As much as I respect Ihsahn for his work with Emperor, Peccatum and Thou Shalt Suffer, his solo material has always been tough for me to review. I say this because Ihsahn was one of the guys who were at the very point of the Black Metal spear that pierced the stagnating Death Metal scene and deflated it like a cheap balloon. I would listen to the original Emperor/Enslaved split CD for hours at a time because it had that darkness about it that I want in Metal. I don’t idolize Ihsahn, but my level of respect for him is very high. Ihsahn’s solo work, though, is something that I don’t want to think about. For starters, I hate Progressive Metal. There are a few bands in the genre that I tolerate, but for the most part, I’d rather spend the rest of my life deaf than listen to it. That being said, Das Seelenbrechen is horrible. Even by Progressive Metal standards, it’s almost unlistenable. The songs are disjointed, unmemorable, and though things might make sense from a technical perspective, the structures are so fucked up that you literally have to be on some serious medication before any of this shit works. There’s very little consistency in the music and each song seems to go off in its own direction, making this album sound like a mix tape made by someone with ADHD. This kind of music is worse than navel gazing wankerdom. At least that has a point: It’s just a musician masturbating with his chosen instrument, showing off to his musician friends and writing music that only other wankers want to listen to. As stupid as that is, at least I can understand it. This LP is just experimentation for the sake of experimentation. It’s fucked up, weird and lacks any sort of musical direction. At least Samoth stuck with extreme Metal and produced some good stuff with Zyklon (his work with The Wretched End is less impressive, but still far better than this…). Das Seelenbrechen is just complete and total crap. I don’t say this often, but I want that 49 minutes of my life back.

I’ve never been a big fan of England’s The Meads of Asphodel. The best way to describe these guys is to say that they are Experimental Black Metal. Everything about them is a bit odd, from their “We escaped from the set of Monty Python and the Holy Grail” outfits to their music. I don’t think there’s a song on this entire record that doesn’t veer sharply into what-the-fuck? territory at least once. The Meads of Asphodel is one of the few bands that can go from “This is totally fucking awesome!” to “This is totally fucking awful!” and then back again in one song. I can’t truthfully call this Progressive Black Metal or even Post-Black Metal. It’s just Black Metal with a lot of weird shit mixed into it. Personally, I wonder if the music is intentionally done the way it is for the sole purpose of irritating listeners. The group seems to exist just to push people’s buttons, and apparently thrives on the shock factor. The Nazi/Holocaust concept of Sonderkommando is freaking people out left and right. But they need the controversy, because on its own, the music isn’t exactly going to push album sales. It’s too eccentric, and though there are some good parts on this record, they’re just that: good parts. They aren’t even good songs. They’re sections of songs that you wish were longer. I honestly think that, if they wanted to, The Meads of Asphodel could write an album that fucking shreds and shows the entire world that they know how to snap necks like nobody’s business. This just isn’t it.

This is the CD version of Into the Pantheon, which is a live concert recording. There is also a DVD/BD available, and if there is a choice, I recommend getting the video because a live performance is usually 50% audio and 50% visual when it comes to the experience. As good as the audio is, you obviously get much more if you have the visual portion as well. The concert was recorded live at Wave Gotik Treffen (WGT) on June 11, 2011, so it isn’t exactly new. According to the information that I have, this was the band’s first actual live performance. Given that, it’s a very good concert. The sound, of course, is stellar. The songs range from early Folk/atmospheric Black Metal-era material to their more recent Neo-Folk sound. The older material has been reworked so that it fits the band’s current direction, though to be fair, it didn’t need much reworking. Empyrium has always had more of a Neo-Folk/Dark Ambient style to begin with, so their transition from Metal to Neo-Folk wasn’t that big of a stretch. Initially sounding a lot like old Ulver, mostly from the Kveldssanger and Bergtatt period, the newer work is more in the vein of other bands like Sol Invictus, Din Brad (ex-Negura Bunget) and The Soil Bleeds Black. If you’re into the Neo-Folk or a longtime fan of the band, this is well worth checking out. They even play two new tracks here, “The Days Before the Fall” and “Dead Winter Ways,” both of which are solid incentives for interested folks to pick this up. I’ve been a fan of Empyrium since their 1996 debut album, A Wintersunset… and I really enjoyed the audio portion of this. I’m definitely going to pick up the video version, because as much as I like the audio, I still feel as though there’s something missing each time I listen to it.

