Thanks to motig we got ourselves some delicious Norwegian, classically-sounding Metal. Just Metal, no subgenre indicators – although the band itself seems to favor the descriptor ”Doom Heavy Rock”. I think this is just Metal as it could have been in the Eighties. Except that the band has only been together since 2004.

In the time since then, the band aired three studio albums, titled I, II and III. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

UK Doom Metallers Conan have just uploaded a video of them performing a new song of their upcoming album, at the Buffalo Bar, Cardiff. The name Hawk as Weapon, already sounds cool to me, and the live recording sounds promising. I’ve always wondered what these guys would sound like live, and all I can say is that they sound louder and heavier than in the studio. Which is a good thing.

Then who are Conan? We wrote about them little over a month ago, and we were all quite positive. I wrote about their latest record Horseback Battle Hammer

their music feels like you’ve just had a massive blow with a war hammer, and now you lie on the ground, which is wet from the rain, while you can’t feel anything.

While looking at Revolver Magazine’s favourite album covers of 2011, as Mhorgl’s Heresiarch was in there, I saw the cover of ChthoniC’s album Takasago Army come by and the album description certainly caught my mind. The first band that sprung to mind were the Finnish Whispered, who have a similar Japan-related theme spun through their music, and they also use the same weird string instrument. But where Whispered incorporates some traditional Finnish Melodeath influences in their music, ChthoniC uses more Folky elements.

Takao as a song is really good. First it got me craving for some melody which I later got, in the form of a bridge sung in Taiwanese. The song is very dynamic and diverse, and even though I generally despise Asian Metal (especially those weird Japanese bands), I think this is just great.

We have some wickedly brutal news tonight. California Deathcore outfit Impending Doom have released the first single of their upcoming album Baptized in Filth, called For the Wicked (as you’ve probably seen). The single comes with a lyric video, which seems to gain popularity in the Core scene.

Their Facebook page reads:

Formed in 2005, jumped right into the touring lifestyle and gained their success very quickly. The band has released 1 e.p. and 3 full length records, selling over 70,000 records world wide.

Sounds impressive, and it’s true, despite their Christian background and bold lyrics, they tour the world with the biggest bands in Metal, such as DevilDriver, Dying Fetus, Chimaira, Whitechapel, My Children My Bride, the list goes on and on.

Hell, we’re up to date. Yesterday “Melodic Death Metal”-outfit Miseration put out a video for their song Dreamdecipher. Yeah, the Melodic Death Metal is in quotation marks because our holy bible (aka the Metal Encyclopedia) says that, but I can tell you, this is not Melodic Death Metal. Sounds more like Technical Grindcore to me.

Who are Miseration? You ask. Miseration are a Swedish band formed in 2006, and have since produced two full-lengths, on which they play a very heavy, Grindcore-influenced kind of Melodeath. Stylistically they are a very interesting band, and I haven’t really heard something like what they did on their first two albums before. Dreamdecipher however takes their sound to a less original height, although it’s still a good song of course.

Great. I just vomited on my keyboard. Big fuckin’ chunks of breakfast soggy under my fingers as I type this. The reason? Blotted Science! Or well, the pieces of movie they used to score their music to, specifically the bit taken from the 2006 horror flick Slither.

Blotted Science is a San Antonio Texas based instrumental Progressive Metal outfit active since 2004. If you’ve been about on Metal blogs here and there, the name should ring a bell. The band is not only well known for its freakier than fuck tunes, but also consists of three musically experienced and appraised musicians: guitarist Ron Jarzombek (Watchtower, Terrestrial Exiled, Spastic Ink), bassis Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse, Hate Eternal) and drummer Hannes Grossmann (Obscura, Terrestrial Exiled).

I would swear on my scrotum that I’ve heard this band before, just have no idea where and when. The track I’ve embedded only seems to be online since mid-June and either my short-term memory is leaving me or this just looks a lot like something else I’ve heard a longer time ago. It’s probably the former, combined with the scientifically proven fact that I’m an idiot.

But that’s not what I want to discuss today. Or ever. Instead, let’s talk about Brymir, yeah? They play a de-li-cious form of Pagan / Folk Metal, dark as an armpit inside a sweaty sweater, yet melodic as a motherfucker, like a mix of Ensiferum and Insomnium – thanks to motig for making that comparison and for recommending the band in fact. As inevitable as death, and you’ve probably already guessed it, these guys are Finnish.

Hell yeah, what better way to start your Christmas than with a very high quality piece of Metal? I know I couldn’t think of anything! Well, we’ve got just the thing, thanks to motig, and from a very non-Metal country too. I mean we don’t regularly post about Tunisian bands, really. In fact, we’ve never posted about one before.

So Myrath is the first, a classroom example of some proper deductive reasoning. As the band introduces itself on the official band website, ”Myrath (which means Legacy) is a Metal band from Tunis-Tunisia, a small country well known for its resort areas on the Mediterranean coast but certainly not for its Metal bands, yet in just few years what started out as a teenager cover band became a relatively well known and respected band by the international Prog-Power Metal community.”

For me, the release of this record has passed by silently, and I only discovered it existed a few days ago. As you probably know, Lulu is a collaboration record between Lou Reed and Metallica. Funnily, when I think of Lou Reed, I think of his song Perfect Day, and when I think of Metallica I think of Fuel. Two songs that are seemingly quite the opposite. This was reflected when I gave their single The View a first spin, since I was repulsed by the combination of Metal and Spoken Word.

However, today I gave it another few spins and I think I’ve seen the light. The lyrics are sure enough quite brilliant, the riffing is pretty good and Kirk Hammett seems to be playing a real metal guitar-solo for the first time in his 30-year career.

To be honest, had I made a Best-of-2011 list myself and had I published this, as many others, in early December, Karkaos wouldn’t have been on it. But since I stumbled across their video for The Tempest, and immediately got the EP as well, they’ve secured their place on it. However, because I really don’t feel like actually making such a list, it’ll remain a purely hypothetical achievement. Still, I’d like to emphasize that this band has impressed me!

Karkaos is a young group from Montreal, Canada founded only two years ago. With their EP In Burning Skies, released late October, the band released its first output. The music video to The Tempest appeared already in September, but didn’t make it to my screen until just now. But from there it didn’t take long to grab me.