Wedard - Eiskrieg [EP]

This was my first Wedard record. I think I first came across this during the 2010-2011 winter season. Since then, and the release of the Eiskrieg II EP, Wedard’s auditory beauty has continued to grow on me with every listen. This German duet has a discography made up of splits, demos, EPs, and full-lengths that covers nearly a decade of true depressive black metal. Although Wedard is one of the slightly-bigger acts amongst the depressive black metal scene, there isn’t very much background information or other topics that they have for people to discuss and say about them. Wedard owes much of their minimal success to the praise that numerous other like-minded artists have given them. Nocturnal Depression, Woods of Desolation, Xasthur, Elffor, Striborg, and Anti are among the many depressive black metal artists that have given Wedard praise over the years; a few of them even doing split records with Wedard. But despite all that, Wedard’s reputation among the non-musicians has remained minimal. Anti and Striborg have both named the two Eiskrieg EPs to be Wedard’s best releases. I can’t say whether I can agree to those statements or not because I haven’t heard Wedard’s entire discography yet.

The one thing that (for some unknown, but probably ridiculous reason) many depressive black metal artists choose to do that just absolutely fucking KILLS their music is that infamous vocal style where it sounds like a high-pitched “woooo”. Ok, I have no idea why the fuck someone would want to do that, let alone turn it up to the point where it’s obnoxiously loud, but for some reason it’s become fairly common. There are some artists that have done this where it doesn’t bother me (Suicidal Anorexia, Life is Pain, Starless Night). This is because they either push it far in the background or they put some kind of distortion or effect on it; and to be honest, if done right, it has potential of sounding really cool. Wedard, on the other hand, doesn’t do that. Let me rephrase that: Wedard does something that could be considered similar to that, but nowhere near as annoying and disturbing. The vocals have A LOT of reverb, they’re pushed in the background behind the guitars and drums, and they’re much more high-pitched than, let’s say, the vocals you’ll hear on a Happy Days album. In the case of this EP, the vocals sound best when they’re let out during the most agonizing and melodic parts of the music. But there are some instances where the music is going at a much steadier and faster pace and the vocals don’t quite fit in as perfectly as they do in the melodic parts.

Drumming on this album is far from being an issue. Not only does the drummer show that he knows how to do more than one thing, he also shows real instrumental skill. Here’s ANOTHER thing that can get pretty damn irritating for me in depressive black metal, and that’s if the drummer does THE EXACT SAME FUCKING THING for the ENRIE duration of the record. I mean seriously, doesn’t that get even a LITTLE boring for you? Wouldn’t you feel much more engaged if you played more than just a boring blast beat or whatever simple drum pattern you’re doing?? The drummer, going under the stage name Karmageddeon, lays out a generic, but very well-practiced blast beat in all of the songs. On top of that, he shows his ability (I don’t even know if it’s a guy or not) to always stay on-tempo, use his whole drum set, change the pattern and speed every time the song goes into a different movement, and even kick drum with considerable speed throughout the EP. The third track of the album (also the title track) is where I consider the drummer to be at his best, although the last song is also great (I’ll talk about that later on).

In depressive black metal, the guitars are the absolute most important part. In order to create the right atmosphere, vibe and sound that you want, since there’s typically the absence of a bass guitar, the guitar player NEEDS to make sure that the distortion, the tuning, and what’s being played is spot-on. I’ve noticed that if there’s even one little mistake being made, like if the guitar distortion is a little too soft, or if the guitars are a little too loud, or if there’s a little too much reverb, it can make a HUGE difference. It’s sort of like looking at something really closely under a microscope; if you make even the SMALLEST adjustments, it can fuck you over and completely ruin or lose what you’re trying to see. Since depressive black metal is less complex and there aren’t nearly as many instruments, everything needs to be as perfect as can be. This was why Scott Connor’s project, Xasthur, was so damn successful and lasted for so long, because he was a damn perfectionist and always knew that every single alteration and change that was done needed to be exact and precise, or else it’ll completely change the sound of everything.

