Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn (2013)

Genre: Atmospheric/Epic Black/Folk Metal
Quality: MP3@128MBPS
About: Apologies for being away so long and thank you to all who continue to follow me! Here is the album we've all been waiting for, for seven years. Unfortunately the quality is not perfect, but what do you expect a full MONTH before release. I WILL be buying this on Vinyl. And I recommend you do the same.

Buy
4shared Download

A Metal Hurricane, Vol. 4

Genre: Varies, see description and track listing.
Quality: Mostly over 192kbps MP3, one is AAC.
About: I believe this is my best playlist to date. If you're here, likely you already have bands like Alcest (Track 8), Angra (10), Revolution Renaissance (14), and Grey Waters (9). But you probably don't have Yearning (1), Far Beyond (3), Enter My Silence (7), Pay No Respect (12), or Shadow Gallery (15). These are all great and very underrated metal bands! I won't say more specific things about the aforementioned bands, you should experience them for yourself.

Because of bands like Alcest, Austere and all related bands, I've been getting more into shoegaze. It is called that because founding artists generally stared straight down during live performances. I used last.fm shoegaze radio to find bands like The Depreciation Guild (5), who became an instant favorite. This song has such a great beat and I wish I was in a band because it would be such a nice candidate for a power metal cover!

I've always been into very melodic music, whether it's rock or metal or anything else. I was randomly browsing a blog, and I usually hate when music is played on music-blogs because people are probably already listening to music while browsing! But in this case it was a very good thing because I heard another instant favorite - Brother Firetribe (2). This is melodic rock but it is somewhat heavy at times, and it is interesting because it was actually founded by the guitarist/composer from nightwish! Annette is even in one song (not this one). The singer here is absolutely incredible, he is like a combination of Mark Boals and Michael Kiske which are my two favorite living singers. Powerful yet clean.

Kymera (6) is another unknown amazing melodic rock band, with another vocalist who reminds me of Kiske.

Glen Hansard (4) is an amazing singer-songwriter and the best decision he ever made was to release a movie called Once in 2006. This is direct from the movie and I'm not sure why but just seemed to fit very well in that spot in the playlist.

Serj Tankian (11) is of course the singer from System of A Down. I consider their first album a metal album, but since then the band and the recent solo projects have shifted more to a mainstream alternative sound. Here, he experiments which I really like. The album as a whole is too slow and uneventful, but this track grabbed me. I guess the disco-type beat.

Billionaires Boys Club (13) is the epitome of unknown hard rock. It features Mark Boals on vocals, and had some really enjoyable songs such as this one. It's just one of those bands that remained unknown for some reason. Lack of promotion and touring. This band would have done really well today now that we have internet to find all this great music!


Track List (1:13:22 total time):
1. Yearning - Bleak (Atmospheric Doom/Death Metal / Clean Vocals)
2. Brother Firetribe - I'm on Fire (Melodic Hard Rock / AOR)
3. Far Beyond - My Way Of Endless Grief (Melodic Power Metal)
4. Glen Hansard - Say it to Me Now (Acoustic / Singer-Songwriter)
5. The Depreciation Guild - Crucify You (Shoegaze / Chiptune / 8bit)
6. Khymera - No sacrifice (Melodic Rock / AOR)
7. Enter My Silence - Thin Red Line (Melodic Death Metal)
8. Alcest - Tir Nan Og (Atmospheric/Acoustic Black Metal / Shoegaze)
9. Grey Waters - The Truth is in Your Eyes (Depressive Black Rock/Metal / Shoegaze / Emo)
10. Angra - Lease of Life (Power Metal / Ballad)
11. Serj Tankian - Deserving? (Symphonic/Alternative Rock/Pop)
12. Pay No Respect - Only the Brave (Hardcore / Beatdown)
13. Billionaires Boys Club - Send Your Fat Friend Home (Hard Rock / Glam Metal / AOR)
14. Revolution Renaissance - Crossing the Rubicon (Power Metal)
15. Shadow Gallery - Colors (Melodic Metal / Ballad)

