Lustre "Another Time, Another Place (Chapter One and Two)"

    Celebrating a lustrous career of atmospheric black metal creativity, the one man band known as, Lustre, will be releasing two complication albums this coming March. Set for release on March 29th through Morrowless Music, “Another Time, Another Place (Chapter One and Two),” is an opportunity for fans to purchase some of the most immaculate recordings ever recorded by Lustre.

    The mastermind behind Lustre, Nachtzeit, continues to demonstrate his talents with each new release and over the years he has established a phenomenal discography. Lustre is a band that is highly regarded amongst the atmospheric black metal community to the where you hear quite a few bands releasing material that sounds very similar to Lustre. No matter how many come along that sound similar, at the end of the day Lustre’s music glistens in terms of sound and overall quality.

    Starting with, “Another Time, Another Place Chapter One,” the compilation features the never before released EP, “The Ardour of Autumn,” recorded in 2013 along with the band’s 2009 EP, “Welcome Winter.”  When listening to, “The Ardour of Autumn,” one can imagine themselves standing amongst a forest with yellow and orange leaves falling around them. Lustre’s music is a perfect example of taking sounds and creating these magnificent sounding atmospheres by effectively layering synth sounds to heighten certain emotions. In the background there is this faint wall of distortion which the keyboards seem to flow through and eventually develop into some strong melodic compositions.

    Another point to bring up is that the songs are not exactly short and the four tracks on this compilation average close to around ten minutes. Even with lengthy pieces of music, Lustre maintains focus by writing dynamic pieces of music that produce sounds to keep listeners intently engaged.

    The second compilation album, “Another Time, Another Place Chapter Two,” contains three tracks which are made up of the very first Lustre EP, “Serenity,” from 2008 and then, “A Spark of Times of Old,” which was originally released around 2013. I definitely find this EP to convey a more raw atmospheric black metal style. The song, “The Light of Eternity,” from the band’s debut EP, blends the harsher sounds of black metal style guitar with a mesmerizing synth melody, while the vocals cry out in agony over the instrumental arrangements.

    The next song from the first EP, “Waves of the Worn,” is a seven minute exploration through ambient sounding realms of calming synth. Wrapping up the album, “A Spark of Times of Old” is probably one of my favorite Lustre recordings and one of the band’s most ambitious pieces ever recorded. The overall production is absolutely brilliant along with the way that the song moves in such amazing synergy. You feel a sense of calmness with each sound and soon find yourself drifting away into an atmospheric world of endless wonder.

    Fans of Lustre and atmospheric black metal might want to mark their calendars, because I think these two compilations are great examples of musical genius and profound artistic expression. In a world where cheap and forgettable music is unfortunately very common, you really come to appreciate what Nachtzeit has been able to do over the years with Lustre. I hope Lustre continues to inspire artists on how they should approach their music and I hope Lustre keeps releasing new material for people to discover.



Lustre "The Ardour of Autumn" :

Morrowless Music:
https://morrowlessmusic.com/

Lustre Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/lustresweden/

Armagedda "The Final War Approaching"

    Bring on the end of humanity, the apocalyptic demise of society with the music of Sweden’s Armagedda playing in the background as our world is swallowed up into oblivion. To celebrate the band’s 20 years of blackened devastation, the band will be reissuing their debut album, “The Final War Approaching.”

    A blistering cut of black metal, the album is one of the most grim and abysmal sounding releases ever recorded by Armagedda and one all black metal fans might want to add to their collections. The Swedish based label, Nordvis, will be reissuing the album on CD, cassette and vinyl with a release date set for March 29th. “The Final War Approaching,” is an album that stays true to the raw black metal formula and conjures up some evil sounding atmospheres.

    “The Final War Approaching,” is a strong release containing a vicious selection of eight tracks. The buzzsaw sounding distorted guitar riffs, rapid skull crushing drum parts and hellish sounding vocals, construct blasphemous offerings of music that will send shivers down the spines of priests and summon total darkness. The first song off the album, “Deathminded,” is a raw cut of music featuring a blizzard of blackened fury and does a great job kicking off the album. The second track, “Sign of Evil,” slashes away with a terrifying main riff that may not be exactly technical, however, it lays the foundation for a pulverizing piece of extreme music.

