Sneaking out this EP before their next album, Demoncy cover old ground and do so in a way that will please Demoncy fanatics, deliver few surprises, and leave people hungry for more. These three songs follow the Enthroned Is the Night model with streamlining into a more aggressive package.
The Demoncy riff style, similar to that of Incantation and Havohej, consists of an onslaught of fast-changing chords that form a wave motion before running into a contrary rhythm, allowing the band to set up primal forces that give the music a ritualistic nature. Ambient intros enhance the mood.
Here the riffs fit within known patterns, notably Belial and Havohej, and focus more on maintaining a rhythm than a clash of conflicting tendencies, which gives the music a haunted but formless feel. A focus on contemporary levels of aggression makes this a visceral release from a storied band.
Tags: Black Metal, demoncy
One of the few older bands keeping the spirit of black metal, well, not alive but… around. They really nail that ‘hostile spirit vortex’ kind of sound.
Summoning should be due for an album sometime soon, too, judging by their usual release schedule.
Summoning’s latest was their Belus. I think they’re done for.
Except Belus > anything Summoning ever produced. Hell, even the prison albums stand their grounds against the austrian drama queers.
Yeah, yeah, hilarious…
Bait needs to be believable.
How to promote your blog:
1. Be contrarian in a comments section
2. Have sock or friend post your links
3. Feign outrage, claim to be the way and the light like al-Jesus
Good luck, but no one fucking cares, etc.
Gibberish and nonsense. Belus is rote mechanical reproduction of the Burzum sound for simple people. It is his attempt to appeal to the diversity audience and the new Reddit-style short-hair, IT job working, pacifist, feminist, and egalitarian simp metalhead.
Summoning on the other hand has some great material. Minas Morgul, Lugburz, and Dol Goldur are standouts; yes, they are a half-tier removed from the canon (Beherit, Ildjarn, Gorgoroth, Emperor, Immortal, Burzum, Graveland, Enslaved, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Varathron, Ancient, Bathory, Rotting Christ, CF/Hellhammer, Demoncy, Impaled Nazarene, Sacramentum) but are in good company (on par with Von, Belial, Gehenna, Zyklon-B, Blasphemy, and Sarcofago). I can enjoy Nightshade Forests, Stronghold, Lost Tales, and Oath Bound as well but reach for them a lot less (and by “reach” I mean use the mouse to select the MP3s, lazy fuck that I am).
The problem with black metal is that below this level the music is essentially droning angry stuff like punk, RAC, or most rock which really has no interest. You might as well go listen to U2 at that point. This is why all of us are slightly angry, in that we are celebrating a few genres here that were powered by a few people and now are inhabited by careerists, poseurs, and clueless aggregation-imitators.
This is just how it is for all music and art and everything else people create. A few things worth noticing and the rest is whatever at best. Women, food, beer, drugs, anal beads, everything
It’s the Bell Curve.
A tiny percentage on the far right (heh) is worth noticing, most is average in the middle, and on the left side you have USBM.
Reminds me of this paper which got published recently and was all over the news: LLM Ideas Working Paper
Most people are so dumb that a program that randomly puts together words that have frequently been seen together before is smarter. Once a genre has existed for a while, the random recombiners will come to dominate it for exactly this reason.
…a solid point for consideration.
Black metal et cetera does not need a new sound, it needs to discover all of the possibilities already there. The really creative people left the genre and now it is up to a few bands like Demoncy and Beherit to keep the spirit alive.
You make a common argument that is seen across all fandoms that is ultimately little more than complaining that someone else is not making something that appeases you. An honest argument would at least provide musical examples of the possibilities alluded to instead of vague allusions. Of course if you truly see potential for the genre which isn’t being explored then you ought to go and make it yourself. To preempt any excuses: There’s an abundance of free tool available to produce a demo and you need not even own a physical instrument for that purpose. Blaming creative people for abandoning black metal does not give me any hope that you will “Do Something.”
Somebody do something!!1!
Complainers ought to do something. Alternatively, preferably, Do Nothing in silence. Two – almost three – decades of “Elitist Criticism” has failed to accomplish its own aims. Talk is cheap, put your money where your mouth is, etc. You seem to need a reminder that gentlemen like euronymous complained, engaged in elitist criticism but actually Did Something through creation.
Some are born to be writers, some are born to be musicians. You simply enjoy artificially setting the bar so that you can exclude everyone but yourself as a legitimate critic.
I assume you made a few attempts back in the day. Were you able to criticize your own musical output somewhat objectively? If so, what was lacking? Or did some true friend tell you right out, “Uh, dude, maybe you should focus on your writing instead”?
It’s not where I want it to be, based on my own ear, and I have no shortage of other things that need doing. Tradeoffs are the nature of life, time, energy, etc.
If anything I am a critics critic. Criticism is a literary art unto itself of course. Still rather than dwell on others art I found it’s infinitely more rewarding to make your own. Incremental improvements in the craft itself bring the most joy. Hard to deny the upside of looking back on some trash you created years back and thinking “man I’ve come a long way.” The pursuit bestows discipline among other positive traits of character. Taking criticism too seriously seems to breed negative traits of resentment. And hence the suggestion: create what you want to hear.
