Tour of Duty: USA

The U.S. black metal scene has got to be my favorite bar none. Like many creative outlets we benefit from a land mass nearly the size of all of Europe, and a much more diverse population than many other countries, so it's understandable that we have a much more diverse and ambitious crop of bands. Regardless of all of that, there are so many U.S. acts that it's been a difficult task to just pick a few for this installment and I've only tried to stray from very current acts as well as the longer ones and those most well known (there's an exception for Leviathan as 1. it's probably my favorite band and 2. that track is awesome and hard to get a hold of).

Without further adieu, I present to you...

Tour of Duty: U S of A

1. "Hissing and Sullen" - Leviathan - Destroyers from the Western Sky (track appears only on this comp)

2. "Winter Bliss" - Demoncy - Joined in Darkness

3. "In Retribution, Anonymously Burned" - Frontier - Demo

4. "Crippling Blasphemous Persistence" - Infernal Stronghold - Godless Noise

5. "Crucified Whores (Of the White Light)" - Ibex Throne - Total Inversion

6. "The King of Jews" - Havohej - Dethrone the Son of God

7. "Unto Us He Is Born" - Profanatica - Profanatitas De Domonatia

8. "Show Me" - Bone Awl - Meaningless Leaning Mess

9. "Uno con Kaos" - Volahn - Dimensiónes del Trance Kósmico

10. "Who Shall Stand Against Me?" - Krieg - Blue Miasma

Tour of Duty: USA from Perpetual Strife on 8tracks.

Tour of Duty: The Netherlands

When I think of the Dutch music scene it's really just Urfaust, a band I was lucky enough to catch this past summer. Beyond that, I'll be honest I don't listen to this scene it that often. Thankfully, due to your seeming enjoyment of this series, and a general thirst for new music, I've come upon a few new acts as well as older ones I've had sitting around forever that ya'll might like.

There's Countess with the old-school narrow perspective on how things are to be done, Bestial Summoning with their war metal-lite style, Sammath with one of the heaviest black metal sounds around, Irrwisch with one of the best melodic/atmospheric eps, and of course Urfaust tying it all up with the ethereal guitar/vocal driven dirge that sits as my favorite effort of theirs. De Magia Veterum play a strange synthy style of symphonic metal that toys with a mid era Blut Aus Nord kinda sound. There's Nihill who play a dense suffocating and a bit strange style akin to Darkspace. I've also included the harsh and unsettling sounds of Gnaw Their Tongues, a band based in black metal but pushed towards the noisy, abstract and frightening edges of modern extreme music.

My paint skills know no bounds.

So fuck the Stroopwafel, get some black metal!

Tour of Duty- Netherlands from Perpetual Strife on 8tracks.

Tour of Duty: France

LLN Ikon

France has always been a favorite of mine when it comes to black metal. The LLN acts such as Torgiest, Vlad Tepes, and Mütiilation (the only one to last) had their lo-fi charm and tried to combat the infamy of the Norwegian scene. Immediate successors such as Peste Noire and Celestia continued the raw and melodic style that's become such a go to for many acts around the world. Like those two mentioned, Mystic Forest brings about a huge dose of melody, but in a very classical and virtuoso style that's nearly unheard of in black metal. Diamatregon's forged themselves a bizarre path as their 2009 full length Crossroad is an homage of sorts to American blues (you won't really hear it in the music, but the album is a true grower and has such a great, raw, and dismally deep sound akin to the hardships Robert Johnson and the like sang about). Epheles had the aggression and straight ahead attack that some of those others lacked, but added a strong synth touch to the mix. Antaeus, like their namesake, were all about strength as their sound and nihilism has gone unmatched for quite sometime. Finally, there's Glorior Belli's who strangely enough also had a blues influenced album (Meet us at the Southern Sign) and have created a stable, polished style of black metal that's gotten wider distribution than most. 

This cover still baffles me. Note the dog in the foreground,  and his stupid face. The wheelchair is just a whole 'nother story.

Not included due to length and an overall lack of quality is Pensées Nocturnes whose track "Coups de Bleus" is a very faithful and well done marriage of black metal and blues. I'm just saying this because France has such a peculiar scene, from NSBM bands to shoegazers like Alcest to pioneers Deathspell Omega Blut Aus Nord and bands with a complete admiration for U.S. black southern music. There's a lot of other great acts, hope this is just a good jump off.

