Saturdayz Soundtraxxx #4

Tomorrow is the 1st of December.
Celebrate the coming of 2013's last month by listening grim music, brutally murdering christians and hanging them to christmas trees with their own guts, and of course, burning churches.
HAILZ !



STAV is a two-men band coming right from Strasbourg, France, and these dudes deliver some high quality Death / Black Metal. They released their first album, meditate to Kill, through Chalice of Blood Angel Productions which doesn't exist anymore. If you're craving for fast, evil, crushing music, you know what you got to do.
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I've been hesitating for ages about what I was going to do with this one. I've been listening to this album numerous times since I first discovered the band, almost 2 years ago, and was thinking about reviewing it, but after all, I'm just giving it to you as part of this Saturdays Soundtraxxx. So, Aquilus is an Australian band playing some incredibly awesome Neoclassical / Atmospehric / Folk Black Metal. I'm usually absolutely not into this kind of stuff (Folk Metal I mean), but Griseus is really a fantastic album, all its constituting elements merging as one in perfect harmony. In one word : masterpiece. LISTEN TO IT, MOTHERFUCKERS.
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Last but not least, Theologian's latest release, Some Things Have to Be Endured (unleashed through Crucial Blast Records), is a fucking great avant-garde Industrial Noise / Black Metal album.
Yeah, nothing less than that, but I won't say much more about this one.
It's some indescribable pretty fucked-up stuff, but it's really worth a shot.

That's all folks !

Saturdayz Soundtraxxx #3

You fought your way through an exhausting week of hard work, and you're planning on sleeping all week-end long, but your neighbours make too much noise and won't let you do so ?
Well, show them how much you FUCKING HATE them with Saturdayz Soundtraxxx #3.



First, soften their eardrums with the first demo of Austerymn, a UK-based band which plays some good ol' school suppurating Death Metal. 2 song for around 6 minutes of Dismember & Entombed-like Death goodness that reeks of putredied bodies 'n shit. Great stuff.
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Then, disintegrate their fucking house with the power of Thaw/Outre's split album, which combines the speed and fury of Black Metal with the heaviness of Sludge for nearly an hour of devilish swampy awesomeness. Be careful not to destroy your own house during the process, though.
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At last, unleash you wrath upon these motherfuckers by cutting their heads off WITH A RUSTY SHOVEL while listening Wet Dream Asphyxiation's sophomore tape of really fucking nasty Power Electronics.
And remember, the best way to make a dead body disappear is to dissolve it with quicklime !

That's all, folks !

Dumno - Cet Atebertas

Ever wanted to know what it would feel like to be cut in half in one single blow by a demented, laughing, entirely blood-soaked, 1m90 tall and 120kgs Gallic warrior ?
I'm pretty sure that some of you already reenacted in your heads great battles with dudes like the one I just depicted, joyfully ripping each other guts, with a good soundtrack, am I right ?
Yeah, I know that YOU know exactly what I'm talking about.
I can see it in your eyes. THROUGH MY FUCKING COMPUTER SCREEN.

Anyway, I got something for you. Something that will perfectly fit to this "pagan-historical" theme, you geeky, Tolkien-fed, psycho freaks.

Dumno is a young French band coming right from the city of Poitiers, where Charles Martel kicked the shit out of the Saracen's arses in 732 A.D., and these fierce bastards deliver some Pagan Black Metal goodness. They released Cet Atebertas, their first 5-titles EP, through Atavism Records, a great Burgundian label specialized in Underfuckin'ground Black Metal.

So, like I said, Dumno plays Pagan stuff. A war-themed, kinda raw, abrasive, atmospheric, lancinating, Pagan Black Metal driven by the spirits of ancient Celtic Gods, consisting of fast riffs, cold as a sword's blade stucked in your butt, brutal drum-hammering, and vocals alterning banshee-like screeching passages and ferocious growl. Yeah, nothing less than that.

Cet Atebertas is a pretty solid release, knowing that it's their first one, and I can't wait to hear more from them. Of course, as always, I can't help but bitching about the duration, but I guess 25 minutes of music is long enough for an EP.
That being said, the overall production sounds a little weak sometimes, but it doesn't affect the quality of the composition and these guys' work.
On a side-note, the fourth track, "L'Ancienne Race", is a cover of the well-known Ukrainian band Hate Forest, and they did a great job on this one too.

