ULVER A Quick Fix Of Melancholy EP (Jester) cd 10.98
The title doesn't lie. This latest transmission from those Norwegian eccentrics Ulver consists of but four songs, a sampling of gothic glitch rock, the sad-synth-symphonic soundtrack to a ghost story left to you to imagine. The melodies and electronic beats give little clue to Ulver's origins as a vulpine black metal band, although the final track is in fact a rearrangement of a piece from their 1996 Kveldssanger opus, and makes an ominous, distortion-filled ending to the ep without altering the mood already set by the chamber strings and doleful male singing of the previous three tracks. With this ep, Ulver continue their ectoplasmic existence as a restless spirit that filters through many musical bodies, fully possessing none but leaving weird nightmares behind...
MPEG Stream: "Little Blue Bird"
MPEG Stream: "Eitttlane"

ULVER Blood Inside (The End) cd 13.98
Ulver. Once one of Norway's black metal, Viking wolfpacks. Worshipping at the dark throne of, ah, Darkthrone. But those days are long past... Ulver have evolved. You know this. Electronica. Techno. Goth. Post-rock. Soundtracks. Pop. Drone. All these things, good things...but no longer black metal. If you've followed the chameleons known as Ulver this far, and you've liked *everything* they've done, then you're gonna like Blood Inside too. But if you've had your doubts, then maybe this is gonna be the toughest one to swallow yet (despite what we heard pre-release about how "heavy" it was gonna be). 'Cause now they kinda sound like Tears For Fears. Tears For Fears at the circus.
Ok, it's not all like that. But there is a lot of singing. And gently gloomy pop atmospheres, and filmic orchestration, and weird progginess, and yes, some heaviness. Maybe later we'll realize this is Ulver's Faith No More's Angel Dust. However, one track features what sounds like an unanswered cell-phone ringing...and ringing. Who needs that on a cd??
Sorry, at first blush we're just not feeling it. Yet maybe Ulver have evolved beyond us. We'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt. But, we can definitely say that if you gave up at their last true studio-recorded full-length album before this one, Perdition City (as did Andee), this won't bring you back. And even if you liked that or subsequent releases like Teachings In Silence (which Allan considers the best post-black metal Ulver) or the A Quick Fix Of Melancholy ep you should check this out but it *might* be too Tears For Fearsy for you nonetheless. Of course, we're sure there's a whole audience for this (Tears For Fears fans?) that have never even heard of Ulver before... but we doubt they're reading this. It's tough. We want to like this. And maybe you will. But the ultimate test had to be, if it didn't say Ulver on it, would we even be listening? The textural glitch improv loveliness of Teachings In Silence definitely passed that test. This, though, well, it might take a few more listens...therein lies the paradox. I guess I'd better take one home just to be on the safe side.
Additional note: this comes enhanced with a video track for your computer.
MPEG Stream: "For The Love Of God"
MPEG Stream: "It Is Not Sound"

ULVER Childhood's End (K-Scope) cd 17.98
Those genre-defying former black metallers (a long long time ago, now!) Ulver return, with an unusual even for them detour into all-covers territory! Specifically, a collection of (mostly) obscure sixties psych faves, as it says on the cover, "lost & found from the Age of Aquarius".
They do 16 such nuggets, all moody, kaleidoscopic treats originally recorded by the following artists: The Pretty Things, The Byrds, Bonniwell's Music Machine, Chocolate Watchband, Jefferson Airplane, Gandalf, The Electric Prunes, 13th Floor Elevators, Troggs, Left Banke, Beau Brummels, Common People, Music Emporium, Curt Boettcher, Les Fleur De Lys, and The United States Of America.
And they do them well. Not totally straight, but not black metal versions either (which, really, might have been even more interesting!). No, this is a respectful tribute, Ulver emulating the originals fairly accurately, but boosted with some modern prog rock power & polish, presumably with the mission of introducing 'em to a new audience, though we'd venture to guess that folks who listen to Ulver these days already have pretty wide ranging musical tastes...
Comes in nice hardback digibook packaging, though we don't know if the use of the iconic napalmed naked Vietnamese children running in the street photo is in such great taste, though it makes sense with the title of course... Ulver definitely demonstrates good taste in their musical selections here, however! We were especially stoked to see the Gandalf pick. It's all great stuff, Ulver's versions reminding us a little bit of another Norwegian fave of ours (also with some black metal connections), Lars Pedersen's When, who also digs the '60s sikepop.


MPEG Stream: "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night (Electric Prunes) "
MPEG Stream: "Velvet Sunsets (Music Emporium) "

ULVER Lyckantropen Themes (Jester) cd 13.98
This latest release from unclassifiable Norwegian electronica experimentalists Ulver (y'know, the not-a-black-metal-band-anymore-so-don't-even-ask Ulver) is a soundtrack to some sort of arty werewolf film (we think, check out the trailer at http://www.lyckantropen.com/trailer.php) by Swedish director Steve Ericsson. Following on in the style of their recent, quite nice "improv-glitch" eps (collected on the Teachings In Silence cd reviewed last list), Ulver's music for Ericsson's film is suitably dark and moody -- and glitchily melodic. Loops and crackle and synth drones, almost entirely instrumental, in a very "modern" electronic vein -- not a bit like Ulver's previous werewolf-themed albums (Nattens Madrigal for instance)! You'll hear no distorted metallic Darkthrone worship here (although things get a little frantic on the disc's tenth and final track). This is informed more by the likes of Tarwater and Autechre and downtempo electronica, and they do it well. Scoring soundtracks may indeed be Ulver's new true calling, though we'd still love it if they'd surprise us again in the future with yet another new direction. As good as this is, they've yet to really be as original or unique in their adopted/adapted "electronica" guise as they were in the realm of black metal.
RealAudio clip: "track 8"
RealAudio clip: "track 10"

ULVER Metamorphosis (Jester) cdep 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The most predicably unpredicable band on the Norwegian black metal scene has to be Ulver. They've made an album of metallic, raw Darkthrone worship, another of pure acoustic folk, and (most recently) even a double cd combining William Blake poetry with industrial beats. Now, with this new four-track ep, they've gone fully techno, Ulver-style, meaning dark, heavy electronica beats with only traces of the old Ulver remaining, mainly in the occasional Viking-opera vocals. Appropriate to this "metamorphosis", the cd tray features the following message from the band: "Ulver is obviously not a black metal band...we are proud of our former instincts, but wish to liken our association with said genre to that of the snake with Eve. An incentive to further frolic only. If this discourages you in any way, please have the courtesy to refrain from voicing superficial remarks regarding our music and/or personae. We are as unknown to you as we always were." Yet another surprising release from this unique band.

ULVER Nattens Madrigal (Century Media) cd 13.98
Strange Norwegian Black Metal band's third album, subtitled "Eight Hymnnes to the Wolf in Man". Unlike their previous record, which was an entirely acoustic folk music, this is an almost all-electric onslaught, recorded in such a (demented?) way as to make the guitars sound like giant bees. The electricity of this record is highlighted also by the way each and every track seemingly stars with the sound of their instruments being plugged in. Utter Darkthrone worship, but better!

ULVER Perdition City (Jester) cd 15.98
Well it's pretty clear that these Norwegian weirdos will never be a "black metal" band again. Following the industrial and techno experimentation of their last two releases comes the new disc, "Perdition City" (pretentiously subtitled "music to an interior film"), and with this album Ulver seem fully committed to their new electronica personae, sounding more like Portishead or Tarwater than anything remotely metal. So, there'll never to be another beautiful acoustic folk masterpiece like "Kveldsangger" or a darker-than-Darkthrone black metal assault like "Nattens Madrigal" from these guys...and it's a pity, 'cause even though this new, noir-ish electronic Ulver effort is OK, it's got nothing on the originality and passion of what they once were. Dark, faux-soundtrack stuff, not bad (except for the truly god-awful vocals that thankfully only occur a couple of times, and the saxophone also gives some of us problems) but why? Several other pioneering black metal bands have successfully incorporated electronic/industrial sounds into their music (Mayhem, Satyricon...) without going entirely over to the other side. If Garm (aka Trickster G) and the other guys in Ulver want to do an atmospheric electronica band, which evidently they do, why keep the Ulver name? All that means is that some Ulver fans (like Andee) will hate this, and some (like Allan) will still add it to their collections out of loyalty and curiosity. But if it WASN'T Ulver, I don't think Andee would hate it so much, OR Allan would buy it...argh. At least this isn't Marylin Manson cheese ala Kovenant... Oh, this includes a cd-rom video clip as well, but it didn't work on our Macs. Ulver fans, make your choice... Ulver: up their own ass with trendy electronica artiness, or post-black metal innovators?

RealAudio clip: "Lost In Moments"
RealAudio clip: "The Future Sound Of Music"

ULVER Shadows Of The Sun (Jester) cd 12.98
The band formerly known as a black metal band Ulver, now known as arty WTF? band Ulver, has morphed and morphed again over the years. Black metal, folk, electronica, pop, techno... some of Ulver's metamorphoses have worked better than others. They've gone through phases influenced by both Portishead and Radiohead. But lately these Norwegian tricksters have seemingly settled down to something stable, an avant-garde, electronica-infused, gloomy pop-prog identity. Their previous album Blood Inside was a bit too Tears For Fearsy for our tastes, unfortunately (though we know lots of folks loved it). Or maybe that would have been ok, but the circus-y bits really lost us. However, Shadows Of The Sun, while charting a similar course, veers mostly to the languid and lovely, which we rather like. The nine tracks here tend to flow together calmly, never breaking the twilight mood. Hints of glitchiness and distortion are interwoven with yearning melody, smooth almost New Agey blissfullness, deep breathy baritone vox. Also, a warning (to some): saxophone. A little. And at this point, needless to say, there's nothing remotely metal about any of it. Well, there is a Black Sabbath cover, but they chose one of the Sabs' most delicate and torpid songs, "Solitude", in keeping with this album's sad mood, Garm's vocals wearier even than were Ozzy's originally, uncheered by the jazz inflections included in Ulver's arrangement. Those who have followed and remained fans of Ulver thus far, though, should find this latest melancholic manifestation quite satisfying. Oh, and considering his following among the AQ crowd, we should note that Christian Fennesz makes a cameo appearance on this record.
MPEG Stream: "Eos"
MPEG Stream: "Let The Children Go"

