FOR THE LOVE OF METAL
With their latest signing in Aenaon, Code666 continues to cement its name as the vanguard of forward-thinking blackmetal. Stellar release after stellar release, the label has proven its cutting-edge mettle time and again, and Cendres Et Sang is only further proof of the label’s impeccable taste.
Morbid Blood, as unrepentantly familiar as it sounds, is regardless a formidable slab of raging blackened thrash that makes up for its obvious deficit in originality with a vehement overkill-passion that is undeniable.
Agnes Vein have well steeped themselves in the lore of Blood Fire Death-era Bathory and latter-day Celtic Frost, but at times, the music also hints at the drone and mood of Jesu. There’s also the strong aftertaste of Primordial in the guitar tone. It’s an eclectic mix, but the influences serve them well and Agnes Vein have managed to distill them down into their own secret formula. I highly recommend Duality to anyone whose ears pricked up at any of the aforementioned inspiration.
If there is one thing that can be said about the criticism on Hellbound.ca it is that we don’t pull punches. The reviews that we print are the ones that are submitted by our writers and the editors just have to suck it up, whether they like it or not. So with that in mind, here are two very different reviews of the Suicidal Angels’ latest album Sanctify The Darkness, which will be released in North America in one week’s time. Take these for what you will and make up your own mind.
“Our band’s name has closed many doors for bigger success,” admit Sakis. “Some of our shows have been canceled, some of the distributors didn’t accept our albums due to our name, we’ve even received death threats…but we keep on rocking with this song. We keep on punching conservative ideas and opening new paths in the name of freedom. And do you know something? I think that it’s better that we didn’t get more success and become commercial! That would mean that we would have betrayed our roots and betrayed ourselves…and this is a vanity.”
Metal George Pacheco in conversation with Rotting Christ frontman Sakis Tolis about their first twenty years as Greece’s most well-known black metal band.
Listening to the new Rotting Christ over and over, I like it, but I want to like it more than I do. Aealo is powerful and dramatic, sometimes violent, eerie, complicated or just plain straight-ahead catchy – a black-death fusion of metal and eastern folk. But there’s something that doesn’t quite click, or at least hasn’t yet.
Phenomenon is bound to please fans of all things Emperor, including Ihsahn and Zyklon, a very well-executed blackened death metal hybrid that’s in and out in less than half an hour.
Aealo is the best Rotting Christ album since Triarchy of the Lost Lovers. Dive deep, and discover for yourself.
These guys don’t reinvent the wheel, but if you’re a fan of Monster Magnet, Lowrider, 90’s Nebula and/or Kyuss—and are looking for a band that’s currently releasing decent tuneage—then this record’s worth a listen.
When I first ripped off the packaging of the cd sleeve, I did a brief scan of the promotional artwork and thought to myself ‘oh, just another grim underground black metal band…’ Six beers later, I had the volume cranked.