Two disc remastered reissue of this out of print cd as well as two out of print/super limited eps from one of our favorite black metal bands, before they got all 'weird'. This is Arcturus at their black metal prime, before they discovered techno and Mr. Bungle and circuses and rapping. Fast and majestic Nordic black metal more along the lines of Dimmu Borgir and the like with lots of keyboards, soaring baritone vocals (sounding remarkably like Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan and hinting at their future direction perhaps) inhuman shrieks, blazing double kick drumming as well as orchestral/melodic breaks. Totally melodic but still pretty brutal and fierce, and kinda "prog" too, but not nearly as prog as they ended up getting... A lot of you probably already have the original, but this double disc is remastered and includes the tracks from their 1991 7" and a 1994 promo only cd.
THE weird, Mr. Bungle-ized Norwegian black metal album of the millennium, featuring Garm of Ulver and Hellhammer of Mayhem. "Rewind" from the start of the first song to hear the hidden bonus trip hop track!
They'rrrrre back! Norway's archetypal artsy "post-black metal" supergroup, featuring members of Ulver, Mayhem, and more. We thought they'd broken up after 1998's peak of bizarreness, "La Masquerade Infernale", as all we'd heard from them since then was a
One of the main figures in Arcturus (you may know) is Garm from Ulver (he's also boss of the amazing Jester label, current home to Ulver, When, Rotoscope, Bogus Blimp, Single Unit, Origami Galaktika, etc.) who is responsible for "voices of ghosts and monkeys and general manipulation" and lyrics. His songwriting partner Steinar Sverd Johnsen handles keyboards and composes the music. Out of the rest of the Arcturus lineup, "Lords of Chaos" readers will also recognize Hellhammer (of Mayhem and about a million other Nordic metal outfits) on "drums and flames". The band is rounded out by "high guitar rider" Knut M. Valle and "low guitar driver" Dag F. Gravem. Emperor's Ihsahn contributes "spitting voice" on one track as well.
Together these guys meld majestic keys, blasting drums, soaring vocals, melodic piano runs, rasping screams, and electronic atmospheres into what can only be described as Arcturus music. It's similar to "La Masquerade", but what seems new is how catchy and poppy some of this is. But, at the same time it's also quite metal indeed. Dark and heavy, not allowing the keyboards to overpower the guitars. And, after the gangsta rap and drum and bass remixes found on "Disguised Masters", this record seems almost normal! That is, if you can consider bombastic sci-fi metallic prog pop 'normal'. I guess it is, in the more advanced universe Garm and company inhabit. Brilliant!
Besides having possibly the coolest, and most illegible metal logo ever, these Knoxville Tennessee blackened doomlords unleash some seriously sick sludge, that is after an extended stretch of ominous ambience, more than a quarter of the opening 12 minute track. It begins with a dark swirl of field recordings, the sound of the forest, or the swamp, insects, splashing water, all underpinned by an ominous low end rumble, the sound getting more industrial and noisy as it goes, with strange percussion, looped fractured rhythms, all over a churning collage of layered nature sounds, the whole thing seriously psychedelic... The track finally settles into a hushed stretch of clean guitar shimmer, before erupting into what is essentially slo-mo black metal, lumbering, and downtuned, the sound then shifting from that blackened buzz, to some seriously knuckle dragging doom-ic crush, eventually building to something a bit more frenzied and propulsive, the same creeping riffage, but with wilder, more chaotic drumming, before the guitars amp up too, the band getting sort of chugging and almost math-metally for the last couple minutes, finishing off with some shrieked, feedback drenched, FX-flecked, Eyehategod-worthy ultra-doom. Whew! The second track begins with some furious fast pick riffing, sheets of feedback, and then the sound explodes into some blasting blackness, a murky, noisy, chaotic black buzz blowout, rife with gnarled riffage, some true metal chug, plenty of noise, and some seriously tangled arrangements. The third track, the shortest of the bunch, again starts off with some soaring, almost Orthrelm style black-shred, before being swallowed up by another cloud of shrieking feedback, erupting into a final furious sprawl of frantic black buzz and harrowing hellish howl.
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As metal band names go, Argile has got to be the least scary one since Chinchilla! (Yes, there's a German band on Metal Blade called Chinchilla). These guys -- the duo of S.A.S. de l'Argilere and Jean-Jacques Moreac -- are from France, actually, but the band Argile reminds us of the most, in spirit and in sound, is Swiss: the legendary Celtic Frost, eccentric and adventurous. Jean-Jacques and S.A.S. play technically proficient, weirdly baroque, darkly dark, black but melodic metal, with plenty of those over-the-top Children Of Bodom -style keyboard flourishes we love. Like their name and album title, a bit absurd, but never admitting to any overt humorous intent. And Argile even do a cover of "In The Shadow Of The Horns" by Norwegian black metal stalwarts Darkthrone, showing that despite their proggy, avantgarde tendencies, they appreciate the more primitive powers of metal as well. Despite their odd name (or perhaps because of it) we can't help but like this a lot.
2nd album from these Pennsylvania epic trad doom metallers, featuring bellowing "Butch" Balich, ex-Penance. We dug the twin axe attack and majestic melodies of their first album, released by Shadow Kingdom, now they've moved on up to new label Cruz Del Sur, but their sound is still plenty cult and underground in the old school Shadow Kingdom style. If you want both heaviness and harmonies in yr metal, Argus has got the goods for you. They have some prog/technical tendencies, and are well versed in classic heavy metal mastery, with echoes of Iron Maiden amidst their modern day doom. Fans of Candlemass and Grand Magus (hey where's the domestic release of their latest??) and Slough Feg, too, also ought to enjoy, as we're reminded of all of 'em, as well.
Shadow Kingdom Records are apparently on a quest to rule the cult heavy metal underground, snapping up a lot of cool bands lately in the true metal/trad doom genres. This list we have the debut full-lengths of two of 'em, Argus and Sinister Realm. Both happen to hail from Pennsylvania, which isn't that odd since the Pittsburgh-based Shadow Kingdom would of course wish to conquer nearby territories.
Franklin, PA's Argus are named after that classic Wishbone Ash album, and although they don't sound anything like Wishbone Ash, they do run with the dual guitar thing that band pioneered back in the early '70s, and the guitar harmonies and solos are definitely the main draw here for us. Their tasty twin guitar work is lashed to ponderous riffage and weighty grooves, over which the commanding vocals of "Butch" Balich (ex-Penance) cry out in anguish and anger. With those vocals, and the chugging metalness of it all, we're reminded of the more recent output of Sweden's Grand Magus. Furthermore, fans of the twin axes wielded by Hammers Of Misfortune, for instance, who'd like to hear that sort of thing in an epic doom context, should check this out.
PS this band also features members of stoner rockers Abdullah and the awesomely named thrashers Oh Shit They're Going To Kill Us.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
More black metal cassette tape madness, this time from mysterious Japanese horde Arkha Sva, who offer up a series of super grim, ultra murky buzz drenched black rituals. Channelling the spirit of the black legions, Mutiilation, Belktre, Vlad Tepes, this is fierce and furious lo-fi blackness, the buzzing guitars a muddy swirl, the drums a throbbing murky pulse, all underpinning guttural strangled vocalisations, a swirling fuzzy black missive to the dark lord, there are some strange sonic surprises tucked away, like the WAY louder-than-everything-else high pitched scream and weird falsetto wailing in the first track. But for the most part this is just an awesome, droney blast of murky black buzz that is as hypnotic and space-y as it is blown out and brutal.
