Sylvia, can't you see what you are doing? Can't you see I'm scared to speak and I hate my voice because it only makes you angry

And for this week's entertainment, we have a bunch of bands that were (mostly) very important to me in a very specific time of my life - somewhere between 2003 and 2011. Most of them were vehicles for healing during and after a relationship that occurred in that era, and now I revisit them. How did they hold up? Read on and find out, voyeurs and voyeuses.

Day 225 - The Antlers - 'Blight'

We live in an age where everyone has causes, and of course everyone can have them. Only, what with social media being so prevalent, these causes can't be escaped. They're being flung in our faces 24/7, and it's everywhere - literally everywhere. It's in movies, it's in music, it's on TV shows, and it's... it's exhausting really. Because you do need to get away from the real world to remain sane, and there should be a whole lot more ways to escape from it. All that to say that this album is based on climate change, a worthy cause in and of itself. Unfortunately, I want everyting but the real world right now. 

About the album... it's got very beautiful songs, very beautiful melodies, a very good message, an amazing voice but Jesus H. Christ am I tired of real life issues and politics in music, I need escapism and it seems I can't escape. Still, 8/10

Day 226 - Patrick Wolf - 'Crying The Neck'

I love Patrick Wolf. In fact, I can still remember the very first time I listened to one of his songs - 'Accident & Emergency' - on a music blog that no longer exists. His 2011 album 'Lupercalia' would be a serious contender for a spot on my desert island discs list. But that's where I stopped with him - I hadn't listened to anything by him since. He has such a beautiful voice, and this album is filled with beautiful songs - including noteworthy collabs with Zola Jesus and Serafina Steer.

Ultimately, though.... no new ground was broken here but still very, very good. I'll give it an 8/10

Day 227 - Temper Trap - 'Sungazer'

I've told this story a number of times, either here or elsewhere, but back in 2008 I moved to London. I was halfway through a very complicated relationship, and just before the year ended, she moved back home. Some months later, I enticed her to come back but her stay wouldn't be long. We then moved back into this on again/off again sort of thing, and in September 2009 she visited me for a few days. 

One of those days she was there, we went to the movies and saw '(500) Days Of Summer', and so much of that movie had eerily similar parallels to our own relationship. But 'Sweet Disposition' was prominently featured in the movie, and days later I had bought the 'Conditions' vinyl. I loved that album to death. Listened to it a billion times. And I was eagerly anticipating their next record.

I never did give it a listen, though. I think I was severely disappointed by the first single, or something like that. So I knew I'd be revisiting them now, and as soon as I start listening to it, I had to do a double take to make sure I was listening to the right thing, because the first song sounds nothing like what I remembered they sounded like.

But it picks up soon after, and grows into a really good record, with hints of a band being able to become that arena rock gods type of shit. I really liked it, and it gets a good 8.5/10

Day 228 - Beirut - 'A Study Of Losses'

'I was there, Gandalf. I was there three thousand years ago.' - this quote from 'The Lord Of The Rings : The Fellowship Of The Ring' movie sums up how I feel about being there when Beirut first came up. They got all the praise in the world, they were critic's darlings, and I didn't see what the fuss was all about. So I never paid them much attention.

And in 2011 the relationship I just wrote about came to an end, and how does one heal? I did, through music. And I have no idea why, but for some reason I downloaded their album 'The Rip Tide', and it drove me to tears, especially the title track. They slipped out of my conscience in later years, and I wasn't that keen on following up on them, for reasons I can't fully explain. 

This was the best listen of the week - it's so, so beautiful, and Zach has this amazing voice - unlike any other I've ever heard - that just fills the soul. It gets an amazing 9/10

Day 229 - The Veils - 'Fragile World'

I love their first two albums - 'The Runaway Found' and 'Nux Vomica'. And, again, there are bands that just seem to slip from one's conscience, and though you know deep down that they're still out there making records, you just don't have the time or the patience to seek them.

And what I'll say now might seem unfair, but it is the truth : just because something is objectively good, it doesn't mean that it's something that you'll enjoy. And I really didn't like this album that much. I really didn't.

But it's well put together, there's nothing that's really inherently wrong here. I just found it... boring. Boring as all hell. I'm giving it just a 5/10

Day 230 - Mew - 'Visuals'

Well, if I'm honest I didn't even know that the band had broken up, and it just goes to show how much I've kept up with them.

