MOTD - O: Definitely not Oprah's black metal band

Mp3 Of The Day



Band/Artist: O
Song: amm.unit.ion 909
Album: O.B.C split
Style: Raw Black Metal (with a little industrial tinge)
country/location: Finland
release: 2005

O my god this band rules! O man, I love this O so awesome band! Okay maybe I don't love this O so awesome band but they're pretty O so good. I've been listening to this song a bit lately and felt that it would O be appropriate for the black metal series. O is a Finnish raw black metal side project of the members of ...And Oceans/Havoc Unit. Instead of being symphonic, they're a much more intense and raw style of black metal. While most of their music is very raw black metal with gritty guitars and blast beats, this track has a slight industrial tinge. Not a hugely noticeable tinge, but the guitars have a slightly mechanical feel to it and there are industrial sounding samples. The vocals are an angry almost shouting black metal style that you can sometimes make out what he's saying especially when he sounds like he's saying "Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" It's an intense and noisy song and will definitely turn off some people. They're very much not a band for Oprah that's for sure. hehe. However, it's strangely infectious in a raw black metal sorta way (at least for me). Check it Out! O joy to the black metal!

O - amm.unit.ion 909

MOTD - Aigro Mucifelam: A Mighty Slab of Very Well Produced Raw Black Metal

Mp3 Of The Day



Band/Artist: Aigro Mucifelam
Song: Untitled III
Album: Lost Sounds Depraved
Style: Black Metal
country/location: Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
release: 2007

Talk about excellent timing! Someone in a community was expressing shock over the idea that France has awesome metal bands, and I just so happen to be posting an awesome metal band from France! The stars must've aligned or something!

Ok I must admit at one point I thought of France as an unlikely place for metal, but I know better now. I know now that France is the MOST likely place for amazing metal, especially black metal. Just as the French really know how to spoil grape juice and milk, the French know how to make some of the most extreme black metal out there. This band is no exception and not for the faint of heart. Aigro Mucifelam is a one man project that produces raw but very well produced black metal. The music is raw and extreme with gritty monotonous guitars, fast pounding blast beats and excruciating vocals. However unlike most raw black metal bands, the production is very well done, and yet it doesn't loose the biting and grim feel. Like most good grim black metal bands the album contains no named tracks, just 8 minute bursts of evil sound. Aigro Mucifelam will probably not appeal to everyone, but it really is a mighty slab of well done and grim black metal! France wins again!

Aigro Mucifelam - Untitled III

MOTD - Sigh: Avant-garde black metal with jazzy interludes, disco breakdowns and psychedelic riffs

Mp3 Of The Day



Band/Artist: Sigh
Song: A Sunset Song
Album: Imaginary Sonicscape
Style: Avant-Garde Post-Black Metal who knows!
country/location: Tokyo, Japan
release: 2001

Well I'm back! Well I hope I'm back... Hey guys, am I back? Backstreet's back alright?
Anyways, after my week long break from MOTDing, it's time to get back to some extreme and grim black metal. Well, sorta. You see I had something planned for my first song back, but I can't upload it until tomorrow. Instead, I bring you Sigh!

Words that have been used to describe this Japanese metal band: Strange, bizarre, grim, totally awesome, wtf?, groovy, extreme, happy, psychedelic, mindboggling, jazzy, symphonic, brutal, unique, original, what the hell am I listening to but it's awesome! Starting out as an awesome but unique black metal band, they've transformed themselves every album by adding different and bizarre influences. This song is one of the more unusual of their repertoire (at least that I've heard). It starts off with a groovy and psychedelic guitar riff that sounds far and away from black metal. It's a kinda happy and strolling melody that moves and a nice pace. Then the vocals and crunchy guitars come in. The vocals are full black metal growls, though with a little bit more body than your usual extreme style. Throughout the song, the psychedelic feel remains, while moving into various other bizarre styles, like a jazzy keyboard section after the verse or a full on funky disco breakdown about two-thirds into the song (which surprises me every time it appears and I go "WHAT THE FUCK!?" hehe). Sigh is one of the best examples of the stereotype that Japan produces some of the weirdest stuff ever. However, Sigh is much more than your bizarre avant-garde Japanese metal band. There is method to the madness! And what a brilliant madness it is! *sigh*

Sigh - A Sunset Song

MOTD note: I've been taking a little break from the MOTD to recharge my reviewing/posting batteries a bit. Also my lack of internet is preventing me from uploading the next set of tracks. The MOTD should resume next Monday or Tuesday depending on things. I got tons of awesome stuff coming including the conclusion of the black metal series, a couple random bands, some old school metal stuff, a series of really really awful bands (LOL) and then hopefully starting the New England metal scene series (which I've been putting off for months and months and I apologize). Anyways, thanks for your support!

