Unlike my best of 2008 list where I didn't even finish it until April of 2009 I've decided to start my 2009 list early as to try and not forget any releases or be the last one on this site to post there lists for that matter. Also I've decided to just post a short review for every single new album I heard in 2009 whether it be great or garbage. I'll probably update this list once a week from now with some fresh albums so stop on by again and read the new stuff I've posted.
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Ajattara – Noitumaa
I've only heard the first two Ajattara albums and while I find them to be just decent it seems the general consensus has been that they've repeated themselves constantly and have generally left behind the quality of those first two releases. Noitumaa could very well be the result of completely running out of ideas. Ajattara goes acoustic on this one and the results are not exactly pleasing. Black metal is not meant to be played acoustically and it would seem even if they had good intentions they ultimately failed to escape the natural ugliness that black metal has. The music consists of a guitar, some percussion, Pasi's growled and clean vocal styles, and various other odd vocal sounds, noises and instruments. The whole thing sounds silly even laughable in some places and completely eschews the beautiful soothing sound that acoustic music probably should have. But maybe the band wasn't trying to sound pretty. I really don't know.
Finntroll made an acoustic album a few years ago and sure it too was silly and ugly sounding in certain places, but it was totally fun. This isn't fun. Its just kinda, well, not to good. If you're looking for something that will bring a grin to your face then this might be it, however if you're actually looking for enjoyable music you'll have to look elsewhere. 2/5
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Amorphis - Skyforger
Basically this is the best Amorphis ever not to mention the best album in 2009. Hey what can I say. I love Tales and Elegy, but my god they freakin' destroyed their old masterpieces with 'Skyforger.' From the beautiful opener 'Sampo' to the ultra catchy 'Silver Bride,' and even the closer 'From Earth I Rise' perfection is present for over fifty minutes. No major sound changes are to be found here as it sounds just like the past two Amorphis releases, but just like those two the band sounds completely re-energized after falling behind a little with old vocalist Pasi. Speaking of vocalist's Tomi's singing on this record is absolutely breathtaking and even though he has always sounded great he sounds godlike on this one. Really nothing more to say as the whole record is great and there isn't a bad song to be found. However I should mention that its worth your time to track down the 'Silver Bride' single for the amazing b-side called 'Seperated,' which was unfairly left off from an already perfect album. 5/5
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Anaal Nathrakh - In the Constellation of the Black Widow
'Hell is Empty, and all the Devils are here' was (at least for me) the crowning achievement in the Anaal Nathrakh discography and by far one the better records in 2007. So I figured it would be a challenge to follow up with another immense record, and initially I thought otherwise, but after a few spins the new album has really grown on me. Musically the band has stayed true to their previous work though this album seems generally more brutal and just far more pissed off. Its the bands signature mix of black/death metal with grind influences and it works better than you'd expect. This band has always had that unique ability to get me charged up like none other and if need be to cleanse my mind of all the horrible thoughts that roam around in my head when I'm irate with someone or something. Enough said, go listen to this record!
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Beherit – Engram
Upon hearing that Beherit had reformed I more or less just sat here in my computer chair scratching my head thinking, “Why?” I mean don't get me wrong. Its cool when bands reform, assuming they still have the right motivation and drive to make the same music they did in their heyday. In the case of Beherit, well they are for one thing considered to be one of (if not) the first black metal bands from Finland, and besides that their brand of ugly raw blackened death metal violence has served as inspiration for countless bands since. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that 'Drawing Down the Moon' is one of the best black metal records ever conceived either. And so its fourteen years later and Beherit is back on the scene. Riding along with Holocausto is original drummer Sadomatic Slaughter as well as Sami Tenetz (
Thy Serpent) handling guitar and Twisted Baptizer (