ULVER Silence Teaches You How To Sing EP (Jester Records) cd ep 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Formerly black metal avantgardists Ulver of Norway present 24 minutes of electonic experimental improv, a slowly-unfolding collage of organic drones and beats and clicks and field recordings and post-rock piano melody etc., that might remind you of everything from Tarwater to Philip Jeck to Fennesz to Mogwai... Quite mellow, dark and beautiful, a soundscape composed, in part, of static-y electro-grime overlaying scratchy vinyl looping with occasional wordless drifting vocals.
The long, lone track on this limited edition ep was constructed from material recorded in a one-night "Dead City Centre jam" last February during the sessions for Ulver's most recent full-length, the love it or hate it "Perdition City". Unlike that album, though, this ep benefits from a lack of horrendous vocal and saxophone contributions! While some of Ulver's past attempts to branch out into non-black metal genres have been, as just alluded to, kinda shaky (if commendable in spirit), this stands up well in the "experimental/electronica" category. Recommended, as possibly Ulver's best post-metal effort.
RealAudio clip: "Silence... (excerpt)"

ULVER Silencing The Singing EP (Jester) cd ep 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's another limited edition ep from the impossible to classify Norwegian band Ulver, following up their similarly titled (and similar looking) "Silence Teaches You How To Sing EP" from earlier this year. Again, about a half hour of music, this time broken into three tracks. All are constructed of repetitive melodic and non-melodic loops (some notes on a piano, scratchy vinyl surface noise, what might be far-off voices), gradually joined by electronic blips and beats. The mood is quiet and languid, as are the rhythms, although track three builds into a lovely few final moments of loud distortion.
Ulver of course originally made their name in the black metal scene, with such classic the-forest-is-my-throne-style albums as "Nattens Madrigal" and "Kveldsanger", full of church-burning riffs and wolverine vocals (and acoustic folk music in the case of "Kveldsanger"). And we won't deny that that's some of their best stuff, it is. But since those days they've abandoned black metal and morphed into some sort of odd electronic/experimental band -- and as well, Ulver leader Krystoffer "Garm" Rygg started up the Jester label to release music by all sorts of likeminded (i.e. fucked) Norwegian artists (including When, Bogus Blimp, Esperanza, and of course Ulver).
And while their black metal past isn't overtly evident on this recording, we could suppose that Ulver's earlier appreciation of the grim, lo-fi, trance-like ambience created by their (former) heroes Darkthrone and Mayhem is still a part of Ulver's sound, explaining their music's current immersion in a grimy (if not grim) background of constant crackle and buzzing drones. Well, that and the fact that such sounds are now as hip in experimental/electronica circles as they are cult in metal.
Speaking of cult, the cryptic as always liner notes claim "Ulver do their best to show you the wall in every door". Not sure what that means, exactly, but that statement still seems to sum up their history of willful genre-shifting and puzzling abstraction, of which "Silencing The Singing" is only the most recent, and one of the most enjoyable, examples. Get it while you can. And look forward to Ulver's next project, which is promised to be an Apocalyptica-like orchestral remake of their dirtiest sounding, most mean and metal disc, "Nattens Madrigal"!
RealAudio clip: "Track 1"
RealAudio clip: "Track 3"

ULVER Svidd Neger (Jester) cd 14.98
We're still waiting on the upcoming string quartet version of Ulver's black metal masterpiece Nattens Madrigal, but in the meantime they've released something else new, another soundtrack effort (their second, after last year's Lyckantropen Themes). As with that album, Ulver are in their current manifestation as a dark, avant-electronica act, their Nordic metal past a mere shadow cast over the proceedings. With eerie, tinkling piano and far-off, distant screams, Ulver create sonic echoes of crimes that we'll assume appear on celluloid in Svidd Neger. Melancholic horns and downtempo beats make this a creepy yet club-contemporary sounding listen. And after you're lulled into thinking it's all gonna be quiet and mellow, wham some ominous heavy chords come crashing down, Mogwai-style. Mostly though, this is quiet and creepy, and menacingly melodic.
MPEG Stream: "Wild Cat"
MPEG Stream: "Rock Massif Pt. 1"

ULVER Teachings In Silence (Black Apple) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Warehouse find! Not ours of course since we don't have a warehouse, but some of these classic Ulver discs turned up so we grabbed a bunch. It had been a while since we listened to this, but returning to it now, we realized what a killer disc this is, and figured a bunch of folks may have missed out on it, so here's another chance for you, it's long out of print, going on 5 years maybe, so once these are gone, they will again be gone for good...
here's our review from when we first carried it way back when:
This new cd from Norwegian avantgarde ex-black metallers Ulver isn't really new, as it actually is a reissue compilation of their two limited edition, now out of print eps "Silence Teaches You How To Sing" and "Silencing The Singing" on one handy, domestically issued disc (by a new label run by Aaron from noise-pop outfit Iran, who met Ulver while in Norway filming a documentary about the black metal scene! Which should be coming out soon, as in 2007!). So, you don't need it if you already have those two import discs, but if you don't, we most certainly recommend it -- both eps are two of Ulver's best post-black metal efforts to date, as they move into unclassifiable experimental/electronica realms. To sum up our previous commentary on these eps: "Silence Teaches You..." is a single, 24 minute track of electonic experimental improv, a slowly-unfolding collage of organic drones and beats and clicks and field recordings and post-rock piano melody etc., that might remind you of everything from Tarwater to Philip Jeck to Fennesz to Mogwai... Quite mellow, dark and beautiful, a soundscape composed, in part, of static-y electro-grime overlaying scratchy vinyl looping with occasional wordless drifting vocals. It was constructed from material recorded in a one-night "Dead City Centre jam" during the sessions for Ulver's previous full-length album, the love it or hate it "Perdition City". Unlike that album, though, this ep benefits from a lack of horrendous vocal and saxophone contributions! The similar in method/sound "Silencing The Singing" follows, three tracks providing another half hour of music, constructed of repetitive melodic and non-melodic loops (some notes on a piano, scratchy vinyl surface noise, what might be far-off voices), gradually joined by electronic blips and beats. The mood is quiet and languid, as are the rhythms, although the last track builds into a lovely few final moments of loud distortion.
Ulver of course originally made their name in the black metal scene, with such classic the-forest-is-my-throne-style albums as "Nattens Madrigal" and "Kveldsanger", full of church-burning riffs and wolverine vocals (and acoustic folk music in the case of "Kveldsanger"). And we won't deny that that's some of their best stuff -- it is. But since those days they've abandoned black metal and morphed into some sort of odd, willfully abstract electronic/experimental band -- and as well, Ulver leader Krystoffer "Garm" Rygg started up the fab Jester label to release music by all sorts of likeminded (i.e. fucked) Norwegian artists (including AQ faves When, Bogus Blimp, Origami Galaktika, Rotoscope, and of course Ulver).
And while Ulver's black metal past isn't overtly evident on these recordings, we could suppose that their earlier appreciation of the grim, lo-fi, trance-like ambience created by their (former) heroes Darkthrone and Mayhem is still a part of Ulver's sound, explaining their music's current immersion in a grimy (if not grim) background of constant crackle and buzzing drones. Well, that and the fact that such sounds are now as hip in experimental/electronica circles as they are cult in metal.
MPEG Stream: "Silence Teaches You How To Sing"
MPEG Stream: "Darling Didn't We Kill You?"
MPEG Stream: "Speak Dead Speaker"

ULVER Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" (Jester) 2cd 19.98
Probably the most anticipated metal record of the year outside of the Emperor record, but for a drastically different reason; everyone was curious how much it might suck. After all, this is the record that got them dropped from Century Media for not being metal enough. Early reviews made repeated references to 'trip hop' and 'Tricky' and 'Portishead'. Even distributors were wary of carrying what apparently was a non-metal record, hence our difficulty in ordering it.
This is as unlikely a direction as one could imagine for Ulver. They hinted at this new direction on their second, 'folk' album, although their next record Nattens Madrigal found them in ferocious buzzing blur mode. William Blake finds a bit of that folk element fused with elements of metal, ambient, goth, trip-hop, 80's industrial and spoken word. You may remember a similarly unconventional mix on the last Arcturus record, although this record is significantly more epic in length (two cd's) and scale (examining the writings of William Blake through the lens of seemingly unrelated genres). What makes this record assuredly Ulver is the sheer audacity of recording what is essentially a literary dissertation. And they've earned the right to do so; releasing three of the best and most original metal records of the last several years as well as being the only sober, educated voice in The Lords of Chaos.
The store is divided on it. Andee and Marc, though confused by it, like it a lot. Jim says he would have loved it in High School. Allan and Elisabeth are still unsure. (And Windy's too busy looking for a carpenter to even have an opinion.) So this is both a warning and a recommendation.

ULVER / IMMORTAL Bargnatt - Promo '93 / Promo '91 (Dead Not Found) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bootleg (note it's on "Dead Not Found" not legit label "Head Not Found") release of early material by two legendary Norwegian black metal acts, the now so avant garde that they're not black metal anymore Ulver and black metal diehards even today Immortal. Of course back in the early '90s, both bands were True with a captial T: raw, church-burning black metal of the purest sort. Demotape tracks from both bands (4 from Ulver, 3 from Immortal), plus an Ulver song from their rare split 7" with Mysticum. Ulver's stuff melds neo-classical melodicism with lo-fi Burzum-style noise-production, which certainly sets the stage for several of their later releases. Immortal's tracks are EXTREMELY lo-fi, with the Popeye death-grunts being the most audible aspect. Oh, the atmosphere! For fans only, of course (who will also no doubt appreciate the shocking anti-Dimmu Borgir tray-card graphics).

