DISMAL EUPHONY Autumn Leaves - The Rebellion Of Tides (Napalm) cd 14.98
This Austrian band's earlier records on Napalm *were* truly dismal--and this (their last for the label, before being picked up by the giant Nuclear Blast conglom) may also be tough to stomach, but they're doing the combination of black metal, operatic female vocals and classical passages better than before and I'm sure somebody out there will thrill to the ludicrous bizarreness of it all.

DISPIRIT Rehearsal At Oboreten (self-released) cassette 5.98
We probably don't even need to bother with a review for this one if we start out with this detail: Dispirit is the latest project from John Gossard, best known as the mastermind behind SF black metal legends Weakling as well as gothed out metallers the Gault and doom merchants Asunder. But that wouldn't be giving something as awesome as this the respect it deserves, because this shit SLAYS. That part probably isn't too much of a surprise. What IS a surprise is how Dispirit can crank out a rehearsal tape that shames pretty much any other black metal band out there today. The lo-fi recording actually works perfectly in establishing an atmosphere that is, yes, grim, but also just HUGE and cavernous sounding, not to mention just plain eerie. The end results are the perfect soundtrack to dying in a mud pit in some war torn hell hole with flames all around. Or a score for the end of the world, civilization crumbling, the world as we know it descending into the pits of hell. We can only wonder what the future holds when this band sets out to make a record proper. No doubt the reason for this cassette's success is the fact that these guys can tear shit up like no one's business. Their use of mournful, heavily sustained guitars will certainly appeal to fans of Weakling, while the plodding doominess that leads these two songs to their furious, blast ridden midsections and majestic outros shows the link to Asunder. In a world where there is simply too much black metal, it's bands like this that make you realize why you became obsessed in the first place. Gossard possesses the perfect black metal vocal style, a terrifying banshee shriek that refuses to be buried beneath the equally impressive relentless instrumentation and blitzkrieg drumming. While retaining the essence of black metal, Dispirit also remain unique and true to themselves with a style of black metal that is distinctly American. Unbelievable stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Ixtab's Lure"
MPEG Stream: "Bitumen Amnii"

DISSECTION Reinkaos (Black Horizon) cd 11.98
Here's the new, post-incarceration Dissection "comeback" album that we sorta dissed in our review of the Storm Of The Light's Bane reissue.

DISSECTION Storm of the Light's Bane (Nuclear Blast) cd 16.98
Reissue of a long-time Aquarius favorite. Not just of AQ metalheads Andee and Allan, or our metal-lovin' customers, but others on the staff here too -- for instance, Byram, not normally a big metal consumer, ranks this as one of his favorites amongst the Nordic hordes. In fact, it's one of the few metal cds in his collection -- it's that good (he was a music student y'know). It came out originally in '94, and now sees a digipacified re-release with bonus tracks from their out of print Where Dead Angels Lie cdep. With Storm of the Light's Bane, Dissection perfected their melodic, blackened Swedish death metal approach -- that means TRUE, original metal, with elements of everything from Morbid Angel to Mayhem to Iron Maiden, suped-up and super-grim, with raspy vocals, wicked drumming (the guy is AMAZING), truly memorable, majestic melodies, and tons of cold winter atmosphere. They take long breaks to let their acoustic guitars gently weep, then tear back into the brutal, razor-edged rifferama. Serious stuff, seriously great. This was to be their last album, and Dissection is no more -- front man John Nodtveidt ended up in jail as accessory to murder -- but their tangential role in any of that over-sensationalized Scandinavian black metal true crime stuff has nothing to do with why you should be interested in this band. No, regardless of their unfortunate history, Dissection was a brilliant band, and Storm of the Light's Bane is a classic that belongs in every metal collection. If you haven't already gotten this album, here's your chance.
RealAudio clip: "Night's Blood"
RealAudio clip: "Where Dead Angels Lie"
RealAudio clip: "Soulreaper"

DISSECTION Storm Of The Light's Bane (The End) 2cd 13.98
Long overdue, super deluxe double disc reissue of this long-time Aquarius favorite / black metal classic. After a not-so-great past few years for Dissection, including a lengthy jail sentence for frontman Jon Nodtveidt, and a recent disappointing 'comeback/reunion' record (not yet reviewed here), this black classic returns to remind us just how mindblowingly kick ass Dissection really were. And while of course this is a fave of all the metalheads around here, and our metal-lovin' customers, it's also loved by the less metal inclined -- for instance, former AQ staffer Byram, not normally a big metal consumer, ranks this as one of his favorites amongst the Nordic hordes. In fact, it's one of the few metal cds in his collection. It's that great. It came out originally in '94, reissued as a digipak a few years back, and now sees a super duper double disc re-release with a whole disc of bonus tracks (more on those later).
With Storm of the Light's Bane, Dissection perfected their melodic, blackened Swedish death metal approach -- that means TRUE, original metal, with elements of everything from Morbid Angel to Mayhem to Iron Maiden, suped-up and super-grim, with raspy vocals, wicked drumming (the guy is AMAZING), truly memorable, majestic melodies, and tons of cold winter atmosphere. They take long breaks to let their acoustic guitars gently weep, then tear back into the brutal, razor-edged rifferama. Serious stuff, seriously great. This was to be their last album, a mighty swan song, as Dissection called it quits soon after when their frontman ended up in jail as accessory to murder -- but their -very- tangential role in any of that over-sensationalized Scandinavian black metal true crime stuff has nothing to do with why you should be interested in this band. Like we said, the band reformed last year when Nodtveidt got out of jail, and just recently released a mediocre new record, but it couldn't hold a candle to Storm Of The Light's Bane, nor could most metal records actually. Dissection was a brilliant band, and Storm of the Light's Bane is an all time classic that belongs in every metal collection. If you haven't already gotten this album, here's your chance. And even if you already have one of the previous versions, the extra disc might make it a necessary repeat purchase.
The second disc is crammed with bonus tracks and unreleased material. First up, the Storm Of The Light's Bane unreleased alternative mix '95, which might have been for completist nerds only, but a closer look reveals an extra track not on the album proper. Then there's two tracks from an unreleased 1994 demo. And finally the Where Dead Angels Lie ep, also remastered. Lots of liner notes and packaged in a spiffy slipcover. SO RECOMMENDED!
MPEG Stream: "Night's Blood"
MPEG Stream: "Where Dead Angels Lie"
MPEG Stream: "Soulreaper"

DISSECTION The Past Is Alive (The Early Mischief) (Necropolis) cd 13.98
2nd edition, re-designed digipak with new artwork for this collection of early demos from the infamous Swedish melodic death/black metal band. With main composer/guitarist/vocalist Jon Nordviet recently thrown in jail for an alleged murder, this may be the last Dissection release for twenty or thirty years...

DISSECTION The Past Is Alive: The Early Mischief (Necropolis) picture disc lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The best Swedish death/black metal band's demos and rarities, cd format soon.

DISSECTION The Somberlain (Century Media) cd 14.98
A reissue of these long-defunct Swedish black/death metallers' debut long-player, recorded in 1993 at Dan Swano's studio. It's melodic, with majestic riffs and folky acoustic interludes, but also quite fast, heavy and brutal. Here Dissection established their "blackened" style of Swedish Melodic Death Metal, a sound that they perfected on their next album, the classic Storm Of The Light's Bane. That's the one to get first, and then when you're hooked on 'em, you'll want this one as well. Why is Storm Of The Light's Bane better? It's just the subjective choice of the AQ-staff. Superior songs, we feel. But this is a fine effort too. (By the way, unlike the Nuke Blast reish of Storm, there's no bonus tracks to be found here.)
RealAudio clip: "The Somberlain"
RealAudio clip: "Crimson Towers"

DISSECTION The Somberlain (The End) 2cd 12.98
Long overdue, super deluxe double disc reissue of another long-time Aquarius favorite, the debut from Sweden's black/death metallers Dissection. While not as much of a stone cold classic as their Storm Of The Light's Bane album, this is still a totally kick ass, ultra essential slab of classic Swedish death metal. After a not-so-great past few years for Dissection, including a lengthy jail sentence for frontman Jon Nodtveidt, and a recent disappointing 'comeback/reunion' record, this black classic (along with the godlike Storm Of The Light's Bane) returns to remind us just how mindblowingly kick ass Dissection really were once upon a time. This came out originally in '93, was reissued as a digipak a few years back, and now sees a super duper double disc re-release with a whole disc of bonus tracks (more on those later).
This reissue of Dissection's debut long-player, recorded in 1993 at Dan Swano's studio definitely sets the template that the band would perfect with their second and arguably best record Storm Of The Light's Bane, but on its own is a gorgeously black, slightly rougher and rawer version of Dissection's soon to be classic sound. Epic and melodic, with majestic riffs and folky acoustic interludes, but also quite fast, heavy and brutal. Here Dissection established their "blackened" style of Swedish Melodic Death Metal, a sound that would be copied by many a band, but few would be able to come close to Dissection's black blazing fury. Storm Of The Light's Bane might be the one to get first, but both are essential for sure!
The bonus disc is jam packed with extra goodies: unreleased live recordings from 1995, the Into Infinite Obscurity 7", a 1992 demo, the Grief Prophecy demo from 1990, a rehearsal from 1990, and Satanized rehearsal also from 1990. All tracks remastered from the original mixes. Lots of liner notes and packaged in a spiffy slipcover.
MPEG Stream: "Black Horizons"
MPEG Stream: "The Somberlain"

DISSECTION Where Dead Angels Lie (Nuclear Blast) cdep 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
And if the Cradle of Filth's coffin box doesn't sate your need for Black Metal packaging gimmickry, how about a *shaped* cd? (Some kind of upside-down cross.) This six-song ep collects rare compilation and Japan-only bonus tracks from this truly superior Swedish death/black majestic metal band, including, guess what, a Slayer cover.

