Tagged: Black Metal

December 9, 2013

Snowland MMXII: revisited debut album has a grand and epic quality

Sorcier des Glaces, Snowland MMXII, Mankind’s Demise Records / Les Productions Hérétiques, CD mdph-03 (2012)

An interesting record in itself in that this is a revisit by Canadian black metal duo Sorcier des Glaces of their debut album released way back in 1998. The debut was self-produced with a very raw sound and was also self-released. A major difference between the debut and this revisit is that the debut featured keyboard work whereas here the keyboards have been removed almost completely.

The reprised album has a grand and epic quality and this is apparent right from the start with the instrumental introduction that features thundering drums and sweeping sandpaper guitar riffs. The ice wizards launch into the business end of the album with “The Winter Nightsky”, a speedy rush-along with clicking cymbals and thumping percussion against high-pitched guitars and a clear icy ambience. The new production gives the music a cold wintry feel and a deeper substance so that it seems to emerge from its snowbound environment without ever actually leaving it altogether, in the manner of sculptured reliefs.

Early tracks are very fast and fairly basic in their structures. “Onward into the Crystal Snows” signals that back in 1998 the duo were experimenting with song composition; the track is varied in pace, rhythm and mood, and changes of key as it progresses. The combined piece “My Journey into the Black Forest / Darkness covers the Snowland” is a significant change from the original separate twosome and features two vocals in a track that features frantic rush and epic stirring martial rhythms.

As the album progresses, the songs get better – or maybe I’m unconsciously being absorbed by the music – and culminate with “L’eternelle majeste des montagnes (The eternal majesty of the mountains)”, a grand piece that captures the awe and reverence the musicians feel for their Quebec homeland.

This recording has real presence even if most songs are short – the combined track comes to ten minutes which is the longest of the entire set – and the atmosphere throughout is a distinctive icy-cold wintry one of very clear, still nights with distant sparkling stars shining down on landscapes of tall, silent fir trees and deep undisturbed snow. The cold mood suits the album’s basically misanthropic premise which reveres the spirits of the land. There is still room for improvement: the percussion sounds quite thin for much of the album and together with the bass guitar could have been made deeper and thicker. I confess I haven’t heard the original 1998 recording but I will hazard that this album is a major improvement at least in its production and changes in sound.

November 1, 2013

What was Once there is Now Gone: desert-Western blackened sludge doom packed into tiny CD-R

Bird of Omen, What was Once there is Now Gone, Hand Hewn Timbre, 3″ CD-R (2013)

Bird of Omen is a recent project by the unknown man who was behind the blackened drone doom metal act Monument of Urns. All the releases by MoU were issued by the artist’s own Hand Hewn Timbre imprint on tiny CD-Rs. Now MoU has been laid to rest for the time being and in its stead is Bird of Omen whose releases so far are also on tiny CD-R discs. The album under review is BoO’s second.

Compared to its predecessor, BoO has a lighter, less oppressive sound. While the music sounds very much like a desert-Western movie soundtrack, the black metal influences are present in the quivering strings and the piano melodies take the place of extended tone drones. The percussion is slow and emphatic with crashing cymbals but the beats are muted and the cymbals merely sound crisp. The result is no less stark in mood and ambience: the desert sun’s rays beat pitilessly on your head and shoulders and all around you is bare ground with only bleached cattle skeletons lying in the dirt. You know there’s only one thing that’s important, and that’s to find water in this baking heat; everything else, such as why the gangsters dumped you in this hell-hole, fades into insignificance.

The second track is the major piece at just over 10 1/2 minutes and is sludge doom in a cleaner, lighter vein than might be expected. Now guitar feedback drones come to the fore in parts of the track while vibrating bass guitar and funeral march percussion carry the music, pallbearer-style. The third track is not much different from the other two except for the vibrato guitars which start to have a more buzzy hornet texture.

