Hello everyone, I have a strong emotional attachment to music and especially to metal and rock music and I'm trying to buy the albums that I like in order to have a collection and from there it's becoming an addiction to grow it. All music collectors have this weak spot, either vinyl collectors or even cd as well as cassette collectors. I'm collecting all kinds of physical music formats, always depending on my budget of course and I try not to concentrate on one particular format, I prefer the vinyl records for music albums that I truly love but even then it's a financial budget struggle, however under no circumstances is a matter of life or death, just my favourite hobby.
Let me present to you a part of a few albums that I have in my collection, the other part I've already shown in previous posts back at Steemit. I'll start presenting albums according to music genre, the most of those to follow are under the Black Metal genre and its subgenres.
I'll start with Avast and their self-titled first release which is a mini album containing two songs.
This band is hailing from Norway and I discovered them by listening to one track from their next full length album which really caught my attention. I straight away searched for that album from a dedicated metal music site where I download albums, I just had to listen to it in its entirety and also add it to my digital music collection. I still do not have that full album, there are so many distractions in music and everything there is out there, probably I'm going to get it at a later time. I also searched for this band in the social media and started following them. One day they posted that an underground label and distro still had copies of this first release of theirs and without a lot of thinking I went ahead and ordered it, the price was cheap and this music is great to have and listen to.
The music incorporates post-black metal and post-rock elements in the blackgaze musical direction and the whole atmosphere clearly belongs to the black metal genre.
Not long ago I saw that this mini album is going to be pressed on vinyl too, the release date is coming in May. I believe the music quality should be great, because I'm no really happy with the sound quality of the cassette I have. But the cassette also holds a collector's value for what is worth.
Next album to present is from Alcest and their latest release so far Spiritual Instinct
I didn't know Alcest before and one Sunday night I put on a music channel on TV that is broadcasting a metal show on Sunday nights. While watching that show they mentioned Alcest and they broadcasted the video of one song from this release (see below) and this song captured my full attention.
Alcest are hailing from France and the music incorporates post-metal elements while the musical direction equally turns to blackgaze and shoegaze.
I really liked the above song and I thought to go for the cassette version, since this format was limited and it holds a collector's value, while the sound quality could be better, I'm not entirely happy with it either.
Moving on, next band are Drudkh and the album I'm presenting is a little older from 2012 called Eternal Turn of the Wheel
Drudkh are hailing from Ukraine and I discovered about this band by following a group in the social media about metal music cassettes and collectors (that's not the actual name of this group). In that group a label from South America made a post that they were releasing this album on cassette and this caught my attention, so I went to Youtube to give it a listen. Once again I was hooked by the music and started thinking about purchasing it. Fortunately I didn't purchase it at that time, since a Greek label and shop brought it over here and one day browsing the Greek label's products I saw it and I happily placed my order with them.
The sound quality here is fine and now I have in mind to get another album from Drudkh, again on cassette. The musical direction is atmospheric black metal with strong melancholic and sorrowful feelings and folk-influenced melodies.
Next band to present are also hailing from Ukraine - White Ward and their latest release so far Love Exchange Failure
I discovered this band by browsing their label's products I think and there I saw about this release and one song which was accompanying the at the time upcoming release. I listened to that song (see below) and I knew the rest of the album would also be very interesting, so I went ahead and placed my order.
The music incorporates jazz elements along with post-black metal in their avantgarde and atmospheric black metal musical direction. This is my first contact with this band and I know I'm going to keep following them and also looking forward to see them live some time in the future. By contrast, Drudkh mentioned above do not make live appearances at all.
Next two bands are hailing from Greece, first to present are Yoth Iria with the first release Under His Sway
This project is the brain child of a black metal musician Jim Mutilator who was a founding member and bassist player of two Greek legendary and oldest black metal bands - Varathron and Rotting Christ. In this release here Jim in collaboration with another Greek black and death metal musician and producer Magus Wampyr Daoloth who's performing the vocals have released this EP which contains two songs plus a third track which is a cover of an old Rotting Christ song.
