Vesterian - Anthems for the Coming War Age [Full length] (2013, Glorious North Productions)

Vesterian has existed in some form since 1994 and can soon celebrate their 20th anniversary. Until '96 they were known as Centurion and released two demos under this name. The name change brought 5 more demos until 2013 where the American band released their first album "Anthems for the Coming War Age" through Glorious North Productions. The fact that only demo material has been produced up until now, the name change and the large time gap between some demos speaks of a very turbulent background in the form of a relocation from North Carolina to California and a revolving door lineup.

From the roots of black metal like early Bathory, Venom and Hellhammer there has always been a sort of clumsy approach to music in the pursuit of extremity. But with Vesterian there is a much more modern attitude. There's nothing unsure or half-assed about it, neither the songwriting nor the enactment of the music.

Anthems for the Coming War Age features among other things a drummer that doesn't know how to relax and is probably way too generous with his blastbeats. It's always fast, all the time, even when it feels like a more controlled, deliberate pace would be more fitting. There are countless examples of black metal bands that use blastbeats very prominently in their music, and this is obviously not always a bad thing, but bands like Marduk seem to have it down to an art to use it with a bit more taste and deliberation. When all is said and done it seems like a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but it does mean that at times Vesterian's music will become a bit monotonous and unvaried.
What the American quintet lacks in variation they more than make up for in sheer power though. There is not much to be left wanting in regards to envigoratingly furious guitar riffs, and the groaning Abbath-y vocals often venture beyond the realms of orthodox black metal in pursuit of greater depth and atmosphere.

In the end what it comes down to with Vesterian's debut album is whether or not you can tolerate the lengthier tracks that the band puts forth. With songs like Morax Gates, pt. 2, with its galloping drumwork, multiple layers of somewhat dissonant guitars, epic solo and long vocal-less stretches, it's proven that Vesterian aren't a one trick pony in any sense, and the Ancient Bloodthirst track shows that they have the capacity for more spectacular and grandios songwriting as well, but when almost every track is in excess of 6 minutes in length it seems weird that most songs seem to follow a pretty standard progression pattern. It's not that Anthems for the Coming War Age doesn't live up to its name, and it is a fun listen that I would recommend to all black metal fanatics, but it's been done before to the same standards. Even so, it's a magnificent example of modern black metal with no bullshit symphonic elements or 10-minute ambient intros, interludes and outros. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Gathering
2. Under the Red Moon
3. Morax Gates, pt. 2
4. Ancient Bloodthirst
5. Unknown Spells Cast from Nibiru's Watch Tower
6. For Battles to Come
7. Dead Kings of Tyranny
8. Dark Oceans Roar During the Cosmic Upheaval
9. Blasphemous Sorcery of a Witch King

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Nordland - The True Cult of the Earth [Full length] (2013, Glorious North Productions)

EDIT:

So, according to a recent post on Facebook Vorh is apparently tired of the constant Bathory-comparison as he claims there is no connection what so ever to the band and the Nordland I and II albums and that his main source of inspiration does not lie with Bathory. Fair enough I guess.

Vorh, the force behind Nordland, started the band in 2011, whereupon he promptly released the highly commendable and self-titled full length debut "Nordland". Vorh hails from the northeastern parts of the United Kingdom, an area that like most other parts of the UK has a damp and rainy climate. Historically the tidal island of Lindisfarne in this area is famous for being raided by vikings in the year 793, ushering in the Viking Age of Northern Europe.

Whether the sort of Bathory-esque viking tendencies on the True Cult of the Earth album is a coincidence is left to pure speculation, but the area's history and the fact that the name Nordland could well be taken from the two Bathory albums certainly suggest there being a correlation.
I lauded the eponymous album Nordland from 2011, giving it an 8/10 rating for its genuinely enjoyable composure and the way it sticks to the roots of black metal without merely copying them. A vast difference between the Nordland and the True Cult of the Earth albums is that while there was hardly any folky viking feelings leftover on the first album, these seem to have found their way unto the lates opus, although in very limited quantities.