UNCREATION'S DAWN Death's Tyranny (Northern Heritage) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Warehouse find! The final record from Finnish black blasters Uncreation's Dawn (who have since changed their name and continued on as Uncelestial), released way back in 2006, just discovered a small handful of these lurking in the back, and fans of all things Finnish black metal and Northern Heritage will find much to dig here. After a strange, old timey lo-fi piano intro, the band immediately lurch into action, the first track a super distorted, buzzy and black pound, the sound thick and super heavy, the vocals a monstrous bellow, the riffs gnarled and minor key, the sound a buzzing chugging midtempo lumber, the arrangement super dynamic, with the band shifting from relentless pound, to woozy start / stop breakdowns, eventually exploding into full on frenzied blasting, only to slip right back into a doomy plod.
And from there on out, the band continue to unfurl a wild tangle of swirling blackness, from dense almost Deathspell style churn, to more d-beat sounding punkish pound, to midtempo blackened doom, to wild furious black thrash crunch.
Only got a few of these...
MPEG Stream: "Lifeless Dominion Opens"
MPEG Stream: "Death's Tyranny"

UNDERJORDISKA Dystert Vilse (Stellar Auditorium) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
First off, how amazing is the name Stellar Auditorium for a label. Heck, for anything. We only recently discovered this label, who have released a handful of cd-r's so far, all of them amazing, and all of them gorgeously packaged, so much so we almost wonder why they only make cd-r's, as the packaging is so deluxe and fantastic, full color digpaks, multiple inserts, the whole nine yards, but thankfully, even the cd-r's are pretty swank, black on one side, and professionally printed on the other.
Anyway, none of that would make a difference if the music wasn't worthwhile, but as we mentioned above, it most certainly is. Elsewhere on this list you'll find one of the new Procer Veneficus releases, also on Stellar Auditorium (love even typing it!) and then this, the first full length from Swedish black metal horde Underjordiska.
Thanks to our pal Ben at Amoeba for turning us to these guys, took us a while, hadn't been able to track down actual copies of the record, until in a strange bit of serendipity, the label just contacted us out of the blue, so now we finally have this to list, and holy shit is it amazing. Minutes in and we can already tell the aQ black metal hordes will lose their shit for this stuff. Don't know anything about these guys, they're not even on Encyclopedia Metallum, all we know is they're from Sweden, and they totally destroy.
After a gorgeously creepy intro, all ominous drones and high end short wave interference sonic squiggles, the first song kicks in, an incredibly lush, thick wall of warm buzz, shoegazey for sure, but more sort of washed out sounding, sepia toned, bleary and blurry, the drums lost in a distorted haze, and the vocals, harsh and hateful, but not so abrasive and jagged, still weirdly warm and thick, like little bursts of pink noise, barely shaped into words, the riffing is warped and warbly, slipping into strange atonal shapes, but always snapping back into frenzied blasts of soaring riffage, and soaring is pretty right on the mark, this stuff is totally epic and majestic, like a lo-fi grim and raw black metal Godspeed. That same sort of sweeping expansive vibe, but all wound up into these streaks of buzzing blackness.
The tracks are repetitive and hypnotic, the band locking onto a riff and creating these lush tranced out buzzscapes, but those riffs are super fluid, it almost sounds like someone changing the tape speed, as the riffs sort of slip and slither, bend and change shape, the songs follow, like listening through some sort of funhouse mirror, sometimes the buzz is so thick and blurred, that the song seems to disappear in a cloud of effects and cymbal swells and processed vox, like noise, but soft noise, soft black noise, spread out over riffs and beats, only their shadows visible through the wall of sound.
The final track is easily the most epic, and not just because of its length (18+ minutes), it almost sounds like some sort of anthem, totally majestic, and melodic, but like the rest of the record, underneath layer after layer of buzz and whir and haze, slowly transforming into something more noisy and off kilter, more warped, the vocals ghostlike and abstract, the drums gone, swallowed by the buzz, the riffing modulating and flitting from note to note, almost like someone flipping a switch, jarring and off kilter and really really weird, but somehow all that buzz smooths it into something strangely dreamlike (and a tad bit nightmarish), before everything drops out, and the record drifts off in a hazy, ethereal fog. So awesome. Can't believe we had never heard these guys before.
Anyone into the black, the buzz, the blur, the blissed out and the blast, this is IT.
MPEG Stream: "Ogonstjarna"
MPEG Stream: "Uppenbarelsen"

UNDERJORDISKA / SPECTRAL LORE split (Stellar Auditorium) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Third release we've carried from the Stellar Auditorium, and we said it before, but it bears repeating, how awesome a label name is that. Totally evokes some sort of black metal lazer light show, the kind we used to sneak into when we were kids, but way more grim and buzzy and space-y.
Anyway, a few lists back we reviewed the latest from psychedelic black metal one man band Procer Veneficus, and a mysterious Swedish outfit called Underjordiska, whose full length Dystert Vilse we could barely keep in stock. Their sound a warped blend of epic sweeping shoegazey buzz and warbly and raw soft black noise, that definitely hit the spot for all of us outsider black metal obsessives.
So we managed to get a second release from those guys, this one a split with the more ambient but equally dark and mysterious Spectral Lore, who just so happens to be the guy who runs Stellar Auditorium, and whose haunting drift definitely compliments Underjordiska's blown out buzz. Although here even moreso, as Underjordiska try something a little more abstract and ambient.
Once again, incredible packaging, full color, very striking, but still weirdly, the disc itself remains a cd-r, this one limited to 300 copies, each one hand numbered. Two tracks, one from each band, both 30 minutes plus!
Underjordiska is up first, their track begins with the sound of waves crashing, gulls, all beneath a delicate drift of clean guitar, the sounds of the surf soon fade out, while in their place a strange assemblage of buzz and hiss, and spacey effects all swirl and swoop, the sound growing more metallic, more alien, more chaotic, before slipping back into a swirling morass of churning black low end, and softly muted buzz, a droning crawl, laced with bits of crunch and rumble, becoming gradually more and more minimal, until the sound is all hushed and delicate and almost static, barring some delicate melodic fragments drifting through the darkness. The band build on that minimal foundation, finally adding guitars, and creating a sort of stop motion doom-ic black buzz, layers of droning buzzing guitars seeming to hover and slowly drift into one another playing out some grim melody, but very very very slowly, before the guitars slip away, and the track ends with an almost choral sounding outro.
Spectral Lore start out with some downtuned guitars, a noisy bit of distorted riffage, making us think for a moment that we may have gotten the two tracks mixed up, but soon those guitars are smoothed out into a deep subterranean crawl, distant shimmering strings, deep low end drift, with the guitars resurfacing here and there, offering up a squall of crumbling crunch or jagged chug, before slipping back under, the distant drones sounding like some sort of Italian horror soundtrack, getting weirdly Goblin-y at one point, before dissipating in a flurry of delay and reverb, leaving just overtones, overlapping and layered, whirring and effulgent, giving way to a weirdly jazzy mini-jam outro, set in a slowly fading sea of hiss, that becomes the sound of water once again, revisiting the first few moments of the Underjordiska track.
Both groups offer up truly strange sonic journeys, mysterious, haunting, otherworldly, meditative and tranquil, but unstable, unpredictable, crafting long stretches of dark ambience, muted shoegazey guitars, deep cavernous drones, crumbling blackened riffage, hushed shimmer, all twisted and transformed, and woven into these mesmerizing alien landscapes...
MPEG Stream: UNDERJORDISKA "Part I"
MPEG Stream: SPECTRAL LORE "Part II"

UNDOR s/t (Bestial Burst) cd ep 8.98
ATTENTION LOVERS OF INSANE, DAMAGED, DEMENTED BLACK METAL!!! It's that time again. Another bizarre and fantastically fucked release to blacken your soul and your heart. This German outfit are obviously channeling the spirit of Burzum and Abruptum, but have also inadvertently conjured up some Benighted Leams and some Dead Reptile Shrine, and the result is completely bafflingly brilliant. A single half hour track, an abstract soundscape of stumbling plodding caveman doom drumming, weird warped downtuned riffing, every available space filled with squealing feedback, while above it all some of the most demented howling anguished falsetto vocals ever, a sort of Weakling meets Bethlehem meets Silencer. A lurching plodding blackened doom, the feedback everywhere combined with the tempo almost reminds us of Eyehategod. So if you can imagine some sort of abstract, ambient, slow motion, black metal, doom sludge you'll get at least an idea of what freaked out grim and frosty otherworld these guys inhabit. If you dig ANY of the above mentioned bands, we shouldn't have to tell you, but we will: this is absolutely essential.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled (excerpt 2)"

UNDOR / RIDE FOR REVENGE split (Bestial Burst) cd 12.98
This killer two band tag team of weirdo whatthefuck outsider Finnish black metal, previously only available on (out of print) vinyl, NOW ON CD!! Here's what we had to say about this split when we first reviewed the 12":
The return of our favorite Finnish black metal weirdos Ride For Revenge, who really are barely even black metal, and actually hardly metal, but they are definitely weird, and this latest epic jam definitely does nothing to convince us otherwise. Beginning the ridiculous (and best ever!) title: "Ridiculed By Ladies Of The Moon", the song begins with a long stretch of warbly synth drone, laced with feedback, slowly undulating, while in the background sounds clank and clatter, sounding either like someone building a robot or someone making dinner, this goes on for a while until BLAM, the drums kick in, the synthy/electronic buzz is joined by HEAVY buzzy bass, and the track is transformed into a stumbling bass heavy dirge, the drums super distorted, which is especially noticeable on the bizarre fills, then the vocals, and awesome alien croak, sick and sinister and totally fucking nuts, the song pounds away, the sound gradually becoming a sort of dirgey space goth doom, dramatic and demented, and then there's the last stretch a wild final few minutes, the drums gone haywire, totally chaotic, the buzz intensified, wreathed in squiggles of white noise, and the sonorous clang of metal on metal, either some distant bells, or more likely, the pots and pans from the above mentioned kitchen being hurled about, a twisted and baffling finish to another incredible warped chunk of sonic weirdness from these guys.
Which is a lot to live up to for Undor, who decide to not try to outweird RfR, but instead, offer up a sort of sonic analogue, a stretched out midtempo jam, that sounds like just drums and guitar, the guitar riffing away, but occasionally spiraling into some weird bit of atonal squiggle, or slippery abstract melody, or a brief bit of shred, but always returning to the stumbling, lumbering, lurching main rhythm/riff. The vibe is a bit mournful, at times it sounds a bit like Hypothermia crossed with Varghkoghargasmal, the vocals pushing it over the top, a wild hysterical shriek, that in some weird way balances the slightly more measured tone of the rest of the track. But only slightly.
MPEG Stream: UNDOR "Sanguis Sacer (Excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: RIDE FOR REVENGE "Ridiculed By The Ladies Of The Moon (Excerpt)"

UNDOR / RIDE FOR REVENGE split (Bestial Burst) 12" 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The return of our favorite Finnish black metal weirdos Ride For Revenge, who really are barely even black metal, and actually hardly metal, but they are definitely weird, and this latest sidelong jam definitely does nothing to convince us otherwise. Beginning the ridiculous (and best ever!) title: "Ridiculed By Ladies Of The Moon", the song begins with a long stretch of warbly synth drone, laced with feedback, slowly undulating, while in the background sounds clank and clatter, sounding either like someone building a robot or someone making dinner, this goes on for a while until BLAM, the drums kick in, the synthy/electronic buzz is joined by HEAVY buzzy bass, and the track is transformed into a stumbling bass heavy dirge, the drums super distorted, which is especially noticeable on the bizarre fills, then the vocals, and awesome alien croak, sick and sinister and totally fucking nuts, the song pounds away, the sound gradually becoming a sort of dirgey space goth doom, dramatic and demented, and then there's the last stretch a wild final few minutes, the drums gone haywire, totally chaotic, the buzz intensified, wreathed in squiggles of white noise, and the sonorous clang of metal on metal, either some distant bells, or more likely, the pots and pans from the above mentioned kitchen being hurled about, a twisted and baffling finish to another incredible warped chunk of sonic weirdness from these guys.
Which is a lot to live up to for Undor, who decide to not try to outweird RfR, but instead, offer up a sort of sonic analogue, a stretched out midtempo jam, that sounds like just drums and guitar, the guitar riffing away, but occasionally spiraling into some weird bit of atonal squiggle, or slippery abstract melody, or a brief bit of shred, but always returning to the stumbling, lumbering, lurching main rhythm/riff. The vibe is a bit mournful, at times it sounds a bit like Hypothermia crossed with Varghkoghargasmal, the vocals pushing it over the top, a wild hysterical shriek, that in some weird way balances the slightly more measured tone of the rest of the track. But only slightly.
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES!!

