LORD OF PAGATHORN - Daimono Philia Woodcut Records Who can judge what is sane or insane in this insane world. Years ago this hipster scribe who worked for Pitchfork told me "Black Metal needs to progress in order to stay relevant." I told him relevant to who, you? Hey pal fuck you! The guy was a trendy douchebag in the first place. But seriously regardless of music genre, what if you're passionate about a certain style of music and you just like creating it. Better yet what if you were good at it before and just want to do it again. Case in point, here we have the Finnish black metal band LORD OF PAGATHORN who started out in 1992. They existed for a few years putting out two demos to their credit. But then they called it quits for reasons of their own. Then in 2010 the band resurfaces and sporadically puts out some releases (ie: a demo, EP and a full length). Now here we have their latest and damm if it doesn't sound like something from the 1992-95 era of black metal or earlier. To me that's a good thing. On Daimono Philia this trio keeps things in the harsh black metal of old template. Musically it's plenty of basic riffs and at times in a thrash or even death metal vein. Although the band does kick into the black metal song structure basics on a few cuts. Basically it just sounds ominous as hell as opposed to tremolo picked madness all the time. Another thing interesting is that you can actually hear the bass. The drumming is organic and supplies variation throughout the songs. The vocals, which are on the higher end of the harsh rasp meter, make things blackened to a crisp. Song wise speaking and with all of what I've already said this is incredible. LORD OF PAGATHORN makes great use of varying attacks whether it's galloping rhythms or drawn out tones of pain. Ya know for a Finnish band they do sound influenced by a few well known Swedish BM acts. First and foremost is BATHORY and also DISSECTION. Then again they do add some symphonic touches which brings them back home to the likes of Finland's classic BARATHRUM.
I've listened to this every night after coming home from work, by the way thank you. Listening to this reminds me of the days when I'd just blast early black metal and drink a few beers just to relax from the bullshit late at night after work. When I first played it I liked it for it's significance. Afterwards it was for pure blackened enjoyment and now it's a favorite. The passion which goes into this material is why old fucks like me still listen and don't care about progression or what the hipster kids think. Here's another great release for 2018.
ALGHAZANTH - Eight Coffin Nails Woodcut Records Symphonic Black Metal, to me there was always two types. The first featured classic icy sounds with the instruments (and yeah those keyboards) plus the vocals combined to produce a fierce yet melodic melody. Then there was the latter more commercially stuff which combined CRADLE OF FILTH and latter day DARK FUNERAL and DIMMU BORGIR. Plenty of US acts copied that formula because it was trendy along with having a female keyboard player with a dress exposing her cleaves. That was crap back around 8 or 9 years ago.
Thankfully ALGHAZANTH are of the former. The first time I listened to this I was carried away in an almost hypothermia haze. Basically I was in a frozen trance as the icy sounds of beautiful black metal just floored me. A label friend of mine told me the other day that he hates people who use the term "epic". Sorry Jeremy but this release epic and more. Secondly where have I been since this band has been around forever. ALGHAZANTH hail from the great nation of Finland, a country whose black metal reputation is legendary. Although not in the category of symphonic BM. No their nation's vanguard of corpse paint are brutally filthy and necro. ALGHAZANTH are of a slice from a different section, abrasive YES, melodic OF COURSE, compelling songs OH HELL YES. And I've just heard them this week. Fuck Me because this band has been around since 1995, you know the time that some of you were conceived. Over that time the band has released seven full lengths and a couple of EPs. Prolific? Yeah I'd say. Unsung heroes of Finnish black metal? Definitely. Sadly, according to the promo info (and the album title) this is their last album. Be that as it may this is an incredible opus. The guitar melodies make you feel as if you've entered a majestic ice palace of wonders and sorrow. On other cuts it's like get hit in the face by sleet. Either way there's plenty of tremolo picked riffs that freeze you in place or better yet in awe. There's also some background rhythm guitar pushing the doom aesthetics. Since this is symphonic BM the case of keyboards and their usage must be addressed. On here when they are evident they are layered in the background as if a carpet for the other instruments to set upon. Vocal wise it's a mix of traditional harsh filth but at other times reminds me of Finnish doom singing. Just to close this it's like I feel privileged to hear such greatness. Actually I should say brilliance since the music just carries you away to frozen kingdoms that only your imagination helped with the music can come up with. I don't want to leave. I wanna hear this for the rest of my life. http://www.woodcutrecords.com/main.html
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In Jan. 2020 some not so nice person(s), who obviously don't care for Metal, decided to complain to a social media platform about something I posted. That got me banned from posting links there under the former blog title Scumfeast Metal 666. Fine I just changed the name to what you see now. Hey I'm still here and, under our present day situation, will be more extreme then before.
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Extreme Metal or Music is generally a form which is accepted by 1% of all of the music loving public. It is elitist in every way and that's important to those of us who call ourselves fans. The 99% of people who will not like it are Not Supposed To. The music wasn't made for them, "the masses". It's music that's for those who take things to that "other" level. There is nothing hip or fad about it. In fact I treat those two notions very harshly.