Then why not take your own advice and simply be a critic?
I have encountered your argument here many times. It is a deflection: “here, let me project a different goal for you in order to delegitimize what you do.”
It is an attempt to seize control of the narrative and it fails when people say, simply, “this is what I was made to do.”
I already have. I spent two or three years writing metal reviews and articles. I said what I wanted to say and quit.
Could be worse, you could be a “professional” critic.
Basically a hipster with a paycheck.
Like you said, criticism is an art unto itself. If you then realize you could be a top critic, but not a top musician, it’d be a terrible waste to focus on the strumming rather than the writing.
That sounded harsher than it is. Keep in mind that this site has influenced a movement against the decline despite things being unpopular, and has kept alive the work of many bands that would otherwise be lost in the thundering herd. Not to mention being the net’s oldest and longest-running metal site.
Fair enough. I’m just tired of the specific form of criticism and argument that the person I originally responded to posed. I had read an interview by the band Zealotry who was reviewed here. In it the lead guy said something similar to what I have: paraphrasing, “I used to be a critic then I decided to become a creative instead.” Whether the results of the endeavor were successful I appreciate the intent and wish it was more common.
Regarding another comment about destiny and fate eg born to write or compose: Yes absolutely in the sense that some, few, exist to create great eternal works. Still for the remainder of humanity creation is inherent to all. The inability to produce great art should not discourage everyone else. Nor should they be discouraged. The opposite in fact. Surely, falling short is forgivable! There are far worse things men can do with their time.
https://www.deathmetal.org/article/the-haarslev-pb30-60-as-big-as-the-ritz/
ever heard that phrase “everyone’s a critic”?
which is what makes being a critic unremarkable
with few exceptions
Robert Graysmith: I’ve been thinking. Somebody should write a book.
Paul Avery: Somebody should write a fucking book, that’s for sure.
The 90ies albums are still gonna best the best. Everything died in 1996 when diversity took over.
Half of my metal collection (200 bands or so) consist of GOOD post-96 releases, so let’s not get too autistic because it’s impossible that among hundred-thousands of bands there’s not a single good one. I’m not into listening to fucking Burzum or Mayhem all day, and in fact I barely do these days, because at some point you just get sick of the same thing over and over, and even start realizing that shit is overrated.
P.S Brett – that warkvlt guy is a troll who is active on these awful troll sites below. I’m not saying censor the dude, but just a heads up is all:
Best Black Metal
Metalious
You think there are a hundred good post-1996 releases? Hard to tell. It is not impossible that among hundreds of thousands of bands there is not a single good one; in fact, this sort of thing is the norm in a long tail where a genre is just imitating itself, sort of like Late Stage Hardcore back in the 1980s before emo took over.
I am glad people are getting back to blogging. Social media disempowers the user. However I might add that (1) all black metal is “racist” because nature and logic are “racist,” and (2) the only meaningful life begins with killing Communists. Kill them today, kill them tomorrow, and catch up for the ones you could have killed yesterday. Do not get caught. It is not murder to stomp a mushroom, nor is it murder to end the mental loop of a Communist. I support Israel and Ukraine, reparations-with-repatriation, and world eugenics. If all Communists die tomorrow, everyone will get a good night’s sleep and wake up refreshed.
In my religion, Communists are not human and this fatwa blesses all who kill them.
List of bands that I like that have one or two good post-96 releases somewhere in their discography, and you don’t have to agree with the entire list… but just to give you a rough idea that metal ain’t dead in my book:
A transylvanian funeral
Abhorrence (bra)
Aborym
Antaeus
Aosoth
Archgoat
Asmodeus
Asphyx
Autopsy
Averse Sefira
Baptism
Belphegor
Blaspherian
Blazemth
Cadaver
Cemetery urn
Chthon
Cianide
Concilivm
Cosmic atrophy
Crypticus
Cystic
Darkspace
Deathsiege
Deeds of flesh
Demoncy
Deranged
Desecresy
Diabolic
Diabolicum
Diocletian
Divine eve
Divine empire
Entrails (swe)
Evilfeast
Evocation (swe)
Exhumed
Fourth monarchy
Gehenna
Gorgoroth
Gorguts
Grave
Graveland
Graven
Hecate enthroned
Immolation
Impaled
Impaled nazarene
Imprecation
Incantation
Infamous
Infernal war (pol)
Intestine baalism
Isegrim (ger)
Kaeck
Krisiun
Legion of doom
Lord belial
Marduk
Morbus 666
Morgal
Mysticum
Necrophobic
Nerlich
Niden div 187
Nightrage
Nocturnal graves
Nox intempesta
Obsidian gate
Profanatica
Ravenous death
Rotting christ
Sacramentum
Sammath
Sanguis
Sinira
Sinister
Sorcier des glaces
Soulburn
Suffocation
Summoning
Thou art lord
Thulcandra
Vader
Vampirska
Vargrav
Veneror
Vital remains
Void meditation cult
Vomitory
War master
Warmoon lord
Winterwolf
Xasthur
Watain
First we separate out the 90s bands:
These are decent newer bands known to me:
In fact, you may remember some from these pages. This leaves:
Some of these I know and like, but many of these I know and detest. Many of the ones I like are liking-in-passing, meaning that I think they are OK but not enduring.
