Tag Archives: black metal

Pelican – Tombs: Live At The El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles, CA

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pelican_elrey

 

Chicago instrumental post-rockers Pelican have been known for putting on quite the powerful show despite the lack of vocals. While this is a minor setback for those unfamiliar with the band, Pelican’s sound is quite heavy enough for those who love their music this way and tonight’s show was no exception.

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Bassist Bryan Herweg was positioned in center with guitarist Trevor de Brauw and their “newest” member Dallas Thomas working together and creating a vibe that comes across heavy yet atmospheric. The visuals playing in the backdrop works well with the low lighting and creates a somewhat somber atmosphere that got the crowd into it immediately.

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Almost half of their ten song set covered their latest release Forever Becoming, such as ‘The Tundra’ and ‘Deny The Absolute’, while sprinkling songs from various releases such as ‘Dead Between the Walls’ and ‘Ephemeral’. Their set list flowed fairly smoothly and unlike past tours, Pelican weaved it together fairly well and gave the crowd an earful of heavy sounds.

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The encore of ‘Mammoth’ was their heaviest tune of the evening, getting a mosh pit going and raising the tempo for the night. While many may not expect such things happening at a Pelican show, they do throw in surprises.

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Brooklyn, New York’s Tombs is a bit of the opposite of what post-rock fans may expect and instead leaned towards crushing riffs and a tinge of black metal meets experimental heaviness. Rarely letting up on low end heaviness, Tombs kept the crowd on its feet with its vicious heaviness and rarely letting up. Neurot Recordings artist Mustard Gas And Roses a.k.a. MGR a.k.a. Mike Gallagher (ex-ISIS) opened the night.   

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Pelican on Facebook

Tombs on Facebook

 

WORDS BY REI NISHIMOTO

PHOTOS BY KALEY NELSON


Waxen – Agios Holokauston

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waxen album cover

 

Lo-fi Black Metal is not a genre often associated with especially accomplished playing. Apologists for the style will often talk about how “atmosphere” or “emotion” is more important than technicality, and many artists embrace the DIY values of Punk (if not always the politics) to show that the power to create art is not just in the hands of the skilled or educated. The idea of a one-man bedroom BM project created by Godless Rising and (live) Darkane shredder Toby Knapp, then is an intriguing one – and for once, the end result is pretty much exactly what you’d expect.

 

Knapp makes no attempt to disguise the fact that Agios Holokauston (Moribund) is all about the guitars, and gives a performance that utterly transcends what this sub-genre is usually capable of. At times melodic, grandiose, savage and mournful, Knapp’s playing leads us through a well-crafted and dynamic selection of songs. Catchier than one might expect from lo-fi Black Metal, but none of the aggression or power is sacrificed, and Knapp demonstrates well just how engaging this music can be with a touch more skill behind it.

 

If the strength of Agios Holokauston is the guitar performance, then the weakness is… well, everything else. The programmed drums, in fairness, are perfectly adequate and rather less clicky than is normally the case. However, they are by nature quite characterless, and certainly flat next to the guitar heroics. The vocals, too, fall far short of what’s required; emotionless, monotone shrieking so thoroughly processed that they might as well be electronic noises that fail to add any character or feeling to the songs. This is especially apparent when Waxen explore more contemplative material on ‘Hollow Eyes’, and Knapp is still buzzing away like a robot wasp with no sense of rhythm.

 

An appealing and eminently listenable album, then, but any pleasure you take from listening will inevitably be off-set by the disappointment of imagining how good Agios Holokauston could have been if Knapp had found himself some friends who were as proficient and expressive on drums and vocals as he is on guitar.

 

7.0/10

Toby Knapp on Facebook

 

RICHIE H-R

 


Thou & The Body – Fórn – Rozamov: Live at The Firehouse, Worcester MA

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It’s been a while since I went to a DIY show and the perfect, and maybe only, reason to rectify that came about on Sunday July 6th, when the collaborative project between Thou and The Body came to a place called “The Firehouse” in Worcester, MA. As is the norm with most DIY shows, this was not in a very safe part of the city by far, so I was glad that four of us drove in together. These kinds of shows are not my favorite things usually, since you just never know what you are going to get. That can be exciting for people I guess, but me? I just want a freaking bathroom, clean running water and one clear exit I can hop out of the second it looks like any sort of trouble. Call me a pansy, I don’t care.

