Abomino Aetas - Sower of Death (Firestorm) review from Live4metal.com
Sower of Death is the debut album from Stavanger-based Norwegians Abomino Aetas. In this day and age, where I regularly get Finns playing symphonic black metal, Norwegians playing death metal and Australians playing anything and everything better than everyone else, it’s rather sweet to come across a Norwegian band that actually play black metal. And dare I add, true black metal at that. Think Mayhem, think Burzum, Darkthrone – you get the picture.
Of course, another way to put this would be to say that this is a Marmite release. You either love it or you hate it. It’s interesting to see that there are still bands out there today
who want to (and are capable to) pursue this particular musical form, which has been sadly neglected of late. Because, whilst I describe this as “true” black metal, there is not the usual sub-text of “and utterly derivative” that would normally be associated with the attempts to write within that genre.
It comes across quite forcefully that Abomino Aetas write this kind of music because it’s natural to them. The production is in line with the genre as well, being quite one-dimensional, but that all adds to the charm of this piece. There are some very good weather effects (thunder, drenching rain etc) that will no doubt be putting people off from ever visiting Norway, and overall the snarled vocals that are so reminiscent of early Burzum. The album art is also very much of a piece, monochrome pictures of (presumably) the three band members, Gothic fonts and quotations form Nietzsche and (oddly) H P Lovecraft.
At the end of the day, this is an album that will polarise opinion into two camps. There is no middle ground, no namby-pamby option of “quite liking it, but…”. Either you like your black metal to be “true”, icy and understated or you don’t. This is a perfect example of the coldness of a pure art form, and if you don’t get it, well you can always go and listen to something more mainstream and commercial. Meanwhile, I’m off to look for my Burzum CDs…
www.godreah.com | www.norsksvartmetall.com
 
Black Magic ‘Raise the Dead’ 2007 demo Cassette
To acquire this 2007 demo from Norway I had to order it from far off Chile. Now that’s the underground for you. Here we have a demo as obscure as a one legged monk with no tongue. From the first track, Rite of Suffering, we are pummelled with a retro thrashing rage that feeds of the eighties Germanic thrash gods Destruction, Tankard and Annihilation. The compact, tight guitar riffs reflect a basic style that has been emulated countless times. This band features the drum annihilation of Sadomancer, who is also in the thrashing Norwegian band Ghoul Cult. The sound is above average, the music equally compelling and yet it does offer little to the imagination. The hypnotic riff the band have instigated on the track, Bestial Purity, is quite spell binding. Will this band ever be heard of again??? Such travesties occur all the time and I have no doubt it will occur here.
 
 
Emancer ‘Twilight and Randomness’ Naga Productions
This band have never been mere primitivism set to music. The style of technical post black metal experimentation transcends orthodoxy in favour of fine edged guitar tones and clear percussion. Here we find more of the same mid tempo Voi Vod like bravado issuing from the meandering guitar leads and post Black Metal dynamics. The harsh vocals weave their grim intent within a familiar Ulver like clean vocal chanting. Like fellow Norwegians Manes, Ulver, and Solefald, the icy chill of the root formula is washed away, purged by a pursuit of individual creative flare. The track Dice Man, is a strident modern metal track clawing at numerous styles. Thrashing rage evaporates into an industrial section and huge razor sharp
guitar riffs slice through the synthetic electronica. All this is sewn into a theme that becomes the track proper. Its technicality seems to flow quite easily into the ears. There is still a degree of rip roaring pace and intense drum/ guitar attacks that are tethered to numerous set pieces, so to speak. The quite sublime synth work and almost Jazz atmospheres will keep you on your toes. This is an album that requires more than one spin to absorb the many levels of moods and textures that make up its often multi formed aural melee of sounds.
 
Eswiel (nor) / Apolion(it) Split Gatefold 7" EP ltd 333 coloured vinyl

With a choice of three colours I opted for red and lo and behold the vinyl arrived as a gatefold and within the black and white cover art, a poster. Now that’s the true spirit of the underground as this split will fade in to obscurity within a year.
Eswiel are an unknown Norwegian act to appear like magic from the dark abyss. [the band features members from equally obscure Norwegian band Energumen that released some demos in 1992] Musically the band stutter into life through a tribal like beat, ponderous, rolling guitar strums and a constant drum pattern that evokes a unique atmosphere. Second track, Black Abyss, is propelled at you like a poison dart, hyper fast Black Metal that rips the skin off the back of your ears with its thrashing rage. There is a charnel smoke issuing from the relentless pursuit of aural decimation here, a barbaric ruthlessness of clashing guitars and biting drums. This is a Black Metal onslaught of the fiercest kind and one that is deployed with hurtful intent. There is a catchy melody woven into this track and one that reveals the bands willingness to steer the chaotic music away from total noise. The flip side ushers forth the more than endearing Apolion from Italy.
Italian Black Metal has an equally long history as the Nordic hordes and here we find yet another straight from the hip primitive Raw Black Metal band that employs a loose guitar style and a mixture of fast and slow tempos. Melody oozes from the two tracks on offer
here, the first being a short, sharp blast to the forehead. The second having a more slow burring lethargic feel to its sustained rhythmic substance. The light weight guitars weave a hypnotic atmosphere of despair and bleak reality. Apolion are the more accessible of the two bands here.
 
