Bear

Thanks for your continuous recommendations, Bear! This Pharaoh band and God Macabre sound pretty cool, might check them out later.

Thought I'd do some genre jumping with my recommendations to get some varity and keep it interesting, so here's something different than the two last.
 
 

Pharaoh - The Longest Night
 
Old school power metal in a modern package. That's the best way to describe this fantastic album.  It's a semi-progressive and epic power metal album with lots of power, punch and twist and turns. You can spot some Iron Maiden, some Control Denied, some Manilla Road, some Jag Panzer and some Crimson Glory among others, but the band never rips anyone off. It's a unique album where you easily can spot the influences, but you'll never believe that you're listening to anything but Pharaoh. Fantastic songs with a fantastic, a bit rough vocal performance and a great production. This is newer power metal at its finest. None of this super happy Dragonforce/Power Quest/Freedom Call/whatever bullshit metal. This is power metal how it was done a long time ago. Powerful!
 

 
"We were the brave, we were alive
Until we endured the longest night
Now we're enslaved, we've lost our minds
We fell victim to the longest night
And now we're no more"
 
My! Fucking! God!

I'm not gonna go to fast here in case someone actually finds anything interesting, but I just decided to throw something out since I've suddenly got internet that works two days in a row. Have had some major problems with my internet for the last month.
 
 

 
God Macabre - The Winterlong
 
So, as we all know the Swedish death metal scene was a major force in the death metal scene back in the late 80's and early 90's with bands such as Nihilist/Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Merciless, Carnage and Unleased, before bands such as At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames and Hypocrisy took it a step further with their melodic death metal. But underneath this there was a shitload of bands releasing fantastic demos/EPs/albums that should've become bigger, but that never made it like the mentioned bands. God Macabre, Nirvana 2002, Epitaph, Gorement, Wombbath and Toxaemia are some of these bands. And unlike the Florida death metal scene, the Swedish wasn't very thrasy. It's way heavier and more brutal.
 
The Winterlong is a short death metal carnage clocking in on just 28 minutes of brutal and doomy, atmospheric, melancholic and rotten death metal of the best kind. It sounds very Swedish, but it doesn't really sounds like any of the Swedish bands of that time. Don't get me wrong, if you put on this you'll hear influences from Nihilist/Entombed, Carnage, Dismember, Grave, Epitaph and even Tiamat, and of course there's lots of Death here as well, and it's a bit Leprosy influenced I'd say, but there's something quite unique about the whole album. The atmoshere is unlike any other death metal album out there, and they just found their own sound.
 
It's a shame that The Winterlong... were the only output from these Swedes, especially since it's quite short, but it was released in 08 with three other songs that are fabolous as well. But the good thing about this? Well, it's a 28 minute logn death metal carnage that, when finished, you'll put on again because you just crave something more, and with its 28 minutes it never gets dull.
 
Hands down for one of the best death metal albums of all time.
 

Sigh - Hail Horror Hail
This album marked a big change in Sigh's sound, and in such way this is the perfect opener. It's the straightest and easiest song to get into on the album, and it will kinda prepeare you for what's coming. It starts off as a catchy, blacking heavy metal song with fantastc leads and Mirai's raspy vocals on top before it transforms into this beautiful, cinematic orchestration and suddenly goes back to the blacking heavy metal. This is a perfect opener in the way that it is one of the best songs ever made by man, and it prepeared you for the change and weirdness that would come later on this album as well. You heard something were different this time around, even more so than on Ghastly Funeral Theatre and it opened up your mind for the madness that what were to come... at least it did for me in my young days.
 
And that catchy, blacking heavy metal is topped with some great lyrics that are easy to hear due to Mirai's understandable vocals:
 
"Beyond all morality into insanity
I plunge my knife in you again and again
Torture your corpse before it's cold
I seek to devour your life and soul"

Sigh - Hail Horror Hail
This album marked a big change in Sigh's sound, and in such way this is the perfect opener. It's the straightest and easiest song to get into on the album, and it will kinda prepeare you for what's coming. It starts off as a catchy, blacking heavy metal song with fantastc leads and Mirai's raspy vocals on top before it transforms into this beautiful, cinematic orchestration and suddenly goes back to the blacking heavy metal. This is a perfect opener in the way that it is one of the best songs ever made by man, and it prepeared you for the change and weirdness that would come later on this album as well. You heard something were different this time around, even more so than on Ghastly Funeral Theatre and it opened up your mind for the madness that what were to come... at least it did for me in my young days.
 
