Whoa! We were taken by surprise (in several ways) by the sudden appearance of a new album from Japanese black metal mavericks Sigh. We all loved the avant garde, psychedelic, stoner rock horror show of their 2001 disc Imaginary Sonicscape but we hadn't heard much about them since. Well, the press release for Gallows Gallery explains that this sixth Sigh opus was recorded last year but Century Media, previous label, refused to release it because it allegedly makes use of experimental, illegal "sonic weapon techniques" developed during World War II! Warning is given that this album could be hazardous to the listener's health -- in fact, supposedly one of the members of Sigh was hospitalized during the recording sessions due to the effects of this sonic weapon stuff. But... we're having a hard time believing all that! If you're expecting some sort of bowel-rupturing, flesh-decaying subsonic rumble you'll have to get a different cd (I'm sure we can find you something). Listening to this record is more likely to leave one puzzled rather than sickened.
Having heard it, our guess is that the REAL reason that Century Media dropped Sigh is that, even by Sigh's previous standards, this is just so darn eccentric, confusing, and (to us) amusing. We're thinking that if this "sonic weapon" stuff exists, it operates in the realm of psychological warfare, 'cause it does seem possible that this music could drive a person insane. IT certainly is! Kind of like the way a catchy jingle might drive you crazy. They've definitely upped the pop element of their sound here. That's right, POP. But not normal pop that could ever be, uh, popular. No this is weird...weird....weird. And it's still metal of course. Just not black metal really, more like European "power metal" with speedy drums and hooky choruses. But their voices are kind of chipmunky, and there's weird effects, psychedelic organ jamming, throat singing, sitars and saxophones... Yup, their genre-fuckery is still in full effect. This might sound like Dag Nasty punk one second, Iron Maiden metal the next, with a schmaltzy lounge-jazz interlude following that! And the James Bond theme gets hinted at as well. Totally the sort of thing that should be on Trey Spruance's Mimicry label, though it's on Baphomet instead.
Apparently whatever Japanese insane asylum wherein the guys in Sigh reside allows visitors, as this album features members of the Meads Of Asphodel (who are about the only band in the world that we'd say are all that similar to Sigh!), Necrophagia, The Red Chord, Yakuza, Dark Tranquility, Firewind, and Thine, helping out with the shredding guitar runs, dramatic narration, saxophone solos, and things like that. Someone else also contributes a trancey techno remix of one of the album's songs at the end of the disc, preceeded by the untitled electronic noises of track ten, which we suspect might be the "weaponized" one. So...be careful, especially since it's gonna require repeated exposure to ever figure this album out.
It's kinda weird to call an over-the-top symphonic, genre-shifting black metal record predictable, but that's only because we're dealing with Japanese weirdos Sigh here. If you've listened to them before, you just KNOW that you're gonna get all manner of twists and unexpected turns in their labyrinths of songs. If you haven't listened before, well, this is a good of place to start as any, especially seeing as with each Sigh release, it seems they only up the unpredictability factor. There are parts that definitely bring the riff in a straightforward thrash or black metal way, but in classic Sigh fashion, those moments disappear just as quickly as they started and give way to more frenzied symphonic weirdness. Graveward never lets up for even a second to let you stop and think about the part you just heard. Maybe it sounds like we're talking shit but these are all the things that make this record worth hearing. It's weird, it's Sigh, what else is there to say? Check it out. If the sound samples aren't working, they will be soon, it's just that we're having trouble deciding which ones to make, they're all pretty equally ridiculous - we're trying to find the one that has this, like, campfire and harmonica western boogie part that's totally bizarre, hopefully we can figure out which one that was...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Want weird? Watch out for this Japanese black metal band that tries to combine New Wave of British Heavy Metal guitar licks with Schoenbergian classical chamber music--it's like Venom sitting in with Bernard Herrmann to score a horror flick. One guy in the band is credited with, among other things of course, playing the triangle! See the quote at end of this month's AQ-L for more info!
It's a panic attack of over the top black metal theatrics from this notoriously 'round the bend band from Japan! The frantic tempo barely ever lets up as Sigh cram as much in the way of grandiose keyboards, blazing fretwork, thundering drums, and pompous choirs as they can into every nutty nook and crazy cranny of this album. The rapid, rasping delivery of the liberetto is dizzying too... we say "liberetto" because this album is divided into three acts, and has a definite operatic feel to it. Black metal opera. At 200 mph. It's like they've been listening to a lot of Devil Doll and Cradle Of Filth back to back, on crack.
Starting off years and years ago as Japan's truest "Nordic" black metal act (with their first album set for release on Euronymous of Mayhem's record label, before his murder by Count Grishnack of Burzum), Sigh went on to establish a career of horror soundtrack-inspired genre-fuckery that had critics comparing 'em to John Zorn and the Boredoms as much as Burzum. After their brilliant mashup of stoner rock psych and black metal mayhem on 2001's Imaginary Sonicscape, this cult took things maybe a bit too far for some of their fans with the unexpected (even for them) chipmunk-voiced poppy power metal moves of that album's long-awaited follow-up in 2005, Gallows Gallery. WE were happily confused and amused, though. And now Sigh has sharpened their blades to shred even harder on this album, dispensing with the chipmunks and also with the occasional saxophone lounge jazz and techno detours that popped up on Gallows Gallery. Absurdly bombastic, mixing heavy metal heroics with Morricone melodies, the fierce, frenzied, fixated Hangman's Hymn is as ridiculous as anything they've done but also undeniably, insanely impressive and entertaining.
Japan's best black metal band (along with Sabbat) are back with their first US domestic release, having just been signed by big metal label Century Media. We've always been fans of their fucked-up genre-mangling horror movie soundtrack metal, and this might
Japan's Sigh are back again with more of their batshit bonkers symphonic black metal as only they can do it. If you liked their previous dizzying disc Scenes From Hell, or most of the ones before that, then In Somniphobia is a no brainer. More of their over the top orchestrated million mile an hour eccentricity, that can stop on a dime to veer from prog-power metal bombast to classical soundtrack atmospherics to frenzied oompah action to, uh, "Baker Street" style sax soloing. With buzzing synths and sound FX, widdly guitars and filthy vokills, jagged industrial beats and loungey jazz interludes, there's a LOT crammed into each of these eleven tracks. Unusual (for metal) instruments used include sitar, jaw harp, shortwave, sarangi, accordion, glockenspiel, etc. etc. And one thing they don't neglect (along with the kitchen sink) is a large dose of MELODY. Some of it's kinda cheesy, to be sure, but in chaotic juxtaposition with everything else, that melodiousness comes off as crazed and creepy as well. And makes their avant-garde metal surprisingly listenable. Sigh fans already know more or less what to expect... for everyone else, it's kinda like Cradle Of Filth as if conducted by John Zorn, or Mike Patton!
Guests include Metatron from likeminded loons Meads Of Asphodel and Kam Lee of Death/Massacre fame. And the cover art is again by Eliran Kantor, who has come up with an amazing painting here.
By the way, we just figured out that Sigh's studio albums have a special naming convention to 'em, kinda like how Morbid Angel's are arranged alphabetically (Altars of Madness, Blessed Are The Sick, Covenant, Domination, etc.). The first letter of the title of each Sigh album is either an S, I, G, or H, and chronologically in order, they've spelled out S-I-G-H-S-I-G-H-S-I so far...
Japan's strangest black metal band returns with another mind-boggling rock 'n roll horror flick soundtrack-styled disc that surpasses their previous efforts in the genre-bending department. As enamored of John Zorn as they are of Venom, this trio combine catchy metal licks with 20th century classical. At one point in their the song "Black Curse" the band lurches into a country western vamp that'll make you think you've wandered into a Jim O'Rourke record! Such curious shifts though are executed so smoothly though that this comes across much better than the sort of Satanic Mr. Bungle you might imagine. The "metal" pick of the month, next to Satyricon.
Ready to return to the bizarre black metal (and beyond) world of Japan's Sigh? You'd better be, since that's where we're going, straight to, well, HELL. Hell for those who would prefer to listen to something simple and straightforward, that is! Scenes From Hell, Sigh's eighth studio full-length, is again an idiosyncratic mix of metallic symphonics and cartoonish chaos, complex and careening. If you liked both their last couple of albums, Gallows Gallery and Hangman's Hymn, you should be happy with this ('cause it's sorta like a blend of the two). In other words, it's for folks who like their metal ornate and over-stimulating. There's A LOT going on here. Piano, horns, thrash guitars, piano, classical string quartet, rasping vox, vocoder, even the sex appeal saxophone of new co-vocalist Dr. Mikannibal (not a medical doctor, she has a PhD in physics apparently). Whew! Sigh's unusual brand of orchestral metal is compositionally eccentric and utterly grandiose to say the least, like an over the top mash up of Cradle Of Filth, Carl Stalling, Ennio Morricone, Finntroll, Devil Doll, Arcturus, Dragonforce, Uz Jsme Doma, Hammers Of Misfortune - or imagine a black metal Koenjihyakkei, if you can - it's THAT hyperactive, heavy and heretical. Not to mention, performed to perfection.
The eight busy tracks here race through twists and turns, sounding both vicious and mournful, cinematic and circus-y, and very very Japanese. Even when they've got a horn section tooting away more like an oompah band than black metal, it's still freakin' hellish. So dizzying we're STILL trying to take it all in, but this review should suffice for now...
Oh, but maybe we should mention the guest spoken word appearance by Current 93's David Tibet?! And there's also a vokill cameo by Kam Lee from '80s Florida death metal pioneers Mantas and Massacre. Huh, David Tibet and Kam Lee on the same album, wow.
Here's another tough one. An amazing black metal band. A gnarled convoluted blackened blowout equal parts Watain, Funeral Mist and Deathspell Omega, insane blasting drumming, super complex riffing buzz, tons of parts, all tangled and dizzyingly serpentine, laced with strange spoken word interludes, bits of choir, stretches of ambience, little bits of folk flutter, a seriously over the top chunk of black metal majesty, as epic and expansive as it is utterly grim and cult.
BUT, these guys have some seriously fucked politics. Although they claim to not have any specific agenda, and claim to not be an National Socialist Black Metal band, that's a little hard to believe, the lyrics implying master race / white pride stuff, and other similarly distasteful subject matter. Lots of concern with the supposed purity of their "Nordic blood" and the shame of bowing down to those their "race" once conquered. Not hard to read between the lines here.