 

 

Around 9:30pm the openers, Fórn, began their set. I saw them once before at The Middle East Upstairs and was really distracted by a combination of bad sound and the smell of electrical wires in their gear frying. I felt like they were too concerned with playing loudly than having any substance back then. This set was definitely musically stronger and lacked the overpowered sound of too many amps turned past 11 just because they had them. Instead it seemed like they were attempting to capture the sludge/doom sound by playing it instead of just blasting a slow riff and calling it sludgy. The microphone went out for two songs but other than that there were no problems and they sounded good.

 

With a quick changeover, Rozamov was next up and the night was moving right along towards the 12am curfew. For me, this was the first time seeing this band as a three piece and although I feel like they could use more guitar somehow, they totally held their own with the stripped down sound. They steamed through their set with intensity enough to keep everyone inside this quickly becoming oxygen poor room. Suffering through the now quickly rising heat and smell of sweaty arm pits, groins and asses (I may have thrown up in my mouth a little just typing that), the crowd was rapt and made no attempt at escaping the hot stench to the outside area.

 

I went for some air and was quickly followed by a room full of sweaty twenty somethings all either looking for cooler air or a puff of burning tobacco. During the swapping of gear and whatnot, a couple of people in attendance were apparently shot with BB guns by un-identified neighbors; such a nice part of town. One was shot in the head and one in the arm, but luckily nothing serious and apparently they got the BB’s out.

 


By the time Thou and The Body started to play it was clearly uncomfortable in there and had come close to about forty minutes before the curfew. I have seen both bands individually but had not even checked out the collaboration on-line so I was kind of blindsided by the experience. Was it heavy? That is a stupid question but it was that special kind of heavy that tugs at your innards just so. Not enough to lose control of your bowels but more than enough to make it almost impossible not to bob your head, stomp your feet and grind your teeth just a bit. There was a little of the electronic element The Body is known for as well as the punishing vocals you get from Bryan Funck of Thou and when you put that together with a bassist, 2 drummers and 3 guitars, you have a truly one of a kind set. I would have liked to have heard more of Chip King’s (The Body) vocals but from where I was it was barely audible and I would have been interested to hear the dichotomy of his signature wails with the shredded vocal style of Bryan. They closed the set with a Nine Inch Nails cover of “Terrible Lie” but sadly for me, I had just popped outside to get some air and missed the song. I was told it was amazing. Go see the collaboration if it comes near you. It was worth it and I am glad I braved the BB’s, the locals and the smell of moist, hot body stink to witness it.

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Thou on Facebook

The Body on Facebook

Fórn on Facebook

Rozamov on Facebook

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY HILLARIE JASON


Goatwhore – Constricting Rage of the Merciless

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Goatwhore album cover 2014

 

Goatwhore conjures a musical sound to mind the minute read their name or say it aloud. You know what it stands for, before the words roll off of your tongue. Few modern bands have the grit and the greatness to remain consistently heavy in the face of rising popularity. They are in many ways the Motörhead of their musical generation: without compromise and weakness…. a band that can do no wrong for fans across all of metals fiefdoms and cliques. Certainly there are no Goatwhore haters, only people unaware of them, yet. Maintaining the balance of their message and the quality of their songcraft is the likely secret to their success, beyond some sacred pact with dark forces. Every album is different from the last, yet they never went soft or sold out like some others have. On Constricting Rage of the Merciless (Metal Blade), their sixth album in their 16-year career, Goatwhore rolls up their spiked-sleeves and smashes you in the mouth once again. And you will love it!

 

Where 2012’s Blood for the Master was a little more nuanced and throwback focused, Constricting Rage of the Merciless kicks you with jackbooted foot and maintains the savagery all the way through. The new album has more than a pointed step towards their blackened death metal history, but also carries with it the continued evolution of the sound of recent releases. Opening track ‘Poisonous Existence in Reawakening’ will crush your ear holes with extreme prejudice. Unrelenting blastbeats, deathly sick riffs and the masterful vocals of Rev. L. Ben Falgoust III will make you smile, unless you are dead. In typical fashion for this act, most of the tracks are tight, average under four-minutes each, and have zero B.S. about them. The majestically brutal ‘Unraveling Paradise’ has no less than four different riffs in the song, all of them amazing. Sammy Duet doesn’t rely as much on thrashy pedaling this time around, coming up with some inventive licks and whirling motifs, all that would shame some of the best tech death bands by the way.

