Iceni

'Under The Sun' by Antestor.

Halloween will be odd round your house, I suspect. Dissonant noise, howls of torment, cats and a miniature Gaahl toddling about.

'Iniquitous' by Hope For The Dying. So, I'm giving this another listen through and I think I have an immunity to the vocals now.

'Visions' by Hope For The Dying. This is more like it!

'The Lost' by Hope For The Dying. Again, if only, if only I could stand these harsh vocals, seriously. This song's actually even better...

'In Isolation' by Hope For The Dying. Are these guys under some kind of contract that requires them to suck in at least one noticeable way? This album sounds like it could have been good if this guy had fixed his harsh vocals, but they're awful. Hell, even the clean vocals are decent but these harsh vocals just ruin absolutely everything. That's a bloody shame, because the leads and melodies on this are actually really nice, the technicality is good, the composition's nicely done and even the structure's not bad.

'Depressed' by Antestor. Surprisingly the kind of bad sound production on this isn't annoying me, I actually enjoy it. It gives the guitars this nice buzzing menace that really helps.

'Rime' by A Hill To Die Upon. Muh. Maybe I just need to listen with fresh ears, but this album sounds pretty drawn-out. There's about maybe half of this that I like, and even the songs that are weak have good ideas, but it is really pissing me off that these riffs are sounding very similar and all go on for longer than they need to. Overall this band needs more work. Their single from 2013 seemed to at least be going in the right direction, and the promo track from the new album sounds OK. I'm going to go check out the new Hope For The Dying album, not that that promises to be much better.

'Nekyia' by A Hill To Die Upon. My mom would not like this at all, no sireebob. It's good, though, they seem to have improved from their first album with regards to technicality and make sure the building blocks of their song structures are stronger individually. Even the simple riffs have some cool stuff to them.

Them, and the subterranean anti-clerical BM goblins. My patience for such organisms has grown progressively smaller. So, an update; I took a quick browse and honestly the A Hill To Die Upon lyrics remind me more of Dissection's Reinkaos album than anything in the Bible. It's very much based in Revelation and Christian thought about the apocalypse, from what I can tell. Nothing like the usual Christian fare, I can tell you that.

I would expect, lyrically, that this is kind of Biblical literature/apocalypse/judgment stuff. Haven't actually looked yet. As for an unblack band you might like...maybe given Crimson Moonlight a try? Their latest album Veil of Remembrance has mostly poetic-style lyrics if I remember aright. The thing is, I have a bit of an incentive to check out unblack just because A: I don't listen to much of any BM so I might as well give it a go anyway, and B: the more good unblack bands I know the more I can build a case for the 'genre'.

Speaking of which, did you ever get to listen to that latest Pantokrator album?

'The Perfection of Evil' by A Hill To Die Upon. Ooh, yaay! This sounds a little like Akercocke.

Yeah, we way'en fo' tha secin coming of da Brosiah, tha 1 an' only Slamtokrator.

'The Chant of Mighty Offspring' by A Hill To Die Upon. You'd think it's a deathcore band name, but they're actually black metal. These guys got rave reviews so I'm checking them out. It's pretty coherent and progressing well; at least after the first song, which was pretty mediocre. I'm still waiting for the brilliance that led people to given them 99% and 100% ratings on Encyclopedia Metallum.

Interrupted my response... I wasn't trying to insult you, I was just referencing the suckscompletehairygoatballs thing.