Week 47: Melechesh - The Magickan and the Drones

The artist: Melechesh are a blackened death metal band coming from Israel. The extreme sound of their band has caused some issues in their homeland and had to move to the Netherlands where they wouldn't get any hassle over their lyrical themes or musical style. Melechesh prove to be out of the ordinary for both black and death metal where they incorporate middle eastern music with extreme metal. The band even go as far as forgetting their metal roots for the odd songs and make a strong focus on writing middle eastern music. If you want a band that do something a little out of the ordinary, this is one to check out, especially their latest album.

The album: The Epigenesis was released last year and with having 11 tracks totalling up to 71 minutes, you can be sure that the band put a lot of thought into this release. They cover some hypnotic rhythms with Ghouls of Nineveh, blazing fast songs such as Grand Gathas of Baal Sin and Defeating the Giants, two fully middle eastern instrumentals and of course, the grand finale to test the listener's capabilities. The Epigenesis is easily one of the finest metal releases from 2010.

The song: The Magickan and the Drones begins with a middle eastern feel to the song. This isn't like the instrumental tracks, though as the full metal force rises up with a mid-pace riff. However, out goes the intro and in comes intense drumming, crazy riffing and some relentless black metal vocals from Ashmedi. It's chaos all the way through but the band steps back a bit for the last two minutes of the song for some change of pace to keep the listener alert. The lyrics are based on the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu and the fall of his monarchy against the drones of Gutians. Covering this tale with the roller coaster of a ride from Melechesh make this one hell of a black metal song!

Week 46: Falkenbach - In Flames

The artist: Falkenbach is a one-man band from Germany whose real name is
Vratyas Vakyas. As a band formed by one single individual whose musical style consists of black/folk metal with a lot of Norse mythology sung in the songs, you can sure as hell bet Bathory is a major influence on Vakyas' own band. For a folk metal "band", Falkenbach plays some heavily folk songs unlike others who often combine one subgenre of metal with folk music. This side of Falkenbach heavily defines folk metal but on the other hand, there's a fair amount of his songs that have a strong sense of black metal and it's done professionally.

The album: Tiurida is Falkenbach's latest album released this year. It marks as his first album in six years since Heralding - The Fireblade. Surprisingly enough, Tiurida hasn't been a favourable album for some. Some claim the new album doesn't offer anything new to his music but it's hard to see it that way. Many popular metal bands such as Motörhead, Cannibal Corpse and Amon Amarth stick to the same formula and are respected for it but when it came to Falkenbach, some weren't impressed. Despite what they say, this is still a great album with being rich in character. If ...Where His Ravens Fly... and Runes Shall You Know don't click on for you, nothing will.

The song: In Flames (no, not the Swedish melodic death metal band) ironically starts off with sounds of waves. Vakyas makes an impressive kickoff with his clean guitars which is shortly interrupted by the main riff for the song which you will get to hear for the most part. Although the lyrics for this song were missing on the booklet for the album, it's still easy to determine he's a good harsh vocalist. It's not just his extreme vocals that make him good, though. The mid-section of the song has him implementing some choir vocals and these sound really good and add quite an atmosphere to this part. The song does throw you back to the main riff and will strike once more when the song settles down for the second time. Overall, In Flames is one of seven great songs from Tiurida. For songs like these and Runes Shall You Know, this is an easy contender for best of heavy metal in 2011.

Week 43: Immortal - Antarctica

The artist: Immortal are one of the most well known black metal bands who contributed to the second wave. The 1990s was a very dark time for black metal where some of the major acts committed church arson and even went as far as murdering individuals (most notoriously Varg Vikernes of Burzum for both cases). Black metal has been heavily linked with Anti-Christianity. However, Immortal are an excellent contrast to all the controversy in black metal. They've stayed away from Anti-Christianity as well as church burnings at all costs and despite these differences, Immortal are still one of the most respected bands by black metal fanatics. Ironically enough, Abbath was the one who got Varg into black metal but Abbath never wanted to follow the bandwagons going on back then.

The album: Sons of Northern Darkness is the last Immortal album before their break up in 2003 due to personal reasons which the band would later unite a few years later after a reunion special. Sons of Northern Darkness follows the musical style from At the Heart of Winter with more complex song structures whilst containing the thrash metal elements Immortal have adapted with since At the Heart of Winter. Some of the highlights in Sons of Northern Darkness include One By One, Tyrants and In My Kingdom Cold. This week's song Antarctica is also another strong track in the album.

