Opinions about these bands

jonnykungfu

Member
May 7, 2004
57
0
6
USA
I would like some people's opinions on these black and death bands. Maybe give a brief description of their sound, if they're good or bad, their best album, etc, if you would, please.


Abhorrence
Abigail
Abominant
Abominator
Absolute Defiance
Ad Hominem
Aeba
Aeternus
Akerbeltz
Alastor
Anorexia Nervosa
Arckanum
Arkona
Armagedda
Ashen Light
Averse Sefira
Axis of Advance
Azaghal
Bane
Barbatos
Behexen
Belfegor
Believer
Belphegor
Bestial Warlust
Black Funeral
Blasphemy
Bloodgasm
Bloodthorn
B.O.B.
Catholicon
Cause for Effect
Centinex
Cephalectomy
Countess
Cryptic Carnage


I'll leave it at that and let you guys catch up.
 
Aeternus - Great blend of doom/death/black. Best album is definitly "Under the Wandering Moon"

Bestial Warlust - Harsh as shit black/death. Aussie fuckers, not much to listen to, but the bands spawned from the members are all worth a good listen. If anything, listen to "Vengeance War Till Death"
 
Abhorrence - 7/10
Great Brazilian Death Metal.

Aeternus - 6/10
pretty good

Anorexia Nervosa 7/10
Very interesting and enjoyable black metal.

Arkona - 9/10
One of Polands best Black Metal bands.

Belphegor - 5/10
Pretty standard Death Metal.

Black Funeral - 6/10
Very evil
 
Ad Hominem - I haven't got round to trying out their latest, but "Planet Zog: The End" is a brutal/hateful yet compositionally sound NS release which is recommended but not essential.

Aeternus - Beyond the Wandering Moon is genius, read my review at Metal Archives if you like.

Anorexia Nervosa - A poor Dimmu-esque band, avoid

Arckanum - I don't know too much, I think they're supposedly alright but nothing awe-inspiring.

Arkona - Zeta Reticuli is highly recommended, fast and beautiful BM

Armagedda - Mainly Darkthrone-worship, not worth bothering with.

Averse Sefira - Very cool USBM, both full-lengths are recommended

Axis of Advance - I've heard good things about this band, but they're also connected to bands like Revenge and Conqueror, so I dunno.

Azaghal - Meh, the stuff I've heard is standard Darkthrone-worship, not worth caring about.

Bestial Warlust - Avoid, very boring monotonous stuff. "War metal".

Blasphemy - They're better than most of the bands they spawned (Bestial Warlust included), but still, I wouldn't bother...

Centinex - I think they're supposed to be good DM, but I've not heard them.

Countess - Cool Bathory/Hellhammer/Beherit-esque BM with quite a unique aesthetic. Not groundbreaking but worthwhile nontheless.
 
Abhorrence - Depends on if you're referring to the good Brazilian brutal death metal band or the pre-Amorphis one :p

Aeternus - Brilliant band. Absolutely smashing. Created their own blend of epic, grandiose black metal and death metal - called dark metal by some. "And So The Night Became", "Beyond The Wandering Moon" and "Burning The Shroud" are essential. The others are also decent, but have taken a more brutal and DM-ish approach.

Arckanum - Solid, raw black metal.

Behexen - I feel that their 2004 release "By The Blessing Of Satan" should be getting more attention. Raw black metal with relatively clear, but trebly sounding production. Inspired by early Norwegian black metal bands, but perhaps a bit more extreme?

Bloodgasm - Deathgrind from NY. Fans of ultra-brutal music take note. Their self titled debut is a record I listen to regularly, mostly because of the killer track "Invoke The Suffering".

Bloodthorn - Black/death hybrid from Trondheim, Norway. Quite good.

Cephalectomy - Chaotic death metal with focus on melody and technicality rather than groove and brutality. One of the few DM bands that could be labelled as melodic death that I enjoy. Check out their 2004 effort; "Eclipsing The Dawn".
 
Ok, I've checked out some of this stuff (some I had already checked out and just wanted some opinions), and here's my take on them:

Aeternus - I checked out "Beyond the Wandering Moon" and "Shadows of Old". Moon is pretty good, unique black/death with an almost doom atmosphere, where Shadows just seems like basic death metal. Not bad, nothing special. But Moon is good!

Bestial Warlust - I checked out "Blood and Valour", which is noisy, but pretty bland black metal. I could see myself listening to it once in a while, but not really enjoying it.

Abhorrence - "Envoking the Abomination" is pretty standard, boring Brazilian death metal. It just sounds like a lesser version of Krisiun with a bad drummer to me, sorry.

Anorexia Nervosa - "Drudenhaus" sounds a LOT like early Cradle of Filth. It's BETTER than Cradle though, but still, not great. It's intense though.

Arkona - I'm not a big fan of blast blast blast black metal, but this is pretty decent. I've only heard "Nocturnal Arkonian Hordes" so maybe they have better albums. I don't like the guys voice though. It's decent.

Belphegor - I find it weird that you said that Belphegor is standard death metal and said that you like Abhorrence. This is pretty good blackened death, while not exactly unique, it's much more so than Abhorrence (not trying to start a fight though). This reminds me of a much more black metal version of Behemoth.

Ad Hominem - Straightforward but good NS black metal. I see what you mean about it not being essential but being good.

Arckanum - I like "Kampen" quite a bit. It's not entirely unique but it has some pretty interesting moments. Not brilliant but good.

Armagedda - Definite Darkthrone worship. Not horrible but generic.

Averse Sefira - Wow, this definitely stands with the best of USBM. Pretty unique and interesting stuff.