Arkha Sva are another one of our favorite black metal bands, who for whatever reason, have yet to appear on out list save for one solitary cassette listed way back in 2006. But holy shit, these guys are amazing, from Japan, these guys, along with aQ faves Avsolutized (who it's rumored might share a member or two) as well as Manierisme, make up a whole scene that seems to be lurking well beneath the underground, but we can't imagine for long, as the music of these bands is mind blowing, at once beholden to the BM that came before, but so much its own entity.
Arkha Sva create a soundworld both buzzy and murky, lo-fi, with tangled arrangements, droney blasting blackness, so super atmospheric and evocative, managing to be grim and buzzy, but also haunting and intense, with some of the most insane vocals ever, a wildly operatic shriek, that will later define the band's sound, but here only pops up once or twice, more often existing as a harsh howled hellish growl.
This disc collects two early tapes from 2005, and finds the band much more raw and primitive and rough, the sound only hinting at the more outsider and avant elements that would surface later. But in 2005, Arkha Sva were creating super grim, ultra murky buzz drenched black rituals. Channelling the spirit of the black legions, Mutiilation, Belktre, Vlad Tepes (one of the Black Legions members does all the cryptic calligraphy on AS records!), this is fierce and furious lo-fi blackness, the buzzing guitars a muddy swirl, the drums a throbbing murky pulse, all underpinning guttural strangled vocalisations, a swirling fuzzy black missive to the dark lord, there are some strange sonic surprises tucked away, most notably the aforementioned WAY louder-than-everything-else high pitched scream and weird falsetto. But for the most part this is just an awesome, droney blast of murky black buzz that is as hypnotic and space-y as it is blown out and brutal. They even do a couple covers, Mutiilation and Belketre!
So so so recommended. And we suggest you do whatever you can to get everything you can by these guys, and we can guarantee that their next full length will be an epochal moment in black metal. People freaking out over Paysage and Darkspace and whoever else might just find themselves switching their allegiance.
And check out this awesome live clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpuBqeCdOCM
More operatic and buzzing grim black metal madness from Japanese horde Arkha Sva, who team up here with a French BM band called Winter Funeral who we had never heard until now. More on the Arkha Sva tracks in a moment, odds are most aQ black metal freaks are already sold by the two exclusive AS tracks anyway, but Winter Funeral definitely deserve their due. This is some seriously twisted bizarre blackness. The track begins with almost indie rock sounding jangle and some tribal sounding drums, all beneath gorgeous choral hymns, a strange combination, but it sounds amazing. Creepy and haunting and really beautiful. A shirked vocal joins the fray, and the choral vocals drop out... leaving some frantic buzz, and then the band lurches into some more traditional blast and buzz. The sound is murky and muddy and muted, the vocals a grow, the guitar weirdly pretty, sounding like Alcest or Amesoeurs, until the screams return, maniacal almost operatic howls, which is what stylistically ties these bands together most, as Arkha Sva employ even more over the top operatic shrieks, but the bands do make a good combo. The end of the Winter Funeral track finds the weird minor key indie jangle returning, but this time all tangled up with the harsh demonic vox.
Then comes Arkha Sva, and of course, both tracks utterly rule. Fuzzy and blown out and a little lo-fi, chaotic drumming and tangled atonal riffage, and an insane array of shrieks, almost veering into Bathtub Shitter territory for a minute. But then the song breaks down into some cool convoluted, cinematic stop start thing, epic and strange, very dramatic and soundtracky, reminding us of a more black metal Devil Doll or Death SS. The second track is a creeped out doomy plod, the guitars anguished and jagged, the vocals a continuous howl / growl / gurgle, it almost sounds like black metal Black Flag, before the track explodes into more frosty grimness, the guitars a churning swirl, multiple vocals all over the place, growls and shrieks and another feral wail that's entirely over the top.
So fucking awesome. Equal parts traditional black buzz and fucked up far out blackened weirdness. We only got 15 of these, and it's been out for a little while so, once we run out, not sure we'll be able to get more.
Holy shit, does Arkha Sva just keep getting weirder and weirder and better and better! These Japanese black metal freaks begin this latest assault with a tripped out swirly psychedelic intro, before the band launch into some super twisted POST-black metal, a loping super dramatic almost cabaret sounding avant metal, with super over the top crooned clean vocals, the guitars washed out and buzzy, the only hint of troo blackness are the occasional flurries of double kick, until finally those insane Arkha Sva vocals swoop in, impossibly high and totally operatic, a little eighties metal, soaring and shrieking, the band following suit, blasting into some filthy pounding blackness. The track's twisted and gnarled, and totally epic, with those vocals, easily the most amazing in BM, and this song is most definitely the best thing we've heard from these guys which is saying A LOT.
Woods Of Infinity counter with their own take on twisted dramatic blackness, super melodic metal with lots of synths, totally catchy, but all over the map, the vocals freaked out and manic, slipping from nearly spoken to crooned to shrieked, while the music soars majestically in the background, from midtempo Lifelover style black pop to almost symphonic sounding black metal, all the while the vocals never letting up. The second WoI track is a creepy abstract drift, all acoustic guitars, monk-like chanting, and more of those dramatic vocals, haunting and freaky, dark and mysterious and really cool.
Packaged in a super swank gatefold 7" sleeve, LIMITED TO 666 COPIES (of course), each one hand numbered...
If you're a fan of Finland's Circle and/or their various offshoots (and if you're an aQuarius customer, chances you are!), then you know all about the NWOFHM (New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal), the invented sub-genre self-classification that many of those bands embrace, as a somewhat tongue-in-cheek way of incorporating various heavy metal signifiers that they're fans of, into their sound and image. Although even at their most "NWOFHM", Circle, Pharaoh Overlord and the rest still usually come across more proggy and poppy and WTF? than actually metal in most cases. Very few of their records could be mistaken for "real" metal albums, in their entirety - maybe Steel Mammoth's Nuclear Rebirth lp?
But this new NWOFHM unit, a project of Circle mainman Jussi Lehthisalo and his pal Samae Koskinen (a live member of Finnish grind freaks Xysma), is definitely (in our authoritative opinion!) a real metal band. A weird one perhaps, when you read the lyrics and look at the artwork, but metal first and foremost. The iron gauntlet is thrown down right on the opening track, the pounding "Cult Of No Return" (you'll find a video for it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjlLMCSZ_kk), which reminds us a bit of the the "black n' roll" approach of Norwegian kings Satyricon, circa such albums as Volcano and Now, Diabolical. Or at least, this sounds more like Satyricon than Circle, for sure. We're also reminded a bit of the Finnish melodic death metal band Sentenced, back on their long-forgotten NWOBHM (note the B, not an F) influenced Amok opus from '95. And this aggressive (yet also atmospheric) attack by the Akhamin Kirjasto duo continues, for ten varied tracks in total on Torches Ablaze. There's hella old school evil riffing a la Venom, some lashings of symphonic synths, and a dose of (melodic) death metal brutality in the form of the gruff (but intelligible) vokills from Samae, singing in English about such subjects as "Synthetic Death", "Knights Of Torment", and a "Bitch From Hell". Though, he changes up to a more clean style on the likes of "Sea Of Madness" and others, giving a whispery death-gasp on the speedy "Thousand Snakes", a track that could possibly have fit in on Circle's Katapult album. The Lovecraftian thrasher "Speed, Yog Sothoth" is another blazing ripper, albeit laced with unexpected weird noisy breakdowns, Jussi's avant-garde/experimental leanings coming to the fore without violating the essential metalness of this one.