DISUNICORPS Try (Mercy Wizard) cd-r 8.98
This was another mystery submission, originally presented to us described (maybe not so) simply as "post-post-digital bubblegum black/death metal". And while the first track had us thinking that description was WAY off, a gnarled chunk of churning frantic machinelike riffing and programmed blasting, croaked vocal rumbles, the guitars super distorted and crumbling, a pretty fierce little chunk of programmed black buzz. But then BAM, in comes the second track, and it makes way more sense, bubblegum for sure, minus the harsh vokills, it sounds like some sort of electro pop, or a less damaged Fastest even, the major key melody, the bouncy jaunty rhythm, almost video game music at moments, but those vocals, and the weird echoey reverby production transform it into, well, into post-post-digital bubblegum black/death metal.
And if you needed even further proof of this record's PPDBGBDM sound, skip all the way to the last track, a totally ruling, and bafflingly brilliant, cover of Del Shannon's "Runaway", totally transformed into a buzzy, dirgey epic, and when the weird guitar/synth finally plays that immediately recognizable back ground vocal "Wah Wah Wah Wah Wonder" melody, you sort of want to laugh and bang your head at the same time, and then when the track locks into the super frenzied version of the original song's bridge, it's about the coolest heaviest thing ever, oh and the end of the chorus is transformed into a cool descending depressive riff that totally changes the feel of the whole song.
And in between the opening salvo, and the Del Shannon cover, are a whole mess of twisted, bedroom brewed black metal weirdness, from dirgey heaviness that sounds like a horror movie soundtrack, to programmed loping rhythms that sound like some machine post rock, which slips into some seriously grinding blackness, or from goofy blackened fuzz pop that almost sounds like a black metal Dickies to fuzzy, washed out almost blissy 8-bit sounding new wave drift. It's pretty nuts, and any metalheads who bough the Fastest record, even though it's resolutely NOT metal, will LOVE this, and anyone into twisted weirdo outsider black metal, or post-post-digital bubblegum black/death metal, well, this is for YOU.
MPEG Stream: "Runaway (Del Shannon)"
MPEG Stream: "The Dischordianist"
MPEG Stream: "Funeral Rehearsal"
MPEG Stream: "Plural Jealous Brothers"

DO SKONU Womb Of Primeval Darkness (Forever Plagued) cd 8.98

DODHEIMSGARD 666 International (Moonfog) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Black metal from Norway, taking the weird path previously explored by the likes of Arcturus, Solefald and Borknagar...piano is often as important as guitars, and clearly they've been listening to a lot of drum n' bass type stuff. Members of various famous bands participate.

DODHEIMSGARD Satanic Art (Moonfog) cdep 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Leaving aside the question of whether it really is "satanically artful" to have your record cover adorned with a stopaction photo of a pole vaulter in motion, we can say that musically this is a very weird Norwegian black metal ep. Pianoswoon, devilish samples, goofy babbling and of course metalevil constitute this disc's highlights, and although the total running time of this ep is only 13 minutes, we can say that it is worth it to fans of bizarre and sinister bands like Solefald, Arcturus, and Emperor.

DODSFERD Denying With Arrogance Your Pathetic Existence (Years Of Pure Hatred And Disgust) (Inferna Profundis) cd 13.98
Dodsferd are another black metal band that we all dig, but that has somehow managed to remain unlisted and unreviewed, until now.
This one man band from Greece, personifies misanthropy and hate, misery and total disdain for humanity. Just have a look at the liner notes: "Dodsfred does not belong to any kind of scene! No begging for anything! Support nothing, no-one should need anything from no-one! Dodsferd is Wrath and Wrath is Dosferd, no compromise, no respect for anything at all! Dodsferd is an ideal, a philosophy that only wrath stands for! Ignorance is the ultimate gift to your stupidity! I feel nothing for you leeches, you are a big nothing and you know it! I am getting stronger and stronger everyday! I am becoming sicker and sicker everyday with your pathetic existence and stupidity! Your incompetence makes me puke! Make a favor to yourselves and suicide! Bastard sons following ridiculous shepherds!"
And the music is appropriately hateful and harsh. The record begins with some sort of evil incantation, some dark ritual, minor key guitars drifting through black clouds of blackened shimmer, and a harsh rasp, reciting some sort of unholy prayer, and then the metal kicks in and we're into some seriously raw old school thrashing blackness, so stripped down it's almost crusty and punky more than metal, fans of Akitsa and Ash Pool and Malveillance and Bone Awl will definitely dig. But then Dodsferd launches into something much more bleak and black, a lurching midtempo Burzumic dirge, all minor key and miserable, before lurching into a full on blackened blast, chaotic and frenzied and fierce as fuck, that spills over into the next song, another thrashing chunk of black hate, all blast beats and buzzing riffage.
Denying With Arrogance is actually an older demo, recorded in 2004, and available briefly in 2007 as a split with Ganzmord, now finally available on its own, in all it's hateful black glory, with the 4 tracks from the original demo, plus a killer live track, ultra raw and necro and brutal, and a live Burzum cover, appropriately heavy and blown out and super distorted.
And as if the liner notes didn't convince you that Dodsferd indeed despised you, there's a note in the special thanks: "A big fuck-off to all those who tried to gain power and respect from my ideal! Retarded people! For another time, a big "go fuck yourselves and die" to all those who tried to take advantage of the name of my band and gain things that they didn't deserve! Losers and parasites! Go hide in your shit holes again!"
MPEG Stream: "Dodsferd"
MPEG Stream: "Pale Forests Sing For The Dead"

DOG s/t (Autopsy Kitchen) 3"cd 5.98
Elsewhere on this list you'll find a kick ass split 7" featuring dueling Hungarian hordes Marblebog and Vorkuta. This 3"s cd is the work of a group called simply DOG, which just so happens to feature the mainmen from both Vorkuta and Marblebog, teaming up to create some of the most twisted damaged and fucked up primitive black thrash EVER. Really. It's says "recordead in miasmatic moors under a puss moon" and we believe it.
The record starts off with some cool harmonized guitars, a super catchy riff that sounds like a lo-fi Melvins or maybe Torche, but then with a grunt, the song splinters into a super lo-fi blast of stumbling chaotic blackness, the drums simple and almost stumbling, the guitars raw and punky, and then the vocals, holy shit, completely insane and over the top, grunted and howled, a bit Cookie Monster, a bit like the deep voiced rapper from Hawd Gangstuh Rappuhs MC's Wid Ghatz, or maybe Abruptum or Vondur at their most twisted and tweaked, adds a whole other level of whatthefuck to the lumbering blasting thrashy black chaos underneath. Consider us blown away. We bow before the Carrion responsible for this insanity. It didn't take long at all for DOG and their Ancient Crypt Metal to be inducted into our pantheon of fucked up black metal genius, SOOOOOOO recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Ghoul"
MPEG Stream: "Troop Of Zombies 2"

DOLORIAN Voidwards (Wounded Love) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MPEG Stream: "Dual-Void-Trident"
MPEG Stream: "In The Locus Of Bone"

DOLORVOTRE s/t (Ajna) cd 10.98
Folks outside of the Bay Area may not be privy to the burgeoning black metal scene known as the Black Twilight Circle, a small insular group of musicians all playing in multiple bands, all on different instruments and in different arrangements, a scene modeled after the legendary French Les Legions Noires, which featured Mutiilation, Belketre, Aakon Keetrah, Torgeist, Vlad Tepes and others. In the case of the Black Twilight Circle, the bands include Blue Hummingbird On The Left (the only one we've reviewed on the aQ list until now), Volahn, Ashdautas, Axeman, Arizmenda, Kalathonn, Kuxan Suum and others, but Dolorvotre is the first group to get a proper cd release, and on the ruling Ajna label to boot, previously released on tape, several times in fact, this is the first full length from the duo Dolorvotre, and is raw and lo-fi, primitive in part, but also surprisingly progressive and experimental, the band offering up simple slabs of black blast alongside haunting doomy creeps, their songs laced with surprising melodies, weird little guitar filigree, the vocals often doused in strange effects, the tempos shifting constantly, the two piece managing to sound surprisingly lush and full, even with the primitive recordings, the vibe crusty and almost D-beatish at times, those elements though woven deftly into something much more grand, with headphones, much of what sounds raw and primitive reveals itself as way more layered and complex, the record peppered with haunting folky interludes, acoustic guitars draped over chanted vox and swirling synths, the haunting moodiness of those interludes bleeding over into the songs proper, and imbuing the record with a strange black energy that definitely transforms it into something much intense and unique.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Brilliant Brightness"
MPEG Stream: "DMT"
MPEG Stream: "Worship Black Twilight"