Axis of Advance - Decent, but something about it reminds me too much of Mayhem's "GDOW".

Azaghel - Not bad, but generic. Some cool melodies.

Countess - Pretty cool, not the greatest thing I've ever heard, but good.

Behexen - Blast blast blast black metal. Not my thing, but not bad for what it is.

Bloodthorn - Decent. Somewhat cool atmosphere. No real identity of it's own though.

Cephalectomy - This is one of the bands that I've already heard. I love this band, I just think they're highly under-rated and wonder what other people think of them.



Here's a couple more bands:
Cult of Daath
Daath
Disavowed
Empyrium
Fleurety
Gontyna Kry
I Shalt Become
Kekal (I've heard them, but curious to see other opinions)
Kronos
Massacra
Megiddo
Mithras
Nachtfalke
Nagelfar
Obtained Enslavement
Psypheria
Rehtaf Ruo
Sacramentum
Summon
Theory in Practice
Thunderbolt
Vinterriket
Watain
Weakling
Windham Hell
Wormed
Xasthur
 
Empyrium - Realy good folkish metal, with strong celtic atmosphere. I recommend "A Wintersunset"

Sacramentum - Melodic black/death, similar to Dissection, but even better in my opinion. Definitly get "Far Away from the Sun"

Watain - Raw black metal, done very fucking well. Check out "Casus Luciferi".

Weakling - Ugly, epic black metal. If you've been reading this board lately, "Dead as Dreams" is all the rave. It's definitly worth checking out.

Xasthur - Suicidal, misanthropic black metal, Burzum style. Probably not for everybody, but I realy enjoy "The Funeral of Being".
 
Definately check out Mithras. Brilliant death metal, very intense and worth checking out. Same goes for Sacramentum, who I only recently checked out. Awesome melodic black/death. If you like Dissection, you'll like Sacramentum even more.

Avoid Wormed though... from what i've heard, they're very boring death/grind with horribly irritating vocals.
 
Empyrium - This is basically folky gothenburg, though their latest (if Weiland is still their latest?) is entirely acoustic and not metal. Has a nice, listenable aesthetic at times, but doesn't have a lot of real substance.

Gontyna Kry - The stuff I've heard is NWOBHM-influenced epic BM that's good in places but generally unsatisfying.

Massacra - Old-school DM band, and one of the most important ones. I respect them, but they don't do as much for me as they do for a lot of tasteful people I know. Final Holocaust is probably the one you should get first.

Megiddo - If an 80s thrash/trad band played BM it would probably sound like this. Nothing unique, but it's fun stuff.

Nachtfalke - Epic BM with a viking vibe from the great Occulta Mors of Moonblood. All releases are good.

Nagelfar - Srontgorrth is a great release, consisting of 5 tracks which take influences from all over the place, carving an involving musical journey.

Obtained Enslavement - More good, melodic stuff. Try Witchcraft

Rehtaf Ruo - Incredibly unique band. Very inaccessable, but they conjure up one of the darkest atmospheres ever put onto CD. Get Boiled in Goat's Blood

Sacramentum - Far Away From The Sun is THE harmonic masterpiece of metal. Sheer beauty.

Summon - The stuff I've heard is generic, boring DM.

Theory in Practice - From what I've heard, they're a bit like the Opeth of death metal. They have a few good ideas but they're apparently too obsessed with being superificially 'progressive' to realise that their music has no direction or structure whatsoever.

Thunderbolt - Supposedly excellent BM but I haven't heard them.

Watain - Been widely praised recently, but I haven't checked them out.

Weakling - Dead as Dreams is quite a cool, epic release with prog influences. Drags on a bit in places though.

Windham Hell - Bizarre yet hugely rewarding DM, very technical but ambient. Reflective Depths Imbibe rules.

Wormed - Hit and miss, but really good at times.

Xasthur - Xasthur plods too much and doesn't have a whole lot of direction. It's also whiny.
 
PSYPHERIA IS THE SHIT, BUY THEIR ALBUM NOW. im actually buddies with them, the guitarist, john oster, was my english teacher! its real tech with some symphonic influence. i highly reccomend getting the album (embrace the mutation)

centinex is also really good. blackened death metal.
~gR~
 
Daath - I really like their album Futility, even though it's quite simple. It's more rythm oriented than melody oriented. They're good if you like strange stuff.

Kronos - Ok DM at best, nothing that impressive.

Theory In Practice - I'd classify them as Technical technical-death metal with prog influence because of the keybord. I really dig what they've done especially the last one. If you prefer BM, try Mutant, which is made out of 2 Theory in Practice members, it has a similar sound and it's also great.
 
Gontyna Kry - I strongly recommend Welowie. Extremely melodic and sorrowful black metal with epic quailites; without having even remotely lengthy songs.

Massacra - Essential early death/thrash metal. Final Holocaust is outstanding, but Enjoy the Violence and Signs of the Decline are both worthwhile.

Sacramentum - As GoD mentioned - A harmonic, romantic, epic masterwork of black metal(Far Away From the Sun). Highly recommended.

Thunderbolt(POL) - Their early work(first demo and split with Kataxu)is worthwhile melodic black metal, sometimes reminiscent of early Emperor. Check out the split with Kataxu, who're a far superior band. Roots Thunder is truly great. The later full-length Thunderbolt albums are rather bland blackened death metal. Sons of Darkness is basically worthless, save one or two tracks, while The Burning Deed of Deceit is decent, but not exactly mindblowing or essential. I haven't heard their latest.

Watain - I recently listened to Casus Luciferi and was quite impressed. Reminded me of a rawer, less prententious and all-around better version of Dissection.
 
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