Swans - The Great Annihilator

Genre(s) - You tell me!
Origin - United States of America
Year of release - 1995
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 60.03 MB

Apparently The Great Annihilator is Swans' most accessible album. Sure it's less visceral and skeletal (among other -als) than the bleak, lumbering industrial noisescapes of their 80s work but that doesn't say all that much. Although through the years the band has expanded their sonic palette in various directions, the music retains a doomy, ominous feeling. The multifaceted approach on here helps pour the disquieting rituals and visions of Swans into many different shapes - from the industrial aggression on I am the Sun or Alcohol the Seed, the beautiful drift of Warm and Killing for Company to the rock track Celebrity Lifestyle. Altogether this makes for a record that everybody into dark music can learn to enjoy, and I recommend everybody to give it a try.

1. In
2. I am the sun
3. She lives!
4. Celebrity lifestyle
5. Mother-father
6. Blood promise
7. Mind-body-light-sound
8. My buried child
9. Warm
10. Alcohol the seed
11. Killing for company
12. Mother's milk
13. Where does a body end
14. Telepathy
15. The great annihilator
16. Out
    

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Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant

Genre(s) - Folk
Origin - Seattle, United States of America
Year of release - 2008
Bitrate - 256 kbps
Size - 36.01 MB

Here's a light snack for those people that are binging on Bon Iver, Iron and Wine, Joshua Radin, that sort of stuff. I did not so much like the Fleet Foxes full-length, or at least, I was too impatient to have to look for the best tracks and an EP like this is a lot more convenient in such a case. It's a bitesize portion of your daily sunshine - it is! It's really summerlike music with some minor mystic undertones and it makes you wanna lie down in the grass and do nothing all day. At least the middle three songs do, the first and last track are actually a bit annoying and all they wanna make me do is press the skip-button. Don't let this personal opinion of mine sully your listening experience though! Lay back and let the warm breeze roll over you.

1. Sun giant
2. Drops in the river
3. English house
4. Mykonos
5. Innocent son
   

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The Upper Crust - Let Them Eat Rock

Genre(s) - Hard roque
Origin - United States of America
Year of release - 1995
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 42.58 MB

It's not easy being a fashion-conscious, handsome and important 18th-century aristocrat, but on the other hand, it has its benefits. Five of these privileged gentlemen teamed up as a rock band to share their experiences with the proles. As The Upper Crust, they play driving (if somewhat simple) old-school hard rock with snobbish vocals and a haughty fucking attitude, taking their cues from AC/DC, Kiss and Lord Foppington. Excellent music to accompany your participation in debaucheries at the highest circles or to compare each other's wigs and beauty spots to. Rock out with your frock coat!

1. Let them eat rock
2. Little lord Fauntleroy
3. Rock 'n' roll butler
4. Minuet
5. Who's who of love
6. I've got my ascot and my dickie
7. Old money
8. Friend of a friend (of the working class)
9. RSVP
10. Little rickshaw boy
11. Opera glass
    

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About that "post extra metal" period thing...

It's done. Metal to music ratios are well and comfy again. Back to the order of the day!

That wasn't so bad now, was it? Bet you wouldn't even have noticed without the stupid announcement. I hardly caught a whiff of it, myself.

Peacock is the devuhl! Ask an Arab.

Evergrey - Recreation Day

Genre(s) - Power metal
Origin - Sweden
Year of release - 2003
Bitrate - 160 kbps
Size - 58.17 MB

People seem determined to bill Evergrey as a progressive metal band, well, I'm not hearing it. Of course, for a heavy/power metal group they rely quite a bit on synths, and not in the usual uptempo way. This band is all about laying down a thick and dark atmosphere. The music never gets into a gallop but strides along solemnly to give the mood a chance to draw you in. Instrumental in this, besides the synths, is Tom S. Englund's voice. A perfect depth and a nice raw edge, and the capability to use it. Oh, he's good. Come to think of it, there are some remarkable tracks on here, especially the two fully acoustic songs, I'm Sorry and Madness Caught Another Victim, which nonetheless are quite different in style. My favourites, though, are The Great Deceiver and As I Lie Here Bleeding. Like a cross between Masterplan's debut and Iced Earth's The Dark Saga, maybe. Yeah, that sounds about right. Enjoy.

