DROHTNUNG s/t (Misanthropic Art Productions) cd 13.98

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.
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.
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...
This record is just so gorgeously demented, and unpredictably intense. Imagine 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.
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 Eternal Turn Of The Wheel (Season Of Mist) cd 15.98
The last record from these long time aQ faves, Ukrainian black metal horde Drudkh, was a polarizing record for sure, one that found the band injecting their sound with much more melody, and a distinct poppiness, pushing them in surprisingly black pop direction, the new sound more akin to something we might have expected from Lifelover or Hypothermia. Plenty of jangle, and again poppy melodies all over the place. Sure there was plenty of buzz and blast, but that poppiness also seemed to supplant the band's folky side was well, which was another big change to contend with. And while some of us still dug the new sound, we had made peace and were ready to bid farewell to the Drudkh of old. But their latest, Eternal Turn Of The Wheel, finds the band once again in classic form, gone is the overt poppiness of Handful of Stars, and in it's place, the soaring majestic blackness of old, the thick crunchy riffage, the howled vokills, the bursts of frenzied blasting buzz, the stretches of haunting folkiness, but most importantly, the mood and atmosphere that only Drudkh can conjure up. The sound shifting easily from dirgey almost doomy crush, to loping folk flecked blackness, to full on blasting black crush, still plenty of melody for sure, but the sort we were more accustomed too, minor key and melancholic, folky and blackened, the sound at times downright pretty, at others mournful and moody, at others fierce and furious and malevolently majestic. Folks who jumped ship with Handful Of Stars, it's time to climb back on board, cuz Eternal Turn Of The Wheel is another classic Drudkh record for sure...
MPEG Stream: "Breath of Cold Black Soil"
MPEG Stream: "Night Woven of Snow, Winds and Grey-Haired Stars"

DRUDKH Eternal Turn Of The Wheel (Season Of Mist) lp 22.00
The last record from these long time aQ faves, Ukrainian black metal horde Drudkh, was a polarizing record for sure, one that found the band injecting their sound with much more melody, and a distinct poppiness, pushing them in surprisingly black pop direction, the new sound more akin to something we might have expected from Lifelover or Hypothermia. Plenty of jangle, and again poppy melodies all over the place. Sure there was plenty of buzz and blast, but that poppiness also seemed to supplant the band's folky side was well, which was another big change to contend with. And while some of us still dug the new sound, we had made peace and were ready to bid farewell to the Drudkh of old. But their latest, Eternal Turn Of The Wheel, finds the band once again in classic form, gone is the overt poppiness of Handful of Stars, and in it's place, the soaring majestic blackness of old, the thick crunchy riffage, the howled vokills, the bursts of frenzied blasting buzz, the stretches of haunting folkiness, but most importantly, the mood and atmosphere that only Drudkh can conjure up. The sound shifting easily from dirgey almost doomy crush, to loping folk flecked blackness, to full on blasting black crush, still plenty of melody for sure, but the sort we were more accustomed too, minor key and melancholic, folky and blackened, the sound at times downright pretty, at others mournful and moody, at others fierce and furious and malevolently majestic. Folks who jumped ship with Handful Of Stars, it's time to climb back on board, cuz Eternal Turn Of The Wheel is another classic Drudkh record for sure...
MPEG Stream: "Breath of Cold Black Soil"
MPEG Stream: "Night Woven of Snow, Winds and Grey-Haired Stars"

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
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

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.
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"

ECHTRA Paragate (Temple Of Torturous) cd 12.98
Latest from this Cascadian black metal outfit, the solo project of, as the band name suggests, Echtra, who is one half of aQ faves Fauna, whose sound is definitely reminiscent of their sonic and geographical brethren in Wolves In The Throne Room. But unlike Wolves, or even Fauna, the music of Echtra is a much more personal and intimate affair, minimal and hushed much of the time, with haunting ambience and dark dreamy folk woven into what is actually more a sort of blissed out doom, than black metal buzz, spidery tendrils of distorted melody wrap themselves around delicately plucked steel strings, all draped over a downtuned dirge, the drums distant and way down in the mix, the vibe washed out and hazy, even at its most distorted and aggressive, the sound is still woozy and dreamlike and a bit shoegazey, the deep growled vokills also buried in the mix, adding more layers to the already thick layered sound. Fans of Megaton Leviathan should definitely check this out, as it's got the same sort of druggy psychedelic vibe. Occasionally the sound grows dissonant, or the drums erupt into some furious double kick, but even then, it's more ominous and sinister than heavy, the sound almost like a blackened folk.
The second track starts out even dreamier, the same Appalachian style steel string guitar, but here wreathed in clouds of gauzy shimmer, the whole thing a gloriously sun dappled prismatic blur, fuzzed out dream folk, that does eventually explode into some blasting buzzing blackness around the nine minute mark, but even then the metal is smeared and muted, the acoustic guitar supplying the melody, again transforming the black buzz into a strange sort of frenetic blackened folkmusic, which gives way to some spare fluttery folk drift, before finishing off with a brief bit of downtuned dirgery.
Someone pointed out recently that all the Echtra songs are 23 minutes long, on ALL of their records, which is in fact the case here too, not sure if there's some sort of significance, but for these 46 minutes, it's easy to get lost in Echtra's gorgeous folk flecked blackened mystery.
Super swank packaging too, metallic gold ink on a heavy textured black cardstock digipak style jacket, both the inner and outer panels embossed too.
MPEG Stream: "Paragate I"
MPEG Stream: "Paragate II"

