Silly post headings a side, a friend, knowing my peculiar fondness for black metal, asked me to create a compilation CD for him. A crash course, as it were, on this much-maligned, often misunderstood sub-genre of extreme metal. Being particularly jobless today, I thought why not. Now that it’s done I figured I might as well share on the blog.
And here it is in two separate zip folders:
CD 1: Download Link
Track Listing
1. Agalloch – A Celebration For The Death Of Man… (2:24)
2. Agalloch – In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion (14:45)
3. Bathory – Destroyer Of Worlds (4:51)
4. Carpathian Forest – The Frostbitten Woodlands Of N (4:58)
5. Darkthrone – Transilvanian Hunger (6:09)
6. Drudkh – Tears Of Gods (8:34)
7. Emperor – Fine Day to Die [*] (8:28)
8. Emperor – The Tongue Of Fire (5:39)
CD2: Download Link
Track Listing
1. Blut aus Nord – The Howling of God (6:19)
2. Enslaved – Secrets Of The Flesh (instr.) (3:36)
3. Negura Bunget – Hora Soarelui (5:56)
4. Ulver – Capitel I: I Troldskog faren vild (7:51)
5. Weakling – This Entire Fucking Battlefield (14:46)
6. Wolves in the Throne Room – Queen Of The Borrowed Light (12:58)
It goes without saying, but if you like any of these artists please consider buying their original CDs. Many of them operate on relatively small inflow of cash from CD sales as it is.
Thanks.
10 Comments
March 20, 2008 at 10:27 pm
your friend isnt the only one thanking you for this
March 20, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Dili:
Glad you liked it. Which “CD” did you listen to?
March 21, 2008 at 7:45 am
BOTH
March 21, 2008 at 10:07 am
Theena, that is just a recipe for waking up the next day without being able to lift your head up.
\../ !
March 21, 2008 at 10:27 am
Dili: would love to know your thoughts on the songs. Which one(s) did you like best?
Damith: Hell, yes.
March 22, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Ok 1st of all I wanna say straight off the bat that the amount of any useful knowledge I have of black metal is quantitatively next to nothing. That said I certainly enjoyed the departure from my usual repertoire [Which usually runs through classic rock, hard rock, oldies, new age, nu metal, indie & smooth jazz - AC/DC, GnR, Def Leppard, U2, Bob Dylan, Enya, Jim Reeves, Linkin Park, Norah jones etc.. Im all over the place arent I?
]. So I was unbelievably happy when I saw your post Theena. Thank you, thank you, thank you 
Ok my faves …CD1 was best, I *LOVED* the two Agalloch tracks, Bathory and Drudkh. CD2 – Enslaved, and Ulver. Probably loved Agalloch cos those 2 had a more folky mettalic sound to it. “In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion” was a bit hypnotic for me. Frankly Im still not sure if “Tears of Gods” qualifies as metal. The rest was just for the beat, the bass, and the raw nature. Love it. Negura Bunget was… interesting…
Honestly, you need to do more music posts and I need to read more of them
And yeah Six-&-Out was so totally right.
March 22, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Dilli,
Glad you liked it
Yeah, Agalloch has a pretty beautiful sound. Glad you liked it.
The album that contains ‘Tears of the Gods’ is mostly folky based. But then again, to most people and new comers to metal it’s a genre that is heavily distorted guitars with an unbearable lower end. Little do they realize that metal has a vulnerable side to it – one that is melancholic and unspeakably beautiful – that is based on instruments that you wouldn’t equate with metal: acoustic guitars, xylophones, tablas, etc.
And part of its draw, at least to me, is its habit of picking up from other genres, making for a highly local and sometimes startlingly original sound. Rudra, a Singaporean metal band comprised of Indian expats, for instance, fuse carnatic ragas and rhythmic patterns into their compositions; likewise, there are many examples. No where is this habit of localizing of sound is more apparent than in the black metal sub-genre – at least in my opinion.
The point of this long diatribe is to address your comment about Drudkh’s song not being metal. I disagree because it’s merely another facet of this fascinating genre of music. As someone who loves fusion sound in general, that is one of the reasons I am drawn to metal in general and black metal in particular.
I can hook you up with some artists and albums if you’d like.
PS: Apologies for the long response, I tend to get rather passionate when the topic is music
March 22, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Please do and like I said b4 you need to do more music posts and I need to read more of them
I was really surprised by Drudkh, pleasantly that is. You mostly get exposed to the “heavily distorted guitars with an unbearable lower end” side of metal, I certainly was. So “Tears of the Gods” was really out of the box from me and it was totally unexpected. I had no idea sounds like that were around the music world. And when I said “In the Shadow…” was hypnotic, I meant that in a really good way. I was really drawn in to the music and I just couldnt tear my ears away
. Like I said, I know next to nothing of black metal. People should really hear more of this stuff. I shud really hear more of this stuff. 
March 24, 2008 at 12:44 am
Dili,
I’ll do a separate entry on black metal just for you when I have the time
The real expert, though, is Chaturanga Fonseka, lead singer of local black metal band Funeral in Heaven. Check a related blog entry here: http://poetlost.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/the-winds-of-uva/
That man is the local encyclopedia on black metal. Visit his blog: http://heladivawarrior.wordpress.com/
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