Entombed - Left Hand Path

Well, where do I start? This is a classic death metal album. It's one that, while being a fan of death metal for about 5 years, I never got around to hearing. I've finally been listening to it this past week. I can definitely say with confidence that I was missing out greatly. There is so much greatness in this album. The atmospheric riffs, chunky, doomy, yet sometimes fast, and often with a tinge of melodic quality really keep me entertained. They're really good at creating atmospheres with their music. It sounds as if everything, every little sound, from the bass notes, guitar notes, and drums was orchestrated precisely and with a purpose to create invoke emotion and a particular atmosphere. Some of the interludes are so well orchestrated that when I hear them, especially with the soloing leads, I get this euphoric feeling in my spine and legs. I know that sounds strange but I'm sure you all don't consider that unusual. Not only is this album musically sound, it also was/is very influential. The guitar tone was very, very influential on the rest of the Swedish scene.

The best part of it all, is this is only after 2 or 3 listens. This album will definitely be on my playlist for weeks to come.

Unleashed - Where No Life Dwells

Another Swedish death metal gem. This is definitely a classic too, and was released a year after the aforementioned. It has a lot of really good riffs with nice steady rhythms. One of the notable things about the songwriting is how they have a focus on mid-tempo riffs but also some doomy style riffs. The riffs are really interesting and stimulating to listen to. The guitar players often play chugs but then play a nice legato lick at the end of the line. It's done rather well. I was listening to this last night and I started thinking about how it reminded me of Mental Funeral by Autopsy. Anyone else see the resemblance?

hmm ...
that might be great !!!

If I'm not wrong about it, Uleashed did really formed in 1989.
I doubt if they were still part of one of the earliest death metal band

Deathcrush - Mayhem

I don't listen to Mayhem, but when someone informed me that Deathcrush was Mayhem before they were "Mayhem," and that it's literally the perfect thing for me to listen to given my love of First Wave Black/early death/80s thrash, I took a listen.
Now, over a week later, Chainsaw Gutsfuck is one of my most played songs this past week for sure. Listening to this ep was worth it just for that one song, but Deathcrush and Necrolust were also great, really the whole EP is really great. Normally I'm a "guitar reigns king" kind of guy, and I do love the guitar playing to be sure, but the drumming on all these songs is some high-level awesome.

Fenriz Presents... The Best of Old-School Black Metal (Compilation.)
It was an amazing album, I just couldn't get enough of it, and my favorite track is "Warhead" by Venom. (Although it can honestly do without some tracks from bands such as Hellhammer.) Although it has some Second Wave (and even later from Nattefrost) material from bands such as Mayhem and Burzum, it does an amazing job at highlighting the First Wave of Black Metal. The music is raw, straightforward, and unique. Before the Norwegian scene exploded and bands just started to knock off Burzum and Darkthrone, Black Metal bands of the 80s would create great, innovative music, drawing from a multitude of eclectic sources, such as Heavy, Death, Doom, and Thrash Metal. That's what the scene really needs more of. It's a great listen, the songs are typically 3-6 minutes in length, so it shouldn't take so too much of your time, check it out.

Murder Squad- Unsane, Insane and Mentally Deranged

Killer Autopsy worship coming from this Swedish death metal supergroup. This album is criminally overlooked and puts most of the worship bands surfacing today to shame. Simplicity is key throughout this nasty little gem. "Depravation" manages to be a highlight, although being one of the simplest ventures on the album. They pound this extremely simplistic monstrous riff through the listeners head until they can't help but bang their head. The title track takes a different approach and presents a more stoned out Sabbath influenced side that I would definitely be up to hear more from. Without a doubt one of the best blind buys I've ever had the pleasure of making.

Deeds of Flesh- Gradually Melted

Deeds of Flesh was always one of my favorite bands when I was first getting into more extreme music. For some reason I ignored their debut EP. Upon hearing it I regret doing so. This is some of the ugliest sounding brutal death metal I've ever heard and was actually singlehandedly enough to revive my interest in this subgenre I've ignored for years. Fairly raw production (compared to the genres standard these days) really helps the overall feeling of the EP. I've also always appreciated Deeds diversity when it comes to lyrics and this release is no exception. While this may not be incredibly groundbreaking it is a damn good listen for fans of the style.

