9 New Reviews 12/28/2013 End of year edition
Year of No Light- Tocsin- CD/ Digital ( Debemur Morti Productions)
So what do you get with Post Rock, Doom, Drone and Jazz elements you get Year of No light. This is a massive and suffocating release at time and at other moments its is somber, bleak and fragile journey inward. Instrumental music has been winning me over as I get older and really hear the beauty of tones, harmonics and over all layers of sound and with Year of No Light this is every thing you want think Russian Circles, Pelican, Black Cobra all into a mix of Passion and Fury. We need more bands that are this Sonically aware of their surroundings. I feel the Pain and Slumbering aggression of every note and beat that is driven from the speakers. I want to tell you to love this but its a choice you have to make I can not decide for you. I now with this being there third full release sit at the altar of Year of No Light and welcome the new hymns that present to me and I look for the day there will be even more...
http://www.debemur-morti.com/
LUDER- ADELPHORHAGIA- CD/ Digital ( Small Stone)
Damn I was not ready for this album to hit me like it did. Mix Grunge, Shoegazer, Doom and Blues Metal into something all it's own and something very very familar. What if Slowdive or Curve became a Doom band or Or think of Gathering and Third and the mortal joining forces and loving all things Prog rock like Porcupine Tree or Yes. The Female vocals work so well its part trippy, part seductive, part groove and all hypnotic in the way LUDER present the the album to its willing victims ( I mean listeners). It's like the Mermaids call to the crew of the ship once you heard it your hooked. LUDER where have you been all my life this band is like Nudeswirl or Mindfunk if they had a female vocalist .. I know only some of you know these bands but damn LUDER we need more and soon...
Pigs- Gaffe- Vinyl/ Digital ( Solar Flare Records)
Lookie Lookie members of Unsane are back to cause noise and mayhem on their victims lol. Noise rock of the mighty Amrep, Touch and Go, Subpop, SST and Bovine records days are all here with this 3 song ep . If you miss bands like Cows, Helmet, Surgery, TAD and Halo of Flies etc. Then get on it get this fools. Heavy bass and drum lines with Jazzy Dissident Noisey Guitars, Hardcore values and Punk rock over tones. The worship of Motorhead and Big Black are here with the elements of Early Killing Joke. Pigs have a lot to offer with just 3 tracks I can not wait to here more as they experiment with sounds in a way that is lost today and in the 90's was common place with bands like Sonic Youth and Guided by Voices etc... Don't Pass up on this one folks...
Vastum-Patricidal Lust- CD/ Digital ( 20 Buck Spin)
This is Death metal not the kind of fancy technical variety it's raw, low end pure Death metal the face peeling kind that is made for the live realm in the way bands on Earache, Nuke blast and Roadrunner brought into the world in the 80's and 90's . The sound is massive and the war machine is set loose on destruction and nothing else, Your not adding Black metal or Doom to this my friends. You want an album that will bring you back to those hey days then Vastum is your weapon and your are there vessel... This album is so damn heavy I just want the world to know it's there and needs to be heard by any real extreme metal fan.. 20 Buck spin has a way of finding the best of any extreme genre and making it shine... Yes there are many people from other great projects like Hammers of Misfortune and Acephalix but thats not the reason to own this. It's because is fucking amazing....
http://www.20buckspin.com/
Starsoup- Bazaar of Wonders- CD/ Digital ( Sublimity)
Prog /Power metal is something of a soft spot for me and with Starsoup we have an album that drives beyond many of the bands that just want to be the next Blind Guardian, Dream theater or Iced Earth.. This is more about the complexity of sound mixed with the fist and power of metal think bands like Savatage, Fates Warning, Armored Saint, Kings X and Symphony X to name a few... The Melody is all here but they even add elements of bands like Oxiplegatz and Bal Sagoth in the way the material is presented to the audience. There is much musical interplay as well an we have blues, jazz, funk and avant element's through out. But There is AOR side to this as well that bands like TNT, Europe and Giant... There are so many amazing styles and sounds going on here . You can not listen to it once and ever get what is going on. This is musical theater which leads back to Savatage and Circle to Circle .... Look folks you like this stuff Starsoup will be a journey you don't want to live without...
