Just Before Dawn: The Aftermath (2014)

I did not intend to cover an album like this on Memorial Day.  It just kind of worked out that way.

Yesterday I covered the former Amon Amarth guitarist Anders Biazzi's war-centered project Just Before Dawn.  That was the debut album.  This is the follow-up, appropriately-named The Aftermath.  Just like the debut, this album starts off with the sound of a battle and continues on with that theme throughout.

This time around, the music seems mostly somber, reflecting primarily the horrors of warfare and an extreme sense of loss.  In that respect and combined with the buzzsaw-like riffing style, the album reminds me somewhat of a combination of Entombed and Memoriam. 

Like the previous album, there are a number of guest vocalists on this release lending their voices to the songs.  Some of them appeared on the previous album, such as Ralf Hauber of Revel in Flesh.  But this time around, Just Before Dawn scored a major coup by getting the legendary Dave Ingram (Benediction) to perform on a track.  Ingram was the vocalist on one of my all-time favorite death metal albums, Transcend the Rubicon, so it was exciting to hear him on this.

Just Before Dawn have improved a bit on this release, but it does still sound like more of a compilation album than just one band.  It is an impressive release nonetheless.

Just Before Dawn: Precis Innan Gryningen (2013)

Just Before Dawn is the war-oriented project of one Anders Biazzi.  Formerly known as Anders Hansson, Biazzi has had a long career as guitarist in a number of Swedish death metal bands, including most notably Amon Amarth.  Biazzi was with Amon Amarth through the release of debut Once Sent from the Golden Hall.  By the way, the album title is just the band's name in Swedish.

This release is the band's debut and it is a crushing, monstrous war machine of an album.  That is with a heavy emphasis on "war".  The album starts off with a sound clip of warfare and quickly follows that up with some massively intense riffs descending into chaos.  The album mostly continues in this style, giving the feel of being constantly under bombardment from heavy artillery. 

The most interesting aspect of the release is the use of guest musicians, primarily to perform vocal duties.  The list of guest vocalists reads like a who's who of underground death metal vocalists.  It includes Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, tons of other bands), Jonas Lindblood (Puteraeon), Ralf Hauber (Revel in Flesh) and several others.  With this collection of talent, it is no wonder that the vocals are constantly interesting.  The album also features a guest guitar appearance from early death metal legend Rick Rozz (Death, Massacre).

This album somewhat has a feel of a compilation album that happens to be built around similar ideas.  Nevertheless it is a very strong release and an impressive debut for the project of a veteran Swedish death metal guitarist.

Ereb Altor: Järtecken (2019)

Ereb Altor is a Swedish band whose music generally combines viking metal with other forms of metal, whether it be doom metal or black metal.  I had never heard the band before, despite the fact that they have now released eight full-length albums.  I decided to take a shot on the album when it was available at the same time as another release I wanted to check out.  That review will be coming shortly.

The band here melds epic and grandiose viking metal with the raw intensity of black metal.  The riffs are often massive, even on the slower moments.  Each song is something of a unique entity to itself, with disparate moving parts and new elements added in each time.  The foundation of Ereb Altor's sound is rooted in viking metal-era Bathory and Enslaved, but there is so much more to it than that.

The best performance on the album is undoubtedly the vocals.  There are a variety of vocal styles used and they range from black metal shrieking to a clean chanting sound.  No matter which style is used at any time, they are always engaging and grab the listener's attention.  The clean singing is perhaps the most noteworthy as it is used often and to great effect.

This album has grown on me a lot with repeated listens.  The first time I heard it, it did not do much for me, but with time it has really sunk in.  The album came close to the Top 10 of 2019.  With a few more listens, I may be re-thinking its placement.

Arckanum: Kostogher (1997)

Here we go.  Now we are getting into the sound I really associate with Arckanum.  This is the one-man band's second full-length album and it has taken another massive step forward.  The formula has remained largely the same, but there is a massive improvement in the compositional skills and proficiency at the instruments.

