Avast young heshling! It is time to rise up, rise again! Take hold of the flame, the crown and the ring!
To guide the way and aid thee in thy quest, a powerful playlist of true heavy metal has been curated for thine journey.
19 CommentsTags: 1980s, 1990s, 2000's, Ambient, Austria, cloven hoof, Crimson Glory, epic, fates warning, Heavy Metal, lord wind, Lost Horizon, manilla road, manowar, playlist, poland, power metal, queensrÿche, Summoning, UK, USA, USPM, virgin steele
Article by David Rosales.
The dilapidated edifice of modern human spirituality renders standard methods to access the secrets and mysteries so ineffectual that the average man today sees in these terms only quaint poetry or simply nonsense. A dark age of ignorance and inverted values requires an inverted path — one in which we enter a veritable Dark Night of the Soul, one in which a Nietzschean Going Under leads us to transformation and realization through acts of courage and commitment — is perhaps the most appropriate.
31 CommentsTags: Black Metal, cantus bestiae, hiborym, katharsis, playlist, sabbathan, Satanism, SVEST, the helheim society, Today's playlist, Today's Recommended Playlist
Varg Vikernes posted a video a few weeks ago to his ThuleanPerspective Youtube channel listing the ten metal albums most influential to Burzum. We forced a lowly, supple-assed Death Metal Underground junior staffer/catamite to type them up into a play list for our readers:
17 CommentsTags: Bathory, blood fire death, burzum, Deicide, destruction, hammerheart, infernal overkill, influences, iron maiden, killers, kreator, playlist, pleasure to kill, somewhere in time, twilight of the gods, varg vikernes, youtube
Billions celebrate Constantine’s syncretic solar deity’s crucifixion by eating fish today. Here’s a playlist of seven classic speed and death metal songs to contemplate this excruciating Roman suffocation method:
7 CommentsTags: clickbait, conan the barbarian, crucifixion, death metal, Dismember, filler, good friday, grotesque, incantation, kreator, morbid angel, necrolord, playlist, sodom, Speed Metal, Today's playlist, Today's Recommended Playlist, vader, youtube
Article by David Rosales
It is no secret that we believe that the best of metal has come out mostly of what we now call ‘the underground’, a tradition that has been characterized by standing outside of the wheel of commercial production in the arts. The moment a band signs a contract, lands big deals and makes a break through while effectively becoming shackled to the money-making industry, it has sold out. This is because as a commercially-oriented product, its main purpose is to be able to sell, it has to pander to the preferences of a certain audience, however whimsical they are.
It is true that music must retain a natural connection to man and its true test is how different people receive it. But this is not the same as the populist idea that the best music is that which appeals to the largest number of people, which is nothing more than a dumbing down to the least common denominator. The authentic underground stands between independence from commercial pandering and the need to communicate naturally through organized sound itself (Editor’s note: At the best of times, it furthermore isn’t simply content to dwell on its alleged authenticity; cue the endless mockery of albums that are too “kvlt” to be any good).
The following are short underground metal works released throughout the nineties. These represent specific moments and sides of metal that were, at that particular moment, true to their roots and the spirit of metal. They stand out in each particular moment as either outstanding examples in a times of superficial distraction, decadence or a complete lack of direction across the underground metal movement.
1. At the Gates – Gardens of Grief (1991)
A favorite underground EP of many for the wrong reasons, this first official release by At the Gates stands squarely on the pillars of traditional old school death metal while innovating a unique approach to songwriting which built a whole platform on top of its basis, elevating the progressive art of death metal to a whole other level of refinement.
2. Divine Eve – As The Angels Weep (1993)
This single nostalgic (inherently, not in retrospect only) release from back in the day by this Texan outfit brought together gestures from early Celtic Frost and Cathedral within a Scandinavian death metal frame, succeeding in climaxing in its own voice during certain moments in between.
3. Ancient – Trolltaar (1995)
A condensation and evolution of their soul-enchanting debut, this EP shows Ancient at its darkest and most minimalist state, while displaying its most potent emotional impact that reaches out as an invisible hand to clutch at the listener’s heart (Note: Infamous’ Of Solitude and Silence seems to echo the feeling of this ancient-souled EP).
