If the sounds don't come from the very core of your soul why are you creating them????
Fellwarden- Wreathed in Mourncloud- Digital/LP/CD (Eisenwald)
There are times that albums just call to my very soul and with " Wreathed in Mourncloud " a Kinship is born. Lush atmospheric Pagan Folk Metal with some Blackened overtones. I hear bands like Falkenbach, Fen, Secrets of the Moon, Uada and even Borknagar I'm feeling through out this amazing listening session. The passion and majesty here mixes so well with the somber and driving grim elements that come pouring though. Fellwarden is epic , fragile, dissident and beautiful all at the very same time . I want this to me my very musical soundtrack as my Heathen heart has fallen in love with this album and will be listening to this over and over again. You can feel every note and movement in this album. Dark atmospheres just really work so well and the vocals between the very clean and blackened just seem to ebb and flow perfectly. I love the acoustical element as well. Yea yea yea now I'm just rambling but you know what I don't want this album to end so there.
BLACK FALCON – EGO MORTEM MACHINA- Digital (MORNING STAR HEATHENS MUSIC GROUP)
This UK group to me is like listening to a poor mans Kyuss, Clutch and Tool. I am trying to like this but it is just so flat and unoriginal. Those tired bluesy 70's fuzzed out riffs and the vocals are just so run of the mill. If your going to do much like this you need to stand out . This could just be another bar band playing on a Wed's night at any rock bar. Its not they are bad. They play the music well but no inspiration at all here. I'm growing more bored the more I listen to this and with that I'm calling it quits on this .
HYEMS- Anatomie des Scheiterns-Digital/LP/CD (Black Sunset /MDD)
I know this going to be contradiction of ideas but Hyems are dissident and melodic at the same time playing the Epic driving Black metal that bands like Marduk, Immortal, Watian, Gorgoroth and Dissection have over the years. I love this style of violent yet catchy Black metal and there are always sinister overtones through out . This album has passion and draws you into wanting to listen to the tracks as they hauntingly fade to the next. The guitar tones are almost demonic and frightening at times with the wall of drums and that complex almost proggy bass lines. It's tied all together with the hateful cries of the vocals as the pierce through the darkness and lead the masses to the unknown. Nine albums in and band is still kicking this much musical ass. All I can say is keep it going as this can stand up with anything out there today. There can never be enough Good Black metal so when a band like Hyems does it and does add some Viking elements into it just to make it shine a bit more . We need to support them to keep this musical force to continue its blackened trek.
JUPITERIAN- Protosapien- Digital/LP/CD (Transcending Obscurity Records)
I don't know much suffocation and crushing Doom from Brazil but Jupiterian mix elements of Sludge, Doom, Black metal into an atmospheric and massive sound wall of metal. If you like bands like Krypts, Primitive Man, Esoteric, P.H.O.B.O.S, Mournful Congregation and Khanate this is an album for you. Slumbering and Huge open riffs the echo through your very soul. Doom metal this massive in sound are things I always look for. There are blistering moments here and works sop well with the melodic and rumbling crawling tones the ebb and flow through out the album with it. Those vocals are just madness and pain amplified to the world that make you feel the sorrow in each and every movement of the record. I see the label use the word DENSE. Jupiterian is DENSE. I hear Dolorian, Bethlehem, Deinonychus and Forgotten Tomb on so much of this stunning release. This is truly the perfect mix of Black and Doom metal with touches of Industrial undertones. I know this style is a very small place in the metal underground but bands like Jupiterian need more exposure and its out time to do so .
Ascendency- Birth of an Eternal Empire -DIGITAL/MLP/MCD (Iron Bonehead)
So from Denmark comes a murky, creepy , atmospheric Black/Death record that has the production that it was recorded underground in a catacomb and has so much bass and reverb the haunting and icy cold elements are just baked into it all. If gives me the same vibe of bands like Womb, Incantation and Vital Remains. I really like the tonal vibe the album has. Where it almost feels like the low end is going to collapse you organs but there is this spacial melody and harmonic thing going on with those concussive and bombastic rhythms taking this to the next level. Ascendency is the most polished sounding demo tape I have ever heard. That is the way I hear " Birth of an eternal empire" Iron Bonehead likes to keep this cult often and with this album that tradition is very much still at hand. I'm going to talk about the vocals as well as with Ascendency the only way you can explain them is Other worldly or maybe Other Dimensional. I feel they are being ripped from another plane and are just allowed to be on the recording by the will of this being alone. This is heavy and pissed off and with that get it or missing on something rather impressive here.
Lament Cityscape- The Pulsing Wet- Digital (Self Release)
Three more crushing tracks from this Oakland force that mixed elements of Godflesh, Neurosis, Swans, Killing Joke, The God Machine, P.H.O.B.O.S, Early Pitch Shifter and Mindrot into something that is Industrial, Doom, Power Electronic, Atmospheric Noise and a bit of Noise Rock that will just kick you in the face and never let you forget who Lament Cityscape is or who they are going to me . I feel they have a lot in common with NIN with the textures and layers that grow under everything else we are talking about right now . If this is the future of music then I'm going to tell you all now. It's going to be an adventure to see who and what breaks down the next genre walls and makes music just what they hear inside their head and don't let the pressures of those elements around them not take that brave step forward. This is just that again..... Forward Thinking .... Thinking Mans Extreme music with beauty, darkness, love, hate, confusion, woe and hope all at the very time time.
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