Babalon Vs Spring 2023
I thought, instead of going over a band's discography or doing recommendations, this week we go into albums I'm looking forwards to. Im only doing albums that are confirmed to be released this year because I have trust issues with anything without a release date. It's kind of like the Zodiac thing.
Prophecies Ablaze
Unpure
Black-Thrash
Sweden
It's been more than half of my short existence since Unpure has released an album and, in the Swedish tradition, they seem to have made it worth our while. "Prophecies Ablaze" sounds like a vicious return from one of the unsung legends of Swedish Black-Thrash. Evil and brutal riffs just ooze from this one, provided by a lineup bolstered by members of the indomitable Watain and Degial, and Kolgrim's vocals have not become any less ferocious with the passage of time. The first two promo tracks, "Northern Sea Madness" and "Small Crooked Bones" already show promise and are well worth your time in and of themselves.
Apocalypse
Rotten Sound
Grindcore
Finland
I might catch shit for this, but luckily I don't care - Rotten Sound is probably my favorite Grindcore band of all time. I too love Napalm Death, Nasum, and Repulsion but Rotten Sound is unique in both their immediacy and talent. I'm well aware "talent" in Grindcore sounds like an unsanitary proposition, but the mix of Swedish-Finnish death metal sound with the blistering brutality, to quote Goniloc, "touches you in the touchiest of places." The new opus "Apocalypse," is Rotten Sound's first full length album in 7 years and it sounds worthy of their already storied discography.
Nostalgia
Enforcer
Heavy Metal
Sweden
Remember a few years back when classic heavy was thin on the ground? Sure there were the legendary acts still ripping, but traditional metal was very much on life support (I promised to not make a Mötley Crüe pun) as far as new material for a few years. If you ask me, or read a piece I am writing, this changed with In Solitude and Enforcer. While In Solitude broke my heart and ceased to exist in 2015, Enforcer published their debut "Into The Night" in 2008 and have released some of the greatest records the genre has seen in quite a while.
Anyway, the Aarvika giant Olof and company are back and if the singles are anything to go by, this record is going to see the band continue their reign.
72 Seasons
Metallica
Thrash Metal
USA
You know who Metallica are, you've heard what's coming and you don't need me to tell you about. You might want me to but you don't need me to. However I am too excited to leave them off my list.
Rock Releases
Plagueboys
Grave Pleasures
Post-Punk
Finland
It is no exaggeration to say that after "Motherblood," I did not envy Grave Pleasures' position one bit. They always seem to have the monumental task of topping themselves, but it pays off when your track record is this strong. Grave Pleasures are one of the few acts that have me going " a new album you say dear fellow? Well I know whatever it is, it'll be great."
With good reason too, as "Plagueboys" seems to continue the extremely high standard laid by its forebears. It's desolate, it's emotional, it's extremely well written lyrically and musically, and its one of the few bands you could both dance to and cry to. Maybe even at the same time if you're Billy Eliott enough.
The Old Ways Remain
Blood Ceremony
Occult Rock
Canada
Canada's Blood Ceremony are often seen as The Devil's Blood Lite™️ but this is a very narrow way of looking at it. Beyond the blood and being Occult Rock groups headed by women, they have very little in common with one another. The vibe is different to the point I'm not sure they'd really fit a bill together. I could see TDB playing alongside, say, Candlemass but I see Blood Ceremony being much more at home with acts like Windir or Skyclad.
What I'm trying to say, inarticulately and with foam running from my rabies infested mouth is that the band has a more Folk edge to it. All three of their previous records left me with a taste for more, walking that tightrope of being psychedelic and classic without being derivative and "retro." Their new one has no songs out yet, possibly as a conspiracy to antagonize me, but I have every reason to believe it'll be worth checking out.
Babalon's Bands III- Temples to Typhon (Thy Darkened Shade)
It is a bizarre and difficult time in which we find ourselves. Wherein free speech is under attack by people who desire human rights, sex is more liberal than ever and yet less commonplace, the freedom to own guns is seen as more important than the freedom to not get shot and worst of all, people like me have more efficient ways than ever to spam you with our opinions...not that I would... LISTEN TO THY DARKENED SHADE YOU BASTARD. Me? I would never do such a thing. A thing such as telling you to LISTEN TO THY DARKENED SHADE.
