Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Black Metal
Label: Season of Mist

This here is one impressive slab of blasphemy. Black metal and a little bit more.
I’ll be honest, this is my first time listening to Watain, and so far they are living up to the hype I’ve heard about them. People call them the biggest band in black metal, the best band in black metal, the most evil band in black metal, etc. And I’m tending to agree. And it’s no wonder why, really, as this has a huge sound that’s totally arena ready but still grim and kvlt as fuck, and from a technical perspective, these Swedes know their shit when it comes to writing riffs. The best thing about these songs is that they are that: songs. Not collections of riffs with some dude shouting “Hail Satan!” over them. (and if you’ve read quite a few of my reviews, you know that’s an important aspect of music to me.)
Now, most evil band in black metal? Well, the disc is pretty fucking evil sounding, lyrically and musically. But it’s through Watain’s actions that prove that they may well be the most evil band in black metal. If you want a better rundown as to what I mean, read the Decibel magazine with Eric Danielsson on the cover, July 2010, Issue 69. Trust me, if you don’t get this issue, just know that these motherfuckers are real when they say Hail Satan.
In the end, Lawless Darkness is Swedish black metal with a nice, thin rock ‘n’ roll shine over top. And it’s fucking great.
8 out of 10.

Watain on MySpace.

Genres: Mathcore, Progressive Metal
Labels: Season of Mist, Party Smasher Inc.

And the schizophrenia continues in Option Paralysis. But really, what did you expect? Greg and his band of insane men to write an album that makes sense? NEVER!
And that’s why I love ‘em.
The opener is “Farewell, Mona Lisa”, the song that the band released as a free MP3. Naturally, when that happened I grabbed it and was enamoured, and it really is a great song to describe the entire album: fast, slow, epic, claustrophobic. Sometimes all at the same time. To compare it to Dillinger’s past works, it’s like a combo of Miss Machine and Ire Works. It seems a little more focused in intent, but just as fucked up in delivery.
As an added bonus, my version (Digipak with reallllllllly fucked up packaging) has a bonus track, and well, reallllllllly fucked up packaging. I just need to get the uberversion with the cool extras now. And the record because vinyl is king.
Super good stuff.
7.5 out of 10.