Review 8 - Beastcraft - Pentagram Sacrifice 8/10

Hidden gems are always out there and this is one of them!

Beascraft's demo "Pentagram Sacrifice" was something that went largely unnoticed and as with the band stayed in the shadows until recent years, which by that time nobody knew that band was destined to end.

This first release had everything a Black Metaller was looking for, atmosphere, rage, the lot!

Very strong influences of bands such as Gorgoroth are made very clear BUT IN NO WAY COPYING.

Best of 2014 series

As the title suggests between today and the end of this year (which is coming very soon) we'll be have a best of series. This best of series shall not just be overall Black Metal BUT of the various subgenres too and we shall aim to hit as many as possible before our final tally near new years.

Stay tuned!

Humble beginnings 1 - Burzum - Demo 1

Every band / project starts somewhere, ladies and gentlemen I give you...

Burzum - Demo 1

Released way back in 1991, such a long time ago and already featuring rough, demo, instrumental versions of VERY well known songs on his massive catalog.

This proves that music is something special where a young musician was already coming up for such great riffs which we later saw in popular albums. Which many still listen to to this day and where so many other young musicians were inspired from.

Fighting among the "Immortal" ranks

It has recently been discovered that there is on-going legal issues in between the legendary Black Metal band Immortal, now while legal issues are no stranger to the Black Metal world never have I been so shocked to hear about this...

We will have a massive post about this on going issue and our thoughts and views coming about this soon...

Review 7 - Nargaroth - Jahreszeiten - 9/10

Love it or hate it this album was a stroke of pure genius!

A conceptual album based around love which we half all felt sometime or another this album really shows pure emotion on Ash's part.

The fact is that this album is so different and so inspired, it just shines and proves that Black Metal has more depths to it than people thought.

I have heard people make fun of this album due to some "happy" riffing but what people do not seem to understand the message behind it. Many bands have done this sort of concept and very VERY few people seem to understand the nature of this work so I will try to explain as simply as possible...

Spring - Love starts

Summer - Love fully blossoms

Autumn - The love starts to fade

Winter - Love is gone

It is a simple concept but guess what? It is all too real.

This type of shit happens every single day and happens to everyone at one point or another.

Ash did an amazing job creating this.

Band overview - Silencer (Swe)

From a band which released so little since its birth till its eventual death there have been none so controversial, so hated and so loved than Silencer!

Formed way back then in 1995 by musician Leere (of later Shining (Swe) fame) as a solo project which then took a turn with the addition of one of the most controversial vocalists in Black Metal... Nattramn.

If Leere knew what he was going to be getting himself into would Silencer still been a thing?

With Leere's amazing musicianship and Nattramn's deeply disturbing howls of pure pain Silencer released one demo "Death - Pierce Me" and a album with the same name.

-Let us not forget drummers Jonas Mattsoon and Steve Wolz who played session drums respectfully.-

In 1998 Silencer released their demo "Death - Pierce Me" which featured only one track, the title track and quickly saw them being signed to the German label Prophecy Productions to later release a album with the same name a few years after.

The released spawned both hate and love in the Black Metal community with many praising the release for its interesting take on the genre and many also showing nothing but hate. To date I have yet to hear any conversations as heated about a about than I have about Silencer as a whole.

By the time this album was released the band was apparently broken due to Nattrramn being institutionalized... and this is where Shining started getting "famous" or better yet "infamous". Rumors started spawning around this musician... Rumors which honestly I have no idea if they are true are not but lets see some of the rumors I've seen online shall we?

-Nattramn tried to kill a little girl (sometimes said it was two) with an axe

-During that event he was screaming at the police officers to shoot him

-He mutilated a pig and try to sew the pig's feet onto his arms

Perhaps the most bizarre rumor I have ever heard about this vocalist is that he never existed and all the events and the Nattrramn persona were fabricated!

One can only wonder where Silencer would be today if this supposed events did not happen and they simply continued to create more of this music.

Where are they now?

Leere:

Leere joined the Swedish band Shining (Yes that Shining) for about a year but did not take part in any recordings. Then the most we know of him after is that he composed a track for the Swedish Black / Death Metal band Zavorosh in 2006.

Nattrramn:

He formed a industrial project called Diagnose: Lebensgefahr and eventually released a book called Grishjärta.

Not much is known about both these musicians and who knows if we will ever see them take part in anything Black Metal related in the future but time will tell.

Trivia: Leere was a VERY young musician when he founded Silencer, being around the age of 13 when it was founded.

Covers - Love them or hate them?

One can simply find hundreds if not thousands of well known (and lesser known) Black Metal tracks being covered on youtube by solo projects, bands, collaborations, etc. So here is a question for you...

Love them or hate them?

I've seen comments ranging from "Oh this is epic" to "Stop bastardizing a good song", and I was curious to know what people's opinions are on this subject...

I personally like the idea of covers as you can see most of these musicians covering said tracks are normally paying tribute to musicians who have inspired them in some way or another... Obviously this is a matter of opinion so why not comment and let people know?