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The Best Black Metal Album
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| Quite definitely the most extreme of the Black Metal releases this year, Anaal Nathrakh have knocked it up another notch with In The Constellation Of The Black Widow. The album is a brutal shitstorm of Black Metal with a nice pinch of Grindcore, resulting in something that shouldn't be enjoyed by anyone sane yet most definitely is. It's an album with blasting drums, fast guitars, energetic screaming and even clean vocals. It all works magnificently though, ending up being the perfect amalgamation of the extreme. |
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After 6 years in hiding, Australian black metal wolves Destroyer 666 are unchained once again with possibly their most diverse offering to date. Defiance is the result of a perfect mixture of vicious thrash riffs, played at a torturing black metal speed & intensity, topped off with anthem like chorus'. As majestic as it is violent, Defiance is truly a force to be reckoned with in this years Black Metal competition.
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Legends of the genre, Immortal return in fine form to show the rest how it is done. The album teeming with grim, blackened metal takes you on a journey to an icy Armageddon. After the band's hiatus, "All Shall Fall" is an extremely welcome return from one of metal's most visually iconic bands and most loved black metal acts of all. Immortal have grown over the years, resulting with this is solid slab of mature, black ice.
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| Pretty much every bandmember of Nazxul is/was active in at least three to four other bands and it shows. Both in the period of time between full-lengths (a whopping fourteen years) and the maturity of the music. Iconoclast is an album that takes no prisoners with its well-produced, balanced synthy Black metal. Think Emperor minus the bad production and the later progressive tendencies. Let's hope it wont take them another fourteen years to release a third full-length. |
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Oranssi Pazuzu are perhaps one of the most laidback and relaxed Black metal bands ever. With their fresh mix of krautrock, psychedelica and raging Second Wave Black metal they outshine everybody in the 'weird department'. Every second of their debut Muukalainen Puhuu drips with playful and skilful cosmic adventures. Put your sunglasses on, toss back a couple of Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters and surf through the Universe on their wavering riffs, catchy pinch-harmonics and ballsy tripping dissonance.
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After Shining's two masterpieces The Eerie Cold and V - Halmstad the expectations for their sixth release were high - perhaps too high. Kvarforth is not someone to go down under public expectation though, if anything, that's exactly what he thrives on. Putting all on-stage (and off-stage) antics aside, though, Shining delivered a solid sixth album with touches of brilliance. Perhaps a tad pale in comparison to the two previous releases, but still, the majority of the 'suicidal' Black bands can only hope for an album as good as VI - Klagopsalmer.
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Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite is another fantastic Black metal release by mastermind Alexander Von Meilenwald. When you're spinning one of his albums you can only wonder why people claim "Black metal is dead". Black metal is far from dead, Von Meilenwald's genial, twisted, dark and visionary music constitutes definitive proof. Dive deep into his melting pot of circling riffs, fresh solos, haunting vocals and terrifyingly amazing usage of choirs and ritualistic chants and return a changed man. And then there are the brilliant songtitles... "God's Ensanguined Bestiaries"? If only every musician would put as much care into his or her music as Von Meilenwald does.
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| After Windir's demise the band basically divided into two 'daughter cells', Cor Scorpii and Vreid. If there's any sort of competition between the two, we all know who is winning... Cor Scorpii had their chance last year but unfortunately didn't make the cut, Vreid didn't hesitate for a second and showed everyone how it's done with a nomination for the Black metal category. That's 1 - 0 for the Milorgs, suckers! It's no secret who are the rightful heirs to the crown... |
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The Wolves of the Pacific Northwest are back with another four epic tracks laden with the usual shimmering tremolo riffs, driving drums, and sounds of the great woods. Black Cascade also introduced a bit of a throwback to old school, second wave Norwegian Black Metal, most noticeably in the vocals.
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| Through the considerately titled album Woods IV: The Green Album, Woods Of Ypres bring us their fourth (and longest) release. Their unique and perhaps "warmer" as it's been described take on Black Metal is still evident with the combination of clean vocals and harsh rasps (sometimes even harmonised in a well-done way). As well as that the album features quite a bit of Doom influence coupling with the already different Blackened style making this one of the more distinctive Black Metal releases of 2009. |
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