The Azerbaijan military has released a bizarre heavy metal music video touting their war weapons and featuring lot of explosions amid a violent dispute with its neighbor Armenia.”
Genre: Melodic Death Metal (though this particular song is more heavy metal in my opinion)
Location: Sweden
Themes: Vikings, Norse mythology
Two weeks ago Amon Amarth released their new music video for “Mjolner, Hammer of Thor,” from their new Berserker album.
Of all the Amon Amarth stuff I’ve heard, this is their most different sounding content yet. It sounds more heavy metal than their stuff in the past. Though I’m not sure if I’m a fan, because in my opinion, I like it when a band retains something of their signature sound, while changing it up in various ways. Behemoth, for example, does a great job of that. The Satanist was very different, but if you listened to it, you could definitely tell that it was Behemoth.
With this song, and some of the other songs I’ve listened to from Berserker, I wouldn’t be able to tell it was Amon Amarth (if not for the vocals). And this particular song sounded too much like a generic heavy metal song, of which there are already plenty.
My suggestion to Amon Amarth for their next album is to get back to their signature sound, what makes them them, what makes them unique, and find new ways to evolve that sound, rather than turning into a different band entirely.
Enjoy the (relatively) new Rotting Christ video above! Released a couple of weeks ago. I personally enjoy the music better without the video, but maybe that’s just me. Their new album The Heretics was released in February 2019.
Rotting Christ is a Greek black metal band formed in 1987. They are noted for being one of the first black metal bands within this region, as well as a premier act within the European underground metal scene. They are also responsible for creating the signature Greek black metal sound prevalent in the early 1990s.
BrunuhVille is an independent composer from Portugal who creates a world of magic and fantasy between the fusion of Gothic, Orchestral, Celtic, Folk, Movie, Ethnic and World music.
I think those of you who like folk music and cinematic composers, such as “Two Steps from Hell,” will really like this song.
If there was ever a band that had a very satisfying combination of death and thrash in their sound, it is Goatwhore. Goatwhore masterfully combines the brutality of death, with the fun, drunken brawling sound that is thrash. They’re definitely a fun band to just head-bang and drink to.
Yet their sound isn’t as simple as it seems. They do enjoy switching up time signatures, or playing a riff 7 times instead of 8 randomly.
I know I’ve posted a lot of Behemoth videos from the Satanist album before. But that’s just because that album is so good. I won’t profess to know the exact meaning of this video. But I think I recognize some of the symbolism. Prometheus shackled to the cliff while birds circle overhead, ready to eat out his organs to punish him for gifting mankind fire. One-eyed Odin, the wanderer, with a raven. Both are figures who are similar to Satan in a way, they brought knowledge to humanity and suffered for it. Is that what Behemoth was going for in this video? I don’t know, those are just my guesses.
“Burzum was never my choice of life. I didn’t even want to become a musician.”
Varg Vikernes has announced that Burzum is no more after giving away his only copy of the project’s 1992 self-titled debut album.
The disc went to a fella named Nathan B, who beat Varg in a challenge of getting from 0-100 kmh (0-60 mph) in their 4×4 vehicles.
Burzum was active between 1991 and 1999, and then again from 2009 until now. The project has 11 studio albums in its discography, the final of which came out in June 2014 under the title of “The Ways of Yore.”
I’m not sure what a “Stellarvore” is, but like a “Carnivore,” I imagine it is some cataclysmic beast that feeds off the stars and destroys the cosmos.
LYRICS:
With the strength of the mountains
Come forth from the North; Agios Daimon!
With the hunger of oceans
Come forth from the West; Agios Daimon!
As fire and flame
Come forth from the South; Agios Daimon!
As thunder and storm
Come forth from the East; Agios Daimon!
In the darkness
In the nothingness of absent light
Where no life force is permitted to exist
From far beyond the borders
Where god not dares
The Serpent gloats in hunger
No star will shine tonight
No star, no matter how bright
Across the firmament goes its flight
A great darkness devouring the light
God of Death. Manifest
God of Doom. Move and appear!
Spread thine countless tentacles
Across the universe
Let them spasm throughout
The labyrinth of trembling stars
Strangle their flickering flames
Eat them whole
Wander ancient Dragon
Across the cursed heavens
A metal song that speaks with the tongue of a Syrian child. A rough translation is offered below:
LYRICS IN ENGLISH:
What’s that sound, father?
I’m so afraid!
Don’t be, close your eyes,
I want to go home,
We will, son,
We will,
Hungry,
Cold,
Disgusted,
Filthy and itchy,
But no doubt my filth has more honor than you,
Rulers and politics, the source of defilement,
My house is not the camp,
Give it back,
God have mercy, your test has become long,
You burn me with their fire, where is yours?