EDASI Freddy Krueger Death Chant (KV & GR) cd-r 6.98
We listed two other releases from this weirdo Estonian crew, and they sold out in a heartbeat, and lots of folks were left wanting. Thankfully, we discovered there were a few copies left of the first Edasi we ever listed, this one. So got a handful of these, and they're probably the last, so grab one quick before they're gone for good...
The man behind outsider black metal one man band Cloak Of Displacement managed to dig up this weird bit of looped, hypnotic psychedelic blackness, all the way from Estonia! Edasi weaves a high concept, 74 minute sprawl of haunting, noise drenched drift. The label describes it as sounding like a bar fight between Silvester Anfang and Havohej, and we have to say that's not really all that far off. In the beginning, it does sound like some ritualistic bit of forest folk ambience, distorted steel string buzz, muted electronics, simple percussion, processed demonic vox, it's tripped out and tweaked, the blackness more implied, the whole thing rife with a seriously ominous vibe, but musically, this could just as likely be some strange lo-fi free noise collective from Finland, or some bedroom doom folk one man band from the midwest.
It's a smoldering, creeping expanse of skittery ambience, of chiming melodies, streaks of feedback, the whole thing tethered to a strange propulsive glitch and crunch, managing to be weirdly tranced out and tranquil, yet, fucked up and seriously demented at the same time. Way too far removed from 'proper' black metal to appeal to the typical metalheads, but fans of Cloak Of Displacement, as well as the weirder fringes of black metal, a la Circle Of Ouroborus, Dead Reptile Shrine, Stalaggh, and the like, as well as anyone into warped outsider sounds, will definitely dig this a LOT.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES, each one hand numbered, comes with a printed insert detailing the genesis of this particular chunk of sonic weirdness, as well as a miniature reproduction of the bizarre painting that spawned these sound.
MPEG Stream: "Freddy Krueger Death Chant"

EDASI Prehistoric Relaxation (KV&GR/Recs) cassette 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We first heard from Estonian ritualistic black metal soundscapers Edasi, from our pal, the weirdo behind black metal outfit Cloak Of Displacement. Edasi's Freddy Krueger Death Chant was a big hit around here, so we were psyched to get TWO new releases from this mysterious outfit: a cd-r, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, and this, a super limited tape. And we mean crazy limited, as in TEN copies. Total. We got EIGHT of those, odds are these will be gone in a flash, so we won't get into too much detail. Needless to say, if you loved Freddy Krueger Death Chant, you're probably gonna dig this too. Another mysterious sonic ritual, that is less black metal and more abstract forest folk or Wolf Eyes like industrial ambience, a lo-fi sprawl of super distorted sound, streaks of feedback, echo drenched percussion, blurred vocals, all wreathed in murk and mire, swirling effects, thick slabs of buzzing rumbling low end, abstract rhythms, everything smeared into haunting dubbed out blackened ambience, that manages to be fierce and freaky, but also strangely blissed out and listenable. Like a pipe fight in a huge cistern recorded on a tape player with dying batteries, a sort of ephemeral industrial doom drift. Great stuff. And again...
LIMITED TO TEN COPIES. THAT'S IT!! Each one in a hand painted black stickered cassette case, sealed in a stickered plastic bag, the tapes themselves hand painted and hand numbered.

EGONOIR Der Pfad Zum Fluss (Amortout) cd 14.98
From the same label that brought us music from Bethlehem, Costes and the debut/swansong recording from SF's The Gault (featuring members of legendary SFBM outfit Weakling) and which just so happens to be run by the guys in Diamatregon (who have a record out on Andee's tUMULt label, and a new one on the way!) comes this bizarre black beauty, the debut full length from bizarre German black horde Egonoir.
The label mentions the usual blackbuzz culprits in their description of Egonoir: Burzum, Leviathan, Bethlehem, Strid, Manes, and while it does have much in common with those obvious influences, it is somehow so much more. Darker, moodier, more melancholy, prettier, and definitely weirder.
The root sound is a slow crawl, a barely midtempo buzzing Burzumic plod, with harsh vocals, and blown out guitars, but the whole thing is wreathed in a strange smoky production, making everything fuzzy and murky and muted and strangely lovely. The tracks often drift into swirling ambience, with the buzzing guitars transformed into amorphous clouds of foggy blurry guitar, a backdrop to the lilting melodies in the foreground.
Then there are the vocals, that range from harsh howls, demonic growls to haunting crooning, but the strangest thing, and what makes Egonoir sound so unique, is the bizarre humming/crooning that lurks beneath the more traditionally blackened vocals, almost like American Music Club or Crash Test Dummies or Leonard Cohen, drifting darkly and melodically beneath the buzzing crawl... at some points female vocals drift into the picture, and suddenly it's a black metal Mazzy Star, almost, it's these creepy beautiful vocals that make this sound like some ultra depressing black metal lounge band, performing at some blackened dive perched on the edge of the abyss, flames licking at the foundation, the facade illuminated by buzzing black neon signs, and packed with a motley crew of hellish beats and down on their luck, southward headed earthlings.
Lots of acoustic guitars (a couple tracks are mostly acoustic), muted wandering bass lines, gorgeously sorrowful melodies, those crooning humming vocals, loping seasick tempos, arpeggiated guitars, hushed monk-like chants, snippets of German wartime speeches, all wrapped in thick swaths of buzz and reverb, slowly drifting, like some buzzy black dream.
Fans of all things depressive and slow, blackened and Burzumic, fuzzy and washed out, will freak for this. If Make A Change... Kill Yourself, Burzum, Xasthur, Nortt, Inferi and the like are your late night downer black metal soundtrack, Egonoir might just be perfect for those bleak early morning hours after a long night of misery and hopelessness...
Or as the label so succinctly puts it: "Total psycho dark metal, noir, noir, noir."
MPEG Stream: "Der Pfad Zum Fluss"
MPEG Stream: "Ego Noir Teil7"