My favorite song off the album is, without a doubt, the last track, A Desolate Song for Desolate Hearts. For the few that I know of that actually have this record, this song is often overlooked due to it being more than five minutes shorter than all the other songs. The slower tempo and extremely melodic guitar solos create a tranquilizing ambient sound that doesn’t even compare to the other songs off the record. The guitarist shows expresses emotion as well as skill in the solo that pretty much lasts the whole track. Not only that, but the drummer throws in these really fast fills that seem random, but fit since they don’t stick out from everything else. The muffled pianos that take up the last half of the song leave the listener absolutely relaxed and ends the EP with the perfect vibe. This piano part proves that this EP was intentionally created to be listened to from start-to-finish, not just for individual songs; because it won’t have the same effect.

Being part-1 of the Eiskrieg EP series, Wedard has obviously crafted a work of art that, like Striborg said, deserves to be recognized. Having everything working for the duet in a positive way, Wedard avoids all of the extremely annoying and negative trends that depressive black metal artists (for some odd fucking reason) like to do. As well as that, Wedard repeatedly expresses their instrumental skill to set themselves apart from many others in their genre that have only their creativity to work with. I would give the Eiskrieg EP a score of 16/20. What I’m mainly going to be looking for in Eiskrieg II is more musical creativity, less monotony, and more unique elements. 

Awesome Scott Conner Interview

One of my favorite "bands" ever is Xasthur. There haven't been very many official and good interviews of Scott Conner (aka Malefic), the guy behind Xasthur, but this is by far one of the best and most detailed ones I've ever seen. For those of you that aren't aware, Scott has just released the first album of his post-Xasthur project, Nocturnal Poisoning. It's all instrumental stuff that's pretty much just acoustic guitars, tambourine, and some drums here and there. I bought the CD from him (which you can purchase through the Nocturnal Poisoning Facebook page) a day after it was released and just received it in the mail a couple of days ago. Since then, that and the new Enslaved album have been the only things I've been listening to.

I'm not ready to state an official pos/neg opinion on it because even though I listen to A LOT of non-metal stuff, this is like nothing I've ever heard before in my life. To be honest, it was pretty weird at first listen, but it's one of those things where it eventually starts to grow on you in the exact same way that Xasthur does. I guess Scott unintentionally writes music that takes a little getting used to before one can fully take it in, understand it, and enjoy it. In fact, I highly doubt that I will ever even review it because I don't know what the hell I'd say in the review. In other words, I didn't know what to think at first, but so far, I've come to quickly love it and have become addicted to it. I HIGHLY recommend that if you have $13 to spare that you should give it to him so that he'll send you a copy of it.

Anyway, because I'm a diehard Xasthur fan, I want to know about the background story behind the demented project that lasted over a decade. This is the interview where you get an EXTREMELY in-depth and raw explanation of Xasthur, the history behind it, the reasoning behind the lyrical themes, and a lot about hating people and the struggles that Scott went through during the Xasthur era. As well as that, Scott gives you an early in-depth look into Nocturnal Poisoning, which is actually quite interesting! Follow the link below to read the interview.

CLICK HERE!

Click here for the official Nocturnal Poisoning/Disharmonic Variations website/blog

Wintercult - Neverending Selfhatred

Wintercult is a depressive black metal solo act from Russia. Just to clear up any possible misunderstandings, the fact that depressive black metal is my favorite kind of music doesn’t mean I set low standards for the genre’s artists. Depressive black metal actually has more shitty artists than most other genres out there; the ones having the most being grindcore/goregrind/pornogrind, American folk, and country. Wintercult is definitely one of the best depressive black metal bands I’ve heard in quite some time, which made sifting through plenty of other depressive black metal bands on this one website worth it. Want to know why? Please read on.

