That Urfaust are one of a kind is not news. Their last album is everything I came to love and much more.
A monument of layers of hypnotic guitars, monotonous pounding drums and discrete keyboards that run under the surface and enhance the ritualistic vibe of the music. Out and away of any competition, this is some of the most original and personal black metal you can find around.
In many ways Nightbringer remind me of Urfaust although they are anything but alike.They both create trance like ritualistic black metal, they both exclude any traces of melody from their music, they both rely on repetition to create the hypnotic feeling they present. The record has grown immensely these seven months I have been listening to it. Death and the Black Work, the debut that preceded Apocalypse Sun was a beast. This one is the same beast, hungrier and more horrible. I cannot but repeat a comment I read at some greek blog...'Uncontrolled. Blatant.No outbreak. No emotional charge. No digestible passages. Black, almost not metal. Guitars built to slaughter'. Die.
There is a specific moment, just before you fall asleep, that your thoughts blur and become uncontrollable eventually turning into dreams, possibly nightmares. It is that moment, that through thick layers of smoke and fog, Black Masses may appear to lead you to dangerous dreams...luring but unsettling, morbid but lustful. I never succumbed to Electric Wizard's music more than I have with Black Masses. When you awake you shall have Satan's seed planted in your mind and soul.
Bands that have adopted the mindset of such greats as Celtic Frost and have the talent to create unique and individual art deserve the highest praises. At first glance, Valborg are a death metal band. Use your patience to unveil the rest of the layers of Crown of Sorrow and you shall be rewarded. People are incredibly stupid thus the record passed almost unnoticed. Diamonds to the pigs.
Before closing Ι shall notice the great records that came out by bands like Diocletian, Witchrist , Blasphemophagher and above all my favorite's Vassafor promo. All in all it seems that 2010 has been the year that this specific style of 'bestial' death/black metal have matured for good. There's no reason to refer to such bands as 'that band that plays like Blasphemy' no more.
On the other hand, Ondskapt have offered a major dissapointment with their latest LP, that was more of a parody of themselves than a proper album. RIP.
On the other hand, Ondskapt have offered a major dissapointment with their latest LP, that was more of a parody of themselves than a proper album. RIP.
AMSG