But if you can manage to ignore what's between the lines, as we are sometimes forced to do, with some of the more problematic black metal hordes, one will be rewarded with some of the most abstract and musically forward thinking extreme blackness we've heard in ages. This isn't new or anything. We've had copies for ages, but we have never been able to get enough copies to list properly. And then the more we dug into the lyrics and the politics, we figured, we oughta just list the ones we have, so at least a handful of folks who are so inclined can hear this stuff. And the thing is, minus the above bullshit, this band is mind blowing. SO fast and furious, their black metal layered and lush, so much stuff going on all the time, headphones are a must, every blast is laced with all manner of background noise and texture, the brief interludes are rife with sonic weirdness, the riffs sound bent and fractured, a little Voivod, a little Greg Ginn. In addition to claiming they are not in fact an NS band, they also claim to not even be black metal, which in some ways they might not be, they are definitely pushing the boundaries of that specific BM sound, but it many fundamental ways, they are, which is not at all a bad thing. Still they most definitely incorporate enough musical eccentricity to be far from typical, enough that we, while despite despising their philosophies, dig their music, a lot.
So, you've been warned. If you order this, we'll hopefully assume you're like us: into the music, not the bullshit beliefs.
We only have 7 cds and 11 lps (the vinyl is super deluxe with amazing packaging) and since we haven't been able to get more in, what? Three years or so? We'll just assume that once these are gone they are gone for good.
It seems like a lot of the black metal we've been digging lately has been of the 'tortured anguished vocals' variety. Sterbend from last list is probably the most obvious. But Marblebog too. Also Hekel elsewhere on this list. But go back a ways and you can find plenty of black hordes who not only buzz grimly, but howl and wail as if their souls were trying to escape from their bodies, Bethlehem, SF cult legends Weakling, and of course Silencer. This record isn't really new, and actually we have been trying to track down copies of this forever. Silencer are spoken of with hushed reverence, and for good reason. Death - Pierce Me is dark and damaged, grim and suicidal miserablist doom-drenched black metal of the highest order. Talk to any of the current crop of the black metal elite, Wrest from Leviathan, Malefic from Xasthur, and they will fawn unabashedly over Silencer. Thankfully, Autopsy Kitchen have stepped up and rescued this all time black classic from oblivion. And now you can finally experience one of the original black cults who expressed their blackened misery through impossibly anguished vocals. Hysterical shrieks, frenzied and overwrought howls of absolute terror. Never has a band captured grief and misery and loneliness so perfectly and in such an utterly frightening way.
But it's not just the vocals, the music is completely intense and seething as well, with an unrestrained turbulence, dense and buzzing and so emotional and personal and overwhelming. Heart rending minor key melodies emeshed in black swirls of buzz, the riffing so intense and totally manic, exposing a tortured inner world wrought with drama and tension, a dark soul exposed, a damaged personal hell expressed through shriek and buzz. The anguished blasts of blackness are separated by dark doomy ambient passages, from simple mournful acoustic guitar to droney piano fugues to simple melodic doom metal minimalism, but when the riffs and the vocals kick in, a huge brutal blackness dropping on you from above, it's the sort of musical moment that gives you chills, makes your hair stand up on end, and in the right frame of mind makes you want to just break down. Which is precisely why Silencer and Death - Pierce Me are so revered, this record set the template for ALL depressive suicidal black metal to follow, and while some have come close, Xasthur and Nortt certainly, there is just something so special, and so utterly frightening about this record that keeps anyone from ever capturing the same black musical world of abject fear and unmitigated misery.
Another blast of sinister grimness from this local tape label (who in the past have brought us Sunchariot, Surt, Uruk Hai and more), this time in the form of this two way split, featuring two bands who are not so much black metal as blacknoize, two strains of mutant death industrial. Sirius are up first, unfurling a caustic crawl of power electronics thrum, and noise drenched rumble, all blurred and glitched out, shot through with fragmented melodies, and swirling textures, as well as buried churning rhythms, over which a strange voice, doused in effects and heavily processed, delivers some arcane incantations, the sound roiling and blackened, dense and intense, caustic and corrosive, but also muted and murky, making it more listenable than a full on noise record, with the sound constantly shifting, and often settling into tripped out psychedelic drifts and sprawls of primitive lo-fi electronics, all whirling grey noise and burbling gurgling glitches, dark cascades of woozy melody, tumbling into gnarled black tangles of sound, one sound in particular sounding like that horn they always blow at sporting events, but here slowed waay down, and heavily processed into a creepy atonal bleat. The sound continues to unfurl, and unravel, detuned pianos, over warbly loops, and bowed buzzing metals, darkly hypnotic, and seriously warped and woozy, with most of Sirius's side of the tape tending toward creepy ambience and atmospheric mumbled mesmer.
Cosmic Breath begin with a serious of reverbed cosmic concussions, ringing out over a field of caustic crunch, before abruptly cutting out, and slipping into a haunting bit of atmospheric drift, all tinkling melodies, and moaning drones, of swirling synths, all woven into a gently undulating sprawl of glimmering psychedelia, and woozy droned out dirft. Minor key melodies seeming to melt over a dirge like churn, while the sky above is filled with high end streaks and shimmering sine wave like overtones, the sound transforming into stately synth marches, all wistful and melancholy, but paired with sick, raspy demonic vokills, that changes the cinematic synthiness into something much more menacing, the juxtaposition truly warped and bizarre, and it continues like that, creepy lo-fi Carpenter / Goblin style synthscapery, drifting and slithering and creeping beneath those monstrous shrieks, occasionally slipping into something much darker, wreathed in feedback, droning ominously, a super tripped out collection of grim black-synth cosmic ambience that definitely has us wanting to hear more!
We had never heard of this Pagan Russian black metal, until we got a few copies from local label Brotherhood Of Light (Sunchariot, Domus Mactibilus, Llyr, Haar, Sirius, Cosmic Breath, Surt, Svetovid, Uruk Hai, Worldscape:18), and we were pretty blown away. The gorgeous opening intro is all sampled birdsong, folky guitar, and simple minimal percussion, lilting and melancholy, which is why when the record proper kicks in, it threw us for a loop, some seriously fierce, and blown out black buzz, the sound massive, and thick, and dense and heavy as fuck, and it's not just the sound that was a surprise, the arrangement, epic and complex, and then when weird shredding guitar surfaces, the song becomes a weird mathed out black prog, before exploding into furious buzzing blackness, the vocals are insane too, hysterical shrieking demonic howls, the perfect match for Sivyi Yar's dense black sonic tangles, and don't worry, it gets weirder. About halfway through, the song lurches to a halt, transformed into a chugging doom, laced with what sounds like xylophone, a sweet tinkling melody over this churning metallic crush, it's strange, but weirdly effective, eventually building back to a blasting black buzz, the shredding guitars return, and the sound becomes impossibly epic. And that's just the first song. The rest of the record is just as twisted and majestic and complex and heavy, the second track opening with a sprawl of droned out rumbles, and mysterious chanted female vox, before again, exploding into some of the fiercest blackness we've heard in a while, the song relentless and brutal, at least until the last few minutes, when it becomes a super melodic almost dreamy sounding dirge, the drums still wildly blasting, and the guitars still super distorted, but soaring and melodic and downright pretty.
There's one more black buzz epic, before finishing off with two strange tracks, the first, beginning with the sound of rainfall and sinister synths, giving way to some seriously abject ultra blackened dooooooom, augmented by JAW HARP, it sounds weird and it is, but somehow, it's also extremely cool. The closer winds things up with another bit of mysterious ambience, all shimmering synths and more of those chanted vocals, booming distant percussion, all hazy and washed out, a gorgeously haunting finish to what might be our new favorite black metal record. WAY recommended!!!
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We had never heard of this Pagan Russian black metal, until we got a few copies from local label Brotherhood Of Light (Sunchariot, Domus Mactibilus, Llyr, Haar, Sirius, Cosmic Breath, Surt, Svetovid, Uruk Hai, Worldscape:18), and we were pretty blown away. The gorgeous opening intro is all sampled birdsong, folky guitar, and simple minimal percussion, lilting and melancholy, which is why when the record proper kicks in, it threw us for a loop, some seriously fierce, and blown out black buzz, the sound massive, and thick, and dense and heavy as fuck, and it's not just the sound that was a surprise, the arrangement, epic and complex, and then when weird shredding guitar surfaces, the song becomes a weird mathed out black prog, before exploding into furious buzzing blackness, the vocals are insane too, hysterical shrieking demonic howls, the perfect match for Sivyi Yar's dense black sonic tangles, and don't worry, it gets weirder. About halfway through, the song lurches to a halt, transformed into a chugging doom, laced with what sounds like xylophone, a sweet tinkling melody over this churning metallic crush, it's strange, but weirdly effective, eventually building back to a blasting black buzz, the shredding guitars return, and the sound becomes impossibly epic. And that's just the first song. The rest of the record is just as twisted and majestic and complex and heavy, the second track opening with a sprawl of droned out rumbles, and mysterious chanted female vox, before again, exploding into some of the fiercest blackness we've heard in a while, the song relentless and brutal, at least until the last few minutes, when it becomes a super melodic almost dreamy sounding dirge, the drums still wildly blasting, and the guitars still super distorted, but soaring and melodic and downright pretty.
There's one more black buzz epic, before finishing off with two strange tracks, the first, beginning with the sound of rainfall and sinister synths, giving way to some seriously abject ultra blackened dooooooom, augmented by JAW HARP, it sounds weird and it is, but somehow, it's also extremely cool. The closer winds things up with another bit of mysterious ambience, all shimmering synths and more of those chanted vocals, booming distant percussion, all hazy and washed out, a gorgeously haunting finish to what might be our new favorite black metal record. WAY recommended!!!
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Bay area black metal masters Von were responsible for two of the most important USBM documents ever, the Satanic Blood and Blood Angel demos, considered by many to be the first US black metal record(s), and to this day, those records continue to inspire a legion of musical hordes, who strive to emulate that furious idiosyncratic raw that few can reproduce. What few people know, is that right after the release of those demos, the members of Von shifted their focus to another project, with a way different sound and vibe, called Sixx, which was anything but black metal, instead a dark, creepy, brooding, gothic deathrock, think Bauhaus, Christian Death, Specimen, all minor key spidery guitars, swirling dark ambience, pounding new wave drums, and of course, super dramatic crooned vocals.
It seems almost prescient, considering that this sound is enjoying a pretty serious resurgence these days: past Record Of The Weekers Soror Dolorosa, Hateful Abandon, Factums, Dial M For Murder, Cold Cave, Crystal Stilts, etc. But this demo, recorded in 1991, was as mentioned above, recorded hot on the heels of two of the most grim and raw, blasting black metal records ever! And while it may not directly inform the actual sound, it does speak to what a strange and special record the Sixx demo was and is. Chiming guitars and krauty rhythms, lots of reverb and delay, a dark brooding ambience, we hear lots of classic goth and darkwave and new wave, Kommunity FK, Human Drama, Tones On Tail, and the more we listen to it, the more the link between Sixx and Von crystallizes, both bands trafficked in simple stripped down songs, most with only one or two parts, vocals repetitive and mantric, in fact, in some ways, Sixx almost sounds like Von with all the distortion removed, right down to those classic Von goaty grunts. That said, just 'cause you like Von, doesn't necessarily mean you'll like Sixx, but if you dig that sound, and any of the above mentioned bands, then Sixx's Sister Devil might just be your lost reissue / rediscovered gem of the year.
