Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Label: Abyss Records

Abyss Records is one lucky label. They’ve picked up Fester, one of the truly original black/death bands from Norway, and are in the process of re-releasing some of stuff, including the classic Silence from 1994.
Reminding me a lot of Cynic’s work, with more blackened elements, there is a reason this album is an underground classic. It kicks ass!
The technicality of the instruments is a lot higher than most black metal, with some gorgeous sounding clean parts and evil distortion.
Vocally, Bjørn “Tiger” Mathisen is one of the most understandable blackened vocalists ever. You can actually hear what he’s saying, he is enunciating, and the style is not shrieked but rather a rough smoker’s voice; a cross between death growls and black shrieks. This has brought him close to the front of my favorite vocalists.
I definitely recommend this for fans of melodic black or death metal, especially fans of Cynic and Dissection.
8 out of 10.

Fester on MySpace.

Genre: Grindcore
Label: Selfmadegod Records

Ah yeah. THIS is grindcore, folks. And I mean really real grind.
Psycho are apparently re-releasing their entire discography with Selfmadegod, and this particular listen contains 52(!) tracks from 1990 to 1994, consisting of various splits and 7″ releases. Included are the Mass Consumption 7″ and Shrunken 7″ as well as splits with Anal Cunt, Nasum, Rot, and more.
If you don’t know, Psycho’s grind is a little more on the punk side with some thrashy stuff happening, but it still has that sense of brutality. It’s great for fans of Nasum, Agathocoles, Heresy, Unseen Terror, and the like.
Oh, and fun fact – Garth Brooks (yeah, that one) makes a brief appearance on here too. It’s sweet.
7.5 out of 10

Psycho on MySpace.

Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Label: Candlelight Records

Opeth’s first album, originally released in 1994, is a monumental recording.
Technically, Opeth are concidered death or melodic death, but this album has so many sections of music and so many lyrics that are so black metal, that I call it a blackened death album. Even vocally, Mikael’s performances are pretty blackened.
Instrumentally, it’s death metal riffing, but without tons of distortion. An almost clean, overdriven sound with awesome bass tone and drums. It’s a sound that I’ve never heard another band successfully duplicate. It’s a sound that defines a genre, and that genre is Opeth.
This re-release also includes a bonus track, the rehearsal tape song “Into the Frost of Winter”, which had parts from it cannibalized for the song “Advent”, the opener of the second album. It’s an amazing look into the Opeth that existed in 1992.
Overall, Orchid nets itself an 8 out of 10. It’s a bloody brilliant chunk of metal that to this day can stand next to tons of other records and still shine brightly.