DEAD METAL

Here we have the third full-length from this decade-old Australian band. It's brutal death metal, but with enough melody to keep things really interesting. The outstanding cover art pulls you in, and the music grows on you with every listen. Some incredible guitar work, and some very strong songwriting in general. Released on Unique Leader, it will no doubt make a lot of end-of-year lists. Hard to imagine another brutal death metal album coming close really. You can listen to The Decaying Light below, and buy it  here .

If you like Burzum , you should also appreciate Strid. A lesser-known contemporary, but an originator of depressive black metal nevertheless. This compilation features the pioneering Norwegian black metal band's entire discography. It includes three demos and a 7" (amounting to thirteen tracks in total), all of which were recorded in the early '90s. The material is in reverse order - first up are three tracks from 1993-4; which are the main reason to hunt down a copy. Those are followed by ten tracks that were originally self-released under the name Malfeitor, during 1991-2, which are also well worth a listen. Brought to us by Kyrck Productions in 2007, the CD was limited to a thousand copies - so should be a lot harder to get hold of than it is. You can preview the first two tracks below, and purchase it  here .

See here for an introduction to Malignant Altar. These questions were answered by the band's guitarist, Beau Beasleybeau. 1. Retribution Of Jealous Gods is an exceptional demo, how has the response been so far? It's been great. I didn’t really know what to expect when we were about to release the tape but the amount of letters, reviews (yours included) and tape orders have really blown me away. The amount of help that both Maggot Stomp and The Other Records have given us has really helped get the demo into a lot of people's hands and I’m forever in both of their debts for this.  2. Ceremonial Decapitator (live demo) is also great, have you been doing many live shows? So far we have only done two shows. When we started the band we all kind of made the decision to not play many shows, but maybe do three or four really sick shows a year. I've always been a fan of bands who didn’t play much because I feel it lends a level of mystique to what they do. We