Gospel of the Horns - Realm of the Damned

Gospel of the Horns are one of the best black/thrash bands, ever. Hailing from Australia, they've been putting out amazing metal since the release of their 1994 demo, The Satanist's Dream. They produced two full-length albums before disbanding around 2008-2009 (though they've recently gotten back together): A Call to Arms and Realm of the Damned. They're both magnificient albums, but I've always found RotD to be the stronger album.

Everything about it just works. The production, the riffs, the musicianship....it's just a great metal album, and probably one of the strongest albums to come out the Australian metal scene -- which is saying A LOT, when you factor how strong the black/thrash/death scene is down there. If you're a fan of any of the Australian metal bands -- Destroyer 666, Sadistik Exekution, Vomitor etc. and you haven't heard this album yet, GET ON THAT SHIT!!!

Gospel of the Horns were defunct for a while, but they've recently reunited to play gigs and release some new music -- their new EP, Ceremonial Conjuration, came out in June on Invictus Productions.

ARTIST: GOSPEL OF THE HORNS

ALBUM: REALM OF THE DAMNED

GENRE: BLACK/THRASH METAL

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Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma

Their first and only release, Hail Spirit Noir is an incredibly strange album. It combines the Greek black metal sound (think Rotting Christ and Necromantia in terms of "higher" guitars, etc) with unconventional song structures and keyboard parts that sound more like they belong in a doom metal album than here. Strangely enough though, it all works. It's an incredibly haunting and atmospheric album, and I wouldn't recommend it to black metal fans unless you're up for something strange. There's not a whole lot to say about this album other than that: I've included a YouTube video below which captures the band's sound/imagery quite well. Enjoy!

 

ARTIST: HAIL SPIRIT NOIR

ALBUM: PNEUMA

GENRE: AVANT-GARDE/BLACK METAL

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PURCHASE CD

Toxic Holocaust - Critical Mass (Demo 2002)

Although Toxic Holocaust's sound has changed pretty dramatically since their signing to Relapse Records/Release of Conjuration, TH plays a mix of black/thrash metal. TH was originally a one-man project until An Overdose Of Death... in 2008, and Joel Grind would simply recruit musicians to allow him to go on tour/do live gigs. Inspired by the 'old masters' like Onslaught, Bathory and Slayer, Toxic Holocaust -- while nothing spectacular -- up until Hell On Earth is some awesome, catchy, black/thrash metal.

Critical Mass is the second Toxic Holocaust demo, and contains many of the songs that would go to be on Evil Never Dies. The songs that didn't make it to END tend to be extremely short and fast punk songs, and they work quite well. It's interesting to hear samples of the crust-punk direction that Toxic Holocaust could've taken -- not to mention they're decent tunes. The sound quality is actually quite decent here, and it's probably one of the best TH recordings out there.

ARTIST: TOXIC HOLOCAUST

ALBUM: CRITICAL MASS (DEMO 2002)

GENRE: BLACK/THRASH METAL

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Hirilorn - Legends of Evil and Eternal Death

Hirilorn was a short-lived French black metal band, ending due to some degree of interband drama ("Sinn and Yohann have betrayed and humiliated Hirilorn by taking part on a hard-core recording"). It's not clear exactly what happened, other than obvious bad blood. Members Hasjurl and Shaxul would go on to form the much better known Deathspell Omega shortly after Hirilorn's demise.

I feel like a lot of people seek out this band hoping to hear some really raw/kvlt DsO material. In reality, Hirilorn are a very different band thematically and musically -- not sharing much with DsO other than the same members and subgenre of metal. Hirilorn is the name of a tree used as a prison in Lord of the Rings -- that fact alone sets the tone for the type of music Hirilorn play. Their sole LP, Legends of Evil and Eternal Death contains only 5 songs, but each of them clocks in at over 10 minutes long. However, don't let this steer you away! It contains some fantastic black metal that's heavily saturated in the 1990s European BM sound prevailing of the time, in addition to some fantastic musicianship. While it's heavily atmospheric in the same way that DsO are, it's much more technically melodic (I find DsO's atmosphere to be much more "chaotic" in contrast).

If you're a fan of the 1990s-era European black metal bands (i.e. Darkthrone, Mayhem etc.), I imagine you'll like this. If you're a big DsO fan, approach this with an open mind and you may find yourself pleasantly surprised.  

ARTIST: HIRILORN

ALBUM: LEGENDS OF EVIL AND ETERNAL DEATH

GENRE: BLACK METAL

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Sodom - Persecution Mania

Persecution Mania is the second album by German black/thrash legends Sodom. For those who don't know them, Sodom have been cranking out awesome black/thrash music since the 1980s, and are considered one of the founders of the black/thrash genre. If you're on this blog, you probably know that Sodom certainly live up to their name (and likely already have this album on your computer). But, I only realized last night that this was one of the albums that I never bothered to put back on my laptop after it crashed a couple of years back, and man am I glad I did!

Although In The Sign of Evil is extremely raw and catchy, I really don't care for Obssessed By Cruelty. I've heard that the European press is better than the North American version, but despite multiple listens, I just can't stand it. It's not that they're bad musicians on that album, it's more so that they play together really poorly: it sounds more like a first jam session/first take for the album than a finished product. Persecution Mania does NOT have this problem whatsoever: the musicianship is awesome, the timing is awesome, the production is awesome, the lyrical themes are awesome...it's dark enough for black metal fans, fast enough for thrash metal fans...hell, even if you don't like black/thrash metal as a genre, you'll probably still enjoy this if you're into exclusively thrash or black metal. Definitely essential listening, and comes highly recommended. Enjoy!

ARTIST: SODOM

ALBUM: PERSECUTION MANIA

GENRE: BLACK/THRASH METAL

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Dysmenorrheic Hemorrhage - A Tapeology of Grevious Tramuas 1999 - 2006

Dysmenorrheic Hemorrhage were a one man crustgore band -- essentially sounding like classic crust (i.e. Extreme Noise Terror-type stuff) with pitchshifted vocals. If you like goregrind or crust, you're in for a real treat as DH bring you the best of both worlds. The drums are programmed, which kinda bums me out for crust, but surprisingly it's overall not that noticeable -- minus a track here and there with a drum intro. Not a whole lot else to say about this other than this release contains their entire discography (obviously), and it's pretty substantial, clocking in around 70+ tracks long. You can read an interesting interview with Kyle of DH at The Noise Corner here.

ARTIST: DYSMENORRHEIC HEMORRHAGE

ALBUM: A TAPEOLOGY OF GREVIOUS TRAUMAS 1999 - 2006

GENRE: CRUSTGORE/GOREGRIND

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Proxy - Demo 2012

Rising from the ashes of Inepsy, Proxy is an up and coming crust n' roll act from Montreal. Unlike Inepsy which leaned towards the heavy metal side of things (particularly on later releases), Proxy are much more "traditional punk" sounding. Due to the lineup and over similarity in lyrical themes, if you liked Inepsy, you'll probably like Proxy. And if you didn't like Inepsy, you should still give this demo a shot -- a lot of the old school 80s punk influences shine through here and it's worth a listen! Cheers.

P.S: Not sure if this applies to the Proxy demo, but you can order the Truncheons demo here!

ARTIST: PROXY

ALBUM: DEMO 2012

GENRE: CRUST 'N ROLL/UK82

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