Weekly album: Cult of Fire - मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान

Cult of Fire - मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान

2013 / Avant-garde black metal

1. संहार रक्त काली  

2. अस्तित्व की चिता पर  

3. शव साधना 

4. काली मां

5. मृत्यु ही सत्य है

6. मृत्यु का वीभत्स नृत्य

7. खण्ड मण्ड योग  

8. दिव्य प्रेम की ज्वाला से दग्ध

tp5170: For me there exist a couple of black metal albums that simply so good or possess so diverse style that they essentially stop being ‘just’ black metal and are something far greater, - something that I am almost tempted to recommend to anyone and not just people who are generally into black metal. I am referring here to releases such as Voice of Steel (Голос сталі) by Noktural Mortum and last year’s big surprise, Litourgiya by Batushka. Ascetic Meditations of Death / मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान (which ever you prefer), is just on the verge of being a part of that list. 

The album contains eight tracks of Hinduism themed black metal played in a rather unorthodox style that keeps shifting steadily through the album so no track feels anything like the other ones.  In my mind the strength of Ascetic Meditation of Death largely comes from this variation and versatility between tracks, and the quality and depth there is to each track. 

I honestly have nothing bad to say about this one, so I’d highly recommend anyone with even the slightest interest towards the genre or anyone willing to try something new to give it a spin.  

Favourite track: काली मां

Orostider: In my Batushka post I wrote about mysticism and about how it is and always has been part of black metal. Cult of Fire belongs to the same group as Batushka, as both of them incorporate unorthodox elements to black metal, creating a result differing from pretty much every other black metal release. Although Cult of Fire's identities are known, their visual appearance supports their musical style magnificently. 

Whereas Batushka's foreign elements are traditional orthodox music and low tuned instruments, Cult of Fire grabs Hindi mythology and wraps it with the grim shroud of black metal. 'मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान' is a sinister sounding ritual to honor Hindi gods, but it still manages to be surprisingly melodic and approachable. The reason for the approachability could be the album's production which is pretty modern and clean black metal production quality. Not too clean, but not lo-fi by any means. 

The most interesting part of 'मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान' is its versatility in sound and mood. The complete change of mood from 'शव साधना' (the third song) to 'काली मां' (the fourth song) is a powerful move, but it might break the overall mood for some. The harsh vocals are sort of average and they deliver the fierce barrage pretty well, but the instrumentation and the clean vocals are done in such a great way that the harsh vocals may start to sound a bit dull from time to time. Nevertheless, the overall of the album is majestic and it offers a completely different take on black metal. For some reason 'मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान' reminds a bit of Deathspell Omega, in a good way, and therefore I recommend this to everyone into unique black metal bands, like Deathspell Omega and Batushka.

Favourite track: 'शव साधना' 

Kattroll: The first chords of this album reminded me of ninjas, but when I looked at the squiggly letters I couldn't even guess where the band was from. Metallum revealed the band's country of origin to be Czech Republic, but the songs and the lyrics are based on Hindi mythology. The cover art also seems to follow the same road. Pretty interesting I'd say. 

Cult of Fire's genre was 'Epic black metal', at least according to Metallum, and it first sounded a bit suspicious. In the end, the genre is pretty fitting. Traditional black metal elements are present and they are identifiable, but otherwise the album is something completely different. The music isn't really gloomy, even though one of the lyrical themes seems to be 'darkness.' In some of the songs the eastern elements are clearly present and they mostly remind me of some arcane rituals, but otherwise the atmosphere is quite calm. This album is actually pretty comfortable to listen to, but I'm unsure if the album or the band impressed me enough to end up to my regular playlist. 

btcarey: After just listening to the first song off “मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान” (“Ascetic Meditation of Death”) I instantly knew the remainder of the album would be a treat. Being completely new to Cult of Fire I had no expectations or preconceptions as to what was in store for me. Sure this weekly pick was courtesy of TP5170, which usually implies something epic, atmospheric, or black, but you never know when a fellow Evil Doer will throw a curve ball and catch you completely off guard (like some of Orostider’s picks…). To my relief this was not one of those cases and I really enjoyed Cult of Fire’s “Ascetic Meditation of Death”.

