Bear

And here's a small list of black metal releases that I've enjoyed from 2015. Most are fairly known within the world of black metal, but you might be able to pick up a few good albums from this list:
 
Mgła - Exercises in Futility
You should all know Mgla by now, and I will not spend any more time talkign about them. A must-have!
Archgoat - The Apocalyptic Triumphator
Dark, heavy and brutal black/death metal in the vein of Blasphemy, Beherit and Teitanblood. Another great album from a great band.
Cultes des Ghoules - The Rise of Lucifer
A rather unique black metal band that can be seen as a mix of Negative Plane, Mortury Drape, Katharsis, Necromantia and Mayhem. Fantastic band!
Macabre Omen - Gods of War - At War
Epic black metal with huge nods to bands such as Rotting Christ, Bathory and Hades.
Nocternity - Harps of the Ancient Temples
Cold, minimalistic and mid-tempo black metal that's just 100% greek. Great release!
Misþyrming - Söngvar elds og óreiðu
One of the many new Icelandic black metal of top quality. Semi-experimental black metal in the vein of mid-era Deathspell Omega and fellow countrymen Svartidauði, with strong The Ruins of Beverast vibes to it.
Dødheimsgard - A Umbra Omega
Dødheimsgard the way Dødheimsgard should sound. Avant-garde, experimental and mental. Crazy good shit!
Drudkh - Борозна обірвалася (A Furrow Cut Short)
A huge step backwards for Drudkh as this is the album after their first four that sounds the closest to their first four albums. Might be their best release after the firstfour too. I don't know. Good, epic album made for a walk in the forest.
Downfall of Nur - Umbras de Barbagia
While not very original, this is a very cool album that sends nods to bands such as Agalloch, Ulver and Wolves in the Throne Room. Folky, depressive and nice.
Peste Noire - La Chaise-Dyable
This is the album that shoul've followed 2011's L'Ordure à l'état Pur. Experimental, avant-garde and fucking white trash black metal. I think this album is superb!
Autarcie - Retour en crasse
Autracie is a band that walk the path of Peste Noire, or, the path that Peste Noire started with their demos and first full-lenght. I think "medieval black metal" is a very fitting term. Another fantastic album by a fantastic band!
Sale Freux - Crèvecœur
Another band that has found the majority of their inspiration from the old sound of Peste Noire. More rural than Peste Noire and Autracie, but it shuld please fans of old Peste Noire or Autracie. Maybe a bit more ritualistic.
Glaciation - Sur les falaises de marbre
A french "super group" with Neige, Winterhalter and Indria Saray of Alcest/Peste Noire, RMS Hreidmarr of Anorexia Nervosa/The CNK and a few others. I was really impressed by their debut 1994, and this isn't much weaker. For some reason I think both this and the debut got a really pure DIY spirit to it. Not sure why. A bit punky edge to it.
Devouring Star - Through Lung and Heart
Another one of those dissonant black metal bands in the vein of mid-era Deathspell Omega and Svartidaudi. A bit easier to get into than the two bands mentioned, but still hard enough for most.
Lugubrum - Herval
These guys call their music "farmer black metal", and that's quite fitting for newer Lugubrum. In "recent" years they've gone down a path of weird, experimental and jazzy black metal unlike anything you've ever heard. To take one small example - you'll find traditional US power metal riffing, reggae and surf rock in this album. Well, on one single track. That is weird.
Ithaqua  - Initiation to Obscure Mysteries
This ain't nothing but a big, fat homage to Rotting Christ anno 91-93. Both the sound and quality of the music here reeks of Rotting Christ from this era. Brilliant release, and easily among my top 10 this year. It's so good, man!
Megiddo - The Holocaust Messiah
Great black metal in the veind of old Bathory, Celtic Frost, Hellhammer and Beherit, with more than one nod to bands such as Amebix, Motorhead and Black Sabbath. Top notch again from Megiddo!
 
 
That's it for now. Will check out the bands on Jiggy's list too.
 
Also, looking forward to hearing the new Cosmic Church EP. 2013's Ylistys was a really good and impressive album. Amazing to be quite honest. Should be good as fuck!

By the way, this one deserves a mention as well:
 

 
This deserves a mention for the fabolous poster alone, but the film is as good as the poster. Not too far behind The Great Mouse Detective in my eyes.

