Magister Templi - Lucifer Leviathan Logos

Magister Templi managed to sneak up on my aging ass from half a planet away (the metal hub also known as Oslo, Norway) and ran me through with their debut full-length album, Lucifer Leviathan Logos…that makes them sound more like ninjas rather than the masterful metal maestros that they are.

At any rate, Lucifer Leviathan Logos is an album that blindsided me with its modesty, purity, and, well, for lack of a better word, Mercyful Fate-iness. I was expecting more of a Moss-ish sound from these guys (which would have been awesome, too), but as soon as Master Of The Temple started up, I knew I was in for something special.

In case I haven’t made it clear over the course of the last seven years of reviewing metal, I’m an H.P. Lovecraft NUT! And any song that pays homage to The Old Ones is golden gravy in my book. And The Innsmouth Look is, not only a great musical representation of Lovecraft’s work, but it’s also the best I’ve ever heard to date (a title once held by Metallica for The Thing That Should Not Be and just about every Morbid Angel song).

The opening to Lucifer had me scratching my head for a few moments as I tried to figure out how Pantera’s Rock The World and Van Halen’s Running With The Devil somehow collided on my iPod, and after the trans-rock mindfuck subsided, I was treated to yet another instant “Mercyful Fate-y” classic (Jesus! I’m namedropping like crazy in this one, ain't I?).

Here is where I would normally start pointing out the stuff in the album that bores/bugs me. Move along, folks. There’s nothing to see here.

It’s not really easy for me to say this since there have been a ton of excellent albums so far this year, but Lucifer Leviathan Logos is at the top of my list for best album of 2013!

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Nebrus - From The Black Ashes

And the Black Metal Gods (I’m sure there are at least two of them) have smiled upon my sorry ass once again!  I literally jumped for joy when I received this album in the mail and rushed straight home to throw it in my stereo. Long time readers may remember the dripping hard-ons that General Blaspheme and I have for this band. If you don’t and/or my vulgar appreciation for Nebrus is completely new to you, then all you really need to do is listen to just one song and you’ll understand where I’m coming from (and you’ll probably need a new change of underwear as well).

From The Black Ashes starts off strong with “Apocalypse”, a blistering ride through the beginning of the end. They tease you a bit with a break in the bleak with a momentary slow down in tempo that almost feels like everything is going to be okay. Like the world isn’t going to end in this horrible fashion that they’re describing… and suddenly, the sting of reaper’s scythe finds it’s mark on your soul! An awesome way to START your album, if you ask me.

From there, Nebrus just takes your expectations and runs off with them by taking all the vileness of black metal and merging it the finer points of doom metal. It’s like if you took Under The Sign Of The Black Mark and Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, broke them both in half and glued the two halves together to make the greatest mixture of black metal and doom metal that any metal mind ever dreamed of… assuming the breaking/gluing process was successful.

I’m happy to report that Noctuaria’s voice is just as ravaged and raw as ever, which keeps her high on my Favorite Black Metal Vocalist list right between Stefan Fiori and Lord Serpent. This time however, Mortifero duties pertained only to the drums, which are every bit as punishing as they were in Twilight Of Humanity. It’s the same with the guitars. Throughout From The Black Ashes, they are almost always sped up to your standard black metal speed riffs, but occasionally they break off into dreary doom hooks that are always laid in on just the right moments.

But the crowning jewel of From The Black Ashes has to be it’s closing track, “Banquet Of Oblivion”. Hearing Noctuaria scream, “I DON’T EXIST!"

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