04.02.2010 Edition

As is the case this time of year, the bed track there at the beginning is Compassion by the Welsh soundman Lustmord. Unfortunately, I haven't been serviced a copy of the new Overkill or the new Arsis, so you'll have to make do waiting for those to exist. My favorite new cut comes from the Black Jazz record by a black-metal-jazz-fusion act called Shining. Onto to the show:

(Format goes ARIST - TRACK - ALBUM - COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - YEAR - RELEVANT INFO.)

1.) Freya - Sons of Yamir - All Hail the End - USA - 2010 - As far as I can tell, this band has a habit of spelling their Norse names differently than my sources say, so I think Freyja's song about the sons of Ymir is about the first giant who came into existence in the universe. From Ymir came three sons, Odin, Vili and Ve, who killed him and, depending on your source, may have burned his body to ash, from which Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, (an ash tree) was formed. This is Snorre Sturlason's account of the beginning of the world.

2.) Mutiny Within - Awake - Mutiny Within - USA - 2010 - Young buzz.

3.) Rob Zombie - Jesus Frankenstein - Hellbilly Deluxe 2 - USA - 2010 - New material from an old zombie.

4.) The Kandidate - In Hell - Until We Are Outnumbered - Denmark - 2010 - My Danish brothers.

5.) Shining - Healter Skelter - Black Jazz - Norway - 2010 - Progressive black metal, strongly influenced by jazz fusion. They do the meanest cover of "21st Century Schizoid Man" in history. Now that you're done cringing, I assure you, it's much crazier and much cooler than you'll expect. This is the point where the average band would fail to deliver, but Shining manages to claim ownership of death jazz.

6.) Slayer - World Painted Blood - World Painted Blood - USA - 2009 - You're familiar, I'm sure.

7.) Striborg - Wrapped in a Cocoon Out of Harm's Way - Embittered Darkness/Isle de
Morts - Tasmania - 2006 - Not the best Tasmanian atmospheric black metal because it's the only Tasmanian atmospheric black metal, it's actually grim and beautiful work. Doom/Avant champions Sunn 0))) named Striborg their favorite black metal act.

8.) Windir - Svartesmeden og Lundamyrstrollet - Arntor - Norway - 1999 - Valfar called it Sognametal.

9.) Wintersun - Beyond the Dark Sun - Wintersun - Finland - 2004 - Former Ensiferum guitarist making a mockery of anything light and simple.

10.) Taake - Lukt Til Helvete - Taake - Norway - 2008 - Helvete is hell. Possible Nazi affiliation, it isn't really clear

11.) Gorerotted - Zombie Graveyard Rape Bonanza - Only Tools and Corpses - UK - 2003 - Something in the water in Britain turns average metal heads into remarkably sadistic murder worshippers. And they make some outstanding goregrind.

12.) Nasum - A Welcome Breeze of Stinking Air - Human 2.0 - Sweden - 2000 - One of the high points of aggressive grindcore, the whole Human 2.0 record is one to lose your hearing to.

13.) Mortician - Slaughtered - Chainsaw Dismemberment - USA - 1999 - The B-horror movie never stops being fun. If you don't have a sense of humor, this won't be a good match for you...nothing will, really.

14.) Gorguts - Rottenatomy - Considered Dead - Canada - 1991 - Every so often Canada musters up all it's latent anger and puts it all into a few creative people. After Margaret Atwood, Canada needed to step up the affront somehow, so a chain of low-key but damn reliable black metal and goregrind acts have emerged.

15.) Rotten Sound - Dominion - Under Pressure - Finland - 1997 - Less gore obsessed, (sometimes), but nonetheless sickeningly fast and pungent grindcore.

16.) The County Medical Examiners - Pugilistic Burn Postures - Forensic Fugues and
Medicolegal Medleys - USA - 2001 - This is that Carcass tribute band, (in a sense), that manages to be original and effective. The pugilist posture refers to what happens when a normal, (pre-rigor mortis), corpse is engulfed by fire. As everything tightens up, the knees bend, the back arches, and what's called the Pugilist Pose helps medical examiners determine how long before the fire death occurred. Dr. Bill Bass explains it more capably than myself.

17.) Aborted - Engineering the Dead - Engineering the Dead - Belgium - 2001 - Madness. Belgian, freakout deathgrind gore-madness.

18.) Blood Vomit - Disemboweled - Up From the Grave - USA - 2002 - A lesser known one man act, ably titled and decently produced.

19.) Mayhem - Funeral Fog - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas - Norway - 1994 - The only record I'm aware of that features a murderer and his victim performing together. One of the most evil recordings I've ever found.

20.) Hellhammer - Massacra - Apocalyptic Raids - Switzerland - 1984 - Black metal forfatterer. Check the Fenriz Presents album.

21.) Gorgoroth - Bergtrollets Hevn - Antichrist - Norway - 1996 - Earlier Gorgoroth than last week, but this one contains my favorite riff in black metal history. Hevn means port or harbor.

22.) The Funeral Pyre - Here the Sun Never Shines - The Nature of Betrayal - USA -
2006 - Slightly symphonic, and always meandering between the genre lines.

23.) Darkthrone - Witch Ghetto - Dark Thrones and Black Flags - Norway - 2008 - Very recent Darkthrone, exposing their punk roots much more than normal. I support letting them be who they think they have been.

24.) Azaghal - Vihani Raivoavina Valtamerina - Omega - Finland - 2008 - Minimal but intriguing cover art on this Finnish blasphemy troupe's Omega record.

25.) Embalmer - The More Fuckers Dead, The Better - 13 Faces of Death - USA - 2006 - Not the best Ohio death metal because...

26.) Dying Fetus - Conceived Into Enslavement - Descend Into Depravity - USA - 2009 - The most intricate and pointlessly complex but still convincing hyper-technical death metal on record. Origin is a close second, and this song is why Dying Fetus takes the title.

27.) 1349 - Maggot Fetus...Teeth Like Thorns - Revelations of the Black Flame - Norway
- 2009 - In 1349, a ghost ship bobbed into the harbor in Bergen, Norway. When it was boarded, the crew was found dead, and the black plague entered Norway.

28.) Bloodthorn - Age of Suffering - Under the Reign of Terror - Norway - 2001 - Later than the female-fronted incarnation of Bloodthorn.

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