The Funeral Pyre - The Nature of Betrayal (2006)

I'm a fucking fan. This will probably be hit or miss. I will let YouTube do the explaining.

The Nature of Betrayal

Carach Angren - Lammendam

Honestly, this has got to be ONE of the strongest debut's I have heard in the genre of symphonic black metal. I realize that is quite a statement, but I stand behind it 92.8%. Why am I so balls deep into this?
This shit it pitch black and it is a concept album based on the ghost of 'La Madame Blanche' who lived in a castle surrounded by a moat in a almost forgotten forest in the Netherlands. It's a real place and can still be visited today.

Influences can be heard, but Carach Angren successfully manage to create their own unique sound, filled with haunting atmospherics, eerie soundscapes and crushing black metal built around a strong theme. I could go on and on. But I'll spare you and spew the download link your way instead.

Lammendam

Bishop of Hexen - The Nightmarish Compositions (2006)

This album sounds like a carnival summoned from the fiery pits of Baphomets rectum, meaning it's oozing with deliciously evil atmospherics, ghoulish screams, and an overall ambiance of hellish magnitude. It sounds evil, not like a Impetuous Ritual type of evil, but like a well....nightmarish composition.

Can't sleep, the clown will eat me.

Ceremonial Castings - Barbaric Is The Beast (2006)

Symphonic Black Metal done impeccably well. Even if the word "symphonic" tends to make you flinch because you are a close-minded asshole who thinks he/she is so grim and frostbitten that they are beyond the sound of keys.

Allow me to continue. Furious tremolo picking, blasting drums, with vocals that sound like a wild boar being gutted by a rusty spoon and at other times sound like a satanic séance. The keys provide a layer of ominous atmosphere throughout, BUT what really shines here is the very raw production, giving it a more warm and honest feel to it.


BLACK

Daemonicium - Through Time and Death (2004)

Daemonicium, a Symphonic Black Metal band from Poland with a fan base so small they could be considered a critically endangered species. Though this couldn't be because they are no good, they play some authentic sounding Symphonic Black Metal that I have been enjoying for the passed 4 years.

The bassist died a year prior to this release by an avalanche, which probably only fueled the bands anger and disdain for life. It is guilty of being a little cheesy and over the top, but so are cheese fries. Every instrument is played quite well, but the keyboards and vocals sure stand out in each song.

Youtube will elaborate:

Download.

Azathoth - EP (2007)

Unfathomed voids of non-euclidean space & time has never sounded so bleak. A self-financed Symphonic Black Metal album with a healthy nod to Death Metal, paying homage to H.P. Lovecraft and Horror comes this well layered EP.

This EP is so good I went out and bought several. One will go into my mothers stocking, another I will leave in my mailbox for the postman, the other I will donate to Good Will and the remaining two will belong to myself. Afterall, tis the season!
* The above stated never actually happened. (I know what you're thinking, "you lied on Christmas!" That's ok though because fuck Jesus and his imaginary birthday.)

HO HO HO