Probably the main reason why there are so many depressive black metal (DBM) artists out there that are absolutely repulsive to me is because the vocals are atrocious. There don’t seem to be very many good black metal vocalists at all in general! Well, this Russian nature-worshipper has a vocal style that I’ve only heard from one of my favorite artists of all-time: Malefic, the sole member of Xasthur. There have been plenty of other DBM vocalists that sound similar to Xasthur’s vocals, but none are closer to that sound than Wintercult. The way his vocals sound is EXTREMELY difficult to put into words…but it’s not that really croaky sound you hear from bands like Immortal, older Darkthrone, and Drowning the Light. It’s more of a REALLY filthy vocal fry scream that’s been heavily distorted. That’s probably the best description I can come up with at the moment. But the nice thing is that the vocals don’t overpower the rest of the music, so they have a much less chance of becoming irritating over time.

Usually, when a DBM “band” has only one member doing all of the instruments (guitars, vocals, drums, etc.), it’s not that uncommon for there to be an issue with all the instruments being in synch with each other. I don’t know exactly why, but there seems to be a recurring problem with the drums repeatedly falling in an out of time and the guitars being in a different world. But with Wintercult, the music can be easily mistaken for a full band because of how tight all the instruments are. It’s actually a HUGE refresher to hear DBM of this much clarity because it’s hard to listen to such crappy music come from a genre you have such a strong passion and love for. So to sum that up, everything is on time and in synch; just what I wanted to hear.

Traditional depressive black metal tends to be played at a much slower tempo. The first song off of this Wintercult album starts out with just the guitar playing a traditionally slow line to then have the drums come in and almost double the pace, but still keeping that extremely depressive mood that I love to hear (therefore giving the genre its name). Most of the sound that Wintercult has during this album is made up of traditional DBM guitar lines with faster (and sometimes driving) drum tempos to bring a unique and memorable sound. The other side that Wintercult has is more of an extremely atmospheric sound by using huge chords that remind me of Lost Inside’s 2011 album Mourning Wept Beside Me and Genevieve by Velvet Cacoon (no that is not a typo).

From what this record has given me, there aren’t any flaws at all that I can see. Although it is completely understandable how this album might not speak out positively to people not as familiar with the depressive black metal genre, it will eventually be considered a classic to the genre’s name because the majority feedback of this album has been accurately positive. I would give this album a perfect score and would recommend it to all depressive black metal fans as well as fans of really ambient and melodic music. 

Striborg - Embittered Darkness/Isle de Morts

I was on the Southern Lord Records website buying the new Sunn O))) album on vinyl (you can read my review on it) and decided to see if Southern Lord had any good deals in their store. Turns out they had a bunch of old CDs that they were selling for $1 each. So I ended up buying Genevieve by Velvet Cacoon and two Striborg albums. I’ve known about Striborg for about a year now but I’ve never really been interested in listening to his music, particularly because of so many negative or mediocre ratings on his albums that I keep seeing. Although fortunately, one of his higher-rated albums was one of the ones I got. And not only that, it’s a 16-track combination of two albums! Now I’ve become more aware of how much of a figure Striborg is in the depressive black metal scene and that the people I know that listen to that kind of music really like him. Although I’m not totally impressed with Striborg, it’s not horrible and certainly not a waste of two bucks.

Striborg is from Australia that (for some really odd reason that I can’t figure out) seems to be a place where a lot of underground black metal artists are coming from. I’m not kidding; it seems that the more I look, the more Aussie black metal artists I find. I’ve come across many (and some amazing) artists and bands like Woods of Desolation, Drowning the Light, Austere, and Abyssic Hate (which is quite a few in my mind considering how small the Australian black metal scene is). The unfortunate thing about black metal is that even though the great ones blow me away, there is a large amount of TERRIBLE black metal artists and bands out there (and that’s the same with grindcore and brutal/slam death), some being among the worst in history (whose names I didn’t even bother to remember because they drove me away so quickly). Striborg is pretty average to me, but he has his special moments (shut up, perv) and even has quite a bit of experimentation going on in some of his songs.

Probably the thing that bothers me the most about this album is the vocals. I don’t mind that really deep and gritty vocal style, but when it’s a lot louder than everything else, it’s really distracting from the rest of the music. The guitars also have so much distortion that all I can hear is high-pitched fuzz; not really my cup of tea when it comes to this kind of depressive black metal. Another thing that kind of bothers me in this album is that the drums sound really separated from the rest of the music. I like it when all of the instruments are blended together and are weaved into a big cloth, not when it sounds like each individual instrument was recorded in a completely different place, era, and mixed so differently. I LOVE it when a band’s music flows all together as one, not in separate little streams.

