Live 4 Metal - Black Metal

Asian Black Metal
Written By Crin

With Black Metal splintering off into more branches than Barclays bank, it is becoming more apparent that the genre as a whole is becoming harder to define. What is Black Metal? Most of the bands that defined the scene have moved on to other fields of extremity. Emperor, Samael, Moonspell, Cradle of Filth, Rotting Christ, Gehenna, Satyricon, have all shed their Black Metal roots and crafted individual sounds of their own. Marduk, Gorgoroth and Dark Funeral still forge ravishing Satanic Metal whilst Dark Throne seem to be aimlessly wallowing in past glories. Immortal are slowing down by the album and Mayhem are simply treading water. Dimmu Borgir embody the spirit of the genre in name only as they ride their deserved wave of popularity. Maybe Abigor and Graveland still hold true the flames of the past but over all the modern scene in Europe is grinding into a repetitive cycle of cloning the past masters and bands becoming pale reflections of what once was.
That doesn't mean the genre, as a collective whole is bad, far from it. The Black Metal scene is here to stay and it is expanding in its own right to create some of the best extreme metal for a growing mainstream market. The fact is the very sourness of the music has inevitably become less cankerous to accommodate a wider audience. The polished productions have hacked away the boisterous disregard for perfection. The once tacky band photos are now professionally manipulated into sharp gleaming effigies of Hell. The mysteriousness of the bands now blown away to reveal normality and the complete opposite of the terrible portraits the fans once envisaged. To put it in a nutshell, Black Metal has become integrated with the mass marketing machine of commercial Metal music.

To consume the raw primitive essence of Black Metal I believe a band must crave the hunger of a scene free from mass media attention. The conditions when the first Norwegian bands appeared [not necessarily confounded in a fireball of exaggerated murder coverage or church burning's] playing without a safety net and not caring if they fell from the exciting challenges of playing something unique. The music was crude, the images bewitching and the all important mystery factor all too real.
Take away the comforts of labels signing anything that shits Satanic themes and the mainstream mags writing this and that about any one, and you get a precarious underground where nothing is certain and nothing tailor made for the awaiting masses. To put it bluntly, to feel the raw energy of Black Metal we must take our biased views and negative opinions on anything that isn't Norwegian and step into the sewers of a place where the very real corrupt lure of fame and fortune has yet to deplete the innocence of the music. This is the purest form of Black Metal. Music, untouched by ambition as it grows for the moment and never looks back. There can be no happy ending, no light at the end of the tunnel. There is just the depressive drone of the music and the anti social rankness of the bands themselves.

You can find it in South America and parts of the fragmented Eastern Block although that part of the world favours a more Death Metal approach. You can also find it in abundance in Asia. Now, you are no doubt imagining tanned skinned Asians and squinting short people chanting Satanic themes from a land where the very concept of Satan hardly exists. Maybe they could say the same about Hinduism or Buddhism being an alien form of religion to Europe and we know that not to be the case. The same applies to Asia where Christianity and the concept of Satan are very real.

To leap across this initial image of Asian Black Metal just look at the Japanese band Sigh. The only Asian band to really break out of the misconceptions of 'anything out of Asia must be shit". To leap further still across the Japanese scene you will discover long serving bands like Abigail and Sabbat.
Leap even further again and a whole list of Black Metal bands appear. Tyrant, Funeral Rites, Magnane, Infernal Necromancy, Gurugoth, Hurosoma, Old Serpent, The Under, Asrafil, Insanity of Slaughter and Holokaust Winds to name a few.
Here is a scene untouched by the tainted values of the western extreme metal culture. It thrives on anonymity and thus produces the rawest, Blackest and insane form of Black Metal. The music is disdainful to the ears just like it should be. The productions are often dire and the passion unquestionable. You can hear the anger, the total disregard for the mainstream and a deep brooding menace only existing in a real underground scene that has no over-ground scene to look up to.

Here's a rough guide to the best Asian Black Metal bands around:

Brunei
Azmael
Funerality

Hong Kong
Dawn of Apocalypse

India/ Pakistan
Jangli Jaggas Atmospheric, instrumental medieval darkness. Imagine the most melodic moments of Dimmu Borgir without the vocals. This really is brilliant music with epic atmospheres and mind-blowing harmonies.
Demonic Resurrection, The debut album 'Demonstealer' is like a mixture of Black and Melodic Death metal with both snarling and female vocals. There is a high use of keyboards and extremely well played guitar solo's injected into the rather majestic atmospheres produced by the fast pace the band employ. Check out the music on mp3.com
Blasphemey Unholy Black Metal
Dusk Pakistan's answer to Opeth
Fate Melodic Black Metal
Dying Embrace Black Doom
Dementra

Indonesia
Kekal Fast and Primitive Black Metal.
Crusade Melodic Black Metal with Dani Filth Vocals set to fast early Marduk arrangements.
Bealiah Fast bombastic Black Metal that reaches both primitive and ambient forms.
Dry The album 'Belenggu Kelam' is a relentless barrage of Black Metal insanity in the vein of Marduk and Immortal at warp speed.
Khasarath [Dark Funeral/ Emperor in tone]
Mannomomicron Melodic Black with keyboards.
Armageddon Holocaust The 'Into Total Destruction' album is like a remake of Dark Thrones 'Transylvanian Hunger' complete with brutal primitive songs and blasting horror.
Other bands : Dhemit, Leptodus, Panembahan, Santet, Hecatomb, Iconoclasm, Insanytis, Lamphor, Thandus, Hellgods, Neurotic of Gods, Unseen Darkness