1. The great deceiver
2. End of your days
3. As I lie here bleeding
4. Recreation day
5. Visions
6. I'm sorry
7. Blinded
8. Fragments
9. Madness caught another victim
10. Darkest hour
11. Unforgivable sin
    

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Peste Noire - Lorraine Rehearsal

Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - Avignon, France
Year of release - 2007
Bitrate - 320/256 kbps
Size - 49.38 MB

The first half of this EP is kind of enjoyable I guess, with some early versions of tracks from the then-upcoming Folkfuck Folie album. As ever, the riffs are immediately recognisable as Peste Noire even though their style was changing radically in this period, and not for the better if you ask me. The most surprising song is La Césarienne, a Neige-penned old school black/thrash piece (what's gotten into you Stéphane?). But hopefully you're going to download this for the reworking of classic track Phalènes et Pestilence from their orgasmic debut La Sanie des Siécles, remember, from way back when their music was full of graceful moments of awe and wonder. In the meantime the song has doubled in length to twenty minutes, and what a joy it is to hear Peste Noire play in their old style versus the purposely butt-ugly music on the last two albums.

1. La fin del siècle
2. La Césarienne
3. Maleiçon
4. Psaume IV
5. Phalènes et pestilence
   

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Elvis Jackson - Go Home and Practice

Genre(s) - Ska-punk
Origin - Slovenia!
Year of release - 2000
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 74.94 MB

Shit yeah, some more upbeat (is there any other kind?) ska-punk, from the least expected of places! Maybe you already guessed but the bandname is a combination of Presley and Michael. The lyrics, usually in endearing broken English, are all about, er... yeah. Most of the time they don't really seem to be about anything at all, really. Fun nonetheless! Some great tracks are the reggae tunes Smoke the Herb and Smile, No Problem, the punkier My Beer and Be Yourself, and the Happy Metal Song that starts out as metal indeed but does switch back to ska. The album title is funny but definitely not representative of the music, they're doing more than okay as far as I can judge. Who cares about instrumental prowess, anyway? It's the fun that matters.

1. Dreams
2. Trigger
3. My beer
4. Hawaii club
5. Gancid - unusual conversations
6. Morning
7. Be yourself
8. Market sweets
9. Smoke the herb
10. Happy metal song
11. Monstrumental
12. You're the face
13. Johnny
14. Smile, no problem
15. Eyes can hear
16. Lies before reality
17. Srow fizow
18. Presentation
19. Terrible night
20. Ni vec poti zanaj
21. Wada
    

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Nymphea Aurora - Misery

Genre(s) - Doom metal
Origin - Veenendaal, the Netherlands
Year of release - 2005
Bitrate - 320 kbps
Size - 73.69 MB

First demo of a up-and-coming Dutch death-doom band that is as of yet unsigned. It's still a bit unpolished of course, the production is not perfect and they don't push the boundaries of doom, but I like what they're doing and I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I put this up. After a simple intro, Misery... is a stately opening, but it's in Polluted Absolution and The Touch of an Angel that the doom is layed on thick. These are definitely the songs you want to check out this demo for. Not bad at all, that's for sure, and it definitely reminds me of the pride of the Dutch Doom dancers, Officium Triste. Let's hope they make it far.

1. Intro
2. Misery...
3. Polluted absolution
4. In solitude...
5. Alone with nature
6. The touch of an angel
   

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God is an Astronaut - A Moment of Stillness

Genre(s) - Post-rock
Origin - Glen of the Downs, Ireland
Year of release - 2006
Bitrate - around 192 kbps
Size - 30.66 MB

Instrumental rock songs that steadily build from calm pieces of near-ambient introspection to stormy crescendoes that Explode in the Sky - God is an Astronaut are not much different from any of their post-rock colleagues except for the fact that they go much, much deeper. There is such melancholy in here, so much longing, so much tragic beauty. Each pained, crystalline guitar tone is a page, each track on this EP a chapter from a book you just know can't end with the main characters alive. It tells of doomed, clandestine loves and women frozen to death at the seashore after waiting in vain for their lovers to return. Well, it may tell you something else entirely, but if you want to be genuinely moved, please look no further.