I've revisited those two Force of Evil albums with Denner/Shermann. Despite the singer really forcing the OTT evil act, these don't sound nearly as bad as I remembered. Having jumped from a 90s Mercyful Fate binge to this, it's essentially what would have come next after 9. Maybe it's all the modern throwback bands these days churning 'meh' material but I am actually liking this way more than when it first came out 11 years ago. I feel like these albums (s/t and Black Empire) have been totally forgotten about. Seems so unfair when everybody is praising stuff like In Solitude, Attic, Portrait and the like.

Those modern Venom albums are cringe worthy. Force of Evil is actually pretty decent.

I'm going to check out some Force of Evil on the strength of this post, but I'd be lying if I said my hopes were high.


This doesn't move you at all? I'm genuinely curious. It's okay if it doesn't, I'm just genuinely curious.


This doesn't get your blood boiling? Once again it's okay if not. It took me awhile to give their debut a shot because The World the Flesh The Devil (or whatever the fuck) left me VERY cold. But I do love the debut quite a bit.

I've been on a personally rare post-metal binge lately, perhaps due to the divorce stuff and such... Somehow, atmospheric and melancholic stuff just happens to suit me right now.

Ghost Brigade's Desolation Songs has been mostly playing in the car. Now, as some of you know, I quite like Cult of Luna and The Ocean, but while they are from a same-ish field, Ghost Brigade is even more of a genre-defying entity than the two, and the occasional harder and more metallic sections are separated by very soft and polished mellow parts that are actually pure rock or post rock. The album is melancholic, extremely well produced, and atmospheric, and unlike on CoL's albums, the final polish perhaps robs it of some of its heaviness and grit... it could perhaps use some more gravel in the gears. Some of the clean vocals have an annoying tendency to sound rather emotional at points, but overall, it's a nice album to listen to when you're a bit down.

I'm going to see them live in December, most likely. If you like such bands as Callisto or A Year of No Light, give this a try.

Isolation Songs, damnit! It's a very good album, and one that's not particularly metallic even where it's suffocatingly heavy and dark. The contrast between light and heavy on that album is jarring, but the atmosphere is always somber or outright desolate, so it's a rather shadowy endeavour all in all. Great stuff.

They are a farily good live band, based on one experience. It's very difficult to perform that kind of music with convincing performance, but I think they did it rather well.

Agreed. I saw them live once as a support, and the gig was convincing enough for me to get the album in the first place from the merch stand.

Been on a Running Wild binge for the past 2 weeks....mostly the later stuff that gets overlooked. I made a playlist that combines my favorite tracks from "Masquerade" and "The Rivalry" and GOD DAMN I can't stop listening to it. I feel like this kind of music just will never get made again from any power metal act.

Black Hole - Living Mask [2000]

This is a release that I feel gets insanely overlooked, especially considering the relatively high cult following Land of Mystery attracts. With this album, Black Hole seemingly become even more abstract and surreal in their compositional choices and heighten their atmosphere, on a larger scale, with an abundant supply of eerie synth work. It may just be me, but I also hear parallels in sound to the classic goth and post-punk scenes in the way some of the guitar and bass leads are utilized. I absolutely love the italian horror movie soundtrack vibe going on here, and haven't been able to get enough of it these last couple of weeks.

Encircled - The Binary Code

While I may not own the Priest EP it is off of I managed to come across this song by way of a sampler called NYC Sucks Volume 1 and I have been listening to it daily for a long while. In my opinion it is worth downloading for this song alone. The stand out point being the machine like sound of the guitar. Especially the short part around 1:39 that has this great chopping to it. There' also an great lick around 2:30 that carries you through the rest of the song. The drums are a bit flat sounding and the bass isn't really there but the guitars completely make up for it. I would definitely recommend giving this song a listen.

Counterblast - Impassivity

Shout out to Tomcat_Ha for turning me on to this. In my opinion, 90's-era Neurosis had one of the most badass sounds around. While many bands have adopted and put their spin on their input from Enemy of the Sun onwards, this is the first time I've really heard anyone run with the Souls at Zero style whole hog. Souls is one of my favourite albums of all time in any genre and is pretty distinct from Neurosis's subsequent sound as the riffs where much more sharp and visceral and it wasn't so decidedly sludgy. While I definitely like that it sounds like one of my favourite albums, it isn't unabashed plagiarism - they made sure to put their own spin on it. This is more crusty than Souls and does have this really cool slight industrial tinge to it. And holy shit, the fucking drummer. This dude is beyond top-notch, even better than on the album they draw so much influence from. Quality shit.