Overall, Torches Ablaze is certainly something that Circle fans should check out, but is maybe more for actual metalheads. Since we're both, of course we're digging the results here, the weird atmosphere that arises from Arkhamin Kirjasto's unusual blend of chugging metal shred, majestic spacey psychedelic synthwork, and the harsh but catchy vox doused in reverb. As NWOFHM goes, if their tongues are in cheek here, they're well hidden. Hail!
Better be ready to bang your head, 'cause here's a brand new 7" single from this badass band, the (self-proclaimed) "Finnish Kings of Lovecraftian Hard Rock & Death Metal". It contains three tracks, about such subjects as undead priests and sadist wizards, recorded during the same sessions that produced their debut full-length Torches Ablaze that we reviewed not long ago (cds and vinyl of that are both still in stock and highly recommended too). Arkhamin Kirjasto, if you didn't know, is a(nother) side project of Circle, featuring Jussi Lehtisalo, a man as prolific as he is talented, and whose Collected Solo Works cd is in fact our Record Of The Week this week. This band basically combines the the spacey Gregorian monk chant sound of early Circle with what the crusty heshers in Darkthrone have been doing lately, so it's for both space rockers and church burners - but definitely on the more metal side of that equation despite some experimentation. The filthiest of '80s and '90s extreme metal is referenced, trad old school metal too, and we hear a hint of Ghost B.C.'s successful Satanic pop sound as well, at least in the incantatory title track here, which utilizes both slowly grinding evil riffage, and epic vocal choirs to hypnotizing effect.
Limited to 500 copies, adorned with cool cover art depicting the Lovecraftian 'Arkham Library' which is what their name means in Finnish.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A few things you might want to know about Armageddon (this band/album, not the Biblical battlefield of the Apocalypse described in the Book Of Revelations, and presumably depicted on the album cover, with the longhaired band lounging about smoking cigarettes in the foreground):
1) Despite the name, it's not a really heavy metal. Recorded in 1974, you could certainly call it "proto-metal", though, as well as "heavy progressive".
2) Don't confuse 'em with the other proto-metal band with more-or-less the same name. That band spells their name with two g's and one d. This band spells their name with one g and two d's. That Armaggedon were from Germany's krautrock scene, this Armageddon were a UK-USA sorta supergroup.
3) Their singer was Keith Relf, originally of The Yardbirds and later Renaissance, and this was his last recorded project before his tragic death from electrocution whilst practicing guitar in '76.
4) On drums, was Bobby Caldwell of Captain Beyond. There's some extra proto-metal cred!
5) And perhaps most importantly, this band included 2 ex-members of British bluesrock act Steamhammer, guitarist Martin Pugh and bassist Louis Cennamo. Steamhammer's best and proggiest album, Speech, is a long-time AQ fave in the heavy prog / proto-metal genre, recently reissued and relisted here not long ago. If you dig Speech, you'll also want to hear Armageddon, in fact, they open up here with a completely rippin' song, "Buzzard", that's adapted from a track on Speech.
6) According to the sleeve, Cennamo claimed to be the "originator of the electric bowed bass guitar".
7) Armageddon's sole, self-titled album has been newly reissued on cd by the Esoteric label, superseding the previous (and hard to find) Repertoire edition, with nicer packaging.
8) Oh yeah, it totally kicks ass and rocks hard, while maintaining an aura of psychedelic hippie higher-minded mysticism. We mentioned speedster "Buzzard", then there's "Silver Tightrope" and "Paths And Planes And Future Gains", both of which sound kinda like a combination of Yes and Captain Beyond, in different and complex ways. "Last Stand Before" is a rollickin', almost funky one too, and then the album wraps up with the four-part epic "Basking In The White Of The Midnight Sun", full of fierce fuzz, percussive bombardment, and some of the heaviest harmonica soloing this side of Sabbath's "The Wizard". What with their pedigree, Armageddon had a knack for breakneck (and quite catchy!) bluesrock riffage, like we said rippin' from the get-go of "Buzzard" through to the finale of "Basking", energetic and exuberant throughout but for the occasional calmer bit of reverie (like on "Silver Tightrope") wherein Relf takes the listener for some lovely astral trippin'.
9) We recommend it, especially to all proto-metal, heavy prog fiends! You know who you are, if you like Captain Beyond, Steamhammer, early Wishbone Ash, Wild Turkey, Tarkus, Toad, early Deep Purple, etc...
That's it. If you want to know more, there's always the liner notes, so buy the disc!! Then you'll get to hear the whole thing too.
Now that doom legends Reverend Bizarre are dead and gone, main clergyman Sir Albert Witchfinder has time to dabble in about a dozen other projects, such as this one, primitive raw black metal outfit Armanenschaft. Sir Albert is in fact known as Ancient Fisherman here, as he and his partners Morbid Necrovore and Hyperborean Princess whip up a furious squall of filthy fucked up black metal. Most of the tracks are fast and furious, brutal and buzzing, although the record begins with a super spacey tripped out Tangerine Dream style synthscape before launching into some ultra raw necro buzz. The guitars are totally blown out, ultra distorted, relentless D-beat drums buried in the mix, the vocals a harsh howl that just as often slips into a super strange strangled wail. Super simple, super stripped down, Repetitive and hypnotic, definitely for fans of Bone Awl, Ildjaarn, Ash Pool, Akitsa and the like.
BUT, there's plenty of weirdness going on too. Long stretches of buzzing black noise, some slower doomy tracks with warped, almost twangy guitars, over looping rhythms and growled vocals, plenty of droning alchemical guitar rituals, crumbling dirges, and hissed inhuman vocals. One of our favorite tracks is one that is just drums and vocals, the drums super processed and locked into a looped D-beat, pounding away, the vocals maniacal and hysterical, going from shriek to moan to mumble to scream, and sounding like some possessed muppet. WOW. But even with all that weirdness, the core of the record is stripped down raw primitive black metal, thrashing and pounding, which we totally love. The weirdness only makes it that much better.
Hail the Ancient Fisherman. Highly recommended. Vinyl only. VERY LIMITED.
Lincoln, Nebraska. America's heartland. Corn Huskers. Saddle Creek (technically Omaha, but whatever). Now bear witness to the spastic grinding futurist attack of Armatron. Veterans of the Midwest hardcore-metal crossover scene, the newly expanded quartet has been slowly perfecting their brand of mutant electro pummel. Two basses, one drummer and an army of synths spit sonic venom in the vein of The Locust (as Armatron mastermind Lux had a short lived stint with said groop), though with a more powerful low end rumble. A long overdue followup to their split disc with Cattle Decapitation and Ticwar on Toyo's "The Science Of Crisis". Hopefully we haven't heard the last from these kids. More to come? Incredibly hilarious artwork by J. Vonwolf (also responsible for the Erase Errata cover art).
