Zero Credibility

Looks like this spring gonna be really heavy and dark due to death / black metal overload. Being under influence of “Death Rituals” album I went to the store for more SFU stuff. I’ve got almost entire discography of SFU off torrents toВ familiarizeВ with their music, and liked their latest work more than early stuff. So I bought previous album too, it’s called “Commandment”. It’s the same proper stuff I’m gonna listen to alot. I probably will not gather their entire discography as earlier work didn’t do it for me. But I decided to buy expensive box set “A Decade In The Grave”. It features 2 CDs of the best stuff, some live and very old recordings. Also there’s DVD full of live footage and videos. So I think I’m pretty much equipped by SFU by now.

Since I re-discovered awesome vocals of Chris Barnes I decided to buy a CD of Torture Killer – “Swarm!” too. It’s finnish band but produced by Barnes and features his vocals. It’s more in general vein of death metal. All tracks are kinda even, but still one can feel the touch of death master there.

Next album I noticed yesterday in the store and was unable to miss is Triptykon – “Eparistera Diamones”. This is next project of Thomas G. Warrior of Celtic Frost. This is massive work with music varied from fast to slow andВ majestic with heavy riffs and awesome atmosphere. What took my attention as well is awesome design of digipack featuring H.R.Giger’s work “Vlad Tepes”. All in all, classic album in all aspects. Now I need to get accompanying EP “Shatter”.

On top of all this I’ve got little package from Peaceville with old evil music! The most classic from it all is Mayhem – “Live in Lepzig”. I had it on cassette back in 90s and listened to it alot. Since I’m gathering Mayhem now I was unable to miss this classic release featuring old lineup of the band. The sound quality if close to cassette, meaning it’s crappy concert recording, but still, the music is full of hate and nostalgia for the old times.

Next in the pack was Napalm Death – “Order of the Leech”. This is single release of ND on Peaceville. It sounds very chaotic and uber heavy, but still, at that time, band didn’t reach perfection of chaos featured on albums like “Time Waits for no Slave”. Still, it’s interesting to see how the band transformed from warm sounding Diatribes, to evil chaos of the last albums.

And the last but not least was Darkthrone – “Soulside Journey”. I just bought it for the sake of completing Darkthrone collection. I now have totally full discopgraphy of the band and kinda proud of it! By the way, despite it being my leastВ favoriteВ album of the band, the sound is rather quality for those times, but it becomes boring very fast indeed. Now I understand the desire of the band to go their own special way and not to be like hundreds of other generally sounding death metal bands. Because if they’d stay soft those times they wouldn’t grow into the colossus they are now.

The new music still incoming and I cannot resist this torrent of madness. Month later than planned but I finally got latest Burzum album “Fallen”. I liked it in all aspects. It has the same sharp as axe guitar sound, trademark Varg’s vocals, which are now more varied since he now uses normal voice together with usual one. And of course amazing lyrics and that special Burzum atmosphere. Album feels fresh and strong despite being done in style of Filosofem. (To be honest, Filosofem is still fresh for me). I like that Varg is quite productive these years. Eagerly anticipating new album now!

Satyricon – “Now, Diabolical”. This is album I wanted to get for quite some time now, spotted it in the store yesterday and acquired immediately. It’s proper Satyricon album, with a couple of catchy songs. As usual, technical and clean sound, not your Darkthrone sound but still attractive by its masterful execution and sheer evil seeping from the sound. Very nice album.

Six Feet Under – “Death Rituals”. Since I’m in the death metal mood last several weeks, I finally decided to see what is Six Feet Under. And you know what, I really loved their last album. It’s very cool lowkey fat guitar sound. Middle speed, and just amazing vocals of Chris Barnes. This is what I call creative death metal vocals. Proper death metal from Florida!

Napalm Death – “Diatribes”. After year of hunting I finally got this album. Since it was long deleted everywhere, В Earache recently reissued it in a 3CD pack with “Greed Killing” EP and “Bootlegged in Japan” live CD. Quite nice addition for the ND fan. This album is from the middle of 90s, so the band sounds quite special and attractive way for me there. This is the first album of the band I got hold of back at those times, and I played it on cassette quite a lot.

Stephen O’Malley – “Salt”. Rather rare experimental CD for these days for me. But it’s classic I couldn’t miss. I had the opportunity to get this limited edition CD and I didn’t miss it. It’s quite nice guitar drone performed at Barbara Gladstone Gallery in NYC back in 2005. I wish I was there as the sound is totally alien and attractive at the same time.

Gae Bolg – “Petit Traite De Gymnosophie”. Still gathering albums of this amazing french neofolk band. The melodies of this album are so catchy and powerful it made me fell in love with the band instantly. I like their grotesque style. It feels pretty much like local band NOM. Also french language adds that feel of madness. I wish they come to Moscow one day with a gig.

Gae Bolg – “La Nef Des Fous I”. This is special release. All music here is performed by classical instruments, but still, it has that mad feeling about it. Some parts of the album are especially powerful when it comes to rhythms. Band grows in all directions and produces albums quite frequently, hopefully their next release will spawn soon!

I have finally finished this monster of a book by Dan Simmons. This is another epic masterpiece which hooked me till the last page. As quality as The Terror, Drood is also well researched work about the last years of Charles Dickens. It involves mystery of Egypt, drug addiction and adventures into the sewers of London.В Main heroes of the book are real and the story is so compelling В that I want to read certain Dickens and Collins books now. If you liked The Terror, IВ recommendВ you to read this one. Think I’ll have to get his latest book Black Hills now too. Next book in my queue isВ China Mieville’s Kraken, I’m on it already and it’s weird as usual, but the action just started so we’ll see how it goes.