I'm out of the loop

[Meat Engine]

Back in the day when I posted at MABB and Nile BB, I was pretty aware of the good stuff happening in metal and such. I stopped, and suddenly I was not. I see the big things here and there, but it's not the same. Help a hard-on bearer out. Pretend I've been on a desert island since 2007. What, in the past three years or so, has stood out? What has bombed horribly? I mean The Unspoken King levels of bad. Who is up-and-coming and worthy of my future attention? Even the most obvious thing to you may have been overlooked by me. Thanks in advance.

[djonni greazo]

2007:

start off by getting Deathspell Omega's Fas, probably the highlight of anno domini 2007. and if you dig that sort of thing, but want something a bit more conventionally "black", then check out Avichi's debut, Leviathan's last LP and Vrolok's Divine Abortion, then (if you like Funeral Mist) be sure to give Sauron's (the dutch one) The Channeling Void a spin or two. staying within the framework of black metal, Verdunkeln's sophomore (and the debut 2 years prior) is very interesting, Spectral Lore's II is an essential listen, Ride for Revenge is very good if you'd like a darker, more ritualistic take on Beherit's Drawing Down the Moon, Mortuus should appeal to you if mid-paced Thorns-ish (Trondertun era, not the industrial spacey vibe of the LP) BM is more your thing, and Mayhem released one of their best releases in Ordo ab Chao. oh, and don't forget to give a spin to Blut Aus Nord's Odinist



moving onto DM, Drawn and Quartered delivered as expected (maybe their most mature work, although the production is kind of weird), Deathevokation's debut is one of the best new old-school dm albums of recent memory (a mix of the old swedish and finnish sounds), Nox finally released their debut (and yeah, it's fucking awesome), Portal's Outre is mandatory, Mithras' Behind the Shadows Lies Madness too, Monstrosity's Spiritual Apocalypse is a very good technical death metal record, and although it's not a very popular opinion, i think that Immo's Shadows in the Light is quite excellent. oh, and Vengeful and Ulcerate released their debuts (very good, but their pale in comparison to their 2009 efforts... but we'll get to that later)



2008:

not that interesting a year, especially for bm, but still managed to gift us some very "nice" albums: Nightbringer's Death and the Black Work is an exquisite, dark, atmospheric, mostly mid-paced bm (and they have a new one lined up for release very soon), Savnock's debut demo is a pretty original melodic affair, Volahn showed us that something good might come of the Black Twilight Circle US scene, IC Rex released an almost-masterpiece after their lackluster debut, Hellveto finally started using real drums, Kerbenok is very entertaining if you like the folkier side of bm, Darkspace released their best album yet, and Deathspell Omega's side of the split with S.V.E.S.T. is mandatory



in the DM world, the most noteworthy are Dead Congregation (immo+incantation+finnish dm) and Mitochondrion (disembowelment+portal+axis of advance+origin+incantation+... yeah, it's pretty fucking awesome) with Execration (kinda like a modernized, brutalized Autopsy) and Cosmic Atrophy (demilich+timeghoul? fuck yeah) as close seconds, injecting some new life into old-school dm. Sanguis Imperem's EP was a very tasty slab of Incantation influenced martial, Bolt Thrower-esque DM (can't wait for more material from these guys), Origin's Antithesis is quite cool if you dig that style, and Beyond Mortal Dreams is a must if you dig Incantation



in other genres, Esoteric released one of their better albums, Skepticism's Alloy was also pretty good, Celeste's Nihiliste(s) is a very sweet blend of black, sludge and hardcore, and Misery's Omen released one of the more interesting albums by mixing black, doom and thrash, all spruced up with some proggy tendencies