Some metal records truly stand the test of time. Sounding as good now as they did when you first heard them. And rare is the record that sounds as good at 36 as it did at 16. But if you ask the metalheads around here, we all agree that Armored Saint's March Of The Saint is one of those records. Part of the same L.A. scene that produced W.A.S.P., Quiet Riot, Dokken, Malice, Ratt, and Motley Crue (Tommy Lee was almost a member of Armored Saint), Armored Saint were somehow a whole lot heavier, blending the thrashy sound of Metallica with the melody and songwriting of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Plus you got John Bush, who has to have one of the best metal voices EVER, not one of those soaring high eighties metal voices, instead a super raspy, melodic croon, that managed to be both rough and melodic at the same time. It was hard not to love the Anthrax records that featured Bush on lead vocals (well, okay, not that hard) but in Armored Saint everything just clicked. A lot of it of course had to do with the songs. Every one packed with hooks, killer leads, amazing riffs, kick ass drumming, unforgettable choruses, one of the best metal records of the eighties for sure. Not sure what else to say. This is one of the few records that we've been listening to for basically the last 20 years. In fact, all of us have it on our iPods as well, and every time it comes on, it's sort of an unspoken truth, that it gets turned up so we can all revel in the metal majesty of March Of The Saint.
As with all the Rock Candy reissues (including the Billy Squier reviewed elsewhere on this list), there are tons of liner notes, interviews with the original band members (who strangely talk mostly about how disappointed they were with the album), rare photos, and three bonus tracks, 24 track demo versions of "March Of The Saint", "Mutiny On The World" and "Seducer" (one of Lars Ulrich from Metallica's favorite songs!).
We've said it before but it bears repeating, what is it with French black metal?! How is it that there are so many amazing bands? Like Norway, France has carved out a distinct and recognizable vibe and sound, and become a black metal powerhouse, so much so that just being from France gives a band some serious grim cred, and it's often well deserved, cuz really, the ratio of French BM that rules versus the ones that suck is pretty impressive. Thus we have the enigmatic The Arrival Of Satan, who besides being from France, have one other distinction that will no doubt endear them to faithful readers of the aQ list, they hail from Grenoble, not necessarily a black metal hotbed, EXCEPT for Diamatregon, and by extension, the various non black offshoots, Aluk Todolo, Gunslingers, GR & Full-Blown Expansion, and as might be inevitable in a scene as small as Grenoble's, The Arrival Of Satan just so happens to feature former Diamatregon drummer, Krukka!
But don't be expecting any sort of weird progressive freaked out psychedelic blackness, like Diamatregon's recent Crossroad masterpiece, the sound of Vexing Verses owes much more to the previous DMTRGN opus Blasphemy For Satan. It's a similarly face melting blast of furious buzz and blown out heaviness, the riffs a dronelike blur, the drums frantic and pounding, always on the verge of collapse, the vocals hysterical and hellish, but within this blurry blast lurks all sorts of weirdness, bizarre convoluted song structures, lurching start stop tempos, bizarre production, some of the tracks, even though they're buzzing and blasting away, manages to sound simultaneously warm and sort of pretty, the guitars will throb and pulse, sometimes dropping out entirely, leaving just the drums to pound away briefly, before lurching back into action, giving the sound a sort of woozy seasick vibe, the riffs are gnarled and twisted, atonal and off kilter, lending a sort of warped avant quality to the sound as well.
On the surface, Vexing Verses does indeed come across as a blazing blast of satanic slaughter and grim black fury, but beneath the blast and howl, the crush and pound, lurks a melted black heart of twisted pop flecked blackness, fucked up Burzumic buzz and a distinctly French, totally twisted what-the-fuck mentality. Grim and black enough for the true, freaky and far out enough for the rest of us...
Yes, ex-SLAYER drummer, Dave Lombardo drumming furiously along to VIVALDI. Simultaneously amazing and ridiculous. Produced by Alberto Contini, who some metalheads might remember as A.C. Wild from Bulldozer (Italy's answer to Venom). Highly recommended. Sort of. One of those completely uncalled-for projects like, uh, well I can't think of one quite like this actually. Note: the Vivaldi is not "arranged for thrash-metal", "switched-on" or anything like that - it's straight operatic classical Vivaldi with The Great Lombardo incongrously adding his trap kit double bass stylings... Apparently inspired by a real encounter that Vivaldi himself had with a Cuban percussionist several hundred years ago (Lombardo is Cuban-born). Possibly the ultimate novelty record of the year (1999) so far!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another warehouse find, dug up a little stash of this stunning 2004 debut from technical melodic death metallers Arsis, and holy shit is this stuff intense and fierce and complex and brutal and incredible.
Explosive grinding blasts of ultra tech blackened crush give way to impossibly melodic classic metal style leads, lumbering knuckle dragging death metal chug blossoms into In Flames Gothenberg style melodic blowouts, tons of killer harmonies, incredible drumming, super mathy and insanely convoluted, super atmospheric too, loads of melody, even during the heaviest, least melodic parts, some smidge of catchiness is lurking in there somewhere. The breakdowns are brutal, roiling and churning, peppered with squealing pick harmonics and wild solos, the vocals a howling rasp, and the songs, sprawling and mathy and majestic, and super proggy, tons of parts, all woven together into weirdly catchy melodic death metal epics, laced with all manner of hook and melody, a relentless onslaught of furious super catchy ultra heaviness, think In Flames, At The Gates, Dark Tranquility, Heartwork era Carcass, Dissection... Needless to say, this STILL totally rules, and sounds better 6 years on than about 90 percent of the heavy music out there...
With a name like Artificial Brain, and a record title like Labyrinth Constellation, when coupled with the crazy seventies van / alien war / D&D / Frazetta style cover art, you knew this was gonna be some sort of epic metal, but we were even more pleased to discover it was in fact a twisted strain of complex sci-fi death metal, gnarled and blackened, obtuse and avant, sorta like Nocturnus crossed with Portal, the sound shifting constantly from blasting, thrashing metallic crush, to grinding, confusional psychedelic metallic chaos, to tranced out black-drone-buzz, intricate and proggy, and furiously mathy. This NY horde features dudes from technical death metal outfit Revocation and and pre-Castevet death-grind combo Biolich (who we LOVE but never managed to review anything by), and really in a way, the band math adds up perfectly to Artificial Brain, a dizzying onslaught of death metal murk, and blackened math metal, sci-fi grind, laced with all sorts of subtle sonic flourishes, cool swirls of shimmering harmonics here, lush layered almost shoegazey moments there, but all settled amidst a blurred and smeared soundscape of impossibly frantic blasts, roiling clouds of monstrous Deathspell style black-buzz churn and furiously fluctuating fields of lumbering stop/start math metal lurch. Fucking fantastic. WAY recommended for fans of Portal, Wold, Dodecahedron, Timeghoul, Gorguts, diSEMBOWELMENT, Abyssal, Cremation, Mitochondrian and other purveyors of twisted, outsider, avant death metal murk.
