Arvo Pärt ‎– The Symphonies (Tõnu Kaljuste, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra) (ECM)

End-of-summer laziness and boredom and the exhaustion of a very difficult winter are too overwhelming for me to write anything of substance and to scan/upload covers, etc. so there you go. A new recording of all 4 Arvo Pärt symphonies conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste and performed by the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, this is the first studio recording of the fourth "Los Angeles" symphony of 2010. People who have mostly come to Pärt through his beautiful choral work or his masterful solo pieces "Fur Alina," "Spiegel Im Spiegel" or Tabula Rasa might surprised by the sometimes aggression and darkness hovering over these symphonies, especially the first two, which have that ominous Shostakovich/"Soviet" style, while Symphony 4 is perhaps closer to the majestic choral work, and Symphony 3 has a more majestic and cinematic feel to it, more particularly in the third movement. 2018 cd on ECM.

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Necrophagia / Sigh ‎– Kindred Of The Dying Kind / Young Burial split 7"

As a naive teen I was really intrigued by Necrophagia's affinity with old-school horror movies and their own attempts at small stupid "gore" films they did on their DVDs, as well as by their Celtic-Frost-booty-shaking death metal of their reformed period. Later when they briefly recruited Mirai of Sigh on keyboards they became even nicer, somewhat psychedelic and with a nice Goblin-esque touch. So this was the climax of that period with a split 7"; Necrophagia continued playing that cool Celtic Frosty-styled death/doom with Killjoy's shrieking vocals, while Sigh contributed a nice hazy punky Slayerish cover of Necrophagia's "Young Burial." For some reason, the sound is kinda shit, probably some problem at the pressing plant, but hey, it's slimy gore death metal, yeah? 2003 7" on Red Stream.

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Repugnant & Kaamos Live In Kafe 44, Stockholm, 21.3.2003 tape

 

The two best bands of the old-school Swedish death metal early-2000s revival on a split live tape. Repugnant never took off as they only released a few tapes and a posthumous full-length; their singer however became world famous as the guy behind this overrated heavy rock band called Ghost, meh. They played death metal very close to the roots of Dismember and Entombed and the singer had a very cool thrash metal voice. Now Kaamos was one of the truly best metal bands of all time, albeit an unsung one that ended too soon, after two full lengths, a 10" and a CDEP. They weren't at all copycats of the old legendary sound, but they played an extremely technically proficient epic style of death metal that took a lot of influences of Unleashed that really surpassed Unleashed's quality and mixed them with other influences from Sadistic Intent and doomier parts akin to Candlemass and produced some of the best death metal ever recorded, especially in their first self-titled album. I was lucky enough to catch them in action around 2005-2006 and they were the absolute business, as can be also be understood from this live recording. 2003 tape on Escorbuto.

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Necrovation / Corrupt ‎– Curse Of The Subconscious split 7"

Insanely tight and violent old-school Swedish death metal by the ever-awesome Necrovation, beginning with some really nice atmospheric arpeggios before morphing into thick devastating riffs; their second track is a cover of the classic Morbid track "My Dark Subconscious." Corrupt is another Swedish band, and they play less interesting trebly black/thrash metal with very fast drumming; their most noteworthy part is the vocals which remind me a lot of Altars of Madness-era David Vincent, the guy from the Peruvian band Mortem and Jeff Bechera of Possessed. The second track is a faithful cover with nice solos of Mercyful Fate's "Curse of the Pharaohs." 2005 7" on Blood Harvest.

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Das Über Evils ‎– Bratwurst Terror tape

Old-school death metal from the early incarnation of what later became known as Necrovation, one of the revivalists of the old-school Swedish death metal sound of Dismember and Entombed. Expect heavy, downtuned stuff with a touch of moshy groove and nice gruff vocals. 2002 self-released tape.

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Atrax Morgue - I Vizi Morbosi Di Una Giovane Infermiera

Doesn't require much imagination to judge from the title that there's a 70' exploitation theme going on around here, does it? Heavy on samples from the film with the same name by gay socialist director from Spain Eloy De La Iglesia (haven't seen it), this wee little cdr by Marco Corbelli features minimal synth with hypnotic effects, devoid of any feelings with very few forays into more noisier territory, very reminiscent of early Maurizio Bianchi. 2001 cdr on Corbelli's own Slaughter Productions.

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Lotus Eaters - Wurmwulv

The second and last full-length (fourth release overall) of Lotus finds continuing their electro-acoustic drone improv experiments with a slightly noisier touch I'd say and a darker, more desolate feeling that is also similar to the Aethenor project O'Malley had started during that period. 2007 cd on Troubleman Unlimited.

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PS. There's another Lotus Eater release entitled Alienist On A Pale Horse. Opium Hum blog has uploaded it, so you can't find it there.