Staff picks
So a couple years after I pack up and leave Asuncion, boom, DOOM! iJapiro! In any case, underproduced, female fronted 70's doom estilio Paraguayo. If you really want the BitterCOld-PY experience, put yer stereo in your bathroom, crank the shower as hot as it goes, leave for 20 minutes, shutting the door behind you. Grab a six of watery lager, re-enter the bathroom when it's nothing but a steamy fog. Crank the music, bang along, drink your cervezas. When done, go out and find yourself a lomito. Anecdotes and humor aside, check out the tunes. Good to see PY on the metal map. Lucifer's Bandcamp
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
BitterCOld Starvynth, RaduP, Dream Taster |
Another influential album released somewhere in August 1990, this one coming from Florida, the hotbed of early American death metal. Nocturnus may not have been the first band to take death metal in a more progressive direction, fellow Floridans themselves like Death and Atheist were already making their steps, but never had a death metal band incorporated keyboards that heavily into their sound and basically birthed technical/progressive death metal's fascination with space and sci-fi. Though they're not as technical as most of their peers and descendants, the musicianship on here isn't to be taken lightly, especially considering how unusual it is for the drummer to be the vocalist as well.
Read review ››
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
RaduP ScreamingSteelUS, BitterCOld, Ag Fox, Mr. Doctor, nikarg, Apothecary, Darkside Momo, Redel, ylside |
In a time when black metal was in its infancy and death metal was starting to become more mainstream and polished. A bunch of Canadians wanted it to return to it being as primitive and evil as possible. Ever since Fallen Angel Of Doom... was released roughly three decades ago, every war metal band ever wanted to sound just like this and to look just like this. And in ironic black metal fashion, they were probably the first black metal band to actually have a black member.
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
RaduP Mr. Doctor, nikarg |
Initiatio is unfortunately the final full-length release of Ysengrin but an excellent adieu for the band nonetheless. It is a mystical, occult and avant-garde mid-tempo black metal album blended with doom and death metal, in the vein of Mortuary Drape and Necromantia, mainly due to the use of two basses as the instruments of choice for driving the songs. The sound feels raw and ancient but, most of all, dark and ritualistic. Half of the tracks have reappeared in early demos of the band and are reinterpreted here with new arrangements but always respecting their primitive nature.
Mastered on analog gear and graced with a wonderfully obscure cover art by Luciana Nedelea, Initiatio is Hermeticism in music form.
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
nikarg RaduP, Apothecary |
What would it sound like if Björk fronted a psychedelic rock band?
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
RaduP nikarg, Mr. Doctor |
The third album of Azure Emote, the project of Mike Hrubovcak (Monstrosity, Vile) and Ryan Moll (In The Fire, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder), is an avantgarde and progressive take on death metal. Based on inventive riffs and adorned with industrial and electronic sounds, it also incorporates violin by Pete Johansen (ex-Sirenia, ex-Tristania), keyboards by Jonah Weingarten (Pyramaze, Echoterra), as well as the beautiful voice of Melissa Ferlaak (Aesma Daeva, Visions Of Atlantis). A lot of talent gathered to create The Third Perspective, a unique and thoroughly enjoyable metal music offering that comes in two versions; a full one and an instrumental one.
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
nikarg RaduP |
Compiling 31 songs from bands such as Chaos Moon, Panopticon, Thou, Obsequiae and Doom, courtesy of Bindrune Recordings, this digital only release donates all proceedings to Black Lives Matter and Life After Hate.
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
RaduP ScreamingSteelUS, nikarg, Starvynth, Darkside Momo |
Though I doubt anyone knows when this album's 30th anniversary is exactly, today Withing Hour Productions reissued this album with a whole bunch of extras, so it might be time to remember this overlooked Czech classic. Though I admittedly prefer their compatriots in Master's Hammer, and I do think the cover art and the music is incredibly goofy, it's still a pretty incredible sample of first wave black metal, mid-paced, rooted (no pun intended) in heavy metal, but with an evil doom tone as well. It's incredibly simplistic, and even as goofy as it is, it still manages to feel authentic. Big Boss was in his late 30s when Zjevení was released, so it's never to late to start your own influential black metal band, and he is still fronting Root to this day.
| Picked by: |
RaduP |
"One day I will go to him
Strong enough to fight and win
The kind of a man
That he'll understand
Aaaaaaaa
*the heaviest organ solo of the 70s*"
David Byron didn't have Ian Gillan's vocal chops, but damned if he does not give it his all here. Mick Box's guitar does have plenty of great moments here, but I'd be lying if I said that Ken Hensley didn't absolutely steal the show with his organ. While not entirely "'eavy", there's no denying that this album, released 50 years ago today, and starting Uriah Heep's career, deserves its place as an early metal classic, even if just for the opener alone.
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
RaduP nikarg, ScreamingSteelUS |
I am fairly sure that the world in 1970, precisely 50 years ago, wasn't ready for Ian Gillan's screams in "Child In Time". Or for most things else in "Child In Time" for that matter. Or for Ritchie Blackmore's galloping guitars in "Hard Lovin' Man". Or Jon Lord setting a new standard for using organ in heavy music. It wasn't the first Deep Purple album, but it was the first in this lineup, the one which is the reason why we even talk about Deep Purple on a metal site. There were hard rock bands before, but none of them, sans the one that literally birthed heavy metal, was as heavy as Deep Purple was on In Rock.
Read review ››
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
RaduP nikarg, ScreamingSteelUS, Apothecary, Dream Taster, Milena, Daniell, Darkside Momo, Ivor, Redel |
30 years ago today, Entombed taught the world what Boss HM-2 and DS-1 pedals could do to a cheap rig and, by extension, what Sweden could do for death metal. Left Hand Path was not the first death metal album recorded by a Swedish band, nor was it the first recorded by Tomas Skogsberg at the legendary Sunlight Studio, but it was arguably the first Swedish death metal album: with evil-infused hardcore punk riffs, D-beat drums, mid-range harsh vocals, and guitars so distorted they sound like two slabs of concrete being scraped together, Entombed set a trend and heralded the irruption of one of heavy metal's most iconic and influential scenes. Even though they themselves would not stay on the left-hand path for much longer, crossing over into death'n'roll, between this album and Clandestine Entombed are rightfully remembered as death metal legends. Here's to three head-kicking decades of buzzsaw guitars, strangled growls, and dark, crushing Swedeath.
Read review ››
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
ScreamingSteelUS Troy Killjoy, RaduP, Daniell, nikarg, BitterCOld, Abattoir, Mr. Doctor, Darkside Momo, Starvynth, Redel |
Imagine a band forming in 1984 only to release their debut album in 2020. Witches Hammer throw early Slayer, Possessed and '80s Canadian hardcore punk attitude in the grinder and what comes out is spat on the face of the clean-cut, sweet-smelling, contemporary thrash.
Teenage riot music played by dudes who are well past their teenage years.
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
nikarg Troy Killjoy |
The self-titled debut album of Dola is a fine combination of black metal, doom, drone and even some post-rock. At first sight, nothing new but everything sounds fresh and fun. Definitely an album that will make your quarantine period more pleasant... Poland did it again!
Read review ››
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
Paź Apothecary, RaduP, Mr. Doctor |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.07.2014 at 02:52
Still their best by miles
Marcel was right once again.
Remission is heavier than tennessine and more infectious than the coronavirus.
Read review ››
| Picked by: Thumbs up: |
nikarg BitterCOld, Apothecary, Troy Killjoy, ScreamingSteelUS, Ag Fox, Mr. Doctor |