DOM DRACUL Attack On The Crucified (Debemur Morti) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A while back we reviewed a disc of utterly freaked out, super heavy and weird as fuck black metal from a band called Vacuum Era Gelid Atmosphere. We got this, the debut from Dom Dracul from the same place, but it couldn't sound any more different. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. This is, after all, still a hatefully raw and furious slab of grim buzzing black metal. But where V.E.G.A. wrapped their black buzz in all sorts of sonic sickness and warped weirdness, Dom Dracul stick a little bit closer to the classic sound of old skool Norwegian black metal, some serious Darkthrone / Immortal / Ulver worship going on for sure, and some nods to Bathory as well, in fact they even do a Bathory cover!
We get so wrapped up sometimes in finding the weirdest most fucked up black metal EVER, that once in a while we forget how much we love the pure, raw, grim, cult sound of straight ahead, buzzing, black metal. After all, that's exactly the sound that lured us all over to the darkside in the first place. And still, whenever we throw on some Immortal or Satyricon or Emperor, it totally blows us away and reminds us why we love this stuff so much. Dom Dracul are proud bearers of that black flame, taking that instantly recognizable sound and giving it their own little twist. The result is certainly not groundbreaking, but fuck it, that's not what we're after here, eyes closed you'd be hard pressed to figure out this wasn't in fact a late nineties Scandinavian legend. Which is actually a good thing. Very good. Thick snarling blackened riffs thrash wildly over grim rhythmic blasts, a howled demonic voice, soaring and epic and so gloriously frosty, occasionally lurching into a loping midtempo Burzumic buzz, only to explode into a furious black blast moments later. Anyone itching for some classic grim blackness would do well to drink deep from the black blood of Dom Dracul.
MPEG Stream: "666 Drops Of Blood"
MPEG Stream: "Attack On The Crucified"
MPEG Stream: "Cold Presence"

DORMANT Beneath The Mighty Oak (God Is Myth) cd 10.98
From the man who runs the amazing God Is Myth label, responsible for recent AQ faves like Godheadscope, Caina and Procer Veneficus, and who used to record as Uvall, comes the new 'group' Dormant, which takes the more traditional black metal sound of Uvall and abandons it almost entirely, focusing more on mood and melancholia, texture and timbre, songs as much as sonics, a sort of orchestral dark doom pop sound, run through with streaks of buzzing blackness, and plenty of dark dark ambience.
With some help from folks like Caina and Celestiial, Dormant weaves an unlikely blackened sonic brew, gloomy and dark, but strangely pretty and poppy, epic and almost orchestral at points, there are brief moments of grim buzz and blasting black fury, but they are relatively few and far between, instead most of the record drifts delicately, mournful strummed steel string guitars, moaning drones off in the distance, deep baritone, near spoken vocals. Sounding very much like Swans or Angels of Light. Even the heavier songs spend much of their time moping mournfully, shimmery clean guitar twang, reverbed soft focus riffage, sometimes eventually transforming into midtempo black metal, but still suffused with that distinctly pop element, occasionally even turning pitchblack and offering up some buzzing riffs and harsh vocals, but only briefly, usually slipping back into a lilting dreamy dark folk, or a strange loping industrial dirge, or a haunting expanse of barely there drone.
Definitely for the super adventurous blackmetalheads out there, or for darkfolk freaks who don't mind bits of buzz and blast peppering their spacey jangle, moody gothic miserablism and abstract late night drift.
The first 200 copies of this cd come housed in a hand screened digipak with an insert and a sticker. We have about a dozen of those. Once we run out, we'll have copies from the rest of the pressing, a version that comes in a DVD case instead.
MPEG Stream: "Black Ashes"
MPEG Stream: "I Am The Wind On The Horizon"
MPEG Stream: "Sighs"

DRAUGAR From Which Hatred Grows (tUMULt) cd 11.98
It's been ages since we've heard from Hildolf and his weirdo black metal project Draugar. An absence made even more pronounced by the fact that Draugar's debut, From Which Hatred Grows, has been out of print for a while now. Word is there is yet another brand new full length brewing (finally!), but until then, to tide us over, Draugar's first, and maybe best set of songs is available again. Black, brutal, buzzy, and so bizarre...
Who knew so much pure evil lurked deep in the depths of (supposedly) sunny California, especially right here in San Francisco. The legendary Weakling (R.I.P.), the ungodly blackened evil of Leviathan, the blazing, bleak torment of Crebain, and this here bit of blackness, the grim, funereal, majestic savagery of Draugar's From Which Hatred Grows.
Haunting and atmospheric, brutal and buzzing, blighted and black. Fingerpicked acoustic guitars explode into roaring, soul-shearing riffs, pounding drums demarcate hazy blackened soundscapes of misanthropic brutality and gorgeously melodic impurity, damaged and demented arrangements underpin hellish profane howls of utter anguish. Yeah, black metal at its best with nary a glacier or fjord in sight. Yet, as Burzumically brutal as it all is, you could be listening to this and suddenly forget and mistakenly think you've got some fucked up experiment in lo-fi ambient drone psychedelia on your stereo instead. Keyboards warble WAY above the mix, drums and vocals and guitars are whipped into Merzbow-ic blasts of white noise, blast beats are obliterated into gentle expanses of delicate acoustic guitars and droning ambient hum, the whole thing a gorgeously perplexing blast of bizarre blackened sonic experimentation. Much like the infamous Benighted Leams confused and astounded us once upon a time with its outsider genius, Draugar transcends black metal musical norms, making truly abnormal, artistic sound with unknown boundaries. Like Leviathan and our other favorite California black metal act Xasthur, it's the one-man-alone, far from the "scene" aspect that seems to foster a creativity beyond that of many ordinary black metal bands. From Which Hatred Grows is one of those rare metal records that manages to be true and grim, buzzing and black, but also a truly unique sonic vision that should find its way into the collection of every adventurous music lover.
MPEG Stream: "Intro / Uncontrollable Despair"
MPEG Stream: "Born"
MPEG Stream: "Dust Chains Idiots"

DRAUGAR Weathering The Curse (Moribund) cd 14.98
The black ice continues to spread, a grim black metal glacier slowly enveloping all with ears to hear. The West Coast black metal contingent's influence grows steadily, until one day hell walks the earth. Sorry, getting carried away. If the above scene had some sort of hierarchy, Leviathan would undoubtedly be the king. Xasthur would be a prince, or perhaps another king vying for supreme power. Crebain would be a knight, sent to slay all who shall dare oppose, and then Draugar, well Draugar would be the kings ex-vizier, locked in a dark dank dungeon, insane and murderous and demented, from years of no light, eating bugs, lack of sleep, and staring endlessly into blackness. Draugar is definitely the black sheep of this already black family, imbuing his home recorded evil, with the grim buzz of classic black metal, but with a healthy dollop of damged brilliance a la Benighted Leams, Lurker Of Chalice, or Striborg. Buzzy and black, droning and depressive, Draugar more than holds his own amidst the blackened elite, but somehow, everything he touches turns to what-the-fuck? Gentle clean arpeggiated clean guitar melodies are way up in the mix, layed atop a sluggish stream of indistinct guitar fuzz and Whitehouse-ish vocals. Sounding a little like somebody taped Darkthrone over a Slint record on an old C90 that had been in their back pocket for a month. Loping midtempo buzz over buried angelic choruses, like Morricone's The Mission performed by Graveland. Occasional ambient breaks, where guitar melodies wander aimlessly across barren soundscapes of distant rumble and creepy shimmer. Sometimes the riff seems to just splinter apart and what was moments earlier a galloping black metal juggernaut, has become a seasick drone. contructed from fuzzy almost melodies and vocals so distorted and so affected they sound like bursts of radio static. As always, heavy and grim and completely fucked!
MPEG Stream: "Warrior Without War"
MPEG Stream: "Infernal Existence / Grey Horizons"

DRAUGAR Weathering The Curse (Moribund) picture disc 14.98
Back in stock for a very limited time! We managed to get a few more copies of this ultra black picture disc. Limited to 500 copies, pretty much gone after this...
The black ice continues to spread, a grim black metal glacier slowly enveloping all with ears to hear. The West Coast black metal contingent's influence grows steadily, until one day hell walks the earth. Sorry, getting carried away. If the above scene had some sort of hierarchy, Leviathan would undoubtedly be the king. Xasthur would be a prince, or perhaps another king vying for supreme power. Crebain would be a knight, sent to slay all who shall dare oppose, and then Draugar, well Draugar would be the kings ex-vizier, locked in a dark dank dungeon, insane and murderous and demented, from years of no light, eating bugs, lack of sleep, and staring endlessly into blackness. Draugar is definitely the black sheep of this already black family, imbuing his home recorded evil, with the grim buzz of classic black metal, but with a healthy dollop of damged brilliance a la Benighted Leams, Lurker Of Chalice, or Striborg. Buzzy and black, droning and depressive, Draugar more than holds his own amidst the blackened elite, but somehow, everything he touches turns to what-the-fuck? Gentle clean arpeggiated clean guitar melodies are way up in the mix, layed atop a sluggish stream of indistinct guitar fuzz and Whitehouse-ish vocals. Sounding a little like somebody taped Darkthrone over a Slint record on an old C90 that had been in their back pocket for a month. Loping midtempo buzz over buried angelic choruses, like Morricone's The Mission performed by Graveland. Occasional ambient breaks, where guitar melodies wander aimlessly across barren soundscapes of distant rumble and creepy shimmer. Sometimes the riff seems to just splinter apart and what was moments earlier a galloping black metal juggernaut, has become a seasick drone. contructed from fuzzy almost melodies and vocals so distorted and so affected they sound like bursts of radio static. As always, heavy and grim and completely fucked!
MPEG Stream: "Warrior Without War"
MPEG Stream: "Infernal Existence / Grey Horizons"

DRAUGSANG / MORKER Seil Pa Skyggans Hav / Den Sista Utfarden (Northern Silence) lp 9.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Never reviewed this, just have a couple copies. Draugsang are Norwegian, Morker are Swedish, they did this split record of Black Metal fury back in 2006. Limited to 500 copies then, likely out of print now. Calling all Vikings!

