Germany’s Bilskirnir has been active in the NSBM scene for quite some time and has amassed quite a back catalog of minor releases. I don’t know how many split CDs, MCDs or 7-inch EPs this one-man band has released, but there seems to be quite a number of them floating around out there. This MCD is four songs long and constitutes about 20 minutes of total playing time. Not much has changed since I’ve last heard this band, and their Burzum worship really hasn’t done a whole lot to distinguish them from the truckload of other NSBM bands out there doing the same thing. Essentially speaking, Widar (the sole member of Bilskirnir) is rehashing the debut and Aske albums that Varg released a decade ago. According to the liner notes, the songs on this were written over a period between 1996 and 2003. One would think that all of these songs would rule, but sadly, that isn’t the case. This, like much of Bilskirnir’s back catalog (I have several of this guy’s releases), wallows in old Burzum and refuses to go anywhere else. I already have the first Burzum album. If I wanted to listen to it, I’d pull it out and throw it in my CD player. If it wasn’t for the NS aspect of the band, I doubt anybody would pay much attention to Bilskirnir.

Remember this band? They had one good song 8 or 9 years ago. They were on Nuclear Blast for a short time, until becoming too gay for even that label. They used to be an average Doom band, but now they play that Debbie Gibson Metal that Napalm specializes in. In short, no one cares, no one ever has or will. When your greatest hits album is a maxi-single, maybe it’s time to go away.

Oddly, this CD comes in a DVD case. I’ve seen this a few times, and it’s a trend that I don’t really like, but only because DVD cases are larger than CD jewel cases, and the amount of space something takes up is kind of an issue with me, since I don’t have infinite room. That said, I really like the big full-color booklet that comes with this. The Axamenta guys must have spent a fortune on this release, since it’s possibly the best looking, and more importantly, sounding self-released CD I’ve ever heard. Speaking of how this sounds, if you’re familiar with the band’s previous album, Codex Barathri on LSP (I’ve unfortunately not heard the band’s self-released debut, Nox Draconis Argenti), then the intense melodic Black Metal found here won’t be a surprise. But if this is your first time experiencing Axamenta, then prepare your ass for a kicking, as this band has refined its sound to laser sharpness.

Oh, how infinitely far the mighty have fallen. Hey, Alex, change the fucking name would you please? Atrocity is the band that wrote the technical Death/Thrash classics Hallucinations and Longing for Death [which was known anywhere outside of the USA as Todessehnsucht -Editor]. This is fucking Glam, plain and simple! You should entertain a more suitable name for what you’re doing now. Maybe Hungry for Cock, Liv’s Bitch, or Semen Pool? Just give it some thought, because you know deep down in your ovaries this is not Atrocity. People, if you thought Blut was a little gay, Atlantis is the soundtrack to dying of AIDS.

What can you say about Atreyu? You really have to hand it to Orange County’s Metalcore magicians. With all the success generated by 2002’s Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses, getting radio airplay, a slot on this year’s Ozzfest, and just the overall hype surrounding this album, you couldn’t be blamed for being a tad concerned about the direction they would go with this one. Well, silly us for worrying, the truth is they’ve gotten even heavier. The sound is bigger, the playing is tighter, the songs are more dynamic, and the lyrics are as bitter as the finest dark chocolate. Each song comes equipped with a heartfelt chorus so potently memorable that it transcends space and time. In summary, this album achieves a masterful balance of rage, melody, and rhythm not likely to be contested anytime soon. Consider the bar raised for 2004.

Melodic Black/Death from Greece brought to you by three extremely attractive women. Musically they hit as hard as any gents you’d care to put them up against, and I wish someone would put the singer up against me. All joking aside, Astarte play an atmospheric yet brutal form of Blackened Death/Thrash, heavy on the symphonic tip. What holds this back for me is the vocals. While Tristessa’s screechy style is plenty abrasive, you can totally tell she’s a gal and that bothers me for some reason. I admit I’m a bit silly, but I don’t speak in a female voice, I don’t think in a female voice, and while I can appreciate talent when I hear it, when it comes to Extreme Metal, effeminacy in the vocal department is harder for me to get behind. Although, I’d have no trouble getting behind any of these beauties. Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one. This does feature guest appearances from Sakis of Rotting Christ (“Oceanus Procellarum”) and Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir (“The Ring”), which may be reason enough for some to pick this up. My insanity aside, Astarte do shred, and if cool girls really did exist, this would be at the top of their playlists.

