finland

by Anthony Abboreno Slugathor’s Echoes from Beneath (Drakkar, 2009) is death metal you glimpse in darkness. Grinding riffs coalesce, pummel you, then vanish into the murk. Seasick guitar leads writhe. The main vocals gurgle in a fleshy lower register, but are often doubled by a phantasmal scream. This is my favorite way for death metal […]

We’re not an American band Recently I discovered the Australian site Metal as Fuck. The name is a hard sell, but the content isn’t. It’s interesting to see how another part of the world operates. Some posts I found particularly engaging stemmed from TweetChat, Twitter’s version of chat rooms (at last, a constructive use for […]

Beherit has always been about the primitive. The Oath of Black Blood and Drawing Down the Moon pulverized black metal into lo-fi scree. H418ov21.C and Electric Doom Synthesis, solo projects of mastermind Marko Laiho, were ham-fisted amalgams of Casio tones and TR-909 percussion. This evolution recalls Burzum, though Beherit’s black metal was better and its […]

Death doom metal seldom receives the attention it deserves. A few prominent names hold this genre together, such as Mythic, Funebrarum, and Coffins. This sound is more than just Slayer-meets-Black Sabbath. Low-end slow parts, speedier grooves, and constipated grunts make up death doom. Most albums pay tribute to ’80s horror with corpse-laden artwork and classic […]

Darkthrone’s MySpace blog is, ironically, a good place to find out about other bands. Each week Fenriz posts a “band of the week.” His tastes are simple: any metal that sounds old (i.e., pre-’90s), whether it be black, death, thrash, or true. Preacher of Evil Finland’s Cast Iron are one recent Fenriz find. They’re on […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxJz–U25BI] Miika Tenkula, lead guitarist and main songwriter of Sentenced, passed away last week at the age of 34. Evidently, he had had problems with drinking. His bandmates put together a poignant memorial photo gallery – see above. Many didn’t like the band’s evolution from death metal to gothic metal, but I didn’t mind. Tenkula […]

by Cosmo Lee Released in Europe earlier this year, Cycles (Spinefarm, 2008) has finally hit the States. And hit it does. The record is a full-length exposition of ideas set out by 2006’s Consume to Contaminate EP: bulldozing grindcore, smooth shifting between tempos, a brief experiment with cello. 15 years into their career, Rotten Sound […]

Azaghal have come a long way since their primitive 1999 full-length debut. They’ve sharpened their knives to the point that Omega (Moribund, 2008) evokes the same rush as when I first heard 1349 – storming, belt-fed black metal with riffs that flow like lava. The hyperspeed hook that starts “Tämän Maailman Prinssi” is neck-snapping. (I […]

Capitalizing on the generally well-received and umlaut-infested Ääniä Yössä, Moribund is reissuing three Horna releases – Haudankylmyyden Mailla (Solistitium, 1999), as well as splits with Musta Surma and Behexen. The latter originally came out on Grievantee in 2004, and features four tracks from Horna and three from fellow Finns Behexen. Horna – Kätketyn Jumaluuden VartijaBehexen […]