EGONOIR Die Saga (Amortout Productions) cd 13.98
It's been more than 3 years since we last heard from depressive German black metal weirdos EgoNoir, whose sound was equal part classic black buzz, and mournful moody melancholia. They have a new record that just came out, which we'll have soon, but this one is almost as exciting, a reissue of their 2004 demo Die Saga, recorded three years before their debut full length Der Pfad Zum Fluss, and if anything it's even more warped and twisted, more muted and murky and fucked up and freaked out. The same equation still applies, but the sound is so much more raw, the buzz thick, the distortion crumbling, the vocals doused in FX, all beneath a sheet of static and hiss, a lurching doomy plod, black metal riffage slowed down to a crawl, clean guitar filigree wrapped around croaked monstrous whispered vocals, the drums weirdly processed and effected, the guitars melty and lysergic, the fuzzed out drone an oozing black cloud, strange keyboards wheeze and shimmer, trumpets bleat and moan, strings soar beneath the roiling blackness, bits of electronics, weird glitch and grit, all add to the obscure moodiness.
Much of the record is spent stripped down and melancholy, weirdly mournful interludes with lush guitar strum, simple skeletal percussion, whispered vox, strange rhythmic thumps, haunting hushed ambience, but those interludes are constantly swallowed up by blasts of grinding black blast, or weirdly synth driven blackened new wave hypnorock, or mysterious choral drifts, awesome and totally demented.
The reissue includes a bonus track, a gloriously and insanely murky chunk of midtempo Burzumic blackness, that's SO muddy and muted, it practically makes Xasthur sound hi-fi, and turns some black metal into something much more blurred and washed out and trippy. So rad.
MPEG Stream: "Teil 1 - Das Neue Wesen"
MPEG Stream: "Teil 2 - Kurze Der Verwirrung"
MPEG Stream: "Up From The Graves"

EIKENSKADEN 665.999 (tUMULt) cd 11.98
Andee's label tUMULt is a lot of things. From country dirge (Souled American) to avant-prog (Guapo) to experimental indie-pop (Iran). And then there's a black, leathery wing of tUMULt devoted to the art and science of black metal, with several examples drawn from the fertile local San Francisco scene (Weakling, Leviathan, Draugar) and one outlier from France (Diamatregon).
And now Eikenskaden, who also happen to hail from France. Andee and Allan here at Aquarius had been fans of Eikenskaden and related band Mystic Forest for some time, we've raved about 'em before. As it turned out, they happened to be fans of tUMULt in turn. Strange how things work out. So here's a new Eikenskaden on tUMULt! Like tUMULt's other black metal releases (or other releases, period), you can be assured that Eikenskaden is not quite the norm for its genre, which is a genre where norms are oft-perverted anyways. There's something just a little bit fucked about their approach, the extreme combo of nasty distortion and neo-classical melody perhaps?
Yup, you can say a lot about how this band (or guy, it's one dude, Mr. Stefan Kozak) revels in the wall-of-fuzz sound of Norwegian black metal primitivists like Burzum. But then he takes it and merges it with freakin' Beethoven! Not only that, but like the best metal (from Iron Maiden to Katatonia) he doesn't forget this is rock music and it's gotta have a pop element. There are simply just some great SONGS here beneath all the distortion and violence. We couldn't be happier -- not only did tUMULt get to put out an Eikenskaden album, but it lived up to all our expectations. Which means that even if you've never heard of Eikenskaden before, we'd recommend checking this out.
MPEG Stream: "Sharp Edged Iron Trees"
MPEG Stream: "Absolute Zero"

EIKENSKADEN The Last Danse (Sacral Productions) 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 little while ago we gave a thumbs (and pointy spikes) up review to an album called "Green Hell" by a French black metal band known as Mystic Forest. As we mentioned then, Mystic Forest's main guy, one Stefan Kozak, has another band called Eikenskaden ("Oaken Shield") which is almost *exactly* the same. The line-up is different, but the songwriting, production, and even the graphic design bear marked similarity. Apparently Eikenskaden is the project in which Kozak blows off steam and indulges even further in ridiculous black metal concepts, and it's true that of the two bands, this one is perhaps the best, though it's a close call. "The Last Danse" is Kozak's second Eikenskaden album, and is as amazing as anything else he's done -- totally frenzied, quirky, and Burzumic, more distorted yet more melodic than you could imagine.
I was listening to this at home the other night, and my housemate thought it sounded like two things playing at the same time. The very pretty, baroque sounding keyboard lines coexist bizarrely with a hellish wash of fuzz and distortion. Raw yet extremely melodic. You can hear in Eikenskaden (and Mystic Forest) the gothic black/doom "pop" of Katatonia, as well as the neo-classical shred of Windham Hell. It's a weird combo, maybe, but it works really well. Imagine Burzum or Khold possessed by Mozart or something, with Immortal/Popeye vocal growls too. Really, it's so insanely full of reverb and distortion it's crazy -- HSShshshhHZZHZZCH!!!
Also new in stock and recommended: Mystic Forest's third album, "Waltz In the Midst of Trees" ($13.98, see review elsewhere on this list/site).
MPEG Stream: "Then I'll Erase Myself Forever"
MPEG Stream: "Lost Memories"

EIKENSKADEN The Last Danse (Weird Forest) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on vinyl! Super limited. Only 333 copies, each one hand numbered! Here's what we had to say about the cd:
A little while ago we gave a thumbs (and pointy spikes) up review to an album called "Green Hell" by a French black metal band known as Mystic Forest. As we mentioned then, Mystic Forest's main guy, one Stefan Kozak, has another band called Eikenskaden ("Oaken Shield") which is almost *exactly* the same. The line-up is different, but the songwriting, production, and even the graphic design bear marked similarity. Apparently Eikenskaden is the project in which Kozak blows off steam and indulges even further in ridiculous black metal concepts, and it's true that of the two bands, this one is perhaps the best, though it's a close call. "The Last Danse" is Kozak's second Eikenskaden album, and is as amazing as anything else he's done -- totally frenzied, quirky, and Burzumic, more distorted yet more melodic than you could imagine.
I was listening to this at home the other night, and my housemate thought it sounded like two things playing at the same time. The very pretty, baroque sounding keyboard lines coexist bizarrely with a hellish wash of fuzz and distortion. Raw yet extremely melodic. You can hear in Eikenskaden (and Mystic Forest) the gothic black/doom "pop" of Katatonia, as well as the neo-classical shred of Windham Hell. It's a weird combo, maybe, but it works really well. Imagine Burzum or Khold possessed by Mozart or something, with Immortal/Popeye vocal growls too. Really, it's so insanely full of reverb and distortion it's crazy -- HSShshshhHZZHZZCH!!!
MPEG Stream: "Then I'll Erase Myself Forever"
MPEG Stream: "Lost Memories"