MOTD - Darkspace: Haunting Ambience and Big Riffs

Mp3 Of The Day



Band/Artist: Darkspace
Song: Dark 3.13
Album: Dark Space III
Style: Ambient Black/Dark Metal
country/location: Bern, Berne, Switzerland
release: 2008

Ok enough with the cheesy 80s, time to return to the grim and tr00 black metal! Today we go to the even darker and more ambient corners of black metal. Taking the extreme sounds of black metal and adding tons of dark and haunting ambience, Darkspace is a listening experience like no other. The music they create is one part dark atmospheric ambient music that is supposed to envelope you in a wall of sound and one part riff oriented black metal with thrash and death metal inspired riffs that are thick and full. This one piece combines these two elements beautifully as well as allowing both styles to shine. The song starts off with a huge blast of ambience, noisy guitars, and tortured screams. It's pure black metal ambience with melancholy and spacey guitars. There are drums, but they are so far in the back that you hardly notice them and yet their presence is crucial to the sound. This ambient continues, flowing and washing over you, with little changes in the melodies to your ears happy (or sad) and to keep the music from growing stale. Right when you think you've been lulled into this ambient black metal bliss, the big change happens. A driving thrashy chugging riff breaks through and pounds at you through the end of the piece, all while little ambient touches keep the feeling of the first half going. It's glorious, calming, ambient, distressing, surprisingly melodic and headbanging music. All of these words hardly go together often, but Darkspace does it so well!

Darkspace - Dark 3.13

MOTD - You Got The Touch! The 200th Post featuring the Transformers!

Mp3 Of The Day



Band/Artist: Stan Bush
Song: The Touch
Album: The Transformers The Movie: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Style: AOL/Arena Rock (Metal in my book!)
country/location: USA
release: 1986

This is the 200th MOTD I've done! Well, in an official capacity! And what better way to celebrate this achievement (if I do say so myself), then with the most underrated song ever! Not only is an incredibly cool, cheesy, 100% 80's AOL rock song, it's also from the Transformers Movie soundtrack. No, not the live action soundtrack, the original animated classic (which embarrassingly enough I've never seen...)!

Stan Bush is the man behind this great little gem of a rock song. He and his music resembles Journey in more ways than none. His voice is pretty similar to that of Steve Perry of Journey, though you can tell there's a difference. That high pitched gruff rock star voice that could also belt out a ballad. The guitar distortion is the perfect big rock anthem sound, that cozy but powerful crunch. The drums are heavily produced but with a nice punch. Tons and tons of keyboards and synths that are all happy, cheesy and full of 80s Saturday morning cartoon joy. The song itself is so catchy and amazing to sing along to. The song is an upbeat and uplifting song encouraging you that you have the power to defeat all that stand in your way! A perfect song for me getting to 200 posts! Just remember boys and girls, "You've got the touch! You've got the power!!"

Stan Bush - The Touch

And for an extra bonus, I present to you, the awesome groundbreaking music video for this amazing song! hehe




(pardon the awful quality, it is from the 80s afterall!)

MOTD (finally) - Misantropical Painforest: Epic, Raw, Undescribeable Black Metal

Sorry guys I've been lazy recently! I hope to get back to my usual speed soon! Got tons of awesome (and awful hehe) stuff coming! Enjoy this bizarre and awesome gem!

Mp3 Of The Day



Band/Artist: Misantropical Painforest
Song: Past the Stonecircle Clearing
Album: Winds Saturate With Inhumane Longing
Style: Black Metal (epic, raw, thrashy, bizarre)
country/location: Finland
release: 2005

Ahh, 2009 is here! 2008 is be a distant memory. New Year's Eve was a perfectly black metal night, for there was a pretty epic and grim snowstorm that blew into New England. Bitting cold, fast winds that blew the snow into drifts, howling natural sounds. It was awesome. So today, the sixth day of 2009 (I've been on a small vacation and for whatever reason I haven't felt like writing, sosumi!), I present to you some epic, raw, sorta bizarre black metal from Finland.

Epic and raw don't usually go together, especially in black metal, but Misantropical Painforest mixes these two elements really well, as well as adding a bunch of bizarre touches, thrash leaning aspects and a strange composition/improvisation feel. Plus their band name is just really fun to say! The production on this song is as raw as good raw black metal gets. The guitars are really gritty, the drums sound natural and the vocals are lightly effected (a tiny bit of reverb, but of the gritty raw variety). Some of the riffs are black metal in nature, but most of the playing is almost thrash based. Black/thrash some people would call it. Some of the riffs are melodic and epic sounding, the first one that you hear being an almost infectious line before the harsh black metal vocals come in. Then things get a little weird when this kinda operatic singing voice comes in the semi-background. This and the harsh vocals duet each other most of the songs, sometimes even singing the same line. It's kinda bizarre, but really awesome. At least I enjoy it. The song is kinda a wandering song that has moments that sounds written and composed, while other moments have an improvisational quality to it, then going into thrashy sections before going back into the improvised style. Not sure if it's the music or the fact the band is called Misantropical Painforest, but whenever I listen to it, I always think of tribal rainforest music. This band is quite difficult to describe, at least I've had trouble describing it (also my excuse for taking so damn long). Definitely won't appeal to everyone, but it's worth listening to! One of my favorite finds of 2008! (though released in 2005)

Misantropical Painforest - Past the Stonecircle Clearing

Also, woah, one away from #200 (which hopefully won't take a week to post)! I promise the 200th post is going to be life transforming ;)