Vorh's Nordland project issues 7 tracks on The True Cult of the Earth clocking in at a little over an hour in playtime. As such it is a pretty lengthy album with no songs under 5 minutes in length, and bravely starting out with the 13 minute monster The Great Hall of the Sky. This track among most of the others seem to favor the pondering tones of slow and well-tempered black metal, and in extention of this the guitarwork and groaning vocals of Vorh are equally ponderous, sometimes bordering on meandering.

It is the same wandering behaviour circling around the viking heritage of Bathory and other similar bands that gives Nordland a kind of hypnotic aspect that is hard to dislike, but it also creates a sense of not really... going anywhere. The True Cult of the Earth has a sound as naturalistic as the previous album but lacks the memorability that graced it. It's a bit unadventurous, but the recipe still works. The lyrics and the way the vocals drift around is still unmistakingly that of Nordland and as such recognizably different from other bands within the genre, and the guitars are faithfully interwoven with the varying drumtracks in the same way.

The True Cult of the Earth displays a traditional form of black metal that at the same time is removed from the almost religiously orthodox tyranny that many bands practice and enforce. It is this tenacity that Nordland primarily benefits from on this album, and it is by these means that the ends are met. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. The Great Hall of the Sky
2. Dawn Calling of Thunor
3. Elthtelor
4. Heathen Lands
5. I Am the Winds of the Earth
6. A Mound to Lay my Bones Upon
7. Crows

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Written in Torment - Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes [Full length] (2013, Glorious North Productions)

One would hardly expect an anti-christian black metal band to emerge from a town as scenic and pittoresque as Harrogate, England. This is nonetheless the place from which Written in Torment hails, and considering it rains more or less half the year in the UK maybe it isn't that far fetched. Mike Hardisty working under the name "Leviathan" taken from the biblical sea creature created Written in Torment in 2003 and has since worked more or less alone on the project. The first demo, Written in Torment, was released in 2006 followed by The Uncreation EP a few months later, which some reviewers and fans hold in high regard. Whilst not going on a hiatus per se it wouldn't be until 2013 before new songs were heard from the one-man project.

Released in the sunny month of May there is a stark constrast right off the bat from the cold black metal style of Leviathan's music on Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes, or "the war of all against all". The name comes from two books by Thomas Hobbes entitled De Cive from 1642 and Leviathan from 1651, Hardisty's stagename perhaps being a reference to the book's title.

The 2013 album - released by Glorious North Productions, a label specializing in black metal - has a strikingly good production. Every aspect of the album seems judiciously well-thought out, and the melodic guitar parts and solos are what stand out the most. These parts have a certain British feeling to them, resembling especially bands like Bal-Sagoth, albeit without the overtly symphonic aspects. A song such as Beast of the Depths, a direct reference to the Leviathan creature, and Grief especially showcase Hardisty's writing abilities, and the album generally seems to betray the traditional black metal practices in favour of elements from thrash, death and other subgenres.

Though the music on Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes primarily features cold black metal with tendencies toward the melodic aspects of bands like Emperor, there is still left room for experimentation, and a transition between chilling black metal tremolos to the glorious warmth of well-accomplished guitar melodies and soli isn't all that rare on the album.

A great deal of the strength of Written in Torment's album lies with the amount of variation on this journey through the history of the suffering of man. Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes features themes of war, biblical travesties and hardships, relating perfectly to the music itself. The debut is ripe with immersive riffing and thoughtful drumming and compositions, and the only real issue is the length of the songs and the album as a result of that. Bellum Omnium... is comprised of 10 songs, all of which are almost 5 minutes or more in length. It's not too big a deal considering the quality of the tracks, and the flow of the album as a whole is impressive, but listening to an album for an hour - variety put aside - can get tedious at times, especially with so much going on as on Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes. You have to concentrate while listening to Written in Torment, because missing any of Leviathan's dazzling compositions would be a sin! 9/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Earth Decimated
2. Eternities Suffering Endured
3. Beast of the Depths
4. Descent Into Total Madness
5. O' Fortuna
6. Grief
7. Solitude
8. Behold the Trinity Maimed and Rotten
9. A Pig Hung in Golgotha
10. Necessary Evil

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Nordland - Nordland [Full length] (2012, Glorious North Productions)

Black metal is one of the metal genres that has most run-of-the-mill bands in my opinion. Ever since Darkthrone and other similar bands basically wrote the 101 guide to simple black metal in the 90's thousands of people have tried their hand at creating music with minimal effort, and this has led to a plethora of incomplex, boring black metal bands, a lot of which are one-man projects. While Nordland is also a one-man effort, his straightforward style is more or less the exact opposite of run of the mill.

