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 

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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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Because we got sick of your shitty taste...

Welcome to THUNDER CVNT, your new favorite metal blog (this is the part where you nod your head in agreement). TC is the result of two metal nerds getting sick of over-hyped sub-par bullshit making year end lists and taking up valuable space in the metal rags.

THUNDER CVNT will function as an outlet for our jaded metallic ramblings, and you can count on one or both of us ripping on your favorite new NeurIsis band (because that shit is stagnant) or telling you how much time you've been wasting listening to all that djenty prog bullshit. While the maelstrom of criticism will be never ending, you should not feel discouraged-- our goal isn't solely to make you feel like a piece of shit-- for we are here to help.

The content up in this THUNDER CVNT will focus mainly on exposing you to the bands that have us excited. We might be assholes, but we are assholes with the noblest of intentions. Expect to see album reviews, scene spotlights, live reviews, typos, and much more. We hope you enjoy our opinions but, if you don't, we don't really give a shit.

So, once again, welcome to THUNDER CVNT! Let the backlash begin.

xoxo,

Chris & Matt

Mournful Congregation

Mournful Congregation took the stage in Seattle last night for their first show of their first North American tour. Their perfectly proportioned middle-aged-metal chubbiness suggested a band that knew what they were doing -- that didn’t need to concern themselves with the fact that they were all wearing their own bands t-shirts because they were too busy making some crushing music.

MC was touring the US promoting two releases this year. Unspoken Hymns, a compilation of older material re-released, and their new album Book of Kings, which every metal head seems to have a huge hard-on for. Book of Kings is an amazing album, and I’m happy to see funeral doom getting some love in all these top-whatever lists for 2011, but to be perfectly honest I find myself listening to Unspoken Hymns far more. I would take a classic like the song “The Epitome of Gods and Men Alike” -- originally a split with Worship and limited to only 500 copies -- over the less memorable “Catechism of Depression” any day.

Mournful Congregation - The Epitome of Gods and Men Alike

Your best bet is to obviously just get both, but Book of Kings has a slightly obnoxious amount of spoken word and distracting whispering. I don’t need some middle aged balding guy with a goatee to hide is double chin whispering sweet sorrowful nothings into my ear. I just want you to play some heavy melancholic music at a snail pace.

Mournful Congregation - The Book of Kings