Beatrik - Journey Through the End of Life

Artist: Beatrik
Album: Journey Through the End of Life
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 2002
Origin: Italy

The songs are all easily distinguishable, which is something lacking in a lot of black metal music. But I wouldn't exactly call Beatrik melodic black metal because it seems largely in the "atmospheric" camp. For some reason I didn't get this music at first, but I can't really see why; maybe I was just in a bad mood when I gave it a first listen. I suppose it could be called rather depressive, but I find the melody and atmosphere quite pleasing.

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P.S. I re-uped Planet Smashers - Unstoppable because it was missing the first track.

Toxic Holocaust - An Overdose of Death

Artist: Toxic Holocaust
Album: An Overdose of Death
Genre: Thrash
Year: 2008
Origin: USA

Olde-school crossover-styled thrash with harsh vocals is what you get from Toxic Holocaust. At first the name and album title were just corny enough to keep me from listening to this new release, but it now makes my tops of 2008. It's the kind of music that causes involuntary neck spasms as you drive to work at your dead-end job. Yeah I'm talking to you, Mr./Ms. I-wish-it-was-the-80s-forever. Get a haircut!

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Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out

Artist: Dave Brubeck Quartet
Album: Time Out
Genre: Jazz
Year: 1959
Origin: USA

This is one of the jazz albums everyone should have. It's all about experimenting with unusual time signatures, but it ends up with seven very compelling pieces. I only started listening to Dave Brubeck fairly recently because I went to the University where he's from and I thought I should find out what the excitement was all about. I was pretty much blown away, and now he's one of my favorite jazz musicians.

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In Memorium - From Misery...Comes Darkness

Artist: In Memorium
Album: From Misery...Comes Darkness
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 2003
Origin: USA

In Memorium plays above average black metal; sometimes it's doomy, usually it's aggressive. For how long this album's been out, I'm rather surprised it isn't more popular. It kicks off on a strong track with Ravenslaughter. I don't have much else to say about it right now. Enjoy.

band site

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PS: I re-uploaded Pagan's Mind - Celestial Entrance, since the old file seemed to be corrupted.

Morning Glory - The Whole World Is Watching

Artist: Morning Glory
Album: The Whole World Is Watching
Genre: Melodic Punk
Origin: USA
Year: 2003

Morning Glory is the side project of Ezra from Leftover Crack. It is just about the most melodic an album can be while still feeling entirely like rough-around-the-edges, street punk. This is partly an affect of the low-tech recording and production, and partly just a matter of attitude (with songs like "Gimme Heroin" and "School is Bullshit" you know these guys aren't going mainstream anytime soon). In any case, this album is catchy as hell. The last few tracks are off The Suicide Singles.

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Electric Wizard - Electric Wizard

Artist: Electric Wizard
Album: Electric Wizard
Genre: Stoner Doom Metal
Origin: UK
Year: 1995 (this is the 2006 re-issue)

Electric Wizard is often named as the best that doom metal has to offer. And I can't really say I disagree; this is some really heavy, primo metal music. Jus Oborn is the main man behind Electric Wizard, doing guitars and vocals (and as far as I know the song-writing as well) for this album. I think Electric Wizard reached higher peaks, in particular with Dopethrone, though this is still one of the better doom metal albums I think I've heard. This re-issue includes two bonus tracks which were taken from the Doom Chapter demo.

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Myrddraal - Blood on the Mountain

Artist: Myrddraal
Album: Blood on the Mountain
Genre: Black Metal
Origin: Australia
Year: 2001

Myrddraal is another band I initially looked into for the band name, and it was once again worth my while! They play rather raw black metal with a feeling of otherworldliness, which is fitting since they take much of their lyrical content from the Wheel of Time series of fantasy novels (RIP Robert Jordan). Dumai's Wells is probably my favorite track, with the haunting intonations of Mazrim Taim toward the end: "Ashaman raise a barrier to the skies, Ashaman KILL!" Daughter of the Night is also a pretty cool track (it's about Lanfear for y'all biscuitheads).

Fun Fact: According to Metal-Archives, the former bassist is now involved in professional wrestling.

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