Avakr – A Word From Within (Sygil Records, 2013)

Posted on 03/06/2013 by THKD

Of all the labels that have contacted me within the past year or so requesting coverage, Sygil Records is surely among the most interesting. These guys have an ear for excellence from across the spectrum of extreme music, from drone to doom to black metal, and I’m pretty enamored with all of the various releases they graciously sent me for review. First and foremost among them is A Word From Within, the debut full length from Bloomington, Indiana black metal duo Avakr.
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Arnaut Pavle – demo (Vlad Tapes, 2013)

Posted on 03/05/2013 by THKD

If it hasn’t by now become readily apparent, black metal cassettes are here to stay. Sure, big name metal bands like Pig Destroyer are getting in on the act, but I’m pretty sure that has more to do with labels smelling a potential trend to jump on than any sort of real appreciation for the lo-fi aesthetic. Cassettes work for black metal because sounding like shit works for black metal. It is a genre of music more perfectly suited to the format than any other; dark, ugly and fucking primitive.
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Backlit #1 out now!

Posted on 03/01/2013 by THKD

Another poison arrow in the heart of print is now unleashed…

http://backlitzine.com/1/

Backlit / 1
Early 2013
Now available at http://backlitzine.com/
Cover Art by Christian Edler

Articles, Columns & Interviews:
Frayed Threads of Vanity / Kyle Harcott
Worship Black Twilight / Jordan Campbell
Interview With Wreck & Reference / Josh Haun
Interview With Voivoid / Josh Haun
Midnight Ride of the Graveyard Mule / Jordan Campbell
Doomsday Device #2 / Josh Haun
Raping Angels in America #2 / Josh Haun
Libations in the Labyrinth Vol. 2 / Danhammer Obstkrieg
Beneath The Grime #1 / Jon Rosenthal
Progressive Regression / Jordan Campbell

Art & Fiction:
Perfume Virus / Jordan Krall
Interview with Christian Edler / Brandon Duncan & Philip Tyson

Staff:

Overlords:
Joshua Haun
Brandon Duncan

Contributing Writers:
Joshua Haun
Jordan Campbell
Dan Obstkrieg
Kyle Harcott
Jon Rosenthal

Copy Editor:
Dan Obstkrieg

Design:
Brandon Duncan
Philip Tyson
Spencer Walker

Exclusive album stream: The Beyond – Frostbitepanzerfuck

Posted on 02/18/2013 by THKD

In a time when both black metal and punk rock are about as threatening as a switchblade comb, The Beyond are bringing back the danger and showing us how to get rude, crude and evil as hell with their debut full length, Frostbitepanzerfuck, which is being released tomorrow by the mighty Horror Pain Gore Death Productions (you can purchase the CD HERE). From the gnarly Murder Junkies-esque assault of “Roto-Cunt” to the zombified crawl of “Exterminate Humanity,” the album is a twenty-eight minute lesson in violence that wastes no time in slitting your throat and sodomizing the bloody corpse.

THKD is excited to present an exclusive stream of Frostbitepanzerfuck in its entirety; you can find the stream after the jump, as well as a brief interview with vocalist/guitarist Danny Starkiller. Enjoy or die.
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Demoncy – Enthroned is the Night (Forever Plagued Records, 2012)

Posted on 02/15/2013 by THKD

The last time I heard US black metal OG Demoncy was 1999′s Joined in Darkness, an ultra-gnarly one-man affair that to this day is one of the most desolate, subterranean-sounding recordings I’ve ever experienced. I somehow missed out on 2003′s Empire of the Fallen Angel, which was apparently a full band effort and not nearly as well-received; I have a hard time imagining Demoncy as anything other than a solitary undertaking, both as an entity and a listening experience, as Joined in Darkness is surely one of those albums best digested in complete isolation, darkened room optional, but definitely preferred. Given my fondness for that now fourteen-year-old album, I was very much looking forward to a proper sequel, and I’m pleased to say that Demoncy mastermind Ixithra has delivered with Enthroned is the Night, released last year on Forever Plagued Records, a label that’s quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with.

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Koldbrann – Vertigo (Season of Mist, 2013)

Posted on 02/11/2013 by THKD

Although the prominence of Norwegian black metal isn’t what it once was, it could still be argued that they invented it and no one does it better. As often and as hard as I’ve been singing the praises of all things USBM of late, even I find it hard to refute that argument when presented with an album as front-to-back badass as Koldbrann’s Vertigo. I had heard the band’s name prior to receiving the promo from Season of Mist, but as yet hadn’t had the opportunity to give ‘em a fair shake; turns out the the quintet’s hard rocking take on traditional Norse BM is right up my dark alley.

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Faustcoven – Hellfire and Funeral Bells (Nuclear War Now! Productions, 2012)

Posted on 02/08/2013 by THKD

Sleeping on fucking awesome bands seems to be the story of my life lately. My Last.fm scrobbler claims that I’d listened to Faustcoven thirty times prior to getting down with Hellfire & Funeral Bells on my computer for the first time, but I sure as heck don’t remember ever experiencing this doomed excellence prior to taking advantage of Nuclear War Now! Productions’ recent mega-sale and picking up the band’s third album on CD. Granted, I used to listen to a lot of random things while completely shit-hammered at ungodly hours in college, so it is entirely possible that the brain cells that remember Faustcoven have been lost forever to the whiskey gods. Whatever the case may be, after spending a great deal of time with this ghastly recording, all I can say is goddamn, have I been missing out.
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Portal – Vexovoid (Profound Lore, 2013)

Posted on 02/06/2013 by THKD

No band in existence conjures the musical equivalent of Lovecraftian dread quite like Australia’s Portal. It’s one thing to simply study Lovecraft and then regurgitate the Cthulhu Mythos stories in lyrics and artwork accompanied by pedestrian extreme metal songs, but Portal take things far beyond the conventions of worshiping at the altar the great author; the blood of Yog-Sothoth flows through the veins of these men, allowing them to create an alchemical miasma of eldritch horror through music. Never has death metal sounded so alien, so extra-dimensional.
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The Beyond – Frostbitepanzerfuck (Horror Pain Gore Death Productions, 2013)

Posted on 01/30/2013 by THKD

Pennsylvania-based miscreants The Beyond bill themselves as a cross between punk rock and black metal; picture for a moment GG Allin fronting ’90s Profanatica and that’s almost exactly what you’re getting with the band’s debut full length, Frostbitepanzerfuck. When the first song on an album is called “Roto-Cunt,” and two tracks later you’re getting bashed in the skull by a cover of the aforementioned Allin’s own “Cunt Sucking Cannibal,” with “Goat Sodomizer” sandwiched in-between, you should have a pretty good idea of what you’re in for. This is gutter-piss punk metal that wants to fill your every orifice with sticky black jism; PC police, enter at your own risk and prepare to get fucked.
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Rage Nucléaire – Unrelenting Fucking Hatred (Season of Mist, 2012)

Posted on 01/25/2013 by THKD

The last time we heard from Lord Worm was on Cryptopsy’s rather lackluster 2005 album Once Was Not, and as a result of his absence, the scene has been a much less interesting place. So what does the most deranged-sounding vocalist in death metal do to signal his return from a seven year silence? Start a grim and twisted black metal band, that’s what! And so it is that Herr Worm is back to mangling his vocal cords with new outfit Rage Nucléaire, a band that has allegedly been festering since 2000 but is only now seeing the recorded light of day with their Season of Mist-backed debut Unrelenting Fucking Hatred.
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that's how kids die.

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Tag Archives: black metal