Black Thrash Attack

An apt title for Aura Noir's first full-length album. This was another sweet used bin find that I was pretty sure that I'd like based solely on the album title. I guess that you could call them a "supergroup" of sorts, being made up of current/former members of Mayhem, Satyricon, Ulver, Immortal, Ved Buens Ende, yadda yadda. You can probably guess what you're going to get with this. It's good.

Black Thrash!

Protected by the Ejaculation of Wolves

This is a 2005 split release between England's Moss and Wolfmangler. Moss starts up the album with some really bleak, ugly doom metal played live in Holland in '04. Then a noisy remix of the track from the split they did with Nadja. Lots of feedback, lots of stressful heaviness.
Wolfmangler sound like some kinda funeral doom played with stand-up bass, guitar, a couple of electric basses and violin. There's a shuffling, creepy, demented folky vibe to the whole thing, and a strange cover of a Hank Williams Jr. song to boot.

Have a relaxing weekend!

Winterhawk - Revival

Here's some 70's rock-sounding rock from 1982. Hailing from Chicago, I can imagine these guys playing a lot of bar shows and not getting the recognition that they should have. A few years too late, perhaps. Features some ridiculously awesome guitar-work from Jordan Macarus and some great wailing vocals. And the winged centaur on the cover rounds out the package nicely. Enjoy.

CLICK

Violent Restitution

Razor are Canadian thrash metal of the highest order. They're fast, heavy and pulverizing, yet still extremely catchy and "upbeat". Definitely some Crossover appeal, especially in the drumming and vocals.  Sound-wise, this falls somewhere in-between the American and German thrash bands.

1988

Immortal

How about Immortal's self-titled first 7"? Yeah? Sounds good? Of course it does! It's Immortal! What we have here is an intro and alternate versions of two of the better songs from Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism. It has a great echo-y sound like old Burzum and a galloping epicness that reminds me of Bathory. A good way to spend 9 minutes.

9 minutes

Purgatory Afterglow

Several years ago my lady really dug this album for a while. She didn't give a shit about most of the stuff I listened to, but this struck a chord for some reason.
So gents, if you want to get your girlfriend into Swedish death metal, this is the place to start. Pretty melodic and accessible as far as this style goes, but there's still plenty of those crunchy/chunky toe-tappin' riffs.

clack

In God We Trust, Inc.

Yeah, it's kinda an obvious post that anyone remotely into any kind of punk/hardcore has probably already heard, but whatever. This left quite an impression on my 12 year-old brain. Harsh and speedy and furious.

I thought this was pretty damn cool at the time as well:

click

Church of Misery

Here's some serial killer-obsessed Japanese dudes playing some bluesy, Sabbath-y doom metal. Not much else to say... Track 5 is a Blue Öyster Cult cover. The album's called Master of Brutality and was released in 2001.

here you go

Xibalba

I'm not sure what the "poop" in the album's title Ah Dzam Poop Ek means. The lyrics center around ancient Mayan culure and demonology, so it probably translates to something cool in some dead language.
So. Black metal from Mexico that sounds like what some of the Norwegian bands, namely Darkthrone, were doing at the time ('94) in terms of riffs/drums/guitar tone/production. But Xibalba had a different sense of melody that incorporated, I dunno, Mexican folky-ness into their riffs that makes for an interesting listen.

poop