Weeping, Kneeling - Blood of Ritual

Blackened drone with doom and noise elements. It's interesting, but not the greatest as a casual listen. This is more of a background listen or a direct listen, devoting all your senses to the music.

Siaskel - Jatenentolpen Thejin

Hell yes, I haven't had any true black/death in a while. These dudes power through these three tracks with a militaristic force and sound based in the death metal realm. Its not reinventing the wheel, but the songwriting and the conviction in it are top notch.

Aeolus - Celestial Forest

From the band himself:
Aeolus is an atmospheric black metal band from Wisconsin.  I have just released our debut EP entitled "Celestial Forest." My music was written to capture the beauty of nature while highlighting that at night, the atmosphere of the forest changes and danger lurks everywhere...This was my first attempt at writing, recording, mastering, and producing an album all by myself, along with handling all the instrumental duties

This is not great, its not even good. What it is is a young band just starting out and making missteps. First off, the drum programming is alright when its blasting, but it doesn't sound good. It sounds rather akin to an overloaded washing machine on the spin cycle. When it slows to a mid pace, the programming sounds like some digi-disco "grim and frostbitten bee-gees"-lite, while still muffling the fuck out of the snare and bass. The riffs/songwriting are alright, just lacking enough originality or conviction to stand it apart from the hundreds of other bedroom bands out there. The vocals are too loud in the first couple of tracks, with too much distortion on them. Just a pretty annoying shriek that is so far in front of the mix that it eats up the rest of the real estate. The last original track mixes them lower, but even beyond being able to clearly hear them. And there happens to be a cover of "The Wolfpack" by Satyricon, its just kinda eh, but better than the rest of this demo. 

Samyaza needs to practice his songwriting. If this was a interesting or unique songwriting release, you could look past the iffy programming and uneven production (mostly). As it stands, this is the upper end of the lower end of the quality road. I've heard much worse, but I've also heard a lot better, and from projects that either have an even production or interesting/strong songwriting. I think that with practice and dedication, Aeolus could put out a solid record. Until then, its not enough to stand out in any aspect.

Sangus - Saevitia EP

Honest-to-fuck black thrash, headbanging commence! This newer Providence, RI horde brings intense energy and influences from death metal and crust to their no-holds-barred thrashing. This is good shit.

Emanation - The emanation of begotten chaos from God

Terrifying experimental black metal based on the research of Tesla, Kardec, and Crookes blended with spirituality. This is droning, vocals sound more like a tortured windspirit howling from miles away and years past rather than anything approaching human, with noise and feedback squeltching through your speakers like a new form of life, birthed to the world through Emanation's inhumanaty. Yet the tempo speeds up at times, a droning dissonance will reform into a haunting melody, and the sterility of the pace will be interceded by a jazz-like feel. This is some top notch art and much worth the price of the CD.

Conjuro Nuclear - S/T

Goth black metal...would you say that phrase is a redundancy or contradiction? In many ways it's both. Conjuro Nuclear comes from Spain and, on this S/T album, bring that phrase into a middle ground. This truly sounds like a mixture of Dead Can Dance and black metal, ran through an early post-punk filter. Yes, the songs are a little same-y, and Emesis' vocals are buried deep in the mix, but that's part of the fun.

Most Holy Death - Death Knell

Most Holy Death is a one man act from that land of cheese known as Wisconsin. On Death Knell, their first recording, they blend black metal with doom, drone, and post-rock. Only bass, guitar, and vocals are used. I think this is really good, subtle when needed, claustrophobic at times, and seething with the kind of malignancy towards existence that cannot be faked or phoned in. This is music for the dead of night, with only candles lighting your room, a glass of gin in your hand (and/or some drugs in your system).