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| Album Score: 8.5/10 |
Ever since Deathcrush was first swept beyond the Nordic forests on icy winds of hand-traded cassette tapes, black metal has been famous for the bleak, empty feelings that permeate its very being. While the cell-phone recording quality of early black metal was a combination of do-it-yourself philosophy and an anti-industry approach (as well as anti-Christianity, anti-social, and anti-everything, really), these traits have become a hallmark that many modern bands seek to recapture. American act Wolves in the Throne Room have come under some fire for shunning these cult roots of the genre, but really, their brand of American black metal – played by firelight on vintage amps – isn’t so different from Emperor and Ulver’s pagan aesthetics. In fact, Wolves’ 2008 DVD Live at Roadburn is about as black metal as it gets, as they blast and shriek through a selection of ten-minute epics about returning to nature, occult mythos, and stories of post-apocalyptic landscapes.
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| Album Score: 9.5/10 |
Gojira did not take the quick path to stardom. Formed in 1997 around brothers Joe and Mario Duplantier, the quartet spent nine years in relative obscurity until their third album From Mars to Sirius really made a splash in the international metal community. The band’s first live set, The Link Alive, was a solid take on their first two albums, but came too soon to capture Gojira’s creative explosion. 2012’s The Flesh Alive, however, takes full advantage of the strength and diversity of From Mars… and successor The Way of All Flesh.