DRAUGURZ A Yell From The Past (Dark Hidden Productions) cd 10.98
Of all the crazy and amazing black metal cassettes we've gotten over the last year or so, this has to be one of our favorites. And while we did just manage to get the tape back in stock (see elsewhere on this list) we also finally got A Yell From The Past ON CD, so we can finally highlight it, and lavish it with all the blackened praise it so rightfully deserves.
A Yell From The Past is a brilliant blast of demented blackness from a mysterious Brazilian black metal horde called Draugurz, who in the past have shared a split with AQ faves Marblebog.
Draugurz are of the ultra anguished midtempo doom drenched black metal persuasion, with a super buzzy and brittle guitar sound, stumbling drums way up in the mix, fuzzed out murky minor key keyboards and EXTREMELY tortured vocals, the kind that howl and scream and caterwaul...
A Yell From The Past (awesome title!) is a collection, a sort of greatest hits, drawn from two demos and the split with Marblebog, and the whole thing is a gorgeously lo-fi, dark and torturous journey through a black musical wasteland. Slow trudging doom gives way to lurching midtempo buzz gives way to a furious blast that is so blown out it threatens to transform into a smear of Merzbowian white noise. Heavy and weird and mysterious, haunting and heavy and so very dementedly black.
Killer cover too, some sort of cartoonish ghost drifting above the forest.
MPEG Stream: "Die Traumburg"
MPEG Stream: "Hatestorm"
MPEG Stream: "A Yell From The Past"

DRAUGURZ A Yell From The Past (Gungnir Productions) cassette 4.50
Of all the crazy and amazing black metal cassettes we've gotten over the last year or so, this has to be one of our favorites. And while it is now available on cd (see elsewhere on this list) , it somehow seems more appropriate to the tape format, all buzzy and lo-fi and completely damaged. But however you swing, digital or analog, it's time to again lavish A Yell From The Past with all the blackened praise it so rightfully deserves.
A Yell From The Past is a brilliant blast of demented blackness from a mysterious Brazilian black metal horde called Draugurz, who in the past have shared a split with AQ faves Marblebog.
Draugurz are of the ultra anguished midtempo doom drenched black metal persuasion, with a super buzzy and brittle guitar sound, stumbling drums way up in the mix, fuzzed out murky minor key keyboards and EXTREMELY tortured vocals, the kind that howl and scream and caterwaul...
A Yell From The Past (awesome title!) is a collection, a sort of greatest hits, drawn from two demos and the split with Marblebog, and the whole thing is a gorgeously lo-fi, dark and torturous journey through a black musical wasteland. Slow trudging doom gives way to lurching midtempo buzz gives way to a furious blast that is so blown out it threatens to transform into a smear of Merzbowian white noise. Heavy and weird and mysterious, haunting and heavy and so very dementedly black.
Killer cover too, some sort of cartoonish ghost drifting above the forest.
Warning: the tape has some drop outs and some serious sonic inconsistencies, but just consider that another element of Draugurz's weird world and they sound almost like they belong...
MPEG Stream: "Die Traumburg"
MPEG Stream: "Hatestorm"
MPEG Stream: "A Yell From The Past"

DREADNAUGHT Down To Zero (The Music Cartel) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

DROMMER Black Moon Float (E.E.E. Recordings) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another blast of un-blackness from the E.E.E. camp, the home to some of the most amazing un-black metal we've ever heard. What the heck is unblack metal you ask? In a nutshell, well, it's Christian black metal. And any avid readers of the AQ list will remember us raving about pretty much everything we've heard: Light Shall Previal, Agathothodion, Glaciial and this here band, Drommer.
Unlike the buzzing black hordes these guys call labelmates, Drommer is A. not buzzy, and B. not religious. So what we have is some serious secular black ambience. Or maybe still un-black ambience. Drommer unfurl two epic slabs of spaced out shimmer. The first is a gorgeously layered drone, lots of high end draped over deep resonant whirs, the sounds beating against each other like all the best minimal drone music, creating all manner of subtle tonal variations and gorgeous abstract overtones. Sixteen minutes, simple tones stretched all the way out, all the action and the color and the musical movement comes from the interaction between the various tones, subtle, but utterly hypnotic.
The second track, is more in the dark ambient vein, a nearly 30 minute trawl through some haunting mysterious landscapes. There's some definite Lustmord action going on, which is always a good thing, but where Lustmord is abject and utterly desolate, Drommer lace their dour drones with shimmers of glistening melody and stray beams of sunlight. But even with these brief glimpses of blue sky, for the most part, it's a gorgeous black cloud of sound, chimes are muted and spread into dreamy blurs and laid over a sluggishly flowing stream of mumbled murk and dark dolorous glimmer.
As with all E.E.E. stuff, this is ultra limited, usually only 50 copies, so once these are gone, that may very well be it.
MPEG Stream: "Den Lovet Fremtidig Aeons Av Evig Sporsmal"
MPEG Stream: "For Evig Er Enna Mournful For Det Noensinne Begynt"

DROMMER Channeling Natural Forces (E.E.E. Recordings) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More from the unblack camp!! E.E.E. Recordings, the Christian black metal label that brought us some of the best (un)black metal of the last few years, Light Shall Prevail, Glaciial, Agathothodion, strike again, but this time displaying a whole new side and sound.
This latest release is from a band called Drommer, who the label describe as "non-religious dark ambient", and their debut Channeling Natural Forces is a "soundtrack to nature", and indeed, there is plenty of rain, thunder and found sounds, all woven into thick, reverby soundscapes, slow burning, glimmering murky crawls, stretched out melodies, some huge grinding almost industrial drones, crumbling distortion, soaring keyboards, very dramatic and super epic, but fuzzy and buzzy and lo-fi at the same time. Makes it sound very intimate and organic.
The opening track sets the tone, a slowly growing ambience bathed in strange digital distortion and reverb, making what might otherwise be simply a dreamy drone, more a bizarre textured buzzy pulse, a haunting swell, that is constantly shifting and shimmering, the various overtones creating minimal murky rhythms amidst the static buzz. These effects surface throughout the record, giving those tracks a very alien vibe, but managing to remain true to their purpose, reflecting the sounds around us, and creating dramatic sounds to accompany natural events. Most of the tracks sound like the music we hear in our heads when the sun finally breaks through the clouds after weeks of rain and black skies. Not happy so much as glowing and subtly effulgent. Other tracks let nature do the talking offering a simple minimal counterpoint to the sound of the surf, or dripping water, deep dramatic rumbles, raga like buzz, way in the background, while nature performs her particular brand of music making over the top.
A few of the tracks get downright heavy, one when Drommers drones are all tangled up in the sounds of a torrential downpour, which ends up sounding like a natural Sunn 0))), the other, where the tones become sharp and intense, a buzzing high end skree wrapped in hiss and static that eventually crackles and flares wildly before blinking out.
Pretty amazing. Definitely a unique angle on ambient music and a cool way of incorporating field recordings, almost like a black metal Jewelled Antler!!!
As with everything E.E.E., way recommended.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Winds Of The Mountain Deep"
MPEG Stream: "Returning To Liquid Form"

DROMMER Oceans (E.E.E. Recordings) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Still more bizarre and amazing unblackness from one of our favorite new record labels, E.E.E. Recordings. The home of the cream of the UNblack metal crop. For those of you who have yet to discover unblackness, well, quite simply, it's christian black metal, which we know, seems like it would not compute, and for lots of folks it doesn't, since black metal is predicated on the message more than the music, but fuck it, some of the best black metal we've heard in the last few years has been from un-black bands. However, we almost don't need to have this discussion here since Drommer are not Christian, and are not really black metal. They are, according to the label 'non-religious dark ambient', but the music of Drommer is way to weird and varied to be summed up that simply. It most certainyl is dark, and ambient, at least sort of, hard to gauge the religious part as they are instrumental and ambient.Ê
But dark ambient gives the impression of swooshiness and dreaminess and drifty droniness, but this, the third disc we've reviewed from Drommer is so much more.Ê
Our favorite track might be "Shallow Water Residence", a swirling squall of crumbling white noise chopped and layered over moody mournful piano, the two elements constantly battling, it's quite intense and dramatic. But the rest of the record is just as unexpectedly amazing. The opener, "Oceans", is a long stretch of decayed drones, wavering and beating against one another, emitting sporadic rhythms, and coalescing occasionally into fragmented melodies, all very buzzed out and fuzzy, and with a constant tense minor key quality to it, almost like a Niblock piece recorded onto some old tape in William Basinski's attic. A lot of the record sounds like the sort of ambience one might expect to find on a Wold record. All damaged and corrupted, the sound quality so degraded that the imperfections are like another part of the composition. But then all of a sudden, the band will whip out some crazy majestic slab of moody instrumentalism like on "Ashen Sea Of Grey", the beginning of which sounds like it came straight off a Daniel Higgs record, before halfway through it splinters into shortwave interference, and becomes some murky childlike lullabye. Then there's the final track, all simple percussion and dramatic acoustic strum, like the rough mix of some lost Woven Hand song or a Nick Cave outtake, albeit peppered with strange digital glitchery and buzzy reverb...Ê
This record is just so gorgeously demented, and unpredictably intense.ÊImagine if you can, Tim Hecker making (un)black ambient music, and you'd get a rough idea, but Drommer is way more schizophrenic, somehow without losing cohesiveness, every bizarre twist, or jarring shift, sounds completely natural, it's almost like Oceans is the soundtrack for the strangest film you've never seen. One of our new favorite records for sure... black, unblack or otherwise.Ê
MPEG Stream: "Oceans"
MPEG Stream: "Black Moon Float"
MPEG Stream: "Alive In Tears"