Finally! The return of Eikenskaden, whose mastermind (and only member as far as we know) was also responsible for the baffling brilliance that was Mystic Forest. Long time readers of the aQ list will no doubt know how much we love Stefan Kozak, and both Mystic Forest and Eikenskaden, so much so that Andee even released Eikenskaden's amazing 665.999 on tUMULt.
And we're happy to report, that besides being just as cool and weird as we remember, along with a strange name change, Eikenskaden is now known as The Skaden, the sound has gotten even MORE bizarre and all overt the map, which is definitely a very good thing.
Right from the outset, the intro to the first track "Pain and sexual Overdose Delusion" (yes there's still a definite BDSM vibe, in the song titles, subject matter, even artwork) Kozak confounds by opening with what sounds like a black metal theme to a James Bond movie we'd kill to see, with it's frantic jangle clean guitar, moaning horns (sounds like horns at least), and super moody melody, but soon, the song kicks in full bore and we're in more familiar Eikenskaden style soaring epic melodic black metal territory. But things get WAY weirder pretty quickly, as the song shifts gears and transforms into a sort of string laden sea shanty, like some strange musical, dramatic and playful, but still growly and buzzy and sinister, a truly weird combo. The second track, is a brooding Katatonia like slab of dour doomic black metal, with lots of slow jangly guitars, spaced out stretches of dramatic post rock, complete with whispered female vox and soaring guitar melodies. And the record just continues to confound, the strange loping almost jig-like fiddle on "A Peaceful Moment", along with the haunting slow build Godspeed like string quartet gone black metal second half of the same song, the wild progged out frenzy of "Grand Final" with frantic speed picked distorted riffing, jangly clean guitar, and tangled flutes laid over growled black metal vox, like some sort of Burzum / Tull mashup, that eventually morphs into some super hypnotic blackened noise rock, the flute along for the whole ride, and finally, the final track, the title and lyrics all in Japanese, which at the outset appears to be the most truly black metal track on the record, but as you might expect, the track seesaws from black buzz, to lurching dramatic cabaret, to haunting shimmery string laden skitter, all the while a female recites the lyrics in Japanese way down in the mix, and those horns return, cloaking the track in a serious noir vibe, before it lurches back into some blasting blackness. Some serious what-the-fuck for sure, but we love it. Did we mention EVERY song begins with the sound of wind blowing? So good.
If you already dig Eikenskaden and Mystic Forest, this is obviously essential, otherwise, if you're looking for something black metal, but still super melodic and WAY WAY twisted, you probably couldn't hope for anything better, or weirder than this!
Anarchic is the long in the works second full length from Cascadian black metal duo Skagos, and unlike their debut Ast (which for some reason never got reviewed here) it's less about blown out black buzz onslaught and more about, well, it's hard to say. Metalheads will definitely be a bit confused by the opening few movements of the 35 minute, 4 part opener. The record begins with dense swirling swells of feedback, preparing the listener, one might presume, for a barrage of blasting drums and insectoid riffing. A gorgeous haze of feedback and spare drifting acoustic guitars, but instead of launching into it, what sounds like pulsing synths surface, and then the vocals, a lush, reverbed croon, and suddenly, we're in shoegaze dream pop territory, and not HEAVY shoegaze either, drifty, and wispy, and hushed, the vocals almost a whisper, the instrumentation barebones, and the harmonies, WOW, who would have thought these guys had it in 'em? At this point we were sort of hoping there would be NO metal, cuz what a total mindfuck, some Cascadian black metal that actually sounds like Low or Stars Of The Lid, it's really quite lovely, and we would have been perfectly happy had the whole first track unfurled similarly. But fear not, the song soon explodes into wild chaotic drumming, soaring swirling black buzz, the vibe appropriately epic and majestic, and the heaviness retaining much of the melodic wistfulness of the unlikely opening. Like many like minded bands, Skagos' sound is obviously informed by so much more than black metal. Post rock, math rock, indie rock, it all finds its way into the sound, sometimes subtly, sometimes not so much. And when those harmonies resurface during the blasting buzz, it's a gorgeous combination, we almost wish the harsh vokills weren't there to obscure what is essentially a swoonsome shoegaze black buzz that's crazy melodic and catchy, but even with the rasping howls, it's still pretty stunning stuff. Alcest and Amesoeurs are definitely apt comparisons, although Skagos are WAY heavier and noisier. And so it goes, the first 'track' moves through its movements, melding hazy dreamy driftiness to blurred furious riffing, devolving at one point into some super hooky post rocky riffing, before exploding into probably the most chaotically black passage on the record. There's so much going on here, the sound shifting constantly, the composition epic and seriously proggy, the music itself, tending to always drift back toward the more melodic, as if instead of this being a black metal record with weird shoegazey bits and pretty melodies, it's exactly the opposite, some twisted heavy dreampop shoegaze record with black metal bits. In fact in the whole last ten minutes of the first track there's no metal to be found at all. Loping drumming over acoustic guitars, swirling psychedelic drifts, backwards melodies and distant rumbling drones beneath crystalline melodies, and then when the vocals come back in, holy shit, it sounds like Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat or Woven Hand or something, the vocals passionate and emotional, super dramatic, all over what sounds like accordions, everything underpinned by a hushed black ambient drift, a weird tangle of apocalyptic folk and psychedelic ambience that is pretty goddamn great. And more to have many metalheads scratching their chins.
The second track, and the three remaining movements, follow a similarly unlikely sonic path, starting out with a bit of hushed ambient shimmer, which is soon joined by muted pulsing drums, shot through with softly squiggly psychedelic theremin like melodies, it's a slow build to, yep, you guessed it, more sort of drifty, dreamy post rock jangle pop, a little bit slowcore, chiming melodies over a skeletal rhythm, the vocals a soft chantlike croon, again the vibe sort of darkly folk, and druggily dreamy, and then finally, at about the ten minute mark, the song dramatically splinters into a seriously dense blackened onslaught, a swirling chaotic frenzy, utterly at odds with what came before, but then sort of not, again the band deftly weaving the melody of the non metal part into the grim black buzz, at which point the band spends the most time they have yet on Anarchic in full on metal mode, but soon, they slow down to a slithery black doom crawl, buried double kick stutter under woozy riffic churn, and belched black rasps, before the metal peels away, leaving softly swirling steel string shimmer, shuffling jazzy rhythms, sing songy and melodic, the drums played with brushes, the group locked into a mesmerizing psych pop drift, that does get heavy, but barring the return of the rasp, is more like some sort of Godspeed / Explosions In The Sky sort of epic melodic coda, the soaring clean vox return, and it's pretty dramatic and intense, and not all that black metal sounding, the whole thing gradually settling into a slow shifting, hazy, washed out soporific slowcore dreamgaze fade out.
Such a fantastic surprise, and as you may have surmised by now, not so much for the true grim hordes, as folks into epic experimental, VERY melodic heaviness. Definite contender for year end top ten lists. Ours most certainly!
The return of our favorite anarcho vegan pagan black metal band, Kentucky's Panopticon, here teamed up with Canadian duo Skagos, who we'd never actually heard before, but had heard OF, and were dying to check out.
But first, three new tracks from Panopticon, a one man band from the South, whose crusty weirdo math abstruse black metal we went nuts for, a buzzing blasting pounding onslaught of Pagan fury, rife with samples and all manner of strange sonic filigree. The tracks here begin with a strange sampled folk song, simple percussion, lots of cheers and group vocals, very Teutonic, until the track explodes in a gnarled frenzy of furious blasting blackness, dense and brutal and weirdly melodic, an epic jam shifting from mathy churning stutter to frantic lightspeed buzz to loping post rock meander, and finally to shimmery shoegazey ambience. The second track begins a gauzy rhythmic dronescape, washed out and hypnotic, the drums sound programmed, stuttery and shuffly, while melodies unfurl and blur, the whole thing hazy and dreamlike, until the guitars come in, the track instantly transformed into some churning Neurosis like heaviness, breaking down at one point, to just super fuzzed out bass, drums, and weirdly tortured and effected vokills, before finishing off in a blaze of total blackened sonic chaos, which somehow manages to still sound melodic and melancholy.
And holy shit, the last track is a monster, right out of the gate, an impossibly insanely complex squall of looped buzzing riffage and frenzied drumming, so heavy and dense and intense, over the course of the track, shifting to hushed soft focus drone laced with tinkling chiming melodies, to spacious post rock drift, wreathed in echo-ey shoegaze guitars and maniacal shrieked vocals and anchored by still more incredible drumming, grinding to a halt, leaving a just a strange sample of deep chanted singing, and a mysterious German conversation, angelic choirs, and the sounds of birds and streams in the background.
As if that weren't enough, we've got two lengthy epics from Skagos, both seeming to fit in with the whole Cascadian black metal sound (Wolves In The Throneroom, Fauna, etc), the sound as post rocky as it is black metal, very melodic, and melancholy, blasting beats and harsh vokills laid atop swoonsome melodies, and some super surprising clean vocal pop parts, very distinctive, not typically black metal 'clean vocals' either, almost like Modest Mouse or Built To Spill, an indie pop croon over woozy minor key riffs and simple rhythms, eventually erupting back into some seriously fierce heaviness, but never losing that element of emotion and melody, the track getting mathy occasionally, with cool start / stop rhythms, twisted arrangements, and plenty of blissed out ambient haze, so much going on over the course of the 12+ minutes.
The second track is even longer, and just as varied, beginning with crystalline clean guitars, underpinned by haunting atonal strings, before erupting into some seriously filthy raw blasting black metal, that eventually dials it back, and reveals a strangely pretty melodic element lurking just below the surface, the vibe is a little Neurosisy too, heavy and epic and a little bit crusty, slipping into a cool churning chugscape, before a burst of loping doomic crunch, and then more delicate ambient prettiness, just gorgeous guitar suspended in a dreamlike haze, where the clean vocals return, this time sounding like Jeff Buckley, super emotional and intense so at odds with the rest of the track, which is why it's so cool. Makes us almost wish they would have that singing all the way through, instead of the harsh vox, how cool would that be?
Eventually, the track winds down with a final burst of pounding downtuned blackened howl, but it's those mysterious clean vocals, and the strange melodic elements that run throughout both tracks that definitely make Skagos something special.
Comes packaged in a super swank digipak, full color, printed with reflective UV ink...
What should we expect from headbanging Ohio heshers Skeletonwitch here, on full length number four? More of their raging blackened thrash extremity, no doubt, and that's indeed what they deliver, after a brief acoustic intro! Eleven aggro tracks packed with rasping vokills, skilled melodic soloing, and blasting battery.
We've been fans of this band since back when they were about as underground as you could get, now they're on the cover of the big glossy metal magazines, touring with the likes of Arch Enemy and Danzig, but still stick to their original MO of mixing old school '80s thrash with more modern black and death metal stylings... and doing it with poseur-killing panache. Their brand of speedy shred is tight and ripping, leavened with moments of classy melodiousness.