And that catchy, blacking heavy metal is topped with some great lyrics that are easy to hear due to Mirai's understandable vocals:
 
"Beyond all morality into insanity
I plunge my knife in you again and again
Torture your corpse before it's cold
I seek to devour your life and soul"

Sigh - Hail Horror Hail
This album marked a big change in Sigh's sound, and in such way this is the perfect opener. It's the straightest and easiest song to get into on the album, and it will kinda prepeare you for what's coming. It starts off as a catchy, blacking heavy metal song with fantastc leads and Mirai's raspy vocals on top before it transforms into this beautiful, cinematic orchestration and suddenly goes back to the blacking heavy metal. This is a perfect opener in the way that it is one of the best songs ever made by man, and it prepeared you for the change and weirdness that would come later on this album as well. You heard something were different this time around, even more so than on Ghastly Funeral Theatre and it opened up your mind for the madness that what were to come... at least it did for me in my young days.
 
And that catchy, blacking heavy metal is topped with some great lyrics that are easy to hear due to Mirai's understandable vocals:
 
"Beyond all morality into insanity
I plunge my knife in you again and again
Torture your corpse before it's cold
I seek to devour your life and soul"

I'm not gonna go to fast here in case someone actually finds anything interesting, but I just decided to throw something out since I've suddenly got internet that works two days in a row. Have had some major problems with my internet for the last month.
 
 

 
God Macabre - The Winterlong
 
So, as we all know the Swedish death metal scene was a major force in the death metal scene back in the late 80's and early 90's with bands such as Nihilist/Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Merciless, Carnage and Unleased, before bands such as At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames and Hypocrisy took it a step further with their melodic death metal. But underneath this there was a shitload of bands releasing fantastic demos/EPs/albums that should've become bigger, but that never made it like the mentioned bands. God Macabre, Nirvana 2002, Epitaph, Gorement, Wombbath and Toxaemia are some of these bands. And unlike the Florida death metal scene, the Swedish wasn't very thrasy. It's way heavier and more brutal.
 
The Winterlong is a short death metal carnage clocking in on just 28 minutes of brutal and doomy, atmospheric, melancholic and rotten death metal of the best kind. It sounds very Swedish, but it doesn't really sounds like any of the Swedish bands of that time. Don't get me wrong, if you put on this you'll hear influences from Nihilist/Entombed, Carnage, Dismember, Grave, Epitaph and even Tiamat, and of course there's lots of Death here as well, and it's a bit Leprosy influenced I'd say, but there's something quite unique about the whole album. The atmoshere is unlike any other death metal album out there, and they just found their own sound.
 
It's a shame that The Winterlong... were the only output from these Swedes, especially since it's quite short, but it was released in 08 with three other songs that are fabolous as well. But the good thing about this? Well, it's a 28 minute logn death metal carnage that, when finished, you'll put on again because you just crave something more, and with its 28 minutes it never gets dull.
 
Hands down for one of the best death metal albums of all time.
 

I still remember when I got into the band, it was in 03 right after the release of Lucifer Incestus. A friend had bought it and brought it too school to show me the awesome video for the title track. We loved it and watched it on replay for the whole day before we suddenly got to listen through the album. Love at first listen. I can't say I view the video the same way today, but being pretty new to metal and rather young it was pretty fucking cool.
 
 
Also, I thought I'd start a weekly "the forgotten/overlooked/underrated album of the week" kinda thing to, because it sounded fun in my head. It's pretty self-exlaining, but I pick one album I feel are a bit forgotten/overlooked/underrated and write a bit about it and hopefully people into that sort of metal will check it out. And if people seems to be interested I will continue.
 
