Mortichnia - Heir to Scoria and Ash

Droning, bleak, icy, and riff heavy.

Hails y'all.

Lord Mantis - Pervertor

It's been far too long since Lord Mantis offered a follow-up to their crushing debut, Spawning the Nephilim. The Chicago sludgesters' last output was a hulking mass of putrid sludge that pummeled listeners, but the album as a whole was a little light on creativity. That doesn't seem to be the case with Pervertor, that band's latest work. I haven't heard the entire album yet, but based on the half-dozen tracks I've managed to get my hands on this thing is primed and ready to fuck you up. Razor sharp guitars, drums that grind like one of those backhoes with the jackhammer attachment, and vocals that will literally peel the paint off your walls, Pervertor might be the best sludge album we hear all year. Prepare yourself.



Lord Mantis - At the Mouth

P.S. The vocals at the 1:27 mark are fucking crazy.

Doctorshopper - Degenerate Utopia

I know I posted about Doctorshopper's 2011 demo a few weeks ago, but they just dropped a new album and are giving that shit away for free so you can either cry about repeat posts or you can shut up and grab some quality noise for the low low cost of $free.99.

If you don't know shit about Doctorshopper you should probably use those nimble fingers of yours to scroll back a few pages and read my impression of their 2011 demo Pax Pharma. Get it done? Good. Now all the shit I'm about to reference will make total sense. If you recall, I am a big fan of what Doctorshopper did on Pax Pharma; their brand of punishing blackened noise was a welcome change from all of the doom/trad black metal I listened to last year. This is why I was a little shocked by the band's recent full-length Degenerate Utopia. 

 Degenerate Utopia shows a huge progression in Doctorshopper's sound. While their demo showed a lot of potential, the new album delivers the goods. This thing is a blackened slab of crusty doom that I am quickly falling in love with. Seriously, Degenerate Utopia is fucking killer. I think Matt might even like it, and we all know that he hates just about everything. Do yourself a favor and grab a copy of this beast (for freesies), even if you hated Doctorshopper's demo, you might be surprised.

Black Monolith - Demo EP

 I got into crust (specifically, the d-beat style) years ago when I discovered bands like His Hero is Gone, Amebix, and Discharge, but over the years I slowly stopped listening to this style of extremity. I don't know exactly what caused me to move away from crust music, maybe I outgrew it's adolescent ramblings or stopped caring about its political call to arms, but at this point in my life I find myself wanting this genre more and more. Enter Black Monolith.

Black Monolith hail from California and play blackened crust. This is perfect for me because, as you should know by now, I am a sucker for black metal. While Black Monolith play crust clearly influenced by bm (just listen to the vocals), they mostly sound like a crust band, and their 2011 Demo EP is one of the most satisfying slices of breakneck violence to come out of the genre in a long time.

Most of the time demos offer a rough sketch of what a band is trying to sound like. They offer a glimpse into what future full-lengths will offer when the band has put all the pieces together, but on their 2011 Demo Black Monolith have shown everyone exactly what they are, and it's clear that they have no intention of changing. The three tracks that make up the demo are mean as fuck, in your face, christ-killing, blood-spitting homages to the glory of crust's past. Black Monolith are giving their demo away for free, so go grab it.

DL

Impressions: Haemoth's "In Nomine Odium"

If you looked at my Top 40 Metal Albums of 2011 list, you no doubt noticed that my tastes lean towards the blackened side of the metal word. I swear I listen to a lot of other styles, but for some reason black metal is where I gravitate. Over that last 5 or so years I have become a huge fan of underground French black metal. There's just something about that scene that really clicks with me, and this year saw great releases (Aosoth's III) from some of the Frances best.

One release that didn't hit my radar until very recently is Haemoth's In Nomine Odium. Haemoth are a two-piece consisting of Haemoth (vocals, guitars, bass) and Syht (drums) firmly rooted in the occult.  I grabbed a copy of their latest crusher over the weekend and have been steadily working my way through each putrid passage. After a full week of non-stop spinning I have concluded that In Nomine Odium fucking rules.

There are a lot of reasons why I enjoy this album, but the main thing that keeps me coming back is the perfect balance of unrelenting chaos and suffocating atmosphere. I particularly love the vocals on this release (possibly because they remind me of Corvus when he was with Horna) and I think they are the element that ties everything together. That isn't to say that the album is particularly lacking in any one area, but a different vocal style would not suit this maelstrom of satanic glory. The guitar work throughout In Nomine... is top-notch, and makes me think of Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam era Gorgoroth (which is a good thing).


There are moments on In Nomine Odium that drag on a little too long, but they are few and far between. This album is pretty much bullshit free. What you get are 45 minutes of blackened fury. I wish I had known about this one earlier in the year because I have a feeling it would have had a spot on my year-end list. If you fancy black metal this album should be a no-brainer for you, and if you don't like black metal then why the fuck did you read this far?

