Void Meditation Cult- Sulfurous Prayers (2011)

I really enjoyed the Sperm Of The Antichrist demo that I came across a few years ago, so when I heard a track on a Hells Headbangers Records compilation that sounded exactly like Sperm Of The Antichrist I was intrigued. Turns out they changed their name to Void Meditation Cult and are currently working on material for a full length. Sweet!

Not sure which (if any) of you this will appeal to, but having grown up a punk rock kid who dabbled in crust, I've always had an affinity for the ugly and grimy in music. The first time I heard Mental Funeral by Autopsy I remember thinking to myself something along the lines of "Fuck yeah! This is exactly what I'm looking for!" Void Meditation Cult definitely have a bit of an Autopsy vibe, playing ugly, primitive...ummm... deathened black/doom?....doomed black/death?...blackened black/death/doom/black?....whatever, none of you are going to enjoy this.

Void Meditation Cult on last.fm


Get it here.
*Bonus* Sperm Of The Antichrist- Blight And Darkness

Oranssi Pazuzu- Kosmonument (2011)

When creating music some bands blur genre boundaries, and while difficult to pigeonhole, they can still be rather safely said to operate within a particular genre or two. Mitochondrion is a great example of this. There's a lot going on in their songs, but you can rather accurately label them a death/black band. Others completely smash genre boundaries, making simple descriptions of their music impossible. Oranssi Pazuzu is of the latter variety.

If I absolutely had to adhere to the two genre maximum when describing Oranssi Pazuzu, I suppose I would go with something along the lines of "blackened space rock." Which, in and of itself, should sound unique and interesting enough to warrant a download, but that's missing part of the picture. These dudes are obviously big fans of 70's psychedelic and prog rock, the Floyd and Crimson influence comes through loud and clear. I also hear some krautrock, Neurosis and the thundering bass-heavy industrial metal of Godflesh. Droning ambient sections are littered throughout the record. The track "Luhistuva Aikahäkk" starts out with a minimalist groove that almost reminds me of Portishead. "Maavaltimo" breaks out into a driving hardcore riff that nearly gets buried by a host of spacey guitar. "Komeetta" is astonishingly danceable. All of the vocals throughout the album are done in a black metal style and somehow manage not to completely clash with everything else that's going on. Then there are the actual black metal parts. Which, I'm assuming by now you could guess aren't very straightforward. They bend and twist and mutate in a way that reminds me of Deathspell Omega. 

Honestly, I have no idea what the hells this is. It completely defies categorization. I do know that it's one of the most interesting albums I've heard in a long, long time. It's going to take a while to digest, but somehow I know that I'll still be listening to this album years from now.

Oranssi Pazuzu on last.fm

The most "black metal" track on the album.


Might be my favorite song on the album. It's like Godflesh on LSD.


Get it here.

Portal- Outre' (2007)

I feel like I've been listening to and talking about this band a lot recently, so I suppose I'll post some.

I was quite surprised when Portal blew up after their 2009 album Swarth. Prior to that they were very much a fringe band in black and death metal circles. That part I didn't find so surprising, Portal is unquestionably one of the most challenging bands to listen to that I've ever heard. So when they started popping up on some of the bigger metal websites and blogs and NPR featured a video of their performance at Maryland Deathfest (see below) I was a bit astounded. Perhaps it's the fact that they signed with Profound Lore Records, who get a lot of press. Maybe its the costumes or the disquieting live atmosphere or their commendable commitment to things Lovecraftian in all facets of the band. Or maybe it is the music, I have no idea.

I don't mean to make it sound like Portal isn't a great band, they are, they're just the antithesis of the lowest common denominator dreck that gets recycled around the web's metalsphere (see: Revocation). The guitar sounds like a swarm of bees, if the bees were the size of Labrador Retrievers. Or maybe more like the wail of some monolithic ancient beast loosed from its prison at the bottom of the sea. The wall of sound rolls over you like some sort of sick off-kilter tide, making you queasy. The vocals sound like what I imagine the exhalations of a dry-throated long deceased corpse would sound like. The drumming seems unhinged, erratic, even sloppy at times. Wait, I'm not doing this right again.

Portal is one of the most frightening bands I've ever heard. Outre' features some of the strangest and most awesome guitar playing you'll ever hear, if you can make heads or tails of it that is. Also, it's my favorite Portal album. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Portal at last.fm

This song is off their 2009 album Swarth.


This one is on the album you're about to download.


Get it here.

Midnight- Satanic Royalty (2011)

Hopefully you dug that Midnight compilation I posted a few weeks back. After eight years of existence and a slew of EPs and splits, Midnight has finally released their first full length and goddamn does it rule. Satanic Royalty is a lot less raw sounding than even the better produced tracks on Complete And Total Fucking Midnight. I suspect that for some this will dispel much of the charm that Midnight once held, but I think they benefit from the better production. The riffs on this album are too awesome not to be heard and that tinny, recorded in a trashcan under water sound would really detract from these songs. The better recording also makes it clear just how awesome Athenar's vocals are, one of my favorite metal vocal performances of the year for sure. I can't overstate how rad this album is, it's like shotgunning beers with Satan or something. 

Midnight on last.fm



Get it here.

Midnight- Complete And Total Fucking Midnight (2005)

How about ANOTHER band that wears masks when they play? Perhaps I should have done these last two posts the week leading up to Halloween rather than the week following.