And I will start with a classic album that seems to be a forgotten gem. I just never hear anyoen talka bout it, and I don't get why because it is one of the best albums within the genre.
 
 

 
Infernäl Mäjesty - None Shall Defy
 
Forget about the awful, non-fitting cover or their glam-image, this album is a masterpiece and one of the best thrash meta albums ever. Infernäl Majesty played thrash metal that was kinda innovative for its time and very unique. While mostly a pretty pure thash metal album, at times it does lean more towards early death metal. We're talking about a thrash metal album that is pretty evil sounding, and that reminds me a bit of albums such as Seven Churches, Hell Awaits, Black Metal, Welcome to Hell and Scream Bloody Gore, but it never copies any of those albums. Worth checking out if you're into thrash metal, early death metal or just something that kicks ass.
 

I fell of the Belphegor-wagon a long time ago and haven't found anything released after Lucifer Incestus interesting. But Blutsabbath, Necrodaemon Terrorsathan and Lucifer Incestus are all fantastic albums.

I'd highly recommend Moonsorrow's Verisäkeet and V: Hävitetty as well. Progressive viking metal. Fantastic albums. Dark and epic.
 
 
 
Inferno Festival released their five first bands for next years Inferno today. Impressive names, even though I am not too keen on ay of them:
 
Behemoth
Enslaved
My Dying Bride
SepticFlesh
Antichrist
 
Very impressive names, that. Will most likely check out both My Dying Bride and Behemoth as I have never seen any of them before, and both have released some good albums in recent years.

I'd highly recommend Moonsorrow's Verisäkeet and V: Hävitetty as well. Progressive viking metal. Fantastic albums. Dark and epic.
 
 
 
Inferno Festival released their five first bands for next years Inferno today. Impressive names, even though I am not too keen on ay of them:
 
Behemoth
Enslaved
My Dying Bride
SepticFlesh
Antichrist
 
Very impressive names, that. Will most likely check out both My Dying Bride and Behemoth as I have never seen any of them before, and both have released some good albums in recent years.

Hitchcock - A fantastic biographical drama about the man himself, Alfred Hitchcock, and the making of Psycho. How true thi is to what happened, and how Hithcock was, I do not know, but it's a geat film because of the film itself, no matter if it is historical correct or not. It just feels very real. Anthony Hopkins is superb as Hitchcock, but Helen Mirren is what drives this movie. Faaaaantastic performance. The lobby scene is hilarious. It's just... god damn! What a scene.

you know I was going to watch this last Halloween when I was doing my psycho marathon but never got to it... I think I'll try to do it this year

22 Jump Street - Didn't have many expectations, cuz even though the first movie was decent, we all know how typical bromance comedy sequels are. Well, seems like I was proven wrong cuz this movie was pretty much kickass all the way. Okayish action scenes, fun/dumb atmosphere that pokes fun at the story being essentially the same again, and of course lots of laugh-out-loud moments (haven't heard so much laughter at the cinema for a long time, and this was a press screening even! lol). I totally recommend watching it if you enjoyed - or even just "somewhat liked" - the first one.

Dance of Reality - Visually powerful and extremely interesting. Most likely Jodorowsky's most linear narrative, but it still manages to be captivating. Apparently the movie contains autobiographical elements... I'd like to know exactly which parts were supposed to be autobiographical because some parts of the movie were fucked up, heh. Some aspects of the movie reminded me of Shuuji Terayama's Den-en Ni Shisu. 
 
The Perfect Host - Entertaining little thriller about a bank robber on the run who ends up hiding out in the wrong house. Fell apart completely at the end for me, though. Still, worth watching if only to kill time.
 
Insidious 2 - I kinda liked the first part because it managed to startle and unnerve me at several points despite the many, many parts which fell flat for one reason or another. This part... I don't know. Not enough spoopy ghosts, I guess. It didn't really fill me with any sense of dread. I'd watch a spinoff movie focusing on those ghost hunter dudes though, they're very entertaining. 
 