While the entire album seems intended to be consumed (or consume you) in one sitting, track after track flashing/thrashing by, each one of 'em wrecking necks before passing the spiked baton to the next song, several stand out in particular, such as the remarkably poppy "The Infernal Resurrection".
And at just over 32 minutes in length, Forever Abomination doesn't overstay its welcome, instead leaving us wanting more, which of course leads to pulling out their previous albums, as well as discs by such bands as Destruction, Dissection, Aura Noir, Coroner, Audiopain, Defleshed...
The cd comes in a digipack, with embossed cover art, the double lp version is housed in a nice thick tri-fold sleeve and is on colored wax to boot.
A new, one-song ep from Finland's masters of depressive forest doom metal. Of course, it's over 27 minutes long--over the course of which, they somehow (slowly) 'rock out' moreso than on anything we've heard from them thus far--but that is in no way to say that their crushing and suffocating funereal doom is not the most devestating and intense we've perhaps ever heard. It is. They still possess a stately, almost religious quality (and enough ambience to maintain their AQ-declared status as the Labradford of black metal).
BACK IN PRINT, and re-listed for those whose funereal doom collections are lacking this crucial entry. Twenty-seven minutes of pure depression from the cold dark woods of Finland.Ô
Skepticism are the masters of ultra doom. Their sound we once described as sitting in a stone church, surrounded by the warm sounds of an old pipe organ, while a doom metal band practices in the basement, their funereal crawl barely audible through the floor, the two sounds mixed into a slow slthery doomish creep. Here on theÔsequel to Skepticism's brilliant, black-metal-meets-Labradford "Stormcrowfleet" album, these doomic depressives up the production values without losing that distinctive sound. The 12 minute first track starts off with nothing but big booming drums, or actually drum singular, pounding out a simple funereal beat, something like 16 bpm, with chiming church bells and a thick organ drone threatening to drown the listener in a thick black pitch of misery and horror, with the occasional burst of downtuned guitar, only to have it quickly subside and slip back beneath the black drones. This is exactly what you would expect to hear in the underworld, a death march stretchingÔ off into infinity, fire pits on every side, demons wielding big drums stretched tight with human skin. So creepy and hauntingly beautiful. There's even some piano, adding an emotional depth not found in most ultra doom. Like a way heavier Low or a doom metal Codeine. The second track is more guitar heavy, with chords unfurled and allowed to slowly dissipate before the next one drops, there are vocals here too, monstrous chest rattling growls, that almost sound like another guitar, swirling keyboards, faux strings, very dramatic and cinematic. The final track, "Chorale" is epic and infused with a sort of pomp. Huge pipe organs unleash thick vibrant chords that whir and drone, the melodies are sort of festive, or at least as festive as doom can get, it's almost like one would expect to hear in the court of some king of the underworld, sitting at huge tables, watching a procession of doomed souls trudge wearily by. So totally intense. It's been a while since we revisited Skepticism, but we're reminded why there's not a doom band alive (or dead) who can touch the doomic might and glory of Skepticism!
At this point, we know we can count on a large sub-set of Aquarius customers to be as into droney doom metal as we are. Bands like Corrupted, Boris, Khanate, Eyehategod, Cavity, Esoteric, Electric Wizard, etc. always elicit an enthusiastic response when we list 'em. Foremost amongst the doom hordes we must acknowledge Finland's Skepticism. They've been favorites ever since their "Stormcrowfleet" debut back in 1995. Sheer majestic downer atmospherics, religious music for a suicide cult. Appropriately, their distorted guitars, gruff vocals and echoing drums are accompanied by massive amounts of church-organ synth.
According to their own inscrutable tradition, Skepticism always precede each new album with an ep, so we knew that it wouldn't be too long after the "Process of Farmakon" ep (reviewed back on list #142, last year) that we could expect a full-length. Well, it did actually take a while, but at last here it is. Wreathed in smoke and darkness, "Farmakon" features different versions of the two tracks first heard on that ep, and four previously unheard epics. Plodding and miasmic as ever, this album is perhaps less soothing than some past recordings, more harsh and jagged. There's a weird urgency to some of the songs, and plenty of the "what the fuck?" moments we've come to expect from 'em, such as the synthesized "horns" and pretty, post-rockish elements encountered in the unnamed, 13-minute track 4. Lyrically, the band seem to have left the forest for an equally dark sea, judging by their cryptic texts referencing shores, waves, and water. And just what is "Farmakon" or the "Farmakon Process"?? You could try going to the band's website at www.farmakon.com for information on Skepticism and their esoteric ideas, though unfortunately their "Dictionary" page seems to be broken at the moment...
Here's one of those crucial, seminal recordings that somehow (probably 'cause we were much less thorough about these things at the time of its release) never made it into our on-line catalog. Yet we often make reference to it, and have recommended other, subsequent albums by the band, including the recently-released "The Process Of Farmakon" cdep reviewed on list #142.
Happily, Red Stream has just reissued this album, the debut from Finnish doom-lords Skepticism, after some time out of print, and we now have a chance to list it for the first time! Originally issued in 1995, this 2002 version has been (slightly) redesigned graphics-wise but contains the same immense sonic slabs of funereal doom-trudge metal that so awed us seven years back. We hail this album as the ultimate "black-metal-meets-Labradford" listening experience. Totally morose, depressive, atmospheric ambience in heavy dirge death metal mode, with melodies to crush your soul. Medieval organ-like keyboards give this a grim, churchly air, and of course it sounds like it was recorded with the microphones quite distant from the instruments/amps, possibly in a nearby forest.
If like other Skepticism albums and/or are a fan of the likes of Esoteric, Thergothon, Shape Of Despair, Corrupted, Evoken, Burzum's "Filosofem", and other sad and gloomy things, you MUST OWN THIS. 'Nuff said.
It's always a happy day here at Aquarius when we get new music from Finland's Skepticism. I mean, a depressing day. Soooooooo wonderfully depressing. Skepticism are our favorite funereal forest doom metal band, we've described them before as the Labradford of black metal. Almost ambient, droning, downer stuff, plodding along through a nighttime fog. Imagine the music of a suicidal church organist, teamed up with some longhaired Scandinavian death metal teens. Beautiful.
As with all their releases, more of the same yet with enough difference to be a significant, essential addition to their ouevre. This time, the 'what the fuck?' aspect is highlighted by the bizarre bubbling noises that join the gruff vocals and downtuned guitars on the title track, which sounds as if it was recorded on a ship slowing sinking on the River Styx. As is their wont, this two-song ep (18+ minutes) precedes a full-length due out sometime later this year, supposedly.
This one was definitely made for aQ. Self described black noise / doom metal from Maniac, formerly of Norwegian black metal legends Mayhem, joined by Kvarforth of Swedish black metallers Shining, and Attila from SUNNO))) (and also Mayhem oddly enough) and featuring music by Current 93. A pretty odd mix for sure, especially the two former Mayhem vocalists, and what's even more odd, is that this release features only two studio tracks, the other 6 recorded live, one of which is an intro recorded by David Tibet and Andrew Liles as Current 93. But a strange band deserves a strange release, so here we go.
The opening title track is some super abstract noise drenched doom, falling somewhere between Khanate, Gnaw Their Tongues and something much more spacious and abstract. A simple little guitar melody drifts through a landscape of howled and shrieked vocals, thick bursts of caustic crumbling distortion, little flurries of metallic chug, haunting minor key melodies, a truly twisted doomscape for sure, but it's Maniac's vocals (as well as Attila's here) that make it so fucked up and freaked out. So impossibly harsh and intense, a monstrous growl/shriek totally in the red, swallowing up all the sounds around it, managing to sound as creepy and crawly as it does intense and insane. There's tons of shit going on in the background too, strange voices speaking, other instruments drifting in and out, random samples and field recordings, some buried percussion, all only adding to the weirdness.
The second studio track is a whole different story, a hugely heavy slab of plodding doom metal, guitars thick and loud and distorted, layer upon layer of grind and crumble and buzz, the vocals super intense, slipping from hellish shriek to demonic growl and back again. Lots of effects, the arrangement full of starts and stops, plenty of grinding guitar lurking beneath the main riff, a loping freaky fucked up ultradoom jam for fans of Moss, Monarch, Nihill, Bunkur, Whitehorse, etc.
The rest of the disc is a live show recorded at the Camden Underworld in the UK in 2007, and begins with a creepy Current 93 intro, with David Tibet, howling his strange invective, over a wash of hiss and white noise and guitar rumble, until the band launch into a live version of the second studio track mentioned above which launches the band into an expansive trudge through some serious tweaked and twisted doom. Live it sounds a lot less freaked out and a lot more TRUE, huge riffing, caveman drums, amazing throat shredding vocals, the sound is definitely raw and live sounding, but it perfectly suits Skitliv's hellish black doom. The record closes with a live version of "Amfetamin", the track that opened the disc, and it's appropriately intense, the addition of drums doing nothing to take away from its minimal menace, the focus less on vocals (minus a flurry of howls and shrieks midway through) and more on the droning guitars and grinding crumbling creepy black ambience.
Ultra limited picture disc 10" from this damaged and demented avant black doom outfit featuring former Mayhem frontman Maniac, Niklas Kvarforth from black metal outfit Shining, and Current 93's David Tibet among others. One side features an introductory collage created by David Tibet / Current 93, that the band used for an intro at their shows, and it's classic Current 93, a sort of demented slowly decaying gypsy folk, with Tibet's increasingly anxious and frantic vocalizing, his vocals multitracked so the track builds to a frenzied climax, with multiple Tibets howling and shrieking "Who will deliver me from myself?!". The other two tracks are alternate versions of tracks on Skandinavisk Misantropi, one a demo, and one an alternate mix, but they kind of sound better here, the guitars more raw, the sound more fierce and feral, the vocals SICK, the band unfurling lurching lumbering doomy blackness, but laced with unlikely melodies, "Slow Pain Coming" manages to be fucked up and hateful, the vocals especially harsh, but the music is surprisingly melodic, and there's an awesome breakdown partway through where the band lurches and starts and stops, while the vocals just gargle and rasp and howl. The demo of "A Valley Below" is way more low fidelity, but again, it sounds so much more fucked up and frightening, the vocals especially again, even more inhuman, makes you wonder what they did on the record proper, cuz here, they just ooze and drip, super intense and freaky, perfectly suiting the low slung slither underneath. Makes us want to go back and listen to the full length again, Or just keep listening to these two tracks over and over.
Super nice artwork on the picture disc, an appropriately gruesome painting on one side, and an original David Tibet painting on the other. LIMITED TO 777 COPIES!!!
The first proper release from these Swedish metal misanthropes. Their last release, Amfetamin, while quite excellent, was more of a compilation, with only two studio tracks, the others recorded live, and thus wasn't super cohesive.
