are very prominent sections of this record that sound like boring late 90′s emo. I’ll go so far as to say that it would seem emo bands are better at consistently releasing good album than black metal bands are. What turns me off about this album is the high school poetry-grade song titles and the weak pandering to negative emotion. “Cold Aggression”, “No Point in Living”, “Agony Becomes Unforgettable Seering Emptiness”. Shut up. I guess this could spark a train of thought about the purpose of suicidal depressive black metal, but I don’t really feel like getting into it again. This record is unimpressive, it’s music is, despite moments where it sounds like Sunny Day Real Estate, flat and unadventurous. It’s lyrics are abysmally retarded. Here’s an idea: less songs about killing yourself, more songs about killing other people.
1/5

Enthroned-Obsidium

Country: Belgium (Brussels)
Label: Agonia
Released: 3/20/2012

Enthroned suffers from the Napalm Death ailment of continuing a band after all of the founding members have left said band. Just change the name, dudes. That has no bearing on the record itself, just a little factoid that had been irking me. Musically, “Obsidium” is a no frills, straight ahead, brutal black metal record. All of the stylized bullshit that black metal bands have come to rely on (acoustic guitar interludes, synthesizer tracks, samples of fucking trees blowing in the wind) are refreshingly absent on this release, replaced with even more punishing black metal. It’s incredibly refreshing to hear a band that didn’t get started so that the members could have an excuse to run around in the woods and pretend to be evil. I had low hopes for this record and I am admittedly not very familiar with the Enthroned back catalog, perhaps this album is actually very disappointing. But from where I’m standing (sitting), this is the kind of black metal that “the kids” should be putting on a pedestal. Not another time-waster from Varg out there on his farm.
5/5

Goatmoon/Bizarre Uproar split

Country: Finland (Helsinki)
Label: Filth & Violence
Released: 3/3/2012

Goatmoon’s back. Sort of. And I still feel guilty for enjoying his output. I’m not sure what the deal is with the NS influence within the Finnish scene, but it seems like every single band has  been accused of being a national socialist at one point or another. To be honest, it makes all of the accusations pretty hard to believe. Anyway, I’m sure the RABM bands that stumble onto the website will be more than happy to give me a ton of shit for this, but the Goatmoon side of this split is pretty fucking rad. It consists of one 7 and a half minute song that is almost 3 songs withing itself. May I once again reiterate that I really wish I didn’t think Goatmoon was as good as I do? I cannot review the Bizarre Uproar side because it’s harsh noise and I don’t think there is a criteria to review harsh noise. It is both harsh and noise. It fits both descriptions. This, I suppose, is an attempt to close in on the NSNW (national socialist noise wall) demographic, something I find to be generally amusing. Go poke around google in search of NSNW artist and prepare to be amazed at how deadly seriously they take themselves. Anyway, despite all that shit, Goatmoon does black metal well on here, Bizarre Uproar does harsh noise wall well on here (I think). Generally a success.
4/5

Marnost/Seeds in Barren Fields-Split

Country: Czech Republic (?)/Sweden (Gothenburg)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 3/9/2012

This release was submitted semi-anonymously through the comment section of an earlier post. Now, I’ve been let down by a number of bands who I’ve reviewed on here. That is to say I’ve favorably reviewed them and then waited eagerly for a new release from them, only to have that new release be an atrocious mess. This record does not fall in that category at all. I reviewed Marnost’s freshman demo, Pukajici Svet, back when this project was still a shitty tumblr blog. And though it is evident I don’t see directly eye to eye with Marnost politically, that demo was still very good. This split has not let me down. More of Marnost’s slow paced grim freakouts with what I can only imagine are deeply political subject manner. The latter of the two tracks, by Gothenburg’s Seeds in Barren Fields, shares a lot of stylistic similarity to Marnost, but have a little bit more of a crust edge to them. Still quite good. I love when bands can prove me wrong and consistently release worthwhile material, it gives me a glimmer of hope for the sinking ship that is black metal.
5/5