Chaosweaver) with bass duties. The music as you might expect is raw and barbaric at times and brings to mind those old demos, but it also has a strong atmospheric quality to it which makes me think back to DDTM era. 'Engram' is a strange record though, at times it sounds like classic Beherit, but perhaps more modernized and actually the production is a bit better than those old cult demos and albums. I must admit at first this album didn't do much for me, but after about five or so spins its really started to grow on me, in fact songs like 'Pagan Moon' and 'Axiom Heroine' are goddamn excellent. The vocals are delivered quite well too ranging from Holocausto's classic growled shrieks to hypnotic sounding clean vocals, which sound like some sort of spirit from the beyond speaking to you. As I understand it this album charted and sold like a motherfucker in Finland upon its release. I suppose that makes it all worth while then. While Engram may take a few spins to get it into I do still recommend checking out the Beherit of 2009 and beyond. 4/5
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Behexen – From the Devil's Chalice
Originally released in early 2008 as a three 7” LP box set, 'From the Devil's Chalice' received the CD treatment back in June through Woodcut Records. Altogether we have six songs here which combine for just a little over thirty minutes of raw and relentless Finnish black metal. Musically this release doesn't differ from previous or current Behexen releases much since its raw in production, fast and brutal with some rockin' riffs here and there, and harshly screamed vocals fueled by all things grim and evil in this wonderful world of ours. Although this is just thirty minutes of music I find myself enjoying this more so than the first two Behexen releases or even their most recent full-length. In any case if you missed the box set, which I'm sure is long sold out and if you should be craving some Satanic themed black metal then surely this is the release for you. 3/5
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Betray-Ed - An Everlasting Drift
Since the Betray-ed's inception a few years ago the band has been very productive by releasing a number demos, EP's and full length albums, all of which have had a slightly different sound and feeling to them. Generally improving upon the previous one. Although François is the main composer of Betray-ed there has been a host of guest musicians aiding him on his path thus far. The music has ranged from melodic ambient to acoustic folk, piano ballads, and even medieval style songs, however on this latest release we see a much more prominent metal influence, but most songs are in the previously mentioned genres. 'Merry Tune from the Castle Court' as an example has a heavy electric guitar riff paired with bouncy folky keyboards that reminds me of some of the old Falkenbach stuff while 'Quiet Agony' is a lovely piano piece. 'A Scent of Forlorn Love' sounds a lot like the old
Empyrium songs complete with Schwadorf-ish vocals too, however the finest moment of this album is the final song 'And All Shall Turn Back to Oceans,' which happens to be a really beautiful and melancholic piano/acoustic piece. Perhaps the albums only faults would be the underground production and the diversity of the music might make it an odd listen, but all in all this is fairly good release worth hearing. For those that are curious this album as well as all previous Betray-ed releases are fully streamable on last.fm. Check them out. 3/5
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Bloody Woods - Colour
Bloody Woods is a Chinese one man affair (with guest musicians) whose music is somewhere between the medieval/renaissance sound of
Estampie,
Faun or
Corvus Corax, plus with a few songs, which would fall into the neo folk genre. The neo folk songs generally feature soft acoustic guitars, percussion, flute, and both male and female vocals. These songs are of course a bit calmer and melancholic sounding while the songs that have the medieval/renaissance style sound a bit livelier, but its not the sort of thing thats going to make you hop out of your seat and start drinking and dancing too. While there are quite a few good songs on this recording I find that 'The Warriors Return' tends to stand out since the duel vocals sort of remind me of
Halgadom's 'Verdunkelung Des Gottlichen' album. As a whole though with rich instrumentation, strong vocals, and an overall great performance I find there to be little fault with this recording save for the fact that its only thirty nine minutes, but besides that Bloody Woods proves to be an exciting new band in this genre. 4/5
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Cities Last Broadcast - The Cancelled Earth
Cities Last Broadcast is a new project from Pär Boström the man behind the much sought after dark ambient project
Kammarheit. His 2009 debut The Cancelled Earth is a collection of field recordings from airports, train stations, tunnels, and bridges that have been treated and turned into absolutely desolate sounding dark ambient music. This music really sounds like an empty city or a post nuclear explosion, which took down most of the world in the process. In any case everyone is dead and there's just the slightest bit of sound left which has created a very creepy dark ambient sound. Basically though this is dark ambient perfection and frankly I wouldn't expect anything less from this man. 5/5
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Embrace of Thorns – Atonement Ritual
If you have any love for such ancient kvlt musical terrorists as
Beherit,
Blasphemy,
Von,
Manticore,
Archgoat or
