Mule Skinner - Abuse [1996]

Mule Skinner are a death/grind band from Louisiana who are not particularly famous (indeed, the only member they share with any remotely famous band is ex-vocalist Joe Caper with Righteous Pigs), but who make that sort of death/grind that just hits the spot - it's aggressive and full of blastbeats, but with enough breaks from that to give an element of variety to the album. This is their only full-length album, and before this, they had only released a demo and a single. It's excellent stuff, though, and I highly recommend it to fans of Harmony Corruption-era Napalm Death, and particularly to fans of Abuse (that's ironic)-era Wormrot, or, in fact, to any grindcore fan. Give it a pop.

VBR, v1

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Re-upload: Assück - Misery Index [1996]

Assück's second and final album is a classic of grindcore - this blends in some death metal influence as well, like Napalm Death did on 'Harmony Corruption'. It also gave Misery Index their name (obviously!).

Re-upload notes: I really cannot recommend this highly enough to anyone remotely interested in the grindcore genre. Although Napalm Death will always be my favourite band of the style and indeed in general, Assück are undeniably legends for good reason.

128 kbps

Mediafire
Zippyshare
Glumbouploads (new host with good speeds)
Depositfiles
iFolder

Gorgoroth - Antichrist [1996]

N.B. The files are incorrectly tagged as it being a 1995 album.

Gorgoroth's Antichrist is, for me, one of the criminally underappreciated gems of the second wave of Norwegian black metal. This may seem really fucking stupid - after all, Gorgoroth were one of the better known bands of the scene, but it seems unjust to me that distinctly mediocre bands like Immortal and Satyricon gained fame above and beyond that of their more talented counterparts in Gorgoroth. Sure, the whole band name scandal of late may have put a few off anything to do with the band, but this album is so essential that one should simply not pass it up. It's my favourite Gorgoroth album, and certainly one of my favourite black metal albums.

256 kbps

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Sacramentum - Far Away From The Sun [1996]

Sacramentum can feel a little hard done by that they have always been overlooked when it comes to Swedish melodic black metal, probably due to the fact that their compatriots Dissection put out two absolutely seminal albums during their time in The Somberlain and Storm Of The Light's Bane. It's also not helpful for their case that, while it is an excellent album, very strong parallels can be drawn between this and those two, except for the fact that this feels a little less inspired. It has a slightly larger death metal influence though, which should please some people. Certainly underrated, and one that everyone should check out.

320 kbps

Megaupload

Cradle Of Filth - Dusk... And Her Embrace [1996]

Cradle Of Filth once had credibility. True story brah. Whilst you won't see me buying their new EP, I do love their older works, this being one of them (obvious by the release date). Although nowhere near as raw as The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh, this really perfects the balance of black metal and symphonic elements for their sound, which I feel was a little overdone on Cruelty And The Beast, their last good album.

128 kbps

Megaupload

Cradle Of Filth - Vempire (Or Dark Faerytales In Phallustein) EP [1996]

This is the pinnacle of Cradle Of Filth's reasonable symphonic black metal work, before they started making 'gothy' shtick for overweight teenage girls. Ahem. Every single track on here is very good, and were all Cradle live staples for a long time (as evidenced by the excellent Live Bait For The Dead). Don't presume their entire body of work sounds like Nymphetamine.

128 kbps

Megaupload

Cryptopsy - None So Vile [1996]

Another one of the best technical death metal albums ever. Although The Unspoken King might have (quite rightly) garnered quite a few detractors, there is no denying the quality of this. It has extra nostalgic value for me as one of the albums which got me into death metal - the balance of technicalility with songwriting and a subtle sense of melody at times borders on the divine.

320 kbps

Megaupload

Burzum - Filosofem [1996]

Vikernes' final recording before his incarceration, and debatably his final classic, Filosofem finally brought the ambient influences to the front - unfortunately, this means a bloody 25 minute borefest of poorly done ambience within an otherwise excellent album. The album is nonetheless a personal favourite of mine.

320 kbps

Megaupload

His Hero Is Gone - Fifteen Counts of Arson [1996]

Sorry to be gone so long. Life has been... hectic. Aside from a few forum posts here and there, I have been spending most of my time working and fighting with The Government over my fathers disability eligibility (3 amputations is not enough for a person to be legally disabled it seems).

Anyway, enough of my shit that you don't give any fucks about. On to the music, and in this post I have for you one of the single greatest slabs of Powerviolence ever created, Fifteen Counts of Arson. To me, His Hero Is Gone are the single best Powerviolence band of all time, and this record completely and utterly proves it. Between the excellent vocals, the thundering bass production and the sheer intensity and brutality of the songs(like a mix of early Napalm Death, Infest and EyeHateGod) Fifteen Counts just flat out dominates. This is music for taking on The Man, which is the exact kind of music I need right now.

Hand me the gasoline so I can burn this mother fucker down.

192 kbps

Multiupload

Tool - Ænima [1996]

I love Tool. And "Ænima" is by far my favourite album of theirs. Much like its predecessor, this album provides solid heavy tracks combined with longer pieces (now showing clear evidence of progressive influences, mainly of King Crimson (another discography for another time)). Also interesting to note is the more 'industrial' sound of this album, from the screeching guitars on "Hooker With A Penis" to the metallic scraping on "Die Eier Von Satan".

However, what this album did which "Undertow" did not is flow. Don't get me wrong, the tracks on "Undertow" are great, but that's just what they were. Tracks. "Ænima", on the other hand, felt like it was composed as an album. Each track leads brilliantly into the next, enhancing the overall experience by untold amounts. This doesn't mean the songs themselves aren't good, though. Favourites of mine are "Hooker With A Penis" and "Third Eye" (both prime examples of the short song / long song duality of the album).

Mp3, 256 kbps

Megaupload

Kvist - For Kunsten Maa Vi Evig Vike [1996]

One of the lesser-known latecomers to black metal's second wave, Kvist have all the credentials: raw, only released 2 demos and this album before splitting up, and most importantly, Norwegian. This is a charming piece of Darkthrone-esque BM with keys.

192 kbps

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Gehennah - King Of The Sidewalk [1996]

I'll admit, this is nothing particularly special, just good ol' fashioned blackened metalpunk. Reminds of the Japanese Sabbat at times, especially on standout track of the album 'Bitch With A Bulletbelt'. It's not often you see something this... fun come out of Sweden.

256 kbps

Megaupload

Adramelech - Psychostasia [1996]

Adramelech are an underrated Finnish old school death metal band. This is a hidden gem - brilliant riffs, and although some find the 'whispered' vocals a little frustrating, to me they're anything but.

192 kbps

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