So, if you're craving for some good Pagan Black Metal stuff, grab your fucking credit card, and BUY IT, GODDAMMIT. It's worth a shot, you can trust me.




Available here. Just send an e-mail to Atavism Records for the details.

Saturdayz Soundtraxxx #2

Hey, guess what ?
I'M BACK IN BUSINESS !
To celebrate my long-awaited return in the depths of Extreme Music, I give you Saturdayz Soundtraxxx #2. So sit down, turn your speakers on, AND PLAY THAT SHIT FUCKING LOUD FOR FUCK'S SAKE.




Cadaveric Fumes is a young French band, which released a year ago an awesome MLP of uncompromising, dirty, thick as fuck Old School Death Metal of Swedish (the best ones when it comes to literally crush your fucking guts with musical instruments) inspiration called Macabre Exaltation.
Perfect if you want to give your christian neighbour a fucking heart-attack during All Souls' Day.
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I don't know if you're familiar with the French Black Metal scene but if you're not, you're an asshole, and should check as much bands as you can RIGHT.FUCKING.NOW.
Here's a good one to start with : Mortefoutre, a combo playing raw, filthy Black Metal, which released its first demo via Preposterous Productions on the first half of July. To say the least, that shit sounds great, alors n'y r'fléchis pus, attrape l'mulot et clique donc sur c'te marde avant que j't'y colle un coup d'pioche en d'dans du gueule pour t'y apprendre à n'point m'éscoutailler, vingt dieux !
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As you may know, I love not only Extreme Metal, but weird music in general.
Stuff sometimes so weird that people doesn't even want to call it "music". For today, I was craving for a haunting, eerie atmosphere, and what I found when I stumpled upon this band's page is just what I was looking for.
I don't know where the fuck Uskuunighu comes from, and in fact, I don't give a shit. Just turn up your speakers at maximum volume (or put headphones on), and let your soul drift away. Too bad there's only one track though.


Anyway, that's all folks !

~Quick update~

Hey guys & gals !

Just a quick update to say that this blog is not dead, despite the fact I haven't published anything in weeks. I'm just too busy right now to post reviews, but, just like I said on my Facebook page, be sure that I will come back very soon with plenty of top-notch underground albums.

See ya, fuckerz !

Saturdayz Soundtraxxx #1

You're planning a barbecue this week-end, and don't know what to listen to while eating grilled sausages ?
Saturdayz Soundtraxxx will solve this problem.
CLICK, CLICK, CLICK, BITCHES.



Howling is a female-fronted US Death / Thrash Metal band with a good old school vibe, and lyrics inspired by various horror movies.
Just like many Metal fans, I love good ol' cheesy 80's horror movies, so when I found out about this band, I was pretty excited, and to say the least, this album kicks zombies' arses.
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Over the past few years, many great Black Metal bands emerged from the US Metal scene, and Alda is one of them. Tahoma, their latest album, is a masterpiece of raw Atmospheric Black Metal with Folk influences, dedicated to the beauty and cruelty of Mother Nature.
If you like feeling the caress of the wind on your skin as you watch the sunset, while listening some good music, give it a try. You won't be disappointed.
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Amateurs of experimental music, Plastic Heart / Botany Sideration is for you !
This album, the first of the french one-man-band I Beheaded the Cosmos, merge multiple musical styles together, from Black Metal to Noise and from Post-Punk to Ambient, to create something really unique. Have fun trying to understand what the fuck is happening to your ears !

That's all folks !

Elysian Blaze - Blood Geometry

Australia ! A giant island mostly composed of sand and rocks, but also a former British "prison", and the natural habitat of kangaroos, AC/DC, and the righteous owners of this land, the aboriginals australians.
Saying that this country is hostile would be an understatement, since almost 50% of it is almost uninhabitable due to aridity and high temperatures, except for the indigens tribes, who got used to the extreme life conditions of the desert.
And I'm not even talking of the countless deadly insects and reptiles living there.
Long story short : getting lost in the Outback is synonym of death.
THEREFORE, I'M STARTING A CROWDFUNDING TO SEND ALL OF THE METALCORE AND DEATHCORE FANS AND BANDS THERE !

Nah, just kidding...
Or not.