So it seems to me the 90s bands are winning so far…
Xasthur? Antaeus? Belphegor? Darkspace? DERANGED? Entrails? Krisiun? LORD BELIAL? Ravenous Death? Venerror? These are by definition the B-level bands that just do not have it together and are remaking Motley Crue with black metal and death metal aesthetics.
You. Gotta. Be. Fucknig. Kiddnig.
Might as well put Abyssic Hate and the other Depressive Suicidal Black Metal trend-following iPhone hamsters on there as well. At least Fourth Monarchy and Desecresy are good. Where the fuck is Bahimiron and Birth AD? Can we put the new Tomstein G Warriorberg project on there even though the songs were written forty years ago in a fake nation?
You like taking bait?
100 good releases since 1996 equates to 4 good albums per year on average. That’s an absurdly low bar.
True but that is about accurate. It will fit a standard distribution with some years having more but most centering right about on that.
For me, the question became how to keep random or conveniently obvious music out of my life because it is basically more spam like advertising, propaganda, WOMEN, religion, and “the news,” and so I cut out anything but the enduring and solid.
That is what we should carry forward. Conserve the best of human endeavor (this requires slaughtering the weak without mercy or even a reach-around).
Why did you capitalize women?
It’s International Matriarchy Month, so legally I have to.
I hope they pull it together. My advice for bands: listen to your material until you are sick of it, then wait a week or two and return, see what sticks and build back from that. Most great writers edit a lot; most failing bands edit very little and go with a “that works, cut tape and let’s go” mentality that leads to releases that are hyped when they are new and quickly forgotten.
Or a literal decade in my case
“Sneaking out this EP before their next album…”
The EP is actually scheduled to come out in the middle of December, after the full-length, which itself will be out the 1st of the month.
Thanks. As you can see, I never read the record company propaganda.
“The Demoncy riff style, similar to that of Incantation and Havohej”
You mean post-2000 Incantation then.
I’m not one to shit on USBM – especially since after the collapse of the Norse scene (circa 1995) they, meaning mostly Demoncy/Havohej/Cobalt/Profanatica/Judas Iscariot/GBK – were the only ones to keep things consistent.
But comparing them to either Mayhem/Burzum, or Incantation, is going too far :/ Even the riffing is mostly a dumbed down form of Diabolical Conquest, i.e. one step closer to war metal (and not the one of Burzumination & Blasphemy, I mean the one of Revenge & Conqueror & Black Witchery… gross).
Absu and Averse Sefira did far more than Cobalt, Judas Iscariot, or GBK.
Cobalt is a gay ass hipster faggot band, Absu are a homosexual band held in high regards by Texans because they are from Texas but otherwise they have a sound in the riffing and vocals that I can only pin down as “homosexual” in almost every aspect, Averse Sefira seems like a bunch of big brained ideas crammed in the bottom of a tall and narrow food storage container and has the clarity of reading a bunch of well defined but still just scribbles on a napkin, Judas Iscariot is good as long as you never hear any older Norway or French BM bands, Profanatica had that one good Weeping in Heaven 7 and Havohej album and there is absolutely zero reason to listen to any of their other shit and that just leaves us with GBK, then and Arghoslent are probably the two most influential and revered projects to come out of the USA but everyone is a fucking queer and scared of being called a Swanzi, so all kinds of assholes in famous bands and labels worship the fart scent trails of both but will never admit it openly in public. Metal is gay and should be put down with the rest of humanity, it’s over and you should give up, no amount of apology will suffice and we regret that we cannot invent a hell for you and your forefathers to burn in.
GBK are the people who never finish a song, and Arghoslent sounds like punkers trying to reinvent 1970s metal. Neither of these has retained in my listening despite repeated attempts. I notice also a failure to mention Vaginal Jesus here, as well as classic RAC like Rahowa, Honor, Angry Aryans, and so forth. Quite honestly, I find that most RAC is painfully repetitive; while the lyrics do not offend me, I can think of lots of better ways to be racist, fascist, nationalist, esotericist, and so on, in most cases. There are a few exceptions. That Honor compilation from the 1990s is worth owning for anyone who likes a good motivational energy and classic songwriting, sort of like just about anyone can enjoy Skrewdriver and they would except for the lyrical content.
With that out of the way, Profanatitas de Domonatia is worth attending to from Profanatica as well, but generally you are not wrong here. They peaked with the early demos, milked that for awhile, and have not made anything inspiring since. ProTip: the early demos of any band are usually the last recordings that they really spend time on after the writing process, which is why they tend to pour their inspiration into them and then hammer on the result until it is just right.
I agree on Cobalt, but in different words: it tries too hard to imitate its influences without understanding what motivated them, ergo you get emptiness, and not the artistically interesting kind. Very sad to write these words in a review but liars are sadder.
I disagree on Absu. The first album is great, and the next few are good solid heavy metal. The most recent albums from Absu however are hasty and do not hold together.