The sound of Cleveland, Ohio's Midnight harkens back to the first wave of black metal. Think Bathory, Celtic Frost, Hellhammer and Venom. So, not so much black metal as it's conceived today, but rather thrash or speed metal with the typical Jesus hatin' subject material and in this case, a healthy dose of sleaze (listen to "Endless Slut," "Unholy and Rotten" or check out some live footage of Midnight with the Midnight Mistresses if you don't believe me). This album compiles a bunch of Midnight's early material and as you would expect with such a compilation, there is some variance in the quality of both the recordings and the music itself. Though, once you hear it I think you'll agree that one of their earliest songs "All Hail Hell" is a fucking thrash anthem, as is the other track below. To this point first wave black metal has more or less be ignored by the whole thrash revival thing. With Midnight gaining in popularity I wouldn't be surprised if in the next few years more bands trying to sound like Hellhammer cropped up. Hop on board now and when the second wave of first wave black metal hits you can say you were into it before it was cool.

Midnight has a new album coming out next week (11/8), if it rules I'll put it up here as well. 

Midnight on last.fm





Get it here.

Barghest- Untitled (2011)

Been jamming on this one quite a bit recently. Barghest is a black metal band from Baton Rouge, LA, featuring current Thou guitarist Matthew Thudium and former Thou drummer Terry Gulino. For some reason people have been comparing this album to Burzum's early/mid output. I don't see it. Perhaps it's just because I'm not that big on Burzum (politics aside, his music just doesn't do for me what it does for so many). Personally, I would compare it to Weakling. Granted, Barghest is a bit more straightforward than Weakling (no proggy bits to be found here), but in terms of epic, tremolo-picked riffs and soaring leads that make you want to put on your best scowl and throw up your claws, Untitled is one of the few albums I've heard that can rival Dead As Dreams.

I will warn you that the production is pretty raw. I know it's intentional and part of the whole black metal aesthetic, but it's just about the only thing keeping me from crowning this album of the year. There is some really awesome guitar work on this album that kinda gets lost in the wash. Headphones and a sharp ear recommended.

Barghest on last.fm 

Unfortunately, "Hellish Entrancement" wasn't up on YouTube, that song is the jam. This one is great too. Warning though, whoever upped this video had a really shitty quality MP3 of the song. The production on this album isn't great, but it isn't nearly as bad as this video would lead you to believe.



Get it here. Sorry for the Megaupload link, but this was the only 320kbps rip I could find.

Fleshpress- No Return & Rebuild/Crumble (2010) METAL ALERT

These are my two favorite EPs from last year. For those of you unfamiliar with Fleshpress, their drummer is Mikko Aspa, the lead singer of the almighty Deathspell Omega. Despite having a member of the best black metal band on the planet, there are only flashes of said genre throughout Fleshpress' music. Most of what Fleshpress plays falls under the heading of doom. What type of doom? I don't really know anymore. A few years ago I would have called Fleshpress a sludge band, but their 2007 album Pillars was a lumbering beast of a drone album. Now they seem to have embraced the genre as a whole, taking elements from every sub-genre of doom. On No Return and Rebuild/Crumble you'll hear elongated drone sections, Eyehategod-esqe sludge (including the faster, punkish parts EHG was also known for), bluesy Bongzilla style stoner doom riffs, psychedelic guitar leads and yes, a wee bit o' black metal. Open your ears and hearts to hate.

Fleshpress on last.fm



Get it here.

Gems: Dead End Life Crawling Through Shit And Blood Soul Burning, Spiral Filter Forcing You Down To Black Pyramid, Rebuild.

White Moth- White Moth (2010)

Posted per Jake's request. R. Loren from Sailors With Wax Wings newest project. What the fuck is this? Shoegaze? Black metal? Electronica? Wait, Shelby Cinca (Frodus) is on this album? And Dälek? And Colin Marston (Krallice/Behold...The Arctopus/Gorguts/Dysrhythmia)? And John Gossard (Weakling/Asunder)?

More when I get closer to figuring out exactly what the hell it is I'm listening to right now (or never if I can't).

White Moth on last.fm



Get it here.

Deafheaven- Roads To Judah (2011) METAL ALERT

I ignored this for a few weeks, even after it had made its way on to a number of reputable blogs. The reason being it was released by Deathwish (Jake Bannon from Converge's label) and other than the Converge and Trap Them releases, I haven't cared much for Deathwish's output over the past few years. How to describe this...post-black metal? No, plenty of blast beats, tremolo picking and harsh black metal vocals. Blackgaze might be more accurate. I'm not usually a big fan of genre-mashing, most of the time it doesn't work. However, black metal and shoegaze seems like a pretty natural combination as both often feature wall-of-sound like guitar work. Anyway, this is pretty awesome. An interesting combination of straight black metal drumming, tremolo picked black metal riffs with dreamy shoegaze undertones and quiet post-rock buildups that break into blast beats and straight forward black metal riffs. Interesting.

Deafheaven on last.fm



Get it here.

Gems: Violet, Unrequited, Tunnel of Trees.

Indian- Guiltless (2011) METAL ALERT

I was pretty happy when I saw that Indian signed to Relapse last year. Having followed them pretty closely for a number of years, I didn't think they quite got the recognition they deserved. Hopefully being on Relapse will change that. Chicago's Indian have made a name for themselves playing a mix of slow, bludgeoning doom, sprinkled with sludgier mid-paced riffs and scathing vocals that would be equally at home on a black metal record. Guiltless features more of the same, though the band seems to have allowed the black metal influence to show up in more than the vocals. This is particularly true of "The Fate Before Fate." On the first listen, the acoustic track "Supplicants" seemed a bit out of place, but after repeated listenings it's a nice, albeit sinister respite from the pummeling that is the rest of the album. Produced by Buried at Sea mastermind Sanford Parker, this thing sounds absolutely huge. Also, the Scott Fricke artwork is awesome as usual, I'm surprised more bands haven't gone to him for their album art. Another early contender for the best of 2011.

Indian on last.fm

Get it here.

Gems: No Grace, The Fate Before Fate, Guilty, The End of Truth.