Arckanum's sound has always reminded me somewhat of countrymen Dissection, and that is on full display on this release.  Arckanum is decidedly more black metal, but some of the riffing style is similar to when Dissection is doing a heavier section.  There is some melody present, but by and large, Arckanum's sound is based around a few repetitive riffs, but there is a strong, malevolent atmosphere to everything the band does.  The drumming is particularly impressive, which makes sense because Shamaatae used to be the drummer for Grotesque.  His fills and blasts are inspired on this release, one of the better drum performances I have heard in some time from a black metal release.

The songs on this release do tend to run together a little bit, but that's why it is best to listen to the album as a whole rather than skipping through songs.  As a complete album, it absolutely pummels the listener.  That is the way it should be experienced.

Of the three Arckanum releases I have reviewed recently, this is the best, but there are several more to come soon.  And Arckanum really takes off later.

Arckanum: Trulen (1994)

I guess we are going backwards for the second out of the three Arckanum posts (for now).  This is the band's fourth demo, but the last one before Arckanum released their debut full-length.  A number of the songs that appear on Fran Marder also appear here, though not sounding quite the same.

This is a much more raw and amateur sound than the band had on the debut.  The biggest difference is in the production and the guitar tone.  It's a much more stripped-down sound and does not have nearly the bottom end found on the debut full-length.  But many of the other elements that made the debut so good are here, including the fast riffing style, the nature sounds and the dark and occult atmosphere.  Also present are the vocals, which alternate between harsh screams and hypnotic chanting.

I still have to say that with the choice between this demo and Fran Marder, the latter is the better listen.  The improvement in production has a big impact.  This is a fine demo, but just know that it has the typical limitations of a self-produced demo.  The full-length sounds much more impressive.

Arckanum: Fran Marder (1995)

I have mentioned several times that one of the things that I love about being a metalhead is being able to locate hard-to-find and out-of-print albums because stuff is constantly reissued.  I assume this is at least partially true of other genres, but there are labels whose sole purpose is re-releasing albums that have come before.  Enter Arckanum, a Swedish one-man black metal band whose unpronounceable album ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ caught my attention almost a decade ago.  So, when the band's material was re-issued recently, I started to pick them up.

Fran Marder is the band's debut full-length.  The music bears a slight resemblance to other early Swedish black metal bands, such as Dark Funeral, Dissection and Marduk.  The focus is more on faster, more intense riffing and building a chaotic and evil atmosphere.  The production is extremely impressive, particularly for a mid 90's black metal album.  The structures are mostly simple, built around one or two repeating riffs, but the use of sound effects (particularly stormy weather) gives the album an icy and forbidding feel.

This is an extremely impressive debut for the band.  Of course it is much more raw than some of the later output, but Arckanum got off to the right start.

Diabolical Masquerade: Nightwork (1998)

Diabolical Masquerade is the one-man project of Anders Nyström, aka Blakkheim, who was one of the founding members of the gloomy Katatonia as well as Swedish death supergroup Bloodbath.  Diabolical Masquerade is a much more ambitious project, one in which Blakkheim has really been able to spread his creative wings. 

I have previously heard Diabolical Masquerade's Death's Design album, the last of the band's releases to date.  That album was extremely odd.  For one, there was the fact that there were 61 tracks on the album, for a 43 minute long album, but the tracks come together to form one epic song, telling a story similar to the storyline of the Final Destination movies, death stalking people and all.  So it was definitely an intriguing release.  Despite that, I never managed to get any more of the band's releases.

This album is much more straightforward than Death's Design, though that is not to say it is anything close to a standard black metal album.  It is a keyboard-heavy, melodic black metal release.  The keyboard sections have a decidedly gothic flourish to them, combining with the dark atmosphere and ghastly vocals to create a very eerie and spooky-sounding album.  There are occasional spoken word interludes, snippets of a conversation between a woman speaking to a deity she initially thinks is God.  It responds by saying "Do I look like God to you?" 