UNEARTHLY TRANCE / VOLITION Winter Split (Wolfsbane) 7" 11.98
Just one glance at the cover of this 7" should send most doom obsessives into an involuntary frenzy, the weird black and white washed out image, the twisted barely legible writing, so distinctive and immediately recognizable, but this is not in fact a lost record or weird reissue from New York doom legends Winter, but is in fact, the next best thing, two contemporary outfits, tackling their favorite Winter tunes, an homage / tribute to a criminally under appreciated band, especially considering that their sound predicted pretty much all the slow and low heaviness going on these days, and that the sound, and most of the bands that practice it, would sound a whole lot different if it wasn't for these guys, whether they know it or not.
Up first are long time aQ faves Unearthly Trance, who add their own twist but don't drift too far from the original, lumbering, lurching, plodding crusty doom sludge bliss, a filthy midtempo plod, peppered with bursts of double kick drumming, guttural vox, and of course twisted tarpit guitar buzz. UK sludge beasts Volition also don't mess with Winter's sound all that much, unfurling a blackened and dense bit of sprawling doom, that more than classic ultra doom, sounds more like a grindcore record played at 16rpm. Both sides rule, essential modern megadoom, and if you've yet to discover the dismal joy of Winter, maybe these two tracks will convince you to track some of that shit down. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each one hand numbered, and these are the last copies we'll be able to get...

UNEARTHLY TRANCE / WOODEN WAND split (Chrome Peeler) 7" 14.98

UNEARTHLY TRANCE / WOODEN WAND split (Chrome Peeler) 7" 14.98

UNHOLY CADAVER (AKA HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE) s/t (Shadow Kingdom) 2lp+cd 28.00
Some of you may have heard of Unholy Cadaver. But a LOT of you have heard of Hammers Of Misfortune, San Francisco's best rock-operatic political power prog metal (and more) band, featuring members of Ludicra and (formerly) The Lord Weird Slough Feg, among others. Our own Andee's tUMULt label put out their first album, The Bastard, in 2001. That's been followed by three (or four, depending on how you count, 'cause one was a double!) albums for Cruz Del Sur and Profound Lore. Their entire discography was then recently reissued by Metal Blade, who also signed the band for a new, upcoming opus.
Well, not quite their entire discography... 'Cause before The Bastard, Hammers Of Misfortune were known by another name - Unholy Cadaver. Who recorded an unreleased album back in 1997. They put out a rare demo cd-r at the time, with just three of that album's nine tracks on it, none of which sound like "demos" despite being recorded in the band's practice space. But until now, the entire hour-long recording - which includes a song called "Hammers Of Misfortune", by the way, a nearly 15 minute epic, all of side C here - has never been properly released. The always on top of it (when "it" is cult metal) Shadow Kingdom label has rectified that, and then some, with this limited, deluxe edition of what's essentially the real Hammers Of Misfortune debut, done as a double vinyl lp with cd version also included!
This is where it all started, mastermind John Cobbett & Co.'s unusual, amazing mash up of epic / traditional stylings with "extreme" metal mayhem, with loads of guitar shred, dramatic dynamics, majestic bombast, and an influx of avant garde / black metal weirdness. Unholy Cadaver's line up consisted of Cobbett (guitars/vocals), Chewy Marzolo (drums), still the core of Hammers today. They enlisted several guests for the male and female "operatic" singing parts: Mike Scalzi (of Slough Feg), Erica Stolz (of Lost Goat), and Lorraine Rath (currently in Worm Ouroboros, formerly of The Gault), who also did the cover art and logo. In some sort of quid pro quo, Cobbett joined up for a stint in Slough Feg on 2nd guitar not long afterwards, and Scalzi stayed on with Hammers for their first three albums, playing guitar live as well as singing.
The prototypical Hammers herky-jerky stop-start loud-soft songwriting style is already in full effect, incorporating glorious guitar harmonies and bludgeoning brutality both... with social commentary (and a sense of humor) hidden, or not so hidden, in the often allegorical fantasy lyrics. Signs of their origin in "abso-futurist" metalpunk band Thunderchimp remain, both the presence of John's rasping black metallish (and guttural death metallish) vokills (which were dropped entirely after The Bastard), and seemingly silly (but actually serious) song titles/concepts like "Fuck The Galactic Police".
John and Chewy also do clean, sorta chant like vocals on some of the tracks, presumably written/recorded before they had availed themselves of Mike's triumphant baritone, the inimitable sound of which you'll hear here, appropriately enough, on the aforementioned epic "Hammers Of Misfortune", that's where they really become Hammers Of Misfortune! Not that the rest of this doesn't sound like Hammers, it sure does, but the male-female mock-operatic thing utterly comes to the fore, on that tour-de-force of a track (which also features a surprising amount of profanity from Rath's "caged princess" character).
We should also mention the final cut, all of side D, the nine-minute "Kloven Septum", which is more of an experimental, freaked out "noise" composition, but still metal. We expect the unexpected from 'em, but yet it's unlike much else in their discography, and actually we could do with a whole album of this, too! It and the other extreme metal aspects of Unholy Cadaver perhaps could be seen as feeding in to Cobbett's Ludicra project later on, as well.
Eventually Janis Tanaka took over the female vocalist/bass player position from Erica, and with a solid, full band lineup instituted, they relegated these early recordings to the vault, changed the name (good call) and plunged ahead into forging The Bastard... but Unholy Cadaver's long lost album was definitely more than a warm up, hearing the whole thing now we wonder why it took so long for this to finally see the light of day.
Considering that The Bastard happens to be our favorite of the Hammers albums, and this is what led up to it, a most welcome and highly recommended release! And we're guessing it's kind of limited, too. The packaging is quite fancy, a double gatefold lp, with one of the inside panels holding the compact disc version. There's also a 12"x12" insert on some sort of glossy photo-paper, with old b&w pictures of the band back then, complete lyrics, and new liner notes giving the history of UC/HoM. The cover features L. Rath's painting, originally used for the demo cd-r, bigger and better than before, 'cause it's now in full color. Oh and both the vinyl and the cd versions have been individually remastered! Nice work. Epically recommended!!!
MPEG Stream: "On This Final Night"
MPEG Stream: "Unsheathe The Sword Of Blasphemy"
MPEG Stream: "Hammers Of Misfortune"

UNHOLY CRUCIFIX Ordo Servorum Satanae (Nuclear War Now!) cd 9.98
Finally, after nearly a decade, this long running Norwegian black metal horde release their very FIRST proper full length album, after a ton of demos and splits and eps and live records, and like those other releases, Ordo Servorum Satanae is a furious blast of primitive buzzing blackness, the production warped and woozy, the mix equally twisted, the vokills an inhuman croak, that builds to a demonic howl, WAY up in the mix, so much so that when the vocals are roaring, the music seems to blur into a low level background churn, but somehow it only seems to make the sound that much more fierce and fucked up.
After a 2 minute intro, of gurgling voices and moaning low end thrum (bookended by an outro of whipping winds, rainfall and distant drones), the record is really only 4 tracks, clocking in at about 26 minutes, but even such a brief blast of blackness it surprisingly potent. The tracks are twisted epics, fusing loping classic metal gallop, to roiling grim blasts, lacing that black buzz with some angular atonal leads, and some cool layered stretches that elevate the sound to something massive and dense, but then just as quickly the sound will devolve into a sprawl of punkish pound, primitive and stripped down, those croaked demonic vox ever present, there's even what sounds like some cowbell buried in there occasionally. And there's some cool weird shit going on throughout, the crumbling distortion wreathed plod of the last few minutes of "Sin", weirdly psychedelic and atmospheric, or a tranced out stretch of "Inverted", which transforms into a weirdly propulsive lope, before exploding into a frenzied black blast.
And while the sound is most definitely twisted, the production warped, and the various songs laced with all manner of experimental audio, at its core, the sound of Unholy Crucifix is raw, and primitive, and grim and is the perfect culmination of all the recordings that came before.
MPEG Stream: "Slayer"
MPEG Stream: "Sin"

UNHUMAN DISEASE Black Creations Of Satan (Black Hate Productions) cd 9.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Last list we reviewed one of two records released in 2009 by Oklahoman one man black metal horde Unhuman Disease (we still have a few copies left if you missed out), and here's the second, another crusty, vicious, filthy blast of super distorted black fury, drum driven big time (due in no small part to the fact that Unhuman Disease is former Thornspawn drummer Nocturnus Dominus), so much like Leviathan (another drummer), the rhythm is as important if not moreso than any other element. Of course present are the usual BM tropes, buzzing riffs, relentlessly pounding blast beats, screeched inhuman (or UNhuman) vox, but UD traffic in a sound that's mesmerizingly cyclical, repetitive, and hypnotic, droney and trancelike, the songs lock into a riff, and pound and pulse and throb relentlessly, extended stretches of total black buzz mesmer, woven within are plenty of subtle textural and melodic variations, but those subtle slow shifts only reinforce how totally hypnotic the overall sound is. The music of Unhuman Disease is not especially far out or fucked, but then it wasn't meant to be, it's raw, and furious, Burzumic for sure, definitely heavily indebted to the Norwegian elite, but with its own gnarled vibe, that makes Black Creations Of Satan its own uniquely Satanic black creation, and keeps it on heavy rotation in the homes of the most black hearted and black souled of aQuarians...
MPEG Stream: "Black Creations Of Satan"
MPEG Stream: "Summoned In Fire"

