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Streaming, Record Sales, and Illusion: The State of Music in 2019

by Robert de Sandford on January 17, 2019

If you were active on any social media platforms last month you likely saw the bands you’ve been following celebrate the number of Spotify streams they had in 2019. Just as Myspace plays and Facebook likes were once important metrics used in the industry to determine the success of an artist, the number of plays on a streaming service is now the new standard of how popularity and fan size will be evaluated. But along with these changes in music statistics we must also consider the lessons of the past in how such statistics have been deceitfully manipulated. For there is a dark side to the validity of music streams in 2019 and the very real power held by those who can successfully master their mysteries.
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Tags: A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, abazagorath, abigail williams, Billboard, deception, fake streams, music business, Record Sales, scam, spotify, streaming, Threatin, tidal, youtube

Retrospective : Intestine Baalism – An Anatomy of the Beast

by Nicholas Vahdias on January 13, 2019

Intestine Baalism are a Death metal band formed in the suburbs of Tokyo in 1991, their first full length only came out in 1997, having only released a pair of demos featuring songs that ended up on this album, it is safe to confirm that Intestine Baalism is a latecomer to a genre that had already seen it’s apex and was now slowly descending into Brutal and Technical Death metal territory. Anatomy of a beast takes advantage of the power of hindsight to successfully fusion the works of Carnage,Dismember and Suffocation against the more Heavy metal derived melodies of Sentenced, bringing to life a potent record that is at times just as peculiar as the band’s name.

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Tags: An anatomy of the beast, Black Metal, carnage, death metal, Dismember, Intestin Baalism, Like an everflowing stream, sentenced

Dead Can Dance: A Retrospective

by Tyrell Dahlstrom on January 7, 2019

Amidst the soulless mediocrity of the Nowadays era labeled by some as “modernity”, there exist certain currents of contemporary music which hearken to a perennial spirit, evoking reminiscences of an ancient and timeless existence of a more vibrant, numinous nature – ultimately putting the listener in contact with a deep intimation of the greater Reality of which they are a part. It is assumed that many readers of this site intuitively recognize that the best of Metal exemplifies this. Many fans and musicians of Metal also tend to recognise similar expressions as they emerge in other styles of music, whether it be Classical, Electronic, Prog, Punk, Folk, Industrial, Goth, or whatever. One enduring group which especially stands out to the sensitively attuned is, of course, the eternal Dead Can Dance.

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Tags: 2018, Anastasis, Australia, Brendan Perry, darkwave, Dead Can Dance, Goth rock, Into the Labyrinth, ireland, Lisa Gerrard, New Age, Post-Punk, Spiritchaser, Spleen and Ideal, UK, Within the Realm of A Dying Sun, World Music

The Best Underground Metal Of 2018

by Brett Stevens on December 31, 2018

The task before a reviewer varies widely. If you want to be a big shot, you need to write about what the labels want, since they are the only source of top-down money coming into the genre. They will then reward your publication with advertising, it will then reward you with a promotion, and eighteen months later, you can ditch it and move up to the big leagues.

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Tags: 2018, Angantyr, archgoat, best of, black funeral, Black Metal, condemner, death metal, deceased, Drawn and Quartered, Grindcore, Heavy Metal, internal bleeding, iskandr, judas priest, kever, master, monstrosity, nachtlieder, phosphore blanc, progressive metal, retortion terror, Satan, slam metal, sludge, Speed Metal, Summoning, Therion, trenchant, underground metal

SMR – DMU Eradicates Perrenial NSBM Losers Militant Zone

by Nicholas Vahdias on December 26, 2018

M8L8TH and Peste Noire’s Famine have joined forces in creating one of the weirdest movements to have ever existed in metal, Commercially friendly NSBM! Best of all was that the partnership released a whole load of ridiculous music and fashion items. Famine who represents all the worst French stereotypes imaginable and who has made a career of his first album that was essentially a well executed Burzum ripoff but with Rock elements to make the whole much more digestible. M8L8TH play metalcore/RAC with a few Black metal aesthetics in the riffs and pretty much consist of frontman Alexey known for killing a few immigrants and whoever is willing to write music for him to rant over.

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38 Comments

Tags: Alexey, Avoid at all costs, Coup de Grâce, famine, Le Dernier Putsch, M8L8TH, Mental Cancer, Militant Zone, nsbm, peste noire, PESTE NOIRE - split - PESTE NOIRE, reconquista

USBM Cornerstone Elegy Records Closes Its Doors

by Robert de Sandford on December 17, 2018

Elegy Records, the second oldest and longest running USBM record label, is closing its doors after 22 years due to social justice warriors lobbying to get them kicked off of credit card processors. The entire webstore is having a 60% off sale resulting in many classic and hard-to-find releases being available for around $4.

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46 Comments

Tags: Apocalypse, ben umanov, censorship, credit card processors, elegy records, fascism, matt goldberg, metalgate, MetalSucks, moribund records, no colours records, paypal, sjws, USBM

Frank Herbert’s Influence On Slayer

by Brett Stevens on November 27, 2018

Elegy composer Clayton Gore pointed out this Fremen funeral chant from Frank Herbert’s Dune series of books which has some similarities to classic Slayer lyrics:

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Tags: dune, epic literature, frank herbert, lyrics, slayer

Nachtlieder – Lynx (2018)

by Brett Stevens on November 12, 2018

Lynx keeps a foot in both worlds: the mysterious atmosphere of the classic material, and the more emotional nature of post-metal, but without the self-pitying dwindling melodies of emo. In this way, it keeps what black metal delivered alive, but leaves out some of the technique and structure that made songs the original genre distinctive and expressive.

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Tags: Black Metal, nachtlieder, post-metal

Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult Interview Part I

by Max Schoenbach on October 31, 2018

Black metal is a highly spiritual music. At its peaks it is able to create a sort of mysterium and Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, despite its rawness and overwhelming intensity, possesses that potential. DNS picked up the essential traits of black metal, many of which were universally misunderstood and dropped or compromised even by their originators, and with a great sense of application and purpose restored them to their function and dignity.

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Tags: Black Metal, darkened nocturn slaughtercult, interview

SMR Desecration of the Herd

by Guest Contributor on October 30, 2018

by Veadtruck

Some people here don’t like negative metal reviews. I disagree, as I believe that pointing out bad music, and more importantly explaining why bad albums are bad, is necessary.

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16 Comments

Tags: Arch Enemy, behemoth, Belphegor, blut aus nord, dark funeral, dying fetus, immortal, Kalmah, Sewer, six feet under, terrible metal, terrible music, vader

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