This first release from local black metal horde Artificium Sanguine was a pleasant surprise. Well, as pleasant as a spiked gauntlet to the gut can be. We were a little skeptical with such a joke-y title, after all, how grim could it be? Well, pretty grim actually. Very lo-fi, and buzzy and hyper blown out, this recording manages to capture the fury and majesty we've witnessed Artificium Sanguis struggle to exude live. Which isn't surprising, since black metal has never really existed as a live experience anyway. It's all about the home recorded misanthropy, spread by word of mouth, cd-r and tape trading, and Ye Olde Demo Taype (I chuckle/cringe even typing it) follows in well worn frosty footprints. While not quite as fucked up and dementedly genius as San Franciso black metal legends Weakling or any of the local scene's current one man bands (Leviathan, Crebain, Draugar, etc.), this is pretty fierce and dark, channelling the spirt of Bathory and Celtic Frost through classic Norwegian black metal and into something properly head banging and soul crushing.
This REDACTED black metal horde features the rhythm section of another BM band we reviewed a while back, and ARTIST 03, much like that band, offer up the same sort of classic Nordic sounding grim black buzz, right out of the gate, their cold atmospheric black metal reminding us of Satyricon, the production tight and slick, but the band have a definite flair for the ambience, creating dark creepy intros and outros, but unlike the usual wolves or wind or rain, it sounds like a seaside, or a harbor, the sound of lapping water, distant foghorns, deep rumbling tones, laid over what sound like field recordings, evoking some serious haunting dread before exploding in a frenzy of lurching super dynamic, mathy start / stop black blasting. Other tracks introduce what sounds like recordings from beneath the surface, a gurgling shimmer wrapped around rumbling pianos, and distant drones, again leading directly into some amazing blasting blackness, tight and heavy and epic, as much as we love raw and primitive and lo-fi, hearing a band this fast and furious sound this tight and heavy never gets old, and these guys DESTROY. Total depressive melodic black buzz majesty.
The record finishes off with a 16 minute sprawl of awesomely complex, gnarled, drone laced doomic black metal, that shifts from lurching crunch and stutter, to loping almost sea sick waltz, peppered with mysterious samples, totally intense and mysterious, eventually drifting into a soundscape of creaking ropes, plucked steel strings, the sound of waves and wind, a mournful seaside lament, the haunting sounds of sea and sky and storm.
Sprawling double disc of self described 'other planetary field drone' from this mysterious REDACTED duo featuring members of doomsludge heavies REDACTED, avant noisemakers REDACTED, and grey metallers REDACTED, one disc of collected tracks, the other disc a 'collaborative' collage put together by ARTIST 08, and made up entirely of an unreleased collaboration between the now defunct REDACTED and the also now defunct REDACTED, but more on that in a second.
The collected tracks disc, gathers up various jams from the last few years, all of them hushed and minimal and mysterious, strange dronescapes of abstract ambience and microscopic events, field recordings and performances, long stretches of creak and whir and thrum and rumble, laced with mysterious voices, fragments of melodies, a sound somewhere between the free forest clatter of Avarus, the ritualistic black abstraction of Abruptum and the free sonic exploration of A Handful Of Dust.
Long streaks of feedback, overloaded mics, monstrous howls, low end crumble, whirring layers of glitch and hum, washed out hazy shimmer laid over murky sonar mumbles and muted clatter and clank, doomy crumbling rhythms pulled apart into sprawling industrial blurs, all smeared into creepy hushed black ambient drifts, and groaning, creaking, whispery abstract free noise minimalism.
The second disc, finds ARTIST 08 assembling somewhat similar sounds, but using only a recording of REDACTED and REDACTED from 2006 as source material, and according to the liner notes: "pots, pipes, a clay skull and a wooden tube". And it sort of sounds like it. Sort of. Ultra minimal, abstract and ambient, stretches of what sound like alien field recordings give way huge heaving swells of crumbling buzz, squalls of roiling blacknoize splinter into full on drum freakouts and blurred drone jams, deep cavernous rumbles explode into jagged shards of hissing static and beastly vocal mewling, gorgeous blown out swells of chordal whir dissipate into chiming metal-buzz minimalism, these lengthy bursts of sonic energy, which actually don't sound all that messed with, more like they're just straight up recordings of those two bands rocking out, but those blowouts are all separated by short interludes of barely there shimmer and hazy muted drift. Killer stuff. On bad ass REDACTED label REDACTED, and most likely crazy limited...
The posthumous debut from (and, thus, swansong of) REDACTED's most cult black metal act, ARTIST 09. Despite their REDACTED, non-forested, non-wintry origins, ARTIST 09 was a band capable of destroying the best Scandinavia has to offer (as we witnessed upon two occasions, when ARTIST 09 had the honor of opening the REDACTED shows by Norweigans REDACTED and REDACTED, and proceeded to make both bands look like punk rockers in comparison! ARTIST 09 were so much more epic and intense). All this without any of the ignorant posturing or hackneyed corpsepaint of their peers.
Ghastly, anguished vocals and bloodchilling keyboards combine with dual trebly buzzsaw guitars and inhuman trance inducing drumming to create an atmosphere of utter grinding grimness. ARTIST 09 draws upon '90s black metal in the Norwegian tradition (especially the raw and primitive likes of Darkthrone, Burzum and Immortal) and then creates uniquely fucked song structures of epic length (20 minutes per, in some cases).
And, like the best music, ARTIST 09 also transcends genre. In some ways, REDACTED possesses elements that can be considered akin to the avant garde, experimental creations of the Swans, Skullflower, Steve Reich, or even Yoko Ono. Imagine an extensive, utterly mesmerizing Hermann Nitsch piece, composed for black metal band.
It's a suffocating soundscape of riffing and drone. Subterranean satanic art rock that equals metal. Nihilistic, depressive and never ending.
Featuring REDACTED formerly of REDACTED as well as drummer REDACTED from local death metallers REDACTED (R.I.P) and REDACTED. And of course, REDACTED of...well, REDACTED. (And REDACTED / REDACTED / REDACTED / REDACTED) REDACTED black metal maniac/death rocker extraordinaire. ARTIST 09 is largely the result of his devotion to black metal dementia.
We are not engaging in baseless hyperbole when we say: this should be crowned black metal album of the year. Any year. EVERY YEAR! FOREVER!!!! Seriously. Essential.
REDACTED!!
Four albums in, and REDACTED's ARTIST 12 have established themselves as more than just a band of bearded REDACTED boys with bad attitudes getting sludgy, Eyehategod style. They certainly started out that way, and we liked 'em then too, but quickly a penchant for spacier, more psychedelic exploration sent them off in a variety of interesting directions, mostly all of 'em still quite HEAVY though. Synth-drone, slowcore, stoner riffery, that's all part of their trip... dunno if we'd even really call them doom (or dooooOOOOoom) any more. They're just way "poppier", and spacier, and also more experimental than you might expect. There's mantric dirges here totally worthy of Om at their finest, other parts where they freak out like Acid Mothers Temple... or rock out like the good ol' Southern boys we mentioned that they indeed are. But it's just as 'Eastern'. Tracks like "REDACTED" sound like Buddhist monks zoned out on Hawkwind, with someone from a Tokyo Flashback act on lead guitar, or maybe Stephen Wray Lobdell... Sometimes these songs are storming, sometimes they're slow and languid (well, a lot of the time), no matter what though, REDACTED is an heavy-lidded yet uplifting listen, with an oxymoronically "urgently relaxed", stoned vibe generally absorbed via throbbing waves of synthesizer, low end guitar, leaden battery, and sometimes even a bit of (heavily effected) vocal melody.