Download

1. Torgeist - "Devoted to Satan" - Devoted to Satan

2. Vlad Tepes - "Untitled" - Broullions I

3. Mütiilation - "Travels to Sadness, Hate & Depression" - Remains of a Ruined, Dead, Cursed Soul

4. Celestia - "Prisoner of a Morbid Cradle" - A Cave Full of Bats

5. Peste Noire - "Paysage Mauvais" - Folkfuck Colie

6. Mystic Forest - "Braver Les Ombres" - Welcome Back in the Forest

7. Antaeus - "Blood War III" - De Principii Evangelikum

8. Diamatregon - "Wine" - Crossroad

9. Epheles - "Les Siècles D'ignorance" - Souviens-Toi

10. Glorior Belli - "Manifesting the Raging Beast" - Manifesting the Raging Beast

Download

Tour of Duty - Finland

Finland, maybe more than any other country, does not get the recognition it deserves for its awesome black metal scene. While there's plenty of groups who are doing something new or bizarre from Finland (Circle of Ouroborus and Oranssi Pazuzu I'm looking at you) or Fleshpress, one of my absolute favorites, there's  something special about the stripped down bands of Finland I find most interesting.

With a names like Ollie, the Finns mean business

Vordr's got a punk kinda feel to their usually short and bombastic songs, Horna can do a 16 minute song with 4 riffs and make it their best work, or they can do short punky bursts full of riffs and animosity, Armanenschaft's a stripped down and ugly side project of former chief deacon Albert Witchfinder of Reverend Bizarre fame, Musta Surma's another lo-fi outfit who's got that special charm, Prevalent Resistance is a deceptively familiar sounding band who knows how to create a great song, Diaboli's got the whole depressive shtick to mix with that raw Finnish sound, Behexen's usually boring, but this track takes a que from Horna and gets the whole long trancy song thing down perfectly, and then there's Misantropical Painforest; the weirdest of the bunch. (Not in the mood to work on my syntax/grammar here; maybe another day comma splices full power!)

Download

1. Vordr - "Harvesting the Crop of the Ancient" - I

2. Armanenschaft -"14000 Years" - Psychedelic Winter

3.  Horna - "Vihan Tie" - Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne

4. Musta Surma - Usvan Lapset" - Demo

5. Prevalent Resistance - "Forever the Pale Flame Burns" - To Live Again and Dominate

6. Diaboli - "Call From the Stars" - Anthems of Sorrow

7. Behexen - "Ritual of Flesh and Blood" - Horna/Behexen Split

8. Misantropical Painforest - "Besmeared the Tunic of Honour" - Winds Saturate With Inhumane Longing

Download

Tour of Duty: Hockey Canada

It's hard to remember that Canada has more to offer than Hockey, but when you search hard enough there's a lot of black metal to be found. There's actually quite a diverse amount of sounds and scenes throughout the Maple Leaf land, but I've decided to narrow in on what put them on the map; War Metal.

For those who don't know Blasphemy, it's basically black metal aesthetic, 80's death metal guitars stripped down to simple tremolo riffs and a complete lack of melody or anything nice and an overall need to constantly thud and thud quickly. With that in mind, basically any "war metal" band just sounds like Blasphemy (I'm only partially kidding). While nearly anything J. Reed's involved with will sound similar, this compilation hosts some varied stuff (not all strictly war metal for you nitpickers). That said...

There's Conqueror who I think of having written the one of the most extreme albums ever simply because it always on, always abrasive, doesn't allow room to digest anything, and is just plain torrid.It's an album that I love, yet rarely listen to in its entirety, however contradictory that might sound, War Cult Supremacy's the kind of album that makes you listen to Kenny G for weeks afterwards to even out the violence. There's Axis of Advance and Revenge who also have J.Reed on drums and offer a bit more coherence than Conqueror, but sound very similar. Rites of Thy Degringolade's got a strange uncomfortable and clunky sound to it that's really grown on me, Lust's a complete mess that could be a great if it weren't for some extremely out place and terrible vocals (and their regrettable NS bullshit). Antichrist's a great carbon copy of Blasphemy with a bit more of a penchant for cohesive song structures.

It pains me to leave out great acts like Skagos, Menace Ruine, Akitsa, Trails of Anguish and others, but THE MOTIF MUST STAND.

Download
1.Blasphemy - "Nocturnal Slayer" - Gods of War
2. Conqueror - "Chaos Domination (Conquer the Enslaver)" - War Cult Supremacy
3. Revenge - "Blood of my Blood" - Triumph.Genocide.Antichrist
4.Axis of Advance - "The Torture" - The List
5.Rites of Thy Degringolade - "Of Purist Impurity" - An Ode to Sin
6. Lust - "Spear of Destiny" - Genesis of a Satanic Race
7. Antichrist - "Chopped and Chewed" - Sacrament of Blood
Download

Tour of Duty: Teutonic Dreariness

A sociological study unto itself, Germany's bred some of the best depressive black metal over the years. I admit, a label like "depressive" is a bit silly for a bunch of reasons, but it fits as these are some of the bleakest and sordid acts around.Typically, many bands employ absurdly high shrieks (a bit unbearable in terms of Strenbend), thin production, and a focus on repetitive guitar lines that are melancholic and trance inducing. Of course not every band in Germany has these traits, or those on this mixtape for that matter, but they're just some key traits to keep in mind.

When there's a place called "The Black Forest" in your country you're expected to churn out some good black metal.