Mediafire Download

*As usual, the music files are included as well as a .m3u file. If you have problems, let me know.*

Please support the musicians that spent so much time, effort, and money to make this great music for you - Buy their albums and go to their concerts (if possible)!
(In this case, click the donate button on the top right and I will be more likely to continue exposing you to these bands. :D)

Suicide Solution, Vol. 2

Genre: Depressive Suicidal Black Metal + closely related genres.
Quality: 192-320kbps mp3.
About: In these past 10 months since I made Vol. 1, I've found I'd only scratched the surface of what is actually a very deep and varied genre. I want to let the world know that, while I discover it for myself. There are countless clone bands: Fast blast beats, screaming nonsense, no melody, sounds like it was recorded with a tape recorder from a dollar store on the other side of a brick wall........ That is what this collection aims to avoid.

I wanted a collection of unique yet similar sounds and ideas, with a production value that can at least be appreciated and doesn't hamper enjoyment of each song. I personally believe I did a pretty good job. I also kept it limited to 74 minutes, the standard for a CD. (Especially hard since songs of this genre tend to be so long!). I also created a cover which will be used for all future entries in this series.

I hope you will find as much enjoyment out of these songs as I do.

1. Lantlôs - These Nights Were Ours (Kind of obsessed with this song and I think its a good playlist opener. My #1 song of 2010 and I don't see how anything can top it.)

2. Happy Days - Don't Go (Really emotional song ending in what sounds like a wolf howl. Just chilling. Since I stupidly used their cover for Vol. 1 I figured I should put them in here.)

3. Apati - Sömnlösa Nätter (Just found this "black rock" band and instantly love them. Apparently their new album that just came out is even better.)

4. Monarque - La Vallée Des Larmes (This is what I was talking about when I said "unique" sounds.)

5. Mortuus Infradaemoni - Mortuus Et Prodeunt Infradaemoni (Raw yet clear song and I just love the riff. You'll know which one I'm talking about. Not technically "depressive" but come on, it is. So underrated I had to put them on here.)

6. Silencer - Taklamakan (No idea what this song is about, but it just gets into this awesome jam part where you want to bang your head.)

7. Shining - Krossade Drömmar Och Brutna Löften (I won't argue if you say they're overrated, but this is a heartfelt completely acoustic guitar track that's melancholic and sad and a great interlude.)

8. Walknut - Come, Dreadful Ygg (Another unique band I just found and need to devote more time to.)

9. All the Cold - Coldly to Heart (Essentially the last song of the "Children of Failure" split, one of the few albums to seriously make me feel like crying as the songs are so emotional. It just keeps beating you down harder, you need to get it if you don't have it.)

10. Austere - To fade with the Dusk (This band split up recently but with this song you can hear how amazing they were. Really the classic DSBM sound but they do it so perfectly and clearly.)

11. Sad Legend - The Reaper's Song (From the newest album, it seems like something is missing but that only makes me like it a little more, I think.)

Runtime: 72:42

4shared Download

Please support the musicians that spent so much time, effort, and money to make this great music for you - Buy their albums and go to their concerts (if possible)!
(In this case, click Donate in the top right if you liked it.)

Lantlôs - .neon (2010) (320kbps MP3)

Genre: Atmospheric/Depressive/Suicidal Blackened Shoegaze
Quality: 320kbps MP3
About: Yesterday I discovered this came out, and since I had listened to their album and demos before and liked them, I thought ok I should get it. But if someone had ran my face over with a steamroller I would not have been more surprised. This is a band who has matured so much over the past 5 years, from an almost blast-beat-fest on every song, to... this. Every song brings this wave of emotions, varying from anger to introspective to sad. The musical content varies along with it, there are moments of the fast aggressive black metal everyone loves, then there's passages with progressive-sounding beats and also minimalist parts. I don't know what more to say except it must be heard to be believed. New song of the year: "These Nights Were Ours."

Recommended A must-listen for all fans of the genre, in fact the multi-instrumentalist creator of Alcest is the permanent singer for this band now, and the artwork was done by a member of Les Discrets.