The album is an epic duality of chaos and harmony (at least musically speaking, I haven’t the slightest idea regarding lyrical content). Songs like “काली मां” (“Kālī mā”) and “दिव्य प्रेम की ज्वाला से दग्ध” (“Burned by the Flame of Divine Love”) are perfect examples of the lighter, more melodic, beauty of the album, while “संहार रक्त काली“ (“Black Blood Slaughter”) and “शव साधना” (“Silence Bodies”) delve into some of the darker, more destructive themes.

Where so many bands have failed in achieving this duality, Cult of Fire executes it seamlessly, with beauty and death meshed perfectly on each track. One of the ways the band achieves this balance is the incorporation of folk instruments (like sitar) and keyboards to an otherwise black metal landscape. The melodic passages of the clean instruments overlaying tremolo-picked guitar riffs augment the music’s depth, and give the album a fresh middle eastern vibe (as intended).

This is a solid album with some truly beautiful yet dark moments. I would recommend it to any fan of epic black metal or folk influence black metal.

Favorite Songs: “काली मां” (“Kālī mā”), “संहार रक्त काली“ (“Black Blood Slaughter”)

Weekly album: Anaal Nathrakh - In the Constellation of the Black Widow

Anaal Nathrakh - In the Constellation of the Black Widow

2009 / Black metal, Grindcore, Industrial metal

1. In the Constellation of the Black Widow

2. I Am the Wrath of Gods and the Desolation of the Earth

3. More of Fire than Blood

4. The Unbearable Filth of the Soul

5. Terror in the Mind of God

6. So Be It

7. The Lucifer Effect

8. Oil upon the Sores of Lepers

9. Satanarchrist

10. Blood Eagles Carved on the Backs of Innocents

btcarey: A day will come, when man strikes down man with no regard for life, and as the world burns behind him, he will stare into the apocalypse with hands soaked in the blood of his brothers. As he stares into the abyss, this album will play. “In the Constellation of the Black Widow” is the soundtrack to our apocalypse, filled with filth, rage, and utter hate; it pays tribute to the destructive nature of mankind.

Anaal Nathrakh’s style is a manure pit of extreme music forms, forced to breed and mutate, ultimately producing an abomination of industrial-blackened-deathgrind. Consisting of two members, V.I.T.R.I.O.L (Dave Hunt – Vocals) and Irrumator (Mick Kenny – Instruments and Programming), the duo succeeds at producing some of the most aggressive music to date. Irrumator’s writing style is a pure assault on the senses, bombarding the listener with ripping tremolo riffs, heavy grooves, and chaotic leads. The drums are adequately straightforward, having two states: blast and no blast. Even with relatively simple drums, they perfectly suit the aggression and atmosphere of the music, allowing the listener to focus on more important aspects. For example the vocals. V.I.T.R.I.O.L is quite possibly the best vocalist of modern metal. With a huge range, he not only does every style of extreme vocals, but also executes them exceptionally, with a rawness and power unparalleled. Of all the types of vocals plundering your eardrums in “…Constellation…”, one of my favorites are V.I.T.R.I.O.L’s signature frantic-grind-screaming. Showcased in its grueling entirety on “I Am The Wrath Of Gods And The Desolation Of The Earth”, one of my friends compared it to the vocals of “someone getting their arm cut off by a chainsaw”.

Anaal Nathrakh is not a band for the weak of heart or mind. There is nothing deep about their music, no back-stories, no hidden meanings, just pure fucking aggression and hate. If you can’t handle it, don’t listen to it, but if you DO think any of this sounds appealing, ANAAL NATHRAKH IS A MUST!!

Favorite Songs: “So Be It”, “Satanarchrist” 

Orostider: Anaal Nathrakh is one of the bands I've always been recommended to listen to. Their name has always been pretty intriguing in my opinion, but the few random songs I've heard before this haven't ignited the flame inside me. Black/grind is a fusion I probably should like, but the mix can be executed in a good or bad way. Unfortunately, Anaal Nathrakh leans to the bad side.