I disagree on Averse Sefira. Check out the demo. This is a band from the same impulse as early Behemoth, wanting to make melodic black metal that created a sense of grandeur and mystery. Later albums tried to stay current with the black metal of the day, which is always hard because it is a moving target that has not yet been tested by history. For example, people loved Belus when it came out, but now most listeners can admit that it is sort of thin on the ground.
Personally, I think Nazis are irritating for not going furthest Right. If you are going to go Right-wing — accepting that there is an order larger than the individual and more important than individual desires — might as well go all the way to feudalism, aristocracy, ethnonationalism, monarchism, eugenics, mercantilism, and drowning retards in peat bogs. In my view, this allows society to remove actual threats and (most importantly) leave everyone else the fuck alone, which is why these societies were tolerant of eccentricity on a level that modern people cannot understand much less accept. The point of civilization is like the point of life: to live. That requires living well and finding a balance with nature and the invisible world of long-term consequences. Nazis grasped some of the picture, Socialists a little bit, classical liberals some of it, and fascists probably had the most realistic view with their corporate city-state vision, but really nothing compares to the Furthest motherfucking Right.
That being said, anyone who kills a Communist is blessed in all languages and by all gods. Killing Communists is where eugenics and morality meet. In fact, I encourage everyone to go out and kill a few but not get caught. Their parents will be relieved, their ethnic groups will gain 0.0001% of an average IQ boost, and even the priests will be glad that the travesty is over. Kill Communists. It is the right way to behave. They are not human and they do not have souls; they are rotted, failed people who are nothing but parasites. When you kill a Communist, you make humanity healthier and nature stronger. It is never a bad time to kill Communists.
Thank heavens you got out of your Marx phase in time! :D
(wipes sweat from brow)
On the other hand, I was never as delusional as the people I see on a daily basis, who are both dumb and unrealistic.
The latter is more important perhaps. They do not care if their philosophies produce the results they claim are their goal.
This is rejection of adaptation itself and seems insane.
*sharpens knife* Did someone say… *revs up woodchipper* COMMEY-UNISM!? *spits dip*
Any society that removes its Communists is happier. You can chipper ’em, electrocute ’em, shoot ’em, gas ’em, burn ’em, or just drop them off in Mexico with $5 and a condom.
Communists are being taken out by covid injections, plant based diets, weight loss drugs and vaping. It’s as if there are powers making good things happen.
They outnumber us a dozen to one, and those things are killing less than one percent of them.
We are going to have to kill hundreds of millions of them.
There’s no point in creating hells for people. Just put them out of circulation. It’s been remarked before that the world at large doesn’t care anyway. It’s apathetic, cynical and cruel. Vengeance has no place here.
The irrelevant passes into history forgotten, the relevant lives on. Filtration: how the universe reverses entropy.
Define communism – there’s a lot of variables these days.
Most people don’t know much about politics and don’t really have a fixed black or white ideology like you do, but are probably in the grey area or don’t care. They seem to be beaten over the head from birth to think in a certain way by peer pressure, and in the worst cases totally trapped like a hardline Muslim, in that if he doesn’t chop infidel heads or blow himself up for Allah, he disgraces himself and his community and will burn in hell. This mentality has existed all the way back into ancient paganism.
Like with MK ULTRA, this means even high IQ people can be total fucktards. You’re going to have to be extremely specific when you’re talking about these things, and careful not to judge those that are trapped and/or simply don’t know better. This universe (and the “natural world”) doesn’t exactly favor “free will”, which you should know that by know since you think you favor fascism. Right and wrong are not chosen, they choose YOU, and you act upon that higher impulse/force whether you like it or not.
It is very clear what Communism is: a centralized economy mobilized for equal distribution of the wealth of production. It is socialism applied by an organized society dedicated to that purpose alone.
Most people know nothing about much of anything. This does not mean things cannot be known. That some high-IQ people can be deceived does not mean that dumber people are not deceived, or that dumber people do not generally make dumb decisions.
I got another for ya, what is dumb? What is good and evil? By what authority do you define what’s what? How do you know you are even real? Are you a god?
Are we going to hate each other if we like different albums, or different food for that matter? Isn’t everything merely subjective without a god-figure? Who is to say YOU are any more right than a down syndrome? I guess you could argue that the strong will have the final say, but again, define strong. Because it seems to be that the so called strong people are losing today. Unless you are the creator of this reality, I have no more reason to listen to you than the farting sounds of a chimp.
“Good luck” with your crusade, cuz I’d rather stuff myself with hedonistic pleasures than worry about a losing battle.
Oh look, a gish gallop of open-ended questions that are answered elsewhere.
Reality is what it is; people either adapt or do not. There are no authorities. Some people are smarter than others.
For example, using a gish gallop suggests at the very least that someone suspects they are not the smartest person in the dialogue.
However, I think fighting over intelligence assessment is kind of… silly. What matters is who is most realistic.
Yes, people can get by being pragmatic, and end up with a house in the burbs, four fat kids, a vapid wife, and lots of hours on the job, golf course, or shopping sites to buy new gadgets.
But the question of civilization survival remains, and with it, the ability to be honest and adapt psychologically to reality. Crutches just make you weaker, and that too could lead to a Dunning-Kruger Effect gish gallop attack.
