Cemetery Lament

  ASARMOTH is the new solo project from Gigi Casini the former Bass/Vocalist of the Italian Death Metal band MIND SNARE. Casini's new project merges the influences of early 80's extreme metal acts like Venom, Bathory and Celtic Frost with early death metal bands like Obituary, Deicide, Morbid Angel and Death Vader. Princess of the Darkness is an interesting blend of old school metal and death metal with a toned down driving bass and drum line that runs thought the album tying all the tracks together like a brooding death march. Casini has done some interesting stuff on this album and incorporated some elements that you don't often hear in metal. Listening to this album for the first time I picked up a slight prog-metal  influence on a few of the tracks with echo effects and what sounds like a simple yet classic keyboard synthesizer. Don't get me wrong, isn't a bad thing at all and I really like it when artists take influences from other genres and work them into th...

Maybe I'm just a sucker for folk/Nordic inspired black metal, but when it's done as well as what Haljōrūna is offering who can argue with it. An interesting mix of clean and black metal vocals with a slow driving beat to the music really sets the mood for their entire Midvinterblot album.  Midtvinterblot by Haljōrūna By far my favorite track on the album is Urds Kjelde but the rest of the album isn't lacking in any regard. The marching beat of this track blended with the keyboards and drums is a perfect merger of folk and metal that few bands nail as successfully as  Haljōrūna. Head over to their Bandcamp page and give them a listen... The entire digital download is only around $6.00 (50 Sek) so be sure to Follow  Haljōrūna  and support them in any way you can!  www.haljoruna.bandcamp.com

How about a little late night blackened death metal to wake you up? Spell of Torment a great underground find from Oulu, Finland. Nothing to fancy going on here but some blazing fast guitar and drum riffs. Pretty tight sound and plenty of full blown metal goodness. 

Kicking around over on SoundCloud and unearthed Tash... According to their profile, Tash is a violent combination of black metal, death metal, and early grindcore. The lyrics primarily focus on fear, the occult, anti-christian themes, and violence. The music itself is usually very fast, uses extended range guitars and bass, and shrieking, guttural vocals. Tash was one of those bands that when I found them I stopped dead in my tracks and thought DAMN! where have these guys been? Apparently they have been in Sandford, USA but I wasn't looking there for bad ass black metal.  Recommended if you enjoy Behemoth, Emperor, Vader, Nile, Morbid Angel, and Dark Funeral.