This album was nearly a decade in the making. Could the expectations hold up after all these years of waiting and hoping for anything new by the band, I wondered. After hearing a couple of these songs, "Everything," "A Simple Mistake," and "Angels Walk Among Us," a couple of years ago before this album came out, I was expecting an instant classic album that would stand proudly next to all the other great Anathema albums. However, the shadow and memories of Anathema's former glories are vast and personal. This album is far more mainstream and pedestrian, which is surprising for how long the band have worked on these songs. That's not saying this is a dire mess of an album, because there are some stellar songs on this disc, like "Summer Night Horizon," "Thin Air," and "Angels Walk Among Us." Maybe, there is a coincidence that the mixing of the album was done by Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree. The symphonic feel of the album is grand and perfect in the typical Wilsonian way. There is a natural progression from their last album, "A Natural Disaster," with similar atmosphere, however with a slight de-emphasis of the guitars. Yet, that isn't my main gripe about this album. It's all a touch too perfect and slightly soulless. I'm missing the usual heartfelt, emotional connection with the music, writing and Vincent's amazing vocals. Hints and glimpses do occur in some songs but are they remembrances of past greatness, or me looking for something that isn't there. Those early demos that I heard a couple of years ago when the band was shopping for a record label, had a vitality and passion that the album misses. Now where did those elements go? Was it the struggle to get a record label? Was the production too glossy and slick? Did the band tire of their own songs after creating them years ago? I'm not sure what happened with the band or these songs in the intervening years. Yet, it all comes down to this thought, I feel really sad that I lost a decade of amazing music by Anathema. Ultimately, this is Anathema and even a substandard album for them outshines most other releases for the year.

For the last decade, the Bay Area's Ludicra has been a quiet force in the extreme metal community, releasing four outstanding albums. Ludicra started out as a standard black metal band, and over each subsequent album their sound has evolved into a mixture of progressive and traditional heavy metal with black metal stylings. In my mind, Ludicra are vastly underrated in the metal community and should be considered one of the upper echelon bands. "The Tenant," is their fourth album and continues to create songs that twist and contort with furious, desperate disgust and precision. As usual, Ludicra's lyrical content deals in the grittier side of living in the confined urban landscape. The band walks the perfect balance between the beautiful and the ugly. The ugly is represented by the usual amazing, ferocious vocal performance by Laurie Sue, who literally peels the paint off walls at twenty paces. The beautiful is represented by the intricate, harmonized melodic guitar playing by John Cobbett and Christy Cather with their endless array of riffs. On a side note, its interesting knowing this album was going to come out ages before it did. I was super excited and predicted at least a top 5 placement in my top 15 list. Well, I'm not disappointed about the album, obviously, just lukewarm to the greatness compared to the live versions. Especially after seeing these same songs performed countless times live before this release came out. In the live situation the songs and the band are such ferocious entities that I have a hard time removing that from my consciousness. That being said, there are some incredible songs that sound amazing in any medium. Like the song, "In Stable," which is a monster of a song, bordering on thrash metal speed, with a thick old-school guitar galloping riff, and Laurie Sue screaming her bloody head off. My favorite song on "The Tenant," is "Clean White Void," with its repeating anthem of nearly conventional hard rock riffs. Hopefully, this album will be the breakout statement for Ludicra because they deserve elite status. Ludicra are equally or more deserving of praise than most bands for their consistently intricate take and passion for black metal.

The hype machine has been in metallic overdrive for this new band, which is a little strange, since Ghost is just an old school, traditional heavy metal band from Sweden. The band became trendy when Fenriz from Darkthrone began name dropping them on his blog in April. My attention was piqued a little, but I found other musical distractions at that time. Well, upon my continuous researching for new music online and in fanzines, I kept on running into name drops about the cult greatness of Ghost. I finally had enough and succumbed to the hype and boy I'm glad I did. This album is pure poppy heavy metal fun like you used to hear in the 1970s and early 1980s. Ghost is an odd, hodge podge of heavy metal styles like Black Sabbath, early Judas Priest, Pagan Altar, Blue Oyster Cult and Mercyful Fate. Somehow they take all those musical influences and wrap them around some of the goofiest satanic lyrics that will have you humming huge choruses, like this one on the song "Ritual."

"This chapel of ritual
Smells of dead human sacrifices
From the altar..."

No joke, that chorus will get stuck in your head.