But that's not a problem here. We weren't sure what to expect really, considering our only exposure to Skitliv previously was the aforementioned Amfetamin, but whatever it is we thought we might here, this is way better, heavier, darker, catchier and creepier, which shouldn't be that much of a surprise really, after all, guitarist Kvarforth plays in Shining, Ondskapt, Manes, Den Saakaldte among others, and the band features Mayhem's Maniac on vocals, and this record in particular features a pretty bad ass set of guests, Gaahl, formerly of Gorgoroth, Attila (also of Mayhem, as well as Aborym and Tormentor), and of course David Tibet from Current 93, who also guested on the first record.
On Amfetamin, Skitliv trafficked in a sort of stumbling abstract doom, and that doom vibe is definitely present here, but the sound is at once more blackened, and more melodic, the grim riffing and harsh vokills wrapped around almost Lifelover style minor key melodies, the songs super catchy, almost like a black metal My Dying Bride or a more well produced Hypothermia, some of the tracks slipping into minimal moody drifts, creeping black ambience, and almost post rock sounding skitter, while all around, clouds of strange effects and processed electronics swirl and swoop, giving the proceedings a definite spaced out vibe.
David Tibet's contribution is immediately recognizable, his track sounding like a black metal Current 93, haunting and otherworldly, his manic vocals over clean guitars, even some piano, before the song explodes in a frenzy of howling buzz.
Elsewhere the tracks occasionally burst into full on blasting blackness, but just as often splinter into a swirling hazy almost pop sounding plod, with cool harmonized guitar leads, and more melancholic melodies. The record closes with the epic "ScumDrug", a smoldering gothic doomscape, all clean guitar, tinkling pianos, growling demonic vocals and distant distorted riffage, a woozy cabaret crawl that eventually morphs into a freaky collaged outro, all garbled voices and rumbling low end pulses, squalls of white noise hiss, and mysterious gurgles, an appropriately twisted ending to a seriously twisted record.
Holy shit is this an incredible match up. Legendary industrial/noise/power electronics/experimental guitar/drone outfit Skullflower teamed up with local gnarled avant headfuck sci-fi blast-buzz one man black metal horde Mastery for this super limited 12", with each band delivering some of their best material yet. This is extremely limited too, once we run out, it might take us a while to get more, assuming we can even get more...
Skullflower's Matthew Bower has made no secret of his love for / fascination with black metal, and it's been seeping into the SF sound for a while now, but strangely, on a record where he's paired with an actual black metal band, when you might expect Bower and Co. to deliver some kvlt black buzz grimnity, blasting and howling and hellish, this is something entirely different. While it is in fact blackened and buzzy, it's much more atmospheric and droned out, weirdly hypnotic and majestic, keening arcs of blown out distortion, buried melodies, and lush crumbling textures, atmospheric, haunting and hypnotic and yeah heavy too, with a super intense in-the-red production, that gives the sound a feral ferocity, and makes every note feel on the verge of collapse, even though it's all actually, in its own fractured and fucked up way, quite lovely.
Mastery of course is in his own gloriously demented and ultra damaged sound world, delivering the sort of lightning speed, dizzying blackened sonic fury that few others can touch, so much so, that we continue to wonder how this guy isn't utterly worshipped by the grim hordes. Could be cuz it's just too goddamn weird, cuz it really is. We're talking far out freaky WTF beyond black metal outsider genius. The sound twisted and tangled, a buzzing blur, wild sonic smears constantly colliding, the vocals rasping and croaking over squalls of blacknoise, and impossibly furious riffing, not to mention inhuman drumming. The guitar playing in particular is totally next level avant insanity, Mick Barr better be looking over his shoulder, cuz at times this sounds like multiple Ocrilim records playing at the same time, all spinning at 78rpm. Beyond that there's all kinds of weird noisiness too, industrial churn, wildly sputtering drum machines, total black metal bliss out head fuck radness. If you've yet to discover just how fucking mind blowing the music of Mastery is, here's another chance...
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES! Cool colored vinyl, and super striking sleeves, with space wolf artwork similar to the double cd on tUMULt!
As we've mentioned in our reviews of the last clutch of Skullflower releases, Matthew Bower's long running industrial/noise/power electronics/experimental guitar/drone outfit seems to be gradually growing blacker and blacker, with Bower's love of black metal transforming Skullflower's distortion drenched skree into some sort of avant black buzz. Now that blackness has manifested in a series of splits with 'actual' black metal bands, a forthcoming split with local one man band Mastery, and this one, with weirdo experimental Norwegian blackened doomlords Utarm, whose twisted Apocryphal Stories on Handmade Birds was a huge hit around here, and whose fractured and fucked up take on black buzz seems especially appropriate alongside Skullflower's own idiosyncratic noisemaking. That said, the SF tracks here might be the prettiest stuff we've heard from them/him in a while, the opener super melodic, ultra textural, distorted and crumbly, multiple layers buzz and undulate, buried melodies are looped and tangled into soft squalls of lushly textured crunch, and warped cascades of soft focus noise, even at ten minutes, it's the sort of dense, swirling psychedelia, that we could get lost in for a whole record. The second track, again, on the surface, a wild, noisy, washed out dronescape, but the crackling buzz and fractured FX seem to be draped over something much lovelier, a droned out thrum, a smoldering landscape of minor key shimmer, it's a heady concoction, a sort of pretty ambience in blacknoise clothing, but the prettiness seems to be the victor, infusing the caustic noisiness with a warm melodic glow, and again, we would have happily dug a whole record long version. So we were expecting the final track to be explosive and buzzy, but instead, it's even prettier, gentle guitar strum, pulsing electronics, a sky full of psychedelic squiggles, the pulsing building and intensifying throughout, eventually becoming the dominant presence, but even then, the sound is more moody and haunting than anything, the guitars doused in woozy effects, the overall sound almost jazzy, albeit some sort of black noise power electronics devil jazz.
Utarm keep the weird quotient pretty high with their two tracks, the first, a massive near 18 minute epic, all squiggly synths, and weird processed falsetto vocals, distorted spidery guitar melodies, almost like some sort of demonic lullaby, warped and damaged, until about 5 minutes in when an avalanche of crumblingly distorted downtuned riffage comes crashing in, the sound a black ooze, a sort of SUNNO))) like dirge, but wreathed in howled FX drenched vokills and wild squalls of high end guitar noise, super psychedelic drone-dirge weirdness that KILLS, and so it goes, for the duration of the track, a blown out, heady, heavy psychedelic noise dirge dronescape, that's weirdly hypnotic and melodic, while being darkly corrosive and caustic, some serious black beauty for sure, finally exploding into a closing burst of melody infused blacknoise howl.
The closer, clocking in at a conservative 10 minutes, starts out sounding like it could be Skullflower, noisy swirly and psychedelic, until the sound splinters into a weird sort of industrial creep, all processed vocal samples, churning dirgey basslines, anguished wails, heaving swell of crumbling low end, what sounds like dense collages samples, almost symphonic, all blurred into a wild but weirdly pretty din/skree, super tripped out, free form WTF psychedelic noisy weirdness.
Killer stuff from both groups and obviously WAY recommended!
We knew we were in for something special when we discovered the amazing Frequency Thirteen cd-r label (thanks to loyal AQ customer Andrew S. for turning us on to these guys). Bands with names like Ice Bound Majesty, Skultroll, Raperack, Black Vomit, Karaoke Vocal Eliminator. Each disc emblazoned with the label's mantra: TRUE SHEFFIELD BLACK PSYCHEDELIA. Which is pretty much the perfect description of this stuff. We might have also offered, grinding corrosive blackened hypnorock, or perhaps blacknoizemetal, or something similar, perhaps blackkrautnoizerock. Whatever you call it, this stuff is dark, and distorted, blown out and heavy as fuck, hypnotic, rhythmic, and seriously genius.
This is, as far as we know, the first full length from the duo known as Skultroll, just bass and drums, but it sounds like both are being run through a blender and a dumptruck and a black hole and about a million malfunctioning distortion pedals. The sound is obviously stripped down, but the riffing is dense and intense, thick and throbbing, the drums are furious and frenzied. The band tend toward the superdistorted kraut-flecked hypno rock, settling into a groove and then just pounding it into the ground. It's easy to hear Laddio Bolocko, Lightning Bolt, Barbara, Circle and the like, albeit way heavier, way more distorted and much much blacker. At some points it even almost sounds a bit like a Black metal Terminal Cheesecake. Which, we shouldn't have to tell you, is a very very very good thing!
Even the slow jams, are super thick, and crumbling to pieces before our ears, the bass loping lazily under sheets of corrosive FX, the drums pounding out a stripped down rhythm, like an evilized Can, occasionally bursting into full on grinding blasts, but almost always returning to a lurching doomic plod.
The disc closes with a nearly twenty minute low end epic. The first half a murky muddy blown out slow build, the bass smeared into thick washes of black blur, the drums tribal and complex, the song gradually growing more and more propulsive, almost like some groovy stoner rock jam, pulled apart and reassembled all wrong, eventually the distortion overtaking the actual music, the drums becoming more and more abstract, the bass riffs turning into long drawn out drones.
Heavy and freaked out, frightening and fucking awesome.
We've been in intrigued (and a bit obsessed) with these Norwegian black metal weirdos for a while now. Frontman Aatselgribb, always sporting a white magistrate's powdered wig, usually a hat, and some sort of old fashioned garment, big wide cuffs, flowing coats, very striking, but pretty what the fuck as well. The covers and band photos are routinely super dramatic staged shots with the band members preceding over some sort of tribunal, or standing with arms outstretched batlike in the orchestra pit at an opera. On top of all that, Aatselgribb's sidekicks in Slagmaur are called General Gribbsphilser and Lt. Warder.
There are two other proper full lengths, neither of which we've been able to track down to list, both packed with buzzing blackness, haunting industrial stomp, soaring symphonic pomp, and all manner of gothic ambience. Domfeldt is the band's demo from 2007, reissued on cd for the first time, and as most people's entree into the sick soundworld of Slagmaur, it's a pretty great one.