When I found out about this upcoming release I was really looking forward to listen to the new material and then I did listen to the song (see below) and got very excited.
Both new tracks - the first two are great and also the third cover track is following the same musical atmosphere of the new tracks, being refreshed and refined. Jim in interviews has said that this EP is working in a way as a teaser, since there's already material for a full length album and needless to say I can't wait for the full album, which should come out this year, but I can't be entirely sure about it regarding the situation the world is in at this time.
The musical direction of this release is a grand blend of heavy/doom and epic black metal to quote the label's words about it. Also on guitar duty in this release is another black metal musician George Emmanuel who has been a member in Rotting Christ for 7 years until he left the band in 2019 to focus on his own band Lucifer's Child. You can have a look at an older post of mine about Lucifer's child by scrolling further down to the 6th album presented.
And the next band are Medieval Demon with only their second full length album so far Medieval Necromancy
I got interested in this to begin with when I read about the involvement of Jim Mutilator mentioned above in this release. I didn't know this band at all, their first full length release came out in 1998. This band now consists of two of the three founding members, brothers Lord Apollyon and Sirokous who also have a metal store in which I've been just a few times but had no idea that the owners are members of this band and only found out about it recently by reading a zine.
As the cover image suggests this release is black metal in its core and the musical atmosphere is as eerie as one would expect from this genre.
To quote Apollyon's words as I read them in the mentioned zine
Myself and Mutilator are writing the songs: we meet at the studio and all ideas and inspiration lead to true Satanic black metal inspired by the Hellenic cult.
Now it's a about time to change the genre and turn to some death metal, first album to present is by Darkened and their first EP Into the Blackness
I got in touch with this band and album by reading a post in the same group in the social media mentioned in this post where somebody from an underground cassette label posted that his label would release this on cassette so again I gave it a listen to get an idea and I liked it a lot, so naturally I placed my order with the label and finally received it.
The band members are all experienced musicians with duties in various bands in the past who have come together to form the band known as Darkened.
I as well as the other people liking this band can't wait to listen to more material from this band.
Coming up next are Strigoi with their first full length album Abandon All Faith
Strigoi consists of two members, Gregor Mackintosh who's also the songwriter and lead guitarist in the English legendary band Paradise Lost since the beginning and also Chris Casket whom in all honesty I didn't know before. On the contrary I had kept in touch with the works of Gregor Mackintosh who in 2011 formed Vallenfyre to serve as a way to defuse his inner feelings that followed the death of his father and in 2017 decided to close the Vallenfyre chapter and now opened a new one with the band and release here.
This cassette edition is a limited edition that came in a resealable bag with the band sticker on it
and also a patch and a pin along with a signed double sided artwork/lyric poster not shown here
Now moving away from the death metal genre, the next two albums are from bands which are hailing from Finland, the first band has disbanded since 2005. That band is Sentenced with their album The Cold White Light
I also have this album on vinyl, please have alook at an old post of mine to read a few words about it.
And the second album to present is from the band Hanging Garden with the album I Am Become
I don't remember exactly how I got in touch with this band, I listened to an album from their discography and I was fond of it, so when I saw that there was a limited cassette edition of this album which also includes a single that was released after the release of this album on cd and vinyl a year earlier, I thought it would be great to get the cassette including that single which is not to be found on another physical format. The musical direction here is atmospheric gothic metal.
Last band and album to present in this post is from Gardenian and the album Soulburner
This band is also a long disbanded group as far as I know hailing from Sweden. They have released three albums in their discography and I came in touch with their music many years ago, having listened to their third album, the one presented here is their second and maybe their best one.
The musical direction is melodic death metal and the whole album is a great album to listen to. I was looking to purchase albums that I'd love to have in my collection and found this one used but in good condition, so I placed my order and happily received it to add to my collection. This band makes me think how sometimes groups that seem that they have things to offer just struggle to keep it alive and disappear.
Anyway, thank you very much for your patience to follow this post till the end, I hope you liked the music as well, leave me a comment below if you want and I'm looking forward to make another post with items not yet delivered to me. Cheers!