That is the kicker, Ghost craft such huge, catchy choruses while still retaining a sense of dark threatening mood that you can't help yourself from head banging and throwing the metal sign. Each song is a perfect blending of "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" sound, hard rock and proto-doom. The anonymous vocalist has a soft but strong melodic singing voice that reminds me of a whinier sounding Eric Bloom from Blue Oyster Cult. That is also the twist and controversy with Ghost, they are supposed to be this supergroup of musicians, or this nomadic wandering group of musical satanists. Nobody knows because they remain unnamed and dress up in hoods and costumes in concert and on their album cover. But who cares who is in the band when the music is so catchy, memorable and rocking. The guitar work is incredible, with haunting melodies and sounds that come right out of the 1970's. Yet there are few down tuned, heavier doomish moments like on "Death Knell," which could be a tribute to the band Candlemass. There are so many stand out tracks on the album but a few of note are "Ritual," "Con Clavi Con Dio," and "Elisabeth." All follow the same formula of soaring and driving heavy metal riffs accompanied by soaring vocals and huge choruses. It would be interesting to see where this album would be on my review list if I had succumbed earlier to the hype. All the memorable songs and haunting melodies seem to twist themselves deeper and deeper into my brain on each listen. This is as close as I will ever get to listening to a satanic pop metal band and I'm loving every minute of it.

For all the people who aren't fond of Agalloch's latest musical direction, this album should alleviate those lost, grey feelings. It's hard to divine a musician's artistic intent, but let's be honest, Gallowbraid really likes Agalloch a lot. From the aesthetics of the album cover, lyrics, and the instrumentation, you can tell the Agalloch albums have been played much in the Gallowbraid household. Now that that is out of the way, Gallowbraid does regurgitate the best of Agalloch, early Ulver and even a tinge of Cascadian black metal. However on many repeated listens, "Ashen Eidolon," does hold unique, memorable melancholic touches that are uniquely their own sound. "Ashen Eidolon," is an ep that has two full songs, and two small folk interludes and outros. The folk songs called, "Autumn I and II," have a unique beauty all their own with the usage of acoustic guitars, monk singing and flutes. Though the two full length songs completely dwarf and overshadow the ep with their length, complexity, and stirring earthen emotional resonance. The title track, "Ashen Eidolon," is an epic fourteen minute song that alternates between dueling, fast melodic black metal guitars to celtic tinged acoustic folk and back again. Huge pagan melodies dance in and out of the passages like some wandering wood nymph drunk on mead. In the middle of the song, a bizzaro world moment happens when the two dueling guitars meld into this Helloween "Keeper of the Seven Keys," dueling guitar competition that's just killer and amazing and ends too shortly. After this bizzaro moment passes, the song flows into an acoustic folk passage with whispered male vocals and serene female vocals wailing away. Even though a lot of the pagan melodies are Agallochian in nature, Gallowbraid utilizes them in a more upbeat manner like using the piano as a lead instrument in places. Vocally, the clean and gruff vocals are incredible in their passion and emotional depth. The second triumphant song, "Oaken Halls of Sorrow," starts out slowly with some delicate acoustic folk melody that is countered by the piano lead. The song slowly slumbers into a sprawling, rollicking blackened folk epic with the intermixing of gruff whispered vocals and clean pagan monkish vocals singing about journeys into oaken halls and forests. Eventually, a crescendo of pensive melodic riffs culminate, with a great God's Tower chiming guitar melody. Gallowbraid are able to produce such an perfectly structured song that plays up the emotional melodic folk elements perfectly. The future is amazingly bright for this young band, even with all the comparisons to Agalloch. There is no denying the fantastic, passionate, perfectly composed music that is created on this disc. The potential of Gallowbraid is vast and hopefully soon a full album will charm my pagan heart.

