Balor

Behexen / Satanic Warmaster split "Kopfjagd" - Wiking1940 - @salmonellapancake you might like this one if you have not already heard it. "The Great Celebration of Life" - Skjalf / Nieprzenikniony Mrok

This is amazing.

I am starting to like them quite a bit myself - thought I still prefer Kristallnacht.

"Gathered Under the Banner of Concilium" - Seigneur Voland/Blessed in Sin/Kristallnacht "Kansojen hävittäjä/Crushing the Maccabees" - Goatmoon/Der Stürmer Aryan Blood/Evil split

"Extermination Mass" - Death Worship "Mdłości" - Mgła

This is the impression that I got after listen to the album. It is sort of disappointing for me that a band that was always on the verge of controversy (never going over the edge, though) would domesticate themselves in the way that they had. My biggest complaint, however, was the lack of inventive riffing. "Frontschwein" changed the way that I looked at bm riffs (see "Doomsday Elite"). "Viktoria" was simply too uninteresting.

It being like watching TV is pretty accurate, in my opinion. The album sounded like streamlined and commercialized version of "Frontschwein" - bare and straightforward bm with a hint (essentially nonexistant) of taboo Nazi imagery to make it seem like it is still underground. "Deus Salutis Meæ" - Blut Aus Nord

pipe

"Exercises in Futility" - Mgła "Further Down the Nest" - Mgła

I will listen to it again, and post my thoughts there also.

Welcome!

I thought that overall the majority of the album was pretty boring. The riffs were not particularly interesting, and many progressions that were made sounded to be quite generic and predictable. I felt that the album was also lacking in vocals. After "Frontschwein" I was expecting a bit more for Marduk. A few songs also put some strange effects over the singers voice (that or some other unusual way of singing) that I really did not like because it sounded too out of place (I almost thought that they had kids singing at parts). This all being said, the album had some highlights, particularly the tracks "Narva" and "Silent Night." Both had interesting riffs that I loved, and the former used some cool sound samples. I will be waiting for your review!

metal

"Filosofem" - Burzum "Viktoria" - Marduk

How do you think it holds up against "Frontschwein"? The (few) tracks that I heard were not as interesting to me in comparison. "Wotansvolk" - Bilskirnir

wizards

Times New Roman

Cool! I will check out some of your material.

I am not familiar enough with their work to say for sure, but perhaps they just are so unique with their sound that any categorization is simply a "best fit."

What genre? Right now I am playing Mayhem's "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" on the guitar. The opening riff on this is amazing - better than "Freezing Moon!"

Lucky you for owning original editions. All I have are some Metallica reissues (and their new album - label that what you may).

You could always just blend the genres as well. Thus Nightwish could be labelled a "symphonic power/gothic metal" band. That being said, Encyclopedia Metallum lists them as a symphonic power metal band.

"Seasons in the Abyss" has many great songs also. "War Ensemble," "Expendable Youth," "Dead Skin Mask," and the eponymous track are all amazing. The fact that it compiled some of my absolute favorite extreme metal songs into one album made this my undisputed favorite. I thought that "Eyes of the Insane" off "Christ Illusion" was a pretty good track, though I never really checked out the album as a whole. Your Slayer collection is much greater than mine (which currently stands at absolute zero), and actually outnumbers the total number of thrash albums that I actually own (2 - I am no great fan of thrash either). I really need to get some new music.

I tend to view "symphonic" as a sort of prefix that is applied on top of other metal genres (much like "melodic" or "technical"). It seems to indicate a style of playing/musicality rather than a genre.

I have limited experience with thrash as well, so my thoughts are not necessarily extremely insightful. While I still think that my opinions hold true, I nevertheless also recognize "God Hates Us All" as a masterpiece. Both are very good albums, I just like one over the other.