Weakling is one of my favourite black metal bands. They hail from Los Angeles in good old US of A, but their sound is one you would associate more with the Norwegian movement. They are very grim and angry and their songs tend to last well over 10 minutes. Unfortunately, they are almost completely unheard of. I figured it would be a good idea to start a thread about them.

Black metal from LA? Interesting, got any MP3's or links on the band? It would help if they're 'almost unheard of'.

Yes, sounds interesting. Especcialy is they sound alike with another band/topic here, Wolves In The Throne Room.

Weakling released only one album in 2000, "Dead as Dreams" and it's easily one of the best black metal albums of all time. 5 songs clock in at 76 minutes to deliver a feast for any fan of second wave Norwegian black metal. Among the obvious influences one could mention Satyricon, Burzum and Immortal, but these Americans somehow managed to make this style their own and succesfully avoided being labelled as mere Burzum clones.

This album is simply brilliant, although extremely hard to get. I'm a proud owner of a copy

Sounds really good. Don't think I'll run into one one day, but I'll buy it if I do.

Does sound good, and like said I dont think that i'll be running into a copy anytime soon. And 5 tracks on the album wit a running time of 76 minutes? Thats very long (for me anyway), i'll check them out if i ever come across.

Written by Daniell on 11.06.2006 at 14:25

Among the obvious influences one could mention Satyricon, Burzum and Immortal, but these Americans somehow managed to make this style their own and succesfully avoided being labelled as mere Burzum clones.

Are you saying this because we had a discussion about this in the last Weakling topic?

Anyway, I really like Weakling, but I wouldn't say they have any influences from Satyricon or Immortal. The biggest influence would be "Filosofem" of Burzum, because it sounds very similar to that album. That's why I think they are a clone, but definitly not a bad Burzum clone.

The only difference is the length of the songs, and a few slower parts in the songs. However, generally, I would only advice this band if you enjoy Filosofem of Burzum Otherwise you can better skip this album.

Written by AntaeusM on 12.06.2006 at 18:55

Written by Daniell on 11.06.2006 at 14:25

Among the obvious influences one could mention Satyricon, Burzum and Immortal, but these Americans somehow managed to make this style their own and succesfully avoided being labelled as mere Burzum clones.

Are you saying this because we had a discussion about this in the last Weakling topic?

Anyway, I really like Weakling, but I wouldn't say they have any influences from Satyricon or Immortal. The biggest influence would be "Filosofem" of Burzum, because it sounds very similar to that album. That's why I think they are a clone, but definitly not a bad Burzum clone.

The only difference is the length of the songs, and a few slower parts in the songs. However, generally, I would only advice this band if you enjoy Filosofem of Burzum Otherwise you can better skip this album.

You're right, I did remember that
As for Satyricon and Immortal influences, I do hear them, but it might be completely subjective, so don't rely on this. Anyway, in terms of the epic scope of their songs, they do resemble Satyricon, and some riffs remind me of Immortal.

And NO, don't skip this album if you don't like Burzum's "Filosofem". It stands on its own, and is original enough to be seriously regarded as a top notch black metal release.

One of the most overlloked BM acts, no doubt about that... I own "Dead As Dreams" and it's scary as hell, makes you feel threatened and unsecure and that's perfect for Black Metal... it has an incredibly cold atmosphere and to complete the cliché this band explores the darkest feelings on music. Great!

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:2s8o1vg3zzua

mmm i'm downloading the album right now

great band... quite amazing actually
also the album has been reissued (http://www.tumult.net/catalog/weakling.html) so you should be able to find it

When I listen to Weakling I find a lot of Burzum and Darkthrone there; not terribly much Immortal or Satyricon though. I agree wholeheartedly that you should not skip this album even if you disliked the bands they get compared to. I personally find Burzum unlistenable, and rarely find anything worthwhile in Darkthrone, but "Dead as Dreams" is still probably my favourite black metal album ever.

ive heard sooooooo much bout this band but never heard them, anyone got any links to mp3s?

Written by Angel Deformity on 16.07.2006 at 10:39

ive heard sooooooo much bout this band but never heard them, anyone got any links to mp3s?