The Fantastic Mr. Fox - Hell yea....... Stop motion movie based on a Roald Dahl story. Probably one of the best family-friendly films I've seen. Didn't feel like it was too childish. In fact, I could see younger viewers hating it instead for being somewhat 'different' from the traditional "funny talking animal" movies that have been released in recent years. 

I don't have too many straight forward prog metal albums to recommend, but here's some of my prog metal favourites:
 
 
Amorphis - Elegy (progressive death/rock/folk)
Death - Human (progressive death metal)
Death - Individual Thought Patterns (progressive death metal)
Death - Symbolic (progressive extreme metal)
Green Carnation - Light of Day, Day of Darkness (doomy prog metal)
Fates Warning - The Spectre Within (progressive/power metal)
Fates Warning - Awaken the Guardian (progressive/power metal)
Crimson Glory - Crimson Glory (progressive heavy/power)
Crimson Glory - Transcendence (progressive heavy/power)
Ayreon - Into the Electric Castle (prog metal/rock opera)
Ayreon - The Universal Migrator Part I & 2 (part 1 is more of a prog rock album while part 2 is moe of a prog metal album)
Orphaned Land - Mabool: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven (progressive oriental (extreme) metal)
Orphaned Land - All Is One (progressive oriental metal)
 
 
Note that none of these are straight forward prog metal albums though. But neither are Opeth, so that should be allright.
 
 
 
Symphony X (progressive power metal) and Myrath (prog metal with middle eastern folk) might be your cup of tea as well. Not into these bands myself, but they are well-liked among prog metal fans.

Been spinning EL-P's Cancer 4 Cure a lot lately. It's the straightest EL-P-produced album I've heard, but there's still a shitload of chaacter and uniqueness to it. Pimitive, furutistic and filled with badassnes. It's also geat that the man is almost as good at rapping as he is producing. Ridiculously good album, and the opening track is one of the best within the genre ever. But the first 4-5 tracks are all beyond perfect. What a man!
 
 
Also, I've tried to stay away from everything that has to do with Run the Jewels II until the album is released, but today I (finally) failed. Christ almight, the preview of the album is good. It is beyond good! God damn!
 
For those not heard it yet: http://www.stereogum.com/1695029/run-the-jewels-blockbuster-night-part-1-snippet/mp3s/

Been spinning EL-P's Cancer 4 Cure a lot lately. It's the straightest EL-P-produced album I've heard, but there's still a shitload of chaacter and uniqueness to it. Pimitive, furutistic and filled with badassnes. It's also geat that the man is almost as good at rapping as he is producing. Ridiculously good album, and the opening track is one of the best within the genre ever. But the first 4-5 tracks are all beyond perfect. What a man!
 
 
Also, I've tried to stay away from everything that has to do with Run the Jewels II until the album is released, but today I (finally) failed. Christ almight, the preview of the album is good. It is beyond good! God damn!
 
For those not heard it yet: http://www.stereogum.com/1695029/run-the-jewels-blockbuster-night-part-1-snippet/mp3s/

Some good Japanese stoner: Church of Misery, Eternal Elysium, Boris, Redwood Blues, Sonic Flower, Chūgakusei Kanoke, Greenmachine, King Goblin
 
Some good Japanese sludge: Corrupted, dot(.), Boris, Garadama, Wheel of Doom, Zenocide, Birushanah, Congenital Hell, Godgrind, Nerveless, Sithter, Solar Anus,
 
Church of Misery, Boris, Sonic Flower, Corrupter, Solar Anus and Congential Hell all have must-haves in their discograhy.
 
 
 
Also, sludge can be as fast as it can be slow. A lot of bands owes more to the old hardcore of Black Flag, while many others owes more to the bluesy doom og Black Sabbath, but in general sludge is a mixture of hardcore punk and traditional doom metal. But you can also mix hardcore and traditional doom without being sludge, so there is more to it than that. But in general, it's a fine way to recognize sludge. A filthy mix of hardcore and doom metal. Yummy!
 
Saint Vitus (one of the original doom metal bands) mixed Black Flag with their brand of traditional doom on Hallow's Victim without making a sludge album. But you get the point.