Neige - Vocals (Alcest, Peste Noire, Mortifera (Fra), Phest, Amesoeurs)
Herbst - Guitar, Bass, Drums, Lyrics (Epitaph, Herbst, Impavida, Líam)

Cover artwork by Fursy Teyssier (Les Discrets).

1. Minusmensch 07:49 2. These Nights Were Ours 04:41 3. Pulse / Surreal 08:21 4. Neige de Mars 05:01 5. Coma 06:07 6. Neon 07:42 Total playing time 39:41

4shared Download

Buy

Please support the musicians that spent so much time, effort, and money to make this great music for you - Buy their albums and go to their concerts (if possible)!

Wilds Forlorn - The Great Loss (2010)

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Neoclassical
About: Angry and intense, yet with almost post-rock sounding guitars at times and a lot of melodic piano parts. One track is completely acoustic, in fact. It is so intense and epic that I could not believe when I saw it was just one guy. The drums are clearly from a machine but you'll forget about that quickly as it is the masterpieces of composition that draws you in. This album will slap you in the face then give you a bottle of milk. Then knock it out of your hand and make you cry.

Here we have a band that is so unknown that they have not been added to metal-archives yet (Actually, due to metal-archive's stupid rule that you need a physical CD, it cannot be added). Not a band, rather a solo project. He does not deserve this unknown status, in fact with this album he has proven he can play with the big names of black metal, such as Lunar Aurora, Shining, Dimmu Borgir, just to name a few off the top of my head. It's wrong of me to compare this to anyone, because here we have a very unique black metal album.

Mediafire Download

You can download this, along with an album from 2009, free from his myspace! Show your support by downloading direct from there, adding to friends, commenting on the wall, etc!
http://www.myspace.com/wildsforlorn

DEEP - In Silence Somber Solace (2010) (Demo)

Genre: Depressive Black Metal/Instrumental/Groove Metal
About: You really don't know what to expect from a band you never heard of randomly linked in the CBox. After fixing some id3 tags (ugh - was missing artist, album, track numbers, and had the wrong year!), I commenced the listening.

Track 1 is an ambient piano intro that definitely grabbed my attention, so it serves its purpose.
The rest of the album kind of has a groove metal feeling (in my opinion), but the guitars are very raw like black metal which I like. The melodies are that of depressive black metal styles (but definitely not Funeral Black Metal, as the band self-proclaims). The fact that the genre of this music is hard to pinpoint is always a good thing in my book. Nice melodies and a nice beat/groove that keeps you interested. I have listened to plenty of Depressive Black Metal and this is a very unique beat. My only complaint is the drums sound overly fake. So overall, I have to highly recommend this.

Here is the text file that was included with the album:

"-DEEP is a Malaysian Depressive/Funeral Black Metal Band.
Active since 2006 under a different banner until the change
of moniker in October 2009. Playing Depressive, melancholic
and sorrowful Funeral Black Metal, all instruments and
orchestrations were played and arranged by Deep.

-For more information on DEEP please
visit www.myspace.com/indeeprest

-To purchase DEEP's debut album In Silence Somber Solace
visit www.myspace.com/carnagemusic666

-We need interested distributors/labels to distribute the debut album
please do not hesitate to contact Carnage Music for more
information.

-Please promote this demo on your website or blog
if you like the songs on this demo.

-Any additional details please email DEEP at
benignism@yahoo.com"


By the way, I have a suggestion to the band... "deep" is a very common name. There are at least 7 bands named that, one of which is disbanded but also metal (Death metal from texas, USA). I recommend a name change, and after changing the name, distribute a physical CD demo so you can submit yourself to metal-archives.com, because a metal band basically does not exist if they are not on there. But then again I'm not part of the band so I can't control it, just suggestions.

Mediafire Download

Austere (Aus) - Bleak... (Austere/Isolation Split)

Genre: Depressive Suicidal Black Metal
About: Austere has a fairly driving beat, and high pitched screams, and Isolation has a similar beat but lower, calmer vocals, and also has some acoustic parts. It is a 6 song album, but each song averages about 10 minutes, so it is an hour of screaming DSBM glory.