Dark Forest-Land of the Evening Star

Country: Canada (Calgary, AB)
Label: Bleak Art Records
Released: 3/8/2012

I generally hate synth-heavy black metal or viking metal or heathen metal or whatever the hell this band refers to themselves as. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it’s a product of the genre-wide over-instrumentation of the genre. But this record isn’t terrible. It’s not great either. Musically, this record kind of just sits there for me. My real issue comes with the subject matter. The issue I have with this and many other viking-influenced black metal acts world wide is the obvious and completely ridiculous Manowar-esque auto-stylization of these bands into viking supermen when in fact, they’re just dudes. There’s an element of escapism to be recognized in it, for sure. But when, for example, a band from Calgary, Alberta is writing songs about being “The Northmen of the New World”, it just comes across as kids LARPing in the woods. Bland music plus silly subject matter equals not into this record at all. The mobs of viking-obsessed 16-year-old black metal fans out there will likely eat this up.
2/5

Stob Dearg-Nocturnal Witchcraft demo

Country: UK (Perth/Edinburgh, Scotland)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 2/21/2012

I love finding demos that aren’t complete shit. It makes this whole process make me feel like Indiana Jones or something. Now, this being a demo, it is not perfect at all. It sort of oscillates between uninteresting and great. At no point is it bad. As some points, it’s a bit of a head-scratcher due to some odd choices in songwriting but they’re not my songs so whatever. The thing I thought was the greatest thing about this demo comes at the beginning of the second to last track: a sample of Sean Connery from The Highlander. I didn’t realize people from Scotland ACTUALLY liked the Highlander, on account of it was a tremendous piece of shit and Christopher Lambert is a weird French Canadian guy. But I found this sample to be most excellent. And I found this demo also to be most excellent.
4/5

Granskog-Black Mountain’s Embrace demo

Country: Ukraine (Chernivtsi)
Label: Werewolf Promotion
Released: 3/?/2012

NSBM demo from the Ukraine? How could I possibly resist? A major initial observation would be that this record is rife with weird and completely indecipherable sounds. I’d imagine they’re there to create a sort of brooding isolated ambiance but instead, they kind of just sound like, among other things, crackly static, a metronome, and someone shooting off fireworks at the lonliest 4th of July barbecue ever. Another thing I noticed right off was that this record has a lot of soft interludes, also presumably to create the same above-mentioned ambiance, that are about as poorly executed as they could be. Aside from this, these songs are pretty much your standard fair for one-man NSBM bands. The Goatmoon cover isn’t half bad but halfway through I started hearing this weird noise that I can only assume was there intentionally, then I got distracted and started listening to Rhapsody (of Fire). I don’t even like Rhapsody (of Fire), which is an indicator of just where this review is going.
1/5

Alkerdeel-Morinde

Country: Belgium (Zomergem, East Flanders)
Label: ConSouling Sounds
Released: 2/24/2012

Before I say anything about the record itself, what the hell is going on on the cover here? Is that a fox beating a bird with a stick? Is there some sort of reference to Flemish folklore I’m missing out on here? Ok, now that that’s out of the way, the music. This whole black/doom cross-pollination that’s been going on for the past few years has yielded some pretty fucking terrible results. This band apparently doesn’t give a fuck about those results and went in kind of a different direction with it. The slow doomy parts retain the lo-fi black metal raspiness and make this record fucking terrifying. The initial track’s blast off from drudge into blastbeat is a little bit awkward, but then when you’re least prepared for it, it collapse into lurch once again. That is where this record excels: at taking you completely off-guard and then facefucking you with either the scariest sounding doom metal you’ve ever heard or bone-meltingly harsh blasts. I cannot get enough of it.
5/5