So, apart from animals jumping around like idiots (and scratching their arses) and dudes playing didgeridoo in the Bush, what else can we find in Australia ?
Oh, not much. Just the heaviest Metal band of the known universe.

Dear readers, bow down to the allmighty Elysian Blaze.

Elysian Blaze is a one-man band coming from the city of Adelaide, in the south of Australia.
Blood Geometry, the third full-length album of the band, was initially supposed to be released in 2008, but Mutatiis, the damned soul behind this project, postponed it for nothing less than 4 years because he wasn't 100% satisfied of it.
Finally, he inked a deal with Osmose Productions, a great french label, to get it released in June 2012.

Amateurs of slow, desperate and contemplative music, this album is for you.

To be honest, I'm truly impressed by this guy's patience, dedication and passion for music.
It took quite some time (6 years in total, since Levitating the Carnal), but it was really worth the wait, because Blood Geometry brings Funeral Doom Black Metal to a whole new level, and take at the same time a huge step in the territory of Ambient music, with a great use of synth-layers, reverb, and silences, making this album the most experimental Mutatiis ever made, and by far his greatest accomplishment.
In fact, it is so rich, so dense, so majestic and so fucking heavy that it's almost unbelievable that such thing is the work of a single human being.
I mean, EVERYTHING on this record sound so MASSIVE, so HUGE, that you can't help to feel very, very, VERY tiny while listening to it, but what really amazes me is the general ambience of the album.

Elysian Blaze has always been known on the Metal scene for creating oppressive, thick and stifling atmospheres, and Blood Geometry doesn't bend the rules.
Most of the time, these disturbing yet gorgeous parts emerge from the most raging parts, and for a brief moment, it feels like the passage of time itself has been altered, as everything seems to go slower, slower, and slower, until the next burst of hatred set everything on fire once again.
I think I've never heard anything that intense in my whole life. Really.

Listening to Blood Geometry is a whole experience.
You simply can't listen to it while you do something else. You really have to stay focused from the start to the end of it, even if it's hard sometimes.
Why is it hard ? Because it comes in two disks for a length exceeding 2 hours.
Two.fucking.hours. Can't complain about the duration this time, huh ?
Don't be afraid though. Everything on this album sounds so perfect that it never gets boring (well, at least if just like me you're used to listen to veeeeeeeeeery long songs).

There's not really much I can say about it.
Blood Geometry is, in my opinion, one of the greatest Metal releases of the last decade, and every-fucking-body just HAVE to listen to it.



Buy it here (2xCD version for 13€ +shipping), or there / there (3xLP version 24 or 26€ +shipping, depending on which version of the vinyl you take).

Arnaut Pavle - s/t

Have you ever been so mad at something / someone that you just want to break everything around you ? Yeaaaah, I'm sure everybody already felt like that.
Personnaly, I'm not very patient with my computer, and when this fucker isn't as reactive as I would like, I give him a gentle tap on the back...
NO, JUST KIDDING, I BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THIS PIECE OF CRAP. YEAH.
If it never happened to you, you can consider yourself as a fortunate person.
And as a fucking robot. Or a buddhist monk.

Of course, kicking in someone's face until he / she dies is not a really good idea, unless you want to go in jail, and breaking your furniture isn't a good idea either, especially if you can't replace the broken stuff afterwards.
A tripod-table, for example, is quite inconvenient for... doing almost everything a table is meant for, like eating, writing, etc.
So, what do you do to avoid the moment you'll just explode and set your world ablaze ?

You listen to something fucking VIOLENT.
That's the only solution, unless you are, as above-mentioned, a robot or a monk. Or... both ?
Whatever...

Let me introduce you to Arnaut Pavle, your new favorite non-pharmaceutical tranquilizer.

Arnaut Pavle is a one-man project coming right from the frozen landscapes of Finland.
The band released on February 2013 a first eponym demo on tape version (2 pressings for a total of 153 copies), via the finnish label Vlad Tapes.
Of course, this tape is now sold out, but if you're lucky, you may find it on some websites and forums, like NWN! (Nuclear War Now !), or Discogs.