Sarcofago then this Greek three piece's latest 'Atonement Ritual' is not one to be missed. Archfiend Devil Pig, Herald of Demonic Pestilence and Nuctemeron Bestial Ravisher of the Divine Harmony assault the listeners ears with forty minutes of absolutely cryptic sounding black/death war metal. The music is raw uncompromising blasphemic evil that hankers back to the glory days of the black and death metal scene and while its nothing new and for all I know this recording may even sound exactly like the bands previous efforts, but their brand of archaic evil is simply better than a lot of bands out there currently performing in this style. 4/5
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Forgotten Winter - Dialéctica Transcendental
Forgotten Winter is a relatively new (2004) and most likely completely unknown band from Portugal. With a few demos, a split, and an EP last year these Portuguese musicians released ‘Dialéctica Transcendental’ through Nordsturm Productions. Upon pressing play and listening to the first song you’re really not sure what you’ve bought. At first it would appear to be an ambient album, but then after this nearly nine minute introductory track it’s finally revealed that Forgotten Winter’s music is in fact within the black metal genre. In fact it’s quite good too. The band has a heavily symphonic black metal sound that reminds me of the finest moments of Limbonic Art, Sirius, Tartaros, Obsidian Gate and Odium. The guitars are raw and trebly, the keyboards have a very epic, orchestral, and cosmic sort of feel to them, and the singer screams out in a whispery black metal rasp. I’ve always been something of a sucker for this genre and Forgotten Winter proves to be a great new comer to this genre. Do check it out. 3.5/5
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Horna – Musta Kaipuu
The story behind the latest Horna album is that its actually left overs from the 'Envaatnags Eflos Solf Esgantaavne' sessions back in 2005. So not technically newly recorded music but still new nonetheless. As usual with Horna the band is playing raw black metal with a trebly guitar sound that has its fair share of dark sinister riffs but plenty of grooving rocking riffs that will surely get you charged up a bit after listening. I wouldn't say these extra recordings are mandatory by any means, but in case you happen to be a big fan of this sort of mid-paced raw black metal or just a Horna fan in general then you'll most likely find yourself enjoying this album. 3/5
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Mag Mell – Revival
Mag Mell is the solo venture of one Seaghdha Aodhan who resides in Minnesota, USA. Musically this is a mixture of raw fast paced black metal with a strong Irish folk influence in both the guitar and also with the addition of several folk instruments like the bodhran, tin whistle, fiddle, and bagpipes to name but a few. Generally I do dig a lot of folk metal bands, but the problem with Mag Mell is that everything seems chaotic and nothing coalesces at all. Typically the idea with the folk instruments would be to enhance the music and make it more colorful but instead they seem to just completely clash with the metal portion of this bands music. It certainly doesn't help any that the album has a weak bedroom like production and that the vocals lack power and diversity too. While I do find it to be admirable that this guy can play so many instruments (ten of them to be exact) I do however believe in the end that this album is really only for the obsessive folk/Irish metal bands. 2/5
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Oathless - Seen Through Reflection
As far as I'm concerned Oathless is one of the best bands on this site thats offering up free music to all of us. This UK based solo project began back 2006 as an acoustic/neo folk styled entity, but recent releases has seen Oathless move onto a pure ambient style, and 'Seen Through Reflection' continues in this vein. STR is a short twenty two minute EP that brings to mind
Ildjarn-Nidhogg's 'Hardangervidda' duo of albums. The music is light, slow, relaxing, melancholic, trance inducing and absolutely beautiful for the EP's entire duration. I think you'll find that playing Oathless' music while in a somber mood or when you just want to relax with a good fantasy novel that this is a perfect match. Do yourself a favor and discover one very interesting and talented musicians music soon. 4.5/5
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Pagan Blood – The Last Empire
Pagan Blood is a new solo project from Frenchmen Julien who previously played in a band I fancied called
Heathen Dawn. HD only released a demo and a single EP back in 2002 and it seems Julien took a few years off from music since he didn't play in any other bands or create any new solo projects until 2008 when both Pagan Blood and his other band
DRACHENFELS were set in motion. Although I'm not sure if it was entirely intended it seems like Pagan Blood is a continuation of Heathen Dawn, which basically means melodic epic sounding Pagan themed black-ish metal. The music is mostly mid-paced and as I said melodic with some interesting solos and catchy riffs while only a few times does it shift in speed to a full blown black metal style. Although not as clean cut sounding as say
Ensiferum or
Falkenbach, Pagan Blood still offers up a tasty little thirty five minutes of music here, which will more than likely set your heathen soul ablaze as you listen. 3.5/5