The legacy of musical excellence that Enslaved has achieved is long and well seasoned, so I was pleasantly surprised by the refocusing of the band's sound. With age, Enslaved are getting more majestic and the contrast between the harsh Viking black metal and progressive elements are broader in scope. "Axioma Ethica Odini," regains the aggression that was lost on the last few albums, however the swirling keyboard flourishes and clean vocals facilitate a more genuine, emotional passion that adds another dynamic to the traditional Enslaved paradigm. Keyboardist, Herbrand Larsen, is really highlighted both vocally and instrumentally. His clean vocalbs have really matured and have strengthened Enslaved's core sound. They perfectly act as a foil to Grutle Kjellson‘s berserker, evil troll style of singing black metal. The album opens up with the epic "Ethica Odini," and its soaring and sprawling guitar riffs with Grutle's grim trollish vocals. The song is an instant Enslaved classic anthem with majestic flowing melodies and clean sung vocals that invoke visions of fjords and transversing the Trollstigen. Every song on "Axioma Ethica Odini," is sheer excellence even though a few songs have vague similarities with past Enslaved efforts. The first half of the album is definitely the orthodox sound and style of Enslaved, while the second half of the album is more experimental in nature. "Axioma," marks this defining point of the album with it's Pink Floyd styled interlude which sets the tone for the more unconventional sound of Enslaved. "Axioma," leads into my favorite song on the album, "Giants," with it's atypical doom metal elements which evolve into the off kilter, almost Arcturus riffs and melodies. Krutle and Herbrand trade vocals back and forth about awaking the Viking gods of the cosmos. I say this every time I review an Enslaved album, yet again the band wants to be the black metal Pink Floyd or King Crimson. Perfect examples of this are the songs "Night Silent" and "Lightening," where the proggy elements and heavy use of keyboards intertwine and overlay the powerful black metal riffs. The band has been able to continuously inject more heavy metal and progressive styles into their sound, yet at the same time they have mastered the use of the sweeping unconventional riffing and now even melodic, emotional clean singing. I throughly enjoyed Enslaved last album, "Vertebrae," but it pales in comparison to the depth and vitality the band displays on "Axioma Ethica Odini."

After last year's monumental "White Tomb" album, which was an epic tale of dystopian urban decay set to a musical hybrid of atmospheric, post blackened metal. I wasn't expecting any new music from Altar of Plagues for quite some time. Well, the band returns unexpectedly with a two song ep with a maelstrom of the longest black metal songs ever. Stylistically, this is continuation of their first album without a few aural aspects, like ambient interlude sections, melodic counter points, and the super, slow motion sludgy doom. As a whole, these two songs are much harsher with their black metal moments, and also the band treads into the post-metal territory quite a bit more now. To go along with the harsher sonic vibe, the production isn't as crisp, but is darker and has a muddier undertone. The fifteen minute song, “Atlantic Light,” starts off the ep. It's a plodding, tonally dense mixture of depressive black metal and post-metal sludge. The rolling ebb and flow of sludge and black metal lulls the listener into a false sense of complacency before the frenzy of distorted, riffing cacophony merge into a hideous thrum. The vocalist also alternates between a bellowing roar and a black metal rasping shriek. Somehow, Altar of Plagues can transcend normal atmospheric black metal any time they desire and sonically paint immense, immersive soundscapes like legendary bands Neurosis and Isis. As normal, the lyrical themes from the band for "Atlantic Light," are about humanity's unceasing quest to drain the life out of the ocean. The other song, "The Weight of it All," is a twenty minute opus that starts with a gradual post-metal momentum gathering dirge. Again, no other black metal band has been able to push past the musical boundaries of black metal into the realms of post-metal like Altar of Plagues has on "Tides." They tap into the archetypical post-metal muse and are able to expel a huge outpouring of emotions that are attached to a primordial pummeling, yet amorphous sounding song structure. After fourteen minutes of post-metal sonic bliss, the song evolves into a convoluted, blasting black metal song. Wave after wave of beautiful, trilling, dissonant riffing seem to elevate the soul after the malaise of the first section of the song. After reading interviews with the band, the "Tides" ep will be the culmination of the musical extremity started and stylized on the "White Tomb" album. And that is probably for the best, since they have mastered the fusion of sonically dense black metal with post-metal arrangements perfectly. It will be intriguing to hear what musical direction Altar Of Plagues decides to challenge themselves with next.