'In the Constellation...' is not a bad album and I do understand why people are into it, but for me this isn't how I like to be served some tasty black/grind. Instead of being evenly balanced between black and grind like The Secret or black metal influenced grindfest, 'In the Constellation...' is a blend of somewhat melodic black and death metal and mediocre grindcore. The combination actually works pretty well in 'More of Fire Than Blood', but sometimes it simultaneously sounds like an utter mess and cheesy melo-something. There are some sweet riffs, almost in every song actually, but the songs fail to keep steady quality. 

I've heard people argument both for and against the vocals of Anaal Nathrakh. I myself lean to the for side in this matter, as I'm a huge fan of their noisecore influenced vocals. And like I already told that 'More of Fire Than Blood' is actually a solid song, the use of clean vocals actually works magnificently on it. The worst thing about their vocals is the occasionally utterly disgraceful timing of them. They probably did them like they wanted, but for example the first song's high shrieks and the chorus of the second song sound so awfully out of place. The songs shouldn't be trashed because of those parts, but they are definitely among the weakest spots of the album.

Favourite song: 'More of Fire Than Blood'

tp5170: There was actually a period of time when I was actually rather interested in Anaal Nathrakh (AN). This was after seeing the band play live at a festival and me being impressed by the intense performance they were able to put up. The enthusiasm towards the band died pretty quickly though and I didn’t really manage to get emotionally attached to any of their records except for one, - In the Constellation of the Black Widow which is the only album of theirs I regularly return to.

I think it’s the pure absurdity of this particular album that draws me back to re-listen to it every once in a while as “In the Constellation of the Black Widow” manages to strike a delicate balance between it sounding really cheesy and really harsh/raw. The band’s use of vocals seem often to get praised and in my opinion at least on this album rightfully so. It’s the vocals that really bring the album alive and those do really sound surprisingly distorted and at some points even reach the level of insanity. 

Honestly I have to say that the whole album is a rather solid set with maybe a couple of exceptional tracks as there is something really engaging about “Satanarchrist” and “The Lucifer Effect”, for me at least. I guess the only problem for me with the album or with the particular band in general is that it’s just so over the top, blasting away full speed all the time that I kind of get exhausted towards the end of the set. Of course ‘In the Constellation of the Black Widow’ isn’t that long so I guess that it’s not that much of an issue in this case, but in general that’s kind of off putting.

Kattroll: I first meant to listen to the album as a background music and take a closer look and listen to it again, but I'm not sure if I want to do so anymore. The album begins with quite a racket which stays present almost throughout the whole album. Somewhat boring, but it suffices. Occasionally the album goes to awful metalcore vibes and in a bad way ear ripping vocals. At those moments the album suffices no more and I only wonder why do I even bother listening to this. Anaal Nathrakh was only familiar to me by name before this, but now I know I haven't missed anything of value. The album does have couple of solid moments, especially instrument-wise, but I sadly can't say that this is a masterpiece at all. 34 minutes and 39 seconds. Thank goodness it wasn't any longer.

Weekly album: Moonsorrow - Jumalten aika

Moonsorrow - Jumalten aika

2016 / Pagan black metal

1. Jumalten aika

2. Ruttolehto Sis. Päivättömän päivän kansa

3. Suden Tunti

4. Mimisbrunn

5. Ihmisen aika (Kumarrus pimeyteen)

Kattroll: My only touch to this album before its album release gig was the less than a minute of the first track I listened to before deciding to hear the songs at the gig for the first time. The small bit of the intro I managed hear, convinced me instantly: this was going to be as epic as Moonsorrow has always been.

It might have been a bit risky to the concert without knowing what to expect, because I hadn't even listened to any of the teasers, watched the brand new music video or even read the album's reviews. Praises were all I had read about the album, but what if the album wasn't as magnificent as I had imagined? What if I, for some reason, wouldn't have liked it or if it hadn't opened to me at all during the first spin? The thrill was immense, for the previous album was released five years ago and I can admit that there isn't a single band or album release that has been this big to me. 

