Albums of the Year 2024

When is it better to reflect than at the year’s twilight? Days shined brighter this time compared to the last one, but I can’t say the same about the sonic wreckage left behind after 12 months and 365 dawn to dusk sessions of intense and not so intense listening. Admittedly, I did not step too much out of my comfort zones, or at least not forcibly, just to elaborate on more eclectic practices while sprinkling ‘philosophized’ glitter all over my playlists. As a matter of fact:

Top 15 EPs of 2024

15. Castrated - Surgical Vissicitude
14. Father Befouled - Immaculate Pain
13. Emasculator - The Disfigured and the Divide
12. Gravenoire - Devant la porte des étoiles
11. Crucifixion Ritual - Desecration of the Archangels
10. Sortilegia - Sorcerous Communion
9. Killing of a Sacred Deer - Killing of a Sacred Deer
8. Black Funeral - Wallachian Voivode
7. Gorgasm - Sadichist
6. Hate Forest - Justice
5. Gutvoid - Breathing Obelisk
4. Disentomb - Nothing Above
3. Orgy of Carrion - Rusted Gateways
2. Cavern Womb - Stages of Infinity
1. Sedimentum - Derrière les portes d'une arcane transcendante

Black metal documentation: 1993

“Well, it’s only Rotting Christ I am in contact with. I don’t give a reeking shit about other bands, I only concentrate on Impaled Nazarene. Like any other label, Osmose has some cool and good bands, but most of them are just crap! Osmose Productions was the first label to realize black metal was the new trend!”

Interview with Mika (Impaled Nazarene), featured on Putrefying Mass from the Netherlands (2nd issue, circulated in 1993).

10-year anniversary

 

Bullet Ratings - October 21 [II]

Apparition (US) - Feel (Profound Lore Records):

The band's first EP was a 12 minute delight, and their debut full length is just an extended version of the same joy. Well produced, hefty doom / death metal with great riffs in all the right places, this album deserves to circulate among fans of the genre. [3.5/5]

Cradle of Filth (UK) - Existence is Futile (Nuclear Blast):

I would prefer not to. [2/5]

Dark Fog Eruption (Japan) — 忘却と絢爛の幻想 (Self-released):

Completely unaware of this project, their second release since 2019's debut is a wholly enjoyable piece of work. Dark Fog Eruption mostly rely on patterns of the traditional black metal framework, often reminded me of the melodic techniques of German / Finnish bands, with a more unique semi-growling voice instead of shrieking. Listen to this if you like Sargeist! [3/5]

Feral Season (US) - Rotting Body in the Range of Light (Profound Lore Records):

Took a serious note on this band. A highly immersive release with intriguing content, the sound is amazing and so are all the different ideas that come and go in it. [4/5]

In Crucem Agere (Austria) - Calling the Void (Aural Music):

There's too much information scattered all over the place in this release. While the band's intentions are fine, I couldn't really get through the album's different directions. While it is experimental, it is also avant-garde in a somehow predictable way. [2.5/5]

Massacre (US) - Resurgence (Nuclear Blast):

As they note in the last song of the album, the return of the corpse grinder. I can't say that I didn't enjoy Resurgence, from its art to its music, as I understand the time it's released and from who. That's what they would do anyway, and why not? [3/5]

Organic (Italy) - Where Graves Abound (Testimony Records):

I was not impressed by Organic's first released Carved In Flesh, it was too standard Swedish old school death metal. They have not changed their path with Where Graves Abound, but at least this time all the tunes are as heavy as needed, fast and not more lengthy than needed. The characteristic chainsaw sound still prevails. [3/5]

The Wolf Garden (UK) - Woven of Serpent's Spines (Naturmacht Productions):

A bit indifferent atmospheric black metal for me, it has its moments but can't make it to my favorite artists list from the genre. [2/5]

Vomit Spell (Germany) - Vomit Spell (F.D.A. Records):

From what I initially saw, I expected (and really hoped) that this record would be much heavier than what it was eventually. Maybe Vomit Spell go into middle-paced tempos more than needed, maybe not all their riffs are as strong, but it's still not skippable. [3/5]

Waking the Cadaver (US) - Authority Through Intimidation (Unique Leader Records):

Back in my deathcore discovery years in 2010-2011, there was big talk and quite an amount of distrust against this band. Never expected them to return but Authority Through Intimidation is a pretty solid record. It also feels like that's all I want from Waking the Cadaver, exactly that sound. Not a fan of their previous discography, but Authority Through Intimidation clicked. [3.5/5]

Bullet Ratings - October 21 [I]

Arcanist (US) - Caustic Apparitions:

Quite filthy raw black metal with some punk touches. The tracks are not the hardest or most compelling ever, but it is a pleasing listen. [3/5]

Azazel (Fin) - Aegrum Satanas Tecum:

