Ars Magna Umbrae - Apotheosis (2020)

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It's a bit early on this one, as its set for release in late August and as of now there's only one song up on the bandcamp page, but Ars Magna Umbrae released an uncompromising slab of slavic sounding black metal back in 2018 called Lunar Ascension and it was mostly overshadowed and or overlooked. Polish black metal that's built up on layered dissonant riffs that wade through an icy terrain of ambient passages and a crude and cosmic atmosphere, very little to not like here. I, Voidhanger Records continues to be reliable!

Apotheosis (bandcamp)

Crystal Viper - Crimen Excepta (2012)

Fucking right man, I've been so up my own ass posting filthy bestial blackened death metal that I've been missing out on some metal on the other end of the spectrum. The cheesy, dragon punching, gryphon riding end of power/heavy metal!

It's hard to take seriously, ergo those afraid of being lumped in along with the neck-beards abandon ship and adamantly defend their music collection from power metal, while continually hoarding basement black metal or death metal demo tapes to remain what? True? Real? I don't even fucking know, but I gladly forfeit the moniker of 'metalhead' any day. Metalhead, a connotation that would stereotypically imply long greasy hair, ill-fitting clothes, ugly girlfriends, black t-shirts and bullet belts with a disposition similar to a neanderthal? No thank you.

Crimen Excepta hearkens back to the golden days of power metal, when bands like Angra, Cellador, Helloween, Days of Yore, old White Skull, Warlock, Hammerfall, and especially early Elissa C. Martin Dark Moor days! I really haven't been stumbling on to much power/heavy metal these days that do anything for me, I must not be looking in the right places, because I'm sure they're out there. Pharaoh's Bury The Light rules pretty hard, anything else?

Crimen Excepta (320)