Yes here http://www.myspace.com/weaklingg

I lsiten this songv and well thay sound slike all bands in this forum but sme time awsome and diferent, I like longg BM bnd s thay songs has 11-17 minutes like Sin Origin :banger2;

USBM, how I hate this term, is something I really like lately. Weakling is a good band, but not genious. I like the long solo on 'Cut Their Brains....' just awsome.

Written by Guest on 18.06.2006 at 03:04

great band... quite amazing actually
also the album has been reissued (http://www.tumult.net/catalog/weakling.html) so you should be able to find it

That's interesting... this is one of the very few CDs that I really would like to own the original

Written by tuerda on 11.06.2006 at 10:31

and their songs tend to last well over 10 minutes.

and thats a good ting ? hehe

Written by Guest on 28.09.2006 at 21:13

Written by tuerda on 11.06.2006 at 10:31

and their songs tend to last well over 10 minutes.

and thats a good ting ? hehe

Not by itself, but in this case certainly is... bands that create this kind of atmosphere do it much better with lengthy songs, to mantain the hypnosis...

ok they must be good if the mostly make 10 minutes song and are not booring hehe...

Written by Guest on 28.09.2006 at 21:58

ok they must be good if the mostly make 10 minutes song and are not booring hehe...

I never had bored from so long somns and specely of this band and its like Sin origin who plays simmilar style but this band are rearer and hard getible, I read album are out of print

ok nice i think i give them a listen

I NEED THAT WEAKLING CD!!!!! The sample on myspace was just amazing. I want a hardcopy of it! NOW ^^.

I finally got a hold of a copy of this cd. And what can I say? Its nothing short of fucking great. I would say that Weakling is quite like a combination of filosofem burzum and Negura Bunget, but still not.

I really enjoy this album and its a shame they never released more albums, since I really like this, might even make it to one of my fav bands.

I also love "Dead as Dreams" - I had heard a lot of hype about it which set the expectations fairly high - but it still exceeded them.

I like the songs are long and epic in length, but not stylistically static. I enjoy the way they morph around. Truly horrifying music.

I guess Negura Bunget and Wolves in the Throne are decent ways to tag as 'similar artists' for folks who might be interested.

Time to resurrect this topic - although it's painful to see my old poor spelling and ignorance concerning this band, haha.

Anyway, I did run into a copy of "Dead As Dreams", not surprisingly as it is quite easily available these days (Aquarius Records & Dis-Order both have it, and they're probably not the only ones). And although I knew it way before I got the actual hard copy: Dead As Dreams is great. Yeah, the songs are very long, but they all go by extremely fast. Felt like I put on the album six minutes ago, but it's already in the third track.

Awesome band, awesome album. I have not nearly listened to them as much as I should have the past year (or so), but now I'm going to catch up!

Yep yep yep, still an incredible album, I gave it another spin the other day. It's surprisingly epic and melodic which is not what I thought when I first heard it all those years ago. Any fears that Wolves in the Throne Room would be topping it have been pretty much quashed if the new album is anything to go by.

Are the recent Nachtmystium albums hugely influenced by Weakling? Haven't heard the older stuff by them, but perhaps those too.

Written by Lucas on 12.03.2009 at 20:06

Are the recent Nachtmystium albums hugely influenced by Weakling? Haven't heard the older stuff by them, but perhaps those too.

lol, what are you talking about?

Written by Damnated on 13.03.2009 at 20:24

Written by Lucas on 12.03.2009 at 20:06

Are the recent Nachtmystium albums hugely influenced by Weakling? Haven't heard the older stuff by them, but perhaps those too.

lol, what are you talking about?

Erm, about Nachtmystium and Weakling? I dunno, the only Nachtmystium album I really have in my head is Instinct:Decay, and the non-psychedelic stuff sounds a little like Weakling to me. It's been a long time since I've heard that album though. They share a galloping, rough and a liiiiitle bit droney sound, imo.

I don't think Assassins takes much influence from Weakling (that's be an insult to Weakling surely ). I don't think it'd be that much of a stretch to say that Instinct: Decay ha some semblance to Weakling, though I'm slightly compromised right now.