A bit late, but still:
DRUDKH “Forgotten Legends” (Supernal, 2003)
Now that DRUDKH has become a household name to most versed in the world of underground metal, it may be hard to recall how special this album really was when it came out. There was a time when I was amazed, there were nights and days when I would completely lose myself in the waters and woods, in the warm worlds of autumn. Seven albums later, the magic this band once had has faded somewhat, and looking back, Forgotten Legends is still the standout – perhaps for its modesty, its plainness and lack of pretension. A simple, melancholy ode to nature, performed with zest, love and conviction; seven albums later Forgotten Legends still stands proudly as DRUDKH’s most essential work; the pure, untainted, coherent vision, the canvas that they have since painted and painted over.
DESTRÖYER 666 "Terror Abraxas" (Iron Pegasus, 2003)
It takes quite some self-confidence, quite some knowing that your band is probably the most METAL AS FUCK MOTHERFUCKERS on the planet, before you can cover Australian female singer-songwriter Wendy Rule with not only a straight face, but with superb results and a retained amount of underground credibility. Terror Abraxas is a tour de force in superior, faultless metal songwriting, ranging from the primitive to the refined and epic, flowing seamlessly from thrash through death and black metal. It is a lesson in how to fully embrace the ideals of metal without ridicule or parody. It is the standard work on how to stand defiant, spit in the face of opposition, kill and fuck, yet do it all intelligently, with rhyme and reason. DESTRÖYER 666 succeed where MANOWAR never will; in defending heavy metal as a lifestyle, in proving that there is still fire, still danger, still relevance in the medium.
CELTIC FROST ”Monotheist” (Century Media, 2006)
Few bands other than CELTIC FROST, standard bearers of uncompromising avant-garde innovation (and, once, of that particularly atrocious misstep we do not speak of,) could resist doing the obvious and instead pen a “comeback” album that uses the sound of its “glory days” only as an initial blueprint for a foundation barely visible from the heights of the finished monument. There is still a twisted mutation of HELLHAMMER here; simplistic power-chord riffing systematically beaten into submission and forced though coarsely cast molds in fuming, dark satanic mills, but that is the weaker part of the construction. Among the newer elements: slovenly sludge, heavier than the ‘FROST ever managed to be in the 80’s, marries to both obvious thematic and musical influences from contemporary Nordic black metal and vulnerable goth moments. It is actually in these more heartfelt, fragile moments that Monotheist truly succeeds: songs like “Drown in Ashes”, “A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh” and particularly “Obscured”, are highlights of not merely the album, but of the band’s entire career. While certain of the more primitive ideas are less accomplished (this is what usually happens as musicians age), overall Monotheist is remarkable and unique, not solely in the way it manages to be a continuation of a spirit rather than a style, but as a vital and relevant work.
SÓLSTAFIR "Masterpiece of Bitterness" (Spikefarm, 2005)
It may be extraneous to write about an album which already contains its own accurate review in the album title itself. Three words – there it is. Further words are just elaboration on details – details like how SÓLSTAFIR are masters of balancing order with chaos – rigid, sophisticated structure and punk looseness – fire with ice – or pride and glory with despair and defeat. This album is the song of the Icelandic cowboy, lone wolf on desolate plains, riding towards some bitter end with heavy heart but head held high. SÓLSTAFIR are master songcrafts, wizards of dynamics, of sequencing moods and energy levels, building up and tearing down, making nine minutes, twenty minutes, disappear like nothing. Masterpiece of Bitterness is vast and earthy like barren Icelandic expanses, celestial in scope, yet profound in its introspection. Thoroughly well-made, enjoyable music.
NEGURÃ BUNGET "Maiastru Sfetnic" (Bestial, 2000)
Judging from almost every review of NEGURÃ BUNGET, it seems difficult to discuss their music without referencing their Transylvanian heritage and band name and drawing similes between the music and the misty Transylvanian woods of their homeland and moniker – I don’t particularly feel it tempting to fall into that particular trap again, but the truth is that there is a fair deal of accuracy in the comparison. This music is indeed misty, obscure, and black to the point of impenetrability. There is nearly nothing accessible about Maiastru Sfetnic, even to the seasoned underground black metal fan – its atonality, or at least unconventional tonality, occasionally recalls previous innovators like MÜTIILATION or VED BUENS ENDE in feel, but is generally the band’s own. Consciously avoiding the obvious is often a recipe for pretentious novelty music, but in these careful, consistent hands the idea succeeds, and succeeds to the extent that a new stylistic conventionality – their own – arises from their reinterpretation of black metal riffs, rhythms and atmospheres. The intricate web of loose drum patterns, fragmentary riffing, discordant leads and wavering Theremins takes time to unfold, but does eventually reveal itself as one of the most interesting, ambitious and original black metal works of the decade.