Band: Carach Angren
Song: When Crows Tick On Windows
Album: This Is No Fairytale (2015)
Genre: Symphonic Black Metal
I suppose it just wouldn't be my blog if I didn't drop some sort of Black Metal act during it, right? I suppose last year is technically the first time I did that, but I truend to start Black Metal Friday for a little bit, so that's gotta count for something.
Anyway, here's Symphonic Black Metal titans, Carach Angren. These guys are hands down some of the best music I've ever heard. The combination of the incredibly aggressive vocal styling against the pretty little string section is a beautiful bit of contrast. Their entire discography is varying levels of that, and they always manage to bring a crazy story to the mix.
This Is No Fairytale brings a frightening modern take on the old Hansel & Gretel story. It turns it from the classic tale you may or may not remember to a horrific tale of child molestation, cannibalistic clowns, mental illness, and how the real nightmare is everyday life.
If you're a fan of creepy stories I'd recommend you take a listen to to the album. Read the lyrics as it goes, it'll really give you an immersive experience you won't forget. The first time I listened to the album it made me hella uncomfortable for a couple days, it's very well written stuff.
To be fair I wasn't as huge a horror fan as I am now, so that might have affected how I was affected by it. Good stuff though, I hope you enjoy it.
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So as I said yesterday, not all Black Metal is about Satan. Let's be real, a horrific story is much better than a gibberish pile of evil satanic things.
I have yet to find a band that's as amazing at telling chilling stories as Carach Angren is. The first time I listened through the entirety of This Is No FairytaleI read the lyrics at the same time and, not gonna lie, the album put me in a very dark place. The stories they manage to tell through their music are jaw dropping.
I wanna say I don't often give a 100% recommendation to a band, but this is a band that any horror fan really needs to check out. Their narrative is gorgeous.
Please listen to this song while reading the lyrics to enjoy a short horror story from WWII, you won't regret it.
Band: Carach Angren
Genre: Symphonic Death Metal
Themes: Extreme Horror
I always regret not listening to song lyrics closer. There's songs I've posted here that end up having some really cool parts in the lyrics when I'm listening to them later that make me wish I had heard it before so I could drop some nifty little insight on one of the lines in the song. Remember Lindeman's song Skills In Pills? After I listened to it almost every day for a solid 2 weeks I had a couple thoughts about the song as a whole but it's not like I could post it again. I missed my chance to pretend to be deep.
Not so with this song.
Actually the only reason I'm as familiar with this is because I did a review on the album when it came out and I thought it would be appropriate to have actually listened to the album in depth. Listened to it, checked the lyrics, all that jazz. You know what you get when you look too close into Black Metal lyrics though? You get a horror story that anybody would be proud to make a movie about.
I would actually advise checking out the lyrics on this one while you listen to it, it makes it a lot more intense. Honestly I'd rather you give the whole album because it's a horrific story to follow. I wouldn't hesitate to call it my top album of 2015.
Artist: Alexi Laiho of Children Of Bodom AKA Wildchild
Genre: Neo Classical Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Symphonic Black Metal
Language: Generally Strong (this song is clean)
Welcome to the A to Z of 2016! I'm freaking pumped. Like, really pumped.
So the way we're gonna run this is if it's an artist we'll do a little bit of info about them in whatever act showcases their talent the most. If it's a band then we talk about the band. #EasyStreet
Alexi Laiho is one of the best Metal guitarists out there right now. Dude can play really fast while singing lead, but that's not all he can do.
First: He can do that live which is impressive in itself.
Second: He is literally almost always drunk at shows and it doesn't impact his playing or singing in a major way. It's actually really impressive to see as I think I posted in the past.
If you've never heard his band Children Of Bodom before then you should really make a point to check them out. They combine Classical music styles with Death Metal. Neo Classical is a very interesting type of music that, while not everybody's cup of tea, is impressive to see pulled off well.
Children Of Bodom pulls it off very well, and their newest album continues their trend of knocking it out. With the exception of one album that fans agree really wasn't that great they have put out solid music since 1993.
Band: Carach Angren
Genre: Black Metal
Language: Strong
Themes: Suicide
So I'm sure you noticed that I'm generally really bad at remembering to include holidays in my posts. I would apologize, but I don't think there's a such thing as Thanksgiving music, so we're gonna call this a free pass.