UNHUMAN DISEASE Into Satan's Kingdom (Black Hate Productions) cd 9.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
It's always interesting how the dispersion of music takes place. It's harder than one might think to get a record from artist, to fan. Case in point, the tons of Japanese customers who order records by Japanese artists from our store in the US, or the Europeans who order records from us that were released by labels in Europe. And of course we often find ourselves ordering records from overseas, by bands who live right here in the US, often right here in California.
Which is sort of how we discovered Unhuman Disease, a killer USBM band from Oklahoma of all places, and who we had never heard of until we ordered their records from Black Hate over in Germany.
It really doesn't matter in the long run, as long as the music gets to the people, so we're psyched to introduce folks to Unhuman Disease, even if we had to get to Oklahoma via Germany.
Unhuman Disease is the one man BM project of Nocturnal, who is probably better know as the former drummer for Texan black metallers Thornspawn, but in Unhuman Disease, he whips up a seriously frenzied black blast of satanic fury. Into Satan's Kingdom is one of two UD full lengths released last year, and it's a killer, slipping deftly from hiss drenched blackened doom, to blasting frantic hyperspeed black buzz, to plodding midtempo Burzumic blackness, it's lo-fi and raw, grim and blown out, the whole record seems cloaked in a sonic haze that is definitely reminiscent of Striborg, with some distinctly Nordic moments of soaring majestic riffage, and even some weirdly melodic prettiness, but for the most part Unhuman Disease is for the corpsepainted true grim warriors, who want nothing more than to fill their caves with sick black buzz.
MPEG Stream: "Diabolic Devotion"
MPEG Stream: "Calling Of Satan"

UNO ACTU Hors Des Chemins De La Raison (Tour De Garde) cassette 5.00
Fuck, we love this band. We've only heard one tape from these Canadian electronic black ambient weirdos, but we immediately fell under their spell, and have been dying for new music ever since.
This is the latest tape of their damaged outsider alchemical sonic rituals, and if the first one was mysterious and strange, this one, is fucking baffling. All over the map, and completely wacked.
Opening with some fucked up creepy circusy synths, a buzzy tangle of haunting minor key video game forest drone. Then all of a sudden, they launch into a reverb drenched stumble, the drums blown out and spluttering, the guitar sawing away and emitting a cloud of noxious buzzing riffage, dual vocals, one a black metal rasp, the other a moaning whale call off in the distance. Freaky and super awesome. Those muted percussive thumps get more and more chaotic as the musical tension grows and grows, a lurching dirgey lo-fi doom damage workout. And it keeps getting better. And weirder. The next track is all folky, a strummed acoustic guitar, moaned vocals, all sorts of strange drifting FX, followed up by another acoustic crawl, creeping and slithery, the vocals growled beneath minor key piano plinking. Sheets of electric guitar buzz, insectoid electronic grizzle, huge echoey rumbling baritone moans, more mournful acoustic guitar...
Dense and washed out and fuzzy and murky and muddy and fucking genius. Fans of Dead Reptile Shrine, Circle Of Ouroborus, and other outsider metal outfits should be on all fours, cowering at the feet of Uno Actu, and offering up blood sacrifices as homage. We sure as hell are.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Each tape hand numbered.

UNO ACTU Inexistence (Tour De Garde) cassette 5.98
We love us some black ambience, whether it's the self flagellating soundscaping of Abruptum, the strange piano based minimalism of Tomb Of..., the cinematic creeepiness of the Vomit Orchestra, it's bracing to discover a world of ambient music, of spare and sparse soundscapes, that are as ominous and dark, as brutal and as black as any of the more riff based musicks.
Thus we have this tape from the very mysterious Uno Actu, so mysterious in fact we haven't really been able to find out much about them other than the fact that they are Canadian. Uno Actu offer up a dense and varied occult alchemical ambient ritual. Bits of black metal surface here and there, with growled guttural vocals, and downtuned rumble, but the core of Inexistence is a drifting shimmer, slightly metallic, a deep resonant reverberation, that slowly slithers through some dark sonic underworld, disrupted by bursts of speaker shredding low end buzz, creaking industrial percussion, thick swaths of crumbling low end drone, strange looped rhythms, it's ominous, and dark, and creepy, but also strangely pretty, even at its most abrasive, the sound is very dreamlike and abstract, muted and murky, mysterious melodies drift amidst thick peals of feedback, disembodied voices float and flutter before sinking into the morass, tribal drums beat out a pattern over a fuzzy cinematic backdrop, huge moaning foghorns spin thick murky webs of sound over the muted crash of some imaginary surf...
Very intense and lovely, dark and dreamlike, black and blissful. A new black ambient favorite for sure...
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!!

UNO ACTU / MALEDICERE split (God Is Myth) 7" 8.98
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Killer black metal / black ambient match up, featuring one of our favorite mysterious ritualistic drone combos, Uno Actu. But let's start with Maledicere, a duo from Minnesota of all places, and whose sound is a sort of raw pounding black metal, with a bit of a post rock vibe. After an intro of tinkling tones and dreamy ambience, the band launch into a loping Burzumic pound, but with strange howled vocals, very melodic, but still plenty buzz drenched. Mostly midtempo, but the band do explode into bursts of frenzied buzz with soaring majestic melodies, before slipping back into something more pounding and primitive. Definitely be psyched to hear more from these guys.
But no matter how good Maledicere is, Uno Actu are the reason we're so excited about this record. With only a handful of demos over the last few years (a couple of which we've raved about on past lists), a new record from these guys (or this guy), is like an (un)holy message sent from another realm, a rare occurrence that produces much rejoicing, and much huddling around the stereo late and night by candlelight.
A cloud of muted feedback and textured buzz, swirls and pulses, over delicate acoustic guitar, some sort of dreamy blackened noisefolk, slipping from corrosive and caustic to washed out and meditative. Demonic vocals gurgle over smears of fracture melody, and distant guitar strum, eventually spiraling into a looped bit of minor key droneguitar mesmer. So fantastic.
Someone needs to collect all the demos and release them on cd, or vinyl, or something, but until then, we'll just have to make do with these little offerings, everyone a black joy to behold.

UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US (A FILM BY AARON AITES AND AUDREY EWELL) (Factory) 2dvd 29.00
Much like that Hideous Gnosis book from a while back, which collected essays and documents presented at the first ever black metal symposium, it seems like this almost doesn't even require a review, as we'd imagine pretty much every truely obsessive black metal fan is gonna want this, but just in case...
UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US. A long in the works documentary directed by Aaron Aites (of noise poppers Iran) and his partner Audrey Ewell, focused on the history of Scandanavian black metal, filmed over the course of 4 years, during which the duo lived in Norway, and became friends with many of the musicians, and while much of the movies does address the church burnings and murders of course, which is the reason most non fans have even heard of black metal, it approaches the subject from a distinctly non metal, more philosophical and artful direction. Folks looking for nothing but footage of live, bloodsoaked black metal freakouts and sensationalist coverage of the various crimes, will likely be a bit disappointed. UTLTU is more a charcater study, or studies, focusing on a handful of the key players in the black metal scene in Norway, and the inspiration behind the music they make, and the crimes they chose to commit. The main characters are Varg Vikernes aka Burzum, and Fenriz of Darkthrone, both are given lots of camera time, and both handle that time in distinctly different ways. Varg is interviewed in prison, and sounds cool and calm and collected, like a normal guy, but the more you listen, the more you realize he is definitely batshit crazy, and seriously misguided, while Fenriz displays an earnest love for the music he helped create, but struggles with its popularity, and the concept of selling out, scene politics, and even the concept of scene.
The film flits from Vikernes to Fenriz frequently, the two strange foils, former friends, both with dramatically different recall of events, which makes for interesting viewing for sure.
Those segments and the various archival footage is set amidst sweeping shots of the Norwegian landscape, not to mention more mundane shots of the city, footage of Fenriz getting searched on a train, newscasts, various interviews with other bands and musicians from that scene, there's also elements that seem to address black metal's non musical influence, Fenriz goes to an art show of black metal art, and complains that it's just shit he sees every day, there's some intense and gruesome performance art from Frost of Satyricon, during which he cuts himself with a huge knife and blows fire, before a comically polite audience...
The film itself is quite beautiful, strangely introspective, more for the Sundance crowd than the troo grim hordes, but that's what makes it so appealing, and not just another heavy metal movie that's heavier on the metal than actual proper filmmaking, the music too, evokes a darkly melancholy mood, of loss and regret, mostly haunting electronica, Boards Of Canada, Lesser, Black Dice, Mum, while the black metal music that is in the film is brief and fleeting, offering black metal novices and curious onlookers just brief glimpses of the music, of the black metal that is the reason any and all of this exists at all.
Both the double dvd and the Blu-Ray include FOUR HOURS of bonus footage, including a 36 minute black metal short film of various deleted scenes, an alternate ending, loads of outtakes, a bunch of unused footage featuring some musicians who ended up not in the film including Nocturno Culto from Darkthrone, Necrobutcher from Mayhem, as well as extended interviews with and shots of Ulver, Immortal, Hellhammer (the man, not the band), Fenriz, Frost, not to mention 46 more minutes of Burzum interviews and maybe most exciting/silly of all, a 45 minute 'class' on the history of black metal with none other than Professor Fenriz, complete with pointer, multiple chalkboards and lots and lots of diagrams!!
Super swank packaging too, an unfinished cardstock inner case, housed inside a glossy black and white cover, with some cool reflective printing, inside is a booklet with notes from the directors, as well as various reviews of the film and lots of photos.
The Blu-Ray is NTSC and all region, the dvds are also NTSC but are region 1 + 4. (There is a single dvd version too, by the way, but we figure you're all gonna want the stuff on the extra disc, so we didn't get any of those.)

UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US (A FILM BY AARON AITES AND AUDREY EWELL) (Factory) Blu-Ray Disc 29.00
Much like that Hideous Gnosis book from a while back, which collected essays and documents presented at the first ever black metal symposium, it seems like this almost doesn't even require a review, as we'd imagine pretty much every truely obsessive black metal fan is gonna want this, but just in case...
UNTIL THE LIGHT TAKES US. A long in the works documentary directed by Aaron Aites (of noise poppers Iran) and his partner Audrey Ewell, focused on the history of Scandanavian black metal, filmed over the course of 4 years, during which the duo lived in Norway, and became friends with many of the musicians, and while much of the movies does address the church burnings and murders of course, which is the reason most non fans have even heard of black metal, it approaches the subject from a distinctly non metal, more philosophical and artful direction. Folks looking for nothing but footage of live, bloodsoaked black metal freakouts and sensationalist coverage of the various crimes, will likely be a bit disappointed. UTLTU is more a charcater study, or studies, focusing on a handful of the key players in the black metal scene in Norway, and the inspiration behind the music they make, and the crimes they chose to commit. The main characters are Varg Vikernes aka Burzum, and Fenriz of Darkthrone, both are given lots of camera time, and both handle that time in distinctly different ways. Varg is interviewed in prison, and sounds cool and calm and collected, like a normal guy, but the more you listen, the more you realize he is definitely batshit crazy, and seriously misguided, while Fenriz displays an earnest love for the music he helped create, but struggles with its popularity, and the concept of selling out, scene politics, and even the concept of scene.
The film flits from Vikernes to Fenriz frequently, the two strange foils, former friends, both with dramatically different recall of events, which makes for interesting viewing for sure.
Those segments and the various archival footage is set amidst sweeping shots of the Norwegian landscape, not to mention more mundane shots of the city, footage of Fenriz getting searched on a train, newscasts, various interviews with other bands and musicians from that scene, there's also elements that seem to address black metal's non musical influence, Fenriz goes to an art show of black metal art, and complains that it's just shit he sees every day, there's some intense and gruesome performance art from Frost of Satyricon, during which he cuts himself with a huge knife and blows fire, before a comically polite audience...
The film itself is quite beautiful, strangely introspective, more for the Sundance crowd than the troo grim hordes, but that's what makes it so appealing, and not just another heavy metal movie that's heavier on the metal than actual proper filmmaking, the music too, evokes a darkly melancholy mood, of loss and regret, mostly haunting electronica, Boards Of Canada, Lesser, Black Dice, Mum, while the black metal music that is in the film is brief and fleeting, offering black metal novices and curious onlookers just brief glimpses of the music, of the black metal that is the reason any and all of this exists at all.
Both the double dvd and the Blu-Ray include FOUR HOURS of bonus footage, including a 36 minute black metal short film of various deleted scenes, an alternate ending, loads of outtakes, a bunch of unused footage featuring some musicians who ended up not in the film including Nocturno Culto from Darkthrone, Necrobutcher from Mayhem, as well as extended interviews with and shots of Ulver, Immortal, Hellhammer (the man, not the band), Fenriz, Frost, not to mention 46 more minutes of Burzum interviews and maybe most exciting/silly of all, a 45 minute 'class' on the history of black metal with none other than Professor Fenriz, complete with pointer, multiple chalkboards and lots and lots of diagrams!!
Super swank packaging too, an unfinished cardstock inner case, housed inside a glossy black and white cover, with some cool reflective printing, inside is a booklet with notes from the directors, as well as various reviews of the film and lots of photos.
The Blu-Ray is NTSC and all region, the dvds are also NTSC but are region 1 + 4. (There is a single dvd version too, by the way, but we figure you're all gonna want the stuff on the extra disc, so we didn't get any of those.)

URFAUST Drei Rituale Jenseits Des Kosmos (Debemur Morti Productions) cd ep 15.98
The world has been dying for more Urfaust, well, at least out little freaky blackened damaged corner of the world. We couldn't get enough of these guys, their creepy lurching Burzumy metal, totally freaked out super dramatic depressive stumbling blackness, the insane shrieked Ethel Merman like vocals, the bellowed deep crooning, the majestic mournful vocals, a sound so completely insane, but so totally amazing and irresistible. As pretty much all of their recordings have been totally unavailable for a while now, we've been unable to turn new folks on to these guys, which is a shame, since people in search of stuff both baffling and beautiful, heavy and confusing, mysterious and incredibly idiosyncratic, couldn't do much better than Urfaust. And those of us who had played their recordings to death, were in dire need of more more more!
So here we have it. More. Not much more, only three tracks, but they're long-ish, and more than enough to hold us over. And even at a mere 20 minutes in length, it's almost more than we could have ever hoped for. All of the elements we so loved about Urfaust are present and in full effect, but somehow the band have managed to make their sound even weirder, more fucked up, and somehow also more haunting and beautiful, without losing any of the total what the fuck factor. The opening track begins with some stripped down almost industrial rhythm, over whirring machine like sounds, before the main riff comes in, but instead of sounding like a guitar, it's almost like an organ, wheezing out a minor key melody, jarringly working it's way through each note, while over the top, the vocals are even more shrieky and haunting. The 'riffing' shifts to washed out warble, sounding almost like it was assembled from dusty old looped records. The drums are super distorted, and mechanical, and perfectly balance the washed out main melody and the reverb drenched shrieks, which are later joined by deep growly crooning. But the bridge to the song is so pretty, and so turntable-y sounding. It's a bit hard to explain, but it does sound like a Jeck, or Tim Hecker loop, worked into an almost-riff. Whatever it is and however they did it, it sounds amazing, creepy, mysterious, and so gloriously bizarre and beautiful.
The second track has the same sort of wooden rhythm, but over it soars a strange machinelike high pitched buzz, a gnarled feedbacky guitar, that buzzes and warbles, the vocals a more punky yowl, buried way down in the mix. Super intense, and relentless, with that main buzz/squall running through the whole song, almost like a depressive black metal, noise rock mash up, but deftly twisted into Urfaust's strange stumbly sound. The close begins with blurred and indistinct voices, swirling in a stretch rife with reverb and delay and distortion, everything creepy and blurred, until the guitars come in, or at least they sound like guitars, sort of. Much like the first track, they sound almost like keyboards, or weird loops, assembled into strange depressive lurchings, The sound is murky and muddy, the drums buried, the vocals too, everything wreathed in some sort of effect, the main melody and riff swaying seasickly, swelling drunkenly, the vocals growing gradually in intensity, to a banshee like howl, a drunken sounding croon, before fading away again, leaving that main melody to buzz and throb, the vocals becoming a growling drone barely audible, the track woozily wavering and finally fading to black. So creepy and pretty, and unlike any Urfaust that came before, but somehow practically perfect. Another absolutely genius slab of bizarre blackness. But sadly, three songs is not nearly enough, as these are bound to get played to death, over and over and over as we wait for moreÉ
MPEG Stream: "Untitled I"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled II"

URFAUST Geist ist Teufel (Goatowarex) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I know we always talk about records being "the weirdest ever" or "the most retarded ever" or the ubiquitous "so fucked", but any band we ever said that about before, must now take a step back, give up the crown, and bow before the new masters of the weird, the retarded, the fucked and the supremely damaged and demented. Dutch black metallers Urfaust carry the blackened torch of ultra cult, totally personal, and weird as fuck black metal into infinity with this record. Imagine an opera singer, wandering drunkenly down the street, ducking into a Karaoke bar, only to discover that the back up band is Burzum or Woodtemple or some other stumbling droney black metal outfit, and thus proceeds to CROON maniacally atop their grim fuzzy midtempo buzzing backing, in a ultra dramatic warble that is equal parts Ethel Merman, Devil Doll's Mr. Doctor and Tom Jones. Sometimes the music kicks up a notch into a pounding Viking style shanty, and the vocals follow right along, spat out in belligerent slurred shout / growl, and punctuated by occasional grunts and wild warbling wooooooaaaaahhhh's. The vocals occasionally get even weirder, becoming a wild banshee like falsetto shriek before slipping back into that campy warbly croon. Sounds goofy and it is, but it's also totally compelling and emotional, dark and weirdly wonderfully creepy. And these songs are strangely catchy and will totally get stuck in your head. Every once in a while since we got this in, I'll find myself humming something to myself trying to figure out what it is only to realize it's Urfaust! Holy shit! How often does that happen? With some demented BM band?! As if that wasn't enough, toward the end of the record things get REALLY weird. The second to last track is an extended mournful epic, just minor key strings, majestic and sorrowful, a slowly shifting doomscape, and the vocals fit perfectly here, like a damned and doomed heartbroken shell of a man, standing alone at the edge of the world, staring into the abyss wailing and moaning his anguish, in that by now unmistakable hyper dramatic caterwaul. Then the final track comes out of nowhere and finishes things off with a tranquil swirl, an instrumental new age-y swoosh, all warm and dreamy and blissed out, like the Orb or maybe Labradford, What the fuck?! I LOVE IT!! This is definitely my current favorite black metal record! And for those of you who think this does indeed sound absolutely essential (which it is!) and really want to go for it, we also have the other Urfaust record in stock, to be reviewed next list!
MPEG Stream: "Drundenfss"
MPEG Stream: "Auszug Aller Todlich Seinen Krafte"

URFAUST II: Verraterischer, Nichtswurdiger Geist (Goatowarex) 2lp 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our all time favorite fucked up black metal records EVER gets the super deluxe double lp vinyl reissue treatment. Super thick 180 gram vinyl, a completely gorgeous black on black, super heavy gatefold sleeve, all new artwork, limited to 500 copies, each lp hand numbered. This is so deluxe and so swank, it's almost like a whole new record. For those of you who somehow missed out on the bizarre brilliance that is Urfaust, or were just holding out in the hope, however farfetched, that someone would release some Urfaust on vinyl, well, here you go. Don't blow it! WE LOVE THIS BAND!!!
Here's what we had to say about the cd when we first got it in:
Some of you somehow missed out on the first Urfaust record we reviewed a while back. And how anyone missed it is a complete mystery, I mean, c'mon, how could you overlook a band described as an opera singer, wandering drunkenly down the street, who ducks into a live Karaoke bar, only to discover that the backup band is something like Burzum or Woodtemple, and thus proceeds to CROON maniacally atop their grim fuzzy midtempo buzzing backing, in an ultra dramatic warble that is equal parts Ethel Merman, Devil Doll's Mr. Doctor and Tom Jones?? Maybe you guys just needed a little reminder. Maybe you didn't read the part that said ETHEL MERMAN FRONTING FUCKING BURZUM!!! Holy crap! We wouldn't even have to hear it! Urfaust have to be the most damaged and demented and plain peculiar black metal band around. And it's not just the vocals (which we also now realize also remind us a bit of Morrissey), although they are one of the most amazing parts of the package. The band itself play their Burzum-y black metal to perfection, but they manage to take that black metal buzz and wrap it in layer after layer of affects and distortion, giving the whole thing a druggy, blissed out Spacemen 3 vibe. This is tripped out, drugged up, otherworldly, stumbling loping black metal perfection. The record opens up with a haunting 13 minute ambient soundscape of moaning cellos and creepy otherworldly strings before they all explode into a burst of martial brass and percussion. moments before a swarm of buzzing guitars attack, and the vocalist climbs atop them, like a wailing warrior riding a flying dragon. The songs on this record are much dronier and more hypnotic than the first record, riffs melt into one other, effects smear the whole thing into a slithering squirming mass of buzz and fuzz and moan. Halfway through the record, we get another 10+ minute breather, another gorgeously serene ambient drone, that drifts and shifts before agitated strings join in and the whole thing collapses back into a thick black metal lope. We didn't think it was possible for this record to be better than the first, and maybe it's not 'better', maybe it's just different, but WOW is this weird and baffling and totally brilliant stuff. Together, the two Urfaust records make quite possibly the ultimate outsider black metal document.
MPEG Stream: "Ragnarok Mystifier"
MPEG Stream: "Gespinnst Des Berderbens"
MPEG Stream: "Der Gottesverachter"