I found this:
https://www.amerika.org/politics/core-philosophy-of-brett-stevens/
Hope it helps. Also:
https://www.amerika.org/texts/what-is-reality/
Here’s some nitpicking no one asked for.
In the second link, which is an essay on the importance of (accurate) prediction in contrast to only immediate perception, I wish the word reality wasn’t shoehorned into it. It kinda clutters the point and the definition of reality seems to seesaw back and forth too much for any useful precision anyway.
But otherwise, good food for thought.
Is it shoehorned indeed, or a reminder of the theme? It will be worth re-reading to see what I think these days.
Thank you for checking all of this out. Hope they made for good reading.
The strong preying on the weak is how the universe renews itself. Blissful bloodshowers cascading through history as the inferior die and the superior survive to spread their genes.
The string playing of the week is how Brett reviews the shelf.
If only we had a trebuchet on the coast of Canada to use to send the shitty bands to their future home at the bottom of a deep ocean trench, life would be grand and beautiful.
Judas Iscariot had the one EP but the rest was Burzum/Darkthrone drone worship.
More to the point, no one cares about Cobalt, Judas Iscariot, or GBK beyond the couple years they were the new thing.
People are still listening to Absu and Averse Sefira, like they listen to Blaspherian, the first Imprecation, dead horse, Rigor Mortis, and other great Texas bands.
Unfortunately people also listen to Pantera, but they buy Apple products and use Facebook too. The only solution is world domination and eugenic euthanasia of such people.
First Imprecation as in Theurgia Goetia Summa compilation? The Jehovah Denied demo might be all they had left to say after that.
You named my two favorite releases by the band right there. I just wish Morbus 666 and Bahimiron had continued.
Sure, there was plenty of potential with those projects. Just listened to the last Morbus 666 and it’s better than I remembered. Last Bahimiron was a good one too.
Apparently Morbus 666 is back and playing tonight in Houston.
Bahimiron had lots of potential. I was impressed with the fusion of Gorgoroth, Blasphemy, and Gehenna with a Danzig/Motorhead vibe. No point trying to be norsecore when you are from Texas.
Here we go again… dmu praising Texas bands that no one from anywhere outside austin gives a flying fuck about.
Support the scene, bra-bra!
I wish I was from Austin with the kind of shows they get over there…
Yeah but then you have to live in Austin.
You’ll be glad to know that Morbus 666 returned recently (and, in fact, are playing a show in Houston tonight).
Excellent. I pity them for having to be in a major Texas city but am glad they are keeping the sword high (and fisting baby al-Jesus).
Generally USBM was a non-entity past Havohej and Demoncy, with a few standouts like Averse Sefira and some death metal transplants like Absu. The US did death metal better than anyone but the Finns, Swedes, and Dutch. It contributed a great deal to black metal through bands like Infester, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Incantation, Rigor Mortis, and Revenant. But black metal is more about escaping egalitarian humanist fantasies and encountering the nihilism of the winter woods in darkness, and that is hard for most to understand coming from the post-Civil War USA.
If we are doing the ‘country ranking’ game, I would go:
1. Norway
2. Finland
3. Maybe Germany?
For black metal, and:
1. USA
2. Finland
3. Netherlands
For death metal. Swedish death I only like for the first AtG and maybe Therion (although I disagree with the common view that Beyond Santorum* > Of Darkness).
*yes it was intentional, dunno if it’s very funny tho. You have to be acquainted with the worst of US politics to get the ‘joke’.
I remember that Santorum guy. Another aspiring theocrat who hopes that being good with Jesus/Israel, the military-industrial complex, and Wall Street will somehow get him through a successful career in politics so he can retire to golf and wide-screen television in moneyed comfort. These people are basically South American politicians at this point.
Swedish death metal starts with Carnage/Dismember, Unleashed, Nihilist/Entombed, Therion, At the Gates, Hypocrisy, Carbonized, Merciless, Necrophobic, Cemetary, Carbonized, and Unanimated, with the first albums from most being all that you need. For At the Gates, the first album is all that I can stand, and for Hypocrisy, the EPs really are the best work.
“Carnage/Dismember, Unleashed, Nihilist/Entombed, Therion, At the Gates, Hypocrisy, Carbonized, Merciless, Necrophobic, Cemetary, Carbonized, and Unanimated”
I guess that’s why I can’t really get into Swedish death.
Carnage (Recollections): 8/10
Dismember (Everflowing): 7/10
Unleashed (Shadows): 5/10
Entombed (Left Hand): 6/10
Therion (Of Darkness): 8/10
AtG (Red Sky): 9,5/10
Hypocrisy (Penetration): 7/10 (maybe more, I haven’t listen to it in a while)
Carbonized… damn I had forgotten about them, are they considered “death” proper? They don’t sound like most Swedish death metal so I guess they get points for originality, a bit like AtG (although the latter doesn’t need it)… other than that I’m not comfortable rating something I haven’t listened to in a long time :(
Merciless (Awakening): 4/10
Necrophobic (Nocturnal + everything after): 0/10, everything I hate about Swedish DM.