Turned the childhood into a curse,
Weak, actively take your decision,
With the creed, they made me homeless,
With the knife, compelled me to it,
Oh, judgment day, arrive!
Blow your horn, Israfil,
Your trumpets await you, Israfil. (The angel in charge of blowing the horn that announces judgment day).
watch me on the screen,
Film my empty dish, sucking my fingers,
My dream is dead on the top of the canons, consolidate me,
*The son*
Father, if I wake up, put me back to sleep.
Don’t wake me up.
*The father*
My heart’s beloved, wake up….wake up.
I love this song because it’s a great embodiment of what the band Nile does well, create an expansive, over-the-top soundscape with an impossible to remember title that fuses cinematic, Ancient Egyptian-esque instrumentals with the mind drilling riffs of modern death metal. It’s beautiful. If I were summoning Cthulhu, I’d want to do it to this.
This is the 10th and last track from the album Annihilation of the Wicked.
LYRICS
I Hath Dreamed Black and Grim, Desolate Visions
Of the Pre-Human Serpent Folk and Communed with Long-dead Reptiles.
Silently Watching Through the Ages in Cold, Curious Apathy.
The Unending Sorrows and Suffering of an Abysmal Humankind.
I Dare Not Again Surrender to the Deep Sleep Which Ever Beckons Me.
Lest I in Dread.
Shudder at the Nameless Things.
That May at this Very Moment.
Be Crawling and Lurking.
At the Slimy Edges of My Conciousness.
Slithering Forth from the Bowels of Their Infernal Pits.
Worshipping Their Ancient Stone Idols and Carving Their Own Detestable Likenesses On Subterranean Obelisks of Blood-soaked Granite.
I Await the Day When the Claws of Doom Shall Rise.
To Drag Down in Their Reeking Talons the Weary and Hopeless Remnants of a Jaded, Decayed, War-despairing Mankind.
Of a Day When the Earth Shall Open Wide and the Black, Bottomless, Yawning Abyss Engulfs the Arrogant Civilizations of Man.
Chthonic Retribution Shall Ascend.
Amidst Universal Pandemonium and Those Who Slither and Crawl Shall Rise Again Once More to Inherit the Earth.
When Héli Andrea put the first song of her band Olane on the Metal-Gaia facebook, I was pleasantly surprised to find a musical project that reminded me heavily of Dead Can Dance, and somewhat of Wardruna. The song I listed above is their first, but there is more to come.
Below is a discussion I had with Héli about the project.
MG: First of all, what are your influences in your music? And what themes are you trying to convey?
HA: I listen to many types of music, a lot of metal, ambient, classical, jazz… And I love to travel in my imagination when I listen to world music like Indian Carnatic songs, Mongol voices, strong ethnic drums or even Celtics songs. I composed Olane with Quentin Thomas, and we both share a passion for film music too.
What I try to do in Olane is to create spontaneously, without any thought about what it means. I’m not trying to talk about concrete issues. I just want to share a feeling. In Olane I want to spread this feeling of strength coming from the earth under our feet. Like something really deep-rooted in us.
When I sing this song, I feel like I’m traveling somewhere, far away.
MG: Are you influenced by groups like Dead Can Dance?
HA: To be honest, I know Dead can Dance since yesterday! Someone told me that Olane was in the same style, so I checked this out and it’s great! I was not influenced by them, but being compared to their style is really nice.
MG: Haha yes, that’s what your style reminded me of as well. What are you and Quentin’s plans for future songs?
HA: Now we are working on another song which will be maybe more epic. To me, it will be interesting to put other types of voices in this one. We consider this as a musical crash test, everything is possible, we can move from a country to another, from a period to another in our music.
I want to try many types of voices, many instruments. We are like kids who have eaten too much sugar. We don’t think about what we do, but it’s really fun! Plus, for the next song I would love to make a video with “Above Chaos,” who is a talented artist. He made all the visuals for the current project.
Themes: Entropy, Space, The Cosmos, Destruction, Chaos
“A singularity is the point in a black hole where density becomes infinite, space-time bends, and the laws of physics as we know them cease to operate.
This is the perfect way to describe Mesmur’s newest album “S,” an infinitely dense soundscape that bends space and time around the listener. A meandering funeral dirge through the chaotic void that is the universe. A universe that was doomed from the start.”
This is a review I did for Dark Art Conspiracy. Check out the rest of my review HERE
What I didn’t get to mention in my review is that entropy has four phases. I think that this album has four songs to reflect the four phases of entropy. Entropy is represented by “S” and is the measurement of disorder in a system. The idea of having an album focused on creating the sound of entropy is fucking brilliant in my humble opinion.
Lyrical Themes: Darkness, Humanity, Anti-religion, Rebellion, Society
Brand spankin’ new Arch Enemy, fresh off the presses. Up beat and killer. Love Alissa’s outfit too (I want it). The only thing I can criticize is the one problem that I usually have with Arch Enemy songs, that the transition between some of the riffs seems odd, but overall, good stuff with a positive message.