Hinsides ‘The Forthcoming of Abell 1689’ demo
This 3 tracker is RAW, raw as in blood meat raw. The atmosphere the music generates is COLD, cold as in stiff corpse in a fridge cold. If you need a dose of icy low fi black metal without any thrills or attempts at subtle atmospheres then this bestial Demo cd is for you. Think of Burzums Aske era, or Immortals pre-Total Holocaust and you will be halfway to understanding the spiteful ravenous noise emitted from the digital air waves here. The vocals are ghastly snarls of the most putrid kind, invoking the very breath of Hell. Of the three tracks the second, Tranceportal to Zeta Recticuli, stands out due to its mid tempo rumble. The band try to inject some melody into the rigid arrangements, although never straying
from the black as pitch vision wallowing within the music’s soul. The sound is typical fuzzy demo quality, neither good nor bad, just charismatic if you are one top understand its underground origins. There is also a similarity to Ancients early guitar style. A thick remorseless strumming technique that lacerates the air. So, if you are of the TRUE BLACK METAL spirit, seek no further than here. www.hinsides.biz
 
Keep of Kalessin ‘Kolossus’ Indie Records
Their previous album, Armada, saw this band leap out of the semi-elitist level and stand shoulder to shoulder with the current big guns of Norwegian Black Metal [or in this case post-Black Metal]. With Gorgoroth and Mayhem both ushering fine albums of late.
This new offering has most of what Armada spat out with such worrying ease, and yet this somehow lacks the bite but more than makes up for this drop in intensity with sleek thrash meets post Black compositions. I have seen a few reviews for this and many suggest it is a better album than Armada, a Nuclear Blast worthy release and that about reveals the
watered down texture of the material. Although vigorously pounding from the start and technically woven with a high melody punch in mind, the sheer fluency and quality of Armada is never surmounted. The speed, the rampant riffing, the brutal vocal rasps all meet in a modern mix of simmering Gothenburg clarity. There are some great melodic moments and memorable guitar arrangements to whet the inner Metal soul that yearns to be hammered into the dust. Sure, this album blows away most of the current polished blackened acts out there, it still boasts some catchy head thumping songs. I found the release too slick, too smooth to boast any old Black Metal attributes, but that’s evolution for ya. 
 
Knokkelklang ‘Kalk og Aske’ Demo Cassette
Now here is a fascinating band of TRUE black metal leanings. Of the current new Norwegian Hordes, Kaosritual, Helvetespine, Abomino Aetas, Min Kiv, and many more, this black as pitch outfit from the nethermost gloom crawl out of the salivating jaws of Tophet and thereafter serenade you with a soundtrack to solitude and bleak nothingness.
There is a hollow primitivism here, a grim rapture set into hypnotic guitar strums and Hellish/ infernal vocal rasps. The sluggish tempo and drawling bass chords swim in an overcast atmosphere, hollow and foreboding. The slow burning arrangements drift from sleepy rhythmic spells to a funeral style dirge. There is a slight aura of early Forgotten Woods, and a definitive Strid deployment of spellbinding melodic music. The band moniker may confuse, the off the radar existence may intrigue, but what is certain, the music here is darker than a moonless night and created in such a way as to enthral the soul.
 