Next to Death's Design, this is a downright normal album.  But it is still significantly different than most of the rest of the black metal scene by comparison.  Blakkheim masterfully evokes a dark and foreboding atmosphere throughout the album, yet writes some insanely catchy riffs at the same time.  What results is an avante garde take on black metal that captures attention and never lets go.  It tells a story much like the other Diabolical Masquerade album I have heard, but in more of a traditional way.  I think I actually prefer this one to Death's Design, though for much different reasons.

Isole: Dystopia (2019)

Isole is yet another one of those bands that I checked out when I was living alone after starting my first job and found myself bored and flush with extra money, then never followed up afterwards.  I enjoyed album Bliss of Solitude, though it was very slow-paced.  They are a doom metal band after all.  But whether it was due to not having the magazine Metal Maniacs around after they closed up (which was where I found a LOT of new music) or just narrowing my focus, I never realized the band was still active and releasing albums.  I came across this one randomly on a label website and grabbed it since I remembered that I did like the band once upon a time.

This is at least the third album in my collection named Dystopia.  Of course that is a fairly stereotypical name for a metal album.  The other bands have been Megadeth and Iced Earth.  The Megadeth album is probably their best album in years.  The Iced Earth album was the band's first with Stu Block on vocals.  But enough about those, I just thought that fact was kind of interesting.

Isole is a Swedish epic doom metal band, incorporating stunning musicianship and majestic melodies into their sound.  The songs are grandiose and powerful, and they are quite long, none of them being less than six minutes in length.  This album is also heavier and darker than the other album I had heard by them.  That is at least partially due to the subject matter being so dark, dealing with several more negative emotions, depression and disillusionment.  The melodies are thus very somber and solemn, conveying the hopelessness of the lyrics well.

The highlight of the album, just as it has been with Isole is the incredible vocal performance of Daniel Bryntse.  Particularly powerful on "Written in the Sand", he can alternate easily between a deep yearning sound to a higher-pitched pained howl.  He remains the primary focal point throughout the album and with good reason.

I will try to remember this band from now on.  The vocals really are incredible and the album, though being slow, is quite powerful.  It is somber, yet beautiful.     

Antichrist: Sinful Birth (2017)

I have always been open about how much I enjoy thrash metal.  It is likely my favorite metal subgenre, and certainly the one that originally got me into metal.  I have done posts before looking at thrash metal bands from around the world, yet one country's scene has somewhat eluded me all this time.  There are so many genres Swedish metal bands do well, but I have not been able to really discover their thrash metal scene beyond a few bands who do fusion genres or who exist on the borderline between thrash and death metal.  In my Worldwide Thrash Metal post, I mentioned The Crown, who are more of a death/thrash metal band, and Guillotine, a side project.  Then there is The Haunted and Witchery, both of whom have other influences beyond thrash in them.  I just have not really been able to find too many straight thrash metal bands from Sweden yet.

Antichrist is one such band, although since they are relatively new, they are not a great example of what the Swedish thrash metal scene would have originally sounded like.  In fact, it seems to me that Antichrist's major influence is not a Swedish band at all.  There is a lot of Possessed influence here, from the album cover, to the music.  In fact, some tracks sound almost as if they were lifted directly from Seven Churches.

The songs here are generally fast-paced with frenetic, balls-to-the-wall riffs and steamroller drumming.  The drums are probably the highlight here, doing some insane fills and cadences that really capture the listener's attention.  I have long said that the only real times that the drums in metal bands are truly noticed are when they are really fucking good or really fucking bad.  This is definitely the former.  The vocals have the kind of sinister, evil edge to them to fit in quite well with the rest of the music, which captures every bit of the atmosphere of the legendary Possessed album referred to above.

This is an album that kind of slipped by unnoticed a couple of years ago, which is a shame.  Obviously, Antichrist does not really do anything brand new, but their brand of Possessed worship is infectious.  I am looking forward to hearing more, though I still have not really scratched the surface of real Swedish thrash metal yet.

