Records Stranger Aeons missed out on

Having major technical issues with what is already limited time, spare time project sucks. Thankfully, I had a friend help me fix the issues in the source code that emerged with the latest updates and the page is back.

But I missed a lot of records that are now basically too old to share, but I’m doing it anyway, albeit briefly. Let’s dig in, into cool stuff released in, I guess, the last year.

Misþyrming – Algleymi


Granted, my enthusiasm for Misþyrming may have started to dwindle after it seemed to take the Icelandic giant slayers forever to drop anything new. ‘Algleymi’ hasn’t really stuck with me, which is weird. All the goodness you hear on their debut is still there. Certainly, it has been polished and perfected, which results in a record that sounds a little too crispy for my tastes, but is full of the high-pitched tremolo riffs, lumbering passages and blast beat assaults. Maybe I just thought the t-shirts were ugly. I can be that kind of guy, but ‘Algleymi’ has a lot to offer for anyone exploring the realms of black metal. For me, this feels like Keep of Kalessin in the way it opens the doors for new listeners, and that can be a good thing. And it’s not out on one on Season of Mist, that surprises me a lot.

Lord Vicar – The Black Powder

Label: The Church Within Records
These Finnish geezers have not been around as long as I expected them to be. They sound like doom is supposed to sound and I know that this definition has been stretched far and wide. Yet, when you play some Sabbath, Trouble or Saint Vitus, you know what’s up. Right? Lord Vicar is like that, but even more Brittish sounding at times. These slow, cascading riffs have it all. It’s brilliant. The songs are compact, easy to get into and the sound oozes melancholy and straight-forwardness. Is it simplistic? By no means, it’s just really good doom!

Thronehammer – Usurper of the Oaken Throane

Label: The Church Within Records

Thronehammer

Can I just kick this one of by saying that Thronehammer is friggin’ awesome? I mean, the name alone makes the D&D geek inside me shiver with excitement about the potential of epicness that this doom band has to offer. Combining members formerly active in Obelyskkh, Uncoffined and Naked Star from Germany and the UK, it’s a showdown of megamassive riffing and tales of woe. And that’s just opening track ‘Behind the Wall of Frost’, a 17-minute megalith. It’s not just riffing, there’s plenty of grooves and punch to the sound too, with particularly powerful vocals that give the band just that edge that makes them feel different. Perhaps on ‘Warhorn’ you can hear it best, with the melodic, toned-down singing and smooth flow of sound. It still kicks ass, even at its most gentle. I want a t-shirt!

Woebegone Obscured – The Forestroamer

Label: Aesthetic Death
Many people will not have such a strong 1992 reference when they hear Danish Dynamite, but I have. Since then, I’ve hoped for something from Denmark to equally impress me and I think I’ve found it in Woebegone Obscured. Punishing funeral doom with a healthy dose of atmosphere added to this dangerous concoction. They’ve also split up again, and somehow I picked up on this record almost 2 years too late. But never has it been said that this should stop you from praising a band with a name that beckons obscurity, right? These Danes produce a harrowing sound, with clear nods to the natural realm in both artwork and band photos. This is also tangible in the music, which offers a lot of space, to be filled with your own experiences. Much like a dense forest, where the roof obscures the light from above. To just quote, from the title track:

In the mountains I belong
Caressed by far travelled air
I watch the woods from above
For this kind of peace I care

Says enough, right?