I was gonna post a different song, but then Jeff came in and said, "You're listening to that? Come on, Black Metal Friday man." I'm actually really annoyed at myself that I didn't think of that.
Hey though, it's like, the only Black Metal band I'm really familiar with. Hooray.
Someday I'll listen to the genre enough to get one or two different artists in here. Seriously though, Symphonic Black Metal is so much better in general than regular Black Metal.
On February 23 of this year, Carach Angren came out with another Symphonic Black Metal masterpiece.
I wrote the song reviews as I listened to the music, so take into consideration that you are basically reading a live review up till the very end.
Band: Carach Angren
Genre: Symphonic Black Metal
Language: Strong
Caution: Disturbing Themes
Opening up with a small into titled "Once Upon A Time..." that slowly builds in intensity and sounds like the into to a dark telling of Little Red Riding Hood or something like that. However, that is not the direction that this music decides to take.
If anybody is interested, the lyrics are here if you want to read along while you listen. Simply click the song title and it will drop the lyrics down.
We then hit the second track titled "There's No Place Like Home". With the title of the album, I originally anticipated an album that followed the thought path of some of The Grimm Brother's fairy tales. I was very mistaken, considering this song is very much about domestic abuse. It's actually a really dark story the lyrics paint and it borderline makes me uncomfortable with how graphically it describes everything.
At this point it is clear that this is going to be one of the darker narratives Carach Angren has undertaken as we follow the story of a brother and sister.
The next step taken in this dark journey is "When Crows Tick On Windows". The children flee from their abusive home, only to be caught again by their father. After dragging them back home we find that the mother has killed herself rather than live with this life anymore. It has a rather haunting string piece at the end that turns into an emotion laden lament.
"Two Flies Flew Into A Black Sugar Cobweb" brings back the thought of flight from the nightmare house. The children run into the woods and get lost in the night. Fearful, they continue on till dawn when they come across a city and a small playground. Here they meet a man dressed as a clown, who seems to want to help them at first, though it is then revealed that he only wishes to drug and kidnap them.
"Dreaming Of A Nightmare In Eden" takes a mild step away from the main narrative to tell a very dark take on part of the tale of Hansel and Gretel. This is likely a dream brought on by the drugs they were given.
"Possessed By A Craft Of Witchery" opens with the children waking up in a basement. They have been kidnaped by "a deranged psychotic" who hears the voice of a witch in his head. The only way to keep the witch at bay is to kill children in a ritual manner. We close on the death of the boy in this story.
"Killed And Served By The Devil" opens at the end of the last song. The way the killer mutilates the boy is now described from the perspective of the sister, who is restrained in a cage in the same room this is taking place in. After the dismemberment has finished the girl is forced to bury her brother in the back garden. After she finishes burying the boy it is time to clean the kill room. After being told that she will serve as a slave to the killer until the witch calls for her death, it is time to eat. There is quite a thing at the end, which I will let you hear.
"The Witch Perished In Flames" opens on the girl waking in her cage again. Following the murder of her brother she contemplates suicide. However, she realizes that there is naught to be gained through her own death and she makes the commitment to be brave. Taking her chance at the next meal, she kills the man. During the scuffle a fire breaks out and she leaves while the monster burns in his home.
"Tragedy Ever After" begins with Gretel waking. She ran hard into a tree and now is unsure whether she is in the real world or not. Judging by the strange shadowy being calling to her, it would seem she is in purgatory. Seeing as it's purgatory it makes sense that the burned corpse of her brother's killer returns. Or wait, is it? As the song says while the abusive father is shown leaving the room, "The real nightmare continues in reality."
**Going for longest post yet record**
So let's talk for a second. This is a musically solid album. Everything that they do plays to the mood of the setting they are trying to describe. Swelling and falling, the entire album just works.
I will give this a solid 8/10, a definite score for Carach Angren to add to their discography.
I listened to this album all the way through on Wednesday and I'm not sure how obvious it is to you guys, but I definitely felt like I was falling into a dark mood while listening to this. Something about music that has an orchestra in it just tugs at my emotions, and if you read through the lyrics while you listen the whole experience is heightened in a way. I don't mean to sound all emo, it's just what happens.
Still though, I would call this a really good album and worth a listen. If you're not a fan of Metal, check out the first and last track since they're instrumental anyway. It's orchestral with a gritty guitar undertone, so it's obviously good.
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