HAEMOTH - SON OF THE BLACK LIGHT

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Doctorshopper's "Pax Pharma" will probably kill you.

Doctorshopper are a noise/punk/black metal band from LA, who would like nothing more than to watch your ears bleed. Sharing 3 members with Lake of Blood, Doctorshopper were recently featured in Cvlt Nation's Top 6 Demo's of 2011 list, and for good reason. The band's 2011 demo, Pax Pharma, is a colossal slab of mind-fucking noise. I grabbed this demo about a month ago but totally forgot about it until I read the Cvlt Nation list. I should not have waited so long.

Doctorshopper combine the noise stylings of bands like Wolf Eyes and Prurient with the raw vocals of black metal, and top it all off with a healthy dose of punk attitude. Pax Pharma is trippy as fuck on it's own but I suggest you turn out the lights and grab some good headphones just to be safe. Doctorshopper are giving this demo away free of charge. You have no excuse.

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Beardo's Top 40 Metal Albums of 2011

Every December I hear people say the same things regarding the releases that came out over the preceding 11 months; "This was a shitty year for metal *cry cry cry*" Well fuck you. Every year is a good year for metal if you know where to look. To all the haters who are more content bitching about the fact that the new Wintersun album still hasn't dropped, shut your goddamn maws! 2011 was a great year for metal, and the following list proves it.

40. Mitochondrion – Parasignosis

39. Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Despise You – And on, and on… Split 12”

38. Primordial – Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand

37. Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All

36. Blut Aus Nord – 777 Sect(s)/The Desanctification

35. Drainland - …And So Our Troubles

34. Ravencult – Morbid Blood

33. Morne – Asylum

32. Trap Them – Darker Handcraft

31. Seidr – For Winter Fire

30. Wolvhammer – The Obsidian Plains

29. Today is the Day – Pain is a Warning

28. Fyrnask – Bluostar

27. Antediluvian – Through the Cervix of Hawwah

26. Thou – The Archer and the Owle

25. Batillus - Furnace

24. Heartless – Hell is Other People

23. All Pigs Must Die – God is War

22. Negative Plane – Stained Glass Revelations

21. Circle of Ouroborus  - Eleven Fingers

20. SubRosa – No Help For The Mighty Ones

19. Trash Talk – Awake

18. Hammers of Misfortune – 17^th Street

17. Atriarch – Forever the End

16. Corrupted - Garten der Ubewussthelt

15. Mournful Congregation – The Book of Kings

14. Lycus – Demo 2011

13. Bell Witch – Demo 2011

12. Wreck of the Hesperus – Light Rotting Out

11. Aosoth - III

10. Disma – Towards the Megalith - Disma dropped a modern death metal classic on our asses this year. Towards the Megalith is a cavernous slice of primal death that makes all of your Black Dahlia Murder albums sound like the soundtrack to Love Actually. 

9. YOB – Atma - The masters of doom delivered the goods in 2011. A strong follow-up to 2009's monolithic The Great Cessation, Atma sees YOB channeling Hawkwind a little more than usual and to great effect.

8. Blasphemophagher – The Ill Command of the Absolute Chaos - Pummeling black death from my favorite Nuclear War Now! band. Words don't do this level of chaos justice. 

7. False – False - 2 twelve minute tracks? Fuck yeah. False accomplished more in two tracks than most black metal bands (Liturgy) could accomplish writing a dissertation. 

6. Indian – Guiltless - Crusty, doomy, noisy, and oh so satisfying. Indian put all the pieces together to form the perfect representation of their sound. Guiltless is a crusher from start to finish. 

5. Ash Borer – Ash Borer - Cascadian black metal done right. Hollow, dark, and beautiful. Ash Borer deserved way more attention than they got in 2011.

4. Barghest – Barghest - Containing members of Thou, Barghest play second wave inspired black metal. The debut album from this NOLA collective is addictive as fuck.

3. Gridlink - Orphan - John Chang rules. Gridlink rules. Grindcore rules. Orphan rules. 

2. Bosse de Nage - II - Post black metal that doesn't play by the rules. Bosse de Nage destroyed the confines of their genre and created something completely new. II is a force to be reckoned with.

1. Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestial Lineage - WITTR finally delivered their masterpiece. Celestial Lineage is the culmination of everything WITTR have ever done right. This album is truly transcendental, and deserves your undivided attention.

 

So there you have it, a great year for metal as illustrated by my spot on list.  