My favorite thing about the album is the experimentation that’s done with the keyboards. If you want to get a full example of what I mean, listen to the fourth track. Even though there’s not much variation or interesting stuff in it, it still has a really atmospheric and mysterious sound to it that gives the album a completely different feel. I noticed that the second album on this CD was recorded ten years before the first one that I was just talking about. There isn’t really that much difference between the two albums (which is probably why they’re on the same CD). If you want a really basic description of the second part, it’s not really that different except that the sound quality (everything I described in the third paragraph) is even worse and harder to enjoy. This isn’t really something that I would recommend checking out unless you’re really curious or if you’re a HUGE black metal fan. I would give this album 8/20. 

Lost Inside - Hearts Will Grow Heavy

It seems that my love for Lost Inside grows each time I get another album by them. In the year 2011, Lost Inside did a Devin Townsend-type move where they released multiple albums, but each of them having a totally different sound. For those of you that haven’t read my review on their other 2011 album, Mourning Wept Beside Me, I suggest that you read (and at least try to) listen to that first before continuing into this review. BUT FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT ARE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING CLEANER AND LESS NOISY, this is an amazing album that combines Lost Inside’s depressive black metal (DBM) artistry with EXTREMELY melodic clean guitar riffs that is backed by slower, simpler drumming and clean vocals (aka singing). If you ask me, I couldn’t possibly think of a better pair of DBM albums to be released by the same band in the same year.

I’m going to be honest that I’m much fonder of Mourning Wept Beside Me, but I’ve been listening to Hearts will Grow Heavy so much lately that I can’t help but tell the world about it! I’m going to start this off by doing some comparing of the two 2011 Lost Inside records. First off, in Mourning Wept Beside Me, the entire sound of the music has a really hazy and almost mushy sound that could be described as a droning ambience of heavily distorted guitars that have a soft fuzz to it with the vocals being more in the background trying to find its way through the thick fog of the music instead of being the loudest thing. In Hearts Will Grow Heavy, the sound is much farther from that foggy/atmospheric sound and has a much cleaner and crisper sound to it. In other words, you can hear each instrument perfectly; there isn’t any “droning”. Also, Mourning Wept Beside Me is almost completely melancholic DBM, as opposed to this album, which is primarily made up of clean electric guitar riffs played (surprisingly) in major keys, giving the music an extremely melodic and peaceful sound.

I really want to tell you what song to look up first because I want you to have the ABSOLUTE BEST first impression with this album. The song that I want you to look up is the title track (the last song on the album). The song starts out with the PERFECT example of those melodic guitar melodies that are up-beat and almost happy sounding because of the major keys that they’re played in. After a while of just hearing the guitar and drums, you hear the atmospheric keyboard backgrounds fading in, which only multiply the beauty of the music. Then, out of nowhere (I sure as hell wasn’t expecting this) you start to hear SINGING VOICES! Now before you let that turn you away, the singing isn’t front and center; it’s in the background, leaving the guitar still at the front. Of course, just like any perfect Lost Inside song, you get a nice strong, thick taste of the melodic depressive black metal that these guys have the ability to create.

Once again, the vocals are beyond professional quality. Unfortunately there are so many black metal vocalists that (in my opinion) embarrass the genre itself with the sounds that escape their mouths. It’s even more unfortunate when the music is good! Some of those bands include A Cloud in Circle, Drown in Solitude, and Demonic Forest. But in Lost Inside’s case, the vocals are above and beyond. Honestly, I couldn’t ask for anything more than what Lost Inside has already put into the masterpiece known as Hearts Will Grow Heavy. I would give this 20/20. 