EIKENSKADEN There Is No Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Blackmetal.com) cd 13.98
The French buzzing black metal cult of Eikenskaden ("Oaken Shield") returns with a new album, their fourth, the follow up to their numerically-titled 2004 release, 665.999, which appeared on our own Andee's tUMULt label! So of course we're excited. Eikenskaden is one of those genius one man BM bands (that one man being Stefan Kozak, also the main guy in Mystic Forest). Both Mystic Forest and Eikenskaden specialize in blending almost-classical, melancholic melodies with some of the most distorto-buzz Burzumic black metal out there, with Eikenskaden being the darker and harsher of the two acts. And, as the title of There Is No Light At The End Of The Tunnel already indicates, this cd is certainly dark! Quite "necro" and yet grandiose, this boasts some truly memorable compositions, which has always been one of Kozak's strong suits -- he writes actual songs, not relying entirely on atmosphere even though Eikenskaden's got plenty going on in that area too. Somehow he's got a knack for writing material that's both driving and depressive, with many interesting details amidst the distorted wash of sound. Recommended, especially if you like both Xasthur and Khold, for instance (and don't you?).
MPEG Stream: "Anthology"
MPEG Stream: "And I Left Tears In My Eyes"

EKPYROSIS Mensch Aus Gold (Paradigms) cd 12.98
The first in Paradigms Recordings second act, the first being pretty impressive as long time readers of the aQ list can no doubt attest to. Here's a partial list of some of act one's notable releases: Hjarnidaudi, Amber Asylum, Throne Of Katarsis, The Angelic Process, Utlagr, Titan, Gnaw Their Tongues, Woburn House, Wraiths, Ondo, Plants and tons more. Not too shabby. So how to launch act 2? How about with a gloomy doomy black metal mystery from Germany, and their single song, 30+ minute full length debut. Indeed!
With nothing but a split to their name (released way back in 2002), Expyrosis offer up a sprawling multi part avant black epic, that will undoubtedly have aQ black metalheads frothing at the mouth. The guitars unwind haunting minor key melodies, woven into dense shimmering textures, the drums lock into a static blast, while over the top shards of melody drift and dissipate, before the track shifts, and the guitars explode, spreading out in thick sheets of warm buzz all tangled up with twisted mournful melodies, and underneath it all, voices moan and chant, giving the whole track a distinctly miserablist, almost gothic vibe, like Joy Division all revved up and wreathed in blackness. There's some serious math happening too, and plenty of whirling black ambience, and for every blast of black buzz, there's a creepy stretch of midtempo plod and soft focus smeared shoegaze guitar. The melodies soar majestically, the vocals are crooned and dramatic, almost spoken at times, the whole track locks into these woozy grooves, totally hypnotic and mesmerizing, occasionally splintering into something more jagged and off kilter, droney or drifty, meandering or blazing and chaotic, only to eventually be swept back up into a dizzying buzz drenched blur.
Strangely pretty and mysteriously heavy, yet still plenty buzzy and blackened. A pretty auspicious start to what looks to be a kick ass second act for Paradigms.
MPEG Stream: "Mensch Aus Gold (excerpt)"

ELDRIG Everlasting War Divinity (Eastside) cd 13.98
Second of two new releases from this Portland black metal horde, the first, Kali, reviewed a few weeks back, was a glorious chunk of epic and majestic, nearly symphonic buzz, three looooong track separated by gorgeous little ambient drone interludes. We still have a few of those left, but in the meantime we just got release number two, and while structured differently, if anything, it's even more massive and grandiose, triumphant and fucking EPIC.
As we mentioned in the review of the other disc, there does seem to be some questionable politics lurking below the surface. Nothing obvious, not in the song titles, the lyrics or the artwork, like most black metal it seems to be more concerned with nature and misery, war and death, but folks who are sensitive to the problematic politics that underscore a lot of black metal, might do well to read the other Eldrig review. But if you can look past that stuff, and as we mentioned it's not really that difficult here, as the band seem more concerned with crafting soaring blackened buzzscapes, and the cryptic lyrics (if you could make them out at all) are cries of war and wails of anguish.
But the music, holy shit. The sound of Eldrig manages to be buzzing and grim and brutal, but at the same time, the riffing is totally majestic, almost chiming, the melodies soaring skyward, the drums a furious thrashing framework, the vocals a barely audible howl, all woven into what sounds like a black metal Explosions In The Sky or a Satanic Godspeed. Spiraling riffage that just builds and builds, the melodies so intense and emotional, everything peppered with swaths of swirling keyboards, but unlike the other Eldrig, here the riffs sound almost like classic eighties metal, little bursts of NWOBHM tangled into much blacker shapes. But the sound is somehow impossible poppy, like if you stripped all the snarling guitars and the demonic rasps, the blasting beats, you'd be left with some sort of simple catchy lullaby, or some perfect pop song, but here it's buzzed and blackened into some impossible black metal hybrid. So fast and furious and black, but so goddamn catchy and moody and melodic, culminating in the near power metal sounding outro to the final track "Death To The Unwilling", with classical sounding keyboard runs, chiming keyboards, and super poppy riffage, all whipped into a glorious frenzy, before it fades out with a strange skipping cd sound, and then returns with a programmed drum fill, only to explode into an even more over the top power/back metal frenzy with epic keyboards, those majestic riffs, all wrapped in wild squiggly leads, only to eventually fade out into some churning, mournful, abstract riffage.
Super limited! We may have gotten all we can get of these, so when we run out, prepare to either be disappointed, or to wait a while for us to track down more.
MPEG Stream: "Power Ascension"
MPEG Stream: "Death To The Unwilling"