Mayhem ‘From the Darkest Past’ cd Demomancy Records
Here we have an unusual Mayhem release as it contains the rough mix of ‘De Mysteriss Dom Sathanas, taped during May 16th 1992, before the vocals were added. The recording features the very audible bass by Count Grishnack. You also get a recording with Dead taped in 1990, ending with instrumental versions of Deathcrush, and Celtic Frosts, Into Crypt of Rays taped in 1986. The De Mysteriss recording is absolutely amazing, a new take on one of the greatest Black Metal albums of all time. You can sing [or growl] along yourself and be totally drawn into the smoking chill of the atmosphere. The sound quality is
great and oozes that pre-production atmosphere. This was the pivotal recording of a generation. The definitive Black Metal ionic album that spawned a genre incarnate. To play this in darkness is to be taken back in time to an era of mystery and the unknown, of a musical revolution in the making. Hellhammer is as epileptic as you an imagine, Euronymous blazing like a demented fiend and Vargs bass chews up the atmosphere with clerical ease. The totally awesome, Buried by time and Dust, literally levels the atmosphere with its scathing riffs. The equally energetic and exquisite tracks, Life Eternal, Funeral Fog, and Cursed in Eternity, just bleeds the air of any warmth. The Dead era recordings or, Freezing Moon and Carnage, have a decent sound, but have appeared elsewhere many times. The final instrumentals are dire recordings and offer little to the Mayhem legacy. This digi cd is actually an official limited press for the Mayhem fan club of Panama would you believe??? 
 
One Tail, One Head ‘One Tail, One Head’ Demo Cassette
Raw Nidrosian Black Metal. 4 tracks, 13 minutes. Total and utter abhorrence and the band name is totally unique to boot. The sound here is abysmal, a dire demo that reminds me of the Emperor demo of old., That was an equally appalling fuzzy Black Metal offering. Once you get past the muggy sound you will enter a realm of classic Black Metal. Raw, primitive, one dimensional, hollow and oozing that olden flavour. The vocals are gravel blasted snarls issuing hatred band abhorrence into the air. The guitars slash through the atmosphere in a furious ice driven fury. The tape is a thing of the past, but so is the music here and the two compliment another perfectly. There is nothing remotely new going on here, nothing that will alter the course of Black Metal. This is just good orthodox demo quality extreme Satanic Metal with no warmth to be found.
 
Satyricon ‘My Skin is Cold’ EP, Roadrunner / Indie Recordings
An EP which comes as a 7 inch gatefold vinyl single including a 5 track CD. This will be the only physical version of the EP. Roadrunner will release it for the World excluding Norway where Indie Recording will release it. Limited to 400 copies.
My Skin Is Cold, a slow brooding typical modern era Satyricon track. Soothing guitar strums and a catchy arrangement offers little more than a good post black metal song. The following tracks are re-mastered versions from the LP version of Volcano. Live Through Me, is an even slower more brooding beast than the title track. Chopping guitars and hallucinating keyboards drag the track through Satrys experimental visionary mind.
Existential Fear-Questions, again throws some twists into the mix with a stoner doom style guitar riff and even a Hammond organ. Satyricon have always been more than just a lo-fi dirge and this release of varied tempos and textures confirms that. The final two tracks are taken from Live and turbocharged from the ”Gjallarhorn” show at Sentrum Scene, Oslo, November 2006. Repined Bastard Nation [originally from Volcano] reveals the high octane atmosphere this band release in the live environment. The string bending power chords serenading the ears with that typical Satyricon guitar sound. The fever pitched vocal rasps steer the music into that Satyricon atmosphere we all know so well. Mother North [from the stunning 1996 Nemesis Divina album] ends the EP and reminds us of the bands Black Metal days proper. The orchestration is minimal, but certainly lifts the tracks into a more epic and majestic level, allowing a new feel for an already classic track. Overall, a mixed filler release to keep diehards happy.
 
Svartediket ‘Svartediket’ Svartediket Records 2008
Black folk metal crafted into 23 tracks leaping from ugly troll like yelping to serene chanting. The album starts with a mild synth/ acoustic intro that melts into a female siren wailing and some folk-like hoarse vocal narrative. The music is one moment Skyclad like, the next harsh strident guitar riffs and gruff shouts. There are a lot of experimental sequences thrown in here and the unstable nature to the compositions adds to its unusually diverse atmospheres. Clean male and female vocals serenade you only to be hacked into bemoaning echoes by those sharp gruff barks and ‘all together’ now’ band choral sequences. Lyrically expressed in Norwegian, the very unique and cultural elusiveness of
the material is at times confusing as it is writhing within expressive daedal musical scores. There are numerous gentle moments and even dare I say it ‘Eurovision’ style songs. The dynamic burst of angst power chords tethered to folk musical beats is similar to fellow Norwegians Trollfest, both bands seemingly mad as a drug addled elves. By the time you reach track six you’ll be totally wrapped up in this bands own world. You will be brain boggled with strangled vocals leaping from upbeat keyboards and totally off the wall guitar arrangements. Traditional instruments collide with heavy guitar riffs and erratic arrangements. The songs are on one side easy to absorb, crafted in smooth familiar arrangements. On the other side they are eccentric, coarse and perplexing to the ears.
It is more of a mad student release than any formulated metal extremity. This is one of those albums that you will love or hate.