Ragnarok - Malediction (2012) - 0.666

We have another album by the almighty Norwegians, the second since their long hiatus. While it was a huge letdown for the first few listens, it only needed time to find its place among the band's other releases.

The album starts out with a short symphonic intro as part of Blood of Saints. Don't let this fool you though, they haven't returned to their symphonic sound, nor have they continued the path of Collectors of the King. The addition of Bolverk changed both the overall sound and the songwriting. Both remind the listener to the works of Svarttjern (and to Mortuus-era Marduk to some extent), the fact of both bands sharing the same vocalist just empowers this impression. The only typical about this album is the unique drumming style of Jontho, which hasn't changed much since Diabolical Age where it was first utilized.

The album won't hesitate for long and just kicks your ass with the first song. It's not much like anything the band has ever released but it clearly has its drive. All songs have one or more riffs that the listener is likely to get a taste for, some of them being imported from outside black metal. The most prominent example of the latter is the pre-verse riff of Necromantic Summoning Ritual, which would fit any power metal song. The first highlight of the album is the middle section of the fourth song (Divide et Impera), which goes back to the full-length In Nomine Satanas. The next outside influence can be heard in Dystocratic, the song starts out with a guitar solo with a style not to be expected it this genre; this is also the best song of this release. For its second half the album becomes even stronger with all songs having one or more great riffs.

Should you get this album? Before this was released my reply to this question would have been an automatic yes (we are talking about Ragnarok after all). While the album is quite enjoyable, it was their first release that was disappointing at the first listen. Give it time, your opinion about it might change as mine did and I'm not the type who loves previously hated albums.

 

Let madness hunt my mind
Let violence guide my hand
Embrace this insanity of mine
Release the demons trapped inside
Arson, murder, suffering
Raping, pillaging, butchering
Cravings are haunting me
My soul will feast on your despair
A vengeful state of mind
Evil incarnate in the flesh
Infested mindset plagued with scorn
Will make sure you are laid to rest
Oppressing, usurping, torturing
Extorting, infesting, pestering
Never turn the other cheek
Retaliate with tenfold strength
Desolated
Desecrated
Diabolic
Dystocratic
'A democratic society can never be a Satanic society. A dystocratic society is a Satanic society.'

Ofermod - Thaumiel (2012) - 0.95

Ritualistic chants, drums and guitars. Welcome to the newest offering of Ofermod, a Swedish black metal band who are known as one of the first of the orthodox black metal movement. But this band has come a long way since then and surpassed such labels.

The term "Orthodox religious death metal", which was used to label the previous effort Tiamtü, seems to fit here much more. Still not without black metal elements, this album ventures deeper into the realm of death metal than its predecessor, taking a huge step forward and distancing itself even more further from the band's demos in all aspects. If you're looking for the old glory days of Mystérion go look somewhere else.

The production is a whole lot different than on the previous releases, well made, more appropiate. Evil, occultish atmosphere fills the room as the listener wanders into the world of Thaumiel. Ever-present drums while never overwhelming, twisted guitar riffs, varied tempos and sick vocals are that make this album what it is. Never mind the absence of Nebiros, the vocal work of JK (Tehom) fits the result much more. Maybe he doesn't have the diversity of Attila Csihar but he certainly delivers. This time Michayah shows how to write a record that won't be buried by time and dust, the songs are much more memorable here than on the previous album. The session musicians who appear in this album don't disappoint the listener either.

Ritualistic chants, drums and guitars. This is how the album starts. The first track is to set the appropiate mood, puts you right into an age of darkness and occultism, even utilizing choirs. The second track increases the tempo and shows the riffing capatibilities of Michayah. The absolute highlight of the album is the third track, amplifying everthing that were just introduced in the previous song. You may feel as the next song is out of place. It's the slowest track of the album and features clean vocals of Kvarforth. You'll eventually get to the re-recording of "Chained to Redemption". If you are to think it has been ruined as the other re-recording, guess again! This version is much more powerful, showing different faces while retaining many qualities of the original version. The album closer is something that would fit the last album of Marduk as well.