ELDRIG Everlasting War Divinity (Eastside) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This epic chunk of grim and grand black fury, available on vinyl for the first time. And of course ULTRA ULTRA LIMITED. ONLY 500 COPIES PRESSED. In beautiful hand screened silver on black jackets, with a super deluxe full color fold out insert. Here's our review of the cd when we first got it in:
Second of two new releases from this Portland black metal horde, the first, Kali, reviewed a while back, was a glorious chunk of epic and majestic, nearly symphonic buzz, three looooong tracks separated by gorgeous little ambient drone interludes. Everlasting War Divinity, while structured differently, is if anything, even more massive and grandiose, triumphant and fucking EPIC.
As we mentioned in the review of the other album, there does seem to be some questionable politics lurking below the surface. Nothing obvious, not in the song titles, the lyrics or the artwork, like most black metal it seems to be more concerned with nature and misery, war and death, but folks who are sensitive to the problematic politics that underscore a lot of black metal, might do well to read the other Eldrig review. But if you can look past that stuff, and as we mentioned it's not really that difficult here, as the band seem more concerned with crafting soaring blackened buzzscapes, and the cryptic lyrics (if you could make them out at all) are cries of war and wails of anguish.
But the music, holy shit. The sound of Eldrig manages to be buzzing and grim and brutal, but at the same time, the riffing is totally majestic, almost chiming, the melodies soaring skyward, the drums a furious thrashing framework, the vocals a barely audible howl, all woven into what sounds like a black metal Explosions In The Sky or a Satanic Godspeed. Spiraling riffage that just builds and builds, the melodies so intense and emotional, everything peppered with swaths of swirling keyboards, but unlike the other Eldrig, here the riffs sound almost like classic eighties metal, little bursts of NWOBHM tangled into much blacker shapes. But the sound is somehow impossible poppy, like if you stripped all the snarling guitars and the demonic rasps, the blasting beats, you'd be left with some sort of simple catchy lullaby, or some perfect pop song, but here it's buzzed and blackened into some impossible black metal hybrid. So fast and furious and black, but so goddamn catchy and moody and melodic, culminating in the near power metal sounding outro to the final track "Death To The Unwilling", with classical sounding keyboard runs, chiming keyboards, and super poppy riffage, all whipped into a glorious frenzy, before it fades out with a strange skipping cd sound, and then returns with a programmed drum fill, only to explode into an even more over the top power/back metal frenzy with epic keyboards, those majestic riffs, all wrapped in wild squiggly leads, only to eventually fade out into some churning, mournful, abstract riffage.
MPEG Stream: "Power Ascension"
MPEG Stream: "Death To The Unwilling"

ELDRIG Kali (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.
One of two new releases from this Portland based one man black metal project. And it's a doozy. Been playing this nonstop since we first got it. But as with a lot of black metal records, some questionable right wing politics come into play, so fair warning to those put off by those things. On Kali, that influence is subtle, especially considering the fact that the record is totally instrumental. The song titles give nothing away either, but there's a quote on the inside of the cd booklet, "Creation and destruction are one, in the eyes who can see beauty." Which also doesn't seem any more oblique and grim than text found on other black metal records. But the quote is attributed to Savitri Devi, a French writer who wrote much of trying to synthesize Hinduism and Nazism, believing Hitler was an avatar for the Hindu god Vishnu, among other problematic and bizarre beliefs. Woah. She does seem pretty fascinating, what little we've read about her, at least in a seriously fucked up way, but she was definitely a total loony, and because of her strange beliefs has become a bit of a favorite amongst neo-Nazi's, hence the quote and hence the warning.
But if you can overlook the politics, as subtle as they may be here, this record is intense and beautiful and completely epic. Three loooooooong tracks, blazing buzzing, majestic, almost orchestral black buzz, furious and frenetic, relentless and weirdly gorgeous, separated by brief droning ambient interludes, moaning cellos, deep cavernous rumbles, epic minor key swells, soaring majestic synths, crumbling distortion, a dark industrial ambience with haunting music box melodies drifting over stretches of mournful murk.
But it's the three long tracks, which make up the bulk of this disc, that really make this such essential blackness. And even referring to this as blackness is not entirely accurate, as those tracks soar, the chugging guitars and tangled melodies, the furious drumming and the super emotional melodies all whirled into an epic slab of blissed out metallic beauty. In fact, the first long track, "The Great Destroyer", sounds to us what that Alcest record would have sounded like if it was actually metal. Shoegaze-y and dreamy and blissy, but still fierce and heavy, multiple guitar lines unfurling melodic tangles that stretch heavenward, all sustained and super dramatic, the drums a non stop barrage, perfectly complimenting the dense whirl of dreamy high end buzz.
The second long track, "The Intoxication", begins all slow and meandering, a crumbling distorted guitar picking out a minor key melody, before the song launches into a furious melancholy blast, the guitars continuing to soar and wail, with brief bits of midtempo drift separating the blissy blasts. The final long track, "The Dance Of Creation", is more of the same, but with two awesome interludes, the first, a gnarled breakdown with grinding high end guitars, and convoluted melodies over seasick riffing, the other a haunting expanse of synthesized strings, wavering and whirring before being swallowed up by the drums and guitar crashing back in. Very weird and strangely beautiful, epic grim not-so-blackness. The disc ends with a two minute stretch of ghostly buzz and reverb drenched swells of hiss and whir, creepy and abstract...
And again, while we of course find all that aforementioned political / racial stuff reprehensible, it's hard not to love a record this fucked up and gorgeous.
The packaging is pretty amazing too. Super thick textured paper, the images all washed out like some old parchment, the cd itself, red on the playing side, matching the artwork on the cd face. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "The Great Destroyer"
MPEG Stream: "The Intoxication"