What's a Buckaduzz? Who the desert devil knows. It's a stupid name, but a very fun word to say out loud to yourself. Buckaduzz is most definitely my stoner rock discovery for the year, with their fat, super fuzzed out Kyussian stoner grooves, delivered with a swagger reminiscent of the long forgotten band, Ridge. Hailing from Norway, the band isn't your stereotypical desert residing entity, yet they do know how to rock out the Orange cabinets. Thematically, Buckaduzz also isn't the stereotypical stoner rock band with the usual lyrical topics about the desert, sun, cosmic space and belly button gazing. The band sings about existentialism, unstable minds, absurdity and the sea. But who cares about the lyrics when the band exudes such glorious shaggy grooves. "The Big Slow," starts off with the song, "Aquanaut" which opens with a huge fuzzed "Gardenia" meets "Supa Scoopa" riff that rocks the listener for two minutes before the band breaks out into some psychedelic stoner nebulizer groove that weaves and wanders before the band returns with that signature fuzzed out riff. The desert swagger is in full effect on the song "Gunslinger," where the band totally reminds me of a cross between the attitude of Ridge and and overdriven fuzz of Astroqueen. When the lead singer declares, "As you can see, I got my gun with me," the edgy badassery is backed up by some thick smoke and fuzzadelic menace. Stylistically, the vocals are usually in the shouted Fu Manchu territory of singing, however on the last song, "King Crab," similarities with a young Jim Morrison are present in the mellow moments of the song. Buckaduzz's crowning achievement is the dynamically sprawling thirteen minute song, "King Crab." The song vacillates between sludgy goodness and simmering moodiness. Who knows what the song is about, besides escaping some giant crab haunting the seas of consciousness, or something like that. As an interlude between the sludgy and the simmering, the band use the middle section of the song to craft a long extended spacey, psychedelic jam which climaxes in a sludge pummeling reprieve after getting away from that crab. Buckaduzz will never change the stoner rock landscape in any manner, yet they are able to refine the genre with their own sonic vision. Now if they could just ditch that stupid name. Buckaduzz. Buckaduzz. Buckaduzz. Damn, I was hoping Kyuss would resurrect. Oh well, I tried for all you stoner rock connoisseurs. Let's turn up the fuzz and see what shakes loose.

Now this was a pleasant surprise, and makes last year's disappointment with the Amesoeurs album much easier to take in retrospect. Neige, the visionary behind the band, is truly a musical genius at crafting dreamy, ethereal and mesmerizing melodies that transport the listener into his other worldly dimensions. The first track, "Ecailles De Lune (Part I)," is the perfect mixture of glorious pilfered Katatonia harmonies and the instantly familiar glimmering guitar that was so spellbinding on Alcest's first album, "Souvenirs d'un Autre Monde." Alcest's first couple of albums sound positively naive and quaint in comparison to "Ecailles De Lune." From the crystal clear, bouncy production to Neige's mature and eloquent phrasing of vocals, everything sounds polished and refined. Alcest has elevated the melding of black metal with shoe gazing tendencies, into a sophisticated entity that doesn't sound forced or contrived like a lot of the second tier shoe gazing black metal bands. It's Alcest's choice of melodies and how they are woven and interact in the song construction which instill a sense of serenity and sentimentality. An example of this is on "Percees de Lumiere," where the spirally, exquisite shoe gazing melodies counter play the harsher black metal sections. The ability to craft this perfect intertwined cohesion of poppy, vaporous sounds with the dark and harrowing makes the album so special. In contrast to the previous albums, Neige utilizes a multitude of vocal ranges and styles that engulf the songs and seem almost to float above either the black metal fray or etheric bliss. I don't know why, but at times "Ecailles De Lune," reminds of a young Sigur Ros. There is really nothing sonically comparable between the two bands, beside the playful, childlike, introspective quality of the songs. The album closes out with two gorgeous songs. The first is the song "Solar Song," that undulates and swells with fond remembrance to My Bloody Valentine, or even the Cocteau Twins. It's a pure shoe gazing song with velvety distortion and chiming guitars drifting softly between crests of shimmering romance. The album closer "Sur L'Océan Couleur de Fer," is completely unique for Alcest. The song is very mellow and soothing with folk ambience elements, but the traditional Alcest sounding melodies are slowly being entwined into the song. 2010 was an incredible year for Neige and all his musical output. With Alcest, and "Ecailles de Lune," he has produced such a haunting and beautiful album that will be a cornerstone of the shoe gazing black metal genre for a long time.

