We're introducing a new blog for the bands on the MSH roster. Recently we caught up with Decimated Cross's vocalist & bassist Count Lucifuge to talk about the inspiration for the bands music and where it all comes together the Count enlightened us with his top 10 albums that influenced the sound of Decimated Cross. Here they are...
10. ULTAR - PANTHEON MMXIX
Amazing album, the melodic guitars and blasting drums are amazing. I also love the vocalists range, he can do some of the lowest gutturals and highest shrieks within the same verse, and that for me inspired me to try and expand my vocals range a bit more during the recording process of the latest album. It will definitely be hearable on our next album!
9. GHAALS WYRD - GASTIR- GHOSTS INVITED
Gastir-ghosts invited. This album invited The slow, kind of depressing, feel of this album affected me a lot during the time of writing the latest album. Gaahls unsettling vocals and the general sound of the music behind him makes an excellent album.
8. DARKTHRONE - TRANSYLVANIAN HUNGER
The album that fully set me onto black metal. I love the riffs and the general terrible noise this album is made up of, from the dark lyrics in the native tongue to the sound production, this album definitely contributed to my lyrics on the latest album and will always be one of my favourites.
7. DARK FUNDERAL - WHERE SHADOWS FOREVER REIGN
This album is a masterpiece and always will be. The blasting drums and awesome guitar riffs influenced me directly for writing riffs, especially when i wrote the song transfiguration, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension. I was hooked on that album all summer of 2019.
6. DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT- FINISTERE
This band is amazing and will always be in my favourites for modern black metal music. The amazing quick drums paired with the foreign screaming vocals and melodic guitar just hit the right spot with me. Its an amazing album that i can truly connect to, the riffs and the vocals especially influenced me to try and develop a wider vocal range, which is slowly getting better.
5. EMPEROR - ANTHEMS TO THE WELKIN AT DUSK
Ihsahn is a genius. His skill is unmatched in the black metal world, and this album is a masterpiece from the Norwegian 2nd wave. Emperor had a massive impact on me to explore different dimensions with music. Before, I had a very straight forward view, heavy and quick. You can see that on the latest album. The first
song, in sound and structure, is very different to the last. Lyrically, emperor showed me that you don't have to scream "Satan!" In every song to make good black metal, so this album helped significantly.
4. INSOMNIUM - HEART LIKE A GRAVE
This album is a masterpiece, like most of insomnium's work. They are my favourite band and always will be. In my opinion they have never made a bad album, and so when this album released during the end of the latest albums writing process it affected me greatly. From the awesome guitar pieces like in Neverlast to the slow sorrow filled parts like in twilight trails, this album made me want to express my emotion in my lyrics, and express the overall shit that was eating away at me slowly. From September to January last year it was a very shitty time for me and this album helped me immensely to deal with it.
3. BURZUM - HVIS LYSET TAR OSS
Like the previous entry, this album helped me through that shitty period. I remember when id be sitting in the local library for 6 hours a day on my free days to try and get some piece and quiet to write lyrics and i would always play burzum, especially this album. The song Det som engang var is my favourite from this album, the harsh vocals were like nothing I had really heard before. I love the emotion Varg puts into the vocals also, he doesn't just sing like most vocalists, but cries and whimpers and he is doing the vocals. That combined with the slow drums and keyboard in this song just tops it off for me. A trve black metal masterpiece.
2. MAYHEM-DE MYSTERIIS DOM SATHANAS
This album is, and always will be one of the greatest black metal albums of all time in my opinion. It is the best thing mayhem have ever produced, and to this date nothing has ever reached its standards. Euronymous was a real inspiration for me in writing guitar parts for the band, he was a genius musician. The way he played guitar, especially on this album is just amazing. It's dark, gritty, cold and quick. It just set a general outline for what black was. Dead lyrics also amazed me, like the title track that included Latin, mocking a ritual and also life eternal; you can see the point in that songs lyrics when dead would have flipped and started his sad demise. Its a shame both musicians aren't here any more, id like to see a world where they both survived and see what became of mayhem.
1. EMPEROR - IN THE NIGHTSIDE ECLIPSE
Like I said before, Ihsahn is a genius. Musically, Anthems is a better album, however nightside eclipse is just a killer album and a classic. Its so raw and cold yet at the same time, the melodies of guitars just bring you in. I love how dynamic all the songs are, riffs in every song are amazing and hardly repeat, they wasn't a general kind of "verse-chorus" structure, it was very free and just got its point across. This inspired me greatly, i realised that I needed to free the structure of my lyrics, to let them tell a story and my emotions without restrictions. I loved how it touches on the ideas of evil magic users also, like in "I am the black wizards", this set me onwards to write the two part song "Of autumns coldest sun" which was lyrically based on necromancy and wizards and witchcraft. I remember when I wrote the opening riff of that song and knew that it was going to make a killer track. I then wrote the general structure before as a band we wrote riffs to fit that structure. I remember we all gave it our all when writing that song and I loved that, it was like nothing we had ever done before and you can hear influences of Mayhem, Burzum, but especially emperor in this one track.
DECIMATED CROSS - FROM PAGAN TO WASTE
Relased on 3rd August 2020
Get yourself immersed in underground Black Metal from the West Midlands (UK)
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