annihilator is a canadian thrash metal band being around since 1984, led by jeff waters, the only member still left from the original line-up. i think they were one of the first metal bands i knew, after someone copied me their king of the kill album a long time ago. one very fascinating, and also rather non-standard song from that album was its opener, the box. the song is rather critical on television.

on the album, this song is followed by the powerful king of the kill, a song about lions. definitely worth listening. the next song i want to present you is from their debut album, alice in hell. it’s the song allison hell, about a girl going insane.

the third song is a calm, accoustic one, called only be lonely.

finally, a midtempo song called carnival diablos from the album carnival diablos.

if you want to listen more, you can download a free album called total annihilation here, you just need to provide your email address.

the finnish band finntroll is a more popular choice than most bands i presented so far, except lacuna coil. finntroll‘s lyrics are troll-centered. not internet trolls or fantasy trolls though, but the skandinavian ones. for that reason, they also sing in swedish, because it sounds more trollish than finnish or english. they tell tales about trolls, including their wars against christian missionaries. the music comes from the melodic black metal genre, with some humppa (sometimes described as finnish polka) influcences. most of them feature fast melodic heavy music with screamed/growled lyrics. the band also makes use of orchestric parts and is well suited as party music or to dance to it (well, i guess it depends on what you mean by dancing). one good example is vindfärd/människopesten from their 2003 album nadfödd:

another example is from their newest album, nifelvind:

a third song i want to present is relatively calm, compared to the above two. it’s from their ur jordens djup album, and very danceable:

finally, here’s a rather different piece from their 2003 album visor om slutet, an album i already raved about on spielwiese (in fact, that was my first post there after the obligatory hello world post). the album is purely accoustic and often also instrumental. this is a nice piece with vocals:

in case you like something atmospheric, folkish, try that album. it’s not typical for finntroll, but nonetheless great!

mar de grises is another one of the bands i found out about in my favourite record store. they are a chilenian band producing intense and melodic death/doom/post metal tunes. by intense, i mean: not just powerful and heavy, but also interesting. the first piece i want to present is from their second album, draining the waterheart. it’s one of my favourite songs, heavy, but beautiful:

the second song i want to present is from the same album, but a slower, less brutal song, having only clean vocals:

the third song is the opener of their debut album, the tatterdemalion express. again, a more powerful, heavy song, also having many slower, calm parts:

the last song is from their newest album, streams inwards:

sunn o))) is to music what david lynch is to film. if you have seen some of lynch’s more obscure movies, such as eraserhead and inland empire, you know how strange, disturbing these films can be. these are films you either like or hate, and to see them you have to be in the right mood. the drone doom duo sunn o))) is very similar, only that they make music and not films.

the music is dark, or more like pitch black. or even blacker than that. it is disturbing. strange. creepy. more art than music. and definitely nothing you should listen to when being in the wrong mood. the following piece, orthodox caveman from their album black one, is a very good example of their music.

they also did a joint album with the japanese doom band boris, which resulted in the album altar. unfortunately, the studio versions are not really available on youtube, so here’s a live version of the opener etna. sorry for the bad sound quality (though for a concert recording it’s actually pretty good)…

agalloch is another band i stumbled about while browsing my favourite record store in zurich. during their existence, they produced four full-length albums ranging over different styles. i particularly like the latter three: the mantle, ashes against the grain and marrow of the spirit.

unfortunately, all songs from the mantle are only playable on youtube for certain regions (in which i’m not living apparently). there are a couple of live recordings available, but i prefer the studio versions, especially when listening to the songs the first time. in case you can find them somewhere, the lodge and the hawthorne passage (featuring a quote from det sjunde inseglet) are two very good songs on that album. it is unfortunate that i can’t include these songs here since they are rather different, compared to the songs i present below.

from the album ashes against the grain, some songs are available on youtube, for example not unlike the waves, a dark, atmospheric and heavy song with both clear vocals and distorted screaming:

another song i really like from that album is the opener limbs. the second song i want to present is from their newest album marrow of the spirit, released november 2010. it is called black lake nidstång and has a duration of over 17 minutes. it’s my favourite piece from that album, and not that easy to digest.

update: someone uploaded the complete song together with a very nice photo show:

finally, here’s another piece from marrow of the spirit, called to drown. the first half is rather calm, while the second is more and more dramatic, until the music evolves into noise and finally into sounds of water, sounds of waves.