Dec 312012
 

(Continuing with this year’s edition of Listmania, I again invited Johan Huldtgren of the killer black metal band Obitus to share with us his year-end list, because I’ve consistently found his musical tastes to be solid and interesting. Once again, he agreed. An expanded version of this list appears on Johan’s blog.)

I suspect few will be surprised by my choices this year. The list sees the return of many previous candidates, however a few newcomers have managed to make the cut this year, some fairly high up. Samples have been included to give you a taste, so you can either realize how correct I am or question your sanity for even reading this list. Now take it away in the comments.

10: BlodhemnHolmengraa

This sounds and feels just like the early to mid 90’s. There is nothing new here, but for someone who enjoyed the music of that era this certainly brings it back to life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlhGs9o_67A

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Dec 262011
 

(Continuing with this year’s edition of Listmania, I invited Johan Huldtgren of the killer black metal band Obitus to share with us his year-end list.  And if you don’t know about Obitus, here’s our review of their debut full-length, March of the Drones.)

Like last year Islander graciously asked me to provide my top ten, and who doesn’t revel in the opportunity to tell people how wrong they are and tell them what the top ten really should look like. For those interested in a bit more detail on these albums (and I really mean a bit – I am a man of few words), I have a post on each of the entries on this list on my blog (here).

10. BarghestBarghest

Primitive and nasty USBM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FXHhlSeZB0
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Dec 242010
 

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Not long ago, we ran a mini-series about Long Songs that we really liked. The longest, and last, in the series was a powerful, album-length opus by a Swedish black-metal duo called Obitus (our review of the album is here). Through that review, we made the acquaintance of Johan Huldtgren, the vocalist and lyricist of Obitus, and his comments on this site have turned us on to some stunning music.

Eventually, we figured out that Johan was the brother of Fredrik Huldtgren, the vocalist for Canopy — another metal band whose work we had praised earlier in the year. We asked the brothers Huldtgren if they would contribute to our Listmania Week, and they did. In this post, Johan gives us his Top 10 list (it’s more mind-expanding than most lists you will read this year), and a selection of one song from each album. In the post below this one, we’ve got Fredrik’s list.]

10. Ash PoolFor Which He Plies The Lash

Noisy, nasty, primitive, minimalistic, and all around disgusting.

Ash Pool: Holocaust Temple

(the balance of Johan’s list follows the jump . . .) Continue reading »