It can be very monotonous and sometimes overwhelming music even though it’s not especially heavy and there are light moments where the music reduces to quiet solo piano, a subdued guitar drone and a strange atmosphere of foreboding. There’s no easy resolution and some time after the album ends, the tension and ominous feeling hang in the air like vultures circling about, waiting for their victim to succumb to dehydration.

In a tiny disc, an entire world of desolation and harsh, unforgiving Nature are contained. You venture there at your peril. If the music were any longer than it is, you would be close to an agonising end. The wonder is that the fellow behind Monument of Urns / Bird of Omen can remain incognito; in spite of creating music with such a narrow range of riffing and melody and a small sound palette, he knows how to hold his audience spellbound by changing emphasis now and again, and by subtle variations in the instrumentation, suggests that there’s far more happening in the music than there is.

October 23, 2013

They Awoke to the Scent of Spring: repetitive nature-themed black metal with nothing to say

Lustre, They Awoke to the Scent of Spring, Italy, De Tenebrarum Principio, DTP023 CD (2012)

A nature-themed atmospheric black metal album of beings that hibernate for most of the year to enjoy a brief period of life during spring, “They Awoke to the Scent of Spring” is grim majestic epic work. The music is split into four parts of which only the first two feature lyrics. Lustre’s style encompasses two extremes, one based on raw black metal guitar and the other based on pure-toned synth and both carrying all the advantages and limitations of their respective ranges. Ultimately they suffer from a fairly limited vision on the Lustre musician Nachtzeit’s part.

Part 1 begins well with aggressive raw BM guitar noise that burns steadfastly for much of the track until a repetitive synthesiser melody loop takes over and dominates the rest of the piece. Repetition and monotony reign for what seems an excruciating eternity. Part 2 starts out well enough but like Part 1, it’s slow-paced and endlessly repetitive. The vocals are reverb-heavy slurry that slide over the tremolo guitars.

The later two parts are very different, essentially being atmospheric non-BM acoustically styled material but still as slow and minimalist as the previous tracks. The fourth part is a ghostly piece composed entirely of a looping field recording of falling water and a wistful circular synth motif.

That Nachtzeit wants to emphasise the circular narrative of nature and life, and implicitly suggest that humans are also part of this order and if they try to subvert it, they will come to ruin (because as we know, Nature always bats last); but beyond stating the obvious, he does very little else with the music. Imagine reading one of those experimental novels where the backgrounds and furnishings are described in exquisite detail and the characters’s clothes receive equal fastidious attention, but what they do, say and think is unknown, and you have some idea of how this album pans out. We are left with a very well-crafted work of ambient black metal that really has nothing to add to the genre overall.

October 9, 2013

Anti-Cosmic Tyranny: leading the faithful in maximalist ritual Satanic worship

A.M.S.G., Anti-Cosmic Tyranny, Profound Lore Records, CD PFL119 (2013)

As we zip towards the end of 2013, it’s high time we had some serious Ritual Satanick Worshippe here and who better to swing the thuribles of burning sulphur in anti-clockwise procession and lead the daemonic choirs in throaty guttural hallelujahs to the Dark Lord than Ad Majorem Satanae Gloriam, a duo from Edmonton, Canada. We’re allowed to call them A.M.S.G. for our convenience ‘cos we’ve yet to endure the necessary initiation rites into the hallowed inner circles of priestdom. “Anti-Cosmic Tyranny” is the band’s debut full-length and second formal release since forming in 2007 (an EP having been released in 2010).

One surprise here is that plenty of jazz and saxophone are featured in the music, adding a smoky and rich element to proceedings. Subterranean noise murmur that might have been mistaken for a Merzbow release makes a brief appearance as well. Generally the music is restless and skittery, never settling for very long in a particular rhythm or riff loop. The harsh, crabby, complaining vocalist has a lot of chanting, declamation and invocation to do in each song – the lyrics are incredibly dense – so perhaps it’s no surprise that his constant grumblings border on camp. Guitars are so raw they almost bleed. The drums probably could have a deeper and more thunderous sound and rhythm but as they are, they hold up the runaway strings and bass rhythms, all over the house sometimes, well enough. Interesting vocal effects, mysterious samples and some experimentation with sound and ambience adorn most songs to achieve an atmosphere of palpable evil and a clear darkness.

