Metal Reviews

Marduk and Dark Funeral are emotionless music. They're the leaders of it.

Does emotionless mean cold? You could put early Darkthrone up...

Failing that, Britney's pretty emotionless.

I guess you could. That's why I like Transivanian Hunger better.

Chrash,

You looked for exactly the same thing in BM that I did, when I was listening to it. I still look for the same values in music, but I find them mostly outside metal. I think you can almost blindly follow Define Infinity's tastes, they resemble yours most accurately. Here is what you need:

Klabautamann - Der Ort
Alcest - Le Secret
Woods Of Ypres - Against The Seasons
Nagelfar (not Naglfar) - Hünengrab Im Herbst
Ulver - Bergtatt
Drudkh - everything, if you haven't already
Lunar Aurora - A Haudiga Fluag (part of a split, forget the rest), my favourite black metal record
Darkspace - I, space black metal, wohooo
Paysage D'Hiver - Nacht
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, but you should own that already.
Mystic Forest - Green Hell, you'll thank me later
In The Woods - early stuff is mandatory
Agalloch - latest piece, although it's not really BM
Pelican - The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw, same story as Agalloch, but you'll lover this.

If you want to hear the same beauty and emotional strength, try something from this page, great post-rock:

http://www.asthepoetsaffirm.com/disco.html

Wait, you also need this, some of the very best and most progressive black metal has to offer:

Song 1
Song 2
Song 3
Song 4
Song 5
Song 6
Song 7
Song 8

Tell me which ones you liked.

Everybody who is reading this right now should click that "song 2" link that Misha gave. It is one of the best pieces of music ever created by man. Seriously, download it. You wont regret it and you will come back to thank him. Even my mum likes it.

I didn't like it. :\

just some a few more that haven't mentioned so far:

Aaskereia - Zwischen den Welten
Alkonost - Alkonost
Nargaroth - Raslukat pt 2
Paysage D'hiver/Vinterriket split
Windir - Arntor




and...

Beneath the Dying Moon - Castle Greyloch mp3
i just found that these guys are revived after 10 years of silence. Hope they continue in in the same vein as this old mp3.

It was okay... liked Astaroth's sample mmore though.

Woo, it is rather good. Playing it now...

Before I start I just want to express my gratitude for all your help (with oceans of recommendations for me to hear when I am really supposed to be studying instead for the year-end-tests and a seamingly endless enthusiasm towards music).

@ Kathaarian
I tried out the link you gave me to Mütiilation, and as I mentioned the circumstances could hardly have been more ideal... but it did absolutely nothing. There were some enjoyable melodies here and there (for example "Possessed and Immortal") but, in my honest oppinion, very average (and that with a bad production to boot). The drummer could really need some practice also. I could sense what the music was supposed to do to me... but it just did not happen. Sorry.
Deathspell Omega ("First Prayer", "Kénôse II") on the other hand was quite the pleasant(?) experience. Could have been better though IMO if their moods had been build up more on melodies than soundscapes (the latter also being alot more challenging), but still very interesting!

@ Rio
Windir: Hmm.. quite good. Judging from the songs on myspace anyway. The deep melancholy is not exactly to be found here, but some good aggression and epic melodies. Will keep my eye out for them.

@ Eisenfaust
I will save a document with these bands, and try to get around to them (as you rightly mentioned I have HEEPS to try out.. actually feel abit more confused about BM than I was when I started out).
Eftersom at jeg har tænkt på at prøve at købe noget Drudkh kunne du så eventuelt henvise til nogle danske sites hvor det kan købes?

@ Misha
The same goes for you as for Eisenfaust, I will save a document with these bands and try to get around to them sometime.
There goes "Bergtatt" again. I really think I will try and buy that especially since I heard the song "Wolf and Fear" today on blackmetalradio.com, and eventhough it is from "Nattens Madrigal" it gave me great confidence in Ulver as the band for me to try out to begin with.
What kind of album is "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss"? Is it like the (for me boring) punkish/rock'n'roll black metal of "Lost Wisdom" and "War"? Or is, as I have mentioned, more of the epic captivating black metal ("Jesus' Tod", "Dunkelheit")?
As the Poets Affirm was actually some quite nice post-rock (a genre I had almost given up) since they actually try to make melodies and not just warp weird sounds into endless soundscapes of monotonity (the same mood going on forever).
This Thy Catafalque, which I am listening to right now (I will get back to you about what tracks I like), is also quite intriguing. They have some very good experiments, but also some that don't work properly in my oppinion. But... this is not black metal, is it? :S


So far I have decided to get ahold of "Bergtatt", but still don't what Burzum I should buy ("Filosofem" sounds promissing, but everybody is also recommending "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss"), or which of Drudkhs pieces I should get...