DROMMER The Saddest Of Days (E.E.E Recordings) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MPEG Stream: "The Quest To Find Utter Nothingness"
MPEG Stream: "Vanished From This Place"
MPEG Stream: "Night Terror: Another Entrence Into"

DRUDKH Autumn Aurora (Supernal) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

DRUDKH Blood In Our Wells (Supernal) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Quite possibly our favorite Ukrainian black metal band. And before you scoff, there's plenty of competition, Hate Forest, Nokturnal Mortum, Astrofaes, Lucifugum (and about 200 more according to the Encyclopaedia Metallum), but Drudkh somehow manage to prevail.
Drudkh's particular brand of black grimness, is of the midtempo Burzumic variety, but they infuse their buzz with a surprising amount of epic majesty, mournful melody and strange chords and phrasings that lend all their riffs a strangely haunting gravity. It's kind of hard to explain actually, but every Drudkh song is just so intense, so emotional and so full of mystery. A few things have changed on Blood In Our Wells though, the first is all the Ukrainian folk music and random dialogue purloined from some Ukrainian film, that really adds another strange layer to Drudkh's already dense sonic world, the other thing that's different, is the surprising amount of guitar leads, not the squiggly lightning fast black leads you might expect, but some super melodic strangely glam rock leads. Really! Sounds strange, but it totally works. And just manages to make Drudkh even weirder and cooler.
There's plenty of buzzing blackness for the true and grim and black hearted, but folks who dig Godspeed and Isis, and that whole slow build, explosive climax, quiet-loud-quiet thing might find this Drudkh to be their gateway drug. The perfect moody blackness to drag all those indie rockers to the dark side. TOTALLY RECOMMENDED!!!
MPEG Stream: "Furrows Of Gods"
MPEG Stream: "When The Flame Turns To Ashes"

DRUDKH Estrangement (Supernal) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After the gorgeous dark folk of Songs Of Grief And Solitude, Ukrainian black metallers Drudkh return to their roots, offering up a 5 song ep, with four looooong tracks of sprawling, epic, depressive, nature obsessed, foresty blackness.
Definitely the best sounding Drudkh yet, the drums are awesome, way up in the mix, the guitars soar and ring out, so mournful and majestic, the vocals too are much more intense than in the past, a raw feral roar, passionate and emotional and surprisingly musical for BM vocals. And then there's the bass, a whole new addition to Drudkh's sound, not that there wasn't bass before, but now the basslines are as crucial to the sound as the guitar parts, not just a simple thump thump thump, the bass is slippery and intricate, unfurling dense webs of complex low end, creating a thick black backdrop, so the guitars can buzz and howl, and the drums can blast wildly.
The core of the record are the first three songs, each 10+ minutes, and each a stirring sonic journey. This is the sound of dark forests, and windswept peaks, of rushing rivers and snow cloaked mountaintops, full moons and firelight. The tracks vary greatly, often in the same song, the tempos shifting effortlessly from doomy plod, to midtempo lope to furious blast, but the riffs this time, wow, so totally catchy and melodic, without losing any of the grim fury, powerful and hauntingly heartbreaking, soaring in long drawn out melodies as often as buzzing maniacally. In fact more often. The drums are way different too, sort of sloppy and chaotic, but it suits the sound, no clinical super tight blasting, but instead, the rhythms have feeling, some swing to them, letting them lurch and stumble, and work in perfect concert with the ever shifting riffage. The sound is definitely reminiscent of classic Drudkh discs like Forgotten Legends and Autumn Aurora, but revamped, and recharged, imbued with a surprising amount of drama and moodiness and emotional intensity. No more so than in the last track, the briefest of the bunch, but what a grandiose blast of epic black beauty. Beginning with acoustic guitar, it soon launches into a glorious blissy midtempo blow out, that would sound pretty good right next to some Alcest. It even has a super intense guitar lead, that wails wildly over the roiling black bliss beneath. Woah. So fucking awesome, and so recommended.
And of course, a review of Drudkh is never complete without a mention of the bands problematic politics. While they do seem somewhat removed from all that, at least musically and lyrically, focusing instead more on nature, it is worth mentioning as it is a distinct part of what they're about. We talked about it in a past review, and since we don't think we could write about it again as eloquently, here it is again.
We've been through this before with Burzum and Graveland and umpteen others, we love the music, but abhor the message. In some cases, like with Drudkh, it's easy to just enjoy the music and ignore the problematic politics, there are no printed lyrics, no fucked up song titles, just images of forests and sky and rain and darkness, a mysterious booklet with more images of trees and forests and the sky and rivers, all very mysterious and evocative. For some though, there is no ignoring the message, no matter how subtle or indirect, and the thought of giving any sort of support is unacceptable. That's perfectly fine. But for us, the music -can- transcend the message, and does at least in this case.
MPEG Stream: "Solitary Endless Path"
MPEG Stream: "Skies At Our Feet"

DRUDKH Forgotten Legends (Supernal) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've gone on and on in the past about Ukranian black metallers Nokturnal Mortum and the NM side project Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra. Bands that perfecty straddle the line between true grim blackness and total what-the-fuck weirdness. But the Ukraine has a load of other bands who are just as buzzy and brilliantly black and fucked up. And it just so happens that they all seem to share at least one (the same?) member. Astrofaes, Hate Forest, Lucifugum, and of course Drudkh. All of these projects traffic in the same sort of buzzed out atmospheric blackness that we can't get enough of. Loping stumbling midtempo folk flecked blasts of Burzumic fuzz, long LONG tracks, melancholy melodies swathed in buzzing guitars and anguished vocals, with brief bursts of blast beats and mosquito buzz riffing. Very droney and atmospheric as well as fiercely fuzzy blackly brutal. Fans of Burzum (obviously) and bands like Graveland, Woodtemple and the like definitely need everything by any of these bands they can get their hands on. This is the first Drudkh record from a few years back, we'll be listing the others soon (including a brand new album for 2006) but we figured we might as well start at the beginning. Forgotten Legends (and all the Drudkh records for that matter) is so good. Dark and bleak and depressive, droney and dirgey and black, but weirdly lovely as well.
Unfortunately, no discussion of any of these bands is complete without a brief look at their politics, always a troublesome sore spot with most black metal. Drudkh focus on 'Slavonic pride, culture and mythology', an ideology only slightly removed from the full on racism of Nastional Socialist black metal bands. Their name in fact means wood in Sanskrit, "the first language of the Aryan race." Oof. We've been through this before with Burzum and Graveland and umpteen others, we love the music, but abhor the message. In some cases, like with Drudkh, it's easy to just enjoy the music and ignore the problematic politics, there are no printed lyrics, no fucked up song titles, just images of forests and sky and rain and darkness, a mysterious booklet with no information but for the words: "sadness, bitterness, pain, despair, loss, agony, solitude, betrayal, melancholy, sorrow," all very mysterious and evocative. For some though, there is no ignoring the message, no matter how subtle or indirect, and the thought of giving any sort of support is unacceptable. That's perfectly fine. But for us, the music -can- transcend the message, and does at least in this case, and the sound of Forgotten Legends is nebulous enough that each listener can take whatever they want from this music, a series of totally mesmerizing, gorgeously depressive black buzzing drone metal epics.
MPEG Stream: "False Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Forests In Fire And Gold"

DRUDKH Forgotten Legends (Season of Mist) cd 14.98
First in a comprehensive reissue campaign of ALL of this Ukrainian horde's black metal classics, after having spent the last little while out of print and unavailable. Now available again in spiffy new digipaks, here's what we had to say about Drudkh's 2003 debut Forgotten Legends, when we first reviewed it way back when:
We've gone on and on in the past about Ukrainian black metallers Nokturnal Mortum and the NM side project Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra. Bands that perfectly straddle the line between true grim blackness and total what-the-fuck weirdness. But the Ukraine has a load of other bands who are just as buzzy and brilliantly black and fucked up. And it just so happens that they all seem to share at least one (the same?) member. Astrofaes, Hate Forest, Lucifugum, and of course Drudkh. All of these projects traffic in the same sort of buzzed out atmospheric blackness that we can't get enough of. Loping stumbling midtempo folk flecked blasts of Burzumic fuzz, long LONG tracks, melancholy melodies swathed in buzzing guitars and anguished vocals, with brief bursts of blast beats and mosquito buzz riffing. Very droney and atmospheric as well as fiercely fuzzy blackly brutal. Fans of Burzum (obviously) and bands like Graveland, Woodtemple and the like definitely need everything by any of these bands they can get their hands on. This is the very first Drudkh record, Forgotten Legends (and all the Drudkh records for that matter) and it's so so good. Dark and bleak and depressive, droney and dirgey and black, but weirdly lovely as well.
Unfortunately, no discussion of any of these bands is complete without a brief look at their politics, always a troublesome sore spot with most black metal. Drudkh focus on 'Slavonic pride, culture and mythology', an ideology only slightly removed from the full on racism of National Socialist black metal bands. Their name in fact means wood in Sanskrit, "the first language of the Aryan race." Yep. We've been through this before with Burzum and Graveland and umpteen others, we love the music, but abhor the message. In some cases, like with Drudkh, it's easy to just enjoy the music and ignore the problematic politics, there are no printed lyrics, no fucked up song titles, just images of forests and sky and rain and darkness, a mysterious booklet with no information but for the words: "sadness, bitterness, pain, despair, loss, agony, solitude, betrayal, melancholy, sorrow," all very mysterious and evocative. And it does seem like of all those bands Drudkh are more concerned with emotions and darkness and spirituality. For some though, there is no ignoring any hint of that ideology, no matter how subtle or indirect, and the thought of giving any sort of support is unacceptable. That's perfectly fine. But for us, the music -can- transcend the message, and does at least in this case, and the sound of Forgotten Legends is nebulous enough that each listener can take whatever they want from this music, a series of totally mesmerizing, gorgeously depressive black buzzing drone metal epics.
MPEG Stream: "False Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Forests In Fire And Gold"