2010 will go down in history as the coming out year for the shoe gazing black metal genre. With many outstanding releases from Alcest, Les Discrets, Thranenkind, Clair Cassis, Aves, Hypomanie, The Last Days, Crooked Necks and Lantlos. Lantlos are sonically on the outer fringe of the shoe gazing movement with a sound that combines traditional black metal with lounge, jazz and the wonderful hazy shoe gazing sound. On their first album, Lantlos performed raw, complex black metal with some Cascadian black metal stylings. ".Neon," evolves on their previous sound and truly makes something special. ".Neon," isn't an immediately appreciated album and takes a bit of dedication before the revelation of its greatness is attainable. The connections run deep between Alcest, Les Discrets and Lantlos. Neige from Alcest sings and provides all vocals on ".Neon", while Les Discrets' main man Fursy Teyssier provides the artwork for the album. However, the core of the Lantlos sound is the creation of Herbst who is the songwriter and instrumentalist. The album opener, "Minusmensch," establishes the mood for the album with its tranquil, slow burning jazzy lounge vibe which slowly develops into a blasting black metal swirl of tremolo riffs. Eventually, the song returns to the jazzy lounge vibe before heading off this time into the black metal meets My Bloody Valentine territory. "These Nights Were Ours," is more typical of the last album with its frenzy of bright and melodic black metal. Lush waves of harmonics wash upon the beaches of the listeners consciousness. Even though Niege is shrieking his fool head off, the music is extremely inviting and not misanthropic like most black metal. The best song on the album is "Pulse-Surreal," which opens gorgeously with Neige forlornly singing, while the smooth, angular jazz music lulls and caresses. And just as the listener is settling into the song, the soundscape broadens and the buzzing guitars and clamoring, despondent vocal wails pull the serenity away. Niege's vocal performance on this song is stunning both in the gentle vocals and in the anguished wails. Many tracks on ".Neon," such as ‘Niege De Mars’ and ‘Coma,’ are flurries of desolate, complex raw black metal which are similar in style to their first album. Yet the vibrant introspectiveness of the mellower aspects remain buried under the sheen of intricacy. The impact of ".Neon," on the metal community would have been larger without the greatness of the Alcest and Les Discrets albums released within the same year. However, where those two other bands are more other worldly and amorphous, Lantlos seems to be birthed from the mundane urban situation. Lantlos's intricate intermixing of the savage and the tranquil moments somehow transcend into one blissful album.

The king and enigmatic wag of Norwegian black metal returns after 16 years of prison confinement to regale the world with his unique compositions of heathen black metal. Cast aside the outrageousness of the murder, racism, church burnings, fascist statements and any other mythic lunacy that has surrounded Varg Vikernes, the singular mastermind behind Burzum. Burzum helped establish the genre of black metal with a handful of classic records released in the early 1990's, along with playing bass in the legendary Mayhem and also contributing lyrical content to the mighty Darkthrone. However, Burzum always had a transformative and divergent aspect in comparison to other bands in the formative years of this genre. Varg took the aesthetics of the early black metal scene and its primitive childish satanic pandering and wrapped them in heathen/tolkein motifs. This augmented Burzum's hypnotic, layered and simplistic black metal riffing and the amalgamation with the ambient atmosphere that instilled a transcendent and transformative aspect to the music. Even after 16 years of seeing only concrete walls, Burzum is still able to conjure those magically profane, transcendent moments. The album, "Belus," explores the ancient European sun god mythos, represented by the likes of Balder, Bragi and Belus. The myth involves the murder of a god at the hands of another god and the subsequent journey through the underworld and the eventual glorious rebirth. After an out of place introduction, which sounds like somebody beating a lead pipe on a concrete floor. The return of Burzum commences with "The Death of Belus," which is highly reminiscent of "Jesus Dod" with its signature black metal tremolo repetitive riffs and entrancing song structure. Even if Varg wasn't credited with inventing the stereotypical black metal riff, he has mastered the simple, repetitive nature and uses it to great effect. By composing minimalistic but ever evolving songs, like the second track "The River of Forgetfulness," that repeat onto themselves, which draws in the listener into the mesmerizing and hypnotic world of Burzum. Actually, the first couple of songs on "Belus," could have been lost tracks from the "Filosofem" album with very similar repetitive, dominant guitar melodies and riffs. I consider that an asset, since "Filosofem" is my all time favorite Burzum album. The only difference is "Filosofem" always sounded like it was recorded over the phone from a jail cell. The production quality is a big contrast with prior albums, with a thicker but still cloudy guitar sound and an actual hefty low end sound. Also lost to the years is Varg's voice. He has lost the ability to generate the devastating shrieking, feral vocals, which are now replaced by a laconic rasp and wail. My favorite track on the album has to be "Glemselens Elv," with it's beautiful trance inducing melody, while the black metal tremolo riffs flutter above the rhythm in perfect harmony. After siting out the mainstreaming of black metal in prison, Burzum has returned with an orthodox take on black metal that maintains his legacy without tarnishing prior albums or myths.

