Denmark’s Horned Almighty are basically the black metal version of Vader, if their latest release Necro Spirituals is any indication. While blackened at the core, Horned Almighty’s style is straightforward, percussive and brutal, raging forward with punk-fueled hatred. Vader have carved out a niche for themselves playing the same basic, pounding form of death metal for over 20 years now, gathering old and new fans because their sound kicks so much ass. Imagine a slightly blackened version that’s maybe a little less drum-heavy, and you won’t be too far off from what Necro Spirituals sounds like.

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With its image of a tank on the cover and song titles like ‘Battle of Smolensk,’ and ‘Unleash The Panzer Division,’ you’d figure that London’s Eastern Front would be pummeling you with an all-out warlike black metal assault right? Not exactly.

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Fen’s new album Epoch is the first in a while to completely blow me away. The band’s 2009 release The Malediction Fields left me mostly unimpressed, and I was expecting more of the same sleepy, anticlimactic songwriting on this album, but after the first couple tracks I spent the rest of the album’s duration staring blankly at my playlist in disbelief, wondering how this could be the same band. The music still has that dreamy, ethereal atmosphere thanks to Fen’s judicious use of keyboards and clean vocals, but musically this album is light-years ahead of its predecessor.

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Dimentianon’s Collapse The Void is one of those rare albums that completely destroyed what little expectations I had for it. These guys hail from New York and play a mix of black and death metal, having been operating under the name “The Forgotten” until recently. Black / death metal hybrid bands are usually not a good sign in my book, as a lot of them end up being bland and uninspired, but with Dimentianon’s music that’s definitely not the case. These guys grab you by the balls and don’t let go; it almost makes me wish I lived in New York so I could enjoy the satisfaction of having these guys as part of my local metal scene. They won’t be a secret for long.

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The area between Germany and Ukraine sometimes feels almost like a no-mans-land for metal, with even the few excellent bands from that area getting very little exposure. It’s really too bad, because most of the bands I’ve run across from the region happen to be quite excellent: Sear Bliss, Hellveto, Massemord, Furia, Sator Marte, Mgla, and most recently the pair of Polish black metal acts featured on this split, Infernal War and Kriegsmaschine.

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Here are some quick takes on a few of the albums we at Musical Warfare have been checking out lately.

Armagedda - I Am EP
2010, Nordvis Produktion
The four-song I Am EP showcases some material from Armagedda’s early career. For me it’s definitely not their best, but it’s not a throwaway release either. The creepy guitar sound and quietly menacing riffing the band has come to be known for are still intact on this recording, as are the grotesque rasped vocals of Graav. The tracks are quite varied: ‘I Am’ is more of a slow burner and ‘Cold Eon’ features a churning buzzsaw riff, while the other two tracks are more stripped-down but pretty solid as well. Compared to Armagedda’s later material, these songs are rawer and more punkish, but I Am’s sound is still suitably morbid. It’s definitely work a look for longtime fans and Swedish black metal enthusiasts.

11 As In Adversaries - The Full Intrepid Experience of Light
2010, ATMF
The Full Intrepid Experience of Light was apparently originally planned as the 4th Glorior Belli album, but the French black metal duo decided to release it under a new banner and save their fans a huge collective “WTF.” The sound these guys have crafted as 11 As In Adversaries bears really no resemblance to Glorior Belli or any of the members’ numerous other projects. It’s most easily described as avant-garde psychedelic rock, which is about as bizarre as it sounds. The songs heavily feature psychedelic elements, and the vocals are an Ozzy-like clean delivery, although some black metal screams also creep in occasionally. The music is interesting at times, but probably much of the creativity here is lost on me. It almost feels like I’m a victim of a prank on Glorior Belli’s part, but an extremely well-executed one. I feel like the crowd that would appreciate The Full Intrepid Experience of Light is about 180 degrees separated from the one that normally digs Glorior Belli’s output, but for those of you brave enough to check it out, expect the unexpected.

Lightning Swords Of Death - The Extra Dimensional Wound
2010, Metal Blade
Some reviewers have cast these guys as kind of an entry-level black metal band, but I disagree. To me, Lightning Swords of Death’s appeal lies in their ability to mix some black metal vileness into a very aggressive, down-tuned death metal approach to craft an extremely dark, brutal album that fits well with today’s modern metal scene. The Extra Dimensional Wound is not overly atmospheric, but the ugly, rough vocal sound and the black/death riffing helps differentiate Lightning Swords of Death from most bands today. There’s a little too much death metal influence in their sound for my tastes, but in potency of their sound these guys are spot on.