 

As was the case on the last album, drummer Zack Simmons demolishes expectations and his kit on every song, inspiring much headbanging and fist-banging. If you have seen the band live, you know Zack is a machine who plays equally well on wax. Tracks such as ‘Baring Teeth for Revolt’ and ‘Reanimated Sacrifice’ are a drum fanatics wet dream. ‘Reanimated…’ as on several tracks herein, sees Rev. Ben switch up his style and make use of different parts of his register vocally. Impressive stuff. Also chipping in with a great chopping riff and a slick, short solo is Duet once again, who continues to enthrall listeners year after year.

 

The bleak and harsh ‘Heaven’s Crumbling Walls of Pity’ flexes the bands black metal muscles again, with a little extra something grim on top. It’s almost like a proggy black metal song you might expect from Ihsahn’s solo work. The ending stanzas are full of cool chords and grooving beats. ‘Cold Earth In Dying Flesh’ is another in a litany of standout, mid-album cuts. It has an eerie intro to set the mood. Not unlike a horror movie soundtrack theme, this slow to simmer beast machine of a song is a great change of pace. Falgoust again just bellows with some of the best vocals he’s ever done. It’s also the longest track on the album; not an epic in length, but with high quality grooves more associated with their other swampy NOLA brethren. When it finally launches into breakneck death thrash territory mid-song, it takes the track to another level without losing the story.

 

‘FBS’ was first played live on the Behemoth tour this spring and is a typical, circle-pit inducing song if there is one on this album. Full of rawness, with two more sweet solos from Sammy. It’s almost punk without being punk, or punk without too much crust. ‘Nocturnal Conjuration of the Accursed’ continues the trend of heady lyrics, and heavy on the evil sounds that is the bands trademark. There is even a little classic metal fun of galloping riffs and thematic soloing. ‘Schadenfreude’ is another gruesome masterpiece. Black metal, death metal and thrash all come together, but in a sensible way you could almost call it American Blackened Thrash. As a style, this would be a worthy counterpart to the Death `n Roll of Scandinavian bands, but much, much more brutal. ‘Schadenfreude’ is also a lyrical masterpiece, with the title defined as enjoying the suffering of others, in this case those whom most deserve it. The album closes with the fitting ‘Externalize this Hidden Savagery’ and sums up the entire album’s intent quite well before its final notes ring out.

 

Goatwhore has made an album nearly worthy of the best work of their career, even though it’s on the short side at under 40 minutes. I doubt you will find a more righteously hostile, fun, and well made album from another heavy band in 2014.

 

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9.0/10

Goatwhore on Facebook

 

KEITH (KEEFY) CHACHKES

 

 


Unnatural Selection – Aaron “Boon” Gustafson and Mike Hannay of Anciients

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Anciients-Heart-of-Oak-Small album cover

 

Anciients just learned that their North American tour with Sepultura was canceled as they were on their way to the first stop in Los Angeles. These Canadian metallers were looking forward to another tour in front of new audiences they had not played for yet.

 

Sadly, the tour did not happen and the Anciients members found themselves without a tour. Bassist Aaron “Boon” Gustafson explains the situation: “I think it was supposed to start tomorrow. Unfortunately there were visa problems. It was a bummer. Now we’re headed home.”

 

“There was a week in between the Scale the Summit and Tesseract tour, before the Sepultura tour, and those were really good. We did Holy Grail and that was good too. We had taken time off work and merch we had ordered, and it was a last minute call. It would have been great exposure for us, and play at a bunch of venues and with a bunch of bands…it’s unfortunate but things like this happen?”

 

Despite the hiccup within their schedule, they did not led this get them down and they moved on and proceeded to the next phase, as they always do. Gustafson said the tour with Scale the Summit and Tesseract were well and was an enjoyable experience for the band.

 

“It was cool. We’re not exactly in the same vein as Tesseract or Scale The Summit. To be honest with you, I hadn’t really listened to either of those bands before we went, and when I did listen to them, I thought how are we going to fit into this. TesseracT have some insane musicians in that band and they have some heavy parts, but it’s also very poppy and catchy vocal melodies and not a lot of heavy singing. It was ‘how are we fitting into this bill?’ It turned out to be very awesome and the fans who were there for them really dug us. After touring with Lamb of God and The Death To All Tours, we had gained some fans down in the States too. A lot of people came up to us and said they came to see us. It was a really pleasant surprise. Nothing negative from the fans of the other bands – everyone was into it and it went off without a hitch. It was a really fun tour. Those guys from both bands are super good dudes and we made a lot of new friends.”