I was in the mood for some dark & grim stuff, so I did some digging around and catching up in terms of 'black metal 2015'... Some of my findings so far that sounded pretty cool:
 
Odious - Skin Age / Egyptian band playing symphonic black metal with lots of melodic oriental flair... at times a bit too over-the-top with all the extra orchestration, but that's what gives it its special atmosphere I guess. In any case, very much fun to listen to, even for those who are usually not that much into "full-on br00tal" extreme metal.
 
Batushka - Litourgiya / Mysterious Polish group mixing elements of black, doom and post-black metal with the sound of orthodox Slavic (?) liturgies and hymns and stuff. That should already tell you that even if it weren't much musically, the atmosphere would be top-notch, but thankfully everything's in order here. Creepy, ritualistic, majestic - killer record.
 
Au-Dessus - Au-Dessus / This is only an EP (the band's debut release), but a really fine one. The 'experts' say this is post-black metal, well I dunno, but it sure is great. Very nice feel with some melancholic and powerful melodies, and is surprisingly varied (but not wandering out of the usual BM spectrum much). Oh, btw the drum work is excellent! A nice surprise.
 
Non Opus Dei - Diabeł / Solid avantgarde-experimental black metal, actually quite digestable despite being kinda chaotic and dissonant most of the time. They got dat mystical menacing feel on point.

By the way, this one deserves a mention as well:
 

 
This deserves a mention for the fabolous poster alone, but the film is as good as the poster. Not too far behind The Great Mouse Detective in my eyes.

Ant-Man - I was really looking forward to this without having too high of expectations, because MCU-films are such a rollercoaster-ride. But in the last few years they really seem to have found a way to make it work properly, and this is the best film in the MCU alongside Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And alongside The Winter Soldier, Ant-Man is easily the freshest film in the universe as well. Both offers soemthing completely different from the rest of the films. They are deeper and seem to have amuch bigger focus than just being another action-adventure with silly oneliners.
 
The Winter Soldier is easily the best plotwise, being a proper thriller with a fairly good plotand all, while Ant-Man is a proper action-comedy that delivers on both action and comedy. The funniest film till now for sure, and the best film action-wise. It doesn't have the story of The Winter Soldier, but the action and comedy makes up for it as it's filled with well-made action and hilarious comedy. And... wait for it... wait for it... wait for it... it features the best MCU-villain til now! The cast is good, with Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michael Peña, T.I. and Anthony Mackie are all great, but Corey Stoll steals the show as the villain. He's got a certain madness about him that I just love.
 
Yeah! Great as a regular action-comedy, great as a heist film. Great as everything. Also, other MCU-directors should learn from Peyton Reed, because he proves that even though this is a superhero movie, less can be more, which is certainly is here. It's a very stripped down film for being a superhero film. Superb!
 

I'm a huge fan of both Studio Ghibli and classic Disney so this is hard, especially for Studio Ghibli, but if I had to choose I'd go for these two:
 
Studio Ghibli: Howl's Moving Castle
No matter how many times I watch this I'm left in shock by the creativity in work here. It's insane. The film is nothing but a creative masterpiece in both its storytelling, but also in it visual wonderworld. In many ways childish, but will still give many a man much to think about. Brilliant film!
 
Disney: The Great Mouse Detective
The setting, characters, animation, voice work (Vincent fucking Price, man!) and honest homage to Sherlock Holmes just makes this my favourite, and it's probably been my favourite since I first saw it in the mid 90's. Its darker and  more stylish than most Disney films, which along with the obvious 190's noir inspiration really makes it really stand out from the rest.
 
An unsual choice for sure, but I consider this one of the 5 best animated films ever, and one of the most underrated ones.
 
 
 
So hard, man. But if I had to choose between the studios, I'd go for Ghibli since their weakest film (Tales from Earthsea) is a rather good effort. Not a masterpiece, but I've enjoyed it both times I've watched it. Disney at its worst is godawful.