The eponymous first release of Nordland takes me back to when I first started listening to black metal. Those years ago it was albums such as Satyricon's Nemesis Divina and Dark Medieval Times, Marduk's Panzer Division Marduk and Nightwing and Gorgoroth's Destroyer that shaped my musical tastes, and Nordland - though the name brings Bathory's viking metal albums of the same name to mind - reminds me a lot of those bands in the way that it's simply plain black metal with no bullshit.

The production is sufficiently clean to allow for smaller details to come forth and provide the necessary variation so the music doesn't become tedious to listen to, much in the same way that the abovementioned albums do, and it makes the album sound immensely professional and immersive, which is rather astounding for a debut effort. The same discrete variations are what makes up the cold atmosphere that fills Nordland's debut and allow the tracks to be of such impressive length. Black metal traditionally consists largely of songs longer than 3 minutes, but Nordland's shortest track is about 5 minutes and 20 seconds, and the 7 tracks on the album makes it an hour long opus of classic semi-modern black metal.

Only rarely have I heard debut albums, especially within this genre, that sound so professional, and seldom have I listened to straight up black metal that features riffs as memorable as Nordland's. Like Vorh, the band's sole member, raspingly sings on Messenger of the Vortex Winds, "This is my land and I live here alone", Vorh has made black metal his domain and is one of the few newer one-man black metal bands worth listening to. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Vorscara
2. Thule
3. Morth
4. Messenger of the Vortex Winds
5. Lords of the Great Dwelling
6. Nordland
7. Nord Uliima

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Pantheon of Blood - Consociatio Solis et Lunae [EP] (2011, Glorious North Productions)

There are so many subgenres of black metal, some close to the roots of the genre and others so mutated they are barely recognizable. Bands like Dimmu Borgir with their transition from symphonic black metal to what is essentially symphonic extreme metal further makes it difficult to categorize bands of that type.
Pantheon of Blood, however, is easy to place - They play straight-to-the-point no bullshit black metal with small hints of depressive black like Burzum and early Satyricon.

Created only 3 years ago Pantheon of Blood haven't released much yet. Other than a self-titled demo from 2010 Consociatio Solis et Lunae is the first effort from the Finnish band. Not only does the EP leave the listener wanting more, it also creates great expectations for more material. Pantheon of Blood really have something to live up to with this debut EP.

The great guitar work comes together with the fantastically grim vocals and well-varied drums in a close to 8 minute blast of genuinely good black metal. The cryptical sound that Pantheon of Blood has picked up so early in their musical carreer creates the perfect amount of gloom for the 2-song EP. All the transitions are smooth and the melodic riffs don't in any way take away focus from the raw outlook, especially because the sublime details only add to the feelings invoked by Consociatio Solis et Lunae.
All in all I guess you could say that Pantheon of Blood is a strong contender in the veritable horde of black metal bands out there. They stand out along other newer acts like Ash Borer by making more intricate black metal with more layers than what is customary for most bands of the genre. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Overflowing Manifestation
2. The Crimson Empress of Night

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Deviator - Way of Warriors: Hymn to Immortals [Compilation] (2011, Glorious North Productions)

Most depressive or ambient black metal bands have very little going on structure-wise. Simplistic guitars and repetitive drumming is abundant in the genre aswell as lengthy tracks, mostly with few layers of instrumentation. Ukranian black metalist Lord Hastner of "DEVIATOR" is among these traditionalists, though to say this band is a deviation would be an overstatement.

