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.

It’s been a lengthy day, so let me serve you a quicky and then hit the pillow. I came across this band from Western Kentucky some time ago, called Voyage of Slaves. Their Facebook page describes their music as ”Blackened Viking Zombie Thrash / Death Metal”, ”Death / Thrash Metal with a lemony, blackened twist” and “Old-school Death / Thrash Viking Zombie Metal”. I don’t claim to have listened to their full repertoire, but might I add that there’s a hint of Pirate Metal in there somewhere as well?

I’m fuckin’ about of course, but eventually the band does make a point: there are lots of styles and influences on display here. It’s Metal that’s both raw and unpolished, melodic, pounding and epic in the Folky sort of way. But there are also flat-out Black Metal patterns on occasion that scrape the skin of your back. All in all, nothing that the average Metalhead wouldn’t be appreciative off.

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.

The big moment! The top four of albums I’ve reviewed this year. If you’ve missed what came before this, these four were preceded by eleven other albums in Part 1 and Part 2 of this list. Today’s four are the absolute cream of the crop.

As you’ll read on, there’s one thing you might notice: Finland’s the winner. Each and every single band in this top 4 hails out of the most Metal nation on the planet. Something I only just discovered myself. I think the Finnish are to Metal what American are to hamburgers. What Germans are to cars. And what Dutchmen are to drugs and prostitutes.

Anyfuck, I can make this a long and boring speech up front, like they do with most award shows, but I think everyone would just prefer to fuckin’ get going with this! After all, it’s Christmas Eve tonight and I’m sure you’ll want to get back to spinning Metal albums sitting under the Christmas tree.

So, after our recent announcement of the list of lists, today marks the first part of three of our list. We’ll start with a grouping of six albums. Albums that are ‘good’, to such an extent that they should really be in any Metalhead’s collection.

These first six are in no particular order. In fact, to express this, I’ve put them in alphabetical order based on band name – and so actually they are in a particular order, but it has nothing to do with how high I would rank each.

By the way, to cover my ass, my list entries may not necessarily match up 100% with the grading given or the reviews themselves. The reason is time. Sometimes hearing something the first few times can be an amazing experience, but as time passes and you hear something more often, the experience wears off. Obviously a review should incorporate this possibility, but the simple truth is you can never be completely right or accurate. And tastes and preferences shift, in my case quite heavily over the course of this year.

So, what this list captures is longevity. An album’s capability to continue to capture its listener. In that sense, these are all albums that will stay interesting. Albums that need to be taken out of your huge motherfuckin’ album rack regularly or from time to time, because they will keep on tickling pleasure bones.

Vienna was shaping up to have a blast of an evening with the tour lineup that was announced. Three strong Metal acts with varying degrees of pagan leanings, all touring on recently released albums and all producing music that works great in a live atmosphere. Escape, a pub of around 200-capacity in the room downstairs itself, didn’t know what hit it. Moonsorrow and Týr were co-headliners; some may argue that they are different sounds, but, as Mitja and Ville pointed out, Pagan Metal is not governed by genre stylings but by an atmosphere, which was certainly present at this concert.

For the fans of dark black Viking Folky type of Metal, otherwise known as Vikingy Black Metal or Folky Dark Metal, we’ve got Slartibartfass. “What? Slarty bass fart?” Yeah, something like that. It’s Slartibartfass, which is German for Slartibartfast, which is a character in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book series. I didn’t know that, so I’ll just continue to read the dirty version.

Anyfuck, going back to the band from the German city of Ulm, they’ve got a new record out. Their fourth since forming in 2004 and it’s called Schwarz Verhüllt, a German title, just like their three earlier works. It means ‘Black Covers Up’ or ‘Black Veils’ or something of that notion. Loosely said it’s probably meant as ‘Black Disguises’ or something. The album was released on October 26^th and the promo pack has been sitting on my desktop for weeks.

[A short while ago, DMB writer Angel did an interview with Finnish Pagan Metallers Moonsorrow when he attended their gig. The original transcription of this was published on Angel’s own weblog, In Angel’s Head [Phones]. We’re publishing a slightly adapted version of the article today.]

When you talk about Folk / Pagan Metal, Moonsorrow is one of the bands that’s often named first. They’re from the Finnish echelons of the genre and have been active since 1995. Their name stems from a Celtic Frost song, called Sorrows of the Moon, however, they didn’t immediately start out as a Folk Metal band, but as a Black Metal outfit. An influence still heard in their stuff today.

Recently, I checked in with Ville (bass) and Mitja (guitars) from Moonsorrow, while in the midst of the Dead Tyrants Tour with Tyr and Crimfall, supporting the latest album release, Varjoina Kuljemme Kuolleiden Maassa. They took some time out before preparing for the gig (drinking tea and vodka, in good Finnish fashion) to answer some questions about the tour, the album and a few surprises along the way.

And here we are again, after roughly a month, back to you with some material from Enid’s Munsalvaesche! As you can probably remember, we had some problems with Aural Music, who didn’t want us to upload materiel from the then unreleased album. “No problem.” we said, “We’ll simply get back to you in a month.” And that’s one promise kept.

I’ve got two videos for you, one of Red Knight and one of Condwiramurs, two songs I mentioned in my review. Furthermore, I have nothing more to say about this. If you want to read more click the link above to the review.

As I do not have access to the Dump a link “list”, it doesn’t happen that often that I do music posts without being asked to. However, this time I’ve got something special which I really wanted to share. Facebook-user Patrick Urban, sent us a link to this Atmospheric Black/Doom Metal band. Dammerfarben are a German band formed in 2005 by Guitarist/Vocalist/Cellist Blackheart Nostarion and started out as a solo-project. The addition of more members however, gave the band a boost, bringing forth their debut album Im Abentrot.

Closing in on 55 minutes Im Abentrot is not the shortest album and with songs in German, I would imagine this to be a very interesting listen. I turned out to be right as I searched the web for some material. I’ve got some awesome stuff for you after the jump.