Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Black Metal
Labels: Forces of Satan, BAARS Records

Blasphemous, a band I haven’t listened to until recently, bring an intensely evil sounding black metal to the ear that’s reminiscent of Behemoth, Marduk, Dark Funeral, and to some extent Mayhem. It’s pretty vile, with such song titles as “When the Dark Storms Surround” (the album opener, which is also a new-asshole-opener), “Genocide of the Kingdom”, “Drift into the Depths of Suicide” (a hell-fueled opus to self-annihilation), “Among the Wolves”, and my favorite song “Raped Upon the Altar”.
Death metal influences are mixed with the black metal, as is thrash. Not coincidentally, members of Blasphemous were also in death metal bands before, and R.K., the vocalist, was once in Grindshaft with Blasphemous’ ex-drummer Poltergeist.
Anyway, back to the album: It’s intense, like I said, and evil. Fast thrashy black metal with touches of death, and a fucking cool sounding vocalist. If you’re a fan of old school black and/or blackened thrash, get Blasphemous.
7 out of 10.

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Independent

Promising to be something different in a sea of the same, Black Sexual Blasphemy by Idolater delivers.
This isn’t just another one-man black metal band playing the same tired riffs for an apathetic audience. The riffs themselves are dynamic, switching between higher and lower registers, with lots of actual chords used as well as the classic black metal staple, tremolo picking.
Lyrically, Idolater is pissed off. But the target is not just the standards of black metal (Christianity, etc.) but rather the institution of marriage is  a big topic of choice, which in itself I find interesting. Granted, it is black metal. Christianity, humankind, and “all religions and myths of the human imagination” take some serious fire.
Idolater is a new band for me, and I’m liking what I hear for sure. I hope to hear more in the near future too.
8 out of 10.

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Moribund Records

One of the oddest USBM bands, right up there in the strange with Tjolgtjar, Blood Cult are very kvlt. Only a handful of people really have a Blood Cult release, and most of those are splits with other bands, released in a very limited number (I think the ‘largest’ B.C. release so far is 200 copies; I might be wrong), and barely marketed. But now, thank fuck, Moribund are releasing a Blood Cult full-length.
If you’ve never heard Blood Cult before, imagine if Ted Nugent, Jimi Hendrix, and Joey Ramone hung out with the guys in 1987 era Mayhem, and recorded their jams.
Yeah. Like I said, strange.
This is not music for everybody, and even the most intensely grim of grim black metal maniacs might not understand what’s going on on this album. I don’t know if I get it, really. But I know I fucking love it. Classic rock solos over blackened rhythms, with grim vocals? Yeah, that shit is here, and now due to Moribund, it’s not going anywhere but to the hardened hearts of the hardcore.
If you’re into strange experiments in metal, you should find this release interesting at the very least. If you’re fucked up like me, you’ll love it too.
9.5 out of 10.

Blood Cult on MySpace.

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Independent

The intro for this demo is awesome. Gorgeous piano, with a deep bass rumble, nice and simple and nice and short.
Then the metal kicks in.
Obviously, Ravenfrost have broken the bass and damaged the mid-range knobs on the amps. This is a slightly high-pitched black metal assault, with a bit of a claustrophobic feeling. Tremolo picking out the ass and super grim vocals with a shallow snare in the percussion section round out the sound. This is a very angry sounding album, perfect for those that wish Darkthrone were still making records like it was 1994, or hope that unreleased Mayhem tracks with Dead on them were found. Granted though, people into Naglfar, Genocide Winter, and a fair amount of Moribund Records’ releases would like this as well.
7 out of 10.

Ravenfrost on MySpace.