Revocation - Deathless

In a month full of pretty incredible extreme metal releases (Rigor Mortis, Horrendous and Swallowed immediately come to mind) as well as at least one high profile release in a similar vein (At The Gates' At War With Reality), I think that some people may have overlooked this one. A modern mixture that brings in influences from early progressive death metal ala mid period Death as well as thrash, of the melodeath variety, and even some "rockier" Mastodon type stuff, Revocation's Deathless is filled with distinctive and memorable riffing and song structures that contain a both off the wall progressiveness as well as a catchy and memorable aspect that leads to a truly enjoyable listen. Not a huge fan of this kind of modern death/thrash, but this album was a joy to listen to front to back.

Nightbringer - Ego Dominus Tuus [2014]

This really might be my record of the year. If I had to describe it to someone in a few words, I'd call it "an occult ritual in motion" or maybe "the dark night of the soul sans Christ." It's dark as hell but refuses the bleakness or resignation of more ambient works, and instead focuses on sounding grand and monumental, like a harrowing trip through the underworld.

All abstractions aside, it's just a really fucking good black metal record. It has your usual genre tropes -- tremolo picking, blast beats, and shrieks -- but is far from run-of-the-mill, by virtue of having fantastic songwriting and stellar production. Seriously, this is a great sounding record. I know some people prefer their black metal to feel a little more raw and underproduced (and I can definitely appreciate that, as my obsession with Darkspace would tell you), but the production on this record really suits the sound these guys are going for. It doesn't sound squeaky clean, but clear enough to really let the songwriting itself shine through.

Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes from a memory - Dream Theater
Metropolis Pt 2 is a progressive metal/rock concept album revolving around the story of a man Nicholas, who through hypnotherapy unlocks the scenes from the memory of his past life, in which he was young woman, Victoria who was murdered for loving her ex's brother back in 1928. From Regression to Finally Free, the songs flow effortlessly into one another. The transition between Beyond this life and Through her eyes is heavenly. The music is beautiful, and even without the lyrics tells a story (Overture 1928 and Dance of Eternity). The highlights of the album for me were Fatal Tragedy, Home and The Spirit Carries On. The sitar effect in Home takes this album to another level. The keyboards are spot on. It doesn't really draw you in throughout but it does have it's moments and those moments are gonna be stuck with you forever. The Spirit Carries On was so beautiful, I cried. In certain places, I'm reminded of The Wall by Pink Floyd, another favorite album of mine. The essential message of the album is that death is not the end, but only a transition. In some places, the album is more rock than metal, but being a lover of both genres, I found it sublime. I don't wanna spoil the ending so all I'm gonna say is, it's gonna be intriguing.

Dream Theater is a band that is very talented but I haven't ever been a big fan of. However "Metropolis Pt. 2" would have to be my favorite album by them. There's a nice flow to the album. It's a well done concept album.

I wanted to say thanks for posting this. You inspired me to check out those albums and I wound up really enjoying them both. I'm a huge Mercyful Fate/King Diamond fan, and somehow I had never heard of Force Of Evil! Both albums are solid and I can easily imagine the material being used in Mercyful Fate too.


My latest discovery is Capricorn. I got into them thanks to the recently posted review of their self titled 1993 album. Similar to Force Of Evil, I am a big fan of Grinder and until now I never knew about the name change to Capricorn and the two records that followed. After repeat listens I have become a fan of both records. Capricorn is just a touch more commercial heavy metal compared to more thrashy Grinder albums. That said, if they had released this stuff under the Grinder name I'm sure no one would have complained. I also get a kick out of the fact that both Capricorn albums contain hymns to Jason Vorhees. As a huge fan of the F13 franchise, I was surprised I had never heard those before. If you are a fellow fan of Grinder, I highly recommend checking out Capricorn.

Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse:

This week I decided to get into black metal, starting with In The Nightside Eclipse.

It has that lower quality production, which I'm not used to but it doesn't bother me, makes it sound very different to the music I usually listen to and this alone makes me want to get into this genre more, the atmosphere is very unique; the vocals don't overshadow everything else (makes them feel part of the song, instead of just lyrics thrown into it), plus I couldn't imagine them any different; the guitar riffs are very interesting and the keyboard haunts you through the entire album; I really like the drums, they sound incredible, especially in fast parts; can't say much about the bass, couldn't hear it.
My impressions are the best possible, amazing album and a great introduction to the genre.