ARTIST 12 are the "sludge" band we'd recommend to White Hills and Wooden Shjips fans. Likewise if you like UFOmammut, US Christmas, Litmus, Los Natas, Boris and even a bit of Baroness too...
This new one was produced by REDACTED, heaviness studio guru de jour for good reason. Probably, uh, "420 friendly" but you don't need any help to get a high from this, just turn it on up!
Debut full length from this French black metal horde, and by now you should know how we feel about French black metal, hell you should probably FEEL how we feel. Needless to say, we love it. And these guys waste no time, no tinkly intro or haunting drone music to start things off, they just lurch straight into it, a blackened avalanche of suffocating sound, churning riffage, wild mathy drum damage, hellish vox, a blurred black tangled, that as the first track progress seems to open up into something much more epic and grand, culminating in a strange clean guitar crooned vocal interlude only to collapse into an even more frenzied blast of blackness, with a seriously fucked up production, so the whole thing sounds muddy and murky and washed out but still massive and heavy.
The tracks here are epic, and thus, have loads of parts, the sound leaning towards a progged out blackness, the guitars slipping into droned out buzz and then right back into tangled grinding fury, the sound following suit. The second track opens up with a weird bit of programmed drum machine, and what sounds dangerously like rapping, but it couldn't be, could it? It's all wreathed in a locust like muted buzz, only to splinter into another bit of blackened buzz, but the vibe remains strangely funky, in keeping with that opening drum beat, and while troo black metallers have probably stopped reading and looked away horrified, the rest of us, into twisted black whatthefuck, can revel in this weird Deathspell meets Ministry weirdness.
The third track offers up more of the same, seeming to take off from "Jesus Built My Hot Rod" era Ministry and fashioning it into something much meaner and way more black but never fully shedding that industrial groove. And yeah, we were taken aback at first, but we're actually digging this a lot. We're reminded of obscure Italian Industrialists La Muerte, but again, way more black and buzzy. The final track seems to return to a sound much more purely black, churning and buzzing and brutal, but again, as the song progresses, that industrial bent creeps to the fore, with stuttery stop start riffage, and pounding tribal drumming. Definitely a weird mix of sounds here, but then that's why we love French black metal, cuz they're so willing to be fucking bizarre and risk alienating the true grim hordes, and we're definitely digging it, but you have been warned...
Thanks to AQ pal Matt for the low down on this slab of pre-Sleep heaviness, long out of print singles finally available again, collected on a single cd:
We used to see Asbestosdeath in the very early '90s around the Bay Area,�at the East Bay punk institution 924 Gilman and various punk rock parties. They released two singles, the latter on the Minneapolis label�of anarcho-punk stalwarts, Profane Existence. The band that evolved into Sleep -- who fans would like to think of as a�"doom" or "stoner" band today -- was actually more akin to the then crust-influenced Neurosis, Christ on Parade and various UK anarcho and�post-Discharge bands.
Slowed waaay down, of course. At the time, liking Asbestosdeath was a seriously guilty pleasure. Their worship�of Neurosis and Melvins was obvious. If you liked the sound of those bands -- and lots of people did -- this band was not all that surprising.�Highly enjoyable, but not groundbreaking.
Upon re-recording slower and more polished versions of these tracks for�Sleep's debut album "Volume 1," they officially entered the arena of the�world's slowest, heaviest bands... a field then dominated by the Melvins�and perhaps Drunks with Guns but soon to be populated by the likes of�Eyehategod, Grief, Buzzov-en and Earth, among many. Over time, they definitely got better. Their songs got more interesting. And they�added wizards. And doobies. And the rest is history.
Sonically, these tracks belong squarely alongside Neurosis' The Word As�Law and Melvins recordings up to Bullhead. They're gritty and more�aggressive than what you'd expect. But they still sound fresh, and the�arrangements have a sparse, atmospheric quality that typifies the�aesthetic of most of the bands on Southern Lord today.
Along with the Pentemple cd/lp reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, this Ascend record had also been floating in limbo, as we wanted to bring in an alternate import version, but like with Pentemple, the wait got way longer than we expected, and we realized what a huge drag it was that we had yet to list either of these, both of which we dig a LOT, so yeah, it's been out forever, you probably have it already, but on the off chance, someone out there never picked this up, or even worse, was waiting for us to review it (sorry!), here it is, the long awaited (at the time) collaboration between Greg Anderson of SUNNO))), Engine Kid and others, and Gentry Densley of the late great Iceburn. Since this record was released, Densley went on to form Eagle Twin, also on Southern Lord (and recentlyl reviewed by us in timely fashion) the seeds of which can be heard here, but Ascend is its own strange dark beast.
The guitars are massive and thick and slow, the sound is dense and doomy, but the arrangements are something else, jazzy really, with horns moaning and bleating within the buzz and rumble, a lurching lumbering bit of blackened funereal doom jazz maybe? The sound is most definitely SUNNO)))-y, all about the slabs of crumbling distortion, but then things get super weird, all twangy and Morricone-esque, with some growled evil Tom Waitsian vox, only to have the sound shift to a a weird pounding slow motion almost garage sounding dirge, with wild lysergic leads, and moaned mantra like chanted vocals, that definitely remind us of Om, or for an even more obscure reference, Skin Yard at 16 rpm. The closer "Dark Matter" is a perfect mix of all the songs, spacious skeletal twang gives way to lugubrious tarpit riffing, some blissed out ambient shimmer, rife with sitar like buzz, sprawling out into a gloomy crawl and eventually erupting into a Melvinsy dirge, the vocals becoming more and more distant, practically melting into the guitars, becoming another layer of buzz, finishing off with a 3 minute crush of weirdly psychedelic Harvey Milk like pummel.
Definitely a weird record, groovy, jazzy, heavy, psychedelic and doomy, but somehow it works, Ascend are way out on the fringe of the doomdronesludge sound, still close enough to appeal to metalheads in need of nothing more than buzz and pound, but far enough out to make this one of the cooler weirder records to come out of a scene that is often a little too similar sounding.
Ascendente is a satellite operation of Chile's dark-prog collective Un Festin Sagital, whose wild-eyed occlusions of metal, art-rock, and punk-prog complexity had dazzled us on all their previous recordings. The debut recording by Ascendente seeks a comparatively simpler / more spacious aesthetic, one that sounds an awful lot like Comus and Slint melded into a single pandrogynous chimera. No easy feat to say the least, and yet the members of Ascendente pull it off with remarkable panache. The loud-quite dynamics of these post-Crimson / pseudo-Mogwai elliptical riffs and neck-throttled bass-guitar chords work throughout all of the Ascendente songs with the vocalist tumbling through narratives in Spanish with plenty of lycanthropic transformation from dramatic tenor into demonic growling and back again. As the tracks unfurl along the constant-flux / long-form explorations previously mapped out by Amon Duul II and German Oak, the gymnastics for the rhythm section are suitably impressive as they glide up to dizzying crescendos and march along at swaggering gaits. As with all other Black Horizon tapes, this is limited to 100 copies.