I have played the songs on this album far more times then any other songs in the last year and a half. Somehow in researching the band history of Alcest and Amesoeurs, I discovered that Fursy, the guitar player for both bands, established his own band called Les Discrets. Well, I hurriedly tracked down what I thought was a real album and played it ad infinitum last year. Of course, I also discovered it wasn't an actual release, just some leaked demos, so regretfully, it couldn't be on my top review list. Oh well, because I lucked out this year. Right after the release of the new Alcest arrived, the even more wondrous and familiar Les Discrets album was released to the world. Not surprisingly, the songs on the album are just as enchanting as the leaked versions that have ingrained themselves into my consciousness. Les Discrets is the creation of multitalented graphic, film maker and recording artist, Fursy Teyssier, who wanted to conceptualize musically his art work. His art work graces many album covers like Agalloch, Amesoeurs, Alcest, and Lantlos. There is definitely an incestuous relationship that exists between Les Discrets, Alcest and Amesoeurs. Les Discrets was formed in the wake of Amesoeurs' break up or extended hiatus, with the Amesoeurs members Winterhalter and Audrey, contributing to the band. That being said, Les Discrets is a distinct, separate entity with its own unique take on the dreamy, soft black metal genre. While Amesoeurs meld the sounds of new wave bands like Joy Division or the Cure with cathartic black metal, and Alcest wants to be the metallic version of Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine, the Les Discrets go for a much more subdued, contemplative, and more warm tones and melodies. Only one song, "Les Feuilles de l'Olivier" is even close to soncically representing a black metal track on the album, with heavily distorted guitars and rolling, driving drums complimented by a peaceful, chiming guitar and soaring keyboards and vocals. The defining song on the album is "L’échappée", which incorporates everything that makes Les Discrets brilliant. There is huge, catchy dreamlike atmosphere created by a dichotomy of chiming and gauzy textured wall of acoustic and electric guitars, which play off Fursy's monkish, chanting vocals. Fursy sounds at times like a young French Garm from the band Ulver, except he only sings in French. A certain charm and quaintness is instilled into each song by only hearing it being sung in the French language. An example of this is title track, which is such a simple song that is pure enchantment and but probably sound stupid if it wasn't sung in French. My favorite song is the final song, "Une Matinee D'Hiver," which starts with some simple acoustic guitars then transforms into this lush textured wall of playful melodies that just fade away into nothingness, leaving you wanting to hear more. Even after nearly two years of attentive listening, this album still touches me with it's gorgeous, irresistible melodic interplay and ever flowing sound.

Naming yourself after Conan takes balls the size of Thulsa Doom. Many bands have sung about the world of Conan and the Hyborian age, but none have deemed themselves worthy of the Conan proper name. This doom trio from England are more than worthy with their savagely compelling, mountainous sludge and buzz. The "Horseback Battle Hammer," album is top 15 list worthy just for the incredible production alone. Actually, I'd say the production is the fourth member of the band, because without it, the band are mere mortals instead of demigods of doom. The production is unabashedly distorted, loud and thick which lets the monolithic guitar tone resonate and thrum. The distorted tone is easily comparable to Electric Wizard at their "Dopethrone" best. "Horseback Battle Hammer," is a simple exercise in bludgeoning doom with crushing elemental riffs that slowly wash and drone over the listeners mind. The album starts out with "Krull," which opens with some low whirling feedback before the listener is slammed with an unbelievably corpulent wall of sound that lumbers and rolls for about four minutes.

Finally the vocals arrive with, "My name is Krull. I live on the mountain."

And all dimensions melt away and the listener is magically transported into Conan's world and you feel that you are Krull and the mountain is yours to defend. The whole song is a nine minute dissertation on distortion and reverb. The slow tempos and absurd distortion cloud the reality of the mind and let Conan inject whatever epic tale they want to intone directly into your psyche. The second song, "Satsumo," is far speedier and rocking with a thick riff that constantly verges on the edge of feedback before the more traditional sludge fleshes out the core of the song. The song, "Dying Giant," is very reminiscent of half speed, old school Melvins circa the "Lysol" or "Eggnog" period. The reverb rains down in a daze of mesmerizing distortion that never lets the listener gather their senses to tell where one distorted, rumbling drone ends and where another rumbling drone begins. The song is nearly ambient in quality. The vocal stylings on the album are clean and kind of nasally, but they do fit the music perfectly because they don't draw attention away from the thick slabs of crushing riffs. The penultimate Conan song is the closer, "Sea Lord," which is an eleven minute slow motion, trippy dirge that never varies in tempo but hypnotizes the listener with it's massive crumbling riffs and the vocals wailing about some lost sea king. For a previous unknown band in the sludge doom genre, Conan bludgeon out a soundscape that could have been derivative and contrived. Yet, the band's sonic power and that amazing production combine for a fantastic album that doesn't besmirch the legendary name of Conan.