    As the album progresses you hear the band maintain a tight sound that does not stray too far from how the beginning tracks sound. “Undergång” explodes through the speakers with distorted aggression and displays the band’s unforgiving attitude. I must point out how the production of this album compliments the band’s style of songwriting and you feel the music is written with true passion for black metal music to where the tracks to do not sound dual in the least sense. The final song on the album, “My Eternal Journey,” concludes the musical onslaught by hammering out a slower and extremely malevolent sounding riff. Once again, Armagedda hacks away in raw and grim fashion to give listeners a truly harsh sounding album.

    If you are a fan of pure unapologetic black metal, then this is a required listen in my opinion. Also, if you enjoy the album you have the option of getting it on CD, cassette and vinyl thanks to Nordvis. Now, I do want say that anyone who thinks that after watching, Lords of Chaos, they are a black metal expert, needs to go take a hike off a cliff and understand that there is more to black metal then guys burning churches, stabbing each other and shooting at McDonalds (Yes Varg claims he did that once). Armagedda reminds us that black metal should be about the music and not the controversies surrounding your band.


Armagedda "Sign of Evil" :

Pre-Order through Nordvis here:

https://nordvis.com/en/

Iron Griffin "Curse of the Sky"

    Following the success of Iron Griffin’s self-titled debut EP, Finnish multi-instrumentalist Oskari Räsänen returns with another strong release of classic sounding hard rock and heavy metal music. The songs on this new album, “Curse of the Sky,” shall open up gateways into a magnificent realm of epic sounding music where warriors fend off attacks from ravenous beasts.

    On the new album, Räsänen decided to seek out the talents of Maija Tiljander, who proves to be a phenomenal vocalist with an unbelievable range. Her ability to bring such emphasis to the fantasy based lyrical content makes each song very memorable and complements the instrumental compositions extremely well. I was a huge fan of the first EP and thought that the singer who handled the vocal parts on that album did a great job, however, the decision to change vocalists was a brilliant idea. Tiljander and Räsänen prove to be a solid team and the album’s overall production is simply amazing.

    The album opens with an acoustic instrumental composition with faint noises of thunder in the background to buildup anticipation for the song, “Reign of Thunder.” You feel as though you are being bombarded with thunderous explosions of guitar distortion, while the vocals provided by Tiljander confidently scream over the bombastic sounding noise. The next song, “Forgotten Steel,” maintains a triumphant attitude with medieval themed lyrics creating a world of fantasy and glorious sounding classic metal music. The vintage sound of the guitars and the fantasy themed lyrical content reminds me of bands like Cirith Ungol and Manilla Road.

    Track number four, “Lost Legion,” begins with a soothing introduction section that unfolds into a fierce battle like piece of valiant metal might. I find the dynamic songwriting abilities of Räsänen to really standout on this song and I like how he crafts such vivid melodic compositions that match the emotional tone of Tiljander’s voice. The songs, “Curse of the Sky” and “Dawn of Struggle,” both gallop away in a feverish fashion containing some truly blistering rhythms and verse sections. I personally like the raw attitude that, “Dawn Struggle,” seemed to convey in terms of the vocal delivery and the main guitar riff. The final song on the album, “To the Path of the Glory,” is quite possibly the most powerful and captivating song off of the album. Once again, listeners are treated to a piece of uplifting metal music to conclude a journey of epic and triumphant proportions.

    “Curse of the Sky,” was a very refreshing and overall enjoyable listening experience compared to a lot of your typical overproduced heavy metal releases where there seems to be a lack of true raw emotion. From start to finish, Iron Griffin embodies what making great rock and metal music is all about, which is putting passion into each song you write and not settling for subpar. Iron Griffin’s music reminds us that the power and glory of hard rock and heavy metal music does not die like most other modern styles of music, or fade in time. I highly recommend this album for fans of classic hard rock and heavy metal along with anyone looking for an escape into world of sheer heavy metal fantasy.




Iron Griffin's Bandcamp:
https://irongriffin.bandcamp.com/album/curse-of-the-sky

Iron Griffin's Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/irongriffinmetal/