DRUDKH Handful Of Stars (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98
Latest from these Ukrainian black metal masters, and by now faithful readers of the aQ list most likely know how much we love Ukrainian black metal: Hate Forest, Nokturnal Mortum, Lucifugum, Astrofaes, and of course Drudkh, and while there is much of the old Drudkh present, there have been some seriously dramatic sonic and stylistic shifts which somehow manage to change the sound completely without losing the essence of what makes Drudkh so great.
After a dark brooding piano intro, the first proper song kicks in and the first thing you notice is the almost jangly guitar tone, and the busy almost mathy drumming, and suddenly, the sound is more Katatonia / Alcest than anything we might have expected from Drudkh, there are still harsh vocals, and blasting double kick drumming, but combined with the almost clean guitars, it sounds more like Lifelover. It's a little jarring for sure, but the new sound definitely suits them, and over the course of that first track, there are cool stop / start arrangements, midtempo drifts of post rock that build to super tangled complex mathy blowouts, verging on black blasts, but more blissed out and shoegazey almost.
The second track begins similarly, with lightly flanged clean guitar, a strummed minor key melody, with a second guitar adding Smiths-y shimmer, and then again, the song kicks in and it's super melodic, the only true element of blackness the vox. It's at this point that something else becomes noticeable for its absence, no synths, and no folky interludes, for years an integral part of Drudkh's sound, but seemingly ditched in favor of melody, and harmony, and a definite pop element.
All that said, the songs are still pretty fantastic, the drumming, super original and complex, often adding strange rhythmic filigree to a part that is seemingly simple on the surface, the guitars too are lush and layered and offer all sorts of melodic shadings, the final track offers up the final word on this sonic shift with a long stretch of bass driven lope, spidery guitars, thick low end pulses and simple solid drumming which gives way, peppered with bursts of Godspeedy crescendos, and a super melodic classic rock sounding lead, only to finish off in a tangle of howled vokills, intricate drumming, and lush layered guitars.
We were definitely thrown for a loop at first, but after a few listens, it's easy to hear Drudkh in these seemingly UN-Drudkh like songs, and we love the soaring heavy black pop sound, and hell, this might be the gateway record for the black metal shy to give this Ukrainian thing a try, it only gets blacker and grimmer from here...
MPEG Stream: "Twilight Aureole"
MPEG Stream: "The Day Will Come"

DRUDKH Lebedynyi Shlyakh (The Swan Road) (Supernal) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've proudly proclaimed Ukrainian black metal horde Drudkh to be our favorite band from that particularly kick ass region (although we pretty much love all of those bands: Hate Forest, Nokturnal Mortum, Astrofaes, Lucifugum, etc.) and we've been meaning to get some of their back catalog in after reviewing their most recent record Blood In Our Wells.
Lebedynyy Shlyakh aka The Swan Road, just might be our favorite of all of their records, released barely a year before Blood In Our Wells, it's a super dark and emotional, brittle lo-fi dronelike blast of Burzumic buzz but with all sorts of strange parts and sounds, weird arrangements and very distinctly Drudkh-like elements. It definitely gets harder and harder to describe exactly what makes one frosty grim black metal record stand out, they all buzz and blast, everything is fuzzy and black, and of course grim and harsh and cult and cold and brutal and pummeling. So it usually comes down to the songwriting, the riffs, the arrangements, even some sonic subtleties that just can't be so easily put into words.
With Drudkh, it's just that. They imbue their sound with all sorts of unlikely sonic elements that perfectly balance the more traditional black metal sounds. Lots of the riffs are strangely angular and distinctly un-black metal, almost like post rock parts of classic metal riffs. There are brief bits of acoustic guitar, often hovering beneath a thick swirl of blackened hiss and crumbling fuzz. Plus there are all sorts of strange folky elements, and some super emotional minor key leads, that just sort of soar and hover, all majestic and so epic. But it's not so much those parts and pieces as the way they are integrated, the way the songs exude a sort of magic and chemistry. And the thing is, Lebedynyy Shlyakh is not so hateful and grim, it's weirdly hopeful sounding, more musical than a lot of black metal. Minor key sure, but more melancholy than miserable. And the arrangements and strange melodies evoke a sort of epic loping post rock more than the bleak buzz of Burzum or Mayhem. Which definitely makes Drudkh a whole 'nother beast. Mathy and melodic, with lots of unexpected twists and turns, structural and melodic, buzzing and black, but a buzzing blackness twisted into entirely new shapes. Revisiting this disc it's easy to see why we were (and still are) so blown away. SO RECOMMENDED!
MPEG Stream: "Eternal Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Blood"

DRUDKH Microcosmos (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98
The return of Ukrainian black metal legends Drudkh! In the past, the Ukraine have given us Hate Forest and Nokturnal Mortum and Astrofaes and Lucifugum and so many moreholco, but Drudkh somehow always manage to overshadow their blackened brethren, their sound transcendent and otherworldly, at once grim and frosty and black, but at the same time timeless and epic and majestic and melodic. Few black metal bands could release an all acoustic folk record, and imbue it with the same sort of intensity and emotion, but Drudkh did just that with Songs Of Grief And Solitude, a folk record that one might assume would most definitely not appeal to metalheads, but we've yet to meet a black metal freek who didn't also love that record. Definitely speaks to the band's power and originality and energy.
Something strange seems to be going on currently with Drudkh and their catalog though (or maybe with Drudkh and their old label Supernal), all of their previous records are currently out of print and unavailable, which makes the arrival of Microcosmos even more timely. Continuing on from where the brilliant Estrangement left off, the sound of Drudkh is a dizzying blend of old world folk music, melodic metal, and of course grim buzzing blackness. The record begins with a brief bit of baroque court music, some old school folk, all buzzing strings and simple percussion, Eastern melodies and warm wheezing textures, before the second song kicks in with a flurry of frenetic buzz and wildly blasting drums, the main guitar immediately unfurling a totally epic and timeless sounding melody. The band establishing in a matter of seconds that they have returned, and all other black minions must bow down or be smote. The nearly ten minute epic is packed with twists and turns, as we described Drudkh songs in a past review, an epic sonic journey, from soaring washed out melodic whir, to howled blasting fury, to woozy mid tempo grooves laced with heart rending minor key melodies, stretches of Deathspell-ish gnarled riffage, even a drifty acoustic interlude, with steel string guitars, weird bits of buzz and fragmented riffage and some scraped atonal bass, before lurching back into a blown out Godspeedian majestic black coda.
And so it goes for the whole record. Four songs, all hovering around ten minutes, the guitars intense and massive, the melodies and arrangements so unlikely but so perfect. Strip away the buzz and take away the vocals, and this would be some super dense tripped out folk flecked post rock epic, but as it is, Microcosmos is next level black metal, their naturalist vibe is totally present, the songs and sounds organic and lush, evocative of forests and fjords, of grey skies and snow covered mountains, but the magic most definitely lays in the songs, even the harshest heaviest parts are impossibly melodic, and even the pretty parts often splinter into total buzz drenched chaos. The bass is all over the place (a rarity in the realm of black metal), throbbing and pulsing, adding melodic counterpoint as often as it does texture and ambience, the vocals appropriately harsh and howled, but really, they seem to just merge with the music, a gorgeously blackened metal that easily slips from relentless blasting, to Burzumic plod, to seasick lurch, all blended into a sound that while on the surface is most definitely black metal, is ultimately a strain of blackness that could only be Drudkh.
In the past we've mentioned the bands possibly problematic politics, but recently the band issued a statement to the effect that the absence of lyrics and information, the no photos, no interviews, no website policy is purposeful, and this dearth of information is what led some folks to posit that the band espoused ideals in line with the NSBM movement, when in fact, the band claim to be apolitical, and to promote "individualism, self-improvement and estrangement from modern values." So there.
MPEG Stream: "Distant Cries Of Cranes"
MPEG Stream: "Decadence"
MPEG Stream: "Ars Poetica"