Subdued-Subdued

Country: Russia (Chelyabinsk region)
Label: FRLGN rec
Released: 3/4/2012

This record also makes me uncomfortable, mostly because all of the levels are peaking like crazy and everything is super washed out. I couldn’t listen to this on speakers because it was a bassy mess. I’m listening to it on headphones, which doesn’t really help the situation too much. It’s not even like it’s no-fidelity. It’s almost like it’s intentionally bad production. Once you get through the wall of awful production, you find that this band seems to have only written one song and that song is pretty fucking bad. Avoid avoid avoid.
1/5

Auspicium-For The World That Was And that Is To Come

Country: USA (Portland, ME)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 3/13/2012

This one comes suggested to me from the man himself, Patrick Hasson, who is the sole member of Auspicium and also the sole member of Avulse, who’s I Am The Liquor I reviewed a few months back. As of late, I’ve become highly critical of atmospheric black metal, considering a vast majority of it is complete garbage. However, Auspicium is rather adept at capturing a sort of vast isolation, kind of like standing on the mountain on the cover. There’s something about the production wash that makes this album feel freezing cold and blasted by arctic wind. Plus George Carlin samples. Patrick Hasson also runs the Attila the Hun blog where you can pick up a lot of the projects he’s been in over the years plus other stuff.
4/5

Salö-Mangia Merda e Morte

Country: USA (Brooklyn, NY)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 3/2/2012

My home state doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to black metal, and this band hails from the epicenter of appropriated crap-culture, so I had to fight an unconscious urge to not even listen to this and give it a terrible review. But I would be missing out if I’d done so. This is just a little EP, 3 songs under 15 minutes, but it’s pretty mighty. The black metal/doom crossover for me is usually a hallmark of a drummer not being fast enough to blast but in this case, it works. The vocals sound utterly inhuman (and are delivered by someone who at one time was the singer for local animal rights-grind outfit Animals Killing People, who are hilarious). Definitely pretty creepy, this record has me looking forward to future releases from these frozen doom maniacs. Sadly, BrooklynVegan beat me to this one.
4/5

Lunar Aurora-Hoagascht

Country: Germany (Rosenheim, Bavaria)
Label: Cold Dimensions
Released: 3/2/2012

Ok, hold up…

Sweater metal? Knit woolen sweater metal? All sweaters and bucket hats aside, the instrumentation on this record is relatively strong with the exception of what I would classify is an unhealthy amount of synthesizer noodling. It’s not particularly forward, but it seems relatively omnipresent. It’s a distraction in the sense that it ever-so-slightly strikes sour to my ear. Aside from that, this record is pretty solid; dense and relatively slick production that still manages to retain the chill of the music. A pretty good release, to be sure. Occasionally the vocal production crosses the line into the realm of kitsch, but it’s 2012. Everyone’s doing it. Just maybe lay off the synth.
3/5

Eschaton-Isolated Intelligence

Country: Austria (Linz, Upper Austria)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 3/3/2012

I get the distinct feeling that a lot of people would really enjoy this record. Eschaton appears to have drawn influence from various eclectic sources in crafting Isolated Intelligence. That being said, their drummer loves his double bass pedal a lot. So much so that it’s probably one of the most prominent features on the record, which also features breakdowns. Why this record features these breakdowns is beyond me. The proclivity of mixing hardcore and metalcore with black metal is one I’ve been noticing for the past few months. If the vocals were less shrill and the guitarwork less deeply rooted in the minor barre chord, this would be an early 2000′s metalcore release. But this record does strike me at moments as being very unique, unlike any mix of the above-mentioned genres I’ve heard yet.
3/5

Aeba-Nemesis-Decay of God’s Grandeur

Country: Germany (Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 3/1/2012

I just learned that Aeba stands for Astaroth, Eurynome, Bael and Amducias, the four archdemons from the Book of Revelations. That’s dumb. This record, in my opinion is relatively bland. I have a lot of trouble staying focused on it, which may be partially the fault of the hundreds of black metal albums I’ve listened to in maintaining this blog. I tend to find that a lot of the German bands who’s records I review tend to have a sort of flat quality to them. They sort of go through the motions of being a black metal record and tend to not stand out for me at all. Now, this is by no means the case with all releases from Deustchland, but there is definitely a sizable percentage that fall to this malady. This is one of them. It’s almost as if there’s a handbook on writing a black metal record going around. Oh wait, there is. It’s called Lords of Chaos and they were pretty off point.
2/5

