Egaheer - Templum Umbrae

Obscure and forgotten Polish Black metal with that enviable "inside the dungeon" sound. Reverbed to hell vocals and guitar jangle to boot.

Egad

North - Thorns On The Black Rose

Sometimes you just need some rustic in your face black metal and North undoubtedly deliver with their debut that uncertain gallop of Immortal DFM, that rural tremeloed upliftingness of early In the Woods, hell even that warm rich bass tone of Kvist fuck yeah....Go North young man

Thorns on the Black Rose

Marhoth - Szkarlatna Kropla Rosy

Mystical Polish black metal with an otherworldly atmosphere, put a mental image of Forgotten Woods slam dancing with Mortuary Drape in your minds eye and let that marinate for a while. Beautimous and Bewitching.

Szkarlatna Keopla Rosy

Gontyna Kry - Welowie

Since I'm in the Polish Black Metal Mode let me turn y'alls attention to the fine Poles of Gontyna Kry...practitioners of a certain Polish style that involves grim vampyric keyboards, obscure production, and obfuscated nigh on technical guitar riffing to construct songs that pull you into a perverse mindwarp of gothic torture. Spidery, grandiloquent and flat out fucking cool.

Welowie

Ecclesia Satani - NS Satan

In a major Polish black/pagan metal mood lately...lots of Graveland, lots of Gontyna Kry, lots of Profanum....so my memory was jogged to this early 2000's artifact, NS Satan. An album title thats so anti-pc that when I first saw it I automatically thought that it was ridiculous and awesome and I must have it. Basically NS Satan is the very definition of obscure, cruel (but sophisticated), misanthropic black metal, and my mood prohibits me from having it any other way!

NS Satan

Graveland Anno 2012

Check out these new pictures of Rob Darken acting a nut. That guy sure knows how to have a good time...what's he battling there, some kind of mythical antelope? Damn I'd love to do some shrooms with that guy, talk about a hoot!

 

 

Belfegor - In the Kingdom of Glacial Palaces

Yeah, it's a real ice palace out there today.

Fucking Ice Palace

Profanum - Musaeum Esotericum

Continuing on my Polish Black metal kick...  A darkly obscene effort from Poles Profanum summoning Infernal Ambient Classicism of Voynichian bombast.  Avant-Garde ideas combine with misanthropic ideals to create the quintessential Symphonic Black Metal.  Not really metal at all really.  No gits, but plenty of double kick, so go figure.

Musaeum Esotericum 

Graveland - The Celtic Winter

'Nuff said

Mgła - Groza

Its amazing what a little well placed double kick can do for a song.  One of the best Black metal releases of the past couple years.

Dread

Capricornus - Alone Against All

One thing I never figured out about this album is why Capricornus decided to use a drum machine when he himself is a drummer.  He pounded the skins on some of the all time great Graveland records, so he obviously has the chops.  Oh well, some mysteries may just go unsolved.  One thing that isn't a mystery is how brilliant this record is.  Capricornus has crafted some epics based around enchanting guitar lines and, dare I say, sophisticated song structures.  It may be strange to call an album like this sophisticated when there's an angry mongrel guarding a doc marten on the cover, but songs like Rivers of Blood go down oh so smooth.

Alone Against All