 

Anciients spawned from Spread Eagle, a veteran Vancouver rock n roll band who was slowly finding what they were doing a bit unchallenging and wanting a bit more. “Me and Kenny [Cook, singer/guitarist] and Chris [Dyck, guitarist] – we played in a band called Spread Eagle in Vancouver for something like eight years. It was rock n’roll, sorta Motorhead, Turbonegro style band. We did that for ages and it had run its course. We played the same venues and played to the same people all the time, so we ended that. Kenny had a bunch of riffs and we decided to develop that. We got heavier and a bit more artistic, and take things a bit more seriously and try to make it more a career out of it. We wanted to make heavier and more progressive music and here we are today,” explained Gustafson.

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Since 2011, Anciients has been building their own sound fusing riff rock and a heavier, technically driven style that they can call their own. While many audiences take a moment to absorb what they are playing, they found themselves winning over audiences regardless of who they are playing for. “A lot of our influences range anywhere from 70s classic rock and 70s progressive stuff,” says drummer Mike Hannay. “A lot of us listen to a lot of metal. The rock n roll thing we were listening to a lot of Turbonegro and stuff like that. A lot of death metal and black metal and it was a natural progression….let’s just write heavy music. It sort of just came out. You can see the classic rock influence in a lot of it as well. At the time we made a conscious decision to write heavier music. We all liked metal so let’s play some metal and let’s make it epic and big and doomy and powerful.”


But the fact that Anciients fused an epic sounding metal style with a sludgy rock `n roll edge is what audiences took a liking to what they do. “I think we liked both styles and put them together, which was unnatural at the time. It came off sludgy and cool, within progressive music. But after the song came together, we noticed it ourselves how those styles were same, we thought it worked well and it sounded great. We should try to do this sludgy rock n roll thing. It was kind of unnatural, but it was fully embraced once we felt it was a good melding of genres,” said Hannay.

 

 

Their 2013 debut CD, Heart of Oak (Season of Mist), features a wide array of tunes with lyrics focusing on a nature theme. “Chris writes most of the lyrics. If you were to look at where we live, basically how could not be influenced by where we live – epic mountains and the Pacific Ocean and forests everywhere. It’s basically our surroundings. We’re basically influenced by our surroundings. It’s a beautiful place and I think that’s where a lot of the lyrics came from,” said Gustafson.

 

“Like I said, Chris writes all the lyrics but I think it comes down to where we grew up and live to this day, and made an area with lots of nature.”

 

“Chris reads a lot of history too. I think some of the lyrics came from Sumerian themes and ancient cultures or religions and stuff like that,” added Hannay. One thing Anciients benefited from was being part of a strong Vancouver metal scene that helped shape their sound and gaining a lot of local support along the way.

 

“It’s a very tight knit metal community in Vancouver. All of the bands you hear of from Vancouver are our friends. Like Three Inches of Blood and Bison BC and a lot of the bands who are touring and doing stuff. They’re all buddies of ours. Chris our guitar player actually works for a production company and puts on a lot of the shows. It’s what you do on any given night of the week. You go to a metal show. You see all of your buddies. It’s a tight knit community. Everyone is very supportive of each other. There’s no bitching or jealousy. Everyone’s a super good bros [with each other]. It can’t work any way other than our favor. Everyone’s very supportive of us. Everyone comes out to our shows when we play and buys our t-shirts,” said Gustafson.

 

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While much of the attention has been on Anciients playing on the progressive or death metal tours, they have done their share of riff rock shows as well. Doing shows with dirty rock bands is something Anciients is no stranger to.

 

“It’s funny that you ask that,” says Gustafson. “Just last night we played with Orange Goblin and they’re a dirty rock n roll band. It went off great. The guys in the band watched our whole set. They dug it and came up to us after and told us how much they liked our music. They all got t-shirts and our records. The guitar player rocked our shirt on stage. We seem to fit in with that crowd really well. We have a wide spread sound. You open yourself up and you can play with different crowds. We’ll go play these crowds. We’ll go play to a bunch of death metal kids at the Death shows. We played for the Lamb of God crowds. There’s something in our music for everyone, and we can play for most crowds.”

