Chuck Foster’s Top Ten — August 17

by Chuck Foster
17 August 2008

My favorite albums available on Metalhit.com

Discovering the internet label/distro, Metalhit.com, has greatly expanded my metal collection, as well as my ideas about what metal is and can be. Here are my favorite albums that are available for download through their website.

1. Equimanthorn – Lectionum Antiquarum & Nindinugga Nimshimshargal Enlillara (Metalhit.com)

   Equimanthorn have quickly become one of my favorite bands. They’re not exactly metal, more dark ambient noise, like Yen Pox or Blood Box with ritualistic occult whispering/chanting and occasional guitar. More than anything, these albums remind me of Diamanda Galas’ Masque of the Red Death trilogy. Scary stuff.

2. Behexen – My Soul for His Glory (Hammer of Hate)

   Finnish band that’s like a cross between Gorgoroth and Merrimack, with a little Craft thrown in for good measure.

3. Fetid Zombie – Pleasures of the Scalpel (Metalhit.com) & Unburied – Slut Decapitator (Metalbolic)

   Two nasty slabs of gory death metal courtesy artist Mark Riddick. Fetid Zombie is Mark’s solo project where he plays everything on the album. At times, the guitars remind me of Greg Ginn. Unburied is more of a band, Matt Pike being the other member, and the sound is very raw.

4. Grauen Pestanz/Miasma – Into the Fire of Isolation (Black Plague)

   Lo-fi black metal from two bands that incorporate noise/experimental elements into their music.

5. Utgard – Thrones and Dominions (No Sign of Life)

   Finland’s Utgard play black metal that is surprisingly catchy and melodic, kind of like what Bad Religion’s first album, How Could Hell Be Any Worse? was to hardcore.

6. Nidrike – Blodsarv (Black Plague)

   This Swedish band is definitely influenced by Darkthrone, but like contemporaries Craft and Sargeist, they use that influence to create their own nasty brand of underground black metal.

7. Funeral Mourning – Drown in Solitude (Black Plague)

   Lone band member Desolate, from Australia uses Xasthur’s lo-fi wall-of-sound to create crushing epic funeral doom metal.

8. Gortuary – Manic Thoughts of Perversion (Sevared)

   Where most death metal has an emphasis on technique, these sickos from San Diego, CA are just plain loud and noisy.

9. Emancer – Twilight and Randomness (Naga)

   If King Crimson were a black metal band, they’d be Emancer. Complex structures and syncopated time signatures combine with memorable riffs without the pretension that usually comes with bands associated with progressive metal.

10. Moloch Letalis – Cold Execution (Black Plague)

    This Polish band brandishes brutality with pride with their black metal that’s an odd mix of Gorgoroth and early Bathory.