ELDRIG Mysterion (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 return of Portland one man black metal horde Eldrig. We have been totally obsessed with the two previous records, Kali and Everlasting War Divinity, both sounding like an impossible mix of Godspeed and Darkspace, furious and relentless and blackened, sweeping, epic and emotional, looong tracks, rife with droning buzz guitars, furious drumming, surprising melodies, all wrapped around some super abstract and far out mythologies, but here, those same strange obsessions are tangled up with a totally new, and seriously demented and unlikely sound.
As we mentioned in previous Eldrig reviews, like much black metal, there seems to be in Eldrig, some somewhat unpleasant political leanings, flirtations with Aryanism, Nietzschism, that sort of thing, which is only represented in the lyrics and the artwork as the music is all (or almost all) instrumental. But the more we hear, and the more we dig into the strange liner notes, the less this seems like some sort of NSBM, and the more it appears to be an all consuming and twisted obsession with all manner of problematic and crackpot theologies, far out mythologies, arcane symbolism, Eldrig revel in exploring the hidden meanings of symbols, both classic and traditional, forbidden and shocking, the music, in some strange way expressing the power and energy behind and within these symbols, the words wrapped around those symbols, and the people who lived and died over ideas and beliefs and yes, symbols. The booklet is gorgeous this time, thick marbled matte black pages, with text and symbols in super reflective ink, each song represented by a symbol, and some notes on the symbol and the music from Eldrig himself, there's a pentagram (of course), the cosmic egg, the AUM, the black sun, and of course the sunwheel (aka the swastika). The text accompanying the sunwheel speaks merely of the 'golden sun' and its abstract symbolic significance. But fair warning, folks sensitive to this stuff should steer clear, it's subtle but it's definitely there (for instance, Eldrig are still obsessed with Savitri Devi, a crackpot who was all about combining Nazism and Hinduism), although the interest does seem more abstract and intellectual than political or social.
But all of that hardly prepares you for the sonic shift Eldrig have undergone since the last album. Where was once, massive stretches of near static buzz and blast, sweeping epic blackened heaviness, there is now, what can only be described as, well, power metal. Black power metal (not BLACK POWER metal, if only!), Symphonic and super melodic and seriously over the top. It's barely even black metal anymore, lots of guitar leads, and squiggly melodies, and lush keyboards, there are vocals this time around, and they are blackened throat shredding vokills, the drumming is insane, the guitar is buzzy and insectoid, but the arrangements are ridiculous, totally epic and major key, the melodies sound sped up, keyboards everywhere. It's like Hammerfall with a black metal makeover. Some of the tracks do dip into doomy black grimness, the guitars thick and grinding, the vocals raspy and hateful, ploddingly along, but without fail, in will swoop some totally nuts guitar freakout, or an avalanche of majestic keyboards, sometimes the tracks slip into full on melodic hard rock, bordering on power ballad, there are even stretches of pretty clean guitar laid over burbling brooks and chirping birds, but those tracks always seem to return to some sort of furious power metal buzz. It sounds ridiculous, and it is, sort of, but it's also completely unhinged and fucked up and GENIUS. Not sure what he was thinking, but with Mysterion, Eldrig has crafted some totally outsider black metal, and be sure, this will definitely not appeal to the the troo and the grim, instead this is for fans of the fucked, the damaged, the so bizarre it blows your mind. And Mysterion most definitely blows our mind. Fucked up blackened power metal record of the year? As if there could possibly be any other contenders...
MPEG Stream: "The Ray Of Green Light"
MPEG Stream: "Physis"

ELDRIG Urlagarne (Darker Than Black) cd 10.98
The return of this Northwestern one man black metal horde brings us yet another collection of soaring, majestic, symphonic transcendental blackness, that like on past records reminds us almost more of old school power metal than typical grim black metal buzz, the record divided into three lengthy epics, those proper tracks separated by three interludes (structured much like their 2007 debut Kali) and each of those proper tracks a sprawling, instrumental metal majesty that few other bands can touch. Sonically a bit reminiscent of Krallice, but way more melodic, in fact, those Mick Barr solo guitar records, where he's basically doing these epic arrangements of black metal shred, if that stuff was transformed into proper black metal, it might just sound like Eldrig. But melody is huge in Eldrig's world, hence the power metal comparisons, and listening to this new one, we're even hearing other stuff, more post rock and post metal, the melodic component even more pronounced than before, and beyond the usual soaring epic metal, there are moments, like at the end of opening "Urd", where the sounds is somehow pushed even further, blossoming into something impossibly lush, almost choral sounding, layer upon layer, multiple melodies, woven into something emotional and passionate, that in some weird way almost sounds like a blackened Arvo Part. Symphonic and cinematic and so goddamn good.
The interludes this time around are pretty strange, all three a sort of gypsy folk, the main melody played on a jaw harp, there seem to be mandolins too, the sound of crackling fire surrounding the jaunty jam, in a weird way, it's upbeat vibe is not that far removed from the metal songs proper here, but at first blush it's pretty surprising.
The second proper song, "Verthandi", begins with epic arcs of howling high end guitar skree, filling the sky with a lush sprawl of slowburn melody, all over swirling synths, melancholic and minor key, slowly building, growing more and more dramatic, before finally bursting into a pounding blast, those guitar trills soaring and epic, while the drums pound away in a frenzy, the whole thing ratcheting up the tension, until finally, the song breaks into an old school metal gallop, but those guitars continue to soar in fast picked high end streaks, the sound occasionally bursting into impossibly frenzied freakouts, rife with emotional energy, the sort of vibe that is lacking from even the most intense traditional black metal, but here, Eldrig conjures up a dense cloud of raw sonic emotion, and sends it swirling into a wild buzz drenched squall, that is tense and intense and utterly epic.
Finally, the fifteen minute closer wastes no time, just lurches right into it, as if it was taking up right where "Verthandi" left off, all furious drum pound, soaring guitar trills, wild soaring melodies, but this time, there's a whole second layer of strange ethereal keyboards draped over the top, adding a sort of prismatic psychedelic feel to the proceedings, the soundtrack to storming Valhalla, or some sort of epic battle, this the ultimate cinematic blackness, evoking deep emotion, conjuring up images of wide open expanses, massive oceans, alien ice fields, crumbling planets. Eldrig should be scoring avant sci-fi flicks or bleak apocalyptic art films, rare is the black metal record that pushes past the rote black buzz and manages to move into a higher realm. But Eldrig's Urlagarne most definitely does...
MPEG Stream: "Urd"
MPEG Stream: "---"
MPEG Stream: "Skuld"