I've been rather harsh on this summary of Deviator's rather short carreer, and it's always very difficult to grade a compilation like this, especially when it's from an unknown band like this Ukranian project. One thing is certain though: Way of Warriors gives a fair and satisfactory look into the pretty extensive and gloomy back catalogue of Lord Hastner's band. It's always enjoyable to hear how a band evolves and how musicians go from playing one style to another.

Deviator started out playing ambient black metal with a twist of depressive black and ended up playing a more death-like style of black metal. Seeing the transcendence between genres and styles is fun, and in all the periods of Deviator it seems there are both good and less enjoyable tracks. One thing I found out while listening to Way of Warriors is this: Deviator, like so much metal, must be enjoyed loud. You'll get the best sound and be able to hear the best details if you turn up those speakers.

Production-wise the material's great. It gives a great sense of atmosphere and emotion while still maintaining the raw sound of black metal. But regarding the recordings themselves I am completely baffled by what sounds like off rhythms. In a few select tracks it sounds like the guitar is playing a LOT slower than the drums, as if the guitars were recorded without a click-, ghost- or drumtrack. This botches up the rhythm and flow of the entire song and I find it really difficult to enjoy a track like this.
Overall Way of Warriors - Hymn to Immortals is a fair overview of Deviator's discography, portraying both the good and the bad elements. It's (almost) always nice to see and hear a band evolve and take in new elements and styles. 6/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Old Melancholy
2. Forgotten Hope
3. The Last Day of Mankind
4. Mighty Black Inner Flame
5. Mesmerized by Blood
6. Raw Symphony of Sorrow
7. Undying Darkness
8. To Forgotten Path - Triumph of the Will
9. Thy Blood in my Veins
10. Black Sorrow
11. Funeral Future Bells
12. Primordial Darkness pt. 1
13. Primordial Darkness pt. 2
14. Way of Warriors - Hymn to Immortals

DEVIATOR official site
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Moloch - Illusionen Eines Verlorenen Lebens [Full length] (2011, Glorious North Productions)

Many black metal bands utilize elements of dark ambient in their music, either as intros, by making entire dark ambient songs among black metal ones or by direct incorporation of ambience into the music to create an atmosphere. While black metal by its sheer nature already have lots of atmospheric tendencies, this feel can be emphasized by the use of ambient elements.

The Ukranian one-man black metal band Moloch sets the tone from the first track, which serves as an intro and mindsetter for the rest of the album. "Illusionen Eines Verlorenen Lebens" is in excess of 50 minutes of depressive black metal with a slew of apathy-ridden tracks of atmospheric nature. The tortured vocal efforts of Pr. Sergiy Fjordsson goes hand in hand with the ambient characteristics and the drony and heavily distorted guitars.

The 8-track album emanates a definite aura of cold desolation and is more or less the soundtrack to how I imagine a cold winter in Ukraine. As with most bands in the genre Moloch presents itself with repetitive songwriting, and while this may sound like a bad thing I've always seen it as a means to create the desired feeling with the listener.
There is one thing that bothers me with Illusionen Eines Verlorenen Lebens and many modern black metal bands in general - The drums. It's a damn shame that so many one-man black metal bands use drummachines or heavily sampled drums. It takes away a lot of the atmosphere and feeling, which I feel are essential to music that seeks to invoke those kinds of feelings with the listener.

All in all I'd say Moloch, who is incredibly productive by the way, having recorded more than 70 releases since its creation in 2002, is a fine example of depressive black metal with a boatload of dark ambient elements. Fans of Paysage d'Hiver and Wedard must check out this band. Afterall the drumsound shouldn't have that much of a say on the overall score of the album, but it is something that slightly lessens my oppinion of it. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Illusion des Winters
2. Ein düsterer Winter kommt I
3. Ein düsterer Winter kommt II
4. Dissonanz Tropfen eines glühenden Schmerzes
5. Weg von dieser Welt voller Traurigkeit
6. Unsichtbarer Faden des Lebens
7. Illusionen eines verlorenen Lebens
8. Abgrund meines Wesens

MOLOCH official website
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