URFAUST Verraterischer, Nichtswurdiger Geist (Goatowarex) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Some of you somehow missed out on the first Urfaust record we reviewed a few lists back. How anyone missed it is a complete mystery, I mean, c'mon, how could you overlook a band described as an opera singer, wandering drunkenly down the street, who ducks into a live Karaoke bar, only to discover that the backup band is something like Burzum or Woodtemple, and thus proceeds to CROON maniacally atop their grim fuzzy midtempo buzzing backing, in an ultra dramatic warble that is equal parts Ethel Merman, Devil Doll's Mr. Doctor and Tom Jones?? Maybe you guys just needed a little reminder. Maybe you didn't read the part that said ETHEL MERMAN FRONTING FUCKING BURZUM!!! Holy crap! We wouldn't even have to hear it! Urfaust have to be the most damaged and demented and plain peculiar black metal band around. And it's not just the vocals (which we also now realize also remind us a bit of Morrissey), although they are one of the most amazing parts of the package. The band itself play their Burzum-y black metal to perfection, but they manage to take that black metal buzz and wrap it in layer after layer of affects and distortion, giving the whole thing a druggy, blissed out Spacemen 3 vibe. This is tripped out, drugged up, otherworldly, stumbling loping black metal perfection. The record opens up with a haunting 13 minute ambient soundscape of moaning cellos and creepy otherworldly strings before they all explode into a burst of martial brass and percussion. moments before a swarm of buzzing guitars attack, and the vocalist climbs atop them, like a wailing warrior riding a flying dragon. The songs on this record are much dronier and more hypnotic than the first record, riffs melt into one other, effects smear the whole thing into a slithering squirming mass of buzz and fuzz and moan. Halfway through the record, we get another 10+ minute breather, another gorgeously serene ambient drone, that drifts and shifts before agitated strings join in and the whole thing collpases back into a thick black metal lope. We didn't think it was possible for this record to be better than the first, and maybe it's not 'better', maybe it's just different, but WOW is this weird and baffling and totally brilliant stuff. Together, the two Urfaust records make quite possibly the ultimate outsider black metal document.
MPEG Stream: "Ragnarok Mystifier"
MPEG Stream: "Gespinnst Des Berderbens"
MPEG Stream: "Der Gottesverachter"

URFAUST / CIRCLE OF OUROBORUS Auerauege Raa Verduistering (Target:Earth) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In our neverending quest to unearth the weirdest and wildest, most evil and grim, most damaged and baffling black metal there is, we not too long ago stumbled upon Urfaust. And we were immediately smitten, as were all of you judging from how difficult it was to keep those discs in stock. Well, all bow down and thank the dark lord, for now we have the latest offering from the strange hunting world of Urfaust! And if that wasn't enough, on this split they're teamed up with an outfit called Circle Of Ouroborous, who are even stranger than Urfaust, if that's even possible.
What is it about Urfaust that has us so in a tizzy. Well, imagine a loping buzzing midtempo black metal, raw, and thick and fuzzed out, but then add in a vocalist that croons and wails and sounds quite a bit like Ethel Merman, his vocals drenched in reverb, a huge thick cloud of croon, so weird but so goddamn amazing! These new tracks find Urfaust getting... you guessed it, even stranger. The first track is a whirl of huge blown out synths or guitars, big swells, distorted and warm and fuzzy, with a strange almost bouncy drum beat. By track two, the old Urfaust is back in effect, a huge wall of Burzumic guitar, a galloping midtempo drum beat, and those ridiculously remarkable vocals. We get so used to shrieking and howling vocals, that we were completely taken aback byt Urfaust's vocals, so much more emotional and passionate, strange indeed, but strange and mysterious and absolutely unlike anything you've heard in black metal. The third track is a creaking industrial soundscape, footsteps, breathing, clattering metal, atonal strings, very 20th century music concret. Really cool. The final ten minutes is a fuzzed out seasick waltz, huge guitars, super dramatic vocals, the guitars a thick whirring drone, the melody so melancholy and intense. Awesome. Definitely still one of our favorite metal bands for sure.
But wait. We've also got the mysterious Circle Of Ouroborus to contend with, and wooh boy, is this one cracked outfit. Half of CoO's six tracks are murky almost punky black metal blasts, super lo-fi, practice space production, the guitar a mumbly warble, the drums tinny and buried in the mix, and as you might expect for a band paired up with Urfaust, the vocalist is totally demented, a growling cracked croon, WAY up in the mix, shouting and howling, almost talking sometimes, making CoO sound a bit like a black metal Fall. The rest of the tracks are even more unlikely, all acoustic, with atonally strummed acoustic guitars and menacing sung / spoke vocals, even some harmonica! Some hellish campfire sing along, Bob Dylan channelled through some musical demon. It sounds a bit like a blackened Jandek, or the black metal folk of Dead Raven Choir, and actually quite a bit like AQ faves Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat (albeit much more low fidelity) or even a little like a more garage-y Current 93. But WOW! Not at all what we were expecting at all. This is something that could definitely pass for some freaky outsider folk record with passages of black buzz instead of the other way around. We never though any band could hold their own agains the mighty Urfaust, but Circle Of Ouroborus pull it off big time. Another damaged and demented black metal (sort of) band to keep an eye on for sure!
MPEG Stream: URFAUST "Der Halbtoten Dichters Schein-Existenz"
MPEG Stream: URFAUST "Zur Winter-Wanderschaft Verflucht"
MPEG Stream: CIRCLE OF OUROBORUS "Dream Of Death"
MPEG Stream: CIRCLE OF OUROBORUS "Mouldering Leaves"

URFAUST / CIRCLE OF OUROBORUS Auerauege Raa Verduistering (Target:Earth) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of the all time most amazing weirdo black metal matchups EVER, now available on lp. All new, super stunning artwork, printed insert, and pressed on super thick vinyl!!
In our neverending quest to unearth the weirdest and wildest, most evil and grim, most damaged and baffling black metal there is, we not too long ago stumbled upon Urfaust. And we were immediately smitten, as were all of you judging from how difficult it was to keep those discs in stock. Well, all bow down and thank the dark lord, for now we have the latest offering from the strange hunting world of Urfaust! And if that wasn't enough, on this split they're teamed up with an outfit called Circle Of Ouroborous, who are even stranger than Urfaust, if that's even possible.
What is it about Urfaust that has us so in a tizzy. Well, imagine a loping buzzing midtempo black metal, raw, and thick and fuzzed out, but then add in a vocalist that croons and wails and sounds quite a bit like Ethel Merman, his vocals drenched in reverb, a huge thick cloud of croon, so weird but so goddamn amazing! These new tracks find Urfaust getting... you guessed it, even stranger. The first track is a whirl of huge blown out synths or guitars, big swells, distorted and warm and fuzzy, with a strange almost bouncy drum beat. By track two, the old Urfaust is back in effect, a huge wall of Burzumic guitar, a galloping midtempo drum beat, and those ridiculously remarkable vocals. We get so used to shrieking and howling vocals, that we were completely taken aback by Urfaust's vocals, so much more emotional and passionate, strange indeed, but strange and mysterious and absolutely unlike anything you've heard in black metal. The third track is a creaking industrial soundscape, footsteps, breathing, clattering metal, atonal strings, very 20th century music concret. Really cool. The final ten minutes is a fuzzed out seasick waltz, huge guitars, super dramatic vocals, the guitars a thick whirring drone, the melody so melancholy and intense. Awesome. Definitely still one of our favorite metal bands for sure.
But wait. We've also got the mysterious Circle Of Ouroborus to contend with, and wooh boy, is this one cracked outfit. Half of CoO's six tracks are murky almost punky black metal blasts, super lo-fi, practice space production, the guitar a mumbly warble, the drums tinny and buried in the mix, and as you might expect for a band paired up with Urfaust, the vocalist is totally demented, a growling cracked croon, WAY up in the mix, shouting and howling, almost talking sometimes, making CoO sound a bit like a black metal Fall. The rest of the tracks are even more unlikely, all acoustic, with atonally strummed acoustic guitars and menacing sung / spoke vocals, even some harmonica! Some hellish campfire sing along, Bob Dylan channelled through some musical demon. It sounds a bit like a blackened Jandek, or the black metal folk of Dead Raven Choir, and actually quite a bit like AQ faves Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat (albeit much more low fidelity) or even a little like a more garage-y Current 93. But WOW! Not at all what we were expecting at all. This is something that could definitely pass for some freaky outsider folk record with passages of black buzz instead of the other way around. We never though any band could hold their own against the mighty Urfaust, but Circle Of Ouroborus pull it off big time. Another damaged and demented black metal (sort of) band to keep an eye on for sure!
MPEG Stream: URFAUST "Der Halbtoten Dichters Schein-Existenz"
MPEG Stream: URFAUST "Zur Winter-Wanderschaft Verflucht"
MPEG Stream: CIRCLE OF OUROBORUS "Dream Of Death"
MPEG Stream: CIRCLE OF OUROBORUS "Mouldering Leaves"

URGEHAL Goat Craft Torment (Southern Lord) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Goatcraft Torment"
MPEG Stream: "Risus Sardomus"

URGEHAL Ikonoklast (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98
It's been ages since we reviewed a record by Norwegian black metal horde Urgehal, but since we've been flipping out over Urgehal side project Angst Skvadron, we figured it was definitely time to check back in with the grim black mothership.
For those of you who missed out on our raving about Angst Skvadron, the twisted black industrial avant prog black metal side project of Urgehal member Trondr Nefas, take a second, read the review, check out the side project, probably buy one, then come back here, so we can rave about this record too.
Urgehal is not nearly as abstract or out there as Angst Skvadron, but someone capable of that sort of weirdness, well, you gotta think those twisted thoughts and messed up musical ideas must seep into their day job, and they do for sure, albeit subtly.
The sound is total third wave classic Norwegian black metal, epic, majestic, buzzing blasting, with hints of classic thrash, some old school eighties metal, but make no mistake, this is grim, frosty, kvlt shit. Opener "Stesolid Self-Destruction To Damnation" is everything we want in black metal, frantic insectoid rigging, blasting drums, convoluted and complex, but, the vocals are seriously twisted, not shrieked, more a sort of demonic croak, and there are wild guitar leads all over the place, adds a little weirdness, without detracting from the grim core. The second track is a woozy, almost waltzy blackened dirge, with more sick vox, and some killer riffing, not to mention all sorts of haunting ominous atmosphere, until the song explodes again into a monstrous burst of crushing blasting heaviness, with some throbbing rumbling bass, which is definitely a rarity in black metal.
And so it goes, a fucking beast of a black metal record, just twisted enough to make it special, but not overtly weird or fucked up.
The final track is the gem here, super melodic, with all sorts of lush layered guitars, arpeggiated melodies, a seasick tempo, and a cool final movement wherein buzzing soaring riffage is draped over haunting reverbed piano, super creepy, but really beautiful too, until the riffs drop out, leaving just the piano, to play the record out.
MPEG Stream: "Stesolid Self-destruction To Damnation"
MPEG Stream: "Dodelagt"
MPEG Stream: "Cut Their Tongue Shut Their prayers"

