Bands worth hearing thread

[indjaseemun]

Yamatu's album shurpu asaru is good

[Gregorian Watcher]

What about?

Aäkon Këëtrëh
Akitsa
Alcest
Ancestral
Austere
Avichi
Bael
Bilskirnir - In Flames Of Purification
Blodsrit - Helveteshymner
Chaos Omen
Christicide
Dodsferd
Drudkh
A Forest Of Stars
Endstille - Operation Wintersturm
Funeral Mist
Glorio Belli
Hate Forest
Heresi
Hypothermia
Inferni- Shores Of Sorrow
Ipsissimus
Ithdabquth Qliphoth
Koldbrann
Kroda
Locus Mortis
L'Acephale
Malign
Mgla
Massemord
Mutiilation
Merrimack
Mortuus
Nattefrost
Nachtmystium
Negator (Germany)
Nortt
Nyktalgia
Ofermod
Ondskapt
Obscurus Advocam
Ordo Templi Aeternae Lucis
Paragon Impure
Peste Noire
Qliphoth
Quintessence
Rex Mundi
The Ruins Of Beverast
Reverorum Ib Malacht
Sadomator
Sargeist
Slidhr
Skitliv
Striborg
SVEST
Symphonia Sacrosancta Phasmatum
Twilight
Triumphator
Walknut
Wold

...any of these NOT suck?

In my personal opinion, most of these bands are quite good, but I would omit the following:  Striborg, Wold, Akitsa and Endstille for the following reasons.

Striborg:  This Australian act tries WAY TOO HARD to sound like a bastard cousin of Xasthur.  Sometimes, Sin Nanna overplays his drums way too much, and it reeks too much of the crappy, tinny, abrasively treble-y sound imitated by "Transylvanian Hunger" and "Nattens Madrigal."

Wold:  A Canadian act that does a terrible job of black metal hybridized with pure NOISE, literally NOISE/or Noiscore...I listened to one of their albums in a record store out of curiosity before considering to buy it.  Good thing I heard it first and didn't buy.  HORRIBLE stuff...

Akitsa:  I saw them live....they were NOTHING black metal live.  No corpsepaint, no matching attire, nothing.  They were/are more like a Nazi hatecore/punk band with black metal vocals.  They're going too hard trying to imitate the cornerstone between Oi/Skinhead punk, raw black metal, rock and the more raw side of N.S.B.M....all done rather badly.

Endstille:  A bastard German copy of Gorgoroth...also have too many leftist views/guiltiness about their German heritage and the liberalist propaganda fed to them about the Third Reich to feel shame for themselves....

[ChapelOfTorment]

I haven't heard everything Wold has recorded, but their second album is some really great stuff. It takes the black metal idea of finding beauty in the abrasive to its most extreme. The final track on that album is the most interesting: it's like mediative black noise, sort of like those two ambient tracks on Ildjarn's Strength and Anger but a little less minimalist.

[Devamitra]

What about?

Aäkon Këëtrëh A
Akitsa B
Alcest C
Austere C
Bilskirnir - In Flames Of Purification B
Drudkh B
Funeral Mist B
Hate Forest B
Hypothermia C
Inferni- Shores Of Sorrow B
Ithdabquth Qliphoth C
Koldbrann  B
Kroda B
Malign B
Mgla B
Mutiilation A
Merrimack B
Nachtmystium B
Nortt B
Nyktalgia B
Ofermod B
Ondskapt B
Peste Noire B
The Ruins Of Beverast C
Reverorum Ib Malacht B
Striborg C
SVEST B
Walknut A-/B+

Key:

A = FTW
B = dm;wr
C = AIDS

[Sepulchral Voice]

Far too liberal with those grades. Most of them are complete AIDS. The only one I see that is worth anytime at all is Mutiilation.

[Conservationist]

Far too liberal with those grades.

I agree. B and C grades are not worth hearing, and the As are a bit liberally given except in the case you mentioned.

I wanted to second Cynicanal's suggestion of the second Aosoth album. Good, not rocket science, better than anything on that list but the Mutiilation (and far better than all Antaeus but the first album, and recent Mutiilation output like "Sorrow Galaxies" which is horrible).

[Humanicide]

C grades aren't worth hearing.

B grades are meant to signify they could go either way, I think. Personally, S.V.E.S.T. is the best on that list, better even than Mutilation (who I would actually rate at a B+, not A). The quality of those bands depends on the tastes of those who listen. This is not to say that "just cuz I leik it means itz good" mentality is predominant here, but we've agreed in the past that personal subjectivity does play a role in determining good music. (also, for evidence of this, just look at the Belus thread)

But I would've thrown in a few more C's myself.

