When I first saw the cover art for this album, I didn’t know what to think about Spellcraft. The cover was kind of generic (a demon standing on some snakes and the usual unreadable band logo), so I kind of assumed that the band was too. I like it when I’m proven wrong and Spellcraft proved me wrong. This isn’t generic Black Metal at all. The first track had a Graveland vibe to it due to the Slavic Folk influence in the guitar playing, but subsequent songs were more straight-forward melodic Black Metal with some interesting atmospheric elements. Of course, when you consider that this band is from Spain, it kind of makes sense that they wouldn’t have a strong Slavic Folk influence. I would have been surprised if they did, though. Then again, I once saw a band that essentially played NSBM (their albums had swastikas all over them and their T-shirts had SS soldiers gassing Jews), but the band had members that were clearly Mexican. Slavic Black Metal from Spain wouldn’t have been that much of a stretch in comparison. When it comes to atmospheric elements, most bands lay on the keyboards a-la Dimmu Borgir. Spellcraft doesn’t use much keyboard on this album at all. Instead, the atmosphere comes from the guitars and the inclusion of acoustic interludes, and also incorporating acoustic guitar into the songs. They also use clean vocals and weird guitar harmonics. Where Spellcraft falters (I wouldn’t call it “failure”) is when they kick up the speed. When they play fast, they ruin the atmosphere and the drumming tends to overpower the guitars. The issues with the drumming overwhelming the guitars comes from the usual sources: the snare and the bass drum. The snare is overly loud and the bass drum sounds like a light switch. When Spellcraft plays in the lower speed range (slow to mid-paced), the snare doesn’t get in the way. When they kick up the speed, the drummer starts riding the snare like it was the only drum in his entire kit, and working the light switch bass drum like a hyperactive kid hopped up on a Costco bucket of sour gummy worms. This is mostly a production issue and could be fixed by a competent studio engineer. Spellcraft is a band to look out for. If they can get their production issues worked out, their next album will be great.

I’ve seen this album slagged on a number of sites for not being powerful enough. I certainly agree that the sound isn’t as potent as it could be. When you compare it to the top tier bands in their chosen genre (Power Metal), Dragony definitely lacks the proper punching power on Legends. I’m not going to hold that against them, though. This is their debut album and it was originally self-financed and self-released. When you’re paying for everything out of your own pocket, you’re not going to have the budget of a band like Stratovarius or Rhapsody. Musically, this started out as a very ambitious project and has since been scaled back to more realistic levels. Even so, it still sounds very ambitious. Dragony does a fair job of achieving their goals. The music is very well done, though if you’re a fan of Power Metal, you’re really not getting anything you haven’t heard before. That is the main downfall of this album, if there is one. Yes, it doesn’t go anywhere other bands haven’t gone before. The thing is, most fans of this genre listen to Power Metal for everything that Dragony is dishing out. Do you like soaring guitar solos? They’re here. Lyrics about slaying dragons and legendary warriors? Absolutely. Epic atmosphere and bombast? A more powerful production would’ve made this more apparent, but it’s here too. If you’re an old Dungeons and Dragons nerd, this could be the soundtrack to your youth. If you love Power Metal and you can’t get enough of the things I just mentioned, Dragony isn’t going to disappoint you. I actually enjoyed this album quite a bit. It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, but then I grew up on Ronnie James Dio’s lyrics about witches and dragons. In a reality where life revolves around work, work and more work, Legends offers a brief escape from dealing with assholes, hipsters, overly aggressive homeless people and clueless political activists. I’ll take any escape I can get, and Dragony’s world of dragons and the mighty warriors that slay them is far better than what I’m leaving behind.

I hesitate to use the word “revival” when speaking in Death Metal terms. As far as the time-tested nihilist is concerned, the genre has not at any point since its late-’80s birth lost its power or appeal. Let’s face it, even before the internet crippled the recording industry, no Death Metal band was ever destined to make millions. (I don’t think Dethklok should count.) So, while it may take an occasional backseat to the flavor of the month (Black Metal, Metalcore, Neurosis clones, Sabbath worshippers, etc), it has never died, nor will it ever. You simply can’t kill what’s already Death. But let’s just say that over the last handful of years, there has been an influx of new underground talent, and it seems as though the most notable of this fresh-blood boom are devoted to two specific camps of homage: Old School Swedeath and Incantation. Which of these does Father Befouled belong to? Let’s ask vocalist/guitarist Ghoat (also of Encoffination), who told Decibel magazine last year: “(We) sound just like Incantation… That’s one of my absolute favorite bands, so I wanted to make music like that.” I don’t care how much you pine for originality, it’s hard to argue with that logic. And sound like Incantation they do, indeed. Get John McEntee drunk enough and blindfold him, even he might guess Revulsion of Seraphic Grace to be his own doing. You see, it isn’t just that abysmal twisted riffing style and bestial vocal spewage they’ve nailed. They have successfully replicated the actual aura of the band. The production, the tone, the pitch… it all feels like an Incantation album, right down to song titles like “Indulgence of Abhorrent Prophecies,” “Irreverent Ascendancy,” and “Obscurance of Universality” (coincidentally my favorite three cuts). What’s remarkable is how cohesive the album sounds, considering it was written via video and file-sharing by members strewn across the USA. This may not be an original band, or even an original concept, but when Father Befouled’s darkened grime is emanating from my speakers, it’s impossible for me to have any kind of problem with it.