My shitty jokes aside, Thy Darkened Shade is a wildly imaginative black metal duo from Athens. What do I mean by wildly imaginative? Well, they have been squeezing about a world and a half of sophistication, memorable guitars and "this on paper doesn't work but they made it work" into an LP every half a decade or so. Much like Varg Vikernes being granted temporary leave in 2003 and going on the run, Thy Darkened Shade make their releases count.
Their debut, released a short, breezy thirteen years after their formation, is "Eternvs Mos, Nex Ritvs." It is a sharp, fast and unyielding record. It is also by far and wide the thrashiest of their three albums. While "Eternvs..." is by no means "punky," it also doesn't have that rumbling weight that their later releases have. It flirts more closely with Nifelheim and Gospel of the Horns than it does Morbid Angel or Blasphemy. However I am loathe to call it black thrash, in the same I am loathe to put a / or a "blackened" anywhere when talking about Thy Darkened Shade. Because it really isn't. The soul of this perverse genre is stretched in every which direction but it feels like black metal.
Even in their later records, the band goes from Chuck Schuldiner and Jon Nodtveïdt style complexities to borderline Slayer and Harmony Corruption era Napalm Death moments in what feels like a snap. 2014's Liber Lvcifer I: Khem Sedjet is an absolute masterclass in not letting tags bother you. Choruses straight out of Enslaved, leads like a somewhat less melodic Nodtveïdt, and grueling Pete Sandoval era Morbid Angel drums, sounds like a mess on paper - in practice the band pulls it off admirably.
It would be another nine short years before the band would continue that particular liber but in the interregnum the band released a bunch of splits. Depending on your tastes you might be more or less excited about the other bands. I'm not going to delve into all of them but my personal favorite is "SAATET- TA APEP" with Chaos Invocation. On top of having what is one of Karmazid's best and most yellow artworks, both bands bring their A-game and compliment each other well. In a world where Nile exists and metal bands have been digging through Egypt like I dig through graveyards for romantic partners, it is hard to stand out. But both Thy Darkened Shade and Chaos Invocation do it, firstly by bringing across a wildly different interpretation to most of what’s out there and second by bringing across wildly different interpretations to each other. They’re both black metal songs but Thy Darkened Shade focuses on the grandeur and elaborate nature of Egyptian mythology, while Chaos Invocation is more detail oriented and emotional.
That brings us to 2023 AD. A mysterious place where dreams come to die. However not all of them because nearly a decade after the first volume, Thy Darkened Shade opened this year swinging with "Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya." I don't want to spoil the surprise, but Liber Lvcifer II took the 9 years of anticipation and expectations and delivered. The death metal edge is more pronounced in this one, the vocals are more varied and better preformed than ever, and the bass is so good that it makes me wish other black metal bands would put in half this effort into their bass arsenal. As for specifics, sorry Charlie, you’re going to have to go check it out yourself. It’s well worth the time investment.
Babalon’s Bands II- Forever Possessed (Celestial Bloodshed)
So it seems that wherever you go today, you hear about Nidrosian black metal. As long as "wherever" is in niche metal territory, and of that territory, in niche black metal territory. But for once, the hype is extremely justified. Nidaros (or modernly, Trondheim,) has been home to one exciting (in the dark, gloomy and abrasive black metal way) band after another.
While the other scenes in Norway have by no means stopped producing quality Weltschmerz, the Nidrosian scene has produced a stripped down, dark sound all of its own. We can attribute this uptick to Terratvr Possessions and the magical capacity of Ole Aune for finding the most combative and abrasive acts and bringing them to the forefront, but we have to attribute a good deal of it to Steingrim "Mehimoloth" Torson and Celestial Bloodshed.
Setting up shop at the turn of the millennium, Celestial Bloodshed had a nine year run that was deeply influential to say the least. The dark, unwieldy and almost raucous atmosphere, influenced by the likes of old Impaled Nazerene,is evident from the very beginning, the Mitt Rike demo. But if you go look it up, you'll hear immediately that it's not quite the same bag of chips. Whereas Impaled Nazerene can be said to be Punk/Black Metal, Celestial Bloodshed just has this loose, less ceremonial aggression that fans of Niklas Kvarforth's Shining will feel at home with.