I've heard every riff in this album before. You've also heard every riff in this album before. Painfully typical black metal, but hey, Chris Moyen art is always nice to look at. [2/5]

Caveman Cult (US) - Blood and Extinction:

Savage War is Destiny was gruesomely elegant and dazzling. Caveman Cult keep it up with an accurate creation of war metal that properly comes at you as a knuckle duster in the face. [3.5/5]

Full of Hell (US) - Garden of Burning Apparitions:

A swift carnage of grindcore, noise and clean production. Against religious ideals, Full of Hell own their alley and comfortably dwell in it, yet I would have liked the record to sound more wholly violent. For me, the last two previous albums were much heavier. [3/5]

Gloosh (Rus) - Sylvan Coven:

I'm so glad this guy proved me right. Since last year, I've been murmuring about this quiet force and the couple of fine EPs it had put out, now everything resonates to an impressive, captivating debut full length album. It totally dominates the atmospheric black metal territory, while not even being constrained there. Sylvan Coven is indeed a wonderful work of art. [4/5]

Revel in Flesh (US) - The Work:

It's disheartening to see the metal scene fall for this. It's a pile of pretentious experimental audacity, and the technicality won't save you if your ideas are for the trash bin. And sadly, a handful of neat saxophone parts didn't save it this time. [1/5]

Revenant Marquis (UK) - Below the Landsker Line:

Tasty riffs bounce off distorted production with a horrible echo effect. One might as well chop their songs into pieces the next time, but still this album's beauty can be recognized, like a beautiful human behind broken glass. One of the leading albums Revenant Marquis has put through. [3.5/5]

Wraith (US) - Undo the Chains:

Didn't know this band, but Undo the Chains proved to be rather entertaining. Nice black / thrash with no overstatements. [3/5]

Greek black metal of the 10's: 2010

The more sharp-eyed followers of this blog should have noticed that, even if I punctually post top lists with only Greek releases every year, I am not the biggest fan of Greek black metal. As I went more into bands from the North, I tend to enjoy heavy experimentation and more tremolo than warmer, heavy metal-inspired patterns found in our scene, its history and importance is absolutely undeniable and has me observing new bands and albums constantly. There has been an evident rise in material the last few years, but the Greek bands have been around from the very beginning (and possibly even marked the beginning, even though mainstream attention was geographically elsewhere when the explosion happened) and the country’s endless, rich heritage serves as fuel for many inspired musicians around. 

I will be going through the last decade’s black metal full lengths only (excluding demos, extended plays, splits and the rest), at least as many as I have found or listened throughout the years, possibly discovering things I have missed, in the process. According to the archives, I’ve seen about 25 – 50 albums per year and I have already heard a lot of them when they were released. I’m consciously going to skip albums from bands that are too inclined to pseudo-intellectual bullshit, but apart from that there’s a lot of exciting gems and frustrating failures to talk about out there and I’ll go through as many as possible. Needless to say for one more time, all this is just one guy’s opinion, you know?

Five albums released on October 16th

A blog was born in mid October, 2012, but this is not that kind of anniversary I'm referring to right now. On the otherwise quite unimportant date of October 16 happened a far less glamorous event, and that was of course, that it was the day when I was born. I don't know if you have ever wondering what was going on in the music world during the time that you arrived in this life, or important related events on that date etc.., and maybe this might be too much of an overkill even for listening nerds to keep track of. And while the world was jamming off "I'll Make Love to You" by Boys II Men during October of 1994, the album that gave me happiness from that month is that Impaled Nazarene's Suomi Finland Perkele was actually released on the 16th. And by the time I was two days old, and also mature enough for it, Stoner Witch by the Melvins came out. What a week!

While there are several general history websites that report events on a certain date, and also some regarding music only, it's not as clear to find such insight for underground scenes like extreme metal. I scanned through (with the help of one and only archival website for the music we love) four decades, from 1980 until today and gathered the most notable full lengths albums for myself, covering material from late Thin Lizzy albums to Throane's latest EP Une Balle Dans Le Pied, which was released this morning. Just the process of going through all these records gives a good grip on something that is important only to you personally, so I hope this post works not so much to spread music knowledge but as an idea to other list obsessed fans of music, or movies, or whatever you're into.

Lockdown Chronicles #6

Art: John Anster Fitzgerald - The Artist's Dream

"I think that in bringing sanity to our intoxicated age, history has an important part to play. I do not mean that this is to be brought about by any supposed ‘lessons of history’, or indeed by anything easily put into a verbal formula. What history can and should do, not only for historians but for all whose education has given them any breadth of outlook, is to produce a certain temper of mind, a certain way of thinking and feeling about contemporary events and their relation to the past and the future. 

