2011 has been a fucked up year for black metal. A lot of newer bands flying the "post black metal" genre flag dropped albums this year, and only a few of them didn't sound like a big smelly dump. I'll be the first to admit that I like some of the post bm being released, but at my core I long for old-school discordant BM capable of soundtracking any number of depraved acts of ritualistic violence (like a good old fashioned church burning).
Parisian black metal sadists Aosoth have always been able to satisfy my bm cravings, and their brand of chaotic off kilter deviance is exactly what the genre needed this year. III, the new album released in April via Agonia Records, is easily the best material Aosoth have produced to date and borders on the genius of fellow French black metal wunderkinds Deathspell Omega, but while Deathspell Omega go to painstaking lengths to ensure listeners have a complete mental breakdown, Aosoth are much more listenable.
To me this is a good thing. I love Deathspell Omega but sometimes I want to not have a fucking seizure while driving to work, and Aosoth make that a lot easier. Musically Aosoth sound a lot like Antaeus (also French), but have a much better grasp on song writing and as a result they manage to write albums that flow logically from one passage to the next and sound cohesive despite all the chaos.
III is a scorcher from start to finish, and is totally deserving of your time and money (assuming that you aren't a total bitch and can handle black metal that doesn't sound like a scratched up Isis album). This is definitely one of the better BM releases of 2011, so go get it.
AOSOTH - III
Buy from Agonia Records
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