I’ve followed Absu in one capacity or another since their Death Metal days (The Temples of Offal EP). That being said, I don’t know what the guys in Absu were thinking when they decided to release this track as a one-song single. When you do a single or a 7-inch EP, you want to put a song on there that is worthy of standing alone. “Hall of the Masters” is a decent song. Decent songs aren’t singles. They’re filler tracks. The ones you classify as singles are the standouts. They are the ones you listen to and say, “That was fucking awesome!!!” I listened to this and said, “Filler.” Even as a digital download, I wouldn’t pay $1.29 (what top end singles are going for these days on Amazon.com). I wouldn’t even pay a full dollar. I’d say this was in the $0.50 to $0.75 range. If I had a new Absu album and this track was on it, I doubt that I would single it out as being the best song. If I did, the rest of the album would be so far below par that I would question why it was released at all. Only the most die-hard Absu fan should bother with this release. It isn’t that special, and frankly there are better songs out there that are worthier of my hard-earned dollars.

Cryptopsy doesn’t kick enough ass. That’s my general feeling about this whole album. I’ve listened to it about eight times in a row, and each time this is how I feel. Their style is very technical but totally lacking in brutality. When I listen to Death Metal, I want it to kick my ass. This album is slick, polished and generic. It also lacks any sort of heaviness. It’s Death Metal for the Hot Topic set. I’m not saying that this doesn’t have merit. It’s got some moments of greatness, particularly in the guitar soloing, but those moments are fleeting. The music was overly complicated and anti-memorable. After this album was over, I couldn’t recall one song. I don’t think I could remember one riff even if my life depended on it. I kept waiting for Cryptopsy to stop with the hyper-technical riffing and oddball song structures and just cave my skull in. Sadly, that never happened and I had to pull out a Behemoth album to get the kind of mayhem and destruction that I wanted from Death Metal music. Listening to Cryptopsy reinforced my opinion that Technical and Progressive Death Metal are abominations. They’re all navel-gazing technicality and devoid of the darkness, aggression and brutality that drew me to Death Metal in the first place, just like this album.

I was going to joke about the new band name of Black Metal’s first openly gay man containing the word “seed,” but I think Gaahl’s been through enough. Truth is, I don’t give two shits about the dude’s sexual preference. Contrary to popular belief, I am 100% not homophobic. I realize it’s what a Gaahl wants, it’s what a Gaahl needs, and ultimately Gaahls just wanna have fun. All I’m concerned with is the quality of the material, Gaahl. However, Gorgoroth’s material has never done much for me, and since this is basically Gorgoroth (Gaahl and main songwriter King ov Hell) with a legally-forced name change, expectations weren’t particularly high for this debut LP. As it turns out, this is very different from Gorgoroth, but not always in the good way. Opener “Awake” signals the arrival of psychedelic and electronic elements interwoven into the duo’s icy Second Wave grimness. One could say Gaahl’s gone wild. Yet his Blackened rasp is as solid as they come. That’s never been the problem. You go, Gaahl. What it boils down to is a severe lack of memorability. Not much of I Begin begs for repeated spins. There are a few engaging moments —the symphonically epic Doomy arrangement on “This from the Past,” the headbangable fury bookended by blast on “The Wound”— but nothing that draws in and hooks the listener. “From the Running of Blood” and “Lit” both ride majestic melodies throughout, but are gutchecked by some truly awkward clean-vocal decisions. Big Gaahls don’t cry. “Alt Liv” is an outer space dweller that refuses to go anywhere, and I’m not even sure what “Aldrande Tre” is. That Gaahl is Poison. It’s safe to say what works for Blake Judd doesn’t always work for King. In the end, this is just another decent-but-forgettable record added to his legacy of mediocrity.