Most songs are invocations and appeals to various levels of the daemonic hierarchy. One’s got to be careful to address the right daemon in one’s prayers for each and every one of Satan’s little helpers is a jealous being who guards his or her allotted territory of evil incarnate. All tracks have their own intricate details that push them into above-average levels of Satanic musical worship but a couple of tracks, “Sacrificial Chants of Cosmic Separation” and “Gnosis Granted from the Bloodline of Fire”, stand out. The first of the two features extreme vocal gibberish and has an air of dark derangement which is amazingly clear as well. “Gnosis …” has some memorable doomy riffing and weird juxtapositions of fast, choppy passages with scrabbly vocals and slower sections of slashing guitar riffs and droning saxophone howl. Final track “Bone, Blood and Blackthorn” includes some bass-heavy Sunn0)))-styled riffs and vocal susurrations and yawns among the generally busy music.

Probably the one thing listeners will take away with them after hearing this album is the duo’s dead-set serious attitude towards ritual Satanism that informs the guys’ extreme maximalist approach. So wacky and deranged the album turns out to be that it’s sure to be on a lot of people’s lists of most outstanding black metal albums for 2013.

You know the boys are deadly serious about their path in life when they list as their band duties “hostage taking” and “suicide bombings”.

October 5, 2013

Three Rotary Roarers

Boy, are things frustrating me lately. Maybe I just need a half of minim…mind you there is nothing like starting off a crisp autumn morning with some twisted and alienated guitar noise, and that’s exactly what is on offer from Clifford Torus, a three-piece whose self-titled cassette (DRID MACHINE RECORDS DMR4) in a lurid orange dayglo cover was sent to us on 19 October 2012. I felt much better after immersing my bonce in these rich metallic shrieks for 30 mins. The guitarist Horacio Pollard has made his electric-shock presence felt to us on at least one CDR of his scalding and bittersome electric noise, but here he’s opting for a slightly more traditional avant-garde rock setup. For this activity he’s aided by two of the best like-minded players a man could hope for: the bassist Kjetil Brandsdal from Noxagt, and Anders Hana who drums for MoHa! That’s a dream team in anyone’s book. Just six tunes on this little power-pack, but it’s enough to recharge the flagging batteries of any jaded nightclubber as they stagger back from Vauxhall on any given Sunday morning. This trio’s particular take on the excessive amplified doom-noise thing meets many of our exacting standards: monotonous, flailing energy, mumbled half-screamed vocals when they appear, and a continual sense of teeth-grinding alienation underpinning every moment of luscious grind. Kjetil is an asset, rarely departing from a single root note for most of th’ tunes; he almost hammers his bass like a percussionist. Although only guitar, bass and drums appear in the instrument credit roster, there are occasional burstings of strange and unidentifiable screech which somehow leak into the sounding-box, at times resembling a mangled saxophone or a crushed synthesizer. Maybe Pollard is just very well-equipped with hideous FX pedals purchased from planet Jupiter. Only sometimes does the energy level droop a little, and I wished they coulda sustained that power for a few more minutes (especially on the crunch-worthy opening number) but when these three lads get into their “groove”, it’s obvious they are mesmerised by a higher power from the dreadful zones, and nothing short of a steamshovel will ever dislocate them. When this tape was sent, it seems the threesome were about to play a free gig at Bohemia in Hackney. True to form, this blog is a year late with the hot news!