I’ve always had mixed feeling about Profanatica. They were one of the early US Black Metal bands, spearheading the movement along with Masochist, Necrovore and Demoncy. Sporting an obviously Death Metal-influenced style (Profanatica’s original lineup had all been members of Incantation), they were sort of unique among the other groups in the US at the time. While their music wasn’t especially great, they were more known for their outrageous behavior, blasphemous and sexually explicit lyrics, and their tendency towards appearing in promo photos nude (covered in fake blood). Although I respected the band for being there at the very beginning, I wasn’t a big fan of their music because it never really stood out. Even after reforming back in 2001, they’ve never produced an album that I would consider “great.” Thy Kingdom Cum, the band’s latest release, revels in chaotic riffing and one-dimensional drumming. The songs have an underlying “sameness” about them that makes sitting through this kind of difficult. At some point during my repeated listens, I would lose track of which song I was on because I really couldn’t tell them apart very well. The riffing is remarkably similar in style on each song, and Paul Ledney has one standard drum fill that he constantly reuses. It’s the same one he’s done for decades. The main thing, though, is that nothing stands out. None of these songs grab you by the throat and demand your attention. None of it is horrible, but at the same time, there are plenty of bands out there that are delivering better than this on a regular basis. I’m admittedly old and jaded. I’ve been listening to Metal for over thirty years and it takes a lot to get me excited, and Profanatica just doesn’t do anything on Thy Kingdom Cum that I haven’t heard from them already. The formula they’re operating off of might be tried and true, but their brand of Black Metal is long on blasphemy but short on interesting music. Outside of the amusement you’ll get from reading Paul’s “I ejaculate on the face of Christ” lyrics, this has little to recommend.

Some consider The Ruins of Beverast to be one of the best kept secrets in Black Metal right now. Though former Nagelfar (the German one, not to be confused with the Swedish Naglfar) member Alexander von Meilenwald has been writing and recording music under the name of The Ruins of Beverast since 2003, the band has remained something of a cult phenomenon. Though he has produced three critically acclaimed full-length LPs prior to this one (the split releases and compilations were less well received), widespread recognition has been on the elusive side. Considering how good Blood Vaults is, I doubt that this will remain the case for very long. This is quite possibly the heaviest Black Metal I’ve heard since the last time Tom Warrior/Gabriel/Fischer released something. It’s borderline Doom/Death in sound and production, giving the music a warmer and fuller treatment that greatly adds to the grim and malevolent air that hangs over Blood Vaults like a thick fog. That dark atmosphere is heightened by the use of copious amounts of acoustic guitar, clean and occasionally effects-laden vocals, and even some tribal drumming. Seriously, this is some sick and brutal stuff. When I want to listen to something dark, brutal and heavy, this is the kind of music that I want to hear. The whole package seems to indicate that this is a concept album, but a quick reading of the lyrics doesn’t really tell me what the story is beyond some disjointed parts that loosely fit together thematically. It doesn’t help that a fair sized chunk of the lyrics are in Latin, a language of which I have only a limited amount of knowledge. Concept album or not, it is one of the best releases this year. I don’t give perfect scores very often, but from my perspective Blood Vaults earned every point of it by delivering a record full of dark and punishing Metal that has both melody and brutality. It’s a delicate balancing act to pull off, but I felt that The Ruins of Beverast was able to do it.

This is a Punk/Thrash Crossover band that was formed by Joel Grind (Toxic Holocaust) and Yasuyuki Suzuki (aka Barbados) of Abigail as a side project that recorded new material every time that Joel was in Japan. This record was originally released back in 2008, but this version was remastered by Joel and reissued with bonus tracks that essentially make it a compilation of all of their material, except for the band’s 2013 EP, Green Tea or Die. As you can tell from the titles of this LP and their new EP, this project isn’t exactly serious. It’s one long ode to having a good time (getting drunk off your ass, partying and trying to get laid) set to some Punk-infused Thrash Metal music. Please note that this is traditional Punk and not Hardcore. When most folks hear “Punk/Thrash Crossover,” they think of bands like D.R.I. or Corrosion of Conformity, but this sounds nothing like that. It has more in common with old Venom/Bathory than it does with anything in the Hardcore/Thrash Crossover or Metalcore genres. The Punk influences are mostly from the British scene, drawing heavily from the likes of The Exploited, English Dogs and even the Sex Pistols, giving the music of Tiger Junkies a rawer, primal edge that does more to capture the group’s energy than a clean, over-polished approach would have. The playing is a bit sloppy in places, but if anything, it adds to the sense of Punk intensity that the band feeds off of. This is a fun album that gets your head banging and isn’t afraid to laugh at itself once in a while. If you like your Thrash Metal raw and energetic, the Punk-fueled Thrash of Tiger Junkies will definitely appeal to your tastes.