1. Frozen twilight
2. A moment of stillness
3. Forever lost (reprise)
4. Elysian fields
5. Crystal canyon
   

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Diary of Dreams - Menschfeind

Genre(s) - Gothic electro
Origin - Germany
Year of release - 2005
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 38.05 MB

Not sure what to call this but it's gothic and it's electronic - you do the math. The Menschfeind EP is actually the first material I ever heard by Diary of Dreams and it seems to be a bit harsher than their usual music. It's got a good stomping beat, not fast but insistent enough, sinister atmospherics, and nice trance-y, uh, bleeps. Really, it's all quite melodic so you don't regularly have to strap yourself in tight latex with pink and green fluorescent strips, paint your two-foot mohawk black and party your nights away in abandoned warehouses to enjoy this. The EP is great for helping you traverse busy shopping streets on those days you're really not so keen on people, for instance, or guide you through other stressful moments.

1. Menschfeind
2. Haus der Stille
3. Day-X-relic
4. Killers
5. Treibsand
6. The cage
7. Pentaphobia
   

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Todtgelichter - Schemen

Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - Germany
Year of release - 2007
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 49.54 MB

To be honest listening to Schemen is an exhausting experience. It's a very intense album, the sound is massive and upfront, sharp in tone and quite busy. Despite this, I don't want to hold it back from you people. This is very solid stuff Todtgelichter present us with, maneuvering between the ultra-brutal (Blutstern, Hammer) and the majestic (Für Immer Schweigen, Aschentraum). Stylistic ingenuities are spread across the entire release, every track having a few to keep you listening. This is nothing wild or overly spectacular - kudos for the saxophone solo on Aschentraum though - but in general add some interesting accents and highlights. On the other hand it's another layer in a mix that's already been walled shut. But I'm just whining, really. Take it, is good.

1. Impulse
2. Larva
3. Segen
4. Blutstern
5. Für immer schweigen
6. Aschentraum
7. Hammer
8. Beginn des Endes
   

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Iced Earth - "Enraptured" bootleg

Genre(s) - Heavy/power/thrash metal
Origin - Tampa, Florida, USA
Year of release - Never released
Bitrate - 128 kbps

Another audience tape from the North-American leg of Iced Earth's Horror Show tour. Extensive research suggests that it was recorded in Philadelphia, April 13th, 2002. You may wanna add that to the folder name or something, I don't know. Anyway, the band's in top shape again and the sound is a bit better than the Montréal bootleg which was really quite flimsy. Of course it still doesn't match the clarity of an official, soudboard-recorded, studio-reworked live album but perhaps that's half the charm of it. The critics agree: this is the best damn heavy metal band in the world. Convince yourself and check it out; you can never have too many different versions of the same Iced Earth tracks.

Disc 1 - Load it down (46.37 MB)

1. Star spangled banner
2. Violate
3. Pure evil
4. Wolf
5. Damien
6. The hunter
7. Melancholy (holy martyr)
8. Jack
9. Scarred
   

Disc 2 - Load it down (55.23 MB)

1. Slave to the dark
2. A question of heaven
3. My own savior
4. Jackyll & Hyde
5. Watching over me
6. Dracula
7. Prophecy
8. Birth of the wicked
9. The coming curse
10. Iced Earth

Cradle of Filth - Dusk... and her Embrace

Genre(s) - Gothic/symphonic black metal
Origin - United Kingdom
Year of release - 1996
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 53.18 MB

This is a fantastic album, and fuck everybody who says Cradle of Filth suck, are "gay", are posers, etc. What makes a poser? The dire need to stress ad nauseam his or her belonging to a certain scene or subculture. Within black metal, then, the posers are those who actually care about being "true" and that would do anything and everything to appear grim and blasphemous. So scared to ever be seen wearing the wrong bandshirt or not bashing a band that strays from the path in order to simply do what they want - a band such as this. Dusk... and her Embrace may be Cradle's only really brilliant release, I will defend this band to the death against every corpsepainted, LLN-worshipping, genre-conformed clown on the planet.