Here’s another fine cassette, also realised by a trio, but this time the players weave a somewhat more abstracted and dynamic form of electronic noise. Destruction Des Animaux Nuisibles #1 (ALTERACTION ALT01) features our good friend Xedh (i.e. Miguel A. García), the Prince of Spanish experimental music who has proven himself a nonpareil when it comes to realising fatalistic nightmares and uncanny experiences in sound, often with a grim caste. Here he is joined by Enrique Zaccagnini, the two of them forming an eerie backdrop of sinister electronic purring and grisly loud noise, tempered by the unsettling vocalising of Marta Sainz. I suppose it is she providing the strange whimpering sounds on side one, a ghastly sobbing effect which arouses our empathy as much as it sends tremors of terror running up and down our spinal columns. We could be hearing the voice of an exiled ghost, doomed to replay the same traumatic moment in her life for all eternity. Enrique and Xedh produce an accomplished tapestry of complicated noise for this after-life symphony, where the startling eruptions into ear-splitting volume are reined in and controlled, forming part of a fascinating and constantly-changing slow-motion whirlwind of textured sound. The B side feels a tad more pedestrian somehow, not as “composed”, and emerging as a jumble of clatter and screech which is heaped up into a pile rather than arranged in a garden by architects using rakes and blueprints. Even so it doesn’t stint on serving up the manic energy that noise-freaks go for. Marta’s excessive vocals make it clear she’s aiming for a gold medal in next year’s Junko-soundalike contest, to be held in 2014 in Budokan. Lastly we have the grisly cover image of ten dead rats caught in traps and apparently pinned up for display in a shop window in France. Since the title of this release translates into “destruction of harmful animals”, evidently we’re supposed to use this cassette as a cheap alternative to mousetraps or cockroach poison ¹.

We’ve also been sent four cassettes in a box from André Foisy in Chicago. As well as playing in Locrian, it is he I suppose who masterminds the Land Of Decay label and blog, specialising in doomy rock and noise that inculcates decrepitude and ruin. Cultus Sabbati – another trio – have about five albums released at time of writing, not to mention a few video works whose titles betray an interest in the written works of Poe and Lovecraft. This anonymous band conceal their work in a fog of mysticism and cast about references to ritual trance magick, witchcraft, and Norse mythology, revealing little of their musical methodology as they foregather in unknown locations to emit strange dark ambient drones. Thanks to Sunn O))), pretty soon every metal band in the world will end up sitting in a circle in a lonely forest wearing cowls. To some extent all of this does cover ground already well-worn by many other projects in this and related genres, but The Hagiography Of Baba Yaga (LOD 039) does evince some powerful moments of doom and horror in among the general murk and turgidity of its throbbing drones. Echo and reverb effects are used with scant regard for good taste, and evidently Cultus Sabbati believe in saturating every other musical utterance with as much artificial enhancement as they can generate from their small black boxes of evil, undercutting the swampy sludge with whispered chanting vocals and crazed guitar solos so acidic you could use them to unclog a kitchen sink. Track titles like ‘The Attestation Of Vasilissa’ or ‘Koschei The Deathless’ are like the titles to lost Lord Dunsany stories, and when raging at full stretch, the threesome can produce music that will either instil a deep supernatural fear in the listener, or suffocate us within the writhing coils of a deathly inescapable curse. Nice typography on the cover with its saturated golden-brown autumnal colours, images of forests and deadly mushrooms, overprinted with runes and magic circles. From 17 October 2012.

Savage Pencil also used this trope in the 1990s for the noise band Ultrasonic Attack Wave Pestrepeller. ↩

October 3, 2013

Transcending into the Cold: epic debut for up-and-coming UK post-black metal act

Rosaceae, Transcending into the Cold, Red River Family Records, cassette 007 (2013)

Rosaceae is an apt name for this English black metal act: the music may be beautifully crafted and melodic but hidden are sharp thorns that prick where least expected. After releasing an EP and some tapes, Rosaceae finally brings out its debut album “Transcending into the Cold”. Powered by rapid-fire tremolo guitar buzz and heavy thrumming percussion, the recording is a monumental post-BM epic.

