American black metal part II: The offshots/An unholy trinity

So, this is the second installment detailing good blackmetal bands from the US of A. Without to much rambling, I'd like to sneak in one detail. Todays topics are; Book of black earth, Teen Cthulhu and Skarp. The reason these three bands have been chosen, apart from their ties to american blackmetal, is the fact that they all share members. TJ Cowgill (vox and guitar) and Hank Guthrie (keyboards) from Book of black earth played in Teen Cthulhu. Joe Axler (amazing drummer) also from Book of black earth, also plays in Skarp.

So without delaying the inevitable any further, I give you Book of black earth - The feast. This is their first full length record and by far their best material in my book. We are talking BRUTAL blackmetal with an (un)healthy dose of deathmetal in the mix. With songs like "May your god deny you" and "Serve the adversary" these are punx who have taken on blackmetal with every bit of punk aestethics they know. Skullcrushing, lightning fast blackmetal to be played at religious mass-suicides.





Next up is Skarp - Requiem. With a guy like Joe Axler behind the drums, you know that youre in for a treat. This time round though, we are talking less straight up blackmetal and more crust with definite grind influenced drumming and very blackmetal induced guitarwork. An amazing record that shifts from crusty d-beat inferno to raging grindy blackmetal in a matter of seconds. Also, great female vocals. Over all a really recommendable record.



Last, but propably best in my book, is the allmighty Teen Cthulhu and the record Ride the Blade. Though straying far from the original blackmetal recipie it is, in my humble opinion, nothing short of a masterpiece. Hysterical vocals over frantic, blazing music with plenty of keyboards. I know that the phrase "plenty of keyboards" is enough to scare most people (including myself) away, but trust me, in this band, it works. Once I stopped dismissing the keyboards as just some kind of circus act, it dawned upon me, in all its immensity how good this record really were. I dont know it the great Cthulhu himself would approve of this (more or less) blasphemous use of his name though...