Trollheim's Grott - Bizarre Troll Technology

Bizarre Troll Technology is the psilocybin equivalent to Gloomy Grim's LSDisneyLand Fun. A fanciful romp of trolling, shrooming, sweet keyboards and unrelenting bloodshed. Hmmmm, now that I think about it there might be a little PCP in those caps.

Bizarre Troll Technology

Blackdeath - Jesus Wept

God I loved Blackdeath's last album (I described it as a black metal take on !T.O.O.H!’s origami death and I still stand by that comparison). this little ep is about the same in terms of quality if not quantity hehe..If anything a more textured Mendhelsshonholical journey into twisting amazing black metal and a real fucking cool cover of Jesus Tod to boot! I think I actually like this better than the Burzum original guys…it just has this slightly more death metal, dare I say “teched-out” feel to it. I can’t wait for a new full-length from these nutterz.

Jesus Wept

Desalin/S.A.P.

Well, I mentioned Desalin in my Lunatic Invasion post so I figured I might as well put them up here; and while I'm at it, their sister band Satan's Almighty Penis. Both bands are great technical black metal; Desalin more on the thrash side, S.A.P. more on the epic mysterious side. Mastermind Lord Sardonyx is a master of the riff, and I can't quite help but think that there is a very twisted sense of humor here...Into The Cunt Of Chaos is a total play off a Manilla Road album title (a band with which they share many songwriting characteristics believe it or not), not to mention their hilariously offensive band name, eat your heart out Rotting Christ. Still, it's the music that matters, and on that front both Desalin and S.A.P. are as serious as they are bizarre. Hat's off to you Sardonyx.

Desalin Demo'97

Into The Cunt Of Chaos

Pulsing Feral Spire

Tsatthoggua - Hosanna Bizarre

Sympho-Eroticaterrorist metal with an unhealthy dose of occult black magick. Featuring guitarist of Eternal Dirge band.
Big gimpin' plinkin keys...Big gimpin' on your knees...

Hosanna Bizarre

Bluttaufe - Mein Fleisch an Deinen Lippen

Thrashing black metal that kicks so much ass it's pathetic!!

Mein Fleisch

Pat Metheny - Zero Tolerance For Silence

I recently came across a band that I thought was called "Goatheny"; so naturally, visions of a black metal version of Pat Metheny came swirling into my head!! Unfortunately, the band turned out to be called Goathe"M"y and was not too good at all....this led me to remembering Zero Tolerance 4 Silence, quite the odd little gem in Mr. Metheny's discography. Zero Tolerance is a free jazz shred extravaganza...Pat breaking all his own rules and making a hideous wall of noise that will send even the most adventurous jazzheads running for their Charles Mingus records. Like a Black Legions rehearsal tape randomly spliced together with Brown Jenkins and Mick Barr's Orthrelm project...Kult as a heart-attak.

Zero Tolerance

Cythrawl - Ar Karv Du

Rabidly technical Frenchie black metal that conceives mind-boggling complex epics out of confusing (but addicting) song fragments...everything is insane trem-picked to the nines and willing to sacrifice any shred of normalcy for tear your throat out vitality. The star of this freakshow is the drummer, who flays down a serious battering-ram of hyperkinetic damage on the skins. This guy is all over the kit guiding the songs much in the way Proscriptor takes control during Absu's breakneck thrash-attacks (or for that matter the way a Rich or Krupa would lead their respective bands). Monumental black metal spawned in the most unorthodox fashion possible.

Ar Karv Du

Entrails - Serpent Seed

Blackosh and Igor of legendary Root band teamed up with short-armed drummer Marthus (who later went on to play with Cradle of Shit among other bands) to record a totally ripping dripping black metal album chock full to the brim with some o the most awesome riffs you’ll ever hear. Where does Blackosh come up with with all these choice riffs? B’neath that elusive Bodhi tree that’s where.

Serpent Seed

Drohm - The Oracles of Darkend Time

More like Oracles of their Darkend Slime. Really wicked slithering metal here. I want to get in touch with the artist who did the cover art, I got a mural for him to do on the wall opposite my crapper.

The Oracles of Darkend Time

Abigor - Satanized (A Journey Through Cosmic Infinity)

Abigor have never released a bad album...just albums of varying degrees of greatness. Satanized is one of their stronger efforts for sure, in fact for a while I thought it was their swansong as they broke up soon after its release (thankfully they got back together and recorded the stunningly ballsout Fractal Possession).
You can chart Abigor's career much as you can chart the progression of civilization. Abigor began in the forest (Verwustung), man began in the forests...gathered into feudal groups during the Middle ages (medieval themes of Nachthymnen through Channeling the Quintessence of Satan)...and after some technological advancements reached out into the cosmos (this album and thereafter).
Never had Abigor been this technical in their approach, veering at times towards math metal territory. One may at times get the impression that this is the black metal version of Calculating Infinity.
Don't fight the chaos, just sit back and let the convoluted guitar work wash over you, beckoning you into the polluted morass of an erupted supernova...the entropic din of a maelstrom reaching beyond this terrestrial realm; probing the neutrinos of ascendance for the Evil that lurks among the stars.

Satanized

Mork Gryning - Mork Gryning

Mork Gryning's eponymous record is slowly but surely making it's way into my favorite black metal albums of all time.  I'm not sure how this band, and this album in particular have flown under the radar for as long as they have.  Hopefully that'll change, although it matters not for the band, cuz they broke up right after releasing this in '05...but what a swansong!
The centrepiece of Mork are the riffs which vary between tech thrash, punishing polyrhythmic death, and epic melodic black metal. The melodies are not your typical Swedish black metal fare, but are clearly Nordic...folk without being aggressively folky if you catch my drift. Definitely epic in a subtle way.  Songwriting is akin to being dropped from Valhalla to find yourself plummeting ever faster into the waiting maw of a fiery hell only to be snapped from certain annihilation by some sort of giant flying creature...maybe that giant fucking dog from Neverending Story.  So in a word the songwriting is exhilarating. Special mention has to be given to the drumming which is some of the most inventively tight I have ever heard...a black metal Jarzombek.
Mork Gryning is a rousing success that combines the tastefulness of Dark Tranquility circa Damage Done, the ravishness of Keep of Kalessin circa their Reclaim ep, the funky obtuseness of Atrocity circa Hallucinations, and the distinct baroque choral sensibility of Gentle Giant circa anytime.  Highly Highly Highly recommended.

Mork 

Myrkskog - Superior Massacre

A superior massacre indeed.  Technical death metal done fucking right.  In fact, I'll go so far to say that Indisposable Deaths is one of my favorite death metal songs ever!

Superior Massacre

Immortal - Blizzard Beasts

Only seems appropriate on the coldest day of the year.

Blizzard Beasts

Lunatic Gods - Ante Portas

Terrific Slovak band that runs the gamut from Voivod to Rotting Christ to Lykathea Aflame and back.  They have also produced one of the most badass music videos I've seen recently.  Enjoy the Avant-Garde Tech Gypsy Metal Supreme!!

Ante Portas

Dødheimsgard - Supervillain Outcast

Hotdamn, DHG blew the roof off the joint when they dropped this bomb a few years back.  This is the kind of wildly experimental technical black metal that Mayhem should have been making, instead of mucking around in a slurry of their own pretentiousness.  DHG come out with some awesome riffs, but for me its all about the drumming.  I crave Czral's drumming.  His blastbeats are perfection.  He's the kind of musician who can play anything and make it sound good.  He could come out with a horror rapcore project and it would probably be album of the year.  Well, lets hope he doesn't.  Another DHG album would be nice though.

Supervillain Outcast