4. Absurd – Asgardsrei (1999)
Crude and rhythmic, a simple and punk-like punch to the face in the time of metal emptiness, superficiality and posturing, Absurd’s roughness disguises the poetry of the tribesman’s spirit, the man following his instincts untouched by modernist presumptions of what reading of history and human nature better fits their interests.
3 CommentsTags: absurd, Ancient, At the Gates, death metal, divine eve, playlist, underground metal
Article by David Rosales
The eighties, as any other decade, had its own particular flavor, and popular culture had turned to fantasy and horror as a sort of addictive drug. The most grueling slasher films with fake yet more tangible appearances than the digitized reproductions directed at desensitized audiences that we have today. It may be guessed that a lot of this was an outlet for repressed feelings of hopelessness towards the end of the Cold War, in the midst of death squad strikes and political assassinations throughout the world by the very pseudo protectors of liberty.
The menace of a nuclear holocaust made the idea of a post-apocalyptic scenario not so much the stuff of dreams but a possible (and plausible) future not more than a few decades ahead. There was terror in the air, as desperation and fear had already become the habit of a whole generation raised in the shadow of the fairy tales of the great wars and disarmed through the enhancing of shadows on the wall as their very protectors backstabbed them.
The kids born of this former failed generation of proper workmen and citizens grew to distrust all the bullshit thrown at them. Growing up in this era of tension and constant threats outside a bubble of hypocrisy and bigotry made young men of a more realist mentality long for the collapse of the system of lies built by the ‘mature and responsible’. This is the world that gave us death metal as Slayer’s lessons were ran through hardcore punk and then grindcore.
1. Cro-Mags – Age of Quarrel (1986)
Expressing the most bare-bones discontent with society with a sincerity that only the punk spirit can deliver, Cro-Mags adopt metal riff phrasing techniques to give further elaboration to paint pictures of collapse and humanity’s demise that are more grim and nihilistic than the lyrics themselves.
2. Repulsion – Horrified (1989)
While Age of Quarrel is the image of a decadent civilization malfunctioning its way to its own zombification, Repulsion shows us the explosion and its aftermath. The first is fear of impending doom, this latter is terror, desperation and psychotic breakdown in the face of monstrous reality.
3. Carnage – Dark Recollections (1990)
Beneath the blatant visions of disaster and discomfort, the reveling in what is seen as an unavoidable outcome, or perhaps an already present state, is laughed at with the humor of a cancerous patient that knows no clean escape from his own impossible situation. It takes death metal to come out as the triumphant anti-hero, shotgun in hand, ready to do away with the weakness of modern man.
14 CommentsTags: 1980s, carnage, clickbait, cro-mags, Horror, playlist, repulsion
Getting into underground metal styles has never been a straightforward thing for anyone. The exception might be the Cannibal Corpse crowd that approach this music as fix for a certain mood, but see little beyond the most sensual appeal of the music. For those actually trying to appreciate the music anywhere beyond the surface either in a technical manner, it’s significance or the experience it provides beyond simple monochromatic sensual indulgence, the path consists of several steps in not one path but a multitude of paths that conform to the singular state and journey of each listener.
The present list does not attempt to give a template that will fit all as that is impossible. It is simplistic in its attempt to generalize and exemplify. The most important starting assumption is that the listener is at least fond of traditional heavy metal or hard rock in the worse case. I tried to avoid using of overtly offensive gateway bands like Craddle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir or Arch Enemy but these should not be completely discarded as possibilities to enable a smooth and pleasant transition into death and black metal.
For this example of a road map towards understanding and appreciation of death metal I have distinguished five different steps with suitable albums as follows:
I. Easy-going quasi death metal
II. Welcoming and easy-to-understand simple death metal that is only complex on a local level and so can inspire a sense of technical wonder in the listener while maintaining mood.
III. Excellent, but mostly on a technical level, with raw power and refinement in style, solid and well-produced albums that do not transcend their technical aspects
IV. Authentic, representative of the core of the death metal spirit while being original
V. Completely past appearances and technical infatuation, almost on the spiritual level of true and good black metal
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Tags: adramelech, At the Gates, carcass, cryptopsy, death, death metal, Deicide, demigod, Demilich, entombed, gorguts, immolation, introduction, morbid angel, playlist, suffocation, vader
