Honestly I've listened to so much Atmo-Black that its becoming so hard to discern standout quality unless some unorthodox shit is done

Album Rating: 4.0

^Can you rec some particularly dark, sinister sounding atmos bm that may have flown under my radar?

Rhinocervs - RH11
Irrwisch - S/T
Outre - Ghost Chants
Serpent Noir - Erotomysticism
Taurus - No/Thing

Album Rating: 3.0

What emester said.



Spectral Lore III was awesome but yeah Gnosis was pretty boring. So was hit stuff on the split with Mare.



Void Omnia is pretty sinister. And will also riff your face off. Better than this imo.

I second that Irrwisch rec

The fact Gnosis is an EP is beyond me. And yea, emester's recs are fantastic.

Album Rating: 3.5

Get some nehemah on the rip.

Album Rating: 3.5

And more need to check out the band VI

Album Rating: 4.0

Aether Wind just brought tears into my eyes. What an album.

Album Rating: 4.0

Really grown on me and definitely my best metal album of the year.

Album Rating: 3.0

Readdressed the rating a tad. Listened again and wasn't as keen as before, still good tho.

I wouldn't describe outre as sinister tbh

Album Rating: 4.0

I love this almost too much.

Album Rating: 4.0

yeah it looks like you do

might review Phobos Monolith, its the superior album imo and it deserves a bit of praise

Album Rating: 4.0

Interesting. I thought songwriting-wise this was more cohesive than Phobos Monolith. PM has some really awesome moments and melodies, but it's a little unfocused. Occultated Temporal Dimensions is really the only oddball on here, not a bad song, but imo sits kinda awkwardly on the album. Anyways, review away dude! I'd love to read it.

ah yeah different strokes I suppose, although PM only surpasses this by a whisker, if only because it contains more of those transcendental moments or ones that induce frisson for me. The song structures do all seem a little bit arbitrary and possibly not as thought out as this but that really didn't detract from the overall experience.
I'll wait until I get unbanned on my usual account and that will probs be my inaugral review. Still not quite sure whether to give it a 4 or 4.5 though.

Album Rating: 4.0

I have em both at 4.0, and actually dropped both from 4.5 as they didn't wow me as much on repeated listens :/ but I do like this one a little bit more. When I'm in the mood to listen to spacey melodic black metal, MC hits a sweet spot.

Album Rating: 4.5

In a recent interview, Jacob was asked about if Satan had any influence on his music and about Black Metal being stereotyped as "Satan's Music", and this was his response:



"Not much at all. He is a symbol and nothing more. I haven't referenced him in any recent music and I don't plan on it. I think that, with few modern exceptions, he is an overused, unoriginal symbol and has very little artistic value left in the context of metal. Music in opposition to Christianity is no longer rebellious or controversial when it has become the status quo. Being satanic is the new safe way to make black metal, which is hugely ironic."



That last sentence is actually really fucking ironic, never thought of it that way, haha.



He was also asked about some fans hearing influence from Burzum and Agalloch, and he responded, also giving a stance on the current state of Atmospheric Black Metal:



"This is certainly accurate, and those bands have influenced me heavily, particularly their records Filosofem and Ashes Against the Grain. But those bands lack a certain type of energy that I like to also implement into Mare Cognitum, which plays heavily into its sound. This kind of energy originates more from bands like Dissection and Sacramentum, basically fast and heavy melodic metal rather than only slow and atmospheric. I try to blend these two styles coherently. Looking broadly at modern atmospheric bands, they seem to ignore this kind of energy almost completely, and shy away from things like fast guitar riffs, lead work, and stuff that makes records undeniably metal. Not to say that these bands are bad by any means, but it is simply surprising to me that more atmospheric bands don’t go for much complexity and stick to chord progressions and traditional song structure. I think there is a lot more to explore than just that. So to back up to what my point is, you look at a lot of the 90’s melodic black metal bands and you see tons of metal riffs and complexity, and I see that missing from modern atmospheric black metal, and I shoot to marry the two ideas."



Also can't say I disagree.

Album Rating: 3.0

meh