I don’t know what causes so many people in the East Bay (across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco, for those not from the Bay Area) to want to play Doom-infused Metal (Doom/Death, Black/Doom, etc.), but there seems to be a lot of bands in that vein coming from that area these days. Of course, the former kings of Bay Area Doom/Death Metal, Asunder, were from there. The only reason they’re the former kings and not the reigning kings is because the band is now broken up. With their departure from the scene, a number of new contenders have emerged for their spot. Secrets of the Sky is one of the bands vying for that position, and their debut LP, To Sail Black Waters, is indeed a powerful statement of intent. While not as punishingly heavy and atmospheric as old Asunder, or as sonically bleak as Lycus, this record is still in possession of plenty of good music. If there is a band that I could compare their style to, I would say that they’re like a Doom version of old Katatonia. It has a similar depressive and somber vibe, but Secrets of the Sky is decidedly heavier and a bit more progressive minded. A song like “Sunrise” does stray into Progressive Metal territory, but I’d say that this was the only track of the four here that really can be classified as that way. The others are complex, but not overly so. Even though “Sunrise” is intricate in structure, it never degenerates into that navel-gazing self-absorption that I hate so much about Progressive Metal. The remaining songs have a dark and depressive air to them and also have punishing heaviness, something that I look for in good Doom. For a debut, this is definitely an impressive release. Hopefully, this band will keep the Progressive Metal elements to a minimum because that’s the most dangerous component of the band’s sound. All too often, it will take over and the band soon starts making overly complex, narcissistic music that only other wankers will enjoy. If you’re a fan of Doom/Death or Black/Doom in the vein of Lycus or Asunder, Secrets of the Sky is well worth checking out, either live or on CD. I recommend both if possible.

2013 was an interesting year for Middle Eastern Metal music. While there has always been a small scene over in that area of the world, this year saw a number of bands come forward with releases that were good, and some great. Seeds of Iblis and Theoria come immediately to mind, and now we have Jordan’s Chalice of Doom entering the fray with their new LP, Into Hypnagogia. Chalice of Doom plays Doom/Death Metal that is much in the vein of old My Dying Bride, Mourning Beloveth, Chorus of Ruin, and Eye of Solitude. I happen to be a big fan of dark and atmospheric music that has an element of heaviness and brutality. When it comes to that, Chalice of Doom definitely delivers. All of their songs have an underlying heaviness to them, sporting nice guitar tones that have a lot of warmth and a hefty bottom-end. The songs also have plenty of atmosphere, incorporating piano, acoustic guitar, clean male and female vocals, and even flute to heighten the somber and dark mood where necessary. Add to all of that a strong sense of melody and you have music that is both memorable and listenable. Songs like “Bridesmaid of the Woods” and “Dyers of Dusk” are top quality tracks that can stand up against the best in the genre. I’ve listened to this album almost a dozen times and I’m still finding interesting parts that I didn’t notice before. Chalice of Doom is definitely a group to look out for. Given 2013’s crop of solid releases by bands in the area, the Middle East may be an emerging scene that will become a major player in years to come.

Though overtly NS, Graveland still remains one of Poland’s most recognizable and well-known bands. I sometimes wonder why they continue to have so much notoriety, but you can’t deny that the band has achieved a level of fame that few others have. The music of Graveland has evolved into something of a Folk, Dark Ambient, and Viking Metal hybrid over the years, going from the worship of Emperor and Darkthrone to a more Twilight of the Gods-era Bathory inspired sound. Thunderbolts of the Gods, like many of Rob Darken’s more recent compositions, is fairly passive. Things kind of plod along at a leisurely pace, never getting very aggressive or doing anything exciting. Even with the whole “Viking choir” going in the background, this never achieves an epic feeling, which I’m almost positive that Darken wants. Frankly, the most epic and interesting track on this whole record was the outro, “When Hammer Shines.” It’s darker and more bombastic than all of the others combined. After listening to it, I wished that the whole LP had sounded that way. The opening track started off promising enough, but it quickly became more of what I’ve come to expect from modern Graveland. The songs were overly long (each one ranges between seven to nine minutes in length) and didn’t really go anywhere. I doubt Rob Darken will listen to my recommendations, but this album really needed something to hook the listener in. It needs bombast and epic feeling. It also needs some identity. I listened to this multiple times and one of the things I noticed was the lack of Slavic Folk rhythms in the guitar riffing. That always added a nice hook into Graveland’s music, going back to the era of Thousand Swords and Immortal Pride. Removing that in favor of droning guitars and the occasional keyboards didn’t make the music stronger. The lack of any real hooks, bombast or aggressiveness makes this borderline elevator music. Graveland has produced some great material in the past so I know that Rob Darken is fully capable of writing truly epic songs. He just hasn’t done it lately.