Faustcoven (FIN) - Rising From Below the Earth

Faustcoven plays a type of black metal heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Trouble, and Saint Vitus; Rising From Below the Earth has everything you’d except in a black metal album, but accomplishes through doom metal riffing. There is a slight change in riffing on Rising From Below the Earth compared to Faustcoven’s debut, but the album still contains a good number of traditional doom riffs.

Faustcoven takes the traditional doom riffs in this album and plays them slower and mixes the doomier riffs with slower dissonant riffs; with the combination of the two styles of riffing, the atmosphere comes through thick and dark. Gunnar definitely has a knack for putting together blatantly catchy riffs in a sinister way; however, the riffs are played in a such a way that it creates more of an atmosphere rather an album filled with loads of catchy riffs. But what makes the album so interesting is the desolate, absent approach of the music; its production, song writing, and vocals make the listener feel distanced from the actual music, creating an atmosphere that is completely unique. The atmosphere comes through like a sea of zombies slowly marching after their prey. A change from the first album is the vocals, but it’s definitely an improvement. They now are deep and filled with a huge amount of reverb, which is very reminiscent of Hail.

With the album clocking in at 67 minutes, the album goes by rather quickly; however, the one complaint I have is the lacking of oomph in the guitars, and I think a slight tweak on the production and this album would have much better bang for its buck. This album is for fans of black metal, yet enjoy a traditional doom riff.

Faustcoven's Myspace

Rotting Christ (Grc) - Triarchy of the Lost Lovers (1996)

While early Rotting Christ rules in it's own right, especially "Passage To Arcturo" EP and "Thy Mighty Contract"... they hadn't fully developed a strong musical personality until this, their third full-length album. "Triarchy of the Lost Lovers" is one of those albums that immediately appealed to me, and it's a solid full listen, from start to finish. While I was initially expecting some small improvements on the slight melody and unique riffing of "Non Serviam" it appears working with Andy Classen (Holy Moses) really took this band into the big leagues of extreme metal. This is less a Black Metal album than an epic, melodic piece of death/black metal. The heavy metal undercurrent is always there, and it could appeal to just about any metalhead no matter what sub-genre their head is stuck in. I haven't heard a "black metal" album that is better crafted, arranged and so mindfully memorable. In fact what struck me the most as I listened to this album more is how memorable it was, despite the vocalist being 75% unintelligable, and most of this is owed to the guitar performance. Great album, heavy black/melodic death metal that has speed and epic qualities throughout. Definitely a keeper in my book.

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Darkspace (Che) - Dark Space III (2008)

Darkspace has put out a third album after two fantastic albums. The third one stays in the black metal/ambient genre, but they are starting to explore some more ideas. The band got its fame from Paysage d'Hiver, but now it's looking like Paysage d'Hiver is going to be the side project of the Darkspace guy. This highly anticipated release does not let down.

The band plays a unique combination of dark ambient and black metal, but the style of black metal has switched on each albums. This album is almost a mixture of their first two albums, bu they start to explore a mixture of the chugging parts and the traditional hypnotic black metal. Darkspace intermixes both of these styles to create some hypnotic characters that rival some of the black metal greats, in a new and excitingway. As the name implies, Darkspace creates the emptiness of space, mixed with evilness. This mixture turns out to be completely brooding and perfect for the band's approach. The band's approach uses ambient passages and actual black metal to create the ambient feel to the album, aside from the huge hooks some of the songs evolve into (Dark 3.13 is a perfect example). While listening to the album, it's obvious that the atmosphere is the main goal of the album, and Darkspace makes the atmosphere exactly as one would expect, yet not using the standard black metal approach.

In total, the riffs, the ambient pieces, and the incoherent vocals lead the listen in a winding spiral in outer space; there is a coherent confusion through this album that keeps the listener in the atmosphere and all around enticed to put it on again. Don't expect this album to catch your attention on the first few listens; it's complex, dark, and ambient. The album is a joy to listen to and repeated listens only bring out more and more complex hypnotic states in the listener.

http://www.myspace.com/darkcyberspace for some samples!

Nifelheim (Swe) - Nifelheim (1995)

Alastor's third album was a good example of the type of black metal I enjoy on a regular basis. But this Nifelhiem album is much higher on my list of essential european blackness. The thrash and early black metal influences are in full force on this release, it's too bad somewhere along the way they lost their intensity and "evil" feel after this classic first album. Reference to Morpheus (Swe) and Necrophobic (Swe) are important here as the ties are deep and some members are shared. Tyrant is a true artist (Just check out the cover art he did for Necrophobic's most recent "Hrimthursum", and it has always shown in his work with both Nifelheim and the more serious stuff in Necrophobic. If you like intensly satanic, no frills black metal with thrashing in abundance definitely check this one out. Balls out, ripping black metal! Hail satan.

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Agatus (Grc) - The Weaving Fates (2002)

Agatus is probably one of the most important bands from the Hellenic BM scene, especially because of their first album being an essential one amongst the followers of that scene. In their sophomore album Agatus have done something really different and refreshing comparing to their peers Greek peers and other scenes. In my opinion this is one of the greatest black metal albums released in the post 2000 era. One thing that one will notice right away is the strong heavy metal influences, this album is epic, crushing, and at the same time unique. The lyrics are cheesy as hell specially the ones of "Conqueror of Fear" that might be a turn off for some people but then if you are one of those that care too much for what they say just don't read them! The guitar work here is the most important thing, it's well done, lot of nice riffs, like the one at the beginning of Night of a Thousand Stars. The vocalist does an excellent job specially in the song "Conqueror of Fear" this is pretty much my favorite song of them, it's metal in every single way, it has awesome riffs, an excellent drumming, and epic as fucking hell. Being these guys Greeks you will found the typical Hellenic influences like the synthesizers and piano and they are done in such a wonderful way that you would want to listen to this more, a clear example of this is found in the song "Progonalatria" when you think the song won't get anymore epic than that it just gets! If you don't like this you should kill yourself!

