If you're a fan of fine literature, you MUST hear Lovecraftian Nightmares. Fireaxe is a one man metal (but fuck the genre, this is amazing music) project that actually has good lyrics!
This makes sense, since the guy loves old books. So, he made an album that has almost all lyrics taken from Lovecraft's writings. Tracks 6 and 7 lyrics are taken from some other poet, but they're almost as good as Lovecraft. The music, of course, is excellent.
IT IS PROGRESSIVE, NOT BLACK METAL.It was a 1/1,000,000 chance that I even heard this band, and I'm really into the obscure stuff. This is almost certainly the first time you all have heard of this. Just trust me on this one. It's absolutely beautiful. A long review is found here.
http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/fireaxe.htmI haven't heard any other Fireaxe albums (I definitely intend to) and Lovecraftian Nightmares is now sold out from the Fireaxe web site. I was just lucky to have a friend who knows Fireaxe. This album is absolutely worth tracking down and getting. The only complaint I've heard is that the vocals can be annoying, but they sound fine to me.