GRENJAR / KARGVINT Split 7"

Fuck any music that does not make you see besides just hearing it. Grenjar song, for instance, is simple, sounds "young" and sometimes even naive, but that's far from being dismissed as not being good. It shows the mood. It calms down and still it obtains the hidden agenda. It's hidden little malicious aura. The key is depressiveness but no self-pity at all. Kargvint is just the same but sounding more thought-over. Both fit to this wax perfectly as two sides of the same coin. A smart manifest...a clear call upon weakness...the shiny, flexible razor that made you finally do it.

CHRISTICIDE - S.t. LP / CD / CS

Debut album by these French black metal mafiosi-ministrants weaving trays of regurgitated nunnish vulvas as offerings selfishly shadowing various exquisite riff-ideas and peeks at macabre other souls' dreams imprisoned into audial impulses: Crafty hands that poked their own veins into cement very graciously unmask these blessings into the particularly malicious musical genre we all like to like so much. Tons of cunning parts and a sense for subtile playfulness make this weird-covered sombre soundtrack a true re-player. Not an every-day romance thou, at least after the first few "wow-that-was-awesome"-spins, still the thoughts "respect" and " this is a good idea/part" pop up here and there even when being "forced" to at a time when you feel like anything else than blackmetal. Great effort that,seems to me, really does not get that old with time. '75 up to 80's ; - at least one "honest" spin.

VERMINOUS - Smell The Birth Of Death 7" / MCD

I remember hearing this material not too long after it came out. It sounded somewhat like Exhumed going Merciless to me.Well honestly it still does to this very day. I remeber a lot of folks into goregrind and deathmetal complaining about how today there is only a handful of quality Death Metal bands and the rest was just utter shit.. ( I'm talking almost ten years ago ) They'd go on counting the good guys understandably mentioning Funebrarum from the U.S. , Slugathor from Finland and then they'd continue with counting newer Swedish acts such as Serpent Obscene, Kaamos, Repugnant. Well that's it actually. Not many true DM bands at the time. Verminous appeared from that Swedish "corner". Years later I got into Kaamos, actually thru Revokation, but from the very begining I was hooked on this material by Verminous. It was all I needed back then. It was a fast and a short output,  four tracks of killer energy , blitzkrieg Death-Metal with raw sound. Intense & adernaline-laden. Safe to say this release managed stay on my top 100 all-time E.P's. still to this day. Don't know precisely why, there's just something fascinating about it. Killer shit.

INKISITOR - Inkisitor 7"

Death Metal with War Metal and occasional Orthodox BM parts. Weird but a very interesting combination hailing from France. Powerful and violent. Worth your attention if you would or can enjoy Angelcorpse meeting Ondskapt. Sad of Christicide played drums here. The Christicide link was actually the reason I got into Inkisitor. Great 7", well worth your time.

DOLORVOTRE - Dolorvotre CS / CD

Most certanly, at this very moment of writing, in my humble, ignorant, stupid oppinion, the best release coming from the so called "black twilight circle". Not only the best in that context but also very, very good from any other perspective ( when talking of essence of what I understand  black metal is in its core). I am very positively suprised and also very pleased a release like this emerged from the other side of the pond. 

VERMETH - Suicide Or Be Killed LP / CD

Vermeth deliver what they know best, raw Bathory-an staright-forwad Black Metal with the 90's necro-production and primitive riffing. Slightly more intelligent than Torgeist but not all too different in it's essence.There quite a few things I like about this album, the main ones being so low-fi, ugly & honest. Everyone who ever felt the touch of Satan going thru Transylvanian Hunger back in the days would probably know what I mean. Just like the aforementioned audial terror "Suicide Or Be Killed" has its little moments all around; be it a catchy riff or a catchy verse but foremost it just reeks of malice and perversity, of bloody spears & primitive animalistic growls deep down from the gut. The pit of horror within creators insane mind. Replay value: Very rare but it KILLS each time you're spinning it.

PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS - Depths CD

Very well crafted and executed Australian Black Metal with european B/M vibe. I am talking Macabre Omen, Luror and , well I hear Klage aswell. I swear first time I heard this album I've could have sworn it's an european band, a pretty good one, but european, I would have cut both my legs for a bet.

Anyway, this album is flawless. Great songs, good guitar work, good drumming, vox are generic for this type of style. The album does have longer songs but that dosen't matter as they're not boring at all. Production is top-notch for this type of music, never too clear , never to muddy.  Everything is perfectly balanced and seems being thought-over a lot.

Replay value: Very high in the first week, settles down a bit with time passing ( naturally with new releases coming in.. ) but still manages to stay somewhere in between Mid to Mid High. After a year it's pretty much a one-time-a-month thing. Still very enjoyable. So yeah, I'd say it's a very good release.