The opening track delivers moments of dramatic and often intensely emotional guitar riffing along with harsh distorted guitar buzz and rasping vocals. The song builds up steadily to a heavy, layered, pummelling climax that throws listeners straight into the next track. “Solar Descent. The Crimson Sky Casting Immemorial Darkness, Throughout the Pine Glade” is a similarly epic piece combining runaway minimalist riffing, crashing percussion, a distinctive heroic ambience, muffled rasp and stark moments of guitar slash in which one might be confronted with a crisis, the resolution of which is the difference between living and dying. The atmosphere and emotion can be intense and overwhelming as the song progresses.

By a long mile, the star track of the album is “Deforestation, Depravity, Corruption” and a harrowing monster it is with thundering drums, bombastic rhythms and savage cutting guitar riffs. Vocals roar, percussion rhythms punch repeatedly and guitars tear through the track as forests born and matured millions of years ago are mowed down by giant machines that leave devastation in their wake. The music is highly dissonant, jagged and uncompromising. Final track “From the Footprints of Amaranthine Knowledge, Forever Mourning” is a lament for Nature raped and destroyed; beneath the sorrow though is a steely resolution to restore and renew the natural world. While the music is often intense and overpowering in its layers of guitar and rhythm, it has grand ambitions in attempting to understand and convey to listeners the connection between the destruction of the natural world and the power structures of capitalist / consumerist societies; the music achieves moments of shining magnificence in doing so.

Rosaceae main man Liam McGeorge has done a sterling job in shaping and crafting this concept work. The thought and care that he has invested radiate throughout. The music is well-paced and follows a definite narrative. In contrast with some black metal recordings on the destruction of Nature by humans, the album does not merely dwell on human thoughtlessness and the wreckage left behind, it looks ahead to the hard work of repairing and rebuilding damaged ecosystems and finding joy and new hope in giving and creating new life. There may sometimes be moments where the listening experience becomes an ordeal to endure due to the nature of the music and its subject matter, but this is the kind of recording that repays repeated hearings. Listeners may find tremendous inspiration in the recording.

Of late, young black metal and post-black metal acts I’d never heard of are emerging from the woodwork in the green and sceptr’d isle, and if Rosaceae is typical of this new wave, we are in for some real treats!

October 1, 2013

A cornucopia of fusion black metal / psychedelia / horror-film soundtrack music on the Rhinocervs label

Rhinocervs, RH-08: Untitled 1 & 2 (2011); RH-07 (2011); RH-11 (2011); RH-12 (2012), RH-13 (2012)

In early 2013, I stumbled across several bands based in southern California that belonged to a network known as the Black Twilight Circle: these groups play fusion black metal / psychedelia shot through with elements of death metal and ambient, and often inspired by aspects of Mexican indigenous cultures, in particular Aztec and Mayan mythologies and beliefs. I have done some reviews already of cassettes released by a few of these bands (Blue Hummingbird on the Left, Kuxan Suum, Muknal) which were released on the now-defunct Crepusculo Negro label. At about the same time, I became aware of another couple of guys involved with the Black Twilight Circle folks who run a music project and a label under the name of Rhinocervs (sic). All the music these two fellows perform, either singly or as a duo, and sometimes with guest musicians, under the Rhinocervs project is released through the label and the albums, issued on cassette tape, carry only the catalogue numbers as their titles. So far I’ve heard five albums, all fairly short, and often featuring cover artwork of a sinister nature, suggesting a view of the universe as something indifferent and perhaps malevolent and hostile towards humanity.

I’d say the best introduction to Rhinocervs the project and Rhinocervs the label is RH-13, a blistering and furious storm of blast-beat deathened black metal. Wildly deranged scrabbly guitar careens madly throughout and drums are just barely about to keep up banging away. The vocals, shrouded in reverb, seethe with evil and aggression: just as well I have no idea what the daemon vocalist is complaining about, else I’d be hiding in a self-made underground bunker in fear of hordes of aliens soon to descend on planet Earth to battle a resurgent army of tentacled titans from beneath Antarctica. As the tape continues on – or rather, burns a hole through your consciousness – the wild insanity ratchets up to a higher, more hyper-manic level. Quite amazing that the Rhinocervs guys can maintain such a level of intense emotion and aggression, and on top of that add some horror-movie ambience. The listening experience can be exhausting as later tracks include psychedelic experimental effects in addition to the fast-paced and brutal music; the all-instrumental final track is sure to blow most listeners’ minds through its sheer demented and dissonant drone-guitar genius. One gazes at the tape’s front-cover sleeve with its apocalyptic fireball slamming into a roof and imagines the agony denizens of the humble hut must feel on being instantly deep-fried into over-sized nuggety schnitzel pieces.