After a dense swirling drone intro, like a symphony of swarming insects over a tuning up orchestra, the band launch into a sound that hovers somewhere between a depressive lurching black metal dirge, a Godflesh like industrial stomp, and woozy tripped out blackened doom. The guitars buzz and soar, not way up in the mix, sort of muted and off in the distance, the drums, machinelike and motorik, everything wreathed in a haunting murky oppressive ambience, the melodies ascending and descending maniacally, the whole sound very seasick and warped sounding, in the distance, strings sing, the vocals a harsh raspy croak, atonal piano pounds somewhere down in the mix, the rhythms sounding almost martial at times, elsewhere horns moan ominously, random bits of percussive clunk and clatter drift on heaving seas of twisted muted riffage, guitars unfurl prickly detuned sort-of-leads, the sound shifts from hellish circus, to stripped down new wave-y doom, to gothic crush, to 16rpm black metal, to fucked up SST inflected doom. It's pretty tough to describe. It's too slow and fucked up to really be pure black metal, but it's too black and twisted to be doom or anything else. At times it sounds a bit like The Cure if they were raised on Abruptum and Burzum, and fed loads and loads of bad acid and PCP. Some moments sound like a more specifically metal Gnaw Their Tongues, but for the most part Slagmaur do their own thing, a fucked up, sick and twisted, and gloriously damaged and demented thing. Yet another new name to add to the ever expanding aQ canon of super fucked outsider blackness. Needless to say (but we will anyway), absolutely essential.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Okay metalheads, line forms here, to grab this, the final (?), and most elaborate issue yet, of the legendary and supremely kick ass Slayer magazine, #20, or XX as it's grimly printed on the cover, edited and written and put together as always by Metalion, but unlike the past issues, this one is a proper, super fancy hardcover book, a massive metallic tome, and while the outside may look super slick, the inside is the same old Slayer mag, cut and paste old school zine style, lots of drawings and cartoons, different typefaces, photos, no efforts made to smooth the edges, to hide the bits of tape or the staples that might have show up in the photocopies, nope this is a total DIY, kvlt metal zine, gussied up book style. Featuring interviews with and articles about Watain, Morbid, Whiplash, Bathory, Sadus, Kreator, Master's Hammer, Sadistik Exekution, Funeral Mist, Nifelheim, Destroyer 666, SUNNO))), Grotesque, Savage Thrust, Medieval, Invidious Deathrash, Obscurity, Nocturnal Graves, Pagan Altar, Strid, Jarboe and more.
Also includes an exclusive 12" ep from Pre-Nihilist / pre-Entombed outfit Morbid, featuring original Mayhem vocalist Dead, consisting of 4 tracks of super raw, thrashing black metal, murky and muddy and blown out, old demos and a live track, and a creepy bit of spoken word from Dead, raw and primitive and heavy and hateful and BLACK. The perfect sonic companion.
Also included is a big poster, on one side, Jon Nodtveidt of Dissection, the other side, a blown up version of the Slayer #20 cover art, featuring killer artwork by Erik Danielsson. So totally recommended. Every metalhead's bookshelf needs one of these!
LIMITED TO 2000 COPIES!!! ALREADY SOLD OUT AND OUT OF PRINT, so these are the ONLY and the LAST copies we will ever get...
We all loved the blurred washed out buzz of weirdo black metallers Velvet Cacoon. Even the non metalheads around here. And when they called it quits, thus was born Clair Cassis, which was like an even more fuzzy, dreamy, and poppy version of Velvet Cacoon. But if you ever wished even Clair Cassis was more dreamy, more shoegazey and WAY more lush and poppy, well then Sleeping Peonies are for you.
Most folks missed out completely on their debut, Rose Curl, Sea Swirl, we only managed to get a tiny handful for the store, but we loved what we heard, and wanted to make sure that the next SP record would get reviewed and listed. And so here it is. Like the debut, this is a lush, smeared, soft focus buzzscape that's as much eighties 4AD shimmer as it is black metal buzz, if not more. Sure there are blast beats, and howled vokills, but they drift in thick clouds of warm whirling haze, and lustrous chordal thrum, and most of the more blackened blasts end up fading into sweet sonic swirls, notes are doused in reverb and left to drift in the ether, the sound seesawing between murky buzz and spacious glimmery drift. There's also lots of cool weird production, thick corrosive low end rumbles underpinning anguished wails, piano like melodies hovering over deep softly roiling shimmer, bursts of heaviness that are so high in the mix, they causes strange ripple effects as the sound threatens to overwhelm all the other sounds around it, yet even at its heaviest, it's so ethereal and ephemeral, the sound so washed out and woozy, that the black buzz is often rendered more as a sort of blurred doomgaze ambience. Within that ambience, swaths of dreampunk drift rife with lilting melodies blossom into heaving Nadja-worthy swells of crumbling distorted rumble, or collapse into gauzy fuzz drenched slo-mo dream doom. There's also a definite cold/new wave vibe, that reminds us of a way more lo-fi, ramshackle, blackened Soror Dolorosa, who themselves are indebted to eighties gloom pop anyway...
Gorgeous stuff, total blissed out dreampop blackmetal weirdness that should absolutely hit the spot for anyone into Velvet Cacoon, Clair Cassis, Alcest, Amesoeurs, Les Discrets and other purveyors of dreamy buzzy blackness...
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!! House in a nice thick black envelope, with a hand bound 16 page booklet filled with lyrics, and a poster!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Finally, a new record from this UK black-bliss / screamo / dreamo / blackgaze outfit, who take the post black metal of groups like Alcest and Amesouers to the next level, transforming buzzing, blasting blackness into bleary, beautiful blissed out heaviness, less black metal and more black tinged dream pop. The last Sleeping Peonies was so limited we sold out in a heartbeat, and even though we are the exclusive distributor for this new one, we're expecting the same thing to happen again, as it's limited to just 130 copies, of which we got less than half!!!
It's a short record, less than 20 minutes, but it's more than enough, six tracks of gorgeously, melancholic and blissfully blown out heaviness, by turns poppy and prismatic, somber and haunting, the only real black metal elements remaining, are some insectoid guitar buzz, and some anguished vokills, cuz otherwise, sonically, it's much more aligned with classic 4AD goth, nineties shoegaze, modern bliss pop, and the production reminds us to folks like TIm Hecker or Leyland Kirby, all gristly and washed out, woozy and warbly, home brewed and super distorted, the sounds melting and crumbling, all wound up in gorgeous heart wrenching melancholy melodies.
The opener, with the very emo title "A Timid Eyelash Flutter", sets the scene, with dark piano chords, wreathed in reverb and echo, slowly enveloped by huge billowy squalls of blacknoise, swirling soft focus static, the sound super psychedelic, and totally mesmerizing. "Dreamrrz" adds some raspy vokills to what would otherwise be straight up fuzzy new wave goth pop, and sans those vocals could be some Brooklyn band on Captured Tracks. "Cemetery Kisses" too is all Cure and Kate Bush, tangled up into something fuzzier and blacker, but only just, a slow build to an epic softly psychedelic coda, replete with dramatic deep vox and wild swaths of distorted guitar. The title track takes buzzing black metal guitar, and wreathed it in prismatic shimmer, and recasts it as something totally dreamlike and blissed out, with a soaring sonic climax, that would give Godspeed a run for their money, but the sound here is pushed way into the red, crumbling and blurring into gorgeous abstract smears, while buried beneath all this swirl and shimmer, drums pound and piano plinks, leading into the hypnotically cosmic "Snowbound In Hazel And Furs", which begins all hazy and poppy, before the sound darkens a bit, burying the poppiness beneath some wintry buzz, heavy, but softly, and woozily heavy, settling into something much more gloom-gaze goth-pop than metal, but it's that metal underpinning that gives this bliss pop teeth. Finally, the record winds down with a gorgeous ambient closer, all looped and layered, and wreathed in soft FX, man, would we kill for a whole record of that mesmerizing dreaminess!
Gorgeous stuff for sure. Maybe too blissy and poppy for some metalheads, but their loss, and popkids might find this the perfect gateway to darker sonic climes, and really, anyone into all strains of shoegaze-y dream pop, who doesn't mind a bit of black and buzz in their jangle and shimmer, this is pure black-pop perfection...
LIMITED TO 130 COPIES, housed in a purple parchment envelope, with a cardstock Japanese style obi, an 11" x 17" poster, an 8 page 5.5" x 8.5" booklet, album notes printed on gray parchment, the envelope hand decorated and adorned with faeries!
We're huge fans of Santa Cruz black metallers Fell Voices, their sprawling epic blackness immediately held us in its thrall, flitting from total classic Scandinavian style blackness, to raw punky pounding filth, to meandering post metal drift, to furious Cascadian style epicness, all blurred into massive totally transcendental, side long black metal jams. But ever since we first reviewed the Fell Voices lp, we had a handful of customers emailing us insisting that we had to check out Sleepwalker, a side project of the drummer of Fell Voices. We managed to get in touch with him, and now we finally got a handful of the two Sleepwalker demos, one from last year, and a brand new one from 2010, most folks will probably want one of each, they're pretty crazy cheap after all, and they're amazing, but sadly, they're the very last copies we'll be able to get, we only have about 10 of each, so grab one before they're gone...
Sleepwalker is similarly epic, but more washed out and murky than Fell Voices, occasionally more midtempo and depressive. The 2010 demo begins all gorgeously washed out and hazy blurred blackness that in some ways sounds more like Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker, the drums a buried metronomic pulse, the guitars a smeared swirl, a lumbering melancholic dirge that grows more and more jangly as the record porgresses, only to finally switch to what sounds like a black blast, but it's hard to tell the sound is so gauzy and indistinct, regardless it's simple more dense swirling buzz drenched blackness. The second track begins with a long stretch of frantic buzz, and spoken word vocals, only to finally slip into a punkish blast, the guitars again blurring into strange amorphous shapes, all wrapped up with weirdly crooned vocals, the production muddy enough that the heavier it gets, the more abstract and spaced out it sounds, and finally, the last track is all acoustic, but not just folky interlude style acoustic, it's almost like acoustic black metal, the guitar strummed fiercely, frantically, eventually strange almost industrial percussion surfaces and the track begins to sound like some sort of militaristic industrial folk before finishing off in a cloud of stel string buzz.
The 2009 demo, is more post rock influenced, spare simple drumming, deep rumbling bass, spidery guitar melodies, repetitive and motorik, eventually the sound cranks up but doesn't get metal so much as it gets rocking, pounding away for a while before exploding into something more expansive and epic, sounding a bit like Godspeed, noise rock and black metal all woven together, surprisingly melodic and catchy, a little bit jangly too, although it does seem to get darker and blacker as it goes. The second track is much like the opening track on the 2010 demo, murky and washed out, blurred and a bit shoegazey, even the shrieks and blasts and buzz and smoothed out into something way more hypnotic and dreamlike, before the final track finishes off in a blaze of blown out, blissed out blackened post rock buzz, epic and majestic, hypnotic and repetitive, the vocals buried yowls, the drums way down in the mix, all riding on the soaring sheets of black-psych-metal-gaze guitars. Awesome.
Both demos come in oversized white envelopes, each with a different pasted on front image, each with a small printed inserts, and unfortunately they're both out of print so these are the last copies we'll be able to get...
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We're huge fans of Santa Cruz black metallers Fell Voices, their sprawling epic blackness immediately held us in its thrall, flitting from total classic Scandinavian style blackness, to raw punky pounding filth, to meandering post metal drift, to furious Cascadian style epicness, all blurred into massive totally transcendental, side long black metal jams. But ever since we first reviewed the Fell Voices lp, we had a handful of customers emailing us insisting that we had to check out Sleepwalker, a side project of the drummer of Fell Voices. We managed to get in touch with him, and now we finally got a handful of the two Sleepwalker demos, one from last year, and a brand new one from 2010, most folks will probably want one of each, they're pretty crazy cheap after all, and they're amazing, but sadly, they're the very last copies we'll be able to get, we only have about 10 of each, so grab one before they're gone...
