Panopticon/Wheels Within Wheels - It's Later Than You Think (2009)

 Panopticon seems to really like releasing splits with more unknown black metal artists, and this 2009 split with Wheels Within Wheels is one of the best of them all (miles beyond that godawful WBSS split). This is due more to the fact that the supporting band is actually good and less to varying quality in Panopticon's material, which tends to be consistently great no matter how abysmal the other artist on the split is. But unlike others, Wheels Within Wheels actually manage to make some pretty interesting and unique music.

Panopticon
1. ...Speaking... (Collapsed Version) - 10:40
2. The Ghosts of Haymarket Square - 7:28

Wheels Within Wheels
3. Beginning - 4:44
4. White Light Rains Down On... - 13:48

Download

P.S. - According to Panopticon's and Wheels Within Wheels' websites there is a "sequel" of sorts to this split in the works for release later this year, along with a re-release of this one.

Jesu - Ascension (2011)

Ok, so this is not related in the slightest to any existing form of black metal, but it's fucking Jesu, man. How could I resist the opportunity to share this nugget of doom/drone excellence with the world?

Tracklisting
1. Fools - 8:12
2. Birthday - 5:09
3. Sedatives - 5:11
4. Broken Home - 8:52
5. Brave New World - 4:13
6. Black Lies - 5:27
7. Small Wonder - 7:31
8. December - 7:51
9. King of Kings - 6:24
10. Ascension - 2:46

Download

Fauna - Rain (2009)

This is the sort of stereotypically pretentious, nature-obsessed Cascadian black metal that makes it such a polarizing scene. Seriously, it's a 63-minute one-track album called "rain" by a band called "Fauna," and it features heavy use of acoustic passages and rain samples. If you can't stand that sort of thing, walk away now, but trust me when I say that if you're already into this style then you will be right at home with this very well-done song.

Tracklisting
1. Rain - 63:19

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Rorcal - Heliogabalus (2010)

What we have here is a 71-minute blackened post-metal/sludge track by an obscure German band. It is one of the most utterly terrifying albums ever made. Get it now.

I'm serious.

Track Listing
1. Heliogabalus - 70:33

Download (the band themselves put this up)

Altar of Plagues - Mammal (2011)

1. Neptune Is Dead - 18:44
2. Feather and Bone - 11:42
3. When the Sun Drowns In the Ocean - 8:18
4. All Life Converges to Some Center - 13:15

Having already garnered substantial critical praise for 2009's White Tomb, Irish atmospheric bm act Altar of Plagues are back with their second full-length. It slays.

Download

Primordial - Redemption At the Puritan's Hand (2011)

Yeah, motherfuckers. This finally leaked and it is just as awesome as you expected it would be.

1. No Grave Deep Enough - 7:10
2. Lain With The Wolf - 8:25
3. Bloodied Yet Unbowed - 8:47
4. God's Old Snake - 6:25
5. The Mouth Of Judas - 8:54
6. The Black Hundred - 6:20
7. The Puritan's Hand - 8:36
8. Death Of The Gods - 9:21

PRIMORDIAL 

Sleeping Peonies - Ghosts, and Other Things (2011)

1. Anomie - 2:42
2. Pashmina Veils - 2:53
3. Lisps, and Candyfloss Wisps - 5:25
4. Wicklewood Haze - 3:45
5. Ebbs and Floes - 2:27
6. Autumnbloom and Lavender - 4:39
7. Black Lanterns - 4:55
8. In Rain We Disappear - 1:10

A really interesting and pretty blend of black metal, post-rock, indie, and copious amounts of shoegaze.

Download

Ash Borer - Ash Borer (2011)

One of the best bands in the Cascadian scene release their first full-length, and needless to say, it's mindbogglingly good.

*note - They only released this on cassette with a 150 copy run (i hear that another label will print another run of cassettes and a vinyl edition at some point), and I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a copy before they sold out. I also took the liberty of making MP3s from the cassette myself, and while they are 320 kbps and are as high quality as I could figure out how to make. Just recognize that this is a cassette rip: it ain't perfect.

1. In the Midst of Life, We Are In Death - 12:09
2. Rest, You Are the Lightning - 7:57
3. My Curse Was Raised In the Darkness Against a Doomsday Silence - 19:39

Download

The Sun Came Up Upon the Left - And the Dreams So Rich In Color

A weird little atmospheric bm band with heavy drone influences and touches of Blut Aus Nord-style riffage here and there. Good stuff.

Tracklist
1. Baptized In Fog (viii) - 1:07
2. A Dimming Light (xiii) - 8:25
3. Innu (xvi) - 0:42
4. We Chew Our Tongues (xiv) - 7:39
5. Into Memory And Forgotten (vii) - 4:20
6. Ottru (xix) - 0:46
7. Turn Away The Spoken Word (x) - 8:57
8. Germination Of All Things (xii) - 8:19

Download

Threnos - By Blood and By Earth (2004)

Threnos are a folk-ish atmospheric black metal band that no one really knows anything concrete about except that they went on to form Fauna and a few other bands and that this little demo served as something of a prototype for many later releases from the Cascadian-style scene. But really, all you need to know is that this is some damn good shit.


Tracklist: 
1. The Call - 4:12
2. Sparks Borne On the Wind - 5:35
3. The Return - 13:01
4. Adrift - 8:01
5. By Blood and By Earth - 15:54

Download

Wolves In the Throne Room - Two Hunters (+ bonus tracks)

For this blog's first post I thought we'd start off with something more well known and that will appeal to a wider spectrum of listeners. Two Hunters, Washington atmospheric black metal act Wolves In the Throne Room's sophomore effort, is considered by many to be a classic of the genre. The songs range from 6 to 18 minutes in length, but don't worry: that 18 minute track, entitled I Will Lay Down My Bones Among the Rocks and the Roots never drags. In fact, I would consider it one of my favorite black metal tracks of all time. Two Hunters is both the perfect starting point for the uninitiated and a must-have for metalheads who for some reason don't yet own this masterpiece.



Tracklist: 
1. Dia Artio - 5:59
2. Behold the Vastness and Sorrow - 12:12
3. Cleansing - 9:55
4. I Will Lay Down My Bones Among the Rocks and the Roots - 18:16
Download


From the bonus double LP edition:
5. Cleansing (Extended Version) - 15:56
6. To Reveal - 16:43
Download