Necroven - Worship of Humiliation (2012)

Genre: Death Metal

Country: Spain

Fuck, Spain is putting out some good death metal records lately, this is just another exemplary showing full of macabre musicianship and toilet-bowel growls, and should be high on my death metal album of the year list (along with Ataraxy's latest offering). Fans of Backyard Mortuary's Lure of the Occult, Undergang, Ascended, Krypts, Funebrarum, Blaspherian and such should get on this shit immediately. Damn, I love when I find stuff like this without even meaning to...

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Damnation - Rebel Souls (1996)

Genre: Death Metal

Country: Poland

Riffs, riffs and more riffs. They come pouring out of the speaker like the lava on the cover of this album. This is a really overlooked death metal gem from Poland that rips, pillages, sodomizes and shreds and any other synonym of those four words that you could possibly come up with.

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Skepticism – Lead and Aether (1998)

Genre: Funeral Doom
Country: Finland

I would like to sincerely thank my good buddy Crysis for allowing me the privilege of adding to the elite ways (haha) of metalling on the internet via blog. As a token of my gratitude, I would like to grace this blog with a pioneer of the funeral doom genre. Recently acquired out of a random find at a nearby record store, I would strongly hold this up as Skepticism’s finest moment of their career. Everything after this is almost equally awesome but there’s something about Lead and Aether that adds more gloom to my doom than knowing that everyone around you is going to die a slow, agonizing death. Whatever your choice is in checking out this amazing bands discography, you can’t go wrong!

For a slow recession to your grave, click here

Spells and curses and shit

Some guy named Wizard wanted to become a contributor on the blog so I said yes.

Worship - Terranean Wake (2012)

Genre: Funeral Doom

Country: Germany

Can't wait to listen to this thing. Worship is known for playing some seriously monolithic and bottomless funeral doom and if the cover art is any indication, this should be no exception. First full length in five years, give it a listen to see if it's worth the wait.

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Weapon - Embers and Revelations (2012)

Genre: Black/Death Metal
Country: Canada

Ah yes, Weapon is back with their third full length. On this release, they infuse even more blackened influences into their veritable recipe of calculated and at times, atmospheric, songwriting. Mid-ranged raspy vocals accent hallowed riffs that also exhibit a strong sense of melody (not the shitty kind, either). To add on to this, a strong rhythm section composed of The Disciple (who has been in multiple black/death metal bands, including playing live with Incantation) and bassist Kha Tumos can be heard pounding away at their instruments to help support the riffage over top.

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Dira Mortis - Euphoric Convulsions (2012)

Genre: Death Metal
Country: Poland

More destructive death metal to drill holes into your ear sockets. Euphoric Convulsions is a trampling offering, whose three actual songs (the rest are creepy noise samples) are full of terrific drumming and repulsive instrumentation that should make any fan of Dead Congregation or Cruciamentum wet themselves with joy. Kind of a shame there isn't more actual death metal on this album, considering what is there slays faces off. They also have an EP that they put out recently that I will look for.

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Forsete - Demo (2012)

Genre: Crust/D-Beat/Black Metal
Country: Denmark

I found this little demo fucking around on the internet this morning.  Usually when someone posts their solo project on soundcloud it's like shitty VST distortion guitars and Fruityloops drum tracks, but this is none of the above.  The genre tags pretty much describe exactly what it sounds like, d-beat focused crust with a bit of black metal mixed in there for good measure.  The kicker here is that it's actually really fucking awesome. I was especially surprised at how good the production was, you know considering the track record of Soundcloud solo projects.  You can listen to it and download it from the soundcloud page.

Soundcloud

Ataraxy - Revelations of the Ethereal (2012)

Genre: Death Metal
Country: Spain

Look at the album art.

LOOK AT IT.

Yeah now if you don't want to download this by now you probably shouldn't be browsing this blog.  But just in case you need some extra enticement, Ataraxy sounds like Asphyx (including Drunen) had a blasphemous lovechild in a graveyard with Incantation's first 2 albums.  Yeah, now you wanna download it don't you.  Thought so.

IN THE ETHEREAL CAVERNS OF ALIEN TOMBS

Veil - Sombre (2008)

Genre: Depressive Black Metal
Country: United States

As many of you know, depressive black metal really isn't my thing. Sure, I'll listen to Shining (see below this post) or Woods of Desolation, but for the most part the genre really isn't that interesting to me. It might be the fact that the unique screeching vocals the style is known for really aren't to my taste, or that the riffs usually aren't very interesting, but the fact is I've never had the inclination to accumulate large numbers of dsmb albums. Still, though, there is the occasional release that has that special something that catches my attention. With Veil, the vocals are reminiscent of Woods of Desolation while the fuzzy riffing is destitute but definitely melodic in a sort of sorrowful, hopeless way that really helps wrap the atmosphere up quite tightly. Maybe my attitude is changing (I mean how can I say I don't really care for dsbm when the two latest posts on my blog are dsbm) or maybe Veil just have something the others don't.

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Shining - Redefining Darkness (2012)

Genre: Depressive Black Metal
Country: Sweden

Kvarforth is back with another LP to follow up last year's VII: Född Förlorare, an album that is the first in ten years to not have roman numerals in the title. To be honest I had absolutely no idea that this was coming out, but knowing Shining's record this will be quality.

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