Sleepwalker is similarly epic, but more washed out and murky than Fell Voices, occasionally more midtempo and depressive. The 2010 demo begins all gorgeously washed out and hazy blurred blackness that in some ways sounds more like Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker, the drums a buried metronomic pulse, the guitars a smeared swirl, a lumbering melancholic dirge that grows more and more jangly as the record porgresses, only to finally switch to what sounds like a black blast, but it's hard to tell the sound is so gauzy and indistinct, regardless it's simple more dense swirling buzz drenched blackness. The second track begins with a long stretch of frantic buzz, and spoken word vocals, only to finally slip into a punkish blast, the guitars again blurring into strange amorphous shapes, all wrapped up with weirdly crooned vocals, the production muddy enough that the heavier it gets, the more abstract and spaced out it sounds, and finally, the last track is all acoustic, but not just folky interlude style acoustic, it's almost like acoustic black metal, the guitar strummed fiercely, frantically, eventually strange almost industrial percussion surfaces and the track begins to sound like some sort of militaristic industrial folk before finishing off in a cloud of stel string buzz.
The 2009 demo, is more post rock influenced, spare simple drumming, deep rumbling bass, spidery guitar melodies, repetitive and motorik, eventually the sound cranks up but doesn't get metal so much as it gets rocking, pounding away for a while before exploding into something more expansive and epic, sounding a bit like Godspeed, noise rock and black metal all woven together, surprisingly melodic and catchy, a little bit jangly too, although it does seem to get darker and blacker as it goes. The second track is much like the opening track on the 2010 demo, murky and washed out, blurred and a bit shoegazey, even the shrieks and blasts and buzz and smoothed out into something way more hypnotic and dreamlike, before the final track finishes off in a blaze of blown out, blissed out blackened post rock buzz, epic and majestic, hypnotic and repetitive, the vocals buried yowls, the drums way down in the mix, all riding on the soaring sheets of black-psych-metal-gaze guitars. Awesome.
Both demos come in oversized white envelopes, each with a different pasted on front image, each with a small printed inserts, and unfortunately they're both out of print so these are the last copies we'll be able to get...
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Originally released as a super limited cd-r back in 2009, and more recently as an insanely limited lp, these first recordings from this Fell Voices side project get a second vinyl pressing, again on heavy white vinyl, mastered at 45rpm, and BEAUTIFULLY packaged.
Here's what we had to say about this Sleepwalker record when we first reviewed the cd-r:
We're huge fans of Santa Cruz black metallers Fell Voices, their sprawling epic blackness immediately held us in its thrall, flitting from total classic Scandinavian style blackness, to raw punky pounding filth, to meandering post metal drift, to furious Cascadian style epicness, all blurred into massive totally transcendental, side long black metal jams. But ever since we first reviewed the Fell Voices lp, we had a handful of customers emailing us insisting that we had to check out Sleepwalker, a side project of the drummer of Fell Voices. We managed to get in touch with him, and now we finally got a handful of the two Sleepwalker demos, one from last year, and a brand new one from 2010, most folks will probably want one of each, they're pretty crazy cheap after all, and they're amazing, but sadly, they're the very last copies we'll be able to get, we only have about 10 of each, so grab one before they're gone...
Sleepwalker is similarly epic, but more washed out and murky than Fell Voices, occasionally more midtempo and depressive. The 2009 demo, like the follow up, is seriously post rock influenced, spare simple drumming, deep rumbling bass, spidery guitar melodies, repetitive and motorik, eventually the sound cranks up but doesn't get metal so much as it gets rocking, pounding away for a while before exploding into something more expansive and epic, sounding a bit like Godspeed, noise rock and black metal all woven together, surprisingly melodic and catchy, a little bit jangly too, although it does seem to get darker and blacker as it goes. The second track is gorgeously murky and washed out, blurred and a bit shoegazey, even the shrieks and blasts and buzz are smoothed out into something way more hypnotic and dreamlike, before the final track finishes off in a blaze of blown out, blissed out blackened post rock buzz, epic and majestic, hypnotic and repetitive, the vocals buried yowls, the drums way down in the mix, all riding on the soaring sheets of black-psych-metal-gaze guitars. Awesome.
As for the packaging, Vedavu have pulled out all the stops. The vinyl is housed in a full color inner sleeve, which in turn is housed in a full color jacket, all the images super bright and abstract, not really black metal looking at all, the cover looks like pouring milk or some mysterious white honeycomb, all very striking, and on top of that there's a thick textured paper letter pressed Japanese style obi, black on black. Wow. Already sold out at the label, these are the only copies we'll be able to get!
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Originally released as a super limited cd-r back in 2010, these early recordings from this Fell Voices side project finally gets a super deluxe vinyl reissue, much like the 2009 demo, also repressed and listed elsewhere on this week's list. But unlike I (2009), this is the very first time the second Sleepwalker demo has been available on vinyl. Like the other reissue, II (2010), pressed on heavy black vinyl, mastered at 45rpm, and BEAUTIFULLY packaged.
Here's what we had to say about this Sleepwalker record when we first reviewed the cd-r:
We're huge fans of Santa Cruz black metallers Fell Voices, their sprawling epic blackness immediately held us in its thrall, flitting from total classic Scandinavian style blackness, to raw punky pounding filth, to meandering post metal drift, to furious Cascadian style epicness, all blurred into massive totally transcendental, side long black metal jams. But ever since we first reviewed the Fell Voices lp, we had a handful of customers emailing us insisting that we had to check out Sleepwalker, a side project of the drummer of Fell Voices. We managed to get in touch with him, and now we finally got a handful of the two Sleepwalker demos, one from last year, and a brand new one from 2010, most folks will probably want one of each, they're pretty crazy cheap after all, and they're amazing, but sadly, they're the very last copies we'll be able to get, we only have about 10 of each, so grab one before they're gone...
Sleepwalker is similarly epic, but more washed out and murky than Fell Voices, occasionally more midtempo and depressive. The 2010 demo (here renamed II) begins all gorgeously washed out and hazy blurred blackness that in some ways sounds more like Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker, the drums a buried metronomic pulse, the guitars a smeared swirl, a lumbering melancholic dirge that grows more and more jangly as the record progresses, only to finally switch to what sounds like a black blast, but it's hard to tell the sound is so gauzy and indistinct, regardless it's simple more dense swirling buzz drenched blackness. The second track begins with a long stretch of frantic buzz, and spoken word vocals, only to finally slip into a punkish blast, the guitars again blurring into strange amorphous shapes, all wrapped up with weirdly crooned vocals, the production muddy enough that the heavier it gets, the more abstract and spaced out it sounds, and finally, the last track is all acoustic, but not just folky interlude style acoustic, it's almost like acoustic black metal, the guitar strummed fiercely, frantically, eventually strange almost industrial percussion surfaces and the track begins to sound like some sort of militaristic industrial folk before finishing off in a cloud of steel string buzz.
As for the packaging, Vedavu have pulled out all the stops. The vinyl is housed in a full color inner sleeve, which in turn is housed in a full color jacket, all the images super bright and abstract, not really black metal looking at all, the cover image is all swirling liquids and abstract textures, all very striking, and on top of that there's a full color printed inner sleeve and a thick textured paper letter pressed Japanese style obi. Wow. Already sold out at the label, these are the only copies we'll be able to get!
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Originally released as a super limited cd-r back in 2009, these first recordings from this Fell Voices side project finally gets a super deluxe (but sadly INSANELY LIMITED, only 100 copies, of which we got TEN) vinyl reissue, pressed on heavy white vinyl, mastered at 45rpm, and BEAUTIFULLY packaged (more on that below).
Here's what we had to say about this Sleepwalker record when we first reviewed the cd-r:
We're huge fans of Santa Cruz black metallers Fell Voices, their sprawling epic blackness immediately held us in its thrall, flitting from total classic Scandinavian style blackness, to raw punky pounding filth, to meandering post metal drift, to furious Cascadian style epicness, all blurred into massive totally transcendental, side long black metal jams. But ever since we first reviewed the Fell Voices lp, we had a handful of customers emailing us insisting that we had to check out Sleepwalker, a side project of the drummer of Fell Voices.
And they were right, Sleepwalker is similarly epic, but more washed out and murky than Fell Voices, occasionally more midtempo and depressive.
The tracks here, originally released as the 2009 Demo cd-r, are more post rock influenced, with spare simple drumming, deep rumbling bass, spidery guitar melodies, repetitive and motorik, eventually the sound cranks up but doesn't get metal so much as it gets rocking, pounding away for a while before exploding into something more expansive and epic, sounding a bit like Godspeed, noise rock and black metal all woven together, surprisingly melodic and catchy, a little bit jangly too, although it does seem to get darker and blacker as it goes. The second track is murky and washed out, blurred and a bit shoegazey, even the shrieks and blasts and buzz and smoothed out into something way more hypnotic and dreamlike, before the final track finishes off in a blaze of blown out, blissed out blackened post rock buzz, epic and majestic, hypnotic and repetitive, the vocals buried yowls, the drums way down in the mix, all riding on the soaring sheets of black-psych-metal-gaze guitars. Awesome.
As for the packaging, Vedavu have pulled out all the stops. Especially considering there are only 100 copies. The vinyl is housed in a full color inner sleeve, which in turn is housed in a full color jacket, all the images super bright and abstract, not really black metal looking at all, the cover looks like pouring milk or some mysterious white honeycomb, all very striking, and on top of that there's a thick textured paper Japanese style obi, embossed and printed in gold reflective ink. Wow. And again, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! We have ten and once these are gone that's it!!
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When people talk about the 'happening' San Francisco music scene, they're not usually talking about The Lord Weird Slough Feg -- unless it's a denim-clad German metalhead who's doing the talking! Then, perhaps you'll hear them rave about these guys. Utterly trend-free true heavy metal rock n' roll, equal parts Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Queen, Judas Priest, Manowar, Manilla Road...and some Black Flag too, but you'd have to really pay attention to hear that. Slough Feg's music is epic, rockin', riff-laden stuff with heroic vocals and tons of lead guitar. Their lyrics deal with fantasy, insanity, and Celtic myth. They released their first cd, a self-titled half-hour-long mini-album, on their own Beef Rock label back in 1996, and it has long since gone out of print. Since then, they've managed to develop a bit of a cult following in Europe (with two albums so far out on Italian metal label Dragonheart) as well as among a select group of enlightened American metal fans, including quite a few Aquarius customers. They also spawned the popular metal opera project Hammers of Misfortune (on Andee's tUMULt label). Now Miskatonic, the label run by Rich Walker of the godly British doom metal band Solstice, has done us the favor of reissuing Slough Feg's debut effort, with new packaging and, better yet, seven bonus tracks taken from Slough Feg's pitifully-circulated early '90s demo tapes. All remastered of course -- the demo tracks definitely sound better than before. It's nice to have this be available again, as the original cd featured several of Slough Feg's best songs: the Sabbathy "Shadows of the Unborn", the Irish jig "The Red Branch" (always a live favorite), parts III and IV of their prog-rock epic "High Season", the ripping yet melodic "20th Century Wretch", and others. The bonus tracks are equally great, including such otherwise unavailable Slough Feg classics as "The Mask" and the fuzzy, doomy "Headhunter", along with demo versions of "The Red Branch", parts I and II of "High Season", and "The Room" (a different version of which appeared on an obscure comp called "Metal Injection" a couple years ago).