When Moonsorrow finally step on the stage and 'Jumalten aika' started accompanied with applauds, my first touch only grew stronger. Even though I hadn't heard the song before, it felt like a familiar song I had heard before. It was the same safe Moonsorrow as before, but it wasn't repetitive at all. I was enthralled. Some album release parties' crowds feel a bit lost among the new songs, but at Moonsorrow's album release party, this wasn't the deal: everyone, including yours truly, were partying full force almost as if the songs were already old hits. The concert was over in a flash. I first feared they'd play 'Jumalten aika' from the beginning to the end, but the setlist was built with quite a nice old song, new song ratio. A set with only 'Jumalten aika', would've been amazing too.

At the moment my favourite song is the beginning track, 'Jumalten aika.' It's versatile and pompous entirety. I especially dig it's catchy melody, which reminds me of a polka beat in the end. It asks for the listener to ask the pagan gods to the summer meadow, being the most joyous track on the album, if that can even be said.

'Ruttolehto' begins with pompous male choir part and after that the melody that carries throughout the whole song begins. The track also includes a shaman influenced sacrificial song, 'Päivättömän päivän kansa', which, despite its barrenness, also has a glimpse of the Tolkien's Middle-Earth. After the calmer middle part the tempo increases for a moment, until it returns to the chant like ritual calls, which are performed by Jonne Järvelä himself.

The third song on the album is 'Suden tunti, the music video song. A seven-minute song is a bit short song in the case of Moonsorrow, but for a music video song it's a lengthy one. The video wasn't boring at all. Instead, the story actually opened up the track and because of the amazing animation it was over in a flash. The song is a bit oppressing, one could almost say it's a stunning one, and it brings out some new sides of Ville's voice.

'Mimersbrunn' opens up the artwork, for in the Scandinavian mythology the title means Yggdrasil, the mythical tree connecting the worlds. The beautiful ring of the song momentarily reminds me of their past album 'V: Hävitetty', but the waltz and the atmosphere almost remind me of one of my favourite songs, 'Pimeä.'

The last track of the album, 'Ihmisen aika (Kumarrus pimeyteen), feels like the biggest stumbling block of the album for the 16-minute song sounds a bit monotonous to me. It could be that it just didn't open up to me yet though, you can never know. The last few minutes are the best part of the song and offer a great ending to the album.

The album's special edition also includes two bonus tracks: the surprisingly well performed Grave cover 'Soulless', which has been transformed into a really personal cover, and a Rotting Christ cover 'Non Serviam', which didn't really work as well as the former of the covers.

All in all I'm pretty satisfied with the album and I really do understand the praises it received, although you can't really expect less from Moonsorrow, because, quoting my own word, it is the best band in the whole world. 

Orostider: Five years definitely isn't the usual time it takes to release a new album, but Moonsorrow are known for their high quality releases, so they could've taken all the time in the world if needed and I, among others, would've just waited. Albums like this aren't released every two years or so. Refining an album to its maximum takes an undefined amount of time.

'Jumalten aika' is a humongous sounding album straight from the beginning. After the shaman influenced intro, the album just rolls over the listener. It's not just the production, which is superior, but the songs and their structures create an earth trembling atmosphere which varies from heroic chants to fierce battles and to plaguelike death. What a lot of people may notice, is the grown presence of folk elements on the album, whereas the album before 'Jumalten aika', 'Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa', was more black and doom influenced. This isn't a bad thing at all, because Moonsorrow has been following the more black metal influenced path for some years now. They still have a lot of black metal going on, but the focus has been shifted more towards folkiness.

Moonsorrow didn't let me down and I'm fairly certain they won't do so in the future. 'Jumalten aika' is a magnificent addition to Moonsorrow's discography and doesn't fall behind in comparison to their earlier albums. These days it's pretty rare for a +20-year-old band to release such an album. Waiting another five years will be easy, because 'Jumalten aika' will spent some quality time on my playlists from now on. 

tp5170: Even though I have never listened to Moonsorrow that actively, I acknowledge them as an important band in the field of folk (black) metal as well as a highly entertaining band to see play live. I have been slightly more enthusiastic about the band’s releases ever since they stated to lean again more towards the direction of black metal, and their now second latest release, “Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa”, was actually one of my favorite releases of that year. So naturally I was somewhat interested when I realized that the band was coming up with a new album. 