Austere (Aus)
1. When Even Tomorrow Looks Away 13:52
2. Instrumental 01:52
3. There's Nothing Left 13:36
Isolation (Deu)
4. From Nowhere... 05:45
5. Mosaic 16:08
6. ...To Nowhere 08:23
Total playing time 59:36

Mediafire Download - part 1
Mediafire Download - part 2

Austere (Aus) - Only the Wind Remembers / Ending the Circle of Life (2008) (Austere/Lyrinx Split)

Genre: Depressive-Suicidal Black Metal
About: The original split was a tape, but both bands re-released their parts of this split as EP's in 2009 on CD, and thats what these files are from. Austere has a fairly driving beat, and high pitched screams, whereas Lyrinx has a bit mellower, slower beat (almost doom metal-like at parts) with rougher screams. It is a 4 song album, but each song averages about 15 minutes, so it is an hour of screaming DSBM glory.

Austere (Aus)
1. Towards the Great Unknown 11:34
2. Only the Wind Remembers 13:24
Lyrinx
3. No Failure in Suicide 16:15
4. Isolation 18:42
Total playing time 59:55

Mediafire Download - part 1
Mediafire Download - part 2

Silencer - Death - Pierce Me (2001)

Genre: Depressive Suicidal Black Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal
About: My god. How have i not heard about this before. After a 2 minute acoustic intro, you are slammed with a wall of sound and screeching vocals that only someone posessed by the devil himself could pull off. Hence... He went to an institution for about 5 years after this album. But this is a masterpiece of depressive black metal and any fan (or non-fan) should hear it.

He now is out of the institution, and had a project called "Diagnose: Lebensgefahr" in 2007 which I will upload soon if it's any good.

Mediafire Download

Austere - To Lay Like Old Ashes (2009)

Genre: Melodic Depressive Suicidal Black Metal with Emo infuences (not kidding...)
About: Another great album, but they must be getting bored with Black Metal because towards the 2/3 mark of this album, they switch to emo vocals. Which is... interesting... But you can come to your own judgement.

Mediafire Download

Suicide Solution, Vol. 1 - A collection of suicidal, depressive, and atmospheric black metal.

Genre: Suicidal, Depressive, Atmospheric. Mostly Black Metal with a few exceptions (noted below)
About: Depressive music, for me, is the soundtrack for particularly frostbitten days. Be it the weather, or things that happen to me, or who knows what. I am a believer that you need music that resonates with any mood you may have. If you are angry, you want some death metal, if you want to punch someones face in, you want hardcore... if you are feeling the frost climb up your back, you want this.

I truly do not understand why bands that perform this style of music are not popular worldwide. Especially in the US. Depression is practically an epidemic here, and if this music was prevelent, maybe we could cut down on that? And, even if you are not depressed, it is just great music once you tune your brain to it.

This is not my favorite genre, but I have listened to quite a lot and am familiar with enough bands to consider this a decent collection. I have included what i consider the "essentials", and also some unknown bands, some of which I discovered just now. If you have never listened to these genres, this would be a good "Starter Pack" for you. If you have, maybe there's a few in here you don't know and would like to hear?

I may do more volumes... This one is a starter pack, and includes some non-"suicidal" songs but they give off the same general feeling... further volumes would likely be strictly bands classified as "suicidal". By the way, the album name is the name of a Ozzy Osbourne song... not a big fan of the song, but the title seemed appropriate ("Centre of Eternity" is awesome though, as well as most of his big hits). Anyway, hope at least one person stumbles across this and enjoys it! I'm more likely to make more if i get a comment..