But 'Frengers', their monumental 2003 album, left such an impression in me that I had ridiculously high expectations for this one. And that's on me, maybe I shouldn't have, because just like the previous record, I wasn't such a great fan of this one. That's ok, not everything's a winner, and I'll give it a 6/10

Day 231 - Shout Out Louds - 'House'

Do you know what this band has is common with all the rest? It's yet another band that I've not listened to a new album in years and years. The last one I'd listened was the wonderful 'Our Ill Wills', and Jesus fucking Christ, that was almost twenty years ago. 

And this one was pretty damn good - a nifty 33 minute record that's rather more post-punky than I was expecting, at least in spots. I'll award it a good 8/10

See you in the funny papers!

It's in the water, baby, it's in the special way we fuck

Have you ever had a dream where at some point in the dream you not only realize that you are dreaming, but also that you had this exact dream multiple times before? And knowing in that, in the dream, it instills you with a weird sort of confidence where you think nothing can go wrong because you know exactly how it'll pan out. But sometimes it doesn't really work that way. 

I have a dream where I'm returning to a house I lived in in my youth that was haunted, and in I wade, sure that I am filled to the brim with divine power, and I'm going to send these demons back to hell, but when I confront them and let them know how powerful I am, I can't actually do anything at all, and the demons visit their greatest torment on me : they just mock me.

This was a preamble to the fact that yet again I delayed something I had planned for a while, but I ended up dreaming a certain kind of dream when I went to sleep last sunday. I make it no secret that I haven't been with someone in close to a decade now. I think that ship has sailed for me. And there are things that I miss, and there are things that I don't miss. There are things that I think about just once in a while now. And sex is one of those things.

But I dreamed of Zee, a girl I met in the summer of 2011. We met on the dancefloor of a club I used to go maybe twice a week, and we flirted and flirted, and one early morning just after the club closed I asked for her number. Shortly afterwards we were fucking like animals every single moment we could find to be together. She and some friends had bought a building and were renovating it, and we'd meet there and there'd be booze and sometimes coke, and we'd fuck until our bodies were spent, and all throughout this there'd be her MP3 player playing these super chill electronic songs. 

I'm aware I told this story before, earlier in the run, but Zee visited me in a dream, and for a while we were back in that unlit room, our sweaty broken bodies intermingled as one. So I decided to revisit some bands from that specific era, and the results weren't great, I'm afraid.

Read on, O loyal reader.

218 - Com Truise - 'Persuasion System'
What I'm going to write here for this record, sadly extends to pretty much every single album here, in some way or the other : there's nothing intrinsically bad here, but it's not really that good. It's the sort of music that goes nowhere, really, something that you can more or less safely ignore, it doesn't offend your ears, but ultimately is rather sterile. The last couple of songs, though, are pretty good.

I wasn't really a fan of this one, it gets a 5/10

219 - Mock & Toof - 'Temporary Happiness'
I remember - very clearly - the first time I listened to this band. I also remember - very clearly - what I was doing at the time : me and Zee were fucking like beasts on heat, and out of nowhere comes this weird, catchy song. I had no idea what it was I was listening to, but the following day I googles some lines I remembered from the song, and hey presto, 'Farewell To Wendo' was the name of the song.
This album here, though... None of the whimsy found on 'Farewell to Wendo'. A bit dull, really. It gets a poor 4/10

220 - Bag Raiders - 'Horizons'
Some bands or artists or whatever have that one song in them that is just so perfectly catchy that it has the capability of taking the world by storm, especially with how much social media has evolved and contributed to the exposure of a band's work. Bag Raiders is one such band, with their track 'Shooting Stars'. If I'm honest, that's the only song by them I ever knew... I think. And man, after two duds this one was just what I needed. Vibrant, joyful, full of beats that make you want to shake your bits, with only a couple of not so great songs thrown in. I'll give it a solid 8/10

221 - Twin Shadow - 'Cadet'

I can't remember a single thing about this one, I really can't. And I just checked Apple Music, and it says I played it this week. And, no word of a lie here, I didn't even drink a drop of booze this week, which maybe might've contributed to my forgetfulness. I was of a mind that I hadn't pretty much enjoyed what I'd listened to here, really. And I was dead set on giving it a mediocre rating based on that. But I went back and listened to it and... I'm glad I did, it was pretty damn solid. And funny thing, I maybe remember one or two songs - either from the listen I presumably had during the week, or from elsewhere. Pretty good, I'd just do without the crappy last song. It gets a 7/10 from me. 

