Thergothon - "Stream From The Heavens" [1994]

Artist: Thergothon

Title: Stream From The Heavens

Genre: Funeral Doom/Death Metal

Country: Finland
Year: 1994

Track List:

1. Everlasting
2. Yet the Watchers Guard
3. Unknown Kadath in the Cold Waste
4. Elemental
5. Who Rides the Astral Wings
6. Crying Blood & Crimson Snow

"The band is considered to be one of the pioneers of funeral doom metal, along with Skepticism". Well, I'm not a big fan of this particular genre, but there was a period when I listened to a lot of death/doom metal, so I can understand why this album, along with the earlier demo "Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Sothoth", became one of very high-valued releases of early 90's Finnish metal scene. Thergothon were one of the few H.P.Lovecraft-inspired metal bands that really have that otherworldly cosmic horror atmosphere in their music; maybe that's how their countrymen Demilich would sound if only they decided to play doom metal.

Like Demilich, Thergothon were a very underrated band during the time of their existence. Their members later played in a band called This Empty Flow (no idea what they sounded like, but according to the reviews, their style gradually transformed from gothic/doom metal to ambient/darkwave). Their vocalist/keyboardist Niko Skorpio also participated in a lot of projects which names sound promising, but the further info and recordings are nowhere to be found.

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Nord'N'Commander - "Heavenly Barrow" [2002]

Artist: Nord'N'Commander

Title: Heavenly Barrow

Genre: Lo-Fi Gothic Electro

Country: Russia
Year: 2002

Track List:

1. Sonnenmensch
2. Shout of Birds
3. Listen to the Evening
4. Blood of the Virgin Girl
5. Heavenly Barrow
6. Sunny Son
7. Cave of My Heart
8. Teeth of the Hanged
9. Contention

Here comes another cult release from the 90's-early 2000's Russian underground scene. Despite sounding "like a couple of teenage Satan-worshippers that managed to lay their hands on a cheap guitar and synth" (as they were described on some blog), Nord'N'Commander were among the most unique and innovative bands to come from the ex-USSR. In this regard, they're like early Voivod or Bathory - they were just playing whatever they want and could, not worrying much if their efforts would look ridiculous or not.

Nord'N'Commander were initially formed as an "esoteric synthpop/darkwave" project called "Vantit" in 2000. Maxim Belyaev (he was the author of all Vantit's music, and also the majority of the best tracks which later were re-recorded by N'N'C, even though the members of N'N'C themselves don't like being reminded about this fact) left the project after a conflict in 2001, and two remaining members (Alexander Ishutin and Vadim Proskuryakov) decided to change name to Nord'N'Commander - which was an obvious pun on "Norton Commander", and a hint that their music shouldn't be taken very seriously. They always had a somewhat scandalous reputation, what what else to expect from a band like them?..

Despite the horrible quality of production, the songwriting on "Heavenly Barrow" is actually quite good, which alone makes this album standing out of many better-recorded, but generic albums of the same genre. The lyrics may be poorly translated to English, but I decidedly uploaded the English version of the album and not the original Russian one, because the poor English on there adds even more charm to its sound. It's up for you to decide if this album is a total joke or a masterpiece, but one can be said for sure - Nord'NCommander always were one of the most original bands I know of. They've split up in 2009, their vocalist now is an university teacher in Moscow.

I can upload the rest of their discography, if anyone is interested (not right now, though), but keep in mind that their albums are very different from each other. Their debut "Sacred Spear Aftersounds" (2001) is very raw "blackened metal", while "Maps of Shadow Travelling" (2003) is a compilation of unreleased tracks sounding similar to "Heavenly Barrow". "Hermeneutics" (2004) is a return to their "blackened metal" roots, and "Vele" (2006) is a completely weird "accordion black metal" album. There's also a fake "album" called "Introjektion" (2007) consisting of 9 or 10 tracks, of with only 4 are actually by N'N'C (taking from their EP "Technolady"). They also recorded a number of covers, of which "Paris" and "Starfall" (both originally performed by a 90's Russian pop band "Кар-Мэн") are some of the best tracks ever recorded by N'N'C (at least in my opinion).