So... It took a while to find/remember the bands i wanted, but it is epic. Also, epically long, it came out to the completely arbitrary number 31 tracks, and nearly 4 hours. But it's a pretty awesome playlist IMO. (Apoligies for the volume equalization issues. Seems demos are very quiet.) Hope you enjoy :)


Track List:
1. Sad Legend - Searching for the Hope in Utter Darkness...
2. Xasthur - Cursed Be The Memory Of Light (Old Xasthur >>>> new Xasthur)
3. Desire - Funeral Doomentia
4. Daemonolatreia - Misanthropic Symbol Of Infernal Abyss
5. Lunar Aurora - Der Morgen (This album was a big departure from their previous and subsequent work, but i love it just the same, possibly more.)
6. Deep-pression - Pain... Is Everywhere...
7. Oathean - The Last Elegy for My Sad Soul
8. Dead Raven Choir - A Rosebud In June (officially "dark folk"... this is some neat stuff)
9. Drudkh - Glare Of Autumn (Not "depressive" but it has a dark melancholic feeling)
10. Life is Pain - Oppressive Nights in Mental Asylum
11. Life is Pain - Bloody Melancholy (brilliant ambiance, reminds me of Burzum - Rundgang um die transzendentale Säule der Singularität)
12. Sad Legend - Nocturnal Cries Of Agony (this song got me into depressive black metal)
13. Anti - Invocation
14. Nyktalgia - Cold Void
15. Daemonolatreia - One More Soul For Satan (makeshift Interlude... quite creepy)
16. Lurker Of Chalice - Piercing Where They Might (best atmosphere/droning in any song ever)
17. Sad - Mass Annihilation (no relation to Sad Legend)
18. Darkspace - Dark 3.12 (Part of a massive story spanning 3 albums and one demo. Last i checked they can all be downloaded for free from their website)
19. Defaillance - Oublie De Tous
20. Leviathan - Sacred Scars (Warning: face-melting is likely)
21. Make A Change... Kill Yourself - Fooling the Weak (Xasthur side project... better (than more recent xasthur at least))
22. Oathean - River of Sadness
23. Secretly In Pain - Le Chemin
24. Corpus Christii - Heavenless Bliss (again, technically not depressive but it has a nice feeling)
25. Be Persecuted - Revolves Weakly Falls (rawer than raw)
26. Rapture - To Forget (Technically doom, but nice feeling)
27. Anti - Mourning Soul
28. Alcest - Elevation (This Black Metal artist now does Shoegaze. I don't know why, because this song is f'ing brilliant! Again, not sure how "depressive" it is but i like the atmosphere)
29. Desire - (Love Is) Suicide (The past 3 hours were just foreplay for this song. Seriously, this song is orgasm.)
30. Wormphlegm - Epejumalat Monet Tesse Muinen Palveltin Lauran Ja Lesse (30 minute epic DSBM masterpiece. 30 minutes flies by, then i want more.)
31. Corpus Christii - All Hail... (Master Satan) (for the lulz. Heh, seemed appropriate to match my interlude. Good sing-a-long tune (for small children :3 ))

(1/9/2011 - Part 3 was broken, this is a re-upload of two 200-mb files instead of four 100mb files!)
Download pt 1
Download pt 2

Svarti Loghin - Empty World (2008)

Genre: Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Atmospheric Black Metal, Depressive Black Metal
About: A surprisingly melodic, depressive black metal band. This is really unique stuff because usually dsbm is pretty monotone.

The title track is actually a quite upbeat song. Something most people probably won't notice... There is a riff at about 7:00 in the title track that is taken from "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles... Took me by surprise just now. The whole song I think is based loosely on that track.

Full reviews.

Download

Uaral - Lamentos A Poema Muerto (2007)

Genre: doom metal, acoustic, folk, influences of depressive/suicidal black metal
About: This is music to lose yourself into. The feeling of hopelessness and loneliness present here is simply amazing. But what makes them so unique is this is achieved using almost entirely acoustic guitars. Beautiful flowing spanish folk melodies. But then seemingly out of nowhere, the vocals come in. They vary from low melodic vocals to growls, and sometimes almost grindcore/frog vocals and also suicidal black vocals. And there is actually crying in some songs

The only "happy" sounding part is track 5, but that is somewhat muffled as if it is a memory of a past time, in which things were different.

The only "metal" parts of this album are usually at the climax of the song, in which the acoustic guitar is still present but overlapped with electric guitar melodies. This band must be heard to be believed.

Download