I don’t know a whole lot about this band other than the fact that there is only one member, Strijd (at least that’s what I think it says in the inlay, the writing isn’t clear). The inlay isn’t very helpful in that regard, but it did tell me that two of the tracks are from the …and Only Ruins Will Remain demo and another track was for a split (I’m assuming a 7-inch) that never was released. Musically, Black Circle is every bit as generic as the band name would imply. This is essentially Burzum with a drum machine. The structures are minimalistic and the whole album is fairly predictable and, to a degree, fairly boring as well. As officer Barbrady from South Park would say, “Move along folks, nothing to see here…”

A crushing display of haunting Funeral Doom! This is the sound of a soul dying. Overcast dirges crawl through the stereo, as the vocalist’s darkened chant gives way to tortured growls. This is all of life’s emptiness and misery set to a score capable of slowing the pulse. There are only three tracks, but this clocks in at over 40 minutes, and it is time well spent at peace with regret. An extremely muddy sound quality and some sub par vocal experimentation on the last track are all that holds A Clarion Call back from perfection. Fans of Skepticism and Shape of Despair take serious fucking note! This will serve just as worthy as background music for the exit.

Total fucking Debbie Gibson Metal. The girls in this band are hot as fuck, but that doesn’t make the actual listening process any easier. Musically, this is a decent Theatre of Tragedy rip off. If I periodically ovulated, I might be able to feel this.

This once great Death/Thrash band now has to use a hot chick singer as a novelty for sales. She’s okay, but she sure as hell ain’t no Rachel Kloosterwaard. This is essentially a single for their new boring song, and it includes some extra shit that no one in the universe will ever care about. Some live shit (hooray), a cover of Manowar’s “Kill with Power,” Megadeth’s “Symphony of Destruction” (way to pick from the primo era, guys), and a Carcass cover which is actually pretty damn good (I guess it’d better be if your guitarist actually was in Carcass). There’s also some video clip which is useless to me because, like Seth Putnam said, technology is gay. When the highest selling point is a cover, you’re probably better off putting the $12 in the tank.

Listening to this album’s first track, “Silence of Sorrow,” I thought for sure I was in for a pleasant surprise. This song, with it’s Gothenburg-flavored Thrashiness and infectiously melodic chorus, is the kind that gets this Metalhead singing in the shower. However, this confused German band spends the rest of the album trying to be Rammstein with an ’80s Soft Rock edge. I can imagine the promo sticker now, “for fans of Billy Joel, Def Leppard and Dark Tranquillity.” Truly pathetic and outright perplexing. To show right off the bat the talent they possess, and then throw it away all for the sake of novelty. I suppose the drummer’s top hat should’ve clued me in. I guess any group of jokers that pick up instruments are at least capable of writing one good song.

[Nuclear Blast translated the band’s name to The Apocalyptic Riders for the US release. -Editor]

When you splice the DNA of the gods with your own, you become godlike. Just ask Rapture or Daylight Dies, who have crafted masterful works under the influence and inspiration of the almighty Katatonia. Add to that fold Green Bay’s Aphotic, who may even bring more originality to the altar than their aforementioned peers. After two flawless EPs (Aphotic and Under Veil of Dark - both included on this disc), this trio featuring ex-members of Dusk have added a live drummer to the fray (not that you can even tell, as their drum machine programming in the past has sounded extraordinarily real) and have served up five more perfect gems of rhythmic despondency. These guys go the extra mile to find the grooves that hurt and the melodies that intoxicate. Enveloped with an aura of dismal serenity, this band can actually manifest depression. Incorporating clean vocals with a downtrodden Death-snarl takes this band to new melancholic heights, and just listen to them invoke the discouraged masters on “Lunar Ride.” It gives me chills. Three flawless EPs a flawless full length doth make.