Khors - The Flames Of Eternity’s Decline/Cold
2010, Paragon Records
I tend of Khors’s Mysticism’s relation to black metal in the same way I think of Dark Tranquillity’s Projector as a melodic death metal album, which made checking out the band’s earlier efforts Cold and The Flames Of Eternity’s Decline on this compilation even more interesting. As you might expect, Khors’s earlier material is a bit faster and rawer, though it still contains the great melodic keyboard passages and overall mystical feel that made Mysticism so appealing. This is a great release for Khors fans, and with both early albums released together in one package, it’s a great value as well.

Valdur - Raven God Amongst Us
2010, Bloody Mountain Records
I’m not quite sure what it is that keeps Raven God Amongst Us from being more appealing. This California-based black metal group do a more than adequate job of imitating the typical Scandinavian black metal sound, with slithering tremolo-picked melodies and well-constructed songs propelled by blasting drums and hateful vocals. The riffs are good enough, but for some reason none of them really end up sticking. It could be that the production hides the guitars a bit too much, or just that you’ve heard music like this so many times before. Certainly as far as USBM bands go these guys are excellent, but for fans of the genre as a whole this album will be a bit underwhelming.

Abigail Williams - In The Absence Of Light
2010, Candlelight Records
The latest album from US black metal band Abigail Williams was actually better than I expected it to be, but I still see these guys as more of a gateway into heavier, more beastly acts than a member of the US black metal elite. That said, the guitar work on this album is impressive at times, with some nice guitar interplay and lots of brutal, thrashy riffing. Abigail Williams plays an expansive symphonic black metal style, and the production on this release is amazingly clear, so much so that In The Absence Of Light sounds more like a traditional heavy metal band that suddenly decided to play black metal. The production will probably be the biggest point of contention for hardcore genre elitists, because musically these guys are pretty tight.

I’ve never really been much of a fan of Watain - their older stuff struck me as decent orthodox-style black metal, but in my mind their music was always overshadowed by bands like Ondskapt and Deathspell Omega. As a result I’d kind of written them off, and wasn’t really expecting too much from the Swedes’ latest full length Lawless Darkness. Then after throwing it on one day and forgetting about it, I had one of those “Wait, what am I listening to again? This is actually pretty awesome!” moments, and figured I should probably give it a little more attention…

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Antimatter have finally released their long-anticipated two-disc retrospective collection Alternative Matter. With tracks from all phases of the band’s career, Alternative Matter features numerous live tracks, alternative versions of several songs, and some highly sought-after recordings. The first track, ‘Black Sun’ from the Lotus Eaters Dead Can Dance tribute album, is easily one of Antimatter’s better songs and is a great reason for die-hard fans to pick up this release. Several songs from the bands debut Savior are present in various forms, and Lights Out and Planetary Confinement are both also represented reasonably well, while Leaving Eden is mostly ignored.

One shortcoming of Alternative Matter for me personally is the lack of tracks with lead female vocals - I’ve never really been sold on Moss’s voice and always have preferred the band’s earlier songs like ‘Mr White,’ and ‘Line Of Fire’ which featured their assorted female singers. So if you’re like me then that’s something to consider. For any fan of the band though, the wealth of material here should be hard to pass up, since probably most of your favorite Antimatter tracks are present on this release in some shape or form. Sometimes when you’ve listened to a band so much that your enjoyment of their songs has faded, it’s nice to have slightly different versions to help rekindle your enthusiasm.

Check out some samples from Alternative Matter:

Former member Duncan Patterson’s new project Ion also recently released their second album Immaculada last May, and fans of Antimatter’s older material that haven’t checked these guys out might want to give Immaculada a listen. It’s more ethereal and folk-based than Antimatter’s material, and while Ion features some talented female vocalists, I found myself enjoying the instrumental offerings on the album a bit more. It’s nowhere near as melancholic as Antimatter’s compositions, but texturally the two projects are not that far apart.

Check out samples from Immaculada:

Leere is the third full-length from German black metal horde Thorngoth, and while there were some things I didn’t like about it, overall it’s got enough of the modern German black metal sound I’ve come to love to make for a pretty enjoyable listen. It’s not quite up to the level of Germany’s more well-known bands like Nagelfar, The Ruins of Beverast, Lunar Aurora, etc., but these guys are quite talented. If you’re a fan of the German style, there should be at least a few tracks on Leere that will appeal to you.

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This latest from Roman Saenko’s project Blood of Kingu combines the best elements of his previous projects into one brutal-ass record. The guttural, deathy vocals and fast-paced ferocity of Hate Forest dominates most of the songs on Sun In The House Of The Scoropion, but the tracks also demonstrate an appreciation of atmospheric songwriting more reminiscent of Drudkh at their finest. While the album was initially a little tough to get into, lately I’ve been having a difficult time not listening to it, and I’d be hard pressed to find a black metal album to come out recently that rivals its combination of dark mysticism and unadulterated aggression.

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