Israel
Salem Originally sounding very Black when they started in 1985, now the band have a strong Deathly edge to the latest album 'collective demise. Their previous album had a Pink Floyd cover lurking amongst the thoughtful arrangements of the dark and melodic material.
Arallu The album 'Satanic War in Jerusalem' displays a melodic thrash style Black Metal that is more accessible to the ears.
Azazel Melodic Black Metal with a sound based on Dark Tranquility.
Golgolot Hebrewic Barbarian Metal.
Bishop of Hexen Symphonic Black Metal excellently delivered with a heavy keyboard sound.
Melechesh With the bands debut album 'Djinn' released through Osmose last year, this razor sharp Israeli band let loose some finely tuned compositions crafted around middle eastern melodies. There is a brooding element of the exotic within the fast/ slow tracks and I would recommend this album to any Black Metal fan out there.
Grimoire Gloomy fast Black Metal with a desolate brooding sound.
Venal Divinity Grimm, fast melodic black metal.
Dark Soul Black Death.
Lord Offal Chaotic Black Metal.
Arafil Black metal based on would you believe 'Russian Folklore' with lyrics in Russian and English.
Other bands : Delmerots Kingdom, Bartholomeus Night, Eternal Decay, Hymns of Hate, Aztec

Japan
Sigh Formed in 1990 the debut album 'Scorn Defeat' was released by Euronymous's label Death Like Silence. The second release 'Infidel Art' [Cacophonous] revealed the off the wall orchestral influences seeping into their sombre sound and this would expand on following releases, Ghastly Funeral Theatre, Hail Horror Hail, and Dread Dreams.
Now signed to Century Media, the current album, Imaginary Sound Scapes finds the band continuing to bewilder and confound.
Sabbat Formed in 1983, this makes this enduring band nearly as old as Venom and yet us Westerners have hardly heard of them. They have release eight albums of which the latest 'Karmagmassacre' exploding with old style Blackness.
Abigail Influenced by early Thrash and Black Metal. The album 'Intercourse and Lust' is out through Modern Invasion Music.
Infernal Majesty Raw and intense Black Metal

Insanity of Slaughter Unholy Black Metal
Asrafil Melodic Black
Tyrant Symphonic Black Metal like early Dimmu Borgir. The band has two albums out titled, Under the Dark Mystic Sky [Pulverized Rec] and, Legend [Displeased Rec].
Funeral Rites The band have an album 'Necroeater' out on Painkiller Records. The band has a sound hovering between Sigh's 'Infidel Art' and Rotting Christ's, 'Thy Mighty Contract' albums. The music is very accessible and well put together.
Other bands : Infernal Necromancy, Crifotoure Satanarda, Gurugoth, Hurosoma, Holokaust Winds, Old Serpent, The Under, Die Wunde, Magane,Basilisk, Misogi, Frozen, Nyarlathotep.

Korea
Moonshine Desolate black metal. The album 'Wake up the Moon' is well recommended.
Other bands : Oathean, Sad Legend, Silent Eye.

Lebanon
Cimmerian Path Dark epic Black Metal with many twists and varied atmospheres.

Malaysia
Astaroth
Sauts Alastor Melodic Black Metal similar to very early Emperor. The band have an EP titled 'The Grand Executioner' out on Nebula Productions.
Bazzah Orthodox grim Black Metal.
Other bands : Astaroth, Mentharas, Nebrias, Zubirun, Aradia, Hayagriva, Purnamwulan.

Philipines
Kambing Black Metal with sorrowful doom parts.
Ebwa Most violent and hateful Black Metal act in Laguna [apparently]
Other bands Energumen, Incarrion, Kratornas

Singapore
Kibosh Sybil Kismet Dismal dark Black Metal that is musically in tune with early Burzum with more traditional snarling vocals.
Mistik Great melodic Black Metal in the vein of early Abigor/ Emperor.
Eternal Throne Majestic/ melodic Black Metal with harsh/ clean

vocals. The band have a great variation to their material making it stand out from the more direct approach of other acts.
Abvul Abashy pure Blasphemic Black Metal
Gematria Straight forward simplistic Black Metal sounding like Satan's arse on fire.
Other bands : Decius, Eibon, Requiem, Blood Angel, Debauchery, Itnos, Libation, Seventh Gate, Abhorer, Rudria,
Impiety, Stidraj, King Shah, Eternal Hate, Nether-realm, Vulture, Enorhted,
Eternal Oath, Wrath of Gibryle, Ilemauzar.

Thailand
Surrender of Divinity Fast Raw Black Metal.
Other bands :Dark Mystery, Vennnular Eclipse, Korihor,

Taiwan
Chthonic Without doubt a hidden gem with music that resembles Sigh in all the classical keyboard orchestration and polished production. The vocals are still harsh and yet the atmospheric content makes the new album '9th Empyrean' something very special.
Eon Fast Dissection/ Dark Throne style Black Metal with caustic rasping vocals and a primitive moribund atmosphere. Check out mp3.com

Vietnam
Sword of Darkness

To find out more about the above bands, mp3's, distro's and relevant info search the sites below. The big bummer is that many of the Asian sites have more banners than a banner factory.
www.mp3.com
Fog Flames Records - http://fly.to/fogflames
THT Productions - http://www.thtproductions.com
Asian Metal Force http://come.to/seametalforce
Bakal zine - http://bakalzine.cjb.net
Label www.pegasusrecords.com