Themes: Satanism, Anti-Christianity, War, Darkness
Location: Norway
Eerie. Dark. Atmospheric. Primordial. All good terms for this song.
Gorgoroth is a Norwegian black metal band formed by guitarist Infernus. The band has drawn controversy by performing concerts featuring impaled sheep heads and mock crucifixions.
Here’s more on the name:
“Gorgoroth ‘Dreadful Horror’ (The Sindarin or Grey-elven tongue) – A word in the Grey-elven tongue, used for two different locations, distinct in time and space…. the second instance is the name of the ‘Haunted Plains’ of Mordor; the great plateau which occupied the north-western area of that country, a desolate, arid land, pocked with craters and fuming pits and riven with many deep crevasses. In the centre of the plain rose the smouldering cone of the volcano Orodruin.” (Encyclopedia Metallum)
Lyrical Themes: Fantasy, Rock (early), Relationships, Love
Happy 420 metal heads! I hope you all left out cookies and weed for Snoop Dog yesterday on 420 Eve. On this special day I’d like to play for you one of my favorite stoner songs. Technically Rainbow is not “Stoner Rock,” but the themes of this song are certainly pretty drugged out.
Rainbow is a combination of the heavy metal titans Dio and Ritchie Blackmore, although was mostly Ritchie Blackmore’s solo project.
I posted a live version of this song. Even though the sound quality is not the best you can certainly feel the power and the energy. You can sense the band feeding off the electric energy of the crowd.
Genre: Heavy/Thrash/Power Metal with Folk elements
Lyrical Themes: Aztec-Mayan Mythology
Cemican means “All the Life” in Náhuatl. The Náhuatl are members of a group of peoples native to southern Mexico and Central America, including the Aztecs.
I think Mixteco refers to the Mixtec. The Mixtec are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as the state of Guerrero’s Región Montañas, and Región Costa Chica, which covers parts of the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla.
I can’t find the lyrics for this song, and in my limited knowledge of Spanish I can understand they’re singing something about death (muerta) and something for the heavens (cielo)? I don’t know, my one year of Spanish in college isn’t a terribly reliable resource to count on.
Whatever they’re singing, it’s a tight song. I’m surprised that encyclopedia metallum classified these guys as power metal, because this song to me sounded like a mixture of thrash and folk instrumentals (but maybe I should listen to more of Cemican’s stuff). The video is also pretty brutal if you like blood and Aztec corpse paint.
It’s a powerful thing to see the ancient traditions resurface via the world of metal. The old ways are like weeds, you can cut them down, but they’ll always grow back.
One of the things I love about Huntress is that they are one of the few modern metal bands I can think of that are just flat out heavy metal. So much contemporary metal these days has to be wrapped within 50 different sub-genres that usually end with the word ‘core.’ Like I don’t know, what’s next? Nano-burrito-vulcan-fire-death-fist-core? Actually…that would be kind of cool.
But point aside, Huntress is a rare modern day Heavy Metal band inspired by the likes of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.
Vocalist Jill Janus (who has been awesome enough to talk with me on more than one occasion) has said that this album, “Static,” channels the “crone” aspect of the Goddess (in terms of the whole Maiden/Mother/Crone archetype), a dirty, lusty, nasty old crone.
In terms of my reviews on all three of their albums in order of release; Spell-Eater was when they were first figuring out their sound. Starbound Beast was the most exciting album, with lots of punch you in the face awesome riffs, intense Rob-Halford-esque vocals, and headbanging solos. And Static was more of a laid back, groovy type album that you listen to when you’re smoking weed and eating cheetos. All good stuff though. If you love heavy metal, you won’t be disappointed with Huntress.
In this song, the narrator is told to give up his eyes so that he can “truly see.” That’s an interesting concept. The lyrics of this song also refer to a “one eyed old man,” no doubt Odin. And it was Odin who gave up his eye so that he could know the secrets of the Runes. Perhaps those who are less distracted by what they physically see, can truly see into the spiritual realm. There’s an expression that goes, “Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”
Lyrics:
“The one eyed old man told me that the face that I will see
Has paralysed a thousand brave men sure of victory
I cannot fight blindfolded and I’d freeze if I should see.
So I need to sacrifice my eyes to see all from within.”
Lyrical Themes: Respect for nature, winter, revenge against humanity.
Damn. When Greece makes black metal they definitely know how to make it dark and intense. Another big Greek Black Metal band to pay attention to is Rotting Christ.
The style of Celtefog also reminds me of the style of atmospheric black metal bands from the American North-West, like Agalloch.
This is definitely a haunting song to listen to as nature around us darkens and we prepare for the winter months
Metal Gaia 