I do not know whether one should accept Cornford’s thesis that Thucydides modelled his history on Attic tragedy; but, if he did, the events that he recorded fully justified his doing so, and the Athenians, if they had seen themselves in the light of actors in a possible tragedy, might have had the wisdom to avert the tragic outcome. It is an ancient doctrine that tragedy comes of hubris, but it is none the less true for being ancient, and hubris recurs in every age among those who have forgotten the disasters to which it has always led. In our age, mankind collectively has given itself over to a degree of hubris surpassing everything known in former ages."

Playlist: 

1. Gnaw their Tongues & Dragged Into Sunlight - Alchemy In The Subyear

2. Asagraum - Black Sun Prayer

3. El-Ahrairah - Stone Throwers

4. Nocternity - Opaline Eye of Death

5. Gormanudr - Portal

6. Hæthen - Taking the Auspices

7. Vilkacis - Defiance

8. Black Vice - Emergence

9. Ildjarn - Eksistensens Jeger

Lockdown Chronicles #5

Art: Arnold Böcklin - Attack by Pirates

"It merely means that we limit ourselves to a reliance upon that which is within our wills, or within the sum of the probabilities which render our action feasible. Whenever one wills anything, there are always these elements of probability. If I am counting upon a visit from a friend, who may be coming by train or by tram, I presuppose that the train will arrive at the appointed time, or that the tram will not be derailed. I remain in the realm of possibilities; but one does not rely upon any possibilities beyond those that are strictly concerned in one’s action. Beyond the point at which the possibilities under consideration cease to affect my action, I ought to disinterest myself. For there is no God and no prevenient design, which can adapt the world and all its possibilities to my will. When Descartes said, “Conquer yourself rather than the world,” what he meant was, at bottom, the same - that we should act without hope."

Playlist:

1. Misþyrming - Hof

2. Kampfar - Fortapelse

3. Ravencult - Hail Revenge

4. Helheim - Altered Through Ages, Constant In Time

5. Den Saakaldte - Audhumla

6. Marduk - Vanity of Vanities

7. Blut aus Nord - A Few Shreds of Thought

8. Grafvitnir - Vessels of Serpent Fire

9. Ad Hominem - The Upper Art

10. Morgul - Author of Pain

Total run time: 00:46:47

Lockdown Chronicles - 90's Black Metal Playlist [1]

Since there is a lot of free time now, I made a playlist with black metal tracks from the nineties, and tried to diverge a bit from the most popular bands of that time, as well as aimed for mini-releases of various artists (but of course, not always). All of these are recordings from that time period, regardless of when they were released. More are coming.

Track listing:

01. Horna (Fin) - Imperial Devastation

02. Zephyrous (Gre) - The Frozen Path Of Timeless Wisdom And Trance

03. Amestigon (Aut) - Stormlord

04. Mortuary Drape (Ita) - Funeral Chant

05. Bloodhammer (Fin) - Holocaust In Heaven

06. Inflabitan (Nor) - Illusjonen

07. Nåstrond (Swe) - Gravestench

08. Musta Surma (Fin) - Rjena

09. Nifelheim (Swe) - Black Curse

10. Tenebrae In Perpetuum (Ita) - Tenebrae In Perpetuum

Total run time: 00:46:18

Enjoy!

Grammy Awards 2019 - Best Metal Performance

A few days ago, the glamorous and glorious event of the Grammy Awards took place where an expertise group of people decides, as always, the best moments of music of the previous year. As much as it doesn't mean shit to actual music listeners, I realized it's just a lot of fun to follow it. 

The metal section this year had the following entries:

Between the Buried and Me - Condemned to the Gallows
High on Fire - Electric Messiah
Deafheaven - Honeycomb
Trivium - Betrayer
Underoath - On My Teeth

And for the first time in history, I was surprised and pleased by the result: High on Fire actually won this, which means: High on Fire now have a Grammy Award on their belts. It is like fake news, but it's real. I'm so glad the overrated as fuck Deafheaven lost. Take that, non-musical bands like Trivium and Underoath, yes, yeees! I would have never guessed this would be the outcome. Between the Buried and Me's track is rather fine, and I'm not a big fan of the winners either, but it is just wonderful that it happened.

No picks here are a surprise, and by no means "Electric Messiah" is the best metal performance of the year. However, compared to the rest of the bands, which are all in the bad part of the mainstream, came second to a stoner / heavy rock song. Times are wild.

If I were to put them in the right order: BTBAM, High on Fire, Underoath, Deafheaven, Trivium. 