Top 5 Metal Disappointments of 2011, by chris

5. Not getting a copy of the Satanic Warmaster/Akitsa split 7"

Being a huge Satanic Warmaster fan, I was super stoked when I heard that a new 7" split with Akitsa was dropping this year. However, I'm broke like a motherfucker and had to sleep on this release. I grabbed a copy online (yes, for free), and it's as good as I'd hoped, but the vinyl nerd inside of me is still disappointed. I suppose I could always look on eBay, but that seems a lot more time consuming than bitching on the internet.

4. Skeletonwitch writing the same record for the third time and still getting hot loads of critical acclaim.

Is it just me, or is Skeletonwitch kind of boring? I get it. You guys play blackened thrash. So fucking what? I've always been lukewarm on this band, but I always give their albums a few spins to see if they are actually progressing. You know what? They're not. Forever Abomination sounds like the last two albums (Breathing the Fire and Beyond the Permafrost), but for some fucking reason metal critics have a massive boner for it. This shit is waaaaaaaay over-hyped. I feel like that guy who saw that demon on the wing of that plane, but no one will believe me.

3. Decibel Magazine's Top 40 Albums of 2011

I read Decibel almost every month, and every December I am dumbstruck by the albums they choose for their Top 40. This year's list was particularly terrible. Opeth at #2? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?! That album was boooooooorrrrrrrriiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggggggg. While their list did contain some of my favorite albums of 2011 (which you will find out about in due time), their top 5 really missed the mark. Also, the new Wolves in the Throne Room album didn't even make the list but, to be fair, Decibel has been ignoring seemingly every Southern Lord release for years. Idiots.



2. Lantlos - Agape

I'm a big fan of the first two Lantlos albums and I had hoped that Agape would be the masterpiece I know these guys are capable of, but sadly that is not the case. While I don't hate the new material, I also don't think it takes any positive steps forward. The whole album suffers from weird pacing and too much ambient filler. I wanted to love this album, but I just can't. Not terrible, but very disappointing.

1. Leviathan - True Traitor, True Whore

I loved Leviathan's last proper full length, Massive Conspiracy Against All Life, and had high expectations for True Traitor, True Whore. Unfortunately this album is too experimental for its own good. It's disjointed, unfocused, and unimaginative. After reading Brandon Stosuy's interview with Wrest I was even more turned off to this album. Wrest presented himself as a monosyllabic neanderthal and failed to answer even the simplest of questions. I'm not going to make a rape joke like Matt did in his Top 5 Disappointments post (you can call me the bigger man). A colossal disappointment.

Impressions: Lantlôs' Agape

Lantlos exist as the exception to the current wave of post black metal spewing forth from the underground. Consisting of Neige (Alcest, Forgotten Woods, Peste Noire) and Herbst (Epitaph, Impavida), Lantlos exists as a post black metal band that doesn't necessarily need the genre tag. They have always forged their own path within the world of black metal, and have done their best not to repeat themselves. Recently the duo released their new album Agape, via Lupus Lounge.

Being a fan of the last two Lantlos albums gave me some pretty high expectations for Agape and while I think this album fits into the band's discography thematically and sonically, I don't consider this their best output. Let me break it down like this; the last two Lantlos albums (Lantlos and .Neon) were black metal at its most expansive, vast, and fragile. Neige and Herbst injected so much tortured beauty into those two albums, and after listening to Agape four or fives times it seems as though they might have run out of gas.

This is not to say that Agape is a waste of time, not in the slightest. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Agape sounds a little confused. There are moments of genius peppered throughout Agape, but they are short glimpses at what the album could have been, and ultimately they left me feeling a little short changed. The biggest problem with this new material is its pacing; the whole record suffers from an odd pacing that interrupts the flow of  its tracks. This is also a pretty short album, running only 35 minutes (pretty short for a bm album), that is largely ambient.

Overall I would only suggest grabbing a copy of Agape if you understand what you are going to get. This is not the best bm album of 2011, but it is far from the worst. Worthy of your time? Yes. Worthy of your money? Probably not.

Lantlos - Bliss

DL

Aosoth's III; almost as good as Deathspell Omega...almost.

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 

DL
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Gnaw Their Tongues

Mories, the misanthropic Dutch pervert, has a new Gnaw Their Tongues release this year on Crucial Blast, titled Per Flagellum Sanguemque, Tenebras Veneramus (with blood and whip, we worship the dark). GtT is obviously rooted in black metal, but is more avant-garde noise, generally chaotic and arhythmic. But Mories isn't just some chubby kid living in his mom's basement pushing random buttons on ableton or reason. His music is very listenable, albeit hauntingly eerie, but certainly cerebral and provoking.

Sputnik music's review sums it up great: "Despite his probable psychosis issues, Mories lives and crafts in a realm of music where 'crust' is a category and 'filth' is a positive aspect, and within it he still reigns supreme on a throne of virgin bones covered in butchered Christians and semen."

Gnaw Their Tongues - "The Storming Heavens As A Father To All Broken Bodies"

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