Lamentations of the Ashen - In Distance (Implorations Unto the Wind)

Lamentations of the Ashen is one of my very favorite bands. Some might think that it’s just simply because they’re from the depressive black metal (DBM) genre, but that would be wrong. Out of the many DBM artists that I’ve discovered over the past year and a half, Lamentations of the Ashen has always stuck out to me. This band was actually one of the first ones that I got when I really started getting into the DBM world; some of the others being Saol, Woods of Desolation, Austere, Gris, and Blutklinge. Although this wasn’t the first record I heard by Lamentations of the Ashen, this has always been my favorite by far by this band; even after the masterpiece that was just released.

Of course, like most of the DBM bands out there, there is only one person behind all the music. Just writing each part for each instrument on each song is hard enough by itself, the task of writing all that and having the outcome be the definition of depressive beauty is seemingly impossible. But time and time again I am proved wrong. There is NOTHING that Lamentations of the Ashen has put out that is less than flawless. Probably a huge part of why listening to this guy’s music is so enjoyable is the production work. The sound of the guitars and how everything is balanced out but still has a very ambient and droning sound is really something that this album couldn’t be without. Although most people might think that DBM is completely raw, it’s actually not. Even these guys add some distortion to their vocals to give them a fuzzier sound, they edit the sound of the guitars to make them sound more to their liking (sometimes cleaner, sometimes crunchier and heavier), and they turn down the volume of the drum tracks, and so on. So the production work that was done on this record makes everything clear and audible while still having that “raw” black metal sound.

Another reason why Lamentations of the Ashen is much easier to enjoy is because the vocals are top-notch. Believe me, there are A LOT of HORRIBLE black metal vocalists out there; so many that it saddens me just thinking about it. This guy is one of the best in the ENTIRE black metal genre (ok that might be a SLIGHT overstatement). Good enough to easily be compared with Burzum, Xasthur, Naglfar, and Gris.

One big reason why DBM is so underground is because there are so many artists from that area that play the same riff over and over for ten minutes without changing the song at all. I will admit that there are songs by some of my personal favorites like Lost Inside, Xasthur, and Forgotten Land that tend to get over repetitive. Here’s when I make exceptions: when the riff is interesting and engaging, and when there is change going on in the background (with the “repetitive” line still front and center). Lamentations of the Ashen have shown some signs of unnecessary repetition unfortunately, but it’s nowhere to be found in this album. But that depends on how much repetition it takes for it to start bothering you. For those of you that HATE repetition in music, skip the first track because the drums stick out a little too much and are pretty repetitive (but not enough to bother me in the slightest bit).

The song that I would HIGHLY recommend that you look up first is the second track, A Memoire of Departure. This song starts out with breathtakingly beautiful keyboard melodies that took me by surprise to then drag you into a tunnel of DEEP emotion that contains both solitude and peace. Plus, all the instruments are perfectly balanced out and the production is pristine. When this song ends almost 20 minutes later, I’ve never been able to resist starting the song over instead of listening to the rest of the record. This is an album that I would give a perfect score and would recommend to all black metal/depressive black metal/WHATEVER fans that haven’t already heard it. 

Lost Inside - Mourning Wept Beside Me

For those of you that don’t already know, I’ve recently become extremely active in the depressive black metal (DBM) scene. In fact, it’s become one of my all-time favorite genres. My first DBM artist (like almost everyone else) was Xasthur. There is a large number of people out there that consider themselves “true” fans of the DBM genre that hate Xasthur because of the amount of success he had during the 15 years of his existence. Personally, Xasthur is one of my favorite “bands” out of all the music that I’ve ever heard (sharing the top of my list with Opeth, Breaking Benjamin, Darkthrone, Mutiny Within, Led Zeppelin, and Ludwig van Beethoven). If you want me to go on and explain depressive black metal in detail and why people like it, read all my Xasthur album reviews, because it’s annoying to feel that I have to repeat it every time I review a DBM record.

