Black metal needs some (not many) ingredients in order to achieve its basic goals. Passion, atmosphere, dedication, faith, heart and soul. What it most definitely doesn't need is more newly 'enlightened' assholes with zero contact with the spiritual and true nature of black metal, explaining what black metal should or shouldn't be. When some of them have the nerve to write 'manifesto's' about it then the situation becomes unbearable. Anyway, it seems appropriate to write their thoughts (ha) down since there's obviously a problem with oral expression.
For every emo/indie/whatever the fuck pathetic kid that unfortunately decided not to commit suicide and discovered black metal, there's a bunch of ugly bastards like Necros Christos threatening to sodomize their sorry asses. Their second full length Doom of the Occult is a 73 min monster that is a manifestation of the actual nature of death/black metal. Dark, slow and crawling, ceremonial and threatening, this record evolves and perfects the already known model of Triune Impurity Rites. The general idea of including 23 tracks, with keyboard and acoustic interludes flirts with catastrophe as the easy thing to happen would be a record with no sense of continuity. The fact that Necros Christos make the whole thing work so well is a great proof of the exquisite craftsmanship of the band. This time they introduce the 'Gates', five in total, that are actually acoustic tracks based on eastern scales and enhance the occult atmosphere of the record. A mandatory listen...
...As is in fact the newest Blut aus Nord work. 777 - Sect(s) is the first part of a trilogy to be completed in the coming few months. After the lukewarm and of debatable importance What Once Was... Liber I the band return in full form and with full armour to meet their usual high standards. There will always be the ones that miss the point in their constant demand for novelties in Blut aus Nord's musical endeavours. The fact is that this is a record up with the best works of the band. There's a heavy use or maybe manipulation of melody in 777 - Sect(s) and the plain truth is that at the hands of BaN melody sounds so threatening that becomes an actual tool to cause horror. A fucking monster.
The amusing note of the days is that the (bad) joke called Nargaroth has a record out. The imbecile that wrote tracks with titles like 'The day Burzum killed Mayhem' and many suchlike comedies, has released one more excrement. I read that it is going to be out on double vinyl also, and I can't help but think that such a waste of vinyl should be punished as a crime. A friend of mine played me some parts of it earlier today and it is one more hilarious record worthy of the tradition of Nargaroth. Three tracks that dream of sounding like Burzum of the Filosofem era and five pathetic amateurish keyboard tracks complete the new disgrace of a joke that should stop as soon as possible.
The real thing...
Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones
Whitesnake - Forevermore
Current 93 - Honeysuckle Aeons
Embers - Shadows
Obscure Anachronism - METANOIA
AMSG