URGEHAL The Eternal Eclipse: 15 Years Of Satanic Black Metal (Agonia) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "Guds Fortapelse - Apenbaring Av Dommedag"
MPEG Stream: "The Moors Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "We Are Unholy"

URGEHAL Through Thick Fog Till Death (Southern Lord) cd 16.98
First off, check out the "Creature from the Black Metal Lagoon" on the cover of this disc! That spikey fellow is Enzifer, responsible for "666 strings of electrotorture" in this quartet. Guys with looks like that, along with graveyard photoshoots and bloody, scantily clad women... yeah we're talking black metal here, old school style. But not just some random band of corpsepainted goons, no this has been carefully selected for your enjoyment by one of (possibly) your favorite record labels.
Now, the Southern Lord label is perhaps best known for sludgy doom releases like SUNNO))), Khanate and Boris. But along with the doom they've always had a thing for the Nordic black metal stuff too -- with their own Thorr's Hammer having been kind of a hybrid of the doom and the black. This release, a reissue (with four live bonus tracks) of the 2003 abum by Norwegian black metal cult Urgehal, demonstrates the Lord's black metal bonafides. After all, No Colours put out Urgehal's first two albums. You know it's gotta be a good 'un, and it is. A raging, frosty blast of Satanic metal lust. It's nothing that Darkthrone hasn't done before, but since when was that a criticism of a black metal band? Heck it's a badge of honor. The songs mostly blaze by at fierce clip with enough change-ups to keep it interesting (Urgehal either going fast, or really fast, or sometimes not-so-fast at a Burzum sort of pace), there's no keyboards, and it's got all the eerie atmosphere and metallic hookiness needed for your necro headbanging pleasure. Totally lives up to the Through Thick Fog Till [sic] Death title. By the way, this band includes an ex-member of Kvist (an old, obscure one-album black metal fave of both Allan, Andee and Byram here at AQ) plus folks currently in Crest Of Darkness.
MPEG Stream: "Satanic Deathlust"
MPEG Stream: "Mankind Murder"

USURPER Necronemesis (Necropolis) cd 14.98
The "brimstone fist" of Chicago metal warlords Usurper strikes again. Necro this, necro that. Deathly grunts and ironclad guitars old skool style, as these dudes are well-known worshippers of Celtic Frost and other '80s underground thrashers. Leather, spikes and chains. This release even has black metal god King Diamond singing backup on one track (which, apparently, he did in return for Usurper rescheduling the recording of this album so that King Diamond could use the same studio to finish his recent disc).

USURPER Skeletal Season (Necropolis) cd 12.98
From Chicago, black/death/thrash metal in the vein of Celtic Frost, including the vocalist's love of Tom G. Warrior's death grunt. "Unghah, hey hey".

USVA / DRACO Re-Desecrating The South Carelian Graves (Bestial Burst) cd 13.98

UTARM Apocryphal Stories (Handmade Birds) cd 12.98
For some reason, we've never properly reviewed a Utarm record on the aQ list before, even though the aQ metalheads here are longtime fans. We did review their split with Servile Sect offshoot Sadness Saturn, and dug their half quite a bit. And we gave a brief mention to their 2009 full length Minus The Divine, but now is the time to give this weirdo Norwegian black doom experimental one man band his aQ due, and it's pretty good timing too, as this might just be his most warped and what the fuck outing to date, which makes it even more fitting that he found their way on to the Handmade Birds label, his twisted take on doom-ed BM a perfect fit, alongside outfits like Circle Of Ouroborus, Pyramids, Crooked Necks, Sutekh Hexen, Pinkish Black, Theologian, not to say Utarm sounds like any of those groups, he most certainly doesn't but like those outfits, Utarm most definitely forges his own twisted, idiosyncratic sonic path.
Only five tracks, but most are loooooong, the opener begins with a smoldering expanse of keening, music box melodies, over sheets of super distorted high end tones, feedback, anguished vocal mewlings, woozy and druggy, more twisted electro-ambience, and droned out avant psychedelia, it's not until six minutes in before there's any trace of actual metal, black or otherwise, and when it does erupt out of the warped sonic swirl, it's not the buzzing blackness you might expect, instead, it's a sort of epic, heaving, Gnaw Their Tongues style bombastic majesty, pounding, slo-mo drum crush, keening soaring metallic guitar buzz, howled wailed vocals, the melodies unfurling mournfully, a sort of ur-drone doom, almost like Sunroof! if they were from Norway and sported a black metal pedigree, we kept expecting it to burst into something buzzier or blacker, but instead, it continued to ratchet up the tension, total heart of the sun, black doom, ur-drone bliss out.
The following track laces weird samples into swoonsome symphonic swells, and tortured, near operatic vokills, the vibe dense and dramatic, almost like some sort of satanic cabaret. The music warped and warbly, the tempo shifting constantly, as if someone was physically altering the speed, the result a woozy, creepy sprawl of dramatic black ambience that unwinds like some blackened, noise drenched murder ballad. That is before it crumbles into near silence, only to explode a weird black tangle, buzzing guitars, wild shrieking vokills, the whole thing wreathed in static, and glitch, and malfunctioning FX, but somehow retaining that twisted cabaret vibe.
From there on out, it doesn't get any less weird, or any more traditionally black metal, instead, each of the three remaining songs, unfolds like some cursed garden of poisonous black flowers, heaving swells of epic chordal buzz, doused in sheets of crumbling distortion, but within this blacknoise, all sorts of swirling minor key melodies, layer upon layer, heavily textured, and strangely moving, "Black Light Aeon Apocryphia" almost sounds like Tim Hecker or Nadja, that same sort of warm melodic doomdrone swell, blown out and gorgeously gristly, while "The Headen Of Men And A Left Hand Dagger", the shortest of the bunch, still clocking in at a whopping 6:42, is a dense squirming tangle of layered guitar buzz, a tranced out electrified dronescape, brilliant arcs of whiteheat guitargrowl are channeled into a single sure of super heated Skullflower like guitarnoise, underneath which all manner of other sounds roil and churn. Tranced out and totally hypnotic. And finally, the record ends with the 10+ minute "Above Death", which is another sprawling field of high end howl, a sky full of burnished, black energy, streaks and contrails bleeding into a blinding white light, a grinding onslaught of industrial white noise, filtered through a fractured avant black metal filter, emerging on the other side some sort of damaged avant power electronics, the sort of thing that would make Utarm right at home on a label like Cold Spring, or the perfect group to tour with Whitehouse, Sutcliffe Jugend or Theologian.
Fierce and fucked up and dementedly brilliant, but black metalheads tread lightly, this could definitely be the gateway to much scarier, much noisier stuff...
MPEG Stream: "AltEtender Skaper"
MPEG Stream: "Of Rape, Solitude And Bliss; The Triangle Of Flesh"

UTARM Minus The Divine (Turgid Animal) cd 11.98
No review for this... but here's what we said about Utarm's half of their split with fellow experimental metallers Sadness Saturn:
Utarm are up first, and the sound is more doom than black, the programmed drums a monstrous pound, the music a soaring epic swell of synths, not guitars, or maybe they're super processed guitars, either way, the sound is really unique, reminds us a bit of Gnaw Their Tongues, a sort of cinematic depressive blackness, less about blasting buzz, than dramatic lurching mystery, plenty of strangled tortured heaviness, abstract ambience, everything rife with glitch and skree, the vocals a tortured wail, all wreathed in a blackened haze, raw and in the red and super intense and harrowing.

UTARM / SADNESS SATURN split (Chrysalis Of Matter) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ultra limited split between these two experimental black metal entities. Sadness Saturn is one of the guys behind aQ faves Servile Sect, whose most recent release just got re-issued on vinyl via Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label, and Utarm is a one man band from Norway; the two square off on this split cassette tape.
Utarm are up first, and the sound is more doom than black, the programmed drums a monstrous pound, the music a soaring epic swell of synths, not guitars, or maybe they're super processed guitars, either way, the sound is really unique, reminds us a bit of Gnaw Their Tongues, a sort of cinematic depressive blackness, less about blasting buzz, than dramatic lurching mystery, plenty of strangled tortured heaviness, abstract ambience, everything rife with glitch and skree, the vocals a tortured wail, all wreathed in a blackened haze, raw and in the red and super intense and harrowing.
Sadness Saturn traffic in something much more raw and grim, unlike the glistening alien drone drenched blackness of Servile Sect, the sound here is a pounding black murk, the vocals and guitars nearly indistinguishable, all wound around each other like a single cloud of muted black buzz, the drums relentless and machinelike, but buried within SS's cavernous lo-fi crush, are haunting melodies, soaring and epic, the riffs, after repeated listens seem to crystallize, become much more intense and emotional, transforming simple black metal into something strangely melodic and abstract, but still plenty black and grim.
Incredible packaging, printed black and white fold out covers with the band logos printed in extra glossy black ink, the tape case housed in a hand assembled slipcover, hand screened with a super striking, and super evil sigil.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We have about 15, probably the last ones we'll ever get...

UTERUS Goatgod (Funeral Moonlight Productions) cd 10.98

UTLAGR 1066 - Blood And Iron In Hastings (Sepulchral Productions) cd 13.98
We were pretty obsessed with the debut from this Canadian Viking black metal horde, released way back when on bad ass UK label Paradigms, so we of course planned on reviewing their second record as well, this one right here, but for whatever reason, it just sort of slipped through the cracks, and thus it was only quite recently that we realized A) we had somehow never reviewed it, and B) we had a handful in stock. Better late than never we suppose, and if we had more copies you can bet this would be a big ol' blackened highlight, but as it is, it's more of a warehouse find, and what a find it is! Like their debut, Utlagr spit out a furious (but still melodic) blast of epic, majestic, Scandinavian style blackness, a little bit Viking for sure, but more in the imagery and themes, sonically, they continue to channel Immortal, Satyricon, Mayhem and most especially Enslaved. Frantic riffing, sweeping melodies, furious drumming, the sound slipping from frosty buzz to waltzy melancholia, grinding grim crunch to mathy DSO style gnarled blackness, woozy depressive drift to almost classic sounding metal majesty. Fucking awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Soleil Invaincu"
MPEG Stream: "Terre De L'Ouest"