Cemetary (50 shades): 7/10
Unanimated (Forest): 8/10
I can add Dawn (Nær Solen): 8,5/10.
And you’re being generous skipping over all the trash Sweden has produced which deserves a good 0 (or even -1 in the case of Soilwork & Arch Enemy).
Compare that to the “big five” of Finland.
Demilich (Nespithe): 10/10
Amorphis (either Privilege or Karelian): 9,5/10
Sentenced (North): 9,5/10
Adramelech (Psycho or PBD): 8/10
Demigod (Slumber): 4/10
Basically even the “worst” of Finland isn’t that far removed from the “top” of Sweden.
As for Norway, it’s pretty easy: Cadaver (Pains): 9/10 + Darkthrone (Soulside): 6/10.
USA there are just too many bands, but Incantation, Infester, Suffocation are 10, Morbid Angel & Obituary are 9, Monstrosity is 8, Immolation maybe 7, etc… down to Cannibal Corpse 1, Dying Fetus 0 and Waking the Cadaver -1.
I tend to agree on your ratings of Finnish bands, although I think it makes more sense to use letter grades if you must, or just describe the music.
I am also in agreement on Cadaver and the American bands. Cannibal Corpse has always struck me as KISS for a new generation. Dying Fetus is probably on par with them but less catchy, so more like death metal and punk and less like hard rock.
There is no point focusing on the trash out of anywhere because trash is the norm. Lack of organization is the default on Earth, and nature shapes it into form through a process we call “chaos” that is actually more like free-association paired with testing against the whole. It is too far out for most humans to understand because they are talking monkeys with car keys, but the universe runs on it, and it relies on stochastic resonance and parallels in the Platonic sense of “pattern” more than linear causality, which with humans too often returns to “wet streets cause rain.”
Carbonized is grindcore in my view, but might as well lump them in since they share personnel with two of the bands already mentioned.
I would expect metal to follow a Bell Curve or standard distribution, with about 70% being C-B, 15% too horrible to rate, and 15% in the B+ and above range, with a percent of a percent worth retaining for the duration.
The point of the Dark Legions Archive is to find that percent of a percent. Most people are interested in “complete” archives (DKE) but what we really need is to pick the good out from the crap, since crap is the norm. Life is feces.
However, every local band, try-hard, hipster, and wannabe opposes that notion, so we are outvoted as usual.
You’re insane if you think Necrophobic and Demigod released bad albums.
What a wordy way to reveal your inner imbecile . The seminal releases from Necrophobic, Merciless and Demigod are superior to anything in the Entombed or Obituary catalogues.
In my view, once something gets up there to the top echelon, it is sort of splitting hairs to try to rank it further. Obituary Cause of Death is great stuff, maybe someday someone will try that approach again.
sadly splitting hairs is 99% of what we have left
Autopsy released another death metal album titled Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts. Hopefully we will see it reviewed on this site.
It will probably be like the last Autopsy album, basically them cloning their past works and throwing in more whacky drumming.
They kind of blew it doing one album after another when I thought their Macabre Eternal comeback album could have stood on it’s on from it’s release some 12 years ago to now, the same way their original demos and albums held up well over a decade after the initial release. It’s still good in a way that’s better than modern Incatation, Cannibal Corpse and Immolation, they didn’t ditch their former selves in the past and reimagine their art through the aim of proficiency in fulfilling a recording/touring contract. Their hearts are still in it and they are still worth seeing live, and they get more out of stretching themselves thin than most bands but it’s barely enough at the same time.
I think they’re one of the only death metal bands of old vintage to still offer something on a musical/technical level. Not saying they’ve ever been “sophisticated” in those areas but there are interesting textures on every new Autopsy recording that go beyond novelty value and create something resembling an atmosphere. Highly underrated IMO compared to the other bands you mentioned.
Almost all old bands are now looking at their albums in front of a mirror and trying to “relive” that sound for the remaining Generation Xers and kids who wished they were around in the old days because pre-Clinton America was still WASP and therefore functional while post-Clinton America is diversity America where everything is mandated by government, nothing is of quality, everything is expensive, and everyone in power is brick fucking stupid.
This site should have it easy to nominate this year’s best album with Cirith Ungol-Dark Parade, hands down the best heavy metal record published in 2023!!
*cough* Burzumination *cough*
That shits fucking stupid
I kinda like it but it’s fucking stupid
Brett, what do you mean “contemporary levels of aggression”?
More, or less, aggressive than antiquated or ancient levels?
I’m not hearing the difference.
Can you actually feel the power of Cirith Ungol’s new album? Can you feel the heavy metal running through your veins? Death metallers are fags, heavy metallers are manly and warrior like.
Heavy metallers douse themselves in olive oil and molest retarded children with their scabbards, much like Karl Logan and Dave Holland. Let the record show they are indeed the true poofters.
Have you looked at olive oil prices lately? Fuck that.
Rapeseed oil works in a pinch as well.
All metallers are fags (especially you, shorty). Only banging rocks together is real.
No, it’s boring heavy metal like their previous releases.
It seems to me that the guitar playing is a bit more contemporary in terms of aggression, but I read old school Demoncy guitar as more trying to turn the guitar into a fuzzy piano or organ sound.
