Tag Archives: black metal

(review) Aborym – Metachaos (Avantgarde Music)

Aborym are Italian legends that have been in existence since 1992 under command of Fabban, mastermind of the band. Aborym endured countless line-up changes, guests, session musicians, but this line-up is once again strong. Fabban reunited with drummer Atum and guitarist Munholy to create this being band’s ninth opus coming our way. There are nine songs on this opus and when I started listening to this one, I was immediately surprised by the sheer relentlessness and brutality of the songs. Blast beats, piercing guitar riffs with even solo thrown in like in awesome title song and Enshrined In Putrefaction. There is coldness to this record, darkness also. But, there are also couple of melodies and hooks hidden inside the all out attack of black metal. This opus is definitely come back from more machine industrial black metal of Aborym to their black metal roots and sounds like death metal parts also in couple of songs. Like, there are blast beats, Fabban’s excellent vocals, besides black metal voice there is also clean melodic voice like in The Crescendo Of Demise, and then comes some melody that actually surprises you and catches you unaware, but it makes goosebumps upon your skin. There are also some remnants of industrial synth in the background, but not in great excess. There are also lots of prominent guests that this album features like Patrick Mameli (Pestilence), Tommy Talamanca (Sadist) and Chris Cannella (Malevolent Creation and former Deicide), Noralf Venås Helheim, Tapio Wilska (former Finntroll, Survivors Zero and Sörnäinen), Brisen (ex-Dungeon). My personal favorites on this opus are Enshrined In Putrefaction, Creatures Of The Night and Satiate With My Sperm. Awesome black metal with some death and industrial elements.

8/10

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(review) Iskald – Curse Of The Mind

Time for some more Norwegian black metal to grace the pages of this zine. Iskald were formed in 2005 and this is their sixth full length opus. What do we have here? There are eight songs on this one being divided into four invocations, namely invocations I, II, III and Final invocation. The music is melodic black metal, but more technical and well played, almost kinda reminding me of later days Emperor. There are lots of atmospheric keyboard and some acoustic song parts, tempo changes and enough melody and aggression to remind us why we love black metal so much as an expression of emotions and aggression at the same time, channeling your inner darkness. Lyrics are in English and are of more personal nature, dealing with battling your inner and outer demons, hope, loss and depression, as far as I understood them like that. This is not your typical in your face raw black metal, although it has some blast beat parts, this is finer goods. Vocals are black metal screaming but not theatrical or bordering with parody, but serious business fitting perfectly to the song structures. My personal favorites: A Burden Of Hope, The Sacrifice. Go check this one if you are into smartly written and played black metal.

8/10

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(review) Old Ruins – Mount Arreat

Old Ruins are hailing from Gelsenkirchen, Germany and they formed in 2019. This is their second full length opus. This one contains 8 songs. The music of Old Ruins can be describe as melodic black metal with some epic guitar melodies and hooks, tempo changes and I can also hear some post black metal parts and atmospheric parts in the song structures. In all, it is a beautiful opus for all of us who love their black metal melodic and aggressive at the same time. Vocals are varying from screaming black metal mainly, but also some clean vocals and spoken parts. The theme of the lyrics is Diablo video game haha. I never played that one, so I don’t know what is it about, but one thing is for certain is I love the music on this opus. I love blasting aggressiveness changing into melody of Gates Of Harrogath, almost mystical beauty of Once There Was Light and the title song which is my favorite on this opus. There are some slower doomy parts and atmospheric epic ones which fit perfectly into overall picture. If you like your black metal melodic, epic and with a dose of post black and doomy, you are the warrior for whom this opus was made. Check it out!

8,5/10

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