Talbot - EOS

Artwork by Jarmo Nuutre.

Doomsday at Metal Bandcamp ends with the Estonian duo Talbot. Their Bandcamp pretty accurately describe their music as "heavy riffs meets the icy beauty" - on EOS the use of ambient electronics works well together with the down-tuned riffing.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

The House of Capricorn - In the Devil's Days

Artwork by Jamie Saint Merat

Doomsday continues with The House of Capricorn - In the Devil's Days. They switch between traditional gloomy doom and more up-tempo stoner metal. I like the vocals, but they are quite different than the usual for those genres, Here are reviews from The Obelisk and Don't Count On It Reviews.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Bell Witch - Bell Witch Demo 2011

The end is near! Today is doomsday at Metal Bandcamp! (inspired by this Metal Briefs: The Doom Edition post from Full Metal Attorney)

Bell Witch is a two-member band. Adrian Guerra on drums and vocals, and Dylan Desmond on bass and vocals. They play funeral doom that is both epic and stripped down at the same time. Check out the fantastic (and long!) track "Mayknow", the clean vocals make is sound almost like a doom hymn.

Pale Chalice - Afflicting the Dichotomy of Trepid Creation

Pale Chalice - Afflicting the Dichotomy of Trepid Creation is actual black metal, without anything 'post' added. It does have a nice full production though, and riffs. As a reviewer from Cvlt Nation said

The moment at minute 3:03 of Caressed by a Feeble Flame, when this certain riff begins – it’ll make you run to your local church, piss on the altar and the cross and afterwards burn that whole thing down. Well, maybe you’ll just notice that there’s an awesome riff on your stereo and have another sip of beer, who knows?

Unexpect - Fables of the Sleepless Empire

Cover artwork by Mario Sanchez Nevado

Unexpect has self-released the new album Fables of the Sleepless Empire on their Bandcamp. Progressive metal with growls, screams, double bass pedal, and distortion, but also electronic passages, classical interludes and atmospheric sections. A modern and more metallic version of Mr. Bungle perhaps?

The reviews seem to agree that Fables is more focused and cohesive than their previous album. Here's one originally from The Number of the Blog, and one from Don't Count On It Reviews, who says that "the biggest step up on here, and this really goes in with the better songwriting, is the use of huge sound choruses and vocal melodies".

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Seas of Stone - Seas of Stone

Artwork by Renata Rojo.

Seas of Stone plays "dense, humid, mist-engulfed doom/sludge metal that channels the atmosphere of hiking the northern woodlands," according to this short review from No Clean Singing. I like the 'yelling in the back of the studio' approach to the vocals, musically they are like the less heavier little brother of Omega Massif.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Russian Circles - Empros

Empros, the brand new Russian Circles album was released today on their Bandcamp. Much of the usual Russian Circles post-rock ambiance has been replaced with a fuller bass heavy production and songs that flows instead of wander. Here are two reviews from Sputnikmusic and The Obelisk.

Empros is released on Sargent House, who runs the Russian Circles Bandcamp page. They're mainly an indie/post-rock label but they do have some interesting metallic stuff like Boris and the Red Fang debut album.

Salome - Terminal

Salome's final album Terminal from 2010 was added to the Profound Lore Records Bandcamp. This is a rather unique take on doom with a guitarist, a drummer, a female vocalist and no bass. Here are a few few reviews from Don't Count On It Review and Heavy Blog is Heavy.

Most reviews I read have issues with the drone/noise track An Accident of History. The Heavy Blog is Heavy reviewer had this to say

I have heard this song individually twelve times, trying to see the art behind the track. Now, keep in mind that the track is 17:05. That is 204.6 minutes. Over 3 hours was spent trying to understand this track. And I hear nothing but random radio crackles

Now that's dedication,

Behold! The Monolith - Behold! The Monolith

Artwork by Dusty Peterson

Behold! The Monolith - another band that knows the value of good metal art! Just check out the incredible artwork by Dusty Peterson for their upcoming album - and of course his awesome battlestag for their self-tited debut.

Artwork by Dusty Peterson for their upcoming album

They play progressive sludge and the progressive parts work really well - check out the beautiful slide guitar passage on the second track, the epic "Battle for Balls Deep". I also dug up this review from The Metal Archives.