222 - Toro Y Moi - 'Hole Erth'

Jesus, I really didn't like this one very much. It's like Gen Z music, made for TikToks on purpose, but in the end just... just boring. There were some songs here and there that almost had a promise of something good, but they went nowhere. Bad, I'll give it a 3/10

223 - Neon Indian - 'VEGA INTL. Night School'

When this one started playing, my ears instantly perked up, and a voice inside my head went 'Hello, hello, what's this? It's shaping up to be another great record!'. Alas. 

Alas, it was not. It was ok-ish, at best. A bit on the dull side, really. I don't think it deserves more than a 5/10, and I'm maybe being too generous.

224 - Washed Out - 'Notes From A Quiet Life'

I wanted so bad to end this week on a high note. I wanted this record to just lift me up. And did it? Did it bollocks. It has exactly two really good songs, and the rest of it was forgettable. Again, a very generous 5/10

So next week I either do what I've been putting on the back burner, or I do something else. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

And I will always love you, with the wind, with the wind, oh the wind in your hair

I have a wee list with some of the challenges I have planned, and though they're in no particular order, I try go through some earlier than others. Some of these challenges require a bit of research, some others require a bit more. And this week's challenge I thought was going to require little to no research, so guess what? I did none. And so when I started this week's challenge in earnest, I soon realized I'd screwed up a bit. So what is this week's challenge? Well, nothing more than albums by members (past or present) of The Bad Seeds. I legitimately thought that there had been like a billion of them, but apparently no - there weren't actually that many. Some I knew I'd be listening to anyways, others were like rabbits pulled out of the hat, more like shots in the dark really. And.. huh... mixed results, really.

Day 211 - Teho Teardo and Blixa Bargeld - 'Christian And Mauro'
Being a huge, huge fan of this collaboration, I'd been meaning to listen to this album for quite a while now. For some reason I never did give it that listen, even though I had it on vinyl - it's very likely one of the very last records I ever bought. I saw them live in Lisbon some ten years ago, and it was quite the exquisite experience. In this alum they do much of the same things they'd done previously done - which by itself is quite, quite good - but there's not really any new ground being trod here. Still, pretty damn good - I'll give it an 8/10.

Day 212 - James Johnston - 'The Starless Room'
Ever heard of him? Yeah, me neither. This was a case when I went fishing for a name, hoping for the best and guess what? This was the best listen of the week, easily. Very beautiful, very delicate, very well thought out, very well put together. Also, it clocked at around 39 minutes or so, which meant it definitely didn't overstay its welcome. I'll give a very surprising 8.5/10.

Day 213 - Barry Adamson - 'Cut To Black'
Barry Adamson had been on my radar for years on end. But just like so, so many things, it never was a real priority. So, not knowing what to expect... I was mildly disappointed. I like Soul/R'n'B well enough, but only the old school kind of Soul, Motown, Stax, all that stuff. Contemporary/modern Soul leaves me cold, and this is much more in that vein than anything else. Maybe a couple of good songs, and no more than that. I'll give it a 6/10.

Day 214 - Mick Harvey - 'Sketches From The Book Of The Dead'
Very similar to the previous entry in terms of me wanting to check out Mick's work for a long while, but fairly different in terms of music. There are certain Cave-isms here, to be sure, but I really didn't find the album to be that great. Not bad - just not very good. It also gets a 6/10.

Day 215 - Naïm Amor & Kid Congo Powers - 'Tucson Safari'

You know, there's a certain style of music I just don't get, and I can't even understand why people make it in the first place, let alone how there are people who actively and actually enjoy listening to it. I call that style of music 'Stupid Music' and I have no idea how to describe it. But this is 99% it.

I went to a Kid Congo gig about a decade ago, when I was writing for an online music mag, and let me tell you - watching people enjoy 'Stupid Music' live was quite the education. These people really loved what they were listening to and all I could think was 'How? How???'

Is this bad? Yes. Is it all bad? No, there's like a good to great-ish song there. But It's so far from good... I'll give it a 2/10.

Day 216 - Hugo Race - 'Dishee'

Ever heard of him? Yeah, me neither. This was a case when I went fishing for a name, hoping for the best and guess what? This was the worst listen of the week, easily.