1. Humana inspired to nightmare
2. Heaven torn asunder
3. Funeral in Carpathia
4. A gothic romance (red roses for the devil's whore)
5. Nocturnal supremacy '96
6. Malice through the looking glass
7. Dusk and her embrace
8. Graveyard by moonlight
9. Beauty slept in Sodom
10. Haunted shores
    

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Masshysteri - Vår Del av Stan

Genre(s) - Punk
Origin - Umeå, Sweden
Year of release - 2008
Bitrate - 256 kbps
Size - 32.60 MB

This blog keeper has seen the snowy outskirts of Umeå by night, and well, it all looked rather depressing to him. And while some people embrace this darkness and take it a step further (Woods of Infinity!), others will rage against it. Masshysteri is from the latter category, perfectly expemlifying the punk spirit: fighting the misery right from the middle of it. These two-blokes-and-a-bird don't play super fast or overly distorted, and they don't need it. Their music packs a definite punch relying solely on raw energy and brilliant gritty riffs. The overlapping male and female vocal lines are the greatest asset, giving the album a melodic edge while only adding to the music's driving force. Due to this the songs are a lot more memorable than on your averge punk album. Especially Hatkarlek, Liv och Död and Paranoid are extremely recommended tracks for when you need a mental kickstart.

1. Vår del av stan
2. Hatkarlek
3. Istiden
4. Begrav mig
5. Liv och död
6. Paranoid
7. Falsk
8. Tvivel
9. Panik
10. Lule
11. Monoton tid
    

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Tegan and Sara - If It Was You

Genre(s) - Indie pop/rock
Origin - Calgary (Alberta), Canada
Year of release - 2002
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 49.06 MB

Twins are awesome, who could be better to start a musical project with than your own twin sibling? I wish I had one. Tegan and Sara both have one, and it's each other, so they must be, like, the perfect band! They play pretty catchy indie pop/rock with sometimes a little bit folk mixed in, and other times a danceable beat. It's nothing revolutionary but it's just such easy music to relax to and feel content. Like Belle & Sebastian (but with a bit more chutzpah), or like drinking tea (but with a bit more caffein). Apparently long-time fans of the band can tell their voices and writing/playing styles apart and pick a favourite sister, but I'm not that initiated. Not much more to say; I'd pick out some highlight songs to describe but it's all just exquisite so I wouldn't know which to choose!

1. Time running
2. You went away
3. Monday monday monday
4. City girl
5. Not tonight
6. Underwater
7. I hear noises
8. Living room
9. Terrible storm
10. And darling
11. Want to be bad
12. Don't confess
    

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Immortal - Battles in the North

Genre(s) - Black metal
Origin - Norway
Year of release - 1995
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 31.74 MB

Though I quickly grew tired of the old Norwegian sound and scene, it produced a few albums that still deserve our undivided attention and Immortal has been responsible for a couple of those. I am not even going to discuss the comedic aspect of this band, you've seen the artwork and can draw your own conclusions. I bought Battles in the North as a 14 or 15 year old and didn't know what hit me. Totally chaotic hyperspeed blasts courtesy of Abbath, unretracable screechy guitar lines treated with a production cold, sharp and thin like shards of ice, and vocals - wait, I wasn't going to deal with the funny parts. Anyway, it works! Not in the same way as a Lunar Aurora does, for instance, but it's just as grim and almost as hypnotic. Let the artwork and track titles be a warning - put on your gloves and a woollen hat before listening!