DRUDKH Microcosmos (Season Of Mist) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL!!!
The return of Ukrainian black metal legends Drudkh! In the past, the Ukraine have given us Hate Forest and Nokturnal Mortum and Astrofaes and Lucifugum and so many more, but Drudkh somehow always manage to overshadow their blackened brethren, their sound transcendent and otherworldly, at once grim and frosty and black, but at the same time timeless and epic and majestic and melodic. Few black metal bands could release an all acoustic folk record, and imbue it with the same sort of intensity and emotion, but Drudkh did just that with Songs Of Grief And Solitude, a folk record that one might assume would most definitely not appeal to metalheads, but we've yet to meet a black metal freek who didn't also love that record. Definitely speaks to the band's power and originality and energy.
Something strange seems to be going on currently with Drudkh and their catalog though (or maybe with Drudkh and their old label Supernal), all of their previous records are currently out of print and unavailable, which makes the arrival of Microcosmos even more timely. Continuing on from where the brilliant Estrangement left off, the sound of Drudkh is a dizzying blend of old world folk music, melodic metal, and of course grim buzzing blackness. The record begins with a brief bit of baroque court music, some old school folk, all buzzing strings and simple percussion, Eastern melodies and warm wheezing textures, before the second song kicks in with a flurry of frenetic buzz and wildly blasting drums, the main guitar immediately unfurling a totally epic and timeless sounding melody. The band establishing in a matter of seconds that they have returned, and all other black minions must bow down or be smote. The nearly ten minute epic is packed with twists and turns, as we described Drudkh songs in a past review, an epic sonic journey, from soaring washed out melodic whir, to howled blasting fury, to woozy mid tempo grooves laced with heart rending minor key melodies, stretches of Deathspell-ish gnarled riffage, even a drifty acoustic interlude, with steel string guitars, weird bits of buzz and fragmented riffage and some scraped atonal bass, before lurching back into a blown out Godspeedian majestic black coda.
And so it goes for the whole record. Four songs, all hovering around ten minutes, the guitars intense and massive, the melodies and arrangements so unlikely but so perfect. Strip away the buzz and take away the vocals, and this would be some super dense tripped out folk flecked post rock epic, but as it is, Microcosmos is next level black metal, their naturalist vibe is totally present, the songs and sounds organic and lush, evocative of forests and fjords, of grey skies and snow covered mountains, but the magic most definitely lays in the songs, even the harshest heaviest parts are impossibly melodic, and even the pretty parts often splinter into total buzz drenched chaos. The bass is all over the place (a rarity in the realm of black metal), throbbing and pulsing, adding melodic counterpoint as often as it does texture and ambience, the vocals appropriately harsh and howled, but really, they seem to just merge with the music, a gorgeously blackened metal that easily slips from relentless blasting, to Burzumic plod, to seasick lurch, all blended into a sound that while on the surface is most definitely black metal, is ultimately a strain of blackness that could only be Drudkh.
In the past we've mentioned the bands possibly problematic politics, but recently the band issued a statement to the effect that the absence of lyrics and information, the no photos, no interviews, no website policy is purposeful, and this dearth of information is what led some folks to posit that the band espoused ideals in line with the NSBM movement, when in fact, the band claim to be apolitical, and to promote "individualism, self-improvement and estrangement from modern values." So there.
MPEG Stream: "Distant Cries Of Cranes"
MPEG Stream: "Decadence"
MPEG Stream: "Ars Poetica"

DRUDKH Slavonic Chronicles (Season Of Mist) 10" 14.98

DRUDKH Songs Of Grief And Solitude (Supernal) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The long awaited folk record from Ukrainian black metal gods Drudkh. And it's amazing! But before we get into it, we have always wondered, what it is exactly with black metal and folk? Why does a record, that to the untrained ear, sounds like Renaissance Faire music, get lauded as still being 'grim'? And why do black metallers, one of the seemingly most close minded group of music fans in the world, deem certain sorts of folk music worthy of their adoration, when they have utter disdain for all other musicks that are not grim or true? And what makes a certain folk music grim or true?
Who really know, and who really cares. What we do know is that Songs Of Grief And Solitude is gorgeous and mournful, melodic and mysterious, and you would never know this was the work of one of our favorite buzzing black hordes!
Based on Ukrainian legends, traditional songs and fairy tales, Songs Of Grief And Solitude is a gorgeous folk record. Acoustic guitars and flutes, woven deftly into super moving emotional arrangements. VERY reminiscent of Comus, the Incredible String Band, and similar minded seventies folkies, haunting and minor key, dark and dreamy, unlikely melodies and unusual arrangements help avoid the usual Renn Faire vibe, although when the flutes join in, it's a bit difficult to deny. But the majority of the record is quite dark, very cinematic, moody and haunting, sounding like it could very well be the work of any number of modern day freak folk outfits, but with the added weight of the band's black background giving the music more musical heft. Each song begins with the sound of a crackling campfire or chirping crickets or tolling bells or the whir of night time nature, as if each of these songs was a tale being related around a campfire, or told to friends in the field. Normally we would suggest that maybe Drudkh fans would not necessarily dig this, but pursuant to the above black metal/folk discussion, and the fact that all the Drudkh fans we know LOVE this record, we'd have to say it's pretty damn essential. But it should also be essential listening for all the modern free folk freaks as well. Might be their black metal gateway record (even though there is NO black metal here). Songs Of Grief And Solitude would fit perfectly between your Comus record and your Vetiver record, next to your Brightblack Morning Light and Feathers records. Check it out. All hail Drudkh!
MPEG Stream: "Sunset In Carpathians"
MPEG Stream: "Tears Of Gods"
MPEG Stream: "Archaic Dance"

DRUDKH Songs Of Grief And Solitude (Northern Heritage) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The most recent Drudkh available on vinyl for a very short time. Super cool, new artwork, limited to 500 copies, and thus, these will probably disappear in a flash...
The long awaited folk record from Ukrainian black metal gods Drudkh. And it's amazing! But before we get into it, we have always wondered, what it is exactly with black metal and folk? Why does a record, that to the untrained ear, sounds like Renaissance Faire music, get lauded as still being 'grim'? And why do black metallers, one of the seemingly most close minded group of music fans in the world, deem certain sorts of folk music worthy of their adoration, when they have utter disdain for all other musicks that are not grim or true? And what makes a certain folk music grim or true?
Who really know, and who really cares. What we do know is that Songs Of Grief And Solitude is gorgeous and mournful, melodic and mysterious, and you would never know this was the work of one of our favorite buzzing black hordes!
Based on Ukrainian legends, traditional songs and fairy tales, Songs Of Grief And Solitude is a gorgeous folk record. Acoustic guitars and flutes, woven deftly into super moving emotional arrangements. VERY reminiscent of Comus, the Incredible String Band, and similar minded seventies folkies, haunting and minor key, dark and dreamy, unlikely melodies and unusual arrangements help avoid the usual Renn Faire vibe, although when the flutes join in, it's a bit difficult to deny. But the majority of the record is quite dark, very cinematic, moody and haunting, sounding like it could very well be the work of any number of modern day freak folk outfits, but with the added weight of the band's black background giving the music more musical heft. Each song begins with the sound of a crackling campfire or chirping crickets or tolling bells or the whir of night time nature, as if each of these songs was a tale being related around a campfire, or told to friends in the field. Normally we would suggest that maybe Drudkh fans would not necessarily dig this, but pursuant to the above black metal/folk discussion, and the fact that all the Drudkh fans we know LOVE this record, we'd have to say it's pretty damn essential. But it should also be essential listening for all the modern free folk freaks as well. Might be their black metal gateway record (even though there is NO black metal here). Songs Of Grief And Solitude would fit perfectly between your Comus record and your Vetiver record, next to your Brightblack Morning Light and Feathers records. Check it out. All hail Drudkh!
MPEG Stream: "Sunset In Carpathians"
MPEG Stream: "Tears Of Gods"
MPEG Stream: "Archaic Dance"

DRUMM, KEVIN & LASSE MARHAUG Frozen By Blizzard Winds (Smalltown Supersound) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
With an album title that sounds like it could be the name of the next Immortal record, this new release from Chicago guitar experimentalist Kevin Drumm takes the inspired-by-black-metal aesthetic of his recent Mego-label cd "Sheer Hellish Miasma" even further (what's he been doing, hanging out with Weasel Walter?). In fact, he teams up here with an actual Norwegian! Lasse Marhaug of noisy electronica act Jazzkammer joins Drumm for this live-in-Oslo session, his laptop computer vs. Drumm's guitar and analog synth. Their collaboration/clash results in some dark and droney sounds that are semi-appropriate to the apparent black metal concept, being generally quiet and creepy rather than massive or mayhemic. The guitar, when you can tell it's a guitar, is more Derek Bailey than Burzum. And the arctic winds evoked on here hiss rather than howl. But, there's no mistaking the simulation of the sinister crackling of burning churches, and perhaps even the twittering of malicious goblins in dark forests, via Drumm and Marhaug's electronics. So, of course, we love this. Leaving aside the black metal business, this is atmospheric ambient glitch drone improv at its best -- and most eeveeiil.
RealAudio clip: "track 2"

