Retribution Distributor

There are fucking loads of decent Black Metal projects in the UK.

For those of you that think the French scene is the best then check out and find (if you can) Oubliette, both demo's are pure brilliance, gloomy as fuck with the melody of bands like Celestia and Mutiilation. You most likely won’t get the Cassettes on Todestrieb anymore but you'll find both demos on DC++. If you don't think it's gonna be worth the effort to find them you are gravely mistaken!!!!

In a similar depressing vein is a band called Lyrinx - Their last release Nihilistic Purity is immense and can be obtained from the underground label Monolithic Records amongst other places.

Moving into even more atmospheric pastures brings us to a band called Fen - Atmospheric BM inspire post-rock, best track they've done is The Gales Scream of Loss, awesome track.

Now aside from all this slow paced stuff, some people prefer more bombastic, fist pumping BM. This brings us to Necro Ritual - You could call these guys A-typical satanic black metal but it you see them live then you'll know why they are worth praise. Their new CD is due for release and will definitely slay!

Close to where I live are Iceni who recently played a 3 day mini tour and have improved their live performance 10 fold since they played their debut show in may last year. Their CD-R demo is also available from Monolithic Records and the new track they've put up on myspace "Sacred Realms Beneath a Blackened Firmament" is a fucking epic tune, it doesn't even have vocals on it yet and it's immense!

Lastly (as I’m not gonna namedrop every band in the uk) Wodensthrone are another Heathen BM band that have been given great praise, their split with Niroth (another great UKBM act I might add) and their latest split with Folkvang are great releases and should be checked out without doubt.

There are loads more decent bands but I'd rather people put the effort in to find them on their own. Bands in the UK don't promote themselves much and that in my opinion is why the UK scene is overlooked, not because of Cradle of Filth!

it's because it's shit and you all look like spastics

make wonderful targets for terrorisation though

Again, very easy to spout incoherent bullshit on the net, I'm sure your ability to talk like this to people's faces lacks any real punch!

Iceni

Brighton's self-professed 'only black metal band' plays their debut show. Imagine half an hour of blastbeats and tremelo picking, except that every band member is playing at a different tempo. Add Gollum on vocals and band members fulfilling every one of itsmeJT's cliches about them being fat ugly little shits who never leave you bedroom and you just about have Iceni. Also, it took me 15 minutes to realise the frontman wasn't wearing a mask and that he actually was a deformed ginger freak.

Bossk

Holy, holy shit. Probably the best (post)-metal act in the UK right now based on last night. 40 minutes, three seamlessly integrated songs switching from ambient to wall-of-sound to some serious fucking angry noise that makes Envy sound like a quiet walk in the park. In terms of performance these guys absolutely pissed all over Pelican's show a few weeks ago. Bonus points awarded for the giant sticks of incense and a drum kit wrapped in blue fairy lights.

Negura Bunget

Bloody France. Looks like Spinal Tap, sounds like black metal on acid. Points for attempthing to be different, but as far as musical ability is concerned they were pissed all over by...

Ephel Duath

The fact that more people turned out to see a two-bit black metal band than these guys hurts me in far too many ways... must have been no more than 40 people by the time they finally got onstage at about 10:45. Still, it was an absolute magical masterclass in jazz guitar, flanked by a crazy and ever so slightly creepy shouting Italian guy.

You're a real cocksucker and you fulfill every internet warrior cliche ever heard of. I especially like the bit where you state Negura Bunget are French.

It's amazingly easy to slate bands on the internet and you obviously have a problem with Black Metal in general. It's quite funny that the only way you could insult Negura Bunget was to say that their musical ability lacked compared to Ephel Duath. The only thing you forgot to mention was that Ephel Duath were boring widdly shit, if you like Jazz guitar then listen to real Jazz and not some half assed attept at bridging genres to appear original.

Technicality and number of notes per riff and time signatures mean fuck all in general. You can make a moving piece of music with three notes with the relevant ammount of craft applied. Atmosphere and feeling is all that matters in music, not how much fret wankery the guitarist is getting up to whilst your looking at his cock.

Also, LOL at the comments made against Iceni, especially the personal attacks on various members. They are playing again this month on the 28th, maybe you could walk up to the vocalist and call him a ginger freak. Ohh no that's not gonna happen because Brighton's Music scene is generally full off poofs with no substance, all mouth and no action!