So, what's so special about this first act ? In fact, there's nothing really outstanding.
It's just a really fucking solid release of vindictive, raw, old school Black Metal with some discreet Punk/Crust and Thrash Metal vibes, unveiling themselves during brief moments throughout the demo, but it's just the perfect thing to listen to if you're on the edge of killing someone.
Forget about melody, forget about atmospheres, forget about everything.
Arnaut Pavle is just an implacable and ruthless wall of sound consisting of raging guitars (with some furious solos here and there) and brutal drumming alterning slow-paced parts and blast-beats, so focus on your hatred, and let it flow away as the music goes by.
Speaking of that, I hope you have a strong neck, otherwise your head might just dissociate from the rest of your body, because of the irrepressible urge to headbang you'll be subjected to.

The only thing that bothers me, as always with demos and EPs, is the duration of the whole thing. With 7 tracks for only 18 minutes, it feels like it passes in no time, so you have to listen to it again, and again, and AGAIN, UNTIL YOU'RE FUCKING ADDICTED TO IT, JUST LIKE I AM.

Shit, I'm pissed off now. Guess I'll just have to listen to it ONE FUCKING MORE TIME, GODDAMMIT !



There's just ONE SINGLE TAPE available here at this moment, so be fast if you want to grab it. You can also download it here for free.

Darkenhöld - Echoes from the Stone Keeper

I'm pretty sure everybody out there already dreamt about being a hero, a great warrior, swinging his sword at hordes of ignominious, evil creatures, and killing the greatest villain Earth has never seen just for the sake of saving a kingdom, or a random princess' ass (without even having sex with her afterwards, how sad), am I right ?
Don't even try to deny it, I wouldn't believe you anyway.

So, yeah, dreaming about that kind of shit is quite entertaining, but it lacks something, don't you think ? But, what could it be...?
Oh ! A fucking soundtrack !
Since we're not planning on doing a remake of The Lord of the Rings, no need to call Howard Shore. The latest album of Darkenhöld will fit perfectly to the "heroïc-fantasy" theme.

Are you ready to go on a legendary journey with me ?

So, Echoes from the Stone Keeper is the sophomore album of Darkenhöld (which means, more or less, Dark Castle - Dark + Stronghold), a french band from Nice (PACA), released in 2012 by Those Oppose Records, a label specialised in Black Metal.
Aldébaran, the founder of this unholy combo, is a well known member of the french Black Metal scene, since he plays or used to play in multiple great bands, like Artefact (which released Magic Spellcraft, one of the best Melodic BM albums ever made, in my opinion), Fhoi Myore (as a live member) and Ysengrin (their last album, To Endotaton, is really great too).
But I think Aldébaran wouldn't like to see his current band compared to the other ones, so I won't talk about them anymore.

First things first : Echoes from the Stone Keeper is epic.
Whenever I listen to this album, no matter if it's day or night, if the weather is good or bad, if I'm taking a dump or reading a book, I feel like an urge to grab a fucking Zweihänder, get on a horse, ride like the wind to an unknown destination, explore obscure dungeons, chop dragon heads off and split trolls in two to find some forgotten treasures.
Yeah, it's THAT kind of epicness.

Darkenhöld's objective is to revive the flame of a long-lost (Satyricon's Dark Medieval Times-like) Black Metal spirit, inspired by old legends coming right from the Dark Ages (that's why they labelled themselves as a Medieval -and not Melodic- Black Metal band), and for the least I can say, this legacy is well preserved with these guys.
Echoes from the Stone Keeper is dense and very aggressive, with harpy-like screeching vocals, fast, sharp riffs scattered all over the place and brutal blast-beats, but also very melodic, with some gorgeous acoustic parts, and a good amount of great synth-based atmospheres, surrounding you throughout the whole album.
On its side, the overall production is really great too. Not too clean, because it wouldn't fit to their style, but well-defined enough to clearly hear every instrument, and that's a good point.

Long story short : this album is highly recommended to any fan of good ol' Immortal, Satyricon, Summoning or Dissection acts. So if you don't know how tu use your fucking money, BUY IT.



Available here or here (if you want to buy their two albums at discount price).

Bölzer - Aura

What do you know about Switzerland ?
Geneva ? Banks ? Overpriced (and overrated) chocolate ? Some Metal bands maybe ?

