I'm not that knowledgeable on the Scandinavian black metal scene but the full length debut from Myrkur, simply titled M, feels like something special in the genre. 

It's brutal in places with all the black metal staples of blast beat drums and buzzsaw guitars but the majority of the all female vocals are almost choral. There is also almost folky feel at times with what sound like traditional instruments being used on the opening track, Skøgen Skulle Dø. 

At time this is like listening to Clannad being mixed with early Ulver - which is very appropriate as the producer here is Garm, the leading force behind Ulver. 

Side 2 opens with Nordlys a pretty 2 min track of just piano and vocal leading into the ferocious Mordet which is bolstered by guest guitars from Arch Enemy 

This is a very concise album at only 37 mins over 11 tracks but that just means no filler and could just be the most important (black) metal album of the year

 

Sometimes album's are well titled.... the new opus from Chelsea Wolfe is called Abyss and there really is a depth and darkness to it. A lot of the songs are based around the singer affliction of sleep paralysis so this is no party record

This is one person's very individual view of the world in the same vein of Trent Reznor.... In fact this album could be viewed as the sullen little sister to Nine Inch Nails' depressive masterpiece The Downward Spiral or like PJ Harvey if she was actually goth instead of playing at it

Opening with Carrion Flowers, it's all squalls of white noise and sudden bursts of percussion while the vocals drift over it sounding like they were taken from any great 4AD album of the 80's...

The guitars in Iron Moon dragged the mood even darker while song titles such as Simple Death and Grey Days give further indication of where this is heading (downwards, obviously)

Your view of this album will depend on where you stand with NIN but I love it

There are times when I don't just get ideas....

Crippled Black Phoenix and Se Delan have just released Oh' Echoes but as Se Delan are a duo of current and ex members of CBP it's really just a Crippled Black Phoenix record

Consisting of just 2 tracks of 20 minutes each it's a homage to Pink Floyd.
It's the first track (part 1) that I don't understand.... If you're going to do a cover of Echoes
it needs to be different enough to be worthwhile. The music is well played and the band obviously have a love of Floyd but what's the point?

Part 2 is more interesting - a mix of Echoes, another Floyd song Childhood End (from the Obscured By Clouds album) and a bizarre blast of The Telstar's Tornado !
This is much better as the song twists and turns over the 20 minutes and unlike the straight cover in Part 1 you don't know where it's going

A flawed idea at best but with some redeeming music...

(The unpleasant comments aimed at an ex guitarist at the bottom of the Bandcamp page leave a bad taste though....)