Necrophobic: The Nocturnal Silence (1993)

I finally discovered Necrophobic last year with their eighth album Mark of the Necrogram.  That album made it into the top five of my top albums list.  Realizing that the band had been around for a long time, I decided I would go back and find out what I had been missing.

Being a Swedish black/death metal band, Necrophobic's music would appeal to fans of groups like Dissection, Naglfar, Nifelheim, Lord Belial and others.  I am a fan of all of those bands, so of course this appeals to me as well. 

The music is heavy, based more in thrash and death metal than black metal, at least at this time.  In fact, this is much more of a melodic death metal album played with thrash metal riffs a la early Amon Amarth than a black/death metal album.  The only black metal influences are the occasional tremolo riff and the vocal styling, which is delivered in more of a guttural rasp.  The other element that is clearly present throughout the release is the evil atmosphere.  Necrophobic take cues from groups like Slayer, Possessed and Morbid Angel, resulting in a very unsettling and evil-sounding album. 

This is Necrophobic's debut album and it was one hell of a debut.  The band fits in well with the titans of Swedish black/death metal that I listed above.  I am not sure how I missed out on Necrophobic all of these years, but I will definitely be working on changing that.

Tad Morose: A Mended Rhyme (1997)

Several years ago, I checked out an album by Swedish power metal band Tad Morose called Modus Vivendi.  Simply put, I loved it.  I have always had a difficult time finding new, decent power metal bands.  Obviously there are the well-known leaders in the genre, groups like Blind Guardian, Sonata Arctica and others, but as a whole, the genre can be difficult to find other bands that are not too cheesy and overwrought.  So it was a welcome discovery to find Tad Morose.  Unfortunately, it took until just recently for me to find another album by the band.

Unfortunately, this album just is not doing it for me at this time.  I am hoping that this album is just taking some time to sink in.  There are definitely elements to this album that I love, but there are some things that I do not care for as well.  It is an earlier album in Tad Morose's discography and it is possible the band was still finding themselves.  It was their third album and it is apparently a transition album as it is the first one with Urban Breed on vocals and the riffs are generally heavier.  So maybe it is just an album where the ideas were there but the execution was not.

Let's start with the things that I love.  Breed's vocals are incredible.  He has a stunning, melodic voice that can hit some high notes and then can take a harder, gruffer edge as well.  The keyboard melodies are also quite impressive and the songs that rely on them for the primary melodic lines are generally the better songs on the album, such as opener "Circuit Vision" and the title track.  And finally, I really appreciate the song "Goddess of Chaos" which is directly about Alien, my favorite movie of all time.

And now for the primary thing I do not care for.  The heavier riffs are not terribly interesting most of the time.  Tad Morose does not break any new ground, which is fine, but most of the riffs here are rather pedestrian.  They cover that well with the use of keyboards and Breed's vocals, but there are times ("But Angels Shine") where there is nothing concealing the unoriginal riffing.

So there are good moments and bad moments, but the truth is that this is a bit of an uneven release.  It pales in comparison to Modus Vivendi.  It is possible that it will grow on me as I have liked it more and more with each successive listen. 

The Abyss: The Other Side (1995)

I really have no idea why it is that I am just recently hearing about this band.  The Abyss is the black metal project of members of Hypocrisy, including the legendary Peter Tägtgren, Michael Hedlund and Lar Szöke.  Of course Hypocrisy was not quite as big as they are now (still pretty damn important though), but still, it is surprising that such a project remained somewhat obscure.

The music here is fairly representative of Swedish black metal in general, rather than sounding like Hypocrisy playing black metal.  There is obviously the dark and evil-sounding atmosphere that groups like Dissection perfected and it is generally much more focused on the riffs and the music, with fairly fast-paced songs.  It is similar musically to groups like Lord Belial, Naglfar, Marduk and Dark Funeral.  Just for good measure The Abyss tosses in a cover to Hellhammer's "Massacra". 