Yeah, Switzerland has bred numerous great bands during the past 30 years, like Celtic Frost, Triptykon, Coroner, Samael, Borgne, Darkspace, Tardigrada, Paysage d'Hiver, and countless others... I can hear some of you screaming "ELUVEITIIIIIIIIIIIIIE" through my computer screen, but no. For fuck's sake, NO, NO and NO.
This sounds like shit, and if someone pronounce the name of that shitty band again, I will stab him / her in the heart with a rusty fork.
Understood ?
So, what were we talking about...? Oh, yes, GREAT bands.
Well, I think we can add another one to this already substantial list.
You may not know them, but you will love them, that's for sure.

Beware my minions, here comes Bölzer.

Bölzer is a two-man Black / Death Metal project from Zurich, and the first thing you should know about them is... that there is no bassist in the band.
Yup, no bass in their songs, but surprisingly, they manage to be as loud and massive as nearly any other band of the genre.
How do they do ? It's a fucking mystery, but honestly, I don't give a shit about that, because Aura, their latest EP, is a fucking BEAST.

After listening to it countless times, I'd say that Bölzer could be the illegitimate son of Dismember and Blut Aus Nord. Sounds cool, right ? Keep reading, keep reading...
What comes out of this hypothetical unholy alliance is a combination of putrid, fast distorted riffs coming right from the mouth of Hell with the oppressive atmosphere and heaviness of Old School Swedish Death Metal.
Add some crazy vocals to this already pretty fucked-up mixture, and you get one of the very best 2013 Black / Death Metal releases along with Abyssal's Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius.
In other words, a depraved, filthy, gigantic monument raised in the name of Satan. FUCK YEAH.

There's just one little thing that bothers me : THIS EP IS TOO FUCKING SHORT !
Ok, I KNOW that an EP is not supposed to be as long as a full-length album.
That's why a full-lenght is called a full-length after all, but Aura sounds so great that listening to it just make the wait of the real album HARDER...
Don't know when these guys will release it, but it will be day-one for me.

Now, you know one more thing about Switzerland.
Click on the links below, and enjoy the music, or else, I'll KILL you, just like the Eluveitie fans.
YEAH.



Grab it here on LP (12€ +shipping - 2nd press) while it's still available !
According to the band, a CD version is on its way, too.

Falgar - La Dama del Alba

Sincerely, have you ever heard anything about the Puerto Rican Metal scene ?
No ? Me neither, until a few months ago.
To be honest, I was surprised about that, I never thought there would be any Metal band on this ridiculously small rock. So when I discovered that, I went on Metal Archives, checked a bunch of random bands, and spent quite some time on Youtube, hoping to stumble upon some good stuff.
Sounds like a good idea, huh ?
YEAH, JUST LIKE KICKING A BEAR IN THE BALLS.
I can't believe how much I had to TORTURE myself, by listening an incredible amount of shitty songs, almost for NOTHING.
YES, ALMOST.
They do have (barely) decent bands, but I only found ONE really worth of attention.
ONE.SINGLE.BAND, and It's a fucking MIRACLE that a GREAT project actually managed to emerge from this awful steaming pile of GOAT SHIT.
You don't know what to do with your life ? Record your farts and make a song out of them, or slam your cock in a door, it will still be more interesting than listening "Puerto Rican Metal".
Phew, I really needed to say that...

So, La Dama del Alba (Lady of the Dawn) is the third full-length of Falgar, the solo project of Etienne Goldberg, a talented musician from San Juan, capital city of Puerto Rico.
This third act, a concept-album based on the Greek goddess Artemis, has been released on Bandcamp on April, and on tape version (limited 100ex.) by Nebular Winter Productions a few months later.

La Dama del Alba is a raw, slow-paced album, with sharp-edged guitar sound, played in mid-tempo from the beginning to the end of it.
That rhythm choice allows the band to settle a monotonous, cold and ethereal atmosphere (reinforced by the presence of a calm, eerie and beautiful Ambient outro track), instead of simply blasting your ears off, which is a good point, in my opinion.
So, do not expect super fast riffs, blast-beats, or anything that includes the notion of speed, you would be disappointed.

Now that you know how the album sounds, I'd like to talk about the vocals.
I have nothing to say about the harsh passages, they fit perfectly to the songs, but Etienne pretty much messed-up the clear passages.
I wouldn't say that it sounds bad, nonetheless, there's still some work to do on that part, like learning how to properly mix his fucking voice rather than using reverb to drown it in the music.
I speak spanish, and despite the fact that he's not screaming, I can't understand a single word of what the fuck he says. It's a detail, since he doesn't sing like that very often, but it's kinda annoying.