“Classic” bands that are idolized on this site that I hate, so I will take the opportunity to piss some people off:
Ildjarn/sort vokter – This is taking shit-production on another level, the music is okay, but the bedroom noise gimmick isn’t fooling me.
Burzum – Dungeon synth on beats basically, I can’t stand dungeon synth, it’s for kids. Awful vocals too, Varg is a retard.
Mayhem – Pretty much everything this band did is just weak and awful, except maybe wolf’s lair abyss. Only the fucking hype got them this far.
Autopsy – I’m okay with the first fullength, but damnit if the second album isn’t a boring overrated piece of DOOMY ass shit.
Impaled nazarene – A REAL MAN FUCKS A GOAT, HUUAUWJHUHAWUAHA SUOMI PERKELELELEALALA!
Beherit – Musically OKAY but the idolatry is what gets me. What on earth is so special about this band, it’s painfully average and the guy can barely play his instruments (should’ve just made only ambient-techno beats).
Graveland – Get that Polish cock out of your mouth and open your eyes to the fact that aside from the decent Celtic Winter, this is fucking power metal on African drum beats for the most part.
Gorguts – First album is an okay Suffocation-style effort and the cover looks nice. After that, it got unbearably artsy fartsy and nu-metallish.
Metallica – What is this band doing in the underground? Need I even explain? Fuck Dio and Iron maiden too.
Black Sabbath – Yeah yeah, first heavy metal band, or so they say. I prefer Coven that came a year before if I had to choose, but this music has not aged well at all.
Manowar – Seriously? Wasn’t all the above bad enough?
The Celtic Winter is great. Killers is worth your time. Gorguts up through Obscura is worth hearing. Never got into Dio, too waily.
Sticking to your guns eh? That’s fine, my opinion is a smelly asshole in a sea of shit that doesn’t matter. Metal is about individuality, and so you shouldn’t give a fuck as neither do I.
Killers is the best (or better said, most listenable) Iron Maiden did no doubt, but I wouldn’t listen to it because it’s not extreme enough… I can just listen to Slayer or Possessed instead when it comes to oldies – pure preference. Metallica was also a good bad that I just never would listen to because it’s not what I’m looking for.
Gorguts is musically competent on post-Considered Dead I’ll give them that, but again, preference is a mofo. I prefer the standard format of the first album rather than this progressive guitar wank. For that reason I’m not big on Atheist, Atrocity or Demilich either, even though I know they can play their fucking instruments.
Beherit isn’t bad, it’s just okay was my point, and works best as an electronic band. EDS is definitely their best work in my opinion.
The lesson today is, the old adage remains: tastes are subjective.
Tastes may be subjective, quality is not.
Good point about EDS. I really do not care how extreme something is if it is musically competent; I dislike rock for other reasons.
Progressive guitar wank can be great if coupled with evocative songwriting. Sometimes it takes awhile to see.
Big assumption. I do not agree.
So that means my tastes in music are shit, so what? Maybe I like eating shit, but I guess I shouldn’t care what others think about that. Hence the individualism part, because why be somebody’s slave? Isn’t that the epitome of strength – independence?
However, if you’re going to take that route, I didn’t claim there are no consequences or that people should automatically accept you. Nobody owes you a fucking thing, or vice versa.
Pointless discussing really, but I just want to say that a lot things that people consider “the epitome”, whatever it may be, I just don’t agree with, and what makes my opinion more valid? I really think you can’t answer that. This is the reason why people argue over the internet about who the fuck is right, when at the end of the day, the answer is no one.
So if everyone says the Mona Lisa is a masterpiece, then I am free to disagree and say it’s a piece of crap, because no human has the divine authority to really make the rules here. We all lose.
Autonomy? Sure, when you have your own sun and can generate your own ecosystem. Until then you are part of this world, and strength is adaptation with quality principles.
I think you may be reading too much into taste versus quality. If quality is objective && taste is subjective — as a nihilist I believe in neither of these — then your tastes are not relevant other than for you.
However, reality is real, and while nothing is universally, absolutely, and objectively fact, value, or communication, some things have more endurance for a reason.
If “everyone” says the Mona Lisa is a masterpiece, we are all free to not like it. None of us are the world.
All we have is our senses to rely on to make sense of reality if we have no omnipotent entity who actually dictactes the absolute rules of morality, science, math, logic and even taste. That’s the only authority we have, our fallible notions. Therefore I have no hard proof on why black is black and white is white, it becomes a subjective clutter, unless I make myself to be the final authority in a fit of psychotic megalomania (yeah good luck with that).
So you know “x-y-z” is real b/c my senses says so is circular. We need a little more than “I am therefore I am” thing. This is why I can’t listen to other people any more than myself, unless I allow myself to do so. It sounds kind of democratic, but might I add that I don’t believe democracy even exists, as it’s either good or bad dictatorship (whatever the fuck that means).
This makes communism and fascism the same coin, but with different faces: it’s still a small group of people ruling over others. Which you prefer is again in the eye of the beholder and very circumance dependent. If you want to take charge of these things, that’s fine, but you do so by your own authority.