Angelrust is a band trying to cross melodic Black Metal with Opeth. Not the easiest way to get your feet wet, but I’ll be damned if they don’t have enough musical talent and a good enough singer to make it work most of the time. They must have some money, too, because this 4-song CD is as pro-produced as all get out, plus it features a PC CD-ROM video file! Like I said, the attack is an even balance of mid-paced, melodic Black Metal with standard shrieking, and clean/acoustic interludes with actual singing. The latter portions find these guys wanting to be Opeth so bad it hurts. And the drawbacks there are obvious, the most prevalent being that as good as this guy is, he’s no Mike Akerfeldt. Who is or ever will be? And then there’s little things like the gruff backing vocals on “The Exile” which sound really stupid and out of place. But overall, these guys show enormous promise. Anyone that can work an acoustic guitar this beautifully and still rock the house are worth keeping an ear on. They’re just not quite there yet.

After the release of the disappointing Grandiose Mad Bloodfiends album, these guys just seemed to fade into obscurity. Well, that must’ve pissed them off a little, because I’m hearing the best material this Nordic Black Metal horde have penned since 1996’s The Cainian Chronicle. The band have refined their sound so well. For one, there is a lot less fucking around. Not to say there is a total lack of weirdnesssss, but for the most part, everything is tighter, and the album’s flawless production really brings out a razor-sharp heaviness in the riffs, not unlike the feel of Dimmu Borgir’s Death Cult Armageddon LP. An astounding return to form for the band, and it’s nice to have them back. Suggested mix selections: “Rape the Children of Abel,” “Night of the Stygian Souls,” and “The Truth Unveiled.”

Female vocalist.

It used to be when you saw that Hellhammer was playing drums on something, it meant that it was probably going to be cool. Now it’s almost an automatic assurance of gayness. I now fully understand that Agalloch being on this label is a total aberration, they will simply sign anything different and/or weird. Musically this is nauseating Prog Rock with a little Techno and some token heaviness here and there. The singer may have a decent voice, but has the range of a Catholic priest. If I read a single Katatonia comparison anywhere, I will find that journalist and kill him.

Debbie Gibson Metal with choirs up the ass. Is the little girl on the cover the singer? I simply cannot tolerate this kind of stuff. There is no power or pain here.

I had apparently missed out on all 15 years of the Acid Drinkers so far, and while I’m not crying about that, the band’s sort of goofy take on Thrash (maybe like Destruction if they were just joking around) isn’t terrible. And you do get a lot here, with two complete shows from 1998 and 1995, including covers of Metallica (“Seek and Destroy”), Deep Purple (“Smoke on the Water”), Motorhead (“Ace of Spades” which they absolutely butcher), CCR (“Proud Mary”), and… umm… Monty Python’s “Always Look at the Bright Side of Life.” I think that you can get a lot of information about the band from their choice of songs to cover… Additionally, there are also six video clips, oddly enough two of which are also cover songs (“Proud Mary” again, and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”), plus two interviews and more. I question how much appeal this DVD will have here in the US, but if you like the band, well, here you go.

I absolutely love the novelty of receiving a demo to review on cassette. A nostalgic throwback to the time before computer technology completely destroyed the underground. Unfortunately, the band plays an all too below average, generic brand of Black Metal with a drum machine, so I can’t really get behind them on much else. Not to mention they named their band Abyss, so they don’t really know as much about Black Metal as they think.

Get ready, America! The New Wave of Latino Power Metal campaign is apparently ready to sweep the nation. It won’t be long before you hear bands like Hammerfall and Primal Fear proclaiming in outrage, “They took ‘r’ jobs!!” You see, Hispanic Ass Metal bands are far more proficient and will work for less money. I wonder if all the songs are about Ben Affleck and tacos. A great album to have 10 or 11 kids to. “Took ‘r’ jobs!!” “Derk-a-derr!!”