 

“Most people in Vancouver receive us very well. As far as the bands we’ve toured with, none of them have been sludgy like we are, but they’re super successful at what they do. More of our local shows are the only ones so far we’ve played with sludgy bands, with the exception last night with Orange Goblin. Fans of that music dig us but that’s alright!,” says Hannay.

 

Anciients has also done their share of odd bills as well, but still finding new ways of winning over fans in the unlikeliest of ways. “We played with a band the other night called Shat. It was very overweight dudes in diapers, dildos on their heads…and that was some strange shit! People were just there to get wasted and sing along to these cheesy, corny hard rock songs. But they were good at what they did. We were like ‘ how did we get on this show?’ We played and people dug it. If you’re a fan of music, either a fan or a musician, there’s something in our music you can dig,” said Gustafson.

 

“Early on we played with Chris Jericho’s band Fozzy,” added Hannay. “It was Tesseract, Scale The Summit, us and Fozzy. So you had all the prog and metal kids would come up, and then go to the back of the venue for Fozzy while all the wrestling fans would come up and chant ‘Fozzy!’ Then Fozzy was over, then the metal kids would come back up. That was another weird one. The Fozzy fans liked us, but they looked like moms and dads, or they lived in their parents’ basements and watch wrestling all day.”

 

 Anciients on Facebook

 

REI NISHIMOTO

 

 


Blut Aus Nord / P.H.O.B.O.S. – Triunity 

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Blut Aus Nord are one of those bands whose discographies should come with a map. Starting off with an atmospheric, expansive approach to Black Metal, they’ve spent two decades letting that approach lead them through a variety of approaches and styles, each united by the same cosmic aesthetic and adventurous spirit.

 

Their contribution to the Triunity (Debemur Morti) split shows them operating in a similar territory to 2007’s Odinist, but with a much greater reliance on structure. The more Metal moments of the first 777 album also spring to mind at points – thick, almost chugging guitars overlaid with haunting, progressive-minded leads and processed vocals. What’s interesting here is how much ground they’re able to cover in just under twenty minutes – the three tracks run together into an expansive whole which manages to be both heavy, introspective and surprisingly aggressive in parts; a great bite-size introduction to the band, and a perfect confirmation for fans that they’re still pushing their own distinctive musical vision forward.

 

One of the problems with splits is often that the bands are too similar in sound – Triunity avoids that by picking two acts who share aesthetic qualities but are musically quite distinct. With repetitive processed guitars, clipped mechanical vocals and sinister ambient noise, P.H.O.B.O.S most readily call to mind early Godflesh if they gave up on all that urban decay business and looked to the cosmos. “Industrial” – surely among the most abused words in music – is a good enough fit here, but this is an eldritch, half-tangible factory in the middle of a desolate spiritual wasteland, staffed by ghosts endlessly working at machines whose working conform to no known principles of engineering. Possibly making things for Argos.

 

Of the two sides, BAN’s is the most accomplished and satisfying in itself – P.H.O.B.O.S rely perhaps too heavily on repetition, and over such a short length can seem a little hollow – but Triunity shows two bands offering a similarly mystical take on two different styles, and is an engaging and captivating listen either in parts or taken as a whole.

 

8 / 10

Blut Aus Nord on Facebook

P.H.O.B.O.S. on Facebook

RICHIE HR

 

 


Schammasch – Contradiction

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Schammasch - Contradiction album cover

 

Switzerland may not often be recognized for the superiority of its black metal output, but with bands such as Celtic Frost, Samael and Bolzer all hailing from the country any new group stepping forth really does have some serious heritage to contend with. Taking up this mantle are Schammasch, a four-piece band from Basel. Revealing themselves to the world with their debut album Sic Lvceat Lvx back in 2010, they have returned this year with a massive 84 minute follow up double album, Contradiction (Prosthetic).

 

Despite the length, this is not an album that should be picked apart by track; it simply slips easily through from beginning to end, defying the seeming need to be broken down into smaller chunks of time. There are however some differences between the two halves of this double album. While the offerings of the first CD are violent and dismal blackened tomes, the second half draws back with a heavier post-black influence, transforming into something entirely more introspective without losing any of its power.

