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?