http://sublimity.bandcamp.com/
Thrall-Aokigahara Jukai- CD / Digital ( Moribund Cult)
So Thrall is one of those bands that gives me chills when I listen to them as they as so many of the sounds that a love and want to create as well. Part Crust, Doom, Sludge, Black, Drone, Prog and Noise all at the same time and all at different times. There is even Thrash moments thrown in for good measure. If Kreator, Eyehategod and Marduk decided to have a band with members of Swans and Sonic Youth this is where Thrall would come form its almost where I saw Twilight Heading before their demise. It's where bands like Mayhem and Saytricon are heading and where bands like Manes, Code and Ishahn has just moved past. Post Metal with Black and Doom movements with a love of fractured sounds and the notes between the notes in the way Noise and Jazz meet. Thrall is a band that will confuse as many and love them. The vocals are those or an inmate with no where to go but die and the madness this consumes inside them.. The Hopelessness is there as music and the yearning to know what is in the realms beyond.. Thrall is one of the most unique bands on on Moribund since the silence of Azrael...
http://moribundcult.com/
Vardan- The Wood is my coffin-CD/ Digital ( Moribund Cult)
Dissident Black metal in the way bands like Burzum, Velvet Cacoon and Wolvserpent create there manic sounds. There is a nightmarish quality to this and a enveloping tone that builds to the point of insanity with bands like this . Many one man bands like Xasthur and Leviathan have the same over all tone as well . This is very much in that Northern Lofi and Black Drone way of presentation an the guitar sound like something out of Bethlehem or Deinonychus. Maybe there is that Dark/ Suicide Metal element going on as well with bands like Shining (SWEDEN) and Abyssic Hate from ( Australia ). Vardan is growing on me greatly after a few listens there is something very epic about this but I know some this will drive mad and I think thats the point this kind of music is for very limited crowds not the masses and I like to keep it that way some time to my own selfish needs...
http://moribundcult.com/
I Shalt Become- Louisiana Voodoo- CD/ Digital (Saadl Saati/ Pesanta Urfolk)
Avant / Symphonic Ambient Black metal from one of the originators of USBM scene. This is like a horror movie soundtrack gone even more demonic and terrifying with synths, guitars, grim vocals primitive drumming and torment though out the stunningly beautiful piano and neo classical elements. If Devil Doll as Black metal this is what Mr Doctor would sound like with out a doubt also If early Arcturus was a bit more avant you would have a very similar movement and ideal going on here. I hear so much Profanum as well . I can not stop listening to Louisiana Voodoo . The album really have me in it's grips with how stunning the overall approach is. Another band does come to mind when listen as well. Limbonic art early material very clearly is something of a kin ship as well. The Rituals and Heathen overtones are strong in this one. If you worship the God's of old then this will be something that touches your soul very deep as well. With this in mind I will say I Shalt Become is something of wonder, darkness and mystery and with the underground metal scene what more can you ask for...
Lethe-When Dreams become nightmares-CD/ Digital ( Debemur Morti Productions)
So were going to end this review cycle of 2013 with an odd one . Lethe is if Third and the Mortal, Ulver, Manes and The Gathering fell in love with Occult Black Metal and bands like Sabbath Assembly . As this is equal parts electronica, prog, post black metal and 70's rock. I straight out love this band and its female vocals work so well with the glitchy elements that surround it. There is something so very later In the woods about this album as well . D.M.P. as a label have been one of the far more interesting labels with Svart and Code666 as of late and I clearly done see this changing anytime soon. Funny the more I read into the band I see the duo is Tor of Manes and Anna of Eluveltie. This Post modern music and really beyond classification as it were the new songs of the world are merging Heathen, Rock, Electronic, Industrial, Symphonic and ...... Lethe is a band that will change your way of thinking about music and how it should be made and listened to. Ulver this is a band that is following in your footsteps and making you re think sound as a whole. Lethe you have a stunning release hear I need this to continue with future releases....
http://www.debemur-morti.com/
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