The anticipation for the new Deathspell Omega album, "Paracletus," was high within the metal and avant-garde community. This album will be the finale of their groundbreaking and monumental trilogy that explores the metaphysical relationship between God, Satan and Man. Every album in this trilogy has been more innovative and complex than the previous one. Within this audio trilogy, Deathspell Omega has composed the most staggeringly complex and challenging songs the black metal genre as ever witnessed. "Paracletus," continues with the challenging song compositions and the rapidly changing time signatures, and dissonant and totally unconventional riff and note choices. It's virtually impossible to pick a standout track on the album, since the album schizophrenically flows from one abstract tangent to the next without any hinderance of self doubt. The entire album basically is a single long track, but with a fray of insanely technical riffs that ebb and flow, and then repeat in various time signatures, and then intertwine into a chaotic coherence somewhere later in another song. "Paracletus," is just a mind boggling complex discordance of technical note-wrangling riffs that expand and contract against a bed of shifting, unhinged jazz substructures. Yet, unlike their last album, "Fas," there are moments of intricate respite where the music doesn't sound like it's transversing some sub universe. Just as the band pushes the orthodox musical spectrum, they also push the lyrical themes to the fringe. Thematically, the album approaches humanity's existential existence within the confines of the churches' ethics and mythology. This is definitely not easy listening music, cruising down to the local mall music, or anything the radio would ever touch. It's obtuse, frightening, and verges on the inaccessible, but at the same time is totally brilliant and genre redefining. After finishing the trilogy with "Paracletus" I can't fathom how the band's complexity will evolve. De-evolution seems the only possible future for such an extreme, complex entity, however, Deathspell Omega has expanded the boundaries of black metal to the limit, so who knows what they can accomplish in the future.

Agalloch have craft the album "Marrow of the Spirit," with such depth and emotional intensity that encapsulates all their previous albums, in addition to forging new expansive vistas and moods. Initially, the album can be difficult to comprehend and digest because of the ambitiousness, complexity and cinematic overtones. It really needs to be savored and enjoyed like a fine wine that slowly reveals it's haunting beauty and refined virtues. The band have their own distinctive sound, composed of black metal aesthetics, bits of kraut rock, folk melodies, progressive rock, and ambient soundscapes. It is the combination of these sounds in such a dynamic and extraordinary manner, be it from song to song or even within a song, that showcases Agalloch's brilliance. Texturally, the album is far grittier and sonically richer than any previous Agalloch album, and spotlights bleak forlorn feelings and earthen pensive darkness. The album opens reverently with a somber cello and a backdrop of running water and birds chirping in the distance. This is suddenly interrupted by a blitzkrieg of riffs and a thunderous clamor of drums which starts up the second song "Into the Painted Grey." The song is the most vicious and feral song Agalloch has ever created. Kadin, my three and a half year old son, said that this is very scary music, and it is. With its super fast tremolo blast of swirling, labyrinthine, intertwined riffs and snarled, seething vocals this song is ferocious. This song definitely showcases the new drummer Aesop, from the band Ludicra, who's great talent finally shores up the only weakness Agalloch has ever had in the band. The production is just muddy enough to highlight the dark composition of the song, but also lets the hidden melodies percolate to the surface. “The Watcher’s Monolith,” slows down the tempo after the blistering “Into The Painted Grey,” and it also feels vaguely reminiscent of a "Pale Folklore" track. The song is based on an ancient purification ritual that John Haughm, the guitarist and vocalist, participated while in Europe. It's an epic song with the usual enchanting clean vocals and amazing harmony between instruments. An added surprise is the beautiful piano ending to the song. All the songs on "Marrow of the Spirit," are appropriately long in length because musically the variety of the ideas and sonic textures are naturally let to blossom and evolve within the context of the song. The grandiose center piece of the album, "Black Lake Nidstang," is the longest song at seventeen minutes. It's the album's most ambitious and sonically stunning song that encompasses a menagerie of elements from every genre of extreme music. For the first four minutes, the song meanders about with strummed acoustic guitars and simmering, underlying ambience that slowly evolves into a mellow doom plod with Haughm's evocative whispered singing style. The song continues to slowly escalate in tempo with the chiming intertwined guitars and doomish riffing building up to the frightening, goose bump inducing emotional wails that take over the song. John Haughm pours all of his soul and essence into this amazing, heartbreaking, vocal lament. The song then drifts off into a totally different direction, with an interlude of playfully dancing and cavorting synthesizers and electronics. Out of the darkness some primordial, down tuned riffs pummel and scour away the electronic glee and the vocals are snarled viciously. As usual, the band thematically writes about pagan spirituality, the cosmos, parallel universes and the gods. The next song, "Ghosts of the Midwinter Fires," starts off in a lighter, more uplifting mood with catchy strumming before turning into the usual sounding Agalloch song. Dour, yet joyful melodies flutter and tangle and then die off before being resurrected again to repeat the pattern. Truly, is this the archetypical Agalloch sound that dazzles and enchants. The album's last song, "To Drown," is another experimental song with the dreary cello taking the focal point, accompanied by buried sub dirge riffs, ambient clattering, random piano plucking, whispered vocals, and an enchanting guitar line that hovers over the soundscape. All of these sound elements build into a massive undulation that rises and finally falls. Visions of pagans dancing to their gods around the bonfire fill your head, before the sounds of running water and birds chirping return to close the album. After continuously listening to the album for the last couple of months, I'm still discovering nuances and details that unfold themselves within my consciousness. Each song is an emotional odyssey across a harsh landscape of lugubrious emotions. Interestingly enough, there is a joyfulness in these dismal sounds that captivate and prompt continued explorations. Agalloch has created a masterful, audacious and experimental album that has the band on the verge of endless possibilities and further cements their legendary status. A new age of rebirth lights the oaken dawn.