They're definitely one of those love 'em or hate 'em bands, and lots of folks just aren't gonna "get" 'em. They're often seen to be too weird for a lot of metal fans, but also way too metal for everyone else. And the "extreme" metal crowd might find them too melodic as well. But for some -- not just me -- they're one of the best bands around. People who like The Fucking Champs for not-entirely-ironic reasons (or, actually, for those too, why not?) should check Slough Feg out. Slough Feg are *not* ironic, and *are* somewhat ridiculous, but they know it and have the nerve to do what they do anyway 'cause they love it. Besides, all that serious, dark, black, death metal can be pretty darn ridiculous too when you think about it or read the lyrics.
Amazingly (note: sarcasm), Miskatonic has managed to totally capture the amateur, self-released design aesthetic of the original in repackaging this. From the black and white cover drawing of the Drune Lord Slough Feg in his cave (by Martin Hanford, who is better known for his Bal-Sagoth album covers) to the crappy caligraphic font used throughout to the poorly reproduced band photos, bad layout, and typos in the lyrics, this might actually look *worse* than the 1996 version the band put out themselves...oh well...at least the "underground" vibe is intact! And it's in print, with bonus tracks, so we really can't complain. Note, though, that Miskatonic also managed to run the songs "Why Not" and "Highway Corsair" together as a single track (#5), instead of being tracks 5 and 6 the way they are listed on the back of the cd. Whoops. Perhaps the vinyl version, slated to appear at the end of the year on German label Metal Supremacy, will correct these superficial problems. But if you're not a vinyl diehard, this cd is certainly recommended now.
Latest in God Is Myth's ongoing series of super limited 3" cd-r's. each a tribute, homage, musical offering to the legacy of H.P. Lovecraft, who, as we've posited before, has had more of an affect on heavy metal, than even J.R.R. Tolkien! And these are crazy limited, only 100 copies, we got 20, and it's already out of print, this is your first and only stab and nabbing one of these.
The series so far has been pretty stellar, and surprisingly varied. Past installments have included UK experimental folk black metal one man band Caina, Appalachian heathen black metallers Harvist, mysterious blacknoise dronelords LVTHN, and Kentuckian black buzzers Sapthuran, who shared a split with the mighty Leviathan a while back.
The newest comes from a truly bizarre and epic post rock avant black metal trio called Smohalla, who hail from France, and while not shoegazey like the other French BM outfits we've been so obsessed with as of late, Alcest, Amesoeurs, etc., they do display a similar unconventional approach to their black metal, and while not as blissy, it is quite fuzzy and tripped out and in many ways not very black at all.
The intro is a brief swirl of atmospheric cinematic sort of krautrock, reminding us a bit of Silver Mt. Zion, epic and intense with some very Achim Reichel like vocals, delayed and tripped out.
The second track we expected to burst into furious buzz, but instead begins like some apocalyptic folk track, all martial snares, and mournful melodies, swoonsome melodic swells, chanted crooned vocals, clean finger picked guitars, all dense and reverby, wrapped in a mist of fuzzy swirl, definitely more post rock than metal, very reminiscent of Ved Buens Ende, but more washed out and druggy. There are some black metal riffs, but they're delivered cleanly, and stretched over a loping rhythmic backdrop. Before the pic doomy breakdown near the end, a thick wall of roiling guitars, heavy, but more melodic and mysterious.
The whole record tends to hover in a strange post rock landscape, where chunks of metal and buzzing riffage, drift by on steady currents of midtempo dramatic math rock minimalism, with occasional howly metal vox, but even then they're strewn over a chaotic avant rock framework, and the occasional blast beats too are nestled in thick reverby swaths of soft buzz instead of grim blackness�
The only truly metal moment, is the opening of track 4 with it's dense furious buzzing riff, and harsh vocals, but even that is long passages of haunting piano, strange swirling FX, and disembodied voices, some very choral, the vocals like some ancient angelic choir.
These guys may be a metal band, and this may very well be a black metal record, but the typical tropes of black metal are not the focus, instead, they're just elements of a bigger whole, a weird, creepy, off kilter, fucked up, epic, cinematic whole, the sound more dark and haunting than heavy, more loping and midtempo than blasting and buzzing, but in many ways that makes this an even more appropriate tribute to the Lovecraft and the magical worlds he created.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, and again we have 20 of those. You know what that means. Full color cover, each disc includes an insert with information on Lovecraft as well as a killer creepy portrait.
This French avant post black metal outfit from France is named for a Native American 'dreamer-prophet', and the word can be loosely translated simple as 'dreamer', which might sound a bit pretentious, at least until you hear this stuff, which really, is barely black metal at all, other than in vibe and mood, lineage and perhaps the occasional bit of buzz, cuz for the most part, the sound of Smohalla is much more abstract and spaced out, swirly and shimmery and dreamlike, hints of post rock and krautrock and a sort of ethereal melancholia, lots of synths and effects, strange spectral vocals, all woven into a sort of gloomy avant pop, the sort of thing that will no doubt have folks into groups like Alcest and Amesoeurs flipping their lids. But Smohalla are even LESS metal than either of those bands. There are some killer riffs, that at first sound like they could explode into some frenzied buzzing, but instead seem to blossom into a weirdly prismatic blackened pop. The record opens with "Quasar", the title hinting at the cosmic / celestial sounds within, simple skeletal drumming, lots of glitch and swirl, echoey piano, and blurred synth smears, thick layered thrum, epic and majestic, strange sampled voices, choral like harmonies, some big distorted drums, with the synths and effects cranked up alongside for a seriously druggy shoegazey final few seconds. Which gives way to the aforementioned almost-black metal riffage, the song intricate and expansive, ghostly and surreal one second, lumbering and dirge-y the next, hints of BM weirdos Virus about, with weird mathiness, and gnarled atonal guitars. The bellowed dramatic vox and soaring synths, wrapped around more metallic riffage, definitely remind us of Borknagar, Solefald and Ved Buens Ende, but this is so much more far out, totally blissed out experimental blackness, but infused with huge heapings of pop, and a what-the-fuck streak a mile wide.
That's not to say the band aren't capable of some serious blackened heaviness, just check out "Oracle Rouge", with one of the best riffs on the record, and loping woozy rhythm, some actual black metal shrieks, not to mention some furious blasting, fans of Peste Noire will dig this off kilter weirdo black metal doom pop weirdness, there's even some skittery programmed drums, some soaring strings, the final bit of the song seriously cinematic. And then it's right back into more creepy black pop mystery and abstract avant gloom dreaminess. There are a few more instances of serious blackness but for the most part, Smohalla continue to unfurl a fantastical black soundscape that has us thinking even a few weeks in, and even though technically this came out last year, we might already have a contender for (sort of) black metal record of the year!
From the same label that brought us the damaged depressive blackened genius of Happy Days, and the melancholic doom-ed black metal of Leaden, comes this, the first release from Swiss outfit Smorzando, who craft a strange and haunting world of melancholy black metal, mixing the creepy drone-y miserablism of Burzum, with strange abstract post rock, and super blown out in the red production, creating something both black and brutal, fucked up and mysterious, with a super unique sound that is as much noise rock or post rock as it is black metal.
The drums are simple, the guitars go from distant minimal jangle, to blown out crumbling distortion, the melody is a simple keyboard suspended in a sea of black buzz, the vocals go from guttural growl to hysterical shriek, but are buried under swells of super distorted �in-the-red, shoegazey blackness. Occasionally, the songs lurch into furious blasts, but for the most part just lurch and lumber, lonely and forlorn, the deep bass and strange melodies sound like foghorns, the production wrapping everything in a grey fuzzy fog, the guitars effected and warbly, sometimes sounding almost electronic, other times sounding like a black avalanche of sound, always underpinned by a lilting melancholy melody or some ghostly ambience, so gorgeous and sad and heavy and absolutely beautiful. One of our new favorite slabs of depressive doom drenched black metal misery for sure.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. Each packaged in a super cool plastic clamshell cassette case, with haunting black and white artwork, and printed black and white fold out insert.
The Soft Pink Truth was originally the solo outlet for Drew Daniels of experimental electronica duo Matmos to get ridiculous with over the top gay house/disco music. How ridiculous? Well, in this case, the subtitle to his long awaited new SPT album says it all: "Electronic Profanations Of Black Metal Classics", meaning, club/techno/IDM/industrial versions of songs by Venom, Beherit, Sarcofago, Sargeist, Darkthrone, Mayhem, Hellhammer and others! What Drew did to his favorite hardcore punk songs ten years ago on SPT's Do You Want New Wave Or Do You Want The Soft Pink Truth? disc, he does here for his fave black metal tracks, which we'd always predicted/hoped he would - since, as we can attest, Drew's no poseur, he's seriously a big fan of black metal, and has been for years. Although, what he's up to here is perhaps less than serious - one of the alternate subtitles provided in the liner notes is as follows: "Putting The Fag Back In Sarcofago". So, there's an element of humor (and, of course, um, gayness) here that your average corpsepainted churchburner might not appreciate. At the same time, though, Drew has put some deep thought into his reasons for manifesting these "profanations", which he explains in the liner notes, the section that begins "Confessions Of A Former Burzum T-Shirt Wearer", check it out and see what you think.
Anyway, about the music on here, we can kind of sum it up by saying a lot of it sounds like Snap (y'know, of "The Power" fame) meets Cradle Of Filth. Or Skinny Puppy with a dose of C+C Music Factory, wearing corpse paint. It's rave music that took a wrong turn into an Impaled Northern Moonforest - which happens to be the name of the late Seth "A.C." Putnam's joke black metal band, whose "Grim And Frostbitten Gay Bar" is the last track covered here (that one NOT actually a black metal classic, but still an album highlight, in part thanks to the use of a Rihanna sample, are we right?). Elsewhere, results vary, at the worst it can be pretty goofy, but on the other hand, a few tracks get pretty crazy in a cool Venetian Snares sort of way. For lots of folks, this might be more of an amusing novelty record, and to a degree that's essentially what this is - but still, we wonder what folks unfamiliar with all the black metal Drew is referencing will think? Perhaps for some open minded dance music fan who stumbles upon it somehow, it could become the most demented booty-shaker in their collection.