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Currents Of Death - "Cretodoh" [1993]

Artist: Currents Of Death

Title: Cretodoh

Genre: Power Electronics, Noise

Country: Russia
Year: 1993

Track List:

1. Fucking Electricity
2. Urnsfet
3. New Holy Office
4. The Big Chair
5. Strome Des Todes

Power electronics project from Russia which made their first recordings in 1991-92? Yes, you're reading everything right! Currents of Death, coming from Novokuznetsk (in southwestern Siberia), were the second Russian project of such kind (the first was Linija Mass, started by Alexander Lebedev-Frontov in mid-1980s), and their music was on par with the best Western PE projects of that time. They never released anything officially until late 2012 ("Cretodoh" was recorded during summer of 1993 at the Novokuznetsk-based "Level A" studio, but wasn't released back then; in 2003 it was released as a bootleg by St.Petersburg-based label Fight Muzik under a different name; and finally, a Moscow-based label Provoloka released it officially in 2012).

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Brandkommando - "Achtung! Achtung! Der Kommunismus Kommt!" [2005]

Artist: Brandkommando

Title: Achtung! Achtung! Der Kommunismus Kommt!

Genre: Power Electronics, Noise

Country: Poland
Year: 2005

Track List:

1. PPR
2. Banda Bieruta
3. O Co Walczymy?
4. 3x TAK!
5. Stalin. Antyhymn
6. Stalin. Wg. Piora A. Wazyka

Debut album of the Polish noise project which I mentioned in my previous entry. The track names suggest that it deals mainly with the early history of Polish People's Republic, namely the period of Boleslav Bierut's Stalinist government in late 40's - early 50's. This period is relatively poorly researched by historians, at least non-Polish ones - even the articles on B.Bierut in Engish and Russian wikipedias aren't very informative and hardly even mention his mysterious death in 1956. Brandkommando himself doesn't support any political ideology, and also doesn't try to glorify any of the regimes he write music about (unlike many other martial industrial and PE artists).

CC describes Brandkommando's manner of speech as "very laconic" (at least he left such an impression when they talked online about making a split). It's also worth noting that Brandkommando has nothing to do with far-right scene, even though one of his tracks has appeared on some stupid "white power electronics" compilation. Actually, it was included in there without his consent, and Brandkommando's own opinion on this like this is best reflected with his track "NS Idiots". Musically, this album is pure noise, even though the cover art would be more suitable for a martial industrial release.

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Kriegshund - "Arbeiterklasse" [2013]

Artist: Kriegshund

Title: Arbeiterklasse

Genre: Industrial

Country: Serbia
Year: 2013

Track List:

1. Russland
2. KPD (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands)
3. Machina
4. Stalingrad (The Rise of Soviets)

Kriegshund is an apolitical one man-project from Serbia started in 2011, whose music can be vaguely described as "electro-industrial". For some reason, it reminds me of Brandkommando, but it's much less noisy. Aesthetically, it's martial industrial, but musically... not quite. Labelling it "EBM" or "aggrotech" (as it was done on last.fm) would be wrong too, so let's just take Kriegshund's self-definition. There's not much futher info about the project, except that it's supposed to be "a musical retrospective of the human society in general and its self-destructive tendencies" (c).

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Unknown Kadath - "Æþðŋ" [2011]

Artist: Unknown Kadath

Title: Æþðŋ

Genre: Dark Ambient, Noise

Country: Armenia
Year: 2011

Track List:

1. Outer Space
2. Galaxies And Stars
3. Deep In The Well
4. Horror Of The Catacombs
5. The Demon Speaks
6. The Endless Ocean
7. পছন্দ চিরতরে

"...And vast infinities away, past the Gate of Deeper Slumber and the enchanted wood and the garden lands and the Cerenarian Sea and the twilight reaches of Inquanok, the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep strode brooding into the onyx castle atop unknown Kadath in the cold waste, and taunted insolently the mild gods of earth whom he had snatched abruptly from their scented revels in the marvellous sunset city"

I don't know anything about this project, except it's from Armenia and released one demo album in 2011. Some of the track names looked promising at first sight, but the beginning of the album seriously disappointed me, as it's mostly just noise thrown together. The 2nd half of "Æþðŋ" is more interesting, though. "The Demon Speaks" is probably the best track on the whole album, reminding me (and not only me) of Melek-Tha. Overall this debut wasn't very impressive, but there's still some potential visible. Don't know, though, if there will be any more releases or not.

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P.S. I wonder if there are any Armenian martial industrial projects in existence? It'd be particularly interesting to hear an "industrial" interpretation of any of these songs...