The song: Antarctica begins with an arctic ambience (well, what were you expecting). It's not quite as eerie as Unearthly Kingdom but to make that up, Abbath breaks in with his frostbitten guitar and he does go all the way to make this intro well established. Horgh does some damn good drumming. It's not the typical blast beat black metal drumming but it does have some sweet rhythm to the intro sequence. Abbath doesn't kick in with his vocals until around 2 1/2 minutes in where he talks about how cold, vicious and metal Antarctica is. He describes it as a very harsh place. 5 minutes in gives us the dark acoustic guitars where Abbath summarizes Antarctica as dark, cold and massive. Heavier guitars make a comeback as well as the drumming that have a nice pace of hits on the Tom-tom drums. Overall, Antarctica is that ideal frostbitten song that black metal is often associated with, particularly Immortal. Who needs to sing about opposing Christianity and worshipping Satan when you can make something evil-sounding with a very bitter place like Antarctica?

Week 35: Equilibrium - Des Sängers Fluch

The artist: Equilibrium are a recent German folk metal band with releasing their debut album Turis Fratyr in 2005. They only have three albums so far and with mixing folk metal elements with black and symphonic metal elemenets, they could do a lot with their style and one thing that would be great to see is more epic instrumentals such as Mana. That's a 16 minute monstrosity and it's a well written instrumental.

The album: Sagas is Equilibrium's second album released in 2008. The band provides a dynamic album with this one with playing fast folk metal numbers such as Blut im Auge and Heimwärts, the more complex structures with Unbesiegt and Des Sängers Fluch and of course Mana, the 16 minute instrumental behemoth. Out of the three Equilibrium albums so far, this one stands as the strongest one.

The song: Des Sängers Fluch (The Bard's Curse) is a song with a few major sections that manages to flow very well to make it sound like one big song rather than feel like you're listening to the next track. The song ranges from acoustic folk to black metal blast beating and screams to orchestral moments. For a first time listen it makes some unpredictable turns that make you wonder what the band will do with this one song next. The song lyrics, although they are in German, the English translations gives you a good idea on what the song is about. Des Sängers Fluch covers a dark time in the medieval world. A boy comes along to become a bard and is taught by an old man. He tries to confront the evil and play but fails and is killed. The elderly individual avenges him with the curse that destroys the evil once and for all. The song has the medieval feel to it so this story telling is highly appropriate. Overall, it's an excellent song with great song structure and comes with some interesting story telling, even if it requires translation.

Week 23: Bathory - Baptised in Fire and Ice

The artist: Bathory was a one man band held by Quorthon. Although the history of Bathory had other band members as well, it was mostly just Quorthon who played all the music. Bathory is highly praised for being a pioneer band for not only black metal but also viking metal. To be credited for being a huge influence in two genres is quite an achievement. Quorthon recorded many great releases with Bathory such as Blood Fire Death, Hammerheart, Twilight of the Gods and Blood on Ice. His later works were a planned Nordland quadrilogy. However, Quorthon only lived long enough to finish two of those albums. He died of a heart failure on 3rd June 2004 and it only makes sense for me to pay a tribute to Quorthon this week to remember him and his contribution to heavy metal.

The album: Hammerheart was released in 1990 and is one of the groundbreaking metal releases in 1990 along with Rust in Peace and Painkiller for its major contribution to viking metal. Hammerheart continues the path to move away the black/thrash metal sound the first few Bathory albums had and also maintains the more complex structures of songs Blood Fire Death boasts. Although Hammerheart is the most recognisable Bathory album, especially with One Rode to Asa Bay having a music video on MTV, it's hard to help but think one song doesn't get as much appreciation as the other songs. After all, it's one song the all-star tribute band Twilight of the Gods didn't play for the live shows or played the least.

The song: Baptised in Fire and Ice starts off with a catchy beat which is shortly followed by Quorthon's chants with "Fire and Ice". The chants in the song give off a great atmosphere and although it's not the only song that uses choirs and chants in Hammerheart, there's something about this song that has a stronger choir feel to it that's almost as good as what you hear in One Rode to Asa Bay. This song reflects rebirth and the early life of a viking who travels across the seas far away from home, traveling across snow and crossing through fire. The said viking also remembers these days later on in his life when he was baptised.

Baptised in Fire and Ice has mid-pace riffs that are heard throughout the album but from the guitar performance, the highlight has to be the solo halfway through the song. It lasts for a minute and even goes side by side with the choir which again, gives off a great atmosphere to the song and has to be one of the best moments in Hammerheart. Overall, Baptised in Fire and Ice is rather under appreciated and deserves more credit for the chilling choirs which even goes along with the solo for the song. It's not a song to skip when listening to this album.