2009:

what a year! first things first, let's start with DM this time, and with one of the best DM releases of the last decade: Ulcerate's Everything is Fire, an album that, imho, firmly established them as the best new voice in DM, mixing the technical and dark sounds of the likes of Gorguts and Immolation with the dense and layered post-leanings of Neurosis and Isis producing a crushing, apocalyptic sound all their own. if you dig the finnish sound of old, be sure to check out Slugathor's Echoes from Beneath and Funebrarum's The Sleep of Morbid Dreams, while Vengeful unleashed one of the best modern DM records of recent years. Portal and The Chasm delivered their usually excellent unusual brand of DM. if you'd like some experimentation, look no further than Scrambled Defuncts' death metal symphony Souls Despising the God (it's kinda hard to get into it due to the mix 'cause it gives way too much space to the obviously sampled orchestral parts. but if you stick to it, you're in for a treat) or Augury's progressive masterpiece Fragmentary Evidence. of note are also Goreaphobia debut after almost 2 decades of inactivity (dark and catchy old-school dm), and Borgia's very own brand of death/black (mixing DsO, Immo, Enslaved, Incantation etc...) on Ecclesia. of note is also Cruciamentum's demo (never have i been impressed so much by a demo... after 1995)



bm-wise, Blut Aus Nord's Memoria Vetusta II was last year's highlight, for me (iirc, you like Dan Simmons' Hyperion. well, imagine the black metal soundtrack for a ride on Het Masteen's treeship. spacey and earthly at the same time). after 2008s Volahn's delicious old-school bm offering, Arizmenda raised the bar for the Black Twilight Circle scene by mixing it up with some BAN-ish dissonance, Sun of the Blind is mandatory for every fan of Darkspace, The Ruins of Beverast delivered probably the best mix of black and doom without compromising their (his?) trademark sound, Ride for Revenge delivered more of the (awesome) same, Hellveto continued with it's more organic sound (and holy shit is it amazing), Fides Inversa gave as a very promising debut in the Funeral Mist vein after the huge disappointment that was Maranatha, End's III is a highly polished modern bm influenced a lot by the more experimental norwegian scene (Enslaved, Emperor etc),Pest's Tenebris Obortis is a fantastic slab of slightly folk-tinged teutonic black metal, and Incursus unleashed the fucking fury with Eternal Funeral Trance.



and i'm sure i forgot shitloads

[Meat Engine]

Thanks, buddy. Anyone else? Help a hard-on bearer out. :tit:

[Mesarthim]

get the new Absu and then play it on full blast and destroy something. probably my favorite album of last year.



I gotta admit. it's one of those that I didn't connect with at first. but I still listen to it constantly to this day, it hasn't left the cd changer in my car since I bought it last year.

[Syysysyd]

hmm i didn't like the new absu too much

[Abzu]

[quote name="Antonius Block"]hmm i didn't like the new absu too much[/quote]

[Syysysyd]

[Meat Engine]

You two that aren't helping...make hasty egress.

[Ninny]

Isis

[Hugo.]

Isis

Baroness

Mastodon

Psycroptic

Napalm Death

Anaal Nathrakh

Obscura

Septic Flesh



.. have all released killer albums in the last 2 years.

[Ninny]

[quote name="djonni greazo"]2009:

what a year! first things first, let's start with DM this time, and with one of the best DM releases of the last decade: Ulcerate's Everything is Fire, an album that, imho, firmly established them as the best new voice in DM, mixing the technical and dark sounds of the likes of Gorguts and Immolation with the dense and layered post-leanings of Neurosis and Isis producing a crushing, apocalyptic sound all their own.[/quote]

I hear it now

[Ninny]

Try searching pictures for Ulcerate :barf:

[djonni greazo]

[quote name="Ninny"]Try searching pictures for Ulcerate :barf:[/quote]

[Hugo.]

[quote name="djonni greazo"]
[quote name="Ninny"]Try searching pictures for Ulcerate :barf:[/quote]



[/quote]



I once made this mistake. It's worse than blue waffle if you ask me.

[Meat Engine]

You should look at the Kutschurft album covers.