Victoria - Very cool drama/thriller about a (Spanish) girl in a foreign country (Germany) who feels really alone, and late one night goes along with some questionably-behaving guys for the thrill of adventure I guess, but things get messier and messier as the morning approaches. Once you 'get into the groove', the 2 hours just fly by. An impressive feat that made me watch it btw: all of the movie was shot in one single take, not like some other movies that just ~look~ like it. Apparently they nailed it for the 3rd time, and most of the dialogues were improvised by the actors (they only had a very short script). It sounds a bit like a gimmick, but it really adds an intimacy and believability to the whole story. At times fun, other times intense and scary. Good movie.
 

When you say "supertight almost-drum machine like metal drumming" my first thought were Deathgaze. Super triggered drums with machine-esque sounding clicking "bass" drums. Heh.

Going to see Martyrdöd live tongiht. Should be cool as fuck. Warming up with Bacardi Razz with Sprite and lime, as well as beer, and I'm making nachos. Should be a nice evening, especially if they are capable of recreating the brutality from their earlier albums live.
 

 
Yeah!

The film year of 2015 for me:
 
1. Bone Tomahawk (10/10)
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (9/10)
3. Kung Fury (9/10)
4. Furious Seven (8/10)
5. Beast of no Nation (8/10)
6. Manson Family Vacation (8/10)
7. Jurassic World (7/10)
8. The Avengers: Age of Ultron (7/10)
9. Minions (7/10)
10. Woman in Gold (6/10)
 
 
I expect The Hateful Eight to climb pretty high on this list, though. I'm sure it'll be among the 3 best of this year for sure. And I expect that at least four of these films ends up on my list, maybe even more then four too: Straight Outta Compton, Ip Man 3, The Witch, Dope, The Cannibal in the Jungle, The Green Inferno, The Final Girls, Deathgasm, Insidious: Chapter 3, Flowers, The Assassin, We Are Still Here, Ant-Man, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, The Gift, The Visit,
 
 
There's also a few documentaries I just can't wait to see:
42nd Street Memories: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Notorious Street
Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Satan Lives
Club King
Cartel Land
 
And if I include documentaries I expect some of these to make it on the list too. Especially the two first there. Looks neat as fuck!

Going to see Martyrdöd live tongiht. Should be cool as fuck. Warming up with Bacardi Razz with Sprite and lime, as well as beer, and I'm making nachos. Should be a nice evening, especially if they are capable of recreating the brutality from their earlier albums live.
 

 
Yeah!

Everything about this night, save maybe the bacardi razz, sounds great!

Going to see Martyrdöd live tongiht. Should be cool as fuck. Warming up with Bacardi Razz with Sprite and lime, as well as beer, and I'm making nachos. Should be a nice evening, especially if they are capable of recreating the brutality from their earlier albums live.
 

 
Yeah!

This weather, man. I usually don't mind the cold, rain, snow and shit, but now that I was into such a fine pattern with running each morning beforw work am it's so annoyed that it's icy on the road. Doesn't matter if I run before work or after, as it's icy and dark in the morning and wet, icy and dark when I'm home. Running on ice isn't my cup of tea, but I can't stop now either. I'll fall, break something and hit my head, which will get me hospitalized for half a year or something. It's written in the ice, man. It truly is.
 
And I bought new, expensive shoes to give myself a small boost and a bit more inspiration, which means I sure as hell can't stop now. Would feel awful if I stopped running now that I've bought shoes specially for running. Cheap fuck, that's what I am.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I don't really care to be honest. I listen to music for the sake of the music, the way it sounds. And love bands with great lyrics, mediocre lyrics, awful lyrics and no lyrics at all (be it because the vocalist just makes sounds, or the music being instrumental). Doesn't make a difference at all.
 
Bad lyrics won't ruin a great piece of music as the music will still sound great, just like great lyrics won't turn a bad song good as the song will still sound great. And at the end of the day, as I already stated, music is about the music for me.
 
And I sing along to good, mediocre and godawful lyrics, or just lyics I don't understand.
 
 
Fuck lyrics!

I think it's more than OK to piss all over whatever bands or artists you dislike, be it Kisaki, Mejibray, Kamijo, Mana, Lycaon, Sigh, Kagrra, Devil Doll, Bathory or whatever the fuck it is that you dislike. Yay!
 
 
 
 
 
I thought about going to bed soon, but then I watched episode 9 of Jessica Jones and changed my mind. Holy mother of god. I need more.