Some months ago I wrote this about an Emma Ruth Rundle I'd listened to : 

'I firmly believe that people who knowingly choose to unleash such atrocities upon the world should be chained to a post and whipped within an inch of their lives until they finally repent and denounce their works. This wasn't just the worst thing I listened to this week, or even the worst thing I listened to this year (at least so far), it's single handedly the worst piece of shit I've ever listened to. I'll give it a 0/10 because I can't give negative scores.'

This is one such case of an atrocity being knowingly unleashed upon the world. It's so, so bad. So bad. 

It also gets a 0/10.

Day 217 - Conway Savage - 'Wrong Man's Hands'

There's a lot to love here, not least the fact that it's just 26 minutes long. It's also very, very Nick Cave-y, you could certainly imagine some songs from this record being sung by him. There are moments of quiet beauty and soft tenderness here that just do that special trick, and fill your soul with joy. A very good way to end the week, and as such it gets a very good 8/10.

Next week I don't know yet if it'll be something from my list, or if I'm deciding on something else. 

Eyes, skin, bone, contour : language as a flower

There are musical genres that I know are just not for me. Punk is one of them. I never did like it, at least in terms of how it sounded, but as a kid I was really into that aesthetic. Then I grew up...
I listened to a bit of Punk when I was growing up, mainly because my older brothers were into it. I must be some kind of masochist, I suppose.

Day 204 - The Damned - ‘Damned Damned Damned’
Didn't like it. Didn't really sound that punk to me. I can't give it more than a 3/10

Day 205 - Black Flag - 'Damaged'
One of the worst things I ever listened to. A 0/10 is a very generous indeed.

Day 206 - G.B.H. - 'City Baby Attacked By Rats'
One of my brothers had a G.B.H. vinyl called 'City Baby's Revenge'. In 1992 I was - for some stupid reason - trying to impress an older kid that went to the same school I did, a big, fat, bespectacled brute who was into metal and punk. One day I brought that record with me to school to see if he'd be impressed. You know what happened? He stole it off of me. Son of a bitch. Never did listen to that record. This one wasn't atrocious - there were bits there that definitely reminded me of Motorhead. Still, not brilliant by any means, it gets a 5/10

Day 207 - Dead Kennedys - 'Frankenchrist'
I remember listening to 'Virus 100' way back when and not feeling impressed one single bit by any of the covers there. If the covers weren't great, ergo the originals wouldn't be as well. And if truth be told, this wasn't bad at all. There were bits there that sounded like The Cramps, some of it I liked, some of it didn't do a thing for me. I'll give it a 6.5/10

Day 208 - Buzzcocks - 'Anoher Music In A Different Kitchen'
I can't think about this band without thinking about Richard, an English teacher I had in the early 90s. A proper brit, Mancunian to boot, he had a profound admiration and love for all the Manchester/Madchester bands he'd grown up with, chief among them the Buzzcocks. I've always not really liked that name, so I never had any will - lingering or otherwise - to go and listen to them. But of course I've listened to some of their songs here and there - mainly in compilations or O.S.T.s. It's funny, because though I do see the punk here, I actually see more of the post-punk that I really love. It was pretty decent, though, decent enough to get a 7/10

Day 209 - The Ramones - 'Animal Boy'

Of course The Ramones. Of course the fucking Ramones. It's 1995 and near the halfway mark of that year I met the girl who I'd spend the next few years with, eventually live together with, and have a son with. Early stages of the relationship, we have a lot in common, but both of us like different things. I introduce her to Amorphis and Cradle Of Filth, she introduces me to Queensryche and The Ramones. The former, I loved. The latter... not so much. I know I listened to one of their records - the one with all the hits. I now realize I might've listened to their greatest hits type of record. 

So, not really recognizing any of the album covers as something I'd listened to before, I land on the one that could've been the cover to any hair-metal band. And this is a (mostly) pleasant affair, very poppy, but also a bit punky. I actually liked this, who knew? I'll give it a 7/10

Day 210 - Television - 'Marquee Moon'

So, a few of the entries here came straight from a 'greatest punk albums of all time' I saw online, and when I saw this album was found in that list, I thought why the hell not, I mean, I've always, always, hated this album's cover. I hate how stupid every single guy there looks, they don't even really look human, but rather, they look like some alien reptilian skinwalkers trying to pass off as human, in a 'How do you do, fellow humans?' kind of way. Well, why don't I really tell you how I feel about that album cover, hmmm?