1. Battles in the north
2. At the stormy gates of mist
3. Through the halls of eternity
4. Moonrise fields of sorrow
5. Cursed realms of the winterdemons
6. Throned by blackstorms
7. Grim and frostbitten kingdoms
8. Descent into eminent silence
9. Circle above in time before time
10. Blashyrkh (mighty ravendark)
    

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Bergthron - Leben und Lebenswille

Genre(s) - Pagan black metal
Origin - Germany
Year of release - 2007
Bitrate - 174-320 kbps

Leben und Lebenswille ("Life and the Will to Live") was too big to upload as a single RAR, but then again it was released on three cds so that's how I'm posting it. Hurray for problems that solve themselves! So what should be expected on this release? Quite a lot actually. Bergthron manage to cover a lot of ground within the realm of black metal without overstretching themselves. The music's rooted in mid-tempo pagan black, in the tradition of previously-posted bands like Falkenbach and Arathorn. And like those groups, there are some marvellous clean vocals at work here, especially in the tracks Im Waldhornbann and Eistrollzorn. Another point of attention is the drumming, which is excellent and it takes a track like Unter dem Bogen des Nordlichtes to a whole new, higher level. There are really no two similar songs, and even though this inventive Saxon band takes seemingly conventional genre-stylistics and combines them into something unique, the music does not seem disjointed either. Like black metal, any kind of black metal? Do yourself a huge favour and give this a spin.

If I can remember correctly, Mediafire will allow you to download all files at the same time.

Disc 1 - Load it down (37.49 MB)

1. Tagesraunen
2. Die Harpunen jagen wieder
3. Im Waldhornbann
4. Unter schroffen Segeln
   

Disc 2 - Load it down (39.51 MB)

1. Arktische Hysterie
2. Feuer und Tundra
3. Eistrollzorn
4. Geistesreise
5. Tausend Berge, tausend Flüsse

Disc 3 - Load it down (33.93 MB)

1. Unter dem Bogen des Nordlichtes
2. Rot
3. In den Freudentaumels Griff

Doomsword - Let Battle Commence

Genre(s) - Traditional doom metal
Origin - Italy
Year of release - 2003
Bitrate - 192 kbps
Size - 71.89

Though Italy might not sound like an entirely logical place of origin for Viking-themed metal, it should be known that the Northmen sailed the entire width of the Mediterranean sea, and set up trading posts deep in the European inlands. Some of these travellers might just have established a lineage around Gallarate, Lombardia, from which this savage warband springs. Doomsword don't play your average "Viking metal" fare, looking much more closely to Candlemass than to Bathory for inspiration. The epic, no-bullshit heaviness of tracks like Heathen Assault, The Siege or In the Battlefield does lend itself much more to themes of Medieval warfare than depression and the music and texts really reinforce each other. Of course the greatest role in this has been reserved for the vocalist, one mr. Deathbringer (pity...), whose deep, powerful bellows are the perfect glue between music and lyrics. Seriously, what a voice. Let Battle Commence proves the epic doom template fits well with warlike pagan lyrics and manages to sound more genuinely "Viking" than most of the Scandinavian stuff in the process.

1. Heathen assault
2. In the battlefield
3. Woden's reign
4. Deathbringer
5. The siege
6. Blood eagle
7. My name will live on
   

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Rise and Fall of a Decade - You or Sidney

Genre(s) - Ethereal
Origin - France
Year of release - 1994
Bitrate - 128 kbps
Size - 50.01 MB

Finally, after a long time I found another good ethereal group, and one with a male singer, which is rare enough. The drifting music is akin to a band like And Also the Trees in these 19th-century countryside sort of scenes it evokes. This mood's tranquility is sometimes ruptured by a more forceful drive which keeps the music from becoming too lethargic or single-issued. Listening to You or Sidney, I sometimes can't help but think this trio must be British by their sound, but they're French. What makes this band most interesting though, are the dual vocals of which I especially like the male singer, and their largely acoustic approach that is a little medievalish, but not to excess. There are a lot of subtly beautiful, waltzy melody lines hidden among the music's many layers. For hopeless romantics and children of another era.

1. One of these days
2. The hope seller
3. Mistake
4. Games for dying
5. You or Sidney
6. Strange way
7. European swindle
8. Hold me
9. First
10. Dear assurance
11. Sweet pills
12. Escape
    

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