Where this release really surprises is it is not all punishing riffs all the time.  There are moments of genuine beauty and melancholy.  There is an extended sequence during "Tjänare Af Besten" where it is simply keyboard and guitar playing a tender and extremely pretty melody.  It happens more often than that, but those are the moments where this album truly shines. 

The Abyss did not last long.  They only put out one more album, but when Hypocrisy is the main band the members are in and one of the members is the incredibly busy Tägtgren, I guess that makes sense.  I do intend to check out that other release.  I am not sure why I have not heard of this band before, but I am glad I found them now. 

Therion: Lepaca Kliffoth (1995)

Don't ask.  I don't know what that title means.

There are a lot of metal bands that have incorporated symphonic elements into their sound.  Whether that be through the actual use of string instruments or synthesizers.  There is also a wide variety as to just how much that influence shows through into the band's sound.  There are few metal bands that have incorporated symphonic influence to the extent that Therion has.

Early on in their career, Therion were a fairly typical death metal band from Sweden.  They had the kind of sound one would expect when listening to a Swedish death metal band.  But it was on this album where the band basically abandoned their death metal roots and went for something completely new and different.  Sure, there is the occasional harsher riff and the much more gruff vocal style at times, but by and large this album went in a completely gothic and symphonic direction. 

The band uses some truly beautiful, melodic passages, such as in the breathtaking "The Beauty in Black".  That song features a male and female operatic singer for much of the verses of the song.  That is in stark contrast to the much heavier "Riders of Theli" that follows immediately afterward.  There is an overriding atmosphere of darkness and mystique, so that even the prettier moments still have a dangerous undercurrent.  It certainly helps that the primary vocal style of the lead singer is a harsh and angry bark.  I still think the band is at its best when it combines the aggressive riffs with the more melodic moments seemlessly than when they favor one over the other.  The best songs are able to incorporate both disparate sounds without sounding forced, for instance the highlight: "Black".

Therion experiments with a lot of Middle Eastern-sounding melodies throughout the album.  This is something that would become quite typical of their later albums.  The lyrical content too deals with Middle Eastern mythology and Jewish mysticism.  Very interesting stuff.

I have been aware of Therion for a long time, but I was somewhat disappointed with the album Gothic Kabbalah.  But recently I remembered checking out some of their earlier material so I decided to look into their history a bit more.  It was a good move because this album is terrific.  It takes some getting used to, but it is worth it.

Edge of Sanity: The Spectral Sorrows (1993)

I do not really know why it is that I have only recently begun looking into Edge of Sanity's prior discography.  I loved Crimson, the one-song, 40-minute epic.  Yet, I never really considered going back, or forward for that matter.  For many years, Crimson was the only thing I really knew existed by Edge of Sanity.  Last year, I finally picked up Unorthodox (a perfect description for the band by the way) and loved it.  And so I have now come to this one.

Edge of Sanity is a typical Swedish death metal band in a lot of ways, but they are also so much more.  There are the chainsaw-sounding riffs and the guttural vocals, the rhythmic stomp and the raw aggression.  But Edge of Sanity has more.  They have a sense of melody and a some delightfully weird moments.  For instance, there is the random keyboard interlude in "Lost" on this release.  They also have more of progressive structure, best exemplified by the aforementioned Crimson which would not work if it was just one long Swedish death metal song.  They are much more dynamic and dramatic than other bands from their country and scene.  They can go from a pure death metal song, to a jazzy acoustic interlude, to a gothic rock song with ease and without it sounding out of place.  And in fact, they do on this album.

Edge of Sanity has always been more of the brainchild of the immensely talented Dan Swanö.  There may have been other members at various points in time in the band, but Swanö has always been the driving force.  His vocals are terrific on this album.  Most often they are delivered in a typical death metal growl, deep and rumbling.  But there are a few occasions in which he sings cleanly, as in the Manowar cover "Blood of My Enemies" and the off-kilter goth rock song "Sacrificed".  His clean vocals are remarkably powerful and makes one wonder why he did not use them more often. 

