A you’ve all noticed we’ve been on a bit of a hiatus today, but now it’s Friday night and the large part of my exams are over, so I’ll just throw down some of the music I’m digging at the moment. Nothing special, just some bands to keep you busy.

First up is a song by Enslaved, which seems to be a band of contradiction to me. I’m not very familiar with them, but I was really attracted to this song called Ethica Odini, an 8-minute long hybrid of Black Metal and Progressive Rock. It’s really a fabulous piece of music, but when I look at the list of album reviews at the Metal Encyclopedia, I actually find people who are angry with Enslaved for putting out this album Axioma Ethica Odini. I really like it though, because the balance between Black Metal and edgy Prog Rock is just perfect.

It wasn’t very long ago when I wrote a little something about a Russian outfit named Shturm. They are hot shit and so you should read that article if you haven’t already. I thought it worthwhile to sort out an interview with these chaps. Didn’t take long to get it arranged!

Thanks to Adar, vocalist and guitarist, for answering the questions and to Alex, from the band’s label, for arranging the interview for us!

Two Paths came to me by means of two CD-ROMs, in one jewel case, in a box which was in theory able to hold fifty jewel cases, but was filled with polystyrene foam. These guys do handle their babies with care for sure, and after some heedful listening I can see why. Two Paths is an album which is very worthwhile and which should be appreciated to the fullest.

At the first few listens, I didn’t know what to make of this album. I heard influences from all different kinds of Extreme Metal-genres, but none of them was dominating the others really. The above mentioned genre is the closest I could fit without resorting to ridiculously long and extended genre identifications.

Some news to open up the stream of write up’s coming after the silence. I’ve been very busy with some stuff related to school and college applications etc. and Niek is away on a trip, so it’s been quiet for some time. But for today we’re happy to announce that Antivenom have completed their debut full-length Sacred Funeral.

Antivenom are a Christian Black Metal supergroup who got together earlier this year. The band consists of the members of Armath Sargon and White Funeral, both critically acclaimed bands on the scene. From what I’ve heard Antivenom is a natural extension on what both bands have been producing before: Raw Black Metal.

That’s twice in two days. Not only because the band in my most holy opinion is a metaphorical hot piece of ass, but also because today’s video wasn’t released too long ago and I feel bad about having missed it before. I’m a sloppy motherfucker sometimes.

And that was nearly three months ago. Just didn’t have time to cover them any sooner. And I don’t really have any now either, so I’ll just dump you a pile of vids to keep you occupied. Go be a good boy – or girl – and entertain yourself with this great fuckin’ Indian music!

I’ve been exploring the web for a while and lately I discovered a lot of interesting new bands, some of which completely blown my mind, as they push the boundaries of what I held for possible. Some of these aren’t completely Metal, but all of them are exceptionally cool and certainly worth of your time. So enjoy the next half hour of Post-Alternative Blackened Punkcore.

Shining

First up are a Norwegian band called Shining, which is not really a name associated with the more serious, dark or violent themes addressed in Metal. It comes as no surprise then that Shining started out as an acoustic Jazz-quartet. However, after two albums, they started taking their music apart and evolved through a form of Jazzy Post-Rock to what they are today on their album Blackjazz, a dark combination of Industrial, Jazz, Deathcore, Alternative and Experimental Metal. In one word, Avant-Garde Metal, whatever that might mean.

Gilead Media has hooked us up with a presser for the forthcoming 12″ vinyl release from Brooklyn, New York’s Mutilation Rites. This release is titled I Am Legion and will be issued as a one sided 12″ containing three songs with the second side being an etching of the cover art, if I understand correctly.

Mutilation Rites was formed in 2009 by Michael Dimmitt (guitar) and Justin Ennis (drums) and after line-up struggles has finally stabilized with the addition of George Paul (vocals/guitar) and Iain Deaderick (bass). The presser describes the sound as “filthy Black Metal with a heavy dose of Thrash”. Let’s see how accurate that is.

This month, the Eversoles will return with a sophomore effort, less than half a year after they released Lebor Gabala Erenn. It has been said that a band gets a lifetime to record their debut, and only to months to come up with a sophomore album. Ankou Awaits in this case are one of the only bands that live up to this saying.

It seems like Thomas Eversole has stepped away from the pure black metal sound, as the headlines are marked by the words Black, Death, Doom and Thrash. However, after hearing the first notes of Crog Buidhe, I noticed that the spells cast by Lebor Gabala Erenn have not gone away. Still, going deeper into Crog Buidhe, which served me with some hampering guitar riffs, which worried me, as they took away the flow of the whole music. But I simply couldn’t believe that Thomas had lost his mind, and made something terrible. Later I discovered that, though the weird, hampering guitar parts scared me off at first, they are quite original, and help to accentuate the more drowning, flowing tremolo parts, for which Ankou Awaits have become famous.

As per the usual for me lately I’m short on time. Running a small electrical contracting business and having my one employee out for family troubles means I get to do every-fuckin-thing. It sucks. What doesn’t suck is a discovery I made a few days ago in the form of one of many bands known as Abyssal. This one hails from the UK and came into existence in 2010 before unleashing their debut, Denouement, on the second day of this year.

The sound on this beast is what you may expect from a band called Abyssal as it’s straight out of the abyss. Imagine if you mixed the most blistering elements of Black Metal with the finer points of Brutal Death Metal and topped it off with some dissonance reminiscent of Ulcerate. This is an album that will kick the shit out of you, seriously. And it won’t cost you a cent, because these generous bastards have released it as a straight-up free download via Bandcamp.