[the spine]

This I think is DEFINITELY worthy of the DLA critique:

Antediluvian from Edmonton AB, Canada (home of Axis of Advance/Sacramentary Abolishment, Revenge, Lust). Expect bestial devastation like most thing from this province...

Morbid, unearthly, diabolical death metal. Think Havohej meets Mortal Throne of Nazarene, with the hypnotizing feel of Demoncy. Realy immense stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWgVHPepWhM

This is what Portal would sound like if they werent so obsessed with their surface apperance, understood how to organise riffs, and learned the concept of direction. Out of the new wave of "old school" death metal I think this band is the most promising, without a doubt something to keep an eye on in the future. They apparently they have another demo on the way.

You can download the "Under the Wings of Asael " demo here:
http://nucleosynthesismetal.blogspot.com/2009/11/antediluvian-under-wing-of-asael-demo.html

[ChapelOfTorment]

I'm pretty sure that Alcest would be an F. That shit's an insult to multiple genres of music.

One band that I've been addicted to lately is Lucifugum. Now, I know that most of this Slavic black metal stuff is pretty A.I.D.S.y, but Lucifugum rise above all that to make some high quality material. Their very early stuff is pretty much a more complex version of early Nocturnal Mortum (i.e. instead of just having the guitars hit the root notes of the keyboard melodies, they have multiple keyboard melodic lines intertwining with complex layered black metal guitar riffs), but they get even better later on. Their middle albums sacrifice atmosphere (and keyboards) for tremendously varied guitar playing. They're one of the few bands I've heard that can make percussive riffs work in black metal. Their stuff with the current line-up is like early At the Gates: the compositions are focused on weaving together multiple melodies ala Schubert's string quartets.

The only problem with this band is that they have too much high quality stuff, and it's hard to listen to it all!
Here's the best music from each of their eras:

First Era (Symphonic): Nakhristikhryaschakh (a.k.a. The Sortilage of Christianity)

Second Era (Percussive): Sociopath - Philosophy Cynicism

Third Era (Melodic): Toss-up between Supreme Art of Genocide and Involtation

Supposedly, their Vector33 album is dissonant quasi-industrial black metal in the vein of Black Funeral's later stuff, but I haven't heard that one yet.

[Grim Morrison]

I like the Shadow of Ruins album by Rise. How are their later efforts? I've heard they're different... Are they any good?

[Parasite]

ABSU?

[K. Sear]

Antediluvian from Edmonton AB, Canada (home of Axis of Advance/Sacramentary Abolishment, Revenge, Lust). Expect bestial devastation like most thing from this province...

Interesting.  They must keep a rather low profile since this is the first I've heard of them.  They sound more like Incantation with a twist of Thergothon to me.  Not ground breaking, but they sound like they are worth keeping an eye on to see where they go.

On the theme of under recognized Edmonton death metal, Soultaker should be mentioned.  As the uploader described it, like Cremation meets Suffocation.

ABSU?

Seriously?

[radiant]

Wold:  A Canadian act that does a terrible job of black metal hybridized with pure NOISE, literally NOISE/or Noiscore...I listened to one of their albums in a record store out of curiosity before considering to buy it.  Good thing I heard it first and didn't buy.  HORRIBLE stuff...

Only their third album, Stratification, sounded like that to me. The first two albums actually have some interesting melodies and textures behind the noise, but that's pretty much the extent of their depth. Disposable unless you really like to occasionally rape your eardrums, in which case the first two albums are listenable.

[tumours for TV stars]

Sorry the spine, I really would not recommend Lucifugum. I haven't heard much of their stuff, but what I have, is terrible. "Instinct Prevalence" was total garbage.

One half sounds like a circus version of early Satyricon (or perhaps Satyricon played on one of those ice hockey organs), the other is typical boring droning eastern european sawmill black metal.

[ChapelOfTorment]

Instinct Prevelance is a demo comp, and probably the worst possible place to start with Lucifugum. I'd recommend Sociopath: Philosophy Cynicism.

Another great band I've been listening to lately is Sacrofagus. I found out about them from looking at pictures on deathmetal.org. They're a very early Finnish metal band: their albums are from 1980 but sound like they were recorded in 1972. They're probably one of the earliest examples of a metal band consistently using keyboards as a textural enhancement. I don't mean trading off solos between organ and guitar like in Deep Purple: I'm talking having keyboards actually back up the riffs. I'd recommend this band to you if you like Angel Witch or Cirith Ungol. It's pretty morbid stuff, especially considering when it was recorded.