That being said, La Dama del Alba is a great album, and everybody should at least listen to it.

You, who is reading this review, don't be an asshole and support the ONLY good band in Puerto Rico !



Available here for 3€ +shipping

Saturdayz Soundtraxxx #0

As you probably already know, I only talk about things I love on Burning Churches.
Still, there is way too much great stuff scattered all over the internet to review everything, so, from now on, every two weeks, I will post something a little different, on a new section called Saturdayz Soundtraxxx.
The idea is to talk about a handful of albums in a few words, so you know what to listen during your ritual sacrifices to Satan on the week-end, instead of SLEEPING 'TIL THE CRACK OF NOON, YOU LAZY FUCKS.

So, here we go.



Oooooh, I love desecrating cemetaries in the night !
Naaaah, just kidding, but if you plan to do this kind of shit this week-end, you should do it while listening to Unending Creation, the first album of Krypts. These dudes deliver some nasty old school Death Metal with Doom Metal influences, and for the least I can say, this sounds great. Give it a try !
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Now we're talking about fucked-up Black Metal. And I mean REALLY fucked up.
It seems like this was recorded during some sort of chamanic trance, or a bad trip.
I don't know what kind of drugs this / these guy(s) was / were on, but unholy fuck, it seriously enhanced his / their creativity.
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Ok, so, this thing is waaaaay more experimental than what I'm usually talking about, but if, just like me, you're also into Drone, Noise, and stuff like that, the latest album of Nighttime in the Abyss is for you. Prepare your ears, fuckerz !

That's all folks !

Sombres Forêts & Gris - La Mort du Soleil & A l'Âme Enflammée, l'Äme Constellée

I can already hear people bitching around "WHAAAAAAAAAAT ?! But everybody knows about them ! What's the next step ? Mainstream shit ?!"
First things first : Shut the fuck up.
Yes, I KNOW that these bands are not THAT underground, but I simply COULDN'T ignore them.
Why ? If you're asking me that, your ears must be filled with donkey shit.
Yeah.

SO ! Today, I'm doing a "split-review" of the latest albums of Sombres Forêts and Gris.
"Why a "split-review" ? And what the hell is a split-review anyway ?"
Oh, well, it's quite simple.
These two bands worked together since the very beginning of their carreer (check out "Neurasthénique" and "Quintessence" booklets), come from the same place (Québec), have their albums released by the same label (Sepulchral Productions) AND made a conjoint album under the name of Miserere Luminis (and this one is AWESOME).
In my opinion, doing two separate reviews would be pointless.
Got it ? Fine.

&

If you already listened to the sophomore albums of these guys, you surely know that it is some high quality stuff, but since then, things have improved DRAMATICALLY. 

I mean, there's a HUGE gap between these releases and the previous ones, and both of the bands are on the edge of totally redefining what Extreme Metal is.

As you may know, Sombres Forêts and Gris play Atmospheric / Depressive Black Metal, but when you listen to La Mort du Soleil (Death of the Sun) and A L'Âme Enflammée, L'Äme Constellée (To the Burning Soul, the Constellated Soul), it feels like you're hearing two distinct, quite different styles of Black Metal. 

Both of the bands make a massive use of folk or classical instruments, and are alterning calm and furious, thunderous passages. But on its side, Gris plays most of the time very long (up to more than 15 minutes) and progressive songs, and the album sounds very smooth, almost peaceful (with some great interludes all along the way to the last track).

For example, "Seixième Prière" is the perfect song to lay down somewhere and let your mind roam free. You have to admit that this kind of stuff is very unusual in Black Metal.

Sombres Forêts, on the other hand, develops a cold, tortured and foggy atmosphere.

Still, the album is far from being totally desperate, and has absolutely NOTHING in common with all the countless shitty DSBM releases popping out of nowhere like mushrooms every fucking day, playing awful, shitty music and crying like little girls.
In fact, the theme of the whole album seems to be hope.
Yes, you read it right. HOPE.
It doesn't sound depressing, just very deep and emotionnal, despite the fact that the lyrics are heartbreaking, as always. Speaking of the lyrics, this is fucking POETRY. For the two albums.

