Music to Chill Your Soul

With Halloween just around the corner, 'tis the season for all that is grim, bleak, and for lack of a better word, scary.  The impetus for this post came from the realization that there is some truly haunting music out there...and I don't mean haunting/scary in the sense of listening to Slayer or Cannibal Corpse for the first time as a teen just getting into metal.

What follows after the break are two tracks that add a little something extra to their formula that will tap deep into your being and likely send several shivers up your spine.

Altar of Plagues - Teethed Glory and Injury

As a fan of black metal, I find myself using plenty of different adjectives to describe the sounds of the genre.  A few of my favorites: “filthy,” “godless,” “muddy,” “dense,” “soul-crushing,” “bleak,” “hopeless,” and “devastating.”  You can make fun combos like “devastatingly godly” or “soul-crushingly heavy” that really speak to the music.  But grammar lesson aside, the reason I bring up black metal descriptors is that on Teethed Glory and Injury, the third full-length from Ireland’s Altar of Plagues, the band seems to be trying to encapsulate all of them.

We'll Do It Live Fridays: Neptune Is Dead!

Another Friday brings yet another We'll Do It Live Fridays Post from us here at Brutalitopia.  I'm particularly excited about this post because I've been dying to find a good live clip from this band for quite some time (Hint: this band was pretty far up on my Top 15 Albums of 2011 list).  See who it is after the break.

Review: Altar Of Plagues - Mammal

It wasn't until late last year with releases from Agalloch and Alcest that atmospheric black metal truly resonated with me.  Around that same time I stumbled upon the 2009 release of White Tomb from a certain unknown, at least they were to me at the time, Irish black metal band called Altar Of Plagues.  My random intrigue in the band sure payed off.  White Tomb was dark and powerful enough that when I heard Altar Of Plagues would be releasing a new album this year, I got super excited.  That album, Mammal, is finally here.  And with its impressive minimalistic approach to creating a soundscape that is vicious, primal, and downright entrancing, it'll surely be one of the more profound releases you'll hear this year.