We weren't really sure what to expect from this record really, we were initially struck by the very un- black metal like metallic red and gold cover art, and rumors that this new German black metal band did in fact feature members of aQ beloved Katharsis (which did later prove to be true). But really all it took was the first couple tracks, the opener a haunting intro of sorts, all creepy blackened drones and strange industrial clatter, chanted gurgled vocals, the sound like it was recorded in some huge stone crypt, eventually guitars surface, and drums too, but instead of immediately launching into a wild blast of black buzz, the guitars build slowly, the drums pound, a weird majestic smoldering blackened post doom perhaps, turning into some classic metal, emotional minor key leads over true doom dirge, while black metal guitars swirl ominously in the background like black storm clouds on the horizon, a fantastically tense opener, that finally does explode into some frantic furious black chaos, and we're in total avant black heaven, the sound definitely situating itself somewhere amidst the black pantheon of Deathspell Omega / Katharsis / Funeral Mist / Necros Christos / Teitanblood, you get the picture, the riffs are slipper and gnarled, the drumming is inhuman and frenzied, the vocal a hellish howled belch, everything wreathed in frozen haunted atmospheres, the tracks rife with classic metal riffing, all manner of strange sounds, hysterical shrieks, bizarre samples, disembodied voices, machine-like clatter, but it's all blurred into a heaving wall of epic black crush, with a production that's MASSIVE and makes everything sound so utterly epic and punishing, but beyond the sound, the songs are incredible, the riffs some of the best we've heard, the sort of riffs you'll find yourself humming days later, the songs laced with melancholy melodies and twisted leads, wild psychedelic squalls that add a whole new dimension to the black buzz. Just listen to the sample for "Grey Light Sibling", pretty much everything we could want... and that main riff, holy shit, the strange soaring transcendental trill, the intense mournful melody, the super distorted almost industrial drum pound, we find it difficult to not just listen to that track over and over...
Definite contender for black metal record of the year (even though technically it came out last year), and some super sweet packaging.
First we've heard from this doom drone trio from Iowa, and it's definitely right up our alley. How could it not be when two members are credited with "drones", and one with "contact mics", in addition to the usual metallic instrumentation? Not your run of the mill doom/drone we're thinking� A smoldering blackened ambience starts things off, all haunting creaks and whirling winds, distant guitar buzz and abstract strum, the build ultimately culminates in some seriously pummeling and lumbering doomic plod, the crashes and churning riffage spaced way out, leaving plenty of room for long stretches of heavily layered guitar buzz and blurred expanses of low end shimmer. The vocals are deep and bellowed, and everything is subtly infused with a bit of melody, but those melodies seem to bleed into the blackness surrounding them, each track a haunting downtuned black doom creep.
The B side pushes the drone element even further, so dirgey and slow that the doom almost seems to transform into drone right before our ears. Occasionally interrupted by little blasts of extra riffage, and driven by some abstract drum pound, the song lumbers monstrously, eventually the drums taking up less space, the crashes happening less often, causing the second half of the B side to lean heavy on the drone and drift, lulling you into a druggy haze before exploding with another blast of blackened doomic churn.
The sort of stuff that will definitely appeal to fans of Monarch and Whitehorse and all that sort of slo-mo crush.
Super sweet packaging, thick heavy jackets, nice thick vinyl, each record with an old parchment, with the original writing, but also augmented with a more modern stone rubbing.
WARNING, the jackets got a little beat up in transit, so if you need absolute collector nerd perfection, you're out of luck...
Juan Brujo of Brujeria brings us a series of 13 Demoniaco recordings, each fronted by a different member of the underground Brujeria clan. Each Demoniaco album will bear the name of the Demoniaco chosen. Brutal hardcore mexican murder metal. 13 supposed true stories of gnarly horror sickness. a social comentary of sorts. offered in the meanest hardcore metal. The first of this series is led by ASESINO. The band consists of Asesino on guitar, Grenudo on the drums, and the newest addition to this death squad, Maldito X on bass and vocals.
Somehow this is the fifth full length from these North Carolina psychedelic stoner heavies, but it's the first one we've heard, which is a bummer cuz Blood Drive is a doozy, a killer classic rock / hard rock / Southern rock / stoner rock hybrid, big groovy riffs, hooks galore, crushing drumming, soaring vocals, everything spacey and fuzzed out, psychedelic, and super melodic, the sort of stuff that should be HUGE, in a perfect world. To our ears this sounds a bit like a weird mix of Raging Slab and Kyuss, but with plenty of the laid back wasted psych of outfits like Dead Meadow and Psychic Ills, and as much as we love grim, damaged blackness, and avant minimal dronemusic, and all the other fucked up stuff we listen to, sometimes it's tough to beat straight up, super catchy, big riffing heavy rock, which this most certainly is. The sound slips effortlessly from woozy doomy groovy stoner rock, to mathed out proggy noise rock (check out "Castlestorm"), to dense swirling psychedelia ("Scrappy's Trip" sounds almost like Janes Addiction if they had happened in nineties Seattle, which we can guarantee is a VERY good thing), to swampy apocalyptic dirgery ("Blues For Bama" which starts out sounding like Woven Hand, before blossoming into something much more epic and metallic), to spacey druggy trippiness ("Earthwalk"), to epic almost arena rock sounding hook heavy crush ("Stargazin") that sounds like Torche crossed with old Queens Of The Stone Age, and once again has us wondering why these guys aren't a way bigger deal. And we're so grateful that we're finally almost finished with our reviews for this list, cuz after a couple spins through Blood Drive, we're counting the minutes 'til we're done so we can go for number three (and four, and five and...)!
PS. Vinyl version includes a bonus track NOT on the cd!
The world can always use another great metal magazine. Sure we've got Terrorizer, Decibel, Salt and Rock-A-Rolla and definitely a few others, each with their own slant, and specific focus, but heck, there's plenty of amazing metal music happening so we'll always welcome another mag, and being the music nerds we are, we just love reading about bands and of course reading record reviews!
Thus we have Asgard Root, who specialize in "black metal / doom / dark ambient / drone / philosophy / literature / dark art" and indeed their inaugural issue is chock full of all of the above, and the list of the contents practically screams aQ!
Exclusive interviews with Wolves In The Throne Room, Ludicra, Abigor, Orthodox, Elysian Blaze, Forgotten Tomb and new-to-us UK doom outfit The River. Also an interview with Alex Kurtagic, the man who runs Supernal Records, and the mastermind behind weirdo black metal outfit Benighted Leams!
Plus there are tons of record reviews, lots of cool creepy photos, artwork and poetry, so obviously a labor of love, and the fact that they love lots of the same kind of stuff we do, makes this well worth investigating.
The layout is a little strange, but sure it will tighten up in the future, but a very small complaint, considering all the kick ass stuff in this first issue. We're already looking forward to the second...
The return of Asgard Root! An upstart metal magazine, whose first issue we raved about a while back, and who with the publication of their second issue are definitely ready to give the big boys at Decibel and Terrorizer a run for their money.
Way bigger than the first issue, this volume is jam packed with tons of amazing metal bands, black, cult and obscure, lots of aQ faves, some non metal groups, as well as reviews and photos and art.