Destroy Judas - Wake

Cvlt Nation posted about a live event they were promoting, involving the band Laudanum, Destroy Judas and Behold! The Monolith. I wrote about Laudanum here, this post and the next are about the other two bands. First up is Destroy Judas

Cvlt Nation posted about a live event they were promoting, involving the band Laudanum, Destroy Judas and Behold! The Monolith. I wrote about Laudanum here, this post and the next are about the other two bands

First up is Destroy Judas that play doom mixed with sludge. What makes them different is that the songs have the tension-release and tempo variations often heard in post-metal. Read the review of Wake from Don't Count On It Reviews and check them out below.

Technical Death Metal Day

Today is technical death metal day at Metal Bandcamp! Inspired by the Death By Metal#2 mixtape at Invisible Oranges, as it turns out that half the bands on the mixtape has a Bandcamp. First up we have Burning at the Stake - Nefarious Campaign. Tech death with a nice balance between brutality and technicality.

Next up at technical death metal day is Oblivionized's Abhorrent Evolution. Technical death grind with a nice raw production. In his short-but-sweet review, Islander from No Clean Singing called it "demonic deathgrind" which is quite fitting.

Last up at technical death metal day is Alarum's Natural Causes, a very recent addition to the Willowtip Bandcamp. Progressive, technical death metal or as Don't Count On It Reviews writes "one could say that Alarum never really was a death metal band as much as they were influenced by the early prog/tech-death bands like Atheist, Cynic, and Pestilence".

Slough Feg - The Animal Spirits

Artwork by Mike Scalzi

Slough Feg's The Animal Spirits from 2010 was added to the Profound Lore Bandcamp. Heavy Metal that sounds like a DJ’s mash-up of early Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy and Irish folk music. You could read all the reviews from Angry Metal Guy, That's How Kids Die, Full Metal Attorney, or The Obelisk.. Or you could just bang your head to the player below.

Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse

With the addition of Opeth's My Arms, Your Hearse from 1998, the first three Opeth albums are now available on the Candlelight Records Bandcamp. Here is one of the five reviews the albums has on Sputnikmusic.

The version of My Arms, Your Hearse available on Bandcamp is the 2000 re-release featuring two bonus tracks, covers of songs by Celtic Frost and Iron Maiden.

Blastanus - Collapse

Collapse from the fantastically named Blastanus is a solid album of chunky grooves and grinding blasts as reviewed by Teeth of the Divine and No Clean Singing. And then there's the title song which is ... special. Hear it below and click the player to hear the rest of the album.

The Slaughtered Lamb - Path of Ashen Bone

Black Goat Records specializes in dark noise and black metal. The two tracks on The Slaughtered Lamb's A Path of Ashen Bone moves from very dark ambient to blackened electronic doom.

Black Goat Records specializes in dark noise and black metal. The two tracks on The Slaughtered Lamb's A Path of Ashen Bone moves from very dark ambient to blackened electronic doom.

False - Untitled (2011)

I discovered False through this live report on Invisible Oranges (the photo is from that concert, and yes, they're playing in a church). Their fantastic untitled EP is my current favorite on the Gilead Media Bandcamp.

Artwork by Jonia Whitney

I discovered False through this live report on Invisible Oranges (the photo below is from that concert, and yes, they're playing in a church). Their fantastic untitled EP is my current favorite on the Gilead Media Bandcamp.

Photo by Carmelo Española.

Check out the thoughtful review from The Inarguable, where Jon Rosenthal writes that musically False is "a different take on the American black metal scene that concentrates more on either being horrendously raw or magnificently smooth and introspective". Here's also a couple of good ones from The Metal Archives.

Apocryphon - EP 2011

MOBILE PREVIEW

Artwork by Farron Loathing.

I found Apocryphon when EP 2011 was featured on a Free Shit Friday on the now defunct The Number of the Blog. This is death metal with personality and a sense of humor (with song titles like "Bad Acid Baphomet"). I agree with the merry Lurkers who wrote: "It’s a pleasure to come across a band today that has enough personality to rival the Old Masters".

Iron Thrones - The Wretched Sun

I picked up on Iron Thrones - The Wretched Sun when it became Record o’ the Month at Angry Metal Guy. Progressive death metal with hardcore style vocals, that works as a gruff counterpoint to the carefully crafted songs. According

I picked up on Iron Thrones - The Wretched Sun when it became Record o’ the Month at Angry Metal Guy. Progressive death metal with hardcore style vocals, that works as a gruff counterpoint to the carefully crafted songs.

According to July posting on the Iron Thrones website they're writing a new album. Update: The new album will not appear as the band has now split up...