There is a lot going on in this album.  Edge of Sanity is simply not content to play just one style, even though their foundation is always in death metal.  They experiment and progress seemlessly.  It is a wonder that they never really captured attention the same way that other bands from their country did.  As I listen more and more, they are quickly becoming one of my favorite groups from their scene.  That is really saying something.

Bewitched: Rise of the Antichrist (2002)

Here is the fourth and final post in this brief series looking at the albums of Bewitched.  One of these days I will consider tracking down their last album, Spiritual Warfare, which was released in 2006.  These four albums were all released in the box set.  I am not sure why their last album was not included in the box set, though the fact that their last album was released on a different label might explain it.

Enough of that though.  It is sort of odd that an album titled Rise of the Antichrist would come so late in the band's history.  Seems like a better title for an earlier album.  Oh well.  The band added another guitarist, giving them a two-pronged attack this time around.

After the minor disappointment that was the third album, the band changed some things up a little bit.  Obviously with the addition of a second guitarist the sound was a little more full and the two guitarists played off each other quite well.  The band also stopped trying to be a Venom clone and forged their own sound.  Bewitched sounds more like a thrash metal band with some minor black metal influences on this album.  Think early Sodom or Kreator.  The vocals have also improved significantly, delivered in more of a harsh shriek.

Though some things have changed on this release, Bewitched still maintains their ability to write infectious as hell songs.  This time around, the band has given "Worship the Fire", the title track, and the explosive "Hell's Triumph".  The opening riff to the latter is simply amazing.

This is one of the better albums from the Bewitched box set.  I would probably rank them from best to worst: Pentagram Prayer, Rise of the Antichrist, Diabolical Desecration, At the Gates of Hell.

Bewitched: At the Gates of Hell (1999)

This is the third post in a four-part look at the first four albums released by Swedish black/thrash metal band Bewitched.  This was the band's third album, released in 1999.

Bewitched remained a power trio on this release, but there was a lineup change.  Drummer Reaper was out, replaced by Stormlord.  Meanwhile, Vargher settled in as the primary vocalist/guitarist while Wrathyr continued on bass.  While settling in as a power trio, the band began to truly emulate another such trio: the legendary Venom.

The band stripped down their sound even more on this release, which is sort of impressive given how much extraneous stuff the band eliminated between their first and second albums.  At this point, the band is not at all concerned with creating a dark atmosphere and more interested in simply rocking.  The result is a no-holds-barred assault on the eardrums with traditional metal riffs, catchy choruses and gruff vocals.

Unfortunately, some of the songs sound a little TOO much like Venom.  Songs like the title track and "The Devil's Daughters" sound like outtakes from Welcome to Hell.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, but Bewitched seems to be losing their identity, going too far in this direction.  The cover song of Thor's "Let the Blood Run Red" is also a little out-of-place, especially with the drastic change in vocal style.

This is not the strongest album in this box set, but it is still decent enough.  The songs are a ton of fun, even if Bewitched at this point sounds too much like Venom.

Bewitched: Pentagram Prayer (1997)

This is the second of the four-part series on Bewitched thanks to my purchase of the The Dawn of the Demons box set, which includes the first four Bewitched albums.

Just a year after releasing their debut album, Bewitched released a follow-up.  In that year, Blackheim was out of the band other than some appearances doing vocals on this album.  Bewitched became a power trio here.

Bewitched steers into the skid on this album, fully embracing turbo-charged speed metal with blackened influences.  The black metal is a little more prominent this time around as the band sounds more like a hyper-active Mayhem or Darkthrone.  They are not interested in spending a lot of time establishing a foreboding atmosphere though.  They just want to break necks with their balls-to-the-wall riffing and blasting drums.

The songs are also catchy as Hell, turning dark lyrics into infectious choruses and hooks.  Of particular note are "Hallways to Hell", "Night of the Sinner" and "Satan's Claw".  The songs are generally short, but they are fast-paced and explosive.

Bewitched did not change much of the formula on this release, but they improved on what they were already doing.  This was a great follow-up to an already terrific debut.