Sadael - "Ov Sirun Sirun" [2010]

Artist: Sadael

Title: Ov Sirun Sirun

Genre: Folk Metal, Doom Metal

Country: Armenia
Year: 2010

I think this single also counts as "Armenian folk metal", even though Sadael started as an one-man band playing instrumental black metal/ambient in the beginning, and gradually became a funeral doom project. The song itself is a well-known Armenian folk tune, performed by a lot of different artists. Here's one of its many interpretations, with dual (male and female) vocals:


And Sadael's version is instrumental doom metal:

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Dogma - "Ethnic-Methnic" [2009]

Artist: Dogma

Title: Ethnic-Methnic

Genre: Folk Metal/Rock/Cabaret

Country: Armenia
Year: 2009

Track List:

1. Khaghers
2. Hars
3. Renaissance
4. Aneres
5. Artnacum
6. Heqiat
7. Tsov Tsirani
8. Khoskap
9. Aystegh Kmnam
10. Limbo (bonus track)
11. Qez Ognir (bonus track)

And here's some really folk-influenced Armenian metal... well, I admit it's hardly metal. There are some metal elements for sure, but for the most part it's just progressive/ethno-rock with female vocals. They have released one more album in 2013, but I didn't find it to be as interesing as their debut one.

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The musicianship on "Ethnic-Methnic" is very good, but the music itself is quite unusual, so I'd recommend to get some knowledge of more mainstream Armenian music before listening to Dogma. I personally like this (for example):

Ayas - "Yerkink u Yerkir" [1988]

Artist: Ayas

Title: Yerkink u Yerkir

Genre: Heavy Metal, Progressive Metal

Country: Armenian SSR
Year: 1988

Track List:

1. Ayas
2. XX. dar
3. Dareri sahmanagitz
4. Gerspanuzyun
5. Aryunot gazan
6. Yerkink u Yerkir
7. Ches karogh erbek

...No, Beerdigungs Lauten weren't the first Armenian metal band. They might be the first Armenian death metal band, but the first metal band from Armenia that acually released something was probably Asparez (formed in 1982). However, their 1985 rehearsal demos were never released to the public, so the 1988 album by Ayas is probably the very first proper release from an Armenian metal band.

Ayas are often referred to as a folk metal band, but honetly I can't hear much folk influences on "Yerkink u Yerkir". That said, the music is very rich and interesting, with a lot of keyboards and guitar solos, even though the quality of production is quite poor (but then again, what else to expect from an underground USSR metal band?) Their lead vocalist and keyboardist has studied in two conservatories (in Yerevan and Moscow), which of course contributed a lot to the quality of songwriting. There isn't much vocals on this album, all the lyrics are in Armenian. It somehow reminds me of a few Hungarian rock/metal bands of the same era (heavy use of keyboards, singing in an exotic-sounding language). The band is still active today (although not recording anything new), after a long period of inactivity (1995-2008). They had a member of Sworn in their 2008 lineup, but i don't think he's still playing with them.

As for the name: "They took their name from Armenian marine club in Yerevan which was created in 1985... Ayas now is a small port town in Turkey that was previously named Aegea - an ancient town in Cilicia; it became an important harbor city of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia in the second half of the 13th century; also it was the name for the first Armenian ship"

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Basarabian Hills - "In The Stillness Of The Codrii" [2013]

Artist: Basarabian Hills

Title: In The Stillness Of The Codrii

Genre: Dark Ambient (mostly)

Country: Moldova
Year: 2013

Track List:

1. Wanderer Through The Melancholy Of The Woods (Part 1)
2. Wanderer Through The Melancholy Of The Woods (Part 2)
3. In The Stillness Of The Codrii
4. Decline Of An Old Tree

Basarabian Hills is an one-man atmospheric black metal/ambient project from a small Moldovan town called Făleşti. BH's music is clearly nature-inspired, and always was more ambient than metal. However, two first albums ("Spirit of the Native Land" and "Breath of a Wide Valley") featured more black metal elements than this one. "In The Stillness Of The Codrii" consists of 4 tracks, all of them exactly 10 minutes long. The Lustre-influenced black metal/shoegaze of the earlier albums is almost completely gone, it's ambient for the most part. Surely this album has some flaws, but it's definitely better than the first two ones; actually it's quite good considering it comes from provincial Moldova, an area where underground music of any kind is nearly nonexistent. I also shouls notice that BH has one of the best logos ever ;)