That said... I have no idea why this is considered punk. In fact, I found it to be more akin to some proggy stuff than punk. I liked most of it, but the voice just wasn't for me. I can see how they'd influence bands like Interpol, though. Probably the best listen of the week, I'll give it a solid 7.5/10

Next week I don't know yet. It'll be yet another thing I'm not really into, but god knows what.

So is everything a nameless lie? Who, my god, am I?

I've been trying to figure out something. So, back in 1998, this label called Holy Records puts out a tribute album to one of my favourite bands - Paradise Lost. I got it pretty soon after it came out, and I played once - yes, just the once - and thought to myself 'what the fuck did I just listen to?', I found it to be that bad. It was full of really weird covers, and some worked very well, like Oprhaned Land's version of 'Mercy', and On Thorns I Lay's version of 'True Belief', but pretty much everything else was just horrid. I hated, hated, hated everything else there, pretty much. Insofar as it depended on me, I'd never - ever - listen to one of those bands again.

So what I'm trying is where I was at that time, late '98. And, I mean, I was like halfway through an unhappy relationship, my sex life was reduced to one, maybe two moments of bad sex, but other than that... I was pretty content in life. Sure, I was in a going nowhere fast relationship, but things were pretty much OK. So I really didn't have any reason to really hate this songs so much, and I wonder why I did.

Unfortunately, I forgot to write down my initial thoughts on a few of these bands and how I rated the album, so I'm going from memory here.

Day 197 - Argile - 'Spleen Angel'
I had no idea this band was a side project from another band to be featured here. And I even thought the band was called 'Argyle' and not 'Argile'. I actually really liked this one - Metal, yes, but also some neo-classical and acoustic bits. Let's start with a 7/10

Day 198- Misanthrope - 'Embrasement'

So this is the band that is the main project from the Argile fellas. Knew them by name, and to be honest - I found them to be a lot less interesting than Argile. I'll give this a generous 6/10

Day 199 - Legenda - 'Eclipse'

A few seconds in, I was sure I wasn't going to enjoy this - at all. 'Shit, more Black Metal?', but soon after I started really enjoying the record. Way back when, I held this CD in my hands countless times, and I always ended up choosing something else other than this. This was a fun listen, it gets a good 7.5/10 

Day 200 - Godsend - 'A Wayfarer's Tears'
Jesus, all I can remember about this album was the singer's nasally voice. It was metal, but not really? Something not bad, but not good either, with some doom-y elements to it. I don't know. I really don't. Let's just give it a 5/10

Day 201 - Yearning - 'Merging Into Landscapes'

So... there's this genre called 'Beauty and the Beast', this type of Gothic Metal with a girl singing and a guy doing harsh/clean vocals. And what's this? Maybe 'The Really Annoying Beauty, The Beast and The Slightly Annoying Beast'. I don't think I disliked this, but neither did it leave such an impression that would warrant a really good rating. It gets a 6.5/10

Day 202 - S.U.P. - 'Room Seven'

I always thought that this band was either a Prog Metal band or some weird Metal/Techno combo thing.

It's true that I didn't love everything here - I remember being thoroughly unimpressed by the first few songs. And sometime they'd weirdly remind me of Nirvana, a band I absolutely loathe. But here and there they had some really, really great songs. I'll give it a worthy 7/10

Day 203 - Stille Volk - 'Nueit De Sabbat'

It's 2009 and the girl who I was dating at the time - and again, this was at the halfway point of a painful and complicated relationship - visits me in London, where I was living at the time. We go to Camden Market, and in this wee jewelry store, they were playing something I was sure I knew what was. So I asks the guy who was working there and he tells it was Stille Volk. This album came out in 2009 and I hoped it might sound familiar - but it doesn't, not one bit.

This is folk/celtic/medieval music, somewhat in the vein of In Extremo or Saltatio Mortis and even though I have nothing against this kind of music, it doesn't do much for me either. Not bad at all, though. I'll give it a 7/10

Things get tougher next week. Tune in to the same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel and you'll see what's what.