Demoncy-Enthroned is the Night

Country: USA (Seattle, WA)
Label: Forever Plagued Records
Released: 3/?/2012

Holy fuck, this record is dense. There are a lot of black metal records that have distinctly hellish sonic quality, but this record actually kind of sounds like what I’d imagine hell to sound like. The guitars are so low, the drums so indistinguishable, the lyrics so distant and tortured. To put it bluntly, this release is downright evil. Being the junior anthropologist I am (real Hardy Boys type shit), I did a little digging and decided that the heaviness found on this record could be attributed to the fact that Demoncy originally hails from North Carolina/Georgia, which is doom country. But I could be totally wrong. And to be perfectly honest, it doesn’t really make the least bit of difference. What matter is that this record is brutal. Brutal as fuck.
4/5

Sigh-In Somniphobia

Country: Japan (Tokyo)
Label: Candlelight Records
Released: 3/10/2012

It seems like with every record they put out, Sigh turns into a different band. The thread that strings all of this stylistic pogoing together is that Sigh are incredibly odd, by Western standards. But, as the band that released Scorn Defeat on Deathlike Silence back in 1993 during the height of black metal’s first ascent of Trend Mountain, they eternally have a place in the hearts of many self-proclaimed “trve black metal warriors”. This record is practically dripping with classic metal influences. This one has a huge NWOBHM influence on it, shredding solos and galloping riffs. But, this being a Sigh record, that doesn’t even begin to explain it. Saxophones, sitars, static and about a metric ton of organ all have their turn. This record is truly bizarre, occupying a space somewhere between Mr. Bungle and Iron Maiden. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from Sigh at this point.
5/5

Feral-Culling Demo

Country: USA (Portland, ME)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 3/4/2012

I feel strongly about keeping at least a generous portion of this blog dedicated to the underexposed and the obscure. It occurs to me that “famous” black metal bands don’t need any more exposure than they already get. I started Northern Isolation as a demo review blog and I’d like to think that I keep that alive in some capacity or another. So here’s a demo. You can’t really fault a demo for poor production because it’s a demo. This demo was apparently created with the assistance of Jordan from Falls of Rauros who, if you remember, released my favorite black metal record of last year. To what capacity he helped out with it, I am not sure. The demo at hand here is relatively frantic, sort of emitting a sense of urgency in the music. It’s not the greatest demo I’ve heard in a long time, but it’s by far not the worst either. I feel that Feral has a lot of potential that is on the verge of being realized. We shall see.
3/5

Go be friends with it.

A Cloud Forest-October’s Overture

Country: USA (Phoenix, AZ)
Label: Silence and Solitude Records
Released: 2/16/2012

Ok, I have insulted bands from Arizona on here in the past, at least partially for being from Arizona. My foot is firmly in the mouth. This release is killer. October’s Overture is equal parts dense and sparse: when it kicks off you hardly have space to move. When it drops off, you feel like you’re very much alone in the middle of a tremendous desert. This is a highly evocative release, which may be the result of this album being split up into just 4 tracks, the longest of which clocks in at about 25 minutes. One of the best releases of the year thus far.
4/5

Drudkh-Eternal Turn of the Wheel

Country: Ukraine (Kharkiv)
Label: Season of Mist
Released: 2/24/2012

Drudkh seems to have returned to form. Handful of Stars sucked. It was a tame sounding duller Drudkh and it seemed (to me at least) that this might be the end of what had once been my favorite black metal band operating east of the Iron Curtain. This record reverses all of this. This record sounds like the Handful of Stars never happened and Drudkh went straight from Microcosmos into Eternal Turn of the Wheel. I am once again very excited for Drudkh’s further output.
5/5

