France's Bliss of Flesh are a band keeping their eyes on both the past and the future. Drawing lyrical inspiration from Dante's Divine Comedy, Empyrean's black/ death swagger is very much influenced by Behemoth, though the blast-centric modern production also brings Anaal Nathrakh to mind. Sometimes darkness needs a sheen to it. [€7.99]
Tchornobog is one of several musical endeavours of prolific multi-instrumentalist Markov Soroka. A study in contrasts, the debut morphs from churning claustrophobic death metal to atmospheric doom and back in its 4 churning compositions, the shortest of which is 12 minutes. Like the similarly chimaeric (and similarly awesome) Abyssal, Tchornobog shows the limits of the genre(s) have yet to be reached. The album is available as a "name your price" download.
Don't be fooled by Wode's English origins; the Leeds band eschew the twee leanings of their countrymen for something much closer to Dissection and Necrophobic. If the title weren't a hint, Servants of the Countercosmos is very Swedish in its approach, delivering catchy hooks at no-nonsense speeds and hammering away at black metal conventions along the way. The cosmos should consider itself warned. The album is available as a "name your price" download.
Sometimes there's no escaping your nationality; though the band labels themselves "death metal", at their core Oslo's Execration are true and black. Return to the Void has enough blackened thrash mixed with heavy prog to seal it as Norwegian through and through. Even so, with its avant dissonance and Lovecraftian themes, I have no problems with describing the album as "R'leyan". [$8.99]
