Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Blackened Thrash
Label: Indie Recordings
Format: Digital Stream (Earsplit PR)

One band that I’ve known about forever but have never checked out is Aura Noir, and I’m now kicking myself in the ass for not checking them sooner. It’s no wonder why they come up a lot when it comes to talks about black metal meeting thrash. These guys make a perfect example of the genre.
Parts of this remind me of a version of Metallica with actual balls. Parts remind me of Venom worship. And parts even remind me of Darkthrone’s The Cult Is Alive album. Granted, it’s not like Aura Noir are legitimate friends with Darkthrone or anything.
There isn’t really much to say. Fast, faster, and fastest riffs fill this album from front to back, and a disgusting necrotic stench emanates from every vocal. Solos are ear piercing and finger breaking, drums are deep with some snare click and fast, and the bass compliments rather than takes any form of front seat. This is fucking awesome!
If you want your thrash punked up with a nice coat of blackened grave dirt, this album is for you.
8 out of 10.

Out To Die Tracklisting:
1. Trenches
2. Fed to the Flames
3. Abbadon
4. The Grin from the Gallows
5. Withheld
6. Priest’s Hellish Fiend
7. Deathwish
8. Out To Die

Out To Die Personnel:
Aggressor – Vocals/Guitar
Apollyon – Vocals/Bass/Drums
Blasphemer – Guitar

Aura Noir Official.
Aura Noir on Facebook.

Genre: Black Metal

Label: Hammer of Hate

Sacrilegious Impalement are a Finnish black metal band who have released one prior effort, 2009′s Cultus Nex. The members have been in bands such as the awesome black/thrash Evil Angel and the bestial black/death Goatsodomy, both of whom I enjoy. Their first album was not the worst black metal I have ever heard, but it was very generic and did not move me. I have not had a desire to listen to it again.

Approaching this album, I hoped for some progression. I was not disappointed! While still not a very original album, Exalted Spectres is memorable and well executed. Vocalist Hellwind Inferion’s Chant of “SIX! SIX! SIX!” at the end of “Wolves of the Black Moon” made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Musically, this album is a fusion of typical Marduk/Dark Funeral blasting and the more melodic riffs of De Mysteriis era Mayhem or Watain. Plenty of dissonant yet gorgeous chords and tremolo picking, just listen to “At the Altar Afore Eternity” or “The Woods in a Solitary Soul”. There are a lot of cool riffs. Even the intro track is not your typical satanic chanting sample or synthesizer piece; it’s a short, blasting black metal song.

The drums are not really exceptional, but they don’t take away from the music. I can think of a few places on this album where a drum roll or two would have been cool, and the bass is also inaudible, but this is a black metal album, so neither of those things are surprising or terribly annoying. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a guitar solo, closing the final track, the epic slab of melancholy that is “The Grand Funeral Convoy”.

Though I did compare this to Watain, don’t assume it’s as frilly and atypical as the direction Watain is moving in now; this is still a pretty straight forward black metal album, though it is certainly has musical substance.  If you like Mayhem, Marduk, or more current bands like Watain and Acheronian Dirge, you will like this album. Standout tracks are “Wolves of the Black Moon”, “Enter Godhood”, and “Grand Funeral Convoy” . I give this an 8/10.

On myspace

Hammer of Hate Records

Today, Moribund Records announces the signing of Spanish black metal inquisition Hrizg. Hrizg is the sole vision of its creator, also monikered Hrizg, and his first record for Moribund shall be Anthems to Decrepitude, set for release on May 3rd. This groundbreaking newcomer possesses a hideous spirit that resounds across times both modern and distant, and his Anthems to Decrepitude is a startling synthesis of sepulchral atmosphere and dynamic songwriting, all housed with an exquisitely morbid soundfield. Respectful of black metal’s past but committed to forging its future – heed Hrizg’s call and sing Anthems to Decrepitude!

Hrizg‘s bio, as explained by the man himself:
“I created Hrizg in 2005 as a one-man band of black metal in the old way, regarding influences from early albums of Satyricon, Mayhem, Dodheimsgard, Immortal, or Burzum – mainly in the old Norwegian vein, but I added my medieval and Celtic background so, Hrizg could sound a bit different, overall, by the vocal lines. I think the vocals are quite different from the typical black metal screams.

“I recorded two rehearsal songs with a session drummer called Misanthate – who played in several bands like Eldereon, Daemonlord, Flowing Crimson, Spawned and Detriment Sorrow – but this collaboration finished in these songs. Just after it, I made some more by myself, and I released it under the name of Oaken Path of Grief in 2006 on Varjot Productions, from Finland. They released 300 copies in tape format. This same year, I contacted Wraith Productions. They offered me to release this stuff in CD format, and that happened in 2007. After that, Wulfrune Rexxx re-released the tape version of this album, but all this stuff is sold out now.

“In 2007, I recorded two demos and one video-clip of the track ‘Si Vis Pacem Parabellum,’ taken from the Enemy of Weakness demo, which was out on split tape with Mortuus Caelum (Greece), through the Spanish label Final Embrace Records. After some other demos with no release, I recorded Anthems to Decrepitude in the last days of 2008. Anyway, the mix sessions took part in early 2009. In 2010, I released this stuff through my own demo label, Morbid Shrine Productions, and I sent a promo CD to Odin Thompson [Moribund label boss], and he offered me to release it in CD.

“This is my official discography:
- Oaken Path of Grief (full length), 2007
- Enemy of Weakness (demo), 2008
- Anthems to Decrepitude (Full length), 2011

“All my demos are still with no release, but some of them will be out this year, I hope.

“My goal is to make music and release it with a serious label. I waste a lot of time writing and producing my songs and writing all my lyrics, which are full of symbolism and meaning in the esoteric and Luciferian way, and taking some influences of religion, myths and Celtic history. I try to exteriorize all my hate and negative feelings through music, too, but not all – I leave something for the daily life! I would like to make gigs, too, but I guess that’s very difficult now, and really, that’s not very important for me.”

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Abyss Records

Norway’s Hat have been in the scene for awhile, throwing pretty awesome black metal into the faces of the unwary, and their newest offering from Abyss Records is no different.
Mixing semi-flat drums, slightly noisy guitars, and very necro vocals, this duo are sonically abrasive and yet melodic like raw, true Norwegian black metal from the early 90′s. Vortex of Death is a killer album from a band that’s destined to become known as a classic stalwart for the genre.
Favorite tracks are “Invocating Death”, “Slaves of Insanity” and “Ultimate Evil”.
7.5 out of 10.

Genre: Blackened Death Metal
Label: BloodyMountain Records

An original-sounding black metal album? From the States? SWEET!
It’s been awhile since something that sounds like this has raped my ears. It’s not another rehashing of Transilvanian Hunger or Deathcrush or Panzer Division Marduk. It’s a little bit of all three put together, with some (naturally) USBM elements, and touches of death metal here and there, but almost not enough to call this blackened death.
I’m really liking it, especially the song “Berserrker”. Check them out if you’re into the classics, as well as Bloodthrone, Twilight, and Begrime Exemious.
7.5 out of 10.

Valdur on MySpace.