Drudkh – Autumn Aurora
[Autumn Aurora] is an album that, listening to it now in retrospect, both continued and solidified the group’s pagan and nature themes and thick, heavy sound.
black metal
Shining – VI Klagopsalmer
Klagopsalmer is a surprisingly warm production in spite of its black metal core. That also means that, despite the band’s dark, depressive, even suicidal reputation, the record is not nearly as nihilistic or grim as you might expect.
KEVI METAL’S RIMSHOTS v.2 #2
Welcome to the second installment of the snarky, irreverent world of Rimshots, reconstituted for the online world that is Hellbound.ca. Enjoy them, because I know I didn’t. After suffering through this crop of crap, all I have to ask is: Sean, dude, what did I ever do to you?!
Emperor – Live Inferno
Live Inferno is nothing less than a send-off from the canonical Norwegian black metal band.
Bringing New Energy Back to the Barren Lands: An Interview With Ihsahn
“I like the situation I’m in now with the solo thing. With this last album in the trilogy, it’s kind of a natural development from angL and The Adversary. I think they all kind of tie in together, but After is not the most logical step from the two other albums. It’s so different that it points in another direction and leaves the next one a little open ended.”
On the eve of the release of his new album After, Jonathan Smith speaks to former Emperor front man Ihsahn about his burgeoning solo career, the progressive nature it has taken and the surprising use of saxophone on his latest solo effort.
Weapon: Drakonian Paradigm
Musically, what makes Weapon unique is its intricate sense of composition, its sinuous melodic leads, and the subtle accents that it uses in order to conjure a distinctive atmosphere. Conceptually (and, by extension, atmospherically), Drakonian Paradigm is uniquely syncretic in its left-hand-pathos, in turn using its music to menace several doctrines from a common ground.
Tate Bengston reviews the debut full-length album by Edmonton, Alberta-based black metal quartet Weapon, recently released on CD and LP by the AJNA Offensive.
Rotting Christ: Aealo
Aealo is the best Rotting Christ album since Triarchy of the Lost Lovers. Dive deep, and discover for yourself.
Acheron: The Final Conflict: Last Days Of God
Forged from the combative live-in-the-studio atmosphere of Kreator’s Pleasure To Kill coupled with the soupy low end of Obituary yet new enough to elicit comparison to fellow evil-doers Behemoth, The Final Conflict is as furious as it is delightfully offensive.
Ihsahn: After
From the bleak opening riffs to the lingering saxophone notes that close it, After is a fascinating listen that gets better every time it’s played.
Nifelheim: Self-titled/Devil’s Force
With a sound rooted more in earlier bands like Bathory and Venom rather than later Norwegian cuts, both Nifelheim and Devil’s Force are blasts of thrashy black metal that stick to a plan and rarely deviate.