Should you listen to this album? This is a silly question, you're bound to be blown away by its freshness, sheer brutality and occult atmosphere. But how good is it? This album is a definite winner if we are to determine which is the best extreme metal record of 2012. Without a second thought.

Radio silence, top albums, live experience and future

I've quite disappeared from here. I've been through a quite challanging time and with finals coming up I won't post for at least another half month. But since this is the end of 2012 I'll talk about how it was metal-wise.

We had quite a few albums to listen to and the selection was far better than last year. Of course there were expected failures (Umskiptar by Burzum) and disappointments (Malediction by Ragnarok) but there were also amazing releases this year like Azaghal's Nemesis, which has dominated this year for a long time but it was dethroned by Ofemod's Thaumiel after all, this is the absolute winner for this year. Third place goes to the latest full-length of Marduk. Serpent Sermon immediately caught my attention and after a few listens I was about to determine if can beat Nemesis (a huge step forward in all aspects) or not but Azaghal kept its place for long. Other albums worth mentioning are "As the Darkness Descends" by Baptism, "With Hearts Towards None" by Mgła (although I was a bit disappointed after hearing all the praise it got), "I Begin" and the live DVD of God Seed, who just showed everyone that they're more capable than Gorgoroth these days. Good albums were released by Sigh, Kreator, Cannibal Corpse and Cryfemal, just to name a few. Reviews of all this will come in 2013, along with a new Darkthrone record.

On 22th November I also managed to catch the tour of the Kreator / Morbid Angel / Nile trio. If I had time a month ago to review it properly I'd have done it but I won't attempt that today, it couldn't be precise enough. To say a few words: all the bands were proficient (as expected), the sound was fantastic, although Kreator could have been a bit louder. Their stage setup was impressive, it had dragon sculptures with glowing eyes, also varied in height and depth (hence the "3d" adverts). The crowd was the most active when MA played of course (myself included), they were also the primary reason of me being there, Kreator was just the dessert, so to speak.

So what's gonna happen now? Well, let me first survive the first half of January. After that, I'll start to review the albums I've mentioned above and others. I've talked about those "rant" posts in the past about bands, years, scenes etc, they will come...

and I will return.

Mayhem + supports - Live in Blue/Red Hell, Budapest, Hungary

Let's try something different this time. Since this is my blog I thought I could experiment a little. Now it will be from a more personal standpoint than my Marduk live review, no "professionalism" this time.

I went at the venue for the opening time since I had no idea how many support band would play. I was surprised when I saw the entrance was at the Red Hell instead of the Blue. A band was already playing when I got there, they're Exodikon from Hungary. It was good but nothing fully memorable. While waiting for the next band we went to Blue Hell, the two are in the same building and separated only by a door. This is where we found the drum kit of Hellhammer. It's logical if you think about it: building the stage and soundchecking for Mayhem always take a lot of time and Red Hell is also a bit smaller.

The second band was The Konstellation, also from Hungary. They played an atmospheric mix of pagan black metal and death metal. As you can see in the video below (courtesy of YT user 0Jillian0) they wore dark hooded robes thus reminded me of Noctem (who I saw a month ago). The lineup was of a vocalist, a guitarist, a bassist and a notebook. Yeah, you read it right. They played the drum tracks and other samples from it. I'm not against drum machines but found this hilarious because the notebook was quite easy to notice (the display wasn't turned off).

The third (and last) support band was Castrum from Ukraine, a quality melodeath band. They weren't fully satisfied by the mix (it was okay) and the vocalist (who is of Hungarian descent) joked about this during the gig. Their performance was tight and solid, very enjoyable. Two of us made a little moshing sometimes.