It doesn’t stop there. You are not merely a blob perceiving stimuli, you have a brain with which to figure out the incoming data. Most people will probably see the same tree that a wise man sees, but few will draw the same conclusions.
This assumes we are in control of our reactions, but really I feel, and when I wake up out of the feeling, I have done something odd like shoot my boyfriend after he breaks up with me (he should know by now that he can NEVER do this because I will cry).
Seriously, vato? You think Beherit is not good because of idolatry, motherfucker? I gonna slice you up like chorizo, cabron pendejo.
¡Ay, caramba!
I’ll give my 2 cents on each mentioned band.
Ildjarn/sort vokter – sort of agree, but Ildjarn is basically one of the only “TH-clone” (or TH influenced bands) that actually understands how to make music like Transilvanian Hunger.
Burzum – The first four albums are basically the prime of black metal, minus maybe Filosofem which is too repetitive (and not in a good, Hvis Lyset way). Monotonous I should say. The debut is basically perfect save for the high hat. Varg himself agrees with you that his vocals suck, but they never bothered me IMO. You can find a lot worse (new Gorgoroth, Immortal, Dissection + every Swedish BM band, even Attila on DMDS takes a while to get used to, I wish they kept Dead alive and/or Maniac).
Mayhem – Wolf’s Lair/Declaration of War were ok, but DMDS is gold. On par with Burzum and Pure Holo. Agreed that the rest is try-hard gimmickry but you’re talking about almost literally several different bands with just Hellhammer/Necrobutcher holding them together. More of a tour act than a band at this point. Their music keeps getting worse and worse IMO, despite their latest Daemons or whatever getting praised as a “return to form” by the usual suspects (fake news/Metalsxcks fake journalists & Metal Archives morons).
Autopsy – Always found them boring, much like Asphyx. The only bands that can play “slow” death metal are Incantation (up until Diabolical) and Infester. Maybe West Wall and Crimson Thorns. Maybe.
Impaled Nazarene – “A REAL MAN FUCKS A GOAT, HUUAUWJHUHAWUAHA SUOMI PERKELELELEALALA!” funny, but as “generic” as they may sound there is “something” on Ugra-Karma that makes it replayable without it getting annoying. The riffs may be Z-tier, but the way they are arranged is pretty interesting. It tells a story, which is what all good metal should do. I’ll take them (& Von) over the try-hard “technical” BM of Dissection and Watain.
Beherit – Drawing and Engram are B+, no more. Nothing special, but far from the worse. I wouldn’t rate them higher than Satanic Warmaster or Helgrind’s “Sick Rulers of Heaven”.
Graveland – Just because they incorporate some Viking-era Bathory (maybe as a tribute?) doesn’t make them “power metal”. And Thousands Swords is superior to 100% Polish BM, early Behemoth included.
Gorguts – “First album is an okay Suffocation-style effort and the cover looks nice. After that, it got unbearably artsy fartsy and nu-metallish.” – can’t disagree :( I never got the hype for this band. It seems they are always trying – and failing – to one up someone.
Considered Dead: try hard Obituary.
Erosion: try hard Suffocation.
Obscura: try hard Nespithe.
after that: try hard Opeth.
Metallica – I actually like Kill’em All & Ride the Lightning more than any other thrash/speed metal, including Slayer. But that’s just me, I’m sure Bret & others will disagree.
Black Sabbath – “Yeah yeah, first heavy metal band, or so they say […] but this music has not aged well at all.” – can’t disagree.
Manowar – A guilty pleasure, I guess, but I’d still listen to them over stuff like Watain, Dark Funeral, Anthrax, deathcore, nu metal, etc.
Metallica and Black Sabbath are musically competent and interesting. Hard to go back to after you have heard Celtic Frost however. Nothing wrong with Manowar, especially since it is just a bombastic take on NWOBHM. I think Gorguts gets a lot of shit in this thread but in my view, were trying to find their own sound and make songs that stood against time. This changed as forces eroded the band, notably the usual label and fan pressure, but up through From Wisdom to Hate they were writing good music.
I’ll throw on metallica or sabbath if I’m in the mood because it’s timeless and good music
Even normies can appreciate the best from Metallica, Black Sabbath, Toastymint, Nuclear Assault, Motorhead, Angel Witch, Mercyful Fate, and Slayer.
When you go to Bathory and Celtic Frost, it gets harder, and when you go full-on into real death metal, it becomes very rare. However they seem to have little problem with Cannibal Corpse, Cradle of Filth, Pantera, Opeth, Tool, and all those alternative metal bands.
Yeah. I don’t really hang out with normal people much but everyone I’ve played demilich for likes it for one reason or another.
Demilich has a penetrating sense of humor as well as being good music. I generally view people as either constructive or lost, and the constructive I accept with any eccentricity, including being normies, homosexual, even lawyers, Apple users, Christians, potheads, transsexuals, Congoids, doom metal fans, etc. There are good people everywhere. Most normies are just me-first self-centered solipsistic opportunists like the third world, and these are best avoided because they will suddenly stab you, rape your corpse, and take everything of value from your decomposing carcass.
Cannibal Corpse? Weren’t they in a Jim Carrey movie?