Tag Archives: black metal

(review) Lautreamont – The Cult Of Grinning Martyrs

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Lautreamont from Russia are in no way strangers to the pages of this zine. I already listened and wrote a review for the band´s debut album back in 2018.

Now, this Russian duo consisting of Wrath and Dread deliver their second full length album. This new record could be called a concept, but it is also not a concept record. This one is inspired by Thomas Ligotti´s work Conspiracy against human race, also poetry of Edgar Allan Poe and Isidore Ducasse. This 7 song album has a dark, almost touchable atmosphere of thick black/death metal, apocalyptic in its tale of human puppet existence and nothingness.

From the sheer ferociousness of blast beats and destruction of Broken Claws to more melodic and almost cold and space like dissonances of Thanatophobia, one of my highlights on this record, Lautreamont deliver their story with conviction, coldness and relentless march. I am amazed how clean vocals in some song parts can also sound cold and atmospheric and delive coup de grace to the listener as in amazing Brotherhood Of Suffering. Unpersons is a lesson in brutality and quality blackened death metal with blasting brutality and darkness just oozing from your speakers. One more song that I must mention is the title song, being epic soundtrack to your demise, with changing tempo, sharp and brutal riffs, but also total lack of humanity being cold and void.

This second effort is a step further from the debut. Great record.

(review) Abstract Dream – A Vision Among the Stars

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Abstract Dream is a side project from Swann of Shandrazel and Dark Arkana. There are 6 songs on this record. The music of Abstract Dream is French atmospheric black metal with longer songs creating primitive, anguished, almost ritualistic atmosphere through repeating guitar riffs, fast drums and growling/screeching vocals, yet returning to calmer atmospheric keyboard passages which are calming and soothing, yet at the same time warning about the storm coming.

The songwriting is well crafted, epic and my favorite song on this record would be A Journey To The Unknown having that mid tempo melodic atmosphere, you can almost feel the night cold on your skin while listening to this one. Also, some songs are very long, but they do not get boring for one second, because the atmosphere of the whole record reminds me why I love black metal so much, because through this music you can have right feeling, right atmosphere, almost cathartic, yet also inspiring. So, this is a good record.

(review) Mayhem-Daemon

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Norwegian black metal legends Mayhem are back with their brand new studio full length album. I will not go into all the past and folk tales of Euronymous, Dead, at least talk about that shitty piece of movie called Lords Of Chaos, laughable Hollywood crap.

The new album contains fresh Mayhem and it is good, dark, heavy, black metal and technical. I especially love the melody of The Dying False King and darkened wicked hook and atmosphere of Bad Blood which has haunting guitar solo so similar to legendary solo on Freezing Moon, but sheer brutality and merciless pummeling of Agenda Ignis is also total fantastic strike. Vocalist Attila sounds very convincing with his inhuman croak, whispers and screams, also spoken parts. The guitarists create superb atmospheric arrangements of sheer brutal soundscapes, along with thundering Necrobutcher´s bass, but for me the real hero is drummer Hellhammer, for me one of the best drummers in extreme music, human metronome. Malum is also one of my favorites with clean singing parts, being modern black metal anthem for new Mayhem millenium and this band still has so much to offer without only living in the past. You can return there and always be proud of the past, but the reality must lie in the future. Good album.

8,5/10