The venue can hold only 300 people so I don't have to tell it was a bit overfilled. Some people couldn't get into the pit to see Mayhem (I was lucky) so they saw the concert on a projector. The sound was far better than two years ago on the Rockmaraton festival, but the high frequency "scream" was present sometimes, although less frequent than on the Marduk show (I don't know why they didn't fix it, they had one month, even with other concerts being held). They started with Deathcrush (to my greatest pleasure), the second was Ancient Skin. After that I can't remember the order (also might omit some): My Death, a new song (!), Illuminate Eliminate, A Time to Die, Carnage, Freezing Moon, Buried by Time and Dust, De Mysteriis dom Sathanas and Pure Fucking Armageddon. They came back for an encore to play View from Nihil. There was a mosh pit in the middle (Dead and Euronymous wouldn't be proud lol), the moshers got really tired for DMDS and many fell on the ground in the form of a chain reaction. At the other parts of the crowd it was almost impossible to move of course. Freezing Moon below:

After the concert I managed to talk to Attila about the Tormentor re-issues (no fresh news sadly) and got my ticket signed by Necrobutcher (also a little chat with him about the usual things). This night marked my second Mayhem concert and it was definitely worth it!

Pest - Rest in Morbid Darkness - 1.0

This is the latest album of the Swedish black metal outfit named Pest. This release is radically different from the rest of their discography and is the most evil of it.

If you heard the Evil Return EP, you already know the direction the band has taken: true black metal with a little hint of thrash. The EP serves as a preview and while it's really enjoyable it's nothing compared to this full-length.

The sound became heavy with the bass being quite high in the mix. The mix itself is powerful and brings an evil atmosphere that follows you through the whole album. Every instrument is played with skill. The drums are pounding blastbeats for most of the time but not exclusively, remaining interesting. Vocals are agressive and powerful, the guitars are heavily distorted but never thin.

If you only knew the band's previous releases you'll be surprised by the amount of originality in the songwriting. Every instrument empowers the others, dragging you into the darkest pits of hell like never before. The guitar riffs are memorable and you will be surprised by the amount of solos here since they aren't often utilized in black metal. The album has both slow and fast solos, sometimes combined, at other times being midtempo leads.

Standout tracks? It's really hard to choose because the whole album is strong and consistent. The start of the album already shows its potential which it fully satisfies. Nights in the Cursed Chapel has the highest amount of lead sections while Blessed by Hellfire is memorable because of its chorus. Vomit Up the Blood of Jesus has a strong antichristian vibe to it and not only because of the title. Shadows of the Dead brings the occult to the table. The Final Strike of Doom has the most dynamic section, perfectly illustrating the quote "even the heavens shall burn when we are gathered" (of Bathory fame). The last song is slow, spreads bone-chilling mood of death and funeral while keeping the evil tone you're already familiar with.

Should you listen to this album? Definitely. If you don't like Darkthrone-esque black metal or DSBM exclusively, you will love this. This is the best effort of the band by far, I dare to say the best black metal album of 2008 and the most evil metal album I've ever heard.

Enter the dawn

Let's sing for them

Watching the heavens

Go down in flames

Serpent Sermon Tour 2012 - Live in Blue Hell, Budapest, Hungary

As I promised, here is a live review, a first (and hopefully not the last) of this kind of posts. I was thinking about writing it from a more personal perspective, but fuck that shit, this isn't facebook or a personal blog.

The venue (Kék Yuk or Blue Hell in English) is a small (and expensive!) place with an amount of 300 people. No pyros here since the ceiling is not that high from the ground and not very resistant to fire. It is their 10-year anniversary so they invite a lot of bands to play, this monday night's main band was Marduk and Immolation, also 3 opening bands in the horde.

I had to miss two of the openers due to other commitments, heard the end of the second band's performance, it wasn't any memorable. The next to play was Noctem from Spain. I knew the name since I was sent some material years ago when they were a new band. We were generally impressed by their performance as they set the bar pretty high. Towards the end of their set the vocalist just spat us in the face with ketchup (as fake blood) and we looked really kvlt for the rest of the night. :)

(all videos are courtesy of YouTube user 0Jillian0)

I already knew the next band - Immolation - to some extent, and they performed as they were exceped by the majority of us. It was a quality death metal show, great audio. Since many of us came here to see Marduk (myself included) we were really excited and were only waiting for them to come (this way I can't remember much of their set, it was varied from the oldest to the newest). The vocalist knew this well and he didn't miss the opportunity to raise the mood by mentioning them again and again.