Now that I have gone through this new album a couple of times, I think that “Jumalten Aika” is now my favorite release of the band. Everything that was great on the previous album seems to present here and sound wise I think they used even more black metal influences this time, which I like a lot. I also love the fact that even when they change / evolve their sound a bit, they still keep clinging to their own little trademark twists and the music is still instantly recognizable as theirs. But definitely the biggest improvement from the previous album in my opinion is the pacing which was the biggest problem for me with “Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa”. 

At the moment I don’t think that I have anything negative to say about “Jumalten Aika” as it pretty much exceeded my expectations in every respect. So if folk black metal is your thing, there is simply no reason to skip this one without giving it a try.

btcarey: Moonsorrow has done it again. The renowned Finnish folk/pagan metal band released their new album “Jumalten Aika” earlier this month, and it is a crowd-pleaser. Hitting the number one spot in the Finnish carts is a formidable task for any extreme metal band, yet has proven effortless for Moonsorrow. This is no coincidence, “Jumalten Aika” is a solid release (some would even say it’s their best) and the album is much more “listener-friendly” then some of their previous records. The slight shift in style has allowed them to push their way into more mainstream music while maintaining their integrity. I know a lot of extreme metal listeners turn their noses up at the first mention of “mainstream”, but personally I’m fine with the band cutting out the 10 minute passages of just hearing the wind blow for a more straight forward album.

Now, on to the music! I won’t dig into too much detail in regards to each song because “Jumalten Aika” is one of those “you get what you pay for” kind of albums. If you know Moonsorrow, you know what to expect. There are five songs (and two bonus tracks) three of which clock in at over 12 minutes. For me a general rule for Moonsorrow is: the longer the song, the better it is. This guideline pretty accurately reflects the tracks on “Jumalten Aika”, with “Mimisbrunn” (15:55) being the best and “Suden Tunti” (7:06) clearly the weakest. All the songs on the album, besides “Suden Tunti”, are very strong and probably represent some of Moonsorrow’s best guitar riffs since “Kivenkantaja”. The black sheep of the album is “Suden Tunti”, and while not a necessarily bad song, the level of songwriting is waaaaaaay below the bar set by the rest of the album. There's something about “Suden Tunti” that I just can’t take seriously, every time the vocalist yells “VOI EI” or the backing vocals chime in (which remind me of the Beastie Boys for some reason) I find myself laughing hysterically.

Overall the album is a solid release and a formidable addition to the Moonsorrow discography. Any fan of folk/pagan metal or Moonsorrow should definitely check this out. It’s an easy listen and showcases top notch song writing (…. besides “Suden Tunti”).

Favorite Songs: “Mimisbrunn”, “Jumalten Aika”

Weekly album: Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind

Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind

2012 / Metallic hardcore

1. Aimless Arrow

2. Trespasses

3. Tender Abuse

4. Sadness Comes Home

5. Empty on the Inside

6. Sparrow's Fall

7. A Glacial Pace

8. Vicious Muse

9. Veins and Veils

10. Coral Blue

11. Shame in the Way

12. Precipice

13. All We Love We Leave Behind

14. Predatory Glow

Orostider: Converge is one of the bands I knew of for quite a while before actually familiarizing myself with them. Everyone hyped Converge to me at a time so I postponed checking it out and oh how I regret that decision now, although the late awakening to them might be one of the reasons I instantly fell in love with them. Like some people may have figured out already, I started my journey to the grindcore, hardcore and crust scene about a year before 'All We Love We Leave Behind' was released. If I had decided to check Converge before familiarizing myself with grindcore and hardcore, I would have possibly dismissed them entirely. 