The Uninvited is such a good film. For some reason I always thought of it as very unique. The atmosphere is very... don't know. Like nothing else.
 
 
By the way, I made a proposal to my girl who also loves horror that we should see one horror film a day in october. We pick 15 each and watch mine, hers, mine, hers and so on until we end it with Halloween on the 31st. Should be fun. She's very much into film and horror, but not films before 1980, so I thought I'd pick some older ones to try to broaden her taste. This should be a fun month! I expect a lot of shit from her though as she is not that citical to films as I am, but we decided we HAVE to watch eachothers films. I can't wait!
 
Thought picking both new and old, classics and non-classics, and slashers and splatters and giallos and psychological horror and everything else. A bit of everything to help her broaden her taste. Should be a fun month!

Hah, I finally watched The Uninvited, it was pretty decent. Seen spookier of course but for 1944 it was aight.
 
Also lmao @ that ending "I've had a narrow escape. She might've been my mother-in-law!"

People enjoy music in different ways, and in an ideal world it shouldn't be a problem. But every single time I've been to a show where it happens it gets a problem because the moshers, karate dancers and the rest of the mongers does it right where people want to stand and enjoy the show. They don't go to the sides or back where there's empty, no, every single time they do it right in front of the stage so that the people who are there to see the band has to go to the sides or back. They don't give a single fuck about the rest of the audience.
E X E C U T E !

Some good Japanese stoner: Church of Misery, Eternal Elysium, Boris, Redwood Blues, Sonic Flower, Chūgakusei Kanoke, Greenmachine, King Goblin
 
Some good Japanese sludge: Corrupted, dot(.), Boris, Garadama, Wheel of Doom, Zenocide, Birushanah, Congenital Hell, Godgrind, Nerveless, Sithter, Solar Anus,
 
Church of Misery, Boris, Sonic Flower, Corrupter, Solar Anus and Congential Hell all have must-haves in their discograhy.
 
 
 
Also, sludge can be as fast as it can be slow. A lot of bands owes more to the old hardcore of Black Flag, while many others owes more to the bluesy doom og Black Sabbath, but in general sludge is a mixture of hardcore punk and traditional doom metal. But you can also mix hardcore and traditional doom without being sludge, so there is more to it than that. But in general, it's a fine way to recognize sludge. A filthy mix of hardcore and doom metal. Yummy!
 
Saint Vitus (one of the original doom metal bands) mixed Black Flag with their brand of traditional doom on Hallow's Victim without making a sludge album. But you get the point.

People enjoy music in different ways, and in an ideal world it shouldn't be a problem. But every single time I've been to a show where it happens it gets a problem because the moshers, karate dancers and the rest of the mongers does it right where people want to stand and enjoy the show. They don't go to the sides or back where there's empty, no, every single time they do it right in front of the stage so that the people who are there to see the band has to go to the sides or back. They don't give a single fuck about the rest of the audience.
E X E C U T E !

Some good Japanese stoner: Church of Misery, Eternal Elysium, Boris, Redwood Blues, Sonic Flower, Chūgakusei Kanoke, Greenmachine, King Goblin
 
Some good Japanese sludge: Corrupted, dot(.), Boris, Garadama, Wheel of Doom, Zenocide, Birushanah, Congenital Hell, Godgrind, Nerveless, Sithter, Solar Anus,
 
Church of Misery, Boris, Sonic Flower, Corrupter, Solar Anus and Congential Hell all have must-haves in their discograhy.
 
 
 
Also, sludge can be as fast as it can be slow. A lot of bands owes more to the old hardcore of Black Flag, while many others owes more to the bluesy doom og Black Sabbath, but in general sludge is a mixture of hardcore punk and traditional doom metal. But you can also mix hardcore and traditional doom without being sludge, so there is more to it than that. But in general, it's a fine way to recognize sludge. A filthy mix of hardcore and doom metal. Yummy!
 
Saint Vitus (one of the original doom metal bands) mixed Black Flag with their brand of traditional doom on Hallow's Victim without making a sludge album. But you get the point.