But if you don't speak French, you're totally screwed, deal with it. 

It's worth a (thousand) listen anyway.

These two gems will give you the chills, you can count on that, so if you still haven't checked them, you know what you got to do, and if you don't want to, then DIEDIEDIEMADAFUCKA !

Available here (Sombres Forêts), here (Gris) and here (Sepulchral Productions - Prices include worldwide shipping)

Abyssal - Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius

What happens when you mix Death Metal and Black Metal ? You get Black / Death Metal.
Yeah. How creative...
Still, when it's well done (and I mean well-balanced between those two genres), it sounds great, don't you think ? Now, add some Doom metal to slow things down and you get the most heaviest, depraved, tortured sound ever made. Looks cool, right ? You betcha.

The band we're going to talk about is one of the very best example of this sacrilegious combination (along with Necrite, but I'll talk about these guys later).

Welcome in Hell, fuckers, and welcome to Abyssal.

Released on Bandcamp on January and officially released by Profound Lore a few months ago (on CD version, but there was also a handmade tape version directly sold by the band), Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius (which means "For the Lord knew those that are His own") is the second album of Abyssal (UK), and unholy fuckin' fuck, THIS.THING.IS.AWESOME.

This is some top-notch Extreme stuff, and I've been listening to this since it first came out.
We got dissonant guitars, bruuuuutal drumming alterning slow-paced mid-tempo parts and fierce blast-beats, ungodly HEAVY bass sound, and some of the deepest vocals ever, for around an hour of contemplative, yet extremely aggressive music.
Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius is the kind of album that sticks you to the ground from the first to the last minute of it, and don't bother resisting, it would be like trying to lift up a fucking mountain. No matter what you do, it won't move a bit, unless your name is Atlas.
Abyssal also knows how to create some good atmospheres, with Droning Noise-like interludes ("Elegy of Ruin" and "Elegy of Staves"), filled with screams, buzzing sounds and shit, that fits very well on this monumental corrupted and demoniac piece of art.
In other words, Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius is a must-have. No more, no less.

Now, if you think you're strong enough to take a ride without being crushed to death, you know what you have to do...



Grab it there for 10.49$ +shipping

Cleric - Gratum Inferno

Now I think it's time for some fuckin' glorious Death Metal !

Don't you hate all of these Deathcore or commonly named """Death Metal""" bands like Wintersun or Suicide Silence ? When I hear that kind of garbage, it almost makes me puke. Really.
If you do like these bands (but I should call them a bunch of pussies), please, find a tall, nice tree, a solid rope and... Well, I guess you see where I'm going there.
Death Metal is meant to be dark, oppressive, violent and heavy as fuck, not melodic with tons of keyboards and shit played at the speed of light, making you feel like the musicians comes from Chernobyl and have at least 10 fingers in each fuckin' hand...

Be prepared, because this band IS the incarnation of what real Death Metal should be.

Cleric comes from Dallas (TX, USA), and these dudes deliver high quality stuff.
THIS is the real deal.
THIS is some unrelenting, vicious, putrid old school Death Metal.
Welcome back in 1990, OH YEAH !

7 titles of chainsaw-like guitars ripping through your guts, fat, crushing bass sound, guttural vocals from beyond the grave, great drumming sounding like shovels digging your own tomb, some gloomy atmospheres (on the last three tracks), and great production are the ingredients of this masterpiece (yes, you read it right : M-A-S-T-E-R-P-I-E-C-E).
I mean, this album is MASSIVE, and you can almost feel your bones cracking under its weight, while some maniac-creep comes around you to rip off your fuckin' limbs and play with countless other putrefied bodies all around.
In my opinion, Gratum Inferno is what we could call an "instant classic", that sums up all of the best things in Death Metal, and is as good as the best albums of bands like Dismember, Entombed, Autopsy, etc. Nothing less than that.

Six feet under the ground, how long will you be able to hold your breath ?



Full stream of the album available here
LP Pre-order here for 16$ +shipping fees

Entity Unknown - Unknown

Now, things are getting serious. I mean, no social shit, no pictures, no member name, no physical release... That band itself doesn't even have a "real" name ! How underground is that ?
I'm pretty sure that the guy behind this project is soooo underground that he shits nothing less than Black Holes. Yeah.
But hey, who the fuck cares about that anyway, as long as the music is good ?