Converge represents the complex school of metallic hardcore and some people even call them mathcore, although their vocalist stated: "I really don't know what mathcore is. Converge is an aggressive band. We have elements of hardcore, punk, and metal for sure. But I think trying to define our efforts and other bands with a generic subgenre name is counter productive. We all have something unique to offer and should be celebrated for those qualities rather than having them generalized for easy consumption." It's really hard to describe Converge due to their uniqueness. Interesting rhythmic work, creative riffs and hellish melodies all form a perfectly ordered chaos. 

Like Jacob himself stated, Converge are an aggressive band for sure. The vocals radiate frustration and the songs are built to pretty much maximize the fierceness. If aggression and frustration were the only things Converge offered, they could be a bit tiresome in a long run, but they too have softer side. On 'All We Love We Leave Behind' the softer side is seen in 'Coral Blue' and even though the title song is pretty fierce, it also shows the emotional and soft side. There aren't any major weak spots on the album, but if I had to name something that isn't completely functional, I'd pick the transition between 'Precipe' and title song. Both of them are amazing pieces and they belong together, but the pause between the songs and the change of sound is a bit weird.

'All We Love We Leave Behind' is definitely one of my all time favourite albums and Converge's other releases are also close to my heart. Alongside with this album, I recommend people to check out 'Axe to Fall' and 'No Heroes' because both of the albums fit together with this one. If 'All We Love We Leave Behind' sounds too clean and produced, their older albums, especially 'Jane Doe', their breakthrough album, are recommended. "To live the life you want. You've abandoned those in need. A necessary casualty. Or so you believe." 

btcarey: Converge is a band that has been suggested to me over the years that I’ve just never took the time to check out. For this reason I was pretty excited when Orostider chose Converge’s newest release as this Album of the Week, finally giving me an incentive to check out the band. To my dismay, I was left disappointed after my first couple play-throughs of the album.

“All We Love We Leave Behind” really just felt like a bunch styles and musical traits stuffed into one record, leaving the album as a whole lacking direction and flow. I understand that many people praise Converge for this crosswalk of styles but it felt too forced, like the band was just trying convey all their ideas rather than picking the good ones. I’m not much of a hardcore punk fan and while the actual music only showed slight similarities to the genre the clean vocals really felt out of place on many occasions (although I really dug the intro track “Aimless Arrow” and thought the clean vocals and music complemented each other well in this instance).

I am not saying that “All We Love We Leave Behind” is necessarily a bad album, to the contrary the record has actually gotten exceptional ratings, it’s just not my style. The musicians are obviously very talented and good at want they do. Despite the album as whole being mediocre there were some truly awesome moments as well, with certain tracks shining much brighter than the others.

If you’re a fan of hardcore punk, metalcore, or mathcore check this one out but for those of you with a more traditional taste in heavier genres, you may want to skip it.

Favorite Songs: “All We Love We Leave Behind” and “Sadness Comes Home”

tp5170: To be frank I was not able to get much out of this album and I was kind of afraid that this would be the case even before listening to it. The album is by no means bad and there are actually several interesting things to it. However it still happens to represent a musical style that I am not really fond of and I find the general flow of the album simply off-putting. 

Most of the songs on the album are high quality stuff and there is no shortage of complexity, rapid transitions and other tricks that make some parts of the album really enjoyable and interesting. On the other hand pure complexity alone doesn’t make for good songs and some of the songs seem to rely too heavily on mashing different gimmicks together for my taste. 

But all in all, ‘All We Love We Leave Behind’ is pretty interesting and I am happy that I have now heard it at least once, even though it wasn’t exactly my thing. I won’t probably listen to it again on my own, but I wouldn’t mind at all if I ever heard it again somewhere.  

Favorite song: A Glacial Pace

Kattroll: According to Orostider I've heard this album several times before this, but this time I got to press the play button myself and I actually liked it. One of the reasons is my current affection to Mørket, who listed Converge as one of their influences in an interview not long ago.

As for the music, the half-clean vocals sort of turn me off but the rest of the vocals are enjoyable. The music varies quite a lot and isn't dull at all, so this is something I could actually listen to more. The songs weren't too long, even though I tend to like lengthy and epic songs.