ELGIBBOR Apolutrosis (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 unblack metal, this time from way off in Poland, probably most notable, metalwise at least, for the mighty Graveland, but this, the 2004 release from Elgibbor, now remastered, remixed and re-released, has very little to do with Graveland, sonically, religiously, or politically.
The sound of Elgibbor like much of the stuff on E.E.E., the home to most of the crucial white metal being produced and released these days, is utterly bizarre, all over the map, with a wide range of sounds and songs and even production qualities. The opener is super fast, completely distorted and ultra blown out, the drums and guitars and vocals, become one thick layer of buzz, so fast and distorted it almost sounds like some sort of noise record, but close listening does reveal some furious blasting and some intense buzzing riffage, the weirdest part is the keyboard, which hovers and lurks underneath the buzz, almost as if it had nothing to do with the songs themselves, a bit of random ambience, deep keyboard swells that ebb and flow hauntingly in the background, beneath a thick sheet of blacknoise. But then there's the second track, all clean reverbed guitars, distant chug, simple way-up-in-the-mix drumming, and super emotive actual singing. Like some strange deconstructed metallic pop. Song number three confuses things even more, with some midtempo Burzumic buzz, but with some strange glitched out rhythms, and some ultra distorted garbled vocals, it almost sounds like some sort of unearthed DHR demo. It goes on and on like that, some swirly ambient swirl, muted black metal blurred into soft focus fuzzed out dreaminess, some super strange techno-black metal, with rhythms that sound like boiling liquid, while all around it guitars churn and vocals howl, and probably our favorite song "Awesome God", that sounds like a choir singing hymns with black buzz wrapped all around it, the results are less evil than they are totally bizarre, it's like a Merzbow remix of Wold covering Incredible String Band. Worth it for that track alone, but the rest of the record is just as far out and fucked. Once again, the unblack bands are upping the ante on truly damaged demented and inspired musical 'blackness'.
MPEG Stream: "Annouchnou Ro'im (We See Jesus)"
MPEG Stream: "Psalm 42"
MPEG Stream: "Isaiah 60: 19-22"
MPEG Stream: "Psalm 43 (My God)"

ELGIBBOR Satan Is Defeated (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: "Psalm 63"
MPEG Stream: "Powstan"
MPEG Stream: "Satan Is Defeated"

ELGIBBOR / MORIAH split (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.
Killer white metal and melodic doom metal from Poland & Brazil.
MPEG Stream: ELGIBBOR "Psalm 12"
MPEG Stream: ELGIBBOR "Za Mnie I Za Ciebie"
MPEG Stream: MORIAH "Where Death Is Your Victory"
MPEG Stream: MORIAH "Blood Fall"

ELITE Bekmorkt (No Colours) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Everyone went nuts for Bifrost, the latest release from Norwegian black metallers Elite that we reviewed a few lists back, so while we're waiting to get retocked on that we figured we oughta list the ep that came out right before Bifrost. Elite have definitely earned their highly problematic monicker as they are indeed musically elite, the new wave of TRUE Norwegian black metal. Following in the black festering footprints of their BM forefathers, Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Darkthrone, Ulver and the like, Elite buzz and blast brilliantly and blackly. Each of these four tracks is a dizzying black swirl, thrashing and chaotic, wild spiked blurs, epic melodic riffing wrapped in thick dark swirls of harsh ambience, the drums a relentless pound and blast, vocals harsh and hateful, and is the case with the best black metal, strange haunting and hook filled melodies lurk just beneath the black buzzing surface. So good. Elite indeed.
MPEG Stream: "Antican"
MPEG Stream: "Misteltein"

ELITE Bifrost (No Colours) cd 16.98
It takes a lot of balls to call your black metal band ELITE. It would lead everyone to believe, that your black metal horde is indeed significantly more elite than all others. In fact, it pretty much means that your band is the most elite. So elite in fact, that you are just simply, ELITE. That's like naming your band 'cult' or even 'grim', oh wait a second, there is a band called Grimm, with two 'm's though, which must make them way MORE grim than all the other grim black metallers out there. Anyway, Elite are in fact a truly elite black metal outfit hailing from the forests of Norway, and they sound like it. This is the new wave of TRUE (and of course ELITE) Norwegian black metal. And it rules. Fierce and fast and pounding and buzzing. Think just the most epic elements of Taake, Burzum, Gorgoroth, etc. woven into a pitch black tapestry of spikes and blood and upside down crosses. Growled guttural vocals, huge thick buzzing guitars, and some of the most epic sounding riffs EVER. Fast and fuzzy, but totally triumphant, melancholic, repeated riffs become totally hypnotic and mesmerizing and weirdly moving, sort of cinematic even, listen to the first track and it will all make sense. Pummeling and grim as fuck, but so totally hook filled. The half time parts sound almost like some sort of blackened Nirvana, or at least Khold channelling Nirvana, either way it's catchy as hell and totally magical sounding. One of our new favorite black metal records for sure.
Amazing record cover too, a foggy winter forest, with some sort of hairy fanged beast lurking and ready to pounce.
While they last we have the super limited digipak version, limited to 500 copies, each one hand numbered, once those are gone you'll just get the regular jewelcase version.
MPEG Stream: "Aerelos"
MPEG Stream: "Take"

EMIT A Sword Of Death For The Prince (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ostensibly a black metal record, A Sword Of Death For The Prince from the UK's Emit seems more like sort of an abstract experimental industrial dark ambient record. Or something. Actually, to be totally honest, we're not sure what the hell it is. We are sure of one thing though, this is quite possibly the weirdest fucking record we've ever heard. Reverby riffs, not distorted at all, sort of clangy and chime-y, are struck violently and sent into space to hang there in wide open expanses of haunting creaks and drones, everything heavily delayed, so each riff sort of reverberates into the ether, echoing endlessly, with creepy almost spoken vocals also drenched in delay. It's like someone took a pop record, took out ALL the song structures and all the melodies, ran the whole thing through a bank of effects pedals and then had King Tubby make a dub version of the whole thing. Like songs by Wolf Eyes or the Dead C being reinterpreted by Benighted Leams. Riffs and notes are spit out seemingly haphazardly, as they careen back and forth, echoing and colliding with vocals and all the notes that follow. This is one of those records, that is either so completely high concept that no matter how hard we try, we will not be able to wrap our puny minds around it, or it's just some kid fucking around with a 4 track and his first delay pedal. Either way, we LOVE it. So completely damaged and far out and WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD.
MPEG Stream: "Herald The Dawn With Your Offerings"
MPEG Stream: "Utlag, Avenger, Spiritual Scourge Of Deformity"

