As they have such a large discography, can someone tell me which ones of theirs Are essential listening?

There is an old saying about Krisiun. "Every Motorhead album sounds like a Motorhead album, every Cannibal Corpse album sounds like a Cannibal Corpse album, every Krisiun album sounds like Conquerors of Armageddon."

That said, Black Force Domain is great if you like supremely sloppy amateur spirit and Southern Storm is probably the only post-Conquerors album that's actually better than Conquerors. Otherwise, every one of their albums besides those is completely disposable and anybody who tells you otherwise is one of Alex Camargo's many, many alt accounts.

People who say Krisiun always sounds the same are not actually fans, or have not actually bothered to listen to it properly. I can't believe people actually try and argue they're Cannibal Corpse/Motorhead-style band , they have absolutely evolved considerably over the years, here's how it went down:

Black Force Domain is a really fantastic debut - very unrelenting and raw (I consider it to be kind of a death metal equivalent of the whole "war metal" sound that exists in black metal). Apocalyptic Revelation and Conquerors of Armageddon are their 2nd and 3rd albums and are essentially where the "classic" Krisiun sound was established, still very bestial and blast-centric but with a greater emphasis on songwriting and composition. Ageless Venomous followed and in my eyes, tends to be a little thrashier and not quite as brutal - though that's doubtlessly because it has an incredibly weak and sterile mix which makes it sound very limp in comparison to anything else they've done. Honestly one of the worst production jobs in death metal history, though the songs themselves are good and sometimes I can look past the production to enjoy the album for what it truly is. Works of Carnage came after and fixes the production issues, it's a very short and to-the-point album, but at the same time offers a little more technicality and musicianship from what came before it - another fantastic release.

Things finally started to change on their next release Bloodshed, where they started embracing a groovier, more Pantera-influenced sound which was less oriented around blast beats, though there's still a kind of "razor sharp" vibe to it that is unmistakably Krisiun. AssassiNation came after and continued that sound even more, basically. After that they put out Southern Storm, which was a kind of "return to the roots" album - a lot more vicious and blasting, though it also retained the musical variety and established a kind of "epic" vibe at times, which continued even more into it's followup The Great Execution, which continued to balance the two sounds, with some longer tracks and more experimental stuff like "Sword of Orion" and "Shadows of Betrayal". After that, the band put out Forged in Fury which was basically an even further continuation of that more epic style, and it was generally seen as a weak and disappointing release by fans because it showed the band once again abandoning their more aggressive, blast-oriented sound in favor of something else. The band probably were aware of this, and now have finally returned to more or less their "classic" sound again with their latest release Scourge of the Enthroned, which I personally really loved.

Anyway, pretty much all their albums - regardless of style,are good and worth checking out, though I'd probably skip Forged in Fury which, while not completely awful, is definitely their weakest ever.

Southern Storm is my favorite. I think the groove element is most effectively implemented on that one and it helps make the blast sections more impactful because they're not as constant. Having said that, Conquerors of Armageddon is the other essential album for them due to being perhaps the only of their "all intense all the time" albums that has a production job to do proper service to their musical intensity. After those two, Ageless Venomous and The Great Execution offer a lot of strong tracks and some occasional interesting twists to their usual template but suffer a bit from either piss poor production (the former) or being overly long (the latter). Still, those four are likely my favorites.

That sounds like a really sad coping mechanism for criticism to me.

My favourite is definitely Apocalyptic Revelations, followed by Black Force Domain and Southern Storm. Bloodshed is alright but after that nothing really stuck with me.

No it doesn't , that's obviously not what I was saying. You can hate the band all you want - I understand people who find their sound boring/repetitive. The problem comes when you start lying and pretending you know what you're talking about. My point is simply that for better or worse, Krisiun have changed their sound over the years and there are clear differences between basically all their albums. No one who has ever listened to them thoroughly would come to the conclusion that they're (again, for better or worse) comparable to a band like Cannibal Corpse or Motorhead.

That's kind of like those 300 pound Hot Topic dykes that say people who hate Tool "just can't comprehend the genius of like, Maynard, mannnnn."

Huh, I was going agree with Subverter before that^

Anyway, I do find Krisiun a bit dull overall but Southern Storm did stick with me more than most of their stuff.

The production is a deal-breaker for some people, but I find Ageless Venomous to be Krisiun's best album by far. Perpetuation, Dawn of Flagellation, Evil Gods Havoc, Sepulchral Oath... No other Krisiun album has this level from riffs from front to back.