Behind a different mask I know it's always the same face, always the same eyes greedy for agony

In the early-to-mid 90s, I had to distinct groups of friends : one survived the test of time, the other did not. One was in the city I grew up in, the other was on the other side of the river. Both groups had similar tastes in common - metal, comics, movies, action figures, but they rarely ever crossed over. However, both groups of friends - and some were just more acquaintances than friends, really - had people who, at that point in time, ridiculed Black Metal, especially that first wave that was coming in from Norway and other Scandinavian countries. Sometimes I felt that I was flying that banner all by myself, at least for a few years. I came across a compilation called 'Blackend : The Black Metal Compilation Volume 1' in one of the very few music stores that sold exclusively metal music, and I bought it at once. Some bands there I already knew and loved - Samael, Emperor, Mayhem, Impaled Nazarene, but there was a ton of bands there that I had never even heard of. I picked a bunch of those bands to give them a try, and boy oh boy, what a week.

Day 190 - Fleurety - 'Department Of Apocalyptical Affairs'

One thing I've learned about this band is that either people hate this band or they really hate this band. This one was pretty fucking weird. Black Metal? No. But definitely some metal. Also some Jazz, some Trip-Hop, lots of experimentation. good female voices, not so great almost atonal male voices. Was this bad? No. Was this good? Sort of? I don't know that I'll ever listen to it again, but this was certainly something. It gets a 6/10

Day 191 - Ved Buens Ende - 'Written In Waters'

Eh.... I wasn't overly convinced when I listened to the song that was featured in the compilation, and I wasn't won over now. Like Fleurety, it also has a bit of an experimental side, but the Black Metal is definitely more pronounced here. I don't know. I didn't really like it, but I didn't hate it either. Let's settle on a 5/10

Day 192 - Lord Belial - 'Unholy Trinity'

I used a song by them that was featured on this compilation to troll a couple of friends of mine, saying that this was the *new* Cradle Of Filth song, I even went so far to tell them that the band had had yet another personnel change - something very common in the band, even unto this day - and that they had decided to abandon the gothic symphonic type of Black Metal they were known for for some more traditional Black Metal. Of course, my fib was short lived, and I managed to fool no one. I bought their 1995 'Kiss the Goat (Sic Transit Gloria Mundi)' album, but I wasn't a huge fan of it - if I'm honest, that year would mark the end of my fascination with Black Metal, at least of this genre. Listening to their latest album was a great experience- I actually rather liked it. And I liked it a hell of a lot more than anything else I've listened from C.O.F. in many a year. It gets a respectable 8/10

Day 193 - Sigh - 'I Saw The World's End (Hangman's Hymn MMXXV Rerecorded)'

Sigh... and I do mean the name of the band as well as the act of, well sighing. I never managed to get into them. They were never a priority, though critically they were always well reviewed and I knew people who swore by them. And a Black Metal band from Japan? How much more enticing could that be? But I never found the time, or, indeed, the will to seek them out. And just like Lord Belial, I liked it a whole lot - I even liked it more than the solid Lord Belial record. Mirai has such an amazing voice, and now I have a hankering to go listen to more by them. I'll give it a pretty good 8.5/10

Day 194 - Enslaved - 'Heimdal'

I know, I know.... Enslaved are one of the more celebrated bands to come out from this era of Black Metal, and they were even Viking Metal precursors. But I'll be the first to admit that whenever I tried to listen to them in the past - and I tried maybe a couple of albums - I was never in the right frame of mind to appreciate them. I realized I was listening to something good, very good even, complex and very well put together, but by the time I was finished, I wouldn't be able to tell you a single thing about the record. So, looking at the bands featured on this compilation, listening to them was pretty much a no-brainer. And this time I finally got them. But it's fair to say that this isn't exactly Black Metal - though there are some bits of it there. This is much more in the Progressive Metal category, though on the heavier, harsher side of that spectrum. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this record and it's probably the strongest album I listened to this week. I'll give it a whopping 9/10

Day 195 - Dark Funeral - 'We Are The Apocalypse'

Fun fact : a friend of mine, a guy who I've not talked to in ages called Paulo, borrowed this compilation from me fairly early on. On the back of this, he went and bought the first Dark Funeral CD, which he then lent to me, and I really didn't like it, for whatever reason. In 30+ years I never felt the urge to go and listen to anything by them, so I figured why the hell not and give them a try? And this is good, old-school Black Metal - no fancy shmancy choirs or piano segues. It's more melodic than I would've thought, actually, which made for a surprisingly solid listen. I'll give it a 7.5/10

