Soundtrack to these last months

It's been a long while since my last write up about music, so seems about time to post something regarding the bands that I've been listening more regularly in the last months (not that I think that this can be of much use to my few readers, but more as a homage to the bands themselves)

• Downfall of Gaia/In the Hearts of Emperors. I've been a loyal follower of Donwfall of Gaia's neocrust since their first instalments. Their side in this split is extraordinary, these German punks manage to raise their sound to a new level of darkness and raw intensity, brutal blackened neocrust in uppercase. Though every second of their side is excellent I have to particularly praise the very fast passages with black metal melodic riffs, wow, go for it.
• Axidance/Gattaca, split 2012 Some years ago I wouldn't have expected so many excellent, social aware bands hailing from Russia. Not that I have any sort of distrust in the music skills of the slavic people, it's that sadly enough in Russia most of the rebellious subculture seems to be on the far right... Hopefully things have been changing very fast in the last few years, and a whole social aware scene has developed almost from scratch (thanks among others to What we feel and this blog.
  Axidance are part of this new scene, and play top notch blackened neocrust, long songs, slow parts that give way to very fast blackmetalesque sections. Maybe the Czech guys that make up Gattaca (great name for a band, I absolutely love that film) made a mistake doing this split record. Their side (as their previous works) is pretty good (some sort of good old emocrust), but it's outshone by Axidance's geniality.
• Keny Arkana, "L'esquisse", 2011. Since the first time I listened (and felt deeply touched) by "The Rage", back in 2008, this French lady rapper has been one of my favorite MCs. Her last work not only does live up to its predecessors, I well might say it's even better. Uncompromising lyrics expressed with an almost perfect flow over good and diverse music
• Decoded Feedback, "Aftermatch", 2010 This came as a wonderful surprise. Decoded Feedback was the band that along with Hocico introduced me to Dark Electronic sounds (aka Terror EBM aka Aggrotech aka Hellektro...) back in 2005, with their albums Phoenix and Combustion being two of my favorite Elektro albums of all times. I thought they had disbanded once and for all in 2006, but to my surprise I found recently that they had released a new album 2 years ago. This new album is quite different from their previous works, quite less aggressive, with some "old school" electronic sound, but it's amazing. One of those few records I can listen non stop from beginning to end and even repeat it.
• Arma-X, "Anticonstitucional", 2011. This Asturian far left rapper is a secure bet when you seek for excellent social, leftist lyrics. His last work is no exception, on the contrary, it has some of his best tracks to date (El Carrousel, Et in Arcade Ego, Minas y Dinamita...) Essential.
• Martyrdod, "Paranoia", 2012 One of the best crust records (no neo crust or blackened crust) in years. Pure Scandinavian power in the Skit System vein, as good if not better. The last song is superb.
• Seeds in Barren Fields, "sounding the siren song in vain", 2011 Goteborg metal at its best, but less melodic and much more black metal influenced than the average Goteborg sound. Technique, fury and attitude (green anarchists). By the way, their name is probably one of the best I've come across in a long time.

  "Sprung from the vegan metal/hardcore act "through the mist of tears", with roots deeply entangled in punk and political hardcore, these seeds are blooming, bursting out into a fully fledged, and raw as hell, metal assault. SEEDS IN BARREN FIELDS engage, with black flags raised, in a battle against religious moral dogma, capitalism, nationalism, consumerism and social control. Promoting values of freedom such as (green) anarchy, animal liberation and gender equality as an alternative to being a part of a lost, scared and disillusioned mankind"

• Amebix, "Sonic Mass", 2011 Well, to the total disdain of some of the few people reading this, I have to admit that I've never been a huge fan of Amebix. Of course I fully acknowledge their seminal role, but I started to listen to them quite late, and at that time the bands influenced by them seemed much more interesting to me than their "instigators". This said, their new album sounds impressive to me, with really powerful and interesting melodies. I think they should have called it quite properly "The return of the Gods", and it would have not been pretentious at all.