192 kbps
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Necromantia (Grc) - Scarlet Evil Witching Black (1995)

This is probably one of the best black metal albums ever released, together with Varathron’s first! Necromantia's sophomore is a monster of black metal album, one of the few albums that was way ahead of it's time and it's still ahead when it's compared to other black metal bands. One of the things that made this album so ahead of it’s time were the two basses, no guitars were used in this album except for the few solos found, another thing were the other instruments used from saxophone to flute and even a flamenco kind solo in the last song. As you can imagine this is more of an avant-garde album than anything else and everything is so well done that it’s hard to believe that only two guys did all this. One of my favorite songs in this album is Black Mirror and that riff at the beginning pretty much kills everything else recorded by their Norwegian peers, this is not about rawness or ‘kvltness’ but how black metal should be done, everything is done in a tasteful way, nothing is missing, the production fits the idea of the album. Enjoy!

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Dolorian (Fin) - When all the Laughter has Gone (1999)

There are band that tries to sound all evil and dark, most of them fail, then we have bands like Dolorian that are completely out of this world, this is one of those albums that are all about despair, darkness, and evilness, and that’s something that is really hard to find. The way this band uses the synthesizer is very impressive, they use it a lot but only to create an atmosphere of endless despair and darkness. These guys also use the piano; the piano is played in a real subtle and moody way. The vocalist does an amazing job, it’s one of the things that I enjoy the most; they are raspy and deliver a lot of emotions. Enjoy!

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Alastor (Prt) - Infernal Lord (2004)

Old school black/thrash from one of Portugal's earlier extreme metal bands (formed in 1988). Their style showcases the rawness of early Bathory and Venom meshed with the menacing growl of Kreator's "Total Death", and the demonic pace of Sodom or Nifelheim's earliest recordings. The influences are sometimes too obvious but "Infernal Lord" flows well and doesn't drag it's ass before its over. The lyrics are likely satanic, though on this third album they chose not to translate their native language into English. I chose this one as a prime example of the bands output, the two previous albums are more raw and sung in English. Worth checking out for fans of old school black metal and early satanic thrash.

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Necrophobic (Swe) - The Nocturnal Silence (1993)

The first and the best album ever released by Necrophobic. This album is a masterpiece when it comes to melodic death/black, lot of tremolo picking through the whole album is found, excellent riffs, very good drumming, and a good production makes it one of the best melodic death albums ever released.

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Sacramentum (Swe) - Far Away from the Sun (1996)

This album in my opinion is in the top 10 of best metal albums ever, everything here is done with such a passion and perfection that is impossible to be overlooked. From the incredible drumming to the and what makes this album so amazing, the guitar work. The guitar work makes a heavy emphasis on atmosphere, and it manages to deliver emotion and an epic feeling every time one listens to it. This is the kind of album that most bands wouldn't even think about it but dream about, mostly because of its complexity. Words are simple not enough to describe this album.

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The Elysian Fields (Grc) - Adelain (1995)

Adelain comes as a melodic black/death album with a lot of of symphonic influences, most of the time I don't enjoy this, but these guys sure know when and how to use them. The use of piano and violin gives the music a really epic sound, the riffs in this album are great, they are moody yet agressive. The vocalist does an excellent job, he keeps the mood of the music with his use of clean vocals and raspy growl. The production is also really good, probably because of George Zaharopoulos (Necromantia, Thou Art Lord). For fans of black and death metal.

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Urgrund (Aus) - Unchangeable Fate (2005)

Another masterpiece of black/thrash and again from Australia. Most people will agree with me when I say that the Aussies are damn good when it comes to black/thrash. Urgrund takes some elements from Deströyer 666, gives it a personal touch, a more raw and dark production and what we get is a top notch album. The guitar work is the best, the drumming and vocals are also pretty good Enjoy!

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Goatlord (U.S.A) - Reflections Of The Solstice (1991)

For people that enjoy really sinister atmosphere in their metal, there is no better band for that job than Goatlord. This record is impressive, highly interesting, and like most good metal very underrated. The bass work in this album is pretty good and different in comparison to other doom/death album. It won't disappoint you!

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Gospel of the Horns (Aus) - A Call to Arms (2002)

The Aussies never stop surprising me with their -know how to do it- blend of black/thrash, and these guys are a living proof of that, they also managed to put a bit of punk music in their blend of black/thrash and the result is amazing, the riffs are really good and they always come with a nice lead, so if you enjoy Aussie black/thrash or black/thrash in general, give this album a try. Another thing about this band is that the lead member (Howitser) was the drummer for Deströyer 666's first album.

192 kbps
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Varathron (Grc) - His Majesty at the Swamp (1993)

What a better way to start a blog than with one of the finest black metal albums ever! Everything in this album is perfection, from the sorrowful vocals of Necroabyssious, very interesting drumming patterns of wolfen, and riffs (courtesy of Necroslaughter) that will make you headbang to death! You've been warned

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