Cormorant - Metazoa

While we wait for the new Cormorant album Dwellings, they have made Metazoa available as name-your-price on their Bandcamp. Cormorant excels at making a lot of different metal styles and influences work as a whole - and always

Artwork by Julie Dillon

While we wait for the new Cormorant album Dwellings, they have made Metazoa available as name-your-price on their Bandcamp. Cormorant excels at making a lot of different metal styles and influences work as a whole - and always in service of the songs. Read the Angry Metal Guy review, and give the album a spin below.

Dawnbringer - Nucleus

Dawnbringer - Nucleus. The first song "So Much for Sleep" should tell you what you're in for: "guitar chords before vocal chords" as the esteemed Full Metal Attorney puts it; two guitar solos before the galloping riff of the song kicks in. This is a guitar album from start to finish

Dawnbringer - Nucleus. The first song "So Much for Sleep" should tell you what you're in for: "guitar chords before vocal chords" as the esteemed Full Metal Attorney puts it; two guitar solos before the galloping riff of the song kicks in. This is a guitar album from start to finish as Steel Druhm from Angry Metal Guy expounds:

the guitars of Scott Hoffman, Matt Johnsen and Bill Palko never let go from there. This is a very guitar driven album and with the styles these gents bring to the party, you couldn’t ask for anything more. There’s one tooth rattling riff after another along with outstanding lead work.

Photo by Carmelo Española.

The songwriting is excellent, my favorite "Like an Earthquake" is ridiculously catchy; songs are influenced by black metal, doom and thrash, while all being undeniably Heavy Metal. Check out the AllMusic review for a roll call of the album, and do yourself a favor and read THKD's heavy metal fever dream. Good writing inspired by a great album.

Omega Massif - Geisterstadt

One of my early Bandcamp favorites which still holds up is Omega Massif's Geisterstadt from 2007. The esteemed Full Metal Attorney explains that "though these guys sound like Isis, they clearly let the "sludge" take precedence over the "post".

One of my early Bandcamp favorites which still holds up is Omega Massif's Geisterstadt from 2007. The esteemed Full Metal Attorney explains that

though these guys sound like Isis, they clearly let the "sludge" take precedence over the "post". It's heavy and (despite being instrumental) engaging music. They show a willingness to break the rules with atonal chords and such, with the intelligence to do it well".

According to Omega Massif's last.fm page Geisterstadt tells of "ancient abandoned silver mines, treks through deep mountain tunnels, and forsaken boom towns". My favorite track is "Unter Null", which Invsisble Oranges described as

droning, peaceful guitar that is gradually undermined by sporadic dissonance. By song’s end, guitars spin and echo above the rhythm section with such intensity that they evoke air raids and nuclear fallout.

Abomino Aetas - Undead

Abomino Aetas - Undead. Cvlt Nation came up with a vivid description of this little black gem: "Picture the vocalist standing above an empty grave screaming at a wooden casket slowly being lowered into the earth". On their Bandcamp

Abomino Aetas - Undead. Cvlt Nation came up with a vivid description of this little black gem: "Picture the vocalist standing above an empty grave screaming at a wooden casket slowly being lowered into the earth". On their Bandcamp Abomino Aetas succinctly states that the genre is Funeral Doom melded with Pure Primitive Norwegian Black Metal.

Locrian - The Crystal World

Locrian's The Crystal World is difficult but rewarding music that exists on the fringes of black metal. Dense and beautiful like the prose of J. G. Ballard whose book the album is named after. The Quietus did an interview with Locrian and its introduction is a great description of the band:

Locrian's The Crystal World is difficult but rewarding music that exists on the fringes of black metal. Dense and beautiful like the prose of J. G. Ballard whose book the album is named after. The Quietus did an interview with Locrian and its introduction is a great description of the band:

Visions of apocalypse, like the urge to extremity, can come off campy or cornball. But when the devil comes, it probably won't be with a fanfare of trumpets, and the earth rent asunder. More likely, it'll be a gradual, creeping doom: a fissure in a concrete reactor shell, oceans choked with plastics, a pox that creeps the earth. It might sound like Locrian.

You can read the AllMusic review and you can explore The Crystal World below.

Hooded Menace - Never Cross the Dead

Profound Lore has added Hooded Menace's 2010 release Never Cross The Dead to their Bandcamp. The review from Last Rites says all that needs to be said: "a consistent slow-burn of massive riffs and cavernous growls, with not a synth or acoustic in sight".