The preparations of Marduk technicians took a long time, especially the one setting up the microphone for Mortuus, after some time we were like "fuck off and let the band play already". They arrived and after the intro they started with Serpent Sermon. The sound was raw as hell (as it was meant to be) and loud as fuck. The setlist was varied, fast and aggressive songs mixed with epics, both new and old ones for the oldschool motherfuckers (like me). Mortuus kept saying "Budapest, Hungary" between the songs as if this was the only way not to get killed. The surprise came when they played Within the Abyss, my favourite song of them. I don't need to say I almost lost my voice for the next day because of the classics. For the encore we got one more song than the neighbours, both Wolves and For Satan and Victorious Weapons.

This is a night I will not forget for a long time. Mainly because of Marduk (and their "little" surprise) but Immolation and Noctem were great too. After the show I saw a flyer about Mayhem coming here (same venue) on 5th october, that will be the next one for me (from now on automatically insert "if it doesn't get cancelled").

The next post is an album review (as usual). I've already written it and it's scheduled to appear next saturday. This is the first time I'll give a full score (1) for a release, it needs to be something special to deserve this. It's evil, Swedish and it's not Abruptum. What is it then? You'll find it out soon...

A little update

Infernal hails to all readers!

I haven't posted for a long time. That's because I enjoyed my summer holiday after a hard semester. Met a lot of friends, been at concerts (including Cannibal Corpse/Aborted/Kill With Hate) and done a lot of things. This is a metal-related blog so I won't write about this in detail.

The most important thing: I'll be back in September. What can you expect then? More reviews (of both older and newer albums), live review of the upcoming Marduk/Immolation concert (if it doesn't get cancelled) and posts about bands and years (the first of this kind will be about 2008, the best year so far, you'll see why). The latter ones will feature YouTube playlists so you can get a better "picture" of what I'm talking about. I still won't include (illegal) album downloads, you can find thousands of blogs like that. (Who doesn't use them anyway?)

Approx. two weeks for me to have my Evil Return (song below). Bye until then!
\m/

Forgotten Woods - Race of Cain - 0.5

After 11 years of silence Forgotten Woods came back to release a new album. I must say they should have let the band rest in peace.

The production is a bit muddy but nowhere as raw as the band's previous outputs. The vocals are buried in the mix for the most of the time. The songwriting seems to be half-assed and a bit weakish but has some good ideas. Lyrical themes range from Anti-Christianity to Nazism, that alone might be enough reason for some not to listen to the album.

The first track "Race of Abel" is just like Mayhem's "The Vortex Void of Inhumanity" with quotes about the Judeo-Christian God very much in a mocking sense. The second track reminds me some Native American music, while the third could have been enjoyable if the vocalist didn't try to copy Attila Csihar and fail at it horribly. "Intolerance is the New Law" has some poor attempt at clean vocals but the song is okay otherwise. "Here, in the Obsession" is the first track Imore-or-less like  with the second half played with clean guitars. The next effort might be the best track here. The problem is it has nothing to do with the rest of the album with its female vocals and the song itself feels out of the place just like "With Swans I'll Share My Thirst" on the previous full-length. The last song has a long conversation with a Christian and an elitist. The song's ending with the "Sieg heil!" screams is funny.

In overall the album gets more enjoyable towards its end with the beginning being pretty weak. Maybe it would have been a better idea to release an EP with the better songs.

If you're allergic to bands radically changing their sound, lyrical themes or Nazi stuff then you should avoid this album at all costs. Otherwise: listen at your own risk but prepare to be disappointed.

The assumption that I gave birth to flies is true. A dog crucified. The fluttering ascends. Shedding skin to build another. Let them inherit the horror. And the shame from which it’s made. I wish I was as pale as you. Reflecting superman while the host snickers. We syndicate the poignant arts of mastering the unknown. Here, in the obsession.