Förgjord-Sielunvihollinen

Country: Finland (Pieksämäki)
Label: Hammer of Hate
Released: 2/24/2012

This record is a huge blast from the past. If someone told me this was outtakes from the Deathcrush sessions, I would likely believe them. It’s a little less focused than the records it’s trying to emulate, it tends to wander off in slower directions which is cool if that’s what you look for in black metal. As far as I’m concerned it’s a pretty effective midpoint between the old school and blackened thrash metal. Of course, a great deal of this record is lost on me because I am not from Finland, but musically, I’m still pretty into it.
4/5

Sektemtum-Aut Caesar Aut Nihil

Country: France (Montpellier, Languedoc-Roussillon)
Label: Osmose Productions
Released: 2/13/2012

3 glowing reviews in a row? Too good to be true. What is with all the fucking chugging on this release? Palm muting doesn’t really have so much of a place in black metal. On top of that, the drums are very tame, with the exception of a double bass roll that pretty much remains the same in every song. On top of THAT, parts of this record sound like something that could be right at home on the latest Morbid Angel record. But maybe the reason I hate this release is because it’s just…(wait for it)…TOO EXTREME!
1/5

U-235-Time… Judicium of the Last Church

Country: Ukraine (Kremenchuk, Poltava)
Label: Self-Released
Released: 2/20/2012

Ok, admittedly, I didn’t know what the name of this band was in reference to, so I had to fire up the old Wikipedia machine. U-235 is an isotope of uranium. Run it back: we have a band from the Ukraine who are named after an isotope of uranium. Get it yet? No? They have a song called “26.04.86″. Know what happened on April 26th, 1986 in the Ukraine? Ok, so U-235 sing about the Chernobyl disaster a lot. They’re not particularly interesting musically. They’re pretty fast and pretty raw. By that standard, they’re great. But bands have been singing about radiation for decades now. Them being from Ukraine does give a sort of advanced level of reality to it, but at heart it’s still another metal band singing about nuclear explosions. And on a musical level, it’s just another harsh raw black metal band (let me clarify not “raw black metal”, raw comma black metal).
3/5

Nattfog-Mustan Auringon Riitti


Country: Finland (Kotka, Kymenlaakso)
Label: Hammer of Hate
Released: 2/24/2012

It’s been a while since an NS band turned up on here. If I’m not mistaken, the last one was also from Finland. But whereas Goatmoon were an NS band I felt were actually rather talented and skilled, Nattfog come across as blundering and tactless. To illustrate how tactless, at one point I couldn’t listen to this anymore so I put on Absurd who are, themselves, rather tactless. In summation, don’t listen to this. Even if you’re a nazi.
1/5

Goatwhore-Blood For the Master

Country: USA (New Orleans, LA)
Label: Metal Blade Records
Released: 2/14/2012

I don’t get the hype around Goatwhore. Where one of my hallmarks of a great band is it’s ability to strike me regardless of production of musical skill, this band has plenty of both and still doesn’t really strike me at all. Another thing I don’t understand is the cult of Ben Falgoust, singer of Goatwhore and Soilent Green. I’m just flat out not impressed with the latter at all. Meanwhile, I just find myself severely underwhelmed with Goatwhore. All hype-related speculation aside, this isn’t a bad record. If you like what Goatwhore has accomplished thus far, Blood For The Master will tickle you pink. I’m still trying to figure how how this isn’t cookie cutter black/death.
3/5

Hellsaw-Trist

Country: Austria (Graz, Styria)
Label: Napalm Records
Released: 2/24/2012

This record quite literally has something for everyone who’s ever hazarded to publicly admit “I like black metal”. It has old school “Funeral Fog” worship for the purists. It has sparkling production for the Dimmu Borgir weekend warrior crowd. Equal parts melodic and punishing, I have to admit based on the slick designs and this bands penchant for promotional photography that makes them look about 1 top hat away from Dimmu, I was pretty sure I was going to hate this. I love surprises.
4/5