Recently, my interest in DBM has exploded as well as the amount of DBM bands in my collection. Some of the DBM bands that have been standing out to me the most include Blutklinge, Woods of Desolation, Original Sin, Abyssic Hate, Velvet Cacoon, A Cloud Forest, and most of all, Lost Inside. This was the first album that I heard by Lost Inside and I’m glad because it is the best I’ve heard out of them so far. The DBM bands that I seem to enjoy more often are the melodic ones instead of the more noisy ones. Lost Inside generally sticks to the melodic side of things, which is what got me hooked on this album.

Once this album has a strong grip on you, it continues to pull you through a seemingly endless tunnel of depressing and grieving tranquility. Your journey through the tunnel lays the heavy blankets of loss and anxiety which then allow you to sink down into a pool of relieving peacefulness. The best music is the music that stirs the strongest emotions within the listener, and there are few records that have as much ability to do that as this one.

There aren’t very many things at all about this album that I would say stand out as major issues. Although relatively simple, the highly-distorted but extremely soft sound of the guitars keep you engaged and never get boring. The chords that the guitars play are actually very complex and perfectly fit the definition of being “truly” melodic. The drums consist of much more than just constant blast beats; there is a lot going on within the mind of the drummer and he lays it out on this album better than on any other Lost Inside record. There is a perfect amount of bass that keeps everything balanced but isn’t overpowering. My favorite song on this album is Like a Wilted Flower for its hypnotizing guitar lines and astonishing vocals.

Overall, Lost Inside has become one of my favorite bands of all-time; and I thank this album because I couldn’t possibly have gotten a better first impression than what this record gave. The vocals are the opposite of annoying and actually have a thick layer of emotion and beauty. This is an album that I would highly recommend to everyone (especially DBM fans that haven’t heard it yet). I would give this record a score of 19/20.

Xasthur - To Violate the Oblivious

Unfortunately Xasthur and the rest of the ambient black metal scene has had the least success out of all the metal genres in existence. Although there have been some semi-successful ambient black artists like Xasthur, Elffor, and Woods of Desolation; the majority of the ambient black (sometimes referred to as depressive black metal) population has continued to be extremely underground. But the people that do enjoy it (myself included) are diehard supporters that listen to numerous bands from that area. Xasthur has become one of my favorite bands next to Opeth, Breaking Benjamin, and Decrepit Birth. Now anyone can listen to Malefic (the sole member of Xasthur) and be able to tell that he is not an amazing musician that holds unusual technical skills. In fact, he’s a pretty mediocre musician as far as metal standards go. The reason why people like me enjoy Xasthur and other similar artists is not because of the musicianship, but because of the ability the artist has to stimulate intense emotions within the listener. Believe me, it’s not something that you will instantly appreciate; it took me over a year before I truly came to appreciate and enjoy listening to Xasthur.

Ambient black can have many different sides. One of the sounds it has is a very melodic sound created with slow tempos and highly distorted guitars that sounds beautiful. Some bands that do this would be Woods of Desolation, Gris, and Blutklinge. Another one of the sounds is that really out-of-tune, dark, depressing sound that seems like an auditory brain scan of Charles Manson. There are also some bands like Velvet Cacoon that mix in amounts of traditional black metal with their music. Xasthur literally reaches out to all of these areas plus others. To Violate the Oblivious is an album that covers many different sounds and moods rather than primarily focusing on a certain sound like many of Xasthur’s other records.

The two minute intro track is Malefic demonstrating a beautiful improvisation on the keyboards. The root chords in the second song are very melodic. But the lead guitar parts cover more of a traditional black metal sound with some abstract licks. The drumming is faster than what you would normally hear from other ambient black artists, but it doesn’t take away the relaxing vibe from the music. To Violate the Oblivious is also where Malefic starts using a lot more keyboards to back up the music.

What I may have described before about Xasthur’s basic sound probably sounds a bit unpleasant. Honestly, melodic music touches everyone in some way or another. Xasthur’s music is one of the most beautiful sounds ever to reach my ears. Although it has a thick layer of low production quality, bad tuning, and high distortion disguising it, after listening to it over and over again, you start to notice the downsides becoming more transparent and eventually seeing the beauty within the core.

