The Anatomy Of – Cancer

Eden Kupermintz
The Anatomy Of
We here at Heavy Blog are proud to have been saying "what the hell is in Australia's water?" for at least five years now. The music scene over there has been blowing up for at least that long, if not longer, creating some of the most innovative, crushing, intriguing and just plain excellent music in the world. To these by-now hallowed annals we can add Cancer, a black metal band that's all about ambiance, abrasive tonality and depressing atmosphere. Hot off of their second release, Into the Heartless Silence, Cancer seem poised to add to the growing plethora of excellent black metal being made today, offering their own version on the formula with their own off-kilter and disharmonious touches to composition. Naturally, hearing more about what makes such a band tick, since they seem to fuse black metal with a whole lot more influences operating in the background. And, indeed, when you look at the picks that John Pescod (vocals) included below and their write ups, you find classical black metal influences alongside more discordant and twisted takes on the classic genres. Thus, without further ado, we consign you to the able hands and vocal chords of Pescod, for a dive into what makes a modern black metal band work. Don't forge to also head on over to the band's Bandcamp below to listen and order the album. You won't regret it.

Firtan – Okeanos

Jonathan Adams
Reviews
There are few genres in music that have a deeper and more fundamental connection to nature and history than black metal. From its earliest thematic inception, the most evil of metal's subgenres has sought to re... Read More...

Kvlt Kolvmn // August 2017

Jonathan Adams
Kvlt Kolvmn
Welcome to the latest installment of Kvlt Kolvmn! Another amazing month, another installment attempting to capture it all. Our apologies for most assuredly failing in this regard. Nevertheless, a fairly large amount of black metal blasted through our ear holes since our last installment, and we are here to share our favorites with you. Believe you me, there were some good ones.

Ensiferum – Two Paths

Joe Whitenton
Reviews
In the 2000s, metal went through a strange phase. Scandinavian high octane melodeath bands found a shared passion for melody, hooks, and flashy guitar work with power metal bands as well new lyrical inspiration from folklore. Overnight, it seems metal spawned a whole scene with a new pool of clichés (well, sort of new) to exploit. Folk metal was nothing new at the time but there was a huge rebranding of it and every label was jumping on board. New bands popped up every year, some great and some boring as hell. One of these bands, Ensiferum, unfortunately introduced heavy metal’s most notorious edging expert, Jari Mäenpää, into the world. Jari left in 2004 to focus on Wintersun, but Ensiferum has continued its steady output of quality music since his departure. Their new album, Two Paths, continues their streak.

Kvlt Kolvmn // July 2017

Heavy Blog
Kvlt Kolvmn
Welcome back to Kvlt Kolvmn! Another month, another insane amount of premium black metal. For the second month in a row, Scott is back in the saddle, churning out sterling recommendation after sterling recommendation. Hell is most pleased with his offerings, and all is again right in the black metal world. In a similar fashion to death metal releases in July, I was skeptical regarding how many quality albums we would hear this month. Let's be real: July is relatively awful for new releases across all genres of music, but can be especially brutal for metal. On most fronts, July 2017 proved me wrong by unleashing upon us some excellent black metal records that are not only worthy of a solid listen, but are some of the most accomplished to be released this year. Scott and I are happy to share these records with you, and hope you enjoy them as much as we did. So, without further adieu, into the ninth circle we go.

What Heavy Blog Is Really Listening To – 6/17/16

Scott Murphy
What We're Really Listening To
For those who missed our last installment, We post biweekly updates covering what the staff at Heavy Blog have been spinning. Given the amount of time we spend on the site telling you about music that does not fall neatly into the confines of conventional “metal,” it should come as no surprise that many of us on staff have pretty eclectic tastes that range far outside of metal and heavy things. We can’t post about all of them at length here, but we can at least let you know what we’re actually listening to. For those that would like to participate as well (and please do) can drop a 3X3 in the comments, which can be made with tapmusic.net through your last.fm account, or create it manually with topsters.net. Also, consider these posts open threads to talk about pretty much anything music-related. We love hearing all of your thoughts on this stuff and love being able to nerd out along with all of you.