That isn't to say the band doesn't do big at all, they do but it's a mournful and gritty depths "big" rather than a say, Emperor orchestral majestic "big." This is extremely evident on their first self titled EP, where the takes two tracks and eight minutes to cross realms as diverse as Taake and Shining to Mayhem and even hints of Doom Metal.
For me though, and I imagine for many others, the zenith of Celestial Bloodshed and Mr. Steingrim's work came with the debut, "Cursed, Scarred, and Forever Possessed." It's somewhat hard to describe but the honesty of this record shines through in every moment. It all flows together in a manner which very few band manage, and this flow, this chemistry, is what set apart Celestial Bloodshed as a band. Luctus (who you might be more familiar with as Wraath, guitar and bass) builds these dark landscapes that lay the groundwork for Steingrim's varied and powerful vocals.
Sometimes it comes across as claustrophobic, sometimes it's wide and sprawling, but whatever the sound, Steingrim ties it together into a cohesive whole. The differences between say "Gospel of Hate" and "Truth Is Truth, Beyond the God" are monumental but they come across as a facet of a complex but representatively human album. Human anger, human desperation, human hatred. It touches upon the ethereal, the "celestial" but it never forgets this mortality. Whether it remembers it in loathing or in praise.
Here we take a step back from the work to give a little background as to what happened next in Celestial Blood's story. In order to show the utmost respect to both Steingrim and the surviving members I will do so only with a light tread and with the forewarning that this is how the story was relayed to me. I am not, and don't claim to be a source. On the night of April 30th 2009, Steingrim Torson was hit by an accidental gunshot and sadly passed away. He was only 25 years old at death, and yet he was already a giant.
The band, unwilling to let their comrade's memory go unsung. decided to finish an album of previously recorded materials entitled Ω (Omega.) The album could not be a more fitting sendoff to the man. A grand funeral oration of a record that evolves the band's sound while sounding very much in line with the original vision. The album definitely feels bigger in scope than the debut, more established. If the first was the band hungry, angry, and kicking, this is the band already using that distilled darkness to delve even deeper. Omega is a fitting title, because not only does this album stand at the gates of the abyss, but it explores beyond. The beauty of the beyond, grief, the majesty of time and death, and our relationship with them.
To that end, you'll see and hear some familiar voices lending a hand to celebrate and further empower the man's vision. Hoath Torog (most famously of the venerable Behexen) and Azazil (of Mare, Black Majesty and more) both guest on this record. Wraath (Luctus, most famously of...the list goes on and on but my favorite is One Tail, One Head) also contributes his evil, smokey vocals to the record, whereas he's only accredited for guitar and bass on the debut. Almost everyone from the band's circle made this beast come alive together. Sarath who did backing vocals on Cursed, Scarred and Forever Possessed is producing. They were both recorded at Brygga studios. Tying everything together nicely, the aforementioned Terratvr Possessions, the home of the modern Nidrosian scene, distributed both Ω and physical represses of Cursed, Scarred and Forever Possessed since 2012.
Look, as the saying goes "victory has a thousand fathers, defeat is ever an orphan" and the Nidrosian scene is a very victorious offspring. While many have some parentage of it, Steingrim Torson is definitely one of the strongest claimants to its fatherhood.
R.I.P, you legend, R.I.P
Babalon’s Bands I - The Dutch Masters (God Dethroned)
I know everyone has a bone to pick about a band they think deserves more credit, but I want you to know - every time someone makes a list about the greatest Dutch Death Metal acts and doesn't include God Dethroned, a tulip wilts. Not only that but a heavily tattooed Polish man in New York cries and yells at his computer. But I get ahead of myself.
God Dethroned is a Dutch band hailing from Beilen-a town Wikipedia has assured me exists but I cannot verify this information. About a year and ten months after their demo, Christ Hunt, the band released their debut album called The Christhunt. Except for adding an article and removing a space to make it a much more memorable title, the debut of God Dethroned already gives a hint of what was to come. Whereas their countrymen, Asphyx, appropriately feel almost hammer-like and blunt, God Dethroned's power lies in the polar opposite. They have this Black-Thrash sharpness to them that would place them as comfortably alongside Nifelheim as Possessed.