My personal favourite of the Rhinocervs tapes is RH-07, a dark creep-fest of horror-movie soundtrack black metal / psychedelia fusion. The general drift is towards a highly atmospheric and monumental epic music with choirs, frequent use of effects and a sense of tragic majesty. Tracks are often short and cut off abruptly, giving the impression of being movie-trailer pieces cut out from a long and sprawling movie soundtrack that might stretch over a trilogy of films. The range of music varies from fast blast-beat black / death to slower doomy metal with strong atmosphere and emotion. The vocals are often outstanding in their general slavering reptilian quality.

RH-11 isn’t far behind RH-07 in its magnificent if deranged perversity: blast-beat black metal, drenched in hellish inimical space-ambient psychedelia effects and accompanied by delirious drunken singing, rockets along as though black existential nihilism were about to vote itself out of existence in the next five minutes. (An entire musical industry sincerely hopes not.) The gopher-it approach is so extreme and wacky that all songs blessed by it zap off into blinding radioactive greatness and stay there forever. Tragedy, majesty, anguish and a sense of oncoming overwhelming disaster in the face of which one is utterly helpless and can’t help but be terrified can all be found here. The recording is highly immersive and if you’re a normal human being with the full range of emotions, you can’t help but be swept away in a maelstrom of high emotional drama.

It seems impossible that the Rhinocervs guys would score a hat-trick in popping out tapes of music so goofy and extreme that they fall through the back-door into essential listening but RH-12, coming right after RH-07 and RH-11 in the series (there being neither RH-09 nor RH-10 at this time of writing and RH-08 being released before RH-07), completes a trilogy of out-there fusion black metal / space-ambient psychedelia. This tape is much noisier and trance-like than its predecessors; the contrast of guitar-generated noise buzz with darkly sinuous lead guitar jewel tones can really turn a listener’s head inside out. At points throughout the recording, the singing can be as death-rattle dry and inhuman as fellow US blacksters Njiqahdda used to manage in their early career. An atmosphere of evil pervades the album as the demented music approaches speed-of-light dimensions in its pace.

Let’s roll back to the first Rhinocervs release RH-08: Untitled 1 & 2, a raw punky black metal / thrash affair with variable production; some songs are clear and others have a muddied sound, suggesting that parts of the album were recorded at different times and in different places. It’s possible that for each track, a different set of musicians features with either one of or both the regular Rhinocervs men the common denominator. Raw energy and enthusiasm power the music: on some tracks the drumming is powerful and there is a distinctive fast-paced lead guitar sound that borders on manic without falling into the extremes achieved by other Rhinocervs work. For this reason, those angels among us that fear to tread where fools have long disappeared will find this early release an ideal introduction to Rhinocervs and the Black Twilight Circle generally. As the album proceeds, the music dives into delirious space psychedelic territory with spaceship loads of energy to spare and the second half of the recording is far superior than the first half in style and variety of music.

I don’t know much about Rhinocervs apart from knowing that one of the duo also has a solo black metal project called Tukaaria. Folks interested in finding out more and ordering some of their releases and other bands’ releases can contact them at this link. As the label is small, some of the tapes may have small print runs and might already be sold out. Perhaps some time in the future, when the Black Twilight Circle bands register higher in the public consciousness than they do now, these Rhinocervs releases might be repackaged as compilations. They are certainly worth hunting down for their sheer verve and energy.