 

The quality of this album is obvious right from the beginning, starting as it means to continue with a punishingly long 10-minute opener. Atmospheric and menacing, Contradiction winds its way through a myriad of influences, only held together by the ever-present layer of distortion from the guitars. Despite not grounding themselves in a particular genre, the different styles seem to fuse organically with both metal and non-metal influences falling together into a dissonant and dark cacophony. It is this encompassing other styles and fearless experimentation that makes this band stand so strikingly far apart from many others producing extreme metal today.

 

It may only be their sophomore album, but Schammasch have created a record both challenging and endlessly refreshing, a truly remarkable sonic journey from beginning to end. This is certainly not a band you want to ignore for too much longer.

 

9 / 10

Schammasch on Facebook

 

CAITLIN SMITH

 


 

 


Frost of Satyricon Interviewed at Tuska Open Air

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THIS WEEKEND!

TJ Fowler and Frost

 

TJ Fowler of Ghost Cult Magazine interviewed Frost of Satyricon at this years Tuska Open Air Festival. Frost discussed playing the summer festival circuit, touring, their latest album, and the influence his band has had on the black metal genre among other topics.

 

 

 

 

 

Satyricon on Facebook

Tuska Festival on Facebook

 


The King Is Blind to Release Debut EP on Mordgrimm Label

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TKIB Promo B&W

 

UK merchants of the extreme, The King Is Blind will release their debut EP on the Mordgrimm label this August. Dubbed with the foreboding title ‘The Deficiencies of Man’, the release will coincide with their appearance on the Sophie Lancaster stage at the prestigious Bloodstock 2014 (BOA) this summer, for which TKIB was one of the first bands announced earlier this year.

 

Amongst its deadly ranks the band counts former members of Cradle of Filth, Entwined and Extreme Noise Terror; giving you an idea of the harsh glories about to beset your ears.

 

Watch this space soon for a stream of their new music, as well as a lyric video by director Sam Scott-Hunter (Motorhead, Bring Me The Horizon) for the lead off track: ‘A Thousand Burning Temples’, which is currently in production to head the campaign for the EP release.

 

Self-styled “Monolithic Metal”, with their blistering raw style and bleak tone, the group is already drawing comparisons to legendary acts such as Celtic Frost, but with the touch and heft of the best modern bands.

 

To contact the band for features and interviews email the band.

 

Upcoming The King Is Blind live shows (UK):

9 July – Portland Arms, Cambridge (supporting Felix Martin)

7 August – Arts Centre, Colchester (EP release show supporting Fen)

9 August – Bloodstock 2014, Sophie Lancaster stage

 

The King Is Blind on Facebook

The King Is Blind on Twitter

The King Is Blind on Bandcamp

 


Aurvandil – Thrones

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Founded back in 2006, Aurvandil have released only demos, splits and an EP between 2007-2010. The first steps into the full-lengths were done with Yearning, in 2011, and now I declare Aurvandil are a serious confirmation within the atmospheric black metal sub-genre because of the brand new Thrones (Eisenwald). Including four magical hymns of Iron and Ice to cleanse the Earth of false designs, Thrones is able to take our body and soul into the gelid northern landscapes in order to reach the hyperborean purity.

The using of melodic and slow acoustic guitars in the album kick off with ‘For Whom Burnest Thou’ is like a ritualistic moment which is preparing us for this immaculate journey that will transcend us onto glacial rivers and misty mountains. These two environments I just described are personified by heavy and long hypnotic guitar riffs that are beautifully transfigured as cold breezes running in our veins. However, that’s not the only work done with guitars as we have some melodic lead passages that can be seen as black/post metal performances, like in ‘The Harvest Of Betrayal’ or ‘Ingen Lindring’.

‘Summon The Storms’ may be seen as the epic peak with its almost twenty minutes running time where all Aurvandil characteristics and aesthetics are blended. It’s genial and certainly created through hard work.

The frozen and harsh vocals are heard all along the album; sometimes a little far, but I interpreted this feature as being in an ample landscape. The lyrics include what best defines this kind of music: ancient values and the eagerness to fight a rotting modern world.

I dare to say I haven’t heard such good straight atmospheric black metal album since the day I bought Walknut’s Graveforests And Their Shadows. Thrones is marvelous, iconic, intriguing and devoted to the cause. It’s a must-have for the past-seeking devotees and for those who have embraced the majestic atmospheric black metal movement.

9.0/10

Aurvandil on Facebook

DIOGO FERREIRA