2018 sum up

December has arrived, and with it the summary of the year that is about to die has begun to take form here in the offices of Arson Café. It will probably be a devoted 4-5 posts on it this time, about the same as the last five years or so (look to your right at AOTY). It is indeed the most wonderful time of the year.

lo-fi lowlife - d. 4

The playlist:

Angelcorpse - Reap the Whirlwind
Veles - The Winter Morning
Diabolicum - The Hatecrowned Retaliation
Abigor - As Astral Images Darken Reality
Dødheimsgard - When Heavens End
Bilskirnir - Nordic White Desert
Setherial - Morkets Tid
Wolfsschrei - With Fangs and Claws
Necromantia - Ancient Pride
Inquisition - Nefarious Dismal Orations
Slaughtered Priest - Eternal Goat Reign
Horna - White Aura Buried in Ashes
Black Funeral - Valley Of The Shadow

with:

Train Station Dark Side Imperial Ale

Lo-fi Lowlife - D. 3

The playlist:

Fluisteraars - Stuk
El-Ahrairah - Stone Throwers
Chätiment - Sang des Carpathes
Slægt - Det Første Efterår
Ramlord - The Breached Sanctum
Deathhammer - Evil Blood
Skelethal - Putrefaction
Peste Noire - Paysage Mauvais
Entrails - Collection of Cracked Heads
Sargeist - Returning to Misery & Comfort
Katharsis - Ascent from Ghoulgotha

The liquid:

Bernand Amber Lager

Lo-fi Lowlife - D. 2

The playlist:

Carpathian Forest - The Northern Hemisphere
Sepultura - Necromancer
Mortuary Drape - Larve
Moonblood - Troglodytin
Death Courier - The Hauter of the Dark
Blasphemy - Darkness Prevails
Acheron - 666
Tha Norr - Tyrant of A New Aeon
Unanimated - Life Demise
Sort Vokter - Grålysning
Depressive Silence - Forest of Eternity
Swordmaster - Wraths of Time
Mütiilation - Black Wind of War
Rotting Christ - The Nereid of Esgalduin

The liquid:

Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA

Grammy Awards 2018 - Best Metal Performance

Me posting this in September, which is an eternity later, makes the waiting for next year's event much less. I had thought of continuing last year, but of course I forgot and let's look into that shit now, long after the party's over.

Mastodon - Sultan's Curse

Body Count - Black Hoodie

August Burns Red - Invisible Enemy

Code Orange - Forever

Meshuggah - Clockworks

I'm not really surprised any of the bands are featured (maybe a bit for Meshuggah), all of them represent modern American mainstream as hell metal. Success is an important factor in picking artists and in these terms, Mastodon winning is a reasonable outcome and their had a good song here as well. It is a very polarizing band and the truth is, mostly non-metallers like them. So, that means a lot of people.

I also guess Power Trip would have participated in this, if their video clips managed 2 million views on Youtube, or more.

It shouldn't be mentioned how much I prefer Meshuggah to all of the rest. Like, levels above everyone, they shit on them for fun and "Clockworks" is an orgasmic track. I can't talk that warmly about Body Count, who I never listened and don't feel like jumping around with their stuff ("Black Hoodie" covers Sound of da Police, go on and check yourselves). Truth is, they are only relevant in the US.

August Burns Red are the least annoying right after Meshuggah, and I enjoyed the video clip of "Invisible Enemy" more than if it was the band itself jamming on it. The track has some sweet, characteristic ABR sound textures. Code Orange are completely uninteresting to me. I know local Greek hardcore bands that would hit harder than this "hardcore punk" circus.

If I were to put these tracks in terms of personal appeal, it would go like that: Meshuggah, August Burns Red, Mastodon, Body Count, Code Orange. 

Arson Cafe's best metal performance for 2017: Enslaved - "Sacred Horse"

Lo-fi Lowlife - D.1

Watain - I Am The Earth
Ravencult - Sacrilege of Death
Tsjuder - Lord of Swords
Baptism - Esoteric Spheres
Funeral Mist - Bread to Stone
Hate Forest - Elder Race
Aosoth - Songs Without Lungs
Nazxul - World Oblivion
Sorgsvart - Hedersmann
Korgonthurus - Puhtistuksen Tulet
Thunderbolt - Call from the Ancient Time
Belenos - Terre de Brume
Horna - Nostalgiaa

A Norwegian Black Metal Playlist - 90's Part I

I would usually make an album list for this but for once, I chose specific favorite tracks to support the case instead of whole records. I try to maintain one track by each band when it's not a specific band's playlist, which means of course I have more tracks but the artists I like that I didn't use here. Many of them are personal choices of some of my favorite tunes, so if anything's missing, it's not that I might have ignored or overseen it. I wanted to create a Spotify playlist but some tracks were missing so I decided just to list Youtube links to each track, for anyone to have a quick listen. I have a second part of a similar playlist and then a third installment for bands active after 2000, I don't know when I will write things up about them in the future though.

Icelandic Black Metal - Photo Collection

I share a link to a post originally in Cvlt Nation with amazing photos from Icelandic black metal bands. 

Here.