Hollywood Metal Episode 75 (audio)

Friday Aug 29th 2009:  My friend from New York City was supposed to join us via Skype on today’s show but the connection never happened so we continued along with our pre-planned agenda of a black metal show. TARABAS is a band we played early on in the Hollywood Metal lifespan and Kutte, the guitarist and vocalist was very gracious towards the show so I felt it was once again time to play a song from those guys. “Warlord” was the name of the track and I thought it was interesting because the style of epic black metal wasn’t to distant from PHLEGETHON in which Lane is the bassist and Tyler is the guitarist. TARABAS has one of the best band logo’s in the world which was also done by Kutte. My friends in ANACHRONAEON have a side project band called EYECULT which we played once before on the show. EYECULT was a melodic death metal band as well, that is, until this upcoming release which places the band firmly in the melodic black metal camp. I think this is an awesome move by Patrik and Andreas as now they have two unique bands establishing a fanbase in two genres. Plus they are doing it with a quality of music that is way better than most. I will keep you posted on the upcoming release, in the meantime enjoy “Skuld.” CEREMONIAL CASTINGS is probably the best American black metal band. No one refutes that when I throw it out there. “Obsidian Spells of Hysteria” was the track we played. Their music is very symphonic and for lack of a better adjective, thick. They have a distinct guitar sound and even though the subject matter is dark and brutal, the songs have a warm, comfortable feeling to them. Salem 1692 is my favorite album from them, I hope they get to LA soon. A band from Brazil called HUGIN MUNIN sent me a track from their upcoming debut release called “God of War.” If you couldn’t figure out by their viking name reference these guys are a viking metal band in the melodic death genre. I’ll keep you posted on the status of their upcoming release. NAGLFAR is one of the best Swedish black metal bands operating today and another band that we played early on in this shows history. This one is called “12th Rising” from their 1998 release Diabolical. BURZUM is the most played band on Hollywood Metal Radio. Perhaps you’ve noticed that the background music is always the songs off 1997 Daudi Baldrs album. Today I felt like playing a song off one of an actual black metal album instead of the ambient usual tracks. 1996 Filosofem is my favorite BURZUM album and even though the tracks are highly distorted, there is something warm and fuzzy about the songs. “Jesu Dod” is a particularly upbeat song with a rhythm that is easy to lock onto. ABYSSOS was a short lived Swedish melodic black metal band from the late 90’s that released a couple of stellar albums before parting ways. “Queen Covered in Black” is an epic song that provides a fantastic definition of the genre. NIFELHEIM is a more straightforward black metal band. Tyler said he saw these guys once and never saw so many metal spikes in his life. The visual appearance of this band is worth the price of admission, not to mention the music is pretty kick ass too.