Album's of this heft and crushing density are released only a few times a generation and then usually nobody else is able to ever emulate the sound and vision. "Drone Machines," brings back fond memories of hearing Godflesh's "Streetcleaner," album for the first time. I was totally overwhelmed and amazed at the mechanically crushing and undeniably foreign sounding entity that was somehow produced in this organic world. Author & Punisher's "Drone Machines" is this generations' Godflesh "Streetcleaner." I don't prognosticate that lightly or glibly, because that album and band were my favorite for most of my life. Author & Punisher evolve and resuscitate the dead corpse of industrial music and literally make its own version. Literally. The visionary behind the band is Tristan Shone, who is a mechanical engineer that has designed and fabricated his own homemade instruments. There is no bass, no guitar, no drums on this album. Just sound being manipulated by operating physical objects like a 300 pound spinning lathe, a huge chain driven hydraulic drum machine, an airplane throttle bass generator and a headgear MIDI eight microphone control. Tristan physically wields these fabricated instruments, which then control an array of sound generators. The sound created is beyond heavy, ridiculously heavy. So heavy and crushing that at times the thought arises in your mind.

"Oh wait, did I just brown note myself!"

Now, this album isn't just all about the sonic punishment like some Japanese noise bands. Author & Punisher construct actual songs that are very memorable even after your brain has been liquified. The album opens with a writhing, whirling song called "Sand, Wind and Carcass," that foreshadows the heavyosity of the album. It sounds like a machine waking up after some long forgotten electrical armageddon. The music becomes even more caustic and harsh with the second track, "Burrow Below," that has a grinding, sub-level frequency buzzing bass drone that ominously trundles along while Tristan howls his vocals. It's a masterful use of buzzing drone along with the infectious, punishing beats. "Doppler," has this evil, sliding mechanized groove that lurches and moans along like machinery in some death knell. Not many songs actually sound like the band, Godflesh, but this song could have easily been on a number of Godflesh albums. The song, "Beginning of End," whirls and thrums, and the underlying repeating beat has a dub-step quality that builds up into a giant crescendo of 300 pound lathe slides that groan and throb. Another song that sonically couldn't exist without Tristan's unique contraptions is "Skier O'er." The use of the hydraulic drum machine and bass throttling, dive bombing slides just punish the air and reality. After hitting the halfway point of the album with the songs "NTG Part I - Time", and "NTG Part II - Pressure". You'd think you knew heavy and punishing. Well you'd be wrong. Tristan slows the mechanizations to glacial speed and the sound gets weightier and denser, with layers upon layers of undulating drones that cascade and linger. There are times on this album where you'd think it was impossible for the music to get any denser or heavier, yet somehow Tristan manipulates some machine to sound like the space shuttle revving its engines. Just the immense sonic pressure displaced when playing these songs loudly is awe inspiring. I'd advise anyone before listening to "Drone Machines," to keep this is mind. Small doses. Give yourself enough time to acclimate and build up your tolerance for something this ungodly heavy. Also be forewarned of a lethargy that might arise after listening. Maybe, start out with one song a day to build up your tolerance before listening to the entire album. Because this is a mentally and physically draining album to listen to in its entirety. Also, I am honestly sorry, if somebody "brown notes" themselves.