My favorite of the bunch is Nyktalgia for sure as they're one of the few to mix all the above mentioned traits and inject vigor and interesting craftsmanship. Wigrid's simplistic one man Hoffnungstod is a stellar piece of ritual melody that builds upon Burzum like simplicity and structure. Klage has the muddiest production of the bunch and in its haze is as forlorn as it is trance inducing. There's Anti who has a much slicker and more modern sound (partially because of a drum machine) and ColdWorld who's built upon an act like Wigrid and turned up the production attention and values.

You'll have to excuse the bump in motif, but there are two who might seem a bit out of place, Lunar Aurora and  Dark Tribe. Where Dark Tribe's a bizarrely unsettling, chaotic jamboree, Lunar Aurora's a conventional band in comparison as it's catchy and driving black metal with heavy attention to atmosphere.

1. Lunar Aurora - "Aufgewacht" - Mond

2. Lantlôs - "Kalte Tage" - Lantlôs

3.Anti - "Landscape in Minor" - The Insignificance of Life

4. ColdWorld - "Red Snow" - Melancholie²

5. Nyktalgia - "Misere Nobis" - Nyktalgia

6. Wigrid - "Die Entstehung" - Hoffnungstod

7. Klage - "Wurmestugend" - Dystopias Wiege

8. Sterbend - "Dwelling Lifeless" - Dwelling Lifeless

9. Dark Tribe - 'The Seed" - In Jeraspunta - Die Rückkehr der Tollwütigen Bestie

Tour of Duty: Teutonic Dreainess from Perpetual Strife on 8tracks.

Tour of Duty: Tvr3 N0rVV3gian Blk Metl

For the first of this lengthy series, we'll take a look at the birthplace of modern black metal; Norway. I won't bore you with crap you either know, or that can easily be found elsewhere, instead, I hope to show many of the bands (or releases) that get shafted from the limelight.

If you don't like Immortal you're a stone's throw from being mentally incapable of being interesting or cool.

Strid, a band that can arguably be called the fathers of depressive black metal, Mysticum, who were one of the first advances into electronic music from a black metal point of view, Dødheimsgard  who took cues from Teutonic thrash as well as Sacrofago but got progressively weirder, then there was Manes who eventually developed into a sound like none other while incorporating symphonic influences, nowhere as simple as early Gehenna. Thorns gained notoriety for all the wrong reasons, before man main Snorre was incarcerated his demo work was light years ahead of every other metal band in the world. Many should know the name Ulver, I've included a demo track of theirs which shows how undeveloped some of their great ideas were.

There's Forgotten Woods who were one of the first to offer a glimpse into the winning combination of black metal and post-rock. There's also Ildjarn who was one of the first to strip black metal down to an oi like stomp and make it as harsh and primitive as possible, and  Tulus who win the award for stupidest album cover of the lot (but they played a wickedly brazen and sometimes bizarre style). And, of course, there's Zyklon-B, an all-star outing with Frost (Satyricon) on drums, Draug Aldrahn (Dødheimsgard) singing, Samoth (Emperor) on guitars and bass and fellow band-mate Ihshan on keyboards; maybe the most misanthropic and nihilistic out of all the Norwegian acts.

Download - Tvr3 N0rVV3gian Blk Metl

1. Ildjarn - "Svarte Hjerter" - Norse (1993)
2. Zyklon-B - "Bloodsoil" - Blood Must be Shed (1995)
3. Dødheimsgard - "Lost in Faces" - Monumental Possession (1996)
4. Tulus - "Midtvintermåne"- Pure Black Energy (1996)
5. Ulver - "Tragediens Trone" - Vargnatt (1993)
6. Thorns - "Funeral Marches to the Grave" -  Trøndertun (1992) 
7. Manes - "Uten Liv Ligger Landet Øde" - Under ein Blodraud Maane (1999)
8. Gehenna - "Angelwings and Ravenclaws" - First Spell (1994)
9. Mysticum - "Crypt of Fear" - In the Streams of Inferno (1996)
10. Strid - "Det Hviskes Blant Sorte Vinder" - Strid (1994)
11. Forgotten Woods - "The Velvet Room" - The Curse of Mankind (1996)

Download - Tvr3 N0rVV3gian Blk Metl

As well as trying to stay with lesser known acts, I've also limited this collection to releases from 1999 and earlier. I would have liked to do earlier than that, but Manes's demo material was just too foggy and poorly produced to include rather than their magnificent debut Under ein Blodraud Maane (probably my favorite effort here).

Around the World... err ... Rundt om i verden

Rejuvenating my college years radio show, I've decided to undertake a weekly endeavor that'll highlight black metal from around the world entitled: Tour of Duty. Stay turned as next week we'll explore the lesser known acts of Norway.



Burzum!? FUCK THAT SHIT- Mysticum!

I'd also like to point out I've fixed the comments section, so there's no longer any approval BS.