Domini Inferi were Ryan Förster's pre - Conqueror / Revenge band. This track from 1994 is their only recording and it's a great piece of ancient, decrepit death metal. Warhate respond with four short bursts of staggering speed and violence from 1998. NWN still has copies of this, and it's worth having for the layout and packaging alone. But in the meantime, get your Superion fix here:
Wolf's Lair Abyss seems to get short shrift in the Mayhem discography, and understandably so. It was the follow-up to a record that couldn't possibly be followed up (De Mysteriis dom Sathanas) and preceded one that bitterly divided the band's fanbase (Grand Declaration of War). You can feel both of those albums trying to pull Wolf's Lair Abyss to their side. In the futuristic touches of the intro and the cold, mechanical production you can hear where the band is headed but in many of the riffs - most notably much of "Ancient Skin" - you can clearly hear where they have been. I think Wolf's Lair Abyss is better than just a transitional album though. As with every Mayhem release there is a lot of thought and creativity put into it and they have certainly never been afraid to take risks. Bonus points for a stellar layout on the CD from Mr. Stephen O'Malley himself.
A strange entry from a strange band. Many prefer Urfaust's first LP, the excellent Geist ist Teufel, to this but I can't get this one into my ears enough right now. Urfaust play very simple, stripped down, melodic sort-of-folky Black Metal with mostly clean vocals that give way to strange howls and histrionics at points. The vocals may be a sticking point for many; IX's voice is very much unpolished but he's always in key. The drums can barely keep up with the simplest beats and there are some musical decisions that work but are kind of baffling (ie. the arpeggiated guitars for the entirety of "Verflucht das Blenden der Erscheinung"). Verräterischer, Nichtswürdiger Geist's four BM tracks are accompanied by 3 of the most sophisticated and well recorded classical pieces I've ever heard come out of a metal band. Unlike most would-be classical composers in metal, Urfaust veer away from too much obvious melody or soundtrackiness (that's a word now) and present largely minimal work somewhat in the vein of certain 20th Century works by guys like Giacinto Scelsi or Henryk Góreck. Not on the same level of sophistication obviously, but still... So you have this weird juxtaposition of very weird metal and weirdly brilliant classical music and it's not for everybody at ALL, but fuck if I can't stop listening to it.
A blistering black thrash assault from these Chilean masters! Think 'De Mysteriis...', Absu and Blasphemophagher duking it out with a touch of that special over-the-top South American evil. Strongly recommended. TOTAL SUPPORT!!! AAAAAAAAAARGH 666!!!!
A very interesting new comp LP from the Ajna Offensive. They still have a few left and have promised a CD version eventually, but here's my LP rip in the meantime.
I'd like to think that I'm not jaded, but the fact is that at this point there's only one or two occasions a year where I hear something new that puts my head on a swivel, makes me stop what I'm doing and just marvel. This is one. Dispirit is the new John Gossard (Weakling, Asunder) band. I'm no fanboy when it comes to those other bands and it doesn't bother me at all to say that this is better than either. The music falls somewhere between Mr. Gossard's above-mentioned bands. It combines the slow meandering menace of Asunder and the majestic fury (and a couple of Emperor riffs) of Weakling under a gauzy, near-psychedelic production. The sound quality is more than acceptable for a demo recording. Strongly, STRONGLY recommended.
Black Metal from Japan. This has that ultra blown-out, barely coherent sound that seems to be popular with the kiddies these days. I usually view that aesthetic as being kinda gimmicky, but Deathchurch makes it work for me. Maybe it's because Japan has a rich history of hyper-distorted barely coherent music. Maybe it's because Deathchurch actually seems to have some chops to back up the noise. Either way, this is some serious hatred being spewed.
Dense, mildly unsettling Black Metal from France, the official home of unsettling Black Metal. Cendres operate at a slow-to-middling pace and create a sound thick and mysterious, like seeing forms through the mist in a swamp. They do a brilliant job of using low fidelity to their advantage in creating something that's a little uncomfortable to listen to, as opposed to just doing it because Darkthrone and 100,000 Darkthrone clones did it. I don't know who's in this band, but they sure as fuck know exactly what they're doing.
Raw and hateful Black Metal from Finland, played by the curator of the well-respected Northern Heritage label. How did it take until 2002 for a Black Metal record to be named Fist of the Northern Destroyer? I find this record to have a couple of slight misses on it, but "I Have Seen..." is a brilliant track to say the least. I really like that when you open the booklet for this CD, there's nothing but matte black staring back at you.
New Black Metal from Santa Cruz. Sounds like they're playing 30 yards away from you through a fog bank, atop a cliff overlooking the ocean.
Of all the Black Metal bands that came out of Norway in the '90s, I think Aeternus is the most underrated. In fact in over 10 years of jocking this band furiously, I cannot remember offhand anybody ever saying "Yeah, I've listened to that them!'. Aeternus does a lot of things and does them all well. There are distinct elements of black metal, death metal, doom, viking metal and folk music. Right now you're probably thinking "Dude, almost every band ever has claimed to mix a million styles, and they're all either lying or terrible". This is true. But all those bands weren't Aeternus. I can't think of a single band that really sounds like this. The drums are punishing, the vocals are commanding and fucking IMMENSE, and the writing displays a keenly developed sense of structure as well as an eloquent, mournful melodic slant. The only knock on it is the muddy Greighallen production that was par-for-the-course at this point. ...And So the Night Became in it's entirety is majestic and monolithic, and feels like a mere fraction of it's hour-long runtime.
Desolation Hymn was comprised of Akhenaten of Judas Iscariot and M.K., the drummer from Katharsis. Their only output was this 7", limited to 666 copies (of course). Think of a more drawn out, "epic" sounding Judas Iscariot and you're most of the way there. Raw, sorrowful, ice-cold. I've found over time that I prefer this to almost all JI material. Highly recommended.
Furious Black Metal from Greece. You can tell that these guys' copies of "Nemesis Divina", "Blizzard Beasts" and "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" have been spun to the point of coaster-dom. Don't write this off as a mere copycat band though. The production is clear and powerful, the songwriting is well thought out and the performances are absolutely vicious.
