Average Rating: 4.16 Rating Variance: 0.67 Objectivity Score: 54% (Somewhat Balanced)
Sort by: Rating | Release Date | Rating Date | Name5.0 classicBurzum FilosofemCarl Craig LandcruisingCoil The Unreleased Themes For HellraiserDarkthrone PanzerfaustDarkthrone Under a Funeral MoonDeath in June Rose Clouds of HolocaustDeath in June Brown BookFront 242 GeographyForty years later we can make an assessment: "Geography" is the best and the most interesting and the most futuristic and the most varied of Front 242's albums. It was the time of urban greyness, of cold, metallic sounds, of lo-fi videos, and EBM - a term invented by Kraftwerk in reality, and that Front 242 didn't claim at that time - wasn't yet synonymous with fat, body-built, beer-drinking German rednecks, nor with primitive tracks with a 4-note bassline and 2 screamed slogans.Iron Maiden Somewhere in TimeIron Maiden The Number of the BeastIron Maiden KillersIron Maiden Iron MaidenJoy Division StillThe darkest release of Joy Division in my opinion. The 7 first tracks are the coldest, darkest, most punitive songs recorded by the band. That sinuous and icy sounding synth that opens the first track, followed by some bass notes that become a hammering, hammering supported by a merciless drumming... Haunting.Kate Bush The DreamingLeonard Cohen Songs of Leonard CohenMike Oldfield OmmadawnMike Oldfield Tubular BellsMike Oldfield Hergest RidgeMinistry TwitchNocturnal Emissions Songs Of Love And RevolutionSad Lovers and Giants CleSol Invictus King & Queen"King and Queen" is my favorite Sol Invictus album, and from what I've heard of the rest of the band's discography, it seems to me clearly the best. The purest musically, the most beautiful melodically, the most poetic, the most melancholic and sentimental. It is the record that introduced me not only to Sol Invictus, but to dark folk in general, that is to say more than just folk music, but to this unique mix, at the time, of folk, paganism, European consciousness, and a curiously sweet and childish aesthetic with those covers designed by the wonderful Tor Lundvall. I quickly equated dark folk/neo folk/apocalyptic folk, whatever you want to call it, with this naive and melancholy imagery, more than with the big Nazi boots. And never mind Tony Wakeford's past or present political involvement - never mind his insecure vocals, always highlighted in reviews, when they are just another human element. Tracks like "Tears and Rain", "Edward" or "Someday" go far beyond the sometimes narrow thematic framework of dark folk and are pure poetry.The Breeders Last SplashThrobbing Gristle D.O.A: The Third And Final ReportTuxedomoon The Ghost SonataTuxedomoon DesireTuxedomoon Suite En Sous-Sol/Time to Lose/Short StoriesYann Tiersen La Valse des monstresI discovered Yann Tiersen around 1999, a little before he became famous thanks to the film "Amelie"; I have thus fortunately escaped this confusion which is made since then between his music and the Parisian romanticism, a la Prevert, Doisneau, and so on. Yann Tiersen is a Breton musician and his music does not evoke any of this Franco-French myth that he seems to reject on a personal and political level. "La Valse des Monstres" is a sort of compilation of music that Tiersen wrote for two plays. He mixes accordion, violin, pipes, toy piano... The music (and sometimes the titles, like "Cleo au trapeze") evoke a bit the world of the circus and one thinks of another Frenchman, Laurent Petitgand, and the music he wrote for the circus scene in "Wings of Desire" by Wim Wenders. For the record, Laurent Petitgand was born in the French city of Nancy, where the label Ici D'Ailleurs is based, which has released some of his albums, as well as those of... Yann Tiersen. Nancy where also lived the late Solveig Dommartin, who plays, precisely, in this scene of "Wings of Desire". The general tone of "La Valse des Monstres" is melancholy, or let's say, a bittersweet, nostalgic feeling. The melodies, even joyful ones, manage to make one a little sad - and everybody knows that "sorrow is nothing but worn-out joy".4.5 superbAmber Asylum Frozen in AmberArt Zoyd Musique pour l'OdysseeBurzum Daudi BaldrsBurzum Hvis Lyset Tar OssCoil Musick To Play In The Dark 2Coil Musick To Play In The DarkCradle of Filth Dusk... and Her EmbraceDarkthrone Transilvanian HungerDead Can Dance Dead Can DanceDeath in June But, What Ends When the Symbols Shatter?Eyeless In Gaza (UK) Pale Hands I Loved So WellEyeless In Gaza (UK) Drumming the Beating HeartEyeless In Gaza (UK) Caught in FluxGas KönigsforstGas ZauberbergGas Nah und FernHa Lela PabudimasThe epitome of Pagan Metal. Not less. The melodies are rich and superb, the feeling is grandiloquent, joyful and melancholic at the same time. The folkloric instruments perfectly meet the metal music. A must have.Iron Maiden Piece of MindMuslimgauze Iran4.0 excellentAnd Also The Trees Green Is The SeaChristian Death AshesCoil Horse RotorvatorDarkthrone A Blaze in the Northern SkyDead Can Dance Into the LabyrinthDead Can Dance The Serpent's EggDead Can Dance Within the Realm of a Dying SunDeath in June KAPO!Death in June OstenbraunFront 242 Tyranny (For You)Front 242 No CommentIron Maiden No Prayer for the DyingKate Bush Hounds of LoveMinistry The Land of Rape and HoneyMy Dying Bride Turn Loose the SwansThrobbing Gristle The Second Annual Report3.5 greatCoil Astral