Bewitched: Diabolical Desecration (1996)

Not to be confused with the sitcom from the 1960's, Bewitched is a Swedish blackened thrash metal band with a short, but rather impressive career.  I am not really sure why they are so little-known, but flaming out within a decade probably did not help.  I recently picked up a box set of the band's first four albums, so each of the next four days I will look at a Bewitched album.

I guess referring to the band as a blackened thrash metal band is an oversimplification and more of a broad generalization for their entire career.  We will get to that over the course of the next few days.  But this album in particular is more of a speed metal album with some black metal influences.  The riffs on this album would sound in place on an album by Venom or Motörhead.  The only real black metal influences come in the form of the raspy vocals and the fact that a lot of proto-black metal bands tended to sound a little like this.

The songs are insanely catchy and there are some truly great riffs here.  My particular favorites are the main riff to "Born of Flames" and "Holy Whore".  The guitarist (and vocalist) on this release is Blackheim who would go on to be a fairly important man in the Swedish extreme metal scene, spending time with Bloodbath and also creating the Diabolical Masquerade project.  The lyrical content is mostly silly, juvenile attempts at sounding evil ("Burnin' Paradise") or sexual content ("Hard as Steel (Hot as Hell)").  So it is not the most mature-sounding album in the world, but for this type of metal, that is not shocking.

Diabolical Desecration was Bewitched's first album and it was a decent-enough start.  There is nothing mind-blowingly original here, but it is a competent take on a genre that has been around for quite some time.  Bewitched had not really found themselves here, but it is still an enjoyable album.

Mystik: Mystik (2019)

This band could be huge.  Mystik released their debut full-length album this year and they have some things going for them that could definitely attract attention from the metal press.  For one, they fit in quite well with the revival of 1980's-sounding true heavy metal.  They would do quite well on a playlist with groups like Enforcer, Haunt and other groups carrying the torch for true heavy metal.  Two, they are quite good.  This album sounds terrific, just a good old-school metal album.  And then there's that other thing...

Okay, fine.  Here is that other thing:

This is three of the four members of the band.  So now, you see that other thing.

As I say frequently about stuff I review here, this review is solely about the music.  The fact that three (now actually two, as one member has since left the band) of the members are beautiful women is not important to this review.  What is important is that Mystik fucking rocks.  The songs are generally fast-paced with Maiden-esque riffs and Julia von Krusenstjerna's smoky vocals soaring over the riffs.  It helps that the songs are catchy as hell, with sing-along choruses and head-banging riffs.

Mystik's debut is a terrific slab of traditional metal with roots in groups like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and of course Warlock.  The playing is tight and the songs infectious.  It would not be a surprise to see this band become metal press favorites, but hopefully people will realize that this band is so much more than three women playing metal.  They are fantastic musicians first and foremost.

Jordablod: Jordablod (2015)

I was blown away by Jordablod's debut album Upon My Cremation Pyre immediately upon hearing it back in 2017.  It did not make my Top Albums list only because it was so late in the year that I heard it, but subsequent listens have led to it being one of my favorite black metal releases, much less debuts, in the last ten years or so.  It is remarkably creepy and atmospheric and it really does not sound like anything else.  They have yet to release a follow-up, but they did previously release an EP and a demo.  I picked up the demo last year, and this is the EP.

This is the first recording by Jordablod and it is definitely rough around the edges, both in songwriting and in the production values.  None of these three songs appear on the band's debut album or the demo, so it is likely that these songs were written well before anything from the album released a couple years later.  That being said, these three songs are a very good introduction to the band and definitely show what the band was aiming to do later on.  The elements of what made their debut album so intriguing are present from the very beginning.  The band's ability to create a dark and hostile atmosphere through riffs that call to mind the first wave of black metal (Bathory, Master's Hammer, Root for reference points) sounds completely fresh and alien and unique all at once.

I am absolutely looking forward to hearing more from Jordablod.  I now have all of their releases and I enjoy the band more and more every time I hear them.  This is a truly unique black metal band.  More people should be aware of them.