Day 196 - Throne Of Ahaz - 'On Twilight Enthroned'

Who? Throne Of Ahaz. Never heard of them? Well, I only know the one song by them, but it was a toss up between them and Bestial Warlust, Unanimated or Havohej - all of them bands featured in this compilation that I never got to know anything about. So Throne Of Ahaz it was. Or should that be 'it waz'? OK, I'll stop. And if Dark Funeral was a no frills piece of Black Metal, this one has even less frills, like negative frills, but not as much as a Burzum or Immortal or Darkthrone album - which have infinity negative frills. Liked it, didn't love it, could have been maybe ten minutes shorter. It gets a 6/10

I have one more compilation whose bands I want to revisit. It's not a compilation, but a tribute to a band I loved dearly at the time - Paradise Lost. When I first listened to it, I was dumbfounded by some of the cover versions. I liked maybe a couple of the songs there, and everything else... just no. But that was me almost 30 years ago, maybe now I can appreciate some of the bands that were featured in that tribute? We'll see, won't we?

It's like I'm waiting for the scars to heal

A week spent in the darker pits of metal, mostly Black Metal, but also some folksy and neoclassical stuff.

Day 183 - Pillorian - 'Obsidian Arc'

So, this being the band that John Haughm founded after Agalloch disbanded, it's no surprise that this is in fact very Agallich coded - everything that made that band is present here. It's also maybe just a tad catchier, it's gothy and dark metal-ish in parts, which makes for a surprisingly good one and done album - this is the only thing they ever released. A decent 8/10 to start off the week ain't that bad!

Day 184 - Fluisteraars - 'Manifestaties van de ontworteling'

It has to be said that when I like something, I'll give it a pretty good score. When I just sort of like it, it can go anywhere from a middling score to an almost negative one. But when I listen to something that's so incredibly bad that it makes me want to retch in disgust, you bet your sweet ass I'll award it accordingly. And this awful, terrible, atrocious bit of very bad ambient deserves nothing less than a 0/10

Day 185 - Afsky - 'Faellesskab'

And here's a decent bit of Black Metal, they sound exactly like something you’d find like in Adipocere Records catalogues, or maybe labels like Deathlike Silence or Cacophonous. It was like going back to 1993 and discovering these bands that had maybe not very good production values when it came to how they sounded, but they still delivered something good. These guts did, and so it gets 7/10

Day 186 - Uada - 'Crepuscule Natura'

And in opposition to the previous record, this one is definitely better produced, though I didn’t think I’d like it because I didn’t gel with the voice at first. I got used to it fairly quickly, especially because it turned out to be pretty diverse vocally. Overall good, I'll give a 7/10

Day 187 - Panzerfaust - 'The Suns of Perdition - Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion'

I mean, I could have started with Chapter I, and since I know nothing about this band, maybe there's some sort of overarching theme an story to these albums? Maybe, I don't know. What I do know is that this one was the best of the black metal from this run. A strong 8/10 for this one.

Day 188 - The Flight Of Sleipnir - 'Nature's Cadence' 

Last week I wrote this about one of the bands I listened to : 'Sometimes I do things like these. I see a band's name and I imagine that they'll sound something like some other band I like. Even the song's titles led me to believed that this would sound like Agalloch.'

And this band does not sound like Agalloch at all, and yet they have these folksy, almost pastoral side to their music that just makes you feel immersed in nature. I really loved this one, it served as a great palate cleanser after all the harshness from the previous days. I'll give it a good 8.5/10

Day 189 - Osi And The Jupiter - 'Larvatus' 

Sometimes, when I'm doing these weekly 'challenges', I pray that the last record of the week turns out to be the best listen of the week and, Ideally, something that will speak directly to my soul. Now, I've said this before and I sure as hell will say it again : at the end of the day, there's too much of everything and you only have so much free time, so there will always be things that slip through the cracks. This is one such band, one I've been trying to get into for well over a decade, but the right time never came along. And boy - this one was just so good, so, so beautiful, so peaceful, that my week couldn't have ended on a higher note. And on that note, badum-tss, thanks folks I'll be here all week!, it deservedly gets  a 9/10

I'll be spending next week with some more Black Metal - it's actually something I was meant to do months ago but I forgot all about it. I'm going to dive in a few bands from a classic compilation from way back in the day.