DisasterDarkthrone Soulside JourneyDead Can Dance AionDead Can Dance Spleen and IdealMinistry With SympathyNocturnal Emissions The World Is My WombSad Lovers and Giants Epic Garden MusicSad Lovers and Giants La Dolce Vita: Live in LausanneSol Invictus La Croix"La Croix" is not an absolute masterpiece like "King and Queen" or "Autumn Calls" are, but it's a very pleasant album nonetheless. The music goes from almost experimental neoclassical pieces ("La Croix") to classic Tony Wakefordesque neofolk, instrumental ("Double Cross") or not ("The Fool"), and with "The Yew" we are proposed a melancholic and meditative ambient track based on a organ sound and Wakeford's lyrics dealing with what we suppose very personal and intimate matters, mixed with the usual - yet very poetically expressed - considerations on paganism vs. Christianity, falling empires, decadence of the modern world...3.0 goodAmber Asylum Songs of Sex and DeathDeath in June The Wall of SacrificeDeath in June The World That SummerFront 242 Official VersionIron Maiden Fear of the DarkMike Oldfield Five Miles Out"Taurus II" is a long, almost entirely instrumental intro, with the kind of riffs Oldfield could come up with in his early days, unfortunately marred by some effects and a very 80s production, in a bad way - and even a horrible quasi-disco passage. Most of the ingredients of his first albums are still there, but it doesn't work anymore, as if something was missing, a breath, a youthful melancholy... Maggie Reilly's vocals bring a bit of their magic to the whole, and we realise how much, despite their intrinsic beauty, the hits "Moonlight Shadow" and "To France" owe to her warm and moving voice. "Family Man", where she sings, is a good pop song. Nothing exceptional, but effective. "Orabidoo" is a rather melancholic piece that reminds me of some aspects of Giorgio Moroder's "Einzelganger" album - the vocoder helps a lot with that. The same very electronic and melancholic feeling carries "Mount Teidi". In the end, "Five Miles Out" is just a nice album, with some short moments of grace. It's far, far, too far from the genius expressed in "The Tubullar Bells", "Hergest Ridge" and "Ommadawn" - but maybe this genius was too heavy to bear.Muslimgauze Veiled SistersSol Invictus Trees in WinterThrobbing Gristle 20 Jazz Funk GreatsNot their best IMO but there are fantastic pieces like "Hot on the heels of love", which can probably be considered as the first real Techno track in the history of music.2.5 averageCoil Queens Of The Circulating LibraryThe drone is good, the vocals are great, but this is far too long.Congrès du Monde Un dimanche d'exécutions"Un dimanche d'executions" (the longest track, which also gives its name to be album) is a curious mix of field-recordings, spoken words and primitive melodies played with a poorly-sampled keyboard guitar sound. The man's voice is not really great. He seems to speak in French - like the title of the album is actually French. The lyrics probably deal with violence, especially political violence, since the text that goes with the release, on Bandcamp, evokes that : "Men and women put their backs to the wall, then shot, in a black and white world where it seems to be always cold.". On the contrary, the melodies are pretty nice, not "dark" or "depressing" at all, and they are proposed separately on the next tracks.In Silence We Pray Demo 2003This cassette released in 2003 seems to be a side-project of Fin de Siecle if I believe the reviews published at the time. But musically it has nothing to do with it. It's dark ambient industrial, or even Death Industrial, if you want, very black, very minimalist and completely tortured. Creepy synth layers, distorted voices, sinister samples, feedback, radio static... Sometimes we are close to certain atmospheres of the old releases of Ain Soph, for the sounds close to the electric organ decorated with whispered, psalmodized vocals. The most noisy passages do not resemble anything known to me, it is not at all power electronics based on white noises as Whitehouse could do it, but rather high-pitched, strident sounds, which tear the silence, as noises of reworked works perhaps. The cover is not very original, showing skulls. But the music is worth a chance.Maelifell The Summerlands"The Summerlands" is the first CDR of Maelifell. It features the same kind of minimalist and folkly, "peasant" music with some more martial / epic moments, than on their first tape. The sounds are different, though. It doesn't sound anymore like "toy keyboard" music. The sounds are more realistic even if they still sound very 90's. Yet, the overall sound is not very good; there is tape hiss and sometimes you can hear that the tape they digitized for this Bandcamp release is a bit tired. The tracks vary from faux-medieval (synthetic) harmonium solos to orchestral neoclassic music, with more ambient and neofolk (in the Sol Invictus meaning of the term) attempts. The synthetic guitar sound is not very convincing, and still the whole release has something fresh and enthusiatic that can be seducing if you can bear the very amateurish side of that band.2.0 poorDeath in June All Pigs Must DieI guess the band became a joke at that point. Releasing albums to settle scores, whether it's with World Serpent or David Tibet, is pathetic.Ed Sheeran =
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