Profound Lore has added Hooded Menace's 2010 release Never Cross The Dead to their Bandcamp. The review from Last Rites says all that needs to be said: "a consistent slow-burn of massive riffs and cavernous growls, with not a synth or acoustic in sight".

Shardborne - Aeonian Sequence

I read about Shardborne in a short review from the now defunct The Number of the Blog. Aeonian Sequence combines djent style progressive metal with competent fusion playing. All without the sterile production so typical of djent

Artwork and Layout by Ken Coleman

I read about Shardborne in a short review from the now defunct The Number of the Blog. Aeonian Sequence combines djent style progressive metal with competent fusion playing. All without the sterile production so typical of djent albums.

Apostle of Solitude - Last Sunrise

Apostle of Solitude's Last Sunrise was added to the Profound Lore Bandcamp (but is now available through their own Bandcamp page). Great, soulful (almost bluesy in parts), and heavy doom. And a cover that is very far from

Apostle of Solitude's Last Sunrise was added to the Profound Lore Bandcamp (but is now available through their own Bandcamp page). Great, soulful (almost bluesy in parts), and heavy doom. And a cover that is very far from what you see on a typical doom metal album. Here are a couple of reviews from The Obelisk and Invisible Oranges

Man's Gin - Smiling Dogs

Man's Gin - Smiling Dogs from 2010 was added to the Profound Lore Bandcamp. Not metal, but kind of like a dark country version of Alice In Chains. The reviews from That's How Kids Die and The Number of the Blog both call this

Man's Gin - Smiling Dogs from 2010 was added to the Profound Lore Bandcamp. Not metal, but kind of like a dark country version of Alice In Chains. The reviews from That's How Kids Die and The Number of the Blog both call this a post-apocalyptic soundtrack, and as usual That's How Kids Die is good for a quote:

Have you ever wondered what it would sound like if Ernest Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson had gotten together over a few stiff drinks, said “screw this writing bullshit” and started a band together?"

Lycus - Demo 2011

Lycus was mentioned in an interview with Loss at That's How kids Die. Cvlt Nation succinctly (and correctly) said "This is heavy. This is slow. This is doom". My favorite track is "Aghast" with it's crashing riffs and a fantastic

Artwork by Bryan Proteau.

Lycus was mentioned in an interview with Loss at That's How kids Die. Cvlt Nation succinctly (and correctly) said "This is heavy. This is slow. This is doom". My favorite track is "Aghast" with it's crashing riffs and a fantastic fast section. Listen to it, and the rest of the demo, below.

Glorior Belli - Meet Us at the Southern Sign

This Glorior Belli interview at That's How Kids Die got me interested in them. It's mostly about their new album The Great Southern Darkness, but he also writes: Beginning on 2009′s Meet Us at the Southern Sign, the band began

This Glorior Belli interview at That's How Kids Die got me interested in them. It's mostly about their new album The Great Southern Darkness, but he also writes:

Beginning on 2009′s Meet Us at the Southern Sign, the band began experimenting with combining black metal and the blues, to devastating effect

So it was nice to see Meet Us at the Southern Sign among the albums on the Candlelight Records Bandcamp. And Mr. THKD is correct, this is devastating!

Agnosis - Hecate

Hecate by "Doom/Sludge Heavyweights" Agnosis was a Bandcamp recommendation by Archon (the two bands share members). The EP is originally from 2005 but was re-released on Bandcamp after the band reunited in 2011. This is straight up and

Hecate by "Doom/Sludge Heavyweights" Agnosis was a Bandcamp recommendation by Archon (the two bands share members). The EP is originally from 2005 but was re-released on Bandcamp after the band reunited in 2011. This is straight up and solid traditional Doom. I like the almost jazzy feeling of the drums on the first track, that is something you don't hear often.

Voice of the Soul - Into Oblivion

Voice of the Soul has been featured a lot over at No Clean Singing. Their review of Into Oblivion called it a "combining of sharp-edged aggression and streams of melody that swirl in your head". Into Oblivion is an album of melodic death metal

Album art by Vincent Monsonego.

Voice of the Soul has been featured a lot over at No Clean Singing. Their review of Into Oblivion called it a "combining of sharp-edged aggression and streams of melody that swirl in your head".

Into Oblivion is an album of melodic death metal done right. With beautiful guitar solos that are integrated in the songs instead of being standalone technical displays.