Started on Jessica Jones late last night, and I'm four episodes in so far. Shit, it's so good, man, and so far I prefer it to Daredevil which I thouht was excellent. It gives you a lot more to chew on, dealer with a much darker side of the superhero universe. Krysten Ritter strong, hurting performance combined with an intriguing villain, a dark and bleak noir-atmosphere and rather unusual themes like rape and trauma makes this into something quite different. So yeah, so far, so fucking good!
 
You shouldn't go in expecting a new Daredevil, though, because this is something very different. But if you liked Daredevil I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to enjoy this. Will try to finish it after I get home from work. I can't wait!

I think it's more than OK to piss all over whatever bands or artists you dislike, be it Kisaki, Mejibray, Kamijo, Mana, Lycaon, Sigh, Kagrra, Devil Doll, Bathory or whatever the fuck it is that you dislike. Yay!
 
 
 
 
 
I thought about going to bed soon, but then I watched episode 9 of Jessica Jones and changed my mind. Holy mother of god. I need more.

I think it's more than OK to piss all over whatever bands or artists you dislike, be it Kisaki, Mejibray, Kamijo, Mana, Lycaon, Sigh, Kagrra, Devil Doll, Bathory or whatever the fuck it is that you dislike. Yay!
 
 
 
 
 
I thought about going to bed soon, but then I watched episode 9 of Jessica Jones and changed my mind. Holy mother of god. I need more.

Got my brother's old PC for Xmas, brought it up here a few months ago and finally got it up and going now recently. Good thing about this is that whenever he need to change his parts to build a better PC, I get the old ones which is still a lot better than what I currently have. Good times! Also got a couple of Xbox 360 gamepads in the mail the other day, so gaming is finally on.
 
Currently playing Trine 2: Complete Story with my girlfriend. The gameplay is great, the soundtrack is beautiful, it's visually stunning and the overall atmosphere of the game is really nice. My biggest complaint is that it's a bit too easy, and certain elements are often highlighted with brighter, blinking colors, which tells you straight away that you're supossed to do something with this certan thing. Which is something I really dislike in games. Let me think, struggle and try out things of my own and use time to make it. The feeling of struggle is something almost completely lost in most modern gaming. It's such a shame, because that feeling is somehing that often took games from amazing to brilliant in my younger days.
 
The feeling you get when you've struggled for hours and hurs and hours, or weeks or months, and then suddenly realize what you should do is something amazing.

^ Yeah, I think I understand what you're getting at. Can't really comment on those other non-horror shows you listed tho, I don't watch any of them. Just don't go into watching Scream Queens expecting full-on horror - it's more like a more self-aware and fun-poking AHS for a young-adult audience imo. At times it almost feels like watching a cartoon, haha.

I was wearing my The Mummy t-shirt yesterday and one of the kids, a frist-graders, started crying when he saw it because he thought it was so scary. That's hilarious!
 
 
And another boy, six fucking years old, came to me and told me that he had to take a shit but was unable to wipe himself, so he needed my help. Jesus. Had to ask one of the older ladies to help him. I can't do it. I'd vomit all over him, which would've caused some bigger problems. Old ladies 1 - Bear 0.

I was wearing my The Mummy t-shirt yesterday and one of the kids, a frist-graders, started crying when he saw it because he thought it was so scary. That's hilarious!
 
 
And another boy, six fucking years old, came to me and told me that he had to take a shit but was unable to wipe himself, so he needed my help. Jesus. Had to ask one of the older ladies to help him. I can't do it. I'd vomit all over him, which would've caused some bigger problems. Old ladies 1 - Bear 0.

I was wearing my The Mummy t-shirt yesterday and one of the kids, a frist-graders, started crying when he saw it because he thought it was so scary. That's hilarious!
 
 
And another boy, six fucking years old, came to me and told me that he had to take a shit but was unable to wipe himself, so he needed my help. Jesus. Had to ask one of the older ladies to help him. I can't do it. I'd vomit all over him, which would've caused some bigger problems. Old ladies 1 - Bear 0.

Cancer 4 Cure was pretty amazing... and if there's a Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire bandwagon I've been riding it since the Huzzah remix a few years back.
 
Check out his  video for (I don't think properly released anywhere) Fat Fool:
 

 
Breezy/dreamy production and his smart/sarcatic flow on top. Really top-notch. (and less than two minutes if you want a sample of what makes him good without much commitment)