The band was perhaps in its infancy but lead composer and vocalist Henri Sattler had already started showing his distinct writing style. Might ruffle some feathers here but in my heart, this early day evolution hit its apex with Grand Grimoire. Coming out a whole 5 years and a reunion (or as Metallica would call it, 20 seasons) after their debut, The Grand Grimoire showcases the band hitting their sweet spot. It's where the band first found their optimal footing. Henri's infectious and massive melodies interwoven with breakneck but unique rhythms sound like a cavalry charge.
Two years later, in 1999, the band began releasing material more frequently. They rounded out their early years with another stone cold classic, Bloody Blasphemy. Many of they whose feathers were ruffled a mere 6-7 lines ago would hold up The Christhunt and Bloody Blasphemy as counterarguments to my use of the word "apex." But they're wrong because my taste is better than theirs. That aside, the quality is consistent enough that really, it's mostly a matter of which melodies speak to you the most. It really is almost like judging parts of a painting.
When I said "more frequently" you probably imagined that I was implying their next releases are not as good, but that is not the case. While neither Ravenous nor Into The Lungs of Hell improve upon the first three records and the latter has the cover of a Doom 3D expansion pack, both records feel like they make the band's discography more robust and complete. Both contain many crucial tracks like “Villa Vampiria” and “The Warcult,” but I'd say Into the Lungs of Hell is the first God Dethroned record that doesn't feel wholly indispensable. It's good, but not the imagination sparking goodness that came before or after.
Key after. So A year after Lungs..., the band would release The Lair of the White Worm. The band’s 2004 opus is a masterclass on how to make blackened death metal catchy while maintaining its identity. While The Lair of the White Worm is what I imagine a pornstar calls his jeans, the band use this record to cast us out into fresh waters. The production is more modern but the razor-like sharpness is unmistakeable and relentless. If the first few records had that Morbid Angel sprawl, this album is the early Emperor answer. The scenic playing is larger than life and the drums tastefully serve as the guitar's engine.
To Lair... was borne The Toxic Touch. It is very much the Bloody Blasphemy to Lair's The Grand Grimoire. An excellent followup that, while not revolutionizing the band's sound on the former, extends their repertoire and brings some further stone cold classics to the table. Yes I like the term stone cold classic, sue me.
The next big shakeup was on 2009's Passiondale and here things get complicated. This time the shakeup is lyrical and thematic. God Dethroned put on their pickelhaube (yes I know that's a German helmet and they're Dutch and neutral, relax) and went to the early 1920s. Passiondale itself is one of my favorite albums about World War I and is really a better representation of that conflict than all of the great many we've seen recently. The band's music evokes the grime, the moments of bravery and the ubiquitous death with a faithfulness that matches the fantastic Hail of Bullets and their WWII related releases.
But, to my mind, Passiondale also led the band down the road to its two worst albums, Under the Sign of the Iron Cross and The World Ablaze. The biggest sin of these two albums is that they both feel like waddling. The wealth of imagination and passion (dale) that brought the band to where it was on Passiondale is frankly just absent. If the former felt like grim and poignant storytelling, the latter two feel like the dry documentary version.
I was very disappointed, but then in 2020, I was busy one day trying to decide what shows I wasn't going to when the band hit out with Illuminati. This Jay-Z based concept album is proof that when the band is driven, they can drop apex level music whenever they feel like it. Where do I even start? The guitar work showcases an entirely new side to the band. While still possessing the famous melodies, the rhythms on this record sound lumbering and gigantic. The band delves into all kinds of interesting topics lyrically and doing them justice was always going to be a challenge. They meet this challenge, and fuckin' A, they keep going. The grandeur they manage to bestow on songs like the title track, "Gabriel" and "Eye of Horus" shows, in my humble opinion, why God Dethroned and Henri cannot be left out of any conversations about the Dutch masters. Right up there next to Asphyx, Pestilence, Rembrandt and most importantly, stroopwaffles.
Their new single, "Asmodevs" drops today, and so help me god (dethroned,) I will print this piece on stone tablets and throw them at venues until they get a full fledged US tour.
