Mortification have passed by before here at the Baboon, but as I commented before the last five albums put out were kind of crappy. Although now I’ve kind of changed my opinion on some of these albums, Scribe of the Pentateuch is different, as I’ve heard from the recently uploaded song The Jaws of Life.

This song actually makes me quite excited for the album. I’m actually hearing blast beats for the first time in almost 20 years, which is a good thing. The vocals still haven’t returned to the full death growl on Scrolls of the Megilloth, but it’s definitely growly and gutteral. Shame the song is so short, because now I have to wait for another two days to hear some more, as the release date of this album is the first of April.

Some time ago, you found me ranting about lengthy albums, and I discretely hinted about some lengthy goodness which was to come. And finally it’s here. Some time ago we presented you with an Australian one-man project called Aquilus with their full-length Griseus. Amazed by the song Arboreal Sleep I set out to find some more, which I found, but to my disappointment only in digital format. After expressing my distress to main man Horace Rosenqvist, he kindly sent me a little link, and I set off onto a wondrous journey into the Lands of Ashes.

A long introduction for a long album, this beauty contains 80 minutes of Atmospheric epicness. One might find it to be a tad long, but in this case it’s totally justified. After hearing Arboreal Sleep, my jaw dropped an immeasurable amount of inches, while Griseus as a whole just made me pass out.

Our most active link dumper Motig once spoke the now-legendary words “I guess I do shit links”. From this sprang the discussion on whether he shits links or whether he submitted shit links. In relation to this, today’s post proves that he certainly doesn’t submit shitty links here. Woods of Desolation are one of the many gems Australia holds as a Metal-country, and with their latest studio album Torn Beyond Reason.

I’d actually heard of Woods of Desolation from another source, namely Threnodies’ Sound in Autumn Woods Sampler, roundabout the same time I received an e-mail with Motig’s links. The name Woods of Desolation sounded famous and the fact that I had to cover them, made me pluck the song Darker Days of that sampler. The song was quite good, certainly worth its spot, however, while playing some other songs, I just realised how magnificent this album actually is.

“Are there bands that sound like Slipknot? Has for long been an unanswered question. However, with the following description, Dropbunny certainly made me think I found the answer: “Ferocious Melbourne seven-piece dropbunny have returned with their highly anticipated second album, “IO”. (…) Continually pushing their musicality to new heights, dropbunny supplement their crushing guitars, mind-bending rhythms and roaring vocals with violins, sitars, xylophones and electronics, including ad-hoc instruments made from rat traps, fish tank motors, and a power saw. This combines to make a furious yet eerie psychotropic landscape that explores the darker side of the human psyche.”

Australia has once again proved to be a fertile ground for growing top-notch Metal. Brisbane’s own Vyrion have been harvested by The Baboon to be served up fresh today. These Blackened Progressive Metallers have been at it for a few years and released their first full-length in the late summer of 2011. An intro and nine tracks that I assure you are incredible.

With the sixth issue of this series, we continue to stay true to the series’ title, aswe’re still dealing purely with One Man Shows. Still female perpetrators as of yet. If you’ve got a good suggestion, drop us a line!

Yes! Part 2 of the most important list in the whole wide world of Metal. The list of best albums I have reviewed all year. You can’t possibly get a more complete overview of what happened in the Metallic world, anywhere.

Seriously though, this is just a list. My own little list of fifteen albums that struck a special chord with me this year. But then again, I do hear a fuckload of Metal over the course of a year and the fact that these fifteen stood out as the top albums does make them a little special, don’t you think? Hence they are albums that I highly recommend you to listen to, and buy when you can get your grubby hands on them and have no more fuckin’ debts to pay off.

Sometimes you come across material that just immediately blows you away. Like a category 5 tornado while all you have to hind behind is an umbrella. In my case this is not infrequently following a suggestion by motig, by far our most active link dumper. His recommendation this time is to listen to Ne Obliviscaris from Melbourne, Australia. Encyclopaedia Metallum classifies them as Progressive Black Metal, where the Progressive part is more accurate than the Black bit. In any case it’s Extreme Metal, but with a lot of unorthodoxy.

Ok, now it’s time for the real obscuro Black Metal. This is Nahktism from yeah, where are they from. Their facebook displays the initials WA. So I guess that’s either Washington in the United States, which is in America, or Western Australia, in Australia. Anyway, these guys are very profane, but they sound good, so I didn’t want to hold you back from it.

First of all, I’d like you to clear your mind from bands you’ve labelled kvlt in the past because this band fucks with anything that dares to call themselves Black Metal. Their facebook page is filled with pentagrams cut in skins, tattoos of Saint Peter’s crosses and burning candles. I know they are not the first to do it, but this makes them at least more Black Metal than the likes of Dimmu Borgir.

Whenever I think of Tasmania, the little island near the ass of Australia, I primarily think of the Tasmanian Devil, a very ‘Metal’ animal which only lives on that island. That beast should be enough to make Tasmania a force to be reckoned with in the metal world. However, the only metal band from that area I’ve ever seen is today’s Astral Winter. Although the cover of their debut Winter Enthroned made me think they were from some arctic region, they seem to be chilling out in the sun all the time down south.

Josh Young is the sole member behind this band and he dropped us a line exactly two months ago. Since then, the link to his Facebook page has moved around quite a while on my desktop, being clicked once in a while, without really being properly looked at. Today however, I found enough courage to click through to the Astral Winter youtube channel to hear some. And I was in for a very pleasant surprise.