It's a massive and heavy (both literally and figuratively) tome, that should definitely be required reading for the heavy-sounds inclined aQuarians out there.
Depressive black metallers Austere, recent aQ black metal faves Coldworld, raw Canadian cult Akitsa, an interview with Swedish black one man horde Arckanum, Mortiis (!), post black metallers Janvs, melodic black metal outfit Agolloch, mysterious black horde Paragon Belial, post industrialists Allerseelen, UK depressive black metallers Lyrinx, Canadian neo folk black metal outift Musk Ox, rune reader Freya Aswynn, Wallachia's favorite albums, Norwegian legends Enslaved, English steampunk black metallers A Forest Of Stars, gloomy gothic metal group Yussuf Jerusalem, ex-Lycia singer David Galas, UK one man black metal band Caina, Dead Raven Choir (!!), Swedish gloom pop metal masters Lifelover and lots of reviews, magazines, demos, albums, and more more. Definitely recommended.
Latest blast of tranced out black buzz from this Arcata horde, and quite possibly their best, which is saying a lot considering how much we've dug pretty much every goddamn thing they've released. We were actually lucky enough very recently to see these guys play in the middle of the night, in the middle of the forest, barely lit on a stage in the middle of nowhere, beneath millions of stars, and it was seriously transcendent, their songs less 'songs' and more sort of movements, organic fields of dense droned out sound, totally mesmerizing and utterly hypnotic, the sort of buzzing blackness that simultaneously inspires frenzied headbanging AND lulls you into a glorious torpor. We were sprawled out on a big rock right in front of the stage, and the sound was overwhelming, we were totally entranced, and that vibe is perfectly reproduced here. the band infusing their raw black buzz with more melody then ever, but without losing any of the furious blackened energy that made their music so compelling. Two side long tracks, the first, beginning all washed out and shimmery, before exploding into a crushing avalanche of sound, one that's super psychedelic and weirdly produced, with at least one passage that sounds like the thundering of horses' hooves orchestrated into dense squalls of buzzing black noise. And of course for all the tranced out stretches of blurry buzz, there are sprawls of lumbering doomic churn, of roiling tribal drum driven drones, even some Caretaker-ish drift, all gauzy and woozy and hauntingly lovely.
The B side too, begins with a long intro, of super melodic, minor key guitar, slow smoldering riffage, over chiming tones, and strange industrial rumbles and pulsations, and this time, instead of exploding into buzzing blackness, the sound blossoms into a loping doom, all spidery distorted guitars, and pounding double kick drumming, although that moody doom does eventually burst into more furious blackness, a churning heaviness that seems to somehow be both doom and black metal at the same time. more midtempo than blast, but the energy is pure grim blackness, laced with soaring melodies, and punctuated by super dynamic arrangements, and unexpected textural and compositional shifts. Some darkly emotional, seriously next level blackness, that while perhaps best enjoyed under the stars in the middle of a deep dark forest, sounds pretty goddamn good right here.
On black vinyl, limited to 800 copies, includes an insert and a download code.
A brand new record from Arcata black metallers Ash Borer, and more importantly, their first album with a title! Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find a review of the recent vinyl reissue of AB's debut 2009 demo, which we mistakenly listed last time as being the vinyl version of their 2011 full length (the confusion due mostly to both records being self titled and having nearly the same artwork).
On Cold Of Ages, the band continue to hone their sound, still delivering their black buzz missives in the form of lengthy sprawling epics, the shortest here clocking in at 11+ minutes, the longest 18 minutes. And as on previous records AB are masters of crafting majestic longform blackbuzz epics - "Descended Lamentations" opens the album with a long stretch of softly pulsing ominously minor key synths, over a barely there rhythmic churn, wreathed in clean guitar swirl, and a gauze of crumbling distant buzz, haunting and harrowing, the song proper doesn't kick in until three minutes in, but when it does, it's a furious thick, heavily layered blasting blur, rife with all manner of melody, and surrounded by a strangely shoegazey halo of soft focus production, that smoothes some of the edges and gives the sound more of a washed out vibe, which suits the music for sure. Dizzying and cyclical, woozy and psychedelic, halfway through the track shifts to a more midtempo pound, before blissing out completely, unfurling a sort of droned out abstract doomic dirge, which gradually builds back to the initial buzzing blackness.
"Phantoms" starts off all midtempo and minor key, a Buzumic riff swaddled in thick swirls of layered guitars and howled vox, everything again washed out and strangely sun dappled and glimmery, but like all these songs, the music is constantly shifting, here it flits to churning chug, to furious buzzing tangle, to soaring almost black metal Godspeed and finally to hushed delicate ambient dronescape. "Convict All Flesh" is the longest track here, and starts off with an ominous and stately riff, suspended in the ether, before it's joined by more guitars, creating a strangely psychedelic layered raga like ur-drone, which is soon dragged into motion by a creeping doomdirge rhythm, everything swaddled in distant synth swirl, slowly building to a seriously furious bout of black buzz, and throughout the rest of the track seasawing back and forth, although the best bit is the middle stretch where the group weds a furious blast beat to the doomy opening guitar creep, and an equally doomy chiming guitar melody, piling layer upon layer of buzz and crumble, creating a strange bit of black psychedelia that hover somewhere between furious blast and abstract drift, which could have (and maybe should have) gone on forever, but instead it eventually swallowed up but a billowing cloud of blackened static riffing, a haunting droned out coda.
Finally, the record finishes off with "Removed Forms", starting off all tripped out almost dubby guitar melodies, choral female vocals, drifting over a dark expanse of almost Barn Owl like sinister dusky twang, before exploding into a blur of brittle high end buzzing blast, mesmerizing and almost looped sounding, before splintering into a creeping Burzumic dirge, and building to a dense, mathy, layered final movement, the various elements peeling away, leaving, thick slabs of buzz drenched guitar to churn in a dark droned out finale.
We mistakenly listed this two weeks back as a repress of the 2011 full length by these Arcata black metallers, due in no small part to the fact that up until their brand new full length (Cold Of Ages, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), all of their releases were self titled, and often featured no artwork except for the band logo. So, to correct ourselves: this record is in fact, an lp reissue of the group's two song 2009 demo, originally released as an insanely limited cassette.
Two side long epics, each as heavy on the post rock and the black metal buzz, the A side starting off with a loping slow build minimal intro, before eventually exploding into a droned out blast, the lo-fi recording giving the sound a washed out almost shoegazey vibe, which would definitely remain a big part of their sound. Even the blasting buzzy parts super melodic, the song occasionally breaking down into long stretches of minimal drift, rife with spidery clean guitar melodies, the track working its way to a killer chugging old school classic metal sounding outro. The flipside begins with some soaring high end guitars, drifting over loping slo-mo riffage, and chiming harmonics. Like the A side, it soon splinters into a full on blown out black blast, laced with wild proggy drumming, and woozy sing songy melodies. The breakdown in the middle a chugging bit of midtempo churn, again beneath soaring melodies, slowly building back up to a final blast of melody infused black buzz. Still some of our favorite Ash Borer material, and definitely already displaying a fully formed sound, that would only become more full realized with every release.
Housed in a super swank letter pressed jacket, and yeah, very likely EXTREMELY LIMITED.