DUKKHA Grim Disco (Frequency Thirteen) cd-r 7.98
One of two new blasts of "True Sheffield Black Psychedelia" from one of our favorite labels, UK weirdo sound stronghold Frequency 13, the True Sheffield Black Psychedelia descriptor covering a whole lot of sonic territory, from groups as varied as Black Vomit (whose new record is reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), Ice Bound Majesty, Rape Rack, Skultroll, not to mention these guys right here, Dukkha, whose latest, the awesomely titled Grim Disco, is a single, 70 minute sprawl, that merges Butthole Surfers like atonal guitar melodies, with thick swaths of churning low-end, and looped propulsive programmed rhythms, into something heavy, hypnotic and WAY tripped out.
A dirgey, murky, krauty groove, submerged in a sea of chug and buzz and crunch, wound up with all manner of spidery melodies, the 'riff's a sort of blurred black metal, tangled up with something much dirgier and noise rockier, the sound slipping from caustic distorted buzz to weirdly tranced out cyclical churn, but that's only the first 6 or so minutes, the rhythmic pound and chug fading out into a cloud of glitched out digital shimmer, a bit like Oval, hazy and hypnotic, before splintering into something much more ominous, a whirling cinematic stretch of buzzing epic synthscapery, all soaring low end buzz and haunting majestic melody, thick and lush and layered, seriously dark and creepy, before it too fades out, this time into a field of glitch and glimmer, which gives way to some Melvins-y detuned dirge-y pound, the guitars gradually growing more and more chaotic, streaks of feedback, shards of fragmented riffage, moaning melodies, jagged atonal crunch, swirling low end murk, all wound around some tribal rhythmic pound, a doomy, downtuned final sludgey, weirdly groovy coda.
Killer stuff, as always. CRAZY LIMITED too, ONLY 40 COPIES!! we got 20 of those, which are bound to go fast...
MPEG Stream: "Grim Disco (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Grim Disco (excerpt 2)"

DURTHANG Passage Beyond the Cold Vales of Desolation (Insikt) cassette 4.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There are different sorts of buzz. Especially in black metal, where the buzz is God. Or Satan. High brittle ear shredding buzz. Thick, layered My Bloody Valentine blissed out buzz. Super downtuned SUNNO))) style buzz. In fact, if a band can discover a super unique, totally distinctive sounding buzz, they're halfway there. Everything else will hopefully fall right into place.
The second we threw this tape on, we were floored. What a completely overwhelmingly heavy and strange sounding buzz. Durthang are Swedish and play a plodding slow motion black doom. But the buzz!! Such a gloriously thick and dense sounding guitar tone, sort of blown out and tinny, but with the bass pumped way up so there's this ghostly low end. It's one of those sounds that is so pleasing to our ears, there almost doesn't even need to be any song, just single chord or a single riff churning out that perfect buzz forever and ever.
Thankfully the band back up their divine buzz with some killer songwriting, some super memorable riffs, and some amazing dark depressive atmosphere. An utterly bleak and depressive slab of brilliant slow motion black metal doom. So recommended.

DWELLERS OF THE TWILIGHT Grey (Eichenwald Industries) cd 12.98
First release on a new label, co-conspirators as it were with long time aQ faves Paradigms, whose roster, as most aQ peeps know by now is a truly esoteric collection of metal, psych and drone: Hjarnidaudi, Titan, Utlagr, Amber Asylum, The Angelic Process, Wraiths, Ondo, Gnaw Their Tongues. But as Paradigms seems to be moving away from the metal side of things, it makes perfect sense that they would team up with a label that specializes in "jet black cutting edge extreme metal esoterica".
And thus we have Eichenwald Industries, who in some strange way do compliment the wide ranging Paradigms catalog, and with two new releases, show a surprising amount of breadth themselves.Ê
Elsewhere on this list you'll find the epic occult psychedelic doom metal of The Wounded Kings, while this right here is the debut release from Dwellers Of The Twilight, a French duo who channel the hateful blackness of groups like Anaal Nathrakh and Carpathian Forest (the bands that the label references), but also plenty of super clinical heaviness a la countrymen Blut Aus Nord, as well as a bit of that classic Scandinavian sound, we hear a lot of 1349 in the mix actually, with the impossibly furious drumming (programmed not played) and lightning fast riffing. The production is super tight and polished, the sound is massive and heavy, the band shift effortlessly from blazing blasts of black, to lurching doomy grooves, to long blown out guitardrones, to crushing megadoom, the fast bits rife with fucked up mathy twists and turns, the slow parts peppered with dissonant chords and woozy Deathspell like arrangements, and while there are plenty of experimental flourishes, the trippy ambient guitar buzz of the record's closer, the awesome stretch of murky muted full band rocking closing out "Domus Mundi", the abstract guitar drone dirge of the title track, as a whole, this is less experimental, and more a fierce and furious head shearing super technical black metal blast from below. Way recommended, for fans of any of the above mentioned bands, and pretty much anyone into the classic sounds of both French and Norwegian style buzzing blackness.
MPEG Stream: "Sovereign Of Sulphur"
MPEG Stream: "Domus Mundi"

DYSTER Fallen, Suicided & Forgotten (Drakkar) cassette 4.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's all about tapes now. Underground noise, black metal, the real raw shit, the weird underground stuff, it all seems to be finding its way to us mostly on super limited cassette tapes. Apparently tapes are the new tool of the underground. The new OLD tool of the underground. Way more true and grim and cooooool. CD-r's are so 2005. Sheesh.
Anyway, we got a whole mess of amazing and demented and brilliantly fucked up black metal recently, so we'll be trying to get them reviewed cuz you all you AQ weird metal fanatics will not want to miss out on any of these.
Dyster is a French one man band, dark depressive and suicidal (the band logo even incorporates a razor blade) who buzzes and blasts with the best of them, and is very reminiscent of French black metal legends Mutiilation. Mostly midtempo, with loud drums and buzzing insectoid riffing. Thick and furious, with killer harsh howled vocals that sometimes become hellish hysterical shrieks. Strange arrangements with most songs veering wildly from frantic blasts to stretches of slow motion doom with haunting arpeggiated guitars to pounding old school black buzz.
Not sure what it is, but we have been listening to this over and over since we first got it. Very recommended.
SUPER LIMITED. Each tape hand numbered.

DYSTHYMIA The Shivering Opus (Pest Productions) cd 14.98
One of two amazing new records released by recently discovered (by us at least) Pest Productions, a record label in China specializing in mysterious outsider black metal of all stripes, from black depressive black buzz, to blown out shimmery shoegaze black metal drift. The other, reviewed elsewhere on this list is a bizarre bit of depressive blackness by a Chinese one man band called Heartless, this though comes all the way from Iceland, another one man band, but this one not so depressive as dark and moody. Beginning with a haunting and very cinematic bit of piano driven ambience, the record soon lumbers into the 10+ minute "Mirthless", a buzz drenched bit of midtempo blackness, the distortion super crunchy and thick, the main bit of riffage, laced with shimmery bits of crystalline melody, the vocals a harsh hellish shriek, the riffing occasionally stuttering into spurts of clipped chug, before slipping right back into the woozy buzz. Over the course of the track, the song veers from melancholy folky shuffle, complete with strange sound effects and clean minor key guitar melodies, to churning doomy plod, to creepy chanted vocal ambience. "Rotten And Diminished" begins with some stately strings, moaning cellos, orchestral percussion, and even after the black metal kicks in, the strings remain, underpinning the blast and buzz with some epic pomp, a strange black metal classical hybrid, with the track again constantly switching gears, one of the coolest parts is when one guitar unfurls a staccato chug, the other a sheet of distant high end shimmer, over which the vokills, gurgle and grumble, before the track finishes off with acoustic guitar, reverbed piano, and some creepy monstrous backwards growls.
The rest of the record continues in a similar vein, taking the melodic blackness of groups like Lifelover, Shining, Forgotten Tomb and the like, and twisting it up a bit, adding plenty of strange interludes, folky and drifty, classical and cinematic, but it's the songs themselves, the unique riffing, the melodies and arrangements, that make this stuff stand out. In fact, that guitars constantly do weird little things that are a bit hard to explain, but mid riff, they'll modulate, or transform into a little melodic trill before slipping right back into the riff, or slow down into a sort of slowcore drift, or suddenly sound double tracked, super dense and extra loud, and the way those odd guitarings are woven into blasts of black buzz, and washed out stretches of doomic plod and creepy expanses of blackened ambience, is exactly why Dysthymia's The Shivering Opus sounds so awesome. And why we can't recommend it enough...
MPEG Stream: "Mirthless"
MPEG Stream: "Rotten And Diminished"
MPEG Stream: "Upon Trembling Bones"

ECHTRA A War For Wonder (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98
From deep within the Cascadian forests comes this beautiful piece of heavily atmospheric blackened bliss, the solo project of Echtra from black metal duo Fauna, whose awesome Rain album/song we reviewed a few lists back. As with Rain, listening to A War For Wonder requires patience and time, with two highly meditative tracks stretching out to 23 minutes each. Unlike Fauna, however, Echtra's solo work is a much more subdued affair, but no less gorgeous or awesome. It never quite ventures into full on black metal territory, and even when the relentless double bass drums and Darkthrone style blast beats enter the mix the sounds are still much more gentle, with highly melodic acoustic guitars and plenty of 4AD soft squall going on in the background. Sure, there are plenty of bands that incorporate post rock grandeur into their blackened attack, but this is something removed from furious metal almost entirely. It's actually quite strange, and totally mesmerizing, to hear such beautiful, dreamy melodies played out over the relentless, nonstop drumming. Strange as it may sound, the results are actually life affirming, or at least affirmative of something worthwhile... probably not human life, you know, this is still no doubt black as fuck in its peculiar way. Just looking at the four quotes in the album's gatefold, one is able to detect Echtra's take on mysticism, where man's insignificance is laid bare within the glory of the unknown. Such a realization of truth is comforting in itself, and the sounds within A War For Wonder perfectly mirror this knowledge.
MPEG Stream: "A War For Wonder I"
MPEG Stream: "A War For Wonder II"