Harps Of The Ancient Temples is a deeply satisfying record. On “Blood Rite Tree” the album breaks from its mold and takes a turn for the weird which also features a standout guitar solo to close it. Catchy riffs sneak in at various points (like the opening of “B.O.D.D.”). This is the kind of album that pulls you in, pulls you down, and gets you lost. Much of the album moves at a slower clip than what would expect from black metal the drums sound quite rich in spots and blast beats are almost nonexistent. Harps Of The Ancient Temples summons black metal’s icy progenitors mid-paced tracks also remind me of Akitsa and Silencer (with vastly different vocals on the latter!). This is largely no frills, no gaze, no dissonance, guitars drums and harsh vocal black metal. This record is black metal pared down to the essential elements. It was also allegedly recorded two times with two different bands the second recording (in analog) made the cut.
#Heretic game music metal full#
This album was allegedly over a decade in the making, Nocternity’s first full length album since 2003’s Onyx. Granted that was weeks ago, and things change quickly when you plumb the subterranean depths. The Masterlord told me Harps Of The Ancient Temples was his favorite black metal release of 2015. Nocternity | Harps Of The Ancient Temples
If you are looking for a change of pace, you could do much worse than Autokrator’s debut.
Second, the album ends of a low note, given the intensity of the first six songs. First, it suffers from being highly repetitive (a common complaint across the board in extreme music). The last two tracks break the pattern and slow down, “Optimus Princeps” ends on the same note as the beginning of “Autokrator”. “Autokrator” opens with a prolonged sampled dialog. Pause is given briefly to interject harsh noise at the end of the second track “Exsuperator”.
Lyrics alternate between screams and grotesque shouts, akin to a military official shouting down the chain of command. These songs are heavy, thick, and oppressive. This record marches through its first two tracks with a nigh unstoppable mechanical rumble. Think black metal played by early Nine Inch Nails, Godflesh, or Aeon Flux’s Trevor Goodchild. Elements of music are cornered by industrial tremors throughout. It’s fitting given how strange a release this on the Iron Bonehead roster. In Greek, an autokratōr is one “who exercises absolute power, unrestrained by superiors”. Iron Bonehead is running it on sale, head over to Bandcamp to stream it or buy it.
Ithaqua is Lovecraftian in origin, but this record is much more straighforward than their namesake would imply. The album continues forward and mixes classic metal and black metal returning time and time again to big hooks, big riffs, and catchy melodies, before picking up steam and embracing its darker qualities. This is the kind of heavy metal Toilet Ov Hell writer JAG would just call “heavy metal.” Right off the bat it reminded me of Dawnbringer’s excellent Night of the Hammer (with harsh singing). After a windswept intro with ritual chanting (which would be right at home on any black metal record), Obscure Mysteries has as much in common with an older tradition of heavy metal as any of its extreme relatives. I pushed play and expected the usual Iron Bonehead fuckfest. Ithaqua | Initiation To Obscure Mysteriesīeing pretty familiar with Iron Bonehead’s output, I was a bit surprised by Ithaqua’s Initiation To Obscure Mysteries. Let’s uncover several Iron Bonehead releases that haven’t received coverage on the site yet, and one due out at the end of July. A quick glance at their Bandcamp reveals fifteen (15!) 2015 releases so far, including: the beloved but quickly forgotten Death Karma’s The History of Death and Burial Rituals part 1 (remember how much you loved Death Karma in February? ), Vassafor and Temple Nightside’s monstrous Call of the Maelstrom, and Hic Iacet’s twisting and underrated The Cosmic Trance Into The Void. The label’s promos have been covered on this site more than once, and its releases have also been featured extensively in our ongoing Mini-Reviews series. We at the Toilet Ov Hell Offices™ are no strangers to the reliable Iron Bonehead Productions.
0 kommentar(er)