I didn't take the 'old saying' to mean Krisiun is at all comparable to Cannibal Corpse or Motorhead. Sounded more like, some bands progress within their identity and some bands don't progress beyond their pinnacle album. Granted, I might have a bias there. I like all of Cannibal's releases.

I've seen Krisiun a few times. Listened to songs here and there. I don't have an opinion of any depth beyond always feeling bored with them. However, after reading this thread, I am now interested in checking out Conquerors of Armageddon

Works of Carnage

Conquerors of Armageddon
Love the drums! Wish my old Tee hadn't gone the way of all cloth.

I'm always the lone guy that says this but the only album i've ever enjoyed much is Ageless Venemous. I know it gets flak for the production but seriously, the first three songs are some of their best work. Dawn of Flagellation is by far their best offering, i was so dissapointed they didn't play it when I saw them.

Weirdly enough, my favourite Krisiun album is Ageless Venomous. Despite the odd production, I think it has the catchiest songs. Black Force Domain and Southern Storm are also really good. I believe there's something to enjoy on any album that's not titled Forged in Fury.

I think I'm in the minority who doesn't like 'Black Force Domain'. I just find the production too raw and crude compared to their later albums. It's really 'Conquerors of Armageddon' where they really hit their stride. There's been a lot of complaints about the thin and sterile production of 'Ageless Venomous' but I find it very clean and clear sounding and the songs are very enjoyable. The latest one, 'Scourge of the Enthroned' is also a great sounding record.

I saw them perform live last month and they were awesome! It was a truly momentous occasion for me to finally witness 'Ravager' played live.

My vote goes to Conquerors of Armageddon as well. It was probably the album that had the best balance of everything: the intensity they started out with, but with better production and more recognizable songs. But most Krisiun is great if you're into that relentless DM sound.
I like but don't love the later era with the shinier productions and more staccato riffing style. Works of Carnage and Assassination were cool, but I got tired of that sound by Southern Storm, which was quite bland to me personally. Forged in Fury is strangely rubbish, but the last two have brought back a lot of the old rawness and relentlessness that was missing (for me) in the Works... to Southern Storm stretch.

I'm also giving the vote to Conquerors and, for a runner up, Southern Storm. Their albums in between the two suffer from "we've heard it before" and bad production, but "Soul Devourer" (along with Nile's "Smashing the Antiu" and Skinless's "The Optimist") is what made me "get" death metal as a 13 year old.

Are you seriously arguing that neither Cannibal Corpse or Motorhead have evolved over the years? Cause if you are, nothing you said afterward can be considered valid or relevant, I'm sorry.

You really think that Eaten Back To Life sounds like Tomb of the Mutilated, or that Evisceration Plague sounds like The Bleeding?

All I'm saying is that some bands are known for keeping a very consistent sound - for better or worse. Obviously not every CC album sounds the same, but when they put out a new album you more or less know how it's going to sound before you even hear it - obviously, this is a good thing for most people. Ditto for many bands in the scene, Vomitory, Vader, and Fleshcrawl are some more examples, as well as some less-than-positive examples like Amon Amarth and Slayer. My point is just that Krisiun don't really have that kind of "consistent sound" between albums. They have a core sound which always remains intact - sure, but there's no denying that they've evolved and changed from the very straight-forward, blast-centric sound they were famous for in the early 00's - with more emphasis on groove and atmosphere in their later works. Just listen to "Ravager" and then to "The Sword of Orion" to see what I mean - sounds like a completely different band! Because of this, I don't see how they belong in the same category as a band like CC, but I still see people bring it up all the time and it's really started to annoy me !

Oh no I get what you mean. The two songs you mentioned are quite different. I wouldn't say they sound like completely different bands though. I know that CC has a reputation, for some reason, to be a band that sounds pretty much the same from album to album. But take tracks like Hammer Smashed Face, The Spine Splitter and Time to Kill is Now, and they all sound just as different as these two Krisiun tracks. IMO both bands get the reputation of repeating themselves all the time, but that's not really fair. CC has started to kind of stick to one sound for the last six records, but if you look at their entire discography, they evolved quite a bit.

It's not necessarly a bad thing though. I mean, the last six CC records all have amazing tracks and badass riffage with sick basslines. But it sucks when people use that to say that a good band as went stale or something. I agree.