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Spiculum Iratus – Summa Anti-Theologica
After a split release a few years ago Spiculum Iratus returns in 2009 with their debut recording titled 'Summa Anti-Theologica.' On this album the band has been joined by vocalist Os Miserum whom has made appearances with
Xasthur and
Chaos Moon as well as being the mastermind behind the ambient/industrial band
Nostalgia. Spiculum Iratus' music is generally very chaotic, fast, and raw in its execution, but it still has a very dark, atmospheric, creepy, and occult like characteristic to it, which makes it stand out from other black metal bands within this style. There are also some calmer ambient sections, samples, and even some cleaner sounding guitar harmonies present too. The vocals definitely stand out as they sound like deep venomous cries from a demon within the very bowels of hell itself. There's quite a bit of echo an effect placed on them, but they manage to sound very original and hellish as they are screamed out. There isn't any single song that truly stands out, but at thirty five minutes the whole thing proves to be an exciting and fresh sounding release within the USBM underground that is definitely not one to be missed. 4/5
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Stormheit – Kvenland
Stormheit has been active since 2005 and has thus far released two albums. This Finnish two-man band plays a style of epic Pagan metal that's quite similar to
Bathory's epic/Viking works or even the French band Pagan Blood. The music is slightly raw in style and features entirely cleanly sung vocals that once again sound quite similar to Bathory's. So there not really great vocals but they fit the music just as
Quorthon's did. Kinda. Anyway the guitars are fairly well performed with plenty of melodic variety (see 'Snake and Thunder') and the occasional synth passage is not unheard of either. The music itself is mostly mid-paced and slow in its execution and there's never any sudden bursts of speed or raging drum work. All in all if you prefer your epic viking metal in the true Bathory vein than this is not one to be missed. In fact I recommend it. 3.5/5
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Týr - By The Light Of The Northern Star
It seems like no matter how much I listen to this band they just don't seem to click with me. That is of course a bit of a disappointment on a personal level since generally I dig just about everything folk and Pagan related in music, but Týr's brand of progressive Pagan influenced heavy metal just never seems to hit home with me. I'm sure many would disagree with me, but I find there to be something terribly annoying about Heri's voice. Likewise the average riffs in this album are rather, well, just average sounding. On the other hand there are some cool solos to be found but they hardly save each song they appear in. If you've heard these guys in the past and enjoyed them than you'll enjoy this record but if your still trying to get into them like I have for three albums now then don't expect much to happen. 2/5
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Urfaust - Einsiedler
'Einsiedler' is my first experience with this Netherlands based band called Urfaust and while I think some of their older releases are within the true raw black metal vein this new EP is definitely worlds away from that. At just nineteen minutes this EP offers up a more progressive post black metal sound on the first song with plenty of synth and for the most part a rather slow moving song structure but still having a very epic like quality to it. Although the second song is still rather slow in speed it does away with the synths completely and the guitars have a strong raw black metal quality to them while the vocalist screeches and yelps throughout the songs seven minute duration. If you're looking for something a bit more experimental then definitely check out this first song, but ultimately the second is completely boring in less you really have a thing for slow Burzumic dirges. 2.5/5
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Wyrdstone - Cuffern
'Cuffern' is the debut album from West Sussex England native Clive Murrell. Cuffern is a acoustic/folk album with a theme around the Wickerman, though the album is completely instrumental, save for what I believe is a sampled voice on the first song. Musically the feel of this release is more within a traditional folk vein rather than say within the neo folk genre, but even so the music has a timeless or heathen sort of aura to it and it remains quite beautiful from the first to the last song. Generally the only instrument used is an acoustic guitar, though some flutes and shakers are used and there is even one song that falls in the ambient genre. The sixth song and title track is the absolute highlight for me as it is breathtakingly gorgeous in its delivery and becomes trapped within my mind every time I listen to it. I'm also quite fond of 'Cam Ye 'er Frae France' since this one makes use of the flutes and shakers I mentioned earlier and it almost has a medieval like vibe to it. All in all quite an impressive release that comes housed in a cardboard sleeve in CDr format and unfortunately limited to just a 100 copies. Definitely act fast if you don't want to miss this stunning release. 4.5/5
Empyrium
2. Metallica - Death Magnetic (293) 