Rhinocervus Soundcloud page

August 25, 2013

The Lost Entrance of the Just: soft and pretty black metal pop with an ominous, brooding edge

Official sleeve image from handmadebirds.com

Circle of Ouroborus, The Lost Entrance of the Just, Handmade Birds Records, HB-020 (vinyl release 2012, CD release 2013)

Originally released on vinyl in 2012, this was one of two full-length recordings put out that year by the idiosyncratic Finnish black metal / post-rock / shoegazer pop duo. These guys can always be relied on to deliver something, usually a few EPs and one or two albums, each year and 2012 was no exception. Compared with previous recordings of theirs that I’ve heard, this album seems softer and fuzzier, and the lyrics seem less melancholy, even appearing to aspire to hope and positive emotion. The feeling that CoO may have mellowed and adopted a more settled, more accepting and less angry attitude is never far away.

Opening track “Cast in Clay” suggests this new outlook with its softened though slightly ominous clouds of guitar blur through which lazy percussion and Antti Klemi’s vocals emerge and proceed at a loping pace. “Black Hole Womb” might just be a return to the CoO of old with its sharp, arch sound and mood and an extended section with angry spoken word against a backdrop of rising and falling sea-waves. But there’s a jauntiness in the music that suggests a relaxed attitude of going with the flow of the universe, absorbing what it offers or deals out, treating everything as part of one’s journey through life and beyond.

Throughout the album there are a lot of very pretty tunes and even Klemi’s famously individual style of awkward, seemingly off-key singing and occasional shouty declamations doesn’t detract from the warm glow that emanates from the muddied melodies and easy-going drumming. The music serves as a vehicle for the lyrics and to create a highly immersive atmosphere so it tends towards minimalism and loose structure. Melodies and riffs exist in an almost formless way and slower songs like “Mirror Universe” are on the verge of falling apart from drunkenness. The album ends with the only Finnish-language track “Toivosta Syntynyt” (roughly translating as “Hope born” – I hope, I’m only using Google Translate!), a darkly edgy piece with an air of wariness whose meaning and place as closing track must be wondered at.

This is a poppy album with good if not distinct melodies, riffs and rhythms though with a dark and sometimes menacing atmosphere. The music is not one of the band’s best but makes up for the lack of aggression and energy by being a heavy, almost formless and brooding presence. The emphasis on repetition and monotony has a trance-like effect on listeners. This is the kind of recording that grows on listeners over time.

The vinyl issue run is already sold out – CoO fans are nothing if not loyal.

August 23, 2013

Abrahadabra: a dark black metal / shoegazer pop album of despair and foreboding

Circle of Ouroborus, Abrahadabra, Kuunpalvelus, LP (2012)

One of my favourite Finnish bands, the black metal / shoegazer post-rock duo Circle of Ouroborus has been prolific over the last several years and in 2012 alone released two studio albums, several EPs, a split album and a compilation album. “Abrahadabra” is the second of the two studio full-lengths; the title is a reference to the musicians’ interest in the occult and magic, the word being made up of one vowel appearing five times and six consonants, making a total of 11 letters. (In 2011, an album “Eleven Fingers” was released.) The recording under review sees CoO in their melodic dark depressive black metal pop mode with plenty of despair expressed in the lyrics. The band’s style just about bleeds melancholy and a dark feeling of foreboding: the music is often very doomy, vocalist Antti Klemi half-sings / half-chants like a lone Cassandra warning of trouble ahead and the texture of the music and instrumentation has a forlorn air.

The sound of the album is less muddy and steamy than some of the band’s previous work and the drums are actually very crisp to the extent of dominating the music at times. Klemi’s voice, touched with reverb as ever, still sounds awkward but he hits the notes spot-on. The guitars have a slight buzzy sound but the clouds they form are light.