So, Entity Unknown is a one-man band from Bosnia and Herzegovina that delivers some nasty, evil sounding, raw as fuck, mid-tempo lo-fi Black Metal that will fuck your ears so hard that they'll bleed. Sounds good, right ? I fuckin' love this kind of bands...

2 titles for about 10 minutes of, like I said before, really, really evil stuff.
Forget about gay keyboards or understandable lyrics, you won't find that kind of stuff here...
Totally fucked-up guitars, bass reduced to its minimal for a crude, live sound, simple slow-paced yet efficient drum work, and distorted demon-like vocals (with a short, nice """clear""" passage on the second song). Everything in this release is made to be very aggressive to your senses, and this works very well.
The overall production is also so raw that listening to this with headphones is like being tortured, but since I'm a musical-masochist creep, I can't help but coming back at it over and over again. Too bad there are only 2 songs, though.

Still, this is what I call a gem, and I recommend this band to every underground lover that would stumble upon their Bandcamp page, or this review.

Entity Unknown ist KRIEG



Available for free if you download the two songs one after the other. Otherwise, it will cost you 7 bucks.

Failure Ritual - s/t

For this first review on Burning Churches, I'm going to talk about Failure Ritual, an obscure US one-man band who released digitally his first album last year on Bandcamp, before being physically released (limited 200 ex.) by the french label Le Crépuscule du Soir.

This thing... This thing comes from the deepest pits of Hell...
To be honest, when I discovered this band, I had never heard something like that before.

Do not expect any kind of melody in this release, you would be disappointed.
Failure Ritual plays 3 tracks for approximately an hour of some kind of hybrid Suicidal Black Metal, with Drone, Noise, Ambient influences, without lyrics. Just some hideous and desperate screams scattered all over these songs.

For the least I can say, this is crushing. And I mean utterly crushing.
And I mean that even great Funeral Doom bands like Colosseum sound joyful and entertaining compared to this.
The band develop a very oppressive atmosphere, and listening to this album feels like being trapped in some sort of totally dark room, filled with heavy unbreathable poisoned air that gives you horrible hallucinations and kills you slowly. Yeah, it's that kind of stuff.

As you can guess, this is a very disturbing and discomforting album, but in my opinion, it's one of the best Black Metal albums released last year, that allows us to witness, for a brief moment, what eternal torment and suffering really means.
The only purpose of Failure Ritual is to completely destroy you and it fulfills its goal every fuckin' time you listen to it, but if you feel brave enough to give it a try (with headphones, but I shouldn't have to say that) and be pulverized by an impregnable monolithic wall of sound collapsing on you, click on this shit :



Failure Ritual A5 Digisleeve CD is still available here for 4€ + shipping fees

Genesis

What is Burning Churches ?

One guy, and a hell lot of violent / fucked-up music.

What's the point of creating anoooother Extreme Metal blog ? This shit sounds boring...

Well, first thing : fuck you.
I will not talk of whatever come across my hands and ears, just for the sake of posting something.
I will not promote shitty mainstream so-called "Death Metal" and "Black Metal" bands like Children of Bodom or Dimmu Borgir. So poser-fags, be my guests and get the hell out of here.

So, what are you going to talk about, you idiot ?

I will mostly talk about underground shit no one knows, and only things I am in LOVE with.
Black Metal, often with Drone / Noise / Ambient / Doom / whatever-the-fuck-you-want-as-long-as-it-serves-the-atmosphere-and-doesn't-make-it-sound-gay influences and Old School Death Metal with harsh vocals and chainsaw-like production.
You got a problem with that ? Not my business, you're free to go, and won't be missed.

Well, I play in a Black Metal (or OLD SCHOOL PUTRID UNHOLY (got it ?) Death Metal) band and I'd like to have our last demo / EP / album reviewed here...

If you want to send me a digital copy or something, go ahead.
Everything will be listened, but remember, I only talk about things I love. You're warned...

And how does it work ?

No notes, no long review if it's not necessary. I'm going straight to the point : what I feel while listening the album, and what makes it good to me. That's it.


One last thing. Whenever it's possible, I will post a Bandcamp or Youtube link of the album I'm reviewing. So, everytime you visit this blog, stream an album, then read.

Welcome to the Burning Churches !