Get Hvis and Filosofem, and Autumn Aurora from Drudkh.

Marduk's first albums are full of emotion. IMO

Marduk used to kick ass.

Kathy, have you heard Marduk's older stuff (before Panzer Division Marduk)?

Yeah, I have it all. But it's laughable to say they are emotional, they are just melodic, maybe Those of the Unlight is a little bit emo. My favourite is still Heaven Shall Burn... though. No emotion, pure nihilism and an amazing amount of ass kickery.

It seems like we have different notions of emotion in music. Emotional doesn't have to mean whiny emo bullshit IMO.

Of course it doesn't. But comparing Dark Endless to Blood in Our Wells... Sounds weird.

det er bedst at lade være med at købe på danske sites efter min mening. Hvor cd'er normalt koster 130 kr i dk kan du få dem hjem fra USA, tyskland og mange andre steder for omkring 72 kr - 86 kr.

Prøv at kig på www.redstream.org, det kræver enten paypal eller visa og de er som regel mega hurtige til at levere, og frem for alt billige... fra USA og så er der www.no-colours-records.de som jeg bruger tit. hmm.. tja.. køber nok fra 10-15 steder i alt, men disse er bedst og mest pålidelige syns jeg

Men hvis du vil ha nogle danske, så er der www.adpshop.dk , www.diehardmetalshop.dk. Bruger aldrig den sidste, sgu alt for dyrt.

I wasn't comparing Marduk with Drudkh. I just feel that describing music as emotional is strange, since there is no such thing as music (or art in general) without emotion.

IMO.

Off-topic.

Over and out.

@ Astaroth
Ja, jeg havde allerede prøvet at kikke på Ancient Darkness men der var der hverken Ulver, Drudkh, eller Burzum (eller jo, LP'er, men det gider jeg ikke).
På Redstream var Ulver og Drudkh udsolgt, og Burzum kostede 17$ hvorved jeg så ville kunne få det billigere på diehardmetalshop.dk til 130kr.
No Colours havde heller ikke noget.
Så det ser ud som om jeg må købe Drudkh fra diehardmetalshop.dk og Ulver og Burzum fra musicmadness.dk... Har du nogen erfaringer med musicmadness.dk?

@ Jürgen
I see music as something that always tries to be emotional, but wether it work or not depends on the individual listener and that individual persons psyke since the same thing may affect different persons differently. So the fact that Marduk and Dark Funeral succeds in giving us an emotion or an atmosphere simply means that we posses the required psyke for interpreting the sonic expression of those bands, which Kathaarian does not. And so, the other way around, Kathaarians psyke may work for interpreting other bands expression which ours do not.
Talking of the aesthetics of music, it is also weird in the first place that certain vibrations in the air is capable of triggering emotions (chemicals in the brain) in one human and not in the other. In the Darwin-aspect it is also strange that human hearing and psyke has developed the ability to be emotionally affected by vibrations in air.
That could explain why certain types of music comes from certain countries since the natural selection has been different in, for example, Scandinavia and Africa (since the qualities that were required to survive in Scandinavia was quite different than the qualities that were required to survive in Africa). It is also remarkable that there is a general connection between cold nothern places and gloomy music. For instance the early Scandinavians descriped the music of the Samis (a nomadic people that lived in the far northern parts of Scandinavia long before the germanic tribes started to settle in southern Denmark and southern Sweden) as being the scariest, darkest and most depressive music ever to be created. And even in modern times do the darkests of musics seem to be related to cold nothern places as seen in Black Metal, for instance, (which also greatly emphasize the cold north in its imagery), or northern folk music (which I think can be the most depressive of all folk music).
So if we are to believe Darwin, the reason for the difference between Jürgens (Finland)/ My (Denmark) trigger of emotion in music and Kathaarians (Turkey) trigger of emotion in music must be found in the difference of the circumstances for the survival of our ancestors.
The question does remain though: Why would the human beast develop the ability to associate emotions with certain vibrations in the air?
The connection between milieu, culture and psyke never ceases to interest me.

Du kan få Drudkh hos www.supernalmusic.com (i England) til ca. 10 pund, så der er en besparelse, men den er ikke stor. Specielt ikke hvis du ikke køber mere, da portoen jo også koster noget. De leverer til gengæld hurtigt og tager VISA. Du kan få Ulver og Burzum i pladebutikker på gaden. Selv Fona 2000 o.lign. har dem.

Mht. hvilke Drudkh og Burzum plader du skal gå efter, vil jeg anbefale Autumn Aurora eller deres nye Blood in Our Wells hvad angår Drudkh og Hvis lyset tar oss (som er det hele værd for den første sang alene) for Burzum.