To be honest, no great melodies or riffs hit me on the first hearing and it’s with subsequent repeats that the album’s charms start to dawn on me. “These Days and Years to Kill” is a cry for understanding and empathy if not for help, and on this song at least Klemi finally finds an emotional depth and range in his singing that took a long time over the band’s career to coax and nurture. “Remembrance” is a slower, heavier, doomier track and might be the most metal-sounding song. “Six Hands” has an otherworldly air: Klemi’s voice is dreamy and almost floating away, and the entire song, starting with the beguiling long introduction, is urging listeners to drift away into a trance with it. For once there is a backing vocal as though Klemi’s soul has split into two and a part of it is already advancing into a realm of non-existence.

A couple of reviews I’ve seen rate “Like Silent Meadows” highly and it has a good riff in parts but otherwise it seems no different from the rest of the album. “Dementia Praecox” is the album’s longest track at 9 minutes and it’s more distinctive than the others in its rhythms and beats

I’d rate this album as fairly good but not near the band’s best. Klemi’s singing is sometimes monotonous across songs and the minimalist style of music basically serves as backdrop for the singing and lyrics. The dark melodic post-BM music rarely ventures away into another music genre. Still, CoO followers are nothing if not a devoted bunch and the band’s releases always sell very well so if TSP readers are keen on buying this album, they had better hit the Kuunpalvelus link quickly. The album cover artwork has a dreamy, mystical appearance that might have a secret message behind it.

August 5, 2013

Skullflower / Utarm (self-titled): boring deep into minds conscious and unconscious with black metal noise

Skullflower / Utarm, self-titled, Turgid Animal Records, CD (2013)

Released by Turgid Animal Records, run by self-proclaimed mutant ape fella George Proctor of White Medal renown – I bet he’s glad to know another little mutant ape has recently been born with a silver banana in its mouth and been named after him – this split recording by noiseniks Skullflower and Utarm is a sure and steady sonic borer drilling exercise penetrating deep into your mind and unconscious where it really hurts. The split album is one of a number of splits that Skullflower have been creating with a number of black metal acts which reflect the growing overlap between noise and black metal, and an acceptance of the latter as a genre adaptable to abstraction, experimentation and fusion with other underground music genres.

The Skullflower duo grab the first three spots on the recording with their mix of digital noise, blissful rolling tremolo guitar lines, searing guitar choruses and atmospheric paranoiac dread among other layers of noise texture, effects and melody to create sprawling vistas that include terror and tranquillity alike. The first track is a leisurely ride through bristling noisescapes: quite sunny and pleasant for this genre, which might be a surprise for those expecting something dark and sinister. The second track performs to expectations: long winding six-string drones attract fragments of noise RNA that wrap themselves around the drawn-out tones and then blat squiggles and scribblings into empty metalloid spaces. The path of the droning music is sedate in contrast to the sounds that pullulate at alarming bacterial rates and the unease they instill. Third track “Ruby Ridge”, recalling perhaps the 1992 stand-off in Idaho state between a family of religious survivalists and three US law and order agencies that resulted in three people being shot dead in highly controversial circumstances, mixes overhead black-helicopter ambience and growing paranoia on the one hand and a strange comforting reassurance and blissful serenity on the other.

Utarm brings along two very frightening pieces of almost hyper-operatic drama and intensity: the first piece is a spooky, ghostly entity of floating grainy feedback and echoing lost-astronaut voices, with a sharp sound that burns deep into the skull; and the second contribution is a might metal monster of massive feedback droning, distorted monster voices breaking up into echoes, and delicate tolling bells. Most frightful of all perhaps is an atmosphere that alternately fries with simmering noise quarks and swallows up screams in a cloud mist that seems to glide in and out of the track.

The soundscapes here are vast and amazingly placid for all the jarring abrasion they create. While Utarm may insist on adding something mind-blowing on his second piece, the music is actually very restrained for the most part. While Skullflower might insist that deep down they’re normal folks who just happen to like playing with noise and mucking about with our heads, Utarm demonstrates how he finds the normal world around to be even more deranged than he is. It’s easier for noise and black metal to meet and merge than it is for Utarm to adjust to living in the eternal mental asylum everyone accepts to be the norm.

Contact: Turgid Animal Records