Baptism - Morbid Wings of Sathanas - 0.8

The early releases of this Finnish outfit are extremely raw, filled with depressive riffs. On the later works of the band the production values are raised to an extent and the music suffers from it. Let's see how this album is the end of an old era.

As I mentioned earlier, the production is raw here like on the debut and the EPs in between, this being the last one to feature such anti-production. The atmosphere perfectly fits some of the tracks but not all of them. The vocals are less in the foreground as they used to be and the mix is dominated by the guitars. The drumming is good but serves no specific functions. Low frequencies are almost nonexistent (even with a subwoofer) but this isn't as much of a problem.

All tracks were written by Lord Sagrofagian, half of them being decent while the rest are enjoyable but also forgettable. The first track starts with an awesome riff bearing powerful emotions, the song also has some clean vocals strengthening the atmosphere further. The album has memorable riffs all over the album, the next one being the chorus of "The Worshipper". The next song (Names of the Dead Souls) also has its moments, actually many of them are pure gold, making this one of the blackened stars of this release. The title track is overly religious. Its start might be not as great as others but the song builds up as the listener continues their journey in it. After a slower section chants for Satan can be heard and after more riffs you will understand why this song is played live. Enjoyment of this release increases exponentially as the track finishes and you're wondering if it can be any better after this. It can. The finishing masterpiece titled "The Path of New Era" has the best main riff I've ever heard in any guitar-based music. The other sections of this track are also really good and create a great composition altogether. You can find no mistakes here, this track is perfect, although the second part with the slow guitars might seem as unnecessary and have been better as a separate outro but that's just a minor thing.

Unless you're a big fan of Baptism this is the last release worth getting. Not as consistent as the debut album but the lighlights easily overshine the mediocre parts. If you like raw (and depressive) black metal with a strong Satanic message, then there's no reason why you should miss this album.


The LP version has a different track order and the second track is replaced by another song. The last 2 tracks have so strong connection as it's hard to understand why they were separated on vinyl (maybe because that's how it fits). The other track (Soil of Decay) is not available online. The vinyl version is almost impossible to track down, I gave up searching for it. Let the 500 individuals who possess them enjoy them.

My choice of song is obvious here, its lyrics were not released.

Armagedda - Live in Nurnberg - 0.7

A friend of mine notified my about this release first. I made a purchase based on the band's previous releases including Echoes in Eternity where you can hear some live footage of the band, and I didn't regret it.

This was recorded on one of the band's live appearances (after this tour they stopped playing live), recorded with only one camera. The video has a sepia effect applied for the whole length. The performance is uncut. The band plays well but there are 1-2 minute breaks between some songs, this might be a drawback for some.


The sound is similar to the live tracks on Echoes in Eterinty, the mix is a bit better here.

Armagedda brings a varied setlist between their suicidal and intense songs. The former category is played with enough passion to make an effect. From this category, A World Full of Lies is the highlight. One thing that irritates me to a small extent is Graav changing the lyrics at some parts (maybe the songs weren't finished that time but still). The other songs are also played well, making good headbanging moments. The crowd is tame until Satan My Master starts.


Who do I recommend this? For fans of Armagedda this is mandatory, people who like raw (and sometimes suicidal) black metal this may be a good experience. For others: at your own risk.


I had to make a blind purchase on this, since nothing of this was uploaded anywhere (and apart from the video I uploaded, still isn't). At first I asked around if the online Armagedda merchandise store is reliable. After getting positive responses I bought this DVD (along with a patch).

The package itself held the DVD in a normal case, the disc itself (which I backed up immediately) and the cover. I expected a booklet too but it didn't have any, I was a bit disappointed about this.

During one of the breaks, a mobile phone jams the sound a bit. I thought that it was mine but for the next watch it was at the exact position so it's the video.


For the end of the post, A World Full of Lies shall be here with the original lyrics (since I'm too lazy to fix it):

Inside my skin, crawling
Helpless, screaming
Raped by this world
A world full of lies

This inner feeling
Destructive, chaotic!
An endless suffering
Where will it lead?

Voices from the past
Whispers my name
Like a suicidal wind
Possess my mind
Possess my soul...