EMIT A Sword Of Death For The Prince (Niessedrion) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Managed to get a very few of these in on vinyl, direct from the band HIMself. But fair warning, these records seemed to have a harrowing journey across the sea, so some of them have slightly bent corners, but other than that, perfect. Plus they come in awesome gatefold sleeves and odds are we probably won't be able to get these back in ever again.
Ostensibly a black metal record, A Sword Of Death For The Prince from the UK's Emit seems more like sort of an abstract experimental industrial dark ambient record. Or something. Actually, to be totally honest, we're not sure what the hell it is. We are sure of one thing though, this is quite possibly the weirdest fucking record we've ever heard. Reverby riffs, not distorted at all, sort of clangy and chime-y, are struck violently and sent into space to hang there in wide open expanses of haunting creaks and drones, everything heavily delayed, so each riff sort of reverberates into the ether, echoing endlessly, with creepy almost spoken vocals also drenched in delay. It's like someone took a pop record, took out ALL the song structures and all the melodies, ran the whole thing through a bank of effects pedals and then had King Tubby make a dub version of the whole thing. Like songs by Wolf Eyes or the Dead C being reinterpreted by Benighted Leams. Riffs and notes are spit out seemingly haphazardly, as they careen back and forth, echoing and colliding with vocals and all the notes that follow. This is one of those records, that is either so completely high concept that no matter how hard we try, we will not be able to wrap our puny minds around it, or it's just some kid fucking around with a 4 track and his first delay pedal. Either way, we LOVE it. So completely damaged and far out and WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD.
MPEG Stream: "Herald The Dawn With Your Offerings"
MPEG Stream: "Utlag, Avenger, Spiritual Scourge Of Deformity"

EMIT Abortions (Autumn Wind Productions) cd 12.98
We go on and on at length about all the fucked up and damaged, weird as fuck black metal bands we love so much, but we don't really mention Emit usually, which, as we listen to this final Emit release seems just plain wrong. Might be due to the dearth of recordings, only 3 proper releases, one a split, now mostly unavailable, this latest is another collection, gathering up all manner of unreleased tracks as well as a handful from various demos. And holy shit is this stuff amazing. We absolutely loved A Sword Of Death For The Prince, but Abortions makes that one seem downright tame in comparison. This is a tough one to describe, but we'll do our best.
Emit exist somewhere between raw black metal buzz, and creepy black ambience, but their take on both is absolutely tweaked and damaged and pretty insane. The opener here is a thick wall of buzzing guitars, layers of feedback, and what could be analog synths, some serious drone, but all draped over a VERY un-metal rhythm, a weird jaunty shuffle, all offbeat high-hat, like a calypso or something, the beat changing tempo wildly and randomly throughout, speeding WAY up, then right back down again, while the track continues to undulate and buzz fiercely. Right after that the sound shifts to something much more abstract, a dark and brooding drift, laced with strange ambient sounds, warbly low end melodies, bits of crackle and hiss, only to immediately transform into a blast of caustic noise, before slipping back into minimal drone, and finally a haunting reverb drenched spoken word invocation. And we're only 4 tracks in. The rest of the record is equally and gloriously schizophrenic, some highlights: super spare drums over a thick whirring organ drone, and what sounds like a super high pitched harmonica melody, super angular and slightly off key black metal buzz, with an organ or a synth, making the whole thing sound super sinister like a busted metal music box and the drums still doing some sort of UN-metal beat, a totally bizarre, processed buzzscape, all stuttery and staticky, like a skipping cd, but shaped into something weirdly metal and very twisted, swirling thick clouds of black drone and chanted vocals, lots of quite beautiful dark ambience, all very creepy and haunting and ethereal, finally finishing off with the 13 minute epic "Visions Of Timeless Nought", a super obtuse sort of black metal jam, more of those fractured fucked up drums, vocals wrapped in reverb and careening wildly all over the place, guitars that moan and groan and squeal, everything weirdly dubbed out, the drums bouncing wildly, the high-hat loud and sizzling all over the place, the entire song sounding like it's being reflected in a funhouse mirror, warped and warbly and woozy, just listening makes your head spin, which is pretty fantastic actually.
The band has recently ceased to be, reinventing itself as Hammemit, with a new sound and new direction, so for those of you who have yet to discover the warped joys of Emit, and have been hankering for some new blackened weirdness, freaky and fucked up, druggy and confusional and so so so strange, this is probably your last chance...
MPEG Stream: "Behind These Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "An Empty Room & A Mysterious Sermon"
MPEG Stream: "Visions Of Timeless Nought"

EMIT The Dark Bleeding Gods (Goatowarex) cd 9.98
The return of one of our favorite mysterious black hordes, Emit, although not technically a return as the band is defunct and have already re-emerged as the similarly named Hammemit, instead, this is the second posthumous collection from these bizarre black alchemists, gathering up two old recordings, The Dark Bleeding ep from 2003 and the The Dark Gods demo from 2004. The cool thing about Emit was they were never really black metal, but their sound was blacker than many of their buzzier / blastier compatriots. They trafficked in a raw sort of primitive free black noise, more like Abruptum really, with clouds of noxious distorted guitars, howling anguished processed vocals, and often no drums to speak of at all.
The Dark Bleeding is the group at their rawest. Distorted tangles of free form guitar, drenched in reverb, vocals grunting and growling, some actual riffage for sure, but buried beneath dense slabs of crumbling distortion, and heaving low end rumble, the final of the four tracks features some awesomely distorted church organ, resulting in a super creepy, ultra noisy chunk of circusy black drone-noise.
The Dark Gods is a bit more song oriented, but only a bit, still plenty abstract, spaced out swells, melodic and downright pretty, give way to creeping black riffage, and warped and warbly low end, sick vocals, garbled and processed, drums show up, but instead of blasting or pounding, they are totally abstract, another element to drift and meander and get all tangled up in the ever swirling morass of blackened sound. Near the end, the drums do make their presence more known, giving the sound a distinctly doomy vibe, but still totally unhinged and chaotic and fractured and gloriously fucked up.
Like WOLD meets Abruptum meets Circle Of Ouroborus, noisy, heavy, abstract, weirdly pretty, totally and completely damaged, and thus WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "The Pain Of Bleeding"
MPEG Stream: "Death Before Death"
MPEG Stream: "Distant Dragon"
MPEG Stream: "Watching From The Hills"