The only reason why I like this album better than Subliminal Genocide is because it doesn’t have those seemingly pointless and overused interludes throughout the record. Since the album doesn’t have those obstacles that appear, it becomes a constant flowing river of beauty, ambience, and relaxation that pulls you in as soon as you turn it on.

The guitar distortion on this album is my favorite out of all the other Xasthur records. It’s not too high-pitched, there’s not too much fuzz, not too narrow sounding but not too wide either, and even though it has a low sound quality, it still sounds clear and crisp. There are some songs where the guitar drones on for the entire track that create the atmosphere that completely encloses you and shuts you out from the outside world. There is one song that touches me the most and creates the most intense emotions within me, and that is the last track, Walker of Dissonant Worlds.

Walker of Dissonant Worlds is an instrumental track that consists completely of guitar tracks. The only official Xasthur music video is one of this song that has someone walking around with a camera following Malefic himself through his house and out onto a train track. The most unique thing about this video is that after the camera finishes following Malefic, it travels through parts of downtown Los Angeles and shows the homeless. I’m going to be honest and say that this video is very depressing and unfortunately true. None of it was staged and the homeless men and women filmed are sometimes high or obviously insane. A sign that one of the people holds up has a very rebellious and angry message that reads “The pain Jesus experienced is nothing compared to mine”. Some of you may be asking why Malefic would choose this to be in his video. The answer lies in the lyrics that he writes. The song also sounds completely different and creates an entirely different emotion in the video than it does when you’re just listening to it.

This album is filled with depression, anger, beauty, bliss, relaxation, hope, regret, and melody. This is one of my favorite albums of all-time and I would suggest that you look it up. I will warn you that you shouldn’t be surprised if the music speaks out to you as being repulsive; so try to be understanding that this has an acquired taste and possibly isn’t your cup of tea.  I would give this album a perfect score. Xasthur is a project I will never forget and I will never stop listening to even though it is no longer in existence. 

Xasthur-Subliminal Genocide

The music that comes from the mind of Malefic never ceases to amaze me. He has so much to put in his music that his songs are almost never shorter than seven minutes long. The thing I love most about Xasthur is that there is an unbelievable amount of emotion in the music; it’s mind blowing and I’ve only heard a small handful of others that can do that. Malefic claims that Burzum is the one that inspired his one-man approach to his project (Xasthur). His lyrical themes are unlike most black metal bands. Usually, in black metal you would find lyrical themes about Satanism, anti-religion, and Christian blasphemy. But Malefic’s lyrics are about death, suicide, despair, and depression. I am guessing he has had a pretty rough life to come up with such powerful messages in his songs.

I have almost everything by Xasthur, and Subliminal Genocide is my absolute favorite out of all the others. This album takes you on a journey of extremely strong emotions of depression and despair, and it is an amazing experience that never gets old. The sound of the guitar distortion is my favorite out of all of his other albums, having a bigger, broader sound with a bit more bass to it. The guitars also seem to be more in-tune than some of the other albums (some of them having extremely out of tune guitars that don’t sound very good). I also like the fact that I can hear Malefic’s amazing vocals more; the music doesn’t drown it out in this album. If you were to ask me what my favorite song from this album was, I could only narrow it down to four.

Prison of Mirrors is one of the more melodic songs, the message being about someone who hates himself being trapped in a room of mirrors, with nothing to look at but himself, also with nothing to kill himself with. The song has some very beautiful guitar parts, and the drums are on-time with the other instruments. Beauty is only Razor Deep is an amazing song. It’s probably the most depressing song off the album, but it’s an extremely delectable experience to listen to. There are some fast double kick drumming in the song, which gives it kind of an edgy sound at parts. This album has many interludes as well (unlike the other albums, only having an intro and an outro). Just the overall sound of Victim of Your Dreams is very sharp and higher pitched. It has a really thick, heavy sound that is really calming. The last song I would like to talk about is the title song. It has a very deep sound with a lot of bass that stands out. Malefic doesn’t really belt out his vocals as much in this song. He sounds more relaxed. This is a very great album that I would recommend to all black metal fans, and to any people that are still a bit new to black metal, this gets 20/20.