Somewhere underneath six hundred and sixty-six layers of reverb is the new album by Queen of Heathens. I’m serious. This has a shit ton of reverb on it. The guitars are so thick with it that I can’t tell if there are actual riffs or if The Cartographer (apparently the sole member of this band based on what is written on their bandcamp.com site) is just rubbing the guitar up against someone’s balls. On the plus side, I can’t say that Queen of Heathens is blatantly aping someone else. On the minus side, it still sounds like absolute shit. If you took a shitty rehearsal tape from some fourth-rate Black Metal band from 1993 and played it at full blast from the bottom of a network of caves, this is what it would sound like if you were listening to it from the mouth of the cave. This makes the production on Satanic Blood (Von) sound like the latest release by the Rolling Stones. I imagine that there is someone out there that thinks Ethereality is the new epitome of “kvlt,” but to me, this is a borderline unlistenable mess. And worse yet, this is their third album. If this shows “progression” then I definitely don’t want to hear the first two. Maybe in twenty years, Queen of Heathens will finally release an album that is actually listenable, but frankly I don’t see that happening.

Depressive Black Metal… the Norwegian way. That’s what I’m talking about! Bring that shit! This trio’s sophomore effort is a hypnotic, multi-dimensional beast that undoubtedly belongs in the mix for Black Metal album of the year discussion. If anything prevents Lights Out from attaining the top spot, it’s most likely meandering leadoff cut “Untame,” which feels more like an intro/soundcheck than a song. Seven minutes of pre-game stretching is not the entrance this LP deserves, even if it does briefly hint at the melancholic genius in store. Much better to begin with track #2, the suicidal gem “Leave It All to Burn,” as it and the next four songs to follow comprise the broken heart and soul of this grim masterpiece. “Scarecrow” wanders even deeper into the bitter void of SDBM territory, but Posthum are not some one-dimensional, one-man project recorded on Pro-Tools in a dorm room. Their sound is full, their performance is tight, and the overall presentation is thoroughly professional. The production is immaculate yet organic, letting the sorrowful melodies breathe, allowing each instrument to permeate clearly, and capturing the dejected rage of Jon Kristian Skare’s serrated rasp perfectly. His tortured voice is what takes the record next-level. Imagine the guy from Enslaved, but with talent. The haunting “Red” transitions from frostbitten blasting to a regal Katatonia/October Tide stomp with reserved elegance, while “Resiliant” dabbles in the fist-pumping Black ‘n’ Roll pomp of present-day Satyricon. The trance-inducing “Absence” begins with an unassuming hook that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Thursday album before settling in to a rhythmic hypnosis fueled by Burzumesque double-bass patterns. Finally, the chilling, piano-aided instrumental “Afterglow” gives way to the closing title track, which bids its somber farewell by ending in 90 seconds of wistful Blackened Shoegaze. Posthum convincingly blend their native homeland’s traditional Svart roots with the more personal and more passionate approach of today’s Post-BM elite into a unique style all their own. This is Norwegian Black Metal all grown up.

You know, there is a reason why some tracks are “rare and unreleased,” and that reason is the same as why said tracks should remain rare and unreleased. The truth is that most of these songs were never put on an album because, to put it bluntly, they fucking suck Godzilla’s giant mutant reptile penis. The first nine cuts on this double-vinyl LP compilation (almost the entirety of the first disc) aren’t even Metal. They’re either weird Ambient shit or fucking Techno remixes (because Satan knows we need a few more of those…). A good chunk of these don’t even qualify as “rare and unreleased,” because they appeared on Coroner, a compilation album that had a mix of old and new material. All of these non-Metal tracks are either boring as all hell or absolute crap. When I buy an album like this, I want to hear music that is representative of the band, not an LP full of discarded intros. The two Metal songs, “Spectators of Sin” and “The Invincible,” are the best ones here, but if you’ve got the bootleg release of Death Cult or you’re an old fart like me and have a copy of the demo tape, this isn’t new material. If you don’t have Death Cult, you’re not a Coroner fan. For those too young to remember, Death Cult was the legendary Coroner demo tape that featured Tom Warrior/Gabriel/Fischer/whatever-the-fuck-he’s-calling-himself-these-days (Hellhammer/Celtic Frost/Triptykon for those who’ve been living under a rock for the last three decades) on vocals. If you even know who Coroner is, I shouldn’t have had to tell you that. The second LP of this collection is where the bulk of the good stuff is. The majority of disc two is devoted to live tracks, all of which were recorded in 1995. Even though the live songs are far and away better than all of the non-Death Cult stuff, the chosen tracks were all off of Mental Vortex, Grin and Coroner. All of my favorite songs by Coroner are from the first three albums (R.I.P., Punishment for Decadence and No More Colours), none of which were represented here. Still, the live tracks were at least heavy and Metal. If this release had just been the live recordings and the two demo cuts, I would have rated it at least an eight. I would’ve preferred a live album with music spanning the band’s entire career, though. They have enough good songs to make that something I would’ve gladly paid for. The non-Metal shit sinks this release and frankly, if it wasn’t for the two